Discovered Wordsmiths

Overview J is back, and this time he's talking about his latest book series which deals with using A.I. for your writing. Our conversation entails the happenings from 20 books to 50k Vegas. J has a lot of thoughts about the future of publishing and the use of A.I. Book YouTube https://youtu.be/ICNtVSdkJVw Transcript Stephen: Cool. Great. Alright. I'm just gonna start us off. New episode, Discovered Wordsmith. I've got Jay Thorne which he has been on here. It's been about a hundred and twenty episodes ago Wow. Since he was on. Yeah. It's been a while. He just made the mistake of saying, whatever you wanna ask, go ahead. That love child that you fostered in Hindus are Hindi Himalayas. Tell us about that, Jay. This is breaking news. J: I can only talk about things that have really happened, Steven. So I Stephen: You're a writer. What the heck? Oh, come on. So alright. Hopefully, everybody knows Jay because I'm not gonna go into his background. He's been on here before. I'll put links in that. I really wanna get on these new books he's been writing. Let's just hit that right from the start. You are writing Or have written a series of books about AI, writers using AI, and more about that. So There's probably gonna be a million questions on that. I've got several written down I definitely wanna cover. So First of all, let's just start. Tell us about not only what the books are about, but why you wanted to write these books, Especially right now because, that could get death threats from some people writing a book like this. J: Yeah. I say this Sort of tongue in cheek, but it's certainly true. I don't get nearly the amount of hate because I'm a middle aged white guy, and I have that privilege, and it's terrible, but it's the truth. And I see other folks, Women and other people who get hate for it, and it's just it's so unfair. But that's, that's how the Internet is in general. But Stephen: Joanna seems to get a lot of people. And it's really, folks, she's been doing this forever. She's one of the most best voices for all of us. So yeah. Yeah. J: I think it's I think it's lessened more recently, but certainly early on, she took a lot of heat especially in her comments on her website. But, Stephen: because I think most are starting to realize. Hey. It's everywhere. Everybody's using it. Maybe it's not so bad. But, anyway, we're already off topic. So tell us about your bugs and why you're writing these. Okay. J: So I'm trying to think about how far back I have to go to put to give you context for this. I would say probably two or three years ago maybe, Pseudowrite was just being rolled out in a beta form. And Joanna was telling me she's you got you have to check this out. That's this new AI writing tool. And every couple months or every so often, she would say, hey. Listen. You gotta try this out. And every time I did, I just wasn't impressed. I was like, I don't know. It's not very good. It's weird. It, it doesn't do what I want it to do. And what comes out of it, I have to spend so much time cleaning it up. It's just not worth it. And so For years, I was very resistant, and I was like, I don't like it. It's not very good. And I said I enjoy the process of creating the words. So whether I think it's ethical or moral or makes any sense is kinda beside the point. I don't wanna farm out the most fun part of the experience. It'd be like being a musician, and you love playing live shows. And someone's hey. There's this Technology where you don't have to go on stage. You would be like I don't want that. Thanks. Other people can do that. It's fine. I'm just saying that's not, that's not what I want. And I'm saying this because I'm very transparent about it, and she and I'm proud of the fact that I changed my mind because she teases me all the time. And she was like, You hated this, and we almost had a falling out over it. And I'm like, I did.

Overview Confessions of a Knight Errant is a comedic, picaresque novel in the tradition of Don Quixote with a flamboyant cast of characters. Dr. Gary Watson is the picaro, a radical environmentalist and wannabe novelist who has been accused of masterminding a computer hack that wiped out the files of a major publishing company. His Sancho Panza is Kharalombos, a fat, gluttonous Greek dancing teacher, who is wanted by the secret police for cavorting with the daughter of the Big Man of Egypt. Self-preservation necessitates a hurried journey to the refuge of a girls' camp in rural Texas. Then a body turns up nearby that is connected to Middle East antiquities, and they are on the run once more. Gretchen McCullough was raised in Harlingen Texas. After graduating from Brown University in 1984, she taught in Egypt, Turkey and Japan. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Alabama and was awarded a teaching Fulbright to Syria from 1997-1999. Her stories, essays and reviews have appeared in The Barcelona Review, Archipelago, National Public Radio, Story South, Guernica, The Common, The Millions, and the LA Review of Books. Translations in English and Arabic have been published in: Nizwa, Banipal, Brooklyn Rail in Translation, World Literature Today and Washington Square Review with Mohamed Metwalli. Her bi-lingual book of short stories in English and Arabic, Three Stories from Cairo, translated with Mohamed Metwalli was published in July 2011 by AFAQ Publishing House, Cairo. A collection of short stories about expatriate life in Cairo, Shahrazad's Tooth, was also published by AFAQ in 2013. Currently, she is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Rhetoric and Composition at the American University in Cairo. Book Website http://www.gretchenmccullough.wix.com/gretchenmccullough Favorites YouTube https://youtu.be/3ff8O98jt3E Transcript Stephen: So today on Discovered Word Smith I have Gretchen McCullough and you may notice if you're on YouTube watching the episode that there's no video because Gretchen is not. Anywhere in this hemisphere of where I'm at or at least I should say this continent. So we had a bit of a spotty connection and we turned off video to make sure we could hear everything. So Gretchen, welcome. How are you doing today? I'm Gretchen: doing great. Thanks for having me on your show. Stephen: Yeah. And I'm excited. So let's jump right into that before we start talking about your book. Tell us a little bit about you. And where you are at the moment. Gretchen: I'm sitting in my bedroom and it's dark outside. It's quite noisy. I live in a really busy part of Cairo. And yeah. That's where I am. It's across the Nile from Tahrir Square where a lot of Americans probably are familiar with Tahrir Square because of the uprising. It's not that far from the square. It's a huge island called Zamalek. And you can walk everywhere in this area. You don't really need a car. It's a neat burrow. There are lots of coffee shops. Yeah. Stephen: Nice. What, why what brought you to Cairo? Gretchen: It's a long odyssey. I taught in Egypt in the 1980s and then I taught in Turkey and then I taught in Japan. And then I went and got an MFA from the university of Alabama. And I had a Fulbright in Syria in 1997 to 99. And. I went back to Tuscaloosa, Alabama for a year and a friend of mine said, there's a job in Cairo. You're perfect. Why don't you apply? And I did. And I got the job at the American university in Cairo in 2000. And I've been here ever since. Stephen: Gretchen, where are you originally from? Gretchen: I'm originally from Harlingen, Texas. It's called the Rio Grande Valley. It's near the Mexican border, near Brownsville. It's the very tip of Texas. That's where I grew up. I'm from a very small town. Stephen: Big change. Gretchen: Yes. I wanted to get out of that town in 1980 and I didn't realize how far I would go.

Overview With inspiration from her own life, Kalee Boisvert has developed an easy-to-use system for women, young and old, to take control of their finances. Make Money Your Thing is an approachable guide to take women on a journey from avoidance and overwhelm to feeling comfortable and in control of their finances. This book provides simple action steps to learn the basics of money management, understand the importance of balancing the books, and embrace the uniqueness of your own personal situation. The end result is women feeling good about where their finances are right now, and building a solid foundation for where you want to go in the future. When money is your “thing” you can feel completely at ease about making it work for you– Book YouTube https://youtu.be/vWXdJt5G6PM Transcript Stephen: So today on Discover Wordsmiths, I want to welcome Kaylee. Kaylee, how are you doing Kalee: today? I'm doing well. Thank you so much for having me. Stephen: Yeah, this is great. And we, right before we started, I mentioned I don't get a lot of nonfiction, so I'm excited about this. Yay. All right. So before we get started talking about your book tell us a little bit about you, where you're from, and some of the things you like to do besides writing. Kalee: I am from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. And a little bit about me. What else? Sorry. Stephen: jUst some of the things you like to do besides writing. Okay. Kalee: Other than writing, I love reading. I am a big bookworm. So I think. By nature, it was destined to write a book, but I love reading and I've discovered how easy it is to read off my phone. Now I have a one year old and so I can't really have books out because he has a tendency of ripping pages. So he's at that. That very destructive stage. So I read on my phone, but I find it so easy that I can read on the go all the time. So I'm reading way more books and book talk has actually gotten me a lot more interested in some of the books that are on there and are popular. So for a book talk and all that, but I do love reading. I love like my guilty pleasures, like real housewives watching the real housewives of everywhere, those shows. And then I'm also always really busy with my kids. I'm a single mom. I have a nine year old and a one year old. Like hobbies include going to the park and things like that. Stephen: Nice. Okay. And so with all that going on young kids and busy why did you want to write a book? Kalee: Silly me. Yeah. I think it's because of how much I love books in general. So I'd always wanted to write a book. I've read books like, and just like love, like I see authors and people who write books is just, to me, they're like celebrities. I think it's so amazing because it's a long, challenging endeavor to write a book. Stephen: You probably realized that way more when you actually wrote one. Kalee: Exactly. Exactly. And I. kept receiving the message like I started writing stories when I was young when your teacher would ask you to write a, couple page story and mine would go on for 20, 30 pages and that was like grade four. And because I was like, how do you develop A story in two pages. So for me, it was like this very elaborate the character development and everything But the teachers you could tell didn't even read it and i'm assuming it's because they had a lot of grading to do and I It went beyond the assigned work. So in their defense, I'm sure that was what was behind it. But in my mind, I was seeing it as, Oh, maybe I'm not a good writer. That's the messaging I took to believe. So then I decided maybe I wasn't meant to write. But it was like a few years back. I was just sitting in my office and I said out loud. I really want to write something because it just had all come back and it just, I don't know. It was just like, I was pondering this has always been a goal of mine. And a colleague happened to be walking by and he's Oh,

Overview G. S. Gerry doesn't just write books, he creates humorous experiences with the written word.  When life kicks you in the nether regions find a way to see the humor in it all.   I am all about Mastering life Experiences Through Humor.  My purpose is to share my own experiences to help you laugh at my pain, and laugh through yours.  G. S. Gerry engineers uniquely hilarious concepts that are quirky and utterly unique, geared towards entertaining those on the lookout for that one truly unique experience.  Using a visionary approach towards life, laughter & entertainment. Derald Grake destroys his life the moment he decides to sell the family home. After capturing the American dream, this father of 4 hopes to solve the complex formula of buying low and selling high. Witness one ‘normal' family embark on a hilarious and entirely unexpected journey involving, among other surprises, assassins, meth, murder, and the end of Amazon. Wrapped inside this intriguing mystery are eye witness accounts and compelling evidence to separate truth from fantasy. Follow the clues, sort through the lies, and put the pieces together of this twisted reality. From award winning author and visionary creator G. S. Gerry comes the critically acclaimed debut Meth Murder & Amazon. Book Website https://gsgerry.com/meth-murder-amazon/ Favorites YouTube https://youtu.be/uY5vbwr8Ex4 Transcript Stephen: Today on Discover Wordsmiths, I have Jerry. Jerry, how are you doing today? GS: I'm great. How are you? Thanks for having me. It's a Stephen: pleasure. It's a good to have you on and you mentioned it was raining where you're at. I live in Ohio. It's raining here. Also. Where are you located? GS: Started in Land O'Lakes, Florida. So 30 minutes from Tampa and I feel like it's been raining every day nonstop since the summer started every day at some point it rains like it was torrential Stephen: downpour today. Wow. Okay. We had a like monsoon. The other day I lost electricity for three hours. It was coming down so hard. I couldn't see my neighbor's house. It was crazy. Yeah. GS: It did knock out the internet here earlier, but not too Stephen: crazy. Yeah, I felt like we were in Florida. Yeah. All right. We are what, before we talk about your book I love your background, by the way, that's a great background. Tell us a little bit about you and some of the things you like to do besides writing. GS: Yeah I've actually been only writing for about a year and a half. I never thought I was going to be a writer. I had a crazy situation at work that kind of led me to hey, I want to be a writer. And so I can tell you about that real quick. I was working on a project. I do a lot of technical report writing at work on my new cyber security and credit card compliance. So you select your card at Walmart, Target any kind of store, right? Those customer, those companies have to have a compliance report. And so that's where a company like the one that I work for come into play. So we write a lot of long reports look at a lot of controls. And so I had a situation at work. I gave a customer a report and the next day she calls me and she's Jerry, this report. It's completely the same as last year. I'm like, Oh, gosh, please don't tell me that's the case. This is like a 500 page report, start reviewing the report saying we went on site. We didn't, there was no on site. We were in like the pandemic, like early pandemic at this time. So I was like, Oh, she's right. We have to rewrite this report. So the guy who was on my team, he was the guy who was leading the assessment. And he's the one who wrote the report. He copied my work. Yeah. Word for word and turn it into the customer, like it was his work. So we had to rewrite the report. It went from 500 pages to 750 pages. And it takes me like two months to fix the report. And afterwards, I'm like, man, I just wrote a novel. That's it.

Overview Growing up in New York in the late 1960's, Audrey Birnbaum assumed that watching Holocaust documentaries was a perfectly normal family activity. On her first day of elementary school, Audrey sat in the cafeteria, unwrapped her liverwurst sandwich, and excitedly told her new classmates about her public television proclivities. Her Brady Bunch-watching peers had never heard of PBS, but they had heard of PB&J (and they weren't too keen on liverwurst either). They made it abundantly clear: Audrey's childhood was, in fact, not normal at all. We will never know whether it was schoolyard bullying or watching tragic Shoah documentaries that was responsible for Audrey's acute sensitivity to others; but that empathy may have helped pave the way for her choice of medicine as a career. Audrey chose to specialize in Pediatric Gastroenterology - for who needed more help than children; and where could anyone feel more suffering than in one's gut? Day in and day out, she watched intricate family dynamics play out in the context of fragile health. Audrey listened to each patient's story until she could retell it with clarity and give it meaning. Through witnessing and recording these tender dramas, the seeds of writing had been planted. Book In the summer of 1941, eleven-year-old Wolf is coming of age amidst the rubble and antisemitism of war-torn Nazi Berlin. Destitute and facing imminent deportation, he must leave behind his ill sister and travel with his family across a continent entrenched in war. With nothing in hand but expired visas to the US, Wolf and his family must figure out how to sneak aboard the Spanish freighter the Navemar, a ship that will gain its reputation as the "Hell Ship of Death." But this is only the beginning of Wolf's saga. "American Wolf: From Nazi Refugee to American Spy is a heart stopping true story full of last-minute rescues, near-death encounters, and survival against untold odds. It is also a story about coming of age, family dysfunction and national identity, and is a resounding testament to the triumph of the human spirit. Using the extensive, detailed notes compiled by her father, author Audrey Birnbaum retells in memoir style a poignant and vivid account of Wolf's childhood in Berlin, his riveting escape from Nazi Germany, and the continued challenges he faced even as he reached freedom. Favorites https://thevillagebookstore.net/ YouTube https://youtu.be/if0lOOeo1O0 Transcript [00:00:00] Stephen: today on Discovered Wordsmith, I have Audrey. Audrey, how are you doing this morning? I'm great, [00:00:06] Audrey: Steven. Thank you so much for having me. [00:00:08] Stephen: It is great to have you on and I'm excited to hear about this book but before we talk about your writing and your book, let's find out a little bit about you. [00:00:15] So tell us some of the things you like to do and where you live outside of writing. [00:00:20] Audrey: Stephen, I live in Westchester, New York, and I have not always been a writer. This is pretty new to me. I actually. I want to say I was a doctor, but I think I'm allowed to say I still am a doctor, but I don't [00:00:34] Stephen: think you ever stopped being a doctor. [00:00:37] It's one of those [00:00:37] Audrey: professionals that I want to hold on to that title a little bit, though. I don't walk around like I didn't put MD on my book because I thought that was, I don't know. Ex I do. I'm a pediatric gastroenterologist. [00:00:52] Stephen: Wow. That's a mouthful. That's a lot. [00:00:53] Audrey: It's a mouthful. It's people will have trouble saying it. [00:00:57] I usually say kids from here to here . But [00:01:00] people are, they're good with that. Yeah. I [00:01:02] Stephen: study kid farts, [00:01:04] Audrey: yeah, [00:01:05] Stephen: probably what the answer the kids would like, . . I'm sorry. Go on. Tell us more about you.

Overview Ashley Earley grew up in Georgia, where she spent most of her time running wild in the woods of her backyard, building forts to create her own fantasy worlds, obsessing over books, and experimenting with her writing. Today, she lives in Colorado with her dog and still spends her time devouring any book she can get her hands on, writing, and editing for her clients at Earley Editing, LLC. In May of 2021, she graduated with distinction from University of Colorado Boulder, receiving a B.A. in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing. She also enjoys snowboarding, exploring, annoying her dog, constantly eating chocolate, and sharing her writing adventures on Instagram. Her Thriller/Suspense short story, Chasing Hair of Gold, won first place in the 2016 Writer's Digest Popular Fiction Awards. As a writer, she leans into fantasy or horror due to her love of all things creepy. As an editor, she loves a little bit of everything when it comes to fiction. Give her that steamy, forbidden romance, give her vampires, or even that young lovey-dovey stuff with all the twists and turns! Book Website https://www.ashleyearley.com/ Favorites https://www.tatteredcover.com/ YouTube Transcript Stephen: Today on Discovered Wordsmiths, I have Ashley to welcome. Ashley, how are you doing? I'm good, how are you? I'm doing good. Before we get started, we're going to talk about your book, Heart of Skulls. Before we do that tell us a little bit about yourself, where you live, what you like to do and some things, hobbies and stuff outside of writing. Ashley: Okay. So I originally grew up in Georgia, but I live in Colorado now. I ended up moving out here for college and never went back or leave the mountains. So Stephen: do you ski now? Ashley: I snowboard, so I'm like, Stephen: the cooler person. Okay, cool. Got it. Ashley: Yeah, so I do snowboard when I'm not writing. I love reading. I have little coffee reading dates with my friends. I have a dog that I go hiking with quite often. Yeah, and then I run my own business, so I do that a lot of the time as well. So Stephen: pretty busy. Your own business related to writing or something separate? Kind Ashley: of related to writing. I write, I book edit. So I run my own book editing business with a couple other editors on Stephen: my team. You ever argue and yell at yourself about what should or shouldn't be in a book? Ashley: I do when it comes to my own books where I'm like, yeah, this works. This doesn't work. Oh my gosh, I'm a terrible writer. Like the typical stuff. Stephen: All right. What'd you go to school for when you went to Colorado, if I may ask? Oh, Ashley: I majored in English with an emphasis in creative writing. Stephen: So do you feel that has helped you with your writing career now? Or is it like it was nice, but not so much. Ashley: It was nice, but not so much. It did help with my editing career because I got to critique people in person and kind of fall in love with critiquing content. So that's. That's what I do now. So I'm a developmental editor who focuses on the content of someone's book and how it flows and all that good stuff. So it helped me with that and got me passionate about critiquing people. But otherwise for writing definitely not. I would say that they don't really teach you like the writing techniques people should be aware of. Stephen: Interesting. See, okay. And I ask that my own personal passions I feel we focus with younger kids in school way too much on spelling and grammar when they have no reference to what that is used for and where I feel we should work on just having kids tell stories and learn about how to tell a story and what makes a good story because once you write a bunch more, the spelling and grammar makes sense and falls into place. And I'm sorry, but The kids that are going to struggle and not get the w...

Overview Colin is Irish and used tales of his homeland to create his horror novel, Country Roads. When Luke Sheridan moves out of Dublin city to rural Kilcross with his wife and baby, he imagines the worst part will be his extended commute to work. They can look forward to enjoying the countryside and being part of a small community. After all, his old friend Declan Maguire lives in the house next door and is a Garda in the nearest town.But Declan's devilish attitude towards drink, drugs and women means trouble is never far from his door. And worse, gruesome murders and the appearance of sinister figures at night mean the countryside is becoming a very dangerous place to live.Country Roads —don't go outside alone. Book Favorites Website https://colinleonard.com YouTube https://youtu.be/0cmZn4vZ8bI Transcript Stephen: today on discover wordsmiths, I have Colin Leonard, how are you doing today, sir? Colin: I'm great. Thanks very much. Stephen: Oh, Colin: please. No. I'm my book was just released yesterday and we had a launch party the day before. So I'm this is a timely interview as well. I'm all about the book at the Stephen: moment. Nice. Awesome. All right. So launch party, congrats. Was it fun? Colin: Yeah, no, it was great. It was Bridgescape Press, my publisher organized this and we had a good few people online and yeah, just had a great time and nice chat about folk horror. Stephen: Nice. And that's the book Country Roads, which we're going to talk about in a few minutes. But before we get to the book, tell us a little bit about yourself where you live and some of the things you like to do besides writing. Colin: So I live in County Mead in Ireland in a little rural, it's not even a village, it's a little tiny cottage with a scrap of land that keeps me busy when I'm not writing, repairing the house and trying to keep the field from growing too wild apart from that, I have a young family. So the rest of my time is taken up with. Their activities, which they are big into sports and music. So we get to bring them here and there, watch their matches and watch their performances. So that's Yeah, it's a lovely age that they are at the moment. What do they play? Two of them play piano, one plays violin and they play soccer and cricket as Stephen: well. Wow, nice. Yeah I had piano lessons when I was young and still play music. So it's a great thing for kids. Yeah, definitely approve. Colin: Yeah, no, it is. It is fantastic to do it. Stephen: So let me ask with a family and everything, why did you want to start writing and why'd you want to write horror? Colin: I've always been writing on and off. From when I was a kid, I was always encouraged by my parents and my school teachers my, we were made aware. All the time that my grandfather was a poet, he had stuff published in the national newspapers. So he was a farmer in the truck driver as well, but he took the time to write poetry. Then leading into secondary school, I continued writing genre type stuff and entering it into competitions, some of which I won and got into the school magazine and that kind of thing. But life takes you in different places. Even though i did english literature in college i didn't end up working in that i did different things travel different places but once my life became more settled and i got a bit older i became more focused on trying to get published and concentrating on. Learning my craft a bit more and given a bit more time to writing. Stephen: Nice. Nice. Okay. So your book is called country roads. And it's full core. Tell us a little bit about the book. So Colin: it's as you say, it's called country roads and it's set in Rural ireland in somewhere similar to where I live and where I grew up. It's about a guy called luke sheridan who moves to Displaced from the city with his wife and his baby, and he does that kind of at the behest of his old...

Overview Saph Dodd has been writing for as long as she's known how. Since she first picked up a pencil and learned to string sentences together, she's been creating fantastic and intriguing stories. This twenty-six-year-old writer adores reading, especially action-adventure, fantasy, and horror stories, as well as lore and mythology.  Her first novel, published when she was sixteen, spurred her to continue to do what she loves. Writing is her passion. She lives in a small Tennessee town with her family: a younger sister, Jennifer, a constant source of inspiration, and supportive parents. Book https://www.jumpmasterpress.com/product-page/sovereign-fourth Favorites YouTube https://youtu.be/CYSX-gHrdJA Transcript Stephen: Today on Discovered Wordsmith, I have Saf Dodd. Saf, how are you doing today? I'm doing really well. How about you? I'm, I'm doing good. I'm not as pink as you are today. Saph: Yeah. Pink is, it's a takeover in here. Stephen: Got it. Okay. So we know you like pink. Before we talk about your book, tell us about some other things about you, what you like to do outside of writing. Saph: Well, shocker. I like to read. Okay. Mostly action, adventure, fantasy or horror, but I also I also do makeup. I'm a full time beauty specialist. So like I, I do makeup looks a lot and I Stephen: cause, Oh, nice. What's your cosplay characters, Saph: Ladybug from miraculous ladybug, Marinette from miraculous ladybug sailor moon, Alice from Alice in Wonderland, both versions and Cinderella. And a couple of characters from Bluey. That's what I've got in my roster right now. Stephen: Oh, nice! My daughter loves Miraculous Ladybug. Oh, yes, I love it. I actually know that one a little bit. Saph: I actually got to meet the voice actress of Ladybug at Huntsville Pop Culture Expo when I was there to sign books. Stephen: Oh, nice! Yeah, that's always fun to do. There's been a lot more of those in recent years. I think it's a good change in the culture that there's so much of this available. So tell us where do you live? And if there's anything really cool about where you live. Well, Saph: I live in Nashville, so it's Nashville, Tennessee. To music city, I guess, like, I've lived here all my life and it doesn't seem like it's that cool. But, like, I guess, like, everybody moves here to get big and country Stephen: music. I can relate. I live near Cleveland, the rock and roll capital. I've only been to the 1 time. So, yeah. Nice. All right. So why did you wanna start writing, and then what made you wanna write this book? Okay, so Saph: I have literally been writing for as long as I know how, I knew how I started at a very early age, just writing stories down in notebooks and stuff because I, I, and I, I would excuse me. I would try to, I would tell stories to my mom before I knew how to write. And then, like, when I learned to write, I was like, this is so cool. Now I can put my ideas down. And, you know, there wasn't much structure to it because I was a really young, but it's built, it's built into something more of a, more of like a craft that I do. And I, I started writing because, like, I felt it in me. I knew that I needed to, like, I was always destined to write. And this particular novel was really hard for me because I wrote it to eat, like, because I wrote it to get through my grief over losing someone very close to me. That's why the main core themes in Sovereign Fourth are lost in grief. So I wrote that to help me kind of move on and cope. It's dedicated to my uncle. Stephen: That's a that's a coping mechanism. That's a way recommended is writing your feelings, writing things down and channeling that into a story is, I guess you could look at it as taking the bad thing and putting it into something good. Yeah. Saph: And then it became my debut album. I Stephen: know a lot of people do. Nice, nice.

Overview Soulworm, the debut novel of Edward Willett, now the award-winning author of more than twenty novels and twice that many nonfiction books, has just been made available once more in a new edition from Shadowpaw Press Reprise.A young adult fantasy novel, Soulworm was originally published by Royal Fireworks Press in 1997, and was shortlisted for the Best First Book award at that year's Saskatchewan Book Awards. It was written in the 1980s while Willett was news editor of the Weyburn Review newspaper, and is set in Weyburn in 1984—which nowadays gives it a Stranger Things vibe, although at the time it was a present-day tale. Edward Willett is the award-winning author of more than sixty books of science fiction, fantasy, and non-fiction for readers of all ages, including the Worldshapers series and the Masks of Agyrima trilogy (as E.C. Blake) for DAW Books and the YA fantasy series The Shards of Excalibur, originally published by Coteau Books. His most recent novel is the humorous space opera The Tangled Stars (DAW Books).Willett won Canada's top science fiction/fantasy award, the Aurora Award, for Best Long-Form Work in English in 2009 for Marseguro (DAW) and for Best Fan Related Work in 2019 for The Worldshapers podcast, and a Saskatchewan Book Award for Spirit Singer in 2002. He has been short-listed for Aurora and Saskatchewan Book Awards multiple times (most recently for his YA science fiction novel Star Song), and long-listed multiple times for the Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic. Website edwardwillett.com Book YouTube https://youtu.be/soin5a_PcvE Transcript Stephen: Today I want to welcome Edward back to the podcast. How are you doing, Edward? Edward: It's good to see you again. Stephen: Now that we're in winter, last time I talked to you, it was like negative 20 or something, and you were talking about walking around outside in the snow. Do you have a nice weather now? Edward: Is it actually over the weekend? It was more like 30, 31 Celsius. Put up around 90 Fahrenheit. So we've had some really helpful. Unfortunately, our air conditioning is broken. And so getting back fixed, but today it's quite cool. It's 18, I think for a high today. So Stephen: yeah. It's been awful humid here. We've had rain off and on for a couple of days, so it gets really humid and that's worse. I'd Edward: rather have heat. I went to university in Arkansas, so I know heat and humidity. And I was in marching band. Stephen: Oh, nice wool uniforms and stuff. Black ones at that. Oh, man, we had dark maroon and gold. You put that on and I played drums when you carry that big heavy equipment. Edward: Our drummers were lucky. They got to wear a kind of a peasant shirt with an open collar and something lighter. But all the rest of us were stuck in these winter weight woolen uniforms. Stephen: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. All right. It's good to have you back again. We've talked with you before about some of the books you've had, the anthologies, short stories, some of your other books. So today we're going to talk about a new book for you Edward: called soul. Yes. Although it's not really a new book. It's a, it's an old book and a new edition. It's my debut novel now out in a new edition. Stephen: Oh, that's awesome. In that, and that's probably why you suggested we talk a little bit later for the author stuff about revisiting and revising. Perfect. All right. So give us a little bit of the background history here of Soul Worm, how it fits into your overall list of books Edward: And when I came out of university, I had decided in high school that I wanted to be a writer, but I also knew you couldn't make a living as one. So I was actually working as a newspaper. I went into journalism. I was working as a newspaper reporter and then editor of my hometown newspaper. I was editor at the age of 24 of my newspaper back at Weyburn,

Overview Today is a different episode. I'm not talking to an author, this has to do with video games. Though it's not focused on video game storytelling as I've had in the past. It is related. I am talking with the coaches for the BioMed Science Academy eSports team. BioMed is a local alternative STEM school and they are one of over 200 schools in Ohio with eSports teams. This is important, because it shows the rise of videogames and how our culture is changing with that. Video games are still growing and there will be more future for today's kids to be in the video game industry - as storytellers or other. If you are a teacher or school administrator - this is a good episode to help introduce you to eSports. If you are a parent, there's a lot in here that you may not realize. I hope to do more episodes that deal with video games and video game storytelling. Website https://www.biomedscienceacademy.org/ YouTube https://youtu.be/_LRowafEIpU Transcription Stephen: Great. Okay. So today on Discover Wordsmiths, a very exciting conversation for me. If anyone's been following along on this podcast, I've had several interviews with some people in the video game industry where we talked about storytelling in video games. And today I'm continuing that with a couple of teachers at a local school, Biomed STEM Academy, which I'm very excited to talk to because they have an e sports team, one of the few in the area. So welcome Eric and Alexis. How are you guys doing? Eric: I'm doing wonderful. How Stephen: are you doing today? I'm I'm really doing great. I've been excited. I went to Blossom last night. So I went to bed late, but then all I could think about was talking to you guys. So if I yawn, I apologize. You're not boring. It's you know, body picking up. Before we start delving into this to inform parents and students or whatever tell us a little bit about biomed and what biomed is. Eric: So we're at biomed science Academy and biomed is a STEM plus M school. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics. But we also have a medical pathway as well at our school. And what we do is instead of just teaching math, I will teach math in terms of different science and technology and engineering and even some of the health pathway. So the math that you see not only goes with the state's standards, but I'll also give those applications in the STEM field. And that's not just me, but the entire school that that's part of our mission and vision. Stephen: And my kids, after they went there, what I described that people is instead of just sitting down for a history class, where they tell you the Panama Canal was built at this time, they say, Go do a research on it and build us a working canal that you can move levers and adjust it and then tell us how it affected the economy in the area. And I'm like, Oh, my God, that tells you so much more than just it was built in this time. You know, about biomed. I remember the table of elements. You know, when I was in school, it's like, okay, memorize the table of elements. As much as you could. Who cares? Nobody, you can look it up. So who cares if you memorized it? But you guys put them in groups. Because that's important working in groups in the world and companies. And you said, okay, this is your one or two research. These tell us everything you, you can find out about it and give a report. And I guarantee those kids remembered those two better than everything else. And I always thought that was such a great approach to learning and more, much more exciting. I don't know if the students get it so much, but I would. So, all right. So what we're going to talk about a little bit more in depth today is your e sports team. And I was really excited about this because I've been trying to find out more about video game storytelling and it connected to e sports because Ohio just approved e sports teams in high scho...

Overview South Carolina author Sasscer Hill, an amateur jockey and horse breeder, writes mysteries in series - The Nikki Latrelle Horse Racing Mysteries (five volumes), The Fia McFee Mysteries (two volumes to date), TRAVELS OF QUINN, GRIPPING TALES OF FACT AND FICTION, and now a new series The Janet Simpson Cozy Mysteries, of which MURDER AT THE WILLCOTTS HOTEL is the third volume. This novella is short, but Hill's ability to create memorable characters involved in a tight cozy mystery heightened with humor makes this book asset sail! The main character Janet's observations are present in the opening lines: “I remember the afternoon Kate arrived at the Willcotts Hotel. It wasn't that she blew in like a pink breeze, her hat piled with coral flowers and feathers. It wasn't her small, prancing poodle, its collar encrusted with coral-colored rhinestones, and it wasn't the bellboy staggering beneath her three pink suitcases. No, the memory is sharp because it was the day I met Paul Delaveev…' The theatrical flair established, the cleverly designed mystery unfolds. Book Website https://www.sasscerhill.com/ Favorites https://booktavern.com/ YouTube https://youtu.be/UqQkZNp8h5U Transcript Stephen: today on Discovered Wordsmith, I have Sasser Hill. Sasser, how are you doing today? I'm Sasscer: doing well. Thank you. Stephen: Good. Yeah, I'm excited to hear about your book. But before we delve into that, tell us a little bit about who you are, where you live, and what you like to do besides writing. I Sasscer: am living in Aiken, South Carolina. I moved down from Maryland 12 years ago, which is where I did most of the horse business I was involved in for 32 years. And then I came here because it is a horse area and I knew it'd be a very favorable area for me to stick around with horsey people and see horses. And it's also a dog town and I love dogs and it's every other car that goes by has a dog with its head sticking out the window. So it's really a nice town. Stephen: Nice. And when you say horse business, what exactly were you doing? I was Sasscer: breeding foaling, raising, breaking thoroughbred racehorses. And I was also an owner who raced them and I did that for 32 years. Stephen: Okay I would expect there's some horses in your books. Sometimes. Sasscer: Oh, yeah. Are our horse racing murder mysteries. The ones that have been out and actually, they're rather traditional mysteries. They have a little bit of. Blood and guts in them, nothing too strong, but now I'm writing I'm trying my hand at a few cozy novellas, because they're quick and easy to write, and cozy mysteries are so popular right now, so I thought why not see if we can get a little bit of that income as well as what I usually write, so it's Stephen: been fun. Okay let's delve into that. Talk about your books a little bit. So today we're going to be talking about Murder at the Wilcots Hotel and this is not your first book. Is that correct? Sasscer: No, it's like maybe number 9. Stephen: Okay. So are these in a series or are they just separate individual books? Sasscer: Most of them have been my first series is a five book series about a gal named Nikki Littrell, female jockey, very young. The next series I wrote, if you want to call it that, was a two book deal for St. Martin's featuring a really strong character, female character named Fia McKee. But years ago, when I was in a Sisters in Crime group that I met, and I was taking we were doing critiques, this is when I was still up in Maryland the Sisters in Crime Chessie chapter, that was my chapter wanted to do a bunch of collections of mysteries. So anthology. So I wrote two anthologies for two different two different stories for two, two different anthologies, and they did quite well. And they were both about a gal named Janet Sim Simpson, and she was a middle aged, if not beyond middle aged female.

Overview Luna rey hall is a queer trans non-binary writer. they are the author of space neon neon space (Variant Lit, 2022), no matter the diagnosis (Game Over Books, 2023), the patient routine (Brigids Gate Press, 2023), and loudest when startled (YesYes Books, 2020), longlisted for the 2020 Julie Suk Award. they are the winner of the 2013 Patsy Lea Core in Memorial Award for Poetry. their poems have appeared in The Florida Review, The Rumpus, & Raleigh Review, among others. Book Website lunareyhall.com Favorites https://moonpalacebooks.com/ YouTube https://youtu.be/WKcxk9tDI6g Transcript So today on Discovered Luna. Discovered Wordsmith. I have with me Luna. Luna, how you doing today? Good, how are you? How are you? Good, good. And I see you've got a twins jersey on, so I'm gonna take a guess where you're from, but uh, could you tell us a little bit about yourself, where you're from, and some of the things you like to do besides writing? Yeah, Luna: definitely. Um, I, yeah, I'm an author. I've this, I have three books out, including the patient routine, which I believe we'll talk about today. Um, I'm from the Twin Cities, been in Minnesota my whole life. Uh, and outside of writing, obviously I love reading. Um, I love doing art projects. Um, I've been collaging recently. Um, I like to do graphic design. I do a lot of graphic design for my. Social media and stuff. So I've been getting into that too. Um, I have two dogs. I play with them all the time. Uh, they take up a lot of time. Yes. Um, otherwise that, that's kind of the main thing. Uh, that's, that's kind of what I do in my day to day. Stephen: Nice. What are you the dog breeds? My Luna: older dog is a Beagle mix. Um, and his name is, uh, Yoshi. Great, Stephen: great name. Oh, that's interesting. I had an author here named Yoshi. Luna: Oh yeah. You know, great name. So, um, and then my younger dog is, um, a pit terrier mix and Oh, nice. Yeah, she's, she's, uh, just a pup, just a little over a year old. So, Stephen: yeah. I. We had, uh, two dogs when my kids were younger, both rescues best dogs I've ever owned in my life. Uh, one has since passed away and I miss her greatly. But the other one sitting over there being a scaredy cat is a boxer and maybe English bulldog mix. We're not really sure. Oh, sure. But, uh, yeah, she's a great dog. Anxiety though, when I leave, so that's a problem. Luna: Yeah, my dogs. Yeah, they're very anxious too. And I work from home in my day job, so I'm here all the time. So whenever I leave, they are a mess. Stephen: No. Yeah. Their time. Yeah. Same here. What, what, what do you do for a day job? I Luna: work in education publishing. Um, right now it's in like assessment, so like standardized testing as an editor. Hmm. It's not, no, it's not super fun. My writing is significantly more fun. Right, but it pays the bills. Stephen: Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. I've, I am into helping kids with writing and showing parents and teachers how teaching kids to write can lead to things they can do in their future, including storytelling and video games. Yeah. As an outsider, I'll give it that. I'm not in the system. I see some things that could definitely work better and need improvement with our education system and the common core is not one of the good things. Luna: Yeah, no, I fully agree. Yeah. Um, luckily I work in a lot of like accessibility and accommodation areas, so I get to work a lot of like braille. Large print type of stuff, um, that kind of stuff. So that's, that's great that I can do something that's very useful because yes, some of it's, um, quite painful to get through, Stephen: but yeah. Yeah, I was just, I was just talking to the Pittsburgh Library. They had a, a fair, and they were showing. About getting braille books into braille, which I would love to do because I'd love to have my book available to everyone.

Overview Robert Wolf, M.D., grew up as the only child of Ervin and Judit Wolf. Their stories of their escape from communist Hungary, and his father's tragic history of escaping the Nazis twice but having his own parents taken to Auschwitz, inspired Robert to document his parents' tales and share those stories with Jewish groups and others throughout the United States. In "Not a Real Enemy" Robert shares his family saga-and the forgotten history of the nearly half million Hungarian Jews who were deported and killed during the Holocaust-through an epic and inspiring tale of daring escapes, terrifying oppression, tragedy, and triumph.  Robert Wolf is a national speaker and is featured in national media and TV including ABC TV, NBC TV, CW TV, FOX TV, CBS TV and more.   Book Favorites YouTube https://youtu.be/-gtYk_nnK1M Transcript Stephen: today on Discovered Wordsmith, I want to welcome Rob Wolf. Rob, how are you doing Robert: today? I'm doing well. Hi, how are you? Thank you for having me. Thanks for inviting me. Stephen: Yeah. It's great to have you on. We're gonna talk about your book not a Real Enemy, but before we do let's find out a little bit about you. What are, where do you live and what are some of the things you like to do besides writing? I. Robert: Hi, I'm Rob Wolf, and I was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan the Detroit area. I was raised kindergarten through 12th grade in a small town called Mount Clemens. Suburban Detroit. Famous for Thomas Alva Edison and Sulfur Baths back in the day. They those don't, I don't know even know if those exist anymore, but back in the day it was very popular resort for that. Stephen: Yeah, I don't think Edison still exists. No. Robert: He was the Elon Musk of his day, I would say. Yeah. So yeah. And then I went to Tufts University for undergraduate. I was fortunate enough to get into Tufts University near Boston for undergraduate. And then I went to University of Michigan Medical School and I graduated in 1988. Loved Ann Arbor. What a great place to go to school. Again, very privileged, very competitive. Always a, it was a great school to go attend and it was a great school to to be an alumnus as well. And then then I did residency. I, my residency, I'm a radiologist, so I did a year internship at Framing Framingham Union Hospital near Boston Boston University affiliate. I did my radiology residency at Brown Rhode Island Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island. And then I did a neuroradiology neuroradiology fellowship at Yale. University in New Haven, Connecticut. Now, by now I'm 30 years old. I've done half my life. I'm 60 now, so now I'm about 30, finally ready to make a living after all those years of indentured Ry. And so I've lived half my life in New England and half my life in Michigan. So I've bounced back to forth. There were no jobs when I finished my fellowship back in the nineties. So I took what I could a place in Massachusetts that I was moonlighting as a senior resident and as a fellow. I needed a radiologist, so I took a job there and I was there four years, and then back to Michigan for seven years, and then back to Massachusetts with my wife at the time. And worked a few jobs inpatient, outpatient hospital work tele radio, tele radiography work. I still do some teleradiology now. I'm, I do two days a week, part-time, Wednesdays and Thursdays just to stay, stay in the loop. I can tell, we'll talk a little bit more about that when we talk about the history of my book, but Besides medicine, which I've been doing. So now I've been doing that, let's say 33 years in radiology, 34 years. And it's been a great it's been a great run. I've been part-time since I was 43, so about half of my career I've been part-time and the other half pretty much full-time. And, night call and weekends and all that other stuff. Besides radiology, I love sports. I love all sports.

Overview Ben joins us from New Jersey where he goes to college. Ben may be young and isn't known, but he is an experienced author with several books under his belt already with many planned in the future. Ben has also talked with an author, Sue Bentley, that he admires and got her permission to use some of the animals names from her book in his book. Listen to what Ben shares about his books and his advice for writing. Book Favorites Website http://benlevinauthor.com/ YouTube https://youtu.be/OGYibEJBE8Q Transcript Stephen: today on Discovered Wordsmiths, I want to welcome Ben Levine. Ben, good morning. How are you doing Levin? Let me rewind and back that up. I'm messing this all up today. Alright, so today on Discover Wordsmith, let me welcome Ben Levin. Ben, how are you doing today? Good morning. I'm doing all right. Ben: Thank you, Stefan. And you, Stephen: You're doing all right. As long as I keep getting things correct instead of messing things up on what we're talking about. Sorry. That's okay. All right. So Ben tell us a little bit about who you are, where you live, what you like to do, some things you outside of writing. I'm currently going Ben: to college at Fairleigh Dickinson University, and I am, I live in Mottville, New Jersey. In addition to writing, I like to read, relax, sometimes go on walks and do active stuff, even though I don't do it as often as I'd like. Stephen: Gotcha. And being in school that keeps you pretty busy. Anyway. Yeah, I remember. Yeah, it's a fun time. Good time. You like to read, we're gonna talk a little bit about some of your favorite books and stuff later, but what are you studying in college? Creative writing. Okay. It fits right in. How's that going? You enjoying it? Yes. Yeah. We'll assume you're doing well 'cause I don't want you to embarrass yourself if you're not. So we'll just say, Ben, I'm glad you're doing so well in college. That's good. But let, we're gonna talk about that too, also a little bit about what it's like to write while still in school. And you started writing before college, so we'll talk a little bit about that too. Let's talk about your latest books. You've got several books out in a series. Tell us a little bit about that. You mean about Nellie's friends? Nellie's friends? Yes. Ben: What exactly do you want to know Stephen: about it? Sorry. Tell us what the series is about. What it is it's about healthy. Is it mystery? Little bit of it's a. Ben: Okay. It's a kid series, a little girl series about a girl named Nelly who moves to Illinois from New York. And after she leaves all her friends behind her favorite hobby becomes making new ones. Each book is about a new friend she makes and the adventure they have together. Stephen: Okay, nice. So why did you wanna write a series of books about a girl who's trying to make friends? Ben: The idea initially came to me in fourth grade, a time when I was obsessed with things stereotypically meant for girls, like dolls and girl books, and part of me wanted to explore this interest more. Okay. And Nelly's friend seemed like the right way to do it. Stephen: Nice. Okay. You know what are you using any of these books for part of your schoolwork, creative writing, or is this all on the side? All on the side. Okay. So are you picking up some things in college that are helping with the writing? Or are you Yes. Okay. Like what have you learned in school that's helped with your latest writing? I have to think. Okay. Yeah. Sorry. Throwing 'em at you, you're not ready for, got it. Ben: I've never really thought of it that way but I'm almost certain I've learned Stephen: something. Yeah. I hope, yeah. You're spending a lot of time and money there, so I hope they're giving you something right. That's true. How many books do you have in the series right now? Ben: Published or in general

Overview I want to welcome Jennifer Lawrence and apologize to her once again. We did a whole episode and talked about a lot of great things - that I forgot to record. So she graciously agreed to get back on and redo it, even though she was super busy with school and family. Thank you. Jen lives in Nashville, TN with her family. She is also a teacher and has written a series of books for kids - The Mystic series. We discuss her book and having her daughters read and help with the series. We also discuss the difficulty in marketing middle grade books and some things you can do. Book Website https://www.authorjllawrence.com/books/the-mystic-series/ Home page Favorites YouTube https://youtu.be/eu4EY_81XzE Transcript Stephen: big surprise today, I'm welcoming JL Lawrence to the podcast for the second time, but most of you don't even know what the first time was. So she was gracious enough to get back on because we switched recording mediums last time and I forgot to hit record. So we had a great conversation and then didn't even record it. So hopefully we can recreate all that great conversation that we had. Jen, tell us a little bit about you and what you like to do besides writing. Jennifer: I do, I guess in my off time or my real job, whichever way you wanna look at it, is I'm a high school teacher so I teach marketing and I spend a lot of time with the students. 'cause we do a lot of competitions like the one we just went to in Orlando to compete internationally. Had some good results there. So really enjoyed that. And keeps me a little bit young when you're constantly surrounded by teenagers. Yeah. So sometimes I feel really old. Sometimes it helps you feel young. It's a double edged, but but I do enjoy it. I've been teaching for 20 years, so it's, it's been a good run and I've enjoyed it. And then when I'm not teaching and not writing I mostly spend a lot of time doing stuff with my kids, like with soccer or whatever it may be. Stephen: Yep. The life of a busy working parent. Yes. It. Your kids are a little older. My kids are just a few years older than yours, and it starts settling down a little bit, but then you start going I don't know if I wanna do that other stuff. 'cause boy, the stuff with the kids was a load of fun, Jennifer: yep. Yeah. I've got three, my oldest one graduates in two weeks. Stephen: Oh, wow. So it's really busy time right now. Jennifer: Yep. She just had prom yesterday, so got to enjoy that and now ready for getting ready for Stephen: graduation. Nice. I remember those just a few years ago. All right. So tell us about your books. You write middle grade. Tell us about your latest books and why did you choose to write middle grade your high school teacher? Jennifer: It's my journey. It was actually a little crazy. I started with an adult fantasy series that I had in my mind for years and just finally came into fruition. And then when I finished it, My daughter, who was 14 at the time, was like why didn't you write something that I could read? So I was like okay. So I thought about it, and so I took the same character and brought her back to high school to create my first young adult series. I. And so that she, and that was a four book series so that she could have something to talk with me and work with me and read. And then in the last couple of years, I just really got to thinking about, other, my youngest one now is just 14, but was 12 when I started thinking about it. And so I started thinking about what else I could do to reach her. And, a lot of fun ideas that I had over the years. I love dragons and a lot of mythical creatures that's always interested me and so I just figured out how to put a spin on it and came up with the Dragon Master Stephen: Chronicles. Nice. And have your kids read the books now? I. Jennifer: Yes, my my youngest one has actually worked with me through it.

Overview Catherine lives in Tucson Arizona and is a bass player. Good combo - author and bass player. She has written a sci-fi novel called Aztec Eagle that is the first of a series. She is also with Jumpmaster Press. Book Favorites https://www.bookstoptucson.com/ YouTube https://youtu.be/hoYZadD_Oec Transcript Stephen: today on Discovered Wordsmiths, I wanna welcome Catherine. Catherine. Hello. How are you doing today? Catherine: Doing fine, thank you Steven. Stephen: Alright, so we're gonna talk about your book Aztec Eagle, but before we do that, let's find out a little bit about you. So tell us a little bit about where you live and some of the things you like to do besides writing. I Catherine: live in Tucson, Arizona, and of course with the fabulous weather we have here for most of the year, I enjoy outdoor things like bicycling and hiking and indoor things like making music. Stephen: Oh, nice. What do you play? I Catherine: play bass guitar. So do Stephen: I. Good, good choice. Catherine: Yeah, my my husband and my daughter and a friend of ours had decided they were gonna put a little trio together. They had a keyboard and drum kit and a singer, and when I heard them perform the first time, I said, you really need a bass player? Yeah. Yes. I'll have to learn to play bass. Stephen: And so I did. Yeah, that, that was the same with me. I had some friends that had a band, they needed a bass player. So my buddy showed up and said, hi, this is a base, this is the e a d and G strings. Each fret is a half step go. Literally, that was my introduction. Let's go. Yeah. Alright, so Katherine why did you wanna start writing? Catherine: I have to think back and I was in elementary school and I think what happened was my older brother had an assignment in his class to write a short story. And I read the short story that he wrote. I thought that was just the coolest thing and I'd like to do that too. So I started writing when I was about 10 years old. Stephen: Nice. Nice. That, that was about the time I was reading Stephen King. All right. We're gonna talk about your book, Aztec Eagle and it, you said it's your seventh book, correct? That's correct. Yes. Okay. So tell us about Aztec Eagle and is it part of a series or is it a standalone? Catherine: Aztec Eagle is book one in a series called the Aztec Eagle Series. Book two, we hope we'll be out later this year. And I'm editing book three we're on our way. A little bit about it. It's set maybe 200 years in the future where earth has one colonial planet called Alpha. But the story starts in a small town in Mexico on the shore where a young urchin named Enrique is selling trinkets to the tourists, and he meets a captain in the peacekeeper Pilot Corps. And the interesting thing about this pilot core is that many of the pilots have a neural implant. That allows them to connect with their aircraft so that they're getting data instantaneously from their aircraft. And the way they select for pilots who get this implant is if they have a high cyonic ability. And as it turns out, young Enrique, who was maybe five years old at that time has a pretty good cyonic talent. And El Capitan takes him under his wing to develop and train the cyonic talent. And Enrique then just becomes fascinated with becoming a pilot. He's obsessed with it. And of course, as with all obsessions, he runs into some major difficulties. He's poor, he can't afford secondary education. He can't, he can hardly afford the books for his schoolwork. So there are obstacles to conquer. And then his world turns upside down when he finds out that El cap. His hero, who, he was planning to become a pilot and be just like El Capitan and fight side by side with El Capitan. His hero defects to the other side goes over to the rebel cause, and now Enrique has a dilemma. What does he do? So that's, that gives you an introduction without giving ...

Overview Jim is one half of the Flinch publishing duo and joins us today to talk about their newest anthology - a western title Six Gun Legends. We also discuss his Sgt Janus books and connection to Carnacki, Kolchak and X-files. With the upcoming Pulpfest, JIm tells us more about that show and what he and partner, John Bruening, have planned. Book Favorites YouTube https://youtu.be/p5j-5WSaflc Transcript Stephen: so today on Discover Wordsmith, I wanna welcome the great Jim Beard, who is the better duo, better half of the duo of Flinch Publishing. That's what I hear at least Jim? Oh, Jim: wow. Okay. This is starting off on the wrong foot already. Now. I can never talk to John again. My partner, my publishing partner. Wow. Okay. Stephen: We'll just not tell John you're on here, and then we'll, okay. Yeah. This Jim: is just between you and me. Nobody else is gonna hear Stephen: this. Nobody at all. Jim: Wow. Wow. Yeah, he's, he's already, supremely jealous of me, so now it's just gonna be worse. Nice. Stephen: Jim tell everybody a little bit about yourself to give an intro here. Okay. I Jim: am a a writer, editor, and publisher of adventure Fiction. And pop culture nonfiction. And then I also whenever I can, I will write licensed fiction too. I don't do as much of that as I would I would like to. But so I wear several hats and do a lot of different things. And I actually have two small press self-publishing firms, and we already mentioned the one. So that's flinch books with John Bruning of Cleveland, Ohio who will never speak to me again. Thank you. Oh, Stephen: I'm sorry. I just broke the band up. Jim: And and then Becky books which is just me. Stephen: And actually you mentioned the license stuff. That was the first time I met you. It was actually years ago at pioneer Village down mid Ohio. Yeah you had a little table like set up behind the mill. Yeah. In the middle of nowhere. It was like nobody was around you. Yeah. It Jim: was a card Stephen: table. Yes. And I had found out that you wrote a story for one of the Star Wars comic books I had, and I had that brought it down to have you sign. Yeah. Jim: You're reminding me that we only see each other at bigfoot shows. Yes. Stephen: Yeah. Which is funny because about it, it's this for sure. And that's kind funny because that's not your main thing up until now you. Jim: That's, that's interesting because I have been utterly fascinated and in love with Cryptids, all my life from when I was, a little kid and and just want to be around that kind stuff. But I chose to do that because I do have a lot of like monster or supernatural related things and I've that kicked it off for me. I've actually started doing some crypted shows now and finding out that I do very well at them. That the people really seem to spark. When, when I bring Cold Check the Night Stalker or Love it, I don't have, I can't get it anymore. I used to have an in the X-Files book, but unfortunately I can't get copies of that. I, Stephen: I've got that. Yeah I got a Jim: copy from you. And I was just, before we started recording here, I was just telling you that this lasted show that I was at, which I. Surprise, surprise that I got the idea that I'm finally going to do an actual Bigfoot book. Yeah, that'd be great. I actually can, hold that up when I'm at these shows and say, look, I have a Bigfoot book. It's not just it's Bigfoot. Stephen: Yeah, I saw you asking for stories in that and I got excited 'cause I love reading that stuff. I actually thought of replying one, but I'm like, nah, I don't wanna mix it with asking you to be on the podcast and applying to the book. I don't wanna feel, I'm mad. That's okay. Yeah. But I don't think I was ready for it, listen, I Jim: mean, honestly, if this first one does well, I will certainly, want to do other another in fact, I had to,

Overview Don lives in Ohio with his wife and recently retired. As a retirement goal, he wanted to write a book and he's written a series of humor books. Along with writing, he has been practicing standup comedy. Book Website https://donake.allauthor.com/ YouTube https://youtu.be/bJp71xDruDc Transcript Stephen: today on Discovered Wordsmiths, I have Don Ake. Don, good morning. How are you doing? Good morning. It's a Don: great morning here. Stephen: Yes. It's finally getting warmer around here though. We've got some cold temperatures at night still. Don: Been a weird spring but yeah. We'll take Stephen: the sunshine. Yeah, definitely. So Dawn before we talk about your book let's find out a little bit about you where you live and some of the things you like to do besides writing. Don: I live in Jackson Township and right now, this is a transition period for me 'cause I retired from my day job in Stephen: September. Okay. Don: And so I writing. I'm spending most of my time right now, even in retirement writing my fifth book which will be a business related book. Oh, nice. But besides that I like to play tennis. Since I retired I've been doing some standup comedy. Really? Yes. So I'm a humor doesn't translate. 100% over to standup, but I've never had time to do standup and my friends have always wanted me to get back on stage. I used to do standup years ago, and so since yeah, since September. I've been on stage several times and that's a fun thing to Stephen: do. Yeah. Cool. You, you write humor books and we were gonna talk about writing humor later, so that'd be great to talk about how it's different than standup comedy and compare and contrast that a bit. We'll get into that a little bit. That'd be great. Why did you wanna start writing these humor books? Don: It was an interesting thing in that I wrote a humor column in college at the University of Akron a long time ago. And I, at some point a few years ago, several years ago now I started, I wanted to start a humor blog. So I call the column that I wrote for the University of Akron book, delight was called Aches Pains. Alright, play on my name. And so when I started the humor blog, I called it Aches, pains, humor Blog, and I, at the beginning of the blog, I said, yeah, I'm just back after a brief 32 year respite. But the thing with humor writing with me is even though I had taken all that time off and I had written stuff, I'd written some sketch humor I'd done standup comedy in between. So it, it wasn't like I hadn't written anything but humor writing comes naturally to me. So it wasn't, it wasn't too long after I started blogging that. I was back doing what I do very well and do naturally. So then I started this humor blog in 2011, and by 2015 I had enough of enough following and enough material that I put it into a book that's called Just Make Me a Sandwich, which is my first humor book. So I never set out to write a book. I was just having fun. I was just writing blog posts and all of a sudden I have a book. My my goal, one of my life goals was to write a book after I retired. And so I figured after I retired, I'd have time, I'd write a book, and so I, I forget the math. Now it's I fulfilled one of my major life goals like seven years early. Okay. Which, is very rare. Followed up, just make me a sandwich a few years later with will there be free appetizers, and then kept writing. And then a couple years later introduced in 2020, right? In the middle of this pandemic. The current one, Turkey terror at my door. So that's the history from college to now. Stephen: And that's cool. I remember the book Delight 'cause I went to Akron also. I, I don't know if I remember your column, but that was 30 years ago tell us a little bit about Turkey terror and the other books. It's humor writing. So tell everybody a little bit about what that means and what they can expect to see in the books.

Overview Avyan is a young writer, 10 years old in fact. Yet, he's an experienced author that has written a non-fiction book for that his fellow classmates enjoy. As a bonus, Avyan donates his profit to his school. Book YouTube https://youtu.be/NtqOmjWZnyY Transcript Stephen: today on Discover Wordsmith, I have a very special guest. This is Avian and he is 10 years old right now, but wrote his first book when he was six. Avian. How are you doing today? I think I was like Avyan: eight Stephen: or something. Yeah. Oh, you were eight. Okay. So you were eight still. There's a lot of people my age that are trying to get one book published and with them, this is Mom Monica. So welcome you guys to Discover Wordsmith. How's everything going today? Monica: Going good. And thanks for inviting us for Stephen: podcast. Yeah, absolutely. I think this is great. I, one of the things I like to do is, Highlight young people and kids doing these types of things, because I know there are parents out there who don't understand that kids can do this stuff in today's world. And I think we limit our kids sometimes because the parents don't understand what all can be done. So I think this is great. So Ian you're 10 years old now, correct. So I assume writing books is not your full-time job. What are some things you like to do besides write? I. Avyan: The first thing that I don't have a full-time Stephen: job. You don't, not next year. You're getting one next year I think. I don't know. Okay. Alright. So what do you, Avyan: What do you I like reading and I like space and like mysteries. Space mysteries, that kind of thing. Stephen: Nice. And Avyan: I do also, I play piano and ty, I do TaeKwonDo since five years. Stephen: Both. Wow. So you're busy. Yeah. I, TaeKwonDo, I have a cousin who did TaeKwonDo. I did a style of martial arts called Kwan. It's Korean. So I, I love martial arts. I think that's great. My kids both did it for many years. Oh, okay. When they were your age. So we'll talk about some of the things you like to read but you play music and martial arts and you so I think that's great. Active kid. That's wonderful. Yeah. Avyan: I also like basketball. Stephen: Oh nice. Are you tall enough to play basketball? Cuz I wasn't. Yes. Monica: Nice. He's quite tall for his age. Stephen: Good. Yeah. Hopefully you'll stay that way cuz I played a little basketball in sixth grade and by the time I was in eighth grade, everybody else had grown and I hadn't, so I stopped playing basketball. Abian, you wrote a book called True or False a couple years ago, and you wanted to donate the money to charity. First of all, tell us why did, what's, what is the book about and why did you wanna write it? So the book was Avyan: actually a school project. My teacher, like my gifted teacher she had this project like for me and my friend who was also in gifted to write this book. And she gave a couple of genres to just get us started let's say like nonfiction or fiction or realistic fiction, like the true or false type nonfiction, which I selected. And then there's app called Book Creator. She gave me a this account for it and book creator like help me like. Make the book itself. And then for the publishing part, my parents like just got this idea for the publishing and then they Stephen: published it Avyan: and then we just decided that we would donate the money to charity. Stephen: And what charity are you donating the money to? So Avyan: Most of it went to my school. Nice. And the other part of it went to the American Heart Association. Stephen: Nice. Good choices. It's always good to help out the schools. I love, doing what I can to help schools and education myself. So Monica: that's what like the Stephen, we thought because this whole book thing started with the book project. And so it came from the school.

Overview Gustav is from South America where he lives with his large family. He writes for a very thriving science fiction fan base there. We discuss his sci-fi military book, Colony, but also about being a South American writer and trying to sell in the United States. Gustav is a Jumpmaster Press author and loves what they have done to help his career. Book Website https://gustavobondoni.com/ Favorites https://www.kelediciones.com/ YouTube https://youtu.be/7rYVL-7Pwns Transcript Stephen: today on Discovered Wordsmiths, I have Gustavo Bond. Bond. Is that correct? See, I didn't ask the last name. Alright, so Gustavo, welcome to the podcast. How are you doing today? Gustavo: I'm doing great. Thank you for having me. It's great to be here. Yeah. Stephen: Yeah, this is great. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Some things you like to do, where you live, that type of stuff outside of writing, things you don't besides writing. Cool. Gustavo: I'm from Buenos Aires. I'm currently in Buenos Aires. I live in Enos Aires. Nice. I have two young daughters. I live with my wife and two daughters, plus two children from my wife's previous marriage. So there's a lot of us in the house. Nice. Outside of writing, I I have a day job. I work for an internet company and I also enjoy I enjoy reading. Of course. That's I think you probably Stephen: get that lot books behind you there. Gustavo: Yeah. And if you look to the, like to that side, there's also a little display case with a bunch of models in it, airplanes and cars, which I actually built. I also like to do some art. So the, if you look above the models, lemme see if I can make like right above the models, there's one draw. One of my drawings is up there, which actually they were, there was two of them hanging on that wall before I put up the display case. So Stephen: yeah. Nice. So I think you're the first South American author I've interviewed. Cool. Gustavo: Great. Great to be the first. Yeah, it's, a lot of South Americans write science fiction and fantasy. But not a lot of them speak English or work in the US and the European markets. So it's not unusual that you might not have run into too many of us. Stephen: Oh, that's interesting. I think it's great cuz I've been getting authors, all continents. I think it's great talking to such a big variety. Gustavo: Yeah. It's cool. Stephen: So you've got multiple kids. I know what that's I've had the same how do you find time to write? Gustavo: So generally I try to find a little bit of time to write when they're at school. And after that, when they're watching cartoons in the afternoon, the rest of the time becomes a little bit harder. But if I have to write during during A fight in the middle of my house, I can actually do that. I've done it. So Stephen: arriving under fire? Gustavo: Yeah, during the pandemic. The pandemic was actually very good training for that because like they were here all the time and they were small. They were like, one of them was two and the other one was four. During the pandemic. Oh, wow. They were really needy, really small. And so that was good training, like writing when Yeah, when the world is like coming down around your Stephen: ears. So I wanna talk about your book Colony but I find it interesting I wanna ask you, there it is. Ask you, you mentioned that a lot of South American authors like to write sci-fi and fantasy which is interesting to me. Why do you think that is? There's a tradition Gustavo: not only of straight science fiction and fantasy in the Asimov vein, but actually science fiction and fantasy in Latin America has been spilling out into every genre. So if you look at the last few greats from Latin America, if you look at Mario Osa, who is Peruvian, or if you look at Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who is. Who is Colombian or even our own Argentinian superstar who is Borges.

Overview Dale lives in Kansas and writes mystery novels. She's liked mystery since she was young. Unlike most authors, she uses Linux for her writing and we discuss this. Dale Kesterson was born in Manhattan, NY and grew up on Long Island. Since then, she has lived in six widely diverse locations, from New Orleans to deliberately moving to a town so small it does not have a red-yellow-green traffic light. She has been creating stories and putting them on paper since the age of seven, even writing and producing a neighborhood play at twelve. Life, however, kept her busy doing things such as majoring in science in college, teaching math and science, studying nursing, and managing a small home business with her husband. Odd creative opportunities presented themselves throughout the years, however, with two highlights. Dale did a two-year stint with an opera company where she performed pantomime characters while singing with the chorus and she worked on a radio show as an anchor and character voice artist. She co-authored the first two Time Guards novels, and now pens the Lauren Kaye Mysteries. Resort to Murder was the premiere in 2021 and Staged for Death followed in 2022. Dale is a seasoned traveler who is also a professional photographer. In 2018 she auditioned for a part for a community theater and has been active as an actress, singer, and assistant director with two local community theaters in her area. Her roles have included Cinderella's Stepmother in Into the Woods, the store psychologist in Miracle on 34th Street, and most recently, the dual parts of Mrs. Dilber and the Ghost of Jacob Marley in A Christmas Carol – A Ghost Story of Christmas. Dale lives in southwest Kansas with her husband (of over 30 years) and their hairless cats. When she's not writing, performing, or appearing at conventions as an author or panelist or songstress, she does handcrafts. This lady hates being bored! Book Website Dale Kesterson – Author & Performer Favorites YouTube https://youtu.be/vdI4VNyrIQA Transcript Stephen: . So today on Discovered Wordsmith, I want to welcome Dale Kesteren. Dale, how are you doing today? DAle: I'm fine. Had an interesting weekend, but it's, it worked out Stephen: okay. Oh, good. Good. Yeah. So I wanna talk about your book but before we do, let's find out a little bit about you. So tell us where you live and some of the things you like to do besides writing. DAle: We live in a tiny little town in the middle of nowhere in southwest Kansas that is so small. It doesn't even have a red, yellow, green traffic Stephen: light. We've got one and we don't have a post office. So I understand. We have a post DAle: office. We don't, we have a grocery store. We have a drug store. We have a we're the com county seat. So we also have the county community critical access hospital. Stephen: Oh, here we are. DAle: But if you eliminate the cats and the dogs and the cat and the various other animals, it's the population's about 900. Oh, Stephen: okay. Ours, if you count the cows, it doubles our population. DAle: Yeah, I can understand that. If you double, if you count the cows, the population of the county triples. We're in the middle of wheat and cattle country, but we moved here and everybody gets startled by this. We moved here by from New Orleans. Stephen: Ooh, nice. Ooh. That was a DAle: change. And our daughter was asked if she could do voodoo dolls and love charms and such. When she, we got up here and she's going you moved here from New Orleans. It was the pit of hell. But it was deliberate and it was before Katrina. Stephen: Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah, I was down in New Orleans a couple years ago and some of the trolleys were still offline from Katrina. DAle: Katrina completely decimated the city. Brennan's is gone. I didn't know what Brennan's was. The world famous restaurant, Brennan's is no longer, and it's you don't go to nowhere.

Overview CS Devereaux declares she's a southern writer and has a story - Fall from Snowbird Mountain - that uses her southern-ness. She started writing memoirs and morphed into historical fiction. For the writers, we discuss the use of tools like Pro Writing Aid. There are advantages and disadvantages which we discuss. NOTE: CS Devereaux chose the topic, but I personally use Pro Writing Aid and recommend it as an affiliate. Book Website https://www.csdevereaux.com/ Favorites https://www.facebook.com/winderbinder/ YouTube https://youtu.be/B0yhcw9EYjc Transcript Good morning. Welcome to Wor Discovered Wordsmith. See, I'm already fumbling. I wanna welcome CS Devereux to the podcast. How are you doing today? Devereaux: I'm doing great, Stephen. It's good to see you. Good. Thank you for having me on your podcast. Stephen: Yeah, this is great. I think it'll be fun. Tell us a little bit about you, who you are and some of the things you like to do, where you live, and that stuff other than writing. Devereaux: Okay. I grew up in Birmingham, Alabama. I live in Chattanooga, Tennessee, but I did a vast amount of things in between there and here. I've lived in major cities all over the us. I've traveled a lot. And had varied career paths, but I've always been a creative person whether I was painting or designing or writing. I began my working life in New York City as a flight attendant for a major airline. And did that for about four years, and then went to work for a marketing company in LA and that took me all over the world. I lived for a few years in Tokyo and Hong Kong while I was with them. And Then moved back across the country to Atlanta cuz I wanted to be closer to home. And I had basically learned how to be a designer while I was with them rather than, I didn't learn a whole lot about marketing, but I learned a lot about designing. And I was went to college and got a BFA degree. In painting. I had the instincts there, and so I used that in Atlanta and eventually that led me into carpet and rug design, which if you know anything about the area Atlanta, Dalton, that's, that. It's not an unusual place to, to go because in, in my designing, one of my most favorite things to do was to design a custom rug for a client. I liked, oh, I loved it. I loved the textures and the colors, and just getting my hands in it. And so it was a natural. Transition for me there. And so I stayed in the southeast at that point for the most part, but I still traveled a lot and all along the way I kept journals and so I was always writing. I actually began writing when I was about a. 11 or 12 years old when my mother gave me a diary and that got me into a lot of trouble. But we can talk about that later. Cuz I started making up stories and So I kept journals and wrote and, but I didn't begin writing seriously until after I retired about 10 Stephen: years ago. Okay, great. So you said you were in marketing for a little bit. I'm gonna jump a little bit here. Has, have you found that's helped you market your own books now? Devereaux: You would think so, but I don't know that it has I'm pretty much a loner. I like, I'm like the introverts, introvert. I don't like being in front of people. It's a lot for me just to do this and talk to you. But in, in marketing a book, you do have to get out in front of people and when the marketing. My experience was before was pre-computer, and so I am not particularly technol, technologically savvy. Much of the marketing, successful marketing, I think is done online and I just don't know how to do it. I try and, I haven't even gotten my off my Facebook. Author page set up yet, because I looked at it and I got confused and I said, somebody's gonna have to help me with this. I asked my husband, he said, I don't know. And my son's too busy. There's just nobody to help. I go to author fairs and that sort of thing.

Overview John Bruening is from Cleveland and writes a series of pulp fiction for his Flinch press publisher. These are modern books that have that pulp flair. This episode is also a cross-over episode with my Relentless Geekery podcast. The 3rd voice you hear is Alan Baltis, co-host on that podcast. Book YouTube https://youtu.be/1kaa7cO7Jkg Transcript Hey John. Hey, John. Okay, you got your Stephen: mic off? Let's see. Alan: How's that? There we go. John: There we go. Okay. How's the look, how's. Looks fine. I got that sort of shiny thing going on here. That's Alan: true. You got the, a little bit of glare from the window, but it casts your face in John: a heroic, it's a noir kinda thing there. Exactly. Yeah, I had a second. Stephen: All the radiation from his monitor and that's what makes him, John: yeah it's gonna turn me into some kind of a superhero or something. That's what we would hope. Try these, this boy. Okay, there we go. Exactly. These are for like, far away. And this screen is it's like my eyes have reached a point where there's no sweet spot. You just have to like, Stephen: to nerd it up there, my glasses so I had Lasix a couple years ago when I had cataract surgery, and so I can see far away. I can see things just fine, but up close I. Can't see. So I asked them specifically my glasses to tune them for how far away I normally sit to the computer. So these glasses, I can't really read with them, but at the computer it makes everything look perfect. So there's nerding it up. I think John: I followed that. Yes. I just had an high appointment in December. I had a, I had an appointment in December and I'm in the earl They told me early stage cataracts, which really sucks. I'll be 60 at the end of this year and I'm just I'm gonna need eight months. I'm gonna need the eight months between now and December to just get my head around that concept. But yes, yeah, we've Alan: actually talked about that before. I don't have any diagnosis of cataracts yet, but I'm really not looking forward to it because I'm really flinchy Ah-huh. We're gonna bring that in about things going near my eyes. I hate putting in eyedrops. I hate, like, when I get puffed at, when they're doing the they don't do that anymore. Test and stuff like that. It's just Stephen: they're modern now, Alan, they don't do the puff. They have a device. They actually stick on your eye and make everything go watery. Wavy Alan: I do have the new one, but even like that the little thing moving into my field of vision and getting uncomfortably close, I'm, there's. I know we always jump around in our discussions. There was a great book, great Books by Gene Wolf, the Shadow of the torturer books. Remember those? And one of the things they talked about how one of the most base human instincts is to protect your head. Like you, you react to stop an arrow sword, whatever might be coming at you before your thinking. Mine could do it, right? And one of the ways in which somebody gets dispatched is he's got two heads and they, he protects the one but the other one gets killed and that still kills him. So there's a science fiction fantasy reference that even that incredible base human thing of avoiding falling and keeping your temperature and. Protecting your head doesn't work if you're zab bile bro type where you've got two heads anyway, John: guys, I'm gonna go shut my door and hopefully my dog won't gimme one second, I'll be right. Sure. Stephen: Yeah, we're gonna talk Pulp Fiction. Hey, we got five minutes left, so let's mention Pulp Fiction a bit. That's how Alan: it goes. I really, I actually did, make some notes to try to get, I made notes as to good questions to ask and stuff. Here we go. Stephen: Here we go. Don't ruin things now. Good questions. Oh man, John, so John: we started yet, what are we doing here? Yeah, Stephen: we kinda roll and we,

Overview Kyle is the author of sci-fi book - Space Pirate. He lives in Alabama, where he not only writes but runs a small publisher called Jumpmaster Press. Book Website www.rkylehannah.com https://www.jumpmasterpress.com/ Favorites YouTube https://youtu.be/LZriu3hmj3k Transcript Stephen: Today I'm discovering wordsmith. I wanna welcome Kyle. Kyle. Hello. How are you doing this? Great afternoon. Kyle: I am great. It's a beautiful day. So same Stephen: here. Same here. First thing I've really gotta say to you is, oh no, Mr. Bill. Kyle: Isn't that? Yeah. I, excellent. And you're wearing a Stephen: grumpy old men's shirt, right? Kyle: Yep. Grumpy. Do what I want. Yeah. I do what I want. But Stephen: we're some of the people that would recognize that? I think Kyle: Oh, the bill? Yeah. Yeah. It was, it's actually a dog toy. But when I saw it, I said, oh no, it's mine now. Nice. And I actually play it a lot during Zoom meetings. Somebody will say something and I'll just, And it's a perfect attention getter. Nice. Nice. All right we're Stephen: gonna talk about some of your books and about the business you are a part of jump, master Press. But before we do all of that, let's find out a little bit about you. Where do you live and what are some of the things you like to do besides writing? Kyle: Okay. My name is Kyle Hannah. I live in the suburbs of Birmingham, Alabama. I retired from the Army about eight years ago. I spent 30 years as a paratrooper in finance and logistics guy. If you see me walking around, it's usually with a sm slight limp. But you know what, it was worth it. I got to travel a lot. I saw the world. And that's not too bad for a country boy from Alabama. Nice. But these days I write, I edit I, I go play in the backyard and just enjoy the sunshine and just enjoy retirement. Stephen: Nice. I see a guitar in the background. You play. I. Kyle: I, I play at it more than I play yet there's also a keyboard back there. There's a bass. Yeah. If anyone just walked in and looked, they'd say, wow, you're a musician too. And I'm like, Yeah, sure. Yeah. Stephen: I've been struggling to try and learn some chording on guitar. It's just so small for me. I'm a bassist and a drummer. Oh Kyle: yeah. Stephen: All right. So let's talk about some of your books. I know we picked out a Kyle: couple that we were gonna talk about. Stephen: So why did you, after being in the Army and a vet, why did you wanna Kyle: start writing books? Actually I started writing in high school. I had a very overactive imagination, and this was years and years before anyone said the initials, a, D, H, D, but that was me to a t. So instead of acting out in class and getting sent to the principal's office and then getting home, And getting in even more trouble, I decided to apply my gift toward just sitting quietly and letting my mind wander. And I spent most of my high school years getting, good grades, but most of my time my head was down and I was writing something and somewhere in the house, I still have those. 35, 40 year old stories. They're absolutely horrible. They will, no one will ever see them, but they're still here somewhere. And believe it or not, for one of my series I wrote about five or six years ago, I actually pulled out some of the ideas. I wrote in those stories and incorporated them into this universe I created, and it actually worked out very well. And I keep wanting to go back and go, I've got this, that I could possibly, and then I start looking at it again and go no, it's just too silly. No, not gonna do it. Nice. Okay. Yeah I've been writing for years. I never really took it seriously until I was deployed to Afghanistan in 2002. That's when I wrote my true first novel, came home, put it on a shelf until 2010. And then since 2010 it's, I guess it's been an average of a book a year. I'm, I've got 12 novels out.

Overview Like many young men in high school cursed with a dash of creativity, Jim found a love for writing, which everybody else thought was practically useless. Those folks urged him to get good at math and science instead, and so he worked at those, but he was never sure if he could hack them out at a university level. After he graduated said university with an arts degree (where he had to read an awful lot), he wondered what other young people had gone through the same thing. It's always been his dream to inspire young men and women to pursue STEM projects, as he thinks the world could use as many helping hands it can get and he thinks they are up to the challenge. In other news, he grew up near Toronto, Canada and devoured any written adventure he could find, including many of the works written by Kenneth Oppel, D. J. MacHale, Christopher Paolini, and Rick Riordan. Later on, it was Jim Butcher, R.A. Salvator, Hajime Isayama, and Tsugumi Ohba who fueled him through his early adult years and to whom he associates much of his personal growth to. HUNTED BY FIRE What is fifteen-year-old Felix Deltorei supposed to do when he longs for rebellion? In his world, where the dragon Gods reign with barbaric force, such thoughts could cost him his life. The risks have been drilled into Felix and his friends since they were children. The war between humans and the winged Gods ended with a treaty; humanity would serve them or be driven extinct. Hundreds of years later, under the watchful eyes of the Gods and their devoted followers, those same laws remain. Felix knows he has to find his place in the world before he's found out. Surrounded by teachers who only ever value faith, obedience, but also technological advancement, Felix strives to achieve security and a better life in the only way he knows how; with his inventive mind. However, just as he gets his chance, one of the province's famed inquisitors arrives in town. Little does Felix know, the devastating events about to take place will risk exposing him, but they will also push him out into a journey that might mean the deaths of the ones he loves if he can't escape in time. Book https://www.amazon.com/Hunted-Fire-Fires-Innovation-Book-ebook/dp/B0BMJHVV61?crid=2TB7C2XUR1EJF&keywords=hunted+by+fire+hepburn&qid=1686180951&sprefix=hunted+by+fire+hepburn%2Caps%2C79&sr=8-1&linkCode=li2&tag=mindarchitect-20&linkId=72abbb0572766aa2d984f3dd170f5155&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_il Favorites https://www.amazon.com/Collection-Butcher-Calderon-Captains-Princeps/dp/9123926066?crid=1ET2A04TIHM9&keywords=jim+butcher&qid=1686181072&sprefix=jim+butche%2Caps%2C114&sr=8-8&linkCode=li2&tag=mindarchitect-20&linkId=e0c438b5bf58633b201722c12a68625f&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_il Website Jim Hepburn Website YouTube https://youtu.be/4y6FL31c2Io Transcript Stephen: today on Discover Wordsmith, I wanna welcome Jim Hepburn. Jim good afternoon. How are you doing? It's a bright, sunny spring day here. How about you? Jim: Yeah, no, it's good, Stephen. Thanks for having me. It's it's kinda cloudy, overcast, but it's warm, so that's what Stephen: matters sometimes. To let our audience know a little bit about who you are, tell us some of the things you like to do, where you live, and things you do besides writing. Jim: Yeah, sure. So I live up in Canada. I'm right around the Toronto area there. And I I spend a lot of my time when I'm out riding, I usually either cook or do I do lots of jiujitsu also. I love doing that. Getting beat up for fun is great. And and yeah, between that, hanging out with my dog and my fiance and then writing that that captures about 95% of the time that's there. Stephen: So what's your favorite thing to cook? Jim: Oh, pizza, hands down. I yeah, no, I you know what was funny? It was my family has always loved pizza forever, and I could eat pizza every day of the week if I had the opportunity. But for Christmas,

Overview Matthew Bennett Young is a British author and has published in many forms (picturebooks, flash fiction, short stories and poetry) although his big passion is for picturebooks. Not only does he write but sometimes he illustrates as well. He is also anartist-educator and has been teaching his inspiring workshops all over the world. Hecurrently resides in Montreal and is a member of Artist Inspire and Culture a L'Ecole.He believes all creativity is a form of expression and is essential for wellbeing,especially now, and it takes practice! The soccer ball in this story leaves Earth with a mightystrike of the boot and rockets past every planet. Each planethas a landmark of a famous soccer city in the UK. See ifyou can work out which city and soccer club it is! Book Favorites

Overview This is a super special episode. Jeff Strand is back to talk about his novelization for the movie Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. This cult comedy horror movie is over 40 years old, and Jeff does an absolutely fantastic job with the writing. You may notice something else of interest - there are 3 people on this episode. That's because this is a big crossover with the Horror Lasagna podcast and that other person is my co-host, Rhys. Book https://www.amazon.com/Attack-Killer-Tomatoes-Jeff-Strand/dp/1959205676?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1684786568&sr=8-4&linkCode=li2&tag=discoveredwordsmiths-20&linkId=5138d8901de0de032118d60c379cd842&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_il YouTube https://youtu.be/bbWHojO8AFE Transcript Stephen: So this is a special episode. It's not even one of our bonus episodes, Reese. This is just a special episode. It'll take the place, the highest place of honor amongst all our episodes. So it's a crossover event. It is. We're going to do this with Discovered Wordsmith also. So Jeff you get to be on my other podcast twice. You're one of the lucky handful. Before we get rolling, everybody knows. Me and Reese, all four people in Ram Motion that listen to us. Hello. So first of all, we've got a guest Jeff Strand. So Jeff tell everybody a little bit about who you are and then we can start making fun of you. Jeff: I'm a writer. I have written a little over 50 books. My most recent one was demonic. Tomatoes, the novelization, which I assume will come up at some point during this discussion. Stephen: Oh, we probably should have Jeff: some young adult comedy pretty much all over the place, but mostly horror comedies where I'm at. Stephen: And I know I've mentioned you to Reese and others a couple times that I just fell in love with your books. And I texted you the other day, I said, oh my God, I'm reading the attack of the Killer Tomatoes and it's your best one. I am l out loud laughing and I'm reading it to my son, just bits and pieces and he's laughing, just listening to the little bits I put. We wanna talk a little bit about the movie and the novelization a bit My first question, Reese. Oh, you had a couple questions. Background. I did Rhys: actually Jeff, this is the first time I've met you. And aside from a friend of ours who we know who left a long time ago to go live in Alaska, Alaska is one of the three places that I've told my children I should never go because I probably never come home from. So I'm gonna ask you to disuse me of my romantic notions of what Alaska's so what was it like growing up in the great white North? Jeff: I didn't know any different, so I, I was born in Baltimore, but I grew up in Alaska from six months old till 15. So I, didn't know any different. So the fact that it is light, 24 7 during the summer. It was not weird to me. That's just the way it is. The fact that it gets, I would get on the bus to go to school and be pitch black and then by the time I got on the bus to come home for school, pitch black. There are a little bit of daylight in the middle, so the long nights during the winter, the long. Days during the summer, that was just the way things were. So people would visit in the summer and like, how can you sleep? It's, four in the morning and it is bright out and, but that, none of that stuff was weird to me. What was, what I realized was the most weird and didn't impact me at all growing up was in Fairbanks. You were in Fairbanks. Like right now I'm in Chattanooga, Tennessee. I, think nothing of, I'll drive to Nashville tomorrow, I'm gonna go to Atlanta. Knoxville, the whole, continental United States is at my disposal without it being that big of a trip. Whereas in Fairbanks, Fairbanks was the only place I was unless we took a vacationed anchorage, which was like six or eight hours. So there were tiny little towns that were basically a, gas station and maybe a restaurant. But for the most part, I,

Overview Catherine joins me from Houston Texas where she lives with her husband and kids. She is a recovering lawyer, though she still does writing for a hospital. Her book is a medical thriller about a person who's immune system can cure cancer. The book is timely in that it talks about bodily autonomy. Book https://www.amazon.com/Panacea-Project-Catherine-Devore-Johnson-ebook/dp/B0BT8DT52M?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1684274932&sr=8-1&linkCode=li2&tag=discoveredwordsmiths-20&linkId=c18b2d2746e0cefcbaaf43bf4a06c656&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_il Favorites https://www.amazon.com/My-Daughters-Keeper-Historical-Holocaust/dp/B09WHQBXJK?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1684284093&sr=8-1-fkmr3&linkCode=li2&tag=discoveredwordsmiths-20&linkId=8ea06d34a20d766c7fd284b9fa287482&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_il YouTube https://youtu.be/2NcyGbkA4t0 Transcript Today on Discover Wordsmith, I have Catherine Devore. Catherine, how are you doing today? I'm great. Catherine: How are you? Thanks Stephen: for having me. Yes. It's great to have y on. I'm doing well. Thank you. Before we get rolling, talking about your book, the Panacea Project, tell us a little bit about you, yourself, what you like to do where you live, things like that. Some of your hobbies. Catherine: Yeah. So I I live in Houston, Texas. Grew up here mostly. Although I was born in Chicago and then made my way down the middle of the country down to here I am a former lawyer. I like to joke that I'm a recovering attorney. And now I work part-time at a large children's hospital as a writer and editor. Nice. I have two kids. I have a 14 year old and a 16 year old. They keep me really busy. I what do I like to do for fun? I I love to do stuff with my kids. I've got one who's a theater kid and one who's an athlete. So between rehearsals and track meets, I'm pretty busy. Yeah. Of course I love to read all the time. Houston has a really great restaurant scene, so I love to go out and eat with my husband. And I also, I'm obsessed with coffee, so I'm almost every day you'll find me in some Houston Coffee house probably trying to write or. Or reading something Stephen: Great. Nice. Love that. You're actually the third or fourth recovering lawyer that I've had, so there must be something with that needs to push people in the, it also seems to be big. Seems like a lot of it people go into writing books. Yeah. Yeah. And being busy with your family and that we're gonna talk a little bit about that later in some of our author talk in finding time. And that I love hearing that because that was the goal of the podcast is to show other authors that you are not the only one with a full-time job, with a family, with other commitments, that there are others like that. Out there that not everybody is sitting in a cabin typing out words and getting three books out a month and making a million dollars a month and stuff. Not everybody's like that. I think that's great. You're right in there to show people, hey, yeah, this can't be done. So yeah. Let's talk a little bit about your book. Why did you, oh, wait. Before we even do that what do you do for the Children's Hospital to write? Catherine: So I'm in a small team of, there's three of us actually, and ironically enough, we're all former lawyers and writers. And so we do a variety of things, but when we help edit grants and manuscripts, we don't have a science background. But I think coming from a legal background, we're really good at. Kind of synthesizing complex ideas and helping people to just write as pers persuasively and succinctly as possible. And then we also just do other various writing projects for the hospital. Like a, on from a marketing Stephen: perspective. Okay. That's an interesting gig. It really is. That does, do you find that doing that helps your fiction writing? You Catherine: know, I haven't, I've only been doing this job for about a year and a half now and I haven't a...

Overview Molly was a school teacher and now write middle grade books. She has read her books to her class and engaged them in storytelling. This also leads to a nice discussion about teaching kids storytelling and how grammar and spelling fit into that. Book https://www.amazon.com/Game-Molly-Perry-ebook/dp/B075JR3QQ1?crid=3NFENCLWNRDW3&keywords=molly+perry+the+game&qid=1683676488&sprefix=molly+perry+the+gam%2Caps%2C97&sr=8-1&linkCode=li2&tag=discoveredwordsmiths-20&linkId=0ed61c0871277e55e0640776a075104e&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_il Favorites https://www.amazon.com/Ramona-Collection-Vol-Beezus-Father/dp/0061246476?crid=26VMSOTLXS0MX&keywords=beverly+cleary&qid=1683676640&sprefix=beverly+cleary%2Caps%2C107&sr=8-2&linkCode=li2&tag=discoveredwordsmiths-20&linkId=a7410eeaf66d9d21ee69f2284f263fcc&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_il Website https://mollyperryauthor.com Tom Holbrook https://riverrunbookstore.com/ Fire Keeper's Daughter - Angeline Boullie Sea of Tranquility - EMily St. John Mandel The Ferryman - Justin Cronin In the Lives of Puppets - TJ Klune The Climate Book - Greta Thunberg Poverty, by America - Michael Desmond Knowing What We Know - Simon Winchester Chain Gang All Stars - Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah  Happy Place - Emily Henry YouTube https://youtu.be/oBJLeKk7Vl8 Transcript Stephen: today on Discover Wordsmith, I wanna welcome Molly. Molly, good morning. How are you doing? I'm doing Molly: great. Stephen: So I know we live fairly close by, so since you're in Ohio, and I have a question for you, how do you know it's springtime in Ohio? Molly: Oh, Stephen: no more snow. No, the opposite. You get more snow than you did during the winter. Molly: Oh my gosh. I have snow right outside. My, yes. That's Ohio. Welcome to Ohio. But when spring comes, Ohio is beautiful. Stephen: Yeah. Yeah. All right. Molly, we're gonna talk about your books today, but before we do that, why don't you tell everybody a little bit about yourself, where you live, what you like to do outside of writing Molly: books. Okay. So I live in in the suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, near Lake Erie. And I have been I guess teaching. And the other thing that I love to do is dancing. I'm, I love to do swing dancing and all kinds of contra dancing and all kinds of dancing, and it brings me a lot of joy. Where do you go for dancing? It's all over the place. There's little venues and different, like church basement, church basements and one that's nearby is a community of saints in Cleveland Heights. And we just it's wonderful because the people are very down to earth and it's all group dancing and just, and then, we have a little break in the middle where we socialize and of course we have to eat nibble. Nice. It's a, and it's just so good for your body, but it's also good, releases any stress. You just, you laugh and you enjoy each other. Nice. And the swing dancing is a lot of, it's mostly on the west side of Cleveland. I live on the east side, but we carpool over and it's, you don't have to be perfect. You just move to the music and Nice. Good. Yeah. And so I, one of my earliest memories. Of me as a child, I would I was like, I would be dancing around the house, holding my ma, holding my notebook with my stories. So I combined both things and teaching I guess I was just a natural born teacher, I loved children so much. And it's, it just I think if I had to say something about teaching that is that when you have two choices, when something goes, awry in the classroom, you could be very tough and say, this is the rules and this is, but I found that kindness and is a huge part of my approach to teaching. I'll tell a quick story that I was teach, I taught third grade most of the time. Now I'm teaching just groups, little small groups, which I love too. But I was teaching third grade and we were studying the different states and.

Overview Jake Brown is the author of 50+ books and creator/host of ABOUT THE AUTHORS TV.  With over TWO MILLION viewers and counting since TUBI TV began airing Seasons 1 & 2 in the Spring of 2022, The Associated Press recently spotlighted that ABOUT THE AUTHORS TV “has found an audience among both fans of the writers they profile on the show along with an aspiring crowd of wordsmiths just learning the craft.”  The first-of-its-kind streaming television project, which Publisher's Weekly has already reported, “features long-form interviews with best-selling authors across all genres,” along with promoting their new upcoming releases. Book https://www.amazon.com/Heart-Studio-Jake-Brown/dp/1550228315?crid=246XC67BI7YSF&keywords=in+the+studio+jake+brown&qid=1683063494&sprefix=in+the+studio+jake+brown%2Caps%2C103&sr=8-15&linkCode=li2&tag=discoveredwordsmiths-20&linkId=a61471d4ea1abcb21cc138682a6679be&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_il Author TV https://www.youtube.com/c/AbouttheAuthorsTV Cathy's Books: Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid Happy Place by Emily Henry Pineapple Street by Jennie Jackson Five-Star Weekend by Elin Hildebrand Only Love can Hurt Like This by Paige Toon The Summer of Songbirds by Kristy Woodson Harvey YouTube https://youtu.be/DZf3YiazDLM Transcript So today, and then I've got a great Of author on my podcast. He's got some great pictures of stuff in the background. This is Jake Brown. Jake, how are you doing today? Jake: Great. Thanks for having us. Thank was me, I should say, in the show by extension. Great. Stephen: So is that really signed by heart? Jake: Yeah that's, I co-wrote that book with them years and years ago. Bless their hearts in two thou back in 2006 and seven. Wow. And then I met them in 2009 and they signed that and comically, I was sitting there in the Ryman's dressing room waiting to meet them, and I was so nervous. As understandably anyone who grew up on heart would be that they would like the book too. Cause this is my first time hearing. Did they like it? Did they hate it? And Alison Krause and her husband are sitting there as well, and I didn't even know. I was polite. I talked to them. I, but I wasn't like, oh, you're al and it wasn't that I ever get like that, but I was almost too passive. So she leaves. And the cuz everyone else was getting, her, the manager for heart comes in and she goes, oh, it's so nice you got along with Allison and her husband. And I felt like a jerk cuz they brought them out later on. She came out later on stage in, sang these dreams with Nancy Wilson. But they're, they were the sweetest, I wrote that book at a point in my career where It's fair to say that I had written, authors, I've been doing this 25 years in 55 books. So at this point I've gone through peaks and valleys like everybody, but I had written mass market hip hop paperbacks for five straight years, and it was reaching a point where I either needed to. In my career trajectory, I needed to start writing for bigger audiences, publishers, et cetera or not. And the Tupac Shakur State authorized a book through a fe shakur's mother called Tupac in the studio that actually launched this series. And then Hart was the next to say yes to it. And that. Put me on a different, that put me in a different league. And then that got me nice. An audience with Lemy and we wrote the Motorhead in the studio book, and so things just started rolling. So I hang it there because it has perpetually been like my good luck charm. Stephen: Nice. We're just jumping right into things and everybody listening. It was probably like, okay Steve, shut up. Let Jake talk because he's way more interesting, Jake: but No, currently talking too much. I'm happy to answer any questions you have though. Stephen: Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. See what I would've done if I was hard knowing you were nervous if my agent said, Hey.

Overview I talk with Roland about the recent ALLI income survey and we discuss A.I. and ChatGPT. Ben Monroe is on to talk about his horror book, the Seething. Ben's got to be a great guy because he likes Weird Al and writes horror. Ben takes a simple thing - family vacation - and turns it on it's head to create his horror novel. Then we delve into the roots of horror and classic horror. We share a love of The Shining, but there are plenty of horror authors besides King. This include movies which are its own form of story and way of telling the horror. Book https://www.amazon.com/Seething-Ben-Monroe-ebook/dp/B0BRPQN12C?crid=4GM9ORR3BBZI&keywords=the+seething+ben+monroe&qid=1682385939&sprefix=the+seething+ben+monroe%2Caps%2C135&sr=8-1&linkCode=li2&tag=saschneider-20&linkId=dd4c9e51f9ed9cc5275bb9ccc68cdfe6&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_il Website https://www.benmonroe.com/ Favorite https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Fiction-H-P-Lovecraft/dp/B086PMZQZB?crid=1T4V9Y7PT8RJ&keywords=lovecraft&qid=1682471131&sprefix=lovecraft%2Caps%2C99&sr=8-6&linkCode=li2&tag=discoveredwordsmiths-20&linkId=d30fc5d73dc0d2502f681c744c96c74c&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_il Dark Carnival Roland https://indestructibleauthor.com/ Alli author income survey AI and ChatGPT YouTube https://youtu.be/ZJ7txizo_8Q Transcript today on Discovered Wordsmith, I want to welcome Ben Monroe. Ben, how are you doing today? I'm doing good, Steven. How are you? Good. Nice and sunny getting ready for springtime. A little chilly, but still sunny. Ben: It's about the same out here actually. Stephen: Okay. And where is out here? Tell us a little bit about you where you live and some of the things you like to do besides writing. There you go. Ben: So I live in the San Francisco Bay area specifically the East Bay area. I'm just south of Oakland. We've been having rains and storms and all kinds of craziness for the last few days. Last week we got snow up in the hills, which probably isn't a big deal for you, but for us it's wow. Snow, right? Yeah. Yeah. We don't know how to dr. We don't know how to drive on that, so we just stay outta the mountains. The hills even. Yeah I'm a East Bay nato pretty much. My folks moved to the Bay Area when I was about three years old in the early seventies. Things I like to do when I'm not writing, regular stuff, hang out with my family. Watch movies, a huge movie buff. I love, in fact, that's one of the great things about the East Bay here is we have, I think, hundred 80,000 acres of usable open space. So there's plenty of hiking trails and stuff to, to do, to get outside. Never hurting for things to do around here. Stephen: And we beforehand, we were chatting, we found out we both like weird Al. So yes, that's a good thing. I'm sure somebody doesn't, but Oh yeah, I, who cares Ben: what they think, Stephen: right? Yeah. There, there's some TV show or something I saw where the one character mentioned Weird Al no one goes, how old are you? It's oh, that shouldn't be loud. That's just wrong. So what's I agree. What's one of the favorite movies you've seen recently? Oh, gosh. What Ben: Neil, I actually haven't seen a lot in the last few weeks. I saw, oh, you know what? Watched recently? The Quick and the Dead Sam Ramey Western from the early nineties, which I hadn't seen in years. And it was great. It was so much fun. Sharon Stone plays the, I'm sorry, the that tough bitten gunslinger who comes back to town to take revenge on, all the wrongs done to her. She was awesome and. It was funny because I was thinking at the time that was like Sam's first mainstream movie. I think he had just done the Dark Man movies or something, and then all the Evil Dead and stuff before that, and so this. While as nuts as it was very toned down from your usual Sam Ramey stuff, but you could still see those Sam Ramey trademarks, closing in on a bullet and watching it,

Overview Diane lives in Cleveland and likes to bake, besides her writing career. She has written several books focused on her faith and has another coming soon. In keeping with her baking likes, she also has a recipe book. Diane is an inspiration as she started writing later in life, and has enjoyed several years of a wonderful career. Her Book https://www.amazon.com/Take-Limits-Off-Diane-Ehrlich-ebook/dp/B0BMW5TFFR?&linkCode=li2&tag=discoveredwordsmiths-20&linkId=44c112981e58f57119c00b18c8fbecaf&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_il Website https://reformministry.com Favorites https://www.amazon.com/Heaven-Alcorn-Randy-ebook/dp/B000FCKCJC?crid=36XO6ODHHWTWC&keywords=randy+alcorn&qid=1681927606&sprefix=randy+alcorn%2Caps%2C94&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUExRldYUVFJRlk1MDVBJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwNDQ0NDEyMVRJTFRUTkkwMDExRiZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUExMDAxMzIzUElTRTdNMzQwWEVCJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ%3D%3D&linkCode=li2&tag=discoveredwordsmiths-20&linkId=2b90b3b9136f64fb76ed4f532f4014e0&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_il YouTube https://youtu.be/j-ZkcRV60nk Transcript Okay. All right. So Diane, welcome to discover word Smiths and I know what type of day you're having. It's probably rainy because we live very close to each other. So how are you doing on this rainy day? Diane: I'm doing great. It's cozy here and everything's good, so no complaints. Great. Stephen: Good. It's good to have you on. I'm excited because of the genre you write in. You're the first time I've had anyone with that genre, so it's great to have the variety which I hope that the people listening enjoy hearing authors from different genres. So before we get into that though tell us a little bit about yourself where you live, some of the things you like to do besides writing. Diane: Oh, sure. My name, my author name is Diane Erlic, and I had that name for all my life except till last June when I got married for the first time. And so I'm Diane Drought now, but I kept that name for the sake of my books and everything. Yeah, I turned 68 and I got married the first time, so Wow. Congrats. So I'm happy and we're having a great time. Nice. But I live, yeah, I live near Cleveland, Ohio, and lived here all my life. Went to school in Cincinnati, got a degree in design, so I have a creative streak. But when we get into talking about the books and everything, that part was very unexpected. I didn't expect to write up into, I have six books up on Amazon now. I'm working on a seventh and so we'll get into that, but I really don't have any experience with that. What do I do besides writing? I love cooking and baking. Anybody that knows me knows to come over at dinner time or let me know. Gimme 30 minutes notice. And I'll have dinner on the table cuz I got enough stuff in the freezer. Beautiful. So we love to entertain. One of my books is on the Gift of Hospitality, which I absolutely love. Otherwise, we're very active, over 50 people. We both spend plenty of time at the gym and walking and getting together with people. So that's in a. Stephen: Nice. Great. So what's your favorite dish to cook? Diane: Oh, gee. I love baking the most. I guess I just had some friends over and I said, come over for we had dinner, but I taught myself how to make tiramisu. Ooh, okay. And It was difficult, but boy, it was good. Nice. The leor that, yeah, the leor the Kahlua that you put in it really carries the flavor and it was really fun to share with people. That's one Stephen: of those that you're like, oh, I messed it up. I gotta eat all the ones I got time to. Sure. More. Really. Diane: That's why we're at the gym all the time. Stephen: Yeah. And then they end up tasting better. Okay, I've eaten 50 of these things today and I might be feeling the effects. Diane: Sure. Yeah. When I met my husband, I said, we're the perfect match.

