Podcast appearances and mentions of travis barrett

On the latest edition of the Samson Strength Coach Collective, we speak with United States Air Force Strength and Conditioning Coach Travis Barrett. During the episode we discuss Travis' background at the esteemed Ball State University, developing buy-in within various cultural groups, and pursuing a PhD.

It's March mayhem, and we decided to sit down and have us a little fun. Hunter, Travis Barrett, Patrick Combs, Mike Gardner, and Scott Parker sat down to decide what is the most iconic WW2 firearm.Tune in and listen as we delve into the fascinating topic of World War II firearms and explore which weapon stands out as the most iconic. From the mighty M1 Garand to the fearsome MP40, join us as we examine the historical significance, battlefield impact, and cultural legacy of these legendary weapons. Whether you're a history buff, firearms enthusiast, or simply curious about the weaponry that shaped one of the most pivotal periods in human history, this episode is sure to fascinate and educate. Join us as we uncover the stories behind the guns that defined an era.

In this week's episode of the Ones Ready Podcast, join your hosts Aaron and Peaches as they dive deep into the world of strength and conditioning with a very special guest, Travis Barret. Travis is not your average fitness expert; he's the mastermind behind Dynamic Human Performance, a science-based training organization dedicated to helping individuals become the absolute best versions of themselves.Travis's unique role in the Air Force's Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) pipeline sets him apart. As a key figure in this elite training program, he's entrusted with taking a diverse group of athletes and transforming them into peak-performing SERE specialists.Travis shares his insights, experiences, and science-backed strategies for optimizing human performance in this episode. Whether you're an aspiring SERE specialist or simply looking to elevate your fitness game, this conversation is packed with valuable information you won't want to miss.Tune in to this episode and get ready to unlock the secrets of reaching your full potential with Travis Barret on the Ones Ready Podcast! Subscribe now and stay tuned for more inspiring conversations like this one.00:00 Aaron steals the intro for once 00:45 Travis' background04:30 Peaches disguises a rant as a question 10:40 Common Characteristics, Course Correcting Students, Winner Gets Out13:40 Weird things about the culture and unhelpful activity, and early lessons learned23:00 Movements for posterior chain development 30:00 Younger vs Older candidates32:15 Training food groups, Ruck Progression, and Zone 2 45:30 Rural Preparation51:00 Dynamic Human Performance - dynamichp.net54:00 AdviceCollabs:18A Fitness - Promo Code: 1ReadyAlpha Brew Coffee Company - Promo Code: ONESREADYATACLete - Follow the URL (no promo code): ATACLeteCardoMax - Promo Code: ONESREADYEberlestock - Promo Code: OR10Hoist - Promo Code: ONESREADYStrike Force Energy - Promo Code: ONESREADYTrench Coffee Company - Promo Code: ONESREADYGrey Man Gear - Promo Code: ONESREADY The content provided is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. The host, guests, and affiliated entities do not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information provided. The use of this podcast does not create an attorney-client relationship, and the podcast is not liable for any damages resulting from its use. Any mention of products or individua...

Betsy Amster is the principal agent of the Betsy Amster Literary Agency, which she opened in 1992. Located in Los Angeles, the agency handles publishing rights and all ancillary rights such as film, TV, audio, electronic, and foreign. They work with both first-time and established writers and represent literary fiction, upscale commercial women's fiction, voice-driven mysteries and thrillers, narrative nonfiction (especially by journalists), travelogues, memoirs (including graphic memoirs), social issues and trends, psychology, self-help, popular culture, women's issues, history & biography, lifestyle, careers, health and medicine, parenting, cooking and nutrition, gardening, and quirky gift books. Before opening the agency, Betsy spent ten years as an editor at Pantheon and Vintage and two years as editorial director of the Globe Pequot Press. She has been described in the Los Angeles Times as “a dogged prospector of literary talent” and celebrated in a profile in the ASJA newsletter for her “no-nonsense style and whimsical sense of humor.” She frequently teaches classes on publishing at UCLA Extension's Writers Program and participates in panels at the LA Times Festival of Books. Betsy has been on the show at least six times in the past (you can find those interviews in our archives). But much has been happening in both the publishing world and the world at large lately. Betsy joins Marrie to talk about all those changes, including her take on the consolidation of many of the publishing houses, the impact of A.I. on writers and how she feels about writers using ChatGPT to write their query letters, as well as projects she's working on now that have her excited. They chat about query letters, how long to wait before assuming a rejection, what writers can do to improve their odds, and much more. For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. We're also excited to announce the opening of our new bookstore on bookshop.org. We've stocked it with titles from our guests, as well as some of our own personal favorites. By purchasing through the store, you'll support both independent bookstores and our show. New titles will be added all the time (it's a work in progress). Finally, on Spotify you can listen to an album's worth of typewriter music like what you hear on the show. Look for the artist, Just My Type. Email the show at writersonwritingpodcast@gmail.com. We like to hear from our listeners. (Recorded on October 17, 2023) Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett Host: Marrie Stone Music and sound editing: Travis Barrett

Clémence Michallon, author of The Quiet Tenant, was born and raised near Paris, France. She studied journalism at City, University of London, received a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University, and has written for The Independent since 2018. Her essays and features cover true crime, celebrity, culture, and literature. She divides her time between New York City and Rhinebeck, New York. Clémence joins Barbara DeMarco-Barrett to discuss how The Quiet Tenant began; multiple point of view; how she kept the tension ratcheted up throughout the novel; how it is that crime writers write dark stories yet often appear to be happy, perky people; revising; the crossover from journalism to fiction; and getting an agent. For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. We're also excited to announce the opening of our new bookstore on bookshop.org. We've stocked it with titles from our guests, as well as some of our own personal favorites. By purchasing through the store, you'll support both independent bookstores and our show. New titles will be added all the time (it's a work in progress). Finally, on Spotify you can listen to an album's worth of typewriter music like what you hear on the show. Look for the artist, Just My Type. Email the show at writersonwritingpodcast@gmail.com. We love to hear from our listeners. (Recorded on Sept. 19, 2023)  Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett Host: Marrie Stone Music and sound editing: Travis Barrett

