Cabin Tales for Young Writers

It's the final Cabin Tales interview! With Frieda Wishinsky, award-winning author of more than 70 books for young readers, both fiction and non-fiction. Hear about her aversion to horror, her fondness for chronological order, and the similarities she finds in writing and gardening. 20 minutes, all ages. A full transcript is available at CabinTales.ca. Show Notes [0:00] Intro [1:20] Interview with Frieda Wishinsky CA:… Are you a planner or a pantser? FW: Used to be much more of a pantser; I'm more of a planner. … I don't really do an outline for a picture book, but I usually think through where it's going…. Because you can really get into complications. Even with planning, you get into complications if you don't have a sense of where you're going.   [2:00] CA: Do you have any advice for young writers who might have started something and got … stuck in the middle? FW: Yeah. … do an outline from the middle. …and see if you can figure out where it goes from there. …Or put it away, stop thinking about it, and come back to it later. … Your mind works while you think it's not.   [2:45] CA: Is there a way that you like to start books? FW: Probably all over the place. I'd have to look. … I do believe in the overriding rule of getting yourself into the story. ‘Where's Papa going with that axe?' is such a great opening because… there's so many questions in that one sentence. … you get tons of information from that opening conversation. … It's a provocative question. …   [3:50] CA: What kind of endings do you like? And do you have any faves? … FW: Sure. I don't know if this is a favourite ending. This is from my Emily Roebling book…. I started off with “When Emily Warren Roebling was growing up in Cold Spring, New York, in the 1850s, many girls were told they weren't smart, especially in math or science.” She became the really driving force with building the Brooklyn Bridge. And my last line is “In 1899, she graduated in Law from New York University. She was 56 years old. Her final essay focused on equal rights for women.” … it kind of ended with her fulfilling that promise that she made herself, that she was going to pursue something even though she was told she shouldn't.   [5:00] CA: Have you written sad endings? FW: No, I don't think so. I don't write YA. … I've written profiles of people who had kind of sad endings… like Emily Roebling. I didn't end the book with “And then she died of cancer,” which is what happens actually. … That was really sad to me. …But I didn't end the book like that… I tried to end it with the moment where she graduated, which was a positive thing. I'm okay with a somewhat sad ending, as long as it doesn't end with complete despair. Because that's too hard for anyone to cope with….   [6:20] CA: So when you're drafting, do you tend to revise while you draft? Or do you try to just get it out and then come back to it and revise? FW: … A bit of both…. let's say I'm writing a picture book. I'll get up to a point, leave it for a day, go back, and then revise what I've done. I may continue or I may not like it. … I usually don't write a whole thing out at once. That's hard. But sometimes… I'll go with whatever I'm feeling at the moment. CA: So how much time do you typically spend revising versus drafting? … FW: Much more time revising than drafting. I like revision.   [7:00] CA: Do you tend to start at the beginning of the story and then proceed chronologically? FW: Yeah. I like chronology. Because it's easier. I don't like flashbacks that much. … I've never written where I'm really going back. …. What do you do? CA: I tend to go start to finish, yeah. And in terms of writing, I proceed scene by scene. … FW: I'm like you. A few times I've stumbled on a place where they're filming something. And they will take things completely out of context. …. I don't know how people do that, because how do you get your mind in the middle of something?... I guess the scene has to have a beginning and the middle and an end. Maybe that's it….   [8:40] CA: And do you have a favorite POV to write from…? FW: No…. I don't know why, but it depends on what I'm writing and what sounds like it works better.   [9:00] CA: And do you have any favourite settings…? FW: No, but I really do believe we write the settings that appeal to us personally. So write the settings that feel natural to you. And don't feel you have to go exotic … There's nothing wrong with telling a story that takes place in your little town …, or something that you fantasize. …   [9:40] CA: What about characters? Do you have any favourite characters from children's fiction?... FW: One of my favorite kids books is Chrysanthemum, a picture book by Kevin Henkes. I love stories about standing up to bullies, and that's what I tend to write a lot. … I like funny books. …There's a book, Doctor Xargles. … It's incredibly funny. I love James Marshall. … my first shelf in this room is full of my favourite books, and they really range from Miss Rumphius, which I love, by Barbara Cooney … to George and Martha. … So it's not one kind. I think it's just, really, a book that's done really well….   [11:00] CA: Did you write as a kid? FW: Yeah, I did. I wrote letters, I wrote essays. …. I wrote stories for school, but I don't think I wrote stories for me. And I know there are kids that do that. They'll say, Oh, I wrote this whole book. You know, I don't remember doing that…. But I definitely wrote. And people forget that writing is more than just writing a book….   [11:40] CA: Did you ever have a storytelling aloud experience as a kid…? FW: Probably all the time but I don't remember anything specific. I do remember some bits of hearing stories, and they were so odd. … I remember sitting around and hearing someone tell about a mountain exploding and all the people died of this hot stuff that spewed out of mountain. And it was about Mount Vesuvius. And I had never heard of a volcano before. … it terrified me. … I don't like scary. … I don't even know how people do horror. I mean, I do death. … I wrote about the Lusitania. But not horror. Horror is different. … I don't like being scared. I don't like being startled.   [14:15] CA: And what kinds of things scared you as a kid? Volcanoes. FW: There was a movie called The Day the Earth Stood Still… The other movie that scared me was a book that I did read. It's about the end of civilization. …On the Beach. …That was really scary, that sense of complete devastation. Really scary.   [14:50] CA: Do you have any phobias? FW: I'm pretty phobic of Nazis. … I definitely have a doom thing. And I think it's because of family history. I always figure, Yeah, the Germans walked in and they killed everybody. That could happen again. Why wouldn't it? It happened. … that sort of lingers over what happens in the news….   [15:35] CA: Do you have a regular writing practice? … FW: I'm almost always working on something. But I'm disciplined undisciplined. So I know people who get up at 7, sit there at their desk for four hours, don't get up, and then do other things from 4:00 o'clock on or whatever. No, that's not what I'm like. … Most of the time it's daytime. And its erratic. … I create a lot of lists, I organize my time. … I'm actually quite organized but in a non-traditional way. … I'm always trying to check off things on my list, but I don't ever finish all the things on my list. …   [17:45] CA: And do you work on one project at a time? FW: No, never. …. I'm always open for some new idea. …   [18:00] CA: And so you get some ideas from what you watch, and probably what you read. And are there other sources for some of your best ideas? FW: People say things to you. Watching people. Yeah, everything. Everything. Everything's a possible idea….   [18:45] CA: Do you keep a journal? … FW: No but I keep ideas. …. I write little notes. … I'd like to be a little more organized about keeping all my ideas together. … Like always put it in that book instead of, you know, little pieces of paper that can lose….   [19:15] CA: And have you ever had a crisis of confidence in your writing? FW: I always a crisis of confidence. Daily. All the time. … CA: And so what would you say to young writers who are scared, either to write or to share their story with the world? FW: I think at the end of the day, being scared is important, and that the best part of writing is writing. … I can't control if someone's going to publish my book, what's going to happen to it. But if at the end of the day, I produced something that I think is kind of good, that journey to making it good is the only thing I really own, and the only thing at the end that I really love. …   [20:30] CA: … You've been a great guest. Thanks again so much for doing this. … FW: Great. Thank you very much. Bye.   [20:45] Frieda Wishinsky introduces herself FW: Hi. I'm Frieda Wishinsky, spelled like “wish in sky.” Well, I have a book that's coming out in the spring with Liz McLeod. We did a book, How to become an Accidental Genius. So How to become an Accidental Activist -- which is very timely -- is coming out sometime this spring. And we have a contract for How to become an Accidental Entrepreneur, which we haven't written yet. And then I have a bunch of picture books that I'm working on. I'm in a picture book mood. They're out being rejected or not. Picture books are still my favorite genre. They're the hardest to write and I love them the best. I've always wanted to write an article about how writing and gardening are similar. I have a really pretty garden, and I think of that as very much like being a writer because you're editing, certain things are more in the forefront, there's a path, you have to wait a lot, things change all the time. It's very similar.   [22:00] Find out more about Frieda Wishinsky You can hear more creative writing advice from Frieda Wishinsky on Cabin Tales Episode 6.5: Author Interviews about Beginnings,” on Episode 7: “Just Get it Over With” about endings, and on Episode 8, “The Never-ending Story,” about revision. You can find out more about Frieda Wishinsky, her books, and her editorial services from her website at FriedaWishinsky.com.   [23:05] Thanks and goodbye …This was the last of my interviews, which means this podcast is completely over. I had a blast making Cabin Tales – the stories, the exercises, the interviews, all of it. … I wish you all the best as you write your own tale. …. Thanks for listening.   Credits Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use). Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com. Guest Author: Frieda Wishinsky has written over 70 picture books, chapter books, novels and non-fiction books. Her books have won or been nominated for many prestigious awards, including the Governor General's Award, the Print Braille Book of the Year Award, the TD Literature Award and the Marilyn Baillie Picture book award.  Find her online at https://friedawishinsky.com.   

An interview with Karen Bass, award-winning author of 8 young adult novels including Graffiti Knight, The Hill, and Blood Donor. Hear about her favourite fictional monster, her preference for third-person point of view, and her memory of growing up on a farm telling herself stories. 25 minutes, all ages. A full transcript is available at CabinTales.ca. Show Notes [0:00] Intro [1:15] Interview with Karen Bass CA: Are you a planner? Do you know the ending of your story when you begin? KB: No and yes. I almost always know the ending but I don't always know how I'm going to get there. So I will sort of free-flow through the middle quite often…   [2:35] CA: Do you tend to have the voice that you want to write this book in when you begin to draft? Or does that develop as you go? KB: My agent has made me rewrite a couple whole books into first person. …. Usually I have to fiddle around and find it. You know, do the usual character interviews, get to know the character…   [3:10] CA: So you do that sort of character exercise yourself? KB: I do sometimes…. With a contemporary story, for example, you should know what their favorite pizza is and sort of what their typical day looks like you know how much time they spend on the Internet or whatever. All those little things really come through even if they're not relevant in the story.   [4:00] CA: And is there a place where you get your best ideas? KN: No. Actually, I get ideas from all over the place. … Although I guess if there is any one thing that sets my imagination off, it's traveling…. When you are in a new environment, you are more aware and paying better attention than your everyday environment and so you see that story potential more….   [4:35] CA: Do you work on one project at a time? KB: Mostly, yeah. Although you know, you always have that thing when you're working on a project and then the shiny new idea comes along …   [5:00] CA: Do you write at certain times of the day? … KB: …. I often find that my best writing time starts early afternoon… normally I'll just put in a solid couple hours in the afternoon. My brain is too unfocused in the mornings…   [5:35] CA: Are you part of a critique group or a writers' support group… ? KB: There's a group of writers in Hamilton and Burlington and I'm part of that, and we are all traditionally published. … I would highly recommend it to writers. And I would recommend that, if you're in a writing group, it's really good if you're not by far the best writer there. …It really helps you grow by leaps and bounds when you have someone who knows a little bit more about the craft than you do. …   [6:40] CA: Yeah. So you must have been good at receiving constructive advice? … KB: Yeah. At that level I could. It was a whole different thing when I first started publishing. …The editorial letters really just sort of ripped me apart. …Learning that editors are on your side, and aren't trying to rip you to pieces, was a process for me at the professional level. .... Now I'm much better with it.   [7:30] CA: What is the process like for you in terms of drafting and revising? … KB: I probably spend more time revising because the first draft will come out fast. And I think that's the difference between the sort of pantser versus the plotter. I think we spend the same amount of time on every book; it's just where the time is spent. …   [8:15] CA: Right. And do you have any advice for young writers who maybe are pantsers and they write themselves into a corner or they get stuck?... KB: … There are times when I've had to go back a couple of chapters and change things because, you know, there's no realistic way my characters could escape that situation or whatever it is. … You really have to be more open to revision and to letting it sit for a while and then looking at it with fresh eyes, so that maybe you can see those holes. And don't be afraid to get other people's point of views.   [9:00] CA: And do you have a favorite POV to write from? KB: I really almost always write from third-person past-tense, simple past, which of course is a problem in YA because then my agent always wants me to change it to first person. Even when I write in first person, I still prefer to write past tense. … First person…is actually one of the harder ones to write because, if you don't have a unique voice, it can sound very flat. …   [9:50] CA: And have you ever done an unreliable narrator? KB: … I don't know if I have, but it's an intriguing idea, right? …. Make the challenge, right? We need to all try to write it at least one unreliable narrator story….   [10:30] CA: … Did you tell stories around a campfire as a kid or have an off-the-cuff storytelling experience? KB: … I was always telling myself stories. … We didn't go camping. My dad was a farmer and that's what he did in the summer; he farmed. So the camping thing wasn't really part of my wheelhouse until I was an adult…and took our kids camping. You know, I don't even know if we told them stories. And now I feel like I'm missing something.   [11:05] CA: And you have written a spooky story. Did you incorporate any of your own fears into that? KB: A little bit. Growing up on a farm in northern Alberta, the one fear I always had was bears, and there was a bear in the story… Being out in the forest and the unknowns and ‘What was that sound?' I incorporated that part of it for sure. …My incorporating is more the physical and mental reactions that my characters have to fear or to anger or to that emotion.   [11:55] CA: And are some of your stories based on your own childhood and growing up? KB: Part of my story Summer of Fire had some family dynamic resonance for me, but mostly my characters are pulled from composites…   [12:15] CA: And do you have any favourite plot twists…? KB: … One of the more successful ones that I could think of off the top of my head was Scorpion Rules with Erin Bow. I don't know if I want to give that away for anyone who hasn't read it. …   [12:45] CA: Can you recommend any techniques for young writers for building tension …? KB: …Make sure that the reader is right there with what the character is feeling. … you have to have the character emotion coming through on the page. And then from a technical point of view, when you're getting to a really tense part, do not have long meandering sentences. …   [13:40] CA: What are some of your favorite books or styles, even? KB: I love stories that have tension in them. Like I love reading action and adventure. A little bit of a thriller edge to it, but not generally horror. … My favourites are all over the place. One of my all-time favorites is The Book Thief …. a beautifully written book will grab my attention…. But character and plot for sure.   [15:30] CA: And do you have any favorite characters from fiction…? KB: …This is a book that is really obscure. It's an American author, Janny Lee Simner, …and it's called Tiernay West: Professional Adventurer. And its middle grade. And her voice was so unique that it still, you know 10 years later, sticks in my head. …   [16:30] CA: And then what about settings? Do you have favorite settings from fiction? … KB: I have to say Berlin, but mostly because I love the city so much. Part of my first novel, Run like Jaeger, was set in Berlin. And then I have an unpublished -- yet to be published, hopefully yet to be published -- book set in Berlin. … I think a well done setting in a book, it really does become like another character for you. …   [17:20] CA:  And do you have any exercises that you would recommend to young writers for building a setting? … KB: … walk the streets on Google Street View if you can't go to it. … As exercises go, one setting exercise that I really like, it's describing the character's bedroom. And have one thing in the bedroom that is maybe a bit of a surprise or out of place. … And it's just amazing how much character reveal you can put into that. …   [18:45] CA: And what about a favorite monster? KB: I go for the classic vampire. …I love Dracula and read it I don't know how many times. And then again I read Salem's Lot by Stephen King years ago, and another book that scared me half to death. And I thought, ‘That is what vampires are supposed to be like.' I'm sorry. I don't care for other ways that they're written. They are not nice and they should scare you. … CA: Okay yes. …monstrosity should have a cost. … KB: I even think with magic, there needs to be a cost … There has to be something, some way that you pay the price, whether it's a monster or whatever it is….   [21:40] CA: And do you have any favorite scary stories? KB: You know, I actually don't read horror anymore. I used to, and Stephen King was my favourite when I was in high school, which was a long time ago. And The Shining always stood out …I was actually afraid of walking into bathrooms with the shower curtain closed for years because of that book. …One of my favourite in recent years ,of just sort of the creepy factor, was The Night Gardener by Jonathon Auxier. …   [22:20] CA: Great… Thanks again Karen. Bye. KB: Bye   [22:40] Find out more about Karen Bass You can hear more creative writing advice from Karen Bass on Cabin Tales Episode 6, “Begin in the Darkness,” on Episode 7.5: “Author Interviews about Endings,” and on Episode 8, “The Never-ending Story,” about revision. And you can find out all about Karen Bass, her books, and her latest news from her website at KarenBass.ca.   [23:20] Thanks and coming up on the podcast I'll be back next week with leftovers from my interview with the picture book author Frieda Wishinsky. …. Thanks for listening. Credits Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use). Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com. Guest Author: Karen Bass loves writing action and adventure, and she likes to slide in some history when she can. She has twice won the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction. Karen lived most of her life in rural Alberta but now lives in southern Ontario. Karen loves having a whole new part of Canada to explore and use as inspiration for new stories. Find her online at www.karenbass.ca.  

An interview with Chris Jones, illustrator of 25+ picture books and leveled readers plus multiple magazine features, and author-illustrator of graphic novels and comics for all ages. Hear about his love of wild settings, his resistance to the bound pages of a sketchbook, and his method of creating narrative tension by putting his characters through emotional workouts. 25 minutes. All ages. A full transcript is available at CabinTales.ca. Show Notes [0:00] Intro [1:15] Interview with Chris Jones CA: So you're working on a project right now with your wife writing and you illustrating? CJ: Yes, my partner. I started a book about a ladybug …. I really wanted to draw the bugs but I just couldn't get the plot to go. So I said, Do you want to take a stab at it? Because she's a writer. So she came up with a really good treatment for it. …. So it's been fun…   [2:10] CA: When you work on your own projects, do you write as well as illustrate sometimes? CJ: Yes I do. …. It's rare that everything is clear at the beginning. For me, it takes a lot of revising and exploring to kind of find out how I want the story to go. …   [2:45] CA: …. And do you have any favorite plot twists, or the ways that the story turned around as you were working on it, that sort of surprised you? … CJ: Yeah. I love plot twists. … always unexpected twists in the story are coming up, new angles. .... You get an aha moment and you're like, Oh, this would work…. That's inspiring when I'm working on stories. And I love twists in movies and books as well. …   [3:25] CA: And in terms of narrative and just getting a reader to turn the page, do you have any advice for young writers on pacing or building tension? CJ: … I usually can centre it around strong emotional reactions. So I put my characters through stuff and their reaction, their emotions, create the tension. You know, they're feeling really sad or they're feeling really desperate or some other strong emotion. And then that drives them through the story….   [4:10] CA: And what about settings... Do you have any favourites? … CJ: My style is kind of irregular and organic. …. I love drawing jungles, alien planets. … because I love the organic feel of all the vegetation and the rocks and all that stuff. That's my go-to setting.   [4:40] CA: … Do you have any advice for young author-illustrators for either character or setting? CJ: I focus it around, What do I want to draw? Or what kind of setting do I want to tell a story in? …. And then I'm like, How can I tell a story around that? And then I think back to my childhood, some strong emotions or some things I went through. And then say, Oh, the grasshopper could be nervous about going to school in the jungle or something. …   [5:35] CA: And do you keep a sketchbook where you just sort of doodle? CJ: I used to. In high school and college, I used to sketch a lot. But now I find sometimes I'll use it just for really rough notes and stuff. But I've always found sketchbooks, for me, too precious. … I find I don't use sketchbooks very much, only for like really rough jotting down stuff…   [6:30] CA: And what about endings? How do you feel about sad endings? … CJ: I love sad endings. I have done some adult comic stuff where I'll immediately go for all sad, all hardship. I love it. Adversity -- I love it. …In kidlit typically, … you end it on a happy note. But any chance I have to do non-kidlit stuff, I'm always like going for dreary and sad when I can. Because it's that strong negative stuff that brings out all the good juicy emotions…   [7:10] CA: Is there any activity or place that you tend to get your best ideas from? CJ: …Usually my best ideas come when I just sit down and doodle. I'll just let it be free. Try not to edit – like that's hard for me because of all the years of client work. … And then when I do that, I'll connect different things together … I always keep my sketches, even though they're all on tracing paper. But I keep all the pads…So doodling for me is key. …   [8:00] CA: So that's something that you would recommend to young artists and authors? CJ: Yeah. My first instinct is visual. … When I write, I plan out everything by drawing it. It's harder for me to write out what's going to happen. Instead I have to kind of draw it out, and then dialogue comes from that as I piece everything together. …   [8:30] CA:. So if you're working on a graphic novel, you don't write out the story. You start with the images? CJ: Yeah. … I will kind of start with the problem…. I'll have ideas for really good scenes around that, and how they can push the story. But my struggle is tying it all together into one kind of arc. That's my struggle. But I just keep doing different scenes and different scenes  … I do my best thinking visually until a point, and then I kind of have to sit down and write a bit, even just a summary, to tie it together. And then when I go back to drawing … I'll piece it all together …. It's kind of a back and forth all the time. But I usually start visually.   [9:35] CA:… You don't just get it all out and then revise it all. You do a back and forth? CJ: Yeah… I spend a lot more time revising everything instead of the initial first draft type of thing. I'm always going back and forth. … So every time I go back and forth, it shifts how I view it and I get better ideas. …   [10:15] CA: …What would be your advice in terms of revising for young people? CJ: I think for young kids, they see the finished product. So they're not understanding the whole, what it took to get there, which was very laborious. … when you're just starting out, it's more important to get something done and look at it, and not worry so much about trying to make it perfect or trying to make it more than you can. …Sometimes you have to work on more, different projects before you're ready to come back to the first one and say, Oh, here's how I could make this better. …The more things you have on the go sometimes can help as you get stuck.   [11:20] CA: People who work on picture books… do tend to have far more than one project on the go at any time…[for me] It's sitting down and actually finishing one that's difficult. CJ: I know. Sometimes you have too many ideas …My problem is keeping track of them all. I just have them everywhere. And then I forget. Like I had good ideas before; where are they? I don't want to look through, you know, hundreds of stacks of papers to find them. I need a better way to document them.   [12:00] CA: And have you ever had the experience where you've drawn or worked on completely different things and then found a way to unite them in one narrative? CJ: … yeah, I've used bits from ideas and pulled them in, because I really like the little ideas but I have no idea what to do with them in the story. So I'll just grab them and try to steal them and put them in what I'm working on.   [12:40] CA: Speaking of stealing, are you ever inspired by other artists or other stories? … CJ: When I was growing up, I had a huge comic collection. I was always inspired by it. …But now, I'll see artists I really admire or writers who I really like, and I'll be inspired … But I think for me, the key is to kind of stay true to who you are. …. And also I try not to look too much at other work, because there comes a point where I reach a level where I'm like, I get discouraged…. And I lose my creative energy. So it's important for me to really limit that to small fragments when I need it, and then focus on my own creative energy, because that's where the magic will happen. …   [14:20] CA: And have you ever illustrated like a fairy tale or Shakespeare or some classic piece of literature … and doing them in a new way? CJ: Aside from a few illustrations, just one-offs for like Shakespearean stuff, I can't recall any. … I've never really felt the urge to do that. What really inspires me is working on something completely new. … because I just feel like I can really sink my teeth into that with less limitations because I can take it how I want instead of trying to remain true on a certain level to what's existing before.   [15:35] CA: Do you write or draw stories based on your own childhood, or using real moments? CJ: …If I'm doing personal stuff, I'll definitely draw from childhood experiences… A few years ago, I did a comic about my experiences as a paper boy growing up and all the trials and tribulations with that. … That's where all the good inspiration comes from, all those childhood emotions. So I love to draw on that.   [16:30] CA: Have you ever based any stories or illustrations on things that you're afraid of? CJ: Yes. The book Andy's Song, where he loses his voice… I kind of based that on my fear of losing my ability to draw or ability to create. How would I feel? …   [16:55] CA: Do you have a critique group, or …is there somebody who responds to your work before it's out? CJ: … For my writing, yeah, I always want someone to look at it because I'm not as confident in my writing. So yeah, I'll get my partner to look at stuff. But usually for the illustration side, in the past I've used other illustrators and I just bounce stuff off them, like how does this look? … But typically, I feel like I'm such a private person with my process until it's ready to be shown, that I struggle with showing anything, even for feedback. … I will just step away and then come back a couple weeks later with a fresh eye. And it's almost like I'm seeing it as someone else … Because you get too intimate with something when you're working on it, so I find that stepping away and coming back can also help a lot.   [17:55] CA: … do you read your work out loud? CJ: Yes, that's really helpful because it's so easy to not notice things unless you're reading it out loud. And how it flows and how it rolls off the tongue and, you know, is it hard to say. Yeah, I do that.   [18:15] CA: And what are some books that influenced you? CJ: I was always into humor and I was always reading… graphic novels and comic stuff. But I also like … the Lord of the Rings, that type of story with the deep setting and the deep characters. … And specially science fiction, … because I love the unknown and the exploration and the adventure…   [19:00] CA: Have you ever created monsters? CJ: Yes. I have a real fondness for drawing monsters. I've always loved drawing very expressive faces and very outlandish monsters with expressive faces. So yeah, I've done a few series of illustrations with that. …The next kind of project that I'm trying to work on is going to hopefully centre around some sort of monster. …   [19:40] CA: And what kinds of things scared you as a kid? CJ: … I'm still scared of dark lake water. I love to swim, …but if I can't see the bottom in a lake, I get really freaked out. Like something's under there; it's going to get me. …   [20:00] CA: And did you tell scary stories around a campfire as a kid or have any off-the-cuff storytelling experience? CJ: No, I never did that. … maybe I need to do that with my kids. …   [20:20] CA: Do you have a regular practice? … CJ: Yeah. For me routine is key, because when you're working for yourself and when you're working at home, it's very easy to slide into different habits that aren't good for your productivity. So I always try to get up at the same time. I have a morning routine. … I always do my important thinking work in the morning first thing, get that done. … having a routine really frees me up to focus on the work…. I don't think about what I'm doing today; I'm always kind of following the same pattern….  A lot of times it's hard to leave your work though, when you work from home. It's always there.   CA: So how do you manage not to let it bleed into all the hours of the day? CJ: When I used to live on my own, where my drafting table was right next to my living room, it was very hard. …. But now my studio's in a different part of the house. That really helps. And it helps if I get an early start because if I get an early start I felt like I've done enough for the day. … So, when I'm working I'm really focused, and then that helps me leave it at the end of the day… come back fresh. … Know when to take a break because, as much as you want to get stuff done, sometimes you just need to take a break for your brain.   [22:20] CA: Nice. Okay. Thank you so much for doing this. … CJ: My pleasure…. Bye.   [22:35] Chris Jones introduces himself CJ: So I'm Chris Jones. And I grew up with a passion for drawing. I would always be sitting on my living room floor drawing, copying, you know, Mad Magazine, and drawing. And all through school I'd be the one doodling in my notebooks in class instead of paying attention to the teacher. And that just continued through my whole childhood. And then I went to OCAD, and graduated OCAD. And then after that I wasn't really sure how to make a career in art. We didn't really get taught any of the business side of it. So I wasn't really sure. Like I still loved to create, but I just kind of fell into like a graphic design job. And I stuck with that for about 15 years. And it was kind of like a soul-sucking day job that I didn't really like. But I was always creating on the side. So after 15 years I'm like, I've had enough; I need to go out on my own. And I just made the leap. Because I was always working on this side, so I said, I'm going to do this. So in 2011, I went out on my own, full-time illustrator. And then it gave me the freedom to be my own boss and work on my own projects more so, and develop my skills better because I would be doing it full time. So I did that in 2011 and I've been doing it since. And I fill my time with illustrating for kids lit magazines, picture books, educational materials. And then I feel my free time with all my personal projects. I work on graphic novels, comics, picture books. Yeah. That's it in a nutshell.   [24:10] Find out more about Chris Jones You can hear more creative writing and illustrating advice from Chris Jones on Cabin Tales Episode X, “Picture a Story,” featuring interviews with illustrators, and on Episode 6, “Begin in the Darkness” about opening stories. You can find out more about Chris Jones and his work from his website at MrJonesy.com. And follow him on Twitter @mrjonesy.   [25:04] Thanks and coming up on the podcast I'll be back next week with leftovers from my interview with the award-winning young adult author Karen Bass. Thanks for listening. Credits Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use). Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com. Guest Author:       Chris Jones is an illustrator with a passion for visual storytelling. He illustrates for picture books, graphic novels, magazines and educational materials. Chris has illustrated over 20 books for young readers, including Scholastic's Take Me Out to The Ice Rink, and This is The Rink Where Jack Plays. When not illustrating for clients, Chris spends his time writing and illustrating his own comic and picture book projects. Find Chris online at: www.mrjonesey.com; Instagram @mrjonesey; Twitter @mrJonesey  

An interview with Katherine Battersby, Peggy Collins, and Christine Tripp. Chris has illustrated more than 50 children's books for educational publishers; Peggy has illustrated over a dozen books and she's the author-illustrator of several. Katherine Battersby has illustrated 12 books, 7 of which she authored herself. Hear about their delight in touching young readers' hearts, their early days of drawing and writing stories, and their disciplined ways of carving out time for their heavy workloads. 20 minutes; all ages.   A full transcript is available at CabinTales.ca.   Show Notes [0:00] Intro [1:40] Interview with Katherine Battersby, Peggy Collins, and Christine Tripp CA: Did all of you start drawing when you were young? CT: I did, yeah. Mostly I stayed in my room and I just drew pictures for myself. That was probably as long as I can remember. Definitely five and six years old. …I was not very academically inclined. But the teachers always enjoyed my drawings….   [2:45] CA: And what about you, Peggy? Did you start as a child? PC: Yes. I wrote and illustrated my first book in grade one and told my teacher that this was what I was going to do…. You listen to guidance counselors briefly and they're like, ‘Yeah, you're good at science; you should do something meaningful with your life.' And then, then you realize, No, this is better. …   [3:30] CA: And Katherine, did you start young as well? KB: Yeah, I sure did. … So as soon as I could hold a pencil I was creating stories. … I was sort of creating funny little cut-outs and things that you could flip through or that you could unfold or they were always kind of interactive and upside down. Yeah, I've always been obsessed with words and images and the way they work together…   [4:30] CA: Is there someone who mind taking thirty seconds to say the process of illustrating a picture book? PC: Sure. I thumbnail like crazy … I start really small and I think about my composition and my pacing and what … absolutely needs to go on the page. And then my art director can't understand what those are usually. And so then I have to develop them a little bit further so I work a little bit bigger. … I do most of my thumbs on paper, because I can do them while I'm watching TV with my kids. And then I move into digital. CA: Okay. So you storyboard while watching TV? PC: Yes. … So right now, with the three books I'm working on, the series that's almost always on is Sons of Anarchy…   [5:35] CA: And do you have a regular practice? KB: Yes I do. I am very diligent with keeping working hours. …Creative work can really sneak into everything … So I have gotten very very strict with myself in keeping business hours… Often my most creative time is in the morning because that's where my energy is. …. I often put Mondays aside-ish for business-type things like invoicing and emails … And then I always try to finish up half an hour before the family gets home. …   [7:45] CA: And Chris, I know you're not working on a book right now but when you are working on a book, do you have a certain practice? CT: I did more early on. I would get up and … get dressed and do even make-up to almost psych yourself into thinking you're going to work. … And then I would take breaks just like as if I were on a job, and then come back and work, take lunch, back to work. Then there were times when I would end up working all night …But mostly I would not work weekends … I need to be alone. …But you definitely have to be disciplined… It just doesn't work otherwise.   [9:30] CA: And Peggy, you juggle teaching and your books. So how do you find a practice, like simply hours, timewise? PC: I struggle with it. … I teach at two different colleges. … The week that my kids are not here I work, I work a lot. And I try and manage all of the things when they're not around so that when they are here, I am full-on Mom. .... A lot of times I'll get up at 5:00 a.m. and do my work early. And then I have two shifts for driving in the morning… I teach from 9 until 3:00 every day. And then I go back and pick everyone up. And then it starts all over again. So in terms of balance, I don't think I have it. … I am working on three big projects. … all of these things were delayed, so I am struggling. … But it'll happen. It'll get done.   [11:50] CA: What is the best thing about doing this? Like what do you love most about doing this? It's a lot of work. Why do you do it? PC: …I get to draw, all the time, whether I like it or not. In the days that are the worst, where I feel like I'm really struggling, I remember the days where I cleaned toilets for the summer… and I thank everything that I'm not wiping someone's bum or something as a job. … my worst day is when I can't work out a character or I might not have enough time to finish something. CA: That is the message: Being an artist is better than wiping someone's bum.   [12:50] CA: What's the best thing about being an illustrator, Chris? CT: …I've just always drawn and I can't imagine doing anything else. … I just love to draw. And thankfully I'm good at it. …. It's just I love to draw so I couldn't do anything else. That's all I could do….   [13:45] CA: And what about you, Katherine? What's the best thing about it? KC: …Before I put pen to paper is when an idea, it could be anything and it could be everything. And it feels like it might be the best, most exciting thing I've stumbled across yet. So that brings me the most joy. … And then the complete opposite end of the spectrum, when the book is done and… it's out in the world and I'm no longer terrified because it's been out for a while, and then I start hearing from kids. And I hear little ways that my book has made a difference in little individuals' lives. And that, oh, it really makes me emotional….   [15:35] CT: I had that happen once and I know what you're feeling. A woman called me… about the first trade book I did….Her daughters had read it and they said to her, “That girl looks like me.” And the mother said it was the first time that her children… had ever seen a book with a black parent, a white parent, and biracial children. She just wanted to thank me. … But it just never dawned on me when I was doing it that I was doing anything other than drawing. …   [16:50] PC: It is something. …It's the kids, right? … kids go to the library and they pick out books, and when they pick out your books to bring home, that's something pretty special. …The best part about it is that connection. I got to go to Saint Lucia for a book festival, and there were like 2000 kids chanting the title of a book I had illustrated. And I just like bawled, like the whole time. … Those are those epic moments that keep you going when you think you're done for….   [18:30] CA: All right. It's really nice to talk to you all. KB: Bye. CT: Bye. PC: Bye.   [19:25] Peggy Collins introduces herself PC: My name is Peggy Collins. I am an author and illustrator of books for kids. I'm also a teacher, learning to teach on the online format, which has been interesting. I have two kids. They're all big now, 15 and 10. And I had a bit of a hiatus in my career, and things are starting to pick up again finally, so the direction is a good one. And I'm just sending off a new contract for a new book today. So that's exciting. Yeah.   [20:05] Christine Tripp introduces herself My name is Christine Tripp. I'm an illustrator. And I have 4 kids who are not kids -- they're all going to be 40. It's just insane. And I'm not working on anything right now. This summer has been nice and calm and slow. But it's a good thing because in January I broke my shoulder, so I wouldn't have been able to do anything anyway. Every time I moved it hurt. So it was just as well that I'm not too busy. I'm just sitting in here with my Covid, with my masks, and learning a whole new life.   [20:45] Katherine Battersby introduces herself My name is Katherine Battersby. And I am an author and an illustrator, primarily of picture books. I have all sorts of different picture books coming out and a bunch more coming out still. I've had one just released called Perfect Pigeons and another one coming up called Trouble, and I've got my first graphic novel series coming out end of next year called Cranky Chicken, which has been a blast to work on. If you can tell from my accent, I'm not originally from here. I'm half British, half Australian. I grew up by the beach in Australia. And I now live here in Ottawa, with my husband who is a poet and my little girl who is obsessed with books. And she's a lot of fun. And that's me.   [21:30] Find out more about Katherine Battersby, Peggy Collins, and Christine Tripp You can hear more creative writing and illustrating advice from Katherine Battersby, Peggy Collins, and Christine Tripp on Cabin Tales Special Episode X, “Picture a Story,” featuring Interviews with 5 illustrators and author-illustrators. You can find out more about Christine Tripp on her public profile on the website of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, at scbwi.org. You can find out more about Peggy Collins and her books from her website at PeggysIllustration.com. And you can find out more about Katherine Battersby and her books from her website at KatherineBattersby.com.   [22:40] Thanks and coming up on the podcast I'll be back next week with leftovers from my interview with the author-illustrator Chris Jones, creator of comic books and graphic novels and illustrator of more than 20 books for young readers. Thanks for listening. Credits Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use). Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com. Guest Authors:       Katherine Battersby is the critically acclaimed author and illustrator of twelve picture books, including Perfect Pigeons and the popular Squish Rabbit series. Her books have received glowing reviews in The New York Times, starred Kirkus reviews, and have been named CBC Children's Choice books. Her debut graphic novel series, Cranky Chicken, was published in 2021. She is regularly booked to speak in schools, libraries and at festivals and she is a passionate advocate for literacy and the arts. Katherine currently divides her time between Brisbane, Australia, and Ottawa, Canada, with her husband, daughter, and their mischievous puppy. Find her online at www.KatherineBattersby.com, on Twitter @KathBatt, on Facebook at @KatherineBattersbyAuthor, on Instagram  @katherinebattersby/.       Peggy Collins is a mother, a storyteller, an artist, a teacher, and a lover of books, technology, and learning. She lives in Ontario, where she teaches concept art and character design development. She is the illustrator and author-illustrator of more than a dozen picture books. Find her online at www.PeggysIllustration.com, on Twitter @peggysbooks, on Facebook @ thelittlesproject, on Instagram @peggysillustration.         Christine Tripp has worked in animation, magazine and newspaper Illustration, gag cartooning, and comic strips, but eventually she found her real passion… illustrating children's books. Over the past 20 years, she has illustrated over 50 books for publishers such as Scholastic USA, Scholastic Canada, and Pearson Canada. Chris considers herself fortunate to have a career that allows her to do exactly what she has loved to do since she was a child: draw! She lives in Stittsville, Ontario, with her husband and their dogs, Kevin and Bob. Their 4 children and 9 grandchildren are her greatest source of pride and joy.  

