Join award-winning novelist and writing coach Michelle Hoover and special guests for your morning writing wake up call, starting with a 50-day writing challenge. 7amnovelist.substack.com
The 7am Novelist podcast has been a beautiful way for me to learn as a new writer. Waking up to Michele Hoover and her guests has been a joy, as they have introduced me to so many authors and their works. This series has kept my librarian busy this month, as I eagerly seek out the books recommended on the show. The format of the podcast is wonderful, with the option to join live on the webinar and then come back to the podcast later for a review. What makes this podcast even more incredible is that it is all free of charge, allowing aspiring writers like myself to participate and learn without any financial barriers. I am truly grateful for this opportunity.
One of the best aspects of The 7am Novelist podcast is its ability to serve as a morning meditation and study session for writers. Michelle Hoover's approach to delivering 30-minute daily episodes with guest writers and authors disrupts the traditional "craft session" category that beginning writers often crave. The podcast not only provides valuable insights into writing techniques, but also delves into the psychology behind writing and fosters a sense of community among listeners. It has become an essential part of my writing routine, setting intentions for each day and inspiring me to move forward with my novel.
Another great aspect of this podcast is Michelle Hoover's wealth of knowledge about novel writing, which she shares generously with her audience. However, what sets this podcast apart is the cast of authors and writers who appear alongside Hoover. Each guest brings their unique insight and expertise, pulling back the curtain on the writing life and providing valuable perspectives on different aspects of novel craft. This diverse range of voices adds depth and richness to the discussions, making every episode engaging and informative.
While The 7am Novelist podcast excels in many areas, it does have some downsides worth mentioning. One potential drawback is that due to its focus on novel writing specifically, those interested in other forms of writing may not find it as relevant or applicable to their own work. Additionally, the daily format may be overwhelming for some listeners who prefer a slower and more digestible pace. However, these minor drawbacks should not overshadow the immense value and inspiration this podcast offers to novelists.
In conclusion, The 7am Novelist podcast is a gift from the heart that provides aspiring writers with invaluable guidance and support. Michelle Hoover's expertise combined with the insights of her guest writers create a comprehensive exploration of all aspects of novel writing. This podcast has become an integral part of my learning journey as a writer, teaching me so much and immersing me in the details of crafting a novel. I eagerly await each new episode and will undoubtedly miss it when the series comes to an end. Overall, I highly recommend The 7am Novelist podcast to any aspiring novelist seeking guidance, community, and inspiration on their writing journey.
This January on the 7am novelist we're interviewing authors about how they're sticking to their writing goals despite or maybe because of recent events and their thoughts not only about how other writers might do the same but also about how we might continue to affect change and support each other in both small and large ways.We're also holding a large Group-Write for our listeners. That's right, we're going to write together over zoom every weekday morning in January from 7 to 8:30 am EST and every Tuesday night from 7 to 8:30pm EST, starting Monday, January 6. We'll start each session with a few minutes of inspiration and sharing our writing goals on the zoom chat and end each session with turning on our mics and talking about what we accomplished. In between, we'll have those mics off as we write together. Feel free to come late to a session or only make one or two. No problem. We just want to see you there and support each other as we continue to work in the year ahead. If you're interested in joining, email me at 7amnovelist@substack.com and I'll send you the registration link. Subscribe to this Substack page at for updates about our January writing challenge and other news, events, and interviews.Thanks so much everyone. I hope to see you in January.Photo by Val Vesa on Unsplash This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
Tonight, Writers for Blue is offering a special opportunity to learn about writing your first pages. We'll have four award-winning authors, including myself, Aaron Hamburger, Nancy Johnson, and Pulitzer Prize-winner Jayne Anne Phillips, workshopping seven first-page writing submissions in support of electing Kamala Harris, our first female president—and our 47th. We'll also hear about ways you might use your words in the upcoming election cycle, including how to write politically-charged topics, canvassing, and more, from writers Charles Coe, Rishi Reddi, Daphne Kalotay, Julia Rold, and Gish Jen. All of these authors have donated their time, energy, and talents in support of this event. We're hoping you might follow suit and consider donating to our Writers for Blue campaign. Go to writersforblue.com to get started. And, if you're looking for specific links and resources mentioned during the event, see below.AUTHORS FEATURED:Charles Coe, author of five books of poetry and one novel, teaches in the Newport MFA writing program, and is renowned both as a writer and a performer; we are honored to have him speaking as well as kindly reading aloud our sample pages.Aaron Hamburger is author of four acclaimed books of fiction, winner of the Rome Prize and a 2023 Lambda Literary prize; his new novel HOTEL CUBA has been featured on NPR; Aaron does political activism with Swing Left and is on the faculty at Stonecoast MFA.Author of nine acclaimed books, most recently a ‘best book' choice by the Oprah Book Club, NPR and the New Yorker, Gish Jen writes about charged issues with humor and heart, as in her latest collection, THANK YOU, MR NIXON.Nancy Johnson's acclaimed debut novel THE KINDEST LIE, was a New York Times Editor's Choice and Indie Booksellers choice; Nancy's also an Emmy-nominated award-winning journalist as well as author of the forthcoming 2025 novel, PEOPLE OF MEANS.Daphne Kalotay is the author, most recently, of the story collection THE ARCHIVISTS, winner of the Grace Paley Prize, a Boston Authors Club “Notable Book” and long-listed for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize and Massachusetts Book Award. National bestselling author of NIGHT SWIM and WOMEN IN BED; Jessica Keener is the Co-Chair with Randy Susan Meyers and, from the start, the driving force of Writers for Blue.From the iconic story collection BLACK TICKETS through 6 more indelible books of fiction to her 2024 Pulitzer Prize winning novel, NIGHT WATCH Jayne Anne Phillips is—as Caroline Leavitt said on A Mighty Blaze—‘everyone's literary heroine.'Rishi Reddi is the PEN New England award winning author of KARMA AND OTHER STORIES and the novel PASSAGE WEST; when not writing, she is an environmental lawyer and lobbies for sound climate policy in her day-job. Julia Rold is a writer, playwright and Novel Incubator alum who has worked on political campaigns in Massachusetts, NH, NY, Florida, and her home state of Kentucky.LINKS TO RESOURCES:DIRECT LINK TO WritersForBlue DONATION PAGE.WRITERS FOR BLUE website: https://writersforblue.com/Our partners:WRITERS FOR DEMOCRATIC ACTION (WDA)A MIGHTY BLAZEMarkers for Democracy: https://markersfordemocracy.org/postcarding (get out the vote cards to Democratic voters. has a monthly writing bootcamp online)Swing Blue: https://swingbluealliance.org/ (coordinating with Working America on postcard campaign focused on Healthcare for independent voters in PA)VoteForward: https://votefwd.org/instructions (letter-writing you can download yourself. Excellent examples of positive, nonpartisan "let's go vote!" messages)More suggested messages (specifically for postcards to swing state voters), stats to support the effort, and ways to order postcards: https://turnoutpac.org/If folks are interested in supporting Dems in Arizona, Wednesday night at 7pm ET, my Swing Left group is hosting an Arizona Zoom Fundraiser. Sign up here. Door-to-door canvassing resources.Canvassing in NH: https://www.mobilize.us/massdems/event/627702/Canvassing in PA: https://www.mobilize.us/2024pavictory/event/645465/https://www.31ststreet.org sends out weekly emails with canvassing, donating, phone banking, and letter writing opportunities. Sign up!One way of targeting critical races is to think about donating to Crimson Goes Blue. It's a Harvard group, but don't be put off by that! They do great research, and their record in giving to races that turned out to be super tight, and where money made the difference is impressive. Highly recommended! Here's a Slide with a lot of resources about door-to-door canvassing. LISTS OF AND INFO ON BANNED BOOKS:https://socialjusticebooks.org/booklists/banned-books/SWING LEFT: VOLUNTEER IN A VARIETY OF WAYS— LETTER-WRITING, POST-CARDING, CANVASSING, PHONE-CALLING and MORE for DEMOCRAT CANDIDATES UP AND DOWN THE BALLOT:PEN AMERICA, sponsoring many activities such as WRITING LETTERS to free political prisoners around the world and teaching writing in prisons; also programs addressing online abuse and misinformation:Photo by sydney Rae on Unsplash This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
Today, we hear from listeners Lesley Téllez, Kathy Tully, and Elaine Durbach for the last of this summer's “Listener Roundups.” We hear about what they've learned from the past few episodes, what ideas they consider the most important, what questions or confusions they have, and their own advice and/or experience in dealing with the same issues. REMINDER OF OUR SPECIAL ZOOM EVENT on September 23. This is a chance for seven lucky listeners to have the first page of a piece of prose workshopped by myself as well as the authors Nancy Johnson, Aaron Hamburger, and Pulitzer Prize winner Jayne Anne Phillips. It's also a great chance for everyone who registers to learn about what makes a first page work and strategies for how to improve their own. All those who register will receive a full recording of the event. We'll also be hearing from Charles Coe, Gish Jen, Rishi Reddi, Julia Rold, and Daphne Kalotay about how writers can “Use Your Words” in the upcoming election cycle and more. The event is entirely free but we're running it support of what we hope will be our first female president, Kamala Harris. Find out more at writersforblue.com. Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.Mentioned in this episode: Philip Gerard's essay “Architecture of Light: Structuring the Novel and Story Collection” from Checkoway's Creating Fiction, Story Press, 1999. Steve Almond's “How to Write Sex Scenes Without Shame” from his craft book Truth is the Arrow, Mercy is the Bow, Zando, 2023.To find books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. Lesley Téllez, a writer based in Mexico City, is a former journalist, food writer, and cookbook author, now working on a novel about Mexican food and assimilation.Kathy Shiels Tully is a freelance writer in the Boston area who, despite an insidious case of Imposter Syndrome, has written about people, food, travel, business, plus essays, in publications including: The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald, The Christian Science Monitor, The Writer, the Erma Bombeck Writing Workshop, and recently, her own “Tiny Love Story” in The New York Times. Elaine Durbach, the Zimbabwean-born, New Jersey- based author of two non-fiction books and three self-published novels, was a fact-obsessed journalist for 45 years before discovering the joys of making it all up. Photo by Sammie Chaffin on Unsplash This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
Today, we hear from RO Kwon whose latest novel, EXHIBIT, was released in May. We're talking to Reese about writing about what scares you.Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find Kwon's latest and many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. R. O. Kwon is the author of the nationally bestselling Exhibit, a New York Times Editors' Choice, which published in May 2024 with Riverhead (US) and will be out in July 2024 with Virago/Little Brown (UK). Kwon's bestselling first novel, The Incendiaries, has been translated into seven languages and was named a best book of the year by over forty publications. The Incendiaries was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Award. Kwon and Garth Greenwell co-edited Kink, a New York Times Notable Book and recipient of the inaugural Joy Award. Kwon's writing has appeared in The New York Times, New Yorker, Time, Vanity Fair, Guardian, and elsewhere. She has received fellowships and awards from MacDowell, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Yaddo. Kwon was the 2024 Stein Visiting Writer at Stanford University. Born in Seoul, Kwon has lived most of her life in the United States.Photo: Jesse Dittmar This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
Today, we hear from Jamie Quatro whose latest novel, TWO-STEP DEVIL, releases in September. We're talking to Jamie about experimenting with form.Sorry! There's no audio/video version of this episode available. Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find Quatro's debut and many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. Jamie Quatro is the New York Times Notable author of I Want to Show You More, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award and the National Book Critics Circle's John Leonard Prize, and Fire Sermon, a Book of the Year for the Economist, San Francisco Chronicle, LitHub, Bloomberg, and the Times Literary Supplement. HER new novel, Two-Step Devil, is forthcoming from Grove Press in September 2024, to be followed by a story collection, Next Time I'll Be Louder. A finalist for the Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Short Fiction, she is the recipient of fellowships from MacDowell, Yaddo, Bread Loaf, and Maison Dora Maar in Ménerbes, France, where she will be in residence in the spring of 2025. Quatro holds an MA in English from the College of William and Mary and an MFA in fiction from the Bennington College Writing Seminars. She teaches in the Sewanee School of Letters MFA program and lives with her family in Chattanooga, Tennessee.Photo by National Library of Medicine on Unsplash This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
Today, we hear from Ann Hood whose latest novel, THE STOLEN CHILD, was released in May. We're talking to Ann about writing multiple points of view, introducing a new point of view late in the structure of a book, and how to increase emotional tension in scenes.Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find Hood's latest and many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. Ann Hood is the author of over a dozen novels, including the bestsellers The Knitting Circle, The Obituary Writer, The Book That Matters Most, and Somewhere Off the Coast of Maine; and several memoirs, including the bestsellers Kitchen Yarns: Notes on Life, Love and Food and Comfort: A Journey Through Grief, which was named one of the top ten books of 2008 by Entertainment Weekly. Her most recent book, The Stolen Child, a novel about art, secrets, love lost and found, and the nature of forgiveness set partially during the First World War was published in May. Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
Today, we hear from Crystal King whose latest novel, IN THE GARDEN OF MONSTERS, releases in September. We're talking to Crystal about writing about real people, particularly really problematic people, as well as familiar stories and places.Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find King's debut and many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. Crystal King is a novelist, culinary enthusiast, and marketing expert. Her writing is fueled by a love of history and a passion for the food, language, and culture of Italy. She has taught writing, creativity and social media at UMass Boston, Boston University, Mass College of Art, Harvard Extension School, and Grub Street. She's a Pushcart Prize–nominated poet and former co-editor of the (now defunct) online literary arts journal Plum Ruby Review. She received her M.A. in critical and creative thinking from UMass Boston, where she developed a series of exercises and writing prompts to help fiction writers in medias res. She lives in Boston but grew up in the Pacific Northwest (Spokane, Seattle, Boise). She also works in the world of social media, AI, marketing, and community management. Photo by Enrica Tancioni on Unsplash This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
Today we get to hear from Pagan Kennedy, whose newest book, The Secret History of the Rape Kit, will be released in January. Pagan and I will be talking about the ways in which contemporary events and your own past can disrupt what you thought your book was about.Watch a recording of our live webinar here. The audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find Kennedy's book and many books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. Pagan Kennedy is a journalist and author of eleven books, most recently Inventology: How We Dream Up Things That Change the World, which was optioned for adaption into a TV show and podcast, and The Secret History of the Rape Kit: A True Crime Story, which will be released by Vintage in January. She has also been awarded a Knight Science Journalism Fellowship at MIT, an NEA fellowship, a Smithsonian fellowship, and two Massachusetts Cultural Council fellowships. She is a longtime contributor to the New York Times. Photo by Jen Theodore on Unsplash This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
Today, we've got another special “Listeners' Roundup” episode. This is when we get to hear from some of our listeners about they've learned from the past few episodes, what ideas they consider the most important, what questions or confusions they have, and their own advice and/or experience in dealing with the same issues in their writing. So today, we've got listeners Karen Gruzen, Stephen Dawley, and Nancy Crochiere talking with us about what they heard, what they loved, and how it speaks to their own work. Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. Karen Gruzen an avid 7am listener and graduate of GrubStreet's Novel Generator with Annie Hartnett, is writing a novel inspired by her time living in Japan, and joins us from Crested Butte, CO where she's busily revising her Save the Cat 5-part finale.Stephen Dawley is a lawyer living in CT who several months ago finished (and have started querying) the novel it took him ten years to write, and he's started another one.Nancy Crochiere is a former humor columnist whose comic debut novel, GRACELAND, published in May of 2023, was named a best book of summer by Parade, Woman's World, and Deep South Magazines. Photo by Mark Duffel on Unsplash This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
