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Robyn (Lucas) Carmichael

@robynlwriter

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Survivor
Storyteller: PAPER DOLL LINA & MAYE SHE’LL STAY
📚Lit Agent: @thekatsmews
🎬Film Agent: @josiefreedman

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#maythefourth #maythefourthbewithyou #starwarswedding taken in Las Vegas, Nevada by @robynlwriter

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2 years ago

#patientzero #domesticviolence by @robynlwriter

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15 days ago

#booktok #books by @robynlwriter

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a month ago

When you lose 100lbs and catch yourself in the mirror 😍 by @robynlwriter

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2 months ago

Memory is weird.

I've been putting together graphics for the five year anniversary of Paper Doll Lina, a book that means more to me than I know how to explain, and one of the images brought back a memory from my former marriage.
Y'all. When I lived in Atlanta, I was part of a writing group that met a few times a month. Some of the best women I've ever known sat at that table. But every single time I went, my husband at the time would blow up my phone. I'd apologize, step away, take the call, and come back to the table smaller than I left it. It happened often enough that the women started to notice.

What they didn't know was what it cost me to be there at all.

To get that one Friday morning, I had to have sex, make sure the house was clean, promise I'd pick up if he called, handle dinner, cook it or grab it, say yes to whatever else he wanted. All so that when Friday came, I could drop my kids at school and drive 45 minutes to Decatur for a few hours that felt like air.

Then I had to come home and watch my tone. I could never mention that my friends were kicking ass, because they were, and I was genuinely happy for them, but even mentioning any of their successes in passing would be met with drama.

That's what coercive control looks like from the inside. Not always a fist. Sometimes it's a phone that rings until you answer. A morning you have to pay for in advance. A leash long enough to let you leave, and short enough to remind you who's holding it.

I gave a version of that to Lina.

Paper Doll Lina turns five this year. If you've ever had to shrink yourself to fit inside someone else's life, this one is for you. Link in bio.

#CoerciveControl #WomensFiction #BookClubPick #BlackAuthors #BookTok #Bookstagram #Author #DomesticViolenceAwareness by @robynlwriter

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3 months ago

There's a question printed in the back of Paper Doll Lina that stops book clubs cold: Lina often uses her "sweet voice" with her husband. The softened tone. The rehearsed sentence. The apology built into the request.

Counselors have a name for this pattern: appeasement. Managing another person's moods so carefully that you become a translator for your own life. You draft the text three times. You wait for the right moment, the right meal, the right mood. You learn to say "I was thinking maybe" instead of "I want."

Here's what I know from the letters readers send me: the sweet voice doesn't feel like fear at first. It feels like being a good wife. Like keeping the peace. It can take years to notice that you're the only one keeping it.

If you've retired your sweet voice, I'd love for you to say so below. If you're still using it, no pressure to comment. Just know the pinned comment is for you.

Have you ever had to use your sweet voice? The comments are open and kind.

#DVawareness #booktok #paperdolllina #womensfiction #books #readers #coercivecontrol by @robynlwriter

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3 months ago

Readers tell me which lines they underline, and it’s never the ones I expected.

Not the dramatic scenes. The quiet ones. The sentence about taking back the torn and crumbled bits and pieces of herself. The dedication page: for everyone who has had to shrink themselves to fit into another person’s life. One reader told me she photographed a page and sent it to her sister with no message at all. Her sister wrote back: how does this author know.

That’s what this book turned out to be. Not a story you watch from a distance, but a mirror some women didn’t know they were picking up. Five years ago it launched into a locked-down world, quietly, and it found its readers anyway, one underlined page at a time.

The next few months, for the five year anniversary, we’re giving it the launch that got canceled. If this book ever found you, I’d love to know when.

If you’ve read it, tell me the line you underlined. If you haven’t, the anniversary is a good time to start.

#PaperDollLina5 #WomensFiction #Bookstagram #booktok by @robynlwriter

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3 months ago

Five years on, this is still what critics said about Paper Doll Lina:
*A starred Library Journal review calling it fertile ground for book groups.
*Booklist on Lina’s journey as ultimately one of hope.
*The Augusta Chronicle on how the novel captures the visceral terror and tragedy of domestic violence.
If your club hasn’t read it yet, this is your sign.

Request it from your library or add it to your club’s list.

#booktok #PaperDollLina5 #BookClub #WomensFiction by @robynlwriter

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3 months ago

Five years after Paper Doll Lina first came out, I'm finally able to give it something it didn't have at launch: a real conversation.

The free Paper Doll Lina Book Club Discussion Kit is live. Inside, you'll find discussion questions built to open up real conversation (not just "did you like it"), a domestic violence discussion care guide for talking about these themes with sensitivity, a full 75-minute meeting format so no one has to plan from scratch, and a few activities to round out your meeting.

Library Journal gave the novel a starred review and called it fertile ground for book groups, and five years of readers have told me the same thing: this is a book that stays with a group long after the meeting ends. It's a story about coercive control, motherhood, and one woman's long road back to herself, for everyone who has had to shrink themselves to fit into someone else's life.

The kit is free. Download it, print it, share it with your club, and if your book club picks it up this fall, I would love to join your discussion. I do virtual visits.

Get the kit here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1C9bsMpdq5QnM10XUnhsPoVYF7T5bICCe/view?usp=share_link

Download the free kit at the link above, and tag your book club below if you're planning to read it together. by @robynlwriter

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3 months ago

Happy zombie Jesus day by @robynlwriter

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6 months ago

Nature therapy with my forever Valentine ❤️❤️❤️ taken in Raven Rock State Park by @robynlwriter

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8 months ago

by @robynlwriter

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9 months ago