Podcasts about chicken sisters

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 13, 2025 40:15

Karen Dukess's first book, The Last Book Party, was wildly successful by any measure—sold at auction, Indie Next pick, Discover New Writers pick… you probably read it. The second…Didn't sell. Not as in, not very many people bought it but as in, no publisher published it. She spent the requisite couple years or so, her agent signed on but… no takers. She felt like she was the only person in the whole entire world that that happened to… until she started asking around. Turns out, you know how people say writing books is hard? And publishing is tough? They're right!Never fear, Karen lived to tell the tail. Her next novel (do we call it second or third?), Welcome to Murder Week, is wonderful and available in a bookstore near you (and as you'll hear, I loved it and it's the perfect page-turner but not-anxiety-producing read for a swimming pool, beach, airplane ride or couch). But the real joy is that Karen is willing to dish. You'll hear:What happens when you want to be a bullet journal sticker getting writer with your butt in the chair but you're just … not.How to have fun writing a book that maybe no one will want (and why you'd better).How Karen found the right mindset to keep going.Karen's one rule as a beginning writer who couldn't quite get the hang of 1000 words a day. Links from the Pod:LauraPaloozaKaren Dukess, The Last Book PartyZibby EventsThe Murder of Mr. Wickham by Claudia Gray#AmReadingKaren: The Original, Nell Stevens KJ: Welcome to Murder WeekKaren's Substack Keep Calm and Carry On, a Substack from Karen Dukess or find her on Instagram @karendukess, or her website www.karendukess.comDid you know Sarina's latest thriller is out NOW? Rowan Gallagher is a devoted single mother and a talented architect with a high-profile commission restoring an historic mansion for the most powerful family in Maine. But inside, she's a mess. She knows that stalking her ex's avatar all over Portland on her phone isn't the healthiest way to heal from their breakup. But she's out of ice cream and she's sick of romcoms. Watching his every move is both fascinating and infuriating. He's dining out while she's wallowing on the couch. The last straw comes when he parks in their favorite spot on the waterfront. In a weak moment, she leashes the dog and sets off to see who else is in his car. Instead of catching her ex in a kiss, Rowan becomes the first witness to his murder—and the primary suspect.Digital books at: Amazon | Nook | Apple Books | Kobo | Google Play | Audible Physical books at: Bookshop.org | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indigo | More paperback links here!New! Transcript below!EPISODE 452 - TRANSCRIPTJess LaheyHey, it's Jess here. A few years ago, I got to go to Laura Palooza. Laura Palooza is the conference that is run by the Laura Ingalls Wilder Legacy and Research Association. I was invited because I wrote about Laura Ingalls Wilder and the Little House on the Prairie books, and at the very beginning of The Gift of Failure, there's a mention in the opening chapter. And I was invited to go, and it was fantastic. And I got to meet Dean Butler, who had played Almanzo, which was quite a moment for me, because I had been quite in love. Anyway, this year's Laura Palooza 2025 is going to be taking place July 8 through 11th, 2025. Laura Palooza 2025's theme is prairies, pioneers and pages. If you want more information on attending Laura Palooza 2025, you can go to L-I-W-L-R-A — L-I-W-L-R-A dot org slash laurapalooza. I will be putting it in the show notes for whatever episode this ends up on, and it's going to be really, really great. I'm jealous that I can't go again because it's not going to be near me. It's going to be in De Smet South, I hope that's how you pronounce it, South Dakota. But they're going to even have, like, a feature on the fashion at the time. They're going to have a section on planes, claims and all those land deals, a beginner's guide to mapping homestead claims. It's going to be cool, challenging gender norms. Laura Ingalls in fiction, and Rose Wilder Lane in reality. Folklore, fiction or forecasts, separating and linking science, storytelling and mythology in weather, lore, that's going to be by Dr. Barb Boustead, who has been on this very podcast. She's fantastic. Laura Palooza 2025... July, you should go, you should sign up. It's really fun. They're going to be doing a field trip also to the Ingalls Homestead, I believe. Check it out. It's pretty cool.Multiple Speakers:Is it recording? Now it's recording, yay. Go ahead. This is the part where I stare blankly at the microphone. I don't remember what I'm supposed to be doing. All right, let's start over. Awkward pause. I'm going to rustle some papers. Okay, now one, two, three.KJ Dell'AntoniaHey, I'm KJ Dell'Antonia, and this is Hashtag AmWriting, the weekly podcast about writing all the things, short things, long things, pitches, proposals, fiction, nonfiction, in short or really actually, usually long. We are the podcast about sitting down and getting your work done. And I am KJ Dell'Antonia. I am the author of a bunch of novels, the most popular of which is The Chicken Sisters, and the most recent is Playing the Witch Card, and you should read them all. And I have with me today a guest that I'm really excited about for a topic that you all are going to love. So, with me today, I have Karen Dukess, and she is the author of The Last Book Party, which you might have read in 2019 because it was unmissable. It was everywhere. It was an Indie Next. It was a Discover New Writers pick, it was...it was all over the place. And that is partly what we're here to talk about today. And we're also here to talk about her new novel, Welcome to Murder Week, which I have just read and enjoyed, but mostly we're here to talk about the six years in between. So, welcome. I am so glad to have you here. So, Karen and I have met in person. We met at a Zibby book event and at an event for the amazing Annabel Monaghan, who also has a book out this summer. The lovely thing about the universe is that nobody reads just one book.Karen DukessThat is true. Thank you.KJ Dell'AntoniaSo, you can be like, yes, read Annabel's book, read my book. Read. I mean, anybody who reads? I mean, yeah, there are people who read just one book, it's probably not going to be ours. Oh, well, people seem to like the Bible. I don't know that's a popular one. See that? A lot around a lot of Crawdads, also see that. Okay, so anyway, tell us what the story of the long six-year journey between your very, very successful debut novel, and what is about to be your very different sophomore novel.Karen DukessSo, I feel like I have an upside-down writing career in that most people write a lot of novels that don't get published before they write a novel that gets published, and mine went backwards. So, The Last Book Party was my first novel, and I wrote it...Didn't... I wrote it, finished it when I was in my early 50's, around 54 -55, spent about four years writing it, and I had done a lot of writing before, then stopping and starting and thinking that. I must not have what it takes, because this is too hard. I didn't realize that novel writing just is hard, and that is the way it is for all but a few unicorn people. So that novel, I was so happy when I finally finished it. I was so satisfied to just finally have written a novel, and I was truly thrilled, and I I felt like, if it doesn't get published, I'll publish it myself. I'm just so happy to have achieved this goal. And then it sold incredibly quickly. It was unbelievable. I mean, it was like beyond my wildest dreams. It went to auction. It sold very quickly for a good advance, and the publishing experience was great, including the fact that they were originally going to publish it in 2020, but they decided to bump it up to 2019 I don't know why. But I was like, sure, I've waited to my 50's to get this book out, like the sooner the better. And then I dodged the bullet of waiting all these years to publish a novel and have it come out during the pandemic. So, the paperback came out in the pandemic, which wasn't great, but I still felt so grateful that I had gotten this book out before then. So, then I started working on my second novel, which later someone had given me some someone, a friend...it might have even been Annabel. Someone gave her the advice that your second novel, don't make it very, very personal. And I kind of wish I had gotten that advice, even though I'm not sure I would have listened to it. But the thing about a second novel, and I don't know if you experienced this, KJ, but if you have success with your first novel, the second novel is scary because you're like, was I a one hit wonder? You know, was it a fluke? Can I do this again? And people would say, well, you know how to write novels now. And I'd be like, no, I know how to write THAT novel. I have no idea how to write another novel. And the novel I wanted to write at that time was drawing on the many years I spent studying and living in Russia and working as a journalist in Russia. I was in Russia in the 90's, and I wrote a novel that was about an American woman's journey in Russia and some American journalists in Russia. But it was set in Russia in 2017 and with flashbacks to the 90's, and it was hard to write. It was not fun. I think I had, like, sitting on my shoulder this sort of like, oh, can she do it again? You know that kind of thing. And I knew that the luck I had the first one, like, you know, I knew it was unlike, unluck, unlikely to be like that again. Plus, I had this sense of like, this is my Russia novel. And even though it wasn't a novel like, directly about Russia, it still was my chance to sort of give my take on things there. So, I think I also had sitting on my shoulder, like all the journalists I know knew in Russia, and people that studied Russia and the real Russia experts, and what were they going to think of my take?KJ Dell'AntoniaOh, yeah.Karen DukessSo it was, it was not writing, sort of like joyfully, it was a tough novel to write. And then it was also, it was fiction, but it was sort of personal, midlife kind of novel. So, there was just a lot of baggage with that novel. And the writing of it was tough, you know, it was just, it took longer than I thought it it just, I just remember a lot of sort of hair pulling, kind of, you know, those writing days. I had a lot of them. I finished it. My agent said he loved it. I don't think he loved it as much as the other two novels I've written, but, you know, he was ready to send it out on submission. But as I was finishing it, I was getting more and more concerned, because I finished it right around when Russia invaded Ukraine. And my novel, which was set in 2017 Russia, now things were so different, and they had been increasingly becoming different. Suddenly it felt very anachronistic, because I wasn't writing with these big current events in mind. Plus, there was this whole kind of like, oh, Russia, yuck, nobody, you know. And I felt that too. So, I was nervous about it, and my agent was like, just finish it. You've spent this much time on it. Let's finish it and see what happens. And so, we sent it out, and the response I got was kind of... Uh not great, you know, it went to my publisher first. They'd write a first refusal, and we're like, this novel. It about American woman in Russia right now, it's just not the right time. And, you know, there may have been other things about the novel as well, but it was kind of a, like, not a good sell. So, we sent it out to maybe five or six more editors, you know, I got lovely rejection letters, you know. Well, I really enjoyed it. This part was so interesting. But, yeah, I don't know, I don't know how to market this novel right now. And it was, you know, it was crushing, of course, but it also kind of echoed my feelings about the novel. The whole thing gave me a knot in my stomach, yeah, so my agent said, well, we haven't really exhausted the possibilities yet. We can send it out another round, or you can revise it, or you can set it aside. And I felt really sure at that point that I just wanted to, I didn't want to keep submitting it. I just felt like not the right time. And it was disappointing, but it was also kind of a relief, because if someone had decided to publish that novel, I think I would have been really nervous for the whole time before it came out.KJ Dell'AntoniaI think the only thing worse than having your second novel not published is having it published to like, you know, universal hatred.Karen DukessYeah exactly.KJ Dell'AntoniaOr just, or just to your own disappointment, you know?Karen DukessYeah. And then there's a long lead time between the time and novel gets accepted and the time it gets published. And to just feel like, nervous that whole time, I just...KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah.Karen DukessSo, I was relieved and disappointed. And I remember very well thinking like, oh, well, this is what people talk about. When they talk about, you have to be able to deal with rejection as a writer, because I hadn't dealt with it yet. I had been so lucky, and I really had this sense of like, all right, well, now I get to find out if I'm really a writer, like, can I deal with this and or can I not? And so, I was like, I'm going to write something else. But I was determined to write something very, very different. Like, I needed the whole experience to be different, yeah, and it ended up being kind of liberating, because I went on a trip with my sister to England. We went to the Peak District in England for a week. We rented a little cottage, and this was right before the novel went on submission, I think, or maybe right after, maybe it was on submission, I don't know. So, it was around the time when I wasn't feeling good about the novel, but I wasn't sure it was like a dead deal yet. And we had this absolutely fantastic week in the Peak District, where I was my first time traveling in the English countryside. I'd been to London, but I'd never been in the English countryside, and I felt like I was just stepping into the pages of all my favorite English novels, like Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre. And also, like I was stepping into scenes of every BritBox masterpiece, mystery thing, I had written, you know, think, oh my god, there's a vicar. And just really, I was in a... my sister, we have similar reading tastes, and we were just both in this mood, like everything was just kind of entertaining us, and we were laughing at ourselves for seeing England through all these fictional characters. So, when I came back, I think I came back, and that's when I kind of realized this Russian novel was dead or shortly thereafter. And I thought, okay, I'm going to, I'm going to write something about Americans going to England. I want to continue that mood. And I really felt like, if I'm going to do now that I knew you could spend years writing a novel and have it not get published, which I knew intellectually before, but I didn't, hadn't experienced it. I I just felt like, if I'm going to spend another couple years writing a novel like fun has to be the number one thing. It just has to be fun. I'm like, not going to be miserable again. I can't do something like the Russian novel again. I have to just entertain myself and make myself happy, and hopefully it will entertain other people and make them happy too. And that's how I landed on the idea of sending these writing about Americans that go to England to solve a fake murder mystery, which is what Welcome to Murder Week is about. And I just had such a good time writing it. And I wrote it quicker than I've ever written. I wrote it in a little over a year, and it was honestly delightful. Like, I couldn't believe it. Like, writing could actually be really fun.KJ Dell'AntoniaWho knew? The result is also delightful. It just, it's, it's kind of like every warm and lovely book setting on to you you've ever read. It is it Is that I really enjoyed it, So...Karen DukessI'm so glad.KJ Dell'AntoniaI don't know what the Russian novel was like. That doesn't sound fun.Karen DukessI mean it wasn't really heavy, because I'm not like a heavy writer... like it still had...KJ Dell'AntoniaRight.Karen DukessIn it, and it had emotion, etc., but I'm not sad that it's not out.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah.Karen DukessLet's put it that way, yeah. So, yeah, this one was just fun. And I, you know, my initial idea was to send a group of Americans to England. Initially it was going to be a writing group. I like the idea of putting characters together who would not ordinarily know each other, but to have them together in a space and then a friend of mine said, Okay, so that's an idea. You're going to send some writers on a writing retreat to England, and what are they going to do there? Like, write? Like, that's not very interesting. And that's how I, kind of, you know, ended up moving to this thing where I could have them participate in this weeklong, solve a fake English village murder mystery. And I could have, you know, the villagers, some of them participating in this, and some eagerly participating, some cynical and send a bunch of Americans, you know, Britbox crazed Americans, to compete in this thing. And, yeah, that's, that's how it ended up. And it was fun.KJ Dell'AntoniaI, yeah. I mean, it reads like you had fun. I, as someone who has... so Playing the Witch Card has like a big game sort of Halloween event at the center of it. That would be really hard to do in reality. This is kind of like that.Karen DukessYeah.KJ Dell'AntoniaLike, this is like the dream murder week, both from some of the point of view of someone who might want to put one on and from someone the point of view of someone who might want to go and do one. It's not, it's um, you know, it's not. Sometimes you read these and they're like, they're like, silly and hokey. It's like, very sincere, super fun murder week that anyone would wish that they could do that likes that kind of thing. Anyway, I yeah, I totally enjoyed it. All the characters were really fun. I could see that you must have had fun writing it.Karen DukessI did. And I also, you know, people often say, like, write the novel you want to read. And I really did that with this because I wanted it to have so it has a fake mystery, but then it has a real mystery as well.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah.Karen DukessLike the main character, thirty-four-year-old Cath, little do you know, she goes on this trip because her estranged mother, before she died, booked them on it, and she's sort of reluctant to go, but can't get a refund. And then I sort of developed this whole story about she teams up with her house, shares a cottage with people to solve the fake mystery, but that she also solves the real mystery of why her mother wanted her to go, her late mother, and that was sort of like the writing the story you want to read. Because I like light and funny, but I also like something that has, like, some emotional heart to it, like I wanted to try to story that was fun, but that has something going on. And the more I wrote, the more Cath's serious story became part of the story, I think, in the first deeply satisfying, yeah, and the first version, the first draft that my agent read, and I had never shared a draft before with him, and, you know, I think I was just hoping he would be like, it's almost perfect. And he was like, well, I think Cath is the hardest story. I think you need to develop that more. And then I went back and did and sort of... blended the two. So, the whole experience was just, yeah, of course. Now I'm like, can I have fun again?KJ Dell'AntoniaYes, yes, you can. Nobody ever tells me my first draft is perfect, and I really hate that.Karen DukessYeah, I know. I think it's, I don't even know if I should have shared it with him, like, I just wanted him to say, like, it's amazing. And he was like, yeah, it could be really good.KJ Dell'AntoniaWell, but you just want them to know that you're doing, yeah, I'm a I'm going to share the first draft of the thing I'm doing with my agent, and it might be a terrible idea, but I'm going to do it anyway, because I want her to know I'm doing a thing. And yeah, I'm excited. And yeah um...Karen Dukess I also think that, like, you know, when I said that, it was liberating, in a way, to sort of have the experience that I had with the Russian novel. I think it was also maybe by the time, you know, getting to the third novel, or maybe it's getting to my age. I felt sort of like, I think I gave my permission, myself, permission to write a novel that, yeah, it has a serious story at the heart of it, but it's not like a deeply serious book, you know? And I think there's a tendency to think like, you know, I would look at the world around me sometimes, when I was drafting it, and feel like there's so many serious things to write about, and I'm writing this funny story, like, is that super fluffy? And, you know, it was like, this is what I wanted to write? That's okay, you know? I don't have to prove anything. Like, here is my serious tome. You know, I really just wanted to give people like, an emotional, amusing, heartwarming experience. And that is okay.KJ Dell'AntoniaIt is funny how locked we get into that, both as writers and as readers, this idea that if it's not serious or experimental or deep or dark, it's, I don't know, somehow not worthy. There was somebody was reading somebody's Substack the other day, and they were sort of deeply apologizing for the book they had recommended, which sounded really amazing. And I was like, why you, you know, you clearly enjoyed this, and it sounded great. And I don't. I mean, as a reader, I don't want to read things that are dark and deep and serious A. all the time...Karen DukessYeah.KJ Dell'AntoniaAnd B. sometimes not at all.Karen DukessYeah, I do like to read dark and serious, but I've learned that I don't like to write that like writing a novel is, it's always so much more time than you think. I mean, even this one was quicker than usual. It's a lot of time, like you're living it. And I was just like, I can't live in a dark place, like I can read a dark book in a couple days, you know? And...KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah.Karen DukessWipe my eyes and move on. But...KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah.Karen DukessYou know...KJ Dell'AntoniaA light one.Karen DukessYou could assume... but you know. When I'm writing a novel, I'm going to bed thinking about their the characters, and I'm thinking about it when I'm exercising, and it's just like churning in there, and I just don't want to be in a dark place for two years.