Today we get to hear from Femi Kayode whose latest novel, Gaslight, the second book in his popular Philip Taiwo Mysteries series, was released in November. Femi and I will be talking about the challenges of writing a sequel when the rules of engagement are already set.Watch a recording of our live webinar here. The audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find Kayode's debut and many books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. Femi Kayode trained as a clinical psychologist in Nigeria, before starting a career in advertising. He has created and written several prime-time TV shows. His debut novel, Lightseekers, was selected as a Best Crime Novel of the Month by The Times, Sunday Times, Independent, Guardian, Observer, Financial Times and Irish Times, was longlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger Award and was a Waterstones Thriller of the Month. He lives in Windhoek, Namibia with his family. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
Today we get to hear from Hesse Phillips whose historical novel, Lightborne, was released in May 2024. Hesse and I will be talking about the difficulties of writing queer history and the task of humanizing an historical figure that has often been mischaracterized and misunderstood by both the public and literary scholars.Watch a recording here. The audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find many books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. For Phillips' debut, available from the UK, click here.Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. Hesse Phillips' historical novel Lightbourne was a finalist in the Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair 2022 and is now forthcoming from Atlantic Books UK. Their poetry and prose have appeared in The Bridport Review, the époque press é-zine, Sage Cigarettes, Roi Fainéant Press, Pangyrus and others, and have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Hesse was born and raised in rural Pennsylvania but now lives in Spain. They have a PhD in Drama from Tufts University and are a graduate of Grub Street Boston's intensive Novel Incubator program.Photo by Isi Parente on Unsplash This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
Today, we get to hear from Mark Cecil whose debut novel, BUNYAN AND HENRY; OR, THE BEAUTIFUL DESTINY, was released in March. We'll be talking about ways in which an author can deliver deeply personal/private stories from secondary characters even while writing in 3rd person limited. Watch a recording here. The audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find Cecil's debut and many books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. MARK CECIL is host of The Thoughtful Bro show, for which he conducts interviews with an eclectic roster of award-winning and breakout storytellers. Formerly a journalist for Reuters, he is Head of Strategy for literary social media startup A Mighty Blaze and has taught writing at Grub Street in Boston. Bunyan and Henry; Or, the Beautiful Destiny is his first book.By the way, Mark and myself are just a few of the hundreds of authors involved in WRITERS FOR BLUE. If you're interested in contributing, go here. Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. credit: Janna Giacoppo This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
Today, we hear from Shi Naseer whose debut novel, THE CRY OF THE SILKWORM, was released in June. We're talking to Shi/LILY about how to handle multiple timelines and settings in her book as well as how to write (or not) for a Western audience.Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find Naseer's book, try Amazon/UK. To find books by our other authors, visit our Bookshop page. Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. Chinese-Australian-Pakistani author Shi Naseer has lived in nine countries and backpacked to over seventy. She recently moved with her husband and young son from Uppsala, Sweden, to Stamford CT, the USA, and spends her winters in Punjab, Pakistan. She aims to connect people by telling stories from different cultures. Her debut novel, The Cry of the Silkworm, was released in June 2024 with Atlantic Books/Allen&Unwin. A coming-of-age revenge story of a young girl in turn-of-the-century China, it reveals the devastating consequences of the one-child policy. Shi Naseer holds a PhD in theoretical physics from Harvard University.Photo by Muspi Merol on Unsplash This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
Today, we hear from Thérèse Soukar Chehade, whose second novel, WE WALKED ON, will be published in September. We're talking to Therese about truth in historical fiction.Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find Chehade's debut and many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. Born in Beirut, Thérèse Soukar Chehade moved to the United States in 1983 during the Lebanese Civil War. Her first novel, Loom, was published in 2010 and won the 2011 Arab American Award for fiction. It portrays a Lebanese-American family struggling to reckon with their memories of the civil war during a Vermont blizzard in which the family's matriarch ventures out to help a mysterious neighbor, forcing everyone in the family to follow. Her second novel, We Walked On, will be published by Regal House in September. It tells the story of a thirty-something Arabic teacher and his bookish student as their lives spiral out of control following the outbreak of the war in 1975. Thérèse lives in Granby, Massachusetts. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
Today's is a special bonus episode in which we get to hear from some of our listeners about they've learned from the past few episodes, what ideas they consider the most important, what questions or confusions they have, and their own advice and/or experience in dealing with the same issues in their writing. Welcome listeners and writers Cat Green, Carol Willis, and Judy Kessler.By the way, we still have one more spot for YOU to take part in a listener's roundup. If you're interested, email me at 7amnovelist@substack.com.Also, I'll be teaching at a writing retreat in the Himalayas this April and you're welcome to join. For more info, go to https://www.himalayanwritingretreat.com/event/international-retreat-with-michelle-hoover/ A few of the craft books mentioned in this episode:* David Jauss's chapter “From Long Shots to X-Rays: Distance and Point of View in Fiction” from his craft book Alone with All that Could Happen: On Writing Fiction* Robert Boswell's chapter “On Omniscience” from his craft book The Half-Known WorldWatch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find all of my fave craft books plus books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. Cat Green (they/them) is a graduate of GrubStreet's Novel Immersive for Queer and Trans Writers, and their debut hybrid chapbook, I Am Never Leaving Williamsburg, is out with fifth wheel press in February 2025.At age sixty, Carol Willis is a recovering physician with an MFA in Writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts, and has published numerous short stories and written several novels, whose current work-in-progress is a contemporary midlife coming-of-age story, HERE COMES THE SUN. Judy Kessler retired from her career as a technical writer in 2015 to focus on fiction; since then she's drafted 2 novels (one complete, one in progress), published 2 short stories, taken MANY writing classes at GrubStreet and beyond, and volunteers at The Muse and the Marketplace and as a fiction reader for Pangyrus, a Boston-based literary magazine.Photo by Amber Kipp on Unsplash This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
Today, we hear from Jessica Anthony whose latest novel, THE MOST, will be released in July. We're talking to Jessica about how to cover a large amount of time by using time itself as your organizing principal, especially when writing a short novel or novella.Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find Anthony's debut and many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. Jessica Anthony is the author of three books of fiction, The Convalescent, which won the Amanda Davis Highwire Fiction Award from McSweeney's, Chopsticks, which she coauthored with graphic designer Rodrigo Corral, and most recently the novel Enter the Aardvark, a finalist for the New England Book Award in Fiction. A recipient of the Creative Capital Award in Literature, Anthony wrote The Most while guarding the Mária Valéria Bridge in Štúrovo, Slovakia. She lives in Portland, Maine.Photo: Matt Cosby This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
Today, we hear from Joseph Moldover whose second novel, JUST UNTIL, will be released in October. We'll be talking about the psychology of creative writing and the mental challenges of bringing a story or book to publication.Watch a recording of our live webinar here. The audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find Moldover's latest and many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. Joseph Moldover is the author of Every Moment After (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019) and of Just Until (Holiday House, October 29, 2024). He is also a clinical psychologist. He works with children and adolescents and specializes in learning and developmental challenges. He is the author of The Empowered Parent, a short guide for parents of children with special needs. He lives with his wife and four children outside of Boston, Massachusetts.Photo by Rey Seven on Unsplash This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
