On a recent edition of First Draft Friday, I talked with Lynne Golodner about creative nonfiction, her journey from a journalist to a novelist and her new book A Woman of Valor.
Here are some key takeaways from my conversation with Lynne:
Understanding creative nonfiction
Creative nonfiction involves writing truthful stories with the techniques of fiction. It emphasizes descriptive, immersive storytelling while staying true to real events. This genre blends the factual rigor of journalism with the narrative flair of fiction.
Transitioning from nonfiction to fiction
Lynne shared that people often assume her fiction is autobiographical due to her nonfiction background. However, she emphasizes that fiction requires significant creative freedom and research.
Research in both genres
Whether writing fiction or nonfiction, thorough research is essential. For her novel set in Chicago’s Orthodox Jewish community, Lynne conducted extensive research despite her personal experiences as an Orthodox Jew. Similarly, for her upcoming novel set in Scotland, she researched historical details and visited Scotland several times to create an authentic narrative.
Balancing creativity with facts
In creative nonfiction, it can be tempting to embellish facts for a more compelling story. Lynne advises maintaining a balance, ensuring that while the narrative is engaging, it remains grounded in truth. Fiction, however, allows for complete creative liberty, enabling writers to invent characters, settings, and plots freely.
Incorporate personal experience
Personal experiences often influence a writer’s work, but they should not constrain it. Lynne’s first novel draws on her knowledge of Orthodox Judaism, yet it is entirely fictional. Her next novel incorporates elements of Jewish culture and historical research, illustrating how personal knowledge can enrich storytelling without dictating it.
Marketing opportunities
Leveraging shorter pieces related to your novel can be an effective marketing strategy. Writing essays, op-eds, or articles that connect to your book’s themes can attract readers and establish your expertise. Publications and platforms like Medium and Substack offer opportunities to share these writings and reach broader audiences.
Set boundaries for research
To avoid getting lost in endless research, Lynne suggests setting time limits. Allocate specific periods for research and then return to writing. This approach helps maintain focus and productivity, ensuring that research enhances rather than hinders the creative process.
It was a great discussion, one you won’t want to miss! Click below to watch our 30-minute recording and hear the questions we answered from the live audience. Keep scrolling if you’d prefer to read the transcript.
More info:
Try out Marlowe, our A.I., for a critique of your novel: authors.ai/marlowe/
Find out more about Lynne Golodner at LynneGolodner.com
Enjoy the show? Check out our past First Draft Friday episodes.
TRANSCRIPT:
Alessandra Torre: Hello everyone, and welcome to another First Draft Friday brought to you by Authors AI. I am your host, Alessandra Torre, and today I’m joined by Lynne Golodner, who is going to be talking about the differences between creative nonfiction and fiction. And how you can make that transition or straddle both of those worlds and the creative processes that go along with that. So welcome, Lynn. It’s fantastic to have you here. And huge congrats, because this is the release week of your debut. You’ve released lots of books, but this is your first novel. Is that correct?
Lynne Golodner: Yeah.
Alessandra Torre: So huge congrats on that front. And do you just want to introduce yourself to the audience? Tell us a little bit about you and your background.
Lynne Golodner: Yeah, sure. Thank you so much for having me. So I am a Detroit-based writer. I’ve always been a writer. I’ve had a journalistic career and a career in marketing. I’m an entrepreneur. And I have been writing for all of my life, really. My first book came out as I graduated from my MFA program when I was 25. It was a collection of poems. And since then I have had two collections of poetry, six nonfiction books and then this week, my first novel was published. But I have written thousands of articles and a lot of creative nonfiction essays for journals, magazines, and newspapers all over the world. So writing is my first love.
Alessandra Torre: And with those articles and things like that, what was typically the length of an article?
Lynne Golodner: Well, when it was a journalistic endeavor, it could be 500 words. It can be a thousand words, 2000 words, whatever. But when it’s creative nonfiction essays I usually write between, I’d say, 1,000 – 3,000 words.
