Podcast
The Spark with Madelyn Postman
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A monthly podcast with author interviews, reading recommendations, and writing resources. This is the audio version of The Spark, which you can subscribe to by email or read in the Substack app.
Madelyn Postman is the author of Staring into the Sun, which links memoir with her Chinese American family's intergenerational tales.
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May...I take a break?
3w ago00:02:18Tap to summarizeStaring into the Sun is out in the wild! The paperback and ebook are published by Ten16 Press. The audiobook, available soon, is read by Kate Hammer, Anthony Postman, and myself and it’s produced by Mercury Calling.🇺🇸 US Buy paperback | ebook🇬🇧 UK Buy paperback | ebook☕️ A break from The SparkAs I had announced in January before giving into the temptation of releasing some audiobook teasers in February, March, and April, I’m going to take a break from The Spark. I may come back to it later in the summer or autumn, or I may not. Working four days a week plus current book stuff and wanting to continue writing my second book doesn’t leave a lot of time for the podcast and newsletter, much as I love it. But (on the other hand—which hand am I on now?) I truly value the community The Spark creates with authors, readers, publishers, bookshop owners, and other “literary citizens.” So watch this space!🗓️ Book tour datesI’ve already had three incredible launch events in the UK. Check out Instagram for photos. Next stop: Reno and Carson City, Nevada! Then it’s the San Francisco Bay Area and finally, New York Chinatown.Weds, May 27 — Brewery Arts Center, Carson City, NV (info here)Thurs, May 28 — The Radical Cat, Reno, NV (free tickets here)Sat, May 30 — Shoong Family Chinese Cultural Center, Oakland (free tickets here)Sun, May 31 — The Pearl, Locke, CA with the kind support of the Locke Foundation and the 1882 Foundation (free tickets here)Weds, June 3 — Museum of Chinese in America, New York (tickets here)Back in London, join me at The RSA in June.Fri, June 12 — The Royal Society of Arts, London (free tickets here)Huge thanks to the people and organizations who have helped put together these magical events. It’s a dream come true for me. See you on the flip side!Share The Spark📙 Where to find my writing"Things My Dad Told Me" in Tomorrow There Will Be Sun, The Hope Prize anthology published by Simon & Schuster Australia.Buy in US | Buy in UK“Gold Mountain Diggers” in Issue 10 of Livina Press.Buy in US | Buy in UK“His Bones” in Transformations, the Oxford Flash Fiction Prize anthology.Buy in US | Buy in UKFind out more about me and my writing, including press coverage, on my website: madelynpostman.com.Most book links go to my Bookshop.org page, where sales are win-win-win, benefiting the authors, local bookstores, and my own writing—unlike using A-you-know-who.You can listen to The Spark on your favorite podcast platform. On Substack, you can listen to the podcast and subscribe to the newsletter. Please take a moment to leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify—it would mean the world to me. And please share it with your reading and writing friends!Music and mixing by anthony@mercurycalling.audio.Thanks for reading The Spark! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.Share The Spark This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit madelynpostman.substack.com
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21 Excerpt of "An Upright Man"
Apr 1500:15:05Tap to summarizeAhead of the publication of my debut, Staring into the Sun, in May, I hope you enjoy this excerpt from the third chapter, “An Upright Man.” It’s about my great-grandfather, Henri Wu.Staring into the Sun can be pre-ordered in the US with Ten16 Press and it’s already available for purchase in the UK. The audio book is read by Kate Hammer, Anthony Postman, and myself and it’s produced by Mercury Calling.🗓️ Book tour datesFriday-Sunday, April 17-19 — Outland Publishing Fair, Peckham, LondonFriday, May 1 — Season’s Cafe, Amersham, UK (let me know if you want an invite)Tues, May 5 — Queen’s Park Books, London (let me know if you want an invite)Mon, May 11 — Brown Club of the UK, Castiglione, London (for Brown University and Phillips Exeter Academy alumni)Weds, May 27 — Brewery Arts Center, Carson City, NVThurs, May 28 — The Radical Cat, Reno, NVSat, May 30 — Shoong Family Chinese Cultural Center, OaklandSun, May 31 — The Pearl, Locke, CA with the kind support of the Locke Foundation and the 1882 FoundationWeds, June 3 — Museum of Chinese in America, New YorkShare The Spark📙 Where to find my writingStaring into the Sun will be published by Ten16 Press in May 2026 in paperback and ebook. The audio book is read by Kate Hammer, Anthony Postman, and myself and it is produced by Mercury Calling. The book can be pre-ordered in the US with Ten16 Press and it’s already available for purchase in the UK."Things My Dad Told Me" in Tomorrow There Will Be Sun, The