Today, we hear from Alison Langley, whose debut novel, ILONA GETS A PHONE, was released in the UK in April. We're talking to Alison about the use of specific language, when to use scene vs summary, and what to do when readers misread your book.Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find many books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. As a foreign correspondent, Alison Langley's stories appeared in The New York Times, Financial Times, Guardian and Deutsche Welle. She freelanced for The Wall Street Journal Europe in Budapest from 1990-94. That experience forms the backdrop of her first novel, Budapest Noir: Ilona Gets A Phone, now published by Dedalus Books, UK. It was a finalist of the Irish Writer's Centre Novel Prize 2022. Alison Langley is an avid gardener, mushroom hunter, and proud mother of three amazing adults. Langley lives in the Swiss Alps with her husband and dog.Photo by David Travis on Unsplash This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
Today we hear from Shalene Gupta whose new book, THE CYCLE: Confronting the Pain of Periods and PMDD, was released in February. Shalene and I will be talking about the ways authors can get past their fear of conducting interviews when writing about deeply personal material.Watch a recording here. The audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find Gupta's debut and many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. Shalene Gupta is a reporter whose work has appeared in Fortune, The Atlantic, ESPN, Fast Company, and Harvard Business Review. She is the coauthor of The Power of Trust: How Companies Build It, Lose It, Regain It with Harvard Business School professor Sandra Sucher. In 2022, she was identified as a thinker to watch out for and made the Thinkers50 Radar list. She's also the host of the Trustonomy podcast. She has an MS from Columbia Journalism School and is a graduate of GrubStreet's Novel Incubator program. Shalene has taught writing classes in the Boston area, and speaks regularly at conferences about trust and diversity issues.Photo by Andrea Cassani on Unsplash This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
Today we get to hear from Henriette Lazaridis whose novel, LAST DAYS IN PLAKA, was released in April 2024. Henriette and I will be talking about her choice to use the omniscient point of view and how she tackled the notoriously tricky narrative perspective.Watch a recording here. The audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find Lazaridis's debut and many books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. Henriette Lazaridis' novel TERRA NOVA was published by Pegasus Books in December, 2022 and was called "ingenious" and "provocative" by the New York Times. She is the author of the best-selling novel THE CLOVER HOUSE. Her short work has appeared in publications including Elle, Forge, Narrative Magazine, The New York Times, New England Review, The Millions, and has earned her a Massachusetts Cultural Council Artists Grant. Having taught English at Harvard, she now teaches at GrubStreet in Boston and runs the Krouna Writing Workshop in northern Greece. She also writes the Substack newsletter The Entropy Hotel, about athletic and creative challenges at henriettelazaridis.substack.com. Her new novel, LAST DAYS IN PLAKA, was released in April 2024.photo credit: Sharona Jacobs This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
Today we get to hear from Jennine Capo Crucet whose newest novel, SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIEND, was released in March. Jennine and I will be talking about writing in a voice and POV that originates in a sense of place.Watch a recording of our live webinar here. The audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find Crucet's debut and many books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. Jennine Capó Crucet is a novelist, essayist, and screenwriter. She's the author of three books, including the novel Make Your Home Among Strangers, which won the International Latino Book Award, was named a New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice book, and was cited as a best book of the year by NBC Latino, the Guardian, the Miami Herald, and other venues; it has been adopted as an all-campus read at over forty U.S. universities. Her other books include the story collection How to Leave Hialeah, which won the Iowa Short Fiction Prize, the John Gardner Book Award, and the Devil's Kitchen Reading Award; and the essay collection My Time Among the Whites: Notes from an Unfinished Education, which was long-listed for the 2019 PEN America/Open Book Award. A former Contributing Opinion Writer for the New York Times, she's also a recipient of a PEN/O. Henry Prize, the Picador Fellowship, and the Hillsdale Award for the Short Story, awarded by the Fellowship of Southern Writers. Her writing has appeared on PBS NewsHour, National Public Radio, and in publications such as the Atlantic, Condé Nast Traveler, and others. She's worked as a professor of Ethnic Studies and of Creative Writing at the University of Nebraska and at Florida State University. She's also worked for One Voice Scholars Program as a college access counselor to first-generation college students and as a sketch comedienne (though not at the same time). Born and raised in Miami to Cuban parents, her fourth book, a novel titled Say Hello To My Little Friend, is forthcoming from Simon & Schuster. She lives in North Carolina with her family. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
Today, we've got a special bonus episode which I'm calling our “Listener's Roundup” with listeners Anne Buckley, Jean Carlton, and Anna Carvlin. We're going to do a few of these over the course of the summer. This is when we get to hear from some of our listeners about they've learned from the past few episodes, what ideas they consider the most important, what questions or confusions they have, and their own advice and/or experience in dealing with the same issues in their writing. And by the way, we still have one more spot for YOU to take part in a listener's roundup. If you're interested, email me at 7amnovelist@substack.com.Also, I'll be teaching at a writing retreat in the Himalayas this April and you're welcome to join. For more info, go to https://www.himalayanwritingretreat.com/event/international-retreat-with-michelle-hoover/ Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. Also mentioned in this episode: Mavis Gallant's short story “Mlle. Dias de Corta” and Michael Noll's craft book, The Writer's Field Guide to the Craft of Fiction. (psst: you can find all my fave craft books on the Bookshop page too!)Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. Anne Buckley is a self-confessed stalker of debut novelists for all the right reasons, and is currently revising her own debut novel, Friendship Falls. Jean Smith Carlton self-published her first novel, Nothing Else Matters, in 2022 through Amazon KDP at the age of 76. Anna Carvlin lives with her family on the far South Side of Chicago, where she is writing fiction, including a novel and short stories, and pursuing a master's degree in English.Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
Today, we hear from Colwill Brown whose debut novel, WE PRETTY PIECES OF FLESH, is forthcoming in 2025. We'll be talking about the art of sentences and how Colwill had to wrangle with their own to make the unique voice of the book work.Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find Brown's debut and many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. Colwill Brown is the author of the novel We Pretty Pieces of Flesh, forthcoming in 2025 from Holt/Macmillan (North America), Chatto & Windus (UK & Commonwealth) and Sellerio (Italian trans.). Born and raised in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, UK, Colwill holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Texas at Austin and an MA in English literature from Boston College. Recipient of a James A. Michener Fellowship, scholarships to the Tin House Summer Workshop and the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, a 2022 Glenna Luschei Prairie Schooner Award, and top-fifty placing in the 2021 BBC National Short Story Award, Colwill's writing has also received awards and support from Hedgebrook, the Ragdale Foundation, the Anderson Center, and elsewhere. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
Today, we hear from Bryan VanDyke, whose debut novel, IN OUR LIKENESS, will be published in September. We're talking to Bryan about what to do when gatekeepers consider your writing “too quiet” and ways an author can make some noise with their new work without sidelining their own vision and style. Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find VanDyke's debut and many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. Bryan VanDyke is a former staff writer at The Millions. He holds an MFA from Columbia University and a BA from Northwestern. His debut novel, IN OUR LIKENESS is forthcoming from Little A this September. He is also the author of a book-length essay, ONLY THE TRYING: OR, HOW TO LIVE AFTER NOT QUITE DYING, a meditation on the nature of illness and recovery. His fiction has appeared in The Rumpus, Carve and elsewhere. He lives in New York City with his wife and two children.Photo by Kristina Flour on Unsplash This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
