Barbara Stark-Nemon

How did you become a writer? / Name your writing influences. I believe there is a through line having to do with an attraction to stories, beginning in my childhood at the dinner table of my German immigrant grandfather who was a master storyteller (and his wife, my grandmother, was a wonderful letter writer.) My grandfather intentionally cultivated storytelling in his grandchildren (we got a better dessert for a well-told story). The lives of his family became the basis of my first novel, Even in Darkness.

Then I became an avid reader. Notable early influences — To Kill a Mockingbird, A Tale of Two Cities, the work of D.H. Lawrence, and A.S. Byatt’s Possession These were some of the books that made me say to myself I want to do THAT.

I had the proverbial commanding and demanding seventh grade English teacher who taught me skills I’ve built on throughout my career. I studied English literature, art history and journalism (literary, visual and cultural stories!) at the University of Michigan.

From there I became an English teacher with a special interest in children who had challenges reading and writing. That led me to become a speech and language therapist working with deaf and language disabled children who all had stories but had a hard time communicating them verbally and therefore in reading or writing. Figuring out how we work with language and helping kids do that more easily has made me a better communicator as well.

After a 30-year career working in schools, I retired to write novels. I gifted myself attendance at the week-long Bear River Writer’s Conference where my instructor was Elizabeth Kostova, the historical novelist whose book The Historian I’d recently read and loved. I went in thinking I wanted to write. I came out with the beginning of a novel, and the belief that I would become an author.

Everyone has stories. I love hearing them, telling them and writing them.

When and where do you write? My favorite place to write is at our home on Lake Michigan in the northwest corner of Michigan. Dunes, water, sky and forest. My second novel, Hard Cider, is set there.

I can sit down at 7:30 in the morning, and the next thing I know it’s 4:00 in the afternoon. I love it when I can escape there and work for four or five days in a row. I am not one of those writers who can dash off some words in 40 minutes between other responsibilities, though I admire people who can do that. I need at least a three-hour block to really engage with what I’m writing. I treasure early morning time when no one else is up yet.

What are you working on now? I just finished writing my third novel, Isabela’s Way, which comes out in September, 2025 and I’m finishing incorporating edits and proofreading into a final manuscript. After this, I’m toying with some ideas for short stories, or perhaps even a memoir. I’m not sure yet.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? I have certainly been stalled at a plot point, or gotten stuck trying to figure out where a character is going, but I’ve never felt the kind of block I’ve read other writers describe, and I can imagine how demoralizing that must feel. I will say this is the first time in nearly 20 years of work as a novelist that I don’t have some book screaming inside my head to be written. Maybe that’s going to be my version of writer’s block!

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever received? Quiet the inner critic when you’re working on developing a new piece. Get down as much as you can without worrying about the shape it takes to start with. (Now ask me how successful I am at taking that advice!!)

What’s your advice to new writers? Trust your story. Work on what you’ve written until the story you really want to tell finds its form. Don’t settle for almost right, because you may be living with that story for a long time. Write the story you can fight for, be proud of and ask someone else to believe in. Listen to advice with an open mind and an open heart, but ultimately, it’s your story.

Join a writer’s group. My writing group has made all three of my novels better by far. It’s a place to get advice, try ideas out and get a reality check on your work.

Read, read and read some more.

Barbara Stark-Nemon, author of award-winning novels Even in Darkness and Hard Cider, lives, writes, cycles, swims, does fiber art and gardens in Ann Arbor and Northport, Michigan. She has degrees in English literature, art history and speech-language pathology from the University of Michigan and worked with deaf and language disabled children. Even in Darkness is historical fiction based on a family story in 20th century Germany. Hard Cider, contemporary fiction, is set in northern Michigan. Her third novel, Isabela’s Way is a 17th century European coming of age refugee story. It will be published in September, 2025. You can learn more at www.barbarastarknemon.com.