Welcome! I’m Linda Sivertsen, and you’re at BookMama, where birthing book babies is easier than the human kind.
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The Latest from the Blog
Liz Gilbert & Marie Forleo: Behind the Bestsellers
"I'm glad I'm not competitive," Elizabeth Gilbert said when listing her dear friend Marie Forleo's assets and calling her a "quintuple threat" before adding how incredibly loyal, decent, and giant-hearted she is. It's with that kind of feel-good sisterhood that we...
Beautiful Writers Podcast “Best-Of” Part 4 Episode
It's here—our 4th annual Beautiful Writers Podcast "Best-Of" episode! Just in time to save your creativity in the New Year from all that binge-watching and doomscrolling. It's been a year—2020 (hence why this Summer episode's dropping in Winter). I don't have to tell...
YA Superstars Tomi Adeyemi & Sabaa Tahir on Living & Writing Heroically
Two of the top-selling YA Fantasy authors EVER give us a master class on earning, output, and living as epic a life as the stories they’re writing, on this fifth birthday of the Beautiful Writers Podcast. These #1 New York Times bestselling novelists—Nigerian-American...
I was warned she’d be kidnapped. And then she was. A tale of seduction and courage.
An astrologer once warned me that India Oxenberg was in danger of being kidnapped. This was woo-woo California in the early '90s, but I still knew to take him seriously. India was a wee babe when my family and I moved into Catherine Oxenberg's Beverly Hills estate....
Pastry & Writing w/ Me in Oct. in Carmel. Then, a Virtual Retreat!
“This is the best food I’ve ever eaten!” said all four of my Carmel Writing Retreat participants during our week together in Carmel-by-the-Sea last month. Food’s no joke when you’re bringing worlds to life. It’s a comfort thing. But also a brain thing. Glucose powers...
Focus.
Focus. Focus. “Hey, you! Yeah, YOU! FOCUS! “It’s just you and me here. "Leave everything else. Out. There. "I’m all you need right now. "Give me your attention. "And I’ll come to liiiiife.” This was me a few years ago when I wrote this post, my story and I joined at...

What do I put in my book proposal? And how do I build a “platform”?!
