Sheila Moeschen is a freelance writer whose works on pop culture, travel and humor can be found at Medium, Substack, Huffington Post among others and is the author of The League of Extraordinarily Funny Women. She kindly took the time to answer my questions about her work, favorite comediens and what she has coming next. Enjoy!

1.What was your journey to writing?

I was an avid reader as a really young kid. I was never able to leave the library with less than a bag full of books. Writing came relatively natural to me as I progressed in school. By the time I was in high school I was involved with drama club, band, the school newspaper-basically all the arts and humanities areas. I knew I would be an English major in college, so writing was always going to be a big part of whatever I ended up pursuing.

2. Your a frequent writer for Medium and Substack-what is your routine and how do you pick your subjects?

For Medium and for my weekly Substack publication–Stay Curious (link: https://smoeschen.substack.com/)–I generally choose subjects I feel most interested in or curious about. These tend to be focused around pop culture and humor, so the topics often present themselves pretty easily.

3. What drew you to comedy in particular?

I’ve always loved comedy; I was drawn to humor as a young kid reading MAD Magazine and binging hours of cartoons, The Muppet Show, sitcoms–all of it really steeped in broad comic traditions. I remember discovering I Love Lucy reruns when I was in elementary school and being absolutely hooked on Lucy’s quick wit and even funnier physical comedy. I think I was a very young student of the art form in general, but it also helped me cope with self-esteem and bullying issues. Humor is my default setting…still!

4. Who are some of your favorite comediennes?

There are so many, it’s hard to pick! An underrated figure I’ve always loved is Madeline Kahn. She stole the scene in more than one Mel Brooks’ movie. I love Julia Louis-Dreyfus; Leslie Jones; Wanda Sykes; Samantha Irby (her humor writing is next level); Samantha Bee; Kristen Schaal; Maya Rudolph. See? TOO MANY!!

5. Where did the pitch for your book originate?

I had the idea for my women in comedy book when I was working on my PhD and researching aspects of gender and performance. I read about these incredible women performing in vaudeville around the turn of the century, but who were kind of hidden from the history of American comedy.

When I finished my degree at Northwestern University, I moved back to Boston and got involved with one of the local improv comedy theatres, Improv Boston. And it was being involved with the first year of the Women in Comedy Festival, created by a trio of women from the theatre, that I started to see more of the seeds of the book idea starting to surface.

There was such a need for more conversation and visibility for women in humor at that particular time that I knew I wanted to work on a project that could center women working in comedy in a meaningful way.

6. How did you narrow down the line-up? What was it important to highlight in your book?

It was really hard to narrow down who to include in the book. Diversity was important to me. I also felt strongly about amplifying figures who were path breakers in some way, who were the first or early pioneers in some way. We all stand on the shoulders of others.

7. What was your research for the project like?

I essentially combed through as much media as I could find: published interviews, biographies, as well as TV appearances (whether that was sitcoms or stand-up specials), films, podcasts, audio. I tried to excavate as deep as I could to uncover interesting and unique information.

8. As you said in your book, you weren’t able to fit in all the comediennes you love so would you like to share a few that you had to cut?

As I said, I would have loved to have devoted a full treatment to Madeline Kahn. Or to focus on women like Cloris Leachman, the entire Golden Girls cast, Valerie Harper, Megan Mullally, Jane Lynch is another next level player who does not get nearly as much attention as she deserves.

9. You highlighted how the Women in Comedy Festival was helpful in finding your comic voice and community, please share more.

The festival has been amazing for bring so many diverse women and their equally diverse comic sensibilities together in one place. I think that’s been the biggest success of the festival to date. You get to see so much work; it’s not only inspiring, but it sends the message that there really is a seat at the table for everyone.

10. Any upcoming news you’d like to share?

I’d love to invite readers to join me on substack. My publication is called Stay Curious-humorous conversational writing about life and other absurdities. I publish personal comedic essays weekly as well as original photography.

I’m very excited for my upcoming book: Boston and Beyond: Discovering Cities, Harbors, and Country Charms (Globe Pequot. Pre-order: http://tinyurl.com/2y2795jw) The book is a love letter to New England, combining writing and my original photography and taking readers to unique day-destinations within an hour from Boston. It drops in August, but you can reserve a copy now. I am developing a follow-up project with this publisher that I’ll have more to talk about some point soon!