An interview with Marty Chan, playwright and award-winning author of 18 books for young readers. Hear about his intricate revision process, his deep appreciation of young readers and writers, and his delight in making things hard for his characters. 25 minutes, all ages.   A full transcript is available at CabinTales.ca   Show Notes [0:00] Intro [1:10] Interview with Marty Chan CA: Are you a planner? Do you know the endings of your stories, or some of the major plot points, before you begin? MC: I'm a bit of both. …If it's a mystery, I definitely need to sit down and plan everything out because I need to know where the plot twists are, I need to know the solution so that I can write toward it. But if I'm doing something that's more of a character exploration, then I feel like I can just sort of jump in and improvise and discover the story as I'm writing. So … it really depends on the story.   [2:00] CA: Do you have any advice to young readers who might be stuck in the middle of a story? MC: That's the classic problem…And it leads to what they often call writer's block. And I always think that where you notice the problem is not where the problem started. It probably started a few scenes or a few pages earlier, where you made a decision that pushed your character into the problem that they're in now or the dead end that they've reached. … Go back a few pages, go back a few scenes, and then make a different decision for your character and see what that does to the story. It might push you to another dead end, but at least it'll start to inform you about what the character can do and who they are. …   [4:00] CA: Do you have a favorite first line? MC: Oh, one of my personal favorite first lines from my work is from the very first book I wrote, The Mystery of the Frozen Brains. And the opening line was: I hated secrets. …The opening line instantly raises the question of who hates secrets or how bad is the secret that this main character hates it?   [4:35] CA: Do you tend to write in first person? MC: Generally I like writing in first person for younger readers. … My middle grade fiction is often first person. …My steampunk fantasy series The Ehrich Weisz Chronicles, that goes more into third person because I have to cover a lot of different settings and subplots. So having third person gives me the latitude or the ability to jump from one to another.   [5:15] CA: And have you ever opened with dialogue? MC: … I know that when I work with kids and their writing, their natural instinct is to start with dialogue …. Just remember that if you don't identify or describe the people who are speaking, it's just a jumble of words flying at the reader. …So, if you start with dialogue, always remember you've got to give an anchor to the readers so they kind of know where we are, where we're situated, and who's talking and why we should care. That is when revision comes in handy …   [6:30] CA: …. Do you tend to edit yourself as you draft? Or do you sort of get it all out on the page and then go back and revise? MC: When I started writing, I was constantly going back to the beginning… And then I discovered that because I focused so much on second guessing myself and reshaping those opening few paragraphs, then at a certain point I started to lose the spark for the rest of the story. … Once I started seeing the pile of stories that I never finished, I started thinking, “Well maybe the approach is wrong for me.” … So what I often do is I will just work all the way through to the end of the first draft before I'll even start second guessing what's happening, because I just want the joy of discovery for myself to get to the end of the first draft. What that means, though, is that I spend more time revising than I will spend writing a first draft. …   [9:00] CA: And when did you start writing? Did you write as a kid? I started writing when I was in high school. … I did a lot of reading because I spent a lot of time hiding in the library from bullies. And by reading, like a lot of Hardy Boys novels, I started getting inspired to come up with stories. And oftentimes what I would do is I'd daydream. …. So I would daydream all the time, come up with different scenarios, but I never wrote anything down until my high school language arts teacher gave us a homework assignment. …. He said, “I want you to imagine you've won the lottery and you have $1,000,000 and you can spend that money on anything you want. All I want you to do is write down and describe how you use your lottery winnings to redecorate your bedroom.” I was a lazy teenager so my idea of a dream bedroom was to have a bed I never had to get out of to do all the things I wanted to do. So I said I would use all the money to put my bed on an elevator. … He said, “Marty, you have a great imagination. Have you thought about becoming a writer?” And it was at that moment that I was inspired to write... Because of him, I am the writer that I am today….   [12:30] CA: You give workshops to kids? Do you ever read kids' writings? MC: I have given feedback. I was the writer in residence at the Edmonton Public Library, and part of my job was to critique and give feedback to anyone who submitted their work to me. … Being a kids' author, that magical moment is when you can see a kid's eyes light up and they see the possibility that they could become an author just like me. It makes all the work I do worthwhile.   [13:35] CA: Do you have any favorite scary stories or scary movies? … MC: I am a huge zombie fan. When I was a teenager, a group of my friends went to a drive in. … And there was a dusk to dawn which included George A Romero's Dawn of the Dead…. I loved it and I've been a zombie fan ever since. … And I think it kind of reflects in the writing that I do. My latest book is called Haunted Hospital. … I feel like my love of scary stories has given me the inspiration to write scary stories.   [14:50] CA: And what scared you as a kid? MC: My mom. … I remember I had to deliver flyers to different houses…And there was a German shepherd in the yard. … And I froze as that dog came running right up to me. And thankfully she was happy to see me. …But ever since then I have been scared of big dogs, and it's only been recently that I've been sort of a little calmer about big dogs. CA: And have you ever put that in one of your stories? MC: …If you read the Marty Chan Mystery series, anything that you see in there that you wonder, “Did that actually happen to Marty Chan?” 7 times out of 10 the answer is yes.   [15:55] CA: So you do base some stories on your own childhood? MC: Yes. I think if you're a writer and an observer of the world, you can't help but put things from your own life into the stories. … Probably the most successful of all the books I've written is something called the Mystery of the Graffiti Ghoul. … that is the one that is the most personal in terms of the elements in the story were very much based on experiences that I had as a kid. And to me it taught me how, when you come up with story ideas, the first reader that you have to engage or entertain is yourself. … I thought, “I'm the only Chinese kid in town who actually understands what that experience is like,” but I would capture things that were universal for anybody. The first chapter is about a clothes shopping nightmare … everyone has been in that situation where they've been embarrassed by a parent or guardian or family member while they're shopping for clothes. …   [1810] CA: You're sort of tormenting your character. You could solve their problems earlier but you're going to make them suffer for a while. How do you feel about that? MC: Well, I love it. Because when we're reading, we want to cheer for the character, and if everything is too easy for the character then why do we brought bother reading? …. If they see that the hero wins too easily, they wonder why bother going on the journey in the first place.   [19:20] CA: Do you have any favorite settings from fiction? MC: In general, my favorite setting is anything in New York. … The great thing to do is if you love a setting, a real setting, before you go visit that setting or that city, just read a whole bunch of books or watch movies that are set in that city, and then go through that city and try to find those landmarks. Because it's one of the most amazing things that you can do as a reader is to see how the writers have captured the sense of a place. …   [20:05] CA: Nice. And you do any setting exercises? … MC: … I do a lot of out-scenes. Like in the case of the Ehrich Weisz Chronicles, that's set in New York. …I found maps of the time period that I was writing about. … In the 1890s, before the subway was built, the trains were on elevated rails. … I actually flew to New York and … walked the route that the characters were to going to go through in that first book, just to get a sense of the place and what it would feel like. And it made it much more real in my mind…   [21:20] CA: Is there somewhere where you get your best ideas…? MC: Just from research. I love reading books… At a certain point it's like the confluence of several different things that I've heard and researched that will just come together one day. It literally is like a lightbulb … I can't explain how that happens. All I can say is that if you want to be a writer … open yourself up to the world and just pay attention to everything that goes on around you. …Fill your tank up as much as possible because you never know when that one thing you learn about will be the spark that gives you the great idea.   [22:35] CA: That's probably a great note to end it on. Thank you very much for doing this… MC: Great to meet you too. Take care. …   [22:40] Marty Chan introduces himself MC: My name is Marty Chan. I am a kids' author and playwright. I have a very short attention span, so if you take a look at my work, you'll realize that I hop around a lot. So I've worked in theatre, television, radio, kids fiction, magazine writing. One of the things I love about writing is that it gives me the opportunity to create worlds and it also opens a door to doing pretty well anything. The great thing about being a writer is that you're only limited by your imagination, and you know how big your imagination can be. So if you can dream it, you can make it real.   [23:30] Find out more about Marty Chan You can hear more creative writing advice from Marty Chan on Cabin Tales Episode 5.5, “Author Interviews about Tension,” on Episode 7, “Just Get it Over With,” about endings; and on Episode 8, “The Never-ending Story,” about revision. You can find out more about Marty Chan and his books from his website at MartyChan.com.   [24:30] Thanks and coming up on the podcast I'll be back next week with leftovers from my group interview with picture book illustrators and author-illustrators Katherine Battersby, Peggy Collins, and Christine Tripp. Thanks for listening. Credits Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use). Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com. Guest Author: Marty Chan writes books for kids, plays for adults, and tweets for fun. He's best known for Mystery of the Graffiti Ghoul, which won the 2007 Diamond Willow Award. His newest book, Haunted Hospital, launched in Fall 2020. He works and lives in Edmonton with his wife Michelle and their cat Buddy. Find him online at MartyChan.com.  

An interview with Jeff Szpirglas, author of over 20 books for all ages, including scary novels, short story collections, and “choose your own ending” adventures. Hear about his love of the horror genre, his interest in dramatic ironing and shifting points of view, and the inspiration for his scary stories. 20 minutes. All ages. A full transcript is available at CabinTales.ca. Show Notes [0:00] Intro [1:10] Interview with Jeff Szpirglas CA: You do write spooky stories. JS: I do. I mean, I love scary things. … And in terms of plotting, sometimes I go off on my own stream of consciousness. There's like different types of scary stories. The ones that I wrote late at night and feel like they were written late at night… I actually find there's something nice and almost jazzy about them. …   [1:50] CA: And then what about with a novel? do you know the ending when you begin? JS: …The first novel I did, it's called Evil Eye. It actually began as a short story that ended up in Tales from Beyond the Brain. … I didn't really know where it was going to end. The other one I published with the same publisher, Star-Crossed Press, was called Sheldon Unger versus the Dentures of Doom. It's about an ancient demon that … chews the teeth out of your mouth while you're sleeping. So it's pretty gruesome. … I'm attracted to a lot of body horror…You will notice that my answers are tangential and that is probably how I write a lot of my stories, that they start in one place and very quickly go someplace else. [4:10] CA: So you would not say to young writers that you have to know where you're going when you start out writing. JS: I don't. In a lot of the projects that I've been working on of late, I have struggled with knowing the ending and plotting everything out.   [4:25] CA: And do you have a favorite plot twist? JS: … I didn't know where Evil Eye was going to go. … It was nice when I thought a story that was really spiraling out of control turned itself around. …   [4:55] CA: And how do you feel about tormenting characters? JS: I seem to have had success with books when I have been tormenting characters. “Oh, it's really awful how you died in that ending of the story.” … You know, you can address a real tangible scary thing that could happen, but in a way that is unlikely to happen or is so ridiculous that it's a little safer. …   [6:20] CA: Do you ever write for adults? JS: I've done a couple of books about movie soundtracks that have just come out. … When I'm writing for young people, I'm still writing for me. My wife and I have collaborated on children's books for emerging readers in grade one and grade two. … But they're still coming from an authentic place…. And they feel authentic to me as they would if I had written for an adult.   [7:20] CA: And how do you typically begin your stories? Like, do you begin with setting the scene? or do you begin in the middle of an action? JS: …. I have a story called “Colonel takes Root” in Tales from Beyond the Brain. The first line is: There was definitely something stuck between Jamie's teeth. And it's literally about something stuck between your teeth taking over your body and your mind. This was a story that was written while my children, my twin children, were infants and I was getting zero sleep. …I can't replicate the feeling of that story without having more kids and not sleeping. …   [8:25] CA: And do you have a favorite POV to write from? JS: Yeah, you know, with horror, I think sometimes first person perspective. I remember Richard Matheson writing, saying something that he didn't invent a lot of characters; he just pretended that he was the character, and what would it be like for him to be in that situation. Because you can always be authentic to yourself. … I write a lot of stories from the perspective of a character, but maybe partway through the story, it shifts and it's somebody else's perspective… there's a perspective shift and a shift in what the reader knows or understands. And sometimes with the reader knows or understands might be more than what a character understands. And that provides suspense. … I find horror and comedy are so intertwined, you know, and what is scary to one character and what is innocuous and silly and funny to another character. There's this nice clash of expectations. And when something is far worse than what you expect, it's very scary. When it's far better than what you expect, it's comedy. But it's all about the subversion of expectations. And that is kind of what makes horror and comedy what they are, sometimes simultaneously…   [11:55] CA: Do you have any favorite scary books? JS: Yeah. You know, I love Richard Matheson. … Joe R Lansdale also is a great short horror story writer I really like. … I love Stephen King, Clive Barker, you know, those guys. These are not children's authors…. For children's writers, Roald Dahl. I think The Witches is far and away his best book. … another great children's horror writer is David Lubar. …. If I was a young writer wanting to explore the world of horror and you were done with Jeff Szpirglas, you can try David Lubar out. He's great…. People say like I want to be a writer. Well, just write. … how you spin that story is unique to each person.   [13:35] CA: And do you have a regular writing practice? … JS: I try to write when I can. I work around the clock as like a teacher and I'm a dad, and I carve out the writing time when I have a break. … I've been way more successful, you know in terms of publishing things, since having children.… It never stopped me. And in fact, you know, you just use the time that you have much more creatively. … I've always tried to write a little bit each day or every other day.   [15:10] CA: Do you keep a journal or a writer's notebook? JS: No, you know what I do? Sticky notes up on my wall. …And even ideas that I filed away can sometimes come back and be a worthwhile premise for a story.   [15:45] CA: And is there somewhere where you get your best ideas? Is it from movies or books or real life or your kids or your own childhood? JS: So, it's a good question. And I think everything you said is the answer…. When I write stories with my wife – we've done a bunch of early reader chapter books –we have one that's coming out in the spring and it's called Shark Bait. … That's a real life scenario. And we've done other stories where they're based on real things that happen in the classroom. I don't need to invent that. I know what a classroom looks like and feels like…. sometimes a horror story works best in the world of the familiar…. Some writers … can evoke eras and times that t don't exist in the real world. … That's not me. …I'm much better at stories that are set in the here and the now.   [17:35] CA: Do you have a favorite setting that you've used in your own books? JS: … Sometimes I'm writing and I'm thinking like it's a movie. …. I always have to remind myself to engage in other senses. Horror especially is very tactile, right? … Setting-wise, I grew up in Dundas, Ontario, the valley town outside of Hamilton. … That's the setting of Evil Eye… It's a distillation of the Hamilton of my youth…   [18:55] CA: Cool. And do you have any phobias or fears? JS: Oh, so many! …Like a middle-aged person, you know, aging. I'm afraid of heights. I'm afraid of really cramped spaces. Fear of failure. You know, lots of fears drive. I have a lot of anxieties. CA: And do you ever use that when you write fiction? JS: Yeah. I think horror is cathartic. Why do we want to watch terrible things happening to people? It does feel cathartic. … It doesn't hide your fears from you; it throws them in your face. It tries to get you to confront them, but in ways that might be more pleasurable than confronting them in a realistic way.   [19:40] CA: Do you have any recommendations to young writers for getting keeping or organizing their ideas? JS: I'm a big fan of sticky notes. … My best thinking is like on a walk….The thinking time and processing time… that's really important when you're writing. … Go for a long walk in the woods. … I don't want to get up and take the dog for a walk, but it actually forces me to like have that time outside. I think it's important….   [21:40] Jeff Szpirglas introduces himself JS: Hello listeners. This is Jeff Szpirglas. I write stories. Many of them are scary. Some of them are very silly. This is the voice in my head sometimes when I write. I've written a bunch of books. Many are for young people; some are for young at heart. But I've written about everything from brains and vomit to scary stories to movie soundtracks. Even an instructional video on parenting when I was a young lad of 23.   [22:25] Find out more about Jeff Szpirglas You can hear more creative writing advice from Jeff Szpirglas on Cabin Tales Episode 5.5, “Author Interviews about Tension,” on Episode 7, “Just Get it Over With,” about endings; and on Episode 8, “The Never-ending Story,” about revision. You can find out more about Jeff Szpirglas and his books from his website at JeffSzpirglas.com.   [23:05] Thanks and coming up on the podcast I'll be back next week with leftovers from my interview with the award-winning children's author Marty Chan. Thanks for listening. Credits Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use). Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com. Guest Author: Jeff Szpirglas is the author of over 20 books for young readers, including entries for Scholastic's “Countdown To Danger” series and Orca's “Tales From Beyond the Brain.” Jeff has worked at CTV and he was an editor at Chirp, chickaDEE, and Owl Magazines. He is a full-time parent and full-time teacher. Visit him online at jeffszpirglas.com .  

An interview with Lisa Dalrymple, author of 11 books for young readers, picture books, novels, and non-fiction, most recently Fierce: Women who Shaped Canada. Hear her advice on creating tension, her attraction to wilderness settings, and her lifelong fear of dark water. 20 minutes. All ages. A full transcript is available at CabinTales.ca. Show Notes [0:00] Intro [1:10] Interview with Lisa Dalrymple CA: …How do you feel about tormenting characters? LD: It's fun. … I can best torment my character by knowing why I'm terrified of and putting my character in a situation that I would find incredibly difficult. So I'm so terrified of dark water … So I took my character and I put him in the middle of the Amazon jungle, swimming in a creek, a tributary off the Amazon…and I had him have to rescue someone. …   [2:15] CA: When you're drafting, do you start at the beginning of the story? LD: I do. And I like to begin my story with action. I like there to be something like a pinnacle moment that is happening, so when the reader opens the book, they are right there in the moment with the character.   [2:35] CA: Do you have any advice for young writers on how to begin their stories? LD: I do. … Spend some time with your character. And then when this plot element happens to them, your readers are like, Whoa… Like the situation that I was talking about. Swimming in the Amazon would be terrifying to anyone, but you take a kid who can't even enter swimming pools if he can't see the bottom, and all of a sudden your reader knows this kid, your reader has been his friend because you set it up and you develop your character to that point and your reader understands just how terrified he really is. …   [3:40] CA: Do you tend to edit yourself as you draft? … LD: I over-edit as I'm writing. … So do as I say, not as I do. …Deadlines come in helpful…   [4:55] CA: You revise as you draft and then do you revise at the end as well, in a separate process from drafting? LD: I do, but there's much less that needs to be done because I've already kind of gone and tweaked every sentence far too much. So at the end, normally what I do at that point is, even now, I give it to a peer. ....   [5:30] CA: Do you ever read your work out loud as you revise? LD: Always…. I don't know if this comes from having started as a picture book writer, and a lot of my picture books rhyme … I would read out loud in order to get not just the rhyme scheme down but that cadence and that meter and to make sure that it felt very natural and not forced. And I find that I can't lose that even when I'm writing prose. …   [6:25] CA: Do you have a favorite POV to write from? LD: I very much like writing from first person present tense. … The last book I wrote … I couldn't write it that way at all because to be nonfiction I had to say “her” not “me,” and of course it was all past tense. So that was an adjustment for me. But … my favourite is definitely first-person, present tense.   [7:10] CA: And do you have a favorite setting from either from your own work or from a favorite piece of fiction? LD: …When you say that I immediately end up in the wilderness, in the woods. … Maybe because of the potential and the mystery that's out there in the woods and that anything can happen. I really like that.   [7:40] CA: And do you do any setting exercises yourself? … LD: …Absolutely. And especially with the work I was doing with the ten women in Fierce, every single one of them, and they were all different time periods …. So I would have to research what was going on in each time period... And I would have maps of where they traveled to the best of our knowledge ...   [8:45] CA: And do you have any exercises that you would recommend to young writers for building either setting or character? LD: I do but I've stolen them from other writers… I have them fill out their application for summer camp … it's amazing how much you can learn from a character just by answering those basic questions. … But … once you've got this filled in, you need to know that you don't have to get every detail that came out of that into your book…especially not on the first page or two.   [10:40] CA: And do you keep a journal or sketchbook? LD: I don't. Unless I'm traveling. … So it's something that I definitely should do more of. …   [11:10] CA: And where would you say you get some of your best ideas? LD: … definitely my kids. …. Just the different insights that they have into the world and the different things that they're confronting and dealing with. They definitely inspire probably everything I've done, really.   [11:40] CA: And do you have any advice to young writers on getting ideas or organizing ideas into stories? LD: I find that whenever I'm called on to write something, … I never have an idea. … But when I'm doing something else … I will have all these ideas … but I never have a chance to write them down. So what I do is I have this little portfolio, filofax kind of thing. And whenever I have an idea, I take a moment and I write it down. … And it's in the box and it means that next time I'm like, “What should I write about? I should start something new,” then I can open the portfolio…   [13:25] CA: …. And do you have a regular writing practice? … LD: Once I come into the world for the morning, I tend to lose whatever creative spark that I might have had. So I make my coffee while the house is getting ready and … I kind of tiptoe out, still in my pyjamas, to my shed. And I sit out here and I write, usually for a couple of hours. Those are my best hours of the morning. …   [14:20] CA: And what were some of the books that influenced you or made you want to write? LD: I grew up in England. I lived there till I was eight. Enid Blyton was a big one for me… I loved her books. And that probably had a big impact on me because a lot of my books were – like when I was ten – were adventure books. You know, kids getting lost in the forest or the wilderness….   [15:20] CA: And did you as a kid have an off-the-cuff storytelling experience, either around the fire or any sort where you made up stories on the fly and told them? LD: I was involved in Girl Guides until I was in my early 20s to be honest. … So we spent a lot of time around the campfire telling stories and singing songs and jokes. …   [15:50] CA: So do you have any favorite scary stories? LD: … I find that I've tried to tell them to my kids when we've been camping. We'll be sitting around the campfire. And I can remember with such clarity the stories that we would hear…. But I cannot for the life of me remember how the story began or ended. So I kind of fail as a campfire storyteller actually…   [16:40] CA: And do you collect anything? LD: I've always been a collector. .... I think the things that I collect these days are very different than when we used to be younger and collect like scratch-and-sniff stickers and friendship bracelets and things like that. I still put together photo albums and I get 4x6s printed of every moment in our lives. … it sounds really cheesy to say that I'm collecting memories.   [17:25] CA: Lovely. Well, this has been very fruitful…. thank you again so much for your time. LD: Okay. …Bye.   [18:05] Lisa Dalrymple introduces herself LD: I'm Lisa Dalrymple. I'm a Canadian writer. And it's kind of difficult to pin me down because I've written picture books and I've written middle-grade novels for older students; I've written nonfiction and I've written fiction. I think I was probably writing as soon as I could hold a pencil. And right now, because there's very little like I can do given Covid, I've actually gone back to high school – even though I have two degrees in English – because I love math and science as well, just to sort of further differentiate. So yeah.   [18:45] Find out more about Lisa Dalrymple You can hear more creative writing advice from Lisa Dalrymple on Cabin Tales Episode 5.5, “Author Interviews about Tension,” on Episode 7.5: “Author Interviews about Endings;” and on Episode 8, “The Never-ending Story,” about revision. You can find out more about Lisa Dalrymple and her books from her website at LisaDalrymple.com.   [19:40] Thanks and coming up on the podcast I'll be back next week with leftovers from my interview with the spooky story author Jeff Szpirglas, who joins me from Hamilton, Ontario. Thanks for listening. Credits Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use). Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com. Guest Author: Lisa Dalrymple has written 11 books for young readers, including Fierce: Women who Shaped Canada, and Skink on the Brink. She now lives in Fergus, Ontario with her husband and their 3 highly-energetic children. Find her online at lisadalrymple.com.

An interview with David McArthur, author of the bestselling picture book, What Does a Caterpillar Do? Hear about David's preference for first person point of view, his love of fantastic takes on real-world settings, and his favourite scary story. 20 minutes. All ages. A full transcript is available at CabinTales.ca. Show Notes [0:00] Intro [1:10] Interview with David McArthur [1:30] CA: Do you tend to know the end of your story when you begin? DM: So I will try and plan. But actually, part of my biggest struggle is I get frustrated at the planning stage. …so I'll write the ending first and then I'll come back and I'll figure out how I get my characters from A to Z. … And I think actually that allows you to … react to situations that are happening and ideas that you get, and you can weave them into the story as you go.   [2:50] CA: … how do you feel about tormenting a character? DM: You don't enjoy it. Well, you kind of do. …   [3:25] CA: Do you have any advice that you would give to young writers who might be stuck in the middle of a story? DM: Yes… So what I try and do when I'm stuck is actually not stop working on the story, but just write out some plot cards, put them into a little bag, and then just draw some out at random. … it gets your creativity firing by doing something that's linked to the story but different to what you've written so far. …   [4:30] CA: And you mentioned opening with dialogue. Is that something that you have ever done? DM: I was taught at a very young age that you don't open a book with dialogue. … It does need to have a hook. You can't really start with something like, “Can I have that piece of pie, please?”   [5:30] CA: You have written a series…How do you handle endings in a story that you know will continue? DM: With the “What does…?” series, they're all individual books. … With the other stories I've written, they are part of this longer story …. I think you really need to end on a question. … It needs to be gripping but at the same time it's got to have a little bit of a down time so you don't feel completely robbed at the end of the story. It certainly is a tricky thing to get right. …   [7:30] CA: And how do you feel about sad endings? DM: … I confess I don't like sad endings. …. I prefer leaving people feeling a little bit more uplifted and that humankind is not such race after all.   [8:05] CA: Do you have a favorite setting from fiction? DM: I like setting my stories in the real world, but a real world with a bit of a twist. ... for example, a story I wrote when I was a student actually was set in the Second World War. But I took the idea based on this news article I had read which said that when the Americans were testing the atomic bomb, they were afraid it was actually going to crack the earth's crust and release [laughter] the citizens of hell into the world. …   [9:50] CA: Do you have any favourite fictional characters? DM: … I love Sherlock Holmes. … without a doubt, he's my favourite fictional character.   [10:15] CA: And are any of your stories based on your own childhood? DM: No, they're not. … I tend to do that with my adult self, not so much my kid self. Mainly, probably because I don't want to put myself in that situation. I'd be too terrified.   [10:45] CA: Do you keep a journal or sketchbook or anything like that? CM: I have done in the past. Usually when I'm in the middle of a story, I keep a journal close so I can actually make notes quickly. With your cell phone these days, it actually has replaced the journal when you've just got ideas. …   [11:05] CA: Do you have any recommendations to young writers for getting or organizing their ideas? DM: … Really listen to the conversations that are happening around you … Or looking at the headlines for the newspaper that day ... It's really about being open to the world around you and not closing yourself off and thinking that all the answers you could possibly have are going to come out of your head. …   [12:40] CA: … about what percentage of time would you spend drafting and what percentage revising? DM: … when I wrote What does a Caterpillar Do? I must've spent easily five or six times as long editing it as I did writing it. … When you're writing a longer book, I tend to probably do the same amount of editing but in terms of proportion of the book, it's probably two or three times as long editing as I did writing it.   [13:34] CA: And do you have any advice to young writers about revising? DM: A little trick that I used to use –you need to do this in the smaller books -- … I would read it backwards. And it allowed you to spot grammatical errors easier because you were actually looking for things more than just letting the book flow through. …   [14:05] CA: And do you ever read your work out loud? DC: Yes, I do. Usually to my kids and my wife, normally as a bedtime story … I'll read them when we're sitting at the campfire. I'll read them to them when we're going on a trip somewhere and they're bored… So I do find it very beneficial, partly because it allows you to live your characters as opposed to reading the characters …   [14:45] CA: And do you have a regular writing practice? DM: Probably not. I probably should. … I have a location I like to go to where I can completely remove all stimuli and it's just a darkened room. … just getting your brain into a state of focus where you're not being distracted by your cell phone or the Internet or the latest news article.   [15:40] CA: Do you have a favorite POV to write from? DM: Yeah, it's usually first person. …   [15:55] CA: Do you work on one project at a time or do you jump around? DM: I do try and stick to one story. …   [16:20] CA: Did you tell stories, did you have an off-the-cuff storytelling experience as a kid? DM: My parents always used to read bedtime stories to us. So we used to have a lot of storytime. Not so much someone making up a story on their own. … I've had a lot of experience with just making up stories on the fly. …   CA: And do you have a favorite scary story? DM: Oh yes. … The book I love is The Woman in Black by Susan Hill, and it's a fantastic tale, a fantastic ghost story. … I still get chills when I read the story now, even though I've read it easily 20, 30 times.   [18:30] CA: And do you have any phobias? DM: I do. … I can't stand scorpions. Even talking about them, I get on edge. I think it stems from— CA: It's the tail. DM: Yeah. Thank you. I'm turning off the screen now…   [19:45] CA: And that's pretty much all my questions, unless you happen to be the seventh son of a seventh son? DM: I'm afraid not. I grew up reading that book, from The Dark is Rising sequence, and loving that book. … I think it's one of the stories that have heavily influenced me as well as a writer.   [20:40] CA: And you mentioned your dyslexia… DM: It's part of the reason I wrote the What does? series… I really wanted to write a book that worked for kids who perhaps couldn't sit down and just follow the regular pattern. … I really wanted to create an interactive book helping kids, give kids the confidence to read.   [21:25] CA: And that's all my questions for you, David. …It's been a pleasure. Bye. DM: Bye.   [21:40] David McArthur introduces himself I'm a children's and young adult author. I've actually had four books published. And my latest is What Does a Caterpillar Do? which actually was the number one bestselling book in Canada. And it was written in memory of two little girls, Chloe and Aubrey Berry, who sadly lost their lives in 2017. And all the profits from that book are being donated to the Victoria Child Abuse Prevention and Counseling Centre. As a writer, I've been writing stories for really as long as I can remember. My dad used to have this really old laptop that I used to type out stories on and my mom would review it and say, You really need to slow down and actually think about what you're writing. So yeah, I've loved stories, I love telling stories to my kids and my wife, and it's been a big part of my life.   [22:35] Find out more about David McArthur You can hear more creative writing advice from David McArthur on Cabin Tales Episode 5.5, “Author Interviews about Tension,” on Episode 6.5: “Author Interviews about Beginnings;” and on Episode 8, “The Never-ending Story,” about revision. You can find out more about David McArthur and his books from the “What Does…?” series website at Morello.ca/aKidsAuthor.   [23:40] Thanks and coming up on the podcast I'll be back next week with leftovers from my interview with the picture book author Lisa Dalrymple. Thanks for listening. Credits Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use). Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com. Guest Author: David McArthur is a graphic designer and creative writer based in Victoria, BC. His “What Does…” picture book series started as a game that David played with his son as they were driving to daycare. Find him online at www.akidsauthor.com.  

An interview with Dr. Sarah Raughley, author of young adult fantasy novels including The Effigies series – Fate of Flames; Siege of Shadows; and Legacy of Light – which she describes as “Sailor Moon meets Pacific Rim.” Hear about her love of third-person point of view, her advice on getting unstuck in your story, and her experience of getting the best ideas when you stop trying to find them. 25 minutes. All ages. A full transcript is available at CabinTales.ca. Show Notes [0:00] Intro [1:25] Interview with Sarah Raughley CA: So first some questions about plotting. …. Do you tend to know what's going to happen when you begin? … SR: I definitely do outline. I'm definitely a plotter. I think that's especially important when you have this big sprawling fantasy. …. So it's good to know the motivations of the characters, it's good to know key driving moments in the plot. But at the same time you can't know everything. So I always, as much as I outline and I plot, I always leave room to be surprised. …   [2:10] CA: … And do you tend to keep the endings that you plan? … SR: I do think the endings change. I'm writing a book now which is coming out under Simon and Schuster called The Bones of Ruin, and it'll be out in Fall 2021. ….And then my editor gets back to me and she's like, I don't like this ending. So I had to rethink and we had to brainstorm, how else can we end this story? Yeah, endings can change even if you have an ending in mind….   [3:30] CA: …And how do you feel about tormenting your characters? SR: I think people expect it. … I think they secretly love it because it keeps you invested in those characters. … If you read his story and that character's path is easy, no matter how much you love that character it's not going to feel real and, whatever the gain at the end of the book, it's not going to feel earned. …And you need to give the characters those sweet moments and those moments of pause and joy as well.   [4:50] CA: …Do you have any advice for getting yourself unstuck in the middle of a story? SR: I've had this experience very recently, and what I did was I just put the book away. … I did other kinds of writing, not even creative writing. … I was able to you know gain some experience writing and editing outside of the realm of novel writing. … And when I came back to the novel, I realized that I was almost rejuvenated. … So I would say, if it's really getting tough, don't be afraid to put it away for some time and just dive into something else. And those ideas will come when you least expect it, when you're not worrying about it.   [6:50] CA: And how do you feel about sad endings? SR: Yeah, I think it depends on the story you're writing. …there are times when sad endings have made me think, they've touched me, they've made me think about life, they made me think about what does it mean to rise above a challenge?. What does it mean to succeed in something? … So I think you need to be open to different kinds of endings, and know that there are different kinds of stories that you can tell that are just as powerful as a happy ending.   [8:30] CA: And a few questions about revision. Some people draft and get it all out and then start revising, and then other people revise as they go. … Do you tend to do one or the other of those things? SR: I revise as I go, but … I concentrate more on … just getting it finished, especially now that I'm on deadlines. …Once you get to the point where you're getting editing letters from an editor -- things are going to change. It doesn't matter whether you painstakingly edited this paragraph, that paragraph might end up being completely cut out of the final draft. So, I always edit as I go just to make sure that the story makes sense, that the ideas and basic motivations and all those things are there. But I make sure that I finish it first…   [9:55] CA: And do you have a critique group or a peer support group or somebody who sees your work in addition to your editor? SR: I've been trying actually to put a group together. … It's not necessarily about sharing work. … But it's just about like commiserating and talking about just being a writer and some of the challenges that we've come across. But these days I don't really have time to  write a draft and then send it over to somebody to read for me before I revise it and send it back to my editor. … But my editor is so phenomenal when it comes to notes that I usually just, I trust her, her point of view. But … I think critique groups have helped a lot of people. …Having other people that you can share your work with, you can talk to – just that alone can be a great help to a writer.   [12:10] CA: And do you have a favorite POV to write from? SR: It's funny because I have always been about sort of limited third person point of view. You're sort of in the mind of the character but it's still a third person POV. … But when I first started writing YA, I was told that a first person POV was more marketable. …But the books I've read have always been in third person and I just really love that POV. So the last two books I wrote have been in third person. … Personally I feel that high fantasies -- you know, big sprawling fantasies – they really lend themselves to a third person POV, and also to multiple points of view. …   [13:40] CA:. And did you have oh do you have a regular writing practice…? SR: I write whenever I feel like writing. … if the words are flowing at 3am, why not write at 3:00 AM? If the words are flowing, you know, at 9:00 PM. That's just how I do it. …I've given the advice before, Well, just block out 30 minutes and you can't do anything else for those 30 minutes. And that can help some people. It might push them to write something, even if it's a sentence. But then it's like, but what if you can't? Then what if you wake up at 3:00 AM with a really great idea and the words are flowing? I wouldn't miss that opportunity. …   [15:10] CA: And do you have a favourite scary story or scary movie? … SR: I don't like scary things at all. … when I was a kid I liked … “Are you Afraid of the Dark?” … on YTV. …But as an adult, I think I'm less brave.   [15:55] CA: Do you have any phobias, any fears? SR: I hate bugs and spiders. That's the big thing. CA: Do you ever put bugs and spiders in your fiction? SR: Nope….   [16:15] CA: And at any stage in writing, do you ever read your work out loud? SR: Sometimes if I really need to. I think more so than reading my work out loud, I will use the voice recorder to record ideas. …   [16:50] CA: Is there somewhere that you get your best ideas? SR: Usually it's when I'm sleeping or when I just wake up. … I think it's in those relaxed states… Those are the times for me when the ideas just kind of come, which is why I need to have a recorder handy in these odd places.   [17:20] CA: And do you keep a journal or just the voice recordings? SR: Just the voice recordings. In terms of a journal, I will often have just a Word document in which I'll … write down, here are the characters, here's the world building, and all that kind of stuff. I'll just put that down in a Word document so I have it all there. …   [18:00] CA: Right. And are any of your stories based on your own childhood or adult life? SR: I think mostly because there's such high fantasies, they're not really based on my own life. I might put little bits of experiences that I've had, but for the most part I think that they're based off of the things that I loved as a child, the stories that I loved as a child. …I don't think I have plans yet to write a book based off of my own childhood because I don't even know what that would look like. …   [19:05] CA: … Do you have any recommendations to young writers for worldbuilding or for developing an effective setting? SR: There are great worldbuilding books out there. …. Oftentimes they'll talk about creating a world that suits the story that you want to tell…You want the story to speak to the setting, you want the setting to speak to the characters, the characters to speak to the setting. …You want to be able to answer the question of why. If your story is set in a floating island, why? Does it have something to do with the isolation from the world below? Is that an important part of your story? … And just keep asking yourself questions -- about language, about culture, about institutions. … And I would always say look out for good worldbuilding books and try to learn from them as much as you can.   [21:46] CA: Thank you so much for your time. …. So good to talk to you. SR: Great to talk to you…. Bye   [22:15] Sarah Raughley introduces herself SR: My name is Sarah Raughley. I'm the author of the YA fantasy trilogy called The Effigies series, which I like to pitch as “Sailor Moon meets Pacific Rim.” I'm also, on top of being an author, I'm a writer and an academic. I'm currently with the University of Ottawa's Human Rights Research and Education Centre, and I do a lot of public writing for magazines like Quill & Quire and other venues like CBC and The Washington Post. So you can catch my work in many different places. And you can catch me on Twitter @S_Raleigh and my website, sarahraleigh.com, if you want to ever hear more of my ramblings or my random tweets. I promise that I try to be as honest and funny as possible. So hello and if you ever want to reach out to me, please do. I love hearing from fans, librarians, teachers, anybody.   [23:35] Find out more about Sarah Raughley You can hear more creative writing advice from Sarah Raughley on Cabin Tales Episode Five: “Squirm,” about Plotting; on Episode 6.5: “Author Interviews about Beginnings;” and on Episode 8, “The Never-ending Story,” about revision. You can find out more about Sarah Raughley and her books from her website at SarahRaughley.com.   [24:30[ Thanks and coming up on the podcast I'll be back next week with leftovers from my interview with the picture book author David McArthur, who joins me from BC. Thanks for listening. Credits Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use). Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com. Guest Author: Dr. Sarah Raughley is the author of five YA fantasy novels, including the bestselling Effigies series and the forthcoming Bones of Ruin series. Her books have been nominated for the Aurora Award for Best Young Adult novel. Find her online at https://sarahraughley.com .  