Overview Cindy Jarrett retired as a school teacher and took up writing. With her partner, she's written several kids books, which is nice since she taught kids for her hole teaching career. We discuss her books and what it's like to move to a new career. Her Book https://www.amazon.com/Firefly-Fourth-July-Elaine-Reynolds/dp/1938768833?crid=WH6X0ND8FP4I&keywords=firefly+fourth+of+july+cindy+jarrett&qid=1681252000&sprefix=firefly+fourth+of+july+cindy+jarrett%2Caps%2C87&sr=8-1&linkCode=li2&tag=mindarchitect-20&linkId=12da7e9e896a161fa6176f858ab63b22&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_il YouTube https://youtu.be/pPfw60_5Lro Transcript Today this is an interesting and special podcast for me. I have Cindy, Jared on and miss Jared. And I can't call you by your first name. It's very difficult. She was a teacher when I was in high school at my school. It is nice to see her again. And I'm glad to have her on. This chair, how are you doing? I'm doing great. So I know you taught, but what are some things you like to do besides writing? I Cindy: like to go to movies. Stephen: Ah, you go see it man. This weekend, Cindy: I went to see, oh gosh, what? I can't think of the name of it right now. Tom Hanks is in it. Stephen: Oh a man called Otto. Cindy: Yes. A man called Otto is wonderful. Stephen: Yeah. Part of that was filmed on the Keigo Valley Railroad. Cool. Yeah, the whatever train scene there is that was right here, Northeast Ohio. Cindy: Yeah. It made me laugh and made me cry. So Stephen: nice. It was a good movie. It did look good. It did look good. So we're gonna talk about your books. You have several books out and you have a co-author, and I don't get a lot of these types. They're children's books, picture books. So it's great to have an author that writes that. So tell us first about your books what they're about and why you got into writing kids' books. Cindy: My co-author is my best friend since the middle of 10th grade in high school, so that's over 50 years. We won't say how many. Okay. But she gets me into all kinds of stuff. She's got me into cake decorating classes and Tai Chi and. Bow making bows and all kinds of stuff. And she said one day that she would like to write children's books, but she doesn't like to do anything on her own. So what I write with her and I said, sure. Like I always do, I always go along with her Stephen: ideas. Got it. And I bet there's some stories from back in the day that we won't talk about here. Cindy: Yeah. We were with another friend and Elaine had said that she wanted to write children's books, but she didn't have any ideas. And the friend said, why don't you write about a star, a sea star that wants to be a star in the sky, cuz I'm never gonna write that book. And Elaine said, oh, that, that sounds like a good idea. But a couple of years went by, we didn't act on it, and then our friend passed away. And so when we decided that we were actually going to tackle this we thought about her idea. And so that was our first book. We dedicated it to her. That's how Sammy the Sea Star came about. Nice. And we, she was a teacher also. She taught elementary and middle school, gifted, gifted student. And I taught at the high school, so she has a lot of imaginative ideas. We draw on our past childhoods and write about things that we thought were cool when we were kids. And I'm, I was a typing teacher, so I'm a good proofreader. I know my English punctuation rules really well, and so we, we make a good combin. Stephen: Nice. Okay, so you weren't like, oh, I've always wanted to write and I finally did. It was just kinda something you came upon. Yeah, Cindy: We just decided to be something that we did after we retired, although I'm still working, but I'm probably going good at the end of this year. Stephen: Good for you. Okay, so you write kids books and you have an artist and you've got How may I out now?

Overview Today I'm talk in with Cathy Klein. Cathy started an independent bookstore that is a popup. Meaning, she travels to various places and sets up to sell books. She was on recently to talk with us about new books coming out and she should be on again soon. We talk about what books she likes and how she chooses books to be in the store. This is interesting, because she is usually limited in space and doesn't want books that will sit without selling. Website https://booksagogostore.com/ YouTube https://youtu.be/bb9OVzjqncI Transcript So today I'm excited. I have a friend of mine, Kathy Klein, on the on discovered word Smiths. I've known Kathy for a decade ish, decade and a half, something like that. Our girls were in Girl Scouts. We were both Girl Scout leaders. Kathy, welcome to the podcast. How are you doing today? Thank you. I'm doing good. Thanks. And it's a nice warm day here in Ohio, so Yeah, Cathy: surprisingly for February. Stephen: Yeah, that worries me. I wonder what March is gonna be like, exactly. All right, so this is going to be an interesting discussion and podcast because. I'm not talking to Kathy about a book she's written. I'm talking to her about an endeavor she's involved in where she has started a pop-up bookstore. And I think that is something I'm very excited about. Cause I always ask the authors, do you have a favorite bookstore? And I try and push people in the libraries and push people to bookstores, support them. Don't just order Amazon, don't just go to the chain, go find the local and that's exactly what you are. But instead of saying, Hey, this is my relocation. Come visit me. You're like, Hey, I'm gonna be all over and I'll probably be close to you. So where did this idea come from and why did you wanna do. Cathy: It actually came from another pod, a podcast that I listened to and they had a guest on there from North Carolina and she had a papa bookstore called Shelves. And I started following her on social media and looking at what she did, and I thought, you know what? I can do that. And I always wanted to get back into the book business cause I used to manage border. Store and before that Walden books, when that was still a thing in malls, my Stephen: gosh. I probably ran in you at some point. Oh yeah. Cathy: Oh yeah. Cause I was at Walden Books, I don't know, for a number of years. And then I opened the Borders bookstore that was local, more, most local to us in Kga Falls. Until I had my oldest daughter and I always wanted to go back to it. And now that my, both of my daughters are in college, I thought this is a good time to get back into the book business. So when I heard about the popup idea, I'm like, that's something I'd never thought of, but I can do that. Stephen: So I love that. Yeah. A large part of what I do is I. I work with kids and parents showing them that, hey the future is not the fifties. Getting outta school and getting a easy job while you pay for college and then getting a job at a company that will eventually give you the gold watch, it doesn't exist there. There's too much turmoil and things changing and the telling our kids that, Hey, there's gonna be a job for you. Is lying at times. And I encourage people to look into avenues. I'm not saying go do something and that's your full-time career, but something you could do on the side. So how full-time is this for you? Cathy: It's actually ending up being more than I anticipated, but it's a new business I have to spend my time, I teach preschool as well, so that's my more of a full-time job than this. But this takes up just as much time. At home, getting everything prepared and advertising, and learning social media and algorithms and how to get my name out there, that's a whole new ballgame for me. So it's taking up a lot of time, but I have fun doing it, so it's not working. Stephen: Exactly. Yes.

Overview READERS: Abby is a professional writer (after being a lawyer for years) with over 35 books to her name (and multiple pen names). She also is currently the author in residence at the Cuyahoga Public Library. Abby talks about learning to write and the mistakes she's made. She didn't start writing cozy mysteries, but tried her hand at other genres. She discovered her own voice and what worked for her. WRITERS: Abby has experience writing many books, and we discuss finishing your book. Her experience allows her to offer some great advice. Book https://www.amazon.com/Where-Wild-Peaches-Grow-Novel-ebook/dp/B09PBJDR5G?crid=1OFKXF0P4LJDZ&keywords=where+wild+peaches+grow&qid=1679956230&sprefix=where+wild+peaches+grow%2Caps%2C102&sr=8-1&linkCode=li2&tag=discoveredwordsmiths-20&linkId=0b8a06ffa1e761b242e6df712253054b&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_il https://www.amazon.com/Deadly-Inside-Scoop-Parlor-Mystery-ebook/dp/B07WJF48NC?crid=33KTUAQE2T5HJ&keywords=abby+vandiver&qid=1679956358&sprefix=abby+vandive%2Caps%2C98&sr=8-1&linkCode=li2&tag=discoveredwordsmiths-20&linkId=ba91c596ab1cbc938b6746de2ac4e38d&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_il Favorites https://www.amazon.com/Little-Fires-Everywhere-Celeste-Ng-ebook/dp/B01N4VW75U?crid=L1YVY0UI7UID&keywords=little+fires+everywhere&qid=1679957601&sprefix=little+fires+everywhere%2Caps%2C111&sr=8-1&linkCode=li2&tag=discoveredwordsmiths-20&linkId=0fd2ea5818aa0f8de9cee2890bc62fc5&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_il https://www.macsbacks.com/ YouTube https://youtu.be/z0SaRwaQWyY Transcript Today on Discovered Wordsmiths, we have a Abby Vandiver, right? I got it. . And she's gonna be talking to us about her large selection of mystery books. Abby, how are you doing today? I'm great. Abby: Thank you. How are you? Thank you for Stephen: having me. It's great to have you on. Abby and I were at an event together at the library locally, and Abby was the long-term writer there. Much more so than the rest of us had been doing this more professionally longer, and we were all in awe. But it was a great couple hours fun time. So I asked her if she'd like to be on, cuz I thought everybody'd love to hear about her. But for before we get into the writing and the reading tell us a little bit about yourself and what you like to do besides writing. Abby: Thank you so much for having me. It's such an honor to be here and be on your podcast. I'm so excited about it. So about me, I don't know. I just told someone the other day because Abby is a pen name, and I hadn't been writing for a little for a few months. I don't know, I'm just unmotivated. I'm not stuck or have a block. I don't like when people say, oh, I'm just blocked. I just haven't been motivated. I've been doing other things. And she goes, oh, but Abby, you love to write. And I said, that's because you only know Abby. You know the real me. I have other interests. And those other interests are just sitting on the couch doing nothing but watching like HGTV all day. I will do the Food Network all day and I will do the Hallmark Channel. So usually if I put it on any of those three channels I don't change the channel and I just sit there all day. I love movies. Before the pan pandemic turned the world upside down, I would just go to the movies all by myself and sit there and I would be so happy. And lately I've also been hanging out in the real estate world and doing a little real estate invest. And it's it couples with my hg t v love, so those are things other than writing, which I really enjoy. So I not only write, but I teach writing as well. Those are the other things that I like to do and spend time with my grandchildren. Stephen: Nice. Well, I can picture you with overalls in a tool. Fixing up a house, but that kinda, I can picture mis, you get this house, you go to fix it up and you find a dead body. That sounds like the next mystery book, doesn't it? ? Abby: Yes, it does.

Overview READERS: DC Gomez is a bestselling author, so there's a lot to discuss. She tells us about her latest book series - the Intern Diaries - and we talk about her other top books. If you'd like to see her, she has many upcoming events displayed on her website. WRITERS: For the writers, we talk about choosing the write as a hobby or career. You don't have to be a full time writer or you fail. She brings a unique perspective because she has been a bestselling author. Book https://www.amazon.com/Plague-Unleashed-Intern-Diaries-Gomez/dp/1733316094?crid=3DFMTMGQDLM6D&keywords=plaque+unleashed+dc+gomez&qid=1679432864&sprefix=plaque+unleashed+dc+gomez%2Caps%2C92&sr=8-1&linkCode=li2&tag=discoveredwordsmiths-20&linkId=6305694975210050e0deca8f945c93e3&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_il Favorites https://www.amazon.com/Keeper-Lost-Cities-Shannon-Messenger-ebook/dp/B005C776A8?crid=2Q2T0SDL32CZB&keywords=keepers+of+the+lost+cities&qid=1679442316&s=digital-text&sprefix=keepers+of+the+lost+cities%2Cdigital-text%2C119&sr=1-1&linkCode=li2&tag=discoveredwordsmiths-20&linkId=3e32056f586efcd8da35489e3e7f3ebb&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_il https://www.amazon.com/Alchemist-Paulo-Coelho-ebook/dp/B00U6SFUSS?crid=2HDI99DS1AGZN&keywords=the+alchemist&qid=1679442411&s=digital-text&sprefix=the+alchemist%2Cdigital-text%2C101&sr=1-1&linkCode=li2&tag=discoveredwordsmiths-20&linkId=d436eb6589f3897d1d100e294e78dc7b&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_il Website https://dcgomez-author.com YouTube https://youtu.be/n0cLx3bUlxk Transcript So this morning I have as a guest, a wonderful wall of books and their owner DC Gomez. So DC Good morning. How are you? DC: Good morning, darling. I'm wonderful. How are you doing today? Stephen: I am doing great. And it's not actually morning for you, is it? DC: No, it's still very morning. I'm actually in East Texas. Stephen: Yes. Ok. Okay. Okay. I had you in the wrong spot in my head. Why don't we do that? Tell everybody a little bit about you, some things you like to do besides writing where you live and whatever. I am DC: a USA Today bestselling author. I'm an award-winning author, which is fun. I'm also a podcaster, so I'm so excited to be here. She's connecting cuz it's hard to be on the other side of the microphone. I was like, oh, what am I doing? This doesn't happen often. I am in east Texas. So for everybody who's wondering, the weather yesterday was 32. Today's supposed to be 80. So living the Texas dream, what can I say? It sounds like Ohio. . Thank you. It's this weather that goes up and down. You're going? I think I'm good. I think I'm good. We'll take it from there. So I do multiple genres, which is interesting for most people because I go from urban fantasy to lit to straight children's books and devotional. So I do a little bit of everyth. And one of the things that I enjoy to do, I'm a reader, obviously, in the background, so I'm a huge avid reader, but I also enjoyed when I have free time. So today, this Sunday, as soon as we're done, I'm gonna go food shopping so I can cook. So that's kinda nice, some things that I do. Stephen: Nice. Okay. Now I gotta jump on something real quick that you brought up. You write in mul multiple genres and just about everybody's advice is don't do that. Stick with one genre, do different pen names, but you have done it. And not only that, you've been on a USA bestseller list, so let's even before we even talk about everything else, Why did you choose to do that and do you find all the different genres about as successful or is there one you're more focused on? DC: One of the things that I can be honest with myself and the world is I probably don't have the bandwidth to handle multiple pens. I just the nature of what it is, I just don't. I will look to be able to, I think I was multi managing multiple Facebook page and became very real that I was like, I couldn't do this for multiple pendings.

Overview READERS: Stephanie lives in Wales and shares her horror novel with us. She talks about reading horror and how she likes the build up to the horrific parts. She has only been publishing for about eight years, but feels her folk horror story Reborn is great horror and is a sequel to The Five Turns to the Wheel. AUTHORS: We talk about rejection and how authors can deal with it. Everyone deals with rejection, and even authors that have written more than one book get rejected. Her Book https://www.amazon.com/Reborn-Stephanie-Ellis-ebook/dp/B0BF3QLN17?crid=RI39CDEVUG0D&keywords=stephanie+ellis+reborn&qid=1678646438&sprefix=stephanie+ellis+reborn%2Caps%2C103&sr=8-1&linkCode=li2&tag=discoveredwordsmiths-20&linkId=08578a52740e9fdd2a2a112e8557a321&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_il Favorites https://www.amazon.com/Sell-Haunted-House-Grady-Hendrix/dp/0593201264?crid=2H323PWGZ5KYQ&keywords=grady+hendrix&qid=1678646971&sprefix=grady+hendrix%2Caps%2C103&sr=8-2&linkCode=li2&tag=discoveredwordsmiths-20&linkId=bc8b39da44d31709d7e7f6f86c3f9e50&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_il Website stephanieellis.org Roland Find Roland at https://indestructibleauthor.com Our topics today are: Bookshop.org will start selling ebooks, plus start publishing their own new books! Despite what 'they' keep saying ebooks and Indie books are selling strong Indie author Hugh Howey's Silo (aka Wool) coming to AppleTV+ YouTube https://youtu.be/z_a_2-4neAM Transcript All right, so today on Discovered Wordsmiths, I want to welcome Stephanie Ellis. Good morning or afternoon, Stephanie. How are you? I'm fine. Stephanie: It's actually good evening now. It's nearly six o'clock and it's if I open the curtains, it'd be dark outside and it's very cold. I think it's about five degrees Stephen: and going. Okay. Yeah. So why don't you tell everybody a little bit about yourself, where you live because of the big time difference and what you like to do besides. Stephanie: Okay I'm currently living in Rexton in North Wales with my family. We did live in the south of England for about 30 odd years and then came back up to this area because I've got family in Shopha just over the border. My husband's Welsh and we are trying to find a place to, to live after Covid d cuz that made us ch rethink our lives basically. So we found a place in Rexton, which is gathering a little bit of. On the viewing platforms because of a certain football team which we can hear when they're at home because they're 10 minutes that way. So if they're if it's their plane at home, open the windows and you can hear everybody. It's a lovely part of the world, a lot of countryside around to do a lot of walking. And we can visit elderly parents as well quite easily. So when I'm not writing, I read and I. And I read . But I do walk. I do walk. I like forests. My husband likes hill climbing and mountains. Yes. And I think we're in the right part of the world to combine the two. I go to the gym, so I get up from a desk or get up from a chair and put a book down. That's important. . Yeah, and I try and do some drawing, which I used to do a lot of, but I let that go. But I've tried to pick it up again recently and my one ambition is to learn old English. I've got a book, I keep starting it. I get about six chapters. and then something else happens and I leave it for months, then I have to go back to the beginning. I've done the same chapters several times now, . Wow, Stephen: interesting. Wow. There, there's several things. First of all, I wanna make sure I'm clear when you say football, it's not American football. It is the Stephanie: original British football. The round shape or not? What looks like rugby to us. Your football looks like rugby to us. Rugby shoulder pads, . And Rex, I believe my son was really big in the Crypted community. And I think Rexo has a history of the forest there being a big UFO sighting At ...

