See Jane Write Collective member Cherith Fluker has had quite a year. Her blog, WhatCherithInks, won awards from Alabama Media Professionals and the National Federation of Press Women. Her career as a freelance travel writer is flourishing, and she published her first book — Secret Birmingham: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure (Reedy Press). And she’s done all of this while working full time in the field of education. So it seemed only right to catch up with Cherith for our next Keeping Up with the Janes feature.  Keeping Up with the Janes is a new feature that allows us to revisit past See Jane Write Collective Members of the Month to see what they’re up to now. Let’s learn the secrets of Cherith’s success.

New feature alert! I’m excited to introduce Keeping Up with the Janes. With this feature, we will revisit past See Jane Write Collective Members of the Month to see what they’re up to now.

To kick things off, we have Audrey Atkins. The last time we had a chat with Audrey, she had just released her book, They Call Me Orange Juice. She was also busy blogging. Later, Audrey would also start teaching non-fiction writing workshops and she eventually became a full-time freelance writer. Now Audrey has a new career working with the Alabama State Council on the Arts, she’s moved her blog musings to Substack and she’s launched People Reading Prose in Bars — which is exactly what it sounds like. On the second Sunday of each month, Audrey gathers Birmingham-area writers in a local bar to read short stories and essays. On average, her events draw more than 50 people, and the Alabama Writers Forum recently signed on as a sponsor.

Let’s learn more about what Audrey is up to these days!