An interview with Don Cummer, author of the “Jake and Eli” series set during the War of 1812: Brothers at War; A Hanging Offence; and Blood Oath. Hear about Don's love of historical characters, his thoughts on the business of writing and publishing, and his collection of beautifully polished first chapters for books he hasn't finished. (I have such a collection myself.) 25 minutes. All ages. A full transcript is available at CabinTales.ca. Show Notes [0:00] Intro [1:20] Interview with Don Cummer DC: Do I plan things beforehand? History plans it for me …. In order to get characters to the final line where history says they have to be, I have to steer them on all kinds of different directions that they don't want to go. … History tells you where your finish line is and it tells you where the race course is, but it doesn't tell you how to run that race. [2:40] DC: The essence of storytelling is conflict. … there's always that opportunity to just use your imagination and just say, Okay, how can this be made worse? How can you raise the jeopardy? …   [3:40] CA: How do you feel about tormenting your characters? DC: Sometimes you just want to say, wouldn't it be nice if they all can settle down and live happily ever after, mom and dad could tuck them into bed, and the war would be over and they could be off to school the next morning. But that's not my job.   [4:00] CA: How do you feel about sad endings? DC: … I like happy endings, or at least endings where you feel there's a sense of redemption and feel that you've earned something. …And so in my books, each of the books ends with a parting. … Will they be able to maintain their friendship after three years of war? And you'll have to read the books to figure that out.   [5:00] CA: With a series, how can you end a story satisfactorily knowing that it's going to continue? DC: …If I was better at that, then everybody would know how the books would end because the original plan was to end it in three. And by the time we got to three books, the boys are not where they need to be to be at the ending. But this is one of the challenges. …   [5:35] CA: Do you have a favorite plot twist from your own work or other books? … DC: One of my big things about studying history and writing about history is that it's hard to tell who the good guys are and the bad guys are at times. If you're living in the moment, the people who are the good guys may turn out to be monsters when you find out what they're really up to …. Or they become monsters in response to events. So, my favorite twist is to take people who the reader might initially really like at first and in the end you find, Oh my God, this person is really a terrible person. And vice versa… The central spine of the story is about a man named Joe Wilcox. …. He is one of the great traitors in history, and he's in Canadian history. But we've forgotten him. We've erased him from our national memory. …   [8:05] CA: Have you ever opened a story with dialogue? DC: …I don't tend to do it because I think that it's much easier to set a nuanced opening where you can set a scene. …   [8:40] CA: Do you revise while you draft? Or do you just try to get the story out? DC: In my better self, I would say just get it out. But I've got too strong an editor in the back of my head. So sometimes it's hard for me to get out of the early chapters. … I've got beautiful opening chapters of books that will never be published. … So if I had spent that time getting to the end of the story, (a) I would have either have found out that, you know, maybe I needed a different kind of opening; or (b) I would have found that maybe I don't have the interest to carry the story on to completion…. It takes a lot of work and a lot of time to get something through to completion. … If young writers are …thinking of doing a series, I would caution them … it's easier to get the attention of a publisher by something short, easy to produce, and doesn't commit them for years of continuing stories in a series…. There's a business side of writing. We shouldn't be driven by the business side of it – that's the job of somebody else – but we have to be aware of it. …   [11:40] CA: Do you have a favorite point of view to write from? DC: I love writing in first person, but I think that first person's sort of a way to make sure that I don't get carried away by exposition in history. … You've got to deliver the historical background and the social context in a way that doesn't seem intrusive. … In the Jake and Eli books, the first two are written in first person from one character's point of view. The third one is in first person as well, but from the point of view of two characters alternating. And then the fourth one – I'm really having fun with this – it's in third person. … I need to wrestle the timeline back. Writing in first person got me carried away into other directions. My second book veered into the spooky. … [13:30] CA: Do you have any advice on making a spooky atmosphere for the reader? DC: My advice for writing spooky atmospheres is not to hurry it. It comes with layering. … If you're writing a novel or story where it's otherwise a normal world and you're expecting a normal world, and you introduce the weird elements bit by bit, and all of a sudden your character realizes, Hey, I don't want to be here anymore. … Once you get to that point and it's really spooky, then you start increasing the jeopardy.   [14:45] CA: Do you have any favorite settings from fiction? DC: Setting is everything in historical novels. I'm going to do a shout-out to my friend Karen Bass and The Hill. It's a story about a boy from the city who's been in a plane crash and he's with an indigenous friend and they have to escape. But the way that she sets that world in northern Alberta is just wonderful… Jake and Eli … made me get reacquainted with the town of Niagara on the Lake in Ontario. … My imagination for years has been living in this town, and the streets are still the same. The layout of the town is still the same. The fort it is still there the way it was. … You can walk those streets and you can picture what the tannery would've been like at the end of that road, and Dunwoody house at the corner, and here's the headquarters where General Brock has his office. It's wonderful to be able to evoke that, but also to be able to go and step into it and live it again.   [17:15] CA: So you would recommend to young writers, if there is a setting similar to what they're writing, to actually go there and put themselves into their world. DC: … you can find equivalents. A graveyard is a graveyard, if you're doing your spooky story. … The graveyard in Niagara on the Lake actually was the battlefield. … The battle of Lundy's Lane, which is the big climax of the Jake and Eli story, was fought in a graveyard at midnight. … when I started these stories, zombie stories were all the rage. So I thought, you know, why don't I just go with the flow? General Brock has been dead for a year and a half but he rises from the grave and he leads the zombie army in the graveyard at night, to push the American invaders back. … I hope somebody takes that idea sometime and runs with it because there is a zombie story waiting to be written about the War of 1812.   [18:30] CA: Do you do character exercises? Like some people write in a diary as their character or interview their character or do character sketches. Do you ever do that sort of side work? DC: No I don't. I admire people who do. It shows real discipline. I just want to get down to writing, to telling the story. You know, you have to be aware that it may take you in places that you weren't planning to go….   [19:00] CA: Are any of your stories based on your own childhood? DC: My main character is named Jacob, and my son is named Jacob. And people ask me, Is Jake in the story based upon my son? Absolutely not. My son is more like Eli, just out there, flamboyant, just fun-loving. Jacob is actually more like what I was like. You know, quiet, contemplative… it's easy to write yourself into characters, but … I have a lot more fun writing about Eli than about Jake. …   [19:45] CA: Have you ever turned your fears into fiction? DC: …When I started working on the second book and it started turning to the supernatural, it got into a lot of things that I'm probably subconsciously concerned about. The idea that this world that we see, we're not seeing everything… or fear that the people that we know may not be who we think they are. …   [21:00] CA: Do you have any recommendations to young writers for getting ideas for stories? DC: Yeah I do: read. Read newspapers. … And every time I read a history book I come across stuff that I say, oh man, somebody's got to turn that into a script or a novel. This is just too good. … Read.   [23:00] CA: Excellent. You've had so much good advice. … I wish you well with continuing the series. DC: Thank you.   [23:30] Don Cummer introduces himself DC: Hi. My name is Don Cummer. I'm from Calgary, Alberta, but I'm living between Ottawa, Ontario and Dublin, Ireland these days. I am the author of a series of books about three boys growing up in the War of 1812, the Jake and Eli stories. And I'm a historical novelist. I love history. And I'm really looking forward to Catherine's questions.   [24:00] Find out more about Don Cummer You can hear more creative writing advice from Don Cummer on Cabin Tales Episode Five: “Squirm,” about Plotting; on Episode 6.5: “Author Interviews about Beginnings;” and on Episode 8, “The Never-ending Story,” about revision. You can find out more about Don Cummer and his books from his website at DonCummer.com.   [25:10] Thanks and coming up on the podcast I'll be back next week with leftovers from my interview with the young adult fantasy author Sarah Raughley, who joins us from Ottawa. Thanks for listening. Credits Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use). Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com. Guest Author: Don Cummer is the author of the “Jake and Eli” stories published by Scholastic, set during the War of 1812. The first book, Brothers at War, was short-listed for the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young Readers. Don spends his time between Canada and Ireland – where he's finding many more stories to tell. Find him online at www.doncummer.com .  

And interview with Kate Inglis, author of 5 books for all ages, including the middle-grade novels The Dread Crew and Flight of the Griffons; the non-fiction memoir for adults, Notes for the Everlost, and the picture books, If I were a Zombie and A Great Big Night. Hear about her addiction to endless revision, the companionship she finds in fictional characters, and how her first novel began with a story she told her child just to pass the time. 25 minutes. All ages. A full interview transcript is available at CabinTales.ca. Show Notes [0:00] Intro [1:10] Interview with Kate Inglis   CA: Are you a planner? Do you know the ending of your story when you begin? KI: No, I never do. …I feel like the act of writing is how I find the shape. My brain will kind of spit me out somewhere in the middle, a scene that just grabs me. … And then my thinking has to sort of spray outwards in every direction… And so sometimes I have a loose sense of what kind of a story it might be, but I don't know for certain until I give the characters a chance to tell me.   [2:15] CA: Do you have any favorite fictional characters from children's fiction? KI: I love all of Roald Dahl's characters…He was never afraid of letting stories be truly disorienting …And I remember loving Girl of the Limberlost when I was a kid. … a very sort of unusual, very smart, very nature-oriented girl….   [3:15] CA: …. How do you feel about tormenting your characters? KI: Oh, like giving a dog a good bone to chew on. … The stuff that really fortifies you and turns you into the person you're meant to be is the tough stuff. … The stories that I love to write the most are always going to be the ones where people, you can see the gravity of whatever it is they're carrying…. Because we all have that on us, right? [4:20] CA: Have you ever written a series? You have…. Did you did you know you were going to write a sequel? KI: No. … I didn't start writing The Dread Crew thinking I was writing a book. I just told a story to a 6-year-old in the woods because he was bored and we had a long way to walk. … And eventually it became a book. … I think by the time I was finished writing it, I knew that I would want to write another one.   [6:00] CA: How do you feel about sad endings? KI: Well I mean, that's life, isn't it? … I think there is absolutely such a thing as a sad ending done really beautifully, that still leaves the reader feeling enriched …It's not so much about Was the ending quote good or bad? It's, Was it done well? … A story with an ending that some people might consider sad, those are some of the best stories we have.   [6:55] CA: Is there a typical amount of time… that you would spend … drafting vs revising? KI: I would love to kind of chart that when I write my next novel… I actually love the process of editing. But the process of filling empty pages has always been more of a challenge for me. … I guess it might be 50/50. … The last novel that I wrote, that's with my agent now, I was probably working on it in earnest for about a year and a half… And then editing has been a very intense probably 8 months. But then that first year and a half was a ton of editing as well. … And as it turns out, I ended up re-sending her 6 drafts. …   [10:00] CA: What would you say is the hardest thing about writing a good story? … KI: … Getting over yourself. Just getting through to the point where you can keep sitting your butt down in the chair and keep cranking on the word count …. Even when you think you're no good, even when you think that probably the story isn't coming together, step away from it for a bit and then come back. Drop yourself somewhere else in the story. But whatever you do, just keep going. …   [11:30] CA: Excellent Do you have a favorite POV to write from? … KI: I always write it as kind of the observing narrator. I've never written in first person. … As the narrator, I'll kind of jump in here and then out again and then over there in terms of time. …You can sort of reach in with his giant hand and kind of move things around and adjust the pacing and the flow so that it just feels like it's balanced. And I guess that's me. I'm the hand, the giant hand.   [13:00] CA: And do you keep a regular writing practice? … KI: … I'm kind of a plodder. …I write when the spirit moves. … sometimes it's quite late into the night…I have a hard time sleeping. All I can hear in my head is [my characters'] voices. … And now that I've finished writing that book … I miss them. …A lot of people I think would find the process of writing a book perhaps to be really lonely … But I find myself very much kept company by my characters. …There is sort of this long stretch in the middle when you're creating, when I think we're most vulnerable to self-doubt, which is I think our sort of zone of abandonment as writers. …. All of us hit that point. … And that's okay. I just need to keep going through the fog.   [17:05] CA: What scared you as a kid? KI: …Not fitting in. … And at the same time… I didn't particularly want to fit in. … I didn't want to be like everyone else. …The older you get, the more you can make that possible for yourself. You can absolutely fit in and … not have to be like everyone else….   [18:40] CA: How important is setting to you when you write? … KI: Settings are crazy important. Settings are like another character for me. When I'm developing setting, I feel like a photographer when I write. …The setting of the novel that I just wrote is an abandoned house… so it's a very evocative place to write in. … It's a very useful tool to use setting and place as a way of showing and not telling what a character is driven by, what scares them, how they react to the world. … So place is absolutely elemental for me.   [20:45] CA: Are there setting or character exercises that you recommend to young writers? KI: … I don't do a whole lot of exercises. I'll just be in a project and I'll kind of keep going in the project. …Just start something. … Once you have the bones of a story…  do a little bit of freeform… journaling. … almost like you're being interviewed about the character. … I'm a big journaler, so I'm a big believer in that.   [21:55] CA: Do you have recommendations to young writers for getting or organizing ideas? KI: … I love having a big journal… And doodling and kind of free association and lists. I only just started writing with Scrivener, and that has been really useful for me in writing … novels. …Another thing that I do is I have a Pinterest, almost like it's my bulletin board. … So I'll often kind of clip and save stuff from online that feel evocative to me, somebody's smile or someone's boots, pictures of a setting, or maps, or other descriptions, or quotes that inspire me. …. I can kind of go there and tap into those warm mushy feelings about the project. It helps me remember to why I'm doing it, because I'm moved by this vision, by this idea.   [24:05] CA: Very cool. … Thank you so much… KI: It's been so fun to chat. … Bye   [24:20] Kate Inglis introduces herself KI: I'm Kate Inglis. And I'm an author. I've dabbled in kids' picture books and middle-grade adventures and adult nonfiction and adult novels as well. And I've been writing ever since I was a kid. And I always knew that I wanted to be an author but I wasn't always certain what I would say, what stories I would tell. And so much of my adult life has been keeping an eye out for those stories and sort of listening, like through a tin-can telephone, very very quietly for those characters that pop up, and learning how to chase them when I hear that call. So that's me.   [25:20] Find out more about Kate Inglis You can hear more creative writing advice from Kate Inglis on Cabin Tales Episode 5.5, “Author interviews about Plotting; and on Episode 6, “Begin in the Darkness,” about Beginnings; and on Episode 8, “The Never-ending Story,” about Revision.  You can find out more about Kate Inglis and her books from her website at KateInglis.com.   [26:10] Thanks and coming up on the podcast  I'll be back next week with leftovers from my interview with Don Cummer, author of historical fiction for young readers. Thanks for listening. Credits Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use). Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com. Guest Author: Kate Inglis is an award-winning author for adults and children. Her novels, non-fiction, and poetic picture books are infused with the salt, woodsmoke, and fresh air of the North Atlantic coast. Kate is also a photographer and a corporate writer. Find her online at www.kateinglis.com.  

An interview with Farida Zaman, author-illustrator of I Want to Be: A Gutsy Girl's ABC, and illustrator of more than a dozen picture books and early readers. Hear about her love of fractured fairy tales, her dedication to creating a signature style, and her own experience of being a gutsy girl when she chose a life in the arts. 20 minutes. All ages. A full interview transcript is available at CabinTales.ca. Show Notes [0:00] Intro [1:10] Interview with Farida Zaman FZ: I illustrate and write now. I used to only illustrate. … my debut author-illustrator project with Second Story Press came out in spring 2020 called I Want to Be: A Gutsy Girl's ABC. CA: … Do you have projects that you're writing and illustrating both right now? FZ: Yes. … I'm illustrating a picture book written by my daughter, Layla Ahmad. …And I'm … finished a manuscript that I'm fleshing into a book dummy. …   [2:10] CA: …Do you work on more than one book at a time? FZ: Very much so. … I also do educational work … schoolbooks and book covers …. I used to do much more editorial and design and advertising…. I'm working on a collection of jigsaw puzzles … I wear a couple of different hats.   [2:50] CA: …. Is there a place where you get your best ideas from? FZ: My best ideas come from what I see around me. I take a lot of notes. …. I like trying out new things. … So my audience will see something different in my work. But I try and keep my look as unique as possible.   [3:40] CA: Are there some favorite projects? FZ: …Years ago I did a … on Moghul emperors, and the author was Rina Singh. [The book is The Foolish Men of Agra.] And it was really really exciting to research the history of these people. I'm drawn to textures, textiles, and cultures…it kind of gave me the opportunity to study and to decorate the book. …   [4:15] CA: Have you ever based a story or illustration on your own childhood? FZ: … Emotions perhaps. The Gutsy Girl came out from a place of shooting for the stars. …That was always my goal growing up. … My parents originally wanted me to study something way more academic. … I wanted to show the family thatyou can make a living doing what you love. …   [5:30] CA: …Have you ever been inspired by another artist's work? FZ: … Jane Ray -- she's a British writer -- she's always inspired me. …She has a great knack of retellings … her work just looks like tapestry to me. …   [6:30] CA: Have you illustrated fairy tales or classic myths or anything like that yourself? FZ: … Jack and the Beanstalk…. It's sort of like a fractured fairy tale…. It can be really exciting that way.   [6:55] CA: Have you ever written or illustrated anything spooky, scary? FZ: I've done things about anxiety…. Like monsters … versus a little girl. … But nothing really kind of out of the box scary….   [7:15] CA: Do you do school visits? FZ: I do. I illustrated up book on yoga…by Kathy Beliveau. … that was a very fun book to work with students … The art component is really fun, drawing your favorite pose.   [8:00] CA: … What would your journal look like? Like, is it messy? Is it organized? FZ: … I'd like to be the person that shows it on Instagram page by page and it looks so delicious and beautiful. Not my sketchbook. … I have a sketchbook for picture book ideas, where I do storyboarding, …stick figures and …notes. I think that's really important. …When you get stuck with the words, it really helps that you can draw because then you see where the gap might be and how melds together ….   [9:30] CA: Do you have any recommendations to young artists or young writers for getting or keeping or organizing ideas? FZ: I think keeping a sketchbook is crucial. … Find inspiration in where you are and, you know, what you like to do also.   [9:50] CA:... Are you a planner? Or do you just see what you're going to come up with? FZ: … I'm not a planner. I do things spontaneously. … And then I start tweaking. … When you plan too much, you can lose certain components of the story. …It's really interesting to look at the older version of a story that may be becoming a book… It's so exciting when you see that happen.   [11:30] CA: Do you have any favorite plot twists… or surprises? FZ: I like a good giggle. … something different, something that changes something old to something new.   [12:15] CA: Do you have any techniques for making an interesting middle? FZ: The pacing of the story is so important. …. Sometimes we tend to come to a climax a little sooner in the book…. It's like a jigsaw puzzle … And sometimes the clicking takes a long longer than you think it might. … It really helps if there's some kind of twist in the middle … It is important to look at the story in different ways….   [13:45] CA: …Do you have a favorite first line…? FZ: I like a direct beginning and something that takes you straight into the story. …introduce your character. … who is it and what does she want? …. I like going straight to the point.   [14:30] CA: Nice. Do you have a favourite … ending? FZ: For picture books, I think circular stories work the best… For a child, it's a nice warm cozy feeling.   [15:05] CA: Do you have a favorite POV to write from? FZ: A child's point of view. I tend to work … in present tense… I find that kids relate to that. It's happening when they're listening to it. …   [15:30] CA: And what scared you as a kid? FZ: The dark. As a kid, I was a very anxious child …. People are more open to talking about it now. … In the past, people like myself growing up, it wasn't easily dealt with….   [16:30] CA: Did you tell stories around the campfire as a kid? FZ: … Later on maybe, as a teenager…. But not as a child. CA: You don't like scary stories. FZ: Not particularly. …. I think monster stories are really cute, but I like friendly characters. I'm not into developing mean personalities. CA: Do you have a favorite sweet monster or funny monster? FZ: I love Cookie Monster. I love Grover. Sesame Street. I like that kind of monster. … Maurice Sendak's monsters. The classic. CA: Yes, he said he based those on his relatives who ruined every Sunday dinner. FZ: I can relate to that.   [17:30] CA: Do you collect anything? FZ: I love collecting things. I collect bowls. … I collect toys. … that are little retro. … I love collecting children's picture books. … CA:I think it's a shame that so many people never touch a picture book once their kid's over 5. …   [18:10] CA: What would you say is the hardest thing about illustrating or writing a good book? FZ: I think word count can be quite challenging. …How do you make that work within 500 words or, tops, 700 words? How do you make it really interesting and stylized and rich, visually?   [18:45] CA: … What do you do to prepare to make a setting? … FZ: … I'll go online and look at furniture and … what she should wear, her neighborhood….. I think layouts are really important. … And the perspective …. To create drama, I think it's really important. And creating a sense of contrast. Big and small. I think you can do that in your illustrations and you can do it in your words as well.   [20:05] CA: Do you have any favorite fictional characters? FZ: … The Big Red Lollipop. … by Rukhsana Khan. It's illustrated by Sophie Blackall. It's a lovely book. Personality really shines through. …. The eyes just tell you a story…   [20:50] CA: Do you have any exercises you would recommend for developing the character? FZ: I think it's important to know what your style is… have a sketchbook filled with sketches of realistic, and then pare it down to something more simple. … it's good to have different styles, but there should be a limit to it. Otherwise people will never know you. …   [22:00] CA: That's great. … Thanks so much. …   [22:15] Farida Zaman introduces herself FZ: Hi. I'm Farida Zaman. I'm an author and an illustrator. I illustrate picture books. And I'm writing picture books as well now. I've been doing this for the past three decades now, and I just love what I do. In my early years, I used to do a lot of editorial work as well, and I used to print and design. In between writing and illustrating, I also run workshops and art classes, too, for mainly adults.   [23:00] Find out more about Farida Zaman You can hear more creative writing advice from Farida Zaman on Cabin Tales Special Episode X: “Picture a Story.” You can find out more about Farida Zaman and her books from her website at FaridaZaman.com.   [23:45] Thanks and coming up on the podcast I'll be back next week with leftovers from my interview with Kate Inglis, author for all ages. Thanks for listening. Credits Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use). Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com. Guest Author: Farida Zaman is a Toronto-based illustrator, author, and educator known for her upbeat, sophisticated, and whimsical style. She has worked with clients including the Latin Grammy Awards, The New York Times, UNICEF, London Underground, Toronto Transit Commission and many more. Farida has illustrated more than a dozen picture books. Her first authored and illustrated picture book – I Want to Be: A Gutsy Girl's ABC – was published in 2020. She is currently an instructor at Toronto's Avenue Road Art School, where she runs art workshops and illustration classes for adults and children. Find her online at www.FaridaZaman.com, on Twitter @fzamanart, and on Instagram @fzamanart.  

An interview with Lena Coakley, author of critically acclaimed young adult and middle-grade fantasy novels, including Witchlanders, Worlds of Ink and Shadow, and Wicked Nix. Hear about Lena's love of worldbuilding, her ambition to write a sweeping Dickensian story, and her thoughts on the importance of daydreaming. 20 minutes. All ages. A full transcript is available at CabinTales.ca. Show Notes [0:00] Intro [1:10] Interview with Lena Coakley CA: Are any of your stories based on your own childhood? LC: I think they all are, whether I want them to be or not. … Rider's mother had something akin to a mental illness… Wicked Nix is all about the need for a lonely person to find a family… I think it's almost pointless to advise writers to write about their own lives because when you write, it's going to come out. …   [2:20] CA: Do you keep a journal? LC: I don't. …. I just try to put it all into my writing.   [2:30] CA: Do you find that you get your best ideas from somewhere in particular? LC: I find that I get ideas all the time… the trick is to sift through them and find the ones that you want to … live with for a year or more…   [3:00] CA: Do you have any recommendations to young writers for getting or organizing their ideas? LC: I just daydream. … I think if you tell your yourself a story over and over again, and it continues to satisfy you, maybe it's time to write it down. …   [4:00] CA: And do you have any favorite settings from fiction? … LC: … I love fantasy, but the thing that actually sprang to mind was Wuthering Heights. …When writing Worlds of Ink and Shadow, I went to the parsonage, I walked on the moors….   [5:30] CA:. Are there any worldbuilding exercises that you would recommend to young writers? LC: … The Science Fiction Writers of America has a great website which gives you a whole list of questions you can ask yourself when you're writing a fantasy setting. … We're all interconnected, and that's true whether you are creating a setting that's realistic or a fantasy setting. So kind of following those interconnections and see where they lead… just kind of thinking about this world, and daydreaming about it, and following those threads. …   [6:45] CA: And what about character exercises? … LC: I do them if I'm having trouble. For Witchlanders in particular, … But generally if I'm not running into trouble with a character, then I just kind of discover them through the writing of the book.   [7:30] CA: Do you have a favorite fictional characters…? LC: I was raised by my grandmother , and she read David Copperfield out loud to me. … I can't really remember what she sounded like sounds like until I read that book. … I do love David Copperfield and his adventures.   [8:15] CA: Do you have advice for young writers stuck halfway in a story? LC: Well, that was me … I wouldn't know how to finish them. …All I can say is that what I did with Witchlanders was just decide that I was not going to put that book away. And it was ten years. … Just keep chipping away at it, and you'll get that first book written …   [8:55] CA: Do you have a a favorite first line…/ LC: In my own work I think it would be Witchlanders: “Ryder woke to the sound of clattering bones.” … I also picked out another one from The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness: “The first thing you find out when your dog learns to talk is that dogs don't got nothing much to say.” …It gets the character across. But also … it raises questions in the reader's mind that must be answered. …   [9:55] CA: And have you written a sequel? LC: I have never written a sequel because I actually don't love reading series books. … I want a new world. …   [10:20] CA: And have you ever written anything scary? LC: …There's a piece of short fiction I wrote called “Cold Spots” which was podcasted, which was kind of a horror piece. …There are some scary parts in Witchlanders….There's a boy who goes through a cave full of spiders….It's always nice to kind of go down that hole in your writing and kind of explore …discomfort….   [11:20] CA: …How much time do you typically spend drafting a story … and revising it? LC: By the time I actually really get to the end it's in pretty good shape because I've gone back and combed over so much. …   [12:15] CA: …Do you have advice to young writers on critiquing or forming critique groups? LC: I formed a number of different critique groups over the years. … I think no one is going to be very good at critiquing when they start out. You're learning how to critique just the way you're learning how to write. But I think it's been very valuable to me to learn how to self-edit, to look at other people's work and kind of try to figure out … what the problems are.   [13:05] CA: What would you say is the hardest thing about writing a good story? LC: …Honestly, it's all kind of hard….   [13:40] CA: Do you have a favorite POV to write from? LC: … I kind of started with third person, limited third person. … Right now I'm writing in first person. … But my ambition is to someday write a big sweeping omniscient story Dickensian story….   [14:50] CA: Do you have a regular writing practice? LC: … I will definitely be writing by 9:00 AM with a cup of coffee, at least until one or two. … CA: How long have you been working on the book that you're working on now? LC: … it's been a couple of years.   [15:25] CA: Do you work on one project at a time? LC: I do….   [16:10] CA: Do you read your work out loud at any point in your writing? LC: … I always believe kind of right before a book goes to kind of final proofreading that I will do an out loud reading to myself, just read an entire novel. … You do find things you don't find any other way, little mistakes, little duplications of words that you didn't really notice.   [16:50] CA: What scared you as a kid? LC: I think being alone, being in the dark, dark water. …. Those kind of big dark spaces where I didn't know what was in there…. CA: Have you ever used those fears in any of your fictions? LC: …There's a lot of water … in the book I'm writing now, and maybe that is something I should try to explore….   [17:25] CA: Did you tell stories around a fire as a kid …? LC: Not so much around a fire. But my dad was a theatre teacher … and I remember him reciting Shakespeare to me before bed and doing the comic roles. …. I just remember laughing and laughing at that when I was a kid.   [18:00] CA:. And you're not the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter, are you? LC: No, I'm an only child…. I write about siblings all the time because I'm so interested in siblings. …   [19:00] CA: Have you ever had a crisis of confidence as a writer? LC: I don't like public speaking very much. …. The wonderful thing about writing is that if you don't like it, and you don't want to share it, you don't have to. …   CA: And since you don't like public speaking, I really have to give you extra thanks for taking part in this, because you speak so well. … LC: Nice talking to you….Bye.   [20:00] Lena Coakley introduces herself LC: Hello. My name is Lena Coakley. I live in Toronto. I'm the author of two young adult novels, Worlds of Ink and Shadow and Witchlanders. I'm also the author of Wicked Nix, my first middle-grade novel about a feral boy living in the woods who thinks he's a fairy.   [20:35] Find out more about Lena Coakley You can hear more creative writing advice from Lena Coakley on Cabin Tales Episode Five: “Squirm,” about Plotting; on Episode 7.5: “Author Interviews about Endings;” and on Episode 8, “The Never-ending Story,” about revision. You can find out more about Lena Coakley and her books from her website at LenaCoakley.com.   [21:40] Thanks and coming up on the podcast I'll be back next week with leftovers from my interview with the illustrator and picture book author Farida Zaman.  Thanks for listening. Credits Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use). Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com. Guest Author: Lena Coakley was born in Milford, Connecticut. In high school, creative writing was the only class she ever failed—nothing was ever good enough to hand in! She has since published two YA novels, Worlds of Ink and Shadow and Witchlanders. Wicked Nix, her first book for middle-grade readers, was nominated for numerous awards. Find her online at www.lenacoakley.com.  

An interview with Cary Fagan, multi-award-winning author of over 40 books, including short story collections, picture books, middle-grade novels, and adult novels. Hear about his typically lengthy revision process, his love of texts within texts, and his experiments with narrative voice and how he has come to look differently at the idea of rules for writing fiction. 25 minutes. All ages. A full transcript is available at CabinTales.ca. Show Notes [0:00] Intro [1:20] Interview with Cary Fagan   CF: It's very hard to be pretentious as a children's writer. …   [2:45] CA: Have you ever based a story on other stories?... CF: … I can think of picture books I've written where structurally I have learned from some other book and adapted the way that author dealt with how to tell a story and told my own story using some of the things that they had figured out… I would say The Boy in the Box… was really influenced by Dickens. …   [4:35] CA: You've written about siblings; did you have siblings as a kid? CF: I have two older brothers… they had no artistic bones in their body, it seems. And it was a way I could define myself that was different from my brothers. … I've written about siblings a lot, but not in a way that's like my brothers. … My Kaspar Snit books, which I wrote early in my career… I was in a classroom and a kid put up his hand and he said, Why is it that the brother and the sister in the book never argue? … And I it was that kid who really made me think about trying to make them more realistic. …   [7:20] CA: Do you have a favorite plot twist…? CF: … The books that I really like, like for example I love Kate DeCamillo…It's really the voice of her books that I love…   [8:05] CA: Do you have any techniques to recommend for building tension…? CF: …Events in your novel need to have consequences. … I like to define my characters by having them make decisions. … All decisions have consequences, and making those consequences potentially bad and uncertain, I think, is what creates the tension. … There is a fallout from it that makes us worry for the character's future.   [9:50] CA: Do you have a favorite first line…? CF: …I think first lines are important… That does not mean the first line has to be, “As Gerald looked over the cliff's edge he thought of how his poor parents would miss him.” …. To be honest with you, for me it's much more a matter of getting the voice right. … I probably could name a lot of Dickens' novels, like David Copperfield…   [10:45] CA: Have you ever opened with dialogue? CF: Yes. Danny who Fell in a Hole opens with … “'It's really nothing to worry about,' Danny's mother said.” …So yes, I have opened with dialogue. I would say not that often though….   [11:25] CA: Have you had a narrator who talks directly to the reader? CF: Yes. I love thinking about the relationship between the voice of the book and the reader because really, that is your point of intimacy, of contact, is that voice. … I definitely love to think about what that relationship is. Some stories, I feel, have to be in third person because the character just doesn't have the sort of voice where he or she could tell her story, even if it's to an imaginary reader. …   [12:40] CA: And have you ever switched points of view while drafting…? CF: I did that for an adult novel. … The Collected Works of Gretchen Oyster has two voices…. A few years ago I would have probably told you, You can't have this first person voice interrupted without any explanation by a third person voice giving you information that your main character doesn't have… But as I get older, I realize that you can break the rules….   [14:20] CA: Have you ever written an unreliable narrator? CF: Probably not. I like the idea of one. It's really a hard thing to do. …   [15:05] CA: Do you tend to revise as you draft or does it change book by book? CF: It doesn't. I'm extremely consistent. I will start a novel on page one and I'll write it to the end. And then I'll put it down for a while. … I'll wait at least three months. Sometimes I'll wait a year… I'll create a scheme of what I actually did in my first draft and I'll note the scenes that I like and I'll note the scenes that I don't think are working… And then I will write a second draft by starting on page one and rewriting the entire thing. And then I'll do that 3-6 times. I used to do it like 12 times. …You know which draft I love is draft 3… the third draft is often the one that gets it to the point where I think, Yes, this is actually a book that I'm going to want to publish eventually. …   [18:00] CA. And do you read your work out loud at any point in your writing? CF: Yes I do, wearing funny hats often. …Unfortunately we're not going into schools right now, but I will read something new to the kids. … It is really nice to have an audience.   [18:50] CA: Did you tell stories around account fire as a kid? CF: I don't think so. But I did start writing early when I was a kid. …I actually won my grade six public speaking contest by writing a speech, but apparently I was terribly boring in how I presented the speech. …. I hope I'm better at it. CA: Have you ever written that experience in some way into one of your books? CF: I haven't, but I do have a novel idea about a public speaking contest at school which I do want to write. … So don't write it, if you're listening to this. …   [20:35] CA: And do you have any collections? CF: I collect postcards, vintage postcards, … And to some degree I collect chapbooks, like small press chapbooks…. But when I was a kid… I had a collection of beach glass. I liked to collect rocks. …I did write a book called Mr. Karp's Last Glass, which is about a kid who collects things, who meets a man who has very strange collection… of … famous water….   CA: That's excellent. Thank you so much, Cary…. CF: Have a good day. Cheers. Bye bye.   [22:30] Cary Fagan introduces himself   CF: Hi. I'm Cary Fagan. And I am a writer of novels for kids, what we like to call middle-grade novels rather than teen novels, and picture books, and I also write quite a lot for adults. I have been writing since I was a kid. And I can look back now and see that kid is still a great influence on me as an adult writer, that the way I write as an adult is very thoroughly and deeply connected to the way I wrote as a kid and my interests as a kid. I live in Toronto and I like to do other things, but I still love to write. And I'm grateful for that.   [22:30] Find out more about Cary Fagan   You can hear more creative writing advice from Cary Fagan on Cabin Tales Episode 3.5: “Author Interviews about Inspiration”; on Episode 4.5: “Author Interviews about Plotting”; and on Episode 8, “The Never-ending Story,” about revision. You can find out more about Cary Fagan and his books from his website at CaryFagan.com. [24:30] Thanks and coming up on the podcast   I'll be back next week with leftovers from my interview with Lena Coakley, author of middle-grade and young adult fantasy novels. Thanks for listening.  Credits Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use). Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com. Guest Author: Photo by Mark Reynes Roberts Cary Fagan writes picture books and novels for children and adults. His many awards include the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award, the IODE Jean Throop Award, the Betty Stuchner--Oy Vey!--Funniest Children's Book Award, and the Vicky Metcalf Award for Literature for his body of work. Cary lives in Toronto. Find him online at https://www.caryfagan.com.  