Hope Prize anthology published by Simon & Schuster Australia.Buy in US | Buy in UK“Gold Mountain Diggers” in Issue 10 of Livina Press.Buy in US | Buy in UK “His Bones” in Transformations, the Oxford Flash Fiction Prize anthology.Buy in US | Buy in UKFind out more about me and my writing, including press coverage, on my website: madelynpostman.com.Most book links go to my Bookshop.org page, where sales are win-win-win, benefiting the authors, local bookstores, and my own writing—unlike using A-you-know-who.You can listen to The Spark on your favorite podcast platform. On Substack, you can listen to the podcast and subscribe to the newsletter. Please take a moment to leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify—it would mean the world to me. And please share it with your reading and writing friends!Music and mixing by anthony@mercurycalling.audio.Thanks for reading The Spark! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.Share The Spark This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit madelynpostman.substack.com
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20 Excerpt of Staring into the Sun
Mar 1500:11:38Tap to summarizeLast month, I announced that I would stop The Spark newsletter and podcast indefinitely. But then, chatting with a friend, I asked myself: why don’t I use this platform to share an audio excerpt of my debut, Staring into the Sun? So please enjoy the beginning of the first story, “Things My Dad Told Me.” This story was shortlisted in The Hope Prize and published by Simon & Schuster Australia in the anthology, Tomorrow There Will Be Sun.🗓️ Book tour datesHere are my planned tour dates. Specific event details coming soon!Sat & Sun, May 23 & 24 — New YorkTues-Thurs, May 26-28 — RenoFri, May 29 — Locke, CASat-Sun, May 30-31 — San Francisco Bay AreaShare The Spark📙 Where to find my writingStaring into the Sun will be published by Ten16 Press in May 2026 in paperback and ebook. The audio book will be produced by Mercury Calling. 👉 Preorder links coming soon! 👈"Things My Dad Told Me" in Tomorrow There Will Be Sun, The Hope Prize anthology published by Simon & Schuster Australia.Buy in US | Buy in UK“Gold Mountain Diggers” in Issue 10 of Livina Press.Buy in US | Buy in UK “His Bones” in Transformations, the Oxford Flash Fiction Prize anthology.Buy in US | Buy in UKFind out more about me and my writing, including press coverage, on my website: madelynpostman.com.Most book links go to my Bookshop.org page, where sales are win-win-win, benefiting the authors, local bookstores, and my own writing—unlike using A-you-know-who.You can listen to The Spark on your favorite podcast platform. On Substack, you can listen to the podcast and subscribe to the newsletter. Please take a moment to leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify—it would mean the world to me. And please share it with your reading and writing friends!Music and mixing by anthony@mercurycalling.audio.Thanks for reading The Spark! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.Share The Spark This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit madelynpostman.substack.com
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19 First excerpt of Staring into the Sun
Feb 1500:09:53Tap to summarizeLast month, I announced that I would stop The Spark newsletter and podcast indefinitely. But then, chatting with a friend, I asked myself: why don’t I use this platform to share an audio excerpt of my debut, Staring into the Sun? So please enjoy the beginning of the first story, “Things My Dad Told Me.” This story was shortlisted in The Hope Prize and published by Simon & Schuster Australia in the anthology, Tomorrow There Will Be Sun.🗓️ Book tour datesHere are my planned tour dates. Specific event details coming soon!Sat & Sun, May 23 & 24 — New YorkTues-Thurs, May 26-28 — RenoFri, May 29 — Locke, CASat-Sun, May 30-31 — San Francisco Bay AreaShare The Spark📙 Where to find my writingStaring into the Sun will be published by Ten16 Press in May 2026 in paperback and ebook. The audio book will be produced by Mercury Calling. 👉 Preorder links coming soon! 👈"Things My Dad Told Me" in Tomorrow There Will Be Sun, The Hope Prize anthology published by Simon & Schuster Australia.Buy in US | Buy in UK“Gold Mountain Diggers” in Issue 10 of Livina Press.Buy in US | Buy in UK “His Bones” in Transformations, the Oxford Flash Fiction Prize anthology.Buy in US | Buy in UKFind out more about me and my writing, including press coverage, on my website: madelynpostman.com.Most book links go to my Bookshop.org page, where sales are win-win-win, benefiting the authors, local bookstores, and my own writing—unlike using A-you-know-who.You can listen to The Spark on your favorite podcast platform. On Substack, you can listen to the podcast and subscribe to the newsletter. Please take a moment to leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify—it would mean the world to me. And please share it with your reading and writing friends!Music and mixing by anthony@mercurycalling.audio.Thanks for reading The Spark! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.Share The Spark This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit madelynpostman.substack.com