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, and most of the time people, I mean, I guess it just depends on, on who you are. But a heart, it's hardly ever dark all the time. I mean, even people that I have known that we're going through some really horrible things have found, you know, levity and joy and pleasure in in some parts of it. And I think we all hesitate to say, well, that's everyone. Or you got to, you know, we don't want to impose that on every, on anyone, because that's kind of also where we are is, is this delicate dance of not wanting to expect anybody else to be the way you think they're going to be. But I it just seems like people find levity, even in even the worst, even in the worst moments. And people want, um, solace, you know?Karen DukessYeah.KJ Dell'Antonia Something... something pleasant... something.Karen DukessYeah, I work with an editor, kind of a more like a writing coach, like she doesn't actually edit, but she sort of helps me figure out the story and stuff. And there was one point when she was reading a draft, and there's a scene in the book. I don't know if it's a minor thing, but when my main character Cath, who there's a little romance in it. And when she's first together with this guy, and they're sort of rolling around in bed, the first draft that, the first version of it, she accidentally hit her head on the headboard, and then she's like, “Oh my god, are you okay?” And she was like, “no”. My coach was like, no, no. I don't want to be anxious that maybe this guy is a little violent. Like, no, no, you've got to take that out. I don't want to be anxious in the reading of this book. And it was such a minor thing that I think she was like...KJ Dell'AntoniaAnd you had him hit his head instead, right? Yeah.Karen DukessBecause I don't think anyone was going to worry that she's violent. But it was funny. It was like, she was very much like this book is, there are books where you want the reader to feel anxious, but she's like, this book is not that I don't want anxiety in this book you know?KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, yeah.Karen DukessLike she's still concerned about Cath and her story. You can feel sad about what she learns, but not anxiety.KJ Dell'AntoniaYou know I think you've really put your finger on something, because that is exactly right. This book is a page turner, like you want to find out what happens. You want to be with the characters you want to it's a hang and it's like, like, I read something recently where, um, in the middle, you, I found myself sort of, I was still reading it because it was a good hang, but in the middle I was just kind of, like, I forget why we're here. I forget what I'm wondering. You're not really wondering anything, but I like it, so I'll keep this. Your book was not like that at all. This is a fantastic hang but you're right. It never, it's not... that's exactly right. It's not, it's not anxiety producing. And I think that's its own vibe. Like you can have romances that are fun and they're good, but they actually, you do have anxiety around, you know, like, how the characters are going to pull themselves out of this, or how they're going to feel or, yeah, and you can have them or you don't. I like that as, like, a sort of a line in the sand.Karen DukessYeah, yeah. And then I kind of thought about it as I continued, like, yeah, okay, that's right. We're not going to go to like, the really unsettling places.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah. I mean, even if you really want to know what would what will happen, and you really want, like, the things that happen to turn out in satisfying ways, but it doesn't feel like, if they turn out in some like, there were a variety of available options, none of which felt horrible.Karen DukessYeah, exactly.KJ Dell'AntoniaThank you for that. Thank you for a lovely reading experience. So, what else did you take away? Like, what else did you change between the drafting of the book that does not end up being published, which you know, for all we know, is actually great, but the timing was really bad. What should you change?Karen DukessWhat changed for me... in writing?KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, what are you changing? Did you change anything in your process?Karen DukessUm, I think I, I don't know if it was completely because of the experience with this book, but definitely it fed into it. Um, I worked with the same writing coach on the Russia book, and she keeps saying that book will be published someday. I'm like, yeah, maybe, maybe not. I don't really care, honestly at this point, but one thing that she really pushed on me, which I discovered in the writing of murder week, was really true, is that to be open and playful and just really to be creative, I needed that. I needed to be in the right mindset, like, I know your thing is always butt in chair, butt in chair. And it is true, you have to, you know, you have to push yourself to finish a novel. It's not easy. And there are times when you just have to push forward. But for me, in the drafting of it, like the butt in chair thing, for me, is more important in the revising and the final draft, when it's like, you've got to get through it, and you've just got to keep sitting there and doing it. But when I'm in this sort of creating stage, when I'm not sure what the story is, when I'm in those moods where I'm just like, sit down and work at this like, I don't write good stuff. I just don't. And she would sometimes say to me, like, if I would talk to her, and I was really angsty and I was really self-critical, or I don't like what I've written, or I don't know where I'm going with this, or whatever , she was really she would very much say, like, when you're in that kind of mood, just walk away. Don't sit at your computer. Like, that is not the time for butt in chair. That is the time for just go do something else and like, lighten up on yourself. And that was really true for this. And I'm trying to remind myself that as I work on the next novel that you know for me, being kind to myself and feeling playful and open is when I'm going to write the best stuff and surprise myself. And that applies whether I'm writing like a serious scene or a funny scene. And the tricky thing about it is, you know, it's always a little scary to write, so it's like, Am I walking away because I need to lighten up my mind, or am I just plain procrastinating?KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, or am I walking away because I just don't know how to...Karen DukessSo, I think that is something though, that I do feel like I write better from a free place than from a sort of, like, grim, determined place.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, that makes sense.Karen DukessI think I was learning that and trying to learn that when I was writing the Russia novel, but it really came true with this one, which is why I think I was able to write it quicker, because it's actually, you know, the weaving together of the fake murder mystery and the real mystery and the arcs of all the different characters. Like, it wasn't simple putting all together, but yet it was simpler for me to write, because I was just looser about it.KJ Dell'AntoniaRight. I think you learned to trust that you would finish this, even if you didn't finish it today.Karen DukessYeah.KJ Dell'AntoniaDoes that make sense?Karen DukessYeah.KJ Dell'AntoniaI, yeah.Karen DukessAnd I just think, like, trusting the process is so important, you know. And I talk about this with friends in my writing group, you know, sometimes when you're like, working so hard to figure it out, because it feels good to figure the novel out before you write it, because then you don't have the anxiety of, what if I don't figure it out? But it doesn't always work best that way. I don't think, like, I think there are times for that, and there are times to just, like, just keep going and like, let it go a little and let some interesting things happen, and then you'll figure out how to put it all together for me anyway. But obviously I'm not a plotter kind of person, so...KJ Dell'AntoniaI think, yeah, I think that varies. But what's what I'm really hearing here is that, like, even you knew, okay, if I don't, maybe I don't sit down today. That doesn't mean I'm never sitting again, down again. And I think that is, that's part of what I struggle with in my like 1000 words a day. Just, just keep doing it time. And I, and I think I, too, have come around to the idea that I'm going to finish it like...Karen DukessYeah.KJ Dell'AntoniaI'm not. I'm not suddenly, you know, just because I only got to 700 words today, that doesn't mean tomorrow I'm going to be like, yeah, I'm not a writer anymore. Oops!Karen Dukess Yeah, exactly. Well, I think, and I think I've learned that, like, I can't tell you how many times, I mean, I've listened to your podcast forever, and, like, years ago, I would listen to it, and I would be like, Yes, I'm going to do the stickers, or, Yes, I'm going to do 500 words a day, or, Yes, I'm going to text a friend or you know, none of that stuff. I could never sustain it.KJ Dell'AntoniaIt doesn't work for you.Karen DukessI have no routine; I have no methods. But what I've learned now is like, but I get books done, so it's okay, like, yeah, I will sometimes go a couple days where I don't write, or I will, you know, think I'm on a routine of 500 or 1000 words a day for a while, and then I'm not, and that's okay, because it's just like, I know that I can still get them done in my crazy way.KJ Dell'AntoniaThat is what we have tried to start saying more often, is, listen, this doesn't work for everybody. If you're doing something different and you're getting the work done, then you're great, yeah, if you're doing something different and you're not finishing things, then maybe try this.Karen DukessYeah, well I remember, like, when I was working on The Last Book Party, right before I got kind of serious on it, I was in a writing group, and I was starting, then I was like, I was learning in the writing group through, finally being in a community with other writers. So, like everybody struggles. Published writers struggle. Really great writers struggle like and that, and I loved reading interviews with writers like I couldn't get enough of interviews and essays about writer's struggles, because I had to, like, keep convincing myself that like, my struggles didn't mean I wasn't a writer. But then there was one point where I remember making a rule for myself. And I was like; I am not allowed to read about writing if I haven't written that day. You know, spend a lot of time...KJ Dell'AntoniaYes.Karen DukessWorking on your novel, but what you're actually doing is like, reading about writing and reading interviews and listening to podcasts. So, it's like, I cannot listen to KJ's podcast until I've done some writing. So, I've had to, I have had to make some rules.KJ Dell'Antonia Yeah, well, that's, I mean, that's how you turned yourself into somebody who gets the work done, and now into somebody who has her own like now you have a way people ask you, so what's your process? How did you get this done?Karen DukessI don't think anyone has tried my process, but yeah. And it can be different for every book, I guess, you know?KJ Dell'AntoniaHorrifyingly, I think that it can when you see pointed out, yeah, you that you knew how to write that book, that is so true, and that has been a huge thing for me, is to realize that even after writing a bunch of books, people still struggle, it's still hard, every book is hard. Every book has, I mean, we have a joke among the podcasts, you know, because you get to a point where you're like, okay, I hate this now, and we'll all be right, right-on target,Karen DukessExactly.KJ Dell'AntoniaBaby's developing nicely. Here's our 18-month checklist. Aww and you're crawling, and you hate your book. Yay!Karen DukessYeah, yeah. I don't think the process gets easier, but I think knowing that you can get through it makes it a little easier. Maybe it diminishes the panic a little bit like, you know, you'll figure it out. You'll figure it out.KJ Dell'AntoniaWell, this, I mean, this has been great. I'm sure it's going to be inspirational for everyone. It is inspirational for me, because I also... so I have a book that I worked on for the last year and a half, and I, we didn't, we didn't try to sell it because, because it's not very good.Karen DukessAre you still working on it? Or...KJ Dell'AntoniaIt's leaving, it's living. I make these gestures as though, like, there's like, a blobby object over here that is my, but is my finished, but also not revised and not good uh...Karen DukessI had this theory about books, like, it's the same theory I had with au pairs.KJ Dell'AntoniaOkay.Karen DukessWe had a lot of au pairs when my kids were growing up and I was working out of the home, you know, not writing. And I felt like every time I selected, you know, they would come for a year. One or two of them stayed for two years. But every time I selected a new au pair, it was in reaction to the problems of the other... the previous au pair. So, like, when I had an au pair that was like a horrible driver, so much so that we had to, like, get rid of her. Then I was like, okay, where is it hardest to get a driver's license? Germany. Okay, I'm having a German au pair, you know. Then I had, like, a German au pair who was great, but it was like, she was too, I don't know, whatever if I had an au pair, that was like, two lax, then the next one was like, oh, this person has, like, you know, worked in a boys school. I want that.KJ Dell'AntoniaRight? yeah.Karen DukessAnd I feel like, you know, I wrote Welcome to Murder Week because I had had this tough experience with this Russia novel. Then it was like, I'm going to do something really fun. So, and I don't know that I would have written that if I hadn't needed so badly to have fun. I don't know that I would have said, no, yeah, forget doing something, you know, serious or with some geopolitical things in it. I'm going to write a, you know, a murder week story. I don't know that I would have written it if I could have gone on that vacation and just had a great time and come back and not felt the need.KJ Dell'AntoniaWritten something else.Karen DukessSo, you know, maybe the one that's not working is going to lead you to write the next fabulous thing.KJ Dell'AntoniaWell, I hope I'm already well into... I'm well into something else, but, yeah, it's, you know, you spend a lot of time on something, not everything works. It's one of the reasons this is a terrible job, and you absolutely shouldn't do it unless you know, you can't do anything else,Karen DukessExactly.KJ Dell'AntoniaOr unless you really want to.Karen DukessYeah.KJ Dell'AntoniaThere. That's that. That's really good advice. That's going to make a great bumper sticker. All right. So have you read anything good lately besides Welcome to Murder Week, which, in fact, is what I will be raving about in just a second.Karen DukessUm, yes, I read a book called The Original by Nell Stevens. It out in June. She's a British writer, and it's really good. It's sort of an also kind of genre, blending the way my book is, but it's very different. It's like a gothic novel. It's set in an old house in England in the 1800's and it involves an orphan who's being raised by relatives, and she has an incredible talent for painting forgeries, and she sort of has this secret business in selling forgeries, but it also involves an imposter who returns from abroad in the family, and there's a queer romance in it, and it's totally unlike anything I've read, and very compelling.KJ Dell'AntoniaOof, I love that.Karen DukessIn a really compelling way.KJ Dell'AntoniaAnd by the time people hear that, that this, this will either be out, or like, buy your next week self a present. That sounds great.Karen DukessYeah, it was very... it's very good. It's kind of like a rainy day book. You know?KJ Dell'AntoniaI love that. Well, I already raved about Welcome to Murder Week, but I'm telling you all, it's a real it's a real joy. I want to compare it to things. But there's almost like it's, I'll think of things that I that I want to...Karen DukessIt's hard to compare because it's not a traditional mystery,KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, no, um, I feel like Clare Pooley's books are, and I can't even think of the titles of them, but that, yeah, that is kind of ringing the right bell for me. I don't know who else a little bit of the like the murder, like, if you really thought The Murder of Mr. Wickham was super fun, which I absolutely adored, that is completely different, and yet also it's the same, like, it's the same... I think the vibe we're looking for here is page turner, no anxiety. And I love that. I love that for all of us...in England.Karen Dukess Yes, yeah.KJ Dell'AntoniaSo go grab this one. You're going to enjoy it, all right. Well, thanks so much. This was really fun. Thank you for being so open, and not just, you know, wandering around saying, well, I just it took me six years to write this because it's very good.Karen DukessYeah, I have to say, you know, I think that writers should talk more often about their failures. And by that...KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah.Karen DukessI mean, like novels that they wrote and abandoned, or novels that they wrote and tried to get published and couldn't, because it was only until I wrote this Russian novel and didn't sell it, and I would mention it to people. Then all these writers I knew, and people I knew, you know, would suddenly tell me about their own published novels. And I was like, why did I know about this beforehand? There's no shame in it... you know? It's a tough business. It's a tough business. The writing is tough; the publishing is tough. And now I'm like, oh my god, like so many writers I know have novels that did not get published, and for whatever reason. And I'm sure many of those novels are great novels, and but knowing that you know the journey of being a writer, just like I don't know a single author who hasn't like lost their editor at some point, you know, their editor leaves. Then they find a new, you know, be assigned to a new editor. That happens everybody, and I realize how many people have novels that did not see the light of day, and it was comforting to know it. So, I think people should be more open about it.KJ Dell'AntoniaI think we just are afraid that, you know, a reader will hear, well, I don't know if she's capable of writing something... that doesn't work, maybe it's not very good, which readers aren't listening to anything. They can barely remember our names. They just know if the book sounded good and someone pressed it into their hands.Karen DukessYeah, had a great cover.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, had a great cover. Yeah, all, all of the things, and it's just, it's, it's just a little scary to admit, because I guess one of the scary things about it, of course, admitting that that has happened means it could happen again. And hey It could! Oh well.Karen DukessYeah, but I've survived it. So...KJ Dell'AntoniaYou've survived it, you would survive it again. And also, it didn't happen this time. Welcome to Murder Week is great, and everyone is going to be sitting with it by the pool looking very happy. This is my wish for you. All right?Karen DukessThank you. Thanks so much KJ.KJ Dell'AntoniaOh, thank you. Hey, anywhere people should follow you? Oh, you have a Substack. What is it? I love it!Karen DukessI have a Substack. I mean, I think on Substack you can find it by my name Karen Dukess, it's, I don't know... it's called, “Keep Calm and Carry On”, but I think you can just look me up by name on Substack, and I am on Instagram more often at Karen Dukess, as I post about books that I'm reading all the time. Obviously, there'll be a lot of quarter week stuff, but I try to, you know, I'm reading eclectically and all the time. So, I'm always posting about books. Those are probably the best places to find me. And I have my website with all my events on it.KJ Dell'AntoniaIt'll be linked. It'll be linked.Karen DukessGreat.KJ Dell'AntoniaHopefully I can get to something... all right. Well, thank you so much. And all you listeners out there, I mean, you know you do you, but in some way, keep your butt in the chair, hey and or your head in the game.Jess LaheyThe Hashtag AmWriting podcast is produced by Andrew perilla. Our intro music, aptly titled Unemployed Monday was written and played by Max Cohen. Andrew and Max were paid for their time and their creative output, because everyone deserves to be paid for their work. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

