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Episode 31 Whether you call it writer's block or simply getting stuck, the feeling of not being able to keep writing is very real. Certain strategies and tactics can help you get past the wall that sometimes appears and interferes with your forward progress. Today I'm in conversation with author Anne Louise Bannon, author of the Operation Quickline, the Old Los Angeles series and the brand new Running from Boston techno-thriller. Anne offers several strategies to help work past that sense of writer's block to keep you moving forward with your writing. Thanks for tuning in to The WriterSpark Podcast! A QUICK LOOK AT BOOKS and COURSES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Ready, Set, WRITE! (How to write a novel course) (https://writersparkwritingacademy.teachable.com/p/30-day-intensive-in-fiction-writing) Anne Louise Bannon's Books on Amazon (https://amzn.to/3Y2r4kZ) Scrivener(https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener/overview) Aeon Timeline (https://timeline.app/) Get updates on business, creativity, and the craft of writing by following this podcast and subscribe to the WriterSpark newsletter (https://writersparkacademy.com/newslettersignup/) ✨ Share the love! Forward this podcast to your writer friends. ✨ Resources WriterSpark Website: http://writersparkacademy.com Sign up for the WriterSpark newsletter: https://writersparkacademy.com/newslettersignup/ Visit Anne's Website: https://annelouisebannon.com/ Grab WriterSpark Swag! https://www.teepublic.com/stores/writerspark/share Learn more about the host, Melissa Bourbon: http://melissabourbon.com Subscribe to WriterSpark on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnKN2ZVZwjoAOeHlBO-cRIw/videos Follow WriterSpark on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheWriterSpark Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheWriterSpark Instagram: http://instagram.com/bookishly_cozy and http://instagram.com/writer_spark TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@bookishly_cozy
Anne Louise Bannon is a freelance journalist, wine blogger, and author of four books in the Old Los Angeles series, including Death of an Heiress. She and her husband live in Southern California with an assortment of critters. She writes a variety of genres, including cozy spy mysteries, traditional historical fiction, and tech thrillers. Bannon's new thriller Running Away to Boston follows Janny Miller, a tech-oriented person hired by her ex-boyfriend to find Tanya Coleman, a person of interest in a murder. Janny's mother shows up and tells her to stop looking for Tanya, as she needs to stay hidden from Janny's abusive father. The story follows Janny and her mother as they try to bring down a corporation that is up to no good and planning to bring down the American economy with a virus. Also discussed: the use of biometrics, AI, and more in her fiction her background in theater and journalism her upcoming book, Death of the Drunkards, which will be released around Christmas. LISTEN IN! Connect: https://annelouisebannon.com/ Visit Alex Greenwood's website: JAlexanderGreenwood.com. For show notes and more, visit the show website at MGOPod.com. Follow him on Twitter: @A_Greenwood This Mysterious Goings On Podcast episode was recorded and mixed at Green Shebeen Studios in beautiful Kansas City, Missouri. Copyright 2023, all rights reserved. No reproduction, excerpting, or other use without written permission. We are an Amazon Associates seller, and some of our links may earn us a commission. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/j-alexander-greenwood/message
It was great having Anne on the show again. I love hearing about her cozy mysteries and (I didn't even know this was a thing) cozy spy novels. This is why I love doing this show. To follow Anne and find out what great things she has coming up be sure to check her out at https://annelouisebannon.com/ or on Amazon.com and Facebook. and be sure to check out her great books. If you're a cozy mystery author and want to be on the show reach out at www.thecozysleuth.com/contact and to show your support become a patron at Patreon.com/thecozysleuth
I had so much fun talking with Anne Louise Bannon, snoops and sleuths. I wish Zoom hadn't cut us off so abruptly because I had so much more I wanted to talk with her about. Oh well, I guess we'll have to do a part 2 some time. In the meantime follow Anne on her website www.annelouisebannon.com/fiction you can also follow her on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/RobinGoodfellowEnt To support the show join me on my patreon page at patreon.com/TheCozySleuth ok join my kofi klatch at ko-fi.com/thecozysleuth
