33. Finding the Themes in Your Story featuring Debbie Weiss

Debbie Weiss joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about widowhood and capturing grief and loneliness in ways that keep readers invested, starting scenes in the middle, finding themes in your story, how her blog was a stepping stone to watching her writing take off, and her new memoir Available As Is.

Also in this episode:

-writing about the character-you from the narrator-you lens

-the online dating scene after 50

-structuring a memoir with lots of material

Books Mentioned in this episode:

Consider the Oyster by M. F. K. Fisher

The Gastronomical Me by M.F.K. Fisher

Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin

Shimmering Images: A Handy Little Guide to Writing Memoir by Lisa Dale Norton

Educated by Tara Westover

Debbie Weiss is a former attorney who earned her MFA in creative nonfiction from Saint Mary’s College of California in 2020. A native of the Bay Area, she turned to writing after George, her husband and partner of more than three decades, died of cancer in April 2013, and she found herself single and living alone for the first time in her life. Weiss’s essays have been published in The New York Times's “Modern Love” column, HuffPost, Woman’s Day, Good Housekeeping, Elle Décor, and Reader’s Digest, among other publications. She lives in Benicia, CA with het second life partner, Randal.

Connect with Debi:

Facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/debbieweissauthor/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/debbie_weiss_author/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DWeissWriter

Website: https://thehungoverwidow.com/

Purchase “Available As Is”:

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1324017.Debbie_Weiss

Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Available-As-Midlife-Widows-Search/dp/164742237X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1JLADG9KGH13C&keywords=available+as+is+debbie+weiss&qid=1665773224&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIwLjkxIiwicXNhIjoiMC4zNiIsInFzcCI6IjAuNTEifQ%3D%3D&sprefix=available+as+is%2Caps%2C255&sr=8-1

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Ronit Plank is a writer, teacher, and editor whose work has been featured in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Writer’s Digest, The Rumpus, American Literary Review, Hippocampus, The Iowa Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named a 2021 Best True Crime Book by Book Riot and was a Finalist in the National Indie Excellence Awards, the Housatonic Book Awards, and the Book of the Year Awards. Her fiction and creative nonfiction have been nominated for Pushcart Prizes, the Best of the Net, and the Best Microfiction Anthology, and her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ Eludia Award. She is creative nonfiction editor at The Citron Review and lives in Seattle with her family where she is working on her next book.

More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com

Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd

Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/

More about WHEN SHE COMES BACK, a memoir: https://ronitplank.com/book/

More about HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE, a short story collection: https://ronitplank.com/home-is-a-made-up-place/

Connect with Ronit:

https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/

https://twitter.com/RonitPlank

https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank

Background photo: Canva

Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography

Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers