Jessica Anya Blau

How did you become a writer? Well, I always wrote. I was a compulsive diarist from about the time I was eight. When I moved to Canada with the man I was married to at the time, I started writing every morning. I was lonely, not allowed to work legally, and felt like I was losing my mind from isolation and lack of human contact (my husband was at work all day, we moved there around Halloween when it was already snowing, you could barely make eye-contact with people because they were so bundled up). I found that on days that I wrote, I felt okay, or great even! Eventually I sent a story out to a magazine and it was accepted for publication. That moment, that acceptance, changed everything for me. Mostly, it changed how I saw myself and gave me permission to really write, to take the task seriously.

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.). I've always been a reader, so every book I've read has fed me, or filtered into me and left something behind. When I was in graduate school at Johns Hopkins, the people around me inspired me. My two best friends in grad school were Marcia Lerner and ZZ Packer. They both were/are brilliant writers. I cried the first time I read the work they each turned in because I thought I could never be that good, or catch up to them. John Barth was one of my professors and he spent so much time talking to me about my work (praising it!) that he also changed my life. His support gave me courage. And, it takes a lot of courage to write.

When and where do you write? I write anywhere and any time. I had kids in my 20s so have been writing in the in-between times forever. I used to bring my computer with me when I picked the kids up from school and I'd write while waiting in the carpool line. If you decide that you have to have certain conditions to write, it will be hard to get anything done. The world around you can't be controlled, something will always claw in and interrupt you. (Okay, maybe there are people who can retreat to an office and not be bothered, but I've never even had a desk. I'm typing this interview at the kitchen counter.) I write in 25 minute segments, so I will always open the computer if I have at least 25 minutes. When something is due, or I feel pressure to finish something, I'll write if I only have 15 minutes. It's amazing what you can get done in 15 minutes when that's all the time you have. I write on planes and trains, too. I can't write in a car or I get carsick!

What are you working on now? I have a new book coming out this May. It's called SHOPGIRLS. Right now, I'm doing a lot pre-publicity stuff for it. I did start a novel but I'm only about ten pages in so I can't say much about it. (I never really know what's going to happen in a book until I get there. When I start, I know the character and I know one complication. But that's about it.)

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? Not really. I've never had time for writer's block. I do remember someone saying once that the cure for writers block is to lower your standards and expectations. Just write anything. When you're writing in 25 minute chunks throughout your day, you don't have the luxury to sit there and stare at the screen.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received? Lynn Freed once said to me, "Just cut the palaver." She also said, "Say it once, say it well, and don't say it again." I think of those two bits of advice often when I'm writing. I need to follow them when I'm talking. I think I might repeat myself when I tell stories. I'm trying to change that!

What’s your advice to new writers? My advice is to avoid people who don't bolster you and support you (don't even tell them that you're writing!). Have courage. And, don't wait for the time or conditions to be perfect. They never will be.

Jessica Anya Blau is the author of the bestselling MARY JANE. She wrote the screenplay for MARY JANE for SONY and has written five other novels. Her books have been featured on The Today Show, Good Morning America, CNN and NPR, and have been featured in Cosmo, Vanity Fair, In Style, Country Living, Oprah Summer Reads and other national publications. Jessica's newest novel, SHOPGIRLS, will be out in May, 2025. You can find her on Instagram or at http://www.jessicaanyablau.com.

Crystal King

How did you become a writer? I was an early reader (I started at age two....wild, I know), and that turned me into an early writer, composing poems and little stories by the time I hit kindergarten. When I was ten some teacher had the foresight to send me to a young writer's conference, and I met Madeleine L'Engle, whose books I devoured, and she was very encouraging. And while I had some half-started novels in my teenage years, I never truly began writing until I was in my forties. They seemed too big, and my attention span too short. But by 2005, I had a newly minted M.A. in Critical and Creative Thinking, in which my thesis transformed brainstorming exercises from the business and science sectors into tools writers stuck in the middle of their books could use. But when I tried to shop this book idea around, agents told me that I should a. teach, b. write a book using the exercises, or c. find someone else to write a book using them. I started with teaching but then finally realized I should just write a book. My first novel, Feast of Sorrow, came out in 2017. And while I've had two more published since then (and another coming out next year), I'm actually starting work on my 7th novel now. I realized I loved the research and the storytelling and now I can't imagine not sitting down every morning to do a little dreaming on the page.

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.). I mentioned Madeleine L'Engle, and along the way there were a number of teachers. Mr. North, my high school journalism teacher. My professors at Whitworth College (now University), particularly Doug Sugano, Laura Bloxham, Leonard Oakland, and Vic Bobb. My friend Greg McCormick, now one of the forces behind the events at the Toronto Public Library, ran a literary magazine with me in the early 2000s, and he gifted me The Art of Eating by M.F.K. Fisher. She opened a door into a world of food writing that I really connected with. Historian Roy Strong's Feast, a book about feasts throughout history, gave me the one-line spark I needed to write Feast Of Sorrow. Among my other influences, I would say Italo Calvino, Margaret Atwood, Ursula K. LeGuin, Czeslaw Milosz, Anne Carson, Catherynne Valente, Tolkein, Virgil, Ovid, and SO many more. I also devoured every fairy tale and ancient myth I could find when I was young, ranging from Grimm to the ancient Greek and Roman myths. One of the books I loved most as a child was East O' the Sun and West O' the Moon, a collection of Norse fairytales. Fairytales gave me the permission to explore imagination and to question the way the world worked. 

