Member Spotlight: Pamela Ehrenberg

Why is writing important to you and why do you think it’s an important medium for the world? My author friend Caren Lissner once said, “Writing is what keeps us human.” I couldn’t have imagined all the ways that would become more true than ever through the chaos and tragedies of the past few years.

What are your tried and tested remedies to cure writer’s block? Have a baby, have another, find a way for your life to be filled-to-overflowing such that you have to fight the forces of the universe for every scrap of writing time. (It helps if some of those scraps are in a non-WiFi environment while waiting for your kids at activities.) Put words on page as if your life, or at least your humanity—see #1 above) depends on it.

What is your favorite time to write? Whatever time I have stolen, guarded, and hidden away from those who would lay claim to those precious fragments.

What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received and would like to impart to other writers? When my first novel was published, a dear friend in my writing group shared her joy over the fact that “something good happening to one of us makes it more likely that good things will happen to all of us.” My best writing advice is to surround yourself with that sort of love, support, and joyful community at every stage.

What excites you most about being a writer in today’s age? Years ago, I heard the illustrator E.B. Lewis share that he felt he’d spent his first 50 years sharpening his skills so that when he was old enough to have something to say, he’d have his tools at the ready. With democracy and voting rights under threat, with inequalities widening and so many areas of progress in danger of moving backward—all of us, no doubt, have something to say. And the world desperately needs those of us with tools at the ready.

Pamela Ehrenberg’s Detour Ahead, co-written with Tracy López, is out now with PJ Publishing.