Should there be a body? Writing is Revising with Meg Mitchell Moore

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Play Episode Listen Later May 30, 2025 37:20

Meg Mitchell Moore is the author of Mansion Beach, a page-turner-y multi POV summer saga with everything you could ask for: a beach, a body, rich people behaving badly but also sometimes not behaving badly, parties, drama and just enough gender-swapped Gatsby to think hard about the meaning of the American Dream. I loved it (KJ here) and I also loved this conversation with Meg, who apparently thinks in multiple POVS and is always just as impatient as I am to feel like the book is done and wonderful when sadly it is… not. #AmReadingMeg: Audio: Great Big Beautiful Life, Emily Henry—Julia WhelanAlso mentioned: Julia Whelan's Thank You for ListeningPrint: The Road to Dalton, Shannon Bowringfrom The Book Shop of Beverly FarmsKJ: Mansion BeachWelcome to Glorious Tuga, Francesca SegalFind Meg at @megmitchellmoore on IG, or visit her website at www.megmitchellmoore.comHEY. Did you know Sarina's latest thriller is out NOW? Rowan Gallagher is a devoted single mother and a talented architect with a high-profile commission restoring an historic mansion for the most powerful family in Maine. But inside, she's a mess. She knows that stalking her ex's avatar all over Portland on her phone isn't the healthiest way to heal from their breakup. But she's out of ice cream and she's sick of romcoms. Watching his every move is both fascinating and infuriating. He's dining out while she's wallowing on the couch. The last straw comes when he parks in their favorite spot on the waterfront. In a weak moment, she leashes the dog and sets off to see who else is in his car. Instead of catching her ex in a kiss, Rowan becomes the first witness to his murder—and the primary suspect.Digital books at: Amazon | Nook | Apple Books | Kobo | Google Play | Audible Physical books at: Bookshop.org | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indigo | More paperback links here!New! Transcripts below!EPISODE 450 - TRANSCRIPTKJ Dell'AntoniaKJ here announcing a new series and a definite plus for paid supporters of Hashtag AmWriting. It's Writing the Book, a conversation between Jenny, who's just finished a blueprint for her next nonfiction book, and me because I've just finished the blueprint for what I hope will be my next novel. Jenny and I are both trying to quote-unquote "play big" with these next go-rounds, which is a meta effort for Jenny as that's exactly what her book is about, and we're basically coaching each other through, trading pages, thoughts and encouragement, as well as some sometimes hard-to-hear honesty about whether we're really going in the right direction. So come all in on team Hashtag AmWriting, and you'll get those Writing the Book episodes right in your pod player along with access to monthly AMAs, the book labs, first pages episodes, and come summer, we shall blueprint once again. So sign yourself up at amwritingpodcast.com.All SpeakingIs it recording? Now it's recording. Yay. Go ahead. This is the part where I stare blankly at the microphone. Try to remember what I'm supposed to be doing. Alright. Let's start over. Awkward pause. I'm gonna rustle some papers. Okay. Now one, two, three.KJ Dell'AntoniaHey, I'm KJ Dell'Antonia, and this is Hashtag AmWriting, the weekly podcast about writing all the things. Short things, long things, pitches, proposals, fiction, nonfiction, memoir, other things I'm probably not thinking of. We are the podcast about sitting down and getting your work done. And I am KJ Dell'Antonia, the author of three novels, The Chicken Sisters, In Her Boots and Playing the Witch Card, as well as a nonfiction book, How to Be a Happier Parent, former editor of The New York Times Motherlode. You've heard all this. With me today, more importantly, is Meg Mitchell Moore, who has written a book that I think you're gonna find is your summer go to. It is called Mansion Beach, and I loved it. And we'll talk about it in a second. She is also the author of Summer Stage, Vacationland, can attest to both of those great reads. The Islanders, Two Truths and a Lie, The Admissions, loved that one too. They're all great. So, anyway, lots of lots of novels in the family saga, sometimes touch of romance, beach, summer, deep, but also page turnery read genre, which is not a genre because that was too long. But, anyway, Meg, thanks for coming to chat.Meg Mitchell MooreThank you for having me. I'm so happy to be here. This is gonna be really fun.KJ Dell'AntoniaSo I've read some of your other books, obviously, and I felt like this one Mansion Beach was you sort of moving to a different this. It's a little how to describe it. You've got a lot of points of view, which you always, you often do, and a little bit of of a mystery, which actually, I've seen you do before, and then you've got a podcast going on so that you can have different people show show off what's happening. I guess I was hoping you would talk about the evolution of style, um, actually, over your whole career, sort of from, like, I'm writing a kind of a basic book with a couple of points of view and third person close, or maybe first person to these bigger, bigger stories with so much more to so much more to offer the reader. That's a really big question. Start wherever you want.Meg Mitchell MooreThat's a great question. I I don't know if it has been such an evolution. I have always written multiple points of view to the point where it makes me crazy. And I wish I could. I wish I could do one or two. I really wish I could. I've tried it. I can't do it. I just can't. My brain doesn't work that way. It's I can't do it. So even my very first novel, which I published in 2011 it was called The Arrivals, that was a much smaller story. So yes, I for sure, I've evolved plot wise, but I remember, and this was when I was brand new and did not know what I was doing, and I was just trying to figure out how to write a novel. I had so many points of view. And I remember my now agent. Maybe she was not my agent then and was becoming my agent, or maybe she was already my agent, but I remember her saying, we have to take out at least like five of these points of view. And it's still, it still has a lot. I just that's how I think those are the kind of books I like to read, usually, not always, for one thing, but it just. Must be how I think I'm always in everybody's head, and it's really hard for me to restrain that. So this book, I don't think, has any more points of view than any other. Might have fewer than some. It does have a mystery.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah it might, then some that I've read, I guess I I, I saw it as different, maybe in part because of the the use of the podcast to frame things.Meg Mitchell MooreYeah that's new. And then it's a bigger, you know, it's a bigger idea. It's a, it's not a retelling of The Great Gatsby, because I don't like to use that word, but it is inspired by The Great Gatsby. So it has definitely some bigger I was looking at bigger themes, maybe from the start. A lot of times I back my way into the themes based on what my characters are doing. I don't always start with the themes, but this time i i was looking at some of those big whether, what's the American dream and what does success mean, and how does money equate with happiness, and some of those bigger questions. And I don't always do that. I might do it in reverse, but I don't always do that first. So I do think it has bigger theme wise, it's bigger maybe plot wise, yeah. And some of the elements, some of the elements that move it along, are a little different. I was working with a new editor for the first time for this. This is my first full book with my new editor. So I think that had something to do with it too, because I think she was probably pushing me for some of those elements that don't come naturally to me, which I think ended up being good for the book.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, it's a little more thriller. Isn't exactly the right word, but there's definitely a page turning mystery in there. I know here's, this is like a so there's a page turning mystery in Mansion Beach, and the question all along for the reader, like, you know somebody is going to die. But I at least did not know who, but I had an advance, and it came as a as a digital book, so I didn't have the cover and I didn't have the blurb on the back, if a reader has those things, are they gonna know?Meg Mitchell MooreInteresting.KJ Dell'AntoniaAre they gonna know? Who it is that that dies?Meg Mitchell MooreI don't think so. I don't think so. The people I know who have read it both ways, I think have not known.KJ Dell'AntoniaThat's good.Meg Mitchell MooreIt's sort of that white lotus effect, you know, for White Lotus fans out there, where there is a mystery, and you care about the mystery, but you also it matters, but it doesn't matter as much as what's going on with everybody else. So I really like that as a framing device. I like watching it and reading it. And I tried it myself this time. I did it a little bit in two truths and a lie as well. I guess that's my only other one that has a dead body, and a lot of people are mad at me for who the person was who died, which I want. And two truths...KJ Dell'AntoniaDon't give it up.Meg Mitchell MooreNo, I won't. So that was interesting, so I hadn't tried it again, and this time I went in a little nervous, because people had been upset with me, particularly my husband. But I I still, I mean, I had the chance not to do what I did in two truths and a lie, and I still chose to. So I still, for me, it was the right thing, but it was an interesting experience. And I didn't try it again for a couple books. And this time I did also because I was playing with some of the Gatsby themes. I mean, Gatsby has three bodies, so I thought, I mean, I should have at least one, so I won't, yeah, I won't give anything away about…KJ Dell'AntoniaNo, don't.Meg Mitchell MooreWho or what or how, but I did enjoy having that as a device to propel it now that also, I don't think that was in the first draft. I don't think there was a body in the first draft. I mean, there were huge changes in this book, and I think that was one of them. I think we decided we needed the body after one draft.KJ Dell'AntoniaWow. Okay, now I'm deeply fascinated, and of course, I'm trying. So I'm trying to make this interesting and useful for those of you who haven't read the book, although you could also stop, go get the book, and read it, and then listen to this, and then it would be even better.Meg Mitchell MooreThat is true.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah. Okay, so let me just start by saying I am actually not a person who typically likes a book where your whole like, like, the question is, you know, either who died or who did it. So Lucy Foley, I've enjoyed some of those, but it's not necessarily my favorite go to genre, but the thing that made this book work great for me was exactly what you just said, that there's so much more to it. You I could see that this story would exist before you added that and that. I mean, that's so cool. And then I also, I'm not a Gatsby person, so neither of those would like, neither of those hooks is going to grab me. But what grabbed me, I think, was the different women, different versions of the American dream.Meg Mitchell MooreMm-hmm.KJ Dell'AntoniaIs that where you started?Meg Mitchell MooreI started… Yeah, I think so I would. Really, yes, I wanted to really look at notions of success, particularly for women today. You know, it's contemporary. It takes place that, you know, in the summer that is coming out, or that, if you actually match up the dates, and I think I messed up the tides and the moon in some places, but it's the summer. So yes, I was very interested in those questions. I was I wanted to have a love triangle, because I think that's interesting, and that's part of Gatsby too. So it's funny that you say you're not a Gatsby person. I think my first, another change from my first draft, was very Gatsby heavy. I think I tried to, I think it just was, I was trying too hard to to do the same thing. And…KJ Dell'AntoniaIt's kind of a reverse-gendered Gatsby.Meg Mitchell MooreIt is, yes, it's reverse gendered. But what I was doing was just, I was just trying to, I don't know what I was doing, but it was a mess. I mean, I always knew I wanted to play with Gatsby, but I tried to do it too closely. And I tried a little first person with the narrator, which that's how Gatsby is told, but I can't write him. Can't write successfully in first person. So that was a mess. And I remember that my editor probably looked at this thing and said, This is what are we doing? But what she said to me nicely was, you need to, like, don't worry so much about Gatsby at all, like you need to free yourself from those constraints, and you need to write the story. And that was the best advice, because that's when it started to come together. So it's more that Gatsby was a jumping off point, and some of those themes, I was so interested in how those themes are so relevant 100 years later, and they are, so I think I needed that as a jumping off point, but I didn't need to, you know, retell it scene by scene, or try to have the narrator feel the same, or do anything like that. And I had some missteps along the way before I figured that out.KJ Dell'AntoniaIt interests me that this doesn't seem to have taken any longer than your other books, did it?Meg Mitchell MooreUh, I felt like it took forever. My books have come out either with note with, you know, a year and then the next summer, or with two summers in between. This one has, this one has an empty summer in between. So I did need that extra writing time for this. And I remember, I always start out thinking I could do this in a year. I'll absolutely and I always hit. I'm a deadline hitter. You know, I always hit the deadlineKJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, you give them something.Meg Mitchell MooreYeah, I was a journalist for a long time. I just, I'm not late on things. I just always, I'm just, I always hit my deadlines, but it might be awful. And so this was nobody actually. I mean, it was pretty awful when I think back to that first draft, and I think that my editor and Agent thought, okay, we can do this. And I looked at it, and I looked at my schedule and my life and my brain, and I thought, I don't think I can do it very well. So we put it off for a year, which gave me not a year's writing time, but maybe six months that I hadn't had. And that made a big difference. So this one took a little longer. Same thing with vacation land. I had the exact same thing happen where I thought it was going to come out one summer, it came out the next summer, but Summer Stage and then the book coming out, if I finish it next summer, will have no extra time in between. So it kind of, I've gone both ways with it.KJ Dell'AntoniaDo you see any like consistency in why? Or it just sort of either happens that way or it doesn't?Meg Mitchell MooreI think I when I try bigger, when I try bigger books, I need more time, as it should be, but I always think I can do it. You know, I'm patience is not, is not my best quality. Impatience is my worst quality. So I find that I'm usually impatient to get something done or to hit the deadline or to put the book out, and I have to slow myself down when necessary, and vacation land. It was a different editor, same publisher, but different editor. I remember her saying, having that talk with me and saying, it will be a much better book. If we put it out the following year, it will be so much better. And she was right. So we needed that time.KJ Dell'AntoniaI so totally relate to this.Meg Mitchell MooreDo you?KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, absolutely. I mean, I'm in the middle of it. Now, if anybody who's listening is also listening to our what the books are writing the books, what the books also like? It's a little mini series where one of my co-hosts is writing nonfiction and I'm writing fiction, and we're trading pages, and we're doing a weekly series of conversations. And this week's realization was, I have always known that I'm writing a story with multiple points of view, but I couldn't start it that way. I had. I had to start it with just this one protagonist. And then I thought, Oh, well, then it'll just be that, and it'll probably be really easy. Look, I've got this all planned out. I'm just gonna write. I'm just gonna, oh, I'll bet I can get, what if I got my agent a draft this summer? Hahaha, it's, you know, it's not good, but I'm so impatient. I want ...Meg Mitchell MooreRight, right. Well, I was listening to one of your to your podcast the other yesterday, and it was the one where you were talking about your story idea starting. How do you, how do you ideate the book?KJ Dell'AntoniaOh, gosh.Meg Mitchell MooreAnd you so you write a book, and then you present it to your agent, and then you sell it, right? So…KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah.Meg Mitchell MooreThat's your process. So I'm the opposite, where I write, I get the contract first, and then I have to write the book. And I don't know which is harder, because you don't have a built in deadline. You have your own deadlines that you said, but you're writing something that you said. Maybe this will sell, maybe it won't, I don't know, whereas I know it will eventually be published, but I also have that pressure of I have to get things in on time. So what do you think is, what's better? What's worse?KJ Dell'AntoniaI don't know. I envy your... I envy that way. I feel like that would make me feel more secure, more professional. My, my agent, doesn't… she's very against selling a book of mine, at least before I've written it, because she says, I'll, she says I might change it, and then, and then, it won't be what we sold or I won't be happy. So so I don't know if she's I think she's just against it as a general rule, but I know lots of agents that that do it, and I know a lot of of writers that do it. Sometimes I look at this and I'm like, you know, I could do a proposal. Maybe we could sell it. I could get some money. That would be lovely, right? Yeah. But...Meg Mitchell MooreI see, I see your point, and I know a lot of people think that way. I remember a long time ago when I'd either published, I think I'd published no novels. Maybe my book was about to be published, my first novel, and I heard Ann Patchett speak at a conference, and she said, she said that she would never take money for a book she hadn't written.KJ Dell'AntoniaWow.Meg Mitchell MooreAnd I remember thinking, Oh, well, if that's what Ann Patchett says, I guess that's what like, that's how the world is. But I disagree, like I disagree, because for me, first of all, she has a different life situation, but for me to keep income coming in steadily, because this is my only job, I feel like that's the way to do it. And I also feel like other industries, like my husband doesn't only get paid when he goes to the board meeting. He's getting paid every other week for his job that he does for the company that he works for. And so to try to approximate a little bit of a normal salary, I feel like that's the way to do it. But then I also see the other side, and I see why Ann Patchett wouldn't do it, because she's Ann Patchett, you know, so she can take whatever time she needs...KJ Dell'AntoniaSee that's so funny. Because I think, well, you can do this because you're Meg Mitchell Moore, and Meg Mitchell Moore is going to sell and a KJ Dell'Antonia, one of them will, and the others somewhat less, so at least that's my my record at the moment. So I guess we just all see each other differently. My co-host Sarina sells on proposal.Meg Mitchell MooreOkay, so fiction, that's fiction?KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, yeah. She sold thrillers and romances that way. Okay, so she has a bigger track record. But also, I've known people, you know, I guess there's just different ways of of of doing it. And I would not say that I chose this. It chose me.Meg Mitchell MooreInteresting, but there was always that chance. I mean, my agent... If I said to my agent, I don't want to sell till I write, she would say, Great, that might be better for both of us. We'll probably sell it for more, because you might write something really good, but I just don't want to take that. I'm too impatient, you know, I'm just Yes, maybe, if, you know, maybe if I had, you know, had some big blockbuster, and then I thought, Okay, now for two years, it doesn't matter what's coming in, because I'm getting money from that book, that would be different. But, um, that's not how it works for most people.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, and maybe I would feel less impatient with getting this done if I weren't like, I want to get to the point where I know if we're going to sell like, I wrote a whole thing last summer, and it never got to the point that we felt like we could sell it, and I I'm sick of it. I can't write it anymore. I'm done with it. I mean, maybe I'll come back to it, but, yeah, right. And like, I've had, you know, a freelance editor at it who's really good. My agent's been at it. I finished it like three times, and apparently it still sucks. So I'm done.Meg Mitchell MooreSo that's interesting, because I always think that I would not be writing good books if I didn't know if my editor gets a very messy draft, and all of my editors have gotten bad dress and really helped me. And without that step, I don't think I would ever write a book that could even be sold. So I feel like I need to know, okay, somebody else who is better at this is going to be helping me really soon. I just need to get through it.KJ Dell'AntoniaThat's that would be amazing. I don't think my editor cares enough about me to do that. So...Meg Mitchell MooreOh, my editor would absolutely prefer a cleaner draft. Like, no question. I mean, she would be delighted if I showed it to five people and got feedback, but I'm always in a rush. So I'm like, here you're the first reader. Here you go. She's like, thank you.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, that's my agent. I'll be like, Look, I'm done it's great! and She's no... it is great, but you know what would be really great? Poor agent. Yeah, okay. So, so we're we're both impatient, but we're doing this in in very different ways. Well, now I want to hear more about that. How do you go from a first draft with no body, to a final draft where the body, it's definitely one of the things that's pushing people to turn the page. It's not the only thing. So maybe that's the good news of not having started with a body. Also, did you know whose body it was?Meg Mitchell MooreUm, we discussed because, yeah, I mean, we discussed a little bit about it. I remember thinking, Could it be this person? And here's why we wouldn't want that person. Could it be this person? So we had some discussion. I didn't write it. I once I knew who it was. I didn't write multiple versions of it. I always had that person. But, and I guess I just think of it as more of a framing device than anything, and a framing device, you can add the frame later.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah.Meg Mitchell MooreSo the middle was mostly what was happening, was happening, and then there was this framing device and and then there are certain things at the end that kind of came together. And I was like, Oh my gosh, this makes it all come together. But I didn't know that in the beginning. And that was so you may be late.KJ Dell'AntoniaDid you not know how the body became a body?Meg Mitchell MooreAh, that changed. There was...KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, I could see that.Meg Mitchell MooreAnd then I thought, oh my gosh, this is kind of what I needed to pull together all those themes. It was those exciting moments that really don't happen very often.KJ Dell'AntoniaOh, I bet and I mean, I can see it from the outside as a reader. It really did. It made it like your ending is one of those endings that changes the whole, your whole reading experience for the better, right? Not that it wasn't a great reading experience the whole time. You know, sometimes somebody doesn't stick the landing, and then you're like, yeah, no, I don't really want to recommend this. I mean, it was fine, right? But, and sometimes it's just great. It's like, solid. You're happy, yay. Okay, that's a good, it's a good. Yours colors the entire like, if I were somebody who would go back and reread it, would color the entire experience differently.Meg Mitchell MooreOh, Thank you!KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, which is cool, yeah, very cool.Meg Mitchell MooreNow, when I wrote Vacationland, I started with a body, and the body came out. So I had the opposite experience, where I thought I was writing a thriller. The whole time. I was like, this is going to be my thriller. There's a body. And I had it all. And to me, it made sense. It all tied up, and my different editor, but my then editor said, I like everything but the body.KJ Dell'AntoniaWow.Meg Mitchell MooreWe had to keep it was first it was a an important body, and then it was a less important body, and then it became the body of a seal, because I had to have just a scene of children looking at something they found in the water in the very beginning. And so it was a body, and then it was a seals body. This time. I got to keep my body at least.KJ Dell'AntoniaSo I love this also, because you haven't been, um, pigeonholed into a genre that involves bodies or doesn't involve bodies. Has that been a thing as you've as you've gone from book to book where people are like, well, I don't know… Meg, people don't really want you to kill people or the, you know, the opposite. Well, I don't know, people are kind of looking for some more thrills from you.Meg Mitchell MooreWell, Vacationland. I remember that editor said they don't, we don't want this from you. We want, we don't want. We want a summer book. We don't want. We're not looking for a thriller. You know, they had other thrillers. You know what? They're doing their own end of the business, too. So they definitely said that this time. I mean, I feel like I'm not pigeonholed, but categorized as beach as a beach book. But I think within beach books you can do all of those things. Yeah. So if I were to write a giant thriller that I said, I think this should come out in the fall, and it's a big book, I that's when they would probably say, I don't know if your audience, if you have the audience, right, pull that off unless the book is amazing, you know? I do feel like I need to come out in the summer to keep my readers.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, I actually love that. That beach book is a You're right. It's a pretty big genre. It encompasses a lot. It encompasses a lot of of things, the only requirement being that it's, you know, entertaining, which, as far as I'm concerned, is a book requirement anyway. But...Meg Mitchell MooreRight, right. It is interesting because my books also happen to usually take place on beaches, but not all beach books do. So it is, it has become a very big category and competitive like you also want to stand out in that category, because there are so many books with the word summer in the title or the word beach in the title, or this. Actually, this cover is a departure for me, which I love, because I feel like I have done the just the oceanscape or the main or the woman looking at the water. I've had those kinds of covers.KJ Dell'AntoniaIt's your first... It's, it's, it's a cartoony cover. I don't, I don't mean that it, you know that sounds Yeah, it's almost a romancy cover. But there's only one person. First. I'm just so you guys should, it'll, it'll be in the show notes. You should, you should take a look, because you're right. It is a departure. I see, yeah, I see what you're saying there. But this one's, it's a hardback, right?Meg Mitchell MooreYes.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah. Have all your books come out first in hardback?Meg Mitchell MooreThey have, yep.KJ Dell'AntoniaNice, cool.Meg Mitchell MooreHave yours?KJ Dell'AntoniaNo, none.Meg Mitchell MooreNone? Okay, now, what do you now…? Do you think that… that, I sometimes I feel like that's a great thing too.KJ Dell'AntoniaI go back and forth on that. My agent is bummed about it. But for me, it's frankly, much easier to, like, go out to everyone and be like, spend $18 versus be like spend $38.Meg Mitchell MooreI agree.KJ Dell'AntoniaSo I haven't minded. Oh, and I was at the Newburyport Book Festival a few years ago, and they accidentally got my second book only in hard book, because it was, it came out in hardback and paperback at the same time, which there was a moment of about six months when publishers were doing that, and then they stopped and they only had the hardback. And I was like, Oh, I don't even want anyone to buy that. Like that, isn't I would be mad if I bought a hardback...Meg Mitchell MooreRight, right.KJ Dell'AntoniaAnd then the next day, I was at the store and was like, hey!?Meg Mitchell MooreRight, yeah, it's interesting, because I do actually love… because I bought your book The Chicken Sisters this weekend, in paperback, and I love, I love paperback, yeah, I love it.KJ Dell'AntoniaFor travel…?Meg Mitchell MooreLighter, yeah, and I think it is appealing. It's so interesting. I mean, I remember Emily Henry's first couple, at least, came out paperback, and then now that she can sell so well, they now they come in hardcover, but I still feel like...KJ Dell'AntoniaI look at them and I'm like, I don't want that that way. Now, I'll just buy a digital version, because I don't that's not…Meg Mitchell MooreRight? Right. It's really interesting. And I know I don't understand the sales end of it, the way that the people who are doing the job do, and the profits and the margin and all that. But I kind of feel like, why isn't everything in paperback right away? You know?KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, no, I feel the same way. And and also people's, especially now we're thinking, we're talking about beach books. Some people's beach I mean, if my beach vacation is an airplane beach vacation, I might bring one hardback, maybe...Meg Mitchell MooreRight.KJ Dell'AntoniaAnd maybe, probably not, because I'm a fast reader, I could easily eat that on the plane, and then there I would be. So...Meg Mitchell MooreRight.KJ Dell'AntoniaI don't know.Meg Mitchell MooreRight, yeah.KJ Dell'AntoniaI guess that's what e-readers are for.Meg Mitchell MooreThat's true.KJ Dell'AntoniaWell, I mean, gosh, I could probably talk to you about in depth, about the writing of this for about 12 hours. Because, okay, one one last thought. So listeners, Meg writes like we said, in multiple points of view. Talk to me about how you know when to change the point. You know what point of view a scene should be told from?Meg Mitchell MooreYeah, I don't. I'm it's so much. I do so much rewriting, a lot of that. I mean, I'm just thinking, I just turned in a draft yesterday of, hopefully next summer's novel, and I that is also multiple points of view. It's, I think it's mostly three, it's three adult sisters and they each have a point of view. There might be a couple little scattered things, but when I look back, I think I need to probably adjust, even in the draft I just turned in, I think I'm a little heavily weighted toward one over the other, so I don't always know. I just go on gut and instinct, and then I fix it later, which is how I do almost everything. I just go by instinct, and it's usually wrong And I change it later.KJ Dell'AntoniaSo, you'll, you'll be like, you've written a scene, and the point of view of one person, you realize, oh, either it's the other person's turn to have some more time, or I need their inner thoughts, not this person's inner thought...Meg Mitchell MooreRight. Yeah, its not very organized.KJ Dell'AntoniaAnd sometimes you drop in like, you know, a kid on a beach or something, is that when you need something to happen that you that your protagonists don't know? Or just, you just feel like?Meg Mitchell MooreI think, I think it's fun. I just think it's fun sometimes to have this person you haven't heard from and you won't hear from again. But a lot I probably did. I probably do that. It probably gets taken out 80% of the time when I do that, because usually it doesn't make sense. But I just wanted to do it. I did it in my book. I just turned in and the first this scene between the a realtor and her husband, the realtor who's selling this house that these people are in. She doesn't matter to the book, but I just really wanted to write the scene of her and her husband, and I even wrote in the draft. I know this doesn't make sense, and my editor said, Yeah, this doesn't make sense. Like, you either need more of them, or they need to go. I don't know what they're...KJ Dell'AntoniaDo you ever give them away for? Like, you know, here's your pre order bonus. Read this extra scene…Meg Mitchell MooreI should do that. Maybe I'll do that. They'll do that. I have never done that, but maybe I will. But I feel like, I think it might be Anne Tyler. I remember reading an interview. Is she the one who does the strings like she has strings with different?KJ Dell'AntoniaMaybe, i don't know.Meg Mitchell MooreEvery character has a different colored string, and then she pulls down the red one because it's the red, you know, that's how she knows who she's writing. And I thought that was really cool, but I've never done it.KJ Dell'AntoniaThat sounds like a lot of work.Meg Mitchell MooreI guess.KJ Dell'AntoniaAnd, like, I would need a different…I need a bulletin board. Okay.Meg Mitchell MooreYeah, I don't know where you, where I would hang it from, but it's just seems kind of nice to think, then maybe...KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah it does.Meg Mitchell MooreShe knows if she's done the right amount for everybody.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, The Chicken Sisters is alternating points of view. And I just, I just alternated. And then sometimes that was a problem, and I had to figure out, like, how to get somebody's feelings? Yeah? So....Meg Mitchell MooreYeah, it's confusing. I don't know why I do it to myself, because sometimes I'll just read a perfectly, a book that's just perfectly written in first person. I'm trying to think of an example right now, because I don't even always read that much in first person, but like, Yellowface? … Yellowface. Okay, that book was so, like, simple in a way, but I love I loved it. I thought it was brilliant, and it was all just this point of view, and...KJ Dell'AntoniaAnd didn't you occasionally get, like a newspaper article? I think...Meg Mitchell MooreMaybe, maybe.KJ Dell'AntoniaThat must have been what she did when she had something her person couldn't know.Meg Mitchell MooreYeah. I guess, yeah. I guess, technically, it would be harder to do it all from one because you how do they know everything? But I feel like I get lost, like I have trouble. I literally lose the plot, because I'm just this person's off doing something in their day that might have nothing to do with what's going on. I get really caught up in that kind of stuff, and that's what I have to edit out.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, I'm always trying not to do that. I'll sit there while I'm writing, like, No, do not let them move their coffee cup. They can move the coffee cup in a later draft, if the coffee cup is still here, if they're even still in this coffee shop, if this coffee shop even exists. But I can't seem to stop it. My my like, default mode is, you know, he said while taking a sip and burning his lip or whatever, right? Just, I can't seem to not do it.Meg Mitchell MooreYeah, but sometimes that's where you get the gold too, because you wrote all that, and maybe that one sentence is the thing that you needed. So it's just the process.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, it is. It's just the process, and it's longer than we hope and slower than we hope...Meg Mitchell MooreAlways...Always. Yes.KJ Dell'AntoniaAnd more, and more revising. Well, do you have any, like, genius words about revision for people? Because it sounds like you do a lot of it.Meg Mitchell MooreI do a lot of it. I think just is so important. It's just so for me, it's so important. I just think nobody gets it right. I hope nobody gets it right the first time. Because if they do, I'm really jealous, but I think for the most part, nobody gets it right the first time. So revision is, I mean, I'd say I spent almost as much time on the revision I probably do as I do on the first draft.KJ Dell'AntoniaDo you still lie to yourself in the first draft and let yourself pretend it's going to be right?Meg Mitchell MooreOh yeah. I always think, Oh, this is the time I did it, I nailed it, and then I get my editorial letter, and it's like, great start. Here's the 700 things that you need to do now.KJ Dell'AntoniaWell, thank you. I feel better. I hope everyone else does too.Meg Mitchell MooreYeah, it's a long process.KJ Dell'AntoniaIt really is, all right. Well, this was fantastic. I really enjoyed it.Meg Mitchell MooreYeah, me too.KJ Dell'AntoniaAs we hit the end of any episode, we always like to ask people what they've been reading. So I hope I'm not springing that on you.Meg Mitchell MooreNo, I just I always have an audio book going and a regular book going on audio I just started the Emily Henry, the new Emily Henry, which I've never listened to her books. I've always read them, and I know that Julia, the famous Julia Whelan, is always her narrator, so and she's phenomenal. So I'm loving the audio version, which is just funny that I've never done it with Emily Henry before.KJ Dell'AntoniaDid you listen to Julia Whelan's book that she wrote herself?Meg Mitchell MooreMhmm.KJ Dell'AntoniaThat was so fascinating, because it really was different, like I actually read it, but I could feel the… yeah. Anyway, okay.Meg Mitchell MooreOh, you should go back and also listen. It's so it's such a good audio book.KJ Dell'AntoniaI bet.Meg Mitchell MooreYeah, it was fantastic. And then I'm reading a novel called The Road to Dalton that my friend Hannah, who owns the Book Shop of Beverly Farms in Beverly Farms, Massachusetts, phenomenal store recommended to me. So I bought it last time I was there, and it is about a bunch of people in a small town in Maine, which is my vibe immediately I was in. But it's very good. So I'm reading that. I can't, I can't remember the author, which is unusual for me, but Shannon something I think [Shannon Bowring].. But it's The Road to DaltonKJ Dell'AntoniaThat's okay. I will find it well. As everyone is gathered, I just finished Mansion Beach. I I really loved it. It was a rare book that I loved even more when I got to the end of it. And, yeah, it was amazing. And also in that, that vibe, that sort of small town Maine and yet, but this is like small island, middle of the Atlantic. Welcome to Glorious Tuga. Have you heard of this one?Meg Mitchell MooreNo. I've never heard of it.KJ Dell'AntoniaOkay, so it's a tiny island settled 300 years ago by a miscellanea of Dutch and British and and African people didn't have any locals. So that's kind of and they have formed the society. It's only open for half the year, because you can't, like, get a boat into it, because storms and currents and whatnot. So this woman has gone thinking that she's going to study the native tortoise population all Darwin, but she gets there and they're like, great. You're a vet. That's what we need. So it's kind of like all creatures great and small meets...I don't even know what it meets yet, I got to come up with that. But it's really a lot of fun. And it's very multi it's multi POV in a really interesting way, because you're with her, and then sort of whenever you kind of get a little interested in someone else, you're like, Oh, why are they doing that? Then maybe you'll switch to their POV. it's really, I really enjoyed it so, so that was fun. So those are my ranks, all right. Well, thank you so much, listeners for joining us, and thank you, Meg for joining me today. Where can people follow you? Where's the best?Meg Mitchell MooreMostly on Instagram @Meg Mitchell Moore, I'm on Facebook, but I don't use it very often and I kinda want to leave it. So…I also just read the Facebook, the Facebook memoir.KJ Dell'AntoniaOh yeah?Meg Mitchell MooreNo, I really want to leave Facebook, but also I know that they own Instagram. So anyway, Instagram is the best place to find me, and I was so happy to be here. Thank you. It was really fun.KJ Dell'AntoniaThis was super. Okay. Thanks everyone for listening, and until next week, keep your butt in the chair and your head in the game.Sarina BowenThe hashtag am writing podcast is produced by Andrew Perella. Our intro music, aptly titled unemployed Monday was written and played by Max Cohen. Andrew and Max were paid for their time and their creative output, because everyone deserves to be paid for their work. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

