Write On SC

get the full notes on the blog here.Last week's episode on war was so rich, I'm glad to continue the conversation this week with author Jerry Dean Pate, a former journalist in print and radio media turned novelist of historical fiction. Pate's first novel, Plagued by Bad Beliefs was published with friend of the show Alexa Bigwarfe through Write|Publish|Sell. We'll talk about the novel, the origins of the story, the rigor of historical fiction, and the choice to indie publish the book.Here's a little bit about Jerry Dean PateHere's a synopsis (and BUY link!) for the novel

Get the full show notes on the blog here.So last week we did “conflict” and this week we're turning it up to 11 with War which, as you might imagine, is extremeconflict.Don't miss adjacent episodes on raising the stakes and “White Knuckle Scenes” which address the concept of “tension” in fiction and our first “conflict” conversation way back on episode 10.Last week we told you that conflict, according to this resource from Oregon State, means “thwarted, endangered, or opposing desire. It's when a character wants something, but something else gets in the way.”Today we're going to take War as extreme conflict and work out what they do to the narrative in three specific capacities:As setting (or backdrop)As primary conflict (this story is about the war or violence itself)As exposition (it happened before the story but the residue is still here)A few years ago, World War II novels were all anyone was publishing and I (Kasie) read WWII in every theater on the globe:Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet (San Francisco)All the Light We Cannot See (Normandy/coastal France)The Postmistress (Cape Cod)Five Quarters of the Orange (French countryside)The Orphan's Tale (Western Europe)Sarah's Key (Paris)Wildflower Hill (Australia)Shanghai Girls by Lisa See (Shanghai)The House at Tyneford (England)The Bronze Horseman (St Petersburg)Atonement (England)It felt like the only thing worth writing about was the stories surrounding World War II and I think the compulsion was that so many people who'd lived through the conflict were passing away. In any case, the “theaters” of war were many – the Pacific, the East Coast, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Great Britain. There wasn't a place on earth that the war didn't touch. I haven't read any novels about Canada or South America during that period, but I'm sure there are some.In any case, what was it that made WWII so compelling? Even Outlander jumps off from WWII before plunging back into the Scottish rebellion of the Jacobites in the 1740s. People were changed, irrevocably, by WWII.And that – irrevocable change – is the reason war is a compelling topic for stories. Read more on the blog.

Get the full show notes on the blog here.We did an episode on raising the stakes and one on “White Knuckle Scenes” back in October of last year. And when I texted you and asked, “What should we talk about tomorrow?” you (Rex) said, “tention.” Leaving off that “tention” is a misspelled version of “tension” I assumed you meant how to create drama, conflict, or action in the scene.So we're going to work on that today: how to make the scene interesting by building the conflict. Because, while we did the tension thing a year ago, we haven't done “conflict” since episode 10.Conflict, according to this resource from Oregon State, basically means “thwarted, endangered, or opposing desire. It's when a character wants something, but something else gets in the way.”In the broadest terms, there are 7 types of conflict (link):Character vs. charactersCharacter vs. societyCharacter vs. natureCharacter vs. technologyCharacter vs. supernaturalCharacter vs. fateCharacter vs. selfAt the scene level, these conflicts play out in dialogue and action, and drive the plot forward.Read more on the blog.

Get the full show notes on the blog here.We have done character episodes before. Early on, we did Despicable Characters, Archetypes, Names, and how to Be Mean to Your Characters. Then, more recently, Do you Have to Like the Main Character? and giving them agency, diversity, patriarchy, and arcs.So we might have done it all. Except we haven't. We haven't done origins – where do characters come from? And we haven't done values – what do your characters believe in? And we haven't done sketches – how do you get to know these characters before you write them?As an admitted pantser (Kasie) and an evolving planner (Rex), we will today talk about those Voices in Your Head – the ones you hear and cannot ignore and the ones you've heard for so long they're more like friends.All those weirdo writer things – the things we blame on characters – are up for discussion today.What is character development and why is it important? (masterclass link) Do characters simply spring from your head unbidden? Are they living in there, lurking in there, like parts of yourself you won't let out?Read more on the blog here.

