Letters From Libby James

The creative world just lost a good one. Susan DeFreitas crossed over to what’s next after a short, fierce battle with cancer. Susan and I circled each other for years. We attended the same college a couple of years apart and had mutual friends. Somehow, we became acquaintances through social media, engaging with each other’s content over time. I had always hoped we’d find a way to collaborate on a bigger scale. She was a brilliant editor and a beautiful writer. You can support her young...

Fanfiction is older than the internet, older than television, older than the idea of intellectual property itself. Storytelling has always been a cycle of inspiration, reinterpretation, and reinvention. Virgil remixed Homer. Shakespeare lifted from history and folk tales. Cervantes was so incensed by an unauthorized sequel to Don Quixote that he wrote his own. People have always taken stories they love and reshaped them. But in the modern era, copyright law complicates this age-old practice....

So, you’re thinking about publishing your book and wondering which route is the best one for you, huh? There’s a lot of noise out there when it comes to publishing options, and I’m here to break it down for you without the fluff. Whether you’re considering traditional publishing, self-publishing, or something in-between, let’s take a quick look at the pros and cons of each so you can make the right choice for your book – stick with me until the end for a special treat. If you don't want/need...

The adaptation for The Hottest State by Ethan Hawke was one of the times I felt the film version more so than the book. I liked the book a lot when I read it 25 years ago, but I didn’t have that kind of love loss for another handful of years. I finally watched the film not too long after my own big heartbreak in my early 20’s, and I thought, Yes Mark Webber, that is exactly what I feel. Exactly. I reread Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel again recently. This is one of my favorite books...

When I was first on my own again, living alone after fourteen years, I worried I wouldn’t like my own company anymore. How would I fill the hours with my art if I couldn’t be alone in the silence? Once upon a time, I adored solitude. But now, I wasn’t sure. In that fear, I sat with a deeper question: how would I fall in love with this jaded, middle-aged artist I’ve become? And who was that girl I used to be? The lyrics to Miley Cyrus’s Used to Be Young still taunt me, like a reprimand I can’t...