Terry Heath

09/23/2026

New "Life on Words" podcast episode with Allie Millington, whose debut middle-grade "Olivetti" premiered as a New York Times bestseller and received a rave review from vintage typewriter enthusiast Tom Hanks

Life on Words is an interview show about the writing life as a career, and a part of the literary journal, Inkhorn Review.

In third grade, Allie Millington was given a writing prompt — a different kind of hero — and decided the hero should be a pencil. The story took third place. Holding the certificate, she knew what she wanted to do for the rest of her life. It took five years, several books, and more than…

09/16/2026

Poet and novelist Maureen McQuerry decided at age six that she would be a writer. She was in her forties before her first novels came out. In between, she was the neighborhood kid called "question box," a closet poet in high school, and a teacher who chose the classroom because writing felt too risky.
Maureen talks with Terry Heath about the fear that kept her from long-form fiction and how she got past it. She describes the phone call when Abrams bought three books at once, and the family history behind Between Before and After: her father became a flu orphan at ten during the 1918–1919 epidemic and survived on the streets of New York. The novel came out in 2019, just before a new pandemic, and then lost its editors and publicist, leaving the book orphaned too. Soon after, her agent of twelve years left the industry and she moved across the state to Bainbridge Island, where she knew one person.

Poet and novelist Maureen McQuerry decided at age six that she would be a writer. She was in her forties before her first novels came out. In between, she was the neighborhood kid called "question box," a closet poet in high school, and a teacher who chose the classroom because writing…

09/10/2026

Inkhorn Review, Autumn 2026 is live online. 33 pieces, 33 writers, one theme: what it costs to be seen, and what it costs not to be. We are watched and don't know it. We wait to be recognized and are not. When we are noticed, we learn it carries a cost of its own. The 33 writers range from first publication to fifty years of it, and each arrived at this question on their own. We didn't build the issue around it. The issue told us what it was, and we recognized it. https://inkhornreview.com/autumn-2026

33 pieces, 33 writers, one theme: what it costs to be seen, and what it costs not to be. We are watched and don't know it. We wait to be recognized and are not. When we are noticed, we learn it carries a cost of its own. The 33 writers range from first publication to fifty years of it, and each arri...

09/06/2026

Elena Taylor spent twenty years in the theater as a playwright, director, and designer before she wrote her first novel in 2007. It took until 2016 to see a book in print, and by then she had learned the thing nobody tells you: there is no game plan. Listen to the episode wherever you follow podcasts or visit

Elena Taylor spent twenty years in the theater as a playwright, director, and designer before she wrote her first novel in 2007. It took until 2016 to see a book in print, and by then she had learned the thing nobody tells you: there is no game plan. No book you can buy that lays out a…

08/30/2026

Retrospectives are written after long careers. But sometimes recent events seem like such a whirlwind that a retrospective might feel appropriate. The last few months have felt like that, particularly the two months since I closed the bookstore.

You're invited to read further here:

Retrospectives are written after long careers. But sometimes recent events seem like such a whirlwind that a retrospective might feel appropriate. The last few months have felt like that, particularly the two months since I closed the bookstore. First, thank you for your interest. Interest is more p...

08/30/2026

Bestselling author Sheila Roberts interview. Life on Words, a podcast about the stories behind the stories. Listen wherever you follow podcasts or find every episode at www. lifeonwords.com

Sheila Roberts wanted to be a songwriter. Sixty books later — with movies on Lifetime, Hallmark, and Great American Family — she says the writing life has cost her nothing at all.

https://lifeonwords.com/sheila-roberts-no-problem-no-story/

08/28/2026

Newberry Honor author Kirby Larson on the hard work of storytelling.
Listen to the full show wherever you follow podcasts, or find every episode at LifeOnWords.com.

08/27/2026

Newberry Honor author Kirby Larson on lonliness as a writer.
Listen to the full show wherever you follow podcasts, or find every episode at LifeOnWords.com.

08/26/2026

Newberry Honor author Kirby Larson on success.
Listen to the full show wherever you follow podcasts, or find every episode at LifeOnWords.com.