An interview with Dr. Kari-Lynn Winters, associate professor of language arts and author of more than 27 books for the very young, fiction and non-fiction, standalones and series. Hear about her love of unreliable narrators, her balance of many writing projects at once, and her fear of dogs, horses and ghosts. 25 minutes. All ages. A full transcript is available at CabinTales.ca. Show Notes [0:00] Intro [1:10] Interview with Kari-Lynn Winters   CA: Do you have any suggestions for young writers on how to get or organize ideas? KLW: Oh, organize. Don't do it! Don't organize. …Stay playful.   [2:30] CA: Do you have a favorite plot twist? KLW: I love plot twists. … Even if you think way back to The Monster at the End of this Book… That's a great book to model after…   [3:00] CA: Do you have any favorite techniques for building tension? KLW: … Not focusing on the thing that's scary but focusing on the responses people are having. … I think what's really important is to slow those moments down and really focus…when it's the scariest part….   [4:25] CA:. And do you have a favorite first line from your own books? KLW: … from Bad Pirate…: Barnacle Garrick was bad natured and horrible, which most pirates would say was good, very good. Augusta Garrick was good natured and kind, which most pirates would say was bad, very bad…   [5:10] CA: And have you ever opened with a piece of dialogue? KLW: … I like to start with dialogue, although … a lot of times you're writing a picture book for a child that can't read … Sometimes you need to … establish character before you can go into the dialogue.   [6:10] CA: And do you have advice for young writers on how to begin a story? … KLW: … write about having nothing to write about. … Or you might also think about finding different things and just putting them together and meshing them together and just asking the question “What if? What if this happened?” …You could also riff off a story that you really love and take that story further.   [6:55] CA: And what about endings? … KLW: The ending needs to connect to the beginning. …   [7:50] CA: Do you have a favorite fictional settings…?  KLW: I love the setting of Best Pirate. Oh, it reminds me of Saint Lucia… I also love the settings that Chris Van Allsburg creates… they're so detailed and beautiful. …   [8:50] CA: And do you have favorite fictional characters…? KLW: … from my own books, I love Barnacle Garrick. …I like all my characters. …. I love like Wimpy Kid …. I love Pigeon. …. I love Scaredy Squirrel. … I love characters that are really dynamic. … Scaredy Squirrel ends up being brave at some point, and Wimpy Kid ends up being strong at some point, and Pigeon is less demanding…   [10:15] CA: And do you have any exercises that you would recommend to young writers for either developing a setting or a character? KLW: Why not try drawing it or creating it with plasticine or… photographs….   [10:45] CA: Do you work on one project at a time? KLW: Oh no. …. I would be 90 years old by the time I got two books published if I did that. …. There's lots of ideas that I'm slowly working on…. obviously the process works for me. But it's not a quick process. ...   [12:35] CA: Do any of your stories include memorable objects? KLW: … I have a manuscript that I'm working on called “The Masterpiece” and an important object in “The Masterpiece” is the pen that she uses…. I love pens. …   [13:10] CA: And what do you think is the hardest thing about writing a story? KLW: … working on your ideas. …how do I make this story unique? …Sometimes finding the ending is the hardest part. …   [14:30] CA: And do you have a favorite point of view to write from? KLW: I love writing from second POV, like being bossy to the readers …when they're done well, they're done so well, it's just like, Oh, I love this book.   [15:10] CA: And have you ever made a book about monsters? KLW: I'm working on a book about monsters right now as we speak, called Can't Sleep. …   [16:20] CA: And did you tell stories around a campfire as a kid? KLW: Of course. …, I told stories everywhere. ... Like I was the kid that was always telling stories…   [16:45] CA: Do you have a favorite scary story? KLW: I just really like the way Joel Sutherland tells scary stories because I love the fact that it's nonfiction. … I do love characters that are monster-like, … characters that you just can't believe they would behave like that. … I also love characters that you kind of are unsure of….  I like unreliable narrators too….   [18:30] CA: And do you have any phobias? KLW: I don't like guard dogs. …. I get kind of scared when I'm beside horses … I also don't like if there's a bat and it gets too close to your head….   [19:50] CA: Do you collect anything? KLW: I collect illustrations ….   [20:05] CA: And what do you think is scarier: humans or monsters? KLW: They can be the same thing. …, I think humans are a little more scary because they are unpredictable… If you had asked the question, “What's more scary: spirits or humans?” I would say 100% spirits…. [21:40] Kari-Lynn Winters introduces herself   KLW: Hi. I'm Dr. Kari-Lynn Winters. And I'm a children's author, a playwright, and a performer.  I'm also a scholar. I've been working at Brock University as an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education. And I have authored over 27 books. I really am interested in arts education, children's literature, and embodied literacies. And I live here in St Catharines, Ontario, with my two awesome kids and my three incredible cats. So that's me, Kari-Lynn Winters. [22:25] Find out more about Kari-Lynn Winters   You can hear more creative writing advice from Kari-Lynn Winters on Cabin Tales Episode 3, “Spooky Stories are all Around Us,” about getting ideas; on Episode 4.5, “Author Interviews about Plotting”; and on Episode 8, “The Never-ending Story,” about revision. You can learn a whole lot more about Kari-Lynn Winters from her website at KariWinters.com. [23:20] Thanks and coming up on the podcast   I'll be back next week with leftovers from my interview with Cary Fagan, the multiple-award-winning author of picture books, middle-grade novels, and novels for adults. Thanks for listening.   Credits Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use). Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com. Guest Author: Dr. Kari-Lynn Winters is an award-winning children's author, playwright, performer, and academic scholar. She is an Associate Professor at Brock University and the author of French Toast, Jeffrey and Sloth, On My Walk, Gift Days, and many other imaginative picture books. Find her online at http://kariwinters.com/.  

An interview with Robin Stevenson, author of 29 books for young readers, including board books, picture books, middle-grade novels, young adult novels, and non-fiction for all ages. Hear about her experiments with narrative voice, her experience of losing and finding her way through most of the books she's written, and the early days of her writing journey, when a short story unexpectedly morphed into a teen novel. 20 minutes. All ages. A full transcript is available at CabinTales.ca. Show Notes [0:00] Intro [1:20] Interview with Robin Stevenson   CA: Do you have any favourite plot twists…? RS: … E. Lockhart's We Were Liars,… Patrick Ness More Than This, …. Adam Silvera More Happy than Not… I haven't written a book that I would say has a major plot twist.   [2:30] CA: …. Do you have any techniques that you use yourself for building tension? RS: … tension actually is largely related to creating really believable compelling characters that the reader cares about. And then you know, whether the stakes are very high in a particular scene or smaller but more personal and matter to that character, I think you have tension because the reader cares about that character.   [3:15] CA: Do you have any advice that you might give to young writers who are sort of stuck in the middle of a story?   RS: … I get stuck in the middle of every single story. … That does seem to be part of my writing process. …. So it's just a question of needing to push through that middle section and … at least getting a finished first draft before I make a decision about it. … when I go back and read it, the scenes that were really easy and fun to write are not necessarily better than the scenes, I had to grind out one word at a time, that felt terrible. … So not to give that self-doubt too much weight or too much power to actually stop me from finishing the story.   [5:40] CA: …You've written so many books, do you find that that helps…you know it's part of your process? RS: … it doesn't make it any more pleasant or enjoyable when you're stuck in it… it doesn't seem to be helpful in the sense of figuring out a better writing process…   [6:20] CA: And do you ever write short stories? RS: …When I first started writing I was writing short stories. … my first novel actually grew from a short story. … I hadn't really planned to write for teens or, you know, thought of what I was writing as teen fiction. So I kind of fell into it. But loved it, and so just kept going.   [7:15] CA: Do you have any variance in how long it takes to do a first draft? RS: … my books vary in length so that's always a bit of a tricky question, … a board book or a picture book doesn't take nearly as much time as a longer novel. … I've had some where the first draft I've written in two or three months, and others where I have rewritten it over several years. … But on average I've published about two books a year. …   [8:10] CA: Do you know when you're writing whether it's going to be middle grade or teen? RS: … the age of the protagonist is usually fairly clear to me and that generally determines whether it's going to be middle grade or YA. …. The one I'm working on right now is actually a little tricky because my protagonist is 13. …. I could go either way. …   [9:05] CA: Did you do a collaborative book? RS: Yeah, I've done two. I did Blood on the Beach with Sarah Harvey. …And a collaborative YA novel with Tom Ryan called When you Get the Chance. … it's now coming out in May 2021. CA: And how did that process work? Did you have separate characters? RS: We did, yeah…. We wrote with alternating chapters. … that takes advantage of having two distinct voices rather than having that be a challenge or problem.     [10:20] CA: Do you often write in first person? RS: Most of my books are in first person. … I have one right now that's in third person that I'm debating whether I should try rewriting it in first person….   [10:45] CA: You purposely experiment with point of view. Would you advise young writers to do the same if they're not sure what narrative voice to use? RS: Yeah. … Try writing some journal entries in your character's voice or write a letter from your character to someone else so that you're kind of in their head. Try rewriting your first chapter in first person …   [11:20] CA: Do you have any favorite narrators, narrative voices that are still stuck in your head? RS: Barbara Kingsolver's Poisonwood Bible is one that I often recommend because … the voices are so individual and so distinct that you can you can pick up that book and open it on any page and you can tell who's speaking. …   [11:55] CA: Do you have any favorite settings from fiction…? RS: … In my own stories setting generally is not a huge part of the book. …   [12:45] CA: And do you have any favorite fictional characters …? RS: Too many to name specific ones…I think in terms of my own books, usually the character that I'm currently writing about… But certainly, you know, I'm attached to many of the characters that I have written about…although I've never gone back and reread any of my books.   [13:30] CA: And do you use your own children as characters? RS: Definitely…I did two early chapter books, Ben's Robot and Ben the Inventor …. I wrote those when my son was five or six, and lots of his interests and hobbies and favourite things made their way into those stories. …   [14:25] CA: Do you have any recommendations for setting or character exercises? RS: I would link the two… For character, I would encourage people to do some side writing… writing letters from your character to other people, pretending that your character has a journal …free writing from that character's POV …   [16:20] CA: Did you tell stories around a campfire as a kid? RS: Not at all. I'm still not really a storyteller in a verbal sense….   [16:45] CA:  And do you have a favorite scary story or scary movie? RS: No. …I avoid scary movies. Books I have a little higher tolerance for scary. Not horror but… I like suspense. I guess one recent one that I really enjoyed was Station Eleven. …   [17:15] CA: You have no phobias? RS: I really dislike flying …. But I wouldn't call a phobia. I think it's entirely realistic not to want to be 30,000 feet in the air.   [17:35] CA: Do you have a writing practice? Are there certain times of day that you write regularly? RS: … I've always kind of worked around parenting. … And now of course, with the pandemic, he's home, my partner's working from home. I just fixed up the shed in the backyard … so that I have a quiet place where I can go in and write … I used to use coffee shops for that. …   [18:50] CA: That's great. And that's everything I need…. Thanks again so much. … RS: A pleasure. Take care…. [19:20] Robin Stevenson introduces herself   RS: Hi. My name is Robin Stevenson. And I live on the west coast of Canada on Vancouver Island. And I write books for kids and teens. My books range from board books up through picture books and middle-grade and teen fiction, and also middle-grade and young-adult nonfiction. So I write in multiple genres and for multiple age groups. [19:55] Find out more about Robin Stevenson   You can hear more creative writing advice from Robin Stevenson on Cabin Tales Episode 3.5: “Author Interviews about Inspiration”; on Episode 4: “Bad Things Happen,” about Plotting; and on Episode 8, “The Never-ending Story,” about revision. You can learn a whole lot more about Robin Stevenson from her website at RobinStevenson.com.   [21:00] Thanks and coming up on the podcast   I'll be back next week with leftovers from my interview with Kari-Lynn Winters, picture book author from Ontario. Thanks for listening.   Credits Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use). Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com. Guest Author: Robin Stevenson is the award-winning author of 29 books for all ages. She lives on the west coast of Canada. Robin is launching three new books in 2021: a picture book, PRIDE PUPPY, a middle-grade non-fiction book, KID INNOVATORS, and a young adult novel, WHEN YOU GET THE CHANCE. Find her online at https://robinstevenson.com .    

An interview with Raquel Rivera, award-winning author of five books for young readers, including Tuk and the Whale and Orphan Ahwak. Hear about her interest in fairy tales, her advice for creating tension-filled scenes, and her childhood fear of the toilet witch. 25 minutes. All ages. A full transcript is available at CabinTales.ca. Show Notes [0:00] Intro [1:10] Interview with Raquel Rivera CA: Have you ever written a story based on the news or a historical incident? RR: All of my historic books are thoroughly researched. So definitely with the last book, Yippee's Gold Mountain, before I could even figure out the plotting, I had to do so much research to understand what sort of things might happen to him. …History, I find, is tremendously inspiring, whereas the present day for me it's harder for me to come up with plot points. … [2:05] CA:... Have you ever riffed off a fairy tale or another story? RR: Not consciously but it's a really good idea. …  I've been doing a lot of reading actually over this pandemic time about scholars' thinking on fairy tales and stuff like that. And women's roles in fairy tales... and how we can make them new for ourselves. [3:45] CA:… Has an object ever figured prominently in one of your works? RR: Yes. In Tuk and the Whale, my book is talking about two different ways of seeing the world….there's a world of things and then there's a world of knowledge. … when you have a European culture coming over, what is so very impressive that they have is things. … Their knowledge is -- it's not that impressive, right? … But look at the stuff that they've got! …. So in that story, yes, I think there was a lot about objects. [5:40]  CA: Do you have a favorite plot twist? RR: … I was so excited by my plot twist for Yippee's Gold Mountain… I realized this character needs to be speaking in the first person because I have no other way of leaving them gender neutral. … I wanted their gender to be undetermined…Then halfway through the book, there's this disclosure. …. And the idea is for the reader to ask themselves whether they made any assumptions up until that point when the gender is revealed. ….   [7:20] CA: And do you have any favorite techniques either that you use or that you can recommend to young writers for building tension? RR: …. So the question is: What's going to happen? Oh my God. Right? So, you need to slow down the lead-up to the answer. And that's the only way to build the tension. And that would be picking out certain kind of key details to a situation. … Just the fewest most key details. … all the details to make it happen can also ruin your suspense. … So it's kind of a balancing act… [8:50] CA: … Do you tend as a writer to change the beginning of your story after you've completed it, or do you tend to keep your beginnings? RR: Half and half. … I try to think of things in terms of scenes. … Each scene begins with like the biggest grab that you can possibly find in that scenario. Because we can always go back and explain how we got there in the scene. [10:00] CA:. Do you have any advice for young writers on how to begin a story? RR: If you have an idea, you're 100% on the road there. Just write down the idea. … Don't worry about how it's going to look. Don't worry about how it's going to sound. …. But first just get out that like embarrassing awkward idea, and later on you can make it as perfect as you like. [11:25] CA: And do you have any advice on ending stories? What kind of ending do you like? RR: I have a great deal of respect for sad endings if they're done well… For me personally, the amount of emotional investment in a story is too much. Like I don't want to spend three years with something that ends badly. … I think that as somebody who's writing for young people, … we want to train ourselves to be optimists. We want to train ourselves to be resilient. Because that's how we get through life. …. But never a joyful happy-ever-after ending because I don't buy those either. It's a way that my characters can feel stronger for having been through what they've been through… [13:20] CA: Do you have a favorite setting from fiction? RR: For reading, I really enjoy historic settings because it's fascinating to me how we used to be, the material of our lives, the classic story that's running through, the humanity that's running through, just fascinating to me. [13:40] CA: And do you have some favorite fictional characters? RR: I love Meg from A Wrinkle in Time. …. Of course everybody likes Anne, of Anne of Green Gables. … I liked following characters when I was little. [14:15] CA: And are there any setting or character exercises that you would recommend to young writers? RR: … one interesting thing to do is to pick a well-known setting – that might be as simple as your bedroom or … the court where you play basketball … and start describing it in as much detail as you can. … do they create a sense of something? A sense of foreboding, a sense of nostalgia… What kind of mood have I created with that? And what maybe can be useful in another context? [15:15] CA: Do you have a favorite point of view to write from? RR:  I'm very much stuck on the inside of a character. … So what I was trying to do with my present draft was take the position of the narrator who's on the outside… I wanted a narrator who was their own voice, the Godlike voice. It's just not as easy for me. … [16:15] CA: And did you tell stories around a campfire as a kid? RR: Not really, no. Maybe that's why I have such a crappy plot skill. I did a ton of reading. … [17:15] CA: And do you have any favorite scary stories or movies? RR: I'm not a big fan of scary things, but Red Dragon…and there's a scary movie Hellraiser. … I don't know what it was about those two. … there did seem to be underlying it some very kind of meaningful ideas …. I think that it's also possible to insert tremendously scary things inside of non-scary stories, and that's quite bearable for me, too. Again, so long as I can skim through it or step back to the, say the doorway, and watch my TV from a very very very great distance.   [19:30] CA:. And do you have any phobias? RR: I'm tremendously tense in deep water. I don't like things coming up at me from my feet… I remember in younger years I was terrified of sharks. … [20:05] CA: And what do you think is scarier: humans or monsters? RR: … when I was a kid … monsters were definitely high on my list of scarier. … There was a toilet witch, for example. …. I created a story where if I flush the toilet, if I ran fast as I could and jumped into my bed before the noise of the toilet stops, then I would be safe from the toilet witch… nowadays I would say that people really don't scare me that much at all…, the monsters that come up from the deep and nibble on your toes? They're terrifying. [21:45] Raquel Rivera introduces herself RR: My name is Raquel Rivera. I'm a writer, artist and a performer. I've been based in Montreal since 1999. And since moving here I've written and published five books for children and young people. In addition to that, I like to do artwork, I like to do acrobatics, and I like to do drumming with a batu cada group, which means it's like a drum orchestra. We practice a couple of times a week and we perform – well, less now, but we used to perform a great deal around the city and around Quebec. That pretty much sums me up, I guess. [22:45] Find out more about Raquel Rivera You can hear more creative writing advice from Raquel Rivera on Cabin Tales Episode 3.5: “Author Interviews about Inspiration”; on Episode 4.5: “Author Interviews about Plotting”; and on Episode 8, “The Never-ending Story,” about revision. You can find out more about Raquel Rivera and her books from her website at RaquelRiveraWasHere.com. There you'll find videos, photos, and readalouds. [24:55] Thanks and coming up on the podcast I'll be back next week with leftovers from my interview with Robin Stevenson, BC author for all ages. Thanks for listening. Credits Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use). Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com. Guest Author: Photo by Katya Konioukhova Raquel Rivera is a writer, artist and performer based in Montreal. She has published five books for young readers. She also writes about books for Constellations, a library and online database of quality children's literature, for use by teachers, librarians, and the public. Visit her online at www.raquelriverawashere.com.  

 An interview with Ishta Mercurio, author of the picture book, Small World, and co-author of the non-fiction picture book, Bite into Bloodsuckers. Hear about her favourite first lines, her love of characters that push the boundaries of expectations, and her penchant for telling truths through metaphors. 20 minutes. All ages. A full transcript is available at CabinTales.ca. Show Notes [0:00] Intro [1:05] Interview with Ishta Mercurio CA: Have you found a difference before and after Small World was published in terms of how you feel about your work? IM: Yes and no. … when Small World had just come out, I felt an intense pressure to meet a certain bar. … And for a period of time it was stifling ….   [2:25] CA: Have you ever based the story on the news? IM: …. I am working on a story right now that is inspired by the news… but you probably wouldn't know that once this book's done. You won't be able to tell what news story triggered it.   [3:25] CA: …. Have you ever written anything that was inspired by other stories? IM: Yes. … And for a long time it was really bad because it was clearly derivative. … I just let it sit for a while until I figured out how to make it into my own story.   [4:05] CA: Do you ever do object studies or have your stories included memorable objects? IM: Yeah that happened in Small World a lot .. Nanda … notices patterns in nature …like swirls and spirals and the … fractal pattern in snowflakes. … I do whole school visits just about the shape progression in that book….   [4:55] CA: Do you have a favorite first line? IM: Yes…. Small World opens with this line: When Nanda was born, the whole of the world was wrapped in the circle of her mother's arms. Safe, warm, small. …And the story comes back around to that line. …Before I wrote Small World, my favorite first line was MT Anderson's first line in his book Feed…. And the first line is: We went to the moon to have fun but the moon turned out to completely suck. And there's just so much packed in there… The best first lines are dense, where the first line is actually the kernel of what the entire book is about.   [6:55] CA: Do you have any favourite settings? IM: … I love reading historical fiction, and what I love about reading historical fiction is the details. … I like settings that are historical. And I like settings that are unlike where I am. … I also like fantasy settings …. I used to wish that I could escape to Narnia….   [9:00] CA: Do you have any favorite fictional characters? … My favorite characters are characters who are smart and who are willing to put everything on the line for what they believe is right. … from the Harry Potter series, Snape was my favorite character. Snape and Dumbledore. … Characters who are harder to get to know… those are the characters that I like the most.   [11:50] CA: And do you have a favorite POV to write from? IM: I don't. It depends on the story and what the story needs. …. I think especially for spooky stories, sometimes first-person POV can be really great because the reader only knows what the character knows. But sometimes the best way to introduce tension is to let the reader know something that the character doesn't know, and for that you need third person. … Try it different ways. … Always, always experiment. … I think a lot of people come to writing as a career with the idea that they're going to write something and then someone will publish it. And like that revision process that happens in the middle, there's no understanding that that process is 90% of the process. …   [14:50] CA: Do you find that you edit yourself while you draft? … IM: Oh yes, I edit myself while I draft. Absolutely….. But then once I've put the comments in the margins, then I can move on …   [15:35] CA: ...Have you ever written a monster? IM: Yes. I mean, it was a person. I think the worst monsters are people…. We all know deep in our hearts that monsters aren't actually real. But people are real. And people do bad things, real bad things. …   [16:10] CA: Did you tell stories around a campfire as a kid …? IM: … One year when I was seven, my parents sent me on one of those like overnight summer camps. And I hated it so much… As a grown up I've told my kids scary stories around the campfire.   [17:35] CA: Do you have a favorite scary story or scary movie? IM: … yes. … “The green ribbon.” It's a story about a girl who has this green ribbon around her neck and she never takes it off. And then one day she does take it off. … listeners, you need to check that story out. … I can't do scary movies. … But before I had kids,… my favorite scary movie was “The Candyman.”… A recent horror movie that, again, I tried to watch is… “Get Out” … Horror -- I can't handle it. …   [19:05] CA: Do you have any phobias? IM: … I have some low-level … structural anxieties. … like in the kitchen, the cupboards that are on the wall, I just worry that the nails and screws holding them up are not quite up to the task. … sometimes you'll go to like a friend's house and you'll be cooking in the kitchen, and you'll open the kitchen cupboard and it'll just be like packed with like full bags of flour … I can't handle it. … seeing something that juts out from the wall and is that loaded down just …makes me sweat.   [20:35] CA: …Do you collect anything? IM: Yes, everything. … I collect rocks. … And I have a collection of key chains. … They have personal significance to me… I would love to have an old maps collection, of like actual legitimately antique maps. …, those ancient maps are also super expensive. So I don't collect them yet. When I write the next Twilight, I will….   [22:05] Ishta Mercurio introduces herself IM: My name is Ishta Mercurio. And I write books for kids…I have done all kinds of different things throughout my life. I've been a barista; I've worked with autistic kids; I've gone door-to-door for an environmental action group; I have been an actor. And I learned that that's okay. …I embrace this wacky creative life of doing all kinds of different things, and writing all kinds of different things for all kinds of different people. And the one thing that is constant is that the characters that I write are characters who live outside the box and tend to live outside the norm and push the boundaries of what's expected of people who look like them or sound like them. And so I try to write stories about kids who do things unexpected.   [23:50] Find out more about Ishta Mercurio You can hear more creative writing advice from Ishta Mercurio on Cabin Tales Episode 3.5: “Author Interviews about Inspiration”; on Episode 4.5: “Author Interviews about Plotting”; on Episode 7.5: “Author Interviews about Endings” and on Episode 8, “The Never-ending Story,” about revision. You can find out more about Ishta Mercurio and her books from her website at IshtaMercurio.com.   [24:55] Thanks and coming up on the podcast I'll be back next week with leftovers from my interview with the novelist Raquel Rivera, who joins us from Montreal. Thanks for listening. Credits Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use). Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com. Guest Author: Ishta Mercurio lives and writes in Brampton, Ontario, where she serves as the Chairman of the Board for The FOLD Foundation, a non-profit that promotes underrepresented voices in Canadian literature. Her picture book debut, Small World, illustrated by Jen Corace, won the SCBWI Crystal Kite Award for the Canadian region. Find Ishta online at www.ishtamercurio.com.  

An interview with Philippa Dowding, award-winning author of 13 books for middle-grade readers, including Oculum, Firefly, and Quinn and the Quiet, Quiet. She is also a poet, a musician, and a copywriter. Hear about her attraction to weird plot possibilities, her occasional tendency to spook herself while writing, and her encounter with a gargoyle in a curiosity shop that helped launched one of her book series. 20 minutes. All ages. Read the full transcript at CabinTales.ca Show Notes [0:00] Intro [1:15] Interview with Philippa Dowding CA: Do you ever do object studies or has an object ever featured in one of your books or sparked some ideas for you? PD: … The Lost Gargoyle series was inspired by …a funny little curio store with gargoyles on the steps…. I started a bedtime story that night with my kids about one of these gargoyles following us home… he had such a big personality, this gargoyle. He just came fully formed because of having seen them on these stairs.   [2:30] CA: Cool Do you have any techniques that you use to increase the tension in the middle of a book? PD: …Try to build a cliffhanger. …. As you get closer to the end, you can shorten the chapters … And honestly you just have to write through it….One of the things that I do like to do when I work with kids in schools, we do “Wouldn't it be weird if…” a child says a line and then the next child says a line. And that sort of gives you the idea that there's no wrong way to write a story. … So you have to tell that internal critic that we're going to play this game now, “Wouldn't it be weird if…” and just be weird. …   [3:50] CA: Do you have a favorite first line, either from your own worker from other works of fiction? PD: I guess my favorite first line of my own fiction is “This morning I woke up on the ceiling,” which was from the Gwendolyn Golden story. … CA: Have you ever opened with dialogue? PD: Yeah. Oculum starts out with the word “Mother.” …   [4:35] CA: Do you tend to change your beginning after you've revised? PD: … I don't think I've ever really changed the beginning. …   [4:55] CA: Do you have any advice to young writers on how to begin? PD: … The only way you can write it is to begin, and you can just tell yourself, “I can always rewrite this; this is just a draft” so that they can overcome that sort of fear of looking at a blank page. … The first idea that comes to you is fine. …   [5:30] CA: And any advice on how to end a story? PD: Reading it out loud. There's a natural cadence to an ending. …You can feel there's a beat missing … It's the best way to find out how it's flowing. …   [6:10] CA: Do you share your work with critique partners or family or friends? PD: I always do. … Basically people that you trust that are going to actually call you on it if something is not working. …  It can be nerve wracking. Confidence is … something that we absolutely have to build. Because it's such a private job.... And you have to convince yourself that your private is … worthy of being public.   [7:05] CA: Do you set aside certain times of day or certain parts of the year when you write fiction? PD: … You need that tipping point to make you write it at all because it's the thing that's has to be written next, and you also need the discipline to finish it, and then you need the staying power to revise, you need the skill to edit it -- it's a long process. …. I have a home office, I have the discipline of getting up and working. …. I write every day, and if I'm not working on … copywriting, I write probably four to five hours a day….   [8:25] CA: Do you have a favorite POV to write from? PD: So I've got 12 books out and a 13th coming and 9 of them are third person omniscient…. At first I found first person really hard. … But now I like it. … Gwendoline Golden is my first first-person story – and that's my fourth novel… -- and she told me how to write it. … it wasn't conscious. …   [9:20] CA: Have you ever written multiple points of view? PD: Oculum is 2 voices. … One's a child that's living inside this perfect domed world, and there's another child living outside. And they speak quite differently, because he's living in a world that's quite degraded so his language is quite degraded. That was kind of an interesting challenge. …     [10:00] CA: Have you ever written an unreliable narrator? …. I feel sort of an alliance with younger readers, that we kind of have to be reliable at least in the way that we're telling the story. … So I haven't really dabbled in that puddle yet.   [10:35] CA: And have you ever written about siblings? PD: Yeah, most of my books have siblings in them. …   [12:00] CA: Do you ever spook yourself when you're writing? PD: Oh yeah. …. I found portions of Blackwells and the Briny Deep really spooky. … I've been a sailor all my life. … Writing this scene in Blackwell's where the twins are at the tiller and their brother gets swept overboard -- that actually happened to me. So that was scary to write. … I had a child read Blackwells … and she read it and had no problem with it…. If you scare yourself, you probably need to check the scene… and get someone else to read it.   [14:00] CA: Did you tell stories around a campfire as a kid or anything like that? PD: I didn't. I was probably the kid that was writing stories around the campfire, but it was all in my head. …. But my dad … and I would tell stories a lot. … That's an important part of being a writer, I think, is having someone that shares stories with you.   [14:55] CA: And do you have a favorite scary story or movie? PD: My favorite kids' story, I think, would be The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaimon…. And I think my favourite scary movie is Jaws…. It still spooks me when I see it. … What could be more scary than being at sea with a monster?...   [15:45] CA: And what do you think is scarier: humans or monsters? PD: I think that you have to have both. …. Humans are scary because you can just detect the monster below the surface, and monsters are scary because -- or fascinating because -- there is just a touch of humanity in them. … I'm scared by humans and monsters.   [16:25] CA: Do you have a favorite setting from your own fiction or from a favorite book? PD: I really liked writing the two different settings in Oculum… probably the world under the dome would be my favorite setting in my own books. And other books, I mentioned The Graveyard Book before … the setting of a graveyard to raise a child in, being raised by ghosts….   [17:10] CA: Did you do any worldbuilding exercises when you were creating Oculum? PD: Yes. …That's what I do in my journals is… spend a lot of time trying to illustrate some of the characters or some of the world. For me it sort of unlocks a way to write more about it or more accurately….   [17:40] CA: Tell me about your upcoming book. PD: So Firefly is coming in February 2021, and it's set in a costume warehouse in Toronto. It's got 7 million pieces in it. And it's a story about a girl who's had a pretty rough life, and her aunt takes her into this warehouse… And how really we all wear different costumes, and the story is about finding the right one, finding the right fit.... CA: And so that was inspired by a real place. PD: Yeah. It's actually based on a family business. … They specialize in period clothing …. She … was costume designer to 10,000 movies in her life… It seemed like such a beautiful place to tell a story.   [18:55] CA: And do you have any favorite fictional characters? PD: …. I really love Elizabeth Bennett. I think she's a great female protagonist. … my favorite villain is probably Milton's Lucifer….   [20:00] Philippa Dowding introduces herself PD: I'm Philippa Dowding. And I'm a children's author. And I'm a poet and I'm a musician and I'm also a copywriter. And I like to sail. I like to walk my dog every day. And I live in downtown Toronto with my family. I can see the CN Tower from my backyard. And here's something that I don't tell many people, but my very favorite ice cream is Tom & Jerry's Cherry Garcia. That's the only ice cream that anyone ever needs.   [20:55] Find out more about Philippa Dowding You can hear more advice from Philippa Dowding on Cabin Tales Episode 3, “Spooky Stories are all Around Us,” about getting ideas, on Episode 4.5, “Author Interviews about Plotting,” and on Episode 8, “The Never-ending story,” about Revision.   You can find out more about Philippa Dowding and her books from her website at PDowding.com. There you can watch Philippa read from her latest novel, Firefly. You can watch a virtual interview she did for the Forest of Reading Awards last summer. You can find teachers' guides for all of her series. And you can find links to her poetry and her music. You can even watch her dance the Gargoyle Shuffle.   [22:05] Thanks and coming up on the podcast I'll be back next week with leftovers from my interview with the picture book author Ishta Mercurio. Thanks for listening. Credits Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use). Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com. Guest Author: Philippa Dowding is an award-winning children's author, poet, musician, and marketing copywriter.  Her 2017 middle-grade novel, Myles and the Monster Outside, won the OLA Silver Birch Express Honour Book award. Philippa lives in Toronto with her family. Find her on her website at http://pdowding.com.  