Los Angeles in the 1870s is not the sprawling city we know today. A rapidly growing pueblo of perhaps 7,000 residents, it features vineyards and ranchos, worked by an army of transient men as likely to shoot one another up in bars as stagger home after a heavy night's drinking. Although ethnically diverse, it is riven by racism, and its relatively small female population is relegated either to the home or to its brothels. When the son of Robert Gaines, one of the pueblo's wealthier citizens, sets out to rob his sister of her lawful inheritance, he raises eyebrows, but even the town judge has to admit that the son's behavior is entirely within the law. In this simultaneously repressive and unbridled town, Maddie Wilcox stands out. As a widow who owns her dead husband's vineyard and rancho, she has a degree of freedom that most women lack (although Maddie takes care not to defy convention too obviously). And as a licensed doctor, her profession takes her all over Los Angeles as she visits patients in need of care. So when Lavina Gaines, that young woman whose inheritance is now filling her brother's pockets, dies of strangulation, Maddie sets out to seek justice for her friend. This is, after all, the third suspicious death in the pueblo since the court ruling against Lavina, and Maddie has been called in to assess the circumstances of all three. This is the fourth Old Los Angeles mystery by Anne Louise Bannon, and readers may want to begin with the first, Death of the Zanjero, before working their way through the series. But even if you start here, you'll enjoy plunging into Maddie Wilcox's world. These are fast-moving, well-paced mysteries that often incorporate actual historical incidents and personages and open a vista on Los Angeles that we seldom see. Anne Louise Bannon is an author, journalist, former TV critic, and blogger. In addition to the Old Los Angeles series, she has written the Freddie and Kathy mystery series, set in the 1920s; the contemporary Operation Quickline series; several stand-alone novels; and, with Serita Stevens, Deadly Doses: A Writer's Guide to Poisons. She lives in southern California, where she and her husband make wine from their home-grown grapes. C. P. Lesley is the author of two historical fiction series set during the childhood of Ivan the Terrible and three other novels. Her latest novel, Song of the Sinner, appeared in January 2022. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/historical-fiction
Los Angeles in the 1870s is not the sprawling city we know today. A rapidly growing pueblo of perhaps 7,000 residents, it features vineyards and ranchos, worked by an army of transient men as likely to shoot one another up in bars as stagger home after a heavy night's drinking. Although ethnically diverse, it is riven by racism, and its relatively small female population is relegated either to the home or to its brothels. When the son of Robert Gaines, one of the pueblo's wealthier citizens, sets out to rob his sister of her lawful inheritance, he raises eyebrows, but even the town judge has to admit that the son's behavior is entirely within the law. In this simultaneously repressive and unbridled town, Maddie Wilcox stands out. As a widow who owns her dead husband's vineyard and rancho, she has a degree of freedom that most women lack (although Maddie takes care not to defy convention too obviously). And as a licensed doctor, her profession takes her all over Los Angeles as she visits patients in need of care. So when Lavina Gaines, that young woman whose inheritance is now filling her brother's pockets, dies of strangulation, Maddie sets out to seek justice for her friend. This is, after all, the third suspicious death in the pueblo since the court ruling against Lavina, and Maddie has been called in to assess the circumstances of all three. This is the fourth Old Los Angeles mystery by Anne Louise Bannon, and readers may want to begin with the first, Death of the Zanjero, before working their way through the series. But even if you start here, you'll enjoy plunging into Maddie Wilcox's world. These are fast-moving, well-paced mysteries that often incorporate actual historical incidents and personages and open a vista on Los Angeles that we seldom see. Anne Louise Bannon is an author, journalist, former TV critic, and blogger. In addition to the Old Los Angeles series, she has written the Freddie and Kathy mystery series, set in the 1920s; the contemporary Operation Quickline series; several stand-alone novels; and, with Serita Stevens, Deadly Doses: A Writer's Guide to Poisons. She lives in southern California, where she and her husband make wine from their home-grown grapes. C. P. Lesley is the author of two historical fiction series set during the childhood of Ivan the Terrible and three other novels. Her latest novel, Song of the Sinner, appeared in January 2022. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature
Los Angeles in the 1870s is not the sprawling city we know today. A rapidly growing pueblo of perhaps 7,000 residents, it features vineyards and ranchos, worked by an army of transient men as likely to shoot one another up in bars as stagger home after a heavy night's drinking. Although ethnically diverse, it is riven by racism, and its relatively small female population is relegated either to the home or to its brothels. When the son of Robert Gaines, one of the pueblo's wealthier citizens, sets out to rob his sister of her lawful inheritance, he raises eyebrows, but even the town judge has to admit that the son's behavior is entirely within the law. In this simultaneously repressive and unbridled town, Maddie Wilcox stands out. As a widow who owns her dead husband's vineyard and rancho, she has a degree of freedom that most women lack (although Maddie takes care not to defy convention too obviously). And as a licensed doctor, her profession takes her all over Los Angeles as she visits patients in need of care. So when Lavina Gaines, that young woman whose inheritance is now filling her brother's pockets, dies of strangulation, Maddie sets out to seek justice for her friend. This is, after all, the third suspicious death in the pueblo since the court ruling against Lavina, and Maddie has been called in