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18 Comics and Traditional Chinese Painting
Jan 1500:44:55Tap to summarizeThis will be the last edition of The Spark podcast and newsletter, maybe for a while, maybe ever. I will be using the time freed up to focus on my short story collection, Staring into the Sun. I do love The Spark as a means to connect to other writers, so we’ll see what happens to it.For the full interview with Teresa Wong, tune in to The Spark wherever you listen to podcasts.📚 Recommendations for ravenous readersHere are the recommended reads for January.Dear Scarlet by Teresa Wong (2019)In this intimate and moving graphic memoir, Teresa Wong writes and illustrates the story of her struggle with postpartum depression in the form of a letter to her daughter Scarlet. Equal parts heartbreaking and funny, Dear Scarlet perfectly captures the quiet desperation of those suffering from postpartum depression and the profound feelings of inadequacy and loss. As Teresa grapples with her fears and anxieties and grasps at potential remedies, coping mechanisms, and her mother's Chinese elixirs, we come to understand one woman's battle against the cruel dynamics of postpartum depression.There There by Tommy Orange (2018)This novel follows twelve characters from Native communities: all traveling to the Big Oakland Powwow, all connected to one another in ways they may not yet realize. Among them is Jacquie Red Feather, newly sober and trying to make it back to the family she left behind. Dene Oxendene, pulling his life together after his uncle’s death and working at the powwow to honor his memory. Fourteen-year-old Orvil, coming to perform traditional dance for the very first time. They converge and collide on one fateful day at the Big Oakland Powwow and together this chorus of voices tells of the plight of the urban Native American—grappling with a complex and painful history, with an inheritance of beauty and spirituality, with communion and sacrifice and heroism.Share The Spark✏️ Resources for wonderful writersMy Instagram feed shared a couple of upcoming book festivals on both sides of the pond.Milton Keynes Literary Festival, April 9-12, 2026. “A fabulous festival of books, words, writers, and ideas.”Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, University of Southern California, April 18-19, 2026. “Many stories. One weekend.”👣 My moseyingThis is the year that Staring into the Sun will be published. It’s nearly ready to go to print. I finally finished the endnotes and the acknowledgments. Professor emeritus Robert G. Lee of Brown University wrote an afterword that places Joe Shoong’s story in historical context. Ten16 Press is publishing the paperback and ebook in May 2026. Mercury Calling will produce the audio book.It’s full speed ahead with marketing now!🎙️ Interview with Teresa WongI came across Teresa Wong when fellow 1% for the Planet business member Tinu Mathur of Mathur & Co gave me All Our Ordinary Stories: A Multigenerational Family Odyssey.Teresa Wong is the author of the acclaimed graphic memoirs All Our Ordinary Stories and Dear Scarlet, both longlisted for CBC Canada Reads and finalists for the W.O. Mitchell Book Prize. All Our Ordinary Stories received two Alberta Literary Awards and was also a finalist for the 2025 Governor General’s Literary Award in nonfiction. Her comics and writing have appeared in The Believer, The New Yorker, McSweeney’s and The Walrus. She teaches graphic narrative through Gotham Writers Workshop and was also the 2021–22 Canadian Writer-in-Residence at the University of Calgary.Books and authors mentioned:Raina Telgemeier wrote “How Do You Make a Graphic Novel (and, Why Do They Take So Long?)”Will There Ever Be Another You and Priestdaddy by Patricia LockwoodThe Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova BaileyLa Mennulara by Simonetta Agnello Hornby and Massimo FenatiTeresa can be found on Instagram @by_teresawong and at her website byteresawong.com.Tune in to the The Spark podcast for the full interview.📙 Where to find my writingStaring into the Sun in May 2026, published by Ten16 Press in paperback and ebook, audio produced by Mercury Calling."Things My Dad Told Me" in Tomorrow There Will Be Sun, The Hope Prize anthology published by Simon & Schuster Australia.Buy in US | Buy in UK“Gold Mountain Diggers” in Issue 10 of Livina Press.Buy in US | Buy in UK “His Bones” in Transformations, the Oxford Flash Fiction Prize anthology.Buy in US | Buy in UKFind out more about me and my writing, including press coverage, on my website: madelynpostman.com.Most book links go to my Bookshop.org page, where sales are win-win-win, benefiting the authors, local bookstores, and my own writing—unlike using A-you-know-who.You can listen to The Spark on your favorite podcast pl...
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17 From Hybrid to Self-Publishing
Dec 1500:33:12Tap to summarizeFor the full interview with Maggie Smith, tune in to The Spark wherever you listen to podcasts.📚 Recommendation for ravenous readersHere is the recommended read for December.All Our Ordinary Stories by Teresa WongBeginning with her mother’s stroke in 2014, Teresa Wong takes us on a moving journey through time and place to locate the beginnings of the disconnection she feels from her parents. Through a series of stories--some epic, like her mother and father’s daring escapes from communes during China’s Cultural Revolution, and some banal, like her quitting Chinese school to watch Saturday morning cartoons--Wong carefully examines the cultural, historical, language, and personality barriers to intimacy in her family, seeking answers to the questions “Where did I come from?” and “Where are we going?” At the same time, she discovers how storytelling can bridge distances and help make sense of a life.I’m excited to announce that Teresa will be our guest author in January!Share The Spark✏️ Resource for wonderful writersThe Outland Publishing Fair spotlights creative publishing practices from Chinese and Sino-diasporic communities in London and worldwide. Bringing together leading practitioners and their works across various regions, the fair aspires to establish a vibrant network that catalyses the translocal and intercultural mobility of Sinophone publications. It is scheduled for 17–19 April 2026 at the Copeland Gallery in Peckham in South London. 👣 My moseyingI’m making progress with getting Staring into the Sun ready for ARCs (advance reader copies) and other marketing ahead of its publication by Ten16 Press in May 2026.🎙️ Interview with Maggie SmithI first heard Maggie Smith either on the podcast she hosts, Hear Us Roar, or being interviewed on The S**t No One Tells You About Writing podcast. After getting my deal with Ten16 Press, I got in touch with her to ask how it was working with the publisher and she was very generous with her feedback and sharing resources.In a career that’s included work as a journalist, a psychologist, and the founder of a national art consulting company, Maggie Smith added novelist to her resume in 2022 with the publication of her debut, Truth and Other Lies. Her second novel, Blindspot, was published in May 2024. Maggie also hosts the weekly podcast Hear Us Roar, where she interviews debut authors about their novel and their path to publication. She blogs monthly on Substack and is a board member of Novel Book Camp and the Chicago Writer’s Association, where she serves as Managing Editor of their Write City Magazine. She lives in Milwaukee with her husband.Books mentioned:The Dive from Clausen’s Pier by Ann Packer We Begin at the End and All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker Maggie can be found on Substack as @maggiesmithwriter, on Instagram as @maggiesmithwrites, and at maggiesmithwriter.com.Tune in to the The Spark podcast for the full interview.📙 Where to find my writingStaring into the Sun on Substack, weekly through the end of 2025."Things My Dad Told Me" in Tomorrow There Will Be Sun, The Hope Prize anthology published by Simon & Schuster Australia.Buy in US | Buy in UK“Gold Mountain Diggers” in Issue 10 of Livina Press.Buy in US | Buy in UK “His Bones” in Transformations, the Oxford Flash Fiction Prize anthology.Buy in US | Buy in UKFind out more about me and my writing, including press coverage, on my website: madelynpostman.com.Most book links go to my Bookshop.org page, where sales are win-win-win, benefiting the authors, local bookstores, and my own writing—unlike using A-you-know-who.You can listen to The Spark on your favorite podcast platform. On Substack, you can listen to the podcast and subscribe to the newsletter. Please take a moment to leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify—it would mean the world to me. And please share it with your reading and writing friends!Music and mixing by anthony@mercurycalling.audio.Thanks for reading The Spark! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.Share The Spark This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit madelynpostman.substack.com
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16 Stories Begging to Be Told
Nov 1500:44:43Tap to summarizeFor the full interview with publisher Michael T. Braun of Orange Hat Publishing and Ten16 Press, tune in to The Spark wherever you listen to podcasts.📚 Recommendations for ravenous readersHere is the recommended read for November.When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi (2016)At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade’s worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi’s transformation from a naïve medical student “possessed,” as he wrote, “by the question of what, given that all organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life” into a neurosurgeon at Stanford working in the brain, the most critical place for human identity, and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality.Paul Kalanithi died in March 2015.Share The Spark✏️ Resources for wonderful writersThis month, a single suggestion: to find balance between your writing and everything else in your life. My own life is super busy right now, so I’ve streamlined this month’s edition!👣 My moseyingThe cover design of Staring into the Sun is pretty much finalized. Can’t wait to share it with everyone, probably early next year. Many thanks to Dana Breunig at Ten16 Press for the design.I’m still working on the end notes of my book.With all this life busy-ness, I’ve dropped my novel-writing group earlier than planned. I was going to see out the year with three more meetings, but stopped it early. I plan to get back to writing my novel in the second half of 2026.