Get the full show notes on the blog here.Wednesday night we had a fun time at The Aristocrat on Washington, reading short pieces called “flash” fiction. The official definition of flash fiction is stories that are 1000 words or less. Fiction, obviously, not true. But the crucial part of it is the length. Lengths vary, though, which makes it more confusing. Between 5 and 1000 words? Or between 300 and 1500?So why write flash fiction? What's the purpose?According to this Writers' Digest blog it's to focus on the “narrative movement” rather than focusing on character development or any other trivial things like setting or plot. So what does the writer mean by “narrative movement”? I don't know. She never explains. Just provides a list of links to other people's articles on the topic. The fuck? Yup.So these bits are from some of those articles. Come on. Rabbit hole with me.Characteristics of flash fiction (FAQs link):Few CharactersDescriptions that show rather than tell (isn't that all fiction?)Verbal efficiency of a poet – yeah, I'll give you this. Flash is a read-aloud form.Clear vision – know where the story is headed from the beginning and get there in the end (again, isn't that all fiction?)Who publishes flash fiction? I dunno. Contests. Lit journals. Instagram. You name it.Actually, this blog was written by someone who started a flash fiction press. So there's some specialists. And she answers the question, “Why do it?” Read more on the blog...

Last week we continued our work with literary devices working on flashback and juxtaposition. We took a little bit of time talking about extended flashback novels like The Orphan's Tale which is also a frame story. So we'll start with frame story today.What is a frame story?There's a great video and full definition from the Oregon State University's English department here. A frame story is a story-within-a-story – think Hamlet and the play happening inside the play, or The Princess Bride where the grandfather is reading to the grandson and over the course of the experience, the grandson changes his perspective on the story – “Maybe you could come back and read it again to me tomorrow?”The Canterbury Tales may be the most famous of these. It's Chaucer's masterpiece that brings travelers together and gets them each to tell a different story so we have the bigger story – the journey and the travelers – and within it, each of the tales, ranging from moral to baudy.Full show notes out on the blog here.

Okay. Rejection. Got another one this past week. The journal is called The Rupture and they didn't want my short story, So Close. Today we're going to talk about all the ways writers get rejected and what you can do about it.My Submittable account has 88 declines in it dating all the way back to 2012. A bunch in 2013, a pair in 2014 and 2015, a few in 2016 and 2017, and the bulk of them in 2018 when I went on my submit-every-week tear and racked up 52 “no thanks yous.”Is that how you build calluses? Well, yeah. Get told “no” enough and you get used to it.We all have our great rejection stories. What's yours?Show notes out on the blog here.

Last week we talked about rejection. We've all been there. Felt it. Had visceral emotional responses to it. We did not, repeat NOT email those who rejected us with stupid arrogant vitriol about how sorry they'd be someday. We didn't trash them on social media or lose our fucking minds about their industry, practices, or personal hygeine. Be a grown up.No, we did what professionals do. We moved on. And revised the crappy out of our stories. What did that revision process look like? That's the topic of today's episode: Rejection sucks and so does your story.Full show notes on the blog here.

So we've done some cool literary devices in the past but we've never done personification. It came up in my house this week because my mom's dog, Clemson, has been staying with us and we've been speaking for her all week: “But, Kasie, I love walking in the neighborhood and sniffing everything and never peeing. Let's do it again.”All the sarcasm, silliness, and fun of pretending we know what the animal thinks led Charlie to suggest this topic for the show. It made me think of books that have animals as main characters and how and if the author chose to put us in the mind of that animal. So that's what we're talking about today. It's an animal lovers' paradise, complete with silly voices.Definition time: personification is a noun meaning the attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form.So the first obvious thing to unpack is how authors assume one of two things:We have to get in the mind of the animal and think about what it knows, doesn't know, and cares about or doesn't care about.We pretend the animal acts and thinks like a human.Full show notes out on the blog here.

Last week we worked personification and anthropomorphism. So this week we're going to go through the list until we run out of time: Simile and Metaphor. We'll work these two together like they do in English classes. What is a simile? A simile is a phrase or comparison to describe something. They're spotted when you see the word “like” or “as” to create the comparison.Metaphors, on the other hand, are figures of speech that describe something through comparison without using “like” or “as.”  You act like a dog | You ain't nothin but a hound dogLife is like a box of chocolates  |  Life is a box of chocolatesLike the back of my hand  |  better than I know myselfShe walks in beauty like the night  |  Hela is night and darkness and fear.I wandered lonely as a cloud  |  I am a feather on the breeze.What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?  |  Our dreams had pruned.Get the rest of the show notes on the blog here.