Overview Yoshio is a 16 year old author. He hasn't written just one book, he's written two! We discuss his writing and how he took advantage of a family vacation to get the book done. Due to his age, there were some problems publishing. He tells us about those problems and some of the things he did to help overcome it. In this episode: writing his book on a family trip starting with short stories problems faced because of his age inspiring even younger authors plans for the future His Book https://www.amazon.com/EIGHT-WANDER-Yoshio-Daggett/dp/B0B86KPG56?crid=2F7Y2YNK5FWT1&keywords=eight+wander&qid=1678231356&sprefix=eight+wonder%2Caps%2C101&sr=8-1&linkCode=li2&tag=discoveredwordsmiths-20&linkId=90b745ddfcbd423626a8a96cb4005a18&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_il Favorites https://www.amazon.com/Dry-Neal-Shusterman-ebook/dp/B075RK464B?crid=BWA0SF0M2JS&keywords=dry+neil&qid=1678231478&sprefix=dry+neil%2Caps%2C100&sr=8-1&linkCode=li2&tag=discoveredwordsmiths-20&linkId=107b8a75729ca60cc99afb5c0ff1a807&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_il https://thebookeryplacerville.com/contact/ Website https://yoshio-daggett.yolasite.com/ Tom Holbrook http://riverrunbookstore.com/ Whalebone Theater Bandit Queens I Have Some Questions for You Hell Bent Dark is Rising Skullduggery Pleasant YouTube https://youtu.be/VibiERSLG9Q Transcript Today I'm very excited for today's episode of Discover Wordsmith. I have Yoshi with me and Yoshi is 16. Yoshi, how you doing Yoshio: today? I'm good. I'm good. How are you? Stephen: I'm well. I'm doing really great now, talking to you. I love talking to kids that are doing things like this. Awesome. I encourage that. Before we roll about your book, tell us a little bit about you and what you like to do. I'm going to guess you go to school though, that may not be something you like . What else do you like to do? Yoshio: Yeah, I do go to school. It's school. I love traveling. whole family loves traveling, so we always go on trips and all sorts of. I love hiking, swimming reading of course. Yeah, all fun stuff. Stephen: Cool. We'll talk about some of your favorite books later on. But you're on the podcast because you're 16 and you've written two books and got them published and I think that's fantastic and it. Right there. I get a lot of people that tell me, oh, kids can't do this. You know what, we've got proof right here And there are a few others I've known also. So I'm excited to find out about what you've done. Why did you wanna start writing? You said you did your first book at 15, so what made you jump into this and wanna start? Yoshio: Yeah, so back in like fifth grade, my teacher had us do these fun like writing exercises where we got to get a prompt and then write a little short story for that. And I just found that so fun. And after a while of doing that, I'm like hey, why don't I just do it on my own time? Because it, I enjoyed it. So I started writing short stories and printing them out and bringing 'em to school and having my friends read 'em back in fifth. and I'm from there. I just kept writing more and more until finally I'm like hey, might as well write a full length book. So Stephen: Nice. So you realize that's pretty much how Stephen King started, right? really doing his thing. Yeah, I didn't know that. Writing stories for his friends. Then he did the school newspaper and threw in his own stories. Cool. Yeah. So I love that you got excited about that , and you enjoyed writing. You said you've written short stories. About how many have you written? Yoshio: Oh maybe 15, 16. They're super, like short stories just to entertain my friends and I did write one full length book in sixth grade that was maybe like 80,000 words, but I never ended up publishing. Yeah, but you still have it, right? I do. I Stephen: do. Th those are called trunk novels.

Overview Troy reads a chapter of his book "Teaching Moments". His Book https://www.amazon.com/Teaching-Moments-Max-Boucher-Mystery/dp/B09QNYN32H?crid=25G7C5T9KF6HK&keywords=teaching+moments+troy+lambert&qid=1677695487&sprefix=teaching+moments+troy+lambert%2Caps%2C83&sr=8-1&linkCode=li2&tag=discoveredwordsmiths-20&linkId=10c63af6a1d0895cc0664df44e54d48f&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_il

Overview Troy is back and this time we are talking about Plottr. If you don't know Plottr, its author software to help plan out and plot your story before you start writing. We discuss the benefits of using it and why the company has created the functions they have. He also tells a bit about what to expect. Website Plottr - Plan Your Books Like a Pro YouTube https://youtu.be/C0XjwR3rWC8 Transcript Stephen: All right, so let's move on for some author focused stuff. And we're gonna talk about plotter, the software tool and what you do there and all that. But before we do that for the authors listening, what tool, what have you learned, and you hinted at this a little bit last term, but what have you learned writing these books for the last 15 ish years? And what do you do different now than you did? Troy: Oh my goodness. So when I first started out there, there's a couple things that I did when I first started out that I have completely and totally flipped. And the first one was that I just used word because when I first started writing, when I was a teenager I used a typewriter and even when I was younger, so I learned to type when I was like eight, my grandpa gave me an old royal, and then I used an IBM Electric for my first novels in college. Ok, nice. So some of you are gonna have to go look that up. That's okay. It was before Google. Even though Google knows about it. But anyway, so when I first started out, I was just using, in fact, I was using Word perfect when I first used that. Wow. You could use tags in there. You could use tags in there. Oh my goodness. And some of my novels that I first wrote in college, the last time I saw them, they were on three and a half inch floppy disc in Word Perfect Five. Now, as far as I know, you can never convert that. And that's where I want those books to remain. I'm eternally grateful that no one ever picked those up. They were horrible. But that's part of the writing process. You write horrible books first and then you write good ones. But anyway, so when I, but when I first started doing it full-time, I was writing in Word a lot. And part of the reason was that I, in my day job, I did a lot of technical writing and I wrote in Word as well. And so it was a very familiar program. It was very easy for me to transition to. But that did cause me issues because my brain would be confused when I opened a word about what I was doing. Are we working or are we writing fiction ? And so it would take my brain a while to figure that out. So shortly after I started to write full-time, I got Scribner. I switched to Scribner for writing. And the reason that was a game changer for me were a couple different reasons. First of all, there were some powerful tools in Scribner that I could use to stay focused, to keep myself better focused. And on top of that, it was something different than Word. So I would open Scribner. My brain would like, oh, we're writing fiction. Okay. And it would, it caused a shift, right? So that was, that's one of the things that I changed when I first started writing too. I was very much a discovery writer. I would just have an idea and I would sit down and write it. And that didn't always go super well. And sometimes the second draft was a grueling. Process. Just a terrible process to be honest with you. And it was because you, if when you started with just an idea, you'd let yourself go wherever. Sometimes that's really cool, but sometimes you end up in a place where you're like, how in the world did I get here? And this is no longer a story, so you have to back up and figure things out and move forward. So I was writing I the second book in my first trilogy that was actually commercially successful. And I I was like, you know what? If I knew the ending, I was about two-thirds of the way through. And I'm like, if I knew the ending of this book, it'd be much easier and faster to finish writing it. Huh, okay.

Overview You may know Troy from his work with Plottr. We'll get to that. Troy is also an author - which is one reason Plottr has been so successful. The people working there know writing and use that knowledge to fashion a great tool. If you haven't heard about Troy's writing, tune in today as we discuss his books and writing. Troy has written over 30 books in the mystery and thriller genre. We discuss his books, which he doesn't get to do as much as talk about the company he works for. The current series is focused on Max Boucher and we talk about book 2. His Book https://www.amazon.com/Teaching-Moments-Max-Boucher-Mystery/dp/B09QNYN32H?keywords=teaching+moments+troy+lambert&qid=1677254687&sprefix=teaching+moments+tr%2Caps%2C99&sr=8-1&asin=B09QNYN32H&revisionId=&format=4&depth=1&linkCode=li2&tag=discoveredwordsmiths-20&linkId=561bd7fedd945eea4217c647a9a56c18&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_il Website https://troylabertwrites.com Favorites https://www.amazon.com/Gray-Man-Novel-Book-ebook/dp/B002N83GSA?crid=3P6KY2SF2NO1K&keywords=gray+man&qid=1677255019&sprefix=gray+man%2Caps%2C106&sr=8-2&linkCode=li2&tag=discoveredwordsmiths-20&linkId=d8bb869be54b9fb7c03734bc7c8822e4&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_il The Rediscovered Bookshop | Where Books & People Meet (rdbooks.org) YouTube https://youtu.be/mKvdvMe05FQ Transcript so I'm excited to get on with this. All today on Discovered Word Smiths. I have Troy Lambert and if you don't recognize that name, go listen to a few other podcasts. He's been on several and we were joking at the beginning being on Jay Thorns. So I've snagged a couple people from Jay at times. Troy you do work for a company we're gonna talk about, but tell, before we do that, we're gonna talk about your books. Tell us a little bit about you and who you are, where you're from, that type of thing. What you like to do besides writing and working on software company stuff. Troy: Oh, my goodness. So besides writing and working on software stuff I have two very talented dogs and one of them is a German Shepherd. And if you wanna establish a writing and basically routine for your life, get a German Shepherd because they're very German. And they're going to they want a rigorous routine. You don't take 'em for a walk on time. You'll get out, you'll get your steps, I promise. Nice. But anyway, , so I just wanted to throw that in there. But so Stephen: that's our best writing advice I probably ever heard. You wanna be a good scheduled writer, get a German Shepherd, get a German Troy: Shepherd. It's that's the answer to all of your, if everyone had one, the world would anyway. No, probably not true. But anyway but I'm like a lot of other people I wanted to write when I was young, I knew I wanted to be a writer. I was six years old, wrote my first book. George and the Giant Castle never been published, oddly enough. Didn't get picked up. But but when I was about 14, I knew I wanted to write full-time. I knew this was it, this is what I wanted to do. But all of those wise people in your life, like college counselors and parents and stuff like that, told me it was an impossible dream. I said, you're a creative guy, but you need to be able to do something that makes money. And being a writer full-time is an impossible dream. And so I believed them and I tell people, basically three decades later, a collection of hairnets and name tags and various career starts, I decided I should probably figure out this writing thing because otherwise I wasn't sure what I was gonna do with the rest of my life. And things were just kinda a mess. I'm like, I didn't know. I honestly didn't know what am I gonna do? And so yeah, so basically then I decided to write full-time and my timing was pretty good. Indie publishing was just becoming an accepted thing. It wasn't quite as dirty of a word by then. And so there was that, there were a lot of small presses emerging.

Overview A different episode for the podcast today. We start out with Roland and I discussing author news. As always, its fun to deep dive into what's going on. My guest is Jacob Way from Deep Water Gaming, so we don't talk books. Instead, we have a great discussion on writing as it pertains to comics and games and how author's can put creative effort into these other avenues to coincide with their writing. I also try to ask some questions of interest to educators and parents and what kids can do now to prepare for this type of career in the future. Jacob talks about being creative and how that starts at an early age, but how author's can channel that into more than books. Gaming teaches kids lessons, but so does interacting with content. And kids can develop a passion for entrepreneurship at an early age - which is something that happened to Jacob. Website https://deepwatergaming.com Roland's News Roland brings us some great discussions about: Amazon fixes problems with returns Creating copyrighted works with A.I. A.I. in the current workspace A.I. voices or audiobooks Roland's 3 areas A.I. is useful YouTube https://youtu.be/oq7hMLbJhiI UPDATE 6/23 I attended Origins game fair in Columbus and guess who I ran into! Transcript o today, interesting, exciting episode for my podcast and for my other brand line of work. I want to welcome Jacob way to the podcast. He is the president of Deepwater Games. Jacob, how are you Jacob: today? I'm doing fantastic. Thank you for having me on your podcast. Stephen: And I must say I'm very jealous of your hair. I saw the picture. Yeah, the camera doesn't get it all. . No it doesn't. It's very nice. I, my son has long hair. I got not the front long hair and I used to have, not as long, but longer. Very jealous of that. . So Jacob, tell everybody a little bit about who you are and what you do and that'll lead to the rest of the conversation, cuz normally anyone listening is hearing about a new author with a book they've not heard of before. And then we sure discuss some author stuff. This is like a little different, but I still think it's tied in. So give everyone a rundown of who Jacob Way is. Jacob: I've been doing entrepreneurship for the last 10 years. I actually started as a print broker that brokered printing of comic books, board pgs, all sorts of different types of books from Taiwan. And I started that when I was 23, 22. I can't remember exactly how old I was, but , I had been doing that for a couple years and then I got into the board game space. So entrepreneurship has just been my path for the last 10 years. And now I run Deepwater Games, which is a board game company located in Saginaw, Michigan. If you're a Michigan Knight or if you're familiar with the Midwest, we're right here. Okay. Detroit is about an hour and a half away. And then we're in the middle of this, not in, nearly in the middle of the state, but close to the middle of the state. And we make games that are approachable. We try and do games that, that fit in our mission statement. And when I say games, I talk about tabletop games. So one, it has to be a game that is easy to learn. That doesn't necessarily mean that it's devoid of strategy but you should be able to learn it pretty quickly. Two, it is a theme or a story that is not just your traditional castle, European castle story, right? We want to represent more than just the traditional story structure. And then three, it has to be affordable. So almost all of our games are under $40, and most of them range in the $20 price point. We had our most success when we first started our fourth or third game, something like that. Was welcome to which was so popular that Daniel Radcliffe talked about it on people in People Magazine which was just nice. Yeah. Crazy okay. , Harry Potter himself is talking about one of our board games. And now we have a game called Monstrosity whic...

Overview Besides his writing, Robb also does speaking about finance. He enjoys helping people and being able to give them financial advice to help their lives. His speaking gigs are full of advice, which has helped his speaking career. We discuss having a book and speaking based on that book. This is just one area of additional revenue stream that Robb has and recommends. His Book https://www.amazon.com/Ask-RIGHT-Questions-Right-ANSWERS/dp/0998590002?crid=3HJH8NI6FIDMW&keywords=ask+the+right+questions+get+the+right+answers+robb+hill&qid=1675819922&sprefix=ask+the+right+questions+get+the+right+answers+robb+hill%2Caps%2C99&sr=8-1&linkCode=li2&tag=saschneider-20&linkId=f8fdde86dd982091da30d60bdd8772bd&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_il YouTube https://youtu.be/8mdRIRAcd4g Transcript I wanna talk some, not just author stuff, because you're a unique case for people I talked to in interview with a book. Because the author part, the book is not your only biggest focus. You have a financial advising career, and you are a speaker. So I wanted to just chat with you a little bit on why you chose to do tho all of that and how it, it works, how it's affecting you. So first of all, you're a financial advisor. Why did you want to start speaking and why did you wanna write a book and combine all three of. Well, Robb: actually each piece came at different times. Okay. Like I was saying, in 1990 19 93, 9 11 happened and all that, and then I got downsized, and that's how I got into the financial side. Okay. As I was in that I was speaking more about. getting off the drugs and all this kind of good stuff, and it melded together because I, I love talking to people. I like to see the light go on and all that kinda stuff. And so the two just melded together. The book aspect, it came along a little bit later and to ask the right questions, get the right answers, that book was birthed out of anger because so many people don't know that. They don't know what they think. And then I wrote a couple of other books called are You Willing And Start Over. And those books were with the transformation of my life because there was a time when I wanted to take a long walk off of a short period, okay. It had gotten that bad for me. I just didn't know what to do. And I looked at my life and I looked at what I was doing. , the drugs and the alcohol. I had to walk away from that. Okay. Then the funny thing that happens is once you stop doing that, you gotta start doing something else or else that'll just fill, it'll just come right back in. And so I started reading and I found out you can't argue with the. Okay. There's a battle that goes on and it happens in those six inches between your ears. you go from, wow, I didn't know that to man. I can't believe this to all, could this really be true to, maybe they're right. Okay. It's I like to call it mental gymnastics. Okay. I would suggest to anybody that is making a change in their life. Every book that you. Read it out loud. Read it out loud. The reason why I suggest that is because you see it, you say Stephen: it and you hear it. Agreed. I like that Robb: That bolsters it inside that psyche, man. And you just the book it shortens the journey. It shortens the journey so much. You ever heard that old expression experience as the Stephen: best? Yes, but it's incorrect. Do you ? Robb: Yeah. Do you, you believe that? Stephen: Okay. To some degree, . Robb: Let's take the degrees out and let's get it down right here. Okay. Experience is the slowest, most unforgiving teacher that you ever want to get with, okay? So that, like I said, somebody else's experience is the best. You ever heard that old cliche that everybody can teach you something? Yes. You know what? Everything ain't worth learning. . Stephen: Okay. They can teach you something. You got you, but it may not be the best, may not be correct. ,

Overview Robb has turned his life around and used lessons from the past to elevate his life. He sees financial situations as a way to help others and has written a book to pass on the lessons. Most people have financial problems that Robb addresses by guiding them to the right questions. He is passionate about his topic and shares his wisdom through speaking and his book. His Book https://www.amazon.com/Ask-RIGHT-Questions-Right-ANSWERS/dp/0998590002?crid=3HJH8NI6FIDMW&keywords=ask+the+right+questions+get+the+right+answers+robb+hill&qid=1675819922&sprefix=ask+the+right+questions+get+the+right+answers+robb+hill%2Caps%2C99&sr=8-1&linkCode=li2&tag=saschneider-20&linkId=3de2f24e8efc35f8f4e74fa26257025a&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_il Website https://rhillenterprisesinc.com Favorites https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474?crid=776P1415R5BE&keywords=millionaire+next+door&qid=1675820022&sprefix=millionaire+next+doo%2Caps%2C120&sr=8-1&linkCode=li2&tag=saschneider-20&linkId=536df8cd0ee5e1575f0a11c8734facc4&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_il YouTube https://youtu.be/NxOte3RWw2o Transcript Stephen: today on Discovered Wordsmith, I wanna welcome Rob Hill. Rob, how you doing this morning? Outstanding as you. I love that answer. And that's your answer when I asked you earlier. So I love that something people can learn from. Rob, I've met you, but nobody else on the podcast probably knows you. So before we get started talking about your book, let's talk a little bit about you. Tell us a little bit about yourself, where you live, what you like to do outside of. It's okay. I'm sorry. You know what? I'm sorry that I have no problem with that because most of the people I interview are new authors and a lot of 'em are like in their laundry room or in their bedroom with cats running around. And I love that, honestly, because. It show because too many other authors I think, get anxious. Oh I'm not in a cabin in the woods writing full-time. I'm not as successful. And what I've found after almost 150 interviews is just about everybody. Even the biggest names I've interviewed aren't necessarily that Stephen Kings. We can't all be Stephen Kings. When there's stuff going on I actually love that because it makes all my listeners a little more comfortable, so no problems there. All right. Go ahead. Tell us about you, where you live, what you like to do. Robb: Like I said, my name is Rob Hill and I'm a financial advisor, author and speaker. What I like to do is I like to see the light come on in people's eyes because there's so much the level. of deception is so deep these days. We gotta get back to the truth of the matter right here. You look at the way things are going with our finances and all this kind of stuff it's it's really challenging for a lot of people. A lot of people have no idea what retirement is. They just think that I don't have to work no more and I'll still get. That's not what retirement is. But then I go into that a lot. The reason that I've written this book in a couple of other books was because reading develops the powers of concentration and creative thinking. Okay? It's something about those black words on that white page. It just rearranges everything. Okay? And I'm not talking about breeding for entertainment. I'm talking about reading. Improvement personal development. Okay. I spent about 18 years of my life in the drug, drugs and alcohol. Okay. I, one day I woke up and realized that I was so much more than what I had become, and so I had to replace those habits with something else, and that something else just happened to be. Nice. Breeding is a beautiful thing. It's a Stephen: beautiful thing, and I love that you say that because you probably have listened to Anthony Robbins, or at least seen him around a bit. He is a pretty well-known big motivational speaker, and some people like him, some people don't, but,

Overview Erica reads a chapter of her horror novel This Cold Night

Overview Being a new writer, Erica can relate to getting advice and being overwhelmed with what to follow. We discuss various advice but also what we've chosen to follow. Of course, we give some advice ourselves. Her Book https://www.amazon.com/This-Cold-Night-Erica-Schaef-ebook/dp/B0BM8F7SRZ?crid=18C3X8R7PKC9G&keywords=this+cold+night+schaef&qid=1674748278&sprefix=this+cold+night+schaef%2Caps%2C95&sr=8-1&linkCode=li2&tag=saschneider-20&linkId=5728077d516f83f9303d5b3cf3af05ef&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_il YouTube https://youtu.be/WjiT-qymkkw Transcript Let's talk a little bit of author stuff and find out about some of your writing styles in that. So first of all, what type of software and services do you like to use when you're. Erica: I just have, usually what I just use is word. And I, sometimes I use it on my phone. A lot of times what I do is I write in a notebook and then retype it on the computer and that kind of helps to get a second. It's almost like a second draft going in cuz you're, words that you're like, oh, I used that word too many times, or I, whatever. So like seeing it back and then putting it on a computer, that kind of helps. , make sure that it looks the way I wanted it to. So a lot of times that's what I'll do. I usually write in like actually on paper and then Stephen: interesting paper. Okay. And you wrote a bunch of short stories. You've written a novel. Are there some things you learned writing, the short stories that you did differently when you wrote the novel then you might have done, or some things you've changed about your writing? There's, I've, so since I've been writing short stories and sending 'em out to publishers, I'll get they have an editor, you editor usually looking at them and they'll send it back with suggestions. Erica: Hey, we wanna print this, but can you change this? Whatever this, and this. So throughout that feedback I've learned one of the, one of the first feedbacks I got was try to make. your characters sound like different people. So like these two characters sound very similar when they're talking obviously, cuz they're both from my brain, so I have to think, okay, I really have to get in the secondary character and they can't sound the exact same as the main character. And a lot of places don't want you to use like too much slang or like right mispronunciation. So that was of difficult for. was to make myself, make my writing sound like two fully developed different people. So that was something that I definitely tried to work on. And I think with this novel, it's from the perspective of the main character. So that made it a little bit easier because I could say what she was thinking and what she said, and then have the other characters reacting to that and really trying to develop them as best they could outside of her perspective. I think that's one thing that I really try to do in this, Stephen: in this book. Have you you said you learned from feedback from others, feedback from the editor. Do you listen to a podcast? Do you have any books you've read, any websites you like to go to? Anything like that? Erica: I don't, I, when I was first writing I did, I would go to different websites or I would listen and I think it is helpful to listen to people's. But I think if you do that too much or rely too heavily on that, it becomes overwhelming because I feel like sometimes you almost get conflicting advice. I saw something. Stephen: We're gonna talk more about that in a moment. Yeah. I'm sorry, go ahead. Yeah, . Erica: No, that's okay. I saw something where just for example, like I've seen things where it says starting off with dialogue is, can pull the reader in. know, That's an intriguing way to start. And then I've seen people like, please don't start with dialogue. We don't like to that we'd rather start with anything but a quote. So it's, yeah. I don't know.

Overview Erica Schaef is a fan of all things horror and loves to write her own stories in that genre. She is an Affiliate Writer member of the Horror Writers Association. Her work has been featured in a variety of journals, magazines, audio productions, and anthologies. She lives in rural Tennessee with her husband and two wild children. Her Book https://www.amazon.com/This-Cold-Night-Erica-Schaef-ebook/dp/B0BM8F7SRZ?crid=18C3X8R7PKC9G&keywords=this+cold+night+schaef&qid=1674748278&sprefix=this+cold+night+schaef%2Caps%2C95&sr=8-1&linkCode=li2&tag=saschneider-20&linkId=5728077d516f83f9303d5b3cf3af05ef&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_il Website https://brigidsgatepress.com/author/erica-schaef Favorites https://www.amazon.com/Shining-Stephen-King-ebook/dp/B001BANK32?crid=2NPVNU6PZBQC4&keywords=the+shining+stephen+king&qid=1674748820&sprefix=the+shining+stephen+king%2Caps%2C109&sr=8-1&linkCode=li2&tag=saschneider-20&linkId=5ea78902e642fda245a7e16ad521af9e&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_il YouTube https://youtu.be/GIGIqAQ7ERw Transcript So this morning on Discovered Wordsmiths, I have Erica. Erica, how are you doing today? Hi, how are you doing? I'm doing on, yeah, it's great to see you. Your hair matches your background. Yeah. Yeah. Good . Erica before we start talking about your book and things like that, let's find out a little bit about you tell us where you live and some of the things you like to do besides. Okay, Erica: so I live in Tennessee in a rural area that's about 40 miles from Chattanooga. So I have two young children, one's seven and one's five. So we like to we have a national park right near us. We like to go on hikes. We, I started a garden back in 2020, but during Covid. I started a little pumpkin garden, so I got into gardening a couple years ago. Not that great at it, but we had a few things grow last year. We had one huge pumpkin, so that was fun. And what else do I like to bake, but I'm also not that great at it. Stephen: Would you say, huge pumpkin? How huge Erica: it was. I forget the, what the name of the pumpkin was, but it was something giant pumpkin, and it was like a norm, like my son could sit. He said, said on that, and he was really Stephen: proud of it. I'm sure they be. Love that. Yeah. , that's a, that's such a fun age for that type of stuff. it. Yeah, it really Erica: was. And they liked to help. He had he would help me water. He would bring a squirt gun out while he had the hose and he would like squirt plants with a squirt gun. Stephen: The water. Nice. Good. So with a family and things, why did you wanna start writing? Erica: I started writing. I think since I've been a kid, probably since I was like 10, I've really enjoyed writing and I've always done it as a hobby. And it wasn't until probably, I think, 2020 or 2019 or 2020 around Covid when I had some extra time. And so my kids were at an age then where they would play on their own, but I would be in the same room as them, like keeping an eye on them. And so that was I had the opportunity then. to write while they're like either outside or playing in a room. And I was like I would get ideas for something and then I would actually finish them through. Because what I would do before is start an idea and then get bored of it and quit. So once I started finishing through with my ideas, I was like well, maybe I'll try to send these out, see if they can get published. But that would be cool. And then so things started to get picked up. I started writing short stories. . And so a few of those got picked up and then I started trying to do more longer form fiction and things like that. So probably the last couple years I've really been taking it seriously as more than just like a hobby that if it works. And if it Stephen: doesn't, it doesn't. Nice. Okay. And so you said you've written a lot of short stories.

Overview Since Fern had been a teacher and now writes MG and YA books, we talk about working with kids today. She works with the Writers in the Schools program to still teach in a classroom and we discuss working with kids. Her Book https://www.amazon.com/United-Vidden-Thyreins-Galactic-Wall-ebook/dp/B08BWHG4JF?crid=3S6NFKAFICWV9&keywords=fern+brady+vidden&qid=1674058743&sprefix=fern+brady+vidden%2Caps%2C86&sr=8-1&linkCode=li2&tag=saschneider-20&linkId=2832cc89394b44adc7cd08438f1a0993&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_il YouTube https://youtu.be/bEFdeh79Zmc Transcript So we've got a great topic working with kids, teaching Kids, which you've got great experience with. I'd love to talk to you a little bit here, but let me ask you first what software and services do you use when you're writing? Do you have anything particular that you like and would recommend? Fern: That is so interesting. You I've looked at so many different ones that they're out there. I write inward, to be honest. I just, when I'm a discovery writer, I tend to not, I have a lot of things going on in here, which, my writing coach and editor, he's always could you please put it on paper so I know what's in there? But , I ha I hold a lot of what's supposed to be happening in here. And so when I write, I just sit and start writing. Now when I revise that's when I start doing a lot of plotting. So I'll do things, with sticky notes and things up on the wall to try to see where the plot holes are. And then I usually use Scribner. And the reason I like to do that is because I can take it from the word file, put it into Scribner, and then I can move things around. Yeah. Because in invariably there's stuff that's now out of order , because I didn't necessarily write it as chronologically as I thought I did, so I love Scribner for that. And, I have friends that use Scrivener for other things that, they have a lot of plotting help and they have character sheet help and things, and I just really don't use any of that. I just really love the ability to parcel it out by scenes and then be able to move things. And then put them back into word , Stephen: basically. Nice. Okay. And is that something you've always done or is that something you've done different since the first book? Fern: I have, usually like the the first book I didn't really use Scribner. With the first book I ended up having to cut and paste on Word and, move to another file and rename it, and so that was messier. That was messier. But when I've started using Scribner, it's really been very helpful in that sense. But the general process of it is, has stayed the same in general. I'm just I just sit down and let whatever happens in the story happen. . And then later I bring some order to it. And then I find myself, like right now when I'm wrapping up the revision for Gor to Offensive, which is gonna be book two I find that I'm having to thread some things in that happens toward the end. And so now I've got a thread, some hints in, because, you can't just have, magic liquids show up at the end. You have to like, put them somewhere else, so people are like, really, that's convenient, so I, I enjoy that Stephen: process. Nice. And what are you doing to market your books? Is there anything you do to get the word out, get people to notice your book? Fern: One of the things that I do is that I hired a really great publicist Mickey Holson from Creative Edge Publicity. He is a really great. Person and I just enjoy working with him. He gets a lot of wonderful opportunities like this one to get on podcasts and to do interviews. And he works with me with the Gales to try to get some editorial reviews ahead of time. And I have a wonderful social media advisor and her name is Amy Ravish. She owns Abundantly Social and, she is magnificent. She understands a lot of the trends. She understands how to position things and where to position things for the best for ...

Overview Fern Brady is the founder and CEO of Inklings Publishing. She holds multiple Masters degrees and several certifications. She began her professional life as a foreign correspondent, and taught for 15 years in Alief ISD. She has published numerous short stories, two children's picture books, and a couple of poems. Her debut novel, United Vidden, which is book one in her Thyrein's Galactic Wall Series, was given a glowing review by Dr. Who Online, the official site of the fandom. Also available for purchase is volume one of her graphic novel/novella hybrid project, New Beginning. She has returned to the leadership of the Houston Writers Guild, with whom she served as CEO for four years previously. She co-hosts two podcasts – Author Talk and The Hot Mess Express. Besides being Municipal Liaison for Nanowrimo Houston, she is also a member of Blood Over Texas, Romance Writers of America, and American Booksellers Association. Fern lives in Houston TX with her parents and her talkative husky, Arya. Her Book https://www.amazon.com/United-Vidden-Thyreins-Galactic-Wall-ebook/dp/B08BWHG4JF?crid=3L4TCG485VW0D&keywords=fern+brady+united+vidden&qid=1673990346&sprefix=fern+brady+united+vidde%2Caps%2C129&sr=8-1&linkCode=li2&tag=saschneider-20&linkId=6e76697d7b545d582e182922d2573d2f&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_il Website https://fernbrady.com Favorites https://www.amazon.com/Christie-Collection-Murders-Announced-Bertrams/dp/0007989261?content-id=amzn1.sym.7d1cec21-d5cf-4aa0-b55a-3303ecdebc2b%3Aamzn1.sym.7d1cec21-d5cf-4aa0-b55a-3303ecdebc2b&keywords=Agatha+christie+books+collection&pd_rd_r=a22c398d-bcaa-47d9-8472-d0a41e8ded42&pd_rd_w=cFZJf&pd_rd_wg=w3zSj&pf_rd_p=7d1cec21-d5cf-4aa0-b55a-3303ecdebc2b&pf_rd_r=Z6DAF1CSQTJGB0DB6PKT&qid=1673990680&sr=8-2&linkCode=li2&tag=saschneider-20&linkId=7cc96de948f06a9fe2ebe846ce926ca7&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_il BRAZOS BOOKSTORE | Houston's premier independent bookseller since 1974 YouTube https://youtu.be/rDsIUAdd5gE Transcript Fern, welcome to discovered Wordsmiths today. How are you doing? I Fern: am doing well. Thank you so much for having me here. Stephen: And I love your background. I assume that's a real background, not a fake background. Yes, Fern: this is, these are my real bookcases, which, I have not enough apparently, because, you can see that they're starting to stack up on top of each other instead of, just in straight. They should, Stephen: Is that Nancy drew up there in the corner, the yellow bindings? Fern: No, the, you mean the golden ones? The golden ones The golden. It looks yellow. Yeah. Okay. So that is a really fascinating series. It's a series of the royal princesses. Okay. And it's it's a historical fiction where people are imagining what like Cleopatra for example. Okay. It's up there. And so what would she have been like as a young girl before she Oh wow. Became Pharaoh before all of the things that we know historically have happened, what are, what would've been like, what it would, what would it have been like? And Maria Antoinette is up there and oh wow. Some of the Spanish princesses, some Japanese princesses and African princesses. I It's a really fantastic series to cuz it mixes a lot of historical things of great women who have done been royal women, in, in royal homes. Across the globe. But it's fiction. It's fictional. Nice. Stephen: Oh, I love that. I didn't even know about those. Great. I'm glad to look those up now. You just added to my bookshelves, . I'm always happy to do that. Yeah. Oh, I don't any help, believe me. So Fern tell everybody a little bit about yourself, where you live and some things you like to do besides writing. Fern: I live in Houston, Texas, which right now is cold, but by the end of the day it will be 80. So it's one of those places in which, know, you have to dress in multiple. Yeah. Cold is like 58. Stephen: Oh, okay. See the last couple ahead.

Overview Val has learned lessons about writing while she worked on her four books. One thing she's learned, that we discuss in this episodes, is that it helps to plot. She likes to writie thrillers, and one of her favorite thriller writers, Lee Child, gave some advice that has stuck with Val and she changed how she write because of it. Roland is also back to discuss the latest news in the author world. Her Book https://www.amazon.com/Where-Loyalties-Lie-addictive-psychological-ebook/dp/B09RQHBMJ2?crid=1IBY4NI5PJQTU&keywords=val+collins+where+loyalties+lie&qid=1673455395&sprefix=val+collins+where+loyalties+lie%2Caps%2C111&sr=8-1&linkCode=li2&tag=discoveredwordsmiths-20&linkId=d2c85a61a8cdad76b089d1ca80a9db04&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_il Roland Denzel http://indestructibleauthor.com/ author pen namesBrandon Sanderson helping authors at audibleA.I. audiobooks YouTube https://youtu.be/KZABSpUkfa0 Transcript Stephen: Okay, so let's do a little author talking. I gotta ask you about your why to Kindle Unlimited here in a minute. Let me ask you this though. You're on your fourth book. What have you learned that you're doing different now than what you did at the beginning? The Val: very first thing I learned was that no, you, if you, for me, it doesn't work for everybody. For me, I'll never write anything if I don't actually sit down and. Okay. So when I first thought maybe I'd write, I thought to myself, okay, what will I write about what, who I decide. I decided I'll gonna write a book, what will be about? And absolutely nothing came into my head. And this had been going around in my head for weeks. And then I heard May Binchy, do you know May Binchy? Yeah. I heard May Binchy interviewed and she said, I've never write anything if I didn't sit down on my desk and write from nine to five every. I've never done nine to five. My, my stamina isn't that strong. But then I sat down and I start, and I sat down and started writing, and I was amazed to discover that like words just came to me. . . Stephen: Yes. I And that I totally agree with you. So I know a lot of people talk about writer's block and you mentioned earlier about getting ideas. My, I love when people say where do you get your IDs? It's like, where don't I get my ideas? I'm driving down the road and I get three ideas. I'm sitting here writing this book and I get an idea for this other book. It just, once you start that creative juices going, it seems. Not stop. I'm working on a Christmas story for my kids and I've been doing that almost every year and it's, I was like, okay, it's gonna be like all the others. Oh, it's gonna be a short little story. And now we're up to 7,000 words , and it's still going . So I agree. It just kinda keeps going. No, I Val: don't get writer's block. I probably get the opposite. I write a lot of crap writer's Stephen: blog, then I , Val: maybe that's it. I write a whole load of stuff and then I go back and I think, nah, that's useless. I have to get rid of that. But I've often listened to Lee Child being interviewed and I heard Lee Child and he said he never deletes anything. He said, because I'm a writer, not a. And I tried that. Once he said it, I thought, yeah, I waste too much time writing stuff that I later throw away and don't use. I said, I'm going to do it this time. I'm going to have a plot. But I don't think, I think about a week later, I've written a page that was, as far as a God I just can't work that way. I just have to keep writing and see what happens. Stephen: Yeah. We're gonna talk about writing plot here in a couple minutes. More of a discussion. But yeah I, I know a. I've, everybody has to come to their own way of doing it. And sometimes you have to try and experiment other ways. And that's where I've gotten, this, like I said, this Christmas story I'm working on now. Without even realizing it. started off as a,

Overview Val Collins is the author of the award-winning psychological thriller GIRL TARGETED and the international bestsellers ONLY LIES REMAIN, THE SILENT SPEAK and WHERE LOYALTIES LIE (March 2022). All four books feature heroine Aoife Walsh. They are all standalone thrillers and can be read in any order. A native of Ireland, Val began reading at the age of three and still devours books at the rate of one per week. Her favorite authors range from Philippa Gregory and Sophie Kinsella to Lee Child and Linwood Barclay. Her Book https://www.amazon.com/Where-Loyalties-Lie-addictive-psychological-ebook/dp/B09RQHBMJ2?crid=1IBY4NI5PJQTU&keywords=val+collins+where+loyalties+lie&qid=1673455395&sprefix=val+collins+where+loyalties+lie%2Caps%2C111&sr=8-1&linkCode=li2&tag=discoveredwordsmiths-20&linkId=d2c85a61a8cdad76b089d1ca80a9db04&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_il Website https://valcollinsbooks.com Favorites https://www.amazon.com/Dawnlands-Novel-Fairmile-Book-3-ebook/dp/B09SZTKFYF?crid=2BCR62Z14Q7X3&keywords=philipa+gregory&qid=1673456553&s=digital-text&sprefix=philipa+gregory%2Cdigital-text%2C149&sr=1-3&linkCode=li2&tag=discoveredwordsmiths-20&linkId=ff39dbb2bb7c9c67ddc6b2e2ae73ad14&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_il Buy books, stationery and gifts, online and in store | Waterstones Tom Holbrook's Picks RiverRun Bookstore – Home of the brave All of these books that Tom recommends can be ordered from his bookshop page: RiverRun Bookstore Bookshop Drink Before the War Dennis Lehane West with Giraffes Lynda Rutledge Sing Unburied Sing Jesmyn Ward Little Brother Cory Doctorow World According to Fanny Davis Bridgett M Davis Deadly Education Naomi Novik Daring Greatly Brene Brown House in the Cerulean Sea TJ Klune John Adams David McCullough Self Driven Child William Strixhud YouTube https://youtu.be/2YaTVIDD344 Transcript Val, welcome to Discovered Word Smiths. How are you doing this? Great. Morning or afternoon actually. Val: Thank you Steven. I'm very well, thank you. And this is evening Stephen: here, . It's evening there. Okay. It's the afternoon for me. So all over the world. I talked to one person from Australia and they were time traveled cuz they were in the next day. So they were Oh Val: I almost up which way around that is. Stephen: Yeah. Yeah. Alright, so Val why don't, before we get started talking about your book why don't you tell everybody a little bit about who you are, where you're from, what you like to do, those types of. Okay, my Val: name is Val. I'm Irish. I've lived in Ireland all my life. In fact, the longest I've ever been outta the country is four consecutive weeks, . What do I like to do? Since I started writing, I find have far less time to do things than I used to. But I still like to go outdoors. I still like to go for walks on countryside. I love to travel, but covid put an end to that for a while. we had really long lockdowns here, . But I'm hoping to get back to that again very soon. Stephen: Nice. Yeah. My, my son loves Ireland. He got to visit on a school trip and he was thinking of trying to move over there, but he is not sure. He just loves the country. And when was this, when did he visit? Oh, man, it's been three or four years now. Yeah, four y four years ago. Val: Oh okay. Ida is lovely. If you don't mind the Stephen: rain . He was happy. He got to see where they filmed some of the Star Wars movies, so he was like, oh, made his day. . Alright tell us a little bit about your book and why you wanted to write this particular. Val: Okay, my book where Loyalty Side, that's the fourth one in MyFi Wallace Trailer Series. So it led on, from the first one I just kinda led on from there. But why I started writing in the first place was because I was major dun for my office job and I was, it was a really bad time. There was very little work here and I was just thinking what w...