Author Profile: Erika Erickson Malinoski

The Spun Yarn works with and provides beta readers and manuscript critiques for all kinds of authors. Our Author Profile series highlights some of the successful authors we’ve worked with, getting insight into their process so other writers can learn from their experience.

Erika Erickson Malinoski grew up in Michigan and now lives in New Jersey with her multi-generational family. In between, she earned a Masters in Public Policy from the University of Michigan, taught secondary math and sex ed in California, and realized that the universe is very strange. She is also a devout Unitarian Universalist.

Perfect for fans of Dragon Riders of Pern and The Left Hand of Darkness, Erika Malinoski’s debut novel, Pledging Season, brings to light the inequalities of sexism and gender discrimination in a gripping alternate reality where gender norms are turned on their head in a powerful matriarchal society.

Tell us about your book.

I once saw science fiction described as “a love letter to our time,” and I just adore that description. Although Pledging Season is set on a colony world of Earth in the distant future, it’s really about modern day gender and what would happen if it were done differently. Often science fiction books about gender posit some sort of biological change, but I wanted to play with gender purely as a social technology. What stories do we tell about what is or is not “natural”? Who do those stories serve? How do they shape assumptions about who can do what? This book follows a young man who is coming of age in a fictional matriarchal society and is striving to pursue his dreams despite the sexism embedded in his culture. I hope readers will find that his journey makes the strange familiar and the familiar strange!

In addition, I wanted to write a book that doesn’t use violence to solve its major problems. Which is a challenge! There’s a very strong message in American media that having a climactic battle and either destroying or locking up the bad guy is what fixes things. When I look around at the big problems of today, though, whether it’s the pandemic, climate change, or rising inequality, they’re not things that can be solved that simply. One of my goals in this book is to help carve out a little more of the imaginative space for how we could do things differently.

Where did you get the inspiration to take on gender dynamics, which has become one of the big issues of our society?

Years and years ago, someone I respected wrote an essay arguing essentially that gender dynamics in our society are the way they are because of biology, and the hurt that happens as a result of them is just the way things have to be. I remember sitting at the dining room table one weekend furiously typing up a response, but I wasn’t able to finish it. My family was waiting for me to go on a trip, I had lesson plans to make (I was a teacher at the time), then packed weeks of teaching intervened, and I never returned to it. 

The impulse to respond stuck with me, though, and eventually crystallized into a thought experiment to try to show exactly why those arguments were nonsense. Could I take the exact same biological variation related to reproduction that exists in current humanity (and even many of the same stereotypes) and use it to explain why entirely different patterns of power and privilege were “natural”? How would such a society come about? What would their struggles for gender equality look like? By the time my anger cooled, I’d started reading a lot of non-fiction about gender, especially by trans people, and digging into all the layers just got more and more fascinating. Playing around with the different ramifications grew into an entire world.

Tell us about your writing process.

Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks!

For this book, the cultural setting came first, then I built the story to explore the impact of that. 

But I try so many things! I outline, then rewrite everything, then stick post-its all over the walls of my house, then rewrite the whole thing again. I think I went through seven or eight major rewrites of this book. There was a spreadsheet phase. I do try to keep my eye on the ball in terms of the themes I’m trying to get at, but everything else is all over the place. It’s only really in the final draft that I can look back and realize, “Oh, that’s what I was trying to say.” 

Since what I write is so much of a deep dive into how changing one aspect of how we organize society ripples outward, I also do an enormous amount of reading and research. In this particular book, once I started tugging on gender, that thread led me to a whole host of other cultural assumptions about who is “deserving,” how gender is shaped by other identities, what is justice, etc.

What do you enjoy most about the writing process?

Two things: One is getting to talk to cool people about interesting stuff. The other is when unexpected characters show up on the page and I’m just like, “Oh, hello, I have no idea where you came from, but you’re pretty awesome.” Some of my test reader’s favorite characters showed up that way.

What's the biggest challenge for you in the writing process?

Knowing when to stop. I love rewriting things, I could keep tinkering with drafts forever! Every draft, I look back and see how much better it was than the prior one, and I always think that if I just revised it one more time then it would be so much better. But eventually it’s time to shove the thing out the door and be done with it.

How was your experience with the Spun Yarn?

Really helpful! The Smart Start Report in particular came at a crucial time for me and gave me some key encouragement as a baby author. It was the reassurance I got from my readers that I was onto something that gave me the confidence when my husband’s job moved us across the country, to go into writing full-time instead of seeking out another teaching job.

How did you find your publisher/agent?

I’m self-publishing through several different e-book and print on demand retailers. I really like the level of control it gives me, and I also enjoy the variety of running my own business.

What's your favorite quote about writing?

“I write for myself, but I publish to have an impact on others.” 

It helps me let go of things when I get to the pruning phase of the manuscript. Some things I need to get out for my own benefit, but when it comes to revisions, the key is to think about and be compassionate toward my audience.