Today, we hear from Tessa Fontaine whose latest novel, THE RED GROVE, was released in May. We're talking to Tessa about how to bring a shy, attention-avoiding character to life on the page by discovering the many aspects of her situation and her past that gets her moving forward.By the way, on July 19 Tessa will be at Newtonville Books with authors Clare Beams, Rufi Thorpe, and Annie Hartnett. Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find Fontaine's debut novel and many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. Tessa Fontaine is the author of THE ELECTRIC WOMAN: A MEMOIR IN DEATH-DEFYING ACTS, a New York Times Editors' Choice, Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers pick, and best book of 2018 by Southern Living, Refinery29, Amazon Editors', and The New York Post. Other writing can be found in Outside, The New York Times, Glamour, AGNI, The Believer, LitHub, Creative Nonfiction, and more. Raised outside San Francisco, Tessa is a former professor and has taught in jails and prisons for five years. She co-founded and teaches the Accountability Workshops with writer and pal Annie Hartnett, and lives in Asheville, North Carolina, with her husband, daughter, goofy dog and sassy cat. THE RED GROVE is her first novel. It is a best book of May from Amazon and People Magazine, and on most anticipated lists from The Rumpus and Alta Magazine.Photo by Artur Rutkowski on Unsplash This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
Want to join the podcast? Come together with other listeners in a deep dive into this summer's episodes, discussing ideas, asking questions, and sharing your experiences about issues brought up in our interviews. Perfect for writers at every level. Only a few spots available. Email 7amnovelist@substack.com for more info.Today we get to hear from Annie Weatherwax whose much-lauded novel, All We Had, was adapted by Katie Holmes for her directorial debut. But Annie and I will be talking about how her career as a visual artist inspires her writing and vice versa, particularly as a writer and artist with dyslexia. Watch a recording of our live webinar here. The audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find Weatherwax's debut and many books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. Annie Weatherwax is an author and artist who spent her early career sculpting superheroes and cartoon characters for Nickelodeon, DC Comics, and Pixar. Winner of the Robert Olen Butler Prize for Fiction, her debut novel All We Had, was a finalist for the Massachusetts Book Award and is now a major motion picture from Tribeca films. In 2017, she received The Hamilton Life Achievement Award for individuals with dyslexia. In 2021, she was the inaugural fellow at New Yorker Cartoonist, James Stevenson's Lost and Found Lab. Character sketches and stories from her collection, “Odd Balls and Relationships,” appeared in the winter 2023/24 issue of Ploughshares Magazine. Her work exploring the relationship between language and vision, visual art and literature has been published in the New York Times and Publishers Weekly. Her most recent endeavor is "Monster in a Dress”—an animated short about her journey with gender, identity and personhood. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
Today we hear from Sarah Tomlinson whose novel, The Last Days of the Midnight Ramblers, was released in February. Sarah and I will be talking about red herrings and how to make them work in a character-driven novel rather than letting them be a mere plot contrivance. Watch a recording of our live webinar here. The audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find Tomlinson's debut and many books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.Sarah Tomlinson, a former music journalist, has been a ghostwriter since 2008, penning more than 20 books, including five New York Times bestsellers. In 2015, she published the father-daughter memoir, Good Girl (Gallery Books). She wrote The Last Days of the Midnight Ramblers, her first novel, in-between assignments for a who's who of celebrity clients. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
Today, another special bonus episode of our “Listener's Roundup” with Alison Langley, Patricia Manuel Go, and Erica Ferencik. The Listener's Roundup is when we get to hear from some of our listeners about they've learned from the past few episodes, what ideas they consider the most important, what questions or confusions they have, and their own advice and/or experience in dealing with the same issues in their writing. By the way, we still have a couple more open spots for YOU to take part in a listener's roundup. If you're interested, email me at 7amnovelist@substack.com.So today, we've got listeners Alison Langley, Patricia Manuel Go, and Erica Ferencik with us.Watch a recording here. This audio/video version (unedited) is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. Patricia Manuel Go is the author of a short story, “Pig,” which was published in the US in the anthology Growing up Filipino 3 (2022)—she has since turned it into a novel with much help from GrubStreet, especially her mentor, Henriette Lazaridis. As a foreign correspondent, Alison Langley freelanced for The Wall Street Journal Europe in Budapest from 1990-94. That experience forms the backdrop of her first novel, Budapest Noir: Ilona Gets A Phone, published by Dedalus Books, UK.Erica Ferencik is the author of the critically acclaimed, bestselling novels, The River at Night and Into the Jungle. Film rights for her latest release, Girl in Ice, have been optioned by Netflix.Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
Today we get to hear from Steve Almond, whose latest book on the process of writing, TRUTH IS THE ARROW, MERCY IS THE BOW, was released in April. Steve and I will be talking about writer's block, how to convey a character's inner life, and what that heavy word, ART, might really mean.Watch a recording here. The audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find Almond's new book and many books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. Steve Almond is the author of twelve books of fiction and nonfiction, including the New York Times bestsellers Candyfreak and Against Football. His recent books include the novel All the Secrets of the World, which has been optioned for television by 20th Century Fox, and his first novel, co-written with Julianna Baggott, WHICH BRINGS ME TO YOU, is now a major motion picture, filmed with actress Lucy Hale. For four years, Steve hosted the New York Times Dear Sugars podcast with his pal Cheryl Strayed. He is the recipient of a 2022 NEA grant in fiction, and his short stories have been anthologized in the Best American Short Stories, The Pushcart Prize, Best American Erotica, and Best American Mysteries series. He also publishes crazy, DIY books. Photo by Jill Heyer on Unsplash This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
Today, we hear from Laura van den Berg whose latest novel, STATE OF PARADISE, will be released on July 9. We're talking to Laura about writing a book that combines autofiction and speculative fiction and what to do when another novel you're writing is asking for attention.Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find van den Berg's debut and many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. Laura van den Berg was born and raised in Florida. She is the author of five works of fiction, including The Third Hotel (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018), a finalist for the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award, and I Hold a Wolf by the Ears (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020), which was one of Time Magazine's 10 Best Fiction Books of 2020. She is the recent recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts & Letters, and a literature fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. Her next two novels, State of Paradise and Ring of Night, are forthcoming from FSG in 2024 and 2026. She is the author of two previous story collections, The Isle of Youth (FSG, 2013) and What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us (Dzanc Books, 2009), and the novel Find Me (FSG, 2015). She is currently a Senior Lecturer on Fiction at Harvard University. Laura lives in the Hudson Valley with her husband, the writer Paul Yoon, and their dog, Oscar.Photo by Paul Yoon This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
Today we get to hear from Kate Woodworth whose novel, Little Great Island, will be released in May of 2025. Kate and I will be talking about managing multiple points of view—the book has eleven!—which she refers to “as playing three dimensional chess in the dark.” Watch a recording here. The audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find Woodworth's debut and many books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. Kate Woodworth's first book, Racing into the Dark, came out in 2009 from Dutton and has been optioned for film. Booklist called it “a compelling exploration of mental illness.” She later went into a career as a medical writer before receiving her MFA from Boston University. Her second novel, Little Great Island, will be released in May 2025 from Sibylline Press, a woman-owned independent press publishing work by women over 50.Photo by Taneli Lahtinen on Unsplash This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