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Hearts Around the Table: Kiki's Fourth Ingredient

Dear Hallmark

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 16, 2025 42:02

In this episode, there are a lot of tangental moments that involve a May preview, YouTube vs podcast, and Chicken Sisters, but I promise that we eventually talk about Kiki's Fourth Ingredient…and it fits in with all of our tangents. To purchase "Chasing Wind": https://amzn.to/3IGUI6gFor other Hallmark movie reviews, be sure to check out the Dear Hallmark YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe7R8-e6d13cee5QMo_OltwDear Hallmark's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dearhallmark/

The Chicken Sisters - S01E01 - Welcome to Merinac, Y'all! (2024) ft. Jacklyn Collier

Hallmark Mysteries & More

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 3, 2025 45:38

Spotify Episode Playlist - http://bit.ly/3XJM40V*RE-RELEASE*Sisters Amanda and Mae reunite when reality show KITCHEN CLASH comes to their town, pitting their feuding families' rival chicken restaurants against each other. Amanda signs up, but her mom demands Mae's participation to compete on show.

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Lea Thompson Talks Hallmark, Mysteries, & Sisterly Bonds in The Spencer Sisters and The Chicken Sisters

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 21, 2025 58:38

Send us a text

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OSB 719 Arkie Kandola "How To Die Alone"

On Screen & Beyond

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 22, 2024 41:02

Episode 719 of On Screen & Beyond - Actor Arkie Kandola of "How To Die Alone" and "The Chicken Sisters" stops by to talk about his roles on those shows and what else he has in the works on his journey in the entertainment world.

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Season 1 Finale! THE CHICKEN SISTERS S1 Ep 6-8 Recap (Hallmark Plus)

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Play Episode Listen Later Oct 31, 2024 60:44

Today Rachel and Alysa take a deep dive into s1 6-8 of THE CHICKEN SISTERS Pick up THE CHRISTMAS COIN by Lindsay Gibson today (ad) https://amzn.to/4eUuC09 For our recap of THE CHICKEN SISTERS 2-5 https://youtu.be/5G1zI4YjvwE For our recap of THE CHICKEN SISTERS pilot https://youtu.be/7iq2lz6GRuI Check out our mini review of first episodes spoiler free https://youtu.be/7qmppB_PLJ0 Follow Alysa at https://www.instagram.com/monalysa14/?hl=en Get your Factor Meals today at 50% off factormeals.com/hallmarkies50 (ad) Please support the podcast on patreon and be part of these ranking episodes at https://www.patreon.com/hallmarkies Follow us on ITunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/hallmarkies-podcast/id1296728288?mt=2 https://twitter.com/ HallmarkiesPod on twitter @HallmarkiesPodcast on Instagram HallmarkiesPodcast.com Get some of our great podcast merch https://www.teepublic.com/stores/hallmarkies?ref_id=8581 Please support the podcast on patreon and be part of these ranking episodes at https://www.patreon.com/hallmarkies Follow Rachel's blog at http://rachelsreviews.net Follow Rachel on twitter twitter.com/rachel_reviews Follow Rachel's Reviews on youtube https://www.youtube.com/c/rachelsreviews Follow Rachel on facebook www.facebook.com/smilingldsgirlreviews Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Chicken Sisters - S01E08 - The Best Chicken in Town, Y'all (Hallmark+ - 2024) ft. Jacklyn Collier

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Play Episode Listen Later Oct 25, 2024 50:24

A final twist in the reality competition throws both the Mimi's and Frannie's crews for a loop, and Frank Jr.'s true colors are revealed. Watch on Philo! - Philo.tv/DTH

233 - Life Is Shorts and Also Pants with Genevieve Angelson

Ask Ronna

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 22, 2024 109:32

Now wait a minute. We've got a real head turner this week, pardon me. And she's fresh off an 'everything shower.' Joining us in The Carriage House is the DELIGHTFUL Genevieve Angelson! She's a star of stage and screen. You know her from her work on GOOD GIRLS REVOLT and her current show THE CHICKEN SISTERS, which you can find on Hallmark Plus! Genevieve helps us give advice on how to keep the conversation going when you're a parent at a children's party and dealing with a thorny cultural issue with your in-laws. Not only is our AR Social Club October Spoo-Kiki THIS WEEKEND, excuse me, but we've got our very fun, very special, NOT TO BE MISSED Ronnukah Cabaret LIVE Show on December 7th! Tickets on sale November 1st. Be on the lookout! Sponsor: How many more times can we say it? We. Love. Shopify. Nobody does selling better than Shopify. Go to shopify.com/askronna for your one dollar per month trial period. Upgrade your selling today! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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The Chicken Sisters - S01E07 - It's Just Junk, Y'all (Hallmark+ - 2024) ft. Jacklyn Collier

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Play Episode Listen Later Oct 19, 2024 43:57

Despite their differences, the town rallies around Gus, Amanda, and Mae in a time of need. Meanwhile, Sabrina starts to doubt her tactics on KITCHEN CLASH. Watch on Philo! - Philo.tv/DTH

Author KJ Dell'Antonia Interview (THE CHICKEN SISTERS)

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Play Episode Listen Later Oct 19, 2024 45:02

Today author KJ Dell'Antonia joins Rachel to talk about her writing process and her books including THE CHICKEN SISTERS which the new Hallmark series is based on Check out THE NOEL BRIDGE by Jenny Hale today! https://amzn.to/3U8UYDr (ad) To pick up THE CHICKEN SISTERS book https://amzn.to/4fcGIl9 (ad) Check out KJ's website https://kjdellantonia.com/ Follow KJ on instagram https://www.instagram.com/kjda Check out all of our writer interviews https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWxQymWSou0&list=PLXv4sBF3mPUBxJT6OHAOjOM3F8w48hYu5 For all of our Chicken Sisters content https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXv4sBF3mPUAIycJhw9SJdIn5vE8yZWpL Send us your feedback at feedback@hallmarkiespodcast.com or the twitter call +1 (801) 855-6407 Check out the merch store and get our #hashtag shirts! https://www.teepublic.com/stores/hallmarkies?utm_campaign=Hallmarkies&utm_medium=8581&utm_source=affiliate Please support the podcast on patreon at https://www.patreon.com/hallmarkies Follow us on ITunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/hallmarkies-podcast/id1296728288?mt=2 https://twitter.com/HallmarkiesPod on twitter @HallmarkiesPodcast on Instagram Check out our website HallmarkiesPodcast.com Follow Rachel's blog at http://rachelsreviews.net Follow Rachel on twitter twitter.com/rachel_reviews Follow Rachel's Reviews on youtube https://www.youtube.com/c/rachelsreviews Follow Rachel on facebook www.facebook.com/smilingldsgirlreviews Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Chicken Sisters, Ep6

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Play Episode Listen Later Oct 16, 2024 33:54

t's time for another Girls Gone Hallmark Hallmark+ review! This week, Megan and Wendy are hatching up a deep dive into the latest episode of The Chicken Sisters! Wendy's frustration is really coming home to roost, while Megan is still clucking with excitement for what's ahead. What will come of Frank Jr.'s dirty deeds, and more importantly, what fate awaits Amanda? Email us your review at girlsgonehallmark@gmail.com or let's talk about it in the Girls Gone Hallmark Facebook Group! We Need Your 5-STAR Ratings and Reviews Spotify Podcast listeners: Spotify allows listeners to rate podcast episodes. Once you listen to a podcast for at least 30 seconds, you get the option to rate it between one and five stars. Return to the podcast's main page and tap the star icon. Then, tap submit. About The Chicken Sisters, Episode 6 - (Hallmark+, 2024) This episode was written by: Kerry Carney - she is an actress who has been in shows like Scandal, Grey's Anatomy, and New Girl. According to IMDb this is her first writing credits other than a short she wrote in 2010. Episode 6 was directed by Shannon Kohli who returns as director. Catch Up on Our Reviews of The Chicken Sisters Welcome to Merinac, Y'all! - Episode 1 We're on the Same Team, Y'all - Episode 2 This is War, Y'all - Episode 3 It's the Drop, Y'all! - Episode 4 Not the Hydrangeas, Y'all - Episode 5

Lea Thompson on new show "The Chicken Sisters"

The Drew Barrymore Show

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 14, 2024 18:43

Actress Lea Thompson on her daughters following her footsteps in acting, her new show and reveals which “Back to the Future” costar she last spoke to. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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The Chicken Sisters - S01E06 - I Choose to Be Happy, Y'all (Hallmark+ - 2024) ft. Jacklyn Collier

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Play Episode Listen Later Oct 12, 2024 45:59

Amanda tries her best to be happy despite current events, but she's not convincing herself. Meanwhile, the KITCHEN CLASH competition comes to a head. Watch on Philo! - Philo.tv/DTH

The Chicken Sisters - S01E05 - Not the Hydrangeas, Y'all (Hallmark+ - 2024) ft. Jacklyn Collier

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Play Episode Listen Later Oct 12, 2024 39:43

Amanda and Mae begin to reconnect in spite of the KITCHEN CLASH competition, but Amanda starts to feel the pull back to Frannie's and to Frank Jr. Watch on Philo! - Philo.tv/DTH

When Your Book Becomes a TV Show

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Play Episode Listen Later Oct 11, 2024 48:07

KJ here, team. In this episode, Jennie asks the questions, and I walk us through the whole thing from start to finish—the options, the renewals, the moment we thought we were getting the rights back and the big calls that finally convinced me this was really going to happen—and then of course what it's like when it DOES. Above are a few glam shots from the premiere screening, which will never not be one of the biggest nights of my career. I'm not sure how you top it. You can watch The Chicken Sisters—an 8 episode series starring Schuyler Fisk, Genevieve Angelson, Lea Thompson, and Wendie Malick on Hallmark Plus (or Amazon Prime) now. Here's a little preview on YouTube, too.Hey readers—KJ here. This episode of #AmWriting is brought to you by my latest, Playing the Witch Card. I wrote this at a moment when I needed more magic in my life—but it turned out to be a book about how until we know who we are and what makes us happy, even magic doesn't help. My main character, Flair, is a total control freak who fears the chaos created by her family deck of Tarot cards and the cookies it inspires her to make until she decides that she can harness their power to control the world and people around her—but that's not what the cards are for at all. I was inspired by what I see as the real magic of Tarot cards—and tea leaves and palm reading and every form of oracle: they help us to see and understand our own stories. As someone for whom stories are pretty much everything, I love that. You can buy Playing the Witch Card on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Bookshop.org and my local indie—and I hope you'll love it too. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

THE CHICKEN SISTERS S1 Ep 2-5 Recap (Hallmark Plus)

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Play Episode Listen Later Oct 11, 2024 60:10

Today Rachel and Alysa take a deep dive into ep 2-5 of THE CHICKEN SISTERS For our recap of THE CHICKEN SISTERS pilot https://youtu.be/7iq2lz6GRuI Pick up AFTER THE RED CARPET using our affiliate link https://amzn.to/3ZSmc4y (ad) Check out Acorn investors today. Head to acorns.com/hallmarkies or download the Acorns app to start saving and investing for your future today! Check out our mini review of first episodes spoiler free https://youtu.be/7qmppB_PLJ0 Follow Alysa at https://www.instagram.com/monalysa14/?hl=en Get your Factor Meals today at 50% off factormeals.com/hallmarkies50 (ad) Please support the podcast on patreon and be part of these ranking episodes at https://www.patreon.com/hallmarkies Follow Terry on twitter https://twitter.com/flurryheaven Follow us on ITunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/hallmarkies-podcast/id1296728288?mt=2 https://twitter.com/HallmarkiesPod on twitter @HallmarkiesPodcast on Instagram HallmarkiesPodcast.com Get some of our great podcast merch https://www.teepublic.com/stores/hallmarkies?ref_id=8581 Please support the podcast on patreon and be part of these ranking episodes at https://www.patreon.com/hallmarkies Follow Rachel's blog at http://rachelsreviews.net Follow Rachel on twitter twitter.com/rachel_reviews Follow Rachel's Reviews on youtube https://www.youtube.com/c/rachelsreviews Follow Rachel on facebook www.facebook.com/smilingldsgirlreviews Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Chicken Sisters, Ep 5