Angie Kim came to fiction in her 40s, after careers in both law and business, and some challenging years mothering three boys who each faced medical complications. Her debut novel, Miracle Creek, won the Edgar Award, the ITW Thriller Award, the Strand Critics' Award and the Pinckley Prize, and was named one of the best books of the year by Time, The Washington Post, Kirkus Reviews and the “Today” show. Her second novel, Happiness Falls, came out in August by Hogarth. A NYT bestseller and Good Morning America Book Club pick, it will appeal to mystery and thriller lovers, philosophers, those active in the special needs and autism communities, and anyone who generally loves a thought-provoking and engaging read. Angie joins Marrie Stone to talk about. They discuss how both her childhood and her prior careers influence her fiction, how she used a combination of freewriting and her obsession with narrative architecture to structure this novel, how mysteries can be used as a trojan horse in fiction, using creative literary devices to reveal character in a novel, the perils and pleasures of first person, and so much more. Angie also shares her story of finding her agent, what to look for in an agent, query letters, and shares other book business insights. For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. We're also excited to announce the opening of our new bookstore on bookshop.org. We've stocked it with titles from our guests, as well as some of our own personal favorites. By purchasing through the store, you'll support both independent bookstores and our show. New titles will be added all the time (it's a work in progress). Finally, on Spotify you can listen to an album's worth of typewriter music like what you hear on the show. Look for the artist, Just My Type. Email the show at writersonwritingpodcast@gmail.com. We like to hear from our listeners. (Recorded on October 7, 2023) Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett Host: Marrie Stone Music and sound editing: Travis Barrett

David L. Ulin is the author, most recently, of the novel, Thirteen Question Method. His other books include Sidewalking: Coming to Terms with Los Angeles, The Lost Art of Reading: Books and Resistance in a Troubled Time; and Writing Los Angeles: A Literary Anthology, which won a California Book Award. For Library of America, he has edited Didion: The 1960s and 70s and Didion: The 1980s and 90s. David Ulin is the books editor of Alta and the former book editor and book critic of the Los Angeles Times. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times, Harper's, The Paris Review, and The Best American Essays 2020. The recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Lannan Foundation, and Ucross Foundation, as well as a COLA Individual Master Artist Grant from the City of Los Angeles. He is a Professor of English at the University of Southern California, where he edits the journal Air/Light. David Ulin joined Barbara DeMarco-Barrett to talk about cinematic writing, Chekhov's gun, embodying a protagonist, the “literature of disintegration” and why he's a fan, tulpas, noir, and much more. For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. We're also excited to announce the opening of our new bookstore on bookshop.org. We've stocked it with titles from our guests, as well as some of our own personal favorites. By purchasing through the store, you'll support both independent bookstores and our show. New titles will be added all the time (it's a work in progress). Finally, on Spotify you can listen to an album's worth of typewriter music like what you hear on the show. Look for the artist, Just My Type. Email the show at writersonwritingpodcast@gmail.com. We like to hear from our listeners. (Recorded on September 22, 2023)  Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett Co-Host: Marrie Stone Music and sound editing: Travis Barrett

Shelley Read's debut novel, Go As a River, published last February to instant international bestseller success. The story follows 17-year-old Victoria Nash through the mid-20th century as she endures grief, hardship, and loss in her western Colorado town. It's a coming-of-age novel, an environmental novel, and a novel about displacement and reclamation. It's also an incredible apprenticeship for novelists on excellent writing, and its publication backstory is almost as great as the story itself. Shelly joined Marrie Stone to talk about all of it. In addition to discussions about craft, voice and rooting the themes of your novel in specific scenes, they talk about Shelley's road to publication, finding her agent, enduring rejection, and why Shelley finally committed to writing a novel after three decades of encouraging her students to write. For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. We're also excited to announce the opening of our new bookstore on bookshop.org. We've stocked it with titles from our guests, as well as some of our own personal favorites. By purchasing through the store, you'll support both independent bookstores and our show. New titles will be added all the time (it's a work in progress). Finally, on Spotify you can listen to an album's worth of typewriter music like what you hear on the show. Look for the artist, Just My Type. (Recorded on September 19, 2023) Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett Co-Host: Marrie Stone Music and sound editing: Travis Barrett

Ben Purkert is the author of the poetry collection, For the Love of Endings. His work appears in The New Yorker, The Nation, and The Kenyon Review, among others. He is the founder of Back Draft, a Guernica interview series focused on revision and the creative process. He holds degrees from Harvard and New York University, and he currently teaches at Rutgers. The Men Can't be Saved is his first novel. Ben talks about making unlikeable characters redeemable, how Judaism plays a role in Ben's life and his fiction, the crossover from poetry to fiction, choosing POV, and more. For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. We're excited to announce the opening of our new bookstore on bookshop.org. We've stocked it with titles from our guests, as well as some of our own personal favorites. By purchasing through the store, you'll support both independent bookstores and our show. New titles will be added all the time (it's a work in progress). To listen to past interviews, visit our website. Finally, on Spotify you can listen to an album's worth of typewriter music like what you hear on the show. Look for the artist, Just My Type. (Recorded on August 17, 2023)  Host: Barbara DeMarco-BarrettCo-Host: Marrie StoneMusic and sound editing: Travis Barrett

Lisa Teasley is the author of two novels (Heat Signature and Dive) and two short story collections (Glow in the Dark and, most recently, Fluid). She joined Marrie Stone to talk about her latest collection, Fluid, which publishes on September 26th. Along the way, she shared why she gave up publishing for over 15 years (although she never gave up writing) and what brought her back around. She also shared her unique but likely relatable perspectives on agents, how to market your work without an agent, and the advantages of small presses. The conversation also covered structure (including references to Jane Alison's Meander, Spiral, Explode), various approaches to ordering stories in a collection, flash versus traditional short fiction, Lisa's approach to visual versus written art, and so much more. For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. We're excited to announce the opening of our new bookstore on bookshop.org. We've stocked it with titles from our guests, as well as some of our own personal favorites. By purchasing through the store, you'll support both independent bookstores and our show. New titles will be added all the time (it's a work in progress). Finally, to listen to past interviews, visit our website. (Recorded on September 6, 2023) Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett Co-Host: Marrie Stone Music and sound editing: Travis Barrett

Travis Barrett and Andrew Napier join Hunter to discuss dove season, the new Benelli Rob Roberts edition, and of course the sequel to last year's limited edition “The Virginian”. Benelli has produced another Virginian for Green Top, this time it is a 20 gauge. Listen in to get the scoop on these two new Benelli shotguns and if you have ever wondered what those numbers and letters mean on the outside of a shotgun shell box, find out in this episode.