Leaving aside that we're both of the generation totally fu**ed by Alanis Morissette's inaccurate read of “irony,” and that hyperbole is So.Everywhere. that we probably don't need an episode on it, and directing you all to the other episodes we did on archetypes (Episode 181 The Fool, Episode 72 Feminine Archetypes, and Episode 45 Cliche Characters), this may very well be our last deep-dive literary devices episode. But who knows.We didn't expect motifs to go into a second week. And yet here we are.Themes, symbols, and motifs are frequently treated together when taught, but they're different (link):Themes are abstract or conceptual and live in the backdrop of a story as a main idea.Symbols are objects that represent something else: a white dove, a skeleton key, a snakeMotifs are symbolic, but not objects rather, phrases or words repeated: the scent of oranges in Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris is used to indicate the triggering of a migraine by the characters' mother. The smell of peanuts at the circus is used to taunt the little girl who wants to be part of proper society in The Greatest Showman.Full show notes (cusswords and all ) out on the blog here.

Last week we continued our work with literary devices working on themes and their workhorses: symbolism and motifs. This week we're looking at flashback and juxtaposition. Juxtaposition – is another theme workhorse so in the interest of continuity for our binge-listeners, we'll start there. JuxtapositionWhat is juxtaposition and why should you use it? Not exclusively a literary term, juxtaposition means to put two or more things close together to demonstrate the contrasts between them. Grammarly provides this guidance on when to use it:Strengthen an argumentCreate an emotional responseAdd deeper meaning.Sufficiently vague? I thought so, too. Some juxtapositions are antithesis – “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” or a deafening silence, a sweet sorrow (also oxymorons, btw).Full show notes out on the blog here.

Got my manuscript back from the developmental editor and while a lot of what he had to say was great, one word stuck out: ReWrite. He may have even pluralized it. So what's next? What do you do? How do you do it?This week we talk reasons and strategies for rewrites and build in some practical work for Kāsie during our conversation. It's time to roll up our sleeves and do the real work of writing a great book.Get the full show notes out on the blog here.

Two weeks ago, we did an episode on lazy writing and came upon this blog talking about plot holes, character under-development and other story-level sins. It picks mostly on Wonder Woman 1984 and Star Wars Episode 7, two films I (Kasie) admittedly liked. But it's not wrong and it actually makes me cringe to think about how right the author is and whether these scripts needed more work before they went into production.If so, what does that say about all the crap I'm publishing? Don't we think movies that actually get made and especially those with ginormous marketing budgets and hype are actually better than my own novice indie suchness? Maybe not.In any case, the section on exposition caught us as particularly interesting because it's been a while since we did exposition in the “what not to do” approach during NaNoWriMo in episode 166 and a little more recent, but not much more so when we took on origin stories for the Christmas episode 170. Today, we're going to approach exposition from a character backstory angle, specifically focused on those things the writerhas to know but the audience doesn't. Let's start with an experiment.Link to the show notes here.

We're visiting with Dr. Thaddeus Jones, filmmaker and entrepreneur. But above all, storyteller. Here's some relevant links to learn more about Thad:His IMDB profile – you gotta know this impressed the hell out of my familyNews from the Augusts Chronicle – a homecoming of sorts for film campDoko Film Festival includes ThadLink to The Harvest on FilmFreeway so you can see some of Thad's workSo let's talk about where good story comes from.Here are the show notes on the blog.

There are a few kinds of literary short cuts and usually your English teacher just called it lazy writing. But it's not always lazy, sometimes it's just a faster way to communicate a bigger idea to people who know what you mean. Today we break down the kinds of short cuts and justify or reject them. As usual, there are no hard rules in this. It all depends on the phrase and the context.Get the full show notes here.

Authors are typically doing one of 5 things:ReadingWritingRevisingQueryingMarketing / sellingEach activity has its own positive impact on the writer's work. And each one has its own tools and takes its own allocated time. Some can be done simultaneously.Get the full show notes here.

Here are a few things I think we can safely take on in a general “How does this affect authors” kind of way:Digital platform building and the insights we're giving awayDigital marketing tools like email listsDigital plagiarismSearch engine optimization (SEO)Scrivener, Google Docs, Word and other tools writers use to create manuscriptsTemi and other voice-to-text optionsWattpad, Vella and other serialization platformsDigital submissions – via email or submittableTwitter and other ways to find and stalk agents and publishersGet the full show notes here.