🎙️ Interview with publisher Michael T. BraunI met Michael after submitting my manuscript to Orange Hat Publishing, one of about twenty submissions I made to independent publishers. His first email to me, which arrived auspiciously on my twentieth wedding anniversary, had the subject line, “Let’s Work Together on Staring Into the Sun.”Michael T. Braun is the owner and editor-in-chief of Orange Hat Publishing and its imprint Ten16 Press. He holds a BA in English literature and an MA and PhD in communication science, all from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Before purchasing Orange Hat from its founder, he worked in academic research and program evaluation at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Medical College of Wisconsin. In addition to his role at Orange Hat, he is an adjunct professor at the Milwaukee School of Engineering, teaching writing.Books mentioned:Haven: A Small Cat’s Big Adventure by Megan Wagner LloydThe Hallmarked Man by J. K. Rowling, published under the pseudonym Robert GalbraithThe Forgotten 500 by Gregory A. FreemanA Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy TooleThe Magicians by Lev GrossmanTailspin by John ArmbrusterMichael can be found on Instagram as @brauninthebooks. Orange Hat Publishing is at orangehatpublishing.com, on Instagram, and on Facebook. Ten16 Press is also on Instagram and Facebook.Tune in to the The Spark podcast for the full interview.📙 Where to find my writingStaring into the Sun on Substack, weekly through the end of 2025."Things My Dad Told Me" in Tomorrow There Will Be Sun, The Hope Prize anthology published by Simon & Schuster Australia.Buy in US | Buy in UK“Gold Mountain Diggers” in Issue 10 of Livina Press.Buy in US | Buy in UK“His Bones” in Transformations, the Oxford Flash Fiction Prize anthology.Buy in US | Buy in UKFind out more about me and my writing, including press coverage, on my website: madelynpostman.com.Most book links go to my Bookshop.org page, where sales are win-win-win, benefiting the authors, local bookstores, and my own writing—unlike using A-you-know-who.You can listen to The Spark on your favorite podcast platform. On Substack, you can listen to the podcast and subscribe to the newsletter. Please take a moment to leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify—it would mean the world to me. And please share it with your reading and writing friends!Music and mixing by anthony@mercurycalling.audio.Thanks for reading The Spark! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.Share The Spark This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit madelynpostman.substack.com
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15 In a Flow State
Oct 1500:37:18Tap to summarizeFor the full interview with author S.E. Reid, tune in to The Spark wherever you listen to podcasts.📚 Recommendations for ravenous readersHere are the recommended reads for October.The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin (2014)A.J. Fikry’s life is not at all what he expected it to be. He lives alone, his bookstore is experiencing the worst sales in its history, and now his prized possession, a rare collection of Poe poems, has been stolen. But when a mysterious package appears at the bookstore, its unexpected arrival gives Fikry the chance to make his life over--and see everything anew.On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong (2019)On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family’s history that began before he was born — a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam — and serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable revelation. At once a witness to the fraught yet undeniable love between a single mother and her son, it is also a brutally honest exploration of race, class, and masculinity. Asking questions central to our American moment, immersed as we are in addiction, violence, and trauma, but undergirded by compassion and tenderness, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is as much about the power of telling one’s own story as it is about the obliterating silence of not being heard.Not the End of the World by Hannah Ritchie (2024)We are bombarded by doomsday headlines that tell us the soil won’t be able to support crops, fish will vanish from our oceans, that we should reconsider having children. But in this bold, radically hopeful book, data scientist Hannah Ritchie argues that if we zoom out, a very different picture emerges. The data shows we’ve made so much progress on these problems, and so fast, that we could be on track to achieve true sustainability for the first time in history.Packed with the latest research, practical guidance and enlightening graphics, this book will make you rethink almost everything you’ve been told about the environment, from the virtues of eating locally and living in the countryside, to the evils of overpopulation, plastic straws and palm oil. It will give you the tools to understand what works, what doesn’t and what we urgently need to focus on so we can leave a sustainable planet for future generations.These problems are big. But they are solvable. We are not doomed. We can build a better future for everyone. Let’s turn that opportunity into reality.Share The Spark✏️ Resources for wonderful writersAn episode of the Memoir Nation podcast mentioned host Brooke Warner’s Substack post, “‘You’ in Memoir, Five Ways,” about the use of the second person. A great post to check out.Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life (1994) is a heartfelt guide. One suggestion for writers who feel blocked is to start with what you can see through a 1-inch-square frame.Discoveries 2026 is open for submissions until January 12th. It’s the Women’s Prize’s writer development program. Send the first 10,000 words of your novel and a synopsis of between 500-1,000 words. Novels do not need to be finished before you enter the competition, but you should be able to summarize in your synopsis the main plot of your work-in-progress. It’s open to women who are at least 18 years old at the time of entry and a resident of the UK, the Republic of Ireland, or the Channel Islands.Literary agency AM Heath have launched a “biennial adult novel prize to honour the much-loved double Booker Prize-winning author Hilary Mantel, who died in 2022. Hilary was a staunch supporter of countless first-time novelists, so the prize will focus on work in progress from unpublished writers, with the aim of offering the mentoring and financial support to assist the best of the next generation in finishing their work. AM Heath will be working with the publisher John Murray and creative writing charity Arvon.” The Hilary Mantel Prize for Fiction submission requires your first 15,000 words and a synopsis, to enter by December 31st.👣 My moseyingDana Breunig at Ten16 Press sent over four gorgeous routes for the cover of Staring into the Sun. She’s working on a second iteration of my favorite option now.I’m continuing to write the end notes for the collection, with a lot of info about the Sausalito Salmon Derby in 1955 🎣I am submitting a proposal to the Bay Area Book Festival for next May, which gives us a deadline of mid-November to have the digital ARC (Advance Reader Copy) ready.My writing group is still meeting every three weeks, though I have decided to complete the year and then bow out. Just too much other stuff going on to keep up with everything.My work-in-progress novel is on hold while I’m getting Staring into the Sun ready for publication. Then the marketing and promotion will kick in!Because I haven’t been submitting much, for now I’m cutting out the stats, tracked on the brilliant Chill Subs, on my story and book submissions. That section may return in future.🎙️ Author interview with S.E. ReidI came across S.E. Reid on Substack, through Eleanor Anstruther, a previous guest on The Spark. Both S.E. and Eleanor serialize their work on that platform, which inspired me to serialize my short story collection, Staring into the Sun, there too.S.E. is a freelance writer, editor, and poet living on a patch of wooded wetland in the Pacific Northwest with her craftsman husband and her two big goofball dogs, Finn and Huck. She loves to hear and tell stories about nature, history, ghosts, and God, and when not writing she loves to cook nourishing food, read widely, and tend to her vegetable garden. Learn more about her work at sereid.com.Books mentioned:Red Rabbit by Alex GrecianThe Last House on Needless Street by Catriona WardIn the Woods by Tana FrenchNightmares & Dreamscapes by Stephen KingThe Wisdom of the Beguines by Laura SwanS.E. can be found on Substack, on Instagram as writer.sereid and at sereid.com.Tune in to the The Spark podcast for the full interview.📙 Where to find my writingStaring into the Sun on Substack, weekly through the end of 2025."Things My Dad Told Me" in Tomorrow There Will Be Sun, The Hope Prize anthology published by Simon & Schuster Australia.Buy in US | Buy in UK“Gold Mountain Diggers” in Issue 10 of Livina Press.Buy in US | <a target="_blank" href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Livina-Press-Issue-10/dp/B0DKNPM52K/ref=s...
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14 A Polecat and Prince Michael of Kent
Sep 1500:28:46Tap to summarizeFor the full interview with bookseller Amber Harrison of FOLDE Dorset, tune in to The Spark wherever you listen to podcasts.📚 Recommendations for ravenous readersHere are the recommended reads for September.Sky Daddy by Kate Folk (2025)Linda is doing her best to lead a life that would appear normal to the casual observer. Weekdays, she earns $20 an hour moderating comments for a video-sharing platform, then rides the bus home to the windowless garage she rents on the outskirts of San Francisco. But on the last Friday of each month, she indulges her true passion, taking BART to SFO for a round-trip flight to a regional hub. The destination is irrelevant, because each trip means a new date with a handsome stranger—a stranger whose intelligent windscreens, sleek fuselages, and powerful engines make Linda feel a way that no human ever could.Linda knows that she can’t tell anyone she’s sexually obsessed with planes. Nor can she reveal her belief that it’s her destiny to “marry” one of her suitors, uniting with her soulmate plane for eternity. But when an opportunity arises to hasten her dream of eternal partnership, and the carefully balanced elements of her life begin to spin out of control, she must choose between maintaining the trappings of normalcy and launching herself headlong toward the love she’s always dreamed of.The Interpreter’s Daughter by Teresa Lim (2022)In the last years of her life, Teresa Lim's mother, Violet Chang, had copies of a cherished family photograph made for those in the portrait who were still alive. The photo is mounted on cream card with the name of the studio stamped at the bottom in Chinese characters. The place and date on the back: Hong Kong, 1935.Teresa would often look at this photograph, enticed by the fierceness and beauty of her great-aunt Fanny looking back at her. But Fanny never seemed to feature in the family stories that were always being told and retold. Why? she wondered.This photograph set Teresa on a journey to uncover her family's remarkable history. Through detective work, serendipity, and the kindness of strangers, she was guided to the fascinating, ordinary, yet extraordinary life of her great-aunt