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summerjar.bsky.social
STRIP: A Memoir 📚 IPPY GOLD Medalist “Sward’s memoir of how she blundered into the sex industry is touchingly honest and written with a light touch.” -JM Coetzee, Nobel Prize in Literature ✍🏽 LA Times, HuffPost, NYT, The Rumpus, Arts & Letters etc.
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Three years today, the greatest of gifts to be by my fathers side as he took his last breath. And so it was I began this day just as he would have wanted me to. Writing to him. Always with you dear dad and always, I with you. An excerpt from one of my favorites of my fathers poems.

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

I can’t believe it. I’m at Skylight Books to sign a couple copies of Strip and they sold out again. Having gone to Skylight for the past 25 years, this is a dream.

submitted 15 days ago • 0 comments

One of the things I’ve struggled with as a writer is the question of what is success? How much am I looking to publication for validation? From the external to the internal journey, I loved this conversation with Lisa Cooper Ellison. To listen go to: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/w...

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

What an honor to talk with @lisacooperellison.bsky.social on her Writing Your Resilience podcast about my memoir, Strip. If you’ve ever struggled w/ what to reveal, how to structure your story, or how to make peace with your past through writing, this episode is for you. Listen here: buff.ly/3XcKJz

submitted 26 days ago • 0 comments

What an honor to interview Hannah Sward (@summerjar.bsky.social) about her powerful memoir Strip! We covered so much territory from transcription practices and the somatic exercises she used to build powerful sex scenes to how she turned deep trauma into art. Listen here: https://buff.ly/3XcKJzx

submitted 26 days ago • 1 comment

How good it feels to get a few solid hours of writing in today. I put the phone in another room. Some days I put it in the trunk of my car so I don’t get distracted. The economy of time.

submitted 34 days ago • 0 comments

On my desk where I write… ‘Never lose hope, dear heart. Miracles swell in the invisible.’ - Rumi

submitted 43 days ago • 0 comments

Free hotel rooms from Hilton for those impacted by wildfires in LA 🙏🏻💙❤️💙🙏🏻 #wildfires #CA #LA #LAFIRES #LosAngeles #LosAngelesFires #wildfire #fires #pets #petrescue #rescue #emergency #wildlife #PalisadesFire #EatonFire #FireAid #LAStrong #SoCal #Pasadena#Altadena #SoCalFires

submitted 45 days ago • 1 comment

Received my forth royalty check today. A modest amount but enough to pay a few bills. Published over two years ago, I like thinking of Strip as the little engine that could. No big bang out of the gate but it continues down the tracks.

submitted 75 days ago • 0 comments

PRESSED SENT to my editor! I think Salt N’ Straw double scoop is in order📖🍦

submitted 81 days ago • 0 comments

Grateful to my publisher for marking my memoir down to .99 until Friday! For those interested in checking it out I never want to have the price be an issue! Subject matter: -childhood trauma -addiction -stripping -sex trade -the road to recovery & back to the written word a.co/d/6t8yRB2

submitted 82 days ago • 0 comments

20+ years ago I began writing a short story collection. After having taken a side step to go back to college, do meth, drink, get sober and write a memoir, this week I am sending my collection in to my new editor. Sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly.

submitted 83 days ago • 1 comment

My publisher is hopping on the holiday sale train marking Strip down to .99 cents on Kindle! Dec.7-12 One of the early blurbs to entice you, drum roll please…one of my favorite authors, Nobel Prize Winner, J.M. Coetzee. a.co/d/6t8yRB2

submitted 86 days ago • 0 comments

Making “reduce, reuse, recycle” cool again.👏👏👇🏼

submitted 92 days ago • 1 comment

Every Thanksgiving I look back on my last Thanksgiving before sobriety. May I never forget what it was like. And if I ever do, may Strip (my memoir) be there to remind me. An excerpt from the day itself back in 2009.

submitted 95 days ago • 0 comments

My ranking of 1000+ literary magazines www.brechtdepoortere.com/rankings

submitted 108 days ago • 7 comments

We ran a map of where to find independent bookstores in Southern California. Take a look and be heartened at all the little oasis of good…

submitted 100 days ago • 2 comments