Today’s podcast episode is a Book Award Winner episode, where we get to know a writer who won the NAIWE Book Award.

Joe McGovern won the 2024 Book Award for her book Words Left Unspoken  in the Young Adult category.

Joe McGovern is a published poet, songwriter, and independent filmmaker.  A graduate, with a bachelor’s degree in forensic science – chemistry focus with criminal justice minor, Joe McGovern currently works as an analytical inorganic chemist. Founder and curator of the literary art anthology, Perception, his artistic team has received multiple nominations and awards for their work. In 2018, Joe McGovern received an American Songwriting Award for lyrics in folk music, for his independent film’s title song, “All Over Again.” Words Left Unspoken is Joe McGovern’s debut poetry collection publication, which won the NAIWE Book Award for poetry.

Here is a preview of today’s discussion:

When did you first have the idea for this book? And what inspired you to write this book of poetry?

I have been writing consistently for twenty years between: different forms of poetry, novels, novellas, song lyrics, and screenplays.  Roughly ten years ago when I was in my late twenties, after publishing in different literary magazines – I still felt my work wasn’t gaining notoriety or being considered for top tier magazines such as Poetry Magazine, Ploughshares, etc. – I was tired of waiting for my opportunity to gain enough recognition to publish a collection. I took the time to begin curating my poetic works into a collection.  Over the next eight to ten years, I would change the direction of the collection: replacing certain poems with others, discarding pieces altogether, rewriting, editing, and placing new poems within to eventually create Words Left Unspoken.

My inspiration for writing this collection is to bring a variety of stories to light to help give different perspectives readers wouldn’t typically experience; hopefully, inspire writers of all levels and experiences to search for independent publishers who believe in their work and contact them or submit to their competitions for a chance to publish or simply review their work. I hope my transparent literary journey with this collection helps inspire writers to understand the importance of laying proper foundation as an artist: connecting with book organizations, reviewers, libraries, and competitions to provide their work the best opportunity to accelerate and help gain recognition and notoriety – not only to their work to gain sales; but, more importantly their name as a writer and creator. I hope when readers open this collection: they are able to relate to the stories being told, help realize compassion and empathy along with understanding identity, and the pursuit of your individual aspirations are more important than the perception society has carefully groomed within each of us.  Most of all, I hope this collection inspires writers to take out their pens and paper to write stories – not only to practice but to find their honest voice with no boundaries limiting their creativity.

 

What did you learn while working on this book? And what were some challenges you faced during the writing or publication of this book?

My background as an artist comes from starting off acting and crew work in theater productions then transitioning to independent filmmaking. Anyone who understands the filmmaking process or knows a filmmaker at any part of the process – knows the immense amount of time, energy, and sacrifice required to complete a film or be a part of the process to lead a film successfully to completion. This art form takes an incredible amount of tech knowledge not only within camera and computer tech, but also from a scientific standpoint of comprehending wave forms and being able to read color waves, sound waves, etc. The amount of endurance and personal drive is very complex and one of the highest measures of difficulty of any art form.

All that being said – writing a book is just as complex from a complete creative standpoint – writing a successful book which readers would like to read and enjoy is a highly difficult skill. To sit down and write a one hundred- and twenty-five-page book with different pieces/stories/poems or a novel of similar or higher page count takes much endurance, patience, and perseverance. This process is just as involved as filmmaking, I learned, within its own respective and complex world – it’s more difficult because no story is the same format and there is no formula to a well written and carefully edited book – not similar to the film industry where once you have the process under control and you know your limitations and who you can outsource to, etc.  A seasoned filmmaker can calculate and anticipate, even working through all the different issues which will arise on a production set and within pre-production and post-production, with detailed notes and reminders you will be fine through the process to completion.

Both the filmmaking world and the literary world takes a village. The correlation I made is necessary to help provide accurate and respectful praise to both processes since I have much experience between being an independent filmmaker for twenty plus years and I have published two books – first book I self-published in college, Perception, and my first solo collection being Words Left Unspoken published through Anamcara Press.

