Listen:
I met Wade Rouse (aka Viola Shipman) at the Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop, where I was faculty and he was a keynote speaker who brought the house down (we laughed, we cried, we commiserated) at the end of the conference with a speech about how he grew up in the Ozarks, the influence of strong women around him, and what Erma actually wrote back to him when he wrote to her decades ago.
I was so taken with Wade’s story, personality, how prolific he is, and of course, his books, which are entertaining, compelling and insightful, everything I love about both memoirs and novels.
When you watch or listen to him, you will fall in love, too, as we all did at Erma, and as his millions of fans all over the world have.
In This Episode
- Why he decided to use his grandmother’s name as his pen name
- The key differences between writing memoir and fiction
- Writing with different POV’s and how it changes with his books
- Creating throughlines for his books
- Wade’s personal creative process for memoir and fiction
- The way Wade made writing memoir less of an overwhelming process
- How Wade’s background as a journalist informs his writing
- Honing the art of structuring memoir and fiction
- Dealing with imposter syndrome early in the process
- The #1 question that he asks himself when it comes to writing
- How his friendships and relationships with women impact his writing as a gay man
- The deeper reason behind why he writes books with positivity in a dystopian-focused publishing world
- Advice for writers at any stage of their career
Watch on YouTube
Bio:
Wade Rouse is the USA TODAY, Publishers Weekly and #1 internationally bestselling author of 17 books, including five memoirs and 12 novels. His new novel, The Page Turner, will publish next spring from HarperCollins.
Wade’s books have been translated into nearly 25 languages and have been bestsellers across the world. His novel, The Secret of Snow, was recently optioned for a TV movie by the producers of the popular Netflix series, Ginny & Georgia.
He chose his grandmother’s name, Viola Shipman, as a pen name to honor the working poor Ozarks seamstress whose sacrifices changed his family’s life and whose memory inspires his fiction.
Wade’s books have been selected multiple times as Must-Reads by NBC’s Today Show as well as Michigan Notable Books of the Year. His memoirs and novels have been featured in the Washington Post, USA Today and on Chelsea Lately and chosen three times as Indie Next Picks by the nation’s independent booksellers. Wade was a finalist for the Goodreads Choice Awards in Humor (he lost to Tina Fey) and was named by Writer’s Digest as “The #2 Writer, Dead or Alive, We’d Like to Have Drinks With” (Wade was sandwiched between Ernest Hemingway and Hunter Thompson).
Wade’s most recent novels were The Wishing Bridge and Famous in A Small Town, both instant national bestsellers as well as summer and winter book picks by Good Morning America, Reader’s Digest and Katie Couric. His most recent memoir, Magic Season, which detailed how the love of baseball and the St. Louis Cardinals was the only thing to bond him and his Ozarks father, was a Michigan Notable Book of the Year, a Barnes & Noble Father’s Day selection, a USA Today summer reading selection, and a Best Book of Summer by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.
Wade is a noted humorist, whose nonfiction has been selected as part of the American Library Association’s inaugural “Rainbow List” recognizing outstanding books with significant and authentic LGBTQIA+ content for readers.
A former journalist, magazine writer and People reporter, his writing has appeared in a diverse range of publications and media, including Coastal Living, Time, All Things Considered, Good Housekeeping, Parade, Salon, Forbes, Writer’s Digest and Publisher’s Weekly.
Wade earned his B.A. from Drury University and his master’s in journalism from Northwestern University. He divides his time between Saugatuck, Michigan, and Palm Springs, California, and is also an acclaimed writing teacher who has mentored numerous students to become published authors.
Wade hosts the popular Facebook Live literary happy hour, “Wine & Words with Wade,” every Thursday at 6:30 p.m. EST on the Viola Shipman author page where he talks writing, inspiration and hope, takes readers on tours of the places that inspire his novels, throws costumed monthly office parties, and welcomes bestselling authors and publishing insiders.
Connect with Wade
Website: Viola Shipman (https://violashipman.com)
FB: Viola Shipman (https://www.facebook.com/
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