Alessandra Torre: So that’s meaty but not the length of your novel. So. And your first novel is about what?
Lynne Golodner: I think it was 82,000 words. Yeah.
Alessandra Torre: And what’s the topic?
Lynne Golodner: So it’s called Woman of Valor, and it is a story about a young woman who lives in Chicago. She chooses to become Orthodox in Judaism. Everything’s great. She’s married to the love of her life and has three kids. Life is grand. And then her son is abused at his school, and she and her husband respond differently to this. They’re both outraged, but they want to take different actions. At that same time, her ex-boyfriend pops back into her life on Facebook and says he made a huge mistake breaking up with her. And I won’t release anymore because that’ll give some spoilers. But, what did he do, and how does it play out?
Alessandra Torre: So what genre is this? Is that women’s fiction or something else?
Lynne Golodner: And it’s fiction. It’s got a literary bent to it. Even though it’s about an Orthodox Jewish woman and it’s in that Orthodox community. I’ve had non-Jewish readers say that they love it and they’ve learned a lot, so I think it has a broad appeal.
Alessandra Torre: I love that. So if you’ve spent years, decades potentially, writing, you wrote. Now, to be honest, I don’t know a lot about creative nonfiction. So is nonfiction a top-level genre and then creative nonfiction is memoirs? What is creative nonfiction?
Lynne Golodner: Yeah. So we have all these different genres and you can define them however you see fit. But the way I look at creative nonfiction is that you are writing truthful stories, but using the techniques of fiction to be creative. And so that’s evoking the senses, writing great details, really descriptive, immersing the reader in the scene and the characters, but it’s all based on real events. And of course, even when you’re writing a memoir, you’re not going to remember every single word spoken or every single moment. So it’s to the best of your memory. Same thing in creative nonfiction. You’re doing your best to tell a true story, but you’re doing it creatively instead of straight reporting, which I would say is the difference between journalism and creative nonfiction.
Alessandra Torre: Yeah, I love that. So because we do get some nonfiction and our company is based on an artificial intelligence that is a developmental editor. And so a lot, but it’s fiction. It’s trained on fiction, and fiction is what it knows. And, and so a lot of people say, oh, well, I have nonfiction. So oftentimes you say, well, it depends on the kind of style in which your story is told. If your story is told similarly to a fictional read in that storytelling style, then. Yeah. Let’s see, let’s see how Marlowe does. So that’s what’s interesting. And your prior books. Now, I know you said you start with a collection of poems, but when your other books and stories were all truth-based.
Lynne Golodner: Yes.
Alessandra Torre: Were they different things?
Lynne Golodner: Oh, no, they were all nonfiction. They were all based on real things. Most of them were reported. And so it was more straight nonfiction. Of course, I tried to bring a creative element to it, but it wasn’t a collection of essays that might be where it would be more creative in that way. My last book before A Woman of Valor was called The Flavors of Faith Holy Breads, and it’s about how every faith and every community has bread. And so this is something that we have in common. So why are we at odds if we have different beliefs or different belongings and there are recipes and that kind of thing? So, I interviewed people, I experienced different communities, and I wrote those stories, but it was really based heavily on gathering information and reporting other people’s stories. So I think it was more journalistic. I hope it’s creative, but I think it has more of a journalistic approach.
Alessandra Torre: That makes sense. And so when you did decide to say, okay, I’m going to create a story from scratch, I’m going to invent a world. First of all, did you have any pushback from real life because you spent so long writing true things that now you’re moving into fiction? Was there some, was there some explaining that you had to do, or was there a transition for both you as a writer, but there’s also your audience? Was that even an issue?
