Member Spotlight: Margie Ellen Patlak

Why is writing important to you and why do you think it’s an important medium for the world? My writing is important to me because it helps me notice, understand, and appreciate the world around me. I think writing is an important medium for the world for the same reasons–it helps readers notice, understand, and appreciate the world around them.

What are your tried and tested remedies to cure writer’s block? Go for a walk or a swim.

What is your favorite time to write? Anytime I have a long enough period of concentrated time to myself.

What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received and would like to impart to other writers? Read like a writer–discern how other good writers achieve what you are trying to achieve with your own writing.

What excites you most about being a writer in today’s age? How easy it is to garner information from the internet.

Margie Patlak’s Insect Safari: Exploring the Wondrous World of Everyday Bugs is out now with Workman Publishing Company.