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 9, 2024 24:53

It's time for another Girls Gone Hallmark Hallmark+ review! This week, Megan and Wendy are diving into the latest episode of The Chicken Sisters! With Mae carrying the entire town of Merinac on her back, is Hallmark ready to address these heavy subject matters? Are fans ready to wing it through this emotional journey, or will they feel a little clucked about the darker themes? Tune in to find out! Email us your review at girlsgonehallmark@gmail.com or let's talk about it in the Girls Gone Hallmark Facebook Group! We Need Your 5-STAR Ratings and Reviews Spotify Podcast listeners: Spotify allows listeners to rate podcast episodes. Once you listen to a podcast for at least 30 seconds, you get the option to rate it between one and five stars. Return to the podcast's main page and tap the star icon. Then, tap submit. About The Chicken Sisters, Episode 5 - (Hallmark+, 2024) This episode was written by Mano Agapion. Mano is both an actor and writer. His previous writing credits include the Netflix series Pretty Smart and the 2021 reboot of Punky Brewster on Peacock. Shannon Kohli directed this episode. In her list of 25 directing credits, she directed two Hannah Swensen Mysteries: One Bad Apple and A Zest for Death. Outside of Hallmark, Shannon has directed episodes for Firefly Lane, One of Us is Lying, Nancy Drew, and Supergirl. Caitlin Howden plays Shawna. With 25 acting credits, Caitlin has appeared in television shows like A Million Little Things, The Last of Us, Turner & Hooch, and The Baby-Sitters Club. This is her first project for Hallmark. Hazel Bartlett-Sias plays Little Mae in the flashback at the top of the episode. Hazel has 12 acting credits with recent appearances in the horror movie Longlegs, The Good Doctor, The Hammer, and Zoey's Extraordinary Christmas. Freya Edwards plays Little Amanda. There is absolutely no information on IMDb about this young actor. Dan Payne plays Gruster. Dan has 122 acting credits, having appeared in shows like Virgin River, 40 episodes of Crank Yankers, as well as one episode of Once Upon a Time. He co-starred opposite Teri Hatcher in a 2023 Christmas movie called How to Fall in Love by Christmas. For Hallmark, Dan has been in Fourth Down and Love and Christmas She Wrote. Catch Up on Our Reviews of The Chicken Sisters Welcome to Merinac, Y'all! - Episode 1 We're on the Same Team, Y'all - Episode 2 This is War, Y'all - Episode 3 It's the Drop, Y'all! - Episode 4

The Chicken Sisters, Ep 4

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Play Episode Listen Later Oct 2, 2024 26:49

It's time for another Girls Gone Hallmark HALLMARK+ review, and Megan and Wendy are diving into the fourth episode of The Chicken Sisters! This time, they both agree the episode brings some much-needed redemption compared to the last two. They also highlight the clever one-liners sprinkled throughout, thanks to a talented writer on the series. And, of course, they take a moment to vent about the ongoing technical glitches with Hallmark+. Email us your review at girlsgonehallmark@gmail.com or let's talk about it in the Girls Gone Hallmark Facebook Group! We Need Your 5-STAR Ratings and Reviews Spotify Podcast listeners: Spotify allows listeners to rate podcast episodes. Once you listen to a podcast for at least 30 seconds, you get the option to rate it between one and five stars. Return to the podcast's main page and tap the star icon. Then, tap submit. About The Chicken Sisters, Episode 4 - (Hallmark+, 2024) Leila Cohan is credited with writing this episode, she is an Emmy-nominated television and feature writer. Previous project include The Perfect Couple and Bridgerton, The First Wives Club, and Santa Clarita Diet. Paul Fox directed this episode. Fox has 53 previous directing credits including Workin' Moms, Schitt's Creek, and Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock airing on Apple+ Two new younger characters - in the form of flashback: Liam Boland plays young Frank Sr. - Liam has only a handful of acting credits but has previously appeared on Hallmark in the 2023 movie Sweeter Than Chocolate. Miles Marthaller plays young Frank Jr. - Miles has three acting credits, including the 2023 film Round and Round, but perhaps most exciting is his upcoming role as Thomas in Three Wiser Men and a Boy. Catch Up on Our Reviews of The Chicken Sisters Welcome to Merinac, Y'all! - Episode 1 We're on the Same Team, Y'all - Episode 2 This is War, Y'all - Episode 3

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Kimmy Gatewood Gives Us a GLOW-UP!

Parenting is a Joke

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 1, 2024 47:59

Ophira is joined by the talented Kimmy Gatewood, actor and director known for her standout role in Netflix's series G.L.O.W., which celebrates female wrestlers. Kimmy is also an award-winning director, currently helming Season 3 of Girls5eva, and has an impressive portfolio that includes projects like The Babysitter's Club, The Chicken Sisters, and Sesame Street. Behind the Scenes of G.L.O.W.: Kimmy shares how she views directing as a form of empowerment and defiance in a male-dominated industry, tells a great story of playing trombone alongside Ryan Gosling discusses being more conscious of her presence in the creative world, paving the way for her daughter to see what it means to be a strong, independent boss. Follow Kimmy: https://www.instagram.com/kimmygatewood/ See Ophira LIVE: https://www.ophiraeisenberg.com/events SUBSCRIBE so you never miss O thing: https://www.ophiraeisenberg.com/sign-up Follow PIAJ: https://www.instagram.com/parentingisajoke/ https://parentingisajoke.substack.com/ Follow Ophira: https://www.instagram.com/ophirae/ https://www.facebook.com/OphiraEisenberg/ https://www.tiktok.com/@ophiranyc Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Chicken Sisters - S01E04 - It's the Drop, Y'all (Hallmark+ - 2024) ft. Jacklyn Collier

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Play Episode Listen Later Sep 27, 2024 51:57

"The Drop," the biggest event of the year in Merinac, brings the Mimi's and Frannie's factions under one roof and face-to-face. But Gus has other plans. Watch on Philo! - Philo.tv/DTH

The Chicken Sisters, Ep 3

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Play Episode Listen Later Sep 25, 2024 33:16

It's time for another Girls Gone Hallmark HALLMARK+ review, and Megan and Wendy are serving up their thoughts on the third episode of The Chicken Sisters! Grab a drumstick and dig in as they dish on whether Hallmark might be flying a little too close to the sun this season. Listen in as they chew over Amanda's choices, and don't miss their hot take on Frank Jr. This episode is as juicy as a southern fried Sunday! Email us your review at girlsgonehallmark@gmail.com or let's talk about it in the Girls Gone Hallmark Facebook Group! We Need Your 5-STAR Ratings and Reviews Spotify Podcast listeners: Spotify allows listeners to rate podcast episodes. Once you listen to a podcast for at least 30 seconds, you get the option to rate it between one and five stars. Return to the podcast's main page and tap the star icon. Then, tap submit. About The Chicken Sisters, Episode 3 - (Hallmark+, 2024) Pastor McGregor played by Matthew James Dowden. He has a handful of Hallmark projects like Dream Moms, The Holiday Sitter, and When Calls the Heart. According to IMDB we will see him episodes 5 and 8. According to the opening credits: Episode 3 was written by: Jessica Wood Episode 3 was directed by: Paul Fox Hallmark's press release indicates the episode was written by Annie Mebane and directed by Kimmy Gatewood Catch Up on Our Reviews of The Chicken Sisters Family is Family, episode 1 I Walk the Line, episode 2

The Chicken Sisters - S01E03 - This is War, Y'all (Hallmark+ - 2024) ft. Jacklyn Collier

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Play Episode Listen Later Sep 20, 2024 47:06

Frannie's and Mimi's crews try to one-up each other as the KITCHEN CLASH competition amps up, but their methods leave sisters Amanda and Mae conflicted. Watch on Philo! - Philo.tv/DTH

The Chicken Sisters, Ep 2

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Play Episode Listen Later Sep 18, 2024 31:23

It's time for Girls Gone Hallmark's Hallmark+ review! Megan and Wendy dive into their thoughts on the second episode of The Chicken Sisters. They wrap up their discussion on the show's large ensemble cast, debate whether it's been fully "Hallmarkified," and explore just how much Sabrina is influencing Kitchen Clash. Email us your review at girlsgonehallmark@gmail.com or let's talk about it in the Girls Gone Hallmark Facebook Group! We Need Your 5-STAR Ratings and Reviews Spotify Podcast listeners: Spotify allows listeners to rate podcast episodes. Once you listen to a podcast for at least 30 seconds, you get the option to rate it between one and five stars. Return to the podcast's main page and tap the star icon. Then, tap submit. About The Chicken Sisters, Episode 2 - (Hallmark+, 2024) James Kot plays Frank Jr. - James has 31 acting credits which most recently include: Virgin River, Christmas on Cherry Lane, and When Calls the Heart. Jake Foy plays Kenneth. We first met Jake when he played Tuff McMurray on Ride. We're glad to have him back in a Hallmark series we're loving. Other roles in his 22 credits include: Designated Survivor, A Little Daytime Drama, Wilderness and Allegiance. Cardi Wong plays Gen - Cardi has 54 acting credits including his role on Tipline Mysteries: Dial 1 for Murder. His other Hallmark appearances include Flip That Romance, One Winter Proposal, My Best Friend's Bouquet, and the Crossword Mysteries series. Ektor Rivera plays Sergio - This is Ektor's 13th credit and his third appearance on Hallmark having previously appeared in Groundswell and Sugar Plum Twist. He also had a role in the thriller StartUp streaming on Crackle. Arkie Kandola plays cameraman Gordon. He is currently appearing in the Hulu series How to Die Alone. His 25 credits also include Our Big Punjabi Family, Upload, and the one-season wonder Megan wishes everyone would watch: No Tomorrow. Samer Salem plays Jay - Samer has 33 total acting credits, mostly trending toward grittier fare. He did appear on one episode of Hudson and Rex and has also appeared on Yellowjackets, The Handmaid's Tale, and The Good Doctor Andrew J Hampton plays Kenneth's husband Patrick. Andrews's first full-length feature was in Grease Live! Where he had an uncredited role. Since then he has appeared in Atypical, The Flash, So Help Me Todd, Blockbuster, Dream Moms and Upload for a total of 15 acting credits. Kimmy Gatewood and Annie Mebane return as director and writer respectively. Catch Up on Our Reviews of The Chicken Sisters Family is Family, episode 1 Our Thoughts on The Chicken Sisters Girls Gone Hallmark: Chicken Sisters Episode 2 Recap and Review Here's a quick rundown of the detailed recap and review of Episode 2, "I Walked the Line" (or "We're on the Same Team, Y'all") from the Hallmark series, Chicken Sisters. that we run in our episode of Girls one Hallmark. Key Events of Episode 2 The Franny's Girl vs. Mimi's Girl Narrative The episode begins highlighting the traditional rivalry between Franny's and Mimi's. We see how being a Franny's girl signifies being on the "right" side while being a Mimi's girl denotes the opposite. This rivalry not only introduces tension but offers depth to the backstories of characters like Nancy and Gus. Nancy and Frank Jr.'s Dynamic Nancy struggles with her identity after the loss of her husband, Frank. It's heartbreaking to witness how Frank Jr. treats her, mirroring behaviors that might have been modeled by his father. The episode delves deeper into Nancy's past, showing her sacrifices and longing for validation from her son. The Sabrina and Amanda Facade Sabrina, a master manipulator, manipulates Amanda into revealing sensitive information about Mae's past working at Donkey's. This not only fuels the drama but also underscores Sabrina's sneaky nature, making her a complex yet enjoyable character to watch. Media Training Drama

The Cases of Mystery Lane, The Chicken Sisters, and More

Dear Hallmark

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 18, 2024 23:09

In this episode I catch you up on all of my Hallmark watching...and there was a lot1 What did you think about the new Cases of Mystery Lane? To purchase "Chasing Wind": https://amzn.to/3IGUI6g For other Hallmark movie reviews, be sure to check out the Dear Hallmark YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe7R8-e6d13cee5QMo_Oltw Dear Hallmark's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dearhallmark/ Dear Hallmark's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dearhallmarkpodcast --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/dearhallmark/support

Genevieve Angelson Returns

Couples Therapy

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 17, 2024 94:50

Our old pal Genevieve Angelson returns to the show for a second helping of open hearts and loose butts! Now, folks, you know Genevieve from Flack, The Handmaid's Tale, The Afterparty, This Is Us and so much more, including her new show on Hallmark+, The Chicken Sisters! And on today's EXCITING INSTALLMENT, we tackle some subjects we didn't talk about on Genevieve's first appearance: growing up in London (kind of), going to an all-girls private school, the trouble she got in with her boyfriend after her first appearance, dating boys from Jewish summer camp, and studying somatic therapy, WHICH Genevieve decides to turn on us, the hosts, like this was an episode of that *other* Couples Therapy (uh, we hold the interstate copyright on the name "Couples Therapy", but whatever). All this AND MORE! PLUS, obvi, we answer YOUR advice questions! If you'd like to ask your own advice questions, call 323-524-7839 and leave a VM or just DM us on IG or Twitter!Support the show on Patreon (two extra exclusive episodes a month!) or get yourself a t-shirt or a discounted Quarantine Crew shirt! And why not leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts? Or Spotify? It takes less than a minute! Follow the show on Instagram! Check out CT clips on YouTube!Plus some other stuff! Watch Naomi's Netflix half hour or Mythic Quest! Check out Andy's old casiopop band's lost album or his other podcast Beginnings! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Schuyler Fisk, Genevieve Angelson, Lea Thompson - Chicken Sisters

The Talking Pictures Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 14, 2024 7:53

#Actors #SchuylerFisk, #GenevieveAngelson, #LeaThompson discuss their new #HallmarkPlus series #TheChickenSisters.#Celebrity #interview #TonyToscano #ScreenChatter #BacktotheFutureMovies #HowardtheDuck #celebrityInterview

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The Chicken Sisters - S01E01 - Family is Family (Hallmark+ - 2024) ft. Jacklyn Collier

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Play Episode Listen Later Sep 13, 2024 44:44

Sisters Amanda and Mae are reunited when reality show KITCHEN CLASH comes to their town, and the competition between their two feuding restaurants heats up. Watch on Philo! - Philo.tv/DTH

The Chicken Sisters - S01E02 - I Walk the Line (Hallmark+ - 2024) ft. Jacklyn Collier

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Play Episode Listen Later Sep 13, 2024 49:30

As KITCHEN CLASH begins filming, tensions between Frannie's and Mimi's restaurants - and sisters Amanda and Mae, and their mother, Gus - are running high. Watch on Philo! - Philo.tv/DTH

Ep 669 - Best of the Vault Vol. 2

Attitudes!

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 12, 2024 63:06

We couldn't record a regular episode this week, but have put together another compilation of some of the best bits from the Vault for you to enjoy! In this ep you get the story of how Erin and Bryan met, Erin's German Date who made her eat charcuterie while watching Girls Gone Wild, plus interviews with Guy Branum and Jeffery Self! Check out Erin's new show Chicken Sisters now on Hallmark+, and Bryan's Celebrity Family Feud will air this coming Monday 9/16 on ABC! Bryan's one-man show A Black Tie Affair is coming to LA November 13th! Get your tickets here. For this week's bonus Columbo Recap visit www.patreon.com/attitudes Join us on Discord for episode discussions and Watch Parties! https://discord.gg/gK2eZHCSM7See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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THE CHICKEN SISTERS Stars! SCHUYLER FISK and JAMES KOT Interviews

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Play Episode Listen Later Sep 12, 2024 55:30

Today Rachel talks with the stars of THE CHICKEN SISTERS, Schuyler Fisk and James Kot Follow Schuyler on instagram https://www.instagram.com/schuylerfisk/ Follow James on instagram https://www.instagram.com/kotjameskot/ Check out our mini review of first episodes spoiler free https://youtu.be/7qmppB_PLJ0 30% Off and Free Shipping of Meddling with Mistletoe by Liz Johnson at https://bakerbookhouse.com/products/579830 Get Meddling with Mistletoe by Liz Johnson on amazon https://amzn.to/4dY2YPe (ad) Get your Factor Meals today at 50% off factormeals.com/hallmarkies50 (ad) Please support the podcast on patreon and be part of these ranking episodes at https://www.patreon.com/hallmarkies Follow Terry on twitter https://twitter.com/flurryheaven Follow us on ITunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/hallmarkies-podcast/id1296728288?mt=2 https://twitter.com/HallmarkiesPod on twitter @HallmarkiesPodcast on Instagram HallmarkiesPodcast.com Get some of our great podcast merch https://www.teepublic.com/stores/hallmarkies?ref_id=8581 Please support the podcast on patreon and be part of these ranking episodes at https://www.patreon.com/hallmarkies Follow Rachel's blog at http://rachelsreviews.net Follow Rachel on twitter twitter.com/rachel_reviews Follow Rachel's Reviews on youtube https://www.youtube.com/c/rachelsreviews Follow Rachel on facebook www.facebook.com/smilingldsgirlreviews

The Chicken Sisters, Ep 1

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 12, 2024 29:36

It's Girls Gone Hallmark's first Hallmark+ review! Megan and Wendy are sharing their thoughts on the new series The Chicken Sisters, based on the best-selling novel by KJ Dell'Antonia. Is this show merely about rival chicken restaurants, or does it offer more? They also discuss standout characters, veteran actors, and Megan's insights into how the series diverges from the book. Email us your review at girlsgonehallmark@gmail.com or let's talk about it in the Girls Gone Hallmark Facebook Group! We Need Your 5-STAR Ratings and Reviews Spotify Podcast listeners: Spotify allows listeners to rate podcast episodes. Once you listen to a podcast for at least 30 seconds, you get the option to rate it between one and five stars. Return to the podcast's main page and tap the star icon. Then, tap submit. About The Chicken Sisters, Episode 1 - (Hallmark+, 2024) Annie Mebane wrote this episode 1 of The Chicken Sisters. Annie is also an EP on the show. Annie's previous writing credits include Bad Monkey and Shrinking, both on Apple TV+ as well as The Goldbergs, Community and Happy Endings. Jimmy Gatewood directed this episode. Jimmy has directed 27 projects including Girls5eva, Survival of the Thickest, Ghosts, The Big Leap and The Babysitters Club. The Chicken Sisters was adapted from NY Times Bestseller and Reese's Book Club Selection The Chicken Sisters by KJ Dell'Antonia Margo Martindale voices the narrator. Margo has 131 acting credits with six Emmy nominations and three Emmy wins! Listeners might recognize her from her role on The Americans and Justified as well as the recent Peacock series Mrs. Davis where she plays Mother Superior Lea Thompson plays Nancy. Lea has 112 acting credits including, of course, Back to the Future and her role on Caroline in the City. This is her second Hallmark project, having appeared in Next Stop, Christmas. She was also on a CW series in 2023, The Spencer Sisters, where she and her daughter play private detectives Wendie Malick plays Augusta, or “Gus.” For readers of the book, this is the character previously known as Barbara. Wendie has deep resume of 197 acting credits that include 149 episdoes of Just Shoot Me, 125 episodes of Hot in Cleveland, the Netflix series The Ranch, and Young Sheldon. As far as we can tell this is her first appearance on Hallmark Schuyler Fisk plays Amanda. Schuyler has 28 acting credits including a role in the 2002 movie Orange County, co-starring Colin Hanks. She also appeared on the CW series Hart of Dixie. Genevieve Angelson plays Mae. Genevieve has 27 acting credits which include recurring roles on The Afterparty, New Amsterdam, and The Handmaid's Tale. Cassandra Sawtelle plays Frankie. Cassandra has 32 acting credits. She has previously appeared in one Hallmark project - Tipline Mysteries: Dial 1 for Murder. Kelsey Mawema plays Lindsey, Sabrina's daughter. Kelsey has 26 acting credits and also appeared in one previous Hallmark project - Sealed with a List. Her other credits include Life with the Walter Boys, Totally Killer, the Babysitters Club, and all three movies of the To All The Boys I've Loved Before series. Rukiya Bernard plays Sabrina. Rukiya has 83 acting credits, which include her role as Hannah in all four Christmas in Evergreen movies. She also appeared in 11 episodes of Yellowjackets. Watch the Trailer for The Chicken Sisters Our Thoughts on The Chicken Sisters Here's a detailed rundown of everything we discussed in the latest podcast episode of Girls Gone Hallmark. If you're not already a listener, we invite you to join us and dive into the world of Hallmark with us! What We Liked Excellent Character Development: Wendy Malick as Gus: We were blown away by Wendie Malick's portrayal of Gus. Her character is intimidating, with a nasty streak, making her both fascinating and a little scary. This multi-layered character has us intrigued to learn more about her backstory and w...

THE CHICKEN SISTERS Pilot Recap (Hallmark Plus)

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Play Episode Listen Later Sep 10, 2024 38:50

Today we have our deep dive into the drama of the pilot for THE CHICKEN SISTERS Check out our mini review of first episodes spoiler free https://youtu.be/7qmppB_PLJ0 Follow Alysa at https://www.instagram.com/monalysa14/?hl=en 30% Off and Free Shipping of Meddling with Mistletoe by Liz Johnson at https://bakerbookhouse.com/products/579830 Get Meddling with Mistletoe by Liz Johnson on amazon https://amzn.to/4dY2YPe (ad) Get your Factor Meals today at 50% off factormeals.com/hallmarkies50 (ad) Please support the podcast on patreon and be part of these ranking episodes at https://www.patreon.com/hallmarkies Follow Terry on twitter https://twitter.com/flurryheaven Follow us on ITunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/hallmarkies-podcast/id1296728288?mt=2 https://twitter.com/HallmarkiesPod on twitter @HallmarkiesPodcast on Instagram HallmarkiesPodcast.com Get some of our great podcast merch https://www.teepublic.com/stores/hallmarkies?ref_id=8581 Please support the podcast on patreon and be part of these ranking episodes at https://www.patreon.com/hallmarkies Follow Rachel's blog at http://rachelsreviews.net Follow Rachel on twitter twitter.com/rachel_reviews Follow Rachel's Reviews on youtube https://www.youtube.com/c/rachelsreviews Follow Rachel on facebook www.facebook.com/smilingldsgirlreviews

Lea Thompson

Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 9, 2024 58:08 Transcription Available

She has delighted fans with her work on the big and small screen, from Back to the Future, Caroline in the City, to Switched at Birth, but her most challenging role might have been the 19th season of Dancing with the Stars! Lea Thompson opens up to Cheryl about why her time on DWTS felt like the Hunger Games and shares her thoughts on her partner, first-year pro Artem Chigvintsev, including revealing he was so intense that when she made creative suggestions, he would get angry, the weird thing he said about male vs. female dancers, and being surprised by the current headlines even though they didn't always get along. Plus, Lea shares all the highs and lows of her journey into acting, how she feels about her kids following in her and her hubby's showbiz footsteps, and her new show, The Chicken Sisters, premiering on Hallmark+ September 10. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Ep. 5.18 - Schuyler Fisk

Yo! That’s My Jawn

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 9, 2024 43:48

Nate's back from break with an all new episode! Well, the show's back. Nate's in Colorado. But the show returns with a chat with actress and singer-songwriter, Schuyler Fisk from the all new series The Chicken Sisters, premiering at launch on the new Hallmark+ streaming service! They discuss her song, "Paperweight," growing up in Virginia, the music she was into as a child, what drew her to music and the arts, her album We Could Be Alright, finding balance between music and acting, filming The Babysitter's Club at age 11, Snow Day, Sam & Kate and midlevel indie films, working with her mother, Sissy Spacek and Jack and Dustin Hoffman, The Chicken Sisters, changes in adapting the novel for television, and the portrayals of hoarding in both The Chicken Sisters and Sam & Kate. Then, Schuyler makes her way through The Jawntlet!Schuyler Fisk websiteSchuyler Fisk IMDbSchuyler Fisk on InstagramSchuyler Fisk on Facebook Subscribe to the Y!TMJ Newsletter! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ytmj/support

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What's New in Streaming - September 7, 2024

Streaming Into the Void

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 6, 2024 12:13

Highlights of what's new in streaming for the week of September 7, 2024. Hulu The Old Man, season 2 (Sep. 13) How to Die Alone, season 1 (Sep. 13) In Vogue: The 90s (Sep. 13) Netflix Hot Wheels: Let's Race, season 2 (Sep. 9) Ahir Shah, End (Sep. 10) Jack Whitehall: Fatherhood with my Father (Sep. 10) Boxer (Sep. 11) The Circle, season 7 (Sep. 11) Outlaw (Sep. 11) Technoboys (Sep. 11) Ángel Di María: Breaking Down the Wall (Sep. 12) Billionaire Island, season 1 (Sep. 12) Emily in Paris, season 4, part 2 (Sep. 12) Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter (Sep. 12) Midnight at the Pera Palace, season 2 (Sep. 12) Uglies (Sep. 13) Disney+ LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy (Sep. 13) Max Wise Guy: David Chase and the Sopranos (Sep. 7) My Brilliant Friend, season 4 (Sep. 9) Civil War (Sep. 13) Peacock His & Hers (Sep. 8) Colin Jost and Michael Che Present: New York After Dark (Sep. 12) Amazon Prime Video The Money Game (Sep. 10) Thursday Night Football (Sep. 12, 8pm ET / 5pm PT) The Grand Tour: One for the Road (Sep. 13) Hallmark+ Celebrations With Lacey Chabert, season 1 (Sep. 10) The Chicken Sisters, season 1 (Sep. 10) The Jane Mysteries: A Deadly Prescription (Sep. 10) Love on the Danube: Love Song (Sep. 10)

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Ep 286: Let's Do it Like They Do on the Hallmark Channel

Cancel Me, Baby!

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 4, 2024 12:29

Talk To Me Taylor does the gift that keeps on giving: Hallmark Channel, baby! Catch my recent sit-down with "The Chicken Sisters" stars Lea Thompson (Back to the Future) and Genevieve Angelson (The Handmaid's Tale) of the new series based on The NY Times best seller. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/taylor-ferber/support

new york times tale hallmark channel chicken sisters

'Reagan' falls short and 'The Chicken Sisters' arrive

... Just To Be Nominated

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 4, 2024 31:26

One of the biggest movies during this sluggish weekend at movie theaters was "Reagan," the life-spanning look at former President Ronald Reagan starring Dennis Quaid in the title role and Penelope Ann Miller as Nancy Reagan. Co-host Bruce Miller shares his disappointment in the film that simply covers too much ground, while he and co-host Terry Lipshetz reflect on previous films about presidents (real and fictional). Bruce also has an interview with Leah Thompson of "Back to the Future" fame and Schuyler Fisk, the daughter of Sissy Spacek, who talk about their new Hallmark+ series "The Chicken Sisters," based on the book of the same name. The show premieres Sept. 10. Contact us! We want to hear from you! Email questions to podcasts@lee.net and we'll answer your question on a future episode! About the show Streamed & Screened is a podcast about movies and TV hosted by Bruce Miller, a longtime entertainment reporter who is now the editor of the Sioux City Journal in Iowa and Terry Lipshetz, a senior producer for Lee Enterprises based in Madison, Wisconsin.

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Ep 97 Recreating The Script: Achieving Extraordinary Heights with Actor And Producer Arkie Kandola

Achieving Success with Olivia Atkin

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 3, 2024 54:50

Achieving Success with Olivia Atkin Episode 97 "Recreating The Script: Achieving Extraordinary Heights with Actor And Producer Arkie Kandola"Olivia talks personal and professional achievementswith Arkie Kandola. Arkie is a Canadian-born actor and producer from Vancouver. Arkie first gained attention in 2013 with a Vitamin Water commercial alongside NBA legend Steve Nash. Since then, he's delivered standout performances in Fox's Prison Break, Freeform's Siren, CBS's The Twilight Zone, NBC's Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist, the comedy Our Big Punjabi Family, and Universal's Easter Sunday with Jo Koy. This fall, Arkie will captivate audiences in two new series: Natasha Rothwell's"How To Die Alone" premiering on Hulu on September 13, and Hallmark's "Chicken Sisters."As a producer and Partner at BMA Films, Arkie, alongside Brandon Jay Mclaren and Max Topplin, are developing their first feature, "The Book"; a Canada-India co-production.Join Olivia every Tuesday as she brings on top notch guests to talk about how they are Achieving Success! Career Development Book and More at Achieving-success.comStay Connected With Us:Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/achieving-success-llcInstagram: @_achievingsuccessTwitter: @_achievesuccessFacebook: @Achieving Success

How Are Books Published?

Simple Questions Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 4, 2024 54:21

Episode 38 titled "How Are Books Published?", has Author and Book Coach, Jennie Nash, explain the intricacies of the publishing process. Episode Summary: This episode features a discussion with Jennie Nash, an author and book coach. Jennie has penned nine books across three genres, including "Blueprint for a Book: Build Your Novel from the Inside Out". She's not only achieved personal success but also excels in guiding others as the Founder and CEO of Author Accelerator. This company has trained over 75 book coaches to support writers throughout their creative journey. Her coaching prowess has helped clients secure lucrative deals, including projects like "The Chicken Sisters," a New York Times bestseller and a Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick in 2020. Listen as Jennie shares her insights which have guided numerous authors to success. In this episode we discuss: 00:25 - Introducing Jennie Nash 02:19 - Being an Author is a "Thing" 5:29 - Beginning to Write 9:16 - Book Coaching 13:11 - A Shift in Publishing 23:02 - Allure of Self-Publishing 32:12 - Book Launch 38:38 - Finding vs. Serving an Audience 40:59 - AI in Writing 49:32 - Advice for New Writers 52:0 - Learning More 53:49 - Conclusion Resources: Jennie's Website Author Accelerator⁠ Jennie's Books⁠ This episode includes the track 'RSPN' by Blank & Kytt. The song is used under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. You can find more of Blank & Kytt's music ⁠⁠here⁠⁠.

A Whitewater Romance (Review)

Dear Hallmark

Play Episode Listen Later May 14, 2024 26:24

It's time to talk about the first movie in the "Countdown to Summer" lineup starring Cindy Busby and Benjamin Hollingsworth. Links & Such: Lacey Chabert Netflix Christmas Movie: https://deadline.com/2024/05/lacey-chabert-to-topline-hot-frosty-rom-com-netflix-1235912192/ "The Chicken Sisters": https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/hallmark-channel-the-chicken-sisters-tv-show-adaptation-1235999349/ Dear Hallmark Registries: Crate & Barrel: https://www.crateandbarrel.com/gift-registry/registrant-list/7047570 Target: https://www.target.com/gift-registry/gift/housewarming-for-dara To purchase "Chasing Wind": https://amzn.to/3IGUI6g For other Hallmark movie reviews, be sure to check out the Dear Hallmark YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe7R8-e6d13cee5QMo_Oltw Dear Hallmark's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dearhallmark/ Dear Hallmark's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dearhallmarkpodcast --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/dearhallmark/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/dearhallmark/support

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427 | Getting Unstuck with KJ Dell'Antonia

How Do You Write

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 11, 2024 18:12

KJ Dell'Antonia shares some amazing ways to get unstuck in her normal, down-to-earth, hilarious way. Here's Rachael's Kickstarter, Unstuck! KJ Dell'Antonia is a New York Times best-selling author whose novels The Chicken Sisters and In Her Boots explore the same themes she once explored as a journalist: the importance of finding joy in our families, the challenge of figuring out what makes us happy and the need to value the life we're living more than the one in our phones and laptops, every single time. Her third novel, Playing the Witch Card, throws magic into the mix, but witchcraft, like reality TV and literary fraud, rarely really solves anyone's problems. She is also the former editor of the New York Times' Motherlode blog, the co-host of the #AmWriting podcast, and a passionate bookstagrammer (@kjda). She lives in Lyme, New Hampshire, with her husband, children and assorted dogs, cats, chickens and horses.Ink In Your Veins: How Writers Actually Write (and how you can, too)Writing doesn't have to be so hard. With internationally bestselling author Rachael Herron, learn how to embrace ease, reject perfectionism, and finally create your perfect writing process. (Formerly known as How Do You Write) Come for inspiration, stay for lots more.✏️ Can I email you some writing help?

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My reflection on "KJ Dell'Antonia: Find Your Pockets of Joy"

Changing Course with Maya Adam

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 11, 2024 1:25

I hope you enjoy my short reflection on the conversation I had with my guest KJ Dell'Antonia, who is known to many from her time as editor of the New York Times “The Motherlode” blog, which later became part of their Well Family section. KJ also started her own podcast, and she's the author of several incredibly popular books, How to Be a Happier Parent, In Her Boots, and the New York Times best seller, The Chicken Sisters. Listen to the full-length episode on your favorite podcast app or watch the full-length episode on YouTube.

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National Novel Planning Month (that should be a thing)

head thanksgiving cross planning playing national blueprint finished nano 50k nanowrimo revise amwriting podcastand nanowrimo national novel writing month author accelerator chicken sisters

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 13, 2023 22:03

I'm a fan of NaNoWriMo—National Novel Writing Month, in which the plan is to write 50,000 words of a novel in November. It's about 1666 words a day, a little more if you take off for Thanksgiving, and it's do-able to get to 50K words. But realistically, most people's result, even if they “win” isn't a draft of a novel. It's usually the rambling draft of the first half or two-thirds at best. Because even if your preferred method of writing is to “pants” (As opposed to plot), getting a novel draft to actually END is perhaps the most difficult part. Even the “murky middle” is easier to draft than those concluding scenes. But NaNoWriMo can—and has, for many people—end in an actual draft that becomes a novel. There's something about the energy of the month and the challenge of imposing those 1666 words on days that are already full of countless things that really works for many of us. The Chicken Sisters began (after years of noodling) as a NaNoWriMo project in 2018, and plenty of other authors also attribute their first drafts to NaNo. I drafted Playing the Witch Card during November, too. The key is to make a plan and stick to it (and not abandon it if it bleeds into December, either). There's nothing I love more than making a plan—so here are my keys to NaNoWriMo success.First: Recognize if this is for you. For me, the combined challenge of confining the draft to a month and the ridiculousness of making it November—hello, Thanksgiving, all the things—actually makes me more determined. Tell me I can't do a thing and watch my dust. I love the sheer ridiculousness and arbitrariness of shoehorning this in. It fits perfectly into the model of things I've achieved in the past. So that's the question: when have you been successful at seeing a project through to the end? Did it look like NaNoWriMo? Or maybe it was similar, with more or less accountability. Did it have a set schedule, did you tell people about it or keep it secret? Do you thrive on self-imposed deadlines or loathe them?If this whole game feels wrong or burdensome to you—but you still want to draft a book—then quit this right now and make your own game, but don't let yourself off the hook. The reason most people never write a book, even if they dream of doing it, is… they never write a book, they just dream of doing it. Go ahead and reject NaNo if it's not for you—but use this moment to find a way of getting it done that is. (You might give Sarina's Episode 352, how to write a novel in 3 months, a listen.)Second: It's not cheating to know what your book is about, it's smart. If sitting down on day one and writing it was a dark and stormy night and going on from there has worked for you, go for it. Most of us need more (and if you've never FINISHED a book by starting off that way, it's safe to guess you need more). In a perfect world, you'd go through the processes we describe during summer 2023's Idea Factory (Episodes 366-373) AND the Blueprint for a book series (Episodes 322-330). If nothing else, you should know these three things: What's the book about (the plot), why are you writing it/why does the world need it (the emotional arc) and where does the story start, peak and then end. Those last can be vague if you prefer—the killer traps her and her dog in a mountain cabin, she manages to escape and returns for revenge—or much more specific if you know who the killer is, or why the couple splits and then reunites. On the one hand I do better with specifics; on the other, those specifics are nearly always wrong. So go figure.Third: You need a plan for what you will write when. Most of us noodle around wildly in the beginning of a book and then get stuck in the middle and hit that 50K without grappling with the end. I try to force myself to stick to a schedule: Week one: the beginning, Week two: the first half of the middle, Week Three, finish the middle and Week four: write to the end. If I'm not there—and I never am, it's impossible—I “prewrite” to the next place I need to be. That means a scrawl of what needs to happen and it's truly gibberish. Because I love y'all, and because I don't think people often imagine writers are exaggerating when we talk about “shitty first drafts”, here's a picture of some pre-writing/outlining from my current project.The bar is LOW. Why why why, indeed.Fourth, let's say I get to 50K and the end of November—yay!—but I didn't write The End. Keep going forward—do not revise until you've ended this draft somehow unless you've successfully finished other novels by revising before you hit the end. It doesn't have to be the right ending. It probably isn't the right ending. But until you write it (or at the very least pre-write it but it has to include the actual things that happen and are felt and said, not just end this somehow), you can pretend everything is going in the right direction when it probably isn't. When we revise before we finishing, we're almost certainly revising the wrong thing. And if you don't “win?” Revise that schedule, re-make the rules, take a mulligan and keep going until you do. Don't abandon that book. Even if it's the worst book ever. We all write the worst books ever, and sometimes we fix them and sometimes we don't, but until you prove to yourself that you can finish a draft, you'll never write a better one.Finally, keep this mantra in mind. Cross-stitch it on a pillow, put it on a post-it, get a tattoo. Good writing comes last. Don't polish that sentence until you know it belongs, don't perfect that scene until it's earned its place in the book. One last word on NaNoWriMo: If you want to do it, if you wish you could do it, if you've always dreamed of doing it… do it. It's 2 hours a day for 30 days. You can find them. You can make it happen. But… you're the only one who can. If the idea of being a book coach niggles at you every time you hear anything about our sponsor, Author Accelerator, I have good news: they've fully revised and updated both the fiction and non-fiction book coach certification program. With more than 100 hours of training, videos, case studies, and worksheets, Author Accelerator's program teaches you the key editorial skills, client-management strategies, and tools needed to help writers reach their goals and to help you start a thriving book coaching business.But maybe you've got no doubt it's a great program—you're just not sure if book coaching right for YOU, or if you can pull it off. Well, Author Accelerator wants it to be the right call for you, too. They're offering a $99 5-day challenge all about getting your business idea out of your head and onto the page—but #AmWriting listeners get it for half off. Head to bookcoaches.com/podcast and enter the code PODCAST at checkout for 50% off. bookcoaches.com/podcastAnd if you're asking yourself—so why charge for the challenge, if they want it to be right for me too? Because if you pony up, you'll really DO it. So if it's time to stop dreaming and start acting, there you go. I've been through this, and I can tell you that this is more than just an online course. You'll take the skills you learn and apply them with real-life clients through three practicums designed to help you practice helping authors go from confusion to clarity with their novel idea. Yes, you work with real writers, yes it's terribly nerve-wracking—but the author I worked with during one of my practicums just got a book deal with that project! This is real, kids—and it works. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amwriting.substack.com

S2EP3 - Parenting and Writing: Practicalities and Possibilities with KJ Dell'Antonia

Postpartum Production

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 19, 2023 49:17

“The thing that has not changed for me is the need to protect the time that I need to achieve my creative goals. But the biggest barrier is [that] there's always more to do in that busy household. So you have to make a concerted effort to set aside that time.” ~ KJ Dell'AntoniaIn this episode, Kaitlin is joined by KJ Dell'Antonia, the New York Times best-selling author of The Chicken Sisters, In Her Boots, How to Be a Happier Parent, and the forthcoming Playing the Witch Card in a compelling conversation about the intersection of caregiving, creative practice, and capitalism production, and the impressive journey KJ has taken in navigating those roles.A former editor of the New York Times' Motherload blog, and cohost of The #AmWriting podcast, KJ lives in Lyme, New Hampshire, with her husband and four children, and she has to go outside every day or else she and her dogs will go slightly insane.KJ and Kaitlin talked about:How KJ navigates the practicalities of juggling caregiving and creative practice and how she writes about parenting without disrespecting her children's private lives.The challenges of parenting while pursuing creative goals and how to find a balance between the two. KJ's methodical approach to creativity and the importance of setting achievable goals.How to identify your own unique creative process and stay productive and happy with the work you do.The importance of finding dedicated thinking and working time for creative goals, despite the busyness of household life, and the need to protect that time.Finding balance in motherhood and creativity without compromising authenticity and finding real happiness.More about KJ Dell'Antonia:Website: https://kjdellantonia.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kjda/The #AmWriting podcast: https://amwriting.substack.com/Pre-order your copy of Playing the Witch Card: https://bookshop.org/a/86159/9780593713792Please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and give us a rating. This will help us reach more listeners like you who are navigating the joys and pitfalls of artistic and parenting identities.For regular updates:Visit our website: postpartumproduction.comFollow us on Instagram: @postpartumproductionpodcastSubscribe to our podcast newsletter on Substack: https://postpartumproduction.substack.com

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152. Raise Your Voice. Write A Book.