and her world of sworn spinsters, ghost husbands and the working-class feminists of nineteenth century south China. But to recover her great-aunt's past, we first must get to know Fanny's family, the times and circumstances in which they lived, and the momentous yet forgotten conflicts that would lead to war in Singapore and, ultimately, a long-buried family tragedy.Good Luck Life: The Essential Guide to Chinese American Celebrations and Culture by Rosemary Gong (2005)Good Luck Life is the first book to explain the meanings of Chinese rituals and to offer advice on when and how to plan for Chinese holidays and special occasions such as Chinese weddings, the Red Egg and Ginger party to welcome a new baby, significant birthdays, and the inevitable funeral. Packed with practical information, Good Luck Life contains an abundance of facts, legends, foods, old-village recipes, and quick planning guides for Chinese New Year, Clear Brightness, Dragon Boat, Mid-Autumn, and many other festivals.Written with warmth and wit, Good Luck Life is beautifully designed as an easily accessible cultural guide that includes an explanation of the Lunar Calendar, tips on Chinese table etiquette for dining with confidence, and dos and don'ts from wise Auntie Lao, who recounts ancient Chinese beliefs and superstitions. This is your map for celebrating a good luck life.For further inspiration, this month’s reading theme from Backstory Bookshop is Prize Nominations.Share The Spark✏️ Resources for wonderful writersStill a little way off: there will be a Mayfair Book Fair for “readers of all ages and interests” in London in March 2026. I hope to have a table there.Not quite a craft book, but something to motivate you to focus on your writing is Oliver Burkeman’s Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals.The Fabula Deck is a fun way to structure your writing. You can use the 40 cards however you want, to analyze, organize, and build your stories.👣 My moseyingThis past week, I spoke with my publisher, Michael T. Braun, at Ten16 Press. Now that I have my manuscript edits back for Staring into the Sun, next steps are for Ten16 to do the interior layout and the cover design. My dear friend and former design business partner, Luca de Salvia, will be designing the handwritten script typography for the cover.Together with another dear friend, Kate Hammer, I will start recording the audio book for independent publication. Mercury Calling Audio will produce it.I thought I’d go back to working on my novel work-in-progress but have decided to focus on Staring into the Sun for now.📊 Tracked on Chill SubsShort story collection submissions to small presses & awards⏱️ 1 pending🚫 14 rejected↩️ 3 withdrawn🥉 1 semi-finalist🎉 1 publication offer!🟰 20 totalNovel prize submissions of my work in progress🚫 4 rejected🟰 4 total🎙️ Author interview with Amber HarrisonI met Amber Harrison in 2020 through work and since the end of that year, we have been colleagues at consultancy Grain Sustainability. Amber is co-founder, together with Karen Brazier, of FOLDE Dorset, an award-winning nature writing focused bookshop that opened in April 2021, in the hilltop town of Shaftesbury, Dorset.FOLDE also celebrates traditional art and crafts, working with local makers to create a sense of place through their work. As well as the shop, they run a spring and autumn author events programme and recently launched their book club.The business has always been run with a strong environmental and social intent, and in April 2024 became B Corp certified.Books mentioned:What We Can Know by Ian McEwanRaising Hare by Chloe DaltonThe Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley RobinsonThe Overstory by Richard PowersAmber can be found in the shop and FOLDE is online at foldedorset.com as well as Instagram, Threads, Bluesky, and Facebook.Tune in to the The Spark podcast for the full interview.📙 Where to find my writingStaring into the Sun on Substack, weekly through the end of 2025."Things My Dad Told Me" in Tomorrow There Will Be Sun, The Hope Prize anthology published by Simon & Schuster Australia.Buy in US | Buy in UK“Gold Mountain Diggers” in Issue 10 of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.livinapre...
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13 Arsenic and Old Mirrors
Aug 1700:34:42Tap to summarizeI recorded the podcast this month in Den Bosch, in the Netherlands, while my daughter did some work experience at Antigif branding and design studio.For the full interview with Dr. Anjana Khatwa, tune in to The Spark wherever you listen to podcasts.📚 Recommendations for ravenous readersHere are the recommended reads for August.Kindred by Octavia Butler (1979)Dana's 26th birthday celebration ends when she's ripped from 1976 California and thrust onto a Maryland slave plantation in 1815. Her mission: keep alive the white boy who will grow up to assault her ancestor—because without him, she'll never be born. Every trip back grows more dangerous. Dana feels the lash, wears the chains, endures the daily terror that defined millions of lives. She can't just read about slavery's horrors—she lives them, bleeds from them, nearly breaks under them.The Past by Tessa Hadley (2015)Three sisters and a brother, complete with children, a new wife, and an ex-boyfriend’s son, descend on their grandparents’ dilapidated old home in the Somerset countryside for a final summer holiday. The house is full of memories of their childhood and their past—their mother took them there to live when she left their father—but now, they may have to sell it. And beneath the idyllic pastoral surface lie tensions. As the family’s stories and silences intertwine over the course of three long, hot weeks, small disturbances build into familial crises, and a way of