Five marketing tools every writer should have in place before publishing their book — If more than half a decade in small press publishing has taught me anything, it’s that not all writers have a natural knack or intuition for marketing their books. Aside from a few self-marketing savants I’ve worked with, that’s pretty par for the course. And that’s OK — provided the…

The keys to the independent publishing castle lay in the leg work — As writers, we often develop a laser focus on our stories. Whether you’re a devoted children’s book author, the queen of Young Adult (YA) literature, or a murder mystery maven, it’s easy to get hung up on the story you want to tell. …

A country built for protest, yet seemingly beyond reproach — “If you don’t like it, then why don’t you just leave?” It’s a phrase we’ve all heard before, once uttered by elementary school children, and now the rallying response of the conservative American right. It was only weeks ago — during a moderately heated back-and-forth that began with the United…

Working, gardening, and processing from my postage stamp in Northern Virginia — This week marked eight weeks since my job became 100 percent remote. That’s 56 days, 1,344 hours, and two month’s worth of hives since I stopped looking forward to my next vacation and started looking forward to the next trip to the grocery store. Friday, March 13th It’s the last day in the…

Author of the recently released poetry collection, Before the Fevered Snow, now available from Stillhouse Press — Amid a pandemic — and the mothering of two young boys in a time of social distance — Megan releases her fourth collection of poetry, Before the Fevered Snow. What’s it like to publish a book in times of quarantine? …

Forget dogma, taste often, and question everything — “Have you seen the movie SOMM?” As a sommelier, I get this question invariably once a week. The answer is no, I have not. To which some variation on “Oh, you definitely should. You would love it,” usually follows.

We got this. — We have been hearing it for the better part of a decade now: The national birth rate is falling and it’s a total doomsday scenario. The Centers for Disease Control released its National Vital Statistics report in early January and, for the third year in a row, the general fertility…

How younger generations can conquer the moral narrative — From the minute details recounted on our Facebook pages to our Instagram “stories,” 240-character laments, and Pinterest-inspired DIY needlepoints, for younger generations, the digital narrative has existed for much of our lifetime. Social media is woven into the social fabric of our lives. We created it, grew it, and [in]advertently…

Author of the new grief memoir, Dragonfly Notes: On Distance and Loss By Sean van der Heijden Anne Panning is the author of a bold and brilliant memoir out today from Stillhouse Press. Dragonfly Notes: On Distance and Loss dives deep into the sudden loss of her mother, becoming a…