Ashley Audrain's debut novel, The Push, was an instant New York Times bestseller. She has served as the publicity director of Penguin Books Canada, and prior to that, worked in public relations. She lives in Toronto, where she and her partner are raising their two young children. The Whispers is her second novel and a #1 international bestseller. Ashley joins Barbara DeMarco-Barrett to talk about writing interiority, the importance of the ticking clock, writing unlikeable characters, writing chronologically, naming characters, and why she writes short chapters. For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. (Recorded on August 11, 2023)  Host: Barbara DeMarco-BarrettCo-Host: Marrie StoneMusic and sound editing: Travis Barrett

Anne Enright is the author of eleven novels, including the 2007 Booker Prize winner The Gathering. She's written many short stories and a non-fiction work called Making Babies: Stumbling into Motherhood. She also served as the first Laureate of Irish fiction from 2015 – 2018. Anne joined Marrie Stone from Galway, Ireland to talk about her latest novel, The Wren, the Wren, forthcoming by Norton later in September. The book has already been named a Most Anticipated Book of the Year by The Millions and Literary Hub. They talk about poetry – writing poetry as a non-poet and how Anne used it to structure the novel. They discuss the Irish literary tradition (and what national literary traditions really mean). Anne talks about rendering characters from different generations, how her novels are in conversation, and much more. For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. A big thanks to new patrons Amy Brown and Mariah Martin. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. (Recorded on August 23, 2023) Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett Co-Host: Marrie Stone Music and sound editing: Travis Barrett

Halley Sutton is a writer and editor who lives in Los Angeles. She graduated from Otis College of Art and Design with a master's degree in writing, and from University of California, Santa Cruz with a degree in creative writing. Her first novel, The Lady Upstairs, was published by Putnam in 2020, and was nominated for a Lefty award. Her second novel, The Hurricane Blonde, was published by Putnam in August 2023. Her writing has appeared in Ms., The Daily Beast, The Los Angeles Review of Books, CrimeReads, CrimeSpree Magazine, and more. Halley Sutton joins Barbara DeMarco-Barrett to talk about Hollywood history, writing backstory, naming and creating characters, revision, what to leave out, and more. For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. (Recorded on July 21, 2023)  Host: Barbara DeMarco-BarrettCo-Host: Marrie StoneMusic and sound editing: Travis Barrett

Formerly a Hollywood screenwriter (My Favorite Year, Welcome Back, Kotter), Dennis Palumbo is a licensed psychotherapist whose work with creative people has been featured on CNN, NPR, and in The New York Times and Los Angeles Times. He's also the author of the popular nonfiction book, Writing From The Inside Out. His mystery fiction has appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and The Strand, and is collected in From Crime to Crime. His series of award-winning mystery thrillers (the latest of which is Panic Attack) feature Daniel Rinaldi, a psychologist and trauma expert who consults with the Pittsburgh Police. Recently, Dennis served as consulting producer on the Hulu TV series The Patient. Dennis joins Barbara Demarco-Barrett to talk about the why writers procrastinate, self-worth, the habit of endlessly revising, finding time to write, the writers strike, and writers' worries. For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. (Recorded on July 21, 2023)  Host: Barbara DeMarco-BarrettCo-Host: Marrie StoneMusic and sound editing: Travis Barrett

Julie Schumacher is the author of nine novels, including five for younger readers. Three of those adult novels follow Jason Fitger, an English professor at an obscure midwestern liberal arts college known as Payne University. Dear Committee Members, The Shakespeare Requirement and, now, The English Experience all shine satirical light on academia and our cultural shift away from the humanities. Julie joins Marrie Stone to talk about the state of satire and how she was able to satirize a profession she's still working in (and the people involved in that profession). She also discusses the challenges and constraints she sets up for herself when writing, handling a big cast of characters, using letters and essays in fiction, and how she organizes her written notebooks. They also discuss Julie's thoughts on MFAs, turning real life events into fiction, and much more. For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. (Recorded on August 9, 2023) Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett Co-Host: Marrie Stone Music and sound editing: Travis Barrett

T. Coraghessan Boyle is the author of thirty books of fiction, including, most recently, The Harder They Come (2015), The Terranauts (2016), The Relive Box (2017), Outside Looking In (2019), Talk To Me (2021) and I Walk Between the Raindrops (2022).  He received a Ph.D. degree in Nineteenth Century British Literature from the University of Iowa in 1977, his M.F.A. from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop in 1974, and his B.A. in English and History from SUNY Potsdam in 1968. He has been a member of the English Department at the University of Southern California since 1978, where he is Distinguished Professor of English.  His stories have appeared in most of the major American magazines, including The New Yorker, Harper's, Esquire, The Atlantic Monthly, Playboy, The Paris Review, GQ, Antaeus, Granta and McSweeney's, and he has been the recipient of a number of literary awards, including the PEN/Faulkner Prise for best novel of the year (World's End, 1988); the PEN/Malamud Prize in the short story (T.C. Boyle Stories, 1999); and the Prix Médicis Étranger for best foreign novel in France (The Tortilla Curtain, 1997). He currently lives near Santa Barbara with his wife and three children. His most recent novel is Blue Skies. T.C. Boyle joins Barbara DeMarco-Barrett to talk about writing climate fiction, dealing with heavy themes while keeping it light and not didactic, his influences, short stories, revision, crickets, and more. A shout-out to our patrons: thank you, as always, for your support. For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. (Recorded on June 30, 2023)  Host: Barbara DeMarco-BarrettCo-Host: Marrie StoneMusic and sound editing: Travis Barrett

Ellen Keith is the author of the international bestselling novel, The Dutch Wife and, most recently, The Dutch Orphan. Both novels take place during the WWII occupation of The Netherlands. Ellen joined Marrie Stone from her home in Amsterdam. They discussed finding new stories in saturated literary topics, why third person works well for historical fiction, the benefits of multiple points of view, working with dark material, managing backstory, how to humanize unsympathetic characters, and much more. A shout-out to our new July patrons — Lodi, Anne, Erin, Dawn, and Thomas. Thank you for your support. For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. (Recorded on July 26, 2023) Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett Co-Host: Marrie Stone Music and sound editing: Travis Barrett