Full show notes are out on the blog here.So let's start with the basic outline of the Hero's Journey and then we'll do some examples and pick apart our favorite parts:The Call — being chosen to undertake the journeyThe Companions — who will accompany the hero?The journey itself — distance, obstacles, treacheryMonstersTemptationsDeadly opposites or opposing dangers — think colliding armiesThe underworld — death itself or a glimpse of the other side in the form of visions and insights gleaned by ghosts and spiritsThe helpers — maintain posts along the path and assist the hero and companions in some wayArrival and frustration — within sight of the goal but a new and terrible series of obstacles presentsThe final ordeal — the last test of the hero's personal transformationAchievement of the goal — life affirming, it was all worth it finale of the story.read more...

Get the full original show notes here.At the beginning of November, to help out our NaNoWriMo'ers, we did an episode on Character Arcs. In the third segment we briefly touched on the negative arc, or the moral descent. Here's some notes from that episode:The disillusionment (or negative change) arc, the character also believes a lie, is confronted with the truth and is able to overcome the lie, but the new truth — existence after accepting the truth — is tragic.This is Michael Corleone. He believes himself to be good, to be righteous. But he is a criminal, a ruthless loyalist to his corrupt family. When he accepts this about himself, he is tragically doomed to lead the family after his father's death.This video calls this the “corruption arc” wherein the character has the truth, and is very aware of it, but as he is tested, he decides to exchange the truth for a lie — i.e. the Corleones must kill their enemies.So what are the elements of the moral descent character arc? How do you know you're in one?read more...

Complete show notes and links to Carolyn's books here.You've met Carolyn Hartley before, she's one of our Patrons and the owner of J. Merrill Press in Chapin, South Carolina. The vision for J. Merrill Press has always been to publish stories of courageous women and never is this more true than in Adele's duet.The first book, Redemption: One Woman's Dream to Overcome Oppression, Find Family, Love, and Forgivenessintroduced us to Adele. Born into wealth before her father died, Adele and her mother found very different circumstances with her stepfather. Spun away from family into a life of poverty, strife and violence, Adele nonetheless retains the memory of a happier destiny. When she sets off in search of her place in the world, she finds more than she asked for. Themes of courage, family, determination, and resilience dominate Redemption and our connection to Adele is deep and wide.It's no surprise, then, that Carolyn picked up Adele's story on the day of her grandmother's funeral in Reconciliation: Atone the Devil in Buried Sunshine. No longer the timid, naïve girl of Redemption, Adele (though only 19) has inherited the family's struggling coal mining business and her grandmother's role as matriarch. Doing what's best for her sisters and the town that depends upon their family, Adele navigates distrust, betrayal, and even her half-crazed step father's relentless attempts at revenge. Reconciliation is a satisfying next installment in a saga that has so much to offer.read more...

Full show notes out on the blog here.After reading an article about the reason we need to keep reading novels, I (Kasie) suggested to Rex that we take on this idea of critical reading and how we build that skill set. We take it for granted that people read. For two reasons: 1) we read a TON and think that's normal and 2) we write and we are hoping (hoping!) that people will buy our shit and read it.This week we take a look at this reading thing. What do the trends look like? What are the opportunities (to think about this like entrepreneurs) and what are the worrisome numbers? When I couldn't find the original article I read, I just googled “screens are making us reading” (seriously) thinking I'd find it. Turns out, I found a lot of conversation, going back as far as 10 years, related to reading on screens versus reading on paper and predicting the end of books. Yup.Let's unpack.Rumors of the long-form demise:No one reads novels anymoreThis article is about how no one will read your book – is this a supply and demand problem? Are there not enough readers consuming enough books to meet the supply of so.many.writers.? Publishers Weekly thinks so. Stats: 16 minutes per day reading (for those few Americans who actually do read books) and 3 hours per day of Netflix (if you wonder WTF is with that ratio you're not alone).The big 4 represent 75% of the commercial book market and people tend to read books that are already popular. Sigh.Former bibliophiles confess to having a hard time reading or finishing a book in this esquire article.Blame our smartphones and their incessant notificationsWe've been training our brains to skim and scroll instead of reading for depth and understandingThe author says, “my mechanisms for focus and attention have been gradually worn out and I find it harder now to shift gears.” Does that resonate?And this: “Reading is a prolonged and concentrated effort in dealing with only the subject at hand, weaving through the logical transitions paragraph after paragraph and building a comprehensive thought after one has gone through the entirety of the text. It is, after all, a skill that requires considerable and constant practice. Simply put, the kind of reading we do in social media is easy, messy, random and incidental.”Is this about reading comprehension skills? If you had a strong reading comprehension skill set, would the extensive social media reading have degraded those skills? Or, if you had a poor reading comprehension skill set, was social media made for you and is exploiting that?read more...

