Today, we hear from listeners Lesley Téllez, Kathy Tully, and Elaine Durbach for the last of this summer’s “Listener Roundups.” We hear about what they’ve learned from the past few episodes, what ideas they consider the most important, what questions or confusions they have, and their own advice and/or experience in dealing with the same issues.  REMINDER OF OUR SPECIAL ZOOM EVENT on September 23. This is a chance for seven lucky listeners to have the first page of a piece of prose workshopped by myself as well as the authors Nancy Johnson, Aaron Hamburger, and Pulitzer Prize winner Jayne Anne Phillips. It’s also a great chance for everyone who registers to learn about what makes a first page work and strategies for how to improve their own. All those who register will receive a full recording of the event. We’ll also be hearing from Charles Coe, Gish Jen, Rishi Reddi, Julia Rold, and Daphne Kalotay about how writers can “Use Your Words” in the upcoming election cycle and more. The event is entirely free but we’re running it support of what we hope will be our first female president, Kamala Harris. Find out more at writersforblue.com.   Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform. Mentioned in this episode: Philip Gerard’s essay “Architecture of Light: Structuring the Novel and Story Collection” from Checkoway’s Creating Fiction, Story Press, 1999. Steve Almond’s “How to Write Sex Scenes Without Shame” from his craft book Truth is the Arrow, Mercy is the Bow, Zando, 2023. To find books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.  Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.  Lesley Téllez, a writer based in Mexico City, is a former journalist, food writer, and cookbook author, now working on a novel about Mexican food and assimilation. Kathy Shiels Tully is a freelance writer in the Boston area who, despite an insidious case of Imposter Syndrome, has written about people, food, travel, business, plus essays, in publications including: The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald, The Christian Science Monitor, The Writer, the Erma Bombeck Writing Workshop, and recently, her own “Tiny Love Story” in The New York Times.  Elaine Durbach, the Zimbabwean-born, New Jersey- based author of two non-fiction books and three self-published novels, was a fact-obsessed journalist for 45 years before discovering the joys of making it all up.  Photo by Sammie Chaffin on Unsplash This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com