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Charleston's Old City Jail is one of the most haunted buildings in America—or so the ghost tours claim. Nearly every story begins with Lavinia Fisher, the beautiful innkeeper who supposedly poisoned travelers with oleander tea before dropping them through a trapdoor to their deaths. It's a chilling tale... and almost entirely fictional. Tonight, we separate two centuries of myth from documented history, uncover the real crimes of John and Lavinia Fisher, and explore the darker truth behind a jail that witnessed piracy, rebellion, war, disease, and thousands of forgotten deaths. HAH DISCORD - https://discord.com/invite/bJdbpH3hQm YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@HAHChris TikTok - @hah_podcast hauntedamericanhistory.com Patreon- https://www.patreon.com/hauntedamericanhistory LINKS FOR MY DEBUT NOVEL, THE FORGOTTEN BOROUGH Barnes and Noble - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-forgotten-borough-christopher-feinstein/1148274794?ean=9798319693334 AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FQPQD68S Ebook GOOGLE: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=S5WCEQAAQBAJ&pli=1 KOBO: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-forgotten-borough-2?sId=a10cf8af-5fbd-475e-97c4-76966ec87994&ssId=DX3jihH_5_2bUeP1xoje_ SMASHWORD: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1853316 !! DISTURB ME !! APPLE - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disturb-me/id1841532090 SPOTIFY - https://open.spotify.com/show/3eFv2CKKGwdQa3X2CkwkZ5?si=faOUZ54fT_KG-BaZOBiTiQ YOUTUBE - https://www.youtube.com/@DisturbMePodcast www.disturbmepodcast.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Traditionally, we tell aspiring psychologists that if they want to break into the extremely competitive field of clinical psychology, educational psychology or any form of applied psychology then they have to do volunteering. Typically, this involves the aspiring psychologist doing years of unpaid work experience or volunteering to even be able to break into the field and get an interview for a paid job. However, this is bad advice to some extent, because volunteering is all well and good, but not all volunteering is created equal. And some volunteering is actually useless in terms of getting a job. Therefore, in this careers in psychology podcast episode, you'll learn how to make the most of volunteering experience, how to pick useful volunteering experiences that will help you on your psychology journey and more. If you want to learn more about getting a psychology job, how to stand out to psychology employers and advance your psychology journey, then this will be a great episode for you.In the psychology news section, you'll learn you can't punish an AI for wrongdoing but we still want to, do people really believe in conspiracy theories they endorse, and a borderline personality disorder diagnosis may positively shape therapists' expectations.LISTEN NOW!If you want to support the podcast, please check out:FREE AND EXCLUSIVE 8 PSYCHOLOGY BOOK BOXSET- https://www.subscribepage.io/psychologyboxsetYour Unshakable Self: A Clinical Psychology, Mental Health and Social Psychology Guide to Sense of Self- https://www.connorwhiteley.net/your-unshakable-self Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and libraries systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca. Patreon- patreon.com/ThePsychologyWorldPodcast#psychologycareer #careerinpsychology #psychologystudents #aspiringpsychologist #volunteering #volunteer #psychologists #clinicalpsychology #mentalhealth #clinicalmentalhealth #clinicalpsychologist #mentalhealthawareness #mentalhealthsupport #mentalhealthadvocate #psychology #psychology_facts #psychologyfacts #psychologyfact #psychologystudent #psychologystudents #podcast #podcasts
The most famous ghost ship in history never had steaming cups of tea, half-eaten meals, or a ticking clock left behind. Those details were invented by a young Arthur Conan Doyle years after the fact. The real mystery is stranger. In 1872, the Mary Celeste was discovered adrift in the Atlantic Ocean—her cargo intact, her provisions untouched, and every member of her crew, including the captain's wife and two-year-old daughter, gone without a trace. Tonight, we separate myth from history and uncover what likely happened aboard one of the greatest maritime mysteries ever recorded. HAH DISCORD - https://discord.com/invite/bJdbpH3hQm YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@HAHChris TikTok - @hah_podcast hauntedamericanhistory.com Patreon- https://www.patreon.com/hauntedamericanhistory LINKS FOR MY DEBUT NOVEL, THE FORGOTTEN BOROUGH Barnes and Noble - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-forgotten-borough-christopher-feinstein/1148274794?ean=9798319693334 AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FQPQD68S Ebook GOOGLE: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=S5WCEQAAQBAJ&pli=1 KOBO: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-forgotten-borough-2?sId=a10cf8af-5fbd-475e-97c4-76966ec87994&ssId=DX3jihH_5_2bUeP1xoje_ SMASHWORD: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1853316 !! DISTURB ME !! APPLE - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disturb-me/id1841532090 SPOTIFY - https://open.spotify.com/show/3eFv2CKKGwdQa3X2CkwkZ5?si=faOUZ54fT_KG-BaZOBiTiQ YOUTUBE - https://www.youtube.com/@DisturbMePodcast www.disturbmepodcast.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
In 1990, archaeologists uncovered a colonial grave in Connecticut unlike anything they had ever seen. The skeleton had been carefully rearranged—its skull placed atop its ribs and its crossed leg bones forming a macabre skull-and-crossbones. Someone had dug this man up decades after his death, cut open his chest, and burned his heart because they believed he was a vampire. But this wasn't the story of one corpse. It was part of a forgotten epidemic that swept across New England, where grieving families fought an invisible killer with shovels, fire, and desperate hope. Tonight, we uncover the true story of the New England Vampire Panic...and the disease that inspired one of history's greatest horror novels. HAH DISCORD - https://discord.com/invite/bJdbpH3hQm YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@HAHChris TikTok - @hah_podcast hauntedamericanhistory.com Patreon- https://www.patreon.com/hauntedamericanhistory LINKS FOR MY DEBUT NOVEL, THE FORGOTTEN BOROUGH Barnes and Noble - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-forgotten-borough-christopher-feinstein/1148274794?ean=9798319693334 AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FQPQD68S Ebook GOOGLE: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=S5WCEQAAQBAJ&pli=1 KOBO: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-forgotten-borough-2?sId=a10cf8af-5fbd-475e-97c4-76966ec87994&ssId=DX3jihH_5_2bUeP1xoje_ SMASHWORD: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1853316 !! DISTURB ME !! APPLE - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disturb-me/id1841532090 SPOTIFY - https://open.spotify.com/show/3eFv2CKKGwdQa3X2CkwkZ5?si=faOUZ54fT_KG-BaZOBiTiQ YOUTUBE - https://www.youtube.com/@DisturbMePodcast www.disturbmepodcast.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
On New Year's Eve 1843, Rhode Island's most powerful industrialist was found brutally beaten to death along the Pocasset River. His pockets were still full of cash, making one thing immediately clear: this wasn't robbery... it was revenge. What followed became one of the darkest chapters in American legal history, as prejudice, political influence, and a corrupt court system sent an innocent Irish immigrant to the gallows. Tonight, we unravel the murder of Amasa Sprague, the execution of John Gordon, and the wrongful conviction that ultimately led Rhode Island to abolish the death penalty forever. HAH DISCORD - https://discord.com/invite/bJdbpH3hQm YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@HAHChris TikTok - @hah_podcast hauntedamericanhistory.com Patreon- https://www.patreon.com/hauntedamericanhistory LINKS FOR MY DEBUT NOVEL, THE FORGOTTEN BOROUGH Barnes and Noble - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-forgotten-borough-christopher-feinstein/1148274794?ean=9798319693334 AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FQPQD68S Ebook GOOGLE: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=S5WCEQAAQBAJ&pli=1 KOBO: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-forgotten-borough-2?sId=a10cf8af-5fbd-475e-97c4-76966ec87994&ssId=DX3jihH_5_2bUeP1xoje_ SMASHWORD: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1853316 !! DISTURB ME !! APPLE - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disturb-me/id1841532090 SPOTIFY - https://open.spotify.com/show/3eFv2CKKGwdQa3X2CkwkZ5?si=faOUZ54fT_KG-BaZOBiTiQ YOUTUBE - https://www.youtube.com/@DisturbMePodcast www.disturbmepodcast.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
If you care about leveling up your reading life, don't miss this deep dive into the most powerful and lesser-known iOS apps that turn your device into a book-lover's playground. Discover why your iPhone might just be the ultimate reading companion, from audiobooks to custom libraries and beyond. Apple Books app features, usability, audiobooks, and reading goals Refining ebook library organization, user guides, and personal reading habits Customizing reading experience: themes, fonts, line guides, and accessibility Apple Books for audiobooks versus dedicated apps like Audible Audible app exploration: usage stats, features, series tracking, and purchase changes Prologue app connects to the Plex library for personal audiobook streaming Spotify for audiobooks and comparison with Audible exclusives Storygraph tracks reading progress and integrates with Kobo eReaders Libby app for digital library borrowing of ebooks, audiobooks, and magazines App Caps: Make-roscope keychain microscope Hosts: Mikah Sargent and Rosemary Orchard Contact iOS Today at iOSToday@twit.tv. Download or subscribe to iOS Today at https://twit.tv/shows/ios-today Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Club TWiT members can discuss this episode and leave feedback in the Club TWiT Discord.
Hidden deep in the forests of Rhode Island stood one of America's largest institutions for people with developmental disabilities. For decades, the Ladd School promised care, education, and hope... but behind its doors were overcrowding, neglect, scandal, and heartbreaking loss. After the campus closed, abandoned buildings gave rise to ghost stories of shadowy figures, crying children, and haunted hospital halls. Tonight, we separate urban legend from documented history and uncover the tragic legacy of the Ladd School, where the real horror was never the ghosts...it was the system itself. HAH DISCORD - https://discord.com/invite/bJdbpH3hQm YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@HAHChris TikTok - @hah_podcast hauntedamericanhistory.com Patreon- https://www.patreon.com/hauntedamericanhistory LINKS FOR MY DEBUT NOVEL, THE FORGOTTEN BOROUGH Barnes and Noble - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-forgotten-borough-christopher-feinstein/1148274794?ean=9798319693334 AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FQPQD68S Ebook GOOGLE: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=S5WCEQAAQBAJ&pli=1 KOBO: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-forgotten-borough-2?sId=a10cf8af-5fbd-475e-97c4-76966ec87994&ssId=DX3jihH_5_2bUeP1xoje_ SMASHWORD: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1853316 !! DISTURB ME !! APPLE - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disturb-me/id1841532090 SPOTIFY - https://open.spotify.com/show/3eFv2CKKGwdQa3X2CkwkZ5?si=faOUZ54fT_KG-BaZOBiTiQ YOUTUBE - https://www.youtube.com/@DisturbMePodcast www.disturbmepodcast.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
If you care about leveling up your reading life, don't miss this deep dive into the most powerful and lesser-known iOS apps that turn your device into a book-lover's playground. Discover why your iPhone might just be the ultimate reading companion, from audiobooks to custom libraries and beyond. Apple Books app features, usability, audiobooks, and reading goals Refining ebook library organization, user guides, and personal reading habits Customizing reading experience: themes, fonts, line guides, and accessibility Apple Books for audiobooks versus dedicated apps like Audible Audible app exploration: usage stats, features, series tracking, and purchase changes Prologue app connects to the Plex library for personal audiobook streaming Spotify for audiobooks and comparison with Audible exclusives Storygraph tracks reading progress and integrates with Kobo eReaders Libby app for digital library borrowing of ebooks, audiobooks, and magazines App Caps: Make-roscope keychain microscope Hosts: Mikah Sargent and Rosemary Orchard Contact iOS Today at iOSToday@twit.tv. Download or subscribe to iOS Today at https://twit.tv/shows/ios-today Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Club TWiT members can discuss this episode and leave feedback in the Club TWiT Discord.
If you care about leveling up your reading life, don't miss this deep dive into the most powerful and lesser-known iOS apps that turn your device into a book-lover's playground. Discover why your iPhone might just be the ultimate reading companion, from audiobooks to custom libraries and beyond. Apple Books app features, usability, audiobooks, and reading goals Refining ebook library organization, user guides, and personal reading habits Customizing reading experience: themes, fonts, line guides, and accessibility Apple Books for audiobooks versus dedicated apps like Audible Audible app exploration: usage stats, features, series tracking, and purchase changes Prologue app connects to the Plex library for personal audiobook streaming Spotify for audiobooks and comparison with Audible exclusives Storygraph tracks reading progress and integrates with Kobo eReaders Libby app for digital library borrowing of ebooks, audiobooks, and magazines App Caps: Make-roscope keychain microscope Hosts: Mikah Sargent and Rosemary Orchard Contact iOS Today at iOSToday@twit.tv. Download or subscribe to iOS Today at https://twit.tv/shows/ios-today Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Club TWiT members can discuss this episode and leave feedback in the Club TWiT Discord. Sponsor: cirasync.com/ios
If you care about leveling up your reading life, don't miss this deep dive into the most powerful and lesser-known iOS apps that turn your device into a book-lover's playground. Discover why your iPhone might just be the ultimate reading companion, from audiobooks to custom libraries and beyond. Apple Books app features, usability, audiobooks, and reading goals Refining ebook library organization, user guides, and personal reading habits Customizing reading experience: themes, fonts, line guides, and accessibility Apple Books for audiobooks versus dedicated apps like Audible Audible app exploration: usage stats, features, series tracking, and purchase changes Prologue app connects to the Plex library for personal audiobook streaming Spotify for audiobooks and comparison with Audible exclusives Storygraph tracks reading progress and integrates with Kobo eReaders Libby app for digital library borrowing of ebooks, audiobooks, and magazines App Caps: Make-roscope keychain microscope Hosts: Mikah Sargent and Rosemary Orchard Contact iOS Today at iOSToday@twit.tv. Download or subscribe to iOS Today at https://twit.tv/shows/ios-today Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Club TWiT members can discuss this episode and leave feedback in the Club TWiT Discord.
If you care about leveling up your reading life, don't miss this deep dive into the most powerful and lesser-known iOS apps that turn your device into a book-lover's playground. Discover why your iPhone might just be the ultimate reading companion, from audiobooks to custom libraries and beyond. Apple Books app features, usability, audiobooks, and reading goals Refining ebook library organization, user guides, and personal reading habits Customizing reading experience: themes, fonts, line guides, and accessibility Apple Books for audiobooks versus dedicated apps like Audible Audible app exploration: usage stats, features, series tracking, and purchase changes Prologue app connects to the Plex library for personal audiobook streaming Spotify for audiobooks and comparison with Audible exclusives Storygraph tracks reading progress and integrates with Kobo eReaders Libby app for digital library borrowing of ebooks, audiobooks, and magazines App Caps: Make-roscope keychain microscope Hosts: Mikah Sargent and Rosemary Orchard Contact iOS Today at iOSToday@twit.tv. Download or subscribe to iOS Today at https://twit.tv/shows/ios-today Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Club TWiT members can discuss this episode and leave feedback in the Club TWiT Discord. Sponsor: cirasync.com/ios
If you care about leveling up your reading life, don't miss this deep dive into the most powerful and lesser-known iOS apps that turn your device into a book-lover's playground. Discover why your iPhone might just be the ultimate reading companion, from audiobooks to custom libraries and beyond. Apple Books app features, usability, audiobooks, and reading goals Refining ebook library organization, user guides, and personal reading habits Customizing reading experience: themes, fonts, line guides, and accessibility Apple Books for audiobooks versus dedicated apps like Audible Audible app exploration: usage stats, features, series tracking, and purchase changes Prologue app connects to the Plex library for personal audiobook streaming Spotify for audiobooks and comparison with Audible exclusives Storygraph tracks reading progress and integrates with Kobo eReaders Libby app for digital library borrowing of ebooks, audiobooks, and magazines App Caps: Make-roscope keychain microscope Hosts: Mikah Sargent and Rosemary Orchard Contact iOS Today at iOSToday@twit.tv. Download or subscribe to iOS Today at https://twit.tv/shows/ios-today Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Club TWiT members can discuss this episode and leave feedback in the Club TWiT Discord. Sponsor: cirasync.com/ios
If you care about leveling up your reading life, don't miss this deep dive into the most powerful and lesser-known iOS apps that turn your device into a book-lover's playground. Discover why your iPhone might just be the ultimate reading companion, from audiobooks to custom libraries and beyond. Apple Books app features, usability, audiobooks, and reading goals Refining ebook library organization, user guides, and personal reading habits Customizing reading experience: themes, fonts, line guides, and accessibility Apple Books for audiobooks versus dedicated apps like Audible Audible app exploration: usage stats, features, series tracking, and purchase changes Prologue app connects to the Plex library for personal audiobook streaming Spotify for audiobooks and comparison with Audible exclusives Storygraph tracks reading progress and integrates with Kobo eReaders Libby app for digital library borrowing of ebooks, audiobooks, and magazines App Caps: Make-roscope keychain microscope Hosts: Mikah Sargent and Rosemary Orchard Contact iOS Today at iOSToday@twit.tv. Download or subscribe to iOS Today at https://twit.tv/shows/ios-today Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Club TWiT members can discuss this episode and leave feedback in the Club TWiT Discord. Sponsor: cirasync.com/ios
We've been talking about the end (almost end) of this one since we started the podcast, so it seemed high time we did a deep dive on it! Judith McNaught's Perfect is the most 90s thing we've ever read, so gird your loins for both the best all-is-lost scene in romance, and also Zach, Julie, prison breaks, illiteracy, the Coors corporation, Romance Cashmere, and so so many references to Kevin Costner. It's the most 90s thing we've ever read, without question.If you want to talk more about Perfect or Judith McNaught, or about romance in general, come join our Patreon! You'll get an extra monthly episode from us and access to the incredible readers and brilliant people on the Fated Mates Discord. Learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.Our next read along is Sarah's A Rogue By Any Other Name, the first in her casino series. This is one we've gotten a bunch of requests for, and so, it will be our final read along of the season. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.BooksPerfect by Judith McNaughtA Kingdom of Dreams by Judith McNaughtRemember When by Judith McNaughtDouble Standards by Judith McNaughtTender Triumph by Judith McNaughtNotesJen said Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead but she meant Adventures in Babysitting, which was a 1987 movie where suburban kids go on a terrifying adventure in the terrifying big city of Chicago.We did a deep dive of A Kingdom of Dreams in Season 2.Kelly Faircloth sent Sarah an ad for the book from People Magazine. In print versions of the book, there was a letter from Judith McNaught explaining the literacy plot in the book.Interestingly, the Coors literacy push was covered by the New York Times in 1992, discussing the push by big companies to adopt a cause and use it to burnish their image.Okay, apparently fleece also had a bellwether year in 1993, but let's be honest, it was Old Navy who made performance fleece happen for most of us and that was 1998.In America, our access to Abortion is much worse than it was in 1993 and America still has a devastating epidemic of suicide among queer teenagers, as The Trevor Project explains “LGBTQ+ young people are not inherently prone to suicide risk because of their sexual orientation or gender identity but rather placed at higher risk because of how they are mistreated and stigmatized in society.”SponsorsFrayed Pages by Wattpad Books, publishers of EM Wilson's Breakup for Two, available in print or ebook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or wherever you get your books.Meghan Quinn, author of Just for the Plot, available in print, ebook and audiobook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.Kylie Scott, author of Runaway Rockstar, available in print or ebook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or your local independent bookstore.Emily Andersen, author of the Midnights on the Square series. Available in print or ebook at at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or wherever you get your books.The RestFor even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2026/7/28/0845-judith-mcnaughts-perfect-content-warning-the-90s If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It's so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as you do at patreon.com/fatedmates. Beyond your favorite podcast app, you can find us on Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, Tumblr, and probably some other places, too, if you look hard enough. If you've never listened to our Stop Book Banning episode, there's no better time than now.