Today, we hear from one of our most beloved Boston-area writers, Marjan Kamali, whose lates novel, THE LION WOMEN OF TEHRAN, will be released on July 2. We're talking to Marjan about how she handled the passage of time in writing the book.Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find Kamali's latest and many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. Marjan Kamali is the award-winning author of the forthcoming The Lion Women of Tehran (out July 2024), The Stationery Shop (Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster), a national and international bestseller, and Together Tea (EccoBooks/HarperCollins), a Massachusetts Book Award finalist. She is a 2022 recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship. Marjan's novels are published in translation in more than 25 languages (21 languages for The Stationery Shop and 10 languages for Together Tea). Her essays have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Literary Hub, and The Los Angeles Review of Books. Marjan holds a bachelor's degree in English literature from the University of California, Berkeley, a Master of Business Administration from Columbia University, and a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from New York University. Born in Turkey to Iranian parents, she spent her childhood in Turkey, Iran, Germany, Kenya, and the U.S. Marjan is currently the Fannie Hurst Writer-in-Residence at Brandeis University. She lives in the Boston area with her family.Photo Credit: David E. Lawrence This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
Today, we get to hear from Maurice Carlos Ruffin whose novel, THE AMERICAN DAUGHTERS, was released in February. We'll be talking about how to write politically charged topics. Watch a recording here. The audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find Ruffin's latest novel and many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.Maurice Carlos Ruffin is the recipient of the 2023 Louisiana Writer Award and the Black Rock Senegal Residency. He also wrote The Ones Who Don't Say They Love You, which was published in August 2021. It was the 2023 One Book One New Orleans selection, a New York Times Editor's Choice, a finalist for the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence and longlisted for the Story Prize. The book was also selected to represent Louisiana at the 2023 National Book Festival. His first book, We Cast a Shadow, was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and the PEN America Open Book Prize. It was longlisted for the 2021 DUBLIN Literary Award, the Center for Fiction Prize, and the Aspen Words Literary Prize. A New Orleans native, Ruffin is a professor of Creative Writing at Louisiana State University, and the 2020-2021 John and Renee Grisham Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi. Ruffin is part of the Artist Network of Narrative 4, an organization dedicated to aiding the educational opportunities of young people. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
Today we're talking to three authors—Jean Duffy, Bev Boisseau Stohl, and Laura Beretsky—and the writing group that provided them with the support and encouragement to keep them going. What makes the Page Six Writing Group so special? While usually only 1-2% of writers get their books published, three of its six members published a book in the same year. The Page Six Writing Group also includes writers Susan Schirl Smith, Marcie Kaplan, and Maggie Lowe.Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. BONUS! Today, you'll find a tip sheet from The Page Six Writing Group on this page about making a group like theirs work.Watch a recording here. The audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find the debuts mentioned in this interview and many books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. Laura Beretsky is a writer who lives in Somerville with her children, husband and two cats. She recently published Seizing Control: Managing Epilepsy and Others' Reactions to It, a memoir about the challenges facing those who live with perceptible health conditions. Her work has appeared in Health Story Collaborative, The National Library of Poetry, and Cognoscenti. More at https://lauraberetsky.com/published-essays/Bev Boisseau Stohl is a non-fiction writer whose blog grew into Chomsky and Me: A Memoir, (from OR Books) published in July of 2023. Her book tells the story of her 24 years as assistant to linguist, activist, Professor Noam Chomsky at MIT, and the unexpected bond that developed through a shared humor and compassion. You can find Bev with her wife walking her two rescue dogs in Watertown, and at www.instagram.com/ChomskyandMeAMemoir.Jean Duffy is a nonfiction writer whose first book, Soccer Grannies: The South African Women Who Inspire the World (Rowman & Littlefield), was published in 2023. Jean can be found on the soccer field in Lexington, Massachusetts, where her team, the Lexpressas, have been playing for some twenty years. She lives with her husband in Somerville, Massachusetts. More at https://jeanduffy.comPhoto by Chang Duong on Unsplash This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
Today we get to hear from Patricia Park whose newest novel, WHAT'S EATING JACKIE OH?, was released in April. Patty and I will be talking about how culture and family influences who we are, what we love, the false expectations others place on us, and how to navigate ever-changing tastes, both that of others and (more importantly) our own.Watch a recording of our live webinar here. The audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find Park's latest novel and many books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. Patricia Park is the author of the award-winning adult novel, RE JANE, a Korean American retelling of Brontë's Jane Eyre; and the YA novels IMPOSTER SYNDROME & OTHER CONFESSIONS OF ALEJANDRA KIM and WHAT'S EATING JACKIE OH? She is a tenured professor of creative writing at American University, a Fulbright scholar, an Edith Wharton Writer-in-Residence, and a Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, among other awards. She has written for The New York Times, New Yorker, Guardian, and others. She was born and raised in Queens and lives in Brooklyn. Fun Fact: Patricia is trying her hand at stand-up comedy to research her next novel about an aspiring comic. Follow her “method writing” journey on Instagram. Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
Today we get to hear from Kasey LeBlanc whose debut novel, FLYBOY, was released in May. Kasey and I will be talking about pacing and working with different kinds of dual narratives, in particular with how he dealt with moving between the day and night worlds his protagonist exists in.Watch a recording here. The audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find LeBlanc's debut and many books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. Born and raised in Massachusetts, Kasey LeBlanc is a graduate of Harvard College, and an alum of GrubStreet's Novel Incubator program, where he was an Alice Hoffman fellow. He was a 2019 finalist for the Boston Public Library's Writer-in-Residence position and has had works published in WBUR's Cognoscenti, them, and Writer Unboxed. His first novel FLYBOY was released from HarperCollins in May.Photo by Karina Carvalho on Unsplash This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
Today we get to hear from Emma Copley Eisenberg whose debut novel, HOUSEMATES, was released in May 2024. Emma and I will be talking about the ways in which dialogue allows the writer to convey higher truths.Watch a recording of our live webinar here. The audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find Eisenberg's debut and many books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. Emma Copley Eisenberg is the author of The Third Rainbow Girl: The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia, a hybrid work that mixes memoir, cultural criticism, and reporting. It was named a New York Times Notable Book and Editor's Choice of 2020 and was nominated for an Edgar Award, a Lambda Literary Award, and an Anthony Bouchercon Award, among other honors. Eisenberg is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Wesleyan University, and has taught creative writing at Bryn Mawr College, Temple University, and the University of Virginia, where she received her MFA in fiction and was a Henry Hoyns/Poe Faulkner fellow. Raised in New York City, she lives in Philadelphia, where she co-founded Blue Stoop, a community hub for the literary arts. Her debut novel, Housemates, was published by Hogarth on May 28, 2024. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
Today, we hear from listeners Carol Folbre, Liesl Swogger, and Christine Murphy for a special bonus episode I'm calling our “Listener Roundup.” This is where we get to hear from some of our listeners about they've learned from the past few episodes, what ideas they consider the most important, what questions or confusions they have, and their own advice and/or experience in dealing with the same issues in their writing. Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. Dr. Carol Folbre is the author of the nonfiction mixed-media book WISHBONE: AN AMERICAN ODYSSEY IN ASIA by Trinity University Press that launches August 13th, 2024.Liesl Swogger has the finish line in sight(ish) of a rewrite of her novel, A SINGLE SEASON. Think, Billy Elliot set in Houston, TX.Christine Murphy is the author of the forthcoming literary thriller, NOTES ON SURVIVING THE FIRE, from Knopf (February 2025). She spends her non-writing time writing and playing with pets. Photo by Jonathan Beckman on Unsplash This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
