Meet Reba Birmingham

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Reba Birmingham. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Reba below.

Reba, first a big thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and insights with us today. I’m sure many of our readers will benefit from your wisdom, and one of the areas where we think your insight might be most helpful is related to imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is holding so many people back from reaching their true and highest potential and so we’d love to hear about your journey and how you overcame imposter syndrome.

From a young age I worked, and had a child at twenty years old. Higher education was tough to get, and I went to five different community colleges to receive an Associate’s Degree. When I was around thirty, the company I worked for moved out of state. I was queer, and closeted. Although my life worked here, it was very compartmentalized. Aha! I will change careers! Thinking that law was something that one could do until they die or choose to retire, I heard of an unaccredited night law school in Long Beach. The classes were held in a local high school. I graduated Valedictorian, and also passed the California bar the first try, something many younger students from “good schools” don’t do. Still, hampered by self doubt, I made myself small. Because I’m LGBT, and my boss (who I later married) was a trailblazer, some opportunities came to make law. I handled a case at the trial level that Lambda Legal took on which gave putative spouse rights to same sex couples, just like heterosexual couples. This was huge, yet I wouldn’t go to the event celebrating this and other wins. The lack of a Bachelor’s degree was a big part of it. Most people I would rub shoulders with at law events were very educated and I felt less than. So in 2010 or so my wife saw an ad in the paper for CSULB, our local university to go and complete the bachelors. In 2013, I received a Bachelor’s Degree in Liberal Arts, and was chosen for Phi Kappa Phi, the same honor society that John Gresham and the late great Ruth Bader Ginsberg belonged to. I began to feel less of an imposter, probably like the Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz felt when he got his degree.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I have always been a writer and musician. Sometimes songs would come from poems I wrote. The creative was greatly boosted when Kelly Ann Conway dragged many of us LGBTQ folks out of our garages and living rooms and we performed under the banner “Dykes on Mykes” around Laguna Beach. Everything good in my life at first felt impossible. I couldn’t REALLY be a lawyer, could I? Would people laugh out loud if I said I wanted that? The same process followed my coffeehouse pride festival season, and now is wrapped up in my books. I am very proud of writing the Hercynian Forest Series, which follows a married lesbian couple who are accidental adventurers. In the first book, Floodlight, they become aware of the magical world and free creatures who inhabit it. The second book, Words on a Plate, they travel to Peru and fight bad guys that are starting to sound a lot like “the partriarchy.” The third, The Wolf You Feed, explores how the enemy can show up in religious garb, and wraps up one bad character present since the first book. Book four, Circle of Stones, starts a new arc with the same characters and the stakes get higher. Book five, Search for the Summer Stone is coming out March 31, 2025, and is very action packed. My day job as attorney is stressful, so I get up at 5:30 a.m. and write. It is my therapy. I also hope that the messages in the book feel relevant to this time, and ordinary people will relate to being called upon to be heroic.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

The qualities that are most important to moving forward when the world seems to say “No, you don’t belong here” are these.
1) Read the small book “The Four Agreements” by Don Miguel Ruiz, They are “Don’t take anything personally,” “”Be impeccable in your word” “Don’t make assumptions” and “Always do your best.” I may have mixed them up a bit, but each has been very important to me.

2) Find your tribe. Go where the love is and use that to feel safe and creative.

3) Remember the big picture. It’s not just about you and me. My belief system is that we are all connected. Like when you go to a park or beach, only leave footprints. If you died tomorrow, what would you leave behind to help others find their path?

Okay, so before we go, is there anyone you’d like to shoutout for the role they’ve played in helping you develop the essential skills or overcome challenges along the way?

I was lucky enough to meet Verda Foster, who is a published writer. and editor in a chance meeting. She was the first “real” writer I told I wanted to be an author (in a whisper) and became my first editor. Writing is a craft, and your skills increase as you do it—every book truly takes a village. Others along the way are my writing professor from college, Suzan Gridley, former publisher Lori Lake, who is a natural teacher and helped me develop without making me feel stupid. Currently, I have an amazing publisher team in Jody and Peggy Zeramby, owners of Launch Point Press in Oregon. They listen, and take the time to help you get your story out. Also, the too many to individually name collective of writers at conferences like LCLC in California and Golden Crown Literary Society which moves around the US each year. Any new writer should think about attending and participating in as many panels as they can to learn from those who are successful in this field. Editing, character development, world building, and so much more can be learned at these things.

One challenge is to leave your ego at the door. Receive criticism from someone you respect, and it will pay big dividends!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.launchpointpress.com/author/reba-birmingham/
• Facebook: Reba Birmingham Author
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/reba-birmingham/becky-black-living-outside-the-shell-dont-tell-me-track-03

Image Credits

These are done by myself or my wife or a close friend.