I learned lessons of perseverance to never give up and there are people who will believe in your messages and words – the two parties just need the opportunity to find each other and they will. I learned lessons of compassion and empathy – the fact Anamcara Press believed in my messages was a form of compassion and empathy for me coming from many other publishers who ripped my collection a part and insulted me as a person and my ideologies – which disagreeing is perfectly fine but tasteless demeaning messages I’ve experienced isn’t; but when you write with obscenity and focus on uncomfortable controversial themes, these can be the reactions you receive – writers should always keep an open mind when readers don’t and never stop creating just because of a few meaningless insults – there are readers who want and need your work.

The process of publishing is very extensive but as Maureen, the owner of Anamcara Press said best – “It’s a beautiful and wondrous process to see how the book starts and after many months of endurance and working on it, the final product comes out precious and incredible! The journey is an amazing one!”  I couldn’t agree more with these sentiments – but similar to film like I stated earlier within this question, the literary journey to creating a book after it’s been accepted by the publisher for publication is only the beginning.  When a writer has the book written, it’s a great start and even taking it a step further and completing rewrites and edited drafts is awesome; however, the literary process is a journey which requires a village – while Maureen and I were editing and formatting the overall design of the book and covers, Amber and I on alternating days were editing and formatting the poems line by line. Also, Amber and Maureen, had their poetry department reviewing the book simultaneously too.

Together: Maureen, Amber, Anamcara Press, and myself – edited this book through many versions – a solid fifty plus drafts between all of us, even on our free time, we were reviewing alone and this would create further drafts – personally, I work multiple jobs and take freelance work on the side too. Accumulatively, the amount of time the publishing process required from beginning to completion with corrections continuing to the last week prior to printing, was roughly one full year. After Anamcara Press released the book, they helped me so much with the marketing process and provided a really solid foundation of information, competitions to enter, review forums, contacting bookstores, places to connect with other writers, etc. – along with my years of personal research, preparation, and time I put into marketing the book and spreading the word.

I learned so much through this journey publishing Words Left Unspoken with Anamcara Press from editing along-side with them, working on book formatting, front and back cover formatting, working with them within the publishing program, and working through the marketing process – they were patient, understanding, and compassionate and together we created a very special poetry collection. Maureen, Amber, and everyone at Anamcara Press are the best!

Today’s podcast episode is a Book Award Winner episode, where we get to know a writer who won the NAIWE Book Award.

Robin Stevens Payes won the 2023 Book Award for her book Find Me in the Time Before in the Young Adult category.

Robin Stevens Payes is a time traveler who reasons that time and space are just inconvenient rules that other people decided the world must follow. She’s author of the award-winning Edge of Yesterday YA time travel adventure book series chronicling a “whip-smart” modern teen’s quest to meet—and interview—all her polymathic “heroes of history” to learn the secrets of their genius. She has recently completed a pilot screenplay adaptation for television or streaming with screenwriting partner Tish Dragonette.

Payes also has two short stories scheduled to appear in anthologies in late 2024. And after decades of trying to fit some notion of “normal,” in 2023, she chose to dive deeper into the offbeat, allowing verse to fill a poetic void. Her poetry has appeared in two anthologies: Maryland Bards Poetry Reviews in 2023 and 2024 and Reflections Maryland Writers’ Association Anthology in 2023.

To make time travel available to teens and those who care for them, Payes has created an accompanying interactive “learning through story” platform where she prompts teens to follow their own inner voice—through poetry, prose, photography, personal reflection and other forms of creative expression.

Here is a preview of today’s discussion:

When did you first have the idea for this book? And what inspired you to actually write this book?

As a science writer, I became fascinated with the brilliant but forgotten 18th-century French woman physicist, mathematician, and philosopher, Emilie, the Marquise du Châtelet, after being introduced to her in a documentary about Einstein’s breakthrough formula for Relativity, based on David Bodanis’s biography of a formula, E=mc2. According to Bodanis, the Marquise laid the foundation for Relativity two centuries before Einstein. Her contribution, F=mv2 the squaring of Newton’s formula for energy, was actually an improvement on Newton’s math. And that she was something of an 18th-century feminist (long before there was such a notion of female empowerment) made her all the more intriguing!