What encouraging words or advice do you have for other authors?

Keep at it! When I first submitted a manuscript to The Spun Yarn for feedback, I thought I was almost done. That was two-and-a-half years and seven drafts ago. Writing is a much longer process than I initially anticipated, which feels intimidating. But keep at it and keep revising, you’ll get there!

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Learn more about Erika Erickson Malinoski and her book, Pledging Season, at eemauthor.com. Sign up for her mailing list to read the first sixteen chapters of her book for free!

You can also find her on Twitter at @EEMauthor. 

To learn more about The Spun Yarn and see how you can use their manuscript beta reader program for authors to help make your writing even better, click here.

Author Profile: Rebecca J. Sanford

The Spun Yarn works with and provides beta readers and manuscript critiques for all kinds of authors. Our Author Profile series highlights some of the successful authors we’ve worked with, getting insight into their process so other writers can learn from their experience.

Rebecca J. Sanford grew up in a small town in New York and fell in love with writing, language and culture at an early age. She is a People & Culture executive, a member of the Women's Fiction Writers Association, and a proud sponsor of Women for Women International since 2009. She’s also a founding member of Fe League, a professional women's leadership organization. Her as-yet untitled novel was selected as the winner of the WFWA 2020 Rising Star Award for unpublished fiction.

As a teenager, Rebecca studied at lycée in southern France, sparking a lifelong love of travel - always with a pen and notebook close at hand. Later, while studying and conducting research in Buenos Aires for her master’s degree thesis, she ensconced herself in learning about the activities of the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo and the role they played in recovering kidnapped children during the last Argentinian dictatorship in the late 1970s. 

This became the basis of her fictional novel.

Tell us about your book.
I’ve written a literary/book club fiction novel about a young woman who was adopted at birth, uncovers the truth about her biological identity and is forced to confront a devastating secret about her past and her adoptive parents. The book is inspired by the actual events of Argentina's Dirty War and the true story of the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo.

Where did you get the inspiration to explore that part of Argentine history? 
I had the great privilege of working with the Identity Archive of the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires while I was completing my master’s thesis. The work of these women inspired me tremendously.

How do you approach the writing process?
For me, the initial inspiration is chaotic and feels a bit like catching fireflies in a jar. But once a first draft is spread onto the page, it becomes more structured. I do a lot of revision work.

What do you like most about writing?
I love going deep into the work. The creative aspect of immersing yourself in another place and time – and doing everything you can to draw that experience out for the reader – is transcendent for me.

What's the biggest challenge for you in the writing process?
I’m a full-time executive, wife and mother, so making time for writing is my biggest challenge. I take little “residencies” and retreats whenever I can. My favorite writing spots are the beach and Rockvale Writers’ Colony in Tennessee.

How was your experience with The Spun Yarn?
I can’t speak highly enough about my experience with The Spun Yarn. I used it for beta readers on an early draft and again for sensitivity readers on a later draft. All the feedback was helpful, thoughtful and professionally cultivated. It truly made a difference in my work.

How did you find your literary agent?
I went the traditional route and queried agents directly. I also found a wonderfully supportive community in the Women’s Fiction Writers Association and received recognition through their Rising Star Contest, which helped expose me to some of the agents who judged.

What's your favorite quote about writing?
“Write what should not be forgotten.” – Isabel Allende

What advice do you have for other authors?
Keep writing. Keep creating. Keep telling your stories.

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Learn more about Rebecca J. Sanford and her writing at her website, rebeccajsanford.com.

And follow her on social media at:
Instagram: @rebeccajsanford
Facebook: @rebeccajsanford
Twitter: @rsanford

To learn more about The Spun Yarn and see how you can use their manuscript beta reader program for authors to help make your writing even better, click here.

The Writing Process: Thoughts from a Prolific Novelist

We like to sit down with our authors as often as we can to hear more about their process in the hopes that it’s helpful for other writers. No two processes are alike, and writers continually evolve their method. Here’s a peak into the way Richard Seltzer, a prolific writer, has managed to spin yarn after yarn.

The Spun Yarn: Richard, it's been a pleasure to work with you on two of your books, though I know you've written several more. How long have you been writing, and what are the kinds of stories you're particularly moved to tell?

Richard: I started writing stories in the second grade, 66 years ago, and reading them in show-and-tell. I've only been free to focus full-time on my fiction over the last two years, over which time I've finished six books. The books I write these days are largely fueled by a lifetime of experience. Events like the death of my wife and the last years of my mother and father come into play in unexpected and unintended ways. And the concept of "soul transfer" recurs in several of these novels -- the soul having the ability to move from one body to another and back again. This is related to the notion that ordinary life is magic – that we move from one body to another as we grow up and then age, that we take that for granted when it happens slowly, but would perceive it as fantastical if it happened quickly. In any case, adjustment to the new body is never easy. I'm also very interested in history and connections between past and present, like a palimpsest, where the present is written on the past and is influenced by it in ways we sometimes are unaware of.