An interview with Wendy McLeod MacKnight, author of three books for middle-grade readers, who shares her habit of drafting quickly and revising painstakingly, her advice on getting to know your characters before you write them, and her delighted surprise at discovering Voldemort under Quirrell's turban. 20 minutes. All ages. A full transcript is available at CabinTales.ca. Show Notes [0:00] Intro [1:15] Interview with Wendy McLeod MacKnight CA: Do you ever do object studies, either as an exercise or has an object ever figured in one of your books? WMM: Oh yeah for sure…Probably my most intense was when I was writing about the paintings at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery …  The idea was what would it be like to be stuck in the painting, you can't get out, and then what if you made a friend who has not the greatest home life and is an artist, and wishes they could get into the paintings because wouldn't life be easier. He can't get in; she can never get out…. that's one of the things that I recommend is to really drill down into the character's internal and external struggle through it all. …   [3:50] CA: Do you have any favorite plot twists? WMM: … I really enjoyed the moment when I discovered that Voldemort was up in Quirrell's turban… The very ending of The Frame Up solves a problem between my two main characters perfectly. …people have come to me since then and said, “I did not see that coming.” …That's so great.     [5:00] CA: … How do you feel about sad endings or endings where the good guy loses? … WMM: …. I think that in middle grade, even if it's sad there has to be hope. … I think though, once you get into YA, then I think you've got a lot more flexibility. … When I read too many books like that, I usually need like a palate cleanser, like give me something funny. …. But I think that we do kids a disservice when things are too easy and don't cause pain, you know.   [6:40] CA: Will you stick with middle grade? WMM: … I'm obsessed with middle grade. … the books that I read when I was in middle grade are still the books I find great comfort in now as an adult. … And they're the books that you're picking out…. And you have to see yourself in them… I think that even that's part of the reason why the first few books I've written, I set in New Brunswick. …   [8:15] CA: Do you have any favorite settings from other people's fiction? WMM: … I love really amazing worldbuilding. So, like Phillip Pullman's worldbuilding in The Golden Compass … I could live in anything that was kind of Dickensian. … you also have to be really careful, especially when you're writing for kids, to not get bogged down in so much minutia that they get bogged down with you. … I really love books set in Canada. …   [9:25] CA: And do you have any favorite fictional characters? WMM: Oh yeah. For sure Meg Murry from A Wrinkle in Time. … Anne of Green Gables and Emily of New Moon. I love David Copperfield…The main character in The War that changed my Life by Kim Brubaker Bradley, that character stayed with me for so long.   [10:00] CA: And are there any setting or character exercises that you would recommend to young writers? WMM: I always tell them that they need to interview their main characters…. And I do that a lot with settings too. … the more you can know your characters and the more you can know the place before you start…   [11:50] CA:. While you're drafting, do you do self-editing or do you just let it out? WMM: I get it all out. So I always have to remind myself that it's probably going to take me 8 drafts and I just don't, I'm not going to worry about it anymore. … Sometimes at the end of the book it's, like somebody wrote this book and I don't know who it was. …. There are moments when the characters on your page sometimes feel more alive than the people that are around you. … that's the magic.   [14:00] CA: So you've said you spend a lot more time revising than drafting. WMM: …I write full time, so I could get a first draft done within probably six weeks. If it's you know, if it's anywhere between 50 and 80,000 I can probably get that. Like usually when I'm really into writing, I'm writing like 2500 to 3000 words a day. But it's also, they're not good words. It's just getting it all out, right? So very fast first drafts, very very very slow revisions.   [14:35] CA: And do you have a favorite POV to write from? WMM: I love first person. … The Frame Up, I have dual points of view…. I think third person gives you more freedom. … I don't think I could ever write second person. …   [15:30] CA: And have you ever written an unreliable narrator? WMM: Not in the typical sense of an unreliable narrator. …. I think that would be fabulous. I have been toying with that, so that may be something in the future.   [16:10] CA: And you have written about siblings. WMM: Yes. It's a Mystery Pig-Face! is about a brother and sister… and I do not espouse, by the way, name-calling -- but I did use it in this particular story because my brother, when we were kids, used to just torture me. … I think I'm in almost all of my books in some way. … I think there's probably a bit of me in some of the parents as well. …   [17:40] CA: And what do you think is scarier: humans or monsters? WMM: Humans… we have a lot of people who are very damaged. … Certainly in my old job and things that I saw -- I would rather take my chance with a monster. … I do feel that most people are redeemable. And the human monsters I met are almost always products of situations where they needed people when they were very young and they didn't have those people. And that's probably the same with most of the monsters too, right? If they had a really great monster mom and dad or a really good monster friend…   [18:40] CA: Did you tell stories around a campfire as a kid? WMM: I did. … Like you'd be on some overnight trip and you'd all be trying to freak each other out, to terrify each other before you went off to your tents… I was usually more on the receiving end of the terror though, because I am such a scaredy cat. …   [20:00] CA: Do you have a favorite scary movie or scary story? WMM: In terms of scary books, I thought Jonathan Auxier's The Night Gardener was so creepy… And in terms of movies, I'm going to go really old school… The Exorcist. …I'm going to have to watch something funny before I go to bed tonight, just thinking about it….   [20:30] CA: Do you collect anything? WMM: … I've always collected rocks. … And if I ever see anything while I'm out about The Wizard of Oz… because I love that movie so much.   [21:40] Wendy McLeod MacKnight introduces herself WMM: I'm Wendy MacLeod McKnight. I am the author of three middle-grade novels: It's a Mystery, Pig-Face!, The Frame Up, and The Copycat. The Frame Up has been published in Taiwan and is currently being translated into French and is going to be published in French in the next year. I love middle-grade fiction so much. My heart is just embedded. And I love writing about where I live, which is New Brunswick, but I also love writing about all over the world too, because this is an amazing time to be an author right now. [music]   [22:30] Find out more about Wendy McLeod MacKnight   You can find out more about Wendy McLeod MacKnight and her books from her website at WendyMcleodMacknight.com. You can hear more great creative writing advice from Wendy McLeod MacKnight on Cabin Tales Episode 3.5, “Author Interviews about Inspiration”; on Episode 4, “Bad Things Happen,” about plotting; on Episode 6.5, “Author Interviews about Beginnings,” and on Episode 8, “The Never-ending Story,” about revision.   [23:35] Upcoming National Public Reading If you like the spooky stories on Cabin Tales,  join me for a National Public Reading on March 16th, at 9 a.m., when I'll be telling a tale or two to some local students in a virtual visit funded by the Canada Council for the Arts and administered through the Writers' Union of Canada and the National Readings Program. Drop me an email at cabin@catherineausten.com to ask for the zoom link if you want to listen in.   [24:10] Thanks and coming up on the podcast I'll be back next week with leftovers from my interview with Philippa Dowding, the award-winning children's author, poet, and musician, who joins us from Toronto. Thanks for listening. Credits Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use). Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com. Guest Author: Wendy McLeod MacKnight is the author of three middle grade novels: It's a Mystery, Pig Face! , The Frame-Up and The Copycat. In her spare time, she gardens, hangs with her family and friends, and feeds raccoons. Visit Wendy online at wendymcleodmacknight.com .  

Amelinda Bérubé, author or spooky YA novels The Dark beneath the Ice and Here There are Monsters, shares her favourite plot twists, books and characters, her interest in unreliable narrators, and her love of the Canadian landscapes that inspire her stories. 20 minutes. All ages. A full transcript is available at CabinTales.ca. Show Notes [0:00] Intro [1:10] Interview with Amelinda Bérubé CA: Do you have advice to young writers on how to begin? AB: I think my best advice would be just get going…. And when you are looking for that place to come in…you want to get as close as you can to… the point where everything changes…   [2:45] CA: Do you have a favorite plot twist, either from your own work or from another work of fiction? AB: My favorite thing that I've come across lately is a book called Rules for Vanishing. …   [3:25] CA: And do you have any favorite techniques or something you could recommend to young writers for building tension? AB: One thing that I would recommend is look at a scary movie… what steps does it take to move from everyday life into this really heightened state of suspense?   [4:45] CA: Do you have a favorite first line? AB: … the opening paragraph of The Haunting of Hill House is just …] perfection. …   [5:00] CA: How do you feel about endings where the good guy loses, or sad endings? AB: … Here There are Monsters does not end happily. …. you can end in defeat, you can end in bittersweet or sad feelings, but you have to end with your character having a way out of the woods. … You can't just grind somebody into the dirt and leave them there.   [6:20] CA: Do you find yourself editing yourself while drafting or do you do a full draft and then go back and revise? AB: Mostly it's just a free for all when I first write. … I feel like I'm a much better rewriter than I am a writer. ... And I found owning that kind of liberating. … you don't have to like it; you just have to do it.   [8:20] CA: Do you have a favorite point of view to write from? AB: … For YA… I find I fall pretty naturally into a first-person present… especially for something spooky, what it really highlights is how subjective the experience is. …   [9:00] CA: Have you ever written an unreliable narrator? … AB: I feel like in a way, all first-person narrators are unreliable.… I don't think anybody clearly knows their own motivations … that's one of the things that I think fiction is all about, is sort of like exploring all the murky false consciousness that is involved in being a person.   [10:40] CA: Have you ever written about siblings? AB: … Here There are Monsters is … about sisters who kind of have a toxic relationship… And I have another book that I'm working on that also goes into that territory. …   [11:20] CA: And monsters, you've written about monsters. AB: Oh yes. … I find that monsters are a good way to talk about… the things that are really scary about people. They're sort of funhouse mirrors … they reflect back to us the things that we can't really talk about in ourselves.   [12:00] CA: Did you tell stories around a campfire as a kid or have another off the cuff storytelling experience? AB: … I've never been an off-the-cuff sort of person. …   [12:45] CA: Do you ever write short stories? AB: I've written exactly 1 short story since high school. …   [13:25] CA: And do you have a favorite scary story? … AB: … I really do love The Haunting of Hill House. … It's kind of surprising how scary it is, given the scary elements. …But I'd also talk about… Rules for Vanishing. …. And there's a Frances Hardinge book called Cuckoo Song which is really more of a dark fantasy than it is horror, but it's so scary. …   [15:00] CA: And do you like scary movies too? AB: I find as I get older, I'm too chicken for them. …   [16:25] CA: Do you have a favorite setting from fiction, either your own or another book you like? AB: I'm always most interested in the Canadian landscape. There's Eden Robinson. …Any place where you're in the spooky woods, I'm all about. But I love to recognize those woods. I love to know that this is, I guess, a place close to home. …if I look at like what I want my career to be as an author, and specifically as a Canadian author, like I just want to jet set around the country and find all the spooky places and write about them.   [17:30] CA: And characters, do you have a favorite fictional character from your own book or from another book that you love? AB: I think probably I mentioned Lois McMaster Bujold before. She has a series about this fellow named Miles Vorkosigan. .... He's so amazing. …   [18:40] CA: Finally, are there setting or character exercises that you might recommend to young writers to help develop those things? AB: … think of settings that you're familiar with, that you know well enough to describe in very concrete terms using all your five senses… first of all just describe the place in as fine detail as you can and try to sort of capture the feeling of the place. And then … make it spooky. … there's different things that you highlight for each mood….   [20:45] Amelinda Bérubé introduces herself AB: I'm Amelinda Bérubé. I have two books out at the moment. The first is The Dark Beneath the Ice and the second is Here there are Monsters. I write about ghosts and monsters and other things that go bump in the night. And I live in Ottawa. And I guess I like to read pretty much anything and everything, but I'm most attached to books that scare me, or books that make me cry or books that make me laugh. I guess basically I'm looking for anything that makes me feel something.   [21:30] Find out more about Amelinda Bérubé You can hear more creative writing advice from Amelinda Bérubé on Cabin Tales Episode 3: “Spooky Stories are all Around Us,” about getting ideas; on Episode Four: “Bad Things Happen,” about plotting; and on Episode 8, “The Never-ending Story,” about revision. You can find out more about Amelinda Bérubé and her books from her website at MetuiteMe.com…. Amelinda says she lives on Twitter, so follow her there @metuiteme. Or subscribe to her newsletter to keep up with all her latest news, insights, and reading recommendations.   [22:45] Thanks and coming up on the podcast I'll be back next week with leftovers from my interview with Wendy McLeod MacKnight, novelist for middle-grade readers who joins us from New Brunswick. I'm Catherine Austen. Thanks for listening. Credits: Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use). Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com. Guest Author Amelinda Bérubé is a freelance writer and the author of the YA novels The Dark Beneath the Ice and Here There Are Monsters. A mother of two and a passionate gardener, she lives in Ottawa, Ontario, in a perpetual whirlwind of unfinished projects and cat hair. Find her online at www.metuiteme.com.  

An interview with Monique Polak, author of 29 books for young people and teacher of English and Humanities at Marianopolis College in Montreal. Hear about her attraction to delinquent characters, her commitment to work through good writing days and bad ones, and her ability to recognize a promising story idea by the tingling in her arms. 20 minutes. All ages. A full transcript is available at CabinTales.ca. Show Notes [0:00] Intro [1:20] Interview with Monique Polak MP: I keep a journal. Every single morning…. if I hear a story or someone tells me something that I think is like beautiful or meaningful, my arms tingle. … when you're looking for stories they come to you. You notice them. And it's kind of a magic, wonderful thing. …   [2:50] CA: When you're drafting, do you think of your audience and the impact you want and do you choose your words carefully? Or just let it flow? MP: A combination of the two, probably a little more towards letting it flow. …   [3:30] CA: Do you have that favorite POV to write from? MP: I I I…. I do love being in somebody else's head. … I've noticed that a lot of the characters I like to write about are “bad” kids. … I like to think that I'm open even to opposing points of view… it fascinates me.   [5:50] CA: Do you know the ending of your story when you begin? MP: Sometimes yes and sometimes no. … the happy ending, like Walt Disney, that doesn't work anymore. But growth works. Growth is what we all want….   [6:30] CA: Do you do character outlines or…? MP: … I do a lot of interviews … But I don't really do what you're talking about. And maybe I should. … it's that feeling that I'm not good enough, that it's not as good as I want it to be, that I didn't get to the point where I wanted to go, I honestly think that's what keeps me at it. … I'm pretty hard on myself…. But I think I have a good sense of story. And I think I have a good heart… I'm very interested in emotions and I love exploring that in stories.   [8:20] CA: Do you have any advice that you would give to young writers who are stuck in the middle of a story? MP: Yeah, just do it. Quit complaining and do it. Or continue complaining and do it. .. do it and be proud that you're doing it. … The only reason that I made it in this field is because I didn't give up. I had a lot of struggles at the beginning…. But if you want it enough, and if you work at it enough, you'll get it. … All I wanted was one book. …. And now I have 29 published... That's because I suffered. And I suffered for all 29.…   [10:00] CA: Do you work do you work on one project at a time? MP: My preference is to work on one at a time…. Two fiction projects might be hard for me, though I have done that. … I've been a full-time teacher for 34 years. … My time is very tight when I'm teaching. I have to kind of fight for my writing time. But I do. …   [10:40] CA: And you write for that age group, then you also write for younger kids. Is there a different frame of mind for you when you write for different ages? MP: Yes and no. … surprisingly more no than yes.  I just tell my story. …   [11:35] CA: Do you read your work out loud? MP: Yes, all the time. …   [12:00] CA: Did you tell stories around a campfire as a kid, or at bedtime or…? MP: Yes. First of all I listened to stories… I brake for stories. … If I'm allowed, I listen overtly. Otherwise I listen on the sly. When I was a kid, … I would hide under the dining room table… listening to the … grown-up stories that I wasn't allowed to be listening to.  … my mother was an amazing storyteller. …. It's like kind of power you have when you tell a story. … when I went to camp, I told them I was a Princess … And I made my bunkmates do everything for me … then I actually wrote a book, Princess Angelica: Camp Catastrophe. But she gets into trouble. I never got into trouble; they believe me the whole summer. …   [14:20] CA: Do you have any phobias? MP: Claustrophobia. … I hate dirt on the floor…   [14:55] CA: And do you collect anything? MP: Yes. … this little office is a shrine to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. …. Alice everything. … And then personally, I kind of collect dresses ...   [16:00] CA: Have you ever written about a curse? MP: Not directly… more like a psychological kind of curse. … We continue paying a price for things that have happened in the past.   [16:20] CA: If you were to meet an untimely death and you had the opportunity to hang around as a ghost, would you? MP: Yeah of course. Because there be more stories. … So much children's literature is about death. … It is one of my favorite topics.   [18:05] Monique Polak introduces herself MP: Hi. I'm Monique Polak. I'm an author and a teacher and I live in Montreal. And I also work as a journalist. And I love to write. And I have published 29 books. I'm very proud of that. And I have three more coming out that I'm working quite hard on as we speak. I teach at a CEGEP and I'm a specialist on Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.   [18:45] Find out more about Monique Polak You can hear more advice from Monique Polak on Cabin Tales Episode 1.5, “Author Interviews about Setting,” on Episode 2, “Nasty People meet Nasty Ends,” about Character, and on Episode 8, “The Never-ending story,” about Revision. You can find out a whole lot more about Monique Polak and her books from her website at MoniquePolak.com.   [19:55] Thanks and coming up on the podcast I'll be back next week with leftovers from my interview with Amelinda Bérubé, author of spooky stories for young adults. Thanks for listening. Credits Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use). Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com. Guest Author Monique Polak is the Montreal-based author of 29 books for young people and a two-time winner of the Quebec Writers' Federation Prize for Children's and YA Literature. She has been teaching English and Humanities at Marianopolis College in Montreal for over 30 years. Find her online at www.moniquepolak.com.  

An interview with Tim Wynne-Jones, author of 35 books for all ages, including novels, picture books, and short story collections, including most recently War at the Snow White Motel and The Starlight Claim, which is a finalist for the 2021 White Pine Award. Hear about his love of islands and adventures, his aversion to unnecessary back-stories, and his childhood experience of telling stories around the dinner table. 25 minutes. All ages. A full transcript is available at CabinTales.ca.   Show Notes [0:00] Intro [1:25] Interview with Tim Wynne-Jones CA: There are some writers who do all sorts of exercises and they feel like they have to know everything about their character's past… TWJ: It really is like being at a party. You start talking to somebody. … And then suddenly they start telling you their life story. And the first thing you're going to do is start edging back towards the guacamole…   [4:05] CA: And then with setting, if you're using a real place do you like gather maps and work out your setting? TWJ: Yeah…. In a made-up landscape, for instance in The Emperor of Any Place -- that's an imagined landscape – well, I had to do tons of research on what kind of flora and fauna there is in that part of the Pacific Ocean. … I love that kind of research. … And I love maps. … I've always loved making up islands and making treasure islands. …   [6:10] CA: Do you have any favorite words? TWJ: Just a million…. I mostly live for capital S Story. … But sometimes you find a book that is so beautifully written that the story … doesn't have to do an awful lot. …   [7:50] CA: Do you have a favorite plot twist? TWJ: Tamar by Mal Peet… sent a chill up my back … like ‘Oh my God of course! Why didn't I see that?'   [8:30] CA: Are any of your stories based on your own childhood? TWJ: The Rex Zero trilogy is definitely based on my childhood in Ottawa in the Cold War. … And my short stories. … use an element from my childhood. …   [9:05] CA: You write for children and for young adults and adults. Do you think of your audience while you write? TWJ: … Sometimes I feel like I'm writing a scene for one person… And a lot of the time I'm just trying to write for myself… I can't target a book at an age group. I don't even like that term because it means like you're trying to shoot them …   [11:10] CA: And you said sometimes you write just for yourself… TWJ: …There are periods when I don't have anything that I have to say. …The wonderful writer Annie Dillard has a quote about this … just leave it alone; the well is empty; it will fill from below, by groundwater. … Do something else. … I've been writing a lot of songs lately and I've really been loving it. …But when I'm in the middle of the book, the joy of being a writer, I think, really, is when you get through that first horrible difficult draft… I've done all the hard slogging. And now it's going to be equally hard but in a much more interesting and exciting way. And then, then I love being a writer, for that second draft. That's just heaven.   [14:20] CA: How much time do you typically spend revising versus drafting? TWJ: Well, a lot. … [15:00] CA: I remember hearing you speak once, and you had been working on a book and then someone advised you, ‘You have to kill the father…. TWJ: … my editor, god bless her. … and she didn't need to say it more than once before I realized exactly what I'd done -- I was protecting the boy…The father would step in front of the boy in every scene … I had to kill this perfectly lovely father so that the boy was face to face with his antagonist. …   [16:50] CA: … You have to have faith that… life will replenish your ideas and your stories … TWJ: Yeah…. in the Annie Dillard quote … she says … if you're writing and you have an idea for a scene that's just amazing, don't think about saving it for later. … Just use it right away and it will be replenished. … You're creating ideas by allowing these ones to get out of your head. … [18:20] CA: I think she says write as if you're dying as well, and as if you're writing to an audience of people who are dying because basically-- TWJ: It's true…. But …I have a favourite saying that the difference between adult books and children's books is in an adult book it's all about letting go; and in a children's book it's about getting a grip. …   [19:20] CA: Do you have a favorite POV to write from? TWJ: The story tells me. …When I was writing Blink and Caution… I was 6 pages into it before I realized I was writing in the second person. … I write in first and I write in third and I write in second. The 8th POV I'd like to try ….   [20:40] CA: Did you tell stories around the campfire as a kid…? TWJ: … The dinner table was the campfire. … And in fact, as little children …we weren't allowed to sit at the dinner table with our parents until we were interesting. …   [22:30] CA: Do you have a favorite scary story or scary movie? TWJ: I loved reading Dracula, …the darkness, just pervasive darkness that moves in on the story. … I loved “Dead Calm,” an Australian movie …   [24:05] CA: Do you have any phobias? TWJ: Yeah, I'm claustrophobic. …   [24:55] Tim Wynne-Jones introduces himself TWJ: Hi. I'm Tim Wynne-Jones. Let's see. I live in the country on 76 acres of bushland with my wife, Amanda Lewis, who's a writer among many other things. We have three grown-up children, two boys in Toronto and a daughter in London England. And they're all married and I have two grandchildren in England. And we have a cat, a wonderful old cat. And I like to cook more than anything in the world, even more than writing. But I wouldn't want to be a cook for a living. I think it's even worse than being a writer. And I like to do crossword puzzles and I love to read and snowshoe. There.   [25:40] Find out more about Tim Wynne-Jones You can hear more creative writing advice from Tim Wynne-Jones on Cabin Tales Episode 1, “Things Hide in the Darkness,” about setting; Episode 2, “Nasty People meet Nasty Ends,” about character,” Episode 7.5, “Author Interviews about Endings,” and Episode 8, “The Never-ending Story,” about revision. Find out more about Tim Wynne-Jones and his books from his website at TimWynne-Jones.com.   [26:50] Thanks and coming up on the podcast I'll be back next week with leftovers from my interview with Monique Polak, author of 29 books for young readers who joins us from Montreal, Quebec. Thanks for listening. Credits: Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use). Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com. Guest Author: Tim Wynne-Jones has written 35 books for adults and children of all ages. His books have been translated into a dozen languages and won multiple awards, including the Governor General's Award, the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, the Arthur Ellis Award, and the Edgar Award. Tim was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2012. Find him online at  http://www.timwynne-jones.com/.  

An interview with children's and YA author Karen Krossing, novelist and short story writer whose first picture book is coming out this fall. Karen has been an editor, a writing coach, and a creative writing instructor. Listen to her thoughts on sad endings, unforeseen plot twists, and writer's block. 20 minutes. All ages. A full transcript is available at CabinTales.ca.   Show Notes [0:00] Intro [1:20] Interview with Karen Krossing  CA: Do you typically know the ending of your story at the beginning? KK: … I know the major twists in the story but I don't like to work out the details. … I'm aware of the sort of bones of the story, the structure of the story, and what's needed …   [3:10] CA: Do you have a favorite plot twist from your own work or others? KK: … I love when … the characters tell me a plot twist that I didn't know. …   [4:00] CA: Do you have any advice that you would give to young writers stuck in the middle of a story? KK: I have so many ideas about how to overcome writer's block. … reread what you've already written … talk with a friend about why you're stuck. … write outside of the story. …Asking the characters what happens next and where they want to go… get feedback from trusted friends or other writers … take a writing class or listen to a podcast about writing… try the put-it-in-the-drawer method. … And my final bit of advice is to set a daily writing goal. …   [8:00] CA: How do you feel about sad endings or endings where the good guy loses? KK: I love them. …. If I see my characters coping with loss and disappointment and sadness, then maybe that will help me when I feel those things too.   [9:00] CA:. Are any of your stories based on your own childhood? KK: …. The one that's most closely based on my childhood, I would say, is my collection of link short stories, Take the Stairs. .. I have been writing more stories recently that go more into my childhood -- the monster in the closet story. …   [11:20] CA: Do you have a favorite point of view to write from? KK: … I like first person because it's so immediate…. But my other favorite is third person close, … so you can, as a writer, observe that main character and give insights that maybe they don't quite see or understand themselves. …I like present tense for its immediacy, but past can … give that place where you can observe or reflect.   [13:35] CA: Have you ever written a story about a transformation? KK: … every main character transforms in some way CA: Have you ever written about a parasite? KK: No but that sounds fun. … CA: And what about a split personality? KK: … not a split personality but a many faceted personality…   [14:40] CA: Did you tell stories around the campfire as a kid? KK: I feel like it was the listener, not the teller around the campfire. …   [15:40] CA: Do you have any favorite scary movies? KK: One that really creeps me out is Coraline…. Those button eyes – they're terrifying. …   [16:00] CA: Do you have any phobias? Well, closets… KK: … Right now I feel like my phobia is germs…I don't have phobias then. I have large fears….  going to the dark places in our own lives brings great story material.   [17:10] CA: Do you collect anything? KK: … ideas, dreams, passions, wishes, hopes. …   [17:40] CA: And you don't happen to be the 7th daughter of a 7th daughter? KK: But I wish I was because that would feel really special, maybe magical. …   [18:00] CA: And for the last thing, I'm going to say a few words. This is not a psychiatric evaluation. And you just say the first thing that comes into your head. … CA:. And that's it. You passed. …. Thank you so much…   [19:00] Karen Krossing introduces herself KK: I'm Karen Krossing. I'm an author for kids and teens. I write short stories, novels, picture books. I write because I'm fascinated by words, by the way they can make people laugh or cry or inspire them to do great things. And I want to use the power of words to do good in the world.   [19:30] Find out more about Karen Krossing You can hear more creative writing advice from Karen Krossing on Cabin Tales Episode 1.5, “Author Interviews about Setting,” Episode 2, “Nasty People Meet Nasty Ends,” about Character, and Episode 8, “The Never-ending Story,” about Revision. Find out more about Karen Krossing and her books and her editorial and mentoring work from her website at KarenKrossing.com. You'll find a detailed description of her author presentations and creative writing workshops, along with email links that you can use to invite her into your school.   [20:30] Thanks and coming up on the podcast I'll be back next week with leftovers from my interview with Tim Wynne-Jones, the multi-award-winning author of 35 books who is also a creative writing instructor and a musician. Thanks for listening. Credits: Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use). Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com. Guest Author: Karen Krossing is the author of seven award-winning novels for kids and teens, including Punch Like a Girl, Bog, and Cut the Lights, plus new picture books on the way. Karen encourages new writers through workshops for kids, teens, and adults. She lives in Toronto. Find her online at www.karenkrossing.com.  

An interview with Amanda West Lewis, author of three novels and four non-fiction books for young people, andexecutive director of a theatre school. A 20-minute continuous segment not yet heard on Cabin Tales in which Amanda shares her preference for third-person point of view, her phobia of scary stories, and her love of Alice in Wonderland. All ages. A full transcript of this episode is available at CabinTales.ca. Show Notes [0:00] Intro   [1:20] Interview with Amanda West Lewis CA: Do you read your work out loud when you're writing? AWL: … All the time. … scene by scene, chapter by chapter. …   [1:40] CA: While you're writing, do you choose words consciously to suit your genre or the impact you want on your reader? …How much do you think about the actual words as opposed to the story? AWL: Words are enormously important to me…. I am conscious of the different colour of each book and what kind of language I will use for a particular genre. In the first, second, third, and fourth draft, I tend to be too conscious of the words. …   [3:00] CA: Do you have any favorite words? AWL: Langourous is a gorgeous word….   [3:45] CA: How much time do you spend revising compared to drafting or planning? … AWL: … 90%....   [4:15] CA: How do you feel about comeuppance tales or just desserts? AWL: One feels enormously satisfied when a villain gets their comeuppance. … the real story for me is always the protagonist that you have empathy for, who is on the wrong path… and they become redeemed. … Comeuppance is… straight out villain gets melted. … That's enormously satisfying. But it's kind of a cheap thrill.   [5:35] CA: Do you have any feelings about sad endings? AWL: Life is filled with sadness. … I think a sad story is necessary …We're all going to be dead. And the more we can bring that into the conversation, the better. …   [7:45] CA: Do you have a favorite point of view to write from? AWL: I gravitate toward third person because I really do enjoy what you can say on the outside of that. … I love that the reader can learn more about the protagonist than the protagonist knows about themselves. … That said, I just finished a book… in first person. … I had to be there and see it rather than show it. …   [10:00] CA: Have you ever written a monster story? AWL: No … Other than writing a story that's set in Hitler's Germany. … CA: Have you ever written a story about a curse? AWL: … No, … people trying to invoke curses now and then… CA: Have you ever written an outhouse scene? AWL: My new book has an outhouse scene in it that I'm quite proud of … And I thought it was so wonderfully random that you would ask that question…   [11:25] CA: Did you tell stories around the campfire as a kid? AWL: Yes … very important. Especially as night comes on and … the world outside you disappears and the light only lights what's important….   [12:10] CA: Do you have a favorite scary story? AWL: ... Dracula scared the crap out of me. … But there's a lot of contemporary scary stories I can't read. … At some point as a child I got too scared, and so I don't want to go there. So Dracula is about as far as I can go. …   [13:00] CA: And do you have any phobias? AWL: Scary stories. … that's my phobia, even more than the elevators.   [14:00] CA: … Do you collect anything? AWL: I have an Alice collection. … different editions. …and some Alice pieces as well… I don't collect anything else other than books …and fountain pens….   [15:00] CA: Have you ever done any theatre around Alice? AWL: Yes. … one of my favourites. …  I've also done a production of Wind in the Willows and Great Expectations, which I adored doing with kids because these are good stories. …   [17:00] CA: And that you don't happen to be the 7th daughter of a 7th daughter? AWL: … I'm an only child…. It's a different kind of power.   [17:50] CA: So how are you faring during COVID? AWL: It's been incredibly busy and actually incredibly creatively exciting, because I converted my business – which is a children's theatre school – to online. …As artists, that's the main gift we have to give the rest of the society, is our flexibility, our adaptability, and showing people that that's what they need to be able to cultivate at a time like this….   [19:15] Amanda West Lewis introduces herself AWL: Hi. I'm Amanda West Lewis. I write fiction and nonfiction novels and picture books for children and young adults. I'm also a professional calligrapher and a theatre artist and I run a children's theatre school in Ottawa. Right now, in the midst of converting my theatre school to online programming, I'm finishing up a YA novel set in 1968 and a picture book collection of poems about the planets.   [20:00] Find out more about Amanda West Lewis You can hear more creative writing advice from Amanda West Lewis on Cabin Tales Episode 1.5, “Author Interviews about Setting,” Episode 2.5, “Author Interviews about Character,” and Episode 8, “The Never-ending Story,” about revision. Find out more about Amanda West Lewis and her books and other arts from her website at AmandaWestLewis.com. Use the email link on her website to invite her into your school.   [21:15] Thanks and coming up on the podcast I'll be back next week with leftovers from my interview with Karen Krossing, novelist and picture book author from Toronto, Ontario. Thanks for listening.   Credits: Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use). Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com. Guest Author: Amanda West Lewis is a writer, theatre director and calligrapher. Her writing for children and youth ranges from historical YA fiction to craft books on the art of writing. She is the Artistic Director and Founder of The Ottawa Children's Theatre. Find her online at www.amandawestlewis.com.  

An interview with Lori Weber, Montreal author of ten YA books including Lightning Lou, Yellow Mini, and Deep Girls. Interview snippets not heard on the Cabin Tales podcast, edited into a 15-minute continuous segment in which Lori shares her love of fictional settings, her aversion to moral messages in fiction, and her unease around squirrels in her own yard. All ages. A full transcript is available at CabinTales.ca. Show Notes [0:00] Intro [1:15] Interview with Lori Weber CA: When you're creating a story… do you do any exercises to help build your story world? LW: … I will consult maps…use a lot of photographs… research real places… Setting can contain so much important symbolism in a story...   [3:00] CA: Are any of your stories based on your own childhood or youth? LW: …Absolutely…. Bits and pieces modified, expanded, completely changed. …Sooner or later you run out of autobiographical traumatic things that happened to you as a teen….The emotions have been real even if the events have not been real….   [4:30] CA: Do you know the end of your story when you begin? LW: I think sometimes I have a general idea of what might happen at the end…I know some writers really have a strong sense of that final scene. I don't have that when I start…   [5:15] CA: How do you feel about comeuppance tales? LW: … I'm not big on morality to begin with in a book. … I'm okay if there's no big punishment that's being meted out …I was once accused of having comeuppance for a character … And that really bothered me, really really bothered me that somebody would see it that way.   [7:00] CA: And how do you feel about sad endings, for youth? LW: I think I'm okay with them. … as long as there's some kernel of hope or …some learning or something for the characters to latch onto and to grow with… That's what literature does… It takes characters through a lot of darkness. … I'm not big on the Hollywood ending…   [8:55] CA: Do you read your own work out loud when you're revising ever? LW: At some points I might. I did a lot with Yellow Mini because it's poetry. … I advise my students to do that…I should follow my own advice maybe.   [9:20] CA: And do you have a favorite point of view to write from? LW: Most of my work has been in first person, present tense.... Lightning Lou is my first third-person creation. … I find third … way more challenging than first person…. It's almost like you're dealing with two characters: the narrator and the main character…   [10:30] CA: And have you ever written a monster story? LW: Human monsters, maybe. No….   [11:00] CA: Did you tell stories around the campfire as a kid? LW: … I had a real urban inner-city upbringing. …. We were a huge gang of kids on the street, and we played in the back lanes. … there was a ton of storytelling going on. It just wasn't around a campfire…   [11:45] CA: And I'm not sure if you have a favorite scary story? LW: I find dystopias with a taste of reality…extremely scary. …   [12:30] CA: And do you have any phobias LW: I'm mildly phobic about squirrels darting around me when I'm outside. … I don't love heights. And I regret that sometimes when I travel… CA: And have you used that fear in any of your work? LW: … I should start. … I'm going to create a character who can't walk across a bridge.   [13:45] CA: Do you collect anything? LW: I used to collect salt and pepper shakers….   [14:14] CA: I'm going to say a word, and you say whatever comes into your head, okay? LW: Okay…. CA: And that's it. That's all I've got….Thanks, Lori. Bye.   [15:25] Lori Weber introduces herself LW: My name is Lori Weber and I live in Dorval, Quebec, which is a suburb of Montreal. And I'm the author of ten books for young readers. And I'm a recently retired teacher.   [15:50] Find out more about Lori Weber  You can hear more creative writing advice from Lori Weber on Cabin Tales Episode 1, “Things Hide in the Darkness,” about setting, on Episode 2.5, “Author Interviews about Character,” and on Episode 8, “The Never-ending Story,” about revision. You can find out more about Lori Weber and her books from her website at LoriWeberAuthor.wordpress.com.   [16:45] Thanks and coming up on the podcast I'll be back next week with leftovers from my interview with Amanda West Lewis, author of two novels for young adults and five non-fiction books for young readers. Thanks for listening.   Credits: Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use). Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com. Guest Author: Lori Weber is the author of ten books for young adults and middle-grade readers, including Yellow Mini, a novel in verse, and Deep Girls, a short-story collection. A native Montrealer, she taught at John Abbott College for decades before her recent retirement. Find her online at LoriWeberAuthor.wordpress.com.  

Playwright and picture book author Rachel Eugster shares her admiration of Shirley Jackson, her use of Scrivener as a writing tool, and her love of games, stories, and spindles. Featuring interview leftovers not included in the Cabin Tales podcast, edited into a 20-minute continuous segment. All ages. A full transcript is available at CabinTales.ca. Show Notes [0:00] Intro   [1:20] Interview with Rachel Eugster CA: Do you read your own work out loud? RE: Sometimes. Not habitually.   [2:10] CA: Do you do character outlines? RE: Yeah. … I have this enormous Scrivener file with bits of chapters and cards … Scrivener I have found to be a helpful container … Everyone who writes book says the only thing you learn in writing a book is how to write that book. And you have to learn how to write the next book all over again. …   [5:45] CA: All right. Do you have any feelings about comeuppance tales? RE: Yeah, I think that's probably where they belong -- around the campfire. …   [6:00] CA: And what about sad endings how do you feel about sad endings? RE: I think there's sometimes necessary. … There's always, there's a consequence for everyone …   [7:00] CA: And when you're writing do you choose your words … just let it flow? RE: … I may set up the voice consciously, and then develop a flow with the voice…   [7:35] CA: Do you like the drafting the most, as opposed to planning and revising? RE: …. I like the way all three of those parts work together to produce something that you're proud of afterward.   [8:35] CA: And do you have a favorite point of view to write from? RE: I don't think so. I have written from first and third. … it becomes obvious as you're working on a project, which is the right point of view to tell it from. …   [9:20] CA: Have you ever written a monster story? RE: I don't think so, no. … CA: What about a story with a curse? RE: That would be great fun… CA: And have you ever written about a split personality? RE: … my first encounter with the concept was Shirley Jackson's The Bird Nest. … I don't think it can be bettered. …. She's brilliant. ….   [10:40] CA: Excellent. Okay, and you haven't happened to have written an outhouse scene? RE: I haven't. But I have fairly deep acquaintance with outhouses …   [10:55] CA: Did you tell stories around a campfire as a kid? RE: There were certainly stories told around the campfire ….. I always felt like I couldn't make up my own stories…. CA: And what about as a parent? RE: We always read to the kids at bedtime. I don't think we made stuff up very often. …. We played a lot of games growing up… one called the story game….   [13:15] CA: And do you have a favorite scary story? RE: … I would certainly say, if you want suspense read Shirley Jackson. …   [13:50] CA: Do you have any phobias? … RE: … there are things I'm not excited to touch, like worms.   [14:05] CA: And what about collections. Do you collect anything? RE: … Navajo weavings. And spindle whorls…. CA: Do you have a fondness for the story of  Sleeping Beauty? RE: I think she was a resistant spinner…   [16:00] CA: And you don't happen to be the 7th daughter of a seventh daughter? RE: Oh wouldn't that be lovely? …   [16:25] CA: All right so I'm going to say a few words and you say the first thing that pops into your mind. RE: Oh god. Okay....   [17:40] Rachel Eugster introduces herself   RE: I'm Rachel Eugster. I'm a writer and editor and many other things, which makes it a challenge to introduce myself because I find I spread myself into so many different pursuits. As a writer, I have published one picture book, The Pocket Mommy, and a series of nonfiction books about food and nutrition. I'm also an actor and a singer and a director. And the intersection between the writing and the acting is an original play I wrote about Amelia Lanyer, who lived in Shakespeare's time. And I am very active with the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, volunteering as the Webmaster, with minimal technical talents, and attending every conference that our chapter organizes.   [14:45] Find out more about Rachel Eugster   You can hear more creative writing advice from Rachel Eugster on Cabin Tales Episode 1.5, “Author Interviews about Setting,” Episode 2.5, “Author Interviews about Character,” and Episode 8, “The Never-ending Story,” about revision. …You can find out more about Rachel Eugster, her books, and her theatre work from her website at RachelEugster.com.   [19:50] Thanks and coming up on the podcast I'll be back next week with leftovers from my interview with poet and novelist Lori Weber. Thanks for listening. Credits: Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use). Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com.   Guest Author: Rachel Eugster is the author of the picture book The Pocket Mommy and the "Ingredients of a Balanced Diet" series. A theatre artist, singer, and choral conductor, Rachel premiered in her original play Whose Æmilia? at the Ottawa Fringe Festival in 2015. Find her online at https://racheleugster.com/.    

A 15-minute episode of interview snippets with children's author Jan Coates from Nova Scotia. A transcript is available at CabinTales.ca.   Show Notes [0:00] Intro [1:20] Interview with Jan Coates   [1:30] CA:  Do you have a favourite setting from fiction, either your own books or other peoples'? JC: I don't think so. My novels… are in real places. But I also like stories that could be anywhere…   [2:10] CA: Favourite characters from children's books? JC: I'm a huge Kate DiCamillo fan… And Owen Meany as an adult character….   [2:40] CA: Do you do character development exercises before drafting? JC: I don't write down details… I go through so many drafts…   [3:20] CA: And do you have any feelings about comeuppance tales? JC: …Middle grade doesn't do that so much….   [5:15] CA: Do you have a favorite point of view to write from? JC: Definitely first person present…I am an 11-year-old girl inside.…   [5:45] CA: Have you ever written a monster story? JC: No… I don't think I'm interested in monsters…. But I like when I read novels that have monsters in them….   [6:10] CA: Have you ever written a story about a curse? JC: No. Nothing… in the fairy tale/ fantasy genre… And I don't read fantasy either…   [6:55] CA: Have you had an unreliable narrator? JC: I don't think so. I feel like I spend a lot of time actually making sure that my characters are true to who they are…   [8:30] CA: Did you tell stories around the campfire as a kid? JC: So I did go to overnight camp… I sent my kids to overnight camp… she was 8 – and she did not sleep for months because of the stories they told at this camp…   [9:10] CA: Have you just made up stories on the fly? JC: … I'm not a talker…When I first was doing school visits I was terrified. …But writing has made me a better speaker. …   [10:30] CA: So you're not into scary, but do you have a favorite scary story? Like you did mention… JC: Skellig by David Almond …and The Nest … by Kenneth Oppel. … I would never choose a scary movie. …   [11:05] CA: And phobias? JC: Fear of water. And dying young. I say dying young; of course, now I just turned 60 this year…   [11:30] CA: And do you collect anything? JC: Yes, I collect beach glass… And anything second hand….   [12:15] CA: How was it illustrating your own picture book? JC: I've never been artistic in my whole life but …I thought, I'm going to see if I can do this….   [12:55] CA: So I'm going to say some words, Jan, and you say the first thing that pops into your head. JC: Oh my gosh, put on your psychiatrist hat….   [13:45 Goodbyes]   [14:15] Jan Coates introduces herself  JC: I'm Jan Coates. I'm a writer of books for young people. I live in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. I have two adult children, both of whom live in Ontario. My life goal is to live within an hour's drive of them. I love the outdoors. I love my dog, my husband, used clothing shopping, hiking. And I love of course reading and writing.   [14:45] Find out more about Jan Coates You can hear Jan Coates on Cabin Tales Episode 1.5, “Author Interviews about Setting,” Episode 2.5, “Author Interviews about Character,” and Episode 8, “The Never-ending Story,” about revision. And find out more about Jan and her books from her website at JanCoates.ca.   [16:15] Thanks and coming up on the podcast I'll be back next week with leftovers from my interview with Rachel Eugster, a playwright and picture book author who joins us from Ottawa, Ontario. Thanks for listening. Credits: Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use). Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com. Guest Author:  Jan Coates grew up in Truro, Nova Scotia, and has lived in Wolfville for most of her adult life. She has published six picture books, seven middle grade novels, and 18 levelled chapter books for emergent readers. Her first novel, A Hare in the Elephant's Trunk, was a finalist for the 2011 Governor General's Literary Awards. Find her online at www.jancoates.ca.    

The first of a season of author interviews featuring creative writing advice and anecdotes not included in the core Cabin Tales Podcast. Heard today: Caroline Pignat.  A full transcript is available at CabinTales.ca. Show Notes [0:00] Intro Welcome back for a season of interview leftovers, one author at a time. Today's guest is Caroline Pignat, two-time Governor General's Award-winning author of Greener Grass, The Gospel Truth, Shooter, Egghead, and many more great Canadian books….   [1:15] Interview with Caroline Pignat CA: Have you ever written a monster story? CP: Not since like elementary school. … My inner child is traumatized…. I think I feel more threatened by those love and belonging [conflicts], like something happening to the people I care most about…   [4:00] CA: And do you have a favorite setting from fiction? CP: …The movies I watch over and over are Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and Pirates of the Caribbean….. I like watching the hero's journey happening in settings that are different than what I'm currently in…   [4:50] CA: And when you are drafting or coming up with a story idea, do you ever mop your world or do settings sketches or anything like that? CP: I do… As I walk around it in my imagination, it becomes a real place. …. Definitely I'll have a lot of pictures up…   [6:10] CA: And since you're often writing from first person… CP: It makes it hard when you're writing in first person, because they're not going to describe what the butter churn looks; like they're just going to go make butter…. It's always helpful in the opening sentences to place them in the setting….. I'll try and use setting not just as some random place where the story happens but try and have it be meaningful if it can be….   [7:20] CA: What kind of ending feels satisfying to you? What if the bad guy wins? CP: …I don't know if I could write that…. When I first wrote Egghead, the bully got into all kinds of trouble at the end of the book …. But my editor said… you may want to soften that and help us understand why he would do the things he did. … I kind of stick to that Disney mentality that good wins… There's enough bad news in the world, where you see people who cheat or lie getting ahead. I like to see in a book that fundamental truth that good will prevail…   [8:50] CA: Is first person your favorite point of view to write from? CP: … I do prefer it. …I've had up to six people speaking in first person in novels that I've written… I've kind of stepped back with this one to try and write in a third person point of view.   [9:40] CA: And when you write, do you choose words consciously to build a mood? CP: …If I want it to be tense, I'll go in and chop up the sentences to make them really short because that makes it feel erratic … I don't usually shape all of that stuff till after I've written the story…. For the mood, what helps me imagine the mood is to listen to music. … So if I'm writing like a scary scene, I'll listen to something scary, and that helps make my heart race and makes me feel antsy and nervous, and it comes out in the writing that I do.   [10:50] CA: Did you know the ends of your stories? CP: Usually … It's really cool to set a story in a certain time period because … it's already giving you your plot points…. Sometimes a blank page where you can do anything is a little overwhelming and you don't know what to do next…. When I wrote The Gospel Truth, originally it was going to be a story about the Underground Railroad …To me the whole journey of “Should I run away or not?” -- that was much more interesting to me, her inner journey of making the decision to run. …. I didn't know as I was writing that book, is she going to stay or go? …If you know the characters really well, they're going to help you figure out what the next step. …In Egghead, as well, the Devin character was based on my boyfriend from grade 8 …. In Shooter … when the editor read it, she said … “I think you have a lot of kids with needs in here. Maybe Annie shouldn't be quite so anxious and neurotic.' And I started laughing because I had based her on me….   CA: Have you ever written a story about a curse? CP: The one I'm working on now has a curse in it.   [14:35] CA: Did you ever tell stories around a campfire? CP: No…. The stories that I loved as a kid were asking my parents like, How did you meet? … I used to love hearing stories about what it was like for them when they were teenagers and stories about what was it like when I was little ….   [15:15] CA: Do you have any favorite scary stories or movies? CP: I did read Stephen King…. For older teens, that might be an author that they want to consider reading….   [16:30] CA: So you have acrophobia, the fear of heights. Do you have any other phobias? CP: I used to be afraid of the Dickie Dee when I was a kid. …My mom would give me money to go buy it but I had to go on my own -- she was trying to teach me independence. … It wasn't worth it. …I used to be too shy to get up and speak in front of people… There are things you can learn to work through….   [17:50] CA: Do you collect anything? CP: …Art supplies. … it's more of a collection, really, than artistic endeavors….   [18:20] Caroline Pignat introduces herself   [19:10] Find out more You can hear more advice from Caroline Pignat on Cabin Tales Episodes 1, 2.5, and 8, in which she joins other authors in speaking about setting, character, and revision, respectively. Find out more about Caroline and her books from her website at CarolinePignat.com.   [19:45] Thanks and coming up on the podcast I'll be back next week with leftovers from my interview with Jane Coates, the award-winning author of picture books, early readers, and novels, who joins us from Nova Scotia. Thanks for listening. Credits: Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use). Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com. Guest Author: Caroline Pignat is a two-time Governor Generalʼs Literary Award-winning author of 17 novels, plus non-fiction and poetry. With over 20 years' experience teaching in schools, workshops, and at conferences, Caroline loves helping young writers find and share their unique voices. Find her online at www.carolinepignat.com.  

The final fall episode of Cabin Tales is about the final stage of creative writing: revision. You'll hear 26 Canadian authors talk about their revision process, and their recommendations to young writers who want to improve their first draft. 45 minutes all ages. A transcript of this episode is available at CabinTales.ca. Show Notes [0:00] Intro [1:30] Commentary on Revision If you don't want other people to read your work, you don't have to revise it. But if you do want others to read it and enjoy it, and if you want someone to publish it, then you must revise.   [3:55] Author Interviews I asked my guest authors about their revision process, how much time they spend revising vs drafting and which process they prefer. [4:00] Monique Polak envies writers who love revising [5:07] Lori Weber separates drafting from revising [6:15] Karen Krossing uses her intuition [7:35] Caroline Pignat separates creation and evaluation [9:00] Kari-Lynn Winters tries to resist editing while drafting [10:20] Philippa Dowding does not edit while she drafts [11:20] Tim Wynne-Jones usually revises along the way [12:50] Amanda West Lewis discovers more with each revision   [14:40] Commentary on revising for young writers For kids,  it would be crazy and boring to revise 20 times. Focus on the joy of creating, the passion of storytelling, the fun of it. But do try to revise at least once.   [16:00] Interviews on revising while young [16:00] Cary Fagan on the chore of revising while young [17:15] Sarah Raughley on taking your time while young   [18:45] Commentary on how to revise One of the first steps in revision is evaluating your work.   [19:15] Revision Recommendations One good practice in revision is to simply cut the word count by 10%.  [19:45] Jan Coates reads aloud and uses a thesaurus [20:45] Jeff Szpirglas saves his drafts to combine and revise [21:45] Rachel Eugster is looking for ways to lessen revision [22:25] Robin Stevenson has learned to revise wisely [24:00] Ishta Mercurio starts revisions with a blank page [24:50] Wendy McLeod MacKnight drafts very quickly [26:05] Amelinda Bérubé finds the drafting a slog   [28:15] Commentary on getting help with revision If you're ready, get feedback from a reader – your friend, other writers, your parents, your English teacher. All of the above. But don't let critiquing crush your creativity.             [29:55] Interviews about critiques [30:00] David McArthur encourages critiques [30:55] Lena Coakley spent 10 years on her first great book [31:45] Raquel Rivera revises with help from friends and editors [32:55] Marty Chan advises critique group [35:00] Lisa Dalrymple offers critiquing advice [36:10] Don Cummer is grateful for critique groups [37:20] Frieda Wishinsky says critiquing is a life skill [38:50] Kate Inglis likes the support of other writers [40:05] Karen Bass has learned to put story over ego   [42:05] Caveats  Creativity is always a good thing, even if your latest creation is not awesome. Maybe you can make it awesome with one more revision.   [43:40] Thanks and coming up on the podcast I'll be sharing my full interviews with all the Cabin Tales guest authors this winter, beginning on January 8th and continuing every Friday through the 2021 school year.  If you were hoping for a final story, I will be doing a national public reading  in January featuring an original Cabin Tale with multiple endings. More info in January. If you are a youth in Ottawa, the Ottawa Public Library's Awesome Authors Youth Writing Contest is on. I am a judge of fiction in the 9-12 age category and I want to read your story. But please don't make me read your first draft.  Have a creative December and a wonderful holiday break. Thanks for listening. Credits: Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use). Art: The B&W image for this episode is from a wood engraving by Frederick Sandys from Reproductions of Woodcuts by F. Sandys, 1860-1866. Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com. Guest Authors Karen Bass loves writing action and adventure, and she likes to slide in some history when she can. She has twice won the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction. Karen lived most of her life in rural Alberta but now lives in southern Ontario. Karen loves having a whole new part of Canada to explore and use as inspiration for new stories. Find her online at www.karenbass.ca.   Amelinda Bérubé is a freelance writer and the author of the YA novels The Dark Beneath the Ice and Here There Are Monsters. A mother of two and a passionate gardener, she lives in Ottawa, Ontario, in a perpetual whirlwind of unfinished projects and cat hair. Find her online at www.metuiteme.com.   Marty Chan writes books for kids, plays for adults, and tweets for fun. He's best known for Mystery of the Graffiti Ghoul, which won the 2007 Diamond Willow Award. His newest book, Haunted Hospital, launched October 29th. He works and lives in Edmonton with his wife Michelle and their cat Buddy. Find him online at MartyChan.com.   Lena Coakley was born in Milford, Connecticut. In high school, creative writing was the only class she ever failed—nothing was ever good enough to hand in! She has since published two YA novels, Worlds of Ink and Shadow and Witchlanders. Wicked Nix, her first book for middle-grade readers, was nominated for numerous awards. Find her online at www.lenacoakley.com.   Jan Coates grew up in Truro, Nova Scotia, and has lived in Wolfville for most of her adult life. She has published six picture books, six middle grade novels, and 18 levelled chapter books for emergent readers. Her first novel, A Hare in the Elephant's Trunk, was a finalist for the 2011 Governor General's Literary Awards. Find her online at www.jancoates.ca.   Don Cummer is the author of the “Jake and Eli” stories published by Scholastic, set during the War of 1812. The first book, Brothers at War, was short-listed for the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young Readers. Don spends his time between Canada and Ireland – where he's finding many more stories to tell. Find him online at www.doncummer.com .   Lisa Dalrymple has written 11 books for young readers, including Fierce: Women who Shaped Canada, and Skink on the Brink. She now lives in Fergus, Ontario with her husband and their 3 highly-energetic children. Find her online at lisadalrymple.com.   Philippa Dowding is an award-winning children's author, poet, musician, and marketing copywriter.  Her 2017 middle-grade novel, Myles and the Monster Outside, won the OLA Silver Birch Express Honour Book award. Philippa lives in Toronto with her family. Find her on her website at http://pdowding.com.   Rachel Eugster is the author of the picture book The Pocket Mommy and the "Ingredients of a Balanced Diet" series. A theatre artist, singer, and choral conductor, Rachel premiered in her original play Whose Æmilia? at the Ottawa Fringe Festival in 2015. Find her online at https://racheleugster.com/.    Photo by Mark Reynes Roberts Cary Fagan writes picture books and novels for children and adults. His many awards include the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award, the IODE Jean Throop Award, the Betty Stuchner--Oy Vey!--Funniest Children's Book Award, and the Vicky Metcalf Award for Literature for his body of work. Cary lives in Toronto. Find him online at https://www.caryfagan.com.   Kate Inglis is an award-winning author for adults and children. Her novels, non-fiction, and poetic picture books are infused with the salt, woodsmoke, and fresh air of the North Atlantic coast. Kate is also a photographer and a corporate writer. Find her online at www.kateinglis.com.   Karen Krossing is the author of seven award-winning novels for kids and teens, including Punch Like a Girl, Bog, and Cut the Lights, plus two picture books on the way. Karen encourages new writers through workshops for kids, teens, and adults. She lives in Toronto. Find her online at www.karenkrossing.com.   David McArthur is a graphic designer and creative writer based in Victoria, BC. His “What Does…” picture book series started as a game that David played with his son as they were driving to daycare. Find him online at www.akidsauthor.com.   Wendy McLeod MacKnight is the author of three middle grade novels: It's a Mystery, Pig Face! , The Frame-Up and The Copycat. In her spare time, she gardens, hangs with her family and friends, and feeds raccoons. Visit Wendy online at wendymcleodmacknight.com .   Ishta Mercurio lives and writes in Brampton, Ontario, where she serves as the Chairman of the Board for The FOLD Foundation, a non-profit that promotes underrepresented voices in Canadian literature. Her picture book debut, Small World, illustrated by Jen Corace, won the SCBWI Crystal Kite Award for the Canadian region. Find Ishta online at www.ishtamercurio.com.   Caroline Pignat is a two-time Governor Generalʼs Literary Award-winning author of novels, non-fiction, and poetry. With over 20 years' experience teaching in schools, workshops, and at conferences, Caroline loves helping young writers find and share their unique voices. Find her online at www.carolinepignat.com.   Monique Polak is the Montreal-based author of 29 books for young people and a two-time winner of the Quebec Writers' Federation Prize for Children's and YA Literature. She has been teaching English and Humanities at Marianopolis College in Montreal for over 30 years. Find her online at www.moniquepolak.com.   Dr. Sarah Raughley is the author of five YA fantasy novels, including the bestselling Effigies series and the forthcoming Bones of Ruin series. Her books have been nominated for the Aurora Award for Best Young Adult novel. Find her online at https://sarahraughley.com .    Photo by Katya Konioukhova Raquel Rivera is a writer, artist and performer based in Montreal. She has published five books for young readers. She also writes about books for Constellations, a library and online database of quality children's literature, for use by teachers, librarians, and the public. Visit her online at www.raquelriverawashere.com.   Robin Stevenson is the award-winning author of 29 books for all ages. She lives on the west coast of Canada. Robin is launching three new books in 2021: a picture book, PRIDE PUPPY, a middle-grade non-fiction book, KID INNOVATORS, and a young adult novel, WHEN YOU GET THE CHANCE. Find her online at https://robinstevenson.com .   Jeff Szpirglas is the author of over 20 books for young readers, including entries for Scholastic's “Countdown To Danger” series and Orca's “Tales From Beyond the Brain.” Jeff has worked at CTV and he was an editor at Chirp, chickaDEE, and Owl Magazines. He is a full-time parent and full-time teacher. Visit him online at jeffszpirglas.com .   Lori Weber is the author of ten books for young adults and middle-grade readers, including Yellow Mini, a novel in verse, and Deep Girls, a short-story collection. A native Montrealer, she taught at John Abbott College for decades before her recent retirement. Find her online at LoriWeberAuthor.wordpress.com.   Amanda West Lewis is a writer, theatre director and calligrapher. Her writing for children and youth ranges from historical YA fiction to craft books on the art of writing. She is the Artistic Director and Founder of The Ottawa Children's Theatre. Find her online at www.amandawestlewis.com.   Dr. Kari-Lynn Winters is an award-winning children's author, playwright, performer, and academic scholar. She is an Associate Professor at Brock University and the author of French Toast, Jeffrey and Sloth, On My Walk, Gift Days, and many other imaginative picture books. Find her online at http://kariwinters.com/   Frieda Wishinsky has written over 70 picture books, chapter books, novels and non-fiction books. Her books have won or been nominated for many prestigious awards, including the Governor General's Award, the Print Braille Book of the Year Award, the TD Literature Award and the Marilyn Baillie Picture book award.  Find her online at https://friedawishinsky.com.    Tim Wynne-Jones has written 35 books for adults and children of all ages. His books have been translated into a dozen languages and won multiple awards, including the Governor General's Award, the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, the Arthur Ellis Award, and the Edgar Award. Tim was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2012. Find him online at  http://www.timwynne-jones.com/.  

Keeping the focus on the subject of how to end your story, this episode features guest authors Lena Coakley, Karen Bass, Lisa Dalrymple, Ishta Mercurio, and Tim Wynne-Jones. 45 minutes. All ages. A full transcript is available on CabinTales.ca. Show Notes [0:00] Introduction   [1:15] Commentary about endings The ending is the part of the story with the greatest effect on how I feel about a book.   [3:45] Author Interviews about Endings [4:30] Tim Wynne-Jones on discovering the ending along the way [6:35] Lisa Dalrymple on writing and reading endings [8:55] Ishta Mercurio's favourite endings [11:45] Karen Bass's favourite final lines and series [14:40] Lena Coakley on reaching the end at last   [17:05] Commentary on satisfying and sad endings One thing that makes an ending satisfying is that it makes good on the promise that you laid out at the beginning of your story. … There are conventions about endings in different genres of writing.   [19:35] Author Interviews about sad endings [17:10] Karen Bass likes mixed endings [20:40] Lena Coakley cries at her own endings [22:00] Lisa Dalrymple says sad endings reflect reality [23:10] Ishta Mercurio on life and books and hope [25:20] Tim Wynne-Jones on satisfying and sad endings   [28:05] Commentary on fairy-tale endings The saying “a fairy tale ending” means a happy ending or an unbelievably happy ending. But many fairy tales do not have happy endings at all.  Excerpts from Perrault's “Cinderella” and the Grimms' “Cinderella.” Ending of Perrault's “Little Red Riding Hood.”   [33:05] Guest author recommendations to young writers [33:20] Karen Bass says echo the beginning [34:10] Lisa Dalrymple recommends keeping the character in mind [34:05] Tim Wynne-Jones says look for motivation [38:00] Lena Coakley gives advice on twists [38:55] Ishta Mercurio warns of separating judgment of self and work   [40:30] Coming up on the podcast However you end your tale, you'll have to revise your work. You'll hear more about that in next week's episode, “The Never-ending Story,” all about Revision. You'll hear a snippet from almost everyone who has been a guest author on the show.   [42:35] Story: Kidnapped by the Moon The episode closes with a story Tim Wynne-Jones and I made up during our interview. Hear how happy we were to get to the end. In part, that's because it's a happy ending. In part, it's because we were proud to have reached it. And in part, we were simply relieved that it was over. And there's a bit of those feelings in every ending. Thanks for listening. Credits Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use).  Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com. Guest Authors Karen Bass loves writing action and adventure, and she likes to slide in some history when she can to make the past come alive for young readers. She has twice won the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction and has received numerous other nominations and accolades for her stories, including one being named as a USBBY Outstanding International Book. Aside from finishing her degree in Victoria, BC, Karen lived most of her life in rural Alberta. When her husband retired, they decided to strike out on their own adventure, and now call southern Ontario home. Aside from writing, Karen works occasionally in a library, and so has a constantly growing pile of books waiting to be read. She loves having a whole new part of Canada to explore and use as inspiration for new stories. Find her online at www.karenbass.ca; on Facebook @karenbassYA on Twitter @karenbassYA and on Instagram @karenbassYA.   Lena Coakley was born in Milford, Connecticut and grew up on Long Island. In high school, creative writing was the only class she ever failed—nothing was ever good enough to hand in!—but undeterred, she went on to study writing at Sarah Lawrence College. She has published two YA novels, Worlds of Ink and Shadow and Witchlanders. Wicked Nix, her first book for middle-grade readers, was nominated for the Silver Birch Express Award, the MYRCA Sundogs Award, and the Rocky Mountain Book Award. She now lives in Toronto with her two cats, Bonbon and Pirate Jenny. Find her online at www.lenacoakley.com; on Twitter @lenacoakley; and on Facebook @lena.coakley.    Lisa Dalrymple is a wandering, wondering, dabbling, babbling, addle-brained author and mind-muddled mum. She has written 11 books for young readers, including Fierce: Women who Shaped Canada, A Moose Goes A-Mummering and Skink on the Brink. Lisa has taught kindergarten in South Korea and Thailand, caught and eaten piranha in the Amazon jungle and climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. She now lives in Fergus, Ontario with her husband and their 3 highly-energetic children. Find her online at lisadalrymple.com; on Facebook: @LisaDalrympleBooks; on Twitter: @DalrympleWrites; and on Instagram: @lisa_dalrymple   Ishta Mercurio was born and raised in an interracial family in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she developed a love of reading and books and big ideas. After leaving for college at the exactly right age of 16, she went on to explore the world and, with it, to explore various ways of storytelling, from dance to theatre to poetry to prose. She now lives and writes in Brampton, Ontario, where she serves as the Chairman of the Board for The FOLD Foundation, a non-profit whose mandate is to lift underrepresented and marginalized voices in Canadian literature. Her picture book debut, Small World, illustrated by Jen Corace (ABRAMS Books for Young Readers), was selected as one of NPR's Best Books of 2019 and won the SCBWI Crystal Kite Award for the Canadian region. Find Ishta online at www.ishtamercurio.com or on Facebook at @theoneandonlyishta/, on Twitter @IshtaWrites; or on Instagram @IshtaMercurio.   Tim Wynne-Jones has written 35 books for adults and children of all ages. He has won the Governor General's Award twice and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award twice, most recently for the thriller, Blink & Caution. He has twice won the Arthur Ellis Award of the Crime Writers of Canada, as well as the Edgar Award of the Mystery Writers of America. His books have been translated into a dozen languages. Tim was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2012. His latest novel, The Starlight Claim, came out in 2019 and his newest collection of short fiction, War at the Snow White Hotel, was released in 2020. Find Tim online at http://www.timwynne-jones.com/; Blog: https://theresalwaysdinner.home.blog/; Twitter: @tim_wj; Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tim.wynnejones.3    

A “telling tales” format with guest authors Marty Chan, Jeff Szpirglas, and Frieda Wishinsky. Featuring an original story with an ambiguous ending; a famous twist from Ambrose Bierce; gorgeous last lines and satisfying summations; and a story prompt about a deus ex machina. PG. 50 minutes. A full episode transcript and a Fright-free version (with the creepy story removed) is available at CabinTales.ca. Show Notes [1:15] Story Intro Have you ever met someone who seemed the total opposite of the rest of their family? Listen to this story about a tender-hearted boy whose parents love to hunt. [1:40] Trigger warning: Violence against rodents. To share the podcast with very young listeners, find “fright-free” episodes on CabinTales.ca. [2:30] Story: “Chewing, Chewing, Chewing” When Gabriel's parents told him they'd rented a cabin in the woods, he didn't want to go….   [14:00] Commentary on Ambiguous Endings [15:00] Copy the Technique: Ambiguous Endings   [16:00] Excerpt from “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" by Ambrose Bierce Before there was M. Knight Shyamalan, there was Ambrose Bierce, whose short story, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," was like the “Sixth Sense” of 1890. [18:30] Copy the Technique: Twist End your story in a way that changes everything that came before.   [19:15] Excerpt from A Dog's Life by Ann M. Martin You will often hear the advice that the ending of a story should echo the beginning. The novel A Dog's Life by Ann M. Martin begins and ends with a dog by the fire with her owner. In between the bookended scenes, we learn the life story that led here. [20:30] Copy the technique: Echo the Beginning Go back to the beginning of your story and find something to echo in your ending.   [21:45] Excerpt from Charlotte's Web by E.B.White Another tried-and-true way to make a satisfying ending is to sum things up. Charlotte's Web has a poignant ending that acknowledges but softens the sadness of Wilbur's journey and Charlotte's death. [23:30] Copy the technique: Sum Things Up Acknowledge that the lives of your characters go on. End your story by telling us a tiny bit about the future, the whole span of your character's life, in a very brief summing up.   Gorgeous Last Lines: [24:05] Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte [24:30] The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald [24:50] Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson [25:50] Copy the technique: A gorgeous last line Write a last line that is musical and beautiful and moves the reader by what it means and how it resonates with the whole story and by how it sounds.   [26:05] Interviews [26:40] Jeff Szpirglas on discovering the ending [28:10] Marty Chan on ending each book in a series [30:50] Frieda Wishinsky on endings mirroring the beginning   [32:30] Interviews about sad endings [33:05] Frieda Wishinsky on keeping hope alive [35:15] Marty Chan on being true to the character [36:45] Jeff Szpirglas on softening the horror with humour   [39:00] Advice for young writers on how to end a story [39:10] Jeff Szpirglas on enjoying the discovery [40:25] Frieda Wishinsky on outlining the story [41:50] Marty Chan on telling your story out loud   [43:10] Story Prompt: “Not Dead Yet” Life sometimes sends you a lifesaver.   [48:10] Thanks and coming up on the podcast If you need more help ending your stories, tune in next week for Episode 7.5 of Cabin Tales, to hear guest authors Lena Coakley, Lisa Dalrymple, Karen Bass, Ishta Mercurio, and Tim Wynne-Jones share their advice.   [48:50] Scary Movie Quote “That's all there is. There isn't any more.” Thanks for listening. Credits: Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use). Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com. Art: The B&W image for this episode is from a wood engraving by Gustave Doré from The Days of Chivalry by Ernest Lépine, 1866.   Guest Authors Marty Chan writes books for kids, plays for adults, and tweets for fun. He's best known for Mystery of the Graffiti Ghoul, which won the 2007 Diamond Willow Award. His newest book, Haunted Hospital, launched October 29th. He works and lives in Edmonton with his wife Michelle and their cat Buddy. Find him online at MartyChan.com, on Twitter @Marty_Chan; on YouTube MartyChanAuthor; on Instagram @MartyChanWriter; and on Facebook @MartyChanAuthor. Jeff Szpirglas is the author of over 20 books for young readers, both fiction and nonfiction, including entries for Scholastic's “Countdown To Danger” series and Orca's “Tales From Beyond the Brain.” He has co-authored two books about film soundtracks, and is a regular contributor to the award-winning horror magazine Rue Morgue. Jeff has worked at CTV and he was an editor at Chirp, chickaDEE, and Owl Magazines. These days, he spends his non-writing time as a full-time parent and full-time classroom teacher (and part-time werewolf). Visit him online at jeffszpirglas.com and find him on Twitter @jeffszpirglas or on Facebook.  Frieda Wishinsky has written over 70 picture books, chapter books, novels and non-fiction books. Picture book biographies are one of her favourite genres. She's written biographies about Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, Frederick Law Olmsted and most recently, Emily Roebling (How Emily Saved the Bridge). Frieda loves sharing the writing process. Find her online at https://friedawishinsky.com.   

A “talking tales” episode -- all interviews – about how to begin a story. With guest authors Frieda Wishinsky; Sarah Raughley; Don Cummer; David McArthur; and Wendy McLeod MacKnight, speaking about their favourite first lines, their advice to young writers on how to begin, and how they began to write professionally. 45 minutes. All ages. A full transcript of this episode is available at CabinTales.ca. Show Notes [0:00] Intro [1:15] Commentary on Finding the Beginning of your story Beginnings are important. They're like a first impression: the opening of your story will colour the reader's experience of everything that comes after. But the beginning of your story is always a made-up moment.   [3:45] Interviews on what makes a good beginning [4:30] Frieda Wishinsky on letting the reader know what they're getting into [6:40] Sarah Raughley on the delicate balance between too early and too late [8:35] Don Cummer on the revising a beginning [10:45] David McArthur on setting a scene [13:20] Wendy McLeod MacKnight's favourite first line   [15:20] Commentary on first lines One thing most people agree on: a reader should have some sense of what type of book they're in for from the opening.   [18:35] Guest author recommendations to young writers [18:55] Sarah Raughley knows how hard it is to begin [20:30] David McArthur knows that beginnings can change [22:00] Frieda Wishinsky likes to stick to the point [23:20] Wendy McLeod MacKnight wants to be hooked [24:45] Don Cummer suggests you just dig in   [26:30] Commentary on motivation There's the technical sense of where and how to open your story. But there's also the motivational sense of how to make yourself write when you're not sure what your story is.   [28:05] Guest Authors' beginnings as writers [28:15] Wendy McLeod MacKnight was a Deputy Minister [29:40] Don Cummer was a speechwriter [31:30] David McArthur read and wrote through dyslexia [34:25] Frieda Wishinsky loves being part of the human story [36:15] Sarah Raughley learned to believe in herself   [39:35] Thanks and Coming up on the Podcast Tune in next week for Episode 7: “Just Get it Over With,” all about the endings of stories. That's a “telling tales” format, so you'll hear stories, excerpts, and prompts, and guest authors Marty Chan, Jeff Szpirglas, and Frieda Wishinsky. Thanks for listening. Credits: Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use). Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com. Art: The B&W image for this episode is from a wood engraving by Amédée Forestier from Wilkie Collin's Blind Love, 1890. Guest Authors Don Cummer is the author of the “Jake and Eli” stories published by Scholastic – a series about two best friends growing up during the War of 1812. The first book, Brothers at War, was short-listed for the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young Readers. Don was born in Calgary and grew up on a ranch. He moved to Ottawa, where he wrote speeches for a living, and now spends his time between Canada and Ireland – where he's finding many more stories to tell. Find him online at www.doncummer.com and on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSJOMFDqjhk&t=2s David McArthur is a graphic designer and creative writer based in Victoria, BC. He struggled with reading and writing as a child, and those struggles are part of the reason he created a series of books which give children confidence to read. The “What Does…” series started as a simple game that David played with his son as they were driving to daycare. Seeing the way his son joyfully reacted to the story was so wonderful that David turned the story into a book. The rest, as they say, is history! Find him online at www.akidsauthor.com. Wendy McLeod MacKnight grew up in a small town with a library card as her most prized possession. She worked for the Government of New Brunswick for twenty-five years until the siren call of writing became impossible to ignore. She is the author of three middle grade novels: It's a Mystery, Pig Face! (Sky Pony Press), The Frame-Up and The Copycat (both from Greenwillow Books). In her spare time, she gardens, hangs with her family and friends, and feeds raccoons. Visit Wendy online at wendymcleodmacknight.com or on Twitter @wendymacknight or Instagram @wendymcleodmacknight. Dr. Sarah Raughley grew up in Southern Ontario. She is the author of five YA fantasy novels, including the bestselling Effigies series and the forthcoming Bones of Ruin series. Her books have been nominated for the Aurora Award for Best Young Adult novel. Her academic research concerns representations of race and gender in popular media culture, youth culture, and postcolonialism. Sarah is a fangirl of manga and sci-fi TV. Find her online at https://sarahraughley.com and on Twitter at ‎@s_raughley Frieda Wishinsky has written over 70 picture books, chapter books, novels and non-fiction books. Picture book biographies are one of her favourite genres. She's written biographies about Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, Frederick Law Olmsted and most recently, Emily Roebling (How Emily Saved the Bridge). Frieda loves sharing the writing process. Find her online at https://friedawishinsky.com. 