The book’s protagonist, the very 21st-century STEMinista and now-experienced time traveler, Charley Morton, whose ambition in life is to “do it all” and not be confined by what her society tells her she can or cannot become, was dying to learn Emilie’s secrets of polymathic success, so for her high school science fair project, she must refine her time travel app and set it for France in 1736, in the time of Emilie and her lover and science partner, the infamous satirist, poet and playwright (and, fun fact, scientist wannabe) Voltaire.

For curious readers, Charley has captured the life and accomplishments of this “daring genius of the Enlightenment,” in an interview with the great marquise.

 

Please describe one of your favorite characters from your book.

I love all my characters, but Emilie is such a kick-butt woman that she stands head-and-shoulders above the rest. As I mentioned, she was physicist, mathematician and philosopher, but also mother of four (she died in childbirth with her youngest at the age of 42—that child was neither her husband’s nor Voltaire’s, but a minor court poet at Versailles, Saint-Lambert, a student of Voltaire. She and Voltaire created one of the most modern science laboratories in Europe when they went to live in the château in Cirey, France, where she and Voltaire took up residence for 15 years, and her husband, the Marquis, would visit when he wasn’t off fighting wars for King Louis XV. She had to bring Voltaire to Cirey to save him from exile (again!) after he insulted a member of Louis’s nobility at Versailles.

The two set up a salon where all the greatest minds across Europe would gather to exchange ideas and debate the most modern philosophical and scientific breakthroughs. She built a little theatre at the top of the château to perform Voltaire’s plays, and commandeered their guests to play roles. Emilie also sang opera—and there is now even an opera dedicated to her story.

All was lost when she died at such a relatively young age. There is so much to this amazing woman!

 

Do you have a tried-and-true writing technique? Please share your writing process.

It’s funny you bring up this question. I was asked in another interview recently whether I am a plotter or a pantser. Being the science writer I am, I love to see the plot laid out before I start writing, and to neatly tie up the story arc, and what’s happening chapter-by-chapter. so I am a plotter by nature.

However, Charley is definitely not! I start writing following my neat outline, and she takes it from there—taking me on the adventure with her. Whatever happens from there, like the aforementioned multi-time leaps from present to past to future to past to present, is a mystery to me until it unfurls.

Charley definitely keeps things fresh.

Today’s podcast episode is a Book Award Winner episode, where we get to know a writer who won the NAIWE Book Award.

Sherry Roberts won the 2024 Book Award for her book The Galaxy According to CeCe in the Middle Grade category.

Sherry is an award-winning author of children’s picture books and middle grade novels. Her debut middle grade book, The Galaxy According to Cece, launched February 24, 2024, and received a Get It: Recommend review from Kirkus Reviews. This book was also featured in the August 2024 list of 40 Indie Books Worth Discovering from Kirkus. Book two of this three book series, The Galaxy According to Cece: The Mysterious Dr. Pruitt, launched August 19, 2024. Book three of the series, The Galaxy According to Cece: The Stars Align, launched February 27, 2025.

Here is a preview of today’s discussion:

When did you first have the idea for this book?

I got the idea of writing this book when I was brainstorming book ideas. It became clearer to me because I am Cece. I’m the girl who moved from North Carolina without much notice to Missouri. I’m the girl who was not really told what the house the university was allowing us to rent, while we looked for a home, was really all about. I was the girl who was in shock when we drove up the driveway. Me riding in the U-Haul truck with my father asking where the house was. I was the girl who heard her dad say, “The house is on the left, the classroom is in the middle, and the observatory is on the right.”

No, my father is not an astronomer but rather a classical musician who was to be the Dean of the music school. Yes, things I describe about the house are from my memory and looking at the blueprint of the observatory online. Yes, it is truly an observatory that is part of the property of the university in the small town.

Many of Cece’s feelings are mine from my multiple moves but as a former middle school teacher and dance team coach, I pulled from that knowledge for much of what else goes on in the book.

 

What is something you learned while working on this book?

The funny thing about what I learned is that I was dance team coach and two of my nieces played softball throughout middle school, yet I had the characters play soccer. The choice of team was based on friends who have children playing soccer. I didn’t want it to be dance because that was more limiting for readers. I learned so much about soccer while writing this book.