Want to join the podcast? Come together with other listeners in a deep dive into this summer's episodes, discussing ideas, asking questions, and sharing your experiences about issues brought up in our interviews. Perfect for writers at every level. Only a few spots available. Email 7amnovelist@substack.com for more info.Today we get to hear from Maria Hummel whose most recent novel, GOLDENSEAL, was released in January. Maria and I will be talking about the advantages and pitfalls of rewriting an existing fictional story and revising existing fictional models.Watch a recording of our live webinar here. The audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find Hummel's most recent novel and many books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. Maria Hummel is a novelist and poet. Her books include Goldenseal, Lesson in Red, a follow-up to Still Lives, a Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick, a Book of the Month Club pick, and a BBC Culture Best Book of 2018; Motherland, a San Francisco Chronicle Book of the Year; and House and Fire, winner of the APR/Honickman Poetry Prize. She is also the winner of a Stegner Fellowship, a Bread Loaf Fellowship, and the Pushcart Prize. Hummel worked for many years as an arts editor and journalist, and as a writer/editor for The Museum of Contemporary Art, experience that informed Still Lives and Lesson in Red. She also taught creative writing at Stanford University and Colorado College, and is now a full professor at the University of Vermont. She lives in Vermont with her husband and sons. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
Want to join the podcast? Come together with other listeners in a deep dive into this summer's episodes, discussing ideas, asking questions, and sharing your experiences about issues brought up in our interviews. Perfect for writers at every level. Only a few spots available. Email 7amnovelist@substack.com for more info.Today, we hear from Desmond Hall whose newest novel, BETTER MUST COME, was released on June 4. I'll be interviewing Des with a whole lot of other questions about this book live at GrubStreet in the Boston Seaport on June 13, so I hope to see people there where you can buy your own copy and get it signed. Today, however, we'll be talking about how to manage dramatic irony—which is basically about when to reveal what info and where in terms of what a character versus a reader knows—while writing multiple points of view.Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find Hall's latest and many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. Desmond Hall was born in Jamaica, West Indies, and moved to Jamaica, Queens. He has worked as a high school biology and English teacher in East New York, Brooklyn; counseled teenage ex-cons after their release from Rikers Island; and served as Spike Lee's creative director at Spike DDB. Desmond has served on the board of the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids and the Advertising Council and judged the One Show, the American Advertising Awards, and the NYC Downtown Short Film Festival. He's also been named one of Variety magazine's Top 50 Creatives to Watch. In addition to his latest, Better Must Come, Desmond is also the author of the gritty YA novel Your Corner Dark which confronts the harsh realities of gang life in Jamaica and how far a teen is willing to go for family. He lives outside of Boston with his wife and two daughters. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
Want to join the podcast? Come together with other listeners in a deep dive into this summer's episodes, discussing ideas, asking questions, and sharing your experiences about issues brought up in our interviews. Perfect for writers at every level. Only a few spots available. Email 7amnovelist@substack.com for more info.Today, we hear from Dawn Tripp, whose latest novel, JACKIE, was released in June. We're talking to Dawn about voice and the emotional level of a story (which is to say, we're talking about interiority).Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find Tripp's latest and many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. Dawn Tripp is the author of the novel Georgia, which was a national bestseller, a finalist for the New England Book Award, and a winner of the Mary Lynn Kotz Award for Art in Literature. She is the author of three previous novels: Game of Secrets, Moon Tide, and The Season of Open Water, which won the Massachusetts Book Award for Fiction. Her poems and essays have appeared in the Virginia Quarterly Review, Harvard Review, AGNI, Conjunctions, and NPR, among others. She serves on the board of the Boston Book Festival and on the board of Gnome Surf: A non-profit Surf Therapy Organization focused on creating a culture shift towards kindness, love, and acceptance for athletes of all abilities. She graduated from Harvard and lives in Massachusetts with her sons. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
Want to join the podcast? Come together with other listeners in a deep dive into this summer's episodes, discussing ideas, asking questions, and sharing your experiences about issues brought up in our interviews. Perfect for writers at every level. Only a few spots available. Email 7amnovelist@substack.com for more info.Today we get to hear from Adam White whose novel, THE MIDCOAST, was one of the big books of 2022. Adam and I will be talking about his decision to revise his third-person narrator in earlier drafts to the 1st-person omniscient and the possibilities and struggles such a revision involved. Watch a recording here. The audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find White's debut and many books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. Adam White grew up in Damariscotta, Maine and now lives with his wife and son in Boston, where he teaches writing and coaches lacrosse. He holds an MFA from Columbia University. The Midcoast is his first novel. It was a national bestseller as well as a finalist for the New England Society Book Award and a CrimeReads Best Book of the Year. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
Want to join the podcast? Come together with other listeners in a deep dive into this summer's episodes, discussing ideas, asking questions, and sharing your experiences about issues brought up in our interviews. Perfect for writers at every level. Only a few spots available. Email 7amnovelist@substack.com for more info.Today, we hear from Sara Shukla, whose debut novel, PINK WHALES, will be released tomorrow, June 4. She'll be in conversation with Jane Roper at the Boston Edition of Porter Square Books. We're talking to Sara about using humor as a coping mechanism while launching her book after a family loss.Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find Shukla's debut and many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. Sara Shukla is an editor for WBUR's Cognoscenti. You can find her writing at WBUR as well as the Los Angeles Review of Books, McSweeneys, and elsewhere. An alum of GrubStreet's Novel Incubator and the University of Virginia, she lives in Massachusetts with her family. Pink Whales is her debut novel.Photo credit: Melissa Sepulveda This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
To support the GALIOT PRESS kickstarter campaign, click here or go to https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/galiotpress/galiot-pressToday, we're talking to authors Anjali Mitter Duva and Henriette Lazaridis about a new publishing house they're launching, Galiot Press, why they're doing it, and how they hope to serve authors by changing the industry from the ground up. And a special treat for listeners this summer: you too can be a part of the podcast. If you're interested in joining the show and discussing some of our summer episodes, join our Facebook page for more information or simply email me at 7amnovelist@substack.com with your reasons for wanting to do so.Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.Anjali Mitter Duva is an Indian American writer, editor, and publisher raised in France. She is the author of the bestselling historical novel FAINT PROMISE OF RAIN which was shortlisted for a William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. She is a co-founder and publisher of Galiot Press, a new independent publisher ushering in a sea change for the written word. She is an instructor at Grub Street Writers and a former Fiction Co-Editor at Solstice: A Magazine of Diverse Voices. She was a Finalist for a Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Fellowship. Anjali co-founded and runs the Arlington Author Salon, a quarterly literary series with a twist; ran a ten-year book club for teens; and was a co-founder and executive director of Chhandika, a non-profit organization that teaches and presents India's classical storytelling kathak dance. Educated at Brown University and MIT, she lives in the Boston area.Henriette Lazaridis' novel TERRA NOVA was published by Pegasus Books in December, 2022 and was called "ingenious" and "provocative" by the New York Times. She is the author of the best-selling novel THE CLOVER HOUSE. Her short work has appeared in publications including Elle, Forge, Narrative Magazine, The New York Times, New England Review, The Millions, and has earned her a Massachusetts Cultural Council Artists Grant. Henriette grew up in the Boston area as the only child of Greek expats, speaking Greek as her first language. Devoted to storytelling since her childhood bedtime stories from the Odyssey, Henriette earned degrees in English literature from Middlebury College, Oxford University, where she was a Rhodes Scholar, and the University of Pennsylvania. Having taught English at Harvard, she now runs the Krouna Writing Workshop in northern Greece. She writes the Substack newsletter The Entropy Hotel, about athletic and creative challenges at henriettelazaridis.substack.com. Her newest novel LAST DAYS IN PLAKA, was released in April and was a Good Morning America Buzz Pick. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