An episode about how to begin a story, with guest authors Karen Bass, Kate Inglis, and Chris Jones. Featuring an original story, great first lines from classic fiction, and suggested writing exercises. PG. A full transcript is available at CabinTales.ca. Show Notes [0:00] Intro [1:15] Story Intro If a Labrador Retriever showed up on your porch barking, you'd think, “This dog is trying to tell me something.” You would never think, “This dog is trying to lure me to my death.” (If you want to share with very young listeners, download the “fright-free” version available at CabinTales.ca.)   [2:35] “The Barking Dog” by Manny   [12:20] Opening Stories you tell vs. write A listener at the campfire doesn't hear the first few lines, then say, ‘You know what? I'm actually going to go to that other campfire and check out that story.' But a reader has a thousand other books to choose from. That's why most advice on how to begin a story will tell you to plant a question in the reader's mind. Here are some gripping first lines that plant questions. [13:25] Excerpt from Charlotte's Web by E.B. White “‘Where's Papa going with that ax?' said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast.” [14:05] Excerpt from Feed by M.T. Anderson We went to the moon to have fun, but the moon turned out to completely suck. [14:40] Excerpt from The Ritual by Adam Nevill And on the second day things did not get better. [15:20] Excerpt from The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier They murdered him. [16:10] Copy the technique: Opening Lines Write three opening lines: one in dialogue, like Charlotte's Web; one that begins in media res, like The Ritual; and one that suggests an unusual setting, like Feed.   [17:35] Openings that introduce a narrator You can open your story by directly introducing yourself to your reader, just as you might open any conversation. Excerpt from Charles Dickens' David Copperfield. Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show. Excerpt from The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. Excerpt from Mosquitoland by David Arnold. I am Mary Iris Malone, and I am not okay. [18:30] Copy the technique: Introduce yourself Write an opening that directly addresses the reader, acknowledging that they are about to read your story.   [19:15] Openings that make us care         One of my favourites is Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis. It begins: It was Sunday after church and all my chores were done. That's not especially riveting. But if you can make me enjoy spending time with your characters, I'll go a long way with them. [20:05] Copy the technique: Engage the reader If you're not sure how to begin, just give us a glimpse of your main character, what makes them unique and likeable. Like a scene of your heroine babysitting for the first time and changing a diaper. If it makes us like her and laugh with her, we'll follow her to the next scene.   [20:35] Interviews with Authors for kids and teens [20:55] Karen Bass on beginning with action [22:45] Kate Inglis on beginning with disorientation [24:50] Chris Jones on beginning with problems   [26:50] Authors' Advice for young writers on how to begin [27:05] Chris Jones on beginning with emotion [28:20] Kate Inglis on hopping around a book [30:35] Karen Bass on setting a tone   [31:55] How my guests began to write and illustrate [32:10] Kate Inglis on getting her 10,000 hours early [33:50] Karen Bass on making a great late entrance [35:05] Chris Jones on starting young and returning later   [43:20] Story Prompt: “Flowers in the Graveyard” Today I was walking my dog when I saw this girl, maybe 18 or so, cut through the cemetery. She walked right up to a headstone and took the flowers that were resting against it….   [39:20] Scary Movie Quote Try out various beginnings out on a trusted listener, like your mom. As a famous Hollywood character once said, “A boy's best friend is his mother.”   [39:50] Thanks and coming up on the podcast Next week I'll talk with five more great Canadian authors about their beginnings: Frieda Wishinsky; Sarah Raughley; Don Cummer; David McArthur; and Wendy McLeod MacKnight. Thanks for listening. Credits: Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use). (The 80s music moment at 16:05 is from Yaz's "In my Room.") Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com. Art: The B&W image for this episode is from a wood engraving by Amédée Forestier from Wilkie Collin's Blind Love, 1890.   Guest Authors Karen Bass loves writing action and adventure, and she likes to slide in some history when she can to make the past come alive for young readers. She has twice won the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction and has received numerous other nominations and accolades for her stories, including one being named as a USBBY Outstanding International Book. Aside from finishing her degree in Victoria, BC, Karen lived most of her life in rural Alberta. When her husband retired, they decided to strike out on their own adventure, and now call southern Ontario home. Aside from writing, Karen works occasionally in a library, and so has a constantly growing pile of books waiting to be read. She loves having a whole new part of Canada to explore and use as inspiration for new stories. Find her online at www.karenbass.ca; on Facebook @karenbassYA on Twitter @karenbassYA and on Instagram @karenbassYA. Kate Inglis is an award-winning author for adults and children. She writes about pirates and giants and mermaids and all the ways we love each other. Kate's novels, non-fiction, and poetic picture books are infused with the salt, woodsmoke, and fresh air of the North Atlantic coast. Kate is also a photographer and a corporate writer. Find her online at www.kateinglis.com; on Instagram @kate_inglis, on Twitter @kate_inglis; and on Facebook @kateinglisbooks. Chris Jones is an illustrator with a passion for visual storytelling. He illustrates for picture books, graphic novels, magazines and educational materials. Chris has illustrated over 20 books for young readers, including Scholastic's Take Me Out to The Ice Rink, and This is The Rink Where Jack Plays. When not illustrating for clients, Chris spends his time writing and illustrating his own comic and picture book projects. Find Chris online at: www.mrjonesey.com; Instagram @mrjonesey; Twitter @mrJonesey    

The Post-Halloween Special Episode, featuring four student stories about: a monster that demands sacrifice; a historic Halloween; teens in the deep woods; and a supernatural Air B&B. From young writers Aleina Wang, Olivia Beauchamp, Lexi-Jade McCowan, and Olivia Li. PG. A transcript of this episode is available at CabinTales.ca.   Shownotes [0:00] Intro [1:15] Story One Intro Have you ever needed to get away for a while, maybe head to the coast and spend the night in an old Victorian mansion on a clifftop and finish your novel? [2:15] “Air B&B” by Olivia Li Michelle needed to get away. When she saw the photo of an old Victorian home in the country by the sea, and the price of just $50 a night, she transferred the money and headed straight over. … [10:50] About the Author Olivia Li doesn't want to believe in ghosts, but she does and they scare her. She likes ghost stories and goofy comedies, especially when they're combined.   [12:00] Story Two Intro Have you ever dared someone to do something unusual? Maybe it seemed bold but not really dangerous? You didn't think anyone could actually get hurt doing it. [12:45] “The Duskmire Forest” by Olivia Beauchamp “He went into the cavern and—Boo!—there in front of him stood a ten-foot—” “Caleb, don't scare the children!” said Lisa. Lisa didn't like scary stories…. [22:05] About the Author Olivia Beauchamp is a grade 7 student at Symmes Junior High School in Gatineau, Quebec. Her advice to other young writers is: “Keep a youthful imagination.”   [23:10] Story Three Intro Have you ever gone to a cottage in the deep woods with a few friends, and things just didn't feel right? [23:50] “Minutes to Sunrise” by Lexi-Jade McCowan Me and my friends, Jordan, Lucas, and Hayden, were all staying at my parents' old cottage for a week…. [31:25] About the Author Lexi-Jade McCowan is a 12-year-old student doesn't usually like writing. Her advice to other young writers is: “Keep working hard. Don't give up.” Special thanks also to the English Language Arts teachers at Symmes Junior High School in Gatineau -- teachers Sarah Legge and Alex Peach – who've been sharing this podcast with their students.   [32:50] Story Four Intro Have you ever heard of a monster that demanded a sacrifice? [33:30] “The Monster of Feyre” by Aleina Wang Feyre was a beautiful and tidy land. Sure, it was cold. You only saw the sun for one month a year. But the Fey were well-bred. They wore elegant furs, made interesting conversation, and were good businessmen and women. They were also good secret-keepers…. [40:45] About the Author “The Monster of Feyre” won an Honourable Mention in the Ottawa Public Library's Awesome Authors youth writing contest in 2019, in the 9-12 age category, and it was published in Pot-pourri 2019. Aleina says this is one of her weirder stories. She has lots of advice to young writers, like combining random words as a prompt to get you started, and writing an outline to keep you motivated. You can read all of Aleina's advice on CabinTales.ca. Special thanks to the Friends of the Ottawa Public Library Association, which publishes Pot-pourri, for permission to read the story on the podcast.  Pot-pourri is an annual anthology that features all the winning and honoured stories, poems, and graphic narratives from the Awesome Authors contest. This year's contest opens in December; check out the OPL website for more information. I will be a judge this year in the 9-12 age category. And I want to read your stories. (They don't have to be spooky.)   [43:05] Time to write your own tale Now that you've heard all these great student stories, it's time to write your own. Next week, I'm back to the regular format for Cabin Tales with Episode 6: “Begin in the Darkness.” You'll hear an original story from a fictional student, plus excerpts from David Copperfield, The Chocolate War, and Charlotte's Web, and interviews with guest authors Karen Bass, Kate Inglis, and Chris Jones. Thanks for listening. Credits: Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use). Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com. Art: The B&W image for this episode is from a wood engraving by Gustave Doré from Milton's Paradise Lost, 1880.  

A special Halloween episode featuring 5 spooky stories written by students aged 11-17, including a terrifying musical awakening, a horrifying futuristic drug, a demonic yoga class, a pizza you don't want to order, and a phone call you don't want to answer. PG. Let the kids listen in. A transcript of this episode is available at CabinTales.ca. Show Notes [0:00] Episode intro [1:15] Story One Intro Have you ever been babysitting when there's a crazed killer on the loose? Whenever that happens to me, I make sure to lock all the doors and windows. But today you'll hear a story about a forgetful babysitter in a house with too many doors. And something is about to sneak inside. [3:20] “Bat, Axe, Racket” by Jacob Tremblay Maggie was out on her first babysitting job in the big house down the street. The house had a front door, a back door, and a side door. And Maggie forgot to lock all of them…. [5:55] About the Author Jacob Tremblay is 11 years old and he has never babysat, and he can't remember ever being babysat, but he has read scary stories about babysitting…   [7:00] Story Two Intro Have you ever fallen asleep standing up? Ever slept over at a friend's or relative's house or in a hotel and woken from a dream and you had no idea where you were? You're still half in the dream and all you know is that this is not your room. Well, today you'll hear a story about someone who wakes and has a very hard time figuring out where she is. And maybe she would rather not know. [7:45] “The Music Box” by Prisha Mehta Tick. Painted eyes flutter open. She's standing upright, balancing on the tips of her toes, one arm raised over her head and the other extended. Her left arm is caked with something—dirt? Dust? Where is she? Tick. Tick…. [14:10] About the Author Prisha Mehta is a high school senior from Millburn, New Jersey, with many publications to her credit. “The Music Box” was first published in Blue Marble Review. Prisha has known since the third grade that she wanted to be a writer. And she is fabulous.   [15:15] Story Three Intro Have you ever struggled with depression or anxiety or guilt? Maybe you did something you felt so bad over that you just couldn't bring yourself to face the world? Well, today you'll hear a story about someone in the future who tries a new experimental method for forcing herself to face the world. But maybe she shouldn't. Maybe she should just stay in the basement. [16:00] “Ear to Ear” by Owen Fitzpatrick When my inbox trilled like a sparrow, telling me I had mail, I had no idea what to expect. Practically no one emailed me anymore, after what I had done. I just stayed in the basement… [22:00] About the Author Owen Fitzpatrick is a 13-year-old student in grade nine at Lisgar Collegiate High School in Ottawa whose advice to any young writer is: “Don't be afraid to share your ideas. Just start writing.” “Ear to Ear” was a First Place Winner in the Ottawa Public Library's Awesome Authors youth writing contest in the 9-12 age category, and it was published in Pot-pourri 2019. Thanks to Owen and to the Friends of the Ottawa Public Library Association, which publishes Pot-pourri, for giving permission to feature the story on this show.   [23:50] Story Four Intro Have you ever taken a yoga class that was just a little beyond your flexibility? And you just couldn't wait for the end relaxation so that you could rest? Well, you're about to hear a story about a couple of very unusual creatures who take a yoga class. Thanks to yoga teacher Patricia Dickinson for the inspiration for the guided meditation in the background to this story, and thanks to the author, Kayleigh Williams, for allowing that liberty with her story. [24:45] “Demon Yoga” by Kayleigh Williams Lie down in a comfortable position. Let your arms rest by your side… Barbas and Furfur were two demons who'd been taking yoga together for a year. They'd started with an introductory session, then they moved on to Beginner One, Beginner Two, Beginner Three, and now they were just starting an Intermediate class…. [30:55] About the Author Kayleigh Williams went to a yoga class with her mother and “I could not lie still during the end relaxation and I still don't understand how anyone can relax lying down with their eyes closed in a dimly lit room full of total strangers who could be psycho killers or demons for all you know.”   [31:55] Story Five Intro Have you ever gone up to a stranger's door, maybe you were collecting bottles or selling lawn care services, and you ring the bell and you have no idea who's going to answer that door? You have no idea what you might be interrupting. Well, you're about to hear a story where the door is answered by someone in the middle of a summoning. [32:35] “Deliverance” by Sarah Ham Phil shuffled the pizza boxes, desperately trying to liberate one of his arms…. [38:35] About the Author That story won Second Prize in the Ottawa Public Library's Awesome Authors contest a couple of years ago in the 15-17 age category, and it was first published in Pot-pourri 2017. The author, Sarah Ham, is your average writerly ghost. Sarah's advice to young writers is to have fun with what you write. “If you enjoy it, so will your readers!” Thanks to the Friends of the Ottawa Public Library Association for permission to include this story.   [38:00] Time to write your own tale I'll be reading another four student stories next week in a special Post-Halloween episode of Cabin Tales. Let today's stories and the spirit of Halloween inspire you to write something to suit the season. Tune in next week for more. [40:30] Thanks and curses (monster movie quote); coming up on the podcast As a Hollywood monster hunter once said, “I'm drawing a line in the sand here. Do not read the Latin.” But who believes in curses?  Neewollah Ypaah, young writers, and Dna Sknaht Rof Gninestil. Tune in next week for Part Two of Spooky Student Stories. You'll hear about an Air B&B you don't want to book, a monster's lair you don't want to enter, and more great tales from young writers. On November 13th, it's Cabin Tales Episode 6: “Begin in the Darkness,” with stories, excerpts, creative writing commentary, prompts, and interviews with guest authors Karen Bass, Kate Inglis, and Chris Jones. Until then…. Post a link to today's episode on your social media and share it with all the young writers in your life. And write your own tale. Thanks for listening.   Credits: Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use). Music in the background of "Demon Yoga" is a brief clip taken from the royalty-free music, "Quiet Time," by David Fesliyan, from https://www.fesliyanstudios.com. Thank you. Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com. Art: The B&W image for this episode is from a wood engraving by Edwin Austin Abbey from Selections from the Poetry of Robert Herrick, 1882. Publications mentioned in the show: Blue Marble Review is a quarterly online literary journal showcasing the creative work of young writers ages  13-22. They welcome poetry, fiction, personal essays, travel stories, and opinion pieces as well as art and photography. The goal of the journal is to assemble in each issue, a broad range of voices, perspectives, and life experiences. Pot-pouri: Since 2007, the Friends of the Ottawa Public Library Association (FOPLA) has been proud to publish pot-pourri, an anthology featuring the winning entries from the Ottawa Public Library's annual Awesome Authors Youth Writing Contest. Each volume includes bilingual poetry, short stories, and now comics from talented youth authors and artists from the Ottawa community. Buy past years of pot-pourri online.  

Interviews with five Canadian illustrators about creating narratives in words and pictures. Featuring guest author-illustrators Peggy Collins, Katherine Battersby, Farida Zaman, Christine Tripp, and Chris Jones. All ages. A full transcript of this episode is available at CabinTales.ca.   Show Notes: [0:00] Intro [2:15] Commentary on how picture books are made   Interviews about creating alone vs with another writer [5:15] Chris Jones on rewarding collaborations [7:40] Peggy Collins on responsibility [9:20] Katherine Battersby on unexpected freedom [11:45] Christine Tripp on having fun [13:10] Farida Zaman on having control   [15:00] Developing characters in images [16:10] Peggy Collins loves designing characters [17:45] Chris Jones develops his characters in action [19:45] Christine Tripp has her characters in her head [21:20] Farida Zaman steps inside her characters [22:30] Katherine Battersby traps characters on paper   [24:10] Commentary on the Fear of Drawing     [27:40] Interviews about traditional and digital art. [28:20] Christine Tripp likes the safety of digital art [29:20] Farida Zaman misses her pencils [30:40] Katherine Battersby finds freedom in digital imagery [32:25] Peggy Collins is happier with her tech [34:15] Chris Jones refines his sketches digitally   [36:20] Illustrators' advice to young writers and artists [36:30] Katherine Battersby: Read, play, be yourself [37:50] Peggy Collins: Your stories matter [38:50] Farida Zaman: Everyone has a story [40:10] Christine Tripp: Don't be in a rush [41:20] Chris Jones: Don't get discouraged   [42:25] Story prompt: Picture a Halloween tale   [43:40] Thanks and coming up on the podcast Next week it's Episode XX: “The Halloween Special,” featuring spooky stories and weird tales from student writers, with no interviews at all. Thanks for listening.   Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use).  Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com. Art: The B&W image for this episode is from a wood engraving by Émile Bayard from Le général Dourakine, written by Sophie comtesse de Ségur, 1882. Guest Authors:       Katherine Battersby is the critically acclaimed author and illustrator of ten picture books, including Perfect Pigeons and the popular Squish Rabbit series. Her books have received glowing reviews in The New York Times, starred Kirkus reviews, and have been named CBC Children's Choice books. Her debut graphic novel series, Cranky Chicken, will be published in 2021. She is regularly booked to speak in schools, libraries and at festivals and she is a passionate advocate for literacy and the arts. Katherine currently divides her time between Brisbane, Australia, and Ottawa, Canada, with her husband, daughter, and their mischievous puppy. Find her online at www.KatherineBattersby.com, on Twitter @KathBatt, on Facebook at @KatherineBattersbyAuthor, on Instagram  @katherinebattersby/.       Peggy Collins is a mother, a storyteller, an artist, a teacher, and a lover of books, technology, and learning. She lives in Ontario, where she teaches concept art and character design development. She is the illustrator and author-illustrator of more than a dozen picture books. Find her online at www.PeggysIllustration.com, on Twitter @peggysbooks, on Facebook @ thelittlesproject, on Instagram @peggysillustration.         Chris Jones is an illustrator with a passion for visual storytelling. He illustrates for picture books, graphic novels, magazines and educational materials. Chris has illustrated over 20 books for young readers, including Scholastic's Take Me Out to The Ice Rink, and This is The Rink Where Jack Plays. When not illustrating for clients, Chris spends his time writing and illustrating his own comic and picture book projects. Find Chris online at: www.mrjonesey.com; Instagram @mrjonesey; Twitter @mrJonesey         Christine Tripp has worked in animation, magazine and newspaper Illustration, gag cartooning, and comic strips, but eventually she found her real passion… illustrating children's books. Over the past 20 years, she has illustrated over 50 books for publishers such as Scholastic USA, Scholastic Canada, and Pearson Canada. Chris considers herself fortunate to have a career that allows her to do exactly what she has loved to do since she was a child: draw! She lives in Stittsville, Ontario, with her husband and their dogs, Kevin and Bob. Their 4 children and 9 grandchildren are her greatest source of pride and joy.         Farida Zaman is a Toronto-based illustrator, author, and educator known for her upbeat, sophisticated, and whimsical style. She has worked with clients including the Latin Grammy Awards, The New York Times, UNICEF, London Underground, Toronto Transit Commission and many more. Farida has illustrated more than a dozen picture books. Her first authored and illustrated picture book – I Want to Be: A Gutsy Girl's ABC – was published in 2020. She is currently an instructor at Toronto's Avenue Road Art School, where she runs art workshops and illustration classes for adults and children. Find her online at www.FaridaZaman.com, on Twitter @fzamanart, and on Instagram @fzamanart.

Interviews with Canadian children's and YA authors on the subject of tension and how to make a reader turn the page. With guest authors Kate Inglis, Lisa Dalrymple, David McArthur, Jeff Szpirglas, and Marty Chan. Hosted by Catherine Austen. 40 minutes. All ages.  A full transcript of this episode is available at CabinTales.ca. Shownotes: [0:00] Intro [1:15] Interviews on adding tension to fiction [2:10] Kate Inglis on showing characters [4:30] Jeff Szpirglas on creating a tense atmosphere [6:50] Lisa Dalrymple on asking your character questions [8:50] David McArthur on planting clues [10:55] Marty Chan on leaving answers hanging   [13:10] Commentary on tension as a balancing act Think of a story as a character facing a problem that's in the way of what they want. Envision a scale with the character on one side and the problem on the other. Increase tension by adding to the weight of the problem or reducing the weight of the character. Isolate or burden the protagonist. Move the danger closer in time or space.   [16:20] Interviews on drafting and revising for tension [16:45] Marty Chan on revising multiple times [19:10] Jeff Szpirglas on drafting quickly [20:50] David McArthur on editing as he drafts [22:30] Kate Inglis on irresistible revision [25:15] Lisa Dalrymple on over-editing   [27:30] Interviews on plot twist dos and don'ts [28:20] David McArthur doesn't twist fully [29:45] Lisa Dalrymple sticks to the rules of a story [30:40] Jeff Szpirglas builds up the danger [32:35] Kate Inglis's favourite plot twists from television [34:25] Marty Chan's favourite plot twist from film   [36:15] Write your own tale Outline or draft a scene, then ask how you might enhance the tension.   [37:30] Thanks and coming up on the podcast Thanks to today's guests. Next week's episode, “Picture a Story,” will feature interviews with great Canadian illustrators – Katherine Battersby, Farida Zaman, Peggy Collins, Christine Tripp, and Chris Jones. Then on October 30th, I'll have a special Halloween episode of Cabin Tales featuring weird tales from student writers. (Submission guidelines on the website at https://CabinTales.ca.) Thanks for listening. Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use).  Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com.   Guest Authors: Marty Chan writes books for kids, plays for adults, and tweets for fun. He's best known for Mystery of the Graffiti Ghoul, which won the 2007 Diamond Willow Award. His newest book, Haunted Hospital, launched October 29th. He works and lives in Edmonton with his wife Michelle and their cat Buddy. Find him online at MartyChan.com, on Twitter @Marty_Chan; on YouTube MartyChanAuthor; on Instagram @MartyChanWriter; and on Facebook @MartyChanAuthor.   Lisa Dalrymple is a wandering, wondering, dabbling, babbling, addle-brained author and mind-muddled mum. She has written 11 books for young readers, including Fierce: Women who Shaped Canada, A Moose Goes A-Mummering and Skink on the Brink. Lisa has taught kindergarten in South Korea and Thailand, caught and eaten piranha in the Amazon jungle and climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. She now lives in Fergus, Ontario with her husband and their 3 highly-energetic children. Find her online at lisadalrymple.com; on Facebook: @LisaDalrympleBooks; on Twitter: @DalrympleWrites; and on Instagram: @lisa_dalrymple.   Kate Inglis is an award-winning author for adults and children. She writes about pirates and giants and mermaids and all the ways we love each other. Kate's novels, non-fiction, and poetic picture books are infused with the salt, woodsmoke, and fresh air of the North Atlantic coast. Kate is also a photographer and a corporate writer. Find her online at www.kateinglis.com; on Instagram @kate_inglis, on Twitter @kate_inglis; and on Facebook @kateinglisbooks.   David McArthur is a graphic designer and creative writer based in Victoria, BC. He struggled with reading and writing as a child, and those struggles are part of the reason he created a series of books which give children confidence to read. The “What Does…” series started as a simple game that David played with his son as they were driving to daycare. Seeing the way his son joyfully reacted to the story was so wonderful that David turned the story into a book. The rest, as they say, is history! Find him online at www.akidsauthor.com.   Jeff Szpirglas is the author of over 20 books for young readers, both fiction and nonfiction, including entries for Scholastic's “Countdown To Danger” series and Orca's “Tales From Beyond the Brain.” He has co-authored two books about film soundtracks, and is a regular contributor to the award-winning horror magazine Rue Morgue. Jeff has worked at CTV and he was an editor at Chirp, chickaDEE, and Owl Magazines. These days, he spends his non-writing time as a full-time parent and full-time classroom teacher (and part-time werewolf). Visit him online at jeffszpirglas.com and find him on Twitter @jeffszpirglas or on Facebook.     

A "telling tales" episode about how to build tension in fiction, with stories, excerpts, and prompts. Featuring guest authors Lena Coakley, Sarah Raughley, and Don Cummer. 45 minutes. PG. A full transcript of this episode and  "fright-free" version with the opening story removed are available at CabinTales.ca.   Show Notes [0:00] Introduction: [1:15] Story Intro: Today you'll hear a story where a pair of sisters are alone on a swimming platform with their old blind dog and a container of worms. And everything starts to squirm. [1:35] Trigger warning: Fishing (animal cruelty); bullying; violence; accidental death. To skip the story, ahead 10 minutes when you hear the musical bar near the beginning. Or download the “fright-free” version from CabinTales.ca. [2:40] Story: “Sisters” [13:40] Commentary: Books worth rereading Work hard on your prose so that your story is a pleasure to read. [14:55] Excerpt from The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss [15:45] Copy the technique: write well.   [17:05] Commentary: Anticipation You create narrative tension by making the reader hope for things to resolve one way, and dread that they'll turn out another way. [20:15] Excerpt from Deltora Quest by Emily Rodda [19:45] Copy the technique: Build dread with foreshadowing and dramatic irony.   [22:40] Commentary: Stakes Make your reader care about your character and their goals. [24:15] Excerpt from Lost Boy by Christina Henry [25:05] Copy the technique: Add more obstacles on your character's path, and more need inside your character to overcome those obstacles.   [26:05] Interviews with guest authors [27:05] Lena Coakley on planting questions [28:15] Sarah Raughley on raising stakes [30:00] Don Cummer on looking for trouble   [31:30] Drafting and revising for tension. [31:45] Lena Coakley revises at every stage [32:45] Don Cummer revises to find the best pacing [34:00] Sarah Raughley adds tension to her outlines   [35:15] Anecdotes [35:15] Don Cummer on vulnerable characters [37:55] Lena Coakley on her agent's advice [37:15] Sarah Raughly on stakes in a series   [39:00] Story Prompt: “Simon and Woolly”   [41:35] Thanks and housekeeping Tune in next week for Episode 5.5, “Author Interviews about Pacing” with guest authors Kate Inglis, Lisa Dalrymple, David McArthur, Jeff Szpirglas, and Marty Chan.   [42:50] Monster Movie Quote:  “Why don't we just wait here for a little while, see what happens.” Thanks for listening.   Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use).  Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com.   Guest Authors: Lena Coakley was born in Milford, Connecticut and grew up on Long Island. In high school, creative writing was the only class she ever failed—nothing was ever good enough to hand in!—but undeterred, she went on to study writing at Sarah Lawrence College. She has published two YA novels, Worlds of Ink and Shadow and Witchlanders. Wicked Nix, her first book for middle-grade readers, was nominated for the Silver Birch Express Award, the MYRCA Sundogs Award, and the Rocky Mountain Book Award. She now lives in Toronto with her two cats, Bonbon and Pirate Jenny. Find her online at www.lenacoakley.com; @lenacoakley   Don Cummer is the author of the “Jake and Eli” stories published by Scholastic – a series about two best friends growing up during the War of 1812. The first book, Brothers at War, was short-listed for the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young Readers. Don was born in Calgary and grew up on a ranch. He moved to Ottawa, where he wrote speeches for a living, and now spends his time between Canada and Ireland – where he's finding many more stories to tell. Find him online at www.doncummer.com and on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSJOMFDqjhk&t=2s   Dr. Sarah Raughley grew up in Southern Ontario. She is the author of five YA fantasy novels, including the bestselling Effigies series and the forthcoming Bones of Ruin series. Her books have been nominated for the Aurora Award for Best Young Adult novel. Her academic research concerns representations of race and gender in popular media culture, youth culture, and postcolonialism. Sarah is a fangirl of manga and sci-fi TV. Find her online at https://sarahraughley.com and on Twitter at ‎@s_raughley    

Featuring guest authors Cary Fagan, Philippa Dowding, Raquel Rivera, Ishta Mercurio, and Kari-Lynn Winters, talking about plotting—how and when they plot, how they feel about tormenting characters with obstacles, and what they recommend to those who want to improve their own plotting. A full transcript of this episode is available at https://CabinTales.ca.   [1:15] When to plot your story Plotting happens while coming up with ideas, drafting, and revising – activities that overlap through the entire creative process. [4:30] Author Interviews about Plotting [5:10] Cary Fagan on plotting before and while drafting [7:20] Philippa Dowding knows her ending [8:25] Raquel Rivera does not know the ending [10:35] Ishta Mercurio does not know the ending [12:55] Kari-Lynn Winters knows the end but not the path   [14:20] Plotting as character challenged. Think of a story as a path a character is taking toward what they want, and plot is everything that gets in their way. If you want to be a writer, you'll have to make your characters suffer. [16:05] Interviews about tormenting characters [16:15] Philippa Dowding is a tormentor [18:05] Raquel Rivera says torment is a sad necessity [19:00] Kari-Lynn Winters wants some kind of hope [20:20] Ishta Mercurio is an enthusiastic tormentor [22:40] Cary Fagan mitigates the torments with humour   [25:10] Classic and experimental plots Plotting is important even to quiet literary novels. Even experimental fiction is organized and intentional. So long as you fulfill the promises of the story that you set up when you invite a reader in, you're plotting well. [28:15] Author Interviews about plotting advice [28:25] Philippa Dowding recommends keeping the end in sight [29:25] Cary Fagan makes the unlikely believable [31:30] Raquel Rivera talks it over with herself [32:25] Ishta Mercurio puts a story away [34:00] Kari-Lynn Winters layers her stories   [35:40] The best plots are inside you If your plot fails in a way you can't articulate, dig in and ask what you're trying to say about life. Test and resolve a big issue, offer some revelation about life, lift up your reader into this big important drama. Use the heartline of your story to frame its plot.  [37:45] Write your own tale Show us what your character wants and make us fret and worry and cringe and weep when she doesn't get it. [38:15] Thanks and coming up on the podcast Next week takes on the subject of creating tension on Episode 5: “Squirm,” with guest authors Lena Coakley, Sarah Raughley, and Don Cummer.   If you enjoyed this episode, post a link to the podcast on your social media to recommend it to your friends. And write your own tale. Thanks for listening.   Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use).  Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com.   Guest authors:  Photo by Mark Reynes Roberts Cary Fagan has written many books for children, including The Hollow Under the Tree, Mort Ziff is Not Dead, and Wolfie and Fly. His many awards include the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award, the IODE Jean Throop Award, the Betty Stuchner--Oy Vey!--Funniest Children's Book Award, and the Vicky Metcalf Award for Literature for his body of work. Cary lives in Toronto. Find him online at https://www.caryfagan.com. Philippa Dowding is an award-winning children's author, a poet, musician and marketing copywriter. Her poetry and short fiction have appeared in many literary journals. Her children's books have been nominated for awards in Canada, the U.S. and Europe, and her 2017 middle-grade novel, Myles and the Monster Outside, won the OLA Silver Birch Express Honour Book award. Philippa lives in Toronto with her family, where she reads, writes, plays guitar, and walks her dog every day. Find her on her website at http://pdowding.com or on her blog at http://phdowding.blogspot.com. Ishta Mercurio was born and raised in an interracial family in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she developed a love of reading and books and big ideas. After leaving for college at the exactly right age of 16, she went on to explore the world and, with it, to explore various ways of storytelling, from dance to theatre to poetry to prose. She now lives and writes in Brampton, Ontario, where she serves as the Chairman of the Board for The FOLD Foundation, a non-profit whose mandate is to lift underrepresented and marginalized voices in Canadian literature. Her picture book debut, Small World, illustrated by Jen Corace (ABRAMS Books for Young Readers), was selected as one of NPR's Best Books of 2019 and won the SCBWI Crystal Kite Award for the Canadian region. Find Ishta online at www.ishtamercurio.com or on Facebook at @theoneandonlyishta/, on Twitter @IshtaWrites; or on Instagram @IshtaMercurio.  Photo by Katya Konioukhova Raquel Rivera is a writer, artist and performer based in Montreal since 1999, where she has published five books for young readers. Prior to this, she lived and worked as a copywriter in Washington DC, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore, and she taught ESL in Barcelona. Raquel also writes about books for Constellations, a library and online database of quality children's literature, for use by teachers, librarians, and the public. When she's not reading, writing, practising acrobatics, or drumming, Raquel leads creative workshops for children, youth, and adults around Quebec and across Canada. Visit her online at www.raquelriverawashere.com. Dr. Kari-Lynn Winters is an award-winning children's author, playwright, performer, and academic scholar. She is an Associate Professor at Brock University and the author of French Toast, Jeffrey and Sloth, On My Walk, Gift Days, and more than a dozen other imaginative picture books for children. Find her online at http://kariwinters.com/  

An episode about plotting stories, with guest authors Robin Stevenson, Wendy McLeod MacKnight, and Amelinda Bérubé. Featuring an original story, “The Critter Cam.” With excerpts from Harold and the Purple Crayon; “The Band-Aid;” and Holes. 45 minutes. PG-13. (A “fright-free” version is available at CabinTales.ca.)   A full transcript of this episode is available at CabinTales.ca.   [0:00] Intro and Story Intro [1:35] Trigger warning: Violence, terror, pets dying, people dying, mental illness, paranormal activity, prescription drug abuse, murder, suicide, stalking – if you don't want any of those things in your mind, skip ahead 10 minutes. Or download the “fright-free” versions of episodes available on the website at CabinTales.ca.   [2:55]  Story: “The Critter Cam”   [19:15] Commentary on Classic Plot Strucuture [14:30] Excerpt from Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson [15:15] Copy the technique   [17:45] Commentary on Simple Plots [15:50] Excerpt from “The Band-Aid” by Andy Griffiths [19:45] Copy the technique   [21:40] Commentary on complicated plotlines [23:50] Excerpt from Holes by Louis Sacher [24:30] Copy the technique   [26:45] Interviews on planning out plots [27:15] Robin Stevenson on finding character before plotting [28:50] Wendy McLeod MacKnight on messy middles [30:35] Amelinda Bérubé on crawling to the finish   [32:15] Interviews about tormenting characters [33:15] Amelinda Bérubé loves tormenting characters [35:40] Wendy McLeod MacKnight finds torment cathartic [35:15] Robin Stevenson has reservations about tormenting   [36:25] Advice for young writers on plotting [36:40] Wendy McLeod MacKnight on caring about characters [37:55] Amelinda Berube on the worst that could happen [39:00] Robin Stevenson on holding back   [39:50] Story Prompt: “Crossing the Field”   [43:15] Thanks and housekeeping   [44:25] Monster Movie Quote   Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use).  Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com. Guest Authors: Amelinda Bérubé is a freelance writer and the author of YA novels The Dark Beneath the Ice (Sourcebooks Fire, 2018) and Here There Are Monsters (Sourcebooks Fire, 2019). A mother of two and a passionate gardener, she lives in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada in a perpetual whirlwind of unfinished projects and cat hair. Find her on her website at www.metuiteme.com or on Twitter: @metuiteme.   Wendy McLeod MacKnight grew up in a small town with a library card as her most prized possession. She worked for the Government of New Brunswick for twenty-five years until the siren call of writing became impossible to ignore. She is the author of three middle grade novels: It's a Mystery, Pig Face! (Sky Pony Press), The Frame-Up and The Copycat (both from Greenwillow Books). In her spare time, she gardens, hangs with her family and friends, and feeds raccoons. Visit Wendy online at wendymcleodmacknight.com or on Twitter @wendymacknight or Instagram @wendymcleodmacknight.   Robin Stevenson is the award winning author of 29 books, including board books, picture books, early chapter books, middle grade fiction and non-fiction, and young adult fiction and non-fiction. She lives on the west coast of Canada with her family: her partner, teenage son, a cat, and a very loving and slightly needy spaniel who is usually lying on her feet. Robin is launching three new books in 2021: a picture book, PRIDE PUPPY (Orca), a middle-grade non-fiction book, KID INNOVATORS (Quirk), and a young adult novel, WHEN YOU GET THE CHANCE (Running Press Kids). Find Robin online at https://robinstevenson.com or on Twitter @robin_stevenson, on Facebook at @RobinStevensonAuthor/, or on Instagram: @robinstevensonwrites.    

