Q&A with Sarah L. Kaufman

  

 

 

Sarah L. Kaufman is the author of the new book Verb Your Enthusiasm: How to Master the Art of the Verb and Transform Your Writing. She also has written the book The Art of Grace. The former chief dance critic for The Washington Post, she lives in Asheville, North Carolina. 

 

Q: Why did you decide to write a book about verbs, and how was the book’s title chosen?

 

A: Verbs are the most elegant part of speech—essential, efficient and evocative. They’re truly the secret soul of language. A single strong verb can change a sentence, paint a portrait, express a feeling. All that in a word! For writers—and that’s all of us, writing anything at all—verbs are gold.

 

Take the sentence “Kim walked down the stairs.” Change just one word: “Kim staggered down the stairs.” Now you’ve triggered some tension and curiosity: What’s happened to her? “Walk” is neutral; “stagger” tells a story. Something has knocked Kim sideways and she hasn’t recovered.

 

Making smart verb choices can pump up your writing and make it memorable in so many ways, as I’ve seen in 30 years as a journalist. I wanted to share what I’ve learned, and that’s what sparked Verb Your Enthusiasm.

 

I stumbled on the power of verbs when I was the chief dance critic of The Washington Post. Nailing the action—catching it as it flew by— was my greatest pleasure and greatest challenge. I didn’t want to bore readers with wordy descriptions.

 

So I relied on verbs: With a few crisp verbs I was able to snap a moment into focus and evoke the thrill of dancers sweeping or squiggling across the stage, carving shapes in space, and beckoning with gestures and arcing limbs.

 

I started working that muscle in my mind, firing up my creativity. My fascination with verbs grew, and what I discovered is that vivid, precise verbs can make any writing sing, whether it’s fiction, nonfiction, a blogpost or email.

 

Interiority, physical action, the atmosphere of a place—anything we write about grows more alive and dramatic with well-chosen verbs.

 

Here’s an example: Margaret Atwood, in The Handmaid’s Tale, uses dynamic verbs to fill the Commander’s sitting room with a sense of menace. “It’s one of the shapes money takes when it freezes,” she writes. “Money has trickled through this room for years and years … crusting and hardening like stalactites into these forms.” (I love her choices: the blunt takes, instead, say, of adopts; the deliberate drip, drip of trickled, instead of poured.)

 

This is what excites me about verbs. These little fireballs possess so many mysterious and poetic powers. Exploring them in this book opened my eyes not only to verbs—but to overall excellence in writing.

 

About the title: A dear friend and former Washington Post colleague came up with it. It works on a few levels, turning “verb” into a verb, and also expressing the theme of my book. It’s all about enthusiasm. For action, for life, for words and writing—and most of all, for creativity.

 

Q: The author Benjamin Dreyer said of the book, “Sarah L. Kaufman’s Verb Your Enthusiasm is, at first glance, a primer on the effective use of what we were raised as young folk to think of as action words, but like all first-rate writing on language, it’s also a meditation on existence.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I’m so grateful for Benjamin Dreyer’s endorsement and his support of this book. When I first read that beautiful comment in particular, I immediately thought: He nailed it. A meditation on existence is exactly where this book led me. I reflect on that in several places, the idea that verbs, boundless and new-forming, give you the means to grapple with this world of change and call it forth. They give you the power to hold what vanishes.

 

Q: One of the first examples you cite in the book is from F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby--and you note in the acknowledgments that your house has a Fitzgerald connection. Can you say more about that?

 

A: That was an incredible twist of fate. Soon after relocating to Asheville, N.C., we jumped from a cozy apartment to renting a big 1920s house in a hurry; my elderly father needed our care and the house had room for all of us. After we settled in, our landlord told us a story he’d heard about Zelda Fitzgerald once living in the house.

 

She and her husband had landed in Asheville in the 1930s—he hoped to reinvigorate his writing in these mountains, and she started treatment for schizophrenia. He stayed a couple summers  and moved to Hollywood, where he later died.

 

Zelda never left. For 12 years she cycled in and out of a psychiatric hospital, finally dying there in a fire. During her long years of treatment, so we were told, she also stayed in the brick Colonial we were renting. It had once been a rooming house, and Zelda apparently lived in the smallest upstairs bedroom. You could still see holes in the floor for plumbing, and scars on the door from locks.

 

By the time I heard that story, I’d already set up my office in that same bedroom and was busy writing Verb Your Enthusiasm, with Fitzgerald’s work running through it. Who knows if the tale is true, but it makes some sense: The house sits near one of the few main roads, and it’s not far from the hospital’s former site.

 

We’ve since moved to another house, but the mystery ties me even more deeply to Asheville, Fitzgerald’s work, and Zelda’s wild, creative life.

 

Q: How did you research the book, and what did you learn that especially fascinated you?

 

A: The research astonished me. I loved poring over books to find great verb examples—from Toni Morrison, Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, Zadie Smith, James Joyce, Sally Rooney, and so many others.

 

I dug into the science of verbs, and spoke with linguists and neuroscientists about the power verbs exert on our minds and bodies. A memory psychologist has tested how the verbs “hit” or “smashed together” affect the way witnesses remember car crashes. A cognitive scientist told me about testing how we process verbs when we read, the emotional reactions they trigger.

 

The science points to the immense power these words have in the hands of writers who choose them with care.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: A new book I’ve been messing around with for a few years in the margins of everything else—now it’s central. I also teach writing here and there, which I enjoy. And I write on occasion for The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and other publications.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I have a few words about AI. It looms over all creativity, but we must forge ahead. We’re born with creative abilities. The more we create and express ourselves, the more we nurture our humanity, by connecting to our deepest selves and to those around us.

 

I hope, with my book, to inspire readers to play with language, enjoy their imaginations, feel confident in their creativity. To release their gifts and share them.

 

Speaking of gifts, Deborah, your books and lifelong work to support authors amazes and inspires me. Thank you for your interest and for our years (so many years!) of friendship.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Sarah L. Kaufman. 

Q&A with Joe Zagets

  

 

 

Joe Zagets is the author of the new novel #AuthorLife. Joe Zagets is the pen name of the author Zoje Stage. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write #AuthorLife, and what do you think the book says about the publishing industry?

 

A: In truth, I started #AuthorLife during a period when I was depressed. There are a lot of ups and downs in publishing and I was trying to wrap my head around everything.

 

For me, writing is often a therapeutic exercise, and while it was ultimately Wellbutrin that helped me shake my depression, getting to laugh at some of the absurdities of being an author definitely had its benefits.

 

I think what the book says most clearly about publishing is that even dream jobs involve work and setbacks; it's an imperfect industry full of smart, creative people who have to deal with the oftentimes frustrating realities of a money-driven society.

 

Q: Why did you decide to write the book under a pseudonym?

 

A: Numerous reasons. As a bestselling author, I had some concerns about who would hear "satire about publishing" and think it was a hit job. But the novel emphatically isn't mean-spirited. Yes, it confronts some brutal truths, but in the spirit of a satire there is also a great deal of ridiculousness at play.

 

And that was another reason I used a pseudonym: I thought it was funny—especially for it to appear that the novel was written by a man, lol.

 

Q: How did you create your character Mack Lane?

 

A: Mack was a fun character to create. I've written plenty of "unlikeable" characters, but none with the foolishness of Mack's insecurities. Honestly, there's a kind of freedom in writing a character who's a jerk—he can go a couple of steps further than any of the rest of us would go, and manifest thoughts that are both valid and cringe.

 

But I also think he's at least somewhat sympathetic: most of us have felt a little desperate at some point in our lives.

 

Q: You’ve said that you hope the book helps writers “feel less alone”--can you say more about that?

 

A: Not only is writing a job done alone—mentally, and sometimes physically—but the strange silences that surround publishing can feel even more isolating. And yet, every time authors have the opportunity to swap stories about their journey there's an instant sense of "Ohhhh, you've felt this way too!"

 

Social media encourages the presentation of All Good Things, but being an author can feel very precarious. Living that double life of public good news and private bad news wrecks with your head even more.

 

I think a lot of authors will relate to Mack, while simultaneously feeling a sense of relief that at least they aren't that bad.

 

Q: What are you working on now? Will you be writing more novels as Joe Zagets?

 

A: Joe Zagets is on hiatus as of now. I'm not sure if he'll be writing any more books.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: The majority of the women in the book are lesbians…? I'm not sure how that happened—maybe it was a subconscious need to balance out all of Mack's male hubris.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Zoje Stage. 

Q&A with Katya de Becerra

Photo by Rachael Michelle

 

 

Katya de Becerra is the author of the new novel Little Kin. Her other books include the novel Oasis. She is also an anthropologist.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Little Kin, and how did you create your character Cass?

 

A: Little Kin began with a dream, quite literally. One moment I was falling asleep, and the next I was standing on the deck of a steam ferry crossing a stormy sea toward a mist-shrouded island. My name was Cassini, and I knew I was arriving somewhere that would change me forever.

 

The rest of the novel grew from that initial imagery: an isolated community bound by a set of rules, an ancient covenant, and a sentient landscape with an agenda of its own.

 

Cass emerged from another part of my life. I’m a cultural anthropologist by training and have spent years doing fieldwork, listening to people tell stories about who they are, where they belong, and how they make sense of the world.

 

Like many anthropologists, Cass believes that if only she can ask the right questions, she’ll find the truth. Little Kin is, in part, about what happens when that confidence collides with something older, stranger, and far less interested in being understood. It’s a book about belonging, identity, and the stories we inherit—and the ones that end up inheriting us.

 

Q: The novel is set on an island near the Arctic Circle--how important is setting to you in your writing?

 

A: Setting is incredibly important to me, so much so it’s rarely just a backdrop. In my books, place is character, and often the most dangerous character of all. As an immigrant, I've spent much of my life negotiating what it means to belong, so I’m naturally fascinated by places that claim people as fiercely as people claim them.

 

My fascination with semi/sentient settings probably began in earnest with my sophomore novel Oasis, but in Little Kin I pushed that idea further than ever before. Rothagisht is an island that remembers, judges (and holds a grudge!), shaping the lives of those who dare call it home.

 

To create it, I drew inspiration from a winter trip to Iceland, where I was struck by the stark beauty of volcanic landscapes, as well as by Icelandic folklore and the enduring cultural importance of ancestry, kinship, and belonging.

 

As both an anthropologist and a novelist, I’m fascinated by the ways places shape people and people shape places in return. In Little Kin, I wanted readers to feel that the island isn’t only where the story happens—it is the story.

 

Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?

 

A: Like most of my novels, Little Kin began with an ending in mind—not the mechanics of the plot, but an emotional destination. I knew where Cass needed to arrive spiritually and psychologically, even if I had no idea what roads, monsters, and mistakes would get her there.

 

As an anthropologist, I’m fascinated by the ways people change (or don’t!) when their assumptions collide with something unfamiliar, and much of the book emerged from watching Cass negotiate her complicated relationship with Rothagisht. I wasn't particularly interested in whether she could solve the island's mysteries so much as whether she could learn to see herself through them.

 

The biggest changes came in revision. As Rothagisht became more complex, stranger, and, I hope, more alive, I had to spend a great deal of time refining the island's ecology, folklore, creatures, and belief systems because I wanted every element to feel interconnected.

 

In many ways, building Rothagisht felt less like inventing a fictional world and more like conducting fieldwork in a place that only existed in my head. The deeper I dug, the more the island revealed about itself, and the more I realized everything on Rothagisht, human and otherwise, was part of a single story.

 

Q: How was the novel’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?

 

A: The title Little Kin grew out of the novel’s fascination with kinship, belonging, and the invisible ties that bind us to people and places.

 

Early in the writing process, I actually had a very different title in mind: A Dying Custom. That version emphasized the story's rituals and traditions, and the tension between preserving the past and embracing change.

 

But the deeper I got into the book, the more I realized the story wasn’t ultimately about a custom at all. It was about connection and kinship.

 

While researching Iceland, I became fascinated by the idea of Huldufólk—the Hidden People—and the way folk beliefs can exist comfortably alongside modern life, science, and official religion, quietly influencing everyday decisions and shaping how people understand the world. As an anthropologist, I’m interested in those spaces where logic and myth overlap.

 

For me, Little Kin ultimately is a story about family, ancestry, community, and the landscapes that shape us. The title captures both the intimacy and the unease of that search for belonging, because sometimes what calls us home isn’t entirely familiar or safe.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I'm currently juggling two very different projects. One is an adult speculative novel inspired by a blend of fairy tales from my childhood, while the other is a YA horror story that takes inspiration from a certain classic Agatha Christie mystery and reimagines it firmly within the supernatural horror genre.

 

I also have a new horror short story coming out this October in The Heart of Elder Horrors anthology. It’s inspired by one of my favourite classic movie monsters, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, and by Milicent Patrick, the remarkable artist whose role in creating that iconic creature was largely forgotten for decades. The result is a story about dark family secrets, revenge, and the transformative power of becoming something other than what the world expects you to be.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: If you’d like to learn more about my work, you can find me at katyadebecerra.com, where I share essays, guest posts, interviews, podcasts, and occasional deep dives into folklore, horror, anthropology, and writing.

 

When I’m not writing fiction, I work as a university professor, and one of the greatest privileges of my academic career is supervising Ph.D. candidates in creative writing whose projects range from queer horror and posthuman monstrosity to cross-genre fantasy.

 

Between my students’ projects and my own, I spend a great deal of time thinking about monsters, magic, and identity—and I consider that a life very well lived!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Betsy James

  

 

 

Betsy James is the author of the new novel Practicing to Be Lightning. Her other books include Breathing Stone. She lives in New Mexico.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Practicing to Be Lightning?

 

A: I’m from New Mexico, a desert hiker and a compulsive journaler. I had 30 years of detailed entries on the backcountry wilderness that I love and that few people know. Naively, I thought, “Look at these great adventures! It would be easy to use them in a portal novel …”

 

Then, of course, I hit rough terrain. Ethically, I couldn’t write about the land without its indigenous peoples. I’d taught at Zuni Pueblo for decades, but that didn’t give me the right—or the skill—to speak as an indigenous character. So I did my best, and relied on native friends to read drafts and straighten me out. It was quite a journey.

 

Q: The author Molly Gloss said of the book, “Rarely have I seen the worlds of the real and the fantastic evoked with such beauty and truth.” What do you think of that assessment, and what did you see as the best balance between the real and the fantastic as you wrote the novel?

 

A: Molly is a master of literary fabulism, a friend of Ursula K. Le Guin; her admiration feels like the best gift I could be given. What I was after was also a coexistence of “the real and the fantastic.” Gloss’s praise makes me feel that maybe I’ve done it right.

 

Q: How did you create your characters Ben and Trace, and how would you describe the dynamic between them?

 

A: Characters aren’t necessarily “created.” They show up—and often turn out to be parts of oneself. I grew up in a scientific family that was fantasy-intolerant: Ben. Yet I was by nature an artist and a metaphorist: Trace.

 

Most fantasy has an unspoken “thought experiment” that drives the story. This one was, “If the very different psyches of these two young people were to unconsciously create a world, what would it be like? What would happen?” That’s the dynamic, and the world beyond the portal.

 

The portal itself is subtle, by the way. I wanted it to feel like getting disoriented in the wilderness—something I’m all too familiar with.

 

Q: How was the book’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?

 

A: In this case, as so often, a line of text jumps out and you say, “That’s it.” What it signifies? No spoilers!

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: A serious but rollicking mainstream novel: A woman recovering from an abusive marriage meets an eccentric herpetologist at a Southern Utah campground. What could go wrong—? The title is Rattler: a novel. With an index. And yes, it has an index.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: If you enjoy the peace and strangeness of desert hiking, try my website, www.betsyjames.com. I post small events and details under “Walking All Day On Stone.” We all need a little quiet and a sense of this ancient earth. 

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Beth Ricanati

  

 

 

 

 

Beth Ricanati is the author of the new book The Braided Prescription: Seven Practices for Living Well from the Ancient Ritual of Making Challah. She also has written the book Braided. She is a physician, and she lives in Southern California.

 

Q: The Braided Prescription is your second book focusing on challah--why did you decide to write this new book, and what do you see as the relationship between the two books?

 

A: I actually think of them as companion books: Braided is the story. The Braided Prescription is what I learned afterward. I did not set out to write a second book. However, after years of workshops and thousands of conversations, I realized I'd been watching the same seven practices emerge again and again. This book is my attempt to distill what those experiences taught me.

 

Q: The psychology professor Laurie Santos said of the book, “It’s the perfect invitation to slow down and connect deeply, practices that research shows can foster more flourishing in daily life.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: Stress management doesn’t just mean relaxing; it also means connecting – to yourself and to others. So yes, I think that her description is apt.

 

Q: How do you see your medical practice and your writing coexisting?

