July Duffy was a self-confessed frustrated creative writer-who-wasn’t-writing, when she challenged herself to write a story every day of May 2010. Other would-be writers heard what she was doing and asked to join in. And that was only the beginning.

And today - May 1st, 2024 - Julie is launching the 15th year of StoryADayMay.

Since then thousands of writers have joined Julie each May (and lately in September too), to prove to themselves that they can make creativity a priority in their lives. The focus is on writing, creating and improving your craft, not on getting published (though that may be the end result eventually too).

Now, she leads her community of writers at StoryADay, and is a sought-after guest speaker on topics related to creativity, productivity and community. And as a fellow Scot, I had such a lot of fun chatting to Julie for this episode of Authors & Audiences.

So if you are listening on May 1st - go sign up for Julie's daily email writing prompts.

If you are listening later in May - it's still not too late, so go sign up for Julie's daily email writing prompts.

And if you are listening anytime later, Julie has so many other things to get you writing throughout the year, I think you should sign up anyway.

I'm planning to join in and write some stories too - maybe not every day, but as many as I can manage, so make sure you follow me on Instagram and I'll share my progress with you there, so you can share yours too.

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Music by Oleg Kirilkov - #We StandWithUkraine

Yesterday - on Saturday, April 27th, 2024 I helped celebrate Independent Bookstores Day by becoming one of the Guest Booksellers at Brazos Bookstore, my amazing local indie here in Houston TX at the invitation of Randi Null, the general manager. I'm not sure how many books I helped sell, but I certainly had a great couple of hours talking to the staff, the other authors who were Guest-Bookselling too, and of course, to the readers of all ages who were checking out the shelves and asking for recommendations so I could give you the chance to help us celebrate the indie bookstore network around the world too. I even got to talk to the Inprint Poetry Buskers - all Masters students at the University of Houston Creative Writing Program - who were on duty with their trusty typewriters, ready to produce an original poem to order - just give them a topic and then pick up your piece of original literary artwork a few minutes later.

Of course, because we were recording live in the store, the sound quality is rather louder than usual, and unfortunately, because I was trying out some new lapel mics for the interviews, my own sound is a little distorted at times. Huge apologies, but I hope you'll forgive all that and just enjoy soaking up the atmosphere of a bustling indie bookstore on a busy Saturday afternoon.

My fellow Guest Booksellers on the afternoon shift were Chris Cander and Sydney Dunlap, and the Inprint Poetry Buskers were Adrian Pachuca, Caleb Berg and Anna Barr.

Shoutouts to other indie stores mentioned by my guests:
Blue Willow Bookshop, Houston TX
Kaboom Books, Houston TX
Class Books, Houston TX
Buy the Book, Woodlands TX
Village Books, Woodlands TX
Moe's Books, Berkeley CA
Bad Animal, Santa Cruz CA
Literati, Ann Arbor MI
Dawn Treader, Ann Arbor MI
Curious Books, East Lancing MI
Parnassus Books, Nashville TN
Goldberry Books, Concord, NC

And also to the two libraries mentioned - Aurora IL Public Library, and Ms Nelson, the school librarian at Roberts Elementary School, Houston TX.

And thank you to all the readers and book-buyers who so willingly let me accost them and demand to know what books they'd chosen.

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Music by Oleg Kirilkov - #We StandWithUkraine

Norah Woodsey, is an indie author, with three novels, THE CONTROL PROBLEM and LIFELESS, and the novella WHEN THE WAVE COLLAPSES. Her next book, THE STATES, will be out in April 2024. After short careers in finance and tech, Norah began writing novels featuring subjects of which she says she has “intense interest but not quite expertise”, such as history, physics, genetics, sociology and gender studies. She’s a fourth generation Brooklynite, though she’s now living over on the west coast.

You can pre-order THE STATES or buy any of her other books via the links on Norah's website, or from Norah's favorite indie bookstore, Greenlight Bookstore in Brooklyn, and you can find Norah at www.norahwoodsey.com and follow her on Instagram.

Kealani Netane is a Native Hawaiian and Samoan author who was raised on the leeward side of Oʻahu in Hawaiʻi where she currently lives. She writes children's books and her debut picture book will be TALA LEARNS TO SIVA, illustrated by Dung Ho (Scholastic, Summer 2024) and is available for pre-order now.

Kealani is passionate about championing Pacific Islander voices in all sectors of the art world, and she was part of the organizing team which put together the Books for Maui online auction to help support the island recover and rebuild after the devastating wildfires of August 2023.

The other auction organizers are:

• Malia Maunakea- LEI AND THE FIRE GODDESS
• Keala Kendall- unannounced book news
• Erika Cravahlo Meyers- not an author, contributor to Scholastic’s Rising Voices initiative
• Shar Tuiasoa- Punky Aloha
• Terisa Siagatonu- award-winning poet
• Joanna Ho (Chinese/Taiwanese)- NYT Bestselling author.

The four organizations which the Auction supported are:

• Kamehameha Schools and the Pauahi Foundation
• Hawai’i Community Foundation
• Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement
• Maui Food Bank

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Music by Oleg Kirilkov - #We StandWithUkraine