Today we're focusing on noir and Barbara DeMarco-Barrett is with the perfect guests to talk about it: Molly Odintz and Gary Phillips. Molly is senior editor for CrimeReads and editor and contributor to Austin Noir (Akashic). She grew up in Austin and was a bookseller at BookPeople. Gary Phillips has published various novels, comics, short stories and edited several anthologies including the Anthony-winning The Obama Inheritance: Fifteen Stories of Conspiracy Noir and South Central Noir, recently published by Akashic. The Washington Post named his novel One-Shot Harry as one of the best mysteries of 2022, and it's been nominated for a Nero and Macavity awards. He was also a staff writer and co-producer on Snowfall, streaming on Hulu about crack and the CIA in 1980s South Central where he grew up. And Barbara edited and contributed a story to Palm Springs Noir, also published by Akashic. Molly and Gary joined Barbara to talk about noir (what it is, it's history), putting together an anthology, the Writers Guild strike, beginning stories, the role of an editor when putting together an anthology, and more. For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. (Recorded on May 26, 2023)  Host: Barbara DeMarco-BarrettCo-Host: Marrie StoneMusic and sound editing: Travis Barrett

Kelly McMasters is an essayist, professor, and former bookshop owner. She is the co-editor of This Is the Place: Women Writing About Home (Seal Press, 2017) and the ABA national bestseller Wanting: Women Writing About Desire (Catapult, 2023). Her first book, Welcome to Shirley: A Memoir from an Atomic Town, was listed as one of Oprah's top 5 summer memoirs and is the basis for the documentary film ‘The Atomic States of America,' a 2012 Sundance selection. Kelly joins Marrie Stone to talk about her latest release, The Leaving Season: A Memoir-in-Essays (WW Norton, 2023). They discuss how this form mirrors the novel-in-short-story form and its differences. They discuss flash versus conventional essays, discovering what your essay is really about, and one piece of advice Kelly always uses during her revision process. Kelly also shares her insights about making a living as a writer and artist, what it requires, and why she won't compromise. There are also references to advice Kelly gave in her TedX Talk about experiencing “voice block” (as opposed to “writer's block”). For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. (Recorded on June 28, 2023) Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett Co-Host: Marrie Stone Music and sound editing: Travis Barrett

Candi Sary is a graduate from the University of California, Irvine. Her novel, Black Crow White Lie, won a Reader Views Literary Award, a Chanticleer International Book Award, and was First Runner-Up in the Eric Hoffer Book Award. Her new novel, Magdalena, will be released by Regal House Publishing on July 11. A mother of two adult children, Sary lives in Southern California with her husband, a dog, a cat and several ducks.  Candi Sary joins Barbara DeMarco-Barrett to talk about Magdalena and the path to publication. She also talks about creating a playlist to put you in the head of your protagonist and the world of your story, her influences, ghosts, taking your time, how Magdalena affected the writing of her current novel, and more For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. (Recorded on June 16, 2023)  Host: Barbara DeMarco-BarrettCo-Host: Marrie StoneMusic and sound editing: Travis Barrett

Andrew Porter is the author of the short story collection The Theory of Light and Matter, which won the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, the novel In Between Days, which was a Barnes & Noble “Discover Great New Writers” selection and an IndieBound “Indie Next” selection, and the short story collection The Disappeared, which was published in April 2023. Andrew's short stories have appeared in One Story, Ploughshares, The Southern Review, The Threepenny Review, and Prairie Schooner, among others. He has had his work read on NPR's Selected Shorts and twice selected as one of the Distinguished Stories of the Year by Best American Short Stories. A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, Andrew is currently a Professor of English and Director of the Creative Writing Program at Trinity University in San Antonio. Andrew joins Marrie Stone to talk about The Disappeared. He talks about the state of the short story in contemporary fiction (with references to Rebecca Makkai's article about why we should be reading short stories), and what short stories can do for readers that novels cannot. He shares insights from his former professor, Marilynne Robinson, about endings. He talks about how he approaches flash fiction. He discusses why three is such a magical number of characters for a story, and much more. For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. (Recorded on June 13, 2023) Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett Co-Host: Marrie Stone Music and sound editing: Travis Barrett

Jude Atwood is the author of the new novel, Maybe There Are Witches. Jude grew up on a farm in small-town Illinois. After graduating from Bradley University and Chapman University, he became a community college professor in Orange County, California. His first novel, Maybe There Are Witches, published by Regal House, won the Kraken Prize for Middle Grade Fiction. Jude joins Barbara DeMarco-Barrett to talk about creating a fictional town, how plotting allows you to write chapters out of order, beginning with character, writing side characters, submitting to publishers, book banning and more. For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. An eternal thanks to our patrons. Your support enables us to do what we do. We appreciate every one of you. Thank you. (Recorded on June 16, 2023)  Host: Barbara DeMarco-BarrettCo-Host: Marrie StoneMusic and sound editing: Travis Barrett

Janelle Brown is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels I'll Be You, Pretty Things, Watch Me Disappear, All We Ever Wanted Was Everything, and This Is Where We Live. Her books have been sold in two dozen countries around the world. Pretty Things - named a Best Book of 2020 by Amazon - and I'll Be You are both currently being adapted for television. Janelle joins Marrie Stone to talk about her latest, I'll Be You. She talks about her former journalism career and how it serves her fiction, why she enjoys working with characters afflicted by addiction, how winding back to a character's childhood often unlocks their psychology, the writing challenges and exercises she gave herself to find her characters' voices, and much more. For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. Thank you to our new patrons — Dan Conway, Dina Andre, Kelly Gates, and Jan Mannino —who joined us in June. Thank you to our May patrons Judi Ulrey, Susan Nolen and Robert Leming. And a very special thanks to our longtime and loyal patrons who have been with us and stayed with us — Maureen Dunphy, Helena Touseull, Deana Pink, Valerie Kurita, Stephanie King, Elizabeth Duran, Maura Conlon-McIvor, Jace Burgess, Elizabeth Benedict, Lacey Beattie, Connie Nash, Lisa Cupolo, Holly Norton, Victor Mariano, Aimee Wing, Tanya, Patti Jazanoski, Leslie Archibald, Candi Sary, Melora Leiser, Robin Kalota, Craig Elbe, Debra Cross, Amy Muia, Deborah Gaal, Anne Dunham, Kathleen Peterson, Annabel Daguerre, Maggie Ginsberg, Richard Polt, Dennis McNamara, Kimber Grey, and Nathan Sandiford. Your support enables us to do what we do. We appreciate every one of you. Thank you. (Recorded on June 6, 2023) Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett Co-Host: Marrie Stone Music and sound editing: Travis Barrett

Andre Dubus III is the author of The Cage Keeper and Other Stories, Bluesman, and the New York Times bestsellers, House of Sand and Fog, The Garden of Last Days, and his memoir, Townie. He's been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, The National Magazine Award for Fiction, Two Pushcart Prizes, and an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature. His books have been published in more than 25 languages, and he is a Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. His new novel is Such Kindness, published by Norton. On the show, Andre Dubus and Barbara DeMarco-Barrett discuss how ideas take form, how much he knows about his characters before he begins, writing interiority, writing in his car, having a father who was a writer, why he's haunted by his novel The House of Sand and Fog, and his big problem with social media. For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. (Recorded on May 12, 2023)  Host: Barbara DeMarco-BarrettCo-Host: Marrie StoneMusic and sound editing: Travis Barrett

Lisa See's twelfth book, Lady Tan's Circle of Women, follows the life of Tan Yunxian, a 15th century doctor during the Ming Dynasty in China (a relatively unheard of concept back then). It explores marriage, motherhood, and medicine through her eyes, as well as the lives of the women around her (midwives, concubines, her powerful mother-in-law, and even the Chinese empress). Lisa joins Marrie Stone to talk about the book, and how her research and writing process changed as a result of the pandemic. She talks about how much she outlines the story before beginning to write, how she approaches the research, how she tackles “cringy” scenes, how she accesses her minor characters, how losing her own mother (the writer Carolyn See) has impacted her subsequent novels, and how she'll approach future writing differently in light of what this book taught her. For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. (Recorded on May 31, 2023) Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett Co-Host: Marrie Stone Music and sound design: Travis Barrett

Danya Kukafka is the author of the nationally bestselling novels Notes on an Execution and Girl in Snow. Her books have been reviewed favorably in outlets like The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post, and have been translated into over a dozen languages worldwide. Notes on an Execution recently won the Edgar Award for Best Novel, and is currently in development as a feature film. Danya works as a literary agent with Trellis Literary Management. Danya joined Barbara DeMarco-Barrett to talk about using a time lock, keeping a process journal, point of view, how being an agent affects her own writing, genres and categories, and much more. For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. (Recorded on May 26, 2023)  Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett Co-Host: Marrie Stone Music and sound design: Travis Barrett

Cathleen Schine, author of “Künstlers in Paradise” Cathleen Schine is the author of 13 novels, including The Love Letter, which was made into a movie starring Kate Capshaw, Rameau's Niece, The Three Weissmanns of Westport, and The Grammarians. Her articles have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, The New York Times Sunday Magazine, and The New York Times Book Review, among other publications. Her essays have been included in Best American Essays 2005, an Anthology of New Yorker Humor, and elsewhere. Cathleen joins Marrie Stone to talk about her latest novel, Künstlers in Paradise. She talks about writing during the pandemic, and how it influenced this novel, as well as whether humor can still be an appropriate tone, given world events. Cathleen shares insights about writing dialogue and dialect across cultures and generations, how addressing problematic things within the novel can help solve the problem, her research process, organizing her materials, and much more. For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. (Recorded on April 28, 2023) Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett Co-Host: Marrie Stone Music and sound design: Travis Barrett

Anthony Chin-Quee is a board certified Otolaryngologist (Ear, Nose, and Throat surgeon) with degrees from Harvard University and Emory University School of Medicine. He has done multiple performances for The Moth, where he's won their local Story Slam, placed as a runner-up in the Detroit Grand Slam, and performed on their NYC mainstage. He was a medical consultant for ABC's Grey's Anatomy and a member of the writing staff of FOX's The Resident for two seasons, distilling complex medical and social issues into palatable and understandable mainstream storylines. His memoir, I Can't Save You: A Memoir— a candid account of the ways in which medical residency training shattered the mind of an empathetic, well-intentioned doctor, and the arduous task of piecing it back together again through painful and overdue self-discovery—was released by Riverhead Books on April 4th, 2023 to critical acclaim. He has published opinions in Forbes and been interviewed by NPR on the topic of systemic racism in medical education. Anthony currently resides in England with his wife and daughter. Tony talked with Barbara about the path to publishing his debut memoir, nailing the voice, finding an agent, dealing with rejection, honesty in memoir, writing with a reader in mind, and more For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. (Recorded on May 12, 2023)  Host: Barbara DeMarco-BarrettCo-Host: Marrie StoneMusic and sound design: Travis Barrett

Ann Napolitano's latest novel, Hello Beautiful, was an instant New York Times bestseller and Oprah's 100th Book Club pick. Her last novel, Dear Edward, was published by Dial Press in January 2020 and was also a New York Times bestseller, a Read with Jenna selection, and was released on February 3rd as an Apple TV+ series. You can find an interview with Ann about that novel in our archives. Ann is also the author of A Good Hard Look and Within Arm's Reach. She was the Associate Editor of One Story literary magazine from 2014-2020. Ann joins Marrie Stone to talk about Hello Beautiful. In addition to the book's backstory, they talk about the nine months Ann forces herself to spend on a book before beginning to write, how to pay attention to your unique magnetic board as a writer, the advice about endings she follows from George Saunders, and much more. For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. (Recorded on May 3, 2023) Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett Co-Host: Marrie Stone Music and sound design: Travis Barrett

