POPULARITY
Categories
489 episodes with writes
138 episodes with writes
130 episodes with writes
37 episodes with writes
40 episodes with writes
26 episodes with writes
88 episodes with writes
37 episodes with writes
32 episodes with writes
15 episodes with writes
49 episodes with writes
16 episodes with writes
28 episodes with writes
11 episodes with writes
22 episodes with writes
8 episodes with writes
15 episodes with writes
6 episodes with writes
14 episodes with writes
10 episodes with writes
6 episodes with writes
8 episodes with writes
5 episodes with writes
9 episodes with writes
10 episodes with writes
11 episodes with writes
19 episodes with writes
9 episodes with writes
5 episodes with writes
7 episodes with writes
19 episodes with writes
8 episodes with writes
11 episodes with writes
7 episodes with writes
6 episodes with writes
3 episodes with writes
6 episodes with writes
9 episodes with writes
7 episodes with writes
10 episodes with writes
11 episodes with writes
4 episodes with writes
4 episodes with writes
4 episodes with writes
6 episodes with writes
8 episodes with writes
6 episodes with writes
5 episodes with writes
4 episodes with writes
3 episodes with writes
4 episodes with writes
4 episodes with writes
10 episodes with writes
6 episodes with writes
3 episodes with writes
6 episodes with writes
5 episodes with writes
6 episodes with writes
4 episodes with writes
10 episodes with writes
7 episodes with writes
4 episodes with writes
5 episodes with writes
5 episodes with writes
8 episodes with writes
5 episodes with writes
6 episodes with writes
5 episodes with writes
4 episodes with writes
5 episodes with writes
3 episodes with writes
3 episodes with writes
4 episodes with writes
9 episodes with writes
3 episodes with writes
5 episodes with writes
6 episodes with writes
4 episodes with writes
6 episodes with writes
3 episodes with writes
3 episodes with writes
4 episodes with writes
3 episodes with writes
5 episodes with writes
5 episodes with writes
9 episodes with writes
3 episodes with writes
3 episodes with writes
5 episodes with writes
6 episodes with writes
3 episodes with writes
7 episodes with writes
2 episodes with writes
4 episodes with writes
5 episodes with writes
4 episodes with writes
3 episodes with writes
2 episodes with writes
3 episodes with writes
6 episodes with writes
3 episodes with writes
3 episodes with writes
3 episodes with writes
10 episodes with writes
2 episodes with writes
3 episodes with writes
3 episodes with writes
3 episodes with writes
8 episodes with writes
4 episodes with writes
4 episodes with writes
4 episodes with writes
3 episodes with writes
2 episodes with writes
4 episodes with writes
2 episodes with writes
7 episodes with writes
2 episodes with writes
2 episodes with writes
5 episodes with writes
5 episodes with writes
2 episodes with writes
3 episodes with writes
6 episodes with writes
2 episodes with writes
8 episodes with writes
4 episodes with writes
4 episodes with writes
2 episodes with writes
6 episodes with writes
4 episodes with writes
2 episodes with writes
5 episodes with writes
2 episodes with writes
3 episodes with writes
The Writer Files: Writing, Productivity, Creativity, and Neuroscience
New York Times bestselling author Sarah Pinborough spoke with us about her approach to plotting twists, the stark difference between writing novels and screenplays, and her latest THEY SAY A GIRL DIED HERE. Sarah Pinborough is the New York Times and Sunday Times #1 bestselling author of international hit Behind Her Eyes, published in over 25 territories worldwide. Her latest novel, They Say a Girl Died Here, is describe as “a thrilling, genre-bending mystery about two murdered girls, a town with dark secrets, and a race to break a deadly cycle.” Publishers Weekly called the book, “An addictive tale of Midwestern macabre. . . Pinborough's fierce yet flawed characters are easy to root for, and she doles out the story's shocking secrets at a tantalizing pace. Thriller fans who like it dark will devour this.” Sarah Pinborough was the 2009 winner of the British Fantasy Award for Best Short Story and also the 2010 and 2014 winner of the British Fantasy Award for Best Novella, and she has four times been short-listed for Best Novel. She is also a screenwriter who has written for the BBC with multiple adaptations in the works. [Discover The Writer Files Extra: Get 'The Writer Files' Podcast Delivered Straight to Your Inbox at writerfiles.fm] [If you're a fan of The Writer Files, please click FOLLOW to automatically see new interviews. And drop us a rating or a review wherever you listen] In this file Sarah Pinborough, Milena, and I discussed: Her former life running a strip club The chance encounter at FantasyCon that led to a three-book deal How she changes gears while shifting mediums Why horror is her favorite genre Hot takes on recent horror films And a lot more! Show Notes: ElevenReader is a new, award-winning audio app for iOS, Android, Web sarahpinborough.com They Say a Girl Died Here: A Novel by Sarah Pinborough (Amazon) Sarah Pinborough Amazon Author Page Sarah Pinborough on Twitter Sarah Pinborough on Facebook Sarah Pinborough on Instagram Milena Gonzalez | Writer | Reader | Book Reviewer diary_of_a_book_babe on Instagram Kelton Reid Instagram Kelton Reid on Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Most enterprise AI today is a conversation — it summarizes, suggests, recommends. Harman unpacks what changes when AI actually executes across endpoints, and the governance problem that creates. Where does the human stay in the loop, and where do they get out of the way? This segment is sponsored by Tanium. Visit https://securityweekly.com/tanium to learn more about them! Visit https://www.securityweekly.com/swn for all the latest episodes! Show Notes: https://securityweekly.com/swn-611
The Writer Files: Writing, Productivity, Creativity, and Neuroscience
New York Times bestselling author Nina Simon spoke with us about her unconventional career path, low-overhead creative lifestyle, and her sophomore novel MY SISTER IS GOING TO KILL ME. Nina Simon is the bestselling author of the hit novel Mother-Daughter Murder Night. A Reese's Book Club pick and New York Times bestseller, Simon's debut was an Anthony Award winner, an Indie Next pick, and a Best of 2023 selection for Barnes & Noble, Library Journal, and Amazon. Her follow-up, My Sister Is Going to Kill Me, is described as a “family-centric, women-led whodunnit about two sisters who work together to find a killer as they raft down the rapids of the Grand Canyon.” Nita Prose, #1 bestselling author of The Maid series, called the book "A high-octane thriller about two sisters who have to solve a murder ... or die trying. Propulsive and page-turning, this is armchair adventure at its best." Before turning to fiction, Nina wore many hats: NASA engineer, slam poet, game designer, museum director, and nonprofit CEO. [Discover The Writer Files Extra: Get 'The Writer Files' Podcast Delivered Straight to Your Inbox at writerfiles.fm] [If you're a fan of The Writer Files, please click FOLLOW to automatically see new interviews. And drop us a rating or a review wherever you listen] In this file Nina Simon, Milena, and I discussed: Her pivot from “museum visionary” to crime fiction The cancer diagnosis in her family that prompted her to write her debut novel How she turned the natural splendor of the Grand Canyon into a locked-room mystery Her writing process and living off the grid Engineering a low-expense lifestyle to buy creative freedom And a lot more! Show Notes: ElevenReader is a new, award-winning audio app for iOS, Android, Web NinaKSimon.com My Sister Is Going to Kill Me: A Novel (Signed) by Nina Simon - Bookshop Santa Cruz My Sister Is Going to Kill Me: A Novel by Nina Simon (Amazon) Nina Simon Amazon Author Page Nina Simon on Substack Nina Simon on Facebook Nina Simon on Instagram Milena Gonzalez | Writer | Reader | Book Reviewer diary_of_a_book_babe on Instagram Kelton Reid Instagram Kelton Reid on Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
How can the Fast Drafting method help you finally finish your novel? And how do you make progress when you only have 30 minutes a day to write? Jessica Brody shares her tips for finishing first drafts after 20 years as an author. In the intro, Clive Barker's Kickstarter, The Amazon Tax [Seth Godin]; Trad publisher announces “human-originated, AI-facilitated” book, The Everything Code [PanMacmillan; AI policy; CHAPTR]; Holy relics, churches, and memento mori in Bruges and Brussels. 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 Jessica Brody is the best-selling author of over 20 novels across different genres and age groups, as well as writing for Disney Publishing. She's also the author of Save the Cat! Writes a Novel and other books and courses for writers at the Writing Mastery Academy. Her latest book is Page One to Done: Finish Your Novel in 30 Days with the Fast Drafting Method. You can pre-order with bonus extras at JessicaBrody.com/preorder 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 Why a small advance can set you up for long-term success Why 97% of first drafts are never finished How to finish a novel writing 30 minutes a day Why drafting and revising are two different jobs How a pre-writing ritual primes your brain for flow Writing a meta murder mystery after 20 years of teaching plot You can find Jessica at JessicaBrody.com and WritingMastery.com. Transcript of the interview with Jessica Brody Jo: Jessica Brody is the best-selling author of over 20 novels across different genres and age groups, as well as writing for Disney Publishing. She's also the author of Save the Cat! Writes a Novel and other books and courses for writers at the Writing Mastery Academy. Her latest book is Page One to Done: Finish Your Novel in 30 Days with the Fast Drafting Method. So welcome to the show, Jessica. Jessica: Hi, thank you so much for having me. I'm so honoured to be here. My writing community speaks so highly of this podcast, so I'm excited. Jo: Oh, well, thank you, and you were requested, so this is going to be a good one. First up— Tell us a bit more about you and how you got into writing and publishing. Jessica: Well, I started writing when I was seven. I like to put in air quotes, I wrote my first, quote, “novel” when I was seven. It was about three pages long. I got the bug very early. I didn't realise it was an actual career choice that you could take seriously until way later in life, after I'd already graduated college with a degree in economics and I was working as a financial analyst, and I was just writing on the side for fun. Then, as luck would have it, I got laid off from my job, and I ended up trying to take writing a little bit more seriously in that time. That's when I found the Save the Cat method, which absolutely changed everything for me. Before that, I had loads of rejection letters, and I eventually sold my first novel to St. Martin's Press, and I've been writing and publishing ever since. That was 20 years ago now. Jo: 20 years, wow. It's so interesting. So you were in economics, you were a financial analyst, and you got into writing. Did you have any pushback from either your own brain that was like, “I cannot make money this way,” or your family? Or how did you make that leap? Because we just hear that it's not a career, financially, really. Jessica: I know, and I think I went into it very blindly, using television as my resource of this is how much money I can make writing. Like Sex and the City, she was selling books for lots of money. So I was like, oh, I just have to sell one book, and then I'll be set. That was not the case. My first advance was so much lower than I expected, and what happened, though, was kind of interesting. I sold my first book, way lower advance than I was hoping for. I wasn't making any money anywhere else, so I was taking on all these odd jobs that I could do in my own time. I was doing transcription work, and I was working at a school half the time. I mean, I just had so many really weird jobs. I think what happened was, because I didn't have another financial net to help me, it just pushed me really hard. So once I sold one book, I was like, well, I need to sell another one and another one, and I ended up in this 20-year cycle, which I've slowed down thankfully, since, but of writing so obsessively, I should say. I just kept selling books and selling books. My advances got higher and higher, and eventually I was able to support myself with my writing, but it was not instant at all. Jo: Actually, that's a really good note there, because we often hear so much of these debuts that get paid a ton of money, and then they disappear, and they almost spiral down. Whereas what you've done is spiral up. Which is almost a better way to do it perhaps, with your reputation with traditional publishing. Jessica: It's funny, I tell this story a lot to writers who are looking to get published, that the big advance is not necessarily the end-all be-all. Because I have heard that story before, someone gets a very big advance, and then it doesn't earn out, and they can't sell another book because the publisher's lost money. I had the opposite experience. My advance was so low, and my publisher got worldwide rights. They bought worldwide rights. So they started selling foreign rights of my first book really early on, and I earned out before the book even came out, with just a few foreign sales. That ended up setting me up for success, because I was making money for the publisher from day one, and I was able to sell more books, and so I sort of worked my way up. I really do credit a lot of that to how long I've been able to stay in this game. Jo: No, it's a good way of thinking about it, because people forget the publisher isn't a charity. The publisher has to make money from your book. So it's nice that you make money, but they have to make money, or they're not going to bother, right? Jessica: Yes, exactly. Jo: So let's come back to Save the Cat, because you mentioned that the original method really changed how you write, and then of course you did Save the Cat! Writes a Novel. So I've got that. I imagine a lot of people listening have got that. Tell us a bit about why that methodology made such a difference to you, and why you think it's so useful. Jessica: Well, you'll sense a theme here. I went into this business, like I said, without knowing a lot, and I went into it the way I think a lot of writers do, which is, I had an idea, I sat down, and I tried to write it. I had no guidance, no map, no structure, and I just wrote. I actually finished something, which is surprising, but then I started to get all these rejection letters that basically said similar things, which was, “You're a good writer, you have a good voice, but there's no story here.” I just didn't understand that feedback, because I had finished something. I could print it out and stack it on my desk. Wasn't that a story? Apparently it was not. Then a screenwriter friend of mine that I was talking to about how I was getting all of these rejection letters with the same note said, “You should read this book that recently came out. It's called Save the Cat, and it's for screenwriters, but I think it could work for novels because it just seems to be all about structure and storytelling.” So I read the book cover to cover so quickly, because if anyone's read the original, it's just so readable, and everything started clicking in my mind. I realised, wow, I really don't know how to tell a story. I could plot out everything I had done wrong, and I went back to my book and I started rewriting it from page one with this new structure in mind. When I finished that, I ended up getting an agent for that book, and the agent sold that book. I've been using the method ever since. It just made so much sense to my brain. What I tell writers is, “Use the method that makes sense to your brain.” All storytelling structure methods are basically telling the same story, just with different words, sliced and diced a little bit differently, but structure is structure, and a story is a story. It has to have a beginning, middle, and end. It has to have conflict, it has to have a middle twist, and things like that. So this one worked for my brain, and I started to teach it to other novelists, because at the time there was still just the screenwriting guide. So I started to teach how I was using it to other novelists, and that turned into the book, Save the Cat! Writes a Novel. Then I wrote a young adult version of it as well. And I still use it to this day. It's just something that's always made sense to me. Jo: So were you hired by the estate? Blake Snyder died, right? So were you hired to write that, or is that something you arranged? Jessica: It was kind of something that was arranged. I think Blake Snyder Enterprises is the name of the company. Blake Snyder died in 2009, sadly. When I started using the method, I was blogging about it on my blog, and I would share some of my beat sheets of the novels I was writing. The people who had taken over his estate reached out to me and said, “Hey, can you blog for us? Because we don't have a lot of novel content on our blog. We just do screenplay stuff.” And I said, “Of course.” I had a fangirl moment. Oh my gosh, they've reached out to me and this is so exciting. So I started blogging for them, and then that turned into the workshops that I started doing with them. Then we partnered up on the book. I think it was one of those things that felt inevitable, like we were just working toward it. I was living in LA at the time. They're based in LA. And I remember having breakfast with them, and we all just looked at each other and said, “So we need to write a book, right? There has to be a book.” So we ended up sharing the copyright, and, as you see from the title, it says based on the books by Blake Snyder. It's very much his method. Then I brought some of my novel flair and some of my own little tips and tricks that I had picked up over the years and applied it to his method. Jo: I love that. We are going to come to your other book for writers in a minute, but just on that intellectual property sharing, writing in other markets, you also write for Disney Publishing. This is so fascinating to me. Now, there are lots of people who do write for other properties. So how did that come about writing for other properties, and how does that fit into your portfolio of the things that you do? Jessica: Yes, writing for other properties is really fun. It's probably not for everyone. You have to know what you're getting into before you pursue it, because it's very much not your IP. You're writing under someone else's brand, you're in their canon, and there are certain rules you have to follow. So you have guidelines. I found it to be really fun and kind of a break from some of my own stuff, because I didn't have to come up with everything. I didn't have to invent all the new worlds and all the new characters. A lot of them were just given to me, and I could play within the boundaries of that sandbox, and I really found that inspiring. So what happened actually is I was on a writing retreat with a bunch of other writers, and there was a writer at the retreat who already wrote for Disney Press and was supposed to write this new series for them, based on their Descendants series. She said to me, “I really can't do it, but I'd love to recommend someone else to them.” I think we had been talking about how big of a fan I was of Disney or something, and she said, “Do you want me to recommend you?” And I said, “Yes, absolutely.” Another big fangirl moment. So the editor of that series reached out to my agent. They talked to me. They got writing samples from me through my agent, and then before I knew it, I was hired to write, I think the first contract was maybe for two or three of the books, and then we renewed for a few more. It was just really fun. Then I formed a relationship with that editor. We ended up working on another series for younger kids, based on the Disney Princess LEGO series, which was much younger and new for me. It had illustrations. That was a whole new challenge, but I found it really fun. As I said, it was a nice break from writing my own things, because I could write them fairly quickly. They did have very fast turnarounds at the publisher too, but I could use my skills for structure and storytelling and apply it to a world that already existed, and it was a nice pairing. Jo: I love this. So much of what you've done seems to have come from relationships or just putting yourself out there in the world. Jessica: Yes, good observation. I hadn't thought of that. Jo: Whereas I think a lot of people think that it's all about cold pitching. It's not so much, from what you're saying. Jessica: Yes, and I did another IP project with Simon & Schuster called Boys of Summer, which was a young adult novel. That one specifically came from my agent. So a lot of times publishers will reach out to agents and say, “Here's what we're doing. Do you have authors who would fit?” And my agent will often reach out to me and say, “Here's the pitch I got from a publisher. Are you interested in submitting yourself for this?” That's what happened with Boys of Summer. They actually sent out an outline to a bunch of writers who were interested, and I had to write sample chapters to the outline, or I think it was the first couple of chapters or something. I was very gratefully selected to write it. That came about from having an agent, and a lot of times having an agent is a way into IP work. And then those connections can help too. Jo: Fascinating. Right. Well, let's get into your book Page One to Done, which as I said, one of my listeners actually requested to have you on the show to talk about this book, because she said it was absolutely fantastic and helped her finish her book. So why finishing? What is the problem? Why write a book on actually finishing? What are some of the common issues that people have? Jessica: Well, thank you to that listener. I really appreciate it, and here I am because of you. Connections once again. So Page One to Done came out of my own struggle with finishing, and not just finishing, but finishing efficiently and maintaining joy throughout the process of writing a novel. As I said, I was writing very fast and furiously, and my deadlines were piling up, and I started to feel like writing a novel stopped being fun. It started to become a very frustrating process, and I realised that was a lot about how I was approaching the first draft, which, as most writers know, the first draft is very hard. When I started to look further into it, I found this statistic online that's widely accepted in the writing community, which is that 97% of first drafts are not finished. Which is, wow, mind-blowing, but also not that hard to believe once you think about the challenges of writing a first draft. Taking an idea from a seed, developing it into a full plot with character development and arcs and subplots and side characters and themes and all the things that you think a story should have, getting that all onto the page and actually reaching the end. It's very, very difficult, and I never lie about how difficult it is. So I was struggling to finish things quickly, to enjoy the process, and I noticed that other writers were too. I felt like, well, I have this plotting guide that I love, this structure guide, Save the Cat! Shouldn't this be easier once I have an outline? And it wasn't. And that, I think, is because we forget that there's another part of the process. It's not just about developing a compelling character. It's not just about having a well-paced plot. You have to be able to get ideas out of your head and onto the page in a way that doesn't make you want to quit. I think one of the problems with the first draft is most of us write something down, it does not match what's in our head, and we start to get more and more frustrated. The process becomes overwhelming. We're holding too much of the story in our head. We're going back to page one to revise with every new idea we have, so it starts to slow down. The farther we get into the book, the longer that back to page one process takes, and things start to spiral out of control. I think that's essentially what happens to this 97% of first drafts. The writer quits because it's not good enough. It doesn't match what's in their mind, and there's too much to hold, and it starts to become overwhelming. So this is what was happening to me. Even though I was finishing things, the process was still very overwhelming, and I started to experiment with different things. Different mindset shifts that I could make, different ways I could change my writing routine to really enhance the process, to get into flow faster, to stay in flow for longer, things like that. It took me about five years, and I developed this collection of mindset shifts and strategies and routines that I could not only apply to myself, but I turned it into a system that was repeatable, and I started teaching it in my Writing Mastery Academy. I called it the Fast Drafting method, and it's all about letting go of this idea that our first draft has to be perfect or even that good, and just focusing on getting ideas down as quickly as possible, even if that creates a big mess. It's this freeing process of doing that in a way that we don't get in our own way. So I started teaching it to other writers. People were finishing things who had never finished things before. Writers who had taken two years to write a first draft were writing first drafts in weeks. The biggest comment I was getting was, “This is so freeing. This is so liberating. This is so fun.” And it gave people the motivation that they needed to actually sit down and revise the book. Before, either they never finished, so they never got to the revision process, or they were so overwhelmed and bogged down by the two years it took for them to write one draft, they didn't have the energy to revise and get it to the next level. So anyway, all of this is to say it was working for me, it was working for other writers. I turned it into a book called Page One to Done, and it's my three-phase process, mindset, preparation, and drafting, which I equate to running a marathon. You wouldn't run a marathon without proper training and proper nutrition and the right mindset, just like you wouldn't write a novel without the right mindset, the right preparation, and the right skills you need to get to the end. Jo: That's fantastic. You mentioned training there and some of the routine changes. So I hear new writers say, “Oh, I can't write unless I maybe have two hours or three hours to write down stuff, and I never have three hours at a time, so I never have time to write.” I hear that a lot. So what would you say to those people? What is a routine and a mindset shift that might help those people? Jessica: That's great, and I hear that all the time too. I interviewed a handful of authors for this book who had gone through the fast drafting method with me, and I would say the majority of them wrote for 30 minutes to one hour a day and were able to finish their books in a matter of weeks to maybe two months. That's because what I teach in the book is not about the amount of time you have. It's about how you use that time. When you really structure your day and your writing time with intentionality, you do whatever you can to block out distractions, get into flow, stay in flow. I'll give you one amazing tip that basically solves all of these things in a second. But when you really bring intentionality to those 30 minutes, you can write more in 30 minutes than you can in three hours without bringing these kinds of intentional choices. So that's one of the things I teach. You don't need more time. You actually just need to approach the time you have with the right mindsets and the right intentions. So one of the biggest shifts I tell people is just don't write and revise at the same time. For one, it pulls your brain in two different directions and creates the requirement of context switching, because essentially drafting and revising are two different jobs. Drafting is getting ideas out of your head and onto the page. Revising is polishing those ideas. They require very different headspaces and very different skills. So when we try to do both of them at once, we're pulled in two different directions. We're essentially trying to polish something we haven't even figured out yet, so we're polishing in the dark, if you will. It causes our brain to snap back and forth so many times. The term context switching is very big in the zeitgeist today, and that's because it's eating up our brain capacity. So if you spend 30 minutes just getting ideas down without judging them as they're coming out, without trying to revise them as they're coming out, you will get a lot of words down. A lot of that has to do with just what do you expect out of those 30 minutes? If you expect to write a chapter of absolutely brilliant polished prose, you're probably not going to do it, and you're going to feel like you wasted three hours. Then the next time you have three hours, you're like, “Well, no, I'm not going to do that. It's too frustrating, and I don't have three hours to begin with.” But if you sit down with the idea of, “I'm going to get all my ideas down. I'm going to just enjoy this process and live in my story for these 30 minutes,” you will be amazed at how much will come out onto the page. And you can absolutely finish a book that way. So intentionality is how you set up your workspace. Making sure that your phone is on do not disturb, making sure there are no pop-ups on your screen, making sure there are not even windows open behind your document. Every time your mind thinks about something else, you have to bring it back, and that eats brain power. So it's things like that. I have a whole chapter on how to set up a writing routine. One of the biggest tips I give people is to do what I call a pre-writing ritual. This is based in neuroscience, and there are all of these studies that back this up, that our brain does something where it associates an activity with another activity. So let's say right before we sit down to write, every time we do that, we do 10 jumping jacks, just as an example. But we only do 10 jumping jacks before we write. We don't do 10 jumping jacks before we sit down to do our taxes or answer emails. It's just before we write. Your brain starts to create this associative link with jumping jacks and writing. These are ways that we can prime our brain to get into the writing mode, and after doing that a handful of times, you do your jumping jacks, and your brain is literally already in your story before you sit down. It starts to soften that resistance that happens when we think, “Oh, I have to go write now,” or, “I've got to go write a certain amount of words,” or, “I have to work with my story.” It softens that, where it just becomes, “Oh, this is what I'm doing now.” Setting up these pre-writing rituals, which could include jumping jacks, could include something else, a lot of examples we can explore if you want, creates that associative link and allows us to get into the writing zone even faster. So by the time we sit down, we're already primed to go. We're not wasting a lot of that time going, “Oh, should I do it now? Should I do it later? I've got to open my document. Oh, my coffee's a little low.” All the things that we do to delay writing. They start to fall away. Jo: Yes, I mean, I always tell people, you and I turned up on time. We arranged this. We respect each other. We turn up, and we're doing this within a time slot. So I always say to people, “Look, make a calendar entry for your writing,” and do you respect your writing enough to turn up on time and do the work? We had a few minutes of saying hi or whatever, and then we got on with our work, which was this interview. So if you've arranged to start writing for that half an hour, then it is work still, right? You need to turn up and honour that. Jessica: Yes, and actually I have the same tip in the book. I say put it on your calendar, block