Writing Is My Drink

September 2, 2013
“A long time before I wrote regularly and a very long time before I was published, I knew there was a writer inside me,” Nestor explains in this guide and memoir. In an effort to connect with readers feeling the same way, Nestor (How to Sleep Alone in a King-Size Bed) digs deep to share her experiences (including stories about her alcoholic parents), how they’ve impacted her writing, and what she’s learned along the way. Though literary risk taking is the key to creating a meaningful personal narrative and finding one’s voice, Nestor makes no bones about the difficulty of this endeavor. She discusses struggles with self-doubt and the pains of sharing one’s writing in workshops—lessons that will ring true for most budding authors. Nestor clarifies her points by summing up each chapter with a list of suggestions for overcoming various literary struggles. Those interested in honing their writing skills will get the most out of the book, but even seasoned writers will pick up a trick or two. Agent: Elizabeth Weed, Weed Literary.

October 15, 2013
A woman explores her personal world of writing. As a child, Nestor (How to Sleep Alone in a King-Size Bed: A Memoir of Starting Over, 2008) was encouraged to be a "good girl," which "often meant not talking about what was really happening." She suppressed her knowledge of her mother's alcoholism and was afraid to speak about her abortion; her fears, silence and denial of the truth made her afraid to put her thoughts down on paper, except in rare moments when she had faith in the ability to hear her inner voice. The author takes readers on the winding path of discovering her writing life as she uncovered that inner voice and found the courage to express her opinions, tackle graduate school and become a writing instructor. With honesty and humility, Nestor voices the thoughts many writers, especially female writers, often feel--the urge to write, that something that often can't be named until it appears on paper or on a computer screen but which is pushed aside for the sake of others. Woven into the threads of her writing life are moments spent with her mother, stepfather and grandmother, a woman who lived surrounded by art, food and gardening and had a unique joy for life. "Writing offers promise," writes the author. "At its best, writing comes from the wild place, from the home of the undomesticated, the untamed, the feral. The place that promises that we can bend time and space, the place beyond practicality, punctuality, and iPhones." With the use of the numerous writing exercises included at the end of each chapter, readers will unleash their own potentials and find their own wild, untamed writing voices. Helpful exercises combined with the memories of one woman's journey down the oftentimes scary and lonely path of the writer.

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October 15, 2013
Memoirs and blogs and tweets, oh my! From pithy 140-character instant updates to 140,000-word introspective expos's, the art of verbal self-expression has never offered so many venues for publication. It seems as though anyone who wants to write for an audience, however tiny, can do so. Yet if one is going to commit one's thoughts and experiences to the page, virtual or cyber, then it is essential to bring a sense of personal style and authenticity to the endeavor. As though she's your own personal writing coach, best-selling memoirist Nestor (How to Sleep Alone in a King-Size Bed, 2008) guides novice and established writers alike in the fine art of creative writing, using her own personal learning curve to chronicle how she found the courage to become the writer she always knew she could be. Nimbly traversing such daunting obstacles as writer's block and candidly admitting to warts-and-all failures, Nestor ends each chapter with writer's workshop exercises designed to both inspire and enhance one's writing skills.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)