Coaches on a Mission

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 12, 2023 58:20

My guest today is Jennie Nash who is the founder and CEO of Author Accelerator, a company that trains, certifies, and supports book coaches so they can help writers do their best work. I invited Jennie to the show for many reasons. First, she has really mastered the art of delivering as a coach and course creator. Her Author accelerator program truly is unmatched. We are lucky enough to have a little cohort of AA coaches inside The Hive and they all sing Jennie's praises. So, I knew she was someone I wanted to know. Secondly, Jennie is super smart and really committed to helping us all raise our voices and tell our stories through book writing. Her own coaching clients have landed top New York agents and six-figure book deals with traditional publishing houses such as Penguin, Scribner, Simon & Schuster, and Hachette. They've also won dozens of national indie book awards. And her Client KJ Dell'Antonia's novel, The Chicken Sisters, was an instant New York Times bestseller and Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick. Jennie and I had a really enlivening conversation about why every coach should write a book, what it really takes to write a GOOD book, and of course we dish about the books on our nightstands right now. You should know that Jennie herself is the author of 11 books in 3 genres, including Blueprint for a Nonfiction Book: Plan and Pitch Your Idea and Blueprint for a Book: Build Your Novel from the Inside Out. Visit her at authoraccelerator.com and jennienash.com And if you are a coach on a mission, which I know you are or you wouldn't be listening, get ready to get inspired to raise your own voice. I even had a breakthrough during this interview and Jennie's got my wheels turning on my next book. She's just that good. Here's Jennie Nash! BOOKS WE MENTIONED: This Is Not A Book About Benedict Cumberbatch by Tabitha Carvan Your Invisible Network by Michael Urtuzuástegu Melcher (one of Jennie's clients) A Taste of Opportunity by Renee Guilbault (another client of Jennies!) I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy CONNECT WITH JENNIE: 6 - PART TEST TO DETERMINE IF YOUR BOOK IS VIABLE: https://jennienash.com/viable FIND THE BOOK COACH FOR YOU: https://www.authoraccelerator.com/ CONNECT WITH ME: INSTAGRAM: http://instagram.com/dallastraversbizmentor FREE QUIZ: https://dallastravers.com/quiz

Why You Should Do NaNoWriMo (and how to make the most of it) 336

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 28, 2022 41:06

I (KJ here) adore Nanowrimo. Tell me it's impossible to write a whole novel in a month, especially a month with Thanksgiving in it, and I will set out to prove you wrong. My first novel, The Chicken Sisters started as a NaNo project, as did Playing the Witch Card (which is probably coming out in Fall 2023).I… cannot NaNo this year (yes it's a verb), because my next set of revisions, with an accompanying deadline, will be heading my way in the last week of October. But Jess can and will! So I offered Jess my favorite advice on a successful NaNoWritMo—the KJ version, at least. Here's how I approached last year's NaNoWriMo, and it worked pretty well in the end:My first novel clocks in at around 107K, my current WIP draft is at 99K. I favor long, convoluted sentences. I like to express things in sets of three—reasons the character is reacting as she is, emotions that are bombarding her, the ways her body responds— or even five: lists, smells, tastes, memories, expressions and as I have just demonstrated, I tend to use a lot of punctuation while I'm doing it.I do this from the very beginning. If I'm writing a scene, I write a whole scene. The people move, they eat, they smell and taste and feel, they think about their backstory: the whole shebang. Historically, that's meant two things. First, when November 30 rolls around, I'll have 50,000 words—but I'll only have a draft of about half of my story.Second, I'll have put in a lot of time writing those long sentences and and elaborate scenes. The terrible truth about my first drafts is that the writing tends to be pretty good. The dialogue flows, the action moves, there's humor and pathos and feeling in the way the characters interact with one another.It's the story that usually sucks.Getting to The End, not The MiddleI suspect that to some extent it will always be this way for me. I plot, then I write, then I discover that the plot doesn't create room to bring the character to the place where she needs to be and I have to go back and do it all over again. But I also suspect I could do that initial finding my way to a character arc and plot that weave together in a way that satisfies the whole a lot more efficiently if I just wrote fewer words.Make a PlanTo do that, I need a plan that forces me out of my usual loquacious style, and here it is: I divide my 30 days and 50,000 words into a beginning (6 days, 10K) , a middle (18 days, 30K) and an end (6 days and 10K again). World-building and character riffing are fine as long as I stick to the schedule. Write Some, Pre-write Some or Just Say What HappensNext, I pay attention to time and word count. If I'm lingering and I need to move along, I throw down some plans and some prewriting. Conversation about the Halloween event here. Town history TK. Some prescient line that recurs at end.So that's my weird NaNoWriMo plan: write fewer words, but get more of the whole picture on the page, with the goal of finding my way to “the end” instead of “the middle”. I know (and you know) that it won't really be the end. There will be much, much work ahead—but I'll have a draft. It will be a terrible draft, as it should be, but it will help me do the work I find hardest: not writing the scenes but finding the story. If I'm lucky I'll be putting flesh on the bones; if I'm not, I'll be rebuilding a scaffolding, not taking down a whole house.And here, from the archives, is a NaNoWriMo Prep list I created a few years back. Here's a fun calendar Sarina found:And a link to How to Do the Blueprint for a Book Challenge.A few useful past episodes:#NaWhateverWriMo, Episode 181#SupporterMini 1: #Prewriting#AmWritingJess: A Little Too Late, Sarina BowenMad Honey, Jodi Picoult & Jennifer Finney BoylanAll Good People Here, Ashley Flowers *for loving the audio versionKJ: We All Want Impossible Things, and What Can I Say?, Catherine Newman Reluctant Immortals, Gwendolyn KisteDon't forget that Author Accelerator is your one-stop for getting a coach on board to help you with your work, no matter where you are in the drafting game. Need a pro? Click here. And if you've considered becoming a book coach, here's your link: Click here.Also…. you know we here at #AmWriting tend to think working with a book coach or developmental editor is the gold standard for getting help with your project. But that's not always in the cards—and even if it is, doing as much as you can on your own is always a smart approach. The developmental editors of Pages & Platforms, Anne Hawley and Rachelle Ramirez, want to share their top tips for editing your own work in a FREE webinar Monday 10/31/22.YOU WILL LEARN:* Why marketing categories or “genres” don't help you write a good working story, and what does.* The three most common structural problems with novels and memoirs and how to start solving them.* The importance of good working scenes, and how to fix scenes that don't work. Learn more HERE. We're an affiliate, so we do make a little something if you decide to sign up for additional services. But this is FREE. And please know that we only team up with people and businesses we trust! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

How to Go From Planning a Book to Writing One: Blueprint for a Book Step 10

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 2, 2022 53:18

It’s time to put this baby to work.What now? You’ll just have to listen.This is the last episode in the 10-part Blueprint for a Book Series. Start with Step 1, do the work (we’ll give you an assignment every week), and in 10 weeks, you’ll have a solid foundation for a first draft or revision of your project that will help you push through to “the end”. It’s not too late to go back to the beginning and blueprint your book! Find details on the challenge HERE.YOUR ASSIGNMENTFiction and Narrative Memoir:Revise everything! Go back through all the steps and make them as solid as you can. Try think about your reader, the logic of your plot, and the emotional arc of the story.If you are doing the Summer 2022 challenge, you have until September 8th to turn in your complete workbook. Use that time to revise everything!For Nonfiction and Memoir/Self-Help Revise everything! Go back through all the steps and make them as solid as you can. Try to think about your reader, the transformation they seek, and the outcome you are going to bring them to.If you are doing the Summer 2022 challenge, you have until September 8th to turn in your complete workbook. Use that time to revise everything!(Note: We suggest you download a Blueprint answer workbook to keep track of your 10 assignments. That will make it easier to revise, review and come back to your work. Click to grab yours for fiction or nonfiction. If you are writing narrative memoir (a story), use the fiction workbook and assignments. If you are writing self-help/memoir, use the nonfiction workbook and assignments. Prefer paper? Tape the assignment into your journal and make a nice big heading so you know: This is Step 10. Revise everything!LINKSBlueprint for a Book (Fiction and Memoir)Blueprint for a Nonfiction BookTODAY’S COACHESBarbara Boyd takes a tough love approach to coaching. She coaches nonfiction writers on topics that include leadership, finance, marketing, human resources, health and wellness, agriculture, real estate, technology, and memoir. Barbara has coached close to 100 writers through writing more than 200 books - including Jennie Nash’s Blueprint for a Nonfiction Book. She was certified by Author Accelerator in January 2021. You can learn more about Barbara at www.barbarajboyd.com.For more from KJ, subscribe to her newsletter: Read. Eat. Listen. Or grab one of her novels, In Her Boots and The Chicken Sisters, wherever books are sold. Wondering about KJ as a book coach? Her current offerings are HERE. For more from Jennie, subscribe to her weekly newsletter. Or grab one of her Blueprint books, wherever books are sold. You can learn about getting matched with an Author Accelerator book coach or becoming a book coach at authoraccelerator.comHave you been inspired by the Author Accelerator Book Coaches during this summer podcast takeover? Book coaching is a fantastic thing to do as a side gig to support your writing or as a whole new career. Author Accelerator trains and certifies book coaches and supports them as they help writers bring their books to life. You can learn all about book coaching at bookcoaches.com/abc. We’d love to have you join our community. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

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If Not Now, When? with KJ Dell'Antonia

Uncorking a Story

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 30, 2022 33:50

About KJ Dell'Antonia: KJ is the author of The Chicken Sisters, a New York Times bestseller, a Reese Witherspoon book club pick, and a timely, humorous exploration of the same themes she has long focused on in her journalism: the importance of finding joy in our families, the challenge of figuring out what makes us happy and the need to value the people in front of us more than the ones in our phones and laptops, every single time. Her latest novel, In Her Boots, is about the gap between the adult we think we have become, the child our mother will always see, and our horrible fear that our mother is right. In this episode, Mike and KJ discuss: KJ's journey to publishing from fanfiction to nonfiction journalism to published fiction with a Reese Witherspoon book club pick. The challenges of finding out what makes us happy and then voicing it. Enjoying life now, not waiting for the nebulous future. Creating and inhabiting new worlds. Key Takeaways: Just because something is hard does not mean that it needs to be terrible too. We are conditioned to want stuff, but what we are really looking for in life is connection. We are all wearing masks in different aspects of our lives. The key is understanding who we are inside and recognizing that we are good as we are. If you're not going to sell yourself and your works, who is going to? "We're all taught not to toot our own horns. But, hopefully, you think the thing that you're putting out in the world is the best thing you can and people want to share that and be part of it." – KJ Dell'Antonia Buy In Her Boots Amazon: https://amzn.to/3O4ldF5 Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/a/54587/9780593542460 Connect with KJ Dell'Antonia: Website: https://kjdellantonia.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KJDellAntoniaAuthor Twitter: https://twitter.com/KJDellAntonia Podcast: https://amwriting.substack.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kjda/ Connect with Mike Carlon: Website: https://uncorkingastory.com/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSvS4fuG3L1JMZeOyHvfk_g Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uncorkingastory/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/uncorkingastory Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/uncorkingastory LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/uncorking-a-story/

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But Does this Book Work? Blueprint for a Book Step 9

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 26, 2022 60:59

If you’re not excited to dive in, something’s wrong.You’ve got a why, a point, an audience. You’ve thought market, found a way to drive your book forward. Found the one or two sentences that describe every chapter or scene and made yourself consider why those chapters or scenes belong and now—you should feel ready to write.But are you?Sometimes we fool ourselves. We think we’ve got all the pieces, but we’ve glossed over the fact that two chapters in our TOC are really about the same thing or the reason the villain took the ship hostage is … because she was feeling grumpy? Today we talk about hunting for those weak spots (when really you just want to run right past them with your eyes averted, and oh yeah we get that).This is the ninth episode in the 10-part Blueprint for a Book Series. Start with Step 1, do the work (we’ll give you an assignment every week), and in 10 weeks, you’ll have a solid foundation for a first draft or revision of your project that will help you push through to “the end”. Find details on the challenge HERE.ASSIGMENTFiction and Narrative Memoir:Download the Ten Point Inside Outline Checklist HERE. Go through it to check your Inside Outline to make sure it is meeting all the requirements. If you find things that don’t hold together, that’s your clue about what you need to revise. Keep revising the Inside Outline until it’s as solid as possible.If you aren’t planning to use a book coach to review your whole Blueprint, this is the moment when it can make good sense to bring in a critique partner Give them your Inside Outline and the Ten Point Inside Outline Checklist and ask them to put your outline to the test.Nonfiction and Memoir/Self-Help:Download the Seven Point Outcome Outline Checklist HERE. Go through it to check your Outcome Outline to make sure it is meeting all the requirements. If you find things that don’t hold together, that’s your clue about what you need to revise. Keep revising the Outcome Outline until it’s as solid as possible.If you aren’t planning to use a book coach to review your whole Blueprint, this is the moment when it can make good sense to bring in a critique partner Give them your Outcome Outline and the Ten Point Inside Outline Checklist and ask them to put your outline to the test.(Note: We suggest you download a Blueprint answer workbook to keep track of your 10 assignments. That will make it easier to revise, review and come back to your work. Click to grab yours for fiction or nonfiction. If you are writing narrative memoir (a story), use the fiction workbook and assignments. If you are writing self-help/memoir, use the nonfiction workbook and assignments. Prefer paper? Tape the assignment into your journal and make a nice big heading so you know: This is Step 9. The Outline Checklist)LINKSYou are a Badass, Jen SinceroThink Like a Monk, Jay ShettyBomb Shelter, Mary Laura PhilpottBlueprint for a Book (Fiction and Memoir)Blueprint for a Nonfiction BookTODAY’S COACHESJen Braaksma is a writer, teacher and book coach in Ottawa, Canada. Her next YA fantasy, Evangeline’s Heaven, is coming August 2022. She has the word “passion” tattooed on her wrist—literally—and she’s passionate about helping writers put their best work on the page. Find out more HERE.For more from KJ, subscribe to her newsletter: Read. Eat. Listen. Or grab one of her novels, In Her Boots and The Chicken Sisters, wherever books are sold. Wondering about KJ as a book coach? Her current offerings are HERE. For more from Jennie, subscribe to her weekly newsletter. Or grab one of her Blueprint books, wherever books are sold. You can learn about getting matched with an Author Accelerator book coach or becoming a book coach at authoraccelerator.comHave you been inspired by the Author Accelerator Book Coaches during this summer podcast takeover? Book coaching is a fantastic thing to do as a side gig to support your writing or as a whole new career. Author Accelerator trains and certifies book coaches and supports them as they help writers bring their books to life. You can learn all about book coaching at bookcoaches.com/abc. We’d love to have you join our community. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

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One Outline to Rule Them All (Even if You Hate Outlining): Blueprint for a Book Step 8

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 19, 2022 48:55

Writing is, sadly, not like reading.Plenty of writers, including all of us on this episode, write a few hundred thousand words before we figure that out. Because in some ways, writing words about characters you’ve invented is easy. They go for coffee! They banter! And writing words about your non-fiction topic of choice, or the hike you took in the Sierra Nevadas—same same.It’s writing the right words, in the right order, that’s the challenge.DAMN IT.In this episode, we introduce our favorite not-an-outline-if-you-hate-outlining but yeah ok let’s talk about that tool: the Inside Outline for fiction and the Outcome Outline for nonfiction. Long detailed outlines not for you? You’re golden—this demands the fewest possible words describing every scene or event that drives the reader through the book (Hello, Step 7, how we missed you). Love a long detailed outline? Get ready to boil that down to its essence before you build it back up. Here’s the thing: this is supposed to be hard. It should feel impossible. Because you can’t write everything. You have to choose.This is the eighth episode in the 10-part Blueprint for a Book Series. Start with Step 1, do the work (we’ll give you an assignment every week), and in 10 weeks, you’ll have a solid foundation for a first draft or revision of your project that will help you push through to “the end”. Find details on the challenge HERE.YOUR ASSIGNMENTFiction and Narrative Memoir:Download the Inside Outline worksheet HERE and create your Inside Outline. Don’t cheat! Following the rules is what makes this powerful.Nonfiction and Memoir/Self-HelpDownload the Outcome Outline worksheet HERE and create your Outcome Outline. There are fewer rules for the Outcome Outline, but you have to be crystal clear about your logic. (Note: We suggest you download a Blueprint answer workbook to keep track of your 10 assignments. That will make it easier to revise, review and come back to your work. Click to grab yours for fiction or nonfiction. If you are writing narrative memoir (a story), use the fiction workbook and assignments. If you are writing self-help/memoir, use the nonfiction workbook and assignments. Prefer paper? Tape the assignment into your journal and make a nice big heading so you know: This is Step 8. The Inside Outline or the Outcome Outline.)LINKSRachael Herron’s How Do You Write Ep 301 with Isabel CañasBittersweet, Susan CainWe Need to Talk: A Memoir About Wealth, Jennifer RisherThe Artist’s Way, Julia CameronThe Five Love Languages, Gary ChapmanBlueprint for a Book (Fiction and Memoir)Blueprint for a Nonfiction BookTODAY’S COACHESA fan of true crime (#ssdgm) and mysteries of all kinds, Samantha Skal’s book coaching motto is “it’s time to get out of hell and finish your book”. Her magic gift is decoding agent rejections and helping writers produce and present their very best work. Find out more HERE. For more from KJ, subscribe to her newsletter: Read. Eat. Listen. Or grab one of her novels, In Her Boots and The Chicken Sisters, wherever books are sold. Wondering about KJ as a book coach? Her current offerings are HERE. For more from Jennie, subscribe to her weekly newsletter. Or grab one of her Blueprint books, wherever books are sold. You can learn about getting matched with an Author Accelerator book coach or becoming a book coach at authoraccelerator.com.This summer is all about starting a project, but if you already have a novel or memoir manuscript and you’re ready to go ALL IN, you’re going to want to do Author Accelerator’s Manuscript Incubator. Registration is open for the intensive, 7-month coaching opportunity that offers one-on-one support and guidance for novelists and memoirists planning to have a submission-ready project by early 2023—and includes the opportunity to have that project reviewed by a group of agents and editors when it’s ready. For more information, head to authoraccelerator.com/manuscript-incubator. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

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How to Drive that Narrative Forward: Blueprint for a Book Step 7

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 12, 2022 51:40

People don’t behave logically, but they are illogical in logical ways. What makes you want to turn the page? You know how it is with some books—you just can’t put them down. Fiction, sure, thrillers, mysteries, but that’s not all. Non-fiction books can be page-turners too, even when they don’t seen to have a story. What makes The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up work even for people who never actually tidy up? The page-turning, reader-driving illusion that somehow they will. The Five Love Languages? The drive to figure out—which one am I, and which one are you?Narrative drive is a key element of success in everything from romance (sure, you know the ending, but how are they going to get together?) to memoir to, yes, successful how-to. Your reader should be constantly asking, and then what happened, which means you should be, too. And everything has to contribute to that drive, whether it’s a plot development or an emotional twist. That’s how you pull the reader through each and every chapter.This is the seventh episode in the 10-part Blueprint for a Book Series. Start with Step 1, do the work (we’ll give you an assignment every week), and in 10 weeks, you’ll have a solid foundation for a first draft or revision of your project that will help you push through to “the end”. Find details on the challenge HERE.YOUR ASSIGNMENTFiction and Narrative Memoir:Create a “Because of That” story summary. The Pixar rubric is in your workbook.Nonfiction and Self-Help/Memoir:Draft a table of contents. If you already did that in the last step, refine it. Tables of contents can hold the code for your entire book, so don’t just toss it off! Write two or three sentences to describe each chapter.(Note: We suggest you download a Blueprint answer workbook to keep track of your 10 assignments. That will make it easier to revise, review and come back to your work. Click to grab yours for fiction or nonfiction. If you are writing narrative memoir (a story), use the fiction workbook and assignments. If you are writing self-help/memoir, use the nonfiction workbook and assignments. Prefer paper? Tape the assignment into your journal and make a nice big heading so you know: This is Step 7. This is the page (or pages) with my Because of That Story Summary.)LINKSThe Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise, Dan GemeinhartThe Five Love Languages, Gary ChapmanThe Other Black Girl, Zakiya Dalila HarrisBlueprint for a Book (Fiction and Memoir)Blueprint for a Nonfiction BookTODAY’S COACHESSara Gentry is a Math Ph.D. turned writer, book lover, and book coach. As an Author Accelerator Certified Book Coach, Sara has been trained to help writers craft the story they’ve been wanting to tell. Thanks to her mathematical background, her book coaching strengths include planning project management, analyzing a story’s cohesiveness, and evaluating where a book might fit in the current marketplace. She works with writers across genres and age groups. She has a soft spot for KidLit and humorous adult fiction. Find more at easierwithacoach.com.For more from KJ, subscribe to her newsletter: Read. Eat. Listen. Or grab one of her novels, In Her Boots and The Chicken Sisters, wherever books are sold. Wondering about KJ as a book coach? Her current offerings are HERE. For more from Jennie, subscribe to her weekly newsletter. Or grab one of her Blueprint books, wherever books are sold. You can learn about getting matched with an Author Accelerator book coach or becoming a book coach at authoraccelerator.comThis summer is all about starting a project, but if you already have a novel or memoir manuscript and you’re ready to go ALL IN, you’re going to want to do Author Accelerator’s Manuscript Incubator. Registration is open for the intensive, 7-month coaching opportunity that offers one-on-one support and guidance for novelists and memoirists planning to have a submission-ready project by early 2023—and includes the opportunity to have that project reviewed by a group of agents and editors when it’s ready. For more information, head to authoraccelerator.com/manuscript-incubator. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

