Award-winning editor, writer, and marketer

Deep thots about books and marketing

I haven’t blogged in a while because I have been spending more time on TikTok, so many of my thoughts are there rather than here. 

I have been reading a lot of audiobooks and realize that I have not reviewed those books here. 

Many of the books are about marketing and storytelling, so that’s convenient.

I miss writing. I promise to do it more. 

Cute chihuahua videos

Peanut’s just here to help my page rank better on Google.

Just kidding. That’s not how Google works. 

Unless I want to rank for a blond chihuahua in a red coat sitting in a pink stroller at the vet in Philadelphia. 

Shame-free editorial guidance

Rules around grammar, syntax, and style help make communication easier. As an editor, it’s my job to create and enforce those rules. 

But, I have learned that many of our so-called rules are “more like guidelines than actual rules.” 

That’s why I take a shame-free approach to editing. 

Read my latest blogs

silver imac displaying collage photos
Website rebuild
Jean Burke-Spraker

I broke my website and here’s how I am going to fix it

Aargh! I broke my website and now I have to fix it!

If you’ve followed me for a long time, you know that I used to blog as Magnolia2Mumbai. Well, it seems that when I moved to my jeanspraker.com domain, that I did not quite follow website domain transfer best practices, and I broke my website.

Read More »
Books
Jean Burke-Spraker

#StandWithSalman in a Sea of Stories

As part of their event, Pen America encouraged those who could not be in New York today to submit our own readings.

This reading from Haroun and the Sea of Stories is from chapter 10, Haroun’s Wish. The speaker who opens the excerpt is Khattam-Shud, whose name means “completely finished or over and done with” according to the book’s glossary.

Read More »
Books
Jean Burke-Spraker

Audiobook review: The Past As Present by Romila Thapar

At first glance, a book on Indian historiography might not seem easily accessible to a general audience.
Yet, Thapar’s prose is lucid, and her tone remains conversational without losing its scholarly authority. Thapar connects arguments about the past to our present quite beautifully.

Read More »
Books
Jean Burke-Spraker

My journey with Joyce

There’s a story about my maternal grandmother, Mom-Mom, and it goes something like this. My grandmother was always an avid reader. Despite dropping out of

Read More »

Share this: