Debut novelist Debra Curtis on teaching herself to write by copying poems by hand as a dyslexic child, using contemporary novels as craft manuals to learn structure, meeting the Dalai Lama, the importance of radical forgiveness & publishing her first novel in her sixties after years of rejection.
You'll learn:
- Why copying poems by hand into a composition notebook secretly teaches a dyslexic child to write.
- The hospital-bed moment with her dying father that became a three-decade family motto.
- A vision at a marina, a prescription bottle, and the woman who became her protagonist.
- What hundreds of rejections actually teach you about persistence.
- Using contemporary novels as instructional guides while drafting your own.
- How a psychic’s prophecy and a chance encounter in Paris both pointed toward the same agent.
- Finding your future agent’s name in the acknowledgments of a book you’ve never read.
- The big editorial note that hurts to hear, and why listening anyway is still the right call.
- Radical forgiveness as the emotional heart of a novel.
- The writing ritual built around a sleep mask, noise-cancelling headphones, and a sound machine.
Resources & Links:
About Debra Curtis:
Debra Curtis is a retired professor of cultural anthropology at Salve Regina University, where she specialised in gender and sexuality. This is her first novel. She is the mother of grown-up twin girls and lives in Rhode Island with her husband and her English bulldog, Harry, who is the star of much of her TikTok content. TikTok: @EnglishHarry; FB: @DebCurtis; Instagram: @Deb.curtis.906.
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