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KJ Dell'Antonia, Author, and Co-host of #AmWriting Podcast

The Bookshop Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 8, 2022 26:32

In this episode, I chat with author KJ Dell'Antonia about her new novel In Her Boots, her podcast #amwriting, and books!KJ Dell'Antonia is the author of The Chicken Sisters, a New York Times bestseller, a Reese Witherspoon book club pick, and a timely, humorous exploration of the same themes she has long focused on in her journalism: the importance of finding joy in our families, the challenge of figuring out what makes us happy, and the need to value the people in front of us more than the ones in our phones and laptops, every single time.KJ wrote and edited the Motherlode blog at the New York Times and is also the author of the viral essay Why I Didn't Answer Your Email and the book How to Be a Happier Parent. Her new novel, In Her Boots, is about the gap between the adults we think we have become, the child our mother will always see, and our horrible fear that our mother is right. KJ Dell'AntoniaIn Her Boots, KJ Dell'AntoniaThe #AmWriting PodcastThe Change, Kirsten MillerThe Truth About Ben And June, Alex KiesterThe Other Bennet Sister, Janice HadlowThe Murder of Mr. Wickham, Claudia GrayThe Boys, Katie HafnerSupport the show

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What's the Structure of Your Narrative? Blueprint for a Book Step 6

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 5, 2022 48:48

The structure of a book is only inevitable in hindsight. Non-writers don’t usually notice structure unless it leaps out at them—reverse chronology, say, or an epistolary narrative. But structural choices loom huge for non-fiction writers and are no less important for memoir and fiction (although straight chronological is the white-shirt-and-blue-jeans of structure—relatable, easy to execute and nearly always appropriate). Will there be alternating timelines or POVs? A prologue? Who’s telling this story, and why, and how? When does it start and when does it end?If you’ve done the exercises up until now, you know why you’re writing and who you’re writing for. You’ve thought about the market–where your readers are and what they want. You’ve drafted some back of the book copy in the hopes of reaching those readers–and to remind yourself of the promise you’re making to them. And you’ve thought about the change that propels readers through a book, which is a sneaky way into thinking about theme. This is where we get ready to start the actual writing of your story.This is the sixth episode in the 10-part Blueprint for a Book Series. Start with Step 1, do the work (we’ll give you an assignment every week), and in 10 weeks, you’ll have a solid foundation for a first draft or revision of your project that will help you push through to “the end”. Find details on the challenge HERE.YOUR ASSIGNMENTAnswer the following questions:For fiction and narrative memoir: Where is the narrator standing in time?What period of time does the book cover?Where does the book start and end?Does the reader know things the protagonist does not, and if so, how? (This is a good chance to check to make sure that your POV serves your story.)For nonfiction and memoir/self-help:Choose a structural prototype from this worksheet. Download HEREAnswer the questions for that prototype.(Note: We suggest you download a Blueprint answer workbook to keep track of your 10 assignments. That will make it easier to revise, review and come back to your work. Click to grab yours for fiction or nonfiction. If you are writing narrative memoir (a story), use the fiction workbook and assignments. If you are writing self-help/memoir, use the nonfiction workbook and assignments. Prefer paper? Tape the assignment into your journal and make a nice big heading so you know: This is Step 6. This is the page (or pages) on structure.)LINKSWild, Cheryl StrayedThe Great Believers, Rebecca MakkaiIn the Dream House, Carmen Maria MachadoThe Part that Burns, Jeannine OuelletteThe Art of the Book Proposal, Eric MaiselEat Pray Love, Elizabeth GilbertThe Artist’s Way, Julia CameronCooked, Michael PollanTribe of Mentors, Timothy FerrissMaybe You Should Talk to Someone, Lori GottliebMoms Don’t Have Time To , Zibby OwensA Three Dog Life, Abigail ThomasBird By Bird, Anne LamottQuiet, Susan CainThe People We Meet on Vacation, Emily HenryBlueprint for a Book (Fiction and Memoir)Blueprint for a Nonfiction BookTODAY’S COACHESSuzette Mullen is an Author Accelerator Certified Book Coach who helps nonfiction writers write books that bring light and hope to the world. Suzette has a particular interest in building community for LGBTQ+ memoir writers. You can find out more about Suzette, her writing, and her book coaching services at yourstoryfinder.com.For more from KJ, subscribe to her newsletter: Read. Eat. Listen. Or grab one of her novels, In Her Boots and The Chicken Sisters, wherever books are sold. Wondering about KJ as a book coach? Her current offerings are HERE. For more from Jennie, subscribe to her weekly newsletter. Or grab one of her Blueprint books, wherever books are sold. You can learn about getting matched with an Author Accelerator book coach or becoming a book coach at authoraccelerator.comThis summer is all about starting a project, but if you already have a novel or memoir manuscript and you’re ready to go ALL IN, you’re going to want to do Author Accelerator’s Manuscript Incubator. Registration is open for the intensive, 7-month coaching opportunity that offers one-on-one support and guidance for novelists and memoirists planning to have a submission-ready project by early 2023—and includes the opportunity to have that project reviewed by a group of agents and editors when it’s ready. For more information, head to authoraccelerator.com/manuscript-incubator. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

There Must Be Change: Blueprint for a Book Step 5

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 29, 2022 47:22

I want to believe I can change. Show me how.The “arc of change” is famous in fiction, and it’s much the same in memoir–but there’s a change and shift in non-fiction too. Change is what pulls the reader from the beginning to the end of every narrative book. Without the promise of change, your reader feels like they’re going nowhere, and they won’t come along for your ride. In fiction and memoir, the change comes to the protagonist (and offers the reader the promise that they, too, are capable of change. In non-fiction, change may come to the narrator, to a real-life figure, or be offered to the reader, but it has to be there. It isn’t enough that the advice is sound or that a story is true. We still need to feel that journey from one way of being to another. This is the fifth episode in the 10-part Blueprint for a Book Series. Start with Step 1, do the work (we’ll give you an assignment every week), and in 10 weeks, you’ll have a solid foundation for a first draft or revision of your project that will help you push through to “the end”. Find details on the challenge HERE. YOUR ASSIGNMENTWrite out the answers to the following questions:Fiction and narrative memoir: Answer the following questions:Who is your protagonist? (If you’re writing memoir, it’s you.) What do they want at the start of the story?What is their arc of change – their transformation journey? What do they know or believe or understand at the end of the story that they didn’t at the start? How are they different?What stands in the way of the protagonist getting what they want, externally and internally?Are they telling the tale?Will there be other POV characters?Nonfiction and Self-Help/Memoir: Define the arc of change – the transformation journey – for your reader. What do they know or believe or understand when they pick up your book? Be specific.What do they know or believe or understand when they finish your book that they didn’t at the start? Be specific.(Note: We suggest you download a Blueprint answer workbook to keep track of your 10 assignments. That will make it easier to revise, review and come back to your work. Click to grab yours for fiction or nonfiction. If you are writing narrative memoir (a story), use the fiction workbook and assignments. If you are writing self-help/memoir, use the nonfiction workbook and assignments. Prefer paper? Tape the assignment into your journal and make a nice big heading so you know: This is Step 5: CHANGE.)LINKSThe Story GridStory Genius, Lisa CronThe terrible cat/rich dude movie: Nine LivesAtlas of the Heart, Brené BrownFour Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, Oliver BurkemanHow to Stop Time, Matt HaigBoyfriend, Sarina BowenThe Premonition, Michael LewisBlueprint for a Book (Fiction and Memoir)Blueprint for a Nonfiction BookTODAY’S COACHESSavannah Gilbo is a certified developmental editor and book coach who helps fiction authors write, edit, and publish stories that work. She loves working on commercial fiction for all age ranges, but her favorite genres include fantasy, science fiction, and romance. Savannah became a certified Author Accelerator in 2019 and has been helping writers (full time) ever since! Find more at savannahgilbo.com. For more from KJ, subscribe to her newsletter: Read. Eat. Listen. Or grab one of her novels, In Her Boots and The Chicken Sisters, wherever books are sold. Wondering about KJ as a book coach? Her current offerings are HERE. For more from Jennie, subscribe to her weekly newsletter. Or grab one of her Blueprint books, wherever books are sold. You can learn about getting matched with an Author Accelerator book coach or becoming a book coach at authoraccelerator.com.This summer is all about starting a project, but if you already have a novel or memoir manuscript and you’re ready to go ALL IN, you’re going to want to do Author Accelerator’s Manuscript Incubator. Registration is open for the intensive, 7-month coaching opportunity that offers one-on-one support and guidance for novelists and memoirists planning to have a submission-ready project by early 2023—and includes the opportunity to have that project reviewed by a group of agents and editors when it’s ready. For more information, head to authoraccelerator.com/manuscript-incubator. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

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Your Jacket Copy is Your Promise to the Reader: Blueprint for a Book Step 4

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 22, 2022 43:13

How do we make our ideal reader say Oh—THIS is the book for me?In our first two episodes, we dug down into why we write and how to share that why with the reader. In the last episode, we hung a quick right and got really practical about that reader and how to reach her–in other words, we talked about the market and why it’s important to understand where your book will sit on the shelf if you want the right readers to find it.In this episode, we’re going to talk about what happens when one of those potential readers picks your book up off that shelf–and turns it over. That means we’re talking jacket copy! You might have heard writing advice that basically says, quit daydreaming about what your cover will look like before you’ve written your book–but we’re not talking about the cover art. Jacket copy is important and drafting it now will help you find your story. It’s the promise you make to the reader–so the sooner you write it, the harder you can focus on keeping it–or changing it. Plus, it’s useful in a whole lot of ways.Like your point, your jacket copy is probably something you will come back to again and again as you write your book—but every time, it will help you hone your mission and clarify why you’re still sitting in that chair, typing away.This is the fourth episode in the 10-part Blueprint for a Book Series. Start with Step 1, do the work (we’ll give you an assignment every week), and in 10 weeks, you’ll have a solid foundation for a first draft or revision of your project that will help you push through to “the end”. For the details on the challenge, and to sign up for weekly encouragement, bonuses and the chance to win a blueprint critique, head to authoraccelerator.com/amwritingblueprintchallenge. YOUR ASSIGNMENTWrite jacket copy for the book you want to write. Study the jacket copy of the comp titles you found in Step 3 to get a feel for how it should sound. Make it no more than 250 words.(Note: We suggest you download a Blueprint answer workbook to keep track of your 10 assignments. That will make it easier to revise, review and come back to your work. Click to grab yours for fiction or nonfiction. If you are writing narrative memoir (a story), use the fiction workbook and assignments. If you are writing self-help/memoir, use the nonfiction workbook and assignments. Prefer paper? Tape the assignment into your journal and make a nice big heading so you know: This is Step 4. This is Jacket Copy.)LINKSThe Bohemians, Jasmin DarznikEat Pray Love, Elizabeth GilbertWe Need to Talk: A Memoir About Wealth, Jennifer RisherMaking Numbers Count, Karla Starr & Chip HeathMade to Stick, Chip Heath & Dan HeathMiss Independent, Nicole LapinThe S**t No One Tells You About Writing PodcastBlueprint for a Book (Fiction and Memoir)Blueprint for a Nonfiction BookTODAY’S COACHESMichelle Cox loves helping women in midlife and people in recovery tell their truths through fiction and nonfiction. She’s an Author Accelerator certified book coach, having undergone the rigorous training needed to become certified in fiction and nonfiction. She’s also the creator of Addicts to Authors “You Should Write a Book: Let’s Find Your Story©” program and the Fearless Midlife Writers Book-coaching© program. She has nearly three decades of experience as a professional writer, editor, journalist and writing coach. You can find her at bookcoachingworks.com.For more from KJ, subscribe to her newsletter: Read. Eat. Listen. Or grab one of her novels, In Her Boots and The Chicken Sisters, wherever books are sold. Wondering about KJ as a book coach? Her current offerings are HERE. For more from Jennie, subscribe to her weekly newsletter. Or grab one of her Blueprint books, wherever books are sold. You can learn about getting matched with an Author Accelerator book coach or becoming a book coach at authoraccelerator.comThis summer is all about starting a project, but if you already have a novel or memoir manuscript and you’re ready to go ALL IN, you’re going to want to do Author Accelerator’s Manuscript Incubator. Registration is open for the intensive, 7-month coaching opportunity that offers one-on-one support and guidance for novelists and memoirists planning to have a submission-ready project by early 2023—and includes the opportunity to have that project reviewed by a group of agents and editors when it’s ready. For more information, head to authoraccelerator.com/manuscript-incubator. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

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KJ Dell'Antonia & 'In Her Boots': Complicated Conversations Series

Pop Fiction Women

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 22, 2022 22:27

In this episode of complicated conversations we are joined by KJ Dell'Antonia. KJ is author of the instant New York Times bestseller, The Chicken Sisters, a Reese Witherspoon book club pick. She is the former editor of The New York Times Motherlode as well as the author of the nonfiction book How To Be A Happier Parent. Her second novel, In Her Boots, is out now. Listen to our spoiler-free episode and pick up your copy of In Her Boots! * We discuss Rhett Smith, aka Maggie Strong, her pen name, and what inspired her. Listen to hear what the book Eat, Pray, Love and Monica Lewinsky have to do with it! KJ shares whether she has her own inner superhero. (01:13) * A mother as the nemesis in the novel? Yes please! We discuss mommy issues and the complicated parent-child relationship. (04:23) *We talk about a scene with Rhett and Louisa and what KJ learned about how much time she considers how she appears or presents to others…what will people think? (07:45) * KJ talks about how she reconciles her different identities - lawyer, journalist and writer - and different versions of success. (11:21) * We talk astrology of course and yet another author tells us about her obsession with tarot cards. (14:56) * KJ shares what she's loving right now and why she supports other authors so enthusiastically! (17:20)

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Who Will Read My Book? Know Your Market: Blueprint for a Book Step 3

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 15, 2022 45:12

In the first two Blueprint steps, we went high level, talking about your why and your point, and why those are key things to consider in writing the book you want to write–that will reach the readers you want to reach. In this episode, we get practical. Because while you need a why and a point to reach readers, you also need to know something about those readers–where they hang, what they’re looking for, and how you can become a part of it. In other words, it’s time to talk about the market.This is the third episode in the 10-part Blueprint for a Book Series. Start with Step 1, do the work (we’ll give you an assignment every week), and in 10 weeks, you’ll have a solid foundation for a first draft or revision of your project that will help you push through to “the end”. For the details on the challenge, and to sign up for weekly encouragement, bonuses and the chance to win a blueprint critique, head to authoraccelerator.com/amwritingblueprintchallenge. YOUR ASSIGNMENTThere are several things to do this week, most of which involve some time hanging around a bookstore. You’re welcome!Find a working title for your book.Name your genre (fiction) or category (for memoir or nonfiction.)Find at least two comp titles that help put your book into context.Write one paragraph on your ideal reader – not just about the demographics that define them, but about what they feel/need.(Note: We suggest you download a Blueprint answer workbook to keep track of your 10 assignments. That will make it easier to revise, review and come back to your work. Click to grab yours for fiction or nonfiction. If you are writing narrative memoir (a story), use the fiction workbook and assignments. If you are writing self-help/memoir, use the nonfiction workbook and assignments. Prefer paper? Tape the assignment into your journal and make a nice big heading so you know: This is Step 3. This is the page (or pages) about my readers.)LINKSSeressia Glass Episode, How to Love Writing What You Can SellFour Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, Oliver BurkemanThe Wild Edge of Sorrow, Francis WellerEpisode on books on nonfiction proposalsThe Art of the Book Proposal, Eric MaiselFlorida Woman, Deb RogersThink Like a Monk, Jay ShettyBlueprint for a Book (Fiction and Memoir)Blueprint for a Nonfiction BookTODAY’S COACHESRona Gofstein is an Author Accelerator Certified Book Coach. She specializes in helping writers of genre fiction who have never given up their dream of being an author develop, write, and revise their novels. She writes contemporary romance and will be launching a new series and pen name later this year. She desperately needs her morning coffee, thinks reservations are the best thing to make for dinner, and believes that one day she will find the magic planner that will keep her perfectly organized. Find out more about Rona HERE. For more from KJ, subscribe to her newsletter: Read. Eat. Listen. Or grab one of her novels, In Her Boots and The Chicken Sisters, wherever books are sold. Wondering about KJ as a book coach? Her current offerings are HERE. For more from Jennie, subscribe to her weekly newsletter. Or grab one of her Blueprint books, wherever books are sold. You can learn about getting matched with an Author Accelerator book coach or becoming a book coach at authoraccelerator.comThis summer is all about starting a project, but if you already have a novel or memoir manuscript and you’re ready to go ALL IN, you’re going to want to do Author Accelerator’s Manuscript Incubator. Registration is open for the intensive, 7-month coaching opportunity that offers one-on-one support and guidance for novelists and memoirists planning to have a submission-ready project by early 2023—and includes the opportunity to have that project reviewed by a group of agents and editors when it’s ready. For more information, head to authoraccelerator.com/manuscript-incubator. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

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323 What's Your Point? Blueprint for a Book Step 2

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 8, 2022 49:19

I’m writing this book because I want people to read it.Step 2 in the Blueprint for a book challenge only sounds easy. In Step 1, we talked about your why. For Step 2, we invite you to find your point – which is what you want your reader to feel or know or do when they are done. It’s not the same thing! If you want to get all AP English on this, we’re talking about the theme. Or from the non-fiction perspective, maybe you want to consider this your thesis—but they really come down to the same thing. Every book is, at heart, an argument for something – for a belief, a way of life, a vision of the future, a way to solve a problem, a way to make a friend, a way to lose your soul. Finding your argument (and this is something you will probably revisit, hone and clarify along the way) will help you find your book.This is the second episode in the 10-part Blueprint for a Book Series. Start with Step 1, do the work (we’ll give you an assignment every week), and in 10 weeks, you’ll have a solid foundation for a first draft or revision of your project that will help you push through to “the end”. For the details on the challenge, and to sign up for weekly encouragement, bonuses and the chance to win a blueprint critique, head to authoraccelerator.com/amwritingblueprintchallenge. YOUR ASSIGNMENTName your point. It may sound like a billboard or a bumper sticker and that’s okay. That’s what you want for this step. This is an easy assignment so use the opportunity to revisit your why from Step 1, and to revise your point as many times as you need to until it feels just right. Next week you’ll have more to do.(Note: We suggest you download a Blueprint answer workbook to keep track of your 10 assignments. That will make it easier to revise, review and come back to your work. Click to grab yours for fiction or nonfiction. If you are writing narrative memoir (a story), use the fiction workbook and assignments. If you are writing self-help/memoir, use the nonfiction workbook and assignments. Prefer paper? Tape the assignment into your journal and make a nice big heading so you know: This is Step 2. This is the page (or pages) with my point. )LINKSThe EnneagramJessica Lahey, The Addiction InoculationBecky Chambers’ The Long Way to a Small, Angry PlanetJasmine Guillory’s new Beauty and the Beast, By The BookKerry Savage book coachBlueprint for a Book (Fiction and Memoir)Blueprint for a Nonfiction BookTODAY’S COACHESDani Abernathy is an author and Author Accelerator Certified Book Coach who helps novelists write the stories they need to tell. Specializing in fantasy, soft sci-fi, and YA, Dani merges how story works with how people work, creating books that give readers the opportunity to have more empathy for themselves and others. She is a Capricorn, INFJ, and Enneagram 4 who believes that honest stories can change the world. Find more about Dani HERE.For more from KJ, subscribe to her newsletter: Read. Eat. Listen. Or grab one of her novels, In Her Boots and The Chicken Sisters, wherever books are sold. Wondering about KJ as a book coach? Her current offerings are HERE. For more from Jennie, subscribe to her weekly newsletter. Or grab one of her Blueprint books, wherever books are sold. You can learn about getting matched with an Author Accelerator book coach or becoming a book coach at authoraccelerator.com.This summer is all about starting a project, but if you already have a novel or memoir manuscript and you’re ready to go ALL IN, you’re going to want to do Author Accelerator’s Manuscript Incubator. Registration is open for the intensive, 7-month coaching opportunity that offers one-on-one support and guidance for novelists and memoirists planning to have a submission-ready project by early 2023—and includes the opportunity to have that project reviewed by a group of agents and editors when it’s ready. For more information, head to authoraccelerator.com/manuscript-incubator. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

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322 Find Your Why: Blueprint for a Book Step 1