Lynne Golodner: I love this question and I’m so glad you asked it, but, so I spent ten years as an Orthodox Jew. I’m not Orthodox anymore, and that was a deliberate choice. But, I wrote about an Orthodox character, so I know that world, but I also did a ton of research to know it better. And I don’t live in Chicago, so I really needed to research and everything. So I cannot tell you how many people have said, well, is this an autobiographical novel, which I don’t think is a thing, but I said, no, it’s fiction. It is totally created. It is not me. And but people who know me, they said, oh, I see the young Lynne in this character. I said no, that is not me at all. And in fact, my kids have said that my ex-husband, who is Orthodox, has asked them if this book is about me. People in his community are asking, did your ex-wife write a novel about you? And I say, no, this is fiction. This is not you. This is completely made up. I don’t know if he believes it or not, but it’s the truth. It is not him. It’s not anybody. Any likenesses are coincidental. I will say.
Alessandra Torre: I love that, and I can see how that would be. I think it’s hard for any debut author. My first book was super steamy, and I had to do a disclaimer with everyone I met. I am not like these characters. What they’re doing is not my life. But then as you write more and more books people say, oh, this one’s about a killer. Obviously, Alessandra isn’t a killer in her spare time. So, yeah, the more you write, the more. But you almost did the opposite. You almost reinforce that everything you write is true, and then, and then wrote it so I could see, I could see that. Yeah. That is a bit of an issue.
Lynne Golodner: In my next novel, some of the characters are Jewish. That’s part of my author brand is I want to write compelling Jewish characters. But the story is not Orthodox. And it takes place both in Michigan and in Scotland, and it’s totally made up. And so if anybody comes to me and says, oh, I see you in this, I’m going to be, where? Because it’s totally different? So anyway. Yeah.
Alessandra Torre: I have to say a lot of my characters have some of my traits. It’s easiest for me to write about characters that are similar personality-wise, which is bad because everyone goes, oh, your characters are so unlikable. So I don’t know what that says about me as a person.
Lynne Golodner: oh, that’s terrible.
Alessandra Torre: But my new goal is to write likable characters so that I can’t help myself. I like moving to the problem areas of people. But let’s talk a little bit about the creative arc or the creative things that are similar in creative nonfiction. I would think for me, the hardest with creative nonfiction is adding, I would want to add the juicy or fake stuff, especially in a moment when things might be getting a little dry and boring. Just talk about the differences and similarities between the two.
Lynne Golodner: Between creative nonfiction and fiction? Yeah, yeah. So honestly, I feel that when you are a writer, you bring the same creativity, the same attention to detail, and the same observational skills to both genres. I find that with both I am doing research, even if it’s not that creative nonfiction. So it’s something that I experienced or that I or that happened to me, or a memory or whatever, something I’m curious about. But I always end up doing research. I wrote this essay, one of my favorites, called The Roads We Travel, and it’s about a relationship I had in my 20s, we were in different states, and we were driving across America together and all this stuff, and it was sort of a metaphor for finding yourself and the journey of your identity. But it was all based on experiences I had, and yet I ended up researching on what American roads are made of. And that was sort of the ending to the piece. And it was this big culmination. So while it was a nugget of an experience that inspired the essay, I really had to bring my writing skills and my research to it? And the same thing goes for fiction. So I’m writing about real places. I’m not making up worlds. I’m not writing fantasy or sci-fi. So if I’m writing about Chicago and I don’t live there, I have to research it. I have to have street names. I have to have stores that exist or did at that period of time that I’m writing about. If I’m writing about the Orthodox Jewish community, and this was even though I lived in an Orthodox community for a while, it wasn’t that one. And this character is way more religious than I was. So I have to research what she would wear and how she would look at things and different things like that. I mean, I’ve been Jewish my whole life, and I had to research some of the prayers that she would say and the translation. So I think you have to bring your writing skills to every genre the same way. I mean, even in poetry, I brought journalistic skills to my poems because it’s all the detail. It’s the reporting. It’s getting really specific. And yet I needed to make it artistic and beautiful for the genre. So I’m going to go out on a limb and say that your skills and your approach to storytelling are the same, no matter what genre you’re in, and you have to have these qualities across the board because that’s what makes great writing.