Today you get a sneak peak of what our summer interviews will like. Listeners will also get a chance to be a part of the summer podcast episodes, so listen for announcements about that opportunity in our SubStack notes and on our Facebook page. We're going to start the summer off early (please, yes!) by hearing from Samantha Harvey, who latest novel, ORBITAL, was released in November. Samantha and I will be talking about the dynamic relationship between structure and point of view and how she rediscovered her own late in her drafting process. Samantha will also be at Porter Square Books in Cambridge tomorrow, April 3, at 7pm with author Jamie Quatro, so if you're local to Boston, I encourage you to check it out. I'll be there as well. Watch a recording of our live webinar here. The audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find Harvey's book and many books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. Samantha Harvey is the author of five novels, The Wilderness, All Is Song, Dear Thief ,The Western Wind and Orbital. She is also the author of a memoir, The Shapeless Unease. Her novels have been shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction, the Guardian First Book Award, the Walter Scott Prize and the James Tait Black Prize, and longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, the Baileys Prize, the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize and the HWA Gold Crown Award. The Western Wind won the 2019 Staunch Book Prize, and The Wilderness was the winner of the AMI Literature Award and the Betty Trask Prize. Orbital, was published in November 2023 by Jonathan Cape (UK) and Grove Atlantic (US). She lives in Bath, UK, and is a Reader in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University.Photo by The New York Public Library on Unsplash This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
We talk to Christine Byl after launching her debut novel, Lookout. A professional trail-builder in Alaska for 28-years, Byl knows the importance of quiet, patience, and spending the time that your book needs instead of allowing the outside world to muddle your instincts. How does she do it? Listen in.To watch a recording of our interview, click here. These recordings are only available for a few days. Missed it? Check out the podcast version of the 7am Novelist on your fave podcast platform.To find Byl's novel and many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. Christine Byl is the author of the novel Lookout, shortlisted for the Center for Fiction's 2023 First Novel Prize and a Great Group Reads selection; and Dirt Work: An Education in the Woods, which was shortlisted for the 2014 Willa Award in nonfiction. Christine is an associate editor at Alaska Quarterly Review; teaches writing workshops in public schools; and has worked as a professional trail-builder for 28 years. She lives in Interior Alaska on the homelands of Dene' people. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
The last listener's question in our January series is about joy. We've got authors Suzanne Berne, Shalene Gupta, and Christine Murphy to talk about the good that can be found in the writing process.Watch a recording of our live webinar here. The audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.Check out my interview with AE Osworth about “Joy First Drafting” here.Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.Suzanne Berne is the author of five novels: her most recent, The Blue Window, released last January, as well as The Dogs of Littlefield, The Ghost at the Table, A Perfect Arrangement, and A Crime in the Neighborhood, which won Great Britain's Orange Prize, now The Women's Prize. Shalene Gupta is a Boston-area writer and the author of The Cycle: Confronting the Pain of Periods and PMDD, which will be released in February. Christine Murphy is a graduate of GrubStreet's Novel Incubator program. Her debut novel, Notes on Surviving the Fire, is under contract and forthcoming in 2025. Photo by Adrian Moise on Unsplash This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
We've got two very different questions today as we begin to wrap up our January series. The first asks about submitting shorter works to literary magazines and other venues. The second wonders how she can improve her use of subtext. Authors Mark Cecil, Erica Ferencik, and Whitney Scharer help us find the answers.Watch a recording of our live webinar here. The audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.Mark Cecil is the author of the novel Bunyan and Henry; Or, The Beautiful Destiny, the host of The Thoughtful Bro podcast, and he has taught writing at Grub Street in Boston.Erica Ferencik is the author of the critically acclaimed, best-selling novels The River at Night, Into the Jungle, and Girl in Ice.Whitney Scharer is the author of the international bestselling and award-winning novel The Age of Light as well as short fiction and essays in numerous publications. and she's the co-founder of the Arlington Author Salon in Arlington, MA. Photo by Cristian Tepaz on Unsplash This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
Today, we talk about the trials and tribulations of writing from real life: Can I write a memoir if I don't have concrete memories? Am I trying to stay too close to my original experience in turning that experience into a novel? And when does writing fiction based on real life become exploitive of others? Some tough questions, but we've got writers Anjali Mitter Duva, Alex Ferraro, and Ethan Gilsdorf to help us out.Watch a recording of our live webinar here. The audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.Anjali Mitter Duva is the author of the historical novel Faint Promise of Rain and the co-founder of Galiot Press, a new publishing company ushering in a sea change for the written word.Alex Ferraro is a graduate of the Novel Incubator and is working on his novel, a twisty Texas noir called Like Thunder in the Next County.Ethan Gilsdorf is an essayist, critic, journalist, the author of the memoir Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks and teaches GrubStreet's Essay Incubator program.Photo by Vince Fleming on Unsplash This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
We get to talk to Mary Carroll Moore who lays bare her own past writing challenges, how she dealt with them, and the kinds of issues she finds early writers struggle with most.To watch a recording of our interview, click here. These recordings are only available for a few days. Missed it? Check out the podcast version of the 7am Novelist on your fave podcast platform.To find Moore's most recent book, a list of my favorite craft books, and many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. Mary Carroll Moore is a bestselling and award-winning author of 14 books in 3 genres, including thePEN/Faulkner-and Lambda Literary Awards nominated young adult novel, Qualities of Light, the prequel to A Woman's Guide to Search and Rescue. She received her MFA from GoddardCollege and has taught throughout the US and abroad at various writing schools and universities since 1998. Her writing-craft book, Your Book Starts Here, won the New Hampshire Literary Awards “Reader's Choice” award. Before moving into fiction, she worked as a chef, a cooking-school owner, a cookbook author, and a syndicated columnist for the Los Angeles Times. Her first cookbook won a JuliaChild/IACP award. Over two hundred of her essays, stories, and articles have appeared in magazines and literary journals. She lives in New Hampshire with her family. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
We hear from a writer today who recently got some feedback that her “narrative structure” needed some work. She's dealing with multiple POVs and timelines, so where should she go from here? The question opens up a slew of issues about choices in POV and handling time as well as structure. We've got authors Mark Cecil and Jane Roper to help her figure it all out.Watch a recording of our live webinar here. The audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.Mark Cecil is the author of the novel Bunyan and Henry; Or, The Beautiful Destiny, the host of The Thoughtful Bro podcast, and he has taught writing at Grub Street in Boston.Jane Roper is the author of two novels, The Society of Shame and Eden Lake, a memoir, Double Time: How I Survived–and Mostly Thrived–Through the First Three Years of Mothering Twins, numerous personal essays and humor pieces, and a very eclectic Substack, Jane's Calamity. Photo by Matúš Kovačovský on Unsplash This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
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