Kenan Orhan's fiction has appeared in The Atlantic, The Paris Review, The Common, Massachusetts Review, and elsewhere and has been anthologized in The O. Henry Prize Stories and The Best American Short Stories. His story collection, I Am My Country and Other Stories, is published by Random House. Kenan teaches literature and creative writing at the Kansas City Art Institute and lives in Kansas. He joins Marrie Stone to talk about the collection, his relationship with Turkey, how his approach to the short story form has changed over times, how his stories exemplify and depart from the Joy Williams' rules of short stories, and much more. Kenan also talks about finding his agent and his path to publication. A reminder that April is the one-year anniversary of our Patreon page, and 2023 is the 25th anniversary of the show. We're winding down the month, but still offering some additional perks and incentives through the end of April. To learn more, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. (Recorded on April 11, 2023) Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett Co-Host: Marrie Stone Music and sound design: Travis Barrett

Idra Novey's new novel is Take What You Need, published by Viking. She is also the author of Those Who Knew, a New York Times Editors' Choice. Her first novel Ways to Disappear, received the 2017 Sami Rohr Prize, the 2016 Brooklyn Eagles Prize, and was a finalist for the L.A. Times Book Prize for First Fiction. Her poetry collections include Exit, Civilian, The Next Coun­try, and Clarice: The Visitor, a collaboration with the artist Erica Baum. Her fiction and poetry have been translated into a dozen languages and she's written for The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, New York Magazine, and The Paris Review. She is the recipient of awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Poets & Writ­ers Mag­a­zine, the PEN Trans­la­tion Fund, and the Poetry Foundation. Her works as a translator include Clarice Lispector's novel The Pas­sion Accord­ing to G.H. She teaches fiction at Princeton University. On the show Barbara talked with Idra about being a genre misfit, the lack of quotation marks, subtext, the crossover from poetry and translation, welding, and much more. A reminder that April is the one-year anniversary of our Patreon page, and 2023 is the 25th anniversary of the show. To celebrate, we're offering some additional perks and incentives all month long. To learn more, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. (Recorded on April 15, 2023)  Host: Barbara DeMarco-BarrettCo-Host: Marrie StoneMusic and sound design: Travis Barrett

Richard Bausch is the author of 13 novels and 8 collections of short stories. He's been published everywhere: The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, and Narrative, to name a few. He's been awarded a Guggenheim, and has won too many awards to mention. He's currently a professor at Chapman University in Orange, California. Visit his website to learn more. On the show Barbara DeMarco-Barrett talked with Richard Bausch about his current novel, Playhouse, writing multiple POV characters, not staying in your lane, what he does when he hits a wall, what's most useful to writers who want to get better, and so much more. For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. (Recorded on March 31, 2023)  Host: Barbara DeMarco-BarrettCo-Host: Marrie StoneMusic and sound design: Travis Barrett

Sadeqa Johnson's latest novel, The House of Eve, hit the New York Times bestseller list as soon as it was published. It was also a Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick for the month of February. But Sadeqa fought for her success. The House of Eve was her fifth published novel and her second historical fiction novel. Getting off the ground took perseverance and ingenuity. Sadeqa shares her unconventional path to success, her move from contemporary domestic fiction to historical fiction and how she approaches the two genres, how her background in acting serves her fiction, her approach to research, revision, dialogue and more, and how she's learned to speak — and listen — to her characters. For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. (Recorded on March 20, 2023) Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett Co-Host: Marrie Stone Music and sound design: Travis Barrett

Margot Douaihy earned a BA in Writing from the University of Pittsburgh Writing Program, an MA in Creative & Life Writing from Goldsmiths, University of London, and a PhD in Creative Writing from Lancaster University. Douaihy is the author of the true-crime poetry project Bandit/Queen: The Runaway Story of Belle Starr; Scranton Lace; the Lambda Literary Finalist Girls Like You (Clemson University Press); and I Would Ruby If I Could (Factory Hollow Press). Douaihy's sleuth fiction inhabits and reconstructs hardboiled PI tropes through a queer lens. Douaihy's work has been featured in PBS NewsHour, Colorado Review, Madison Review, Tahoma Literary Review, North American Review, among others. Honors include the Aesthetica Magazine Creative Writing Award, Finalist (2020), Red Hen Press Quill Prose Award, Finalist (2019), C&R Press Best Novel Award, Longlist (2018), Lambda Literary Award Poetry, Finalist (2015), and River Styx Micro-Fiction Contest Finalist (2015). Margot joins Barbara to talk about Scorched Grace, the first imprint of Gillian Flynn/Zando. They talk about the irreverent nun protagonist, Sister Holiday in the mystery novel, naming characters, writing dialogue, backstory, and so much more. For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. Recorded in March, 2023. Host: Barbara DeMarco-BarrettCo-Host: Marrie StoneMusic and sound design: Travis Barrett

Kelly Link is the author of four previous story collections including Get in Trouble, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize (a link to her interview with Marrie about that book can be found here). Her short stories have been widely published in literary magazines including The Best American Short Stories and Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards. She is a 2018 MacArthur Fellow and has received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. She's also the co-founder of Small Beer Press and co-edits the occasional zine Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet. Kelly joins Marrie to talk about her latest collection, White Cat, Black Dog, out later this month and published by Random House. They talk about the role of fairy tales, Scottish ballads, and 17th century French lore in her work. Kelly walks through the evolution of several stories, the ways some of them surprised her, and how her illustrator was able to communicate something about one story that Kelly was not willing to include. Kelly talks about the Joy Williams' list of 8 essential things every story needs and much more. For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. (Recorded on March 2, 2023) Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett Co-Host: Marrie Stone Music and sound design: Travis Barrett

Jordan Harper, the Edgar-Award winning author of She Rides Shotgun and Love and Other Wounds, has been an ad man, a rock critic, and a writer and producer for television. He was born and raised in Missouri and now lives in Los Angeles. His new novel is Everybody Knows. On the show we talked about his path to crime fiction, the Los Angeles setting, beginning and ending, and renting a room at the famed Chateau Marmont to write the first chapter. This interview was done on Zoom on Sunday, Feb 26, 2023 for Sisters in Crime Orange County. If you'd prefer watching, Barbara's YouTube channel (Barbara DeMarco-Barrett) or Sisters in Crime Orange County. For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit the show's Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. (Recorded on February 26, 2023, for Sisters in Crime Orange County.)  Host: Barbara DeMarco-BarrettCo-Host: Marrie StoneMusic and sound design: Travis Barrett

