Hi, glad to meet you. Will you join my community and (hopefully) be inspired?

I’m a workaholic German-born novelist and artist who lives in Key West where enjoying life is pretty easy: I can work, work, work and then ride my rusty bike to the Green Parrot, groove to some live music and enjoy a tequila on the rocks. I like to be efficient—this along with a certain (ahem) doggedness—has allowed me to collaborate on, write, and publish a dozen books. However… I’m aware that slowing down and paying attention makes life much richer.

Each month, I share some of what fuels my creative life.

With this newsletter, I seek to inspire others to do their best “work,” and I also (selfishly) love sharing ideas and creating a community in which we seek to help and learn from one another. It makes writing way more fun and less lonely!

The few minutes it takes you to read about something I’ve learned and maybe also click on a link to some great art or music or a cool book, might just get your creative juices flowing. Let’s launch some conversations on this platform so we can all enjoy work and life more!

What’s my story?

My family moved to Brooklyn from Freiburg, Germany when I was two, and then to London when I was eleven. By the time I was five I’d discovered a love of writing, and I always dreamed of teaching. I went from being a minority in my public school classroom to attending an elite girls’ school—in both places I was most definitely an outsider and I quickly learned to study human behavior.

I worked as a talk show researcher at NPR, spent a decade collaborating on nonfiction books, slogged away at writing novels, and now work part time at a small literary nonprofit running their workshop and scholarship programs (I get to hobnob with some amazing writers). Oh, and I was on Today on NBC twice!

A few years ago I published my first novel, The Forgotten Hours (a Washington Post and Amazon charts bestseller that’s been optioned for development). This Terrible Beauty came after that, and now I’m finishing up the next novel, set in 1965 Ibiza.

During Covid, I launched #firstfivepages, in which I gave free critiques to writers of the opening pages of their books. It not only saved my sanity but I learned that I can see strengths and weaknesses of the entire arc and premise by diving into just five pages! I still do that work. I also teach writing in Key West, through GrubStreet, and who knows, you might find me talking on panels at conferences like Writers Digest or The Muse.

Will you join me?

My goal is to bring you interesting (and brief) stories, beautiful images and out-of-the-box recommendations once a month that will inspire you. You’ll get some behind the scenes tidbits about publishing (hold your hats… some rough seas out there). I’ll offer recommendations and writing tips, and I hope we’ll get to talk a lot through the comments section.

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