life—bourgeois, literate, ritualized, Anglican—winds down to its inevitable end.The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell (2019)I received this from the Big Green Bookshop’s Book Club.1904. On the banks of the Zambezi River, a few miles from the majestic Victoria Falls, there is a colonial settlement called The Old Drift. In a smoky room at the hotel across the river, an Old Drifter named Percy M. Clark, foggy with fever, makes a mistake that entangles the fates of an Italian hotelier and an African busboy. This sets off a cycle of unwitting retribution between three Zambian families (black, white, brown) as they collide and converge over the course of the century, into the present and beyond. As the generations pass, their lives—their triumphs, errors, losses and hopes—emerge through a panorama of history, fairytale, romance and science fiction.Share The Spark✏️ Resources for wonderful writersIf you’re in London on September 13th, come along to the Story Feast Lit Fest celebrating ESEA (East and South East Asian) stories and authors. It’s at SOAS University of London and tickets are free.Mslexia’s 2025 Adult Novel Competition is open until September 22nd. Send the first 5,000 words and be ready to submit your finished manuscript if you get longlisted.The Outland Publishing Fair, which represents a curated selection of self-published titles by Chinese and Sino-diasporic practitioners, was meant to be in September but it has been postponed. I’ve applied for a space at a shared table there. Look for @outlandpublishingfair on Instagram for the new date.👣 My moseyingI did not win the Developing Your Creative Practice grant from the Arts Council. However, I’ll apply again in the next round.My short story collection, Staring into the Sun, was a semifinalist in the Autumn House Press 2025 Nonfiction Prize!Big news: I’ve signed the contract to publish Staring into the Sun with Ten16 Press in May 2026 (Asian American and Pacific Islanders month in the U.S.). The book links memoir and narrative nonfiction about my Chinese American family. Spanning 1895-2015, look out for a millionaire, a magician, and a model. Ten16 Press will publish the paperback and ebook. With the same release date, I will self-publish the audio book, narrating the four memoir chapters. Kate Hammer will narrate the historical creative nonfiction chapters and Anthony at Mercury Calling Audio will produce it. I started researching and writing this book in January 2017 and to finally have a publication deal is an enormous joy. Staring into the Sun celebrates and honors my ancestors.If you can’t wait until next May to read the stories, subscribe for free on Substack to get them sent to your inbox every Saturday through the end of 2025. More info, links to each installment, and sign up are here. The free subscription is for Staring into the Sun serialization as well as The Spark monthly newsletter.I’m still writing my novel and meeting with my writing group every three weeks.📊 Tracked on Chill SubsShort story collection submissions to small presses & awards⏱️ 4 pending🚫 11 rejected↩️ 3 withdrawn🥉 1 semi-finalist🎉 1 publication offer!🟰 20 totalNovel prize submissions of my work in progress⏱️ 2 pending🚫 2 rejected🟰 4 total🎙️ Author interview with Dr. Anjana KhatwaI met Dr. Anjana Khatwa at the Nature Writing Prize for Working Class Writers, founded by Natasha Carthew. The event was held on the stunning roof terrace of Hachette in London.Dr. Anjana Khatwa is an award-winning earth scientist who has worked for the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site and the National Trust. Dr. Khatwa has contributed to and presented TV programmes for the BBC as well as ITV. She has been given the Geographical Award for public engagement by the Royal Geographical Society, the RH Worth Award by the Geological Society of London and the Halstead Medal from the Geologists' Association. In 2021, she received a National Diversity Award in recognition of her work to champion inclusion within earth science and natural heritage, and the same year was longlisted for the 2021 Nan Shepherd Prize for nature writing. She lives with her family in Dorset in a house filled with rocks and fossils collected from all over the world. The Whispers of Rock is her first book.In The Whispers of Rock earth scientist Anjana Khatwa asks us to think again, and listen to their stories. Boldly alternating between modern science and ancient wisdom, Khatwa takes us on an exhilarating journey through deep time, from origins of the green pounamu that courses down New Zealand rivers to the wonder of the bluestone megaliths of Stonehenge, from the tuff-hewn churches of Lalibela, Ethiopia, to Manhattan’s bedrock of schist. In unearthing those stories and more, Khatwa shows how rocks have always spoken to us, and we humans to them. She delicately intertwines Indigenous stories of Earth’s creation with our scientific understanding of its development, deftly showing how our lives are intimately connected to time’s ancient storytellers.Through tales of planetary change, ancient wisdom, and contemporary creativity, The Whispers of Rock offers the hope of reconnection with Earth. With Khatwa as your guide, you won’t simply hear rocks speak; you, too, will feel the magic of deep time seep into your bones.Anjana can be found on Instagram, Bluesky, and on her website, anjanakhatwa.com.Photo credit: Rob Coombe.Tune in to the The Spark podcast for the full interview.📙 Where to find my writingStaring into the Sun on Substack, weekly through the end of 2025."Things My Dad Told Me" in Tomorrow There Will Be Sun, The Hope Prize anthology published by Simon & Schuster Australia.<a target="_blank" href="https://bookshop.or...
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