Alessandra Torre: And having that research background I would think would be enormously helpful. For many authors, the research is what kills them. Not the act of doing research. It’s the distraction of the research. It’s writing a scene and saying, oh, I don’t know what Chicago was like in the 1950s. I don’t even know if that food or that product was invented then. And then they stop and they go and research it. And then before you know it, they’re looking at cat videos on YouTube and nothing’s been written for four hours. So I mean, any tips on juggling how much research is doing too much research or if there’s a way to avoid kind of the black hole or the just unending research, research, research, writing never gets done?
Lynne Golodner: Yeah, I mean, I’m a big fan of setting boundaries. And so, and I teach this in all my classes too, that it can be a rabbit hole. And so you just need to set a time and stick to it. And I’m very impatient. So I want to get the book done. I want to make a better chapter. I want to get through it so I won’t let myself spend hours researching. I’ll say I’m going to do 30 minutes now or an hour, and that’s all I’m letting myself do. And I’ll take notes. I’ll put them in a document so I have them for later because I want to get back to writing. Writing is what I really love, but research and revision for sure are a huge part of writing. So you’ve got to do that. For my next book, since it takes place in Scotland and 2014 to 2016 is when it takes place. They’re at a pub and they’re drinking a beer and I say, well, what beer was new that year? And so I had a great time looking it up. And one of my critique partners was looking at a chapter and she said, what a cool name for a beer. I said I didn’t make it up. It was a thing. It won Beer of the Year in 2014. Same thing with names. I’m sort of obsessed with coming up with deliberate names for the characters, which I don’t think I did as much in Women of Valor, but I am doing for the next book. So I wanted to look at what these names mean. Scottish names, Jewish names, and American names at the time. And really be very specific. And so maybe the readers will never pick up on it, but I think it’s pretty cool that I’ve chosen this name for this reason. And that’s part of the research, too. So it can be really fun and then elevate your writing and make it more fun to do, too.
Alessandra Torre: So I’m curious why your first book you just didn’t set it in Detroit. I don’t know if there’s something specifically about that community in Chicago, but it does seem that it would be easier. And maybe it was because you did want to distance yourself from the story a little bit in terms of you and the characters. But the same question I have also for book two. I mean, unless you. I’ve never been to Scotland, so I don’t know. But to me, the research would. I think I’d have to visit there. I don’t know if I could do that. It’s a big chunk.
Lynne Golodner: Yes. So yes. For A Woman of Valor, I didn’t want it based in Michigan because it’s a little too close to home. But she’s originally from Michigan, just not the suburbs where I’m from. And, so it was a touchpoint. But a lot of Michigan young adults moved to Chicago because it’s the nearest big, big city. And so, to me, that was a natural progression. And I liked the idea of placing her in a city and just sort of making it a little different. I liked that she could. She’s a runner. I’m not a runner, but she runs along the shore of Lake Michigan, which I thought was a great landscape setting that I wanted to evoke. As far as Scotland. So I have this obsession with Scotland and I don’t know what it is. And I actually did ancestry DNA to see if there’s any smidge of Scottish ancestry in me or a former life or something. And it came back that I’m 98% Jewish, which is hilarious. But, there was 1% that was Scandinavia. They included England in that. So I’m going to say Viking blood in some way, that maybe was in Scotland, but my kids just said why did you even pay for this? You knew what the outcome would be. I just really love it. Last summer, 2022, I did a month-long writing sabbatical in the Scottish Highlands. And so I went for a month. I rented a house. It was amazing, one of the best months of my life. And I thought, well, what am I writing if I’m here on a writing sabbatical? And so I started searching for Jews in Scotland. And just because I want to write about something Jewish and I came across some historical figures and was going to do historical fiction and realized as I got into that project, I don’t write historical fiction. I like to read it, but I don’t write it. So I liked these characters and all this research I had done. So I made it contemporary women’s fiction and, with a historical element to it and even tried to reach out to the descendants of the people that I found. And they did not want me to write about their ancestors who were widely written about. So, I mean, it’s fine, but so I said, okay. no, not a problem. I don’t really want to deal with them. So I fictionalized those historical figures that I found and created a contemporary story. They’ll probably recognize some similarities to their ancestors, but the names are all different. And, so I went back this year because the book is set in places that I didn’t visit when I was there in 2022, just so I could get on-the-ground details and really learn a little bit about the area. And so yeah, that’s part of the fun of it too, is finding a place that I want to learn about and then spend time there so that I can write about it really well.