The Spun Yarn: You used to work as a writer, marketing consultant, and "Internet Evangelist" for a minicomputer company for 19 years. What was it like to be an Internet Evangelist in the early 2000s? What did that job entail, and did it intersect with your writing at all?

That was great fun, in the early days of the Web between 1994-1998. For an entire year, DEC let me write a book about their AltaVista search engine (predecessor of Google). The result was the first consumer book about search engines -- The AltaVista Search Revolution. Then the company sent me around the world delivering speeches to convince people that there was business opportunity on the Internet. Many people still didn't have a clue back then. My typical speech was based on a dozen slides, one for each major industry that was going to be impacted. I laid out in simple terms the likely results 10-20 years later. That's very much the way things turned out. It was great fun opening the eyes of business people to what should have been obvious to everyone. I spoke in such places as Bogota, Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, Moscow, Zimbabwe, and all over the U.S. and Canada.

I did my own fiction writing on my own time; but with four kids, there wasn't much time at all. I began books then that I have finally now been able to finish.

The Spun Yarn: I'd like to share a snippet of the opening of your new Historical Thriller, Parallel Lives.

"Here was a world apart, totally separate from the city-life he was used to. But he wasn't a young man, nor were the other residents. They hadn't come here to be cured. There was no cure for what they had, and they didn't delude themselves that they would ever move from here to another earthly dwelling. This was the end of the road. They were old and would only get older. They were here to enjoy what was left of life, ideally to figure out what life was about before it ended, and to do so in deliberate isolation from family and friends. That was the attraction of this remote location. They were on their own."

This opening contains no fantastic elements, but the uncanny mood leads us to wonder if something beyond the pale is in store for Abe and his compatriots. Why did you set your story in an assisted living facility, and where did the idea for this story come from? 

In their final years, my mother and father both lived in an assisted-living facility a mile away from me. I visited every day and came to understand that environment, the rhythm of life there. While there, my father had a stroke that left him unable to walk and unable to talk, very much the character Dick in the book. And my mother wound up in the Alzheimer's wing, very much like Dick's wife in the book. I've also always had a strong interest in history and, more recently, in  Mercy Otis Warren and General Johnny Burgoyne. Having uncovered Mercy's history of the American Revolution and knowing that it was never reissued after its initial publication in 1805, I typed the entire 1300 page book and her plays by hand (the old type made scanning fruitless) and posted it on my website, and made them available as ebooks for a pittance just to get it a much-deserved audience. While I knew that Burgoyne had been a popular playwright on the London stage after he lost the Battle of Saratoga, his plays hadn't been in print for more than 200 years. I put those into an ebook. Since Mercy Warren and Burgoyne were both playwrights; and he had written The Blockade of Boston and she had replied with a satire The Blockheads I wrote a play that involved the two of them meeting Mercy for the bicentennial back in 1976. And in the novel Parallel Lives people at the assisted living facility have, present day characters have mirror selves in the past, such as Warren and Burgoyne, with whom they interact in unexpected ways.

At The Spun Yarn, we're always interested in comparing notes on process. How many revisions did this story undergo before reaching its current state? How long in total did you spend on this book? What were your stumbling blocks, if any?

I had scattered notes gathered over forty years, but the pieces didn't fit together, until I was finally able to devote full time to my fiction, here in my one-bedroom apartment (with 3000 books in what others would use as the living room) here in Milford, CT. Once I got the basic concept and the characters came alive (so I heard them in my sleep and writing was like taking dictation), the first draft took less than three months. I did the final draft in less than a month. The main challenge was making it plausible that a nursing home in New Hampshire had a cellar with winding corridors leading to other places in other times.

 The Spun Yarn: What kinds of resources did you use along the way, whether soliciting feedback or editorial help, writing schedule, etc?  

As I was writing, I got some feedback, chapter by chapter, from friends, in particular from Rochelle Cohen, widow of a close friend of mine, the artist and author Rex Sexton. Then I got  general comments as feedback from Jennifer Barclay, a developmental editor who is also an author and and agent, before I did the final draft, which I submitted to your readers at The Spun Yarn. .

The Spun Yarn: What are you working on next?

Yesterday I finished the first draft of another novel, All's Will That End's Will: The Shakespeare Twins, about the formative years of Shakespeare, the twin sister no one knew he had, and their passionate, tempestuous love for one another (with cameo appearances of characters from the plays). It's in the vein of the movie Shakespeare in Love, with a dash of Yentl (a woman struggling to get an education when it’s against the law.) That was lots of fun. I researched for a month (including rereading all of Shakespeare's plays). Then the book wrote itself in two months. Today I submitted it to Spun Yarn. I plan to do a final draft based on the feedback I get from the beta readers.

The Spun Yarn: We hope your prolific writing streak continues, and we’re excited to see what readers think about All’s Will That Ends Will. Thanks Richard!