For 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 readers

Here 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.

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✏️ Resources for wonderful writers

This 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 moseying

The 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. Braun

I 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 Lloyd

The Hallmarked Man by J. K. Rowling, published under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith

The Forgotten 500 by Gregory A. Freeman

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

Tailspin by John Armbruster

Michael 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 writing

Staring 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 UK

Find 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.

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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