Member Spotlight: Josie Brown

Why is writing important to you and why do you think it’s an important medium for the world?
Storytelling is as old as the cave dweller. Whether fiction, essay, or journalism, whether in poetry or prose, we enlighten those who discover our stories. If we do it well, we inspire them too. Will writing change the world? It can—and it will, if it can influence the world’s biggest threat: humankind.

What are your tried and tested remedies to cure writer’s block?
Deadlines, with a healthy dose of panic.

What is your favorite time to write?
I write best by breaking my writing sessions in half: late morning and late evening. Don’t ask me why, but it just works for me.

What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received and would like to impart to other writers?
You can quote me (my agent does:) “Last author standing.”

What excites you most about being a writer in today’s age?
Gaining more control over the elements that can put our books in the hands of more readers: production, promotion, pricing and distribution. Whereas, currently, this is more true of independently published authors, the Authors Guild’s efforts to strengthen intellectual property and copyright laws—and just as importantly, publishing contracts—is essential for all authors to not just survive, but thrive.

Josie Brown’s The Housewife Assassin’s White House Keeping Seal of Approval is out now with Signal Press.