Alessandra Torre: And you caught me off guard when you said I don’t write historical fiction. Okay. Your book that’s set in Scotland is present. Is. Well, you said 2014.
Lynne Golodner: Yeah. Yeah. There is a historical element because one of the main characters is an archivist. And so she’s managing archives and she’s sort of learning that career. And she stumbles upon some old journals and letters buried in a cave. And so she has to figure out who wrote these and what is the story. And, there’s even a dream sequence where one of the historical figures comes to her in her dreams and talks to her and says, you’ve got to write my story and all this stuff. And so. So there’s that. But it’s, I mean, maybe it’s more magical realism, but it’s really a contemporary novel, with those aspects as part of it.
Alessandra Torre: Being totally nosy, but I’m curious. Why 2014-16? Why not the present day?
Lynne Golodner: I did very complicated math to figure out how old the character was and how old her father. He is the main character. And then there’s a love interest of his mother as a main character. And so I have.
Alessandra Torre: Tten generations back?
Lynne Golodner: Well, no, in the present time. But where they were led to what’s happening today. And so I had to see, okay, well, if she’s 30 and then when did I want her father to be coming of age? Because that’s part of the story. And so he was coming of age in the 80s. And so I had to figure out what is the present like. So not too long ago, but not today. Yeah. Yeah.
Alessandra Torre: That makes sense.
Lynne Golodner: I needed them to be able to text, so it couldn’t be too far too late.
Alessandra Torre: Yeah. Too long ago. Yeah, yeah. As a thriller writer, texting and cell phones have made everything much more complicated. I mean, it’s much harder for someone to get away with a crime now with DNA and everything else. So a lot of times when we’re talking to mystery thriller authors, a lot of times they do have things that are set in the 90s because back then when you got stranded on the side of the road with a broken down car, it was a much more dangerous situation. Yeah. Then it is nowadays when you can just sit in your car and call AAA and just wait for an hour and track their progress on your phone. But, that’s very, very interesting. Yeah. So one thing we were talking about pre-chat was, I guess being able to write essays or supportive pieces for your novel that might fall kind of in the creative nonfiction realm. So can you explore that a little more? What that means. And you have a marketing background. So where I’ve perked up, oh, there are so many marketing opportunities. If I could have a shorter piece that somehow supported my full-length novel.
Lynne Golodner: Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for asking that. So I’ve had a marketing company since 2007, and now I really work a lot with authors trying to help them build their brand and then figure out how to market their books. And, if you’re a writer and that’s what you do, it makes sense that some of your marketing would be through writing. And so writing opinion pieces that relate to your book. I have a friend who’s writing a book about John F Kennedy Jr’s death. And so the anniversary is next year, and that’s when it’s coming out. So it’s perfect timing if she wants to write an op-ed or something that relates to that anniversary and in some way promotes her book. Op-eds are great ways to do that. And then essays that relate to the book that you’re writing, the topic that puts you out there so that people start to know you in this genre or in the subject matter. Then they might go and find your book since they enjoyed your essay. So it might become a sale for your book or somebody in your audience who’s going to follow you. And that’s the first way in, is because they read a piece you wrote on Medium or Huffington Post or wherever. And so it’s a snippet of your talent and your voice that they can get a taste of and say, oh, I’m really fascinated. Let me learn more. So it’s a gateway to your brand. So yeah, there are all kinds of ways to brainstorm the subject matter, the timeliness, and other things that relate to your book write essays about them and then market them to publications that will attract your ideal reader audience, too.