How can building an audience in advance help your stories reach the people who make movies? And how can you prove there's demand for your book or screenplay before you've written it? Brooks Elms shares his advice after more than 20 years as a WGA screenwriter. In the intro, what doesn't work for book marketing and what does [Amy Chan SubStack; Unsingle; Rephonic]; Goodreads giveaway for Bones of the Deep; FutureVision XPrize. This podcast is sponsored by Kobo Writing Life, which helps authors self-publish and reach readers in global markets through the Kobo eco-system. You can also subscribe to the Kobo Writing Life podcast for interviews with successful indie authors. This show is also supported by my Patrons. Join my Community at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn Brooks Elms is a WGA screenwriter with over 45 scripts, over a dozen sales, and he has directed two indie features. He is the creator of the Answer the Call system and has trained over 1,000 writers. You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is below. Show Notes How to see the opportunity in AI when others only see the threat How to test a story with samples, and what a 16-second movie can do Building the trailer before you write the screenplay Letting your audience finance the film once they have validated the idea Why Hollywood still wants existing IP, and what makes them pay attention Feeling safe enough to write the truth, and finding a concrete path forward You can find Brooks on LinkedIn or email him at brooks@brookselms.com. Transcript of the interview with Brooks Elms Jo: Brooks Elms is a WGA screenwriter with over 45 scripts, over a dozen sales, and he has directed two indie features. He is the creator of the Answer the Call system and has trained over 1,000 writers. So welcome to the show, Brooks. Brooks: Thank you. It's awesome to be here. Jo: Fantastic. So first up— Tell us a bit more about you and how you got into screenwriting. Brooks: I started filmmaking first. A buddy came up to me in high school and said, “Hey, we're making a karate movie, do you want to help us?” I was like, “Oh my God, yes, that sounds amazing.” So next thing I know, I had this karate outfit on, and we were just making this completely ridiculous and totally fun movie, and it was amazing. It was so fun. Then it went to a whole other level when we shared it with a friend, this guy Jay Sharon, and he watched the movie and he laughed so hard he literally fell out of his chair. I was like, “Oh my God,” the fun I had making it could actually transfer to somebody else. I was hooked. So from there I went to NYU film school, and then made a few independent feature films which were good but not great in terms of how they were received. They were great for me in terms of enjoyment, but I knew I needed to iterate faster at that point. So then I was like, “Well, it's expensive and it takes a long time to make a movie,” at least back then. So I pivoted to screenwriting, and pumped out two, three scripts a year, got signed at UTA, got writing assignments, and basically launched a screenwriting career. Then I still tried to get some stuff going, but it's hard when movies are so expensive. It's not hard, it's just that it takes a lot of precision in the marketing, and a lot of conversations to find the right matches to finance something, and you're either interested in doing that or you're not. I just was like, “Well, I'll just mostly write screenplays.” Then I started teaching at UCLA Extension and then coaching after that, along with writing. Then all the way up to the future. What's great about moving forward is that with AI, shot-making is becoming very close to cinematic quality. You can actually match cinematic quality in moments in some genres, but probably by next year. Right now you could actually do a really good horror movie all AI for 10, 20,000 bucks, depending on how much you're doing yourself or getting other people to do. So the economics are going to absolutely explode. So I'm sitting on dozens of scripts that didn't get through the Hollywood packaging bottleneck because they're too expensive, and I now have this giant slate that's ready to go, and I'm just absolutely thrilled. It's been a lifelong dream for me. Jo: Oh, so much to come back on there. Where to start? I do want to talk about what you just said there, sitting on dozens of scripts and now seeing the opportunity. I actually wrote down in my journal about a year ago, I see what's coming with AI, and I think that the best thing I can do is create as much original IP as possible, so that I can make the most of the opportunity ahead. So let's just get into the AI, because a lot of people feel it's a super bad thing. Talk about the opportunities and the attitude that you've got [around AI], and that you've seen others have around this, for what is ahead in a positive way. Brooks: It's fascinating to see how people respond to AI. I wonder, when the printing press rolled around, if there was some sort of backlash. Books must be handwritten. They can't be mass-produced. Here's one of my theories. At a deep psychological level, it's so profoundly powerful that I think the default setting is, “Oh, crap.” When I was a kid, some things were hard, and that power imbalance, when something big, new and powerful comes along: I'm going to get screwed, and so this is somehow a bad thing. I think that's the base psychological thing going on with most of the noise. Obviously there are some legit problems, in terms of copyright infringement from learning models, or from some of the environmental situation. So I'm not saying it's all rainbows and butterflies, but I think 90% of the noise around it comes from a fear of change. Here's the other one—a fear of, “Oh, yikes, I'm going to get taken advantage of somehow by either robots, or the corporations are going to use the robots against me,” or something like that. I have real empathy for me when I feel that way a little bit, but I don't feel it much, and for other people that do feel it. The other thing is, you know what it is? I think they fear their own empowerment even more. I had a therapist who was really good. He said, people aren't so much afraid of failing as they are afraid of succeeding. Because if we fail, we're stuck in act one and we don't go anywhere. The fear is answering the call and going to act two, when everything effing changes in the new world. So I think people are afraid of how goddamn powerful they're going to be when they can have a team of AI agents helping them do everything they want in business or life or whatever. I think it's the same thing with the internet. People are like, “Oh, I don't like social media, blah, blah, blah.” And I get it. There's a lot of noise and a lot of crap. Yet we have access to billions of people, and the algorithms in social media right now I think are level three out of 10. They're just going to get better and better. Even as it is now, if I do a post about something and it gets ignored, that's on me. The algorithms are trying to match me to my people. So if I'm not unique enough and authentic enough and aware enough of how virality works, that's on me, and it's a learnable skill that I can embrace and then change and then get better at. So I think people then resist that change. They resist the empowerment of learning the art of virality, or learning the art of some sort of social media stuff or whatever. The last thing I'll say about this rant is, I don't want to act like I'm the guru on the hill that has all the answers. I refuse calls all the time. I'm scared about all sorts of things. I'm certainly not perfect. I feel frustrated when I'm trying to put my big ideas into action and I can't get this technology thing to work or that one, and I throw tantrums. I'm trying to come at it from a real human perspective, but by and large, I've got stars in my eyes. I'm like, “This is amazing. This is going to be so powerful.” For so many people, you just have to be ready to embrace it and just go along for the ride, because there's going to be some big-ass changes. There already are, and that's going to accelerate. Jo: You mentioned there learning the art of whatever it is. One of the things is, I've spent 20 years, and so have you, learning our craft and our art, and now it can be done very easily. I'm generating video, as you mentioned, which is a craft I haven't spent 20 years on, but now I can generate. So things have definitely changed in that way. Just coming to the screenwriting side. Probably about a decade ago now, I did my first screenwriting course. I've written screenplays. Then I looked at the game you have to play and, like you said, the conversations you have to have, the events you have to go and network at, all the things that you have to do to put a screenplay in front of the right person at the right time. I was like, “I cannot do that. It's just not going to happen. I can't do that along with everything else.” So I put it aside, but now I feel maybe it's time to bring it back because things are changing. So can you maybe talk about, if someone has a screenplay now that they've written, or some IP like a book that they have now— What would you recommend people do in terms of wanting to get that [IP] in front of somebody, or doing something with it themselves? Brooks: It's such a good question. By the way, not even a screenplay—you could do the same things with a novel. Let me try to be succinct here, which is a good challenge for me. A simple way to look at it is, you're giving samples. Let's say it's a lemonade stand, and you give out a little shot of your… maybe you have cayenne pepper lemonade, some sort of fun lemonade. If you give out a sample and people are into it, they're going to come back and they're going to tell friends. If you give a sample of the lemonade and they're not into it, then you go back to the kitchen and you mix up a different flavour. So that's some basic business, but the internet allows us to do that at scale. So what I like to encourage people to do when I coach them is come up with the minimum viable material. It can be a 10-second clip. There's a writer in my community who made a really beautiful 16-second movie. It's one shot. I love it so much. It's two wine glasses. There's a lipstick smudge on one of the wine glasses. They're half full, and it's just that shot. It's sitting there, and all of a sudden you hear this thundering, thumping down these stairs, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. Then you see out of the corner of the frame one person runs by, and then the other person behind her runs by and goes, “Wait.” That's it. That's the whole movie. It's 16 seconds. He did that with his phone. So there's so much going on. There's a couple of basic elements, but he just did it with his phone, and you can evoke enormous emotional impact on people through social media, whether it's just words. You guys have a big advantage as novelists because you're so good with words. Whether it's a little bit longer, like sudden fiction, that's a couple of pages or whatever. Even just copywriters are really in a good position for the future because they're super potent with two words or three words or 10 words. Then novelists are probably really advantageous because it doesn't cost anything to just put some words out on the internet. The point is, if you put something out, it's a signal, and you're talking about billions of people who could find that signal. If you do it and then you look at the response, and then you try again, you look at the response, we can do this iteration infinitely for free. So you can do it already. You've been able to do it for 10, 15, 20 years, just with words. But now you're going to basically be able to do that with movies or clips or trailers. So the thing that I'm leading in my community of writers is having people build trailers in advance, or clips. When a book or a movie is done, how the heck do we get people to see it? One way is a trailer or some sort of behind-the-scenes material. You can just do that stuff now before even writing the screenplay. I saw that you were doing this project, a trailer for this competition. And then you mentioned, “Oh, I've got to write the screenplay.” Not really. You have to develop the story enough to know what you're referring to, and then it's about studying the craft of either trailer construction, or whatever the clips are, or viral clips. They all have a structure, and then you just test it. If you enjoy that testing process, which I find absolutely thrilling, it feels like the filmmaking version of a stand-up comedian. If I did stand-up, I say a joke, they laugh or they don't laugh. It's really beautiful feedback from the universe. Nerve-wracking, right? But we can do that now as storytellers. We put a story out there in any format, and the audience responds. Just like you have to read any room, you have to learn how to read the engagement on social media. What do likes mean? What do shares mean? What do comments mean? How do you deal with trolls? All that is just part of the new art. Once you get good at it, holy smokes, that's the key to the kingdom. You can build audiences in advance, and for movies you could even have them finance your movie in advance, if you've built an email list of 20,000, 30,000, 40,000 people because you kept putting out all these viral clips around your story, novel, or screenplay. Then you go, “Okay, now 30,000 people are on my email list and I tell them about me and my perspective and my world. We're going to make this darn thing with AI for 20,000 bucks. You guys have got to pony up some money. Put in a dollar, five, 10, or you get the VIP $500 experience.” It's like crowdfunding, but much more sophisticated, because most crowdfunding was like begging friends and family to donate to your crazy dream. What I'm talking about is going to the audience directly, developing enough of the story, then going to the audience second, and then only when they validate the idea, to the extent that you're happy with. You could do a crazy idea that's going to have a small audience, and you don't have to have a blockbuster audience. You get to pick the audience size that you want, and then put the samples out there and see if you have a relevant audience size for this next project. Once the audience tells you, “Yes, we want this,” then you go make it. So you're ultimately reducing risk to almost zero. It takes time and you have to learn how to do this stuff, but it's thrilling to me because we just have the capacity to test the material and listen to the audience upfront. The last thing I'll say, and I've rambled a lot, I'm sorry. When I made a movie in 1994, a feature film right out of NYU, it took me three years to find out what the audience thought about that movie. I had to make the damn thing, and then I ran out of money, and that took me years to edit it, and I finally got it, blah, blah, blah. And again, I loved it. I loved every facet of it, and it was fine, but it was super inefficient. Today, I could take those same elements, create an AI trailer this weekend, put it in front of hundreds of thousands of people, and they could tell me right away, “This sucks,” or, “This is interesting,” or, “Holy smokes, this is amazing. I want this.” If it's not, “Holy smokes, this is amazing, I want it,” I can go ahead and re-edit the whole damn trailer, and just keep reiterating at almost no cost. Then once the demand is there, I can take that demand and that audience and go to Hollywood, and that's when they're going to want to work with me. Then it doesn't take a million conversations and finding the needle in the haystack, because Hollywood sees the numbers and they go, “Oh, you're the people we do want to do business with. You've proven demand. We want to do business with you.” Jo: Yes, it's so interesting. I can hear people listening and they're like, “Easier said than done, getting an email list of 40,000 people.” And in fact— It's exactly the same as building up a career as an independent author. This is as a filmmaker, as a visual person, and the industry is visual, so doing a visual trailer is the obvious thing. And as you say, the tools I use just to do this one, I use Midjourney, and I've used Seedance as the main video model. It does take a while, but it is pretty fast now, if you have a visual image of what you want in your head, which obviously you're a visual person as well. But is it… Brooks: Hold on. I want to push back on that a little bit, because I think it's really important. So yes, that's true, but underneath that, my friend, it's a relationship. It's the relationship, and the media is secondary. You have been prolific in connecting with your audience, and that's why I think a lot of people like you, because you share and they get to know you in that sort of cadence. I saw you in another podcast, you mentioned Seth Godin, who just said, “Hey, I want to be the type of person that has this relationship with my audience. I'm going to share some of my thoughts every day.” He happened to do it with words, with his background in marketing, but you could do the same thing with still images. You could do the same thing with a five-second movie clip once a week. It's the relationship you want with your fans. I'm not saying you snap your fingers and you have 50,000 people on your email list. What I'm saying is, what else are you doing? If we're artists and our impulse is to create and share, and if you do it in this way, if I can create and share and inspire trust in this relationship with a stranger because they like my genre thing and they like the way they felt when they experienced my media, words, images, movies, it doesn't matter. They just like the feeling, and they go, “Ooh, I want more of that feeling. How do I get more of that? Oh, this person has this email list or community.” If I can do it with one, then I can scale it out. So getting the first one, or the first 5 or 10 samples, that is a whole process. But then once you do that, scaling up is more of a mechanical thing. It's not even that hard, especially when you can do paid ads. So you can scale up very quickly if you have the sauce. If you don't have the sauce, it doesn't matter who you're related to, you've got to get the sauce right. Jo: Yes, and again, it's so parallel to the indie author community. I've just got to ask you, in the olden days, an author might write a screenplay, or a screenwriter write a screenplay, and then they would send it. They'd find an agent. They'd pitch an agent, and I guess then they'd hope that someone would turn that into a movie. So is that just dead now? Is it realistically that you need to get yourself out there, build the audience in the same way that it often is for authors? Brooks: So, no. I've got two screenplay deals going right now. So here's how it's going to work. Think about Broadway, or the theatre district in Britain. It's like West End or East End or whatever… Jo: The West End. Brooks: Sorry for my American ignorance. West End, okay. So every town on the planet has a stage, but there's only one Broadway, there's only one West End, right? And every town has its own festival, but there are a few significant tastemakers. There's Cannes, there's Sundance, there's Toronto. Hollywood is always going to be a tastemaker in our lifetime, for sure. What they don't have anymore, what they enjoyed for the first 100 years of the industry, is that they had a stranglehold on basically the equipment, the financing, and the audience, and that's all going away. Do you want to hear a fun story about the birth of cinema? Do you know why Hollywood started in Hollywood? Jo: No. Brooks: So Thomas Edison invented the camera, or the type of model camera that they were using in, I don't know, 1910 or something around there. They didn't want to pay his patent. They didn't want to pay the patent to make these movies, so they went all the way across the country, a bunch of outlaws, and they set up shop in California because he couldn't enforce his patent that they were basically stealing. And reason number two, LA enjoys amazing weather almost all year round. The weather here is either nice or really nice. You have mountains, you have beach, you have desert, you have all these different locales. So when it was really important to be on location, LA was the perfect place. Anyway, that is all going away. For many decades, more people could make movies. In the early '90s, Robert Rodriguez made a movie for 9,000 bucks. There was a book in the '80s that I bought that I loved, it was Feature Filmmaking at Used-Car Prices. This guy, Rick Schmidt, I think his name was. There were the independent filmmakers really in the '60s and the '70s. So the cost has been going down and down and down, and now it's less than ever. Once social media came along, now you have access to the audience, so why do you even need Hollywood? That being said, there are tons of people. There are 400,000 people already working in the movie and the TV industry here. And they're voracious. We have a voracious demand. Humans need stories. We need big stories, long stories. We need stories, and Hollywood is so good at giving them stories. And so they have a need for these things, and they're still spending a lot of money on those budgets. So yes, there's still a demand for turning books and optioning them and turning them into movies. Books are great. Any sort of existing IP is great because there are marketing efficiencies there. People already know that stuff, know the vibe of it, and so it's easier to market than something that's totally creative and new. When you're spending that much money, you want those marketing efficiencies. They're really important. So the point being, the power is shifting away from Hollywood. Hollywood will still be a tastemaker, but you and me can reach anybody on the planet now. Almost. Billions of people. If it's making a movie, right now you could make a movie that most people wouldn't realise is an AI movie. If it was a horror film, I know a handful of people that could make a feature-length horror film right now with AI and 99% of the audience couldn't tell, if it was professionally written. Jo: I think the point here though is, I'm an author, the people listening are authors, and we don't want to make movies. We want to license our IP to people who want to make movies. Brooks: Yes. Great. Okay, good. So then you could, if you wanted, build an audience. Hollywood loves when something's already proven, so that's that IP thing, right? So if you just have a great book, then it's all about the sales. You guys have Dragons' Den, we have Shark Tank here. And what's amazing about that show is these are people or entrepreneurs pitching an idea, and there's an amazing rhythm that happens. They say, “We've got this great idea. It's this sort of company.” And the sharks, or the dragons, will listen. And there's a huge turning point when they reveal sales. They're either really excited about the idea and then they go, “Well, how are the sales?” And the person goes, “Well, we don't have any sales yet.” And they go, “Uh,” and they're not interested. Or they might even be like, “Eh, it doesn't seem like a good idea.” And they're like, “Well, how are the sales?” And they're like, “Oh, well, we've sold through the roof.” And then all of a sudden they perk up. So it's all about the sales. So step one is writing something that you want. Step two is making sure other people in your target audience are also loving it as much as you do. Step three is proving in some way at scale that there's real demand for it. So you could do that with trailers, you could do that with clips, you can do that as an indie publisher. There's all sorts of things that you can do. Humans are much more persuaded by concrete data than they are by just vibes. So if you can bring Hollywood concrete data of any type, like viral videos, like audience, like obviously bestsellers. Awards mean something, but not quite as much as sales. Then you're going to get Hollywood's attention because that reduces risk for them. So even now, when Hollywood's definitely shrinking and contracting, there's still very significant money being spent because it's a huge demand. If you ever walk around a studio lot, those things are opulent places. It's stunning. Like, how are they paying for all this stuff? These lots are enormous. It's because humanity is voracious for stories, and movies are one premium type of storytelling. The demand for stories is steady if not going up. It's just that we have a wider variety of types of stories that we can do, whether we're an indie author. So anyway, did I answer the question? You get me too excited with these questions, Jo. It's a problem. Jo: Yes. I think there's a lot of opportunity and a lot of ways in, but the parallels with being an indie author I think are quite clear. One of the things I found interesting about your profile and what you do is that you help clients who are already accomplished but not quite breaking through, and that sounds like a lot of mid-list indie authors, probably a lot of mid-list screenwriters, mid-list filmmakers. This is a hard place to be because, on the one hand, we are grateful for what we have achieved and what we can do, and yet wanting more, wanting that big Hollywood deal or the Netflix deal, or wanting the massive bestseller or whatever. So if someone wants to get to that next level, what are some of the ways that they can perhaps try and get there? Brooks: It's a great question. Coaching is a really wonderful way to learn anything of this sort of complexity and challenge, especially if it's a hyper-competitive business. We need two things, I think, to write a great novel or screenplay or both. A, we need to feel profoundly safe in our space. If we can't really feel deeply authentic about the things that are embarrassing, or that we feel shame about, or just our shadows, or anything that we don't feel completely comfortable saying and sharing in public usually. We need to be able to touch those things, and be articulate about those things, and that's one part of it. Then we need a concrete path forward. Maybe you're thinking about some tragedy that you had in childhood, and how you dealt with it and how difficult that was. So you need to be able to be real precise in those observations about what it felt like, and how you tried to compensate for it, and that didn't work and it made it worse. Whatever your observations are about your life journey, you need to be really specific and really deeply felt. A good coaching relationship allows you to be in that space, to be really honest with yourself and authentic. g Aood coach will push you back and say, “You know what? That sounds interesting, but maybe not quite as true to you deeply.” So that's one piece of it. Then there's a concrete path forward. You need to have the emotional access to that truth, and then you need to know what to do with that truth in a step-by-step way. Because most people, the ones that you're talking about, they're accomplished in something else. What happens is when we first start writing, and maybe this happens with novelists, but for sure it happens to screenwriters, you just start typing words. But you haven't really thought through the theme, the concept, the structure, the character, all the deeper questions that really matter. The milestones, like a North Star: winning a major award, or getting a publisher. That's the direction that we're heading towards, and then you set it and forget it, but you want to keep checking it every week, every month or whatever. But you want it very specific. “I would like to sell a book, or sell a book to Hollywood, or write a screenplay, or get a producer attached to a screenplay.” Whatever the milestone is, make it really specific, really concrete, and then reverse engineer. This is what I do on the concrete path. I reverse engineer every step to get there, starting with a really tiny one we can do today, and I make sure they feel really safe, and then we just walk through. Then what happens is, if you do that, if you feel safe, if you're showing up authentically and you have a process that's repeatable, not just willy-nilly, it's got to be something that's proven to work. It wasn't an accident I wrote 45 scripts. I've got a whole system. But by the way, the first five scripts took me forever. The last movie that I made took me three years to write that script. I can write a better script with those same elements in three months now, because I know I have a concrete path. So if you want to do something new, whether it's playing the piano or getting six-pack abs or writing a screenplay, work with somebody who's got a system that's already proven, and make sure you relate to them, and then just follow the system. Then when the doubts come up, and they will, that's where the feeling safe is really important. Because, oh, I want the six-pack abs, but I don't feel like going to the gym. I want the extra donut. If I'm working with a really good trainer, they go, “Dude, do you want the six-pack abs or not?” And then you go back and forth, and I go, “Okay, now I can make peace with myself and say I can take one tiny bite of the donut and then still do my workout,” and then I'm moving towards that North Star. Does that make sense? Jo: Yes. I think, like many independents, I resist anything that is systematised. I'm a discovery writer, and I follow the muse, and all of that kind of thing. I think I would say something in a similar vein, which is sustainable creativity for the long term, because your 45 scripts are also years of work, and my books are years of work, and we get better at what we do. So my system, I do have a system really, because— My system is that I do the work, and I write my stories, and I get them out there, and I do the marketing. So even if it's not as systematised as such, it's still a process that I have repeated over and over again. Brooks: That's fascinating to me. Would you consider yourself a pantser? You're like, “I've got an idea,” and you just start writing? Jo: I don't use the word pantser. I guess I call it discovery writing, which is… Brooks: That's a better term. Jo: Yes. What I'm writing for this prize, for example, I know the characters, I know now what's happening. When I had the idea, it was very much a vision and a theme, and the competition has a theme: a positive future with AI and technology. But the things that came around that, I then started playing with ideas around the treatment. I haven't written the screenplay yet. I don't do a plot, or I don't follow Save the Cat or any of that kind of thing. When I write a novel, I just explore and I never write in order. Then at some point I stop and then I have to think about the structure and putting it all together, so the edits are quite big. But my fun is in that discovery, really. Brooks: Oh, that's awesome. Okay, so let me ask, that's really fascinating. And by the way, that doesn't, to me, negate the system that I use. The one that I use is ultimately… the thing is, these questions, the audience is wanting your unique answers to. You don't necessarily need to do it in a certain order. I think that's actually really cool that you write out of order and you have a few elements in mind. All that stuff sounds awesome. The only thing that then makes me curious is, how's your pace? Are you actually completing novels at a pace that feels good, or do you feel like you go too fast, too slow? Jo: I do one or two a year at the moment. Well, two a year, really. But I would say I'm not as successful as I'd like to be, so I'm not saying that my system is the best. I'm saying I want to be better. It's just that my fun is this sort of creative chaos, which I then try and control later. One of the things I really like about screenplays and treatments and doing this kind of thing for film is that it is much more structured, I think, than a 70,000-word novel. You can go in all kinds of directions, whereas with screenwriting you do have to be more disciplined really. Brooks: Yes, so this is going to be fun probably, to hear my view for your audience, and the differences as I see them. For starters, you're talking about what, 10, 20, 30 hours reading a novel sometimes, or maybe less, whereas a movie's a 90-minute experience, right? So that's different. Or if it's a TV series, you might see an hour and then an hour. So that's a very different experience. What happens is when it's condensed like that, you're loading up layers. So every scene is stacked with exposition beneath the drama, and done in a certain way. So specifically, movies are only what you can see and only what you hear. Whereas novels, if you can think it, you can write it, it can be in there. So you don't need to have a plot, but if you want to sell your book to Hollywood, it helps. So I was very resistant about structure. I went to NYU film school, where we really just made short films. It was funny, I had friends that were in the dramatic writing department, and I was like, “You guys are wasting your money. You're just learning to write scripts. We learn to write the scripts and make the movies.” What I hadn't realised is it's a different skill set to hold somebody's attention across an hour-long play, or a 90-minute movie, than it is to make a movie that holds their attention for two minutes or five minutes. I found out years later when I made a feature that was like a lot of shorts patched together, and people were not… They liked it, but they didn't love it. I was like, “Well, what's going on?” And so then I learned to really love Save the Cat in particular. It completely changed me. What happened was, I got a big old slice of humble pie. I had made my second feature, and I put everything I had into it, and it had loose structural beginning, middle, end, blah, blah, blah. But I was still, “Eh, Hollywood BS. What do they know? It's all fake.” So I was very anti-Hollywood structure. Then I was like, now I've got two independent films out there, people saw them, liked them, whatever, but it wasn't getting me consistent work. It wasn't really advancing my career in the way that I wanted. And I was like, “Well, maybe there is something to the Save the Cat.” So I went to the Save the Cat workshop with Blake when he was still alive, and he was delightful, a really awesome guy. He's got this kind of cutesy style, for people that don't know. For context, Blake Snyder was a working Hollywood screenwriter, and he had this system called Save the Cat, which actually has some really interesting ideas. He's got this very light, breezy sort of style. A lot of people don't like him and some people really love him, and everything in between. But I took his weekend seminar, and it completely changed me, because at that point, like I said, I took three years to write a script. Then once he had a process and he had a way of thinking about craft that was just much more screenwriter-friendly, I was like, “Oh my God.” It was so much easier, because I was just focused on the right thing at the right time. So it just sped everything up. After that, I was banging out two to three scripts a year, and better and better quality. So for me, because I went from winging it and wrote five scripts in 13 years, and then wrote two to three scripts every year, I became a huge proponent of system and process. Then my own system really came from that, but it's modular. I have a nine-step system, but you don't necessarily have to go in that order, other than the last three steps, but I won't get into the details. Sometimes you kind of jump from two to three and then back to two and then back and forth. So I love that you get the feel for those elements, and then you just felt your way through. But writing screenplay pages doesn't make sense until you really understand concept, you get a deep sense of beginning, middle, end, character arcs, and these other threads. There are just way better tools for those jobs than screenplay format, because it's a really weird format. It's got these weird slug lines at the top that are all in caps, because a screenplay is a blueprint for somebody else to make the movie. It's not an end-user document like a novel. I don't let my clients even go to that format because it just gets them focused on the wrong things. What they really need to know is, what is your perspective about this theme? What happened in your life that you're fascinated with, that you'd even want to write about this? And tell me what your real life lessons are. So we go into… again, I go back to relationship. What's your relationship to the universe? And what's your relationship to your best friends, or where you got your heart broken, or whatever you want to write about. And then we get that clarity, and then I show you how to express it in terms of developing a screenplay. It's really long-form storytelling, and then the structure just makes it build on itself. But with the structure, because you're talking about so much money and people involved to make it, at least traditionally, what ended up happening was narrative structure that was not so much rigid. Because here's the thing, you can look at 50, 100 years of European cinema and you can look at Hollywood cinema, and Hollywood laps them. When I taught at UCLA Extension, I had lots of foreign students. Let's say there'd be two or three students… if there were 12 people in the class, two or three people would be from America, and everybody else would be from other countries. I would go around, I'd be like, “What movies and TV shows have you been watching?” Almost in every single country, they watch half from their own country, half from Hollywood. So Hollywood storytelling works, that's just the data, and they're dominant. The reason it works is what Aristotle was saying thousands of years ago.. There's a way of thinking about beginning, middle, end that just deeply speaks to the psyche, and you can ignore it if you want. I think Godard said, “You need beginning, middle, and end, but not necessarily in that order,” right? Which is great. Just the way we experience life, there's a beginning, a middle, an end to this podcast interview. There's a beginning, middle, end to the day, a beginning, middle, end to me eating lunch. So if you don't lean into the beginning, middle, end psychological aspect of your story, you're going to bore your reader. But to your point, you don't necessarily have to sort that out in the beginning. It's more efficient probably if you do, but you don't have to. Go into it wherever the muse tells you to go, and then at some point, like you do, then you go, “Okay, now I go back and I edit.” If you're saying there's another level, you have another gear in you, then yes, I'd be curious to slowly go through how you're making those decisions. Because what's happening probably is there are ways you're holding back a little bit. There's maybe something you're afraid of being vulnerable about. That's usually where me or other writers are holding themselves back, and we can take a look at that. There are different ways I show writers to do it. Then you can go, “Oh, I was doing it here, and now I can do it there.” And it could be with process, or just a certain creative choice. With story, it's clear and compelling. Those are the simple things. So, is this clear enough? Is it compelling enough? And there are almost always ways to up-level on any facet, whether it's one sentence, or a sentence that describes the whole concept of the book, or a chapter. Each one of those can be looked at with that lens and we can just say, “Hey, this is 70%, 80%,” whatever, and then we say, “Well, how do we get a little bit more?” And then when you do that enough, it piles up. Then especially if you bring in an audience and people are flipping out for your work, they'll tell you. Jo: Yes, I love a challenge, so thank you for everything you've shared today. So where can people find you and everything you do online? Brooks: Well, one way you can find me—if anything I said seemed helpful for you, if you have questions about Hollywood or you have a screenplay in your heart—you can just email me, brooks@brookselms.com. You could look me up on LinkedIn. I'm at Brooks Elms. I also have a Skool community called Screenwriter Marketing, but it's really for any sort of storyteller, and it talks about my favourite way to engage an audience and get through it. So anybody can jump into that if you like my vibe. If you really think anything I've said, or the way I said it, seems like it could be helpful for you, just reach out. Let me know what you're up to, and maybe there's a way I can help you. Jo: Fantastic. Well, thanks so much for your time, Brooks. That was great. Brooks: You're welcome. It was a total pleasure. It was lots of fun, and I really appreciate you.The post How To Prove The Demand For Your Stories And Get The Attention Of Hollywood With Brooks Elms first appeared on The Creative Penn.
Deep in the forests of western Rhode Island lies the forgotten site of the Ramtail Mill, where locals once claimed a dead night watchman refused to leave his post. They said the factory bell rang by itself, machinery roared to life after midnight, and a lone lantern drifted through the darkness long after its keeper was buried. The legend became so widespread that, in 1885, a Rhode Island state census officially listed the abandoned mill as simply: "Ram Tail Factory (haunted)." Tonight, we uncover the true story behind America's only government-recognized haunted location... and the family tragedy that inspired one of New England's strangest ghost stories. HAH DISCORD - https://discord.com/invite/bJdbpH3hQm YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@HAHChris TikTok - @hah_podcast hauntedamericanhistory.com Patreon- https://www.patreon.com/hauntedamericanhistory LINKS FOR MY DEBUT NOVEL, THE FORGOTTEN BOROUGH Barnes and Noble - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-forgotten-borough-christopher-feinstein/1148274794?ean=9798319693334 AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FQPQD68S Ebook GOOGLE: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=S5WCEQAAQBAJ&pli=1 KOBO: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-forgotten-borough-2?sId=a10cf8af-5fbd-475e-97c4-76966ec87994&ssId=DX3jihH_5_2bUeP1xoje_ SMASHWORD: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1853316 !! DISTURB ME !! APPLE - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disturb-me/id1841532090 SPOTIFY - https://open.spotify.com/show/3eFv2CKKGwdQa3X2CkwkZ5?si=faOUZ54fT_KG-BaZOBiTiQ YOUTUBE - https://www.youtube.com/@DisturbMePodcast www.disturbmepodcast.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
For nearly three centuries, sailors have reported a mysterious flame rising from the waters off Block Island... a ghostly ship said to burn without ever being consumed. Legend blames murderous wreckers, a doomed immigrant vessel, and a restless spirit forever searching the sea. But the real history is far more tragic. Tonight, we uncover the true story of the Princess Augusta, the infamous Palatine Light, a towering woman accused of witchcraft, and how one of New England's greatest ghost stories grew from history, folklore, and the unforgiving Atlantic. HAH DISCORD - https://discord.com/invite/bJdbpH3hQm YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@HAHChris TikTok - @hah_podcast hauntedamericanhistory.com Patreon- https://www.patreon.com/hauntedamericanhistory LINKS FOR MY DEBUT NOVEL, THE FORGOTTEN BOROUGH Barnes and Noble - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-forgotten-borough-christopher-feinstein/1148274794?ean=9798319693334 AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FQPQD68S Ebook GOOGLE: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=S5WCEQAAQBAJ&pli=1 KOBO: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-forgotten-borough-2?sId=a10cf8af-5fbd-475e-97c4-76966ec87994&ssId=DX3jihH_5_2bUeP1xoje_ SMASHWORD: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1853316 !! DISTURB ME !! APPLE - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disturb-me/id1841532090 SPOTIFY - https://open.spotify.com/show/3eFv2CKKGwdQa3X2CkwkZ5?si=faOUZ54fT_KG-BaZOBiTiQ YOUTUBE - https://www.youtube.com/@DisturbMePodcast www.disturbmepodcast.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Welcome to the Kobo ReWriting Life Podcast! Alongside your regularly scheduled Kobo Writing Life podcast episode releases, we will also be featuring some highlights from our backlist. In this episode, we spoke with best-selling author of over 30 romantic comedies, Lauren Layne! Lauren is also a proficient marketer and expert at author branding. We are excited to share her great advice on author branding yet again. Lauren Layne is a New York Times bestselling author and branding superstar. She shares her secrets on cultivating an author brand and mastering trickier social media platforms, specifically Instagram and Pinterest. Lauren demystifies author branding and explains how authors can find their own aesthetic. She also discusses why she chose to limit her social media presence to two platforms and how she has made these platforms work for her. Further we discuss the evolution of her newsletter and how it has changed throughout the years. Publish on Kobo Writing Life.
The 1973 Oil Crisis had a devastating effect on Japan's economy and led to a period of rapid political turmoil as the ruling LDP, for the first time in the party's history, failed to obtain a simple majority of seats in the diet.Support the show My latest novel, "Califia's Crusade," is now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, Bookshop.org, and many other online platforms!
In this week's episode, I answer worldbuilding questions about my setting of Andomhaim, and discuss the future of THE GHOSTS series. This coupon code will get you 25% off the ebooks in The Ghosts series at my Payhip store: JULYGHOSTS The coupon code is valid through August 10, 2026. So if you need a new ebook this summer, we've got you covered! TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 313 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is July the 24th, 2026 and today we're answering world-building questions about Andomhaim, which is the setting of my Frostborn, Sevenfold Sword, Dragontiarna, Dragonskull, Shield War, and Blades of Ruin series. We also have one bonus world-building question about the Caina series. Before we get into all that, we will have Coupon of the Week and a progress update on my current writing, publishing, and audiobook projects. Let's start with Coupon of the Week. This week's coupon code will get you 25% off the ebooks in The Ghosts series at my Payhip store. That code is JULYGHOSTS. As always, the coupon code and the link to my Payhip store will be available in the show notes for this episode. This coupon code will be valid through August the 10th, 2026, so if you need a new ebook for this summer, we have got you covered. Now let's have an update on my current writing, publishing, and audiobook projects. I'm pleased to report I am done with the rough draft of Cloak of Frost. It was just slightly over 100,000 words. Now I am writing a bonus short story called Metal Soldiers, and [newsletter] subscribers will get a free ebook copy of Metal Soldiers when Cloak of Frost comes out, which if all goes well, should be sometime in August. So I think this is an excellent time, therefore, to subscribe to my new release newsletter. My secondary project is Blade of Visions, and I am 11,000 words into that. There's also a good deal of news about audiobooks. Dragon-Mage, as narrated by Leanne Woodward, is finished and is rolling out to the various stores right now. As of this recording, you can get it at my own Payhip store, Google Play, and Kobo (with more stores soon to follow). Recording on Stealth and Spells Online: Final Quest is very nearly done, and I hope to have more news on that soon. Brad Wills is currently working on Blade of Thieves and Hollis McCarthy is recording Cloak of Worlds. So we should have a wide variety of audiobooks coming for you soon. 00:02:00 Questions about Caina Before we get to our main topic, we have a bonus question about Caina. When I said my next project was going to be Cloak of Frost, I got a couple of questions like this: Just wondering when/if there will be another Caina novel to look forward to? The answer is not right now, but maybe later. I am glad and appreciative that people want more Caina books. That said, I don't want more than three unfinished series at any one time, and I've got three right now with Blades of Ruin, Cloak Mage, and Half-Elven Thief. So I'm not starting anything new until one of the three is done. If you reach the end of Ghost in the Siege, which is the latest current Caina book, you know that the series was at a pretty significant stopping point. If I want to keep going, I need to think long and hard about how to do it right. I do have a couple of ideas, but I need to think about them some more. It's almost like we'd have to shift to a slightly different genre of fantasy than the Caina books have been previously. The tricky part is Caina has changed a great deal since Child of the Ghosts. The tricky part in that is that sequels in a long-running series need to be more of the same, but also something different. There have been 35 Caina novels. So I've done that quite a bit. But Caina has had some experiences that have very much changed her life. To use a rough comparison, it's like she became a justice on the US Supreme Court or the governor of one of the five largest US states in the sense that once you've had change in your life that significant, your life will never be the same afterwards. And without spoilers, Caina had a shift that big at the end of Ghost in the Siege. So more Caina is definitely a possibility, but I need to think about it some more and it definitely won't be before 2027 until I finish one of my three currently unfinished series. 00:03:35 Main Topic of the Week: Andomhaim Worldbuilding Questions Now onto our main topic, which is I had some world-building questions about Andomhaim from Frostborn come in lately. So I thought I would answer them here. Question #1: Why hasn't the Heptarchy invaded Andomhaim again? The answer is money, basically. Remember that the ultimate purpose of the Heptarchy is to provide an endless supply of sacrificial victims for the Seven Temples' altars so the seven urdmordar who rule the Heptarchy can endlessly feed. These seven urdmordar don't have much interest in the day-to-day governance, so their spiderling priestesses essentially run the Heptarchy as an exceptionally malignant theological bureaucracy. However, while the priestesses are evil, they're efficient and very good at their jobs. In practice, the Heptarchy tends to operate more like an imperial confederation or a very loose federal government than an actual empire. Kingdoms, tribes, and city states have a great deal of autonomy so long as one, taxes are paid in time and two, sacrificial victims are taken to the temples on time. To help encourage this, all the various local rulers in the Heptarchy tend to have priestess advisors who make sure that the rulers make the "correct" decisions. So when things go awry, the Seven Temples have a wide array of tools to deal with difficulties, from assassinating and replacing truculent rulers with more tractable successors all the way up to exterminating entire populations and settling new colonists upon the depopulated lands. The difficulty of the Heptarchy is that the seven urdmordars are gluttons and gluttony is impossible to satiate. So when the Heptarchy learned of Andomhaim and the possibility of an entirely new land to conquer and feed upon, of course they had to conquer it. The priestesses built an enormous fleet and gathered a vast army and sent it three and a half thousand miles across the ocean to Andomhaim. Of course, if you've read the Dragontiarna series, you know that this didn't go well. The Heptarchy seized the Isle of Kordain and had early successes in Andomhaim, but Agravhask, the commander of the invasion force, was secretly a disciple of the Warden of Urd Morlemoch, and he seized control of the Heptarchy force and used it to further the Warden's goals. The Visionary foresaw this happening, but didn't care because it gave her an opportunity to try and capture her old enemy, Tarmyntir. So the Heptarchy didn't conquer Andomhaim, and then 10 years later they lost control of the Isle of Kordain, their only stronghold near Andomhaim. To put this situation in contemporary terms, this is a significant geopolitical setback or to put it in popular vernacular, it's "taking a massive L." The Seven Temples spent a colossal fortune on the invasion force and in return got back exactly nothing. Even evil sorcerous empires are bound to the laws of economics. In The Ghosts books, the Umbarian Order failed to figure this out. And it would take a while for the Heptarchy to pay for and assemble another invasion force of that size. And since the first invasion force had failed, there wasn't much appetite for pulling together a second one. So now the official policy of the Heptarchy towards Andomhaim is quiet CIA-style subversion. The Spider Cult was founded to secretly bring nobles and wealthy merchants to the worship of the Seven Temples. It might take a century or so, but the plan is to eventually place a spider cultist on the throne of Andomhaim and then send a sympathetic ruler an army to back him or her up. Of course, the Brotherhood of the Ravens is aware of this and has been fighting the Spider Cult in the shadows. So that is why the Heptarchy hasn't tried to invade Andomhaim again- it costs too much, the outcome is uncertain, and the priestesses have decided a careful subversion (which costs much less than an invasion) will work out better in the long run. Question #2: Is Blades of Ruin really inspired by the English Civil War of 1138 to 1153 AD? Yes. Why? Because alcohol and boats are a very bad combination. In the 12th century, the Kings of England were also the Dukes of Normandy and were more interested in Normandy than in England, so they spent a great deal of time on both sides of the English Channel. In November of 1120, King Henry I wanted to return to England, but allowed much of his retinue to travel on another ship. That included his heir and only legitimate son William, several of his bastard children, and numerous high ranking members of his court. Everyone on William's ship was quite drunk, including the crew, and decided it would be a good idea to try and overtake King Henry's ship on the English Channel at night in November. Remember how I said alcohol and boats were a bad combination? William decided that he wanted to overtake his father's ship, and since a significant portion of everyone on his ship was drunk, they ended up crashing into some rocks, the ship sank, and most of the passengers and crew drowned, including William. For Henry, this was an absolute disaster since he had put a lot of work into setting up William as his heir. Henry then settled on his daughter Matilda as his heir and forced his vassals to take oaths so they would support her as his successor. When Henry died in 1135, Matilda assumed the throne, but her cousin Stephen of Blois seized the crown instead. Many of the lords of England were leery at the idea of a female monarch and Stephen was amiable and well-liked. Matilda was also imperious and had a knack for offending people at the worst possible time. The resultant civil war became known as the Anarchy and it ebbed and flowed until 1153. Both Stephen and Matilda held the upper hand at various times, but could never manage to achieve a total victory. Many of the nobles went local warlord, raising their own forces and building their own castles to protect themselves from their neighbors, which led to widespread chaos and violence. Finally, by the end of the 1140s, most of the nobles were sick of the war and put increasing pressure on Stephen and Matilda to find some sort of negotiated solution. Matilda's vigorous son Henry began to insert himself and he convinced Stephen to name him as his heir. When Stephen died, Henry became the undisputed king in 1154 and the war was over. Henry II would prove to be a vigorous king, but his inability to share power with his sons would cause him a lot of trouble in the final years of his reign. So you can see how Zelos Pendragon and Rhamnousia Pendragon from Blades of Ruin are very loosely based on Stephen and Matilda, though with some differences. Stephen and Matilda were cousins while Zelos and Rhamnousia are half siblings. For that matter, Henry I died of natural causes and was not assassinated by a sinister cult of sorcerers who wanted to engineer a civil war for nefarious purposes. Question #3: Were the Free Companies in Blades of Ruin inspired by Glenn Cook's The Black Company? First of all, The Black Company is a fantasy classic and everyone should read it. I think it's even in Kindle Unlimited at the moment. But the Free Companies and Blades of Ruin weren't inspired by The Black Company. They were inspired by the Hundred Years' War between England and France from 1337 AD to 1453 AD. Medieval warfare relied heavily on knights and vessels, but it always employed mercenaries. One of the problems in the Anarchy were the large number of Flemish mercenaries infesting in the country, who frequently turned full brigand. But feudalism was based on holding land and as the Middle Ages progressed, money and the cash economy became more and more important while knighthood became increasingly performative and ceremonial. Professional soldiers were generally more useful and more reliable than arrogant and headstrong knights. These trends played a big part in the Hundred Years' War and every time the kings of England campaigned in France, they frequently hired mercenaries and they generally let the mercenaries rampage through the French countryside and plunder whatever they wanted since that was cheaper than actually feeding them. The Free Companies really got going after the Battle of Poitiers in 1356. The French were decisively defeated, King John II of France went back to England as a prisoner, and the national government in France essentially collapsed. The English discharged many of their mercenaries, who formed into companies and began systematically looting the French countryside. When official hostilities broke out between the English and the French again, the English hired the companies back. As the fortunes of France and England waxed and waned during the war, some of the companies wandered into Italy and made good money playing the Italian city states against each other. One of the most famous of the companies was The White Company, commanded by Sir John Hawkwood. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle famously killed off Sherlock Holmes so he could turn his attention to writing historical fiction about the White Company. This was somewhat less than financially successful, so Doyle went back to writing Holmes after a few years, though he always regarded his historical novels as better than his Holmes stories. Rannister and the Grand Company in Blades of Ruin were loosely based off of Werner von Urslingen and the Great Company. Von Urslingen's personal model was "The enemy of God, the enemy of piety, and the enemy of mercy." He apparently had those actual words inscribed on his breastplate. The Great Company spent a lot of time fighting in Italy and extorting money from the city-states until the White Company defeated them at the Battle of Canturino in 1363. In real life, of course, the Free Companies did not have orcs in the ranks or sorcerous advisors. However, the real life Free Companies were just as brutal and rapacious as those in the Blades of Ruin series, sometimes often more so, since they were essentially organized bands of brigands. Eventually in the wake of the Hundred Years' War, stronger national governments arose in England and France, and the concept of the Free Companies gradually became obsolete. Kings found their own professional armies to be much more reliable than the Free Companies, though of course the idea of mercenaries never went away and remains to this day. Those standing armies would cause their own problems throughout history. Question #4: How did the warlocks of Vhalorast conquer Urd Maelwyn if the dark elves are so much more powerful than orcs? Two reasons. First, the Warlocks of Vhalorast were a lot more powerful than anyone suspected. The Sovereign and the high Maledicti priests were strong enough to keep the Vhalorasti warlocks in check and compel them to obedience since saying no to someone like Khurazalin from Sevenfold Sword was a spectacularly bad idea. But after the final defeat of the Sovereign, the Vhalorasti orcs were free to do as they liked. Second, the dark elves are chronically unable to work together without betraying each other constantly. The dark elven love of cruelty often manifests as a love of treachery, which frequently leads them to making very stupid decisions. In real life, you often see people who are addicted to various lusts, vices, and addictions making bad decisions, and the dark elves often took that up to 11. By contrast, while the warlocks of Vhalorast are very bad people, they are orderly and organized and they don't often betray each other. Indeed, "brother and sister warlocks" are supposed to extend respect to each other and the Council of Masters harshly punishes anyone who violates certain rules of conduct. So the warlocks of Vhalorast can cooperate a lot more effectively than the dark elves. To put it in Dungeons & Dragons terms, the dark elves are chaotic evil (sometimes urging on stupid evil), but the Vhalorasti warlocks are firmly lawful evil. When the Visage seized control of Urd Maelwyn, she thought to rebuild the Sovereign's Empire and forced a confrontation with Vhalorast. That ended with the Vhalorasti orcs and Warlocks destroying the Vistage's army, seizing Urd Maelwyn and taking the Visage herself back to Vhalorast in chains. Of course, the warlocks had help from the Disciples of Vhalzarok, but more on that will be revealed in later books of Blades of Ruin. Question #5: Why aren't there any dwarves in Owyllain? That is because none of them settled in Owyllain. The dwarves first came to the Frostborn world slightly before the urdmordar. About 15,000 years ago, the dark elves were frantically summoning new kindreds to throw in battle against the high elves. The dwarves came to Andomhaim somewhere near the Torn Hills close to Urd Morlemoch. The dwarfs who sided with the dark elves became the dvargir and probably began cheating the dark elves at every turn because they were better organized. The dvargir became to the dark elves the sort of military subcontractor who overcharges, over promises, and then drastically under-delivers while keeping to the letter of the contract. The dwarves founded nine different underground kingdoms and most of them are relatively close to Andomhaim. Only three of them still survive to the modern period. Question #6: Why aren't there any orcish Swordbearers or Soulbearers? For two reasons. First, Ardrhythain would be reluctant to make soulblades for orcs because orcs already have battle fury and the soulblades inspire a hatred of dark magic in their bearers. There's a chance an orc with a soulblade would go absolutely berserk when fighting an urvaalg or a dark wizard. Second, and this is the more important reason, the orcs didn't actually ask. Due to their threefold law, the high elves are very limited in how they can interact with other kindreds. Ardrhythain created the soulblades and found the Magistri among the humans of Andomhaim because the Keeper of Andomhaim of the time specifically asked. Ridmark was only able to command the high elves of Cathair Ereniel in The Shield War because he was the Shield Knight. The high elves can only help if asked and then only provide the specific help requested if it is in accord with the threefold law. The temptation within them to simply rule over weaker kindreds for their own good is very strong, but if they do that, they turn into dark elves. To get around that problem is one of the reasons Ardrhythain created the Swordbearers. Andomhaim definitely would've been destroyed centuries ago if not for the Order of the Soulblade. That's also the reason Ardrhythain created the Guardians, to help protect both nations and places of power that the high elves otherwise could not protect directly. Question #7: Is Andomhaim very different in Talembur's time than it was in Ridmark's? Andomhaim is at a slightly more advanced technological level as of the Blades of Ruin series, but it is a good deal richer and more prosperous than it was in Ridmark's time. Part of that is that Accolon Pendragon' successors ruled wisely and well, and Andomhaim avoided the sort of destructive civil war that is currently afflicting Owyllain. Andomhaim also hasn't had to face an external war on the scale of the Frostborn or the Heptarchy in that time. Granted, there have been wars with outside adversaries like the Mhorites, but nothing like the Heptarchy War. Additionally, adding the Isle of Kordain to the realm and the discovery of the sea compass let Andomhaim's mariners travel a lot farther and more reliably than they could before. Ships of Andomhaim have made their way to various island kingdoms south of the Isle of Kordain and begun a lively trade with them. This has brought new prosperity to Andomhaim. Granted, this might cause long-term problems. The coast of Andomhaim and the cities of Cintarra and Tarlion are getting a good deal richer and more powerful than the rest of the realm. A clever adversary like the Spider-Cult might find a way to use that to their advantage. And finally, Question #8: Did Calliande actually create the fountain in Blade of Thieves? No. It's just a legend that grew up around her. Neither Ridmark nor Calliande ever came near Stonegate during the War of the Seven Swords. That was why Ridmark didn't like bards very much, since they always embellished and made things up. So those are some recent Andomhaim questions I've received and I hope I answered those questions. So that's it for this week. Thank you for listening to The Pulp Writer Show. I hope you found the show useful. A reminder that you can listen to all the back episodes at https://thepulpwritershow.com. If you enjoyed the podcast, please leave your review on your podcasting platform of choice. Stay safe and stay healthy, and we'll see you all next week.
On Toronto's quiet islands stands Canada's oldest lighthouse... and one of its most haunted. For more than two centuries, visitors have reported a ghostly keeper pacing the tower after dark, searching for justice that never came. But behind the legend lies a true story of colonial violence, a respected Bavarian immigrant beaten to death by drunken soldiers, a mysterious grave hidden beneath shifting sand dunes, and a sacred Indigenous landscape forever changed by war. Tonight, we separate folklore from history and uncover the chilling mystery of the Gibraltar Point Lighthouse. HAH DISCORD - https://discord.com/invite/bJdbpH3hQm YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@HAHChris TikTok - @hah_podcast hauntedamericanhistory.com Patreon- https://www.patreon.com/hauntedamericanhistory LINKS FOR MY DEBUT NOVEL, THE FORGOTTEN BOROUGH Barnes and Noble - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-forgotten-borough-christopher-feinstein/1148274794?ean=9798319693334 AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FQPQD68S Ebook GOOGLE: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=S5WCEQAAQBAJ&pli=1 KOBO: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-forgotten-borough-2?sId=a10cf8af-5fbd-475e-97c4-76966ec87994&ssId=DX3jihH_5_2bUeP1xoje_ SMASHWORD: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1853316 !! DISTURB ME !! APPLE - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disturb-me/id1841532090 SPOTIFY - https://open.spotify.com/show/3eFv2CKKGwdQa3X2CkwkZ5?si=faOUZ54fT_KG-BaZOBiTiQ YOUTUBE - https://www.youtube.com/@DisturbMePodcast www.disturbmepodcast.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
For centuries, the people of eastern Pennsylvania believed there was a hill where you could leave your sickness behind. Not cure it... leave it. Powwowers cast illness into an ancient rock, convinced it could absorb disease, curses, and human misery until the mountain itself became something to fear. But Hexenkopf is more than a haunted hill. It is a place where Native American spirituality, Pennsylvania Dutch folk magic, witchcraft trials, tax rebellions, and modern pagan traditions all converge on the same billion-year-old outcrop of stone. Tonight, we explore one of the strangest, and oldest, sacred places in Pennsylvania. HAH DISCORD - https://discord.com/invite/bJdbpH3hQm YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@HauntedAmericanHistory TikTok - @hah_podcast hauntedamericanhistory.com Patreon- https://www.patreon.com/hauntedamericanhistory LINKS FOR MY DEBUT NOVEL, THE FORGOTTEN BOROUGH Barnes and Noble - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-forgotten-borough-christopher-feinstein/1148274794?ean=9798319693334 AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FQPQD68S Ebook GOOGLE: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=S5WCEQAAQBAJ&pli=1 KOBO: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-forgotten-borough-2?sId=a10cf8af-5fbd-475e-97c4-76966ec87994&ssId=DX3jihH_5_2bUeP1xoje_ SMASHWORD: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1853316 !! DISTURB ME !! APPLE - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disturb-me/id1841532090 SPOTIFY - https://open.spotify.com/show/3eFv2CKKGwdQa3X2CkwkZ5?si=faOUZ54fT_KG-BaZOBiTiQ YOUTUBE - https://www.youtube.com/@DisturbMePodcast www.disturbmepodcast.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
I'm sharing a collection of brief excerpts of guidance I've given to Brain over Binge Group members during our live calls (only my voice is included). The coaching clips cover a variety of topics that come up in recovery, and my goal is to give you insights that can help you in your own life. As you listen, I hope you'll feel supported and encouraged! Join the Brain over Binge Group! Get the Brain over Binge Course for only $18.99 per month Episode mentioned in this show: Ep. 200: Coaching Notes: Recovery Reminders from My 1:1 Sessions Other Brain over Binge resources: Get the FREE 30-day Inspiration Booklet Get personalized support with one-on-one coaching Get the Second Edition of Brain over Binge on Amazon and Audible, BarnesandNoble.com, Apple iBooks, or Kobo. Get the Brain over Binge Recovery Guide Disclaimer: *The Brain over Binge Podcast is produced and recorded by Brain over Binge Recovery Coaching, LLC. All work is copyrighted by Brain over Binge Recovery Coaching, LLC, and all rights are reserved. As a disclaimer, the hosts of the Brain over Binge Podcast are not professional counselors or licensed healthcare providers, and this podcast is not a substitute for medical advice or any form of professional therapy. Eating disorders can have serious health consequences and you are strongly advised to seek medical attention for matters relating to your health. Please get help when you need it, and good luck on your journey.
For sixty-five years, America knew him by only one name: The Boy in the Box. A brutally abused little boy, abandoned in a cardboard bassinet box in a vacant Philadelphia lot, with no name, no family, and no one to claim him. Detectives chased psychics, carnival workers, and heartbreaking confessions that led nowhere, while one investigator devoted his entire life to giving the child back his identity. Then, in 2022, advances in forensic genealogy finally accomplished what generations of detectives could not. Tonight, we tell the tragic story of the child the world refused to forget. HAH DISCORD - https://discord.com/invite/bJdbpH3hQm YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@HauntedAmericanHistory TikTok - @hah_podcast hauntedamericanhistory.com Patreon- https://www.patreon.com/hauntedamericanhistory LINKS FOR MY DEBUT NOVEL, THE FORGOTTEN BOROUGH Barnes and Noble - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-forgotten-borough-christopher-feinstein/1148274794?ean=9798319693334 AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FQPQD68S Ebook GOOGLE: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=S5WCEQAAQBAJ&pli=1 KOBO: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-forgotten-borough-2?sId=a10cf8af-5fbd-475e-97c4-76966ec87994&ssId=DX3jihH_5_2bUeP1xoje_ SMASHWORD: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1853316 !! DISTURB ME !! APPLE - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disturb-me/id1841532090 SPOTIFY - https://open.spotify.com/show/3eFv2CKKGwdQa3X2CkwkZ5?si=faOUZ54fT_KG-BaZOBiTiQ YOUTUBE - https://www.youtube.com/@DisturbMePodcast www.disturbmepodcast.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
The last few years have brought a wave of romances with magical elements—not really paranormal, not really witches, not really contemporary — books where something is just slightly ✨magic✨. Today, we're talking about those books, how they work, what they're saying, and how they work in terms of character, plot and POV. We're also discussing how the books exist on the outer edges of the romance pool.If you want to talk more about these speculative romance novels, or about romance in general, come join our Patreon! You'll get an extra monthly episode from us and access to the incredible readers and brilliant people on the Fated Mates Discord. Learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.Our next read along is an old school contemporary, Perfect by Judith McNaught. Sarah says it has the greatest all-is-lost moment in romance history. Read it to find out if she's right. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.BooksA Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia WilliamsMy Date with a Pair of Gray Sweatpants by Cassie O. PeiaThe House of Now and Then by Edward UnderhillDo Your Worst by Rosie DananEvery Version of You by Natalie MessierThe Night Island by Jayne Ann KrentzThe Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston The Someday Garden by Ashley PostonLosing Sight by Tati RichardsonStruck Speechless by Tati RichardsonNotesThis year's men's World Cup actually broke the Own Goal record with 14 of them. Get ready for the Women's World Cup in Brazil next year in 2027! So these English fans made up a bunch of chants for a regular player, which is very charming. Speaking of soccer, Mamdani continues to show us all that politicians can just…help make people's lives better?Here's a handout Jen uses to teach the three genres that fall under the speculative fiction umbrella, and why magical realism isn't a catch-all or synonym for any writing with speculative elements.The pink dress question: how do you decide if your characters need to heal themselves in order to fall in love, or if falling in love is what heals them?Matthew Rhys and Matthew Macfadyen are in fact different people, but everyone's watching Widow's Bay.SponsorsLumi Gummies. Go to lumigummies.com and use code FATEDMATES for 30% off your order.Lucy Score author of The Dead Guy Next Door, the first in the Riley Thorn series, available in print, ebook and audiobook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.Harpercollins, publishers of Sleuths, by Samantha Moody, available in print, ebook and audiobook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or your local independent bookstore.The RestFor even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2026/7/5/s0843 If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It's so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as you do at patreon.com/fatedmates. Beyond your favorite podcast app, you can find us on Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, Tumblr, and probably some other places, too, if you look hard enough. If you've never listened to our Stop Book Banning episode, there's no better time than now.
In the spirit of "Christmas in July," we're presenting a special live episode of Kobo in Conversation from the Toronto International Festival of Authors' inaugural Ever After, the romance book festival. This was recorded back in November 2025, and though it deals with some extremely seasonal themes, we don't mind a little Christmas in July and we thought you might be into it as well. For a session called "Snowflakes and Sparks," Michael Tamblyn spoke with authors Marissa Stapley and Karma Brown writing under their pen names Julia McKay and Kristine Winters, about what Christmas and Christmas Romance means to them, as well as their COVID-era collaborations as Maggie Knox. LIVE from Ever After, with Julia McKay & Kristine Winters Join the Kobo in Conversation reading challenge on StoryGraph
Deep in the forests overlooking Pennsylvania's Susquehanna River, hikers still whisper about a small, hairy creature that watches from the treetops, steals apples, and pelts trespassers with the cores. It's called the Albatwitch, a bizarre cryptid unlike Bigfoot or any other creature in American folklore. But is it really a monster? Or is it the last surviving echo of German folklore carried across the Atlantic by homesick immigrants more than three centuries ago? Tonight, we trace the remarkable evolution of one of Pennsylvania's strangest legends, from medieval Europe to modern eyewitness sightings at Chickies Rock. HAH DISCORD - https://discord.com/invite/bJdbpH3hQm YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@HauntedAmericanHistory TikTok - @hah_podcast hauntedamericanhistory.com Patreon- https://www.patreon.com/hauntedamericanhistory LINKS FOR MY DEBUT NOVEL, THE FORGOTTEN BOROUGH Barnes and Noble - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-forgotten-borough-christopher-feinstein/1148274794?ean=9798319693334 AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FQPQD68S Ebook GOOGLE: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=S5WCEQAAQBAJ&pli=1 KOBO: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-forgotten-borough-2?sId=a10cf8af-5fbd-475e-97c4-76966ec87994&ssId=DX3jihH_5_2bUeP1xoje_ SMASHWORD: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1853316 !! DISTURB ME !! APPLE - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disturb-me/id1841532090 SPOTIFY - https://open.spotify.com/show/3eFv2CKKGwdQa3X2CkwkZ5?si=faOUZ54fT_KG-BaZOBiTiQ YOUTUBE - https://www.youtube.com/@DisturbMePodcast www.disturbmepodcast.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
“One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.” — Psalm 27:4 Few passages in St. Isaac the Syrian can be as easily misunderstood as this one. Read superficially, it can sound severe, even offensive to modern ears. His warnings about women, nuns, relatives, and young companions may appear to reflect suspicion toward persons rather than wisdom about the spiritual life. Yet such a reading overlooks both the monastic setting in which Isaac writes and the deeper concern that governs every line of his counsel. Isaac is not teaching that women are a source of evil, nor is he diminishing the goodness of family or friendship. Throughout his writings, his attention is never fixed upon others as dangers in themselves. His gaze remains fixed upon the heart and its extraordinary capacity both for communion with God and for subtle distraction. The repeated refrain of this passage reveals its true center: “lest your heart be chilled from the love of God.” This is the thread that binds together everything he says. The heart, once awakened to divine love, must be protected, not because God is fragile, but because we are. Human desire is easily dispersed. Our attention becomes fragmented. Emotional attachments, conversations, familiarities, anxieties, ambitions, and countless innocent occupations can gradually occupy the inner sanctuary that belongs to Christ alone. Rarely does this happen through great acts of rebellion. More often it happens through slow diffusion, until the fire quietly burns less brightly than before. For this reason Isaac begins, not with avoidance, but with humility. Refuse no lowly task. Judge no one. Consider yourself accountable for another's fall. Hide your spiritual struggles. Seek only one wise and God-fearing confidant. Live quietly. Every one of these counsels gathers the heart inward. They free it from the endless outward movement of self-assertion and return it to the simplicity of standing before God. His counsel regarding relationships belongs within this same ascetical vision. He is writing to monks who have embraced a radical vocation of celibacy and solitude, where even legitimate human affections must be carefully ordered lest they become substitutes for the all-consuming love of Christ. His language reflects the rigor of that calling and the assumptions of his own historical and monastic world. It should not be detached from that context or mechanically applied to every Christian life. Yet beneath these historically conditioned expressions lies a spiritual principle of enduring importance. Every disciple of Christ must ask what quietly draws the heart away from its first love. For some, it may indeed be disordered relationships. For others, it is success, constant activity, endless news, resentment, comfort, or the subtle desire to be admired. The forms differ from person to person, but the interior movement remains the same. Anything that gradually occupies the deepest affection of the heart risks cooling the love that belongs to Christ. Isaac's asceticism is therefore not an asceticism of fear but of love. He is not constructing walls around the monk because the world is unclean. He is protecting a flame. The one who has begun to taste the sweetness of communion with God discovers that there is nothing more precious than preserving that intimacy. Every act of vigilance becomes an expression of love. Every renunciation becomes the joyful refusal to exchange what is eternal for what is passing. Paradoxically, this vigilance does not diminish our capacity to love others. It purifies it. Detached from possessiveness and emotional need, the heart becomes capable of a deeper tenderness, one that seeks the good of the other without making the other the source of its life. The more wholly the heart belongs to Christ, the more freely it can belong to everyone else. This is where Isaac is leading us. Not toward fear of the world, nor toward suspicion of human relationships, but toward that simplicity of heart in which nothing is loved apart from God and everything is loved within Him. Only such a heart remains truly free. Only such a heart can receive every person as gift without ever losing the Giver. --- Text of chat during the group: 00:01:53 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: Page 215 paragraph 5 00:09:59 Fr. Charbel Abernethy: https://www.philokaliaministries.org/post/a-new-book-from-city-a-desert-press 00:14:47 Maureen Cunningham: How do I find Christina the Nun I was telling a friend 00:15:00 John ‘Jack': ❤️ 00:15:26 James Hickman: Second Sunday of Easter (or Sunday of Divine Mercy) https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/041226.cfm 00:15:37 Adam Paige: search "Nun Christina" on Amazon 00:15:40 Ambrose Little: Hi, Ren! 00:15:52 Ren Horcher: Reacted to "Hi, Ren!" with ❤️ 00:18:31 Bob Čihák, AZ: P 215, #5, second paragraph 00:21:52 Bob Čihák, AZ: Reacted to "Hi, Ren!" with ❤️ 00:35:13 Aaron: What would ‘linger' and ‘gaze'? Do those terms have different meanings? 00:35:32 Aaron: What would ‘linger' and ‘gaze' mean?* 00:37:06 David Swiderski: A spiritual director I had always said when you stop seeing Christ look away back towards him 00:38:19 Bob Čihák, AZ: P 215, #5, second paragraph 00:39:29 Rebecca Thérèse: I've spent a lot of time travelling alone in Morocco wearing Muslim clothing so I would not stand out. Muslim men do not look directly at women who they are not related to. This felt a little unusual at first but eventually I felt very respected by it. They listened very attentively to me and were very helpful but they never looked at me at all after the first glance. (Moroccan women looked at me and would also touch my hands and my clothing). 00:40:33 Rebecca Thérèse: The attitude of Muslim men is that they do not have the right to look at women. 00:53:04 Aaron: What does St. Isaac mean when he says ‘one who is poor in his place of dwelling' ? 00:54:40 John ‘Jack': One of my very closest confidants is a dear freind who has Glioblastoma Brian cancer 26 years ago, was given 24 hours to live. He's had 7 years of Hama radiation abs a lobotomy, he's one of the most sincere followers I know, and makes a wonderful confidant as he has a HORRIBLE memory as he literally only has about 1/2 a brain, he's a beautiful man 00:55:31 John ‘Jack': I love him dearly 00:55:34 James Hickman: Unless a side fall and die 00:55:43 James Hickman: Seed 00:59:49 Maureen Cunningham: Wow he looks perfect 01:11:46 James Hickman: We can judge those we are closest with, for the tempter wants to trap us in that familiarity 01:15:48 Maureen Cunningham: Seem the world hate Christians we can easily join in 01:15:48 Adam Paige: I found Fr Charbel's upcoming volume as a Kobo e-book, and you can read a 26-page preview (Author's Note and Prologue): https://kobo.com/en/ebook/the-monastic-heart-and-the-future-of-the-church 01:17:44 Rachel: Yes! So beautiful 01:18:19 Ben: Anna: These paragraphs are heavy and my inclination is to turn away from them as something for someone else. 01:18:24 James Hickman: Will this be an audiobook? 01:19:16 Sr Barbara Jean Mihalchick: For me it's shades of novitiate training... 01:20:41 John ‘Jack': Be plucky 01:21:00 Joan Chakonas: Books are the deposit of the faith- essential 01:22:12 Joan Chakonas: I think where would we be without all of these pages of wisdom? 01:25:25 David Swiderski: Thank you Father may God bless you, your mother and Ren and her husband 01:25:28 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you☺️ 01:25:34 Art: Thank you! 01:26:08 Rachel: Thank you! 01:26:08 Aaron: Thank you Father 01:26:11 Gwen's iPhone: Ty
In this episode, KWL Director Tara Cremin sat down and spoke with VP of Self-publishing and Originals, Ashleigh Gardner! Both Ashleigh and Tara have been with Kobo for many years and have incredible insights and understanding into the world of self-publishing. We are super excited to share this episode featuring such a prominent voice in the development of digital self-publishing! Ashleigh tells us about her history with Kobo, her work at Wattpad, her experience returning to Kobo, her idea of what a successful indie author is in 2026, shares some great advice for indie authors entering the Kobo ecosystem, and much more. Publish on Kobo Writing Life.
Long before the curtain rose on one of America's oldest continuously operating theaters, the land beneath the Fulton Theatre ran red with blood. It was here, in 1763, that the last surviving members of the peaceful Conestoga people were slaughtered inside the walls of the Lancaster jail. Centuries later, actors, stagehands, and bartenders report phantom footsteps, ghostly applause, disembodied whistles, and apparitions wandering the galleries. Is the Fulton Theatre simply haunted—or are its ghosts keeping alive a history too painful to forget? Tonight, we uncover the tragic past and enduring legends of one of Pennsylvania's most haunted landmarks. HAH DISCORD - https://discord.com/invite/bJdbpH3hQm YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@HauntedAmericanHistory TikTok - @hah_podcast hauntedamericanhistory.com Patreon- https://www.patreon.com/hauntedamericanhistory LINKS FOR MY DEBUT NOVEL, THE FORGOTTEN BOROUGH Barnes and Noble - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-forgotten-borough-christopher-feinstein/1148274794?ean=9798319693334 AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FQPQD68S Ebook GOOGLE: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=S5WCEQAAQBAJ&pli=1 KOBO: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-forgotten-borough-2?sId=a10cf8af-5fbd-475e-97c4-76966ec87994&ssId=DX3jihH_5_2bUeP1xoje_ SMASHWORD: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1853316 !! DISTURB ME !! APPLE - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disturb-me/id1841532090 SPOTIFY - https://open.spotify.com/show/3eFv2CKKGwdQa3X2CkwkZ5?si=faOUZ54fT_KG-BaZOBiTiQ YOUTUBE - https://www.youtube.com/@DisturbMePodcast www.disturbmepodcast.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
After Japan's surrender in August of 1945, the Empire of Vietnam witnessed a revolution and its winners crafted a declaration of independence. However, forming a new nation-state during the Cold War would prove to be a long, bloody struggle.Support the show My latest novel, "Califia's Crusade," is now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, Bookshop.org, and many other online platforms!
In the summer of 1518, the people of Strasbourg watched in horror as a woman stepped into the street and began to dance. She didn't stop for days. Then dozens joined her. Then hundreds. Men, women, and children danced until their feet bled, their bodies collapsed, and some died from exhaustion. The city responded by building stages, hiring musicians, and forcing the victims to dance even more—turning a public health crisis into one of history's most surreal disasters. Tonight, we unravel the mystery of the Dancing Plague of 1518 and ask the unsettling question: what if the deadliest epidemic wasn't a disease of the body, but of the mind? HAH DISCORD - https://discord.com/invite/bJdbpH3hQm An AI model of my voice was used in this episode to patch around a summer cold. No episode means Chrissy boy doesn't eat. Please forgive me. YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@HauntedAmericanHistory TikTok - @hah_podcast hauntedamericanhistory.com Patreon- https://www.patreon.com/hauntedamericanhistory LINKS FOR MY DEBUT NOVEL, THE FORGOTTEN BOROUGH Barnes and Noble - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-forgotten-borough-christopher-feinstein/1148274794?ean=9798319693334 AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FQPQD68S Ebook GOOGLE: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=S5WCEQAAQBAJ&pli=1 KOBO: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-forgotten-borough-2?sId=a10cf8af-5fbd-475e-97c4-76966ec87994&ssId=DX3jihH_5_2bUeP1xoje_ SMASHWORD: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1853316 !! DISTURB ME !! APPLE - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disturb-me/id1841532090 SPOTIFY - https://open.spotify.com/show/3eFv2CKKGwdQa3X2CkwkZ5?si=faOUZ54fT_KG-BaZOBiTiQ YOUTUBE - https://www.youtube.com/@DisturbMePodcast www.disturbmepodcast.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
In the early 1980s, healthy young Hmong refugees across the United States began dying in their sleep. They went to bed exhausted and never woke up. Medical examiners found no poison, no disease, and no obvious cause of death. But the victims all shared the same terrifying belief: a malevolent night spirit called the dab tsog had come to crush the life from their bodies. The unexplained deaths became one of modern medicine's greatest mysteries—and inspired a young filmmaker named Wes Craven to create one of horror's most iconic monsters. Tonight, we uncover the heartbreaking true story behind A Nightmare on Elm Street. HAH DISCORD - https://discord.com/invite/bJdbpH3hQm YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@HauntedAmericanHistory TikTok - @hah_podcast hauntedamericanhistory.com Patreon- https://www.patreon.com/hauntedamericanhistory LINKS FOR MY DEBUT NOVEL, THE FORGOTTEN BOROUGH Barnes and Noble - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-forgotten-borough-christopher-feinstein/1148274794?ean=9798319693334 AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FQPQD68S Ebook GOOGLE: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=S5WCEQAAQBAJ&pli=1 KOBO: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-forgotten-borough-2?sId=a10cf8af-5fbd-475e-97c4-76966ec87994&ssId=DX3jihH_5_2bUeP1xoje_ SMASHWORD: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1853316 !! DISTURB ME !! APPLE - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disturb-me/id1841532090 SPOTIFY - https://open.spotify.com/show/3eFv2CKKGwdQa3X2CkwkZ5?si=faOUZ54fT_KG-BaZOBiTiQ YOUTUBE - https://www.youtube.com/@DisturbMePodcast www.disturbmepodcast.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
The city of Molalla, Oregon, proudly hides Bigfoot in its official logo. At first glance, it seems like a fun nod to Pacific Northwest folklore. But beyond the town limits lies a forest with a far darker reputation. Over the decades, its maze of logging roads and steep canyons became the dumping ground for serial killers, the hiding place of cults, the final resting place of missing people, and the setting for some of Oregon's most disturbing crimes. Tonight, we venture into the Molalla River corridor, where the real monsters never needed oversized footprints. HAH DISCORD - https://discord.com/invite/bJdbpH3hQm YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@HauntedAmericanHistory TikTok - @hah_podcast hauntedamericanhistory.com Patreon- https://www.patreon.com/hauntedamericanhistory LINKS FOR MY DEBUT NOVEL, THE FORGOTTEN BOROUGH Barnes and Noble - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-forgotten-borough-christopher-feinstein/1148274794?ean=9798319693334 AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FQPQD68S Ebook GOOGLE: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=S5WCEQAAQBAJ&pli=1 KOBO: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-forgotten-borough-2?sId=a10cf8af-5fbd-475e-97c4-76966ec87994&ssId=DX3jihH_5_2bUeP1xoje_ SMASHWORD: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1853316 !! DISTURB ME !! APPLE - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disturb-me/id1841532090 SPOTIFY - https://open.spotify.com/show/3eFv2CKKGwdQa3X2CkwkZ5?si=faOUZ54fT_KG-BaZOBiTiQ YOUTUBE - https://www.youtube.com/@DisturbMePodcast www.disturbmepodcast.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Tucked beneath the trees of southeast Portland lies a cemetery that holds nearly every chapter of the city's history. Here rest Oregon Trail pioneers, forgotten psychiatric patients, Chinese railroad laborers, ship captains, politicians, and a man who may have been wrongfully executed after begging to face his accusers one last time. Over the years, visitors have reported phantom voices, drifting incense, grieving spirits, and an overwhelming sense that some stories refuse to stay buried. Tonight, we walk the quiet paths of Lone Fir Cemetery and uncover the people history almost erased. HAH DISCORD - https://discord.com/invite/bJdbpH3hQm YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@HauntedAmericanHistory TikTok - @hah_podcast hauntedamericanhistory.com Patreon- https://www.patreon.com/hauntedamericanhistory LINKS FOR MY DEBUT NOVEL, THE FORGOTTEN BOROUGH Barnes and Noble - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-forgotten-borough-christopher-feinstein/1148274794?ean=9798319693334 AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FQPQD68S Ebook GOOGLE: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=S5WCEQAAQBAJ&pli=1 KOBO: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-forgotten-borough-2?sId=a10cf8af-5fbd-475e-97c4-76966ec87994&ssId=DX3jihH_5_2bUeP1xoje_ SMASHWORD: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1853316 !! DISTURB ME !! APPLE - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disturb-me/id1841532090 SPOTIFY - https://open.spotify.com/show/3eFv2CKKGwdQa3X2CkwkZ5?si=faOUZ54fT_KG-BaZOBiTiQ YOUTUBE - https://www.youtube.com/@DisturbMePodcast www.disturbmepodcast.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Once upon a time, Sarah went to Sweden and met a thriller writer who likes talking about the rules of writing in genre as much as we do. We're so excited that to be able to bring Anders de la Motte's brilliant thoughts about thrillers and mysteries to Fated Mates in this far-reaching conversation on romance's sister genres—thrillers & mysteries. We talk about Anders's path to writing, about the rules of writing thrillers and mysteries, about the covenant mysteries and thrillers have with readers, and about Mystery Reasons™️. We had the best time with this one — you're going to love it.Learn more about Anders's books at his English language publishers, Simon & Schuster and HarpercollinsIf you want to talk more about Genre Carrying the Myth, Jayne Ann Krentz's genius way of thinking about the work of genre fiction, or about mysteries and thrillers, come join our Patreon! You'll get an extra monthly episode from us and access to the incredible readers and brilliant people on the Fated Mates Discord. Learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.Our next read along is an old school contemporary, Perfect by Judith McNaught. Sarah says it has the greatest all-is-lost moment in romance history. Read it to find out if she's right. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.Thrillers and Mysteries Mentioned in This EpisodeThe Mountain King by Anders De la MotteThe Glass Man by Anders De la MotteThe Rust Forest by Anders De la MotteShutter Island by Denis LehaneThe Usual SuspectsWidow's BayMurder on the Orient Express by Agatha ChristieColumboPoker FaceMurder, She WroteKnives OutThe Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg LarssonKilling Floor by Lee ChildOrphan X by Gregg HurwitzSmall Mercies by Dennis LehaneThe DaVinci Code by Dan BrownJames BondEvil Under the Sun by Agatha ChristieDeath on the Nile by Agatha ChristieAnd Then There Were None by Agatha ChristieOne of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManusThe Thursday Murder Club by Richard OsmanThe WireMemoRandom by Anders De la MotteEnd of Summer by Anders De la MotteGame by Anders De la MotteNotesWelcome Anders de la Motte, author of mysteries and thrillers. Many of his books have been translated to English, most recently The Asker series.Many of the most famous fictional detectives we mentioned are on this list.In fiction, unreliability is a narrative device meant to purposefully confuse or lie to the reader for the purposes of the story. We've argued that it's more or less impossible to have an unreliable narrator in romance. A good explainer on the difference between close 3rd (used in romance) and limited 3rd (used in mysteries/thrillers)MacGuffins and other mystery and thriller tropes and vocabulary.SponsorsJill Shalvis author of Falling Into You, available in print, ebook, audiobook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or your local independent bookstore.Jess Turner, author of The Only Catch, available in print, ebook or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.Hachette, publishers of In the Wake of the Ruined, by Kalie Cassidy, available in print, ebook and audiobook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or your local independent bookstore.Oliver Heber Books, publishers of The Forbidden Duke, by Darcy Burke, available in print, ebook and audiobook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books. Support the special 10th...
In the heart of Oregon's Willamette Valley sits the quiet town of Aurora, a place founded by a man who once predicted the end of the world... and, when it didn't happen, set out to build heaven instead. Led by the charismatic Wilhelm Keil, the Aurora Colony became one of America's most successful utopian communities. Along the way came a coffin filled with whiskey crossing the Oregon Trail, a rooftop brass band, devastating epidemics, remarkable women who defied tradition, and a legacy that still lingers in the streets of one of Oregon's best-preserved historic towns. Tonight, we uncover the extraordinary true story of the Aurora Colony. HAH DISCORD - https://discord.com/invite/bJdbpH3hQm YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@HauntedAmericanHistory TikTok - @hah_podcast hauntedamericanhistory.com Patreon- https://www.patreon.com/hauntedamericanhistory LINKS FOR MY DEBUT NOVEL, THE FORGOTTEN BOROUGH Barnes and Noble - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-forgotten-borough-christopher-feinstein/1148274794?ean=9798319693334 AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FQPQD68S Ebook GOOGLE: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=S5WCEQAAQBAJ&pli=1 KOBO: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-forgotten-borough-2?sId=a10cf8af-5fbd-475e-97c4-76966ec87994&ssId=DX3jihH_5_2bUeP1xoje_ SMASHWORD: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1853316 !! DISTURB ME !! APPLE - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disturb-me/id1841532090 SPOTIFY - https://open.spotify.com/show/3eFv2CKKGwdQa3X2CkwkZ5?si=faOUZ54fT_KG-BaZOBiTiQ YOUTUBE - https://www.youtube.com/@DisturbMePodcast www.disturbmepodcast.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
For more than a century, the Oregon State Hospital has stood at the center of Oregon's mental health system. It was built with revolutionary ideas about healing through sunlight and fresh air, but decades of overcrowding transformed those ideals into underground tunnels, forgotten patients, and one of the deadliest accidental poisonings in American hospital history. Later came forced sterilizations, abandoned cremated remains hidden in a basement, Hollywood's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and ghost stories that still echo through the old wards. Tonight, we uncover the complicated history of Oregon's most infamous hospital. HAH DISCORD - https://discord.com/invite/bJdbpH3hQm YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@HauntedAmericanHistory TikTok - @hah_podcast hauntedamericanhistory.com Patreon- https://www.patreon.com/hauntedamericanhistory LINKS FOR MY DEBUT NOVEL, THE FORGOTTEN BOROUGH Barnes and Noble - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-forgotten-borough-christopher-feinstein/1148274794?ean=9798319693334 AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FQPQD68S Ebook GOOGLE: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=S5WCEQAAQBAJ&pli=1 KOBO: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-forgotten-borough-2?sId=a10cf8af-5fbd-475e-97c4-76966ec87994&ssId=DX3jihH_5_2bUeP1xoje_ SMASHWORD: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1853316 !! DISTURB ME !! APPLE - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disturb-me/id1841532090 SPOTIFY - https://open.spotify.com/show/3eFv2CKKGwdQa3X2CkwkZ5?si=faOUZ54fT_KG-BaZOBiTiQ YOUTUBE - https://www.youtube.com/@DisturbMePodcast www.disturbmepodcast.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Welcome to the Kobo ReWriting Life Podcast! Alongside your regularly scheduled Kobo Writing Life podcast episode releases, we will also be featuring some highlights from our backlist. In this episode, we were joined by best-selling romantic suspense author, Susan Stoker, who talked to us all about writing series books and how she grows her series sales by marketing to readers. This is a great episode for anyone looking to boost their series-writing knowledge! Best-selling author Susan Stoker joins us on the podcast this week to discuss how she creates her romance series from creating the initial layout on an Excel spreadsheet to deciding which marketing strategies to use when launching a new series or bringing a new audience to an older one. Susan also talks to us about translating her series for a non-English audience and how she's managed to sustain such a successful writing career.
George Saunders is back with Vigil, his first novel since Lincoln in the Bardo. In this episode, Kate is joined by fellow book podcasters Jenny King and Sarah Kemp from The Bookcast Club to discuss itGiven his back catalogue, does Vigil live up to the high expectations we have Saunders, one of America's most admired contemporary writers? Why is he so fond of writing about ghosts? Do death, redemption, capitalism and climate change make for an enjoyable read? Do we want novels to be enjoyable? Or do we want them to make a point?We're also exploring Leo Tolstoy's classic novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich, cited by Saunders as a key influence on Vigil, and asks what both books reveal about how we live, how we die, and whether it's ever too late to change.Along the way, Kate, Jenny and Sarah share recent reads, their love of a Kobo e-reader, and recommend books (and one film) following on from our book club read.Books discussedVigil by George SaundersThe Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo TolstoyTranscription by Ben LernerAlmost Life by Kiran Millwood HargraveOnce There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghyBeautyland by Marie-Helene BertinoNorth Woods by Daniel MasonStoryland by Catherine McKinnonPlus a recommendation for the film Palm Springs.PatreonAccess extra episodes, join the pod book club and support the show at Patreon.com/bookclubreviewFollow on Instagram @bookclubreviewpodcastemail thebookclubreview@gmail.comTimestamps1:26 Recent Reads & Kobos – Bookshelf chat, Kobo e-reader enthusiasm, and current reads including Ben Lerner's Transcription and Kiran Millwood Hargrave's Almost Life.11:54 About The Bookcast Club14:41 Patreon Break16:17 What Is Vigil? – Spiritual guide Jill escorts a remorseless fossil fuel tycoon toward death. Audiobook excerpt included.22:16 Discussing Jill28:22 Climate & KJ Boon31:21 A Christmas Carol Parallels34:16 Broader Reflections – Kate wonders if great writers can no longer make moral judgments in today's climate; Transcription raises similar questions.35:54 Verdict on Vigil38:30 The Death of Ivan Ilyich – Tolstoy's novella discussed as Saunders' cited influence. 43:00 Tolstoy the Man48:36 Recommendations52:42 Wrap-upSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
What's the difference between a bundle, a box set, an anthology, and a collection? How can being part of an anthology be creatively interesting and useful for marketing? With Jamie Ferguson In the intro, Amazon Kindle increases the 70% royalty share; audiobook marketing tips (Voices by InAudio); The Builder's Creed [Seth Godin]; Future Vision XPrize; Researching the dark side of travel [Anna Sayburn Lane]; Photos from Bruges @jfpennauthor; Bones of the Deep: A Thriller – J.F. Penn. Today's show is sponsored by Bookfunnel, the essential tool for your author business. Whether it's delivering your reader magnet, sending out advanced copies of your book, handing out ebooks at a conference, or fulfilling your digital sales to readers, BookFunnel does it all. Check it out at bookfunnel.com/thecreativepenn This show is also supported by my Patrons. Join my Community at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn Jamie Ferguson is a fiction and short story author, editor, and publisher, with over 20 anthologies and multiple ebook bundles through her own press. Her latest book for authors is Bundle Up! A Practical Guide to Anthologies and Box Sets That Sell. You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is below. Show Notes The difference between bundles, box sets, anthologies, and collections Why a multi-author project means lots of people promoting the same book, not just you How to find and pitch for anthology opportunities, and what editors look for in a contributor Contracts, rights, and royalty splits explained for short fiction Why Kickstarter and special print editions are changing the anthology game Inkwren, the publishing management tool Jamie built for backlists and anthologies You can find Jamie at JamieFerguson.com. Transcript of the interview ith Jamie Ferguson Jo: Jamie Ferguson is a fiction and short story author, editor, and publisher, with over 20 anthologies and multiple ebook bundles through her own press. Her latest book for authors is Bundle Up! A Practical Guide to Anthologies and Box Sets That Sell. Just for context too, one of my short stories, “The Dark Queen”, is in the Amazing Monster Tales: Into the Briny Deep anthology. So I'm excited to talk about this today. Welcome to the show, Jamie. Jamie: Thanks for having me, Jo. Jo: Lots to talk about. But first up— Tell us a bit more about you and how you got into writing and self-publishing. Jamie: Well, I wanted to be a writer since I was at least six, maybe before then. So it was just something I always wanted to do, but I always did it on the side. I had a year, many years ago, where I was really busy with work, and I just felt like I didn't write anything the entire year, and I thought, “I'm going to give it up.” Then the next year—that was 2011—I started seeing more about self-publishing, and that really invigorated me and made me feel like, “No, why am I giving up something I've wanted to do since before I went to school?” So I got back into a novel I had worked on years before. I went to a writing workshop with Dean Wesley Smith up in Oregon, back in the day, and then I had my energy back. I've been writing ever since. Still on the side, unfortunately, but someday. Jo: Hopefully! Tell us a bit more about what kind of genres you write. Because balancing your own books with also doing these anthologies and things is quite difficult. Jamie: Yes, it definitely is. I'd say I primarily write contemporary fantasy, but I'll write anything in any genre if I'm really excited about it. I also have a soft spot for Westerns. They take a little more time because I like to research all the facts, but those are really fun to write. Creating anthologies on your own is actually quite a bit of work. One of the things I also do is work with two other authors, DeAnna Knippling and Tami Veldura, and create more anthologies with them. That's really fun because then we can each take a different piece. There's also always somebody to talk to, as opposed to doing it on your own. Jo: Let's start with the terminology, because I definitely struggled with this, and I think people still do. We've got bundles, we've got box sets, we've got anthologies, we've got collections—and are these in ebook, audiobook, or print? Can you start by explaining what all of these words actually mean? Jamie: Yes. In my book I actually use the term “multi-author collection” or “multi-author project”, because there are so many different permutations and it does get confusing. From my perspective, I think of a bundle as a collection. It could be a collection of ebooks. Technically it could be a collection of print books, although people generally use “box set” for that—but then a box set can also be a box set that's all ebooks. An anthology, I usually use for something that's a collection of short stories where there's an editor who's actually edited all the stories. I have had stories in anthologies where somebody didn't edit them, and they would technically be called a curator. So it is definitely confusing. I have not done anything with audio collections, but that certainly is another area that I actually think is pretty interesting. Jo: I also think that a single author… so I've done a short story collection, but an anthology is multiple authors. Is that right? Jamie: Yes. Jo: I think when I came into the indie space, there were a lot more multi-author… we all called them box sets back in the day, when it was just ebooks, right? And now we can actually do boxed sets with boxes through things like BookVault. So it feels like the term “box set” has also gone out of fashion. So if people listening are thinking of doing any of this, you do have to figure out what is the thing you might be signing up for. So let's talk about the multi-author projects, as that's where you specialise. What are the benefits for an author to be involved in a multi-author anthology project? Jamie: The biggest benefit is that you are one of multiple people promoting the same project, whether it's print or ebook or whatever. If I put out a short story collection on my own, I'm the one promoting it, and maybe I can get a couple of other people to write about it, but it's really just me. If I'm part of an anthology with 15 other authors, that's 15 other people who are promoting the same project. That's more newsletters, more Facebook posts, maybe something on their Patreons, whatever it is. You get more synergy, and you get more touch points with potential readers. Then hopefully that translates into sales as well. So that's definitely the biggest part of it—the promotion. Then I also personally really enjoy these types of collections because it's just fun to work with other people. There's a nice energy when everybody's like, “Oh, I put this in my newsletter, and I put this here, and I put this here,” and you feel like you're part of something bigger than just your own piece. Jo: What about the creative benefits? Especially with short stories, often people will write them for a collection or for an anthology project. Jamie: Yes. I've definitely written some stories that I never would have thought I'd write, because somebody I knew asked if I would be interested in being in their collection—whether it's an ebook bundle or a print anthology. So at least for me, that's been really fun. One of the ones that stands out is that I was asked to be in a dinosaur collection once, and I was like, “I don't write dinosaur stories.” And then I did. I set a dinosaur story in London, and it was really fun to write, and I never would have come up with that in a million years. Jo: Let's say we've got 12 authors. They've all written short stories, and now it's in this anthology. But what is the market for these kinds of things? Have you found that there is a readership for short story anthologies that carries over to the author's longer work? Jamie: There is. I like to think of it as: if I have a story in a collection or an anthology—whether it's one I'm editing or somebody else is editing—that's one more place for people to find me. A lot of times anthologies will take reprints as well, like your story. “The Dark Queen”—that was a reprint. We asked if you'd be interested in participating in the Amazing Monster Tales series. And I actually really like printing stories again that have already been published, because there are a lot of stories out there that can be hard to find. Or if it's an older book. I have one author I've known for, like, 30 years. I reprinted one of her stories that was originally published in, I think, 1999, and the anthology it was in was out of print. You couldn't find it, and it was a fantastic story. So it's fun to be able to give new life to those stories and give them more opportunities, and also just have more ways for people to find you. Jo: Yes, I definitely think it's a long game. I don't think appearing in a short story anthology in one particular month is going to mean that your whole back collection just sells, right? Jamie: No, definitely not. It's more about avenues to be found. I know there have been some anthologies that have made quite a bit of money, but in general you're probably not going to make as much money, but you will have those extra places for people to find you. Jo: I always feel like yes, there is maybe a small amount of money, but it is more about almost a marketing thing in itself. So let's say an author is listening and they're like, “Do you know, this sounds like a great idea.” How can they pitch for things like this? How do they find out about opportunities, or get noticed to be asked? And what are the expectations for them? Jamie: The biggest thing is networking. There used to be a couple of opportunities where you could make people aware that you had stories that you were interested in potentially having picked up for something. I'm not aware of anything like that now. When I create a collection, I have a mailing list that I send out, and it includes authors I've published before. It includes a couple of extra people who somehow found my mailing list. And I'll publish, like, “Here's what I'm doing.” There are also authors I've met at writing workshops. I've been able to read some of their work, I'll approach them and say, “Hey, I really liked such and such a story. Would you be interested in writing for this?” Then there are a couple of other websites, like Duotrope, and places that advertise markets and calls for submissions. Jo: Yes, I've found them also on small presses that do these kinds of projects. They often put up one call for submission a month or something, and you can write for their particular thing. In general, the short story markets are the places to keep an eye on. Jamie: Yes, definitely. Jo: If an author wants to pitch to have their story as part of an anthology, do you want to know things like platform, or is it just the story itself? Jamie: I personally look at the author's platform. I do make exceptions—there are actually two authors I've worked with a couple of times who don't have websites. They are people I know personally and they are very, very good writers, so I'll make an exception for things like that. But otherwise, if somebody submitted a story to me and I didn't know that person, I would check out their website, I would check out their social media, I would see what else they had done. Part of what you're doing when you're creating a collection is thinking not just about how you, as the person organising this, will promote the collection, but how the authors who are participating will help promote it as well. If it's somebody who has a lot of fans, even if they're not very active on social media, that can help a lot too. There are a lot of different factors, though. Jo: So then talk us through the project timeline. How long do things take, and what sort of involvement do the authors have along the way? Because it's a lot to juggle. Jamie: Yes, it is a lot to juggle. I can give you an example with the Monster Tales series. We'll come up with an idea, and we also like to try to get the artwork done early on in the process. We don't need it that soon, but it's really great to have that taken care of. We'll contact authors. I think for this one we used my mailing list, but we've also contacted a number of people individually that we know who write the style of stories we like. Then, as the submissions come in, we usually wait until we have a nice chunk of them to start going through, and then we'll pick some right away. Sometimes it'll be like, “Oh my gosh, of course we want this story,” and we'll wait to fill out the other slots. Then we'll negotiate sometimes. Sometimes it's like, “I want this story.” “Well, I want this other story.” And we have to figure out how the word count works. Once we finalise the stories, then usually what happens with that anthology is that DeAnna—who is a very, very good editor—will make the first editing pass, and then I'll make the second. And now Tami's involved, so Tami will make the third, and then we'll iterate. Once all three of us have gone through the first time, then we'll send the story back to the author for edits. So the most the author has to do for most of the process is just wait for us to edit their story, and then work on their edits and get them back. Then, once we get closer to launch, we'll give them information about what we're going to do. For example, we're going to launch the next issue with a Kickstarter. So our authors know that we have a Kickstarter coming, and we'll give them more information as we get closer to the actual launch date. Jo: So how long might an author expect before their work is out there? Jamie: It really varies. I've had some collections published very quickly—let's say a couple of months. Some have taken longer just because somebody ends up having some life issue and things get delayed. So I'd say ideally it would be more like three to nine months. Jo: Yes, I think… depending on the— Jamie: —collection and the complexity. Jo: Yes, exactly. Jo: And you did mention word count there. Just give us a range of what word count you like to get. Jamie: So these days I'm shooting for between 75,000 and 80,000 for the total word count for a collection. That includes the stories, but it also includes the opening, the introduction. For one we're working on now, we're going to have some interstitials, where we have little bits of things we're going to write in between each story. So that's the overall size of the collection. I'll keep track of the word count as the stories come in, and then as we edit the stories, sometimes they grow, sometimes they shrink. Sometimes that's a big enough difference where we're like, “Okay, we need one more story to fill it in.” But that's the target. Jo: And how much for each individual story? Jamie: That varies. I've done a bunch of different things. These days, what I'm advertising is between 3,000 and 8,000 words. I also always tell people: if you're outside this range on either side, just check with me, and if it's something that's really an excellent fit for the book, I'll make an exception. The one that's coming out, I think we have a 1,500- or 2,000-word story that was just amazingly perfect for what we wanted. There was another story, actually I think it was the issue that you were in, that was at least 12,000 words, but it also was a perfect fit for the theme. So I will make exceptions, but within reason. I wouldn't put a novella inside an anthology, because then you'd have a 22,000-word story next to a 3,000-word story, and I personally feel like that's really jarring for the reader. You don't want to go from something super short to something super long. It just doesn't feel like it flows well to me. Jo: No, absolutely. Jo: We'll come back to the making of it because you mentioned some really interesting things there. But just on the contractual side—a lot of indie authors don't necessarily do any publishing contracts for their work, unless it's signing the terms and conditions when uploading on Amazon or Kobo. So tell us a bit about the contract side. What rights are we talking about here? Any red lines in contracts around this kind of thing? Jamie: For contracts, I would recommend people read Kristine Kathryn Rusch's posts on this. She is way more informed about this than I ever will be, so when I have questions, I'll look at her posts. I've asked her a couple of questions. What we're doing for the Amazing Monster Tales… this is the first time that I've actually had authors sign contracts. Prior to this, I've used PubShare, which handles royalty splits and all of that, and that was really great. We want to do direct sales and Kickstarters and have lots of other options. So we did put together a contract this time. I'd have to pull it up, but I think we asked for first worldwide rights in English—I'm getting the terminology wrong here—but that was basically it. Jo: Or, I guess, reprint rights if the story's already been licensed. Jamie: Correct. We have two contract templates, one for original stories and one for reprints. We made sure to make that distinction, because it is definitely a distinction. In the book by Kristine Kathryn Rusch—it's called Closing the Deal… on Your Terms—I highly recommend that for anybody interested in learning more about contracts. Jo: Yes, that's great. And just for people listening: when you said you didn't have contracts before, you just used PubShare. So in that way, the author still retained the rights and you just split the royalties—it was more of a co-writing thing. Jamie: Correct. When you publish stories through PubShare, the author signs an agreement with PubShare, and then I, as the editor or organiser, would also sign a separate agreement. So each of us has an agreement with PubShare. We don't have agreements with each other, if that makes sense. Jo: Yes, so it's very different to move into Kickstarter. So tell us about what you're now moving into. Jamie: Well, Kickstarters are a new world for me personally. I have many friends who have had Kickstarters. I've supported Kickstarters. I watch them. But it's something where I'm very happy to have two partners who have done Kickstarters before. I'm not sure how many Tami's done—I think Tami's done the most at this point. So this is all new to me. But it's very exciting. At this point we have a backlist, so part of the plan, for the Monster series, is to offer issues one through four as part of the rewards when we launch issue number five. That's really exciting, because I never had a backlist like that before. Jo: Yes, and in fact the money is in the backlist, as ever, and those add-ons or bundles as part of Kickstarter are great. So are you going to do special print editions, or is it digital only? Jamie: We are talking about special print editions. You mentioned BookVault earlier—we've been looking at BookVault. Our other anthology series that hasn't come out yet will also launch with a Kickstarter. It's dragon-themed, and Tami actually did the cover work, which is beautiful. BookVault just gives you so many options that we never had before, so I'm very excited about that. Jo: Yes, I think it's a really good idea. I did gorgeous hardbacks for my solo author collection, so I think it's a great idea. So from the publisher side, let's come back to that. You've mentioned you have to write things like an introduction and interstitials, and you're trying to balance the stories. What are some of the other things that people might think about if they want to organise their own anthologies? Jamie: Oh gosh, where to start? There's the basic setting up of the anthology, so you have to define the table of contents. You might get a bunch of stories that are really awesome, and you might have to tell somebody who has a wonderful story—and maybe even who's a good friend of yours—that you're going to pass on it because their story doesn't fit with all the other stories. Every time I have to do that, I feel kind of bad. But being on this side, it's really interesting to see how you can tell which stories fit together and which don't. There's also the editing process, which can be a lot of work. Part of what I like about working with Tami and DeAnna is that DeAnna really loves editing. I feel like I'm a good editor, and I can do it, but for me it's more of a job. For DeAnna, she loves it, so she does the bulk of the editing, which is great. When I do it on my own, I feel like it's a task I have to do. There's lots of cat-herding. Sometimes people take a while to get their edits back. Sometimes they have life events, and you have to delay things because you're waiting on them. There are all the little tiny pieces of organising things—like, if you're reprinting stories, you need to make sure you get the copyright attribution correct. A lot of times I'll have to go and look up where something was originally published. An author might say, “Oh, it was published in this year,” and I'm like, “Okay, actually it was published in this other year, by this other publication first.” So I'm trying to be organised there. henT one of the things that very infrequently—I think it's only happened to me twice—every once in a while, you're in the middle of editing a story and you have to pass on it, even though you've already accepted it, because the editorial vision and the author vision for the story are not the same, and you can't reconcile that. Jo: I think that's really interesting, because so much of what you're talking about there—you mentioned vision—it's almost taste. You're saying which stories fit. It's not just a case of, I don't know, a pirate anthology and then picking 10 stories about pirates, right? You seem to be thinking about this in a more artistic way. So can you talk a bit more about that? How do you decide on a theme, and then how do you know that a story doesn't fit? Jamie: In the beginning, I was not this selective. In the beginning I'd say, for example, “Hey, I'm putting out a collection about fairies. Give me a fairy story,” and that was it. As I've edited the stories, it's become easier to see how things fit. So, for example, if I have 10 stories in an anthology and I have an 11th story, and they have different tones—let's say the 11th story is really funny and all the other stories are very serious—then that would be a fit thing. That's not necessarily taste; it's just that you don't want one funny story if everything else is really dark and scary or serious. As far as picking a theme, the theme could be very broad. With this dragon anthology we're working on, we decided we wanted it to be called A Hoard of Books. So the theme was: has to have dragons, has to have books, and that's pretty much it. And then we were like, “Let's just see what we get.” We were very surprised at what we got. We thought we'd have more serious stories, and it turned out most of them were very light-hearted and really fun. And we're like, “You know what? That actually changes the way we're looking at the whole series,” because we did not expect that. With the monster series, we'll pick a theme. So, for example, the next issue is Monsters in Love, and for those it's more like, let's just see what happens. Sometimes I'll have a more specific theme. The next anthology I'm publishing on my own is called Fairy Bargains, and I wanted people to obviously have fairies, but I wanted there to be something related to the mythology and lore of having a bargain with a fairy—and there's a lot of stuff about that. So for some things like that, when I put out a call, I'll provide information. I might say, “Here's a link to a Wikipedia article. Here's some mythology that might be helpful for you,” just because I want things to stick a little bit more to the theme itself. Whereas with Monsters in Love, there's a very wide range of stories, and that was very fun to work through. Jo: Oh, yes. There's a lot of monster, on the spicy side as well. But were you doing a clean Monsters in Love, as opposed to in lust? Jamie: Yes, this is a clean one. That's pretty funny. But boy, when you give authors the room for these types of things, you get all kinds of stories, and it is super fun to work with those collections. Jo: As you're talking, I definitely want to do more short stories. It's really interesting, because you can actually generally get paid more for a first print—first print rights on a short story—but I often want to just publish it myself. Then I was really happy to be in yours, because it was a reprint anyway. So I was like, well, there's absolutely nothing to lose if it goes in as a reprint. So these things can be really interesting. Talking of the finance from your side of things: you have a small press and you're doing this publishing yourself, but you're paying all these authors and doing a lot of work. So how does it work as the publisher, in terms of these anthologies, financially? Jamie: With the ones we've published so far, because we've gone through PubShare, it's been a royalty split. As the editors, we would take a percentage, and then we pay for the artwork, and of course all of our time. I think what we were doing there was saying 70% of the royalties would be split equally between all of the authors and the stories. So, for example, if I had a story as well, I would get part of the author split—the same percentage as everybody else in the collection—in addition to the editor split. For what we're doing now, we've changed this a little bit, and I believe we said 60% goes to the authors, and then we're going to keep a share of the proceeds for the business because we want to be able to pay for the artwork out of the business account. We want to pay for advertising, whatever we need to do—like setting up our store, or if we wanted to invest in anything, we want to be able to do that as the business, as opposed to it just being us doing this on our own. We're just trying to treat it a little bit differently. Jo: And I know it's so much work—a crazy amount of work. How many anthologies and books do you have to do in a year to make it worthwhile financially? Jamie: Oh, I don't know. I would say, unless you get an opportunity—like, for example, to have an anthology in a story bundle or something like that—you may not break even. But if you're going to do this, do it more for the marketing, do it more because you enjoy it. Now, going forward, I think that will change, because we are looking at Kickstarters, we are looking at direct sales. We're very motivated to try to make this more of a business thing than a fun side project. So, ask me in a year. Jo: Yes, hopefully more. I do think Kickstarter is great for short stories. I actually buy quite a few collections on Kickstarter. I think they're actually really hard to discover through, say, Amazon—it's a place that is quite hard to identify short stories. Whereas I've found I've bought collections on Kickstarter because there's so much more of a sales page—there's so much more rich media that tells me how I'm going to feel about the stuff. I've bought short story anthologies and collections from people I don't know. So I think it's a really good thing to do. There is an audience there. Jamie: Yes, definitely. And it does feel like the anthologies on Amazon don't sell as well—you don't make as much as you used to. I've been doing this for, well, gosh, 10 years now, and I feel like the sales numbers on Amazon in the past year were noticeably lower than they would have been six or eight years ago. So I am very excited about Kickstarter. Plus, Kickstarter just feels really fun. You're not just throwing your book up; you also have all the extra stuff with the page, you have the rewards, and it just feels really exciting. Jo: No, I agree. I really love it. I didn't do it for a long time, and now I just love it. Jo: So, staying with the publisher side of things— Any practical formatting and production tips? Because in these types of projects, all kinds of people just send you different stuff. Jamie: I have a style guide. So whether it's me or it's the group project, once all the edits are complete, I'll do a formatting pass, and I'll make sure I use curly quotes and the same em dash format and everything, just so everything in the book is formatted the same way. Every once in a while there's an author who has something particular that they want, and I can work around that, and that's fine. I also work with a lot of Canadian authors, and I'll let them keep their Canadian spellings. I don't think everybody does that, but I feel like that's their voice in a way, so I don't correct those. I might check some things there. I think the formatting is important—it makes things look better if everything has the same style. Then I use Vellum, which makes things really easy. I love Vellum. Because I publish so many authors at this point, I have a Vellum file where I store their biographies and their links, so when I publish a new anthology I'll just go grab, say, Jo's “about the author” page from that collection and put it into the new file. Then I also track when the last time was that I checked with the author about their biography. If it's been more than a year, I'll check in with them and say, “Hey, do you have an updated biography you want me to use? Here are your links—do you have any different links now?” So that makes it a lot easier from the formatting standpoint. Jo: And you mentioned Vellum—having done box sets on Vellum, you can just drag a whole book in there if you want to do a three-book box set, or three short stories, whatever. It's much easier to just drag things in, and it makes it easier to format. So I would say to people: you don't need to worry too much about that. There are lots of things that can help you. But even with doing the print stuff for the Kickstarter—people have opinions, don't they? So in terms of authors' opinions and managing—you mentioned herding cats—how do you manage all of that side of things? Jamie: I haven't actually had a lot of trouble with that. The authors I've worked with seem to feel like they gave me their story, and then once the edits are out of the way… I haven't had anybody have any issues with the covers. Usually they love the covers, especially for the Monster series. So, no problems there. Jo: Oh, that's good. Well, I would say a tip would be to make sure you're communicating, if you're somebody who's organising. So talk a bit about communication. Jamie: Communication is very important. What I try to do is send regular updates, especially if I'm in the middle of edits or working on something and I'm not ready to launch. I'll send an update email out to the authors and just say, “Here's what's going on, here's what the plan is.” Or if the plan has to change, if the launch date has to change for some reason, I'll let the authors know about that. Actually, with the upcoming Monsters in Love issue, we were originally not going to do a Kickstarter. That was a late decision, so I contacted all the authors and said, “We've changed our plans. We're going to launch this with a Kickstarter. Please confirm that you're okay with this.” One author was not comfortable with the Kickstarter idea, so he pulled his story, and then we found a replacement story for that. But I just feel like the communication piece is really essential. It's really important for the authors to know what's going on. Jo: Yes, absolutely. So, we've talked about how marketing is a good thing, in terms of there being lots of people marketing. How are you effectively marketing these kinds of books, as the premise is quite different to a single author project? Jamie: Right. There's the usual—write a release post, write posts on social. I do additional things, so I'll publish what I call a story spotlight for each story in the anthology. That's just where I talk a little bit about the story, I provide an excerpt, and then I provide the author's bio and links to find them. Those are really great, because they're very quick to put together. The hardest part is getting a short excerpt that shows enough about the story to be engaging. But that really isn't that much time, either. Then those are also nicely evergreen. I've actually searched for authors before, when I'm trying to research them for an interview, and I've found my own spotlight posts and my own interview posts with authors come up at the top of the list, which is kind of funny. I also do interviews with as many of the authors in a collection as are willing to participate. Sometimes people just don't have the time—I don't make this required—but I usually get 80 to 90% of the authors participating. So, for example, this year I'm in a couple of bundles on StoryBundle, and I'm doing interviews for people there. It's also really fun, and you're not paying for advertising—you're just creating something that the authors are excited about and they want to share. So it promotes the collection, but it also promotes the author, which I find really nice. It's a nice networking thing too, and I'm happy if someone wants to interview me. It's like free publicity for each person, in addition to the collection. Jo: I love that you've used the word “fun” quite a lot, which I find amazing. You're obviously a super collaborative person. I've co-written a number of books— I've been part of some collections, and I really think that there are two personalities. One is like me, where we really love the creation stuff and the publishing stuff, but we're hyper-controlling. And then someone like you—you're very collaborative, and you're doing such a great job. To people listening, I would say: if you're more like me, don't organise an anthology. What you want is Jamie, or somebody who actually finds it fun to organise a big group of authors. Jamie: Yes. It is definitely interesting working with other partners in this, because when I publish an anthology on my own, I make all the decisions. I pick the artwork, I pick the theme, I do everything, I decide the table of contents. But when you're working with other people, you do need to negotiate. So we've had a couple of times where it's like, “I want this story.” “Well, I want this other story, I don't like the story that you want.” And so we have to barter, in a way. Aside from that, it is nice, because you get to split up the tasks. I could focus on things like the organising—I do the Vellum files, I do the final cover and everything. For the Kickstarters, actually, Tami's got more expertise, so Tami's going to be working on the Kickstarters for our collections together. If I had to do all this on my own, it's a ton of work. It's a ton of work. So it is nice to split it up. Jo: And of course, one of the things is managing so many moving parts—and you've actually built a tool to manage all this. So tell us a bit about that tool, and how it might be useful for people with big backlists as well as anthologies. Jamie: I built what I think of as a publishing management application. The original idea is that, for years and years, I wanted a software tool that would do catalogue management, because I was managing my own catalogue, and I was also managing—at this point I've published at least 20 anthologies, so that's a lot of authors. Then last summer, I had an author who I'd published a number of times, who was going to, I think, WorldCon, and she asked if I could give her covers for five anthologies she'd been in, so that she could make some promotional material. I was like, “Oh, sure, I can do that.” And then I was like, “Well, wait a second—is this in Notion?”—because I started trying to use Notion last year—”or is it in a spreadsheet?” It turned out her information was in, like, three different places, and I had to work to pull it together. And then I was like, “You know what? That's it. I'm just going to finally write this application.” So Inkwren manages your stories. As an author, I can manage my stories—I can track which are published, which are drafts, which are just ideas. I can track my publications. From the publisher standpoint, it's really helpful, because I can track each anthology I've published and what I'm working on. I can track the edits, I can track the contracts. I can upload contract templates—so we talked earlier about the original and reprint contract templates that I use. I upload those, and they have placeholders in them. When I generate the actual contract, the author's name will replace the placeholder—I'll have the text “author name” in the contract template, and it'll get replaced by, like, “Joanna Penn” or whatever. So that saves a lot of time. Then I also added in task tracking, because I started to feel like, well, now all my stuff is in one place, but my tasks are somewhere else. So now I can associate tasks with a publication. For example, for the book I'm working on right now, I know which tasks I need to do for the cover, and which for the interior, and everything. I have a template of tasks. Then I can also track tasks related to promotions. For example, the story bundle I'm promoting right now, I have a task for each interview I'm doing with the authors, and I have a calendar view. I can see when I'm going to publish them and know that they're all spread out. It saves me so much time, and it's so much easier. Jo: I do think building tools when you actually need the tool yourself is very useful. Just say the name again, and spell it out for people. Jamie: It's Inkwren. My own personal publishing company is Blackbird Publishing, and I wanted something related to birds and writing. So I came up with Inkwren, which is I-N-K-W-R-E-N, and it's just inkwren.com. Jo: And it is available for other people to potentially buy and use? Jamie: Yes, it is. Jo: Well, I think that's super useful, because it's very hard when people are starting out and they think, “Oh, I've only got one book—why would I need any kind of tool to manage it?” But over the years, your backlist grows, especially with short stories. So I love that you've built this, and there's probably more that you can add over time as you expand the business yourself. So much potential. So we are at the end. Where can people find you and your books and everything you do online? Jamie: My author website is JamieFerguson.com. And then, obviously, I mentioned Inkwren earlier. My publishing company is BlackbirdPublishing.com. And then the projects I'm doing with Tami and DeAnna—we have a couple of websites, but the easiest way to find us is our press, which is BorogrovePress.com. Jo: Fantastic. Well, thanks so much for your time, Jamie. That was great. Jamie: Thanks, Joanna.The post Bundles, Box Sets and Anthologies With Jamie Ferguson first appeared on The Creative Penn.