 

A: I used to just practice in a clinic; now I also practice in a kitchen. I see these two facets of my life intimately intertwined. This new book is a way to for me to have my professional beliefs stand side by side the work that I do outside of the clinic.

 

Specifically, I know that stress affects health. I see it – and have seen it for 30 years in medicine – in all of my workshops and my clinic. Sharing what I’ve learned helps therefore both my workshop participants and my patients. I have seen that lifestyle medicine works. This deserves more attention and I can do that through my writing.

 

Q: What impact did it have on you to write this book, and what do you hope readers take away from it?

 

A: We are living in during a very stressful time for so many people, myself included.

 

As I wrote this book, I found such solace in being able to bridge the divide between what I know to be true professionally and what I found to be true making challah, first by myself and then in conducting the workshops. The workshops were essentially a laboratory in hindsight, a space to learn from the participants.

 

I hope that readers of The Braided Prescription embrace the practices and find a similar impact in their own lives.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: You know, it's funny. People ask me all the time, "So what's next?" And I always find myself wanting to answer the question a little differently. I actually think this book is just the beginning.

 

My first book was called Braided: A Journey of a Thousand Challahs, and I think that title says more about me than I even realized at the time. I've never been someone who's fixated on the destination. I've always been fascinated by the journey—by where it takes us, who we meet along the way, and how one chapter of life prepares us for the next.

 

When I look back, medicine led me to the workshops. The workshops led me to this book. And now this book is leading me into conversations and communities I never could have imagined.

 

So I'm less focused on asking, "What's the next project?" and more interested in asking, "Where is this journey taking me next?" I've learned over the years that I don't need to know the destination to know I'm on the right path.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: What began with making challah has grown into something much larger. I've come to appreciate the ways small rituals and everyday practices can help us reconnect—to ourselves, to one another, and to what matters most in a stressful and distracted world.

 

Over the years, I've seen those ideas resonate in synagogues, churches, universities, museums, wellness organizations, and around countless kitchen tables. The book is one part of that larger conversation—an ongoing exploration of how one ancient ritual can illuminate a more connected, healthier way of living.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Rebecca Green

  

 

 

Rebecca Green is the author and illustrator of the new children's picture books Henri & Miko: Autumn in Bosk Olivette and Henri & Miko: Winter in Bosk Olivette. She lives in Central New York. 

 

Q: What inspired you to create your characters Henri and Miko, and why did you decide on a mouse and a bee?

 

A: These two friends actually happened to come across my drawing desk quite randomly! After a frustrating drawing session for a client, I wanted to draw something just for fun and a little palette cleanser. I drew a mouse, and when I shared the mouse online, someone said she needed a companion, and so I drew a bee.

 

Then and there, seeing this little mouse and bee together, explosions of personality and conversation erupted in my mind, and I knew better than to ignore these creative sparks. Once I had these two in my heart and mind, I couldn't stop thinking about them, though it took years to actually develop the books. 

 

Q: How did you create the world of Bosk Olivette, where the characters live?

 

A: Bosk Olivette's flora is based on my home state of Michigan. I actually have a hard time drawing nature/woods, so it's still a mystery to me why I chose this setting to illustrate.

 

That said, seasons are incredibly important to me and to the series, so I had to hunker down and find a way to love drawing trees, flowers, etc.

 

Bosk Olivette is not expansive but a small little area within the woods where we are transported into Henri and Miko's world. It's a human world (they live in a cider press, for example), but we see little of the human influence on the story. 

 

Q: You’ve described their autumn and winter--will there be books about spring and summer too?

 

A: Of course! Fun fact: at first there were only going to be two books--Winter/Spring and then Fall/Summer--but once we started developing them, we realized that each season was brimming with possibility, so we expanded the series to four books. 

 

Q: What do you hope readers take away from the books?

 

A: That they can make their own celebrations and traditions. That every season has its own perfect joys. And that any ordinary day can be made special with intention and gratitude. 

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: Spring and Summer in Bosk Olivette--both books will be out in early 2028. 

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Throughout this process, I gained an immense respect for authors and artists who make graphic novels. Each of these books contains two stories which are told in graphic novel-style panels, and it was such a learning curve for me! Like, it actually melted my brain, and I would come home from my studio and just have to stare at the wall.

 

I can't imagine ever making a full graphic novel, but I have mad respect for those who do! 

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Sept. 14

 

 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Sept. 14, 1860: Hamlin Garland born.