to assess the circumstances of all three. This is the fourth Old Los Angeles mystery by Anne Louise Bannon, and readers may want to begin with the first, Death of the Zanjero, before working their way through the series. But even if you start here, you'll enjoy plunging into Maddie Wilcox's world. These are fast-moving, well-paced mysteries that often incorporate actual historical incidents and personages and open a vista on Los Angeles that we seldom see. Anne Louise Bannon is an author, journalist, former TV critic, and blogger. In addition to the Old Los Angeles series, she has written the Freddie and Kathy mystery series, set in the 1920s; the contemporary Operation Quickline series; several stand-alone novels; and, with Serita Stevens, Deadly Doses: A Writer's Guide to Poisons. She lives in southern California, where she and her husband make wine from their home-grown grapes. C. P. Lesley is the author of two historical fiction series set during the childhood of Ivan the Terrible and three other novels. Her latest novel, Song of the Sinner, appeared in January 2022. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
When Anne Louise Bannon heard her husband, then archivist for the City of Los Angeles, speak about the how early Angelenos dug a large ditch (a zanja) to cull water from the Porciuncula River (now known as the Los Angeles River), her first thought was that the Zanja would be an interesting place to find a dead body. Death of the Zanjero and Death of the City Marshall were the first two in her Old Los Angeles series (both delightful), and now comes Death of the Chinese Field Hands (Healcroft House, 2020). Protagonist Maddie Wilcox is a widowed doctor who owns and manages a ranch and vineyard. When she isn’t supervising her wine production, ranch business, and a sizable staff, Maddie is called upon to treat the injuries and diseases of her neighbors. Solving murders is just a past-time, but luckily, she has a keen eye for details and knows what it means when a boot print with a gaping hole is discovered near the bodies of several Chinese workers. The story is loosely based on the lynching of eighteen Chinese men on October 24, 1871 and reminds us that small-minded bigotry and xenophobia is a shameful part of American history we have yet to overcome. Anne Louise Bannon is an author and journalist who wrote her first novel at age 15. Her journalistic work has appeared in Ladies' Home Journal, the Los Angeles Times, Wines and Vines, and in newspapers across the country. She was a TV critic for over 10 years, founded the YourFamilyViewer blog, and created the OddBallGrape.com wine education blog with her husband, Michael Holland. She is the co-author of Howdunit: Book of Poisons, with Serita Stevens, and author of the Freddie and Kathy mystery series, set in the 1920s, the Operation Quickline Series, and the Old Los Angeles series, set in the 1870s. Anne and her husband live in Southern California with an assortment of critters. When not reading or writing, she sews, and is currently learning how to make men's pants. If you enjoyed today’s podcast and would like to discuss it further with me and other New Books network listeners, please join us on Shuffle. Shuffle is an ad-free, invite-only network focused on the creativity community. As NBN listeners, you can get special access to conversations with a dynamic community of writers and literary enthusiasts. Sign up by going to www.shuffle.do/NBN/join G.P. Gottlieb is the author of the Whipped and Sipped Mystery Series and a prolific baker of healthful breads and pastries. Please contact her through her website (GPGottlieb.com) if you wish to recommend an author (of a beautifully-written new novel) to interview, to listen to her previous podcast interviews, to read her mystery book reviews, or to check out some of her awesome recipes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
When Anne Louise Bannon heard her husband, then archivist for the City of Los Angeles, speak about how early Angelenos dug a large ditch (a zanja) to cull water from the Porciuncula River (now known as the Los Angeles River), her first thought was that the Zanja would be an interesting place to find a dead body. Death of the Zanjero and Death of the City Marshall were the first two in her Old Los Angeles series (both delightful), and now comes Death of the Chinese Field Hands (Healcroft House, 2020). Protagonist Maddie Wilcox is a widowed doctor who owns and manages a ranch and vineyard. When she isn’t supervising her wine production, ranch business, and a sizable staff, Maddie is called upon to treat the injuries and diseases of her neighbors. Solving murders is just a past-time, but luckily, she has a keen eye for details and knows what it means when a boot print with a gaping hole is discovered near the bodies of several Chinese workers. The story is loosely based on the lynching of eighteen Chinese men on October 24, 1871 and reminds us that small-minded bigotry and xenophobia is a shameful part of American history we have yet to overcome. Anne Louise Bannon is an author and journalist who wrote her first novel at age 15. Her journalistic work has appeared in Ladies' Home Journal, the Los Angeles Times, Wines and Vines, and in newspapers across the country. She was a TV critic for over 10 years, founded the YourFamilyViewer blog, and created the OddBallGrape.com wine education blog with her husband, Michael Holland. She is the co-author of Howdunit: Book of Poisons, with