Podcast appearances and mentions of Howard Tayler

CW: Cancer Hi folks! It is a chemo week, so Ursula is resting, which is a productive thing (don't let anyone else tell you different). So we're going to have a short update before we catch up with friend oft he show Howard Tayler on how he stays productive! Links for this Episode: Charity Spotlight: Feeding America - Find your local food bank Charity Spotlight: Give.org Charity Spotlight: Meals on Wheels Schlock Mercenary Howard And Sandra Tayler Patreon Howard on Twitter Howard Tayler Website Feral Nerds Film Festival Writing Excuses Airplane! (1980) Humantouch Gravas ZG Chair C-Stand Timber Ridge Zero Gravity Chair (Amazon) Peopleware Mary Robinette Kowal "Grabby Sticks" FloMask DeadLock Brokenwood Mysteries Speed Racer (2008)

Back in February, with Episode 18.8, we began exploring the process of writing a mystery story. That episode led us into a series of six episodes about tension, and the tools we use to create and manage it. And now, with this episode (and a toolbox full of tension) we're ready (we hope!) to revisit the creation of mystery stories. Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler. It was recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

Let's take all our tension tools and apply them in tiny ways. A big application of tension might be an argument between two characters about a course of plot-important action. Microtension might be those characters arguing about how long to boil eggs. In this episode we'll explore some favorite applications of microtension, and the ways in which it can be layered to ramp up the larger, plot-focused tension. Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler. It was recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

In our ongoing exploration of tension, the time has come to examine conflict. It can be shaped and delivered in numerous ways, but you have to know the core conflict before you can make anybody feel tense about it. Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler. It was recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

Our continuing exploration of tension has taken us to a favorite technique: unanswered questions. Sure, this obviously applies to mysteries, but consider the question posed in romances: “will they get together?” In its simplest form, the unanswered question that forces a page-turn is "what happens on the next page?" In this episode we explore how to use unanswered questions to drive tension, and how to avoid some common pitfalls. Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler. It was recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

Our deconstruction and categorization of tension continues this week with an exploration of Juxtaposition, which is a contrast between two elements that supplies tension by allowing the reader to insert themselves. Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler. It was recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

Last week we talked about tension, and promised that we'd be breaking it down into more pieces. This week we're discussing one of those pieces: Anticipation. We sub-divided it as follows: Surprise Suspense Humor Promises We talk about how to create anticipatory tension well, where the pitfalls are, and how this fits into the creation of our stories. Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler. It was recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

After last week's deep dive into The Spare Man we're ready to talk more generally about mysteries, and the tools we use to write them. Obviously we can't cover all of that in just one episode, but don't worry. In upcoming episodes we'll explore more of these tools in detail. Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler. It was recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

Spoiler Alert! This week is our deep dive into Mary Robinette Kowal's The Spare Man. It's a sci-fi mystery novel often described as "The Thin Man in space." Deep dive episodes are necessarily full of spoilers because we ask all kinds of how and why questions specific to the writing of the work in question. If you haven't yet read The Spare Man, you might consider doing that before listening to this episode. We're not the boss of you, but we believe you'll get more out of this episode and the novel if you read the novel first. Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler. It was recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

Your Hosts: Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler In this episode we interview Howard Tayler, one of the founding members of the podcast, and the creator of Schlock Mercenary. The first question: how did this twenty-year ride change you? And a later question: what comes next? Liner Notes: We'll eventually do a deep dive on the final three books of the Schlock Mercenary saga. You can read for free starting here. Credits: This episode was recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson

Your Hosts: Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler In this episode Howard Tayler conducts our interview with Mary Robinette Kowal, leading with a wide-open question: "Where did you even?" Mary Robinette talks to us about how she came to the world of writing, and some of the amazing things she picked up along the way. Credits: This episode was recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson

Your Hosts: Mary Robinette, C.L. Polk, Fran Wilde, and Howard Tayler  Let's talk about pain. It hurts, yes, but we all experience it, so writing about it can be a great point of connection between the writer and the reader. Also, writing about it can hurt. Liner Notes: We referenced  "No, I'm Fine," by Howard Tayler, and "The Visions Take Their Toll: Disability and the Cost of Magic," by Dominic Parisien Credits: This episode was recorded by Daniel Thompson, and mastered by Alex Jackson.