On the edge of Sauvie Island, just outside Portland, stands a beautiful Victorian farmhouse that no one has lived in for nearly twenty years. It can't be demolished. It can't easily be restored. So it simply waits, its windows dark and its doors locked. But the Bybee-Howell House is only part of the island's strange history. From the Multnomah people and their ancient wapato harvests to Gold Rush fortunes, a self-taught botanist who changed Northwest science, a mysterious courting mirror, and an abandoned concrete UFO hidden in the woods, tonight we explore one of Oregon's quietest places. HAH DISCORD - https://discord.com/invite/bJdbpH3hQm YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@HauntedAmericanHistory TikTok - @hah_podcast hauntedamericanhistory.com Patreon- https://www.patreon.com/hauntedamericanhistory LINKS FOR MY DEBUT NOVEL, THE FORGOTTEN BOROUGH Barnes and Noble - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-forgotten-borough-christopher-feinstein/1148274794?ean=9798319693334 AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FQPQD68S Ebook GOOGLE: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=S5WCEQAAQBAJ&pli=1 KOBO: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-forgotten-borough-2?sId=a10cf8af-5fbd-475e-97c4-76966ec87994&ssId=DX3jihH_5_2bUeP1xoje_ SMASHWORD: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1853316 !! DISTURB ME !! APPLE - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disturb-me/id1841532090 SPOTIFY - https://open.spotify.com/show/3eFv2CKKGwdQa3X2CkwkZ5?si=faOUZ54fT_KG-BaZOBiTiQ YOUTUBE - https://www.youtube.com/@DisturbMePodcast www.disturbmepodcast.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
The Korean Peninsula was divided after the second world war as the Soviet Union occupied the north and the US occupying the south. Though this division was initially meant to be temporary, the subsequent Korean War and its aftermath cemented the divisions for both North and South as the Cold War brought troops from both the United States and the People's Republic of China into direct conflict.Support the show My latest novel, "Califia's Crusade," is now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, Bookshop.org, and many other online platforms!
For nearly 1,500 years, people have claimed that something enormous lurks beneath the dark waters of Scotland's most famous loch. It has been called a saint's miracle, a flesh-eating water spirit, a living dinosaur, and one of the greatest hoaxes in modern history. From medieval monks and Highland folklore to toy submarines, fake photographs, cutting-edge DNA science, and a monster worth millions to Scotland's economy, tonight we uncover the astonishing true story behind the legend of the Loch Ness Monster. HAH DISCORD - https://discord.com/invite/bJdbpH3hQm YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@HauntedAmericanHistory TikTok - @hah_podcast hauntedamericanhistory.com Patreon- https://www.patreon.com/hauntedamericanhistory LINKS FOR MY DEBUT NOVEL, THE FORGOTTEN BOROUGH Barnes and Noble - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-forgotten-borough-christopher-feinstein/1148274794?ean=9798319693334 AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FQPQD68S Ebook GOOGLE: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=S5WCEQAAQBAJ&pli=1 KOBO: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-forgotten-borough-2?sId=a10cf8af-5fbd-475e-97c4-76966ec87994&ssId=DX3jihH_5_2bUeP1xoje_ SMASHWORD: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1853316 !! DISTURB ME !! APPLE - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disturb-me/id1841532090 SPOTIFY - https://open.spotify.com/show/3eFv2CKKGwdQa3X2CkwkZ5?si=faOUZ54fT_KG-BaZOBiTiQ YOUTUBE - https://www.youtube.com/@DisturbMePodcast www.disturbmepodcast.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
In Guthrie, Oklahoma, one Victorian mansion has lived more lives than most towns. It began as the lavish home of a wealthy cotton baron, became a funeral home where the dead were prepared for burial, later housed a boarding school, and eventually transformed into one of Oklahoma's most famous haunted inns. Along the way, it became intertwined with the bizarre story of outlaw Elmer McCurdy, whose mummified body spent decades as a carnival attraction before finally returning to Oklahoma. Tonight, we uncover the strange history, ghostly legends, and unsettling truths behind the Stone Lion Inn. HAH DISCORD - https://discord.com/invite/bJdbpH3hQm YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@HauntedAmericanHistory TikTok - @hah_podcast hauntedamericanhistory.com Patreon- https://www.patreon.com/hauntedamericanhistory LINKS FOR MY DEBUT NOVEL, THE FORGOTTEN BOROUGH Barnes and Noble - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-forgotten-borough-christopher-feinstein/1148274794?ean=9798319693334 AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FQPQD68S Ebook GOOGLE: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=S5WCEQAAQBAJ&pli=1 KOBO: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-forgotten-borough-2?sId=a10cf8af-5fbd-475e-97c4-76966ec87994&ssId=DX3jihH_5_2bUeP1xoje_ SMASHWORD: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1853316 !! DISTURB ME !! APPLE - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disturb-me/id1841532090 SPOTIFY - https://open.spotify.com/show/3eFv2CKKGwdQa3X2CkwkZ5?si=faOUZ54fT_KG-BaZOBiTiQ YOUTUBE - https://www.youtube.com/@DisturbMePodcast www.disturbmepodcast.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
On December 30, 1999, firefighters responding to a house fire in the tiny town of Welch, Oklahoma, uncovered the beginning of one of America's most heartbreaking unsolved mysteries. Two parents had been murdered. Two teenage girls had vanished without a trace. For nearly twenty years, investigators chased false confessions, overlooked critical evidence, and missed clues that had been sitting inside a forgotten box in a sheriff's office storage closet. Even after arrests and convictions, Ashley Freeman and Lauria Bible have never been found. Tonight, we follow the twists, failures, and heartbreaking search for the truth behind one of Oklahoma's darkest crimes. HAH DISCORD - https://discord.com/invite/bJdbpH3hQm YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@HauntedAmericanHistory TikTok - @hah_podcast hauntedamericanhistory.com Patreon- https://www.patreon.com/hauntedamericanhistory LINKS FOR MY DEBUT NOVEL, THE FORGOTTEN BOROUGH Barnes and Noble - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-forgotten-borough-christopher-feinstein/1148274794?ean=9798319693334 AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FQPQD68S Ebook GOOGLE: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=S5WCEQAAQBAJ&pli=1 KOBO: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-forgotten-borough-2?sId=a10cf8af-5fbd-475e-97c4-76966ec87994&ssId=DX3jihH_5_2bUeP1xoje_ SMASHWORD: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1853316 !! DISTURB ME !! APPLE - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disturb-me/id1841532090 SPOTIFY - https://open.spotify.com/show/3eFv2CKKGwdQa3X2CkwkZ5?si=faOUZ54fT_KG-BaZOBiTiQ YOUTUBE - https://www.youtube.com/@DisturbMePodcast www.disturbmepodcast.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Picher, Oklahoma, was once one of the richest mining towns in America. It supplied the lead and zinc that helped win two world wars and made fortunes almost overnight. But beneath the prosperity, the town was slowly poisoning itself. Toxic chat piles, rivers that ran orange with acid, collapsing mine shafts, and children suffering from lead poisoning eventually turned Picher into the most contaminated ghost town in the United States. Along the way came stories of Tommyknockers, phantom mine cages, the Hornet Spooklight, and a pair of missing girls whose remains may still lie hidden beneath the flooded mines. Tonight, we explore the rise, fall, and haunting legacy of the town that ate itself. HAH DISCORD - https://discord.com/invite/bJdbpH3hQm YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@HauntedAmericanHistory TikTok - @hah_podcast hauntedamericanhistory.com Patreon- https://www.patreon.com/hauntedamericanhistory LINKS FOR MY DEBUT NOVEL, THE FORGOTTEN BOROUGH Barnes and Noble - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-forgotten-borough-christopher-feinstein/1148274794?ean=9798319693334 AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FQPQD68S Ebook GOOGLE: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=S5WCEQAAQBAJ&pli=1 KOBO: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-forgotten-borough-2?sId=a10cf8af-5fbd-475e-97c4-76966ec87994&ssId=DX3jihH_5_2bUeP1xoje_ SMASHWORD: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1853316 !! DISTURB ME !! APPLE - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disturb-me/id1841532090 SPOTIFY - https://open.spotify.com/show/3eFv2CKKGwdQa3X2CkwkZ5?si=faOUZ54fT_KG-BaZOBiTiQ YOUTUBE - https://www.youtube.com/@DisturbMePodcast www.disturbmepodcast.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
It's summer, so we're talking Country House Parties! We're skulking around, having scandalous meetings in cupboards, getting caught in the rain near the groundskeeper's cottage, and generally causing chaos during a summer party at an enormous country house where someone is definitely ending up married (or at least ruined). This is another one where we're pretty shocked we haven't done it before. Gird your loins, historical lovers!!If you want to talk more about country house parties, about historicals, or about romance in general, come join our Patreon! You'll get an extra monthly episode from us and access to the incredible readers and brilliant people on the Fated Mates Discord. Learn more at fatedmates.net/patreon.Our next read along is an old school contemporary, Perfect by Judith McNaught. Sarah says it has the greatest all-is-lost moment in romance history. Read it to find out if she's right. Get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books.BooksDay of the Duchess by Sarah MacLeanDuchess by Night by Eloisa JamesBand Sinister by KJ CharlesAny Old Diamonds by KJ CharlesHow the Duke was Won by Lenora BellA Dangerous Man by Connie BrockwayForever Your Duke by Erica RidleyDo You Want to Start a Scandal by Tessa DareSlightly Dangerous by Mary BaloghWhat I did for a Duke by Julie Ann LongThe Fifth Avenue Rebels Series by Joanna ShupeAgain the Magic by Lisa KleypasNotesIt's officially called The Obama Presidential Center, but you can also call it The Obamalisk OR the Taj Michelle. Whatever works for you! It's a great place for a first date!The tall ships! It's not the St. Charles, but the St. Lawrence waterways, it's manmade, because you know, Niagara Falls. We know geography!Some people got married at Madison Square Garden and some other people got engaged at the top of the Empire State Building.In Tatler, author Lucy Foley wrote about the country house party.Noises Off is a farce.SponsorsRachel Griffiths, author of Just for the Season, available in print, ebook, audiobook from Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, signed from the Ripped Bodice, or wherever you get your books.Max Monroe authors of Where I Should Have Been, available in print, ebook, audiobook from Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or your local independent bookstore.Kristin Jennings, author of A Legacy of Magic & Monsters, available in print, ebook or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.Union Square & Co., publishers of Pot Shot, by Laura Piper Lee, available in print, ebook and audiobook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, or your local independent bookstore.The RestFor even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2026/7/5/s0842-country-house-parties If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It's so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as you do at patreon.com/fatedmates. Beyond your favorite podcast app, you can find us on Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, Tumblr, and probably some other places, too, if you look hard enough. If you've never listened to our Stop Book Banning episode, there's no better time than now.
On the outskirts of Oklahoma City stood a quiet Catholic care home built to offer mercy to the sick and forgotten. Instead, it became the hunting ground of a young nurse who calmly confessed to smothering elderly patients simply to see what it felt like to kill. Decades later, the abandoned building became the center of ghost stories, flooded hallways, unexplained voices, and one of Oklahoma's most infamous paranormal legends. Tonight, we separate the chilling truth from the haunting folklore of St. Vincent's Home. HAH DISCORD - https://discord.com/invite/bJdbpH3hQm YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@HauntedAmericanHistory TikTok - @hah_podcast hauntedamericanhistory.com Patreon- https://www.patreon.com/hauntedamericanhistory LINKS FOR MY DEBUT NOVEL, THE FORGOTTEN BOROUGH Barnes and Noble - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-forgotten-borough-christopher-feinstein/1148274794?ean=9798319693334 AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FQPQD68S Ebook GOOGLE: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=S5WCEQAAQBAJ&pli=1 KOBO: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-forgotten-borough-2?sId=a10cf8af-5fbd-475e-97c4-76966ec87994&ssId=DX3jihH_5_2bUeP1xoje_ SMASHWORD: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1853316 !! DISTURB ME !! APPLE - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disturb-me/id1841532090 SPOTIFY - https://open.spotify.com/show/3eFv2CKKGwdQa3X2CkwkZ5?si=faOUZ54fT_KG-BaZOBiTiQ YOUTUBE - https://www.youtube.com/@DisturbMePodcast www.disturbmepodcast.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
The AI revolution keeps delivering exactly the future nobody asked for. A low-skill hacker used Claude Code and Codex to compromise fourteen companies with prompts so vague they could've been written by your uncle trying to reset his AOL password. Ford, meanwhile, spent millions trying to automate engineering before sheepishly rehiring the graybeards who actually know how cars work. Brown University discovered what happens when half your class outsources economics homework to ChatGPT, Meta ran out of AI compute after borrowing Google's, Oracle is warning investors that the AI data-center bubble could implode for approximately every reason imaginable, and contractors hired to improve AI models are secretly using AI to generate the training data. Congratulations, everyone: we've successfully invented photocopying a photocopy until all that's left is gray mush.The collateral damage keeps piling up. Volkswagen is reportedly preparing to slash another 100,000 jobs, Hyundai workers are threatening to strike before Boston Dynamics' humanoid robots take theirs, California has launched an AI layoff tracker because somebody figured we'd better start counting, and the "almost homeless" subreddit is becoming one of the bleakest economic indicators on the internet. Tesla quietly settles another fatal Full Self-Driving lawsuit, Australia discovers teenagers can outsmart age verification by clicking "Yes, I'm 18," Amazon is getting sued Down Under for making ad-free Prime customers pay more to stay ad-free, and prediction markets continue insisting they're sophisticated financial instruments rather than gambling with better branding. Sure, and Beanie Babies were an asset class.Meanwhile, the AI infrastructure gold rush has become lucrative for everyone, including organized cargo thieves stealing millions in data-center equipment. NASA is attempting a robotic rescue mission worthy of a Saturday morning cartoon, astronomers are begging humanity to stop filling the night sky with satellites before we pave over the universe with orbital billboards, and Meta has discovered yet another way to charge people a subscription for hardware they already bought. In Media Candy, Sugar keeps delivering, Bodkin is worth your time, I Will Find You absolutely is not, and Kobo quietly lands one on Amazon by integrating StoryGraph while Kindle owners get AI book summaries they didn't ask for. Sometimes the future feels like science fiction. This week it feels like someone accidentally trained the simulation on late-stage capitalism and never bothered to check the output.Sponsors:StoryBlocks - For a limited time, they're offering 15% off any annual plan at storyblocks.com/gogPrivate Internet Access - Go to GOG.Show/vpn and sign up today. For a limited time only, you can get OUR favorite VPN for as little as $2.03 a month.SetApp - With a single monthly subscription you get 240+ apps for your Mac. Go to SetApp and get started today!!!1Password - Get a great deal on the only password manager recommended by Grumpy Old Geeks! gog.show/1passwordShow notes at https://gog.show/753Watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/B-r6M-Na60wSHOW NOTESNo-Skill Hacker Uses Claude/Codex to Hit 14 SitesA newbie hacker used "vague, low-skill prompts" in Claude and Codex to breach 14 companies, and the AI Agents did all the legworkFord rehires ‘gray beard' engineers after AI falls shortVolkswagen reportedly plans to cut 100,000 jobsThe ‘Almost Homeless' Subreddit Is a Stark Glimpse at Soaring Wealth InequalityTesla settles lawsuit over fatal pedestrian crash involving Full Self-DrivingKalshi sues Illinois over new tax on prediction market sports betsRick Rubin Stars in Polymarket CommercialBrown University Professor Horrified to Discover Largest AI Cheating Scandal in Ivy League HistoryAustralia Lawsuit Against Amazon Intensifies Company's Legal Backlash Over AdvertisingAustralia's social media ban may not be that effective, study findsAustralia doubles the maximum penalty for its social media banHalf of social media child safety features don't work, report claimsAI Companies Are Learning an Ironic Lesson as the People They Pay to Improve Their Chatbots Are Just Feeding AI Slop Into ThemCalifornia launches tracker for AI-related job lossesKorean Workers Vote to Go On Strike, Fearing Robots Could Replace ThemGoogle limits Meta's use of its Gemini AI modelsMeta, like SpaceX, looks to turn excess AI compute into cashOracle's Data Center Warning Is a Worst-Case Scenario for the Whole AI BoomThieves Are Absolutely Loving All of These New Data Center ProjectsHeads Up: NASA to Launch 'Daring' Telescope Rescue Mission This WeekESO Study Finds That No More Than 100,000 Satellites Should Orbit EarthI Will Find YouSugar Season 2BodkinThe Odyssey | Official Countdown TrailerSILO - How did we lose this world?The Kindle app for iOS has features your aging Kindle doesn'tWatch out, Amazon: The Kobo eReader now has a Goodreads rivalMeta is adding ridiculous ‘rate limits' and a soft paywall to its smart glassesTrackalot - One-tap Event Tracking on iOSSee 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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