In 2013, novelist and memoirist Dani Shapiro published her craft/memoir Still Writing: The Perils and Pleasures of a Creative Life. This year, the book celebrates its 10th anniversary with a re-release and new foreword. Dani joined Marrie Stone in 2013 to talk about it (their interview can be found here), and joins her again to revisit it. They talk about that intervening decade and what's happened in Dani's life and career since the book's first publication. Dani discusses what aspects of Still Writing are truer today than before, how her thinking has evolved around issues such as dealing with distractions, self-sabotage, writerly authority, memoirs versus novels, and much more. (In the interview, she recommends an essay by Alexander Chee that can be found here.) Dani uses her own experiences across her many novels and memoirs to shed light on the writing process, its many hardships, and great gratifications. For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. (Recorded on February 23, 2023) Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett Co-Host: Marrie Stone Music and sound design: Travis Barrett

Rebecca Makkai's novel, The Great Believers, was a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award; it was the winner of the ALA Carnegie Medal, the Stonewall Book Award, and the LA Times Book Prize; and it was one of the New York Times' Ten Best Books of 2018. Her other books are the novels The Borrower and The Hundred-Year House, and the story collection, Music for Wartime. Her new novel is I Have Some Questions For You, released Feb 21, 2023. On the show, Rebecca spoke with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett about pantsing vs plotting, titles, categorization, what she does when she hits a wall, and more. For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. (Recorded on February 3, 2023)  Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett Co-Host: Marrie Stone Music and sound design: Travis Barrett

In 2015, several women from the small town of Chillicothe, Ohio began disappearing. Some were found dead in a nearby river and others were never found at all. The victims were drug addicted and supported their addiction with prostitution. They became known as the “Chillicothe Six,” although the body count kept rising. The case caught the attention of novelist Tiffany McDaniel, who grew up near the town and went to school with one of the victims. On the Savage Side reimagines the lives of women like these. Set in the 1990s, before iPhones and social media, McDaniel brings backstories, faces, names and humanity to women society often forgets. Author of the international bestselling novel Betty (2020) and the award-winning novel The Summer That Melted Everything (2016), McDaniel is of Cherokee heritage and brings those myths and legends to her novels. As a self-taught author with no formal education, McDaniel wrote over 20 unpublished novels before her first publication in 2016. McDaniel joins Marrie Stone to talk about On the Savage Side, as well as working without an agent, selling a novel 20 years after it was written, how social and cultural changes allowed her to publish previously rejected work, and more. She also shares some craft insights regarding structure, character development, incorporating visual arts into her novels, and more. For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. (Recorded on February 9, 2023)  Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett Co-Host: Marrie Stone Music and sound design: Travis Barrett

A more personal author description than usual: I recently learned that fiction writer Melissa Bank passed away last August. (When I recorded the intro to this rerun, I thought it had been longer. My apologies.) I loved Melissa Bank's fiction, her light touch. Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing was wonderful, as was The Wonder Spot. When I was in NYC, Melissa and I would meet for coffee or lunch. I loved her writing and her entire vibe. Melissa Bank won the 1993 Nelson Algren Award for short fiction and taught at Stony Brook University. When The Wonder Spot came out, I asked her to talk about how to write a novel. She said, “I don't know how to write a novel.” What she knew how to do, she was, was write stories. Stories became chapters and chapters become a book, she said. Melissa died from lung cancer on August 2, 2022. She was 61 years old. For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. (Recorded on January 25, 2023)  Host: Barbara DeMarco-BarrettCo-Host: Marrie StoneMusic and sound design: Travis Barrett

Barack Obama called Jessamine Chan's The School for Good Mothers one of his favorite reads of 2022. The NYT bestseller comes out in paperback on February 7. Every year, thousands of children are removed from their parents' custody by the state, often for good reasons, but not always. Set in a dystopian future not so far from now, The School for Good Mothers follows Frieda's tortured journey after losing her daughter following “a very bad day.” Jessamine joins Marrie Stone to talk about the 20 years she spent writing before the book was published, and how one inspiring day of writing changed everything (spoiler alert: don't try this at home). She talks about writing in longhand, over-writing and learning to cut, how visiting her setting changed the feel of the book, naming her characters and other craft insights. She also discusses MFAs and writing residencies, finding an agent, the long editing process after the book was sold and more. For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. (Recorded on January 25, 2023)  Host: Barbara DeMarco-BarrettCo-Host: Marrie StoneMusic and sound design: Travis Barrett

Matt Bell is the author most recently of the novel Appleseed (a New York Times Notable Book) and the craft book Refuse to Be Done, a guide to novel writing, rewriting, and revision. He is also the author of the novels Scrapper and In the House upon the Dirt Between the Lake and the Woods, as well as the short story collection A Tree or a Person or a Wall, a non-fiction book about the classic video game Baldur's Gate II, and several other titles. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Esquire, Tin House, Fairy Tale Review, American Short Fiction, Orion, and many other publications. A native of Michigan, he teaches creative writing at Arizona State University. Matt joined Barbara DeMarco-Barrett to talk about—what else—revision, and his new book, Refuse to be Done. For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. (Recorded on January 12, 2023)  Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett Co-Host: Marrie Stone Music and sound design: Travis Barrett

Writers use language with intention. So when V.V. (Sugi) Ganeshananthan's Brotherless Night uses the word “terrorist” six times on the first page of a novel about the Sri Lankan civil war, and incorporates the second person, the reader understands they're as much active participant as passive observer in the book. Sugi joins Marrie Stone to talk about the novel's origin and why she initially didn't have the “chops” to write it. She talks about her own relationship with Sri Lanka and the research that went into rendering this period of history to life. Writers may find interest in Sugi's decision to write in the first (and second) person; the power of writing in the subjunctive; how to describe a foreign time and place (with its particular dishes and unfamiliar names) without being overly explanatory; how Sugi deals with difficult writing challenges the same way she deals with going to the dentist; finding trusted readers; and more. Sugi is the author of Love Marriage, which was longlisted for the Women's Prize and named one of the best books of the year by The Washington Post. Her work has appeared in Granta, The New York Times, and The Best American Nonrequired Reading, among other publications. She teaches in the MFA program at the University of Minnesota and co-hosts the Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast on Literary Hub, which is about the intersection of literature and the news. Read more about Brotherless Night in the January 15, 2023 NYT Book Review. For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. (Recorded on January 12, 2023)  Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett Co-Host: Marrie Stone Music and sound design: Travis Barrett