A “talking tales” episode in which guest authors Cary Fagan, Wendy McLeod MacKnight, Raquel Rivera, Ishta Mercurio, and Robin Stevenson answer the question, “Where do you get your ideas?” 40 minutes. All ages.   A full transcript of this episode is available at CabinTales.ca.   [0:00] Introduction Welcome to Cabin Tales: Spooky Stories for Young Writers. This is Episode 3.5: “Author Interviews about Inspiration.” I'm Catherine Austen. And my guests today are Cary Fagan, Wendy McLeod MacKnight, Raquel Rivera, Ishta Mercurio, and Robin Stevenson. They've written over 70 books—picture books, short story collections, non-fiction, and novels for children, teens, and adults – and their advice on where to find ideas for stories, where to keep them once you find them, and how to create fiction from your real-life fears, is coming up right now on Cabin Tales.   [1:15] Interviews about finding inspiration for stories [2:10] Cary Fagan on finding inspiration from his own childhood [5:30] Robin Stevenson on finding inspiration in life and news [7:50]: Raquel Rivera on finding inspiration inside and out [10:10] Ishta Mercurio on walking into inspiration [13:25] Wendy McLeod MacKnight about being nosy [16:15] Quote from Jack Gantos on eavesdropping   [17:00] Interviews about finding inspiration in real-life fears [17:10] Robin Stevenson on her apocalyptic fears [18:05] Raquel Rivera on writing from fear [19:45] Wendy McLeod MacKnight on giving characters her phobias [20:35] Cary Fagan on using fear directly and indirectly [22:05] Ishta Mercurio on needing distance from fear   [23:20] Tapping into fear and other emotions to inspire stories [24:20] Quotes from S.E. Hinton and from Peter Sears' student handbook   [25:40] Interviews about journals [25:55] Wendy McLeod MacKnight's embarrassing journals [27:35] Robin Stevenson on the need to write ideas down [28:55] Raquel Rivera on writing, drawing, and designing ideas [30:25] Ishta Mercurio's many kinds of journal [32:55] Cary Fagan's journal is called a notebook.   [35:45] Things to do in journals [36:30] Find inspiration by reading [39:05] Start with a prompt Download an Object Study exercise template at CabinTales.ca.   [40:10] Thanks and coming up on the podcast Next week it's Plotting in Episode 4: “Bad Things Happen.” Thanks for listening   Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use).  Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com.   Guest authors:    Photo by Mark Reynes Roberts Cary Fagan has written many books for children, including The Hollow Under the Tree, Mort Ziff is Not Dead, and Wolfie and Fly. His many awards include the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award, the IODE Jean Throop Award, the Betty Stuchner--Oy Vey!--Funniest Children's Book Award, and the Vicky Metcalf Award for Literature for his body of work. Cary lives in Toronto. Find him online at https://www.caryfagan.com.   Wendy McLeod MacKnight grew up in a small town with a library card as her most prized possession. She worked for the Government of New Brunswick for twenty-five years until the siren call of writing became impossible to ignore. She is the author of three middle grade novels: It's a Mystery, Pig Face! (Sky Pony Press), The Frame-Up and The Copycat (both from Greenwillow Books). In her spare time, she gardens, hangs with her family and friends, and feeds raccoons. Visit Wendy online at wendymcleodmacknight.com or on Twitter @wendymacknight or Instagram @wendymcleodmacknight.   Ishta Mercurio was born and raised in an interracial family in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she developed a love of reading and books and big ideas. After leaving for college at the exactly right age of 16, she went on to explore the world and, with it, to explore various ways of storytelling, from dance to theatre to poetry to prose. She now lives and writes in Brampton, Ontario, where she serves as the Chairman of the Board for The FOLD Foundation, a non-profit whose mandate is to lift underrepresented and marginalized voices in Canadian literature. Her picture book debut, Small World, illustrated by Jen Corace (ABRAMS Books for Young Readers), was selected as one of NPR's Best Books of 2019 and won the SCBWI Crystal Kite Award for the Canadian region. Find Ishta online at www.ishtamercurio.com or on Facebook at @theoneandonlyishta/, on Twitter @IshtaWrites; or on Instagram @IshtaMercurio.    Photo by Katya Konioukhova Raquel Rivera is a writer, artist and performer based in Montreal since 1999, where she has published five books for young readers. Prior to this, she lived and worked as a copywriter in Washington DC, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore, and she taught ESL in Barcelona. Raquel also writes about books for Constellations, a library and online database of quality children's literature, for use by teachers, librarians, and the public. When she's not reading, writing, practising acrobatics, or drumming, Raquel leads creative workshops for children, youth, and adults around Quebec and across Canada. Visit her online at www.raquelriverawashere.com.   Robin Stevenson is the award winning author of 29 books, including board books, picture books, early chapter books, middle grade fiction and non-fiction, and young adult fiction and non-fiction. She lives on the west coast of Canada with her family: her partner, teenage son, a cat, and a very loving and slightly needy spaniel who is usually lying on her feet. Robin is launching three new books in 2021: a picture book, PRIDE PUPPY (Orca), a middle-grade non-fiction book, KID INNOVATORS (Quirk), and a young adult novel, WHEN YOU GET THE CHANCE (Running Press Kids). Find Robin online at https://robinstevenson.com or on Twitter @robin_stevenson, on Facebook at @RobinStevensonAuthor/, or on Instagram: @robinstevensonwrites.  

A 50-minute episode that answers the question, “Where do you get your ideas?” With guest authors Philippa Dowding, Amelinda Berube, and Kari-Lynn Winters. Featuring an original spooky story about an insatiable animal; excerpts from All Quiet on the Western Front, The One and Only Ivan, and The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom; and creative writing exercises and prompts.   A full transcript of this episode is available at CabinTales.ca.   [0:00] Intro [1:15] Story Introduction: Today you'll hear a story about a boy whose stepfather told him repeatedly not to do something but the boy did it anyway. And he soon found out why he shouldn't have. [2:50] Darryl's Story: “Don't Feed the Wildlife” Rated PG. Unless you're terrified of chipmunks, it's not scary.   [15:15] Commentary: Where ideas come from Look around you and you will see stories waiting. Often writers don't know where their ideas come from. But just as often, the source of a story is obvious. Some of the world's most famous books had their inspiration in the author's life.   [17:10] Excerpt from All Quiet on the Western Front [18:30] Copy the Technique Think of a moment in your own life where something happened that made you laugh, or made you cry, or embarrassed you, or frightened you. And write about it as if it happened to someone else.   [20:00] Finding ideas in the news Another place that you can find story ideas is in true stories from history or from current events. Take a spark of truth and ask, “What must that have been like?”   [21:00] Excerpt from The One and Only Ivan [22:05] Copy the technique Pay attention to the world. Read the news.  Read history books, and natural history books. Read the footnotes. When you find something that makes you think, “Wow, I never knew that. People should know about that,” then you have found your story idea.   [23:10] Finding ideas in other stories A third place where you can find great ideas for stories … is other stories.   [23:55] Excerpt from The Hero's Guide to Saving your Kingdom [25:15] Copy the technique Read myths and fairy tales and bible stories and Shakespeare and Jane Austen and the Brontes and think: Could there be a different ending? A different perspective?    [26:20] Author Interviews about where ideas come from [26:45] Philippa Dowding on finding stories in dreams [28:00] Amelinda Berube on finding ideas in “true” ghost stories [30:40] Kari-Lynn Winters on finding ideas all around her   [32:55] Finding Ideas in your fears [33:10] Amelinda Berube on conquering fears through fiction [35:50] Kari-Lynn Winters on finding a story in a real spooky prank [36:55] Philippa Dowding on writing about anxiety   [37:45] What to do with all your ideas [37:55] Kari-Lynn Winter's Thousand Journals [38:40] Philippa Dowding on her several journals [40:00] Amelinda Berube on no longer journaling [41:00] Amelinda Berube on finding ideas in prompts   [42:00] The need to stare out windows To take a simple idea and build it into something complex enough to become a story, you need to just let these ideas flow in your mind.   [42:40] Start with an object Copy Chekhov when he picked up an ashtray and said, “Now I'll write a story about an ashtray.” Start with an object.   [43:15] Story prompt Finish the story beginning. Or pick up another object near you and write a story about that. If you're really stuck and you want to write a scary story, sit in the dark at night in the woods, and within 5 minutes you'll have lots of scary ideas in your head.   [47:55] Monster movie line If you are stumped for ideas for scary stories, look to reality, the world around us. Because, as a Hollywood character once said, “Mother Nature is a serial killer. No one's better or more creative.”   [48:30] Thanks and coming up on the podcast Thanks to today's guests. Guests next Friday will be: Robin Stevenson; Wendy McLeod MacKnight; Raquel Rivera; Ishta Mercurio; and Cary Fagan. They'll be telling you where they get their best ideas and where you can find yours. I'm Catherine Austen. Thanks for listening.   Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use).    Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com.   Guest Authors: Amelinda Bérubé is a freelance writer and the author of the YA novels The Dark Beneath the Ice (Sourcebooks Fire, 2018) and Here There Are Monsters (Sourcebooks Fire, 2019). A mother of two and a passionate gardener, she lives in Ottawa, Ontario, in a perpetual whirlwind of unfinished projects and cat hair. Find her on her website at www.metuiteme.com or on Twitter: @metuiteme.   Philippa Dowding is an award-winning children's author, a poet, musician and marketing copywriter. Her poetry and short fiction have appeared in many literary journals. Her children's books have been nominated for awards in Canada, the U.S. and Europe, and her 2017 middle-grade novel, Myles and the Monster Outside, won the OLA Silver Birch Express Honour Book award. Philippa lives in Toronto with her family, where she reads, writes, plays guitar, and walks her dog every day. Find her on her website at http://pdowding.com or on her blog at http://phdowding.blogspot.com.   Dr. Kari-Lynn Winters is an award-winning children's author, playwright, performer, and academic scholar. She is an Associate Professor at Brock University and the author of French Toast, Jeffrey and Sloth, On My Walk, Gift Days, and more than a dozen other imaginative picture books for children. Find her online at http://kariwinters.com/  

An introductory tour of the podcast, about the origin of the Cabin Tales stories, creative writing themes on fall episodes, upcoming guest authors; and a submission call for the Halloween Special Episode. 20 minutes. All ages.   A full transcript of this episode is available at CabinTales.ca. [1:15] What is Cabin Tales? Cabin Tales is a podcast with an unusual format—a mix of fiction, education, and interviews. It's really like having an author visit every week – only it's absolutely free. And I bring talented friends with me. You don't have to like spooky stories to enjoy this podcast. If you like books and author talks and encouragement to write your own tales, then this podcast is for you.   [1:50] The Origin of Cabin Tales Catherine Austen developed the Cabin Tales Podcast during COVID-19 to take the place of author visits in 2020. The stories in the podcast are from her draft novel, Cabin Tales, in which four young teens tell scary stories around a campfire (while their mothers disappear one by one).   [4:00] The Podcast Format Each episode of Cabin Tales focuses on one aspect of creative writing. Episode formats alternate thus: First is a full episode that opens with an original story, followed by excerpts from three books that exemplify the week's theme—one for adults, one for young adults, and one for children—and a final prompt, told as a story, that listeners are invited to finish. In between readings, you get writing tips, commentary, suggested exercises, and 3 author interviews. Then the next episode features interviews with five more guest authors talking about the same creative-writing subject. So you get two weeks on each creative writing theme. We'll alternate between these formats, “Telling Tales” and “Talking Tales,” all season.    [7:20] The Audience The Cabin Tales Podcast is for readers and writers of all levels of experience, but especially teen writers. The kids whose schools I won't be visiting this year. Stories told on the podcast are the sort that young people might tell around a campfire to spook their friends. Some are serious; some are silly; and some are a little scary. Consider them PG-13. For younger listeners, “fright-free” versions of episodes are available on the website at CabinTales.ca – all the good educational stuff with no scary bits.   [9:00] Where to Listen The Cabin Tales Podcast is available through iTunes, Google Podcast, Spotify, SoundCloud, Stitcher, TuneIn, I Heart Radio, Learning out Loud, and through its host, Podbean. (Those platforms stream the original episodes only. For the fright-free versions, go to CabinTales.ca.) To be notified by email of every new episode when it comes out, follow the CabinTales.ca blog or follow Catherine on Facebook. Or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or from any other streaming platform.   [10:20] The Interviews All episodes of Cabin Tales feature excerpts from interviews with great Canadian authors for young people. Guest authors featured in August were Caroline Pignat, Lori Weber, Tim Wynne-Jones, Karen Krossing, Jan Coates, Rachel Eugster, Amanda West Lewis, and Monique Polak. Guests featured in September include Philippa Dowding, Ishta Mercurio, Wendy MacKnight, Amelinda Berube, Robin Stevenson, Raquel Rivera, and Kari-Lynn Winters. Guests coming up in the fall include Cary Fagan, Don Cummer, Sarah Raughley, Kate Inglis, Farida Zaman, Katherine Battersby, Christine Tripp, Peggy Collins, and many more.  You'll hear little bits and pieces from all of these interviews this fall, and you can hear complete, edited interviews with each featured author in the winter, starting January 2021.   [11:35] The Excerpts The podcast follows guidelines of Fair Dealing with the brief excerpts of copyrighted material used to illustrate fine writing. Episode shownotes link to the sources for all of these books.   [12:30] Write your own Tale The Cabin Tales Podcast encourages listeners to write their own tales. Episodes include suggested writing activities, and each full episode ends with a story prompt that listeners are invited to finish. Some episodes also link to creative writing mini-lessons and templates that teachers can use straight out of the box.   [14:25] The Halloween Episode Submissions are being accepted for a special Halloween episode of Cabin Tales, which will feature just student stories. Original spooky stories of up to 2000 words. Send your story, along with a few words about yourself and when and why you wrote this story, in the body of an email to cabin(at)catherineausten(dot)com or use the form on the contact page at CabinTales.ca. Sadly, we pay you nothing but respect.    [16:45] The Cabin Tales Host, Catherine Austen I'm an author of short stories for adults, novels for children, and reports for corporate clients. I've won some awards. I've had stories published in great literary journals. I've given writing workshops at schools and libraries across Canada. I live in Gatineau, Quebec.   [17:25] The Music Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo under Standard license for online use.   [17:50] What's coming up this season September 11: Episode 3, “Spooky Stories are all Around Us,” about getting ideas for stories. September 18th: Episode 3.5, “Author Interviews about Ideas.” Episodes 4 and 4.5 are about Plotting. Episodes 5 and 5.5 are about creating tension. October 23rd: “There's More than One Way to Tell a Story,” interviews with Canadian illustrators. October 30th, “Spooky Stories by Student Writers.” November and December episodes about Beginnings and Endings; Narrative Voice; and Revision A final December episode about the creative process and how to develop a writing practice. In January we'll begin a season of author interviews. (Monster-movie line: “I got a goddamned plan!”)   [19:35] Thanks for listening If you like the show, please link to it on your social media, and share it with your writer-friends and reader-friends and teacher-friends, and together we'll get it into the ears of young writers and say to them: Write your own tale. Here's how.  

A “talking tales” episode about developing fictional characters, featuring interviews with five guest authors for children and young adults: Caroline Pignat; Jan Coates; Lori Weber; Rachel Eugster; and Amanda West Lewis. Hosted by Catherine Austen. 46 minutes. All ages.   The full transcript of this episode and more information on the podcast is available at CabinTales.ca.   [0:00] Introduction   [1:15] Interviews on favourite villains and protagonists [2:00] Caroline Pignat on Darth Vader and Gollum [4:10] Jan Coates on Skellig, The Nest, and Kate DiCamillo [6:45] Lori Weber on Heathcliffe, Remington, and favourite characters [9:40] Rachel Eugster on Miss Slighcarp and beloved characters [12:20] Amanda West Lewis on the Terrible Trivium    [15:50] Commentary and interviews on empathy Excerpt by Colum McCann from Letters to a Young Writer [18:00] Caroline Pignat on crying through a scene [18:45] Jan Coates on sitting down with her character [19:50] Lori Weber on loving her characters [20:30] Rachel Eugster on acting and writing [22:25] Amanda West Lewis on making historical characters feel real   [24:50] Exercises for young writers [25:15] Amanda West Lewis on making historical characters feel real [27:00] Rachel Eugster on plotting characters [28:30] Lori Weber on discovering a character as she writes [31:15] Jan Coates on living with a character in her head [32:20] Caroline Pignat on connecting with characters   [35:15] Write your own tale   [35:45] Interviews on humans vs monsters [36:55] Caroline Pignat on deceptive appearances [38:10] Jan Coates on recent real-life monsters [38:40] Lori Weber on scary humans [39:00] Rachel Eugster on noble monsters [40:00] Amanda West Lewis on humans and monsters [40:15] Karen Krossing on monstrous humans [40:25] Monique Polak on writing monsters from life [41:25] Tim Wynne-Jones on monsters, humans, and monster stories   [43:30] Story prompt [43:45] Thanks   [44:50] Coming up on the podcast Thanks for listening.   Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use).    Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com.   Guest Authors: Jan Coates grew up in Truro, Nova Scotia where her parents owned a bookshop and a music store. She has lived in Wolfville for most of her adult life. A teacher by trade, she's been writing for young readers for close to 20 years, and she has published six picture books, six middle grade novels, and 18 levelled chapter books for emergent readers. Her first novel, A Hare in the Elephant's Trunk, was a finalist for the 2011 Governor General's Literary Awards. She has two adult kids, both married and, sadly, both living in Ontario. One of Jan's goals in life is to life within an hour's drive of her kids. For now, she lives with her husband Don, and her Golden Irish, Charlie, in Wolfville. Other than reading and writing, she loves riding her bike, learning to illustrate, second-hand shopping, being outside and travelling. She does not like housework, cold weather and people who are dishonest. Blog: www.jancoates.ca; Twitter:  @JanCoates13; Email: janlcoates60@gmail.com   Rachel Eugster keeps her fingers in a whole rack of pies. She is the author of the picture book The Pocket Mommy(Tunda/Penguin Random House)*, and the Ingredients of a Balanced Diet series (Franklin Watts). She has written magazine articles for adults and children, and was formerly an editor at Walking magazine (published out of Boston), where she was a one-woman copyediting department. In a parallel orbit of her professional life, Rachel is a theatre artist, singer, and choral conductor. She is a co-founder and core artist of Bear & Co., a tiny indie theatre company that has produced 23 shows since its founding in 2012, and she conducts the SJCC Adult Choir and the Tamir Neshama choir for developmentally delayed adults. In 2015, Rachel premiered in her original play Whose Æmilia? at the Ottawa Fringe Festival. Rachel is also an active member of Democrats Abroad, for whom she co-hosts The Blue Vote Café podcast with David Schellenberg. Website:  https://racheleugster.com/; Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thepocketmommy/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/RachelEugster Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/racheleugster/   Caroline Pignat is the two-time Governor Generalʼs Literary Award-winning author of novels, non-fiction, and poetry. At age 16, she wrote a short story that years later became Greener Grass, winner the 2009 Governor General's Literary Award. The Gospel Truth, a novel in free verse poetry, won her a second Governor General's Award in 2015. With over 20 years' experience teaching in schools, workshops, and at conferences, Caroline loves helping young writers find and share their unique voices. Website: www.carolinepignat.com; Twitter: @CarolinePignat   Lori Weber is the author of eight young adult novels, including Yellow Mini, a novel in verse, and Deep Girls, a short-story collection; one historical middle grade novel, Lightning Lou; and one picture book, My Granny Loves Hockey. She has also published short fiction, poetry and non-fiction in several Canadian literary journals. A native Montrealer, she lived for several years in Atlantic Canada where she taught English in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. Upon returning to Montreal, she began teaching English at Vanier College in 1994 before moving to John Abbott College in 1996, a position she recently retired from. She has represented Quebec twice for TD Canadian Book Week and has been offering classroom workshops around Quebec as a member of the Culture in the Schools program since 2005. She currently lives in Dorval, Quebec, where she hopes to do more writing, taking inspiration from her cat, Bogey, and the beautiful Lac Saint Louis which is at her doorstep, and which she loves to photograph daily. Website: www.lori-weber.com; #lacsaintlouis (Instagram)   Amanda West Lewis has built a life filled with words on the page and on the stage, combining careers as a writer, theatre director and calligrapher. Her writing for children and youth ranges from historical YA fiction to craft books on the art of writing. Amanda holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts, with a specialist certificate in writing picture books. She is also the Artistic Director and Founder of The Ottawa Children's Theatre. She has dedicated her career to arts education for all ages. Website: http://www.amandawestlewis.com;   Twitter: @AmandaWestLewis Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amandawest.lewis      

A 50-minute episode about creating fictional characters. With an original spooky story, "The Spot;" commentary on excerpts from Dracula, The Bad Beginning, and The Universe versus Alex Woods; interviews with Canadian authors Karen Krossing, Monique Polak, and Tim Wynne-Jones; and a final story prompt to help you write your own tale.    A full transcript of this episode is available at CabinTales.ca.   [1:50] Trigger warning: Today's story includes cruelty, crime, references to suicide, and a fairly disgusting parasite. So if you have a special sensitivity to any of those things, skip ahead 10 minutes when you hear the musical bar near the beginning of the story. Or download the “fright-free” version at CabinTales.ca. The podcast is rated PG-13.   [3:10] Story: “The Spot”   [14:35] Commentary: Introducing characters [15:50] Excerpt from Dracula by Bram Stoker (1897) [18:30] Copy the technique   [19:15] Introducing a character from an omniscient point of view [20:10] Excerpt from The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket [22:15] Copy the technique   [23:00] First person narrators as characters [23:50] Excerpt from The Universe versus Alex Woods by Gavin Extence [25:20] Copy the technique   [26:30] Interviews [27:05] Karen Krossing's favourite characters [28:40] Monique Polak's favourite characters [30:35] Tim Wynne-Jones' favourite characters   [32:35] Karen Krossing on empathizing with monsters [35:45] Monique Polak on empathizing with characters [36:45] Tim Wynne-Jones on empathizing with characters   [38:25] Advice for young writers on developing characters [39:15] Tim Wynne-Jones on drafting to discover a character [41:00] Monique Polak on stealing characters [41:45] Karen Krossing on observing setting as a character [42:20] Character Exercises to find plot   [43:45] Story Prompt: “The couple at Swimmer's Graveyard”   [48:00] Write your own tale You can find a mini-lesson on developing characters and a template for young writers on Catherine Austen's blog.   [48:45] Monster movie line "Nasty little fellows such as yourself always get their comeuppance."   [49:10] Thanks and coming up on the podcast I want to thank today's guests – Tim Wynne-Jones, Monique Polak, and Karen Krossing. Next week, we'll have Episode 2.5, “Author Interviews about Character.” My guests next week are Caroline Pignat, Rachel Eugster, Amanda West Lewis, Lori Weber, and Jan Coates. Thanks for listening.   Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Her novels have won the Canadian Library Association Young Adult Book Award and the Quebec Writers' Federation Prize for Children's Literature. Her stories have appeared in anthologies and journals including The Fiddlehead and The New Quarterly. Catherine is a literacy tutor for Sage Youth and a mentor for the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (Canada East). She has given creative writing workshops and presentations from coast to coast. She lives in Gatineau, Quebec. Music: Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use) Art: The image on this page is a cropped B&W version of an illustration by Paul Helleu from a 1913 collection of his work.  Guest Authors: Karen Krossing wrote poetry and rants as a teen and dreamed of becoming a published writer. Now, she's the author of seven award-winning novels for kids and teens, including Punch Like a Girl, Bog, and Cut the Lights, with two picture books on the way. Karen encourages new writers through workshops for kids, teens, and adults. She lives in Toronto, and you can find her on Instagram and Twitter or at www.karenkrossing.com.     Monique Polak is the Montreal-based author of 29 books for young people. She is a two-time winner of the Quebec Writers' Federation Prize for Children's and YA Literature. She has been teaching English and Humanities at Marianopolis College in Montreal for over 30 years. She is also a columnist for ICI-Radio Canada's Plus on est de fous, plus on lit! As you can imagine, Monique operates at high speed to get all these things done. But she brakes whenever she hears (or smells) a good story. To learn more about Monique, visit her website at www.moniquepolak.com.   Tim Wynne-Jones has written 35 books for adults and children of all sorts of ages. He has won the Governor General's Award twice and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award twice, most recently for the thriller, Blink & Caution. He has twice won the Arthur Ellis Award of the Crime Writers of Canada, as well as the Edgar Award of the Mystery Writers of America. His books have been translated into a dozen languages. Tim was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2012. His latest novel, The Starlight Claim, came out in 2019. Website: http://www.timwynne-jones.com/; Blog: https://theresalwaysdinner.home.blog/; Twitter: @tim_wj; Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tim.wynnejones.3  

Interviews with 5 Canadian authors for children and teens about their favourite fictional settings, feared real-life settings, and exercises they recommend to young writers who want to develop effective fictional settings. Hosted by Catherine Austen, with a story prompt at the end. 40 minutes. All ages.  Visit CabinTales.ca for a full transcript of this episode. [1:10] Welcome to Cabin Tales: Spooky Stories for Young Writers. This is Episode One Point Five: “Author Interviews about Fictional Settings.” Today's episode is a “talking tales” format, which mean it's all interviews, extending last week's episode, “Things Hide in the Darkness,” and keeping the focus on the subject of fictional settings. I'm Catherine Austen. And my guests today are Karen Krossing; Jan Coates; Rachel Eugster; Amanda West Lewis; and Monique Polak. [1:15] Interviews Introduction to Karen Krossing. Karen talks about her favourite fictional setting and exercises she does when building a setting. [4:10] Introduction to Jan Coates. Jan talks about researching the real settings in her own books. [6:10] Introduction to Rachel Eugster. Rachel talks about her favourite fictional setting and researching the historical setting of her play. [9:20] Introduction to Amanda West Lewis. Amanda talks about her favourite setting and researching the settings of historical fiction. [13:25] Introduction to Monique Polak. Monique talks about her favourite settings and real places and how little setting planning she does before drafting. [16:35] Catherine's approach to setting   [18:20] Scary settings: [18:55] Karen Krossing's fear of closets. [19:50] Jan Coates' fear of water. [21:30] Rachel Eugster's fear of heights. [23:25] Amanda West Lewis's fear of elevators. [24:35] Monique Polak's claustrophobia.   [26:15] Setting exercises for young writers [27:00] Monique Polak's setting advice [28:20] Amanda West Lewis's setting collages [30:50] Rachel Eugster's setting immersion [31:20] Karen Krossing's sensory details   [32:10] Basement prompt (All guests from episode 1 and 1.5 respond to the prompt word: Basement) Story prompt: Take a setting that most people think of as scary, and make it the most wonderful place.   [36:45] Coming up on the podcast: Next week we'll have original stories, excerpts, prompts and interviews about fictional characters in Episode 2: "Nasty People meet Nasty Ends." Thanks to today's guests. Thanks for listening.   Music: Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use).  Art: The B&W illustration on this page is a cropped version of a wood engraving by Paul Gavarni from Oeuvres choisies de Gavarni, volume 4, 1848. Host: Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Visit her at www.catherineausten.com. Guest Authors: Jan Coates grew up in Truro, Nova Scotia where her parents owned a bookshop and a music store. She has lived in Wolfville for most of her adult life. A teacher by trade, she's been writing for young readers for close to 20 years, and she has published six picture books, six middle grade novels, and 18 levelled chapter books for emergent readers. Her first novel, A Hare in the Elephant's Trunk, was a finalist for the 2011 Governor General's Literary Awards. She has two adult kids, both married and, sadly, both living in Ontario. One of Jan's goals in life is to life within an hour's drive of her kids. For now, she lives with her husband Don, and her Golden Irish, Charlie, in Wolfville. Other than reading and writing, she loves riding her bike, learning to illustrate, second-hand shopping, being outside and travelling. She does not like housework, cold weather and people who are dishonest.  Blog: www.jancoates.ca; Twitter:  @JanCoates13; Email: janlcoates60@gmail.com   Rachel Eugster keeps her fingers in a whole rack of pies. She is the author of the picture book The Pocket Mommy (Tunda/Penguin Random House)*, and the Ingredients of a Balanced Diet series (Franklin Watts). She has written magazine articles for adults and children, and was formerly an editor at Walking magazine (published out of Boston), where she was a one-woman copyediting department.             In a parallel orbit of her professional life, Rachel is a theatre artist, singer, and choral conductor. She is a co-founder and core artist of Bear & Co., a tiny indie theatre company that has produced 23 shows since its founding in 2012, and she conducts the SJCC Adult Choir and the Tamir Neshama choir for developmentally delayed adults. In 2015, Rachel premiered in her original play Whose Æmilia? at the Ottawa Fringe Festival. Rachel is also an active member of Democrats Abroad, for whom she co-hosts The Blue Vote Café podcast with David Schellenberg. Website:  https://racheleugster.com/; Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thepocketmommy/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/RachelEugster Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/racheleugster/   Karen Krossing wrote poetry and rants as a teen and dreamed of becoming a published writer. Now, she's the author of seven award-winning novels for kids and teens, including Punch Like a Girl, Bog, and Cut the Lights, with two picture books on the way. Karen encourages new writers through workshops for kids, teens, and adults. She lives in Toronto, and you can find her on Instagram and Twitter or at www.karenkrossing.com.   Monique Polak is the Montreal-based author of 29 books for young people. She is a two-time winner of the Quebec Writers' Federation Prize for Children's and YA Literature. She has been teaching English and Humanities at Marianopolis College in Montreal for over 30 years. She is also a columnist for ICI-Radio Canada's Plus on est de fous, plus on lit! As you can imagine, Monique operates at high speed to get all these things done. But she brakes whenever she hears (or smells) a good story. To learn more about Monique, visit her website at www.moniquepolak.com.   Amanda West Lewis has built a life filled with words on the page and on the stage, combining careers as a writer, theatre director and calligrapher. Her writing for children and youth ranges from historical YA fiction to craft books on the art of writing. Amanda holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts, with a specialist certificate in writing picture books. She is also the Artistic Director and Founder of The Ottawa Children's Theatre. She has dedicated her career to arts education for all ages. Website: http://www.amandawestlewis.com;   Twitter: @AmandaWestLewis Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amandawest.lewis

A 40-minute episode for young writers interested in developing a strong setting. With an original spooky story, "The Sacrifice"; setting examples from Beowulf, The Scorpio Races, and The Incredible Journey; interviews with Tim Wynne-Jones, Lori Weber, and Caroline Pignat; and a story prompt set in a creepy basement. PG-13. A "fright-free" version for younger listeners is available at CabinTales.ca.  See the full episode transcript at CabinTales.ca. Shownotes: [0:00] Intro: Welcome to Cabin Tales: Spooky Stories for Young Writers. This is Episode One: Things Hide in the Darkness. I'm Catherine Austen. And my guests today are Tim Wynne-Jones, Lori Weber, and Caroline Pignat. [1:10] Introduction to today's story, “The Sacrifice” [2:00] Trigger warning: Today's tale is about a young teen left alone on a lake. If you have a special sensitivity to drownings, monsters, or creepy men, skip ahead 7 minutes when you hear the musical bar at the beginning of the story. If you want to share the podcast with very young listeners, please download the “fright-free” versions of episodes on CabinTales.ca. [3:20] Spooky Story: “The Sacrifice” [12:50] Commentary on today's story and how to show a setting that is hidden. [15:20] Excerpt from E. Talbot Donaldson's translation of Beowulf, the monster's lair (and how to copy the technique) [17:05] Excerpt from Maggie Stiefvater's The Scorpio Races (and how to copy the technique) [18:45] Excerpt from Sheila Burnford's The Incredible Journey (and how to open with a setting)   Interviews [22:10] Tim Wynne-Jones on the setting of The Emperor of Any Place. [23:50] Lori Weber on Newfoundland and Montreal. [25:20] Caroline Pignat on writing Ireland.   Advice for young writers [26:20] Caroline Pignat on setting exercises for young writers. [28:15] Lori Weber on the importance of setting for young writers. [30:25] Tim Wynne-Jones on immersing yourself in a setting .   Scary settings [31:40] Tim Wynne-Jones fears the woods at night. [32:50] Lori Weber fears insects and animals. [33:55] Caroline Pignat fears camping and heights.   [35:00] Catherine tells a creepy story, "The Drummer in the Basement." (Read this story prompt and the fright-free prompt, “The House with Two Doors, on the Cabin Tales Write page.)   [38:15] Thanks, etc. You'll hear more from today's guest authors this fall. Submit a story for October. See the Cabin Tales Submit page for details.   Next week's episode will feature interviews with Karen Krossing; Jan Coates; Rachel Eugster; Amanda West Lewis; and Monique Polak. Week 3, August 21st, I'll be back with stories and excerpts and prompts in Episode Three, “Nasty People meet Nasty Ends,” an episode all about character. In the meantime, stay safe and sane and keep your social distance because, as a Hollywood monster-killer once said, “If we break quarantine, we could all die.” (Do you know what monster movie that line is from?) Thanks for listening.   Guest Authors: Caroline Pignat is the two-time Governor Generalʼs Literary Award-winning author of novels, non-fiction, and poetry. At age 16, she wrote a short story that years later became Greener Grass, winner the 2009 Governor General's Literary Award. The Gospel Truth, a novel in free verse poetry, won her a second Governor General's Award in 2015. With over 20 years' experience teaching in schools, workshops, and at conferences, Caroline loves helping young writers find and share their unique voices. Website: www.carolinepignat.com; Twitter: @CarolinePignat Lori Weber is the author of eight young adult novels, including Yellow Mini, a novel in verse, and Deep Girls, a short-story collection; one historical middle grade novel, Lightning Lou; and one picture book, My Granny Loves Hockey. She has also published short fiction, poetry and non-fiction in several Canadian literary journals. A native Montrealer, she lived for several years in Atlantic Canada where she taught English in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. Upon returning to Montreal, she began teaching English at Vanier College in 1994 before moving to John Abbott College in 1996, a position she recently retired from. She has represented Quebec twice for TD Canadian Book Week and has been offering classroom workshops around Quebec as a member of the Culture in the Schools program since 2005. She currently lives in Dorval, Quebec, where she hopes to do more writing, taking inspiration from her cat, Bogey, and the beautiful Lac Saint Louis which is at her doorstep, and which she loves to photograph daily. Website: www.lori-weber.com; #lacsaintlouis (Instagram) Tim Wynne-Jones has written 35 books for adults and children of all sorts of ages. He has won the Governor General's Award twice and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award twice, most recently for the thriller, Blink & Caution. He has twice won the Arthur Ellis Award of the Crime Writers of Canada, as well as the Edgar Award of the Mystery Writers of America. His books have been translated into a dozen languages. Tim was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2012. His latest novel, The Starlight Claim, came out in 2019. Website: http://www.timwynne-jones.com/; Blog: https://theresalwaysdinner.home.blog/; Twitter: @tim_wj; Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tim.wynnejones.3   Host:  Catherine Austen writes books for children, short stories for adults, and reports for corporate clients. Her novels have won the Canadian Library Association Young Adult Book Award and the Quebec Writers' Federation Prize for Children's Literature. Her stories have appeared in anthologies and journals including The Fiddlehead and The New Quarterly. Catherine is a literacy tutor for Sage Youth and a mentor for the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (Canada East). She has given creative writing workshops and presentations from coast to coast. She lives in Gatineau, Quebec.   Music:  Music on the podcast is from “Stories of the Old Mansion” by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo (Standard license for online use).   

A 1-minute trailer for the upcoming podcast, Cabin Tales: Spooky Stories for Young Writers. Launching next week, Friday, August 7th, 2020.    Trailer Transcript: "Listen to Cabin Tales: Spooky Stories for Young Writers, a podcast where every episode focuses on one aspect of creative writing. Featuring original stories told around a fictional campfire, plus creative writing commentary, excerpts from classics, and interviews with some of Canada's finest authors for children and young adults. Hosted by Catherine Austen. Launching August 7th, with new episodes every Friday at 30 minutes each. Visit CabinTales.ca for more information. Build a fire in your mind, seat some young storytellers around it, pull up a chair and listen in. Then take your turn and write your own tale."   (Music credit: "Stories of the Old Mansion" by Akashic Records, provided by Jamendo, Standard license for online use)