Alessandra Torre: So that’s a world a lot of us don’t know about because we’re not in the journalistic or blogger space or that sort of thing. So if we just have a 1000 or 2000-word piece that we’ve written is Medium something that anybody can just create an account and post something on, or do you have to be vetted in some way?
Lynne Golodner: Yes. Medium is open to anybody. So I always say it’s a great way to be discovered, but I am a big advocate for being paid for your talent. And so, if you can sell it somewhere and even make 100 bucks off it, do it. And also because then they’re going to want to promote you because they want the click.
Alessandra Torre: Pay for this. Yeah. They wanted it to get seen. Right for sure.
Lynne Golodner: So I never published on Medium, although I’ve read lots of Medium stories, a lot of people do. And it is a great place to be discovered. I think it might be even more worth it to start a Substack. To do a newsletter on Substack where you can be monetized and other people can promote you because then they’re going to drive readers to you. There are all kinds of channels and I think that we can look for publications that will look for that subject matter that might offer to pay. Op-eds are never paid unless it’s The Washington Post, The New York Times or the Wall Street Journal. But, it is exposure to a huge audience. So the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press are places I’ve written op-eds for because that’s my community, that’s my local audience, and I know the journalists there. And if there’s something timely or local, then they’re going to want a local voice. And so, it’s just an opportunity to build your platform, build your exposure, and really have more people know you as a writer and want to read you.
Alessandra Torre: So if I had an op-ed piece. I’m assuming there’s a learning curve and can they just hire a company and say, hi, I have this piece. Can you do something with this? You see, if there’s somewhere to put it before I just stick it on Medium or something else. Is that something that you do?
Lynne Golodner: Yeah, I do a lot of writing coaching, and I’ve worked with clients where I actually help them write the piece, and then I place it for them. But there’s also a resource called the Op-Ed Project, which people can Google, and they can find all kinds of resources for writing op-eds and how to submit to different publications around the US. But it’s something that publications around the world are looking for daily. So I have friends who write for the Guardian in the UK. There are all kinds of Canadian outlets. Every place has some need for local commentary. And so, yes, I’m happy to help people, but they can also start at the Op-Ed Project and see what they find.
Alessandra Torre: And so it made sense. Your friend had a book about JFK, Jr. that seems a no-brainer in terms of different things that could be written. But if someone has a normal story, similar to your second story, what are some examples of supportive content that could be created that is nonfiction?
Lynne Golodner: Yeah. So I planned my book launch around the Jewish holidays this fall, which was stupid because that’s the busiest time of the year for me because I still observe them and I said, wait, the day after Yom Kippur I have a virtual launch. And then on Sukkot this Sunday I have an in-person launch, which is great, but it’s a lot of stress. But, I could write pieces for the Jewish News or other Jewish outlets around the holidays or around something that relates to something in the book. For the next book, I can think about writing essays about certain holidays that are observed in Scotland at that time of year because they are mentioned in the book. Or, I’m trying to think, she’s also from Michigan, so there’s that angle to it as well. But yes, Scottish heritage societies or websites or Jewish communities in Scotland. There are different ways to look at the different elements of your book and think about very narrowly focused topics that you could write about and market to those communities who are hungry for that kind of content. And it actually helps you create a niche audience, which is easier to market to than a big, broad audience that’s everybody. So I think, looking at the themes in your book and pulling them out so that you have different touch points throughout the year. <y book just launched. But the marketing is just beginning. I marketed the launch for six months, and now I realize I have to keep marketing as the book is going. And so I’m going to want to find different new angles in six months or a year so that people are discovering the book and reading it. That’s just an ongoing thing.
