Working: A Prolific Novelist Takes a Breather

Slate Culture

Slate Podcasts

Arts, Tv & Film, Music

4.4 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 4 June 2023

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, host June Thomas talks to Ellen Hart, a mystery author who’s been active since the late 80’s and who is most famous for the long-running Jane Lawless series. In the interview, Ellen talks about her early career as a chef and explains why (and how) she pivoted to writing. Then she explains why, after so many years of heavy output, she’s deciding to write less and less, and both she and June reckon with the dreaded “R” word (retirement!). After the interview, June and co-host Isaac Butler discuss what happens when work becomes your identity. In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, June asks her favorite question to ask writers. Send your questions about creativity and any other feedback to [email protected] or give us a call at (304) 933-9675. Podcast production by Cameron Drews. -- This Pride Month, make an impact by helping Macy’s and The Trevor Project on their mission to fund life-saving suicide prevention services for LGBTQ youth. Go to macys.com/purpose to learn more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode is brought to you by Collins, planning a trip abroad, brush up on your language
0:05.4	skills with poor noble language learning courses.
0:08.4	Whatever your experience, Paul will introduce you to the basics and guide you through two
0:12.6	hours of everyday essentials that are practical, fun and easy to put into practice.
0:18.4	Listen, interact and learn wherever you are with poor noble language audiobooks.
0:22.9	Available in French, Spanish, German, Italian, Mandarin, Chinese and Japanese from Audible.
0:30.0	I have other writers that say what are you doing and I say I'm not writing right now.
0:44.1	They do not get it.
0:46.0	If you're a writer you have to write all the time, you have to be driven, has to be your
0:49.8	across the bear that has never been my approach to writing and it's still isn't.
1:00.2	Welcome back to Working, I'm Isaac Butler.
1:02.7	And I'm June Thomas.
1:04.0	June, it is as nice as always to see you in a postage stamp-sized box on Zoom on my laptop.
1:11.4	Whose voice did we hear at the top of the show?
1:13.8	That voice belonged to Ellen Hart, who is a mystery writer.
1:17.5	She has written a couple of long-running series but her most famous and most long-running
1:22.3	are the Jane Lawless mysteries.
1:24.7	She wrote 27 books in that series.
1:28.0	27, my god, that's a sous-graphed in alphabet and a random Spanish language thrown in there
1:34.4	or something.
1:35.4	For people who don't know the Jane Lawless series, what can you tell us about it?
1:40.3	So they're cozy mysteries and Jane Lawless is a restaurateur who lives to solve mysteries,
	...

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