We interviewed Jessica Lahey, a teacher, writer and co-host from the wonderful #AmWriting podcast. Jess talked us through how keeping her day job keeps her writing and ideas fresh, the difficulties of writing when she’s on the road on speaking tours. She gives some good tips on how to balance speaking gigs and freelance work, should you be looking to go that direction. And she has great advice on being kind to yourself and living a writing life, and the importance of writing friendships.

You can find Jess at jessicalahey.com, on her publisher Harper Collins’s site for The Gift of Failure here, on Twitter, on Instagram and on Facebook.

You can find her and KJ Dell’Antonia at their podcast #AmWriting’s on iTunes or on AudioBoom.

Get the show notes and listen here, or wherever you get your podcasts.