When and where do you write? I have a home office where I write for an hour every morning. I didn't always write every day, but I find that the way the stories live in my head is so much richer, and of course, I am so much more prolific. And in this business, you get ahead by being lucky or prolific. I don't have control over luck, but I can sit my butt in the chair every day.

What are you working on now? I have a couple of ideas brewing, but I'm leaning heavily into a story about Morpheus, the god of dreams. I've been plotting that, and it's the most challenging story I have attempted to tackle so far. 

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? No, never. Part of it is that I weave so much history through my novels, and our historical past is a goldmine of ideas. All those exercises I developed for writers In Medias Res have helped immensely as well. I have gone through periods of my life where I don't feel like writing, but I wouldn't call that writer's block...I've never not had an idea that begged to be developed. But writing is a lot of lonely work, and sometimes it's more about getting the butt in the chair. Again, that's where daily consistency helps, at least for me. It keeps the ideas flowing.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received? Not so much advice, but a comment that helped transform my thinking. Early on, when my writing group began meeting (going on 16 years now!), we were at a restaurant talking about our pages, and the waitress asked us if we were writers. All of us sort of hedged at that. We weren't published after all (but now we all are). She just looked at us and said something along the lines of, "But you are talking about your novels, right? As far as I'm concerned, that makes you a writer. You should just own it." I feel like that was a pivotal moment for the three of us. Damn straight, we are writers. And we have owned it ever since. There is a LOT to be said for believing in yourself. Every novelist was unpublished at some point, but it didn't make them less of a writer. 

What’s your advice to new writers? If you've read this far, then you can probably guess that I am going to be an advocate for consistency. Stephen King has always been someone who said you need to write every day, and I used to scoff at this because I have a day job and a life that doesn't give me the leisure to write all day. But when I made the decision to write SOMETHING every day (I aim for 400 words (roughly a page and a half) or one hour of writing/editing), my work completely transformed. The stories began to live in my head, and the characters really came alive. And I realized if I do this every day, I can write a book a year. Even if you only have 15-20 minutes a day, that can make a big difference. Really, just stop scrolling Instagram and sit down with the page instead. 

Crystal King is the author of In The Garden of Monsters, The Chef’s Secret, and Feast of Sorrow, which was long-listed at the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize and designated as a Mass Book Awards Must Read. A social media and AI professor by trade, her writing is fueled by a love of history and a passion for the food, language, and culture of Italy. Crystal has taught writing, creativity, and social media at Harvard Extension School, Boston University, and UMass Boston. A Pushcart Prize-nominated poet and former co-editor of Plum Ruby Review, she holds an MA in critical and creative thinking from UMass Boston. You can find her at crystalking.com.

Dominic Erdozain

How did you become a writer? Boarding school! I was sent to a Catholic prep school in North Yorkshire when I was nine. It was a shock to the system but I got into the habit of writing long, effusive letters home. People always appreciated my stories and the flashes of mordant humor and I realized it was something I enjoyed. As a historian, my writing has always been at the more playful end of the spectrum, so when I made the shift from academic publishing to writing for a general audience in One Nation Under Guns, the process was natural.

Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.). I was fortunate to have a tutor at Oxford who embraced my rather energetic and free-flowing style. He warned me about relying on too few sources when writing an essay, but encouraged my tendency to “imbibe” a book and transport the ideas onto the page. For me, it was always more important to be inspired or provoked than to be apprised of the “state of the literature,” so I often found myself reading older, less fashionable authors, who may not have been on the reading lists. A book by Robert Young entitled, Darwin’s Metaphor, had a big impression on me as an undergraduate, showing the layers of history and philosophy behind the publication of On the Origin of Species, and tearing down the barriers between science and literature. Among American historians, I have always enjoyed Richard Hofstadter and Jill Lepore – exuberant writers who refused to stay in their lane. History has always been a form of activism for me, if only to interrogate received wisdom. There was a mischief to someone like Hofstadter that was infectious.

When and where do you write? In my quiet little study surrounded by trees.

What are you working on now? I’m writing a history of patriotism and democracy, to appear around the 250thanniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026. The idea is to explore the ways patriotism operates as an “established religion” in a notionally secular United States, prompting us to behave in ways that are not always democratic.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? Not in the technical sense of having nothing to say – just a certain fatigue and loss of sparkle when I have been working on something for too long.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received? I can’t remember who said it, but a phrase that has stuck with me is “emulate, don’t imitate.” As a historian, I always feel that there is a fine line between drawing energy and inspiration from your sources and becoming overly dependent – in style and content. If I can hear someone else’s voice in my head, or if the phrase does not feel like my own, I have to start again. Learn from others, but be yourself, is another way to put it.

What’s your advice to new writers? Say what you want to say, and let the style take care of itself. There is always a time for editing and pruning, but it is important not to get caught up in the craft. Try not to be self-conscious. If you can enjoy the process, so will the reader.

Dominic Erdozain is a historian of ideas and the author of One Nation Under Guns: How Gun Culture Distorts our History and Threatens our Democracy (published by Crown in 2024). A graduate of Oxford and Cambridge, he taught history at King’s College London for seven years before moving to Atlanta with his wife and three children in 2012. He is currently a visiting scholar at Emory University and writing a new history of patriotism in the United States, for Crown.