15 In a Flow State

For the full interview with author S.E. Reid, tune in to The Spark wherever you listen to podcasts.

📚 Recommendations for ravenous readers

Here are the recommended reads for October.

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin (2014)

A.J. Fikry’s life is not at all what he expected it to be. He lives alone, his bookstore is experiencing the worst sales in its history, and now his prized possession, a rare collection of Poe poems, has been stolen. But when a mysterious package appears at the bookstore, its unexpected arrival gives Fikry the chance to make his life over--and see everything anew.

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong (2019)On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family’s history that began before he was born — a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam — and serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable revelation. At once a witness to the fraught yet undeniable love between a single mother and her son, it is also a brutally honest exploration of race, class, and masculinity. Asking questions central to our American moment, immersed as we are in addiction, violence, and trauma, but undergirded by compassion and tenderness, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is as much about the power of telling one’s own story as it is about the obliterating silence of not being heard.

Not the End of the World by Hannah Ritchie (2024)We are bombarded by doomsday headlines that tell us the soil won’t be able to support crops, fish will vanish from our oceans, that we should reconsider having children. But in this bold, radically hopeful book, data scientist Hannah Ritchie argues that if we zoom out, a very different picture emerges. The data shows we’ve made so much progress on these problems, and so fast, that we could be on track to achieve true sustainability for the first time in history.

Packed with the latest research, practical guidance and enlightening graphics, this book will make you rethink almost everything you’ve been told about the environment, from the virtues of eating locally and living in the countryside, to the evils of overpopulation, plastic straws and palm oil. It will give you the tools to understand what works, what doesn’t and what we urgently need to focus on so we can leave a sustainable planet for future generations.These problems are big. But they are solvable. We are not doomed. We can build a better future for everyone. Let’s turn that opportunity into reality.

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✏️ Resources for wonderful writers

An episode of the Memoir Nation podcast mentioned host Brooke Warner’s Substack post, “‘You’ in Memoir, Five Ways,” about the use of the second person. A great post to check out.

Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life (1994) is a heartfelt guide. One suggestion for writers who feel blocked is to start with what you can see through a 1-inch-square frame.

Discoveries 2026 is open for submissions until January 12th. It’s the Women’s Prize’s writer development program. Send the first 10,000 words of your novel and a synopsis of between 500-1,000 words. Novels do not need to be finished before you enter the competition, but you should be able to summarize in your synopsis the main plot of your work-in-progress. It’s open to women who are at least 18 years old at the time of entry and a resident of the UK, the Republic of Ireland, or the Channel Islands.

Literary agency AM Heath have launched a “biennial adult novel prize to honour the much-loved double Booker Prize-winning author Hilary Mantel, who died in 2022. Hilary was a staunch supporter of countless first-time novelists, so the prize will focus on work in progress from unpublished writers, with the aim of offering the mentoring and financial support to assist the best of the next generation in finishing their work. AM Heath will be working with the publisher John Murray and creative writing charity Arvon.” The Hilary Mantel Prize for Fiction submission requires your first 15,000 words and a synopsis, to enter by December 31st.

👣 My moseying

Dana Breunig at Ten16 Press sent over four gorgeous routes for the cover of Staring into the Sun. She’s working on a second iteration of my favorite option now.

I’m continuing to write the end notes for the collection, with a lot of info about the Sausalito Salmon Derby in 1955 🎣

I am submitting a proposal to the Bay Area Book Festival for next May, which gives us a deadline of mid-November to have the digital ARC (Advance Reader Copy) ready.

My writing group is still meeting every three weeks, though I have decided to complete the year and then bow out. Just too much other stuff going on to keep up with everything.

My work-in-progress novel is on hold while I’m getting Staring into the Sun ready for publication. Then the marketing and promotion will kick in!

Because I haven’t been submitting much, for now I’m cutting out the stats, tracked on the brilliant Chill Subs, on my story and book submissions. That section may return in future.

🎙️ Author interview with S.E. Reid

I came across S.E. Reid on Substack, through Eleanor Anstruther, a previous guest on The Spark. Both S.E. and Eleanor serialize their work on that platform, which inspired me to serialize my short story collection, Staring into the Sun, there too.

S.E. is a freelance writer, editor, and poet living on a patch of wooded wetland in the Pacific Northwest with her craftsman husband and her two big goofball dogs, Finn and Huck. She loves to hear and tell stories about nature, history, ghosts, and God, and when not writing she loves to cook nourishing food, read widely, and tend to her vegetable garden. Learn more about her work at sereid.com.

Books mentioned:

Red Rabbit by Alex Grecian

The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward

In the Woods by Tana French

Nightmares & Dreamscapes by Stephen King

The Wisdom of the Beguines by Laura Swan

S.E. can be found on Substack, on Instagram as writer.sereid and at sereid.com.

Tune in to the The Spark podcast for the full interview.

📙 Where to find my writing

Staring into the Sun on Substack, weekly through the end of 2025.

"Things My Dad Told Me" in Tomorrow There Will Be Sun, The Hope Prize anthology published by Simon & Schuster Australia.Buy in US | Buy in UK

“Gold Mountain Diggers” in Issue 10 of Livina Press.Buy in US | Buy in UK

“His Bones” in Transformations, the Oxford Flash Fiction Prize anthology.Buy in US | Buy in UK

Find out more about me and my writing, including press coverage, on my website: madelynpostman.com.

Most book links go to my Bookshop.org page, where sales are win-win-win, benefiting the authors, local bookstores, and my own writing—unlike using A-you-know-who.

You can listen to The Spark on your favorite podcast platform. On Substack, you can listen to the podcast and subscribe to the newsletter. Please take a moment to leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify—it would mean the world to me. And please share it with your reading and writing friends!

Music and mixing by anthony@mercurycalling.audio.