Ep. 22 - Rae Meadows is a real award-winner author who found the courage to follow her passion! Rae is a former Minnesota girl who went to school with my daughter! After feeling unfilled in several jobs, a friend asked Rae what she would really like to do and she answered, out of the blue, “Be a writer.” That statement turned out to be utterly life changing. While in Salt Lake City, she answered phones at an escort service, the experience of which inspired her first novel. She talks about how she crafts her women character-driven books and how she utilizes her life experiences as a fiction writer. She also gives important advice to young women. Listen in to learn how to go after your dreams and passion even after pursuing a different career. You will also learn the importance of giving women’s voices the confidence to tell their stories the same way men tell theirs.
Key Takeaways:
- How to have the courage to take the risk and pursue what you truly want
- How to be confident in your voice as a woman and tell your story
- Focus on gaining confidence to go after your dream as a woman without allowing distractions to stop you
"I don’t want young women to be distracted. There is so much work to do in this country on every level, whether it’s political or teaching. I want no distraction. I want confidence." -Rae Meadows
In this episode you’ll discover:
Rae explains when she finally gained the courage to follow her passion in creative writing [6:01]
She talks about the many places she’s lived in and how she writes about them after leaving [8:32]
How she has experienced different communities in the Midwest and East Coast [10:59]
She explains how a job answering phones at an escort service inspired her to write her first book [12:49]
The events behind Rae’s book No One Tells Everything plus how she develops fictional characters [17:50]
How she intertwined three different acts together in her book Mercy Train [20:31]
The importance of telling women’s stories to give them a voice the same way as men’s stories [22:12]
Rae describes her time in college and becoming a mother as the best moments of her life [25:07]
The difference between Amazon book publishing and traditional book publishing methods [27:53]
How small independent book publishers are doing well by reestablishing book communities [29:46]
She describes her daughter’s early health challenges as the hardest thing she’s had to handle [31:37]
Rae advises young women to make their choices without focusing on distractions [33:17]
HER WRITING AWARDS
Rae Meadows is the recipient of the 2019 Goldenberg Prize for Fiction, the 2018 Hackney Literary Award for the novel, and a finalist for the 2018 Manchester Fiction Prize. She is the author of four novels, most recently I Will Send Rain (2016), which was shortlisted for the Langum Prize in American Historical Fiction and longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award. Her first novel, Calling Out, received the 2006 Utah Book Award for fiction and was named an Entertainment Weekly Must Read, a Book Sense Notable Novel, and a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection. Her second novel, No One Tells Everything, was named a Notable Novel by Poets & Writers and was awarded Honorable Mention in the 2008 Anne Powers Fiction Prize. Mercy Train (released in hardback as Mothers and Daughters) was chosen as a Target Emerging Authors selection and was published in multiple languages.
P.S. I have read them all - and highly recommend them! Nan
HER BOOKS
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