Serita Stevens, and author of the Freddie and Kathy mystery series, set in the 1920s, the Operation Quickline Series, and the Old Los Angeles series, set in the 1870s. Anne and her husband live in Southern California with an assortment of critters. When not reading or writing, she sews, and is currently learning how to make men's pants. If you enjoyed today’s podcast and would like to discuss it further with me and other New Books network listeners, please join us on Shuffle. Shuffle is an ad-free, invite-only network focused on the creativity community. As NBN listeners, you can get special access to conversations with a dynamic community of writers and literary enthusiasts. Sign up by going to www.shuffle.do/NBN/join G.P. Gottlieb is the author of the Whipped and Sipped Mystery Series and a prolific baker of healthful breads and pastries. Please contact her through her website (GPGottlieb.com) if you wish to recommend an author (of a beautifully-written new novel) to interview, to listen to her previous podcast interviews, to read her mystery book reviews, or to check out some of her awesome recipes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Pull up a demolished chair and join us for our field trip interview with author Anne Louise Bannon at the site of the old Ambassador Hotel as we discuss her novels, the Cocoanut Grove and just how drunk the old stars of the silver screen got at this place.
Honoria took the cloche off and shrugged off the coat with the white fox collar, laying them on one of the small tables flanking the door. She sniffed. Thanks to the croup, her sense of smell was still off. Yet something did not smell right. She turned toward her bedroom. The young woman lay sprawled at the entrance to the back hall, her eyes open and staring. -- Anne Louise Bannon, The Last Witnesses If you haven't yet read Anne Louise Bannon's Freddie and Kathy Mysteries, what a treat you have in store for you! Set in the Roaring Twenties, filled with bootleg hooch and murders aplenty. Here are the books in order: 1 - Fascinating Rhythm 2 - Bring Into Bondage 3 - The Last Witnesses In addition, Anne has written a very useful book for writers -- Howdunnit: Book of Poisons -- and has a blogged novel, White House Rhapsody, which she continues to update. You really must go check out Anne's website -- she has so many projects going on and so many interesting publications to her name, it's best I send you to the source. Do not forget her wine blog! She also gave a shout out to several authors, including Avery Ames, Mary Higgins Clark, Phyllis A. Whitney and the incomparable Dorothy L. Sayers. Enjoy! -- Laura Transcript of Interview with Anne Louise Bannon Laura Brennan: Anne Louise Bannon has made not one, but two careers out of her passion for storytelling. Both a novelist and a journalist, she has an insatiable curiosity. In addition to her mystery novels, she has written a nonfiction book about poisons, freelanced for such diverse publications as the Los Angeles Times, Ladies’ Home Journal, and Backstage West, and edits a wine blog. On the fiction side, she writes a romantic serial, a spy series, and her wonderful Kathy and Freddie historical mystery series, set in the 1920s. Anne, thank you for joining me. Anne Louise Bannon: thank you for having me. LB: On your website, I noticed that you introduce yourself through an avatar: Robin Goodfellow, who is better known as the impish Puck from A Midsummer Night's Dream. ALB: Yes,that is only my favorite character from my favorite play in the whole wide world. I love A Midsummer Night's Dream. LB: How do you see yourself as Puck? ALB: It's not so much physically, I'm not the fastest moving human being on the planet. It's mostly mentally. My brain is constantly going and there's throwaway line from the end of Act II: "I'll put a girdle around the earth in 40 minutes." Maybe my body doesn't move that fast, but my brain certainly does. It was something about Puck that I really loved. I also love the fact that he's a bit of a stinker. A pre-Bugs Bunny Bugs Bunny, if you will. LB: You are in every medium I can think of. So, let's actually start though: how did you get started writing? What came first? ALB: Oh, being a day-dreamy, moody teenager at age 15. I mean, I was spending an awful lot of time daydreaming. I finally figured out if I was going to spend all this time daydreaming, I should find a way to justify it. So I started writing. And that summer I turned 15, I cranked out my first novel. LB: Why mysteries? ALB: I've always liked mystery, as a genre. As I got older, I just started reading more and more mysteries. I stumbled onto Dorothy Sayers, and Nero Wolfe was popular on TV with, I think, William Cannon at the time. One of my favorite books as a kid was called The Mystery of the Green Cat by Phyllis Whitney and I really enjoyed Nancy Drew, and fell away from it for a while as a teenager but got back into it as a young adult, even before I finished college. I would pick up mysteries as my relaxation from grad school work and stuff like that. LB: How do you think your training as a journalist impacted your fiction? ALB: Well, given that my journalism happened way later, as an adult... Here's the story: I had a really bad first marriage. As part of that, I ended up writing a lot of stuff,
The Agents of Zeitgeist are passionate about TV and they share that passion this week. Hosted by TV bloggers Anne Louise Bannon and Elise Crane Derby, and Donna Schwartz Mills.
The Agents of Zeitgeist are passionate about TV and they share that passion this week. Hosted by TV bloggers Anne Louise Bannon and Elise Crane Derby, and Donna Schwartz Mills.
The Agents of Zeitgeist are passionate about TV and they share that passion this week. Hosted by TV bloggers Anne Louise Bannon and Elise Crane Derby, and Donna Schwartz Mills.
The Agents of Zeitgeist are passionate about TV and they share that passion this week. Hosted by TV bloggers Anne Louise Bannon and Elise Crane Derby, and Donna Schwartz Mills.
The Agents of Zeitgeist are passionate about TV and they share that passion this week. Hosted by TV bloggers Anne Louise Bannon and Elise Crane Derby, and Donna Schwartz Mills.
The Agents of Zeitgeist are passionate about TV and they share that passion this week. Hosted by TV bloggers Anne Louise Bannon and Elise Crane Derby, and Donna Schwartz Mills.
The Agents of Zeitgeist are passionate about TV and they share that passion this week. Hosted by TV bloggers Anne Louise Bannon and Elise Crane Derby, and Donna Schwartz Mills.
The Agents of Zeitgeist are passionate about TV and they share that passion this week. Hosted by TV bloggers Anne Louise Bannon and Elise Crane Derby, and Donna Schwartz Mills.
The Agents of Zeitgeist are passionate about TV and they share that passion this week. Hosted by TV bloggers Anne Louise Bannon and Elise Crane Derby, and Donna Schwartz Mills.
This week marked the start of the new Tonight Show hosted by Jimmy Fallon, as well as a heartfelt tribute to comedy legend Sid Caesar by guest Mel Brooks on Conan O'Brien's show. And of course, the Agents of Zeitgeist have a few things to say about that - as well as binge watching House of Cards, Downton Abbey and more. The Agents of Zeitgeist are passionate about TV and they share that passion this week. Hosted by TV bloggers Anne Louise Bannon and Elise Crane Derby, and Donna Schwartz Mills.
The Agents of Zeitgeist are passionate about TV and they share that passion this week. TV bloggers Anne Louise Bannon and Elise Crane Derby, and Donna Schwartz Mills talk about the fabulousness that is Johnny Weir at the Olympics, Nathan Fielder's coffee parody, the Samuel L Jackson interview that went awry -- and preview some new shows that will be coming to your television sets really soon.
The Agents of Zeitgeist are passionate about TV and they share that passion this week. Hosted by TV bloggers Anne Louise Bannon and Elise Crane Derby, and Donna Schwartz Mills.
The Agents of Zeitgeist are passionate about TV and they share that passion. This week, Anne Louise Bannon and Donna Schwartz Mills get ready for Superbowl Sunday - including all the counterprogramming.
The Agents of Zeitgeist are back from the Television Critics Association confab in Los Angeles, where they hobnobbed with stars (like Benedict Cumberbatch, who talked about his continuing commitment to Sherlock) and TV producers. Hosted by TV bloggers Anne Louise Bannon and Elise Crane Derby, and Donna Schwartz Mills.
The networks and studios are in LA for their semi-annual presentations to the Television Critics Association - and the Agents of Zeitgeist are in attendance! They share all the news they've gathered so far. Also: Academy Award nominations and Golden Globe winners. Hosted by TV bloggers Anne Louise Bannon and Elise Crane Derby, and Donna Schwartz Mills.