“Write something universal as illustrated by a deeply personal tale.” This advice is true regardless of the genre we write, and in this interview, Marion Roach Smith explains how we can dig deep into our truth and experience to write memoir, plus how she has created a business around a book, and a podcast around curiosity. In the introduction, I talk about how the pandemic impacts our energy levels and how online business is changing, and how that might impact us as authors. Business Insider reports that Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, Google's Sundar Pichai, Apple's Tim Cook, and Amazon's Jeff Bezos will all testify before Congress in an antitrust hearing in late July. What are the potential impacts for authors? Publisher Rocket now has a useful feature for discovering categories for your books. Dave Chesson talks about the new functionality and more on the Writers Ink Podcast last week. Today's show is sponsored by Draft2Digital, where you can get free ebook formatting, free distribution to multiple stores, and a host of other benefits. Get your free Author Marketing Guide at www.draft2digital.com/penn Marion Roach Smith is an author, memoir coach, and teacher of memoir writing. She has online courses on writing memoir. Her books include The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and full transcript below. Show Notes * The difference between memoir and autobiography * Why memoir is an argument-driven genre * Where to draw the line between therapy and memoir * Tips for skillfully writing about other people * How memory works in memoir * What does research look like for memoir? * How to we ensure people care about our memoir? * Being brave when marketing books * Why podcasting is so powerful You can find Marion Roach Smith at MarionRoach.com and on Twitter @mroachsmith. You can check out her QWERTY Podcast on your favorite podcast app. Transcript of Interview with Marion Roach Smith Joanna: Marion Roach Smith is an author, memoir coach, and teacher of memoir writing. She has online courses on writing memoir. And her books include The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life. Welcome, Marion. Marion: Lovely to be back. It's so great to hear your voice. Joanna: You were on the show years ago (2013) and we thought it was...