Full show notes out on the blog here.In entrepreneurship, we encourage founders to tell their stories so we can see all the millions of ways people come into ownership and no two stories are the same. And writing is the same. Everyone does their thing differently and so hearing a bunch of stories is a great way to stay encouraged.That said, I found this awesome Joanna Penn blog with some “what I've learned” and thought we could riff on that. These are things she's learned from being an authorprenuer for a decade and I think they're relevant to those mid-stride authors like us and maybe even a little surprising and encouraging.When you get bored or things feel a little stale, hang on a bit longer. Things will change, and you will, too.You can keep a mature author business going with just a few consistent actions.Writing booksPodcastingEmail marketing (grow your list!)Other things?You don't have to grow your business.Some projects are meaningful even if they're not profitableSome projects are FUN and this work should be funread more...

Full show notes out on the blog here.Professional writers who depend on volume for income (like those one-book-a-year professionals John Grisham and Nicholas Sparks) have the creative process down to a science. And all those teachers who teach “How to Write” have also disseminated their craft down to a process. We're going to work on that today.Since Rex teaches writing and I used to, many moons ago, we're uniquely qualified to discuss what total horseshit some of this stuff is. We'll break down the common elements of the process and some cool tips, tricks, and tools. Plus, we'll debunk some stupid shit people say when they're teaching you how to write and why you should ignore that garbage.Ya'll in? Let's do this.So Charlie's gone back to school for nursing and he had to write his first paper this weekend and as he was talking about organizing his resources and writing his introduction, I got this weird deja vu from grad school when I had to be all intentional about writing. And then I thought about all the blogs (like this one!) that I write on the regular and whether I was following the tried-and-true or if I'd invented my own work habits around this thing I do for a living.I consider myself a professional writer. Do you?What delineates professional from novice? Or hobbyist?What habits do we keep that support our distinction as “professional” writers?The other thing that happened this week that made me think about this writing process concept is we hosted through SCWA a Writing Studio write-in on Thursday. The Columbia II chapter brought the prompts and we ran four 10-minute sprints with various prompts and some discussion afterwards.Everyone thought it was very useful and productive. I used the prompts to think about the revisions I'm doing for the vampire novel. For two reasons: 1) I'm totally preoccupied with the vampire novel revisions right now and 2) I hate to waste my designated writing time on things that won't move me forward. Meaning: I don't want to doodle. I want to draw.So some of the writing process steps include these forced-creativity activities that I can see having a place in a classroom but wonder if they have a place in the real world life of working writers. I wonder if Stephen King pulls out his trusty writing-prompt box of cards and decided to meander through some phrases like, “The thing you still need to know about me is…”Do you “exercise” your writing? How? When? Where? What becomes of those exercises?read more...

Full show notes out on the blog here.Today's session is a good “beginning of the year” session, I think, because it can be part of your 2022 writing plan. We briefly touched on some writing goals we have and we've done entire episodes on setting, measuring, and keeping writing goals. So today's exploration of the various writer types and what your type means for your writing habit should come in handy.Take an actual quiz here.Let's start with the three levels:Lawful – this means you stick to this type no matter the project, it's ingrained in you and difficult to change out ofNeutral – this is conditional; so if you're mostly this, but sometimes that, you're in this categoryChaotic – according to whim, day of the week, or color of the M&M you just drew from the packageread more...

Get the complete show notes on the blog here.Okay, today's writing-related (non-goal) topic is Great Beginnings. New Beginnings. First lines and first pages. Starting off on the right foot. All those euphemisms for the most important page in the book. The first one.When we did this topic in May of 2020 (episode 94) I told you about a terrible beginning to a romance novel that had triggered my gag reflex. It's often the case that the first page of a book is a bit of a difficult entry point. Even a more recent read (that turned out to be quite good), The Beautiful, struggled to pull me in. Too much world-building and exposition dumping. Needed information? Sure. As fascinating to me, newbie to the world, as it is to the author? Probably not.read more...

Complete show notes out on the blog here.Let's get into this Character Arc thing. So I found this tweet and YouTube clip that talks about Rick's character in Casablanca and how at each point of the character arc, one character comments on how Rick is changing. Sometimes it's even Rick himself. And I thought, “Have we ever done character arcs?” and the answer is, “no.”So here we go. What is a character arc and what are some examples of types? This link will be of use.The character arc is how the character changes over time and is linear — it has a beginning, middle, and end — but does not have to follow the plot arc.Four basic types:Positive change (moral ascent)Transformational (hero's journey — might include ups and downs)Negative change (moral descent)FlatOpen-endedThe lie your character believes about themself will be the thing they fight against and ultimately overcome to end the story. We covered this extensively in the core wound episode. Character arcs are the whole purpose of fiction. The change that a character makes is the reason the story exists. Without change, there is no story. And change creates drama (tension) and that creates meaning.read more...

Get the full show notes out on the blog here.Mark Allan Gunnells loves to tell stories. He has since he was a kid, penning one-page tales that were Twilight Zone knockoffs. He likes to think he has gotten a little better since then. He loves reader feedback, and above all he loves telling stories. He lives in Greer, SC, with his husband Craig A. Metcalf.

Full show notes out on the blog here.Google does it again. I found this link to the 30 scariest scenes in Western literature which was a goldmine for what we want to do today which is really break it down. What's happening in the scene? How is it constructed and how does it work?The rage of Achilles — when he arrives on the battlefield, the Trojans quake with fear and when he unleashes his battle cry, some of them fall back and impale themselves on their own spears. Um. Wow.Banquo returns to haunt his killer — in Macbeth we know they won't get away with it, right? But Shakespeare lets the dead man's ghost show up with all of his descendents and scare the shit out of Macbeth.The creature and the uncanny valley — in Frankenstein, Mary Shelley writes the creator's rebuke of his creation as a rage-filled verbal lashing, but the creature's response is exponentially worse.read more...

Photo credit: ArtHouse Studio on Pexels.comGet the full show notes out on the blog here.Theme for the dayScary Series: Serial KillersAgendaSCWA Upcoming events and goings-onIt's October! Let's Halloween!What's up with Serial Killers?How to write a convincing serial killerI'm reading You right now which is a thriller about a stalker / serial killer that was made into a Netflix series. It's crazy good. The narrator is so compelling I'm having a hard time putting it down. And the violence is so matter-of-fact and seemingly the next-logical-step that you don't even have time to anticipate or dread it.Thing is, I (Kasie) don't know anything about how to do this. And Rex had done it before, so this might be a “how to” and it might be a general explanation of why a writer would take this on.I googled “Writing Serial Killers” and found this awesome article. So let's start there. Essential elements:The killer — who is s/he? What do they want?The victim — how do the two know one another? What was the last interaction the two had?The location and condition of the body — direct quote from the blog: Where was the victim killed? Was the body transported and dumped? Was there and attempt to hide the victims identity? Why? How were they killed? Was it overkill? Rage?

Get the full show notes on the blog here.Scary Series: VampiresAgendaSCWA Upcoming events and goings-onIt's October! Let's Halloween!Vampires aren't scaryHow to write a convincing vampire (no sparkling!)I found a How Stuff Works (yeah, the science site) entry for How Vampires Work which is just awesome. Here's the link. Here are the highlights:They were once humanThey died and “rose again” which makes them “undead”Can be attractive, highly sexual beingsCan also transform into animals (most commonly a bat)Death by beheading, stake to heart, fire, and direct sunlightInjured by crucifixes, holy water, and garlicImmortal and do not visibly ageCannot cast a reflectionHave superhuman strength (and speed)

Get the full show notes here.Theme for the dayPaying Your Writerly DuesAgendaSCWA Upcoming events and goings-onHow have those book promotional events gone?What to know about “paying your dues”Even some super famous authors sat alone in a bookstoreMy mom joined me at M Judson Books in Greenville back on September 12th. Four people bought books, two bought shot glasses and one got a wine glass, too. Then last week's library event, two publishers of an online magazine and the librarian attended. I sold six books, a wine glass and a shot glass. At the neighborhood event my friends threw, two people came by and bought four books. Then I signed another half dozen that had been purchased by people who couldn't attend.So, overall, three events sold 20 books. Because COVID shut down my After December promotional calendar, these events were my first ever.Is it usual to sit, lonely, waiting for people to stop and ask about your work? What are author events? What should you expect? How should you prepare?

Learn more about Len Lawson here.Visit the Featured Author section of the show notes on WriteOnSC.blog to learn more about guests and friends of the show.Become a patron and get your spot at Featured Author on the website and the show.Visit the YouTube channel for more interviews with authors.

Full show notes on the blog here.Welcome back to the studio, Catherine Peace, romance author. And our new addition, Ella Shawn, author of Southern Gothic Erotica. Let's get to know her for just a minute.Last week we broke down some tropes and sub genres of Romance. It was mostly fun to shock Rex with all the various layers and requirements of Romance writing. It's more complicated than non-readers might suspect.Today I thought we'd start with out favorites list. So here are the categories and we'll just add ours as we go:Favorite sub genre?Favorite trope (here's a list)?Favorite couple?Favorite era?Favorite author?What title brought you into the romance genre as a reader?What author brought you into the genre as a writer?

Full show notes out on the blog here.Meet Catherine PeaceRomance genre expectationsHow to write the steamy scenesWelcome to the studio, Catherine Peace, romance author. Catherine Peace has been telling stories for as long as she could remember. She often blames two things for her forays into speculative fiction—Syfy (when it was SciFi) channel Sundays with her dad and The Island of Dr. Moreau by HG Wells. She graduated in 2008 from Northern Kentucky University with a degree in English and is still chasing the dream of being super rich and famous, mostly so she can sit around in her PJs all day and write stories. Catherine currently lives on a farm in South Carolina. E-I-E-I-O.I (Kasie) of course jumped into This Time Next Year — a vampire romance — so let's start there. How did you get started in paranormal romance? What's the appeal?read more

Complete show notes on the blog here.After Raegan said she wasn't a book launch expert, Kasie admitted this was just a chance for the two of them to talk about their new books that had recently launched. So some advice, but a LOT about Raegan's new book and Kasie's as well.SCWA Upcoming events and goings-onLaunch Day report for Before PittsburghLaunch Day report for Time to PreyBest practices for launching your bookRaegan's fifth novel, Time to Prey, launched this month. Check out the details here.Let's talk about Launch Day with a project management approach:How do you decide what day to launch?How many weeks do you count back so begin planning?What are some critical tasks?What happens when those tasks don't happen on the designated timeline?Who are the people you rely on to get these things done?Do you ever have conflicting timelines/deadlines and have to adjust?

Full show notes on the blog here.Launch Day report for Before PittsburghSCWA Upcoming events and goings-onThe 7 Deadly Sins recapSloth as a character trait, motivation, and antagonizing forceThe seven deadly sins, also known as the capital vices, or cardinal sins, is a grouping and classification of vices within Christian teachings,[1] although they are not mentioned in the Bible. Behaviours or habits are classified under this category if they directly give rise to other immoralities.[2]According to the standard list, they are pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony and sloth,[2] which are contrary to the seven heavenly virtues.So the 7 Deadly Sins discussion started with “Pride” and then we did “Greed” which is not to be confused with gluttony which is a sin in and of itself. Then we did “Wrath” and “Envy” and “Lust.” That was fun! Last week was “Gluttony” so we're wrapping up the series this week with “Sloth.”Unlike our other deadly sins, sloth doesn't seem to have the indulgence that gluttony, greed, and lust; or the passion of pride, wrath, and envy. Sloth seems to be more about being lazy. “Sloth” is a sin of omission in that it literally translates into “without care.”

Summer project updateSCWA Upcoming events and goings-onThe 7 Deadly Sins seriesGreed as a character traitThe seven deadly sins, also known as the capital vices, or cardinal sins, is a grouping and classification of vices within Christian teachings,[1] although they are not mentioned in the Bible. Behaviours or habits are classified under this category if they directly give rise to other immoralities.[2]According to the standard list, they are pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony and sloth,[2] which are contrary to the seven heavenly virtues.So the 7 Deadly Sins discussion started last week with “Pride” and this week we're taking on “Greed” which is not to be confused with gluttony which is a sin in and of itself. But we did have an extensive conversation about the difference between greed and avarice once upon a time. Get more on the blog here.

Get the full show notes on the blog here.The seven deadly sins, also known as the capital vices, or cardinal sins, is a grouping and classification of vices within Christian teachings,[1] although they are not mentioned in the Bible. Behaviours or habits are classified under this category if they directly give rise to other immoralities.[2]According to the standard list, they are pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony and sloth,[2] which are contrary to the seven heavenly virtues.So the 7 Deadly Sins discussion started with “Pride” and then we did “Greed” which is not to be confused with gluttony which is a sin in and of itself. Then we did “Wrath” and “Envy” and last week “Lust.” That was fun!So this week we're up to Gluttony and we've done this topic before. In Episode 134 on avarice and greed, we worked on how greed is characterized by wanting more than you really need. Isn't that the theme of all the Seven Sins? Aren't they all about being insatiable?Summer project updateSCWA Upcoming events and goings-onThe 7 Deadly Sins recapGluttony as a character trait, motivation, and antagonizing force

Get the full show notes out on the blog here.The seven deadly sins, also known as the capital vices, or cardinal sins, is a grouping and classification of vices within Christian teachings,[1] although they are not mentioned in the Bible. Behaviours or habits are classified under this category if they directly give rise to other immoralities.[2]According to the standard list, they are pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony and sloth,[2] which are contrary to the seven heavenly virtues.So the 7 Deadly Sins discussion started with “Pride” and then we did “Greed” which is not to be confused with gluttony which is a sin in and of itself. Then we did “Wrath” and last week “Envy” which brings us to “Lust.” Let's get it on.Summer project updateSCWA Upcoming events and goings-onThe 7 Deadly Sins recapLust as a character trait, motivation, and antagonizing force

Get the full show notes on the blog here.The seven deadly sins, also known as the capital vices, or cardinal sins, is a grouping and classification of vices within Christian teachings, although they are not mentioned in the Bible. Behaviours or habits are classified under this category if they directly give rise to other immoralities. According to the standard list, they are pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony and sloth, which are contrary to the seven heavenly virtues.Summer project updateSCWA Upcoming events and goings-onThe 7 Deadly Sins recapEnvy as a character trait, motivation, and antagonizing force 

Get the full show notes on the blog here.The seven deadly sins, also known as the capital vices, or cardinal sins, is a grouping and classification of vices within Christian teachings,[1] although they are not mentioned in the Bible. Behaviours or habits are classified under this category if they directly give rise to other immoralities.[2] According to the standard list, they are pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony and sloth,[2] which are contrary to the seven heavenly virtues.This week is “Wrath.”Summer project updateSCWA Upcoming events and goings-onThe 7 Deadly Sins recapWrath as a character trait, motivation, and antagonizing force

Here's the link to the video of the interview. You miss the cute kid in the background with the audio. Jodie Cain Smith is the author of two recently release books. The second edition of The Woods at Barlow Bend and the new release Bayou Cresting: The Wanting Women of Huet's Pointe. Check out her home page and order one or both of the books. She's a phenomenal storyteller.Before Pittsburgh is the second release in the After December duet and follows our protagonist and first person narrator Brian Listo as he navigates the years following his best friend's death by suicide. It won honorable mention at the New York Book Festival and is already earning five star reviews on Amazon and Goodreads.

Featuring readings from After December, Before Pittsburgh, and The Full Moon in Neverland, this audio from the Words & Wine event Kasie headlined is full of her commentary on her work, her marketing, and what it means to be UnapologeticallyX. Here's a link to the YouTube video (visual!) version.Get After December here.Pre-order Before Pittsburgh here.View Kasie's UnapologeticallyX blog here.Dive into The Full Moon in Neverland on Wattpad here.

The 7 Deadly Sins introductionFocus on the first: PrideFull show notes out on the blog here.

Male Cliches and The Patriarchy (dunh dunh duuunnnnh)AgendaWhat are some cliches and archetypes for male charactersHow the patriarchy informs and perpetuates male clichesHow to avoid the big-box-everyone-expects-it male characterFull show notes out on the blog here.

Meet Dr. Len LawsonWhat is empathy and how does literature connect to it?How to really bring empathy through your workComplete show notes including links to  Len Lawson's bio and works on the blog here. 

On June 26th, Kasie and Rex welcomed fellow SCWA Board of Directors member Cayce LaCorte into the studio to talk all about that slushfest itch.Meet Cayce LaCortePut Yourself Out There, they said, It's Good For You.Sore losers and SlushfestHow to stay out of slushFull show notes on the blog here.Studio recording was not functional for the first half of the show, so our talk with Cayce is just half the episode. But we're adding the Behind the Scenes for you here, too. Something we reserve for our Patreons.

The Virgin, the Whore, and the Madwoman: Female stereotypes in fictionVirgin, Whore, or Madwoman?Do these stereotypes still exist?How to avoid it?Full show notes out on the blog here.

Diversity, inclusivity, and writing outside of your own experienceAgendaIndie Bookstore MentionSCWA upcoming eventsWriting People of Color (POC) charactersHow to do it (sort of)Full show notes out on the blog here.

Who diesWhen and howWriting an unclichéd sceneHow to do itFull show notes out on the blog here.