I’ve always been fascinated by tales of demonic possession. I fully realize that is an odd thing to admit, but it’s true. I’ve seen The Exorcist more times than I can count and include similar movies such as The Exorcism of Emily Rose, The Rite, and anything from the Conjuring series as classics. Maybe it’s my Catholic upbringing, but if we believe that goodness exists and came to Earth in the form of a God, then the opposite must be true, right? If God and the Angels can do it, why not the devil and his demons? When I was given the opportunity to interview Lynn Hightower about her latest book, The Enlightenment Project, in which an exorcism features prominently, I simply couldn’t pass it up.   MEET LYNN HIGHTOWER Lynn Hightower the author of numerous thrillers, including the Sonora Blair and Lena Padget detective series. Her internationally-bestselling novels have been included in the New York Times List of Notable Books, the London Times bestseller lists, the WH Smith Fresh Talent Awards, and the Shamus award. Lynn teaches Master Novel classes in the UCLA Extension Writing Program and works as a Manuscript Consultant/Writing Coach for novelists. Her latest book, The Enlightenment Project, is available now wherever books are sold. KEY TOPICS IN THIS EPISODE: How her love of writing in grammar school got her into trouble in History, Math and geography class. Her fascination with haunted places and how she lived in one while writing a book. The interesting premise behind her latest book, The Enlightenment Project. Why cases of Exorcism are on the rise in Italy. How her creativity and investigative research fuel her successful career. KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM MY TALK WITH LYNN Put yourself in the reader’s seat. Tell a story you want to read, but that hasn’t been written yet. Give yourself permission. Allow yourself to follow your dream, if your dream is writing a book. Boundaries matters. The business side of the publishing world is juxtaposition to the creativity that fuels writing. Create a boundary between the two to keep your sanity! Follow your instinct. As an author, the best decisions are sometimes made through gut instinct. Love wins. The only thing that matters in life is who you love, so love well.  WHERE TO BUY THE ENLIGHTENMENT PROJECT: Amazon  Bookshop.org HOW TO GET IN TOUCH WITH LYNN HIGHTOWER Website: https://www.lynnhightower.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lynnhightowerauthor/ Twitter:      https://mobile.twitter.com/lynnshightower MEMORABLE QUOTES FROM LYNN “I have a lot of advice for aspiring authors. Tell the story you wish someone would tell you, the kind of story you would just love to curl up with and read. Readers will forgive you anything if you deliver on once upon a time. I really believe that. Second, give yourself permission to be a novelist. This is the work of your heart. It's what you really want to do, and it's not for the cool kids or for the special people. If you have a story to tell, go ahead and tell it and get it down as best you can. After that, it's a brutal business. Not every novel that should be published is published. So, the only way to keep yourself sane, is to do everything you can, but just accept that your story is going to find its place in the universe, and send it out there and hope that it finds its way into the hands of somebody who would like to read it. That's how I survive.” If you liked this conversation, please tell a friend about it as well as like, rate, and review Uncorking a Story wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have you ever had a chance encounter with someone who changed your life forever? Nita Prose did and wrote a bestseller about it. Allowing herself to follow her curiosity was key and it paid off—The Maid is a #1 New York Times Bestseller and is deserving of every accolade it has received. MEET NITA PROSE Nita Prose is a longtime editor, serving many bestselling authors and their books. What drew her from a job as a special needs teacher to a career as an editor? What motivates her most when working on an author’s manuscript? How did she make the leap from being an editor to having a smash-hit debut novel? Listen in to uncover the answers to these questions as well as learn the newfound appreciation Nita Prose has for authors after walking in their shoes. KEY TOPICS IN THIS EPISODE: Why Nita made the leap from special education teacher to editor. Nita’s perspective on a successful editor/author relationship. How she taps into empathy while editing an author’s work and how she tapped into empathy while writing her debut novel. How the idea of The Maid came to her and why it’s so important for authors to follow their curiosity. How she has dealt with success of her debut novel and what she’s learned about being an author that she can now use when working as an editor. KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM MY TALK WITH NITA: Always be curious. Nita followed her curiosity about what it’s like to be a hotel room maid and turned it into a #1 bestselling novel. Write what you know. Nita leaned on her experiences as a special needs teacher to inform key elements of her protagonist. Love what you do. Nita loves working with authors to make their work as good as it can be. Loving what you do is a true blessing and a key to a successful career. It’s never too late. Nita’s debut novel came out when she was 49. You are never too old to follow your dreams! Success never comes overnight. Nita's debut novel The Mai” went on to be a best-seller, but she had a long career before ever seeing success as an author. MEMORABLE QUOTES FROM NITA I love working with my authors and I love being involved in their creative processes and helping them survive it and get through on the other side. I didn't have a master plan to write a debut novel. In 2019, I went to the London book fair, and I was staying in a London area hotel, and I stepped out for a bit for a meeting and came back at an unusual hour in the morning. I opened my hotel room door, and completely startled the maid who was cleaning it. And I remember her, you know, jumping backwards into a dark corner. The highly embarrassing part is that she had my pants in her hands, because I’d gone for a run that morning and I left my sweatpants in a tangled mess on my bed. And she was holding those and looking shocked to see me and I just thought to myself, wow, it's such an intimate and invisible job to be a room maid. You know, she'd been cleaning my room for days, so she knew so much about me, but I knew nothing about her. So that's, how it started. A few days later, I was on my plane ride home after my trip and that's when it started to really gel for me. I started to hear Molly's voice, the protagonist from The Maid, and it was crisp, it was clean, and precise and it was polished to perfection. And I heard it, I heard it just like that. And I grabbed the napkin from under my drink because I didn't have any paper and I started to write what is now the prologue to the book in a single burst. And that is when, even though I didn't know it at the time, I started my debut novel. WHERE TO BUY THE MAID: Amazon  Bookshop.org HOW TO GET IN TOUCH WITH NITA PROSE Website: https://www.nitaprose.com/ Twitter and Instagram: @NitaProse If you liked this conversation, please tell a friend about it as well as like, rate, and review Uncorking a Story wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices