Author Spotlight: Valerie Ihsan, author of You Can’t Dance A Lie

I know it’s been a minute, but I will soon share more about why there has been a lapse in interviews. In part, it was due to a cross-country move…that should have been an international move. But, that’s not what today is about. 

Today is about none other than author Valerie Ihsan! I had the pleasure of connecting with Valerie through Rachael Herron’s community for writers and could have spent hours chatting. Please enjoy this excerpt of our interview below.

What came first for you? Was it the fiction or the nonfiction because you have titles in both genres. 

The non-fiction, a memoir, was my first book. I was writing it after my husband died. It was a grief memoir. I knew that I wanted to write a book that would help people afterwards and I would start writing memories down and like little essays.

I didn’t want it to be essays, I wanted it to be a full-length book, memoir.

And every time I sat down to write it would be an essay. So then I thought, ‘Well, maybe it’s supposed to be essays if this is what’s coming out.’

And then I thought, ‘Well, I’ll just fictionalize it then.’

So I started writing a novel and it was just coming out and I was like, “All right, this is great!” Then, I don’t remember now, it was so many years ago but maybe 10, 20, 30,000 words in, I was like, “But wait. The reason I’m writing this book is so that I can connect to other young widows and they might not find me or find this message if it’s a novel.”

So I went back to the memoir and you know made it work.

Teaching is something that you also do with your coaching. Could you tell me how you transitioned from being a writer into a writer’s coach and all of the other many wonderful things you do?

It’s one of those things that evolves over the years. I think my first foray into teaching was I co-chaired the Willamette Writers Eugene chapter for over 8 years. Sometimes I would do workshops for them and I started teaching at a local community center all things indie publishing and a couple different classes, how to write a novel, the nitty-gritty of publishing.

The attendance started shrinking over the years and I didn’t know why. I tried different formats and I polled my industry people that I knew. They’d say they  wanted to hear a class on that and I would set up the class and I wouldn’t get the sign ups for it.

Then I figured obviously this is information that people want to know, but the classes themselves are just at the wrong time or they can’t get in or something. 

That’s when I decided to start doing it one-on-one and because the need was there but the classes weren’t being filled for whatever reason, that’s how I started.

It was more set on accountability coaching. People wanted to have a habit of writing or they wanted help getting through a project or they’d get stuck somewhere and I could help them make a plan and check in with them on a regular basis. Keeping them accountable for doing the things that they really wanted to do but couldn’t do by themselves for some reason like most of us. I can’t do yoga in my living room, I have to go to a class.

I wanted to ask about your podcast, the Writer Craft Podcast. I listened to your latest episode with Jane Rosen earlier. What made you decide to start the podcast?

It was the tail end of that teaching. I thought, ‘This is great information and I want people to be able to get this information for free.’ I’m a list maker, so I had this giant list of of writing and publishing tasks that I would do for every book that I wrote and I remember showing someone in my critique group and she was just overwhelmed like, “Oh, my God. I can’t even look at this!”

Every time I gave it to somebody they’re like, “Wow, this is so long. Every one of these things could be a class.” 

So, I started a podcast and every week I would just go through one line of the list and do a little talk about it. I did that until the list was done. And I thought, ‘Well, I really like podcasting and I love listening to podcasts. So, what else could this be?’ Then I shifted it more into mindset stuff because I had just been listening to Joanna Penn at the time on the Creative Pen Podcast and she came out with her book, The Successful Author Mindset. 

Mindset was on my mind a lot, so I started doing all the podcast episodes on mindset. Then my season 3 was on business strategies and it’s true if you’re just doing a solo podcast, you run out of things to say because you talked about everything already.

But I really loved podcasting, so I got my writer friend, Erick Mertz, to come join me as a co-host. Now we can just have conversations and talk shop which is really awesome. We’ve been doing that for over a year. 

When you’re working on all these projects and moving to another country, moving at all, let alone moving to another country, is very stressful. So when you’re feeling empty, how do you refill your creative well?

I try to stay positive. I listen to podcasts on manifesting and I talk with other writers. I sit in the hot tub. I pet my dogs, I have three rescue dogs. I fill the well that way–vision boarding and I love my planner. I’m a total planner nerd. So I will put stickers in it and decorate it and stuff like that.

What do you most enjoy about being a writer?

Figuring out a way to tell my truth every day whether it’s fiction or non. I guess that dovetails into why you write.

Which was going to be my next question so that’s perfect! 

I write, ultimately, because I can’t not. That’s kind of the generic answer, though. Usually I write to figure out what I’m thinking whether it’s my opinion on a topic or if it’s trying to process something heavier like grief. Or I could just hear some character tell me a story and I’m writing down what they’re telling me. 

I love that! Someone has to write those stories down. So you mentioned at the beginning of your journey you did face some obstacles. Even though you got a lot of great feedback, ultimately, it wasn’t a space for you to go ahead and publish right away with an agency or anything like that. When you hit an obstacle, whatever that may be, what keeps you going? What keeps you writing and continuing to figure out your truth?

Remembering that I’m living my dream life and that even if I don’t have the income that the dream life has or if I don’t have the reviews or if I don’t have the book sales, that part doesn’t quite matter yet.

It’s that I’m living the life of a published author. That I’m working at home and I’m helping other writers fulfill their dreams. I just try to remember that I’m actually really dreaming–living my dream life and that helps me keep going and stay positive. 

You know, I always have the key to positivity–I think it is having hope for the future. That’s what keeps you positive, right? The manifesting–knowing it’s going to change–it’s just not here yet.

Yeah, that’s really powerful. If you could go back in time and give yourself one piece of advice at the beginning, what would it be?

To write sooner. To write any time you possibly can even when you think you don’t have time for it, write anyway.

I do love being an entrepreneur. I love having my own business and I do get kind of stuck in that busy work of building business–doing the business side of things. I enjoy doing it but then that cuts into writing time. And then because I do have a positive view of the future–futuristic is one of my Clifton Strengths. I’m high in that, so I feel like I can already see how many books I have and I’ve got all these plans so it almost feels like it’s already happened and I forget, ‘Oh, wait a minute. I actually have to write the book now.’ 

Cool! Tell us about your latest book, where it’s available, and the best place for people to connect with you?

The latest book is You Can’t Dance A Lie: A Memoir of Stepping into My Truth. It was how I learned how to stop lying to myself and dancing really helped that. It came out in March of this year and it’s available all over the place in multiple formats. 

I’m on Instagram @valerieihsan and I’ve got a YouTube channel. My website is valerieihsan.com, that’s my author services/life coaching for authors business. My fiction or my readers’ site, is valerieihsanauthor.com. I also have a link.tree.

Stay tuned for more interviews to come. If you are a published author (indie, traditional, in any capacity) or you know someone who is and you’d like to be featured here, please let me know!