Your Hosts: Mary Robinette and Howard Tayler, with special guests Fran Wilde, C.L. Polk, and William Alexander Whether or not you're writing from your own experience, depicting disability in fiction is fraught. In this episode we'll talk about some of the dos and don'ts in order to provide you with guidelines for disability depiction. Credits: This episode was recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson  

Your Hosts: Mary Robinette and Howard Tayler, with special guests Fran Wilde, C.L. Polk, and William Alexander For the next eight episodes we'll be talking about bodies, and how they don't all work the same way, and how this can be applied to our writing. Credits: This episode was recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson

Your Hosts: Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, Brandon Sanderson, and Howard Tayler, with special guest Seth Fishman Seth Fishman, author of seven picture books (as well as lots of longer-form stuff), joins us to talk about writing picture books, including some of the business and publication aspects. No-Context Pull Quote: "Your art is so bad we're going to hire someone to draw badly for you." Credits: This episode was recorded live by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson

Your Hosts: Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, Brandon Sanderson, and Howard Tayler, with special guest Peng Shepherd Peng Shepherd joined us aboard Liberty of the Seas for WXR 2022, and returned with us to the topic of story structures. In this episode we answer questions from our live audience. The questions include: How do you make sure you've got the right number of plot threads? How do you spread the structure of a given plot line across multiple books? How do you avoiding having subplots distract readers from the main plot? What are some strategies you can use to better align character goals with the overall problem of the story? Are there clear dos and don'ts with regard to story structure? How do you prepare or color-code bits for running a role-playing game? More broadly: what organizational tools do you use for story structure? For the answers, you'll have to give the episode a listen... Credits: This episode was recorded live by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson

Your Hosts: Mary Robinette Kowal, Dongwon Song, Piper J. Drake,  & Howard Tayler, with special guest K. M. Szpara CONTENT WARNING: this episode is about adult acts and adult bodies, and we won't be using euphemisms.  K.M. Szpara joined us at WXR 2022 for this discussion of writing bodies and intimacy, with a particular focus on which kinds of words to use for things. Credits: This episode was recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr. before a live audience aboard Liberty of the Seas. It was mastered by Alex Jackson.  

Brandon Sanderson is an American author of epic fantasy and science fiction, and also a Professor at BYU. He is a 15-time New York Times bestselling author and is best known for the Cosmere fictional universe, in which most of his fantasy novels, most notably the Mistborn series and The Stormlight Archive, are set. Outside of the Cosmere, he has written several young adult and juvenile series including The Reckoners, the Skyward series, and the Alcatraz series. He is also known for finishing Robert Jordan's high fantasy series The Wheel of Time and has created several graphic novel fantasy series including the White Sand and Dark One. He created Sanderson's Laws of Magic and popularized the idea of "hard magic" and "soft magic" systems. In 2008, Sanderson started a podcast with author Dan Wells and cartoonist Howard Tayler called Writing Excuses, involving topics about creating genre writing and webcomics. In 2016, the American media company DMG Entertainment licensed the movie rights to Sanderson's entire Cosmere universe. Sanderson's March 2022 Kickstarter campaign became the most successful in history, finishing with 185,341 backers pledging over $40 million dollars. He is strong in his faith and served a mission to Seoul, Korea for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Your Hosts: Mary Robinette Kowal, Cassandra Khaw, Dan Well, James L. Sutter, and Howard Tayler [blurb coming soon. sorry this one's late.] Credits: This episode was recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson

How would your work change if you shifted your focus? This week is the final parts of Bryan’s Amazon Ad Challenge it's never too late to follow along! Claire is getting her launch party ready! This week’s Happy Books Review Winner is Linda Fausnet. Thank you to our featured Patrons: Grand Theft Auto and Other Misdemeanors, Angelborn, and Time Code. The Top Tips of the week include how to edit your book faster, why you need to reach out to your superfans, and what ads are the best. The 5 News stories that matter most to indies this week include what new law has hit Missouri, how the lawsuit with Audible turned out, why Amazon ad school may be a great call for you, how author Howard Tayler sees success, and why your word count may be falling short. Question of the Week: If you changed your focus from looking for productivity to meaning, what would you stop doing and why?

The final episode of 12pt Font Season One is all about the basics of business writing. In this episode we break down three main principles that are applicable to all effective professional communication. Join us as we demystify and simplify the ‘must-know’ skills of effective business communication.Show Resources:Anatomy of Story – John TrubyWriting Excuses|Season 10 – Dan Wells, Brandon Sanderson, Howard Tayler, Mary Robinette KowalStyle: The Basics of Clarity and Grace - Joseph M. Williams, Joseph BizupThe 4-Hour Workweek – Tim FerrissCome Say Hello:Website: https://www.pendoland.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pendoland/Twitter: https://twitter.com/pendolandYouTube: PendoLandEmail:12ptft@gmail.com

Peter, Ben, Erik, and Josh play the Role PLaying Game "Planet Mercenary," created by Howard Tayler and Alan Bahr. Josh as GC (Game Chief), and Peter, Erik, and Ben as the players. There was a slight hiccup with the recording to a major climactic moment was totally missed, we apologize!

Your Hosts: Piper, Dongwon, Amal, and Maurice We like food, and we like to talk about food. Our hosts this week talk about how this influences their fiction, (not to mention how incredibly complex [and interesting, and delicious] the subject is.) Credits: this episode was recorded by Howard Tayler, and mastered by Alex Jackson 

Episode 38 brings us Narrative Instance.The instant in which the narration happens. In other words context. I know it seems simple, but I promise, it’s really not. Well, it can be, but sometimes it isn’t. This description not making any sense, that’s fair. I promise that if you just trust me on this one and listen to the podcast it might make some sense.Show Resources:Narrative Instance - Nasrullah MambrolI Know Why The Caged Bird Sings|Graduation – Maya AngelouThe Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao – Junot DiazBird by Bird – Anne LamottAnatomy of Story – John TrubyWriting Excuses|Season 10 – Dan Wells, Brandon Sanderson, Howard Tayler, Mary Robinette KowalCome Say Hello:Website: https://www.pendoland.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pendoland/Twitter: https://twitter.com/pendolandYouTube: PendoLandEmail: 12ptft@gmail.com

Episode 37: How to say more with less.This episode is all about concision and the wonders of editing. We explore Jack Gilbert's A brief for the Defense, and I must make some sacrifices in using it to demonstrate concision. So! Stick around and we can explore this wonderful editing tool together.Show Resources:A Brief for the Defence – Jack Gilbert Bird by Bird – Anne LamottAnatomy of Story – John TrubyWriting Excuses|Season 10 – Dan Wells, Brandon Sanderson, Howard Tayler, Mary Robinette KowalCome Say Hello:Website: https://www.pendoland.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pendoland/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/pendoland YouTube: PendoLand Email: 12ptft@gmail.com

It's episode 36, and Valentine's day has just passed us by. Love is in the air, but there's a lot of different kinds of love.In this episode, we explore platonic love. How do we portray platonic relationships effectively in our stories?Well! I have searched far and wide for some answers, this is what I have learned. Hope it helps you too!Eat, Pray, Love – Elizabeth GilbertA Brief for the Defence – Jack Gilbert88Cups of Tea with Yin ChangLight the Dark – Joe FasslerBird by Bird – Anne LamottAnatomy of Story – John TrubyWriting Excuses|Season 10 – Dan Wells, Brandon Sanderson, Howard Tayler, Mary Robinette KowalCome Say Hello:Website: https://www.pendoland.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pendoland/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/pendoland YouTube: PendoLand Email: 12ptft@gmail.com

Number 35. Isn't that a nice round number? In episode 35 we get into the nitty-gritty of what makes a work clear. Using Walt Whitman's poem Song of Myself we can break down the sentence by sentence, and word by word details that help your writing to make sense.ALSO! This episode – in addition to our writing prompt – we have our first writing exercise!In the near future I'll have a web-page dedicated to all of these exercises on my website so stay tuned, and make sure to check in.Show ResourcesSong of Myself – Walt WhitmanEat, Pray, Love – Elizabeth GilbertLight the Dark – Joe FasslerStyle: The Basics of Clarity and Grace (5th Edition) – Joseph M. Williams, Joseph BizupElizabeth Gilbert ExcerptCamp NaNoWriMoBird by Bird – Anne LamottAnatomy of Story – John TrubyWriting Excuses|Season 10 – Dan Wells, Brandon Sanderson, Howard Tayler, Mary Robinette KowalCome Say Hello:Website: https://www.pendoland.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pendoland/Twitter: https://twitter.com/pendolandYouTube: PendoLandEmail: 12ptft@gmail.com

Howard Tayler is creating great stories and great art. And he is publishing not one, but two new books in the Schlock Mercenary Universe. In this episode we discuss the churn, and how Crowdfunding has been changing, continues to change, and what we see coming.We discuss how Howard makes a living as a professional as a Web Cartoonist and how you give something away for free to make a living. He shares the process of creating books and building a story over many years. You can find his Kickstarter campaign here

Hey!Today we have Amy Tan with the Joy Luck Club. The book is an incredible feat of setting and time manipulation and is an excellent example of cohesion. What is cohesion? So glad you asked!Listen to find out!Show NotesBird by Bird – Anne LamottAnatomy of Story – John TrubyWriting Excuses|Season 10 – Dan Wells, Brandon Sanderson, Howard Tayler, Mary Robinette KowalNeverwhere – Neil GaimanStyle: The Basics of Clarity and Grace (5th Edition) – Joseph M. Williams, Joseph BizupCome Say Hello:Website: https://www.pendoland.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pendoland/Twitter: https://twitter.com/pendolandYouTube: PendoLandEmail: 12ptft@gmail.com

This week on our productivity check-in, we talk about the projects we are both moving forward on. It is a good week so far, and added to that, I get to share the talk I had with Howard Tayler a few months ago. Enjoy! Links for this Episode: Schlock Mercenary by Howard Tayler Writing Excuses Podcast Howard Tayler on Twitter Randal Mulholland's Something Positive Jennie Breeden's The Devil's Panties Schlock Mercenary Patreon Uni Posca White Pen Kevin Sonney on OpenSource.com Joplin Note Taking App Dragon Quest Builders  

One Week of January Gone Already?So we've properly begun the new year! Most of us have gone back to school, and back to work, and back the every day of life. With the new year come new habits, and new attempts at discipline. For many of us writers, this manifests into resolutions to write way more, and to get better as we do. A fair and decent goal if I do say so myself - and I do.Show ResourcesSmoke and Mirrors: Short Fictions and Illusions – Neil GaimanThe Norton Reader (14th Edition) – Edited by Melissa A. Goldthwaite,Joseph Bizup, John Brereton, Anne Fernald, and Linda PetersonTwitter Writing PromptsReddit r/WritingPromptsNaNoWriMo PromptsDiscord’s Sprinto-BotWriting Excuses | Season 13.38: How to Find and Use Alpha Readers – Dan Wells, Brandon Sanderson, Howard Tayler, Mary Robinette KowalBird by Bird – Anne LamottAnatomy of Story – John TrubyWriting Excuses|Season 10 – Dan Wells, Brandon Sanderson, Howard Tayler, Mary RobinetteKowalCome Say Hello:Website: https://www.pendoland.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pendoland/Twitter: https://twitter.com/pendolandYouTube: PendoLandEmail:12ptft@gmail.com

Hey Everyone!Welcome to the new year! Congrats on Surviving 2018. Let's all strive to make 2019 our best, most excellent, most amazing, greatest year yet!Today's episode is a week late. I hope you can forgive me. In it, we discuss plans for 2019. Goals we want to set, and future expectations. Here's to a regular upload schedule, and lots of inspiration!Show ResourcesPitch WarsWith Great Pleasure at Christmas: Neil GaimanLight the Dark – Joe FasslerBird by Bird – Anne LamottAnatomy of Story – John TrubyWriting Excuses|Season 10 – Dan Wells, Brandon Sanderson, Howard Tayler, Mary Robinette KowalCome Say Hello:Website: https://www.pendoland.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pendoland/Twitter: https://twitter.com/pendolandYouTube: PendoLandEmail: 12ptft@gmail.com

Hello, lovely people!Some changes have been made. Most things have been kept the same. We took a week off, but we’re glad to be back for you today! We will be uploading full time starting next week, but until then here is an episode to tide you over until the 28th.Show ResourcesThe Rook – Daniel O’MalleyTaking Breaks Makes You Work BetterBird by Bird – Anne LamottAnatomy of Story – John TrubyWriting Excuses|Season 10 – Dan Wells, Brandon Sanderson, Howard Tayler, Mary Robinette KowalCome Say Hello:Website: https://www.pendoland.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pendoland/Twitter: https://twitter.com/pendolandYouTube: PendoLandEmail: 12ptft@gmail.com

Day 30 It Is OverWhat more can I say except congratulations? Go grab an energy bar, and hug your nearest loved one. (I highly recommend a good cry into your fur-baby.) You have done it. 5k or 50k, you have more today than you did on the 1st.Show ResourcesBird by Bird – Anne LamottAnatomy of Story – John TrubyWriting Excuses|Season 10 – Dan Wells, Brandon Sanderson, Howard Tayler, Mary Robinette KowalCome Say Hello:Website: https://www.pendoland.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pendoland/Twitter: https://twitter.com/pendolandYouTube: PendoLandEmail: 12ptft@gmail.com

Day 29 makes tomorrow the last day.How do you feel? I feel like a maniac. In the best way possible. We are writers. We can Win. If you haven’t already, there's still time. Write like your life depends on it, then write some more. Let's go NaNo Let's GO!Show ResourcesRomeo and Juliette: Act 2 Scene 2 – William Shakespeare Bird by Bird – Anne LamottAnatomy of Story – John TrubyWriting Excuses|Season 10 – Dan Wells, Brandon Sanderson, Howard Tayler, Mary Robinette KowalCome Say Hello:Website: https://www.pendoland.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pendoland/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/pendoland YouTube: PendoLand Email: 12ptft@gmail.com

For NASA's 60th Anniversary, Houston We Have a Podcast took to the stage with science fiction writers Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, Howard Tayler, and publishing agent DongWon Song, as well as NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren to discuss how real science and science fiction have influenced each other. HWHAP Episode 67.

For NASA's 60th Anniversary, Houston We Have a Podcast took to the stage with science fiction writers Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, Howard Tayler, and publishing agent DongWon Song, as well as NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren to discuss how real science and science fiction have influenced each other. HWHAP Episode 67.

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard "Write what you know" gets misapplied a lot. In this episode we'll talk about how to know things by listening well. In particular, we're looking at writing interesting characters by listening to real people. We also talk about the more formal act of interviewing people¹, and how to deal with the attendant complexities. Liner Notes:  Mary references her interviewing of rocket scientists and astronauts, which we just talked about last week. When this episode was recorded the JPL trip was still in our future, and was "will have been" extremely cool. Comment Notes: The audio file wasn't correctly linked until Tuesday. The irony of the our "how to listen" episode having exactly zero "listen" buttons is not lost on anyone. Credits: This episode was recorded by Dan Thompson and engineered by Alex Jackson. Their fine work was obscured from public view by the careless hands of Howard Tayler.  

Your Hosts: Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard We're beginning a new season, and during 2017 we will be focusing our topics on structure. We are also going to shake things by expanding our cast a bit. You'll be hearing some new voices soon! They belong to: Wesley Chu Piper J. Drake Mary Anne Mohanraj We'll post more on that in a few days, but we've already begun updating our "About" page. This week your hosts are Brandon Sanderson, Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler. We spend a few minutes on the administrative stuff  above before jumping into January's structural topic, the first person voice, with a discussion of the variations in how that POV is presented. We cover some of the different first person POV styles, what sorts of stories they're often best-suited for, and how we go about writing them well. Spoiler Alert: Episode 12.3 will feature Sandra Tayler, and is a Project In Depth on her story, "Risk Assessment," which was illustrated by Natalie Barahona and Howard Tayler. It appears in Force Multiplication: Schlock Mercenary Book 12, available direct from Hypernode Media, or through Amazon.  

The Powers brothers tackle the wildly popular movie, Jurassic World, and talk about how much they loved it. We go into a lot of detail about various topics related to the movie and then analyze the film as a story. Warning: The latter part of this episode is very spoilery. We talk about the way the movie treated evolutionary theory, the amount of violence in the film and some parental suggestions, the greatness of the "monster movie" plot the movie followed, and the various human stories that may or may not have subtracted from the other plot elements. Feel free to leave comments below on what your favorite (or least favorite) parts of the movie were! Several other people have done great reviews on the movie, such as Answers in Genesis and Howard Tayler. Also, we talked about the fantastic monster movie Godzilla, which is what Jurassic World is second to in our opinion in term of monster movies. LINKS:TwitterYouTubeTwitchPatreonCaleb's WebsiteDiscord

This week, Hannah and AJ are back with us to turn the tables and talk about God as the artist and what that means for our own creative endeavors. We also answer some listener questions! Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends: Caleb and Connor recommend this fun, clean, and really silly cartoon. Yes, it's definitely quite weird, and some people might say a little too weird, but we don't really mind those accusations since we're really weird as well. Mormon Artists: One thing I think we as Christians get too hung up on, is the consumption of art made by people who don't share our beliefs. We should be aware of the art we consume, of course, but that doesn't mean we can't or shouldn't seek out novels, music, or films with different worldviews than your own. That being said, here are several Mormon artists that I really enjoy: Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells, Howard Tayler, The Piano Guys, and Lindsey Stirling. Verses: We referenced a few verses in this episode, but there are also several others we didn't get to that go well with the subject matter. Here they are! Genesis 1:1, Genesis 1:27, Psalm 8:3-4, Philippians 1:6, and Romans 1:25. LINKS:TwitterYouTubeTwitchPatreonCaleb's WebsiteDiscord

If you haven't yet read "Parallel Perspectives," from Schlock Mercenary: Massively Parallel, we have a PDF for you to download and read before you start listening to this episode. It's a 33mb file in a public DropBox folder. Parallel Perspectives PDF for Writing Excuses listeners Got the file? Done reading? Okay, let's go... This week is a Project in Depth episode focusing on a 13-page graphic story ("comic book") found at the end of Schlock Mercenary: Massively Parallel, and our focus this week will be story structure. It's fun, because the process of structuring a bonus story begins much differently than most projects, and the structure was laid in support of a four-creator collaboration. The creators? Howard Tayler, Brenda Hickey, Travis Walton, and Keliana Tayler. (If you'd like your own hard-copy of Schlock Mercenary: Massively Parallel, you can get it from Amazon.com or directly from the publisher.)

Howard Tayler gives NaNoWriMo participants a pep-talk on their way into the last week of the month.

Howard Tayler and Dan Wells interview literary agent Sara Crowe about what agents do for authors, and why having an agent might be the right thing for your career.

Fast-paced Q&A with Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler

What are dramatic breaks? We open this episode with Howard very genuinely playing Doctor Watson to Brandon's Holmes, which is amusing because as it turns out, Howard uses dramatic breaks every day. Simply put they are the points in the narrative, typically at the end of a chapter, where we cut to another scene. Sometimes we are shifting perspective, sometimes we are advancing the clock, and sometimes we're merely pausing to take a breath. What are we looking for in a dramatic break? How do we identify the right place to cut away from one group of characters and focus on others? How do we avoid doing it the same way every time? And so we discuss those stopping points and the starting points that follow them. We cover the flow of time and the flow of story. We talk about delivering satisfying installments. We even hang from a cliff or two. Meanwhile... This episode of Writing Excuses is brought to you by XDM: X-Treme Dungeon Mastery by Tracy & Curtis Hickman, illustrated by Howard Tayler. Autograph editions are now on pre-order! Writing Prompt: Write a story in which Howard hates elephants and dramatically breaks one.

How do you take criticism? How do you react, if you even do react? Does criticism cause you to change the way you work? Criticism can come from your peers in a writing group, from editors sending you rejection letters, and from those one-star Amazon reviewers who are out there looking for something to hate. In this episode we provide anecdotes from other authors including Patrick Rothfuss and Kevin J. Anderson, and share our own experiences about criticism we've gotten and how we've responded to it. This episode of Writing Excuses is brought to you by XDM: X-Treme Dungeon Mastery, by Tracy and Curtis Hickman, and illustrated by Howard Tayler. Pre-orders for XDM open on Wednesday, July 1st. Writing Prompt: Write a story about a critic who is the hero.

Tracy Hickman joins us again at "Life, The Universe, and Everything," and in this episode we let Brandon ask him random questions while Dan and Howard chime in with comments that hopefully don't detract from the discussion. During the interview Tracy mentions his latest project, XDM: Extreme Dungeon Mastery, but he doesn't mention the very latest news about it. That news is that Tracy and Curtis Hickman (the authors) have contracted with Howard Tayler to illustrate and publish it. So that bit about Tracy doing it in his basement? It's no longer accurate. This week's Writing Excuses is brought to you by I Am Not A Serial Killer by our very own Dan Wells. The book is only available in the UK, but you can get now from http://www.bookdepository.co.uk which has free shipping to anywhere in the world. Writing Prompt: Give us Winnie the Pooh's big death scene. On a destroyer in the South Pacific.

In this, the last of our WorldCon 66 episodes, Brandon, Dan, and Howard interview Name of the Wind author Patrick Rothfuss. We discuss exposition, and how not to bore people as you move them through the learning curve. We start by covering some "don'ts"  - including the essay, the police-artist sketch, and the thesis statement. And then we work into the "do's" - show-don't-tell, focus on character, and don't write stuff the readers don't care about.   This week's Writing Excuses is brought to you by Schlock Mercenary: The Teraport Wars  by Howard Tayler

Pacing... it's all about keeping the tension up, keeping things snappy, and keeping the reader interested. This week the Writing Excuses crew delivers some tips, tricks, and tools you can use to get your story flowing in all the right ways. Also, on Sunday The Salt Lake Tribune posted an article about Podcasting in Utah. Jordan Sanderson and Howard Tayler were interviewed for this article. You can read it here. Writing Excuses, with quotes from Howard, is mentioned near the end of the article. And this week from Tor, The Hidden World, by Paul Park