Alessandra Torre: I love that. We’re in the final moments of the show. We just have 2 or 3 minutes left. Is there anything that we didn’t touch on that you wanted to cover? And, any commonly asked questions that you get from your writers? Just anything we need to cover before we sign off.
Lynne Golodner: Yeah. Well, thank you so much for this opportunity. It’s been a great conversation. I think that what I would say is the best way to write a great story is to just write, is to sit down and write day after day, get your butt in the chair and create a habit of it, but also to take opportunities to connect with the writer community. I have a few that I’m a part of, and I also create a community with writers. So I offer a bunch of programs, but I also lead writers retreats. And anywhere you want to go in the world, you can find a writer’s retreat there. So, find a way to do it — to do the thing. And so, once you surround yourself with other writers, it just energizes you and it encourages you to keep going. And you realize that this is something you can do. So just doing the thing helps you to do the thing.
Alessandra Torre: And when you went to that one in Scotland. How did you find that? Did you just search for
Lynne Golodner: Well, when I did the writing sabbatical, that was just me. I just booked a house and did a vacation.
Alessandra Torre: So the first one, you said I’m going to go on a writing sabbatical. You booked a house, and then just while you were there, you would tour the countryside in the afternoons, right?
Lynne Golodner: Yeah. So in the mornings, I wrote every day, and then in the afternoons I hiked and went places. But I also really started to search for writers in the Highlands. And I found a ton of different groups and events. And I would go and meet them, sit and write with them. And I’d made great friends in the writing community there. In May when I went back, to do research for the next book, I did a writer’s retreat. I was a participant in it. It came up on my social media. I found that it was generative, which means you’re there to generate writing instead of having to critique everybody else’s. And that’s what I wanted. I just wanted to be around other writers but get my own stuff done, and I took extra days to go to the places that factor in the book. So I got my geographic research done. But just go. Just go places and then Google writers in this place. I mean, this summer I did a month-long sabbatical in Nova Scotia, and I met so many writers, I can’t even tell you. It was the best. It was awesome.
Alessandra Torre: I’ve heard it is a writer’s haven. A lot of authors go there. Yeah, and then it’s gorgeous. I have a friend who’s there right now, and she said, you need to buy a house here. This is the perfect house for an author. She doesn’t write. But she said, I could just imagine you sitting here, right?
Lynne Golodner: Yeah, it was great. I’m in that part of life now where I’m asking where can I go this year. What’s my next long trip?
Alessandra Torre: Love that, I love that. Well, thank you so much for joining us today. If they’re interested in your books or your courses or your community, where can they find out more?
Lynne Golodner: So LynneGolodner.com is where you can find all the things. And my books are available everywhere books are sold. So, in the US, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Powells, whatever you can where you order your books from. But overseas too. I have lots of friends all over the world, and they’re finding the books in their local stores, so that’s great.
Alessandra Torre: And your new book is called A Woman of Valor. Is that right?
Lynne Golodner: Yes.
Alessandra Torre: And if they wanted to read something on the creative nonfiction side, what’s a book you’d recommend?
Lynne Golodner: Oh, goodness. Well, I would say Mary Carr has a really good book, and I’m trying to think of the name of it. I think it’s called.
Alessandra Torre: No! One of your books!
Lynne Golodner: Oh, one of my books?! Oh my God. In terms of a book of mine to read, I would say, The Flavors of Faith, Holy Breads. It’s the most recent one, and it’s a great one. But also look for my essays, which you can find on my website and links to them. And I think in those creative journals, that’s a really good way to get your work out there. So it just sort of sparked some ideas for you too.
Alessandra Torre: Fantastic. Well, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you to all the audience who are here today. And we’ll be back in another two weeks with another first draft Friday. So we’ll see you all then. Thanks, Lynne.
Lynne Golodner: Thanks, Alessandra.
