Confessions of a Hybrid Author

Constance Hale, the author of five books, including the best-selling Sin and Syntax, talks about the ups and downs of her surprising career as a writer. She tells us how ironic it is that someone who grew up on the beach in Hawaii became known as a “language maven” and how that success ended up frustrating her—by making her feel pigeon-holed. She tells the unvarnished truth about the difficulties of making it as a professional writer but also the satisfactions of staying creatively engaged and reinventing yourself with each new book. (She’ll also define “hybrid author.”)

Constance Hale is a San Francisco-based journalist and the author of three books on language and literary style, including Sin and Syntax. She has been called “Marion the Librarian on a Harley” or “E. B. White on acid.” Her profiles, essays, and articles have appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, Afar, and Honolulu. She has also edited two dozen books for other authors. In 2016, she published a book on the evolution of hula, The Natives Are Restless, and a children’s book, ‘Iwalani‘s Tree.