Ed Humes is a  Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of more than a dozen nonfiction books, including Mississippi Mud, Door to Door: The Magnificent, Maddening, Mysterious World of Transportation and Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair With Trash, and Burned: A Story of Murder and the Crime that Wasn't. Ed received his Pulitzer for his newspaper coverage of the military, and a PEN Award for nonfiction for No Matter How Loud I Shout: A Year in the Life of Juvenile Court. He has taught writing, journalism, and literary nonfiction at graduate and undergraduate levels, and has written for The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Sierra Magazine, and Los Angeles Magazine. Ed joins Barbara DeMarco-Barrett to talk about his new book, The Forever Witness: How DNA and Geneology solved a cold case double murder. For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. (Recorded in December 2022)  Host: Barbara DeMarco-BarrettCo-Host: Marrie StoneMusic and sound design: Travis Barrett

Menstruation is a strangely taboo topic in our culture. Back in the 1970s and 80s, teenagers read Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret and Our Bodies, Ourselves under their covers with a flashlight. Girls were largely left to figure things out for themselves or confide in each other in their quest to discover what was normal. After hearing a harrowing coming-of-age story from her great aunt, Rachel Kauder Nalebuff started gathering stories about menstruation in her family that had never been told. What began as an oral history project quickly snowballed. Our Red Book (Simon & Schuster, 2022) takes us through stories of first periods, last periods, missing periods, and everything about bleeding that people wish they had been told. Rachel joins Marrie Stone to talk about publishing her first anthology (My Little Red Book, 2009) when she was a college freshman and how a high school English teacher gave her the confidence of her convictions. Much has changed in our society in those intervening years and Rachel talks about how Our Red Book expanded the conversation to be more gender inclusive, as well as including voices from different generations and cultures. Their conversation also covers several writing-related topics, including advice about assembling and structuring an anthology, finding contributors, the delicate process of editing, book proposals, Rachel's work at 3 Hole Press, and more. For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. (Recorded in December 2022)  Host: Barbara DeMarco-BarrettCo-Host: Marrie StoneMusic and sound design: Travis Barrett

The youngest of six children, Lisa Cupolo grew up in the Honeymoon Capital of the World: Niagara Falls, Canada. At thirteen, she was diagnosed with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis, and spent much of her teens and twenties battling illness. She has spoken about how this trial was actually one of the blessings of her life, because it led her to writing. She learned to escape, creating stories when reality got difficult, and she imagined herself living the lives of her characters, and in the real world, she became an observer. Always a spiritual seeker, Lisa has a BA in philosophy from The University of Western Ontario. In her second year, her single mother put a second mortgage on their suburban home so Lisa could study in Nice, France. That changed everything.    She spent the next decade in Europe and her health improved dramatically. She completed a graduate degree in Portrait Photography from The London Institute in England and worked a stint as a paparazzi photographer in London and published celebrity photos in Hello Magazine and The Daily Telegraph and travel shots with Dorling Kindersley and Thomas Cook travel guidebooks. She continued to dream of being a writer.Back in Canada, her professional life turned toward championing artists, as a photo editor at a stock agency in Toronto and at the Banff Centre for the Arts supporting visual artist residencies. She spent a year in Kisumu, Kenya working at an orphanage and traveling in east Africa and eastern Europe.  After reading Carol Shield's novel, "Unless," Lisa knew she had to pursue her passion for writing and was offered an entry level job at HarperCollins back in Toronto. While there, she wrote in the early mornings before work. In time, she became a literary publicist and represented some of her favorite writers: Elmore Leonard, Neil Gaiman, Lionel Shriver, Helen Humphreys, among others, and threw some terrific literary parties with Brick Magazine.  When she met her husband, writer Richard Bausch, Lisa moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where they had their daughter Lila.  She completed an MFA in fiction at the University of Memphis and began publishing stories and finished her novel.  They now live in Southern California and Lisa is at work on a memoir and teaches creative writing at Chapman University. For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. (Recorded in December 2022)  Host: Barbara DeMarco-BarrettCo-Host: Marrie StoneMusic and sound design: Travis Barrett

Melissa Chadburn's debut novel, A Tiny Upward Shove, is part serial killer thriller, part magical realism folklore, part love story, part coming of age story, and fully riveting. Its narrator is an aswang—otherwise known as a Philippine shapeshifter, a ghoul, a spinstress, a vampire, a soul-sucker with a proboscis. Over a decade in the making, Chadburn's novel contains beautifully unique prose and haunting imagery. She joins Marrie to talk about it. Along the way, they talk about how Chadburn struggled with structure, and how real-life serial killer William Pickton provided it. They talk about the different shapes novels can take, including Jane Allison's Meander, Spiral, Explode and Ursula Le Guin's The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction. They talk about the power of lists in fiction, how to engage in the writerly art of witnessing, and Lynda Barry's What It Is. They discuss writing sex and violence, including the best advice Chadburn received from former guest and Tin House editor Steve Almond. And they discuss how being a good literary citizen may have made a difference in marketing this novel, and what it means to be a good literary citizen. Melissa and Marrie are both fans of Tin House, their workshops, and their craft lectures. To discover some of those craft essays, click here. For the Tin House collection on love and sex, click here.For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. (Recorded in December 2022)  Host: Barbara DeMarco-BarrettCo-Host: Marrie StoneMusic and sound design: Travis Barrett

Erica Ferencik, author of Girl in Ice, and Aaron Phillip Clark, author of Blue like Me, join me at Sisters in Crime Orange County to talk about their new novels as well as the art, craft, and business of writing. If you'd like to watch the panel we did on Zoom, visit YouTube. For more information on Writers on Writing and additional writing tips, visit our Patreon page. To listen to past interviews, visit our website. (Recorded in November 2022)  Host: Barbara DeMarco-BarrettCo-Host: Marrie StoneMusic and sound design: Travis Barrett

This episode aired in December 2020.Atonement and the Kingdom of God are two important themes in the bible that many theologians often disagree about. After reading 'The Crucified King' by Jeremy Treat, Coram Deo intern Travis Barrett helps summarize how these two themes come together in scripture and help deepen our understanding of the gospel.