Ep. 14: Lindsey J. Palmer (Author of Otherwise Engaged)

In Episode 14, Lindsey J. Palmer (author of Otherwise Engaged) joins me to talk about her book and her reading and writing life.

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Highlights Lindsey’s interviews with Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton (from Friday Night Lights). Authors pulling from real life for their fiction…and how that impacts their real life friends and family. Lindsey’s experience writing a novel (her second, If We Lived Here) that pulled parts from her own marriage. If Lindsey is able to choose a favorite of her own books. How Lindsey manages to write novels with a full-time job and a two year old child. When Lindsey fits in reading time. Lindsey’s Go-To Authors. Why publication day is both the best and worst day of authors’ lives. What Lindsey thinks of the term “chick lit”. Lindsey’s Book Recommendations

Two OLD Books She Loves

Wedding Toasts I’ll Never Give by Ada Calhoun (My Review) | Buy from Amazon [19:55] The Divorce Papers by Susan Rieger (My Review) | Buy from Amazon [23:08]

Two NEW Books She Loves

Joy Enough by Sarah McColl | Buy from Amazon [26:01] There, There by Tommy Orange | Buy from Amazon [27:42]

One Book She Didn’t Love

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara (My Review) | Buy from Amazon [29:40]

One Upcoming Releases She’s Excited About

Normal People by Sally Rooney (April 16) | Buy from Amazon [32:31] Other Books Mentioned Pretty in Ink by Lindsey J. Palmer | Buy from Amazon [8:29] Holly Banks Full of Angst by Julie Valerie (Release Date: November 1) | Buy from Amazon[17:45] You Think It, I’ll Say It: Stories by Curtis Sittenfeld (My Review) | Buy from Amazon [18:14] The Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante | Buy from Amazon [18:31] The Outline Trilogy by Rachel Cusk | Buy from Amazon [18:43] The Heirs by Susan Rieger | Buy from Amazon [24:59] The Nest by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney (My Review) | Buy from Amazon [25:30] The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz | Buy from Amazon [28:46] Conversations With Friends by Sally Rooney | Buy from Amazon [32:31] Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott (My Review) | Buy from Amazon [39:27] Other Links #SpiveysClub Facebook Group Episode 7: Ashley Spivey (where she recommends Otherwise Engaged) Greenlight Bookstore in Brooklyn, NY The Wedding Toast I’ll Never Give (Ada Calhoun’s essay for the New York Times Modern Love section) Winter 2019 Book Preview podcast episode Annie Jones from the From the Front Porch podcast About Lindsey

Author Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook

After a childhood spent devouring every book and magazine I could get my hands on and dreaming up stories that took place along the Oregon Trail, I left the suburbs of Boston to attend the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. As an English major and Benjamin Franklin Honors Scholar, I continued devouring every book and magazine I could get my hands on and dreaming up stories (most of which didn’t take place along the Oregon Trail).

Post-college, I shipped out to bucolic Vermont to teach creative writing and Pilates to high school kids at a summer arts camp. There, I picked blueberries, ran across rolling hills, and realized I was not nearly mature enough to be teaching anyone much of anything.

And so I moved to Manhattan and broke into magazine publishing, starting at Glamour and then moving on to Redbook and next Self, where I was Features Editor. I worked on stories about relationships and sex, parenting, social activism, career and finances, and well-being; I interviewed the occasional V.I.P. (including Michelle Obama and both Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton, a.k.a. Coach and Mrs. Taylor for Friday Night Lights fans); and I gathered material for what would eventually become my debut novel, PRETTY IN INK.

After nearly a decade in publishing, I decided I was finally ready to try my hand at teaching again. So I waved goodbye to magazines and began my Master’s of English Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. I took classes on Shakespeare and adolescent literature, and talked books with teenagers. I then joined the faculty of NEST+m, a Manhattan public high school, as the A.P. Literature and Creative Writing teacher, plus advisor of the literary magazine, the yearbook, and National Honor Society. During my three years of teaching, I aspired to be a slightly more down-to-earth reincarnation of my favorite fictional teacher, Miss Jean Brody.

These days, I work as a scriptwriter at BrainPOP, an animated educational site for kids. I spend my days researching topics as diverse as Nuclear Fusion, Emily Dickinson, and the Tuskegee Airmen, and then translating what I’ve learned into an engaging, narrative format. My scripts get made into short films to be shown in classrooms grades 4-10, nationwide and around the world.

I live in Brooklyn, NY with my husband and 1-year-old daughter.

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