I loved learning more about astronomy as I was writing but this was not challenging. I found it fascinating.

I also learned that I say “just,” “okay,” and “that” often! As a writer we often write like we talk and then realize this might not be the best thing when writing.

 

Please share your writing process.

I like to brainstorm. I find participating in StoryStorm in January is always a good time to brainstorm story ideas for picture books or even chapter books. I have several topics of interest that I would like to create a story about but need to decide the exact genre.

Once an idea begins to ‘grow’ in my head, I begin to write the idea down. It will go through multiple edits at the beginning before I even let anyone look at it. I might talk about it but not let it be seen until it is a more solid story. I don’t have a designated time to write. When the “mood” strikes, I write. Sometimes that is several days I a row and sometimes it is maybe several days before I write. I find I’m not one who can write because I have carved out time each day to write. It just doesn’t work that way for me. If I tell myself, it is time to write, I can guarantee that I won’t be able to write a word. If I wait to let the idea or thought evolve naturally, I can take off with an idea. I wish I could be more disciplined about the process.

Today’s podcast episode is a Book Award Winner episode, where we get to know a writer who won the NAIWE Book Award.

Tong Ge won the 2024 Book Award for her book The House Filler in the Literary Fiction category.

Born and raised in China, Tong Ge moved to Canada in the late 1980s as an international student, earning a master of science degree from the University of Saskatchewan in 1992. Since 2012, she has written under both her real name and the pen name Tong Ge, publishing poetry, prose, and short stories in English and Chinese across North America, England and Taiwan. A recipient of five literary awards and a finalist for five others. Her debut novel, The House Filler, was published in Canada in 2023. It is a finalist for the 2023 Eyelands Book Awards and the 2024 Canadian Book Club Awards for fiction and won two book awards.

Here is a preview of today’s discussion:

 

Your book The House Filler was recently published. Can you tell us a little bit about it?

The House Filler is told through the experiences of Golden Phoenix, a widow with bound feet who faces war, poverty and political turmoil as she fights for survival, freedom and happiness.

After the untimely death of her husband, Golden Phoenix is determined to keep her family together, although finding a close enemy intent on destroying them. However, poverty forces her to make the heart-wrenching decision to allow her teenage twins to go to the Red Army. During the upheaval of the Japanese invasion of her hometown, she is separated from her two young girls, and her remaining son leaves to fight with the Nationalist army.

Golden Phoenix, along with her adopted son, remains to endure the horrors and the hardships of war. When the Civil War ends with the Communists winning power in 1949, one of her twins, a member of the Communist Party, is wrongly accused of being a traitor and is sentenced to death. Golden Phoenix and her family must find a way to save her son’s life.

 

What inspired you to write this book?

I always wanted to write my family’s stories into a book but struggled to find the right angle. Then, one day in 2004, while gardening, an idea struck me — the narrator could write a series of letters to her sister in China, recalling their family history. Though this format was later replaced by each book’s protagonist telling the story from her own perspective, that moment of inspiration allowed me to begin.

My family’s story became the foundation for this book and the two that follow.

 

What did you learn while working on this book?

I learned many things while working on this book.

First, I proved to myself that I can write fiction in a second language—and that I am the best person to tell this story. When I first started in 2004, I wrote in Chinese but soon realized I wouldn’t have access to critique groups, beta readers, manuscript evaluators, freelance editors, or publishers. At the time, I didn’t believe I could write it in English, so I searched for a ghostwriter. When that didn’t work out, I realized I had to do it myself. I took writing courses, read books on craft, and studied as much fiction as I could to learn from other writers.

Second, I learned to be patient. Writing is a long journey. Early on, I sent out query letters too soon, not realizing that you only get one chance per agent or publisher. Submitting flawed work means losing that chance forever.

Third, I learned the importance of professional help. I don’t believe a first-time writer can do this alone.

Fourth, I learned to be humble and take feedback seriously. As emerging writers, it’s easy to get defensive when receiving criticism and to believe that if others don’t recognize our talent, it’s their problem. But there is always room for improvement. If you can’t find an agent or publisher, the issue might not be them — it might be you.