it off. For the reasons you said, it creates in your brain the idea that this is a serious thing. It's not just a, “Oh, I'll get to it when I get to it,” like folding the laundry. It's like, no, this is what I've decided to do, I'm serious about it, I respect it. Just like any other appointment that you would respect, like lunch with a friend or an important business meeting, you show up for it. You don't go, “I think I'll show up to that business meeting in a few hours when I feel like it.” Also it keeps the routine consistent, because one of the tips I give is to always write at the same time every day if you can, because again, that associative link created in your brain, that habitual routine. So if you put it in your calendar for the days that you're going to write, you won't schedule over it by accident, which is just another logistical thing. I say something similar to what you just said, Joanna, in the book, which is basically, if you booked a massage for an hour, you would stay for the hour, right? Because you paid for this massage. Jo: Hell yes. Jessica: It's important to you. You're not going to get up in the middle and start texting your friends. You want your massage. If you treat your writing like any other thing that's important to you and show up for it consistently, it will show up for you, too. Jo: Yes, and I think the other misconception is that, okay, so that person has made it, and they're at the desk. I listen to rain and thunderstorms in my headphones. That's kind of, I guess, my routine. But that doesn't mean that I can just stream something wonderful. You talked about separating the writing and the editing, but sometimes it really is pretty basic, right? Morgan walked into the room. That will often be my thing, and then I'll be like, “Okay, well, why?” And what was the room like? Or was it even a room? So sometimes you just have to start writing something rather than wait for a perfect sentence. Jessica: Oh, yes, absolutely. Waiting for the perfect sentence, you'll be waiting for a long time. I say waiting for inspiration, you'll be waiting for a long time. My joke is, if I waited to write only when I felt inspired, I'd finish a book about every 20 years, if that. I think that's very important, and I teach a lot of tips and tricks in the book on how to get past that resistance, because of course, we don't want to just sit down and write something that we don't like. We don't want to just write down, “Oh, she stared at her computer for 10 minutes.” But sometimes we have to write that down to get to the next sentence or the next plot point or whatever barrier is in our mind. So one tip I'll tell people is put things you don't like in brackets, the square brackets. It's a really simple tip, and it's one of the tips I share in the book. Just put it in brackets and move on. What the brackets do, at least for people who use it, is it's like scaffolding. It's a reminder to your brain, this isn't permanent. This isn't going to stay. I'm going to come back to this later and fix it once I figure out what the story is and what she's actually doing in the room at this moment. For now, it's there. It's on the page. I can move past it. For me at least, the brackets are just this really nice reminder of the scaffolding. Nope, nope, nope, not perfect, not permanent, moving on. Then you can come back later and flesh it all out. I share a lot of anecdotes from my 20 years of writing novels, and one that I particularly like is I was working on a novel, and I had this scene that was just so awful, where all of my characters were sitting in a room. I had no idea what room it was or what it looked like, and they were talking about their feelings. It was just so awful and boring, but I had to get through this scene because I had to establish certain things that came later. I was complaining and complaining about this scene. I was on a writing retreat at the time, and my writer friends were like, “Let's just do a writing sprint, and we'll all write really fast, and we'll all get through our bad scenes, and we'll move on.” So I did that. I moved past the boring scene. It was still boring all the way to the end, but here's the thing, I couldn't figure out what happened in that scene until I'd figured out the whole story. So I wrote the bad version, and then in the next draft I came back and I was like, “Oh, this scene should take place on this bridge that I wrote in the finale that I didn't even know I needed, and it's this very symbolic bridge, and they can be standing on the bridge, and then they should be talking about this because that's going to pay off in the third act,” and I hadn't even thought of that yet. So all the things were coming together, but I could never have come up with that at the time. If I had just sat there and tried and tried, I probably would have gotten stuck at that scene and quit. So I had to just write the bad version, move past it, and come back later. Jo: Yes, and I think maybe because you're famous for structure, people think that maybe you wouldn't have to do that, because you already came up with that in the plotting. It sounds like you're also putting in those elements and foreshadowing and deepening things in the edit. So that's quite comforting for me as a discovery writer, because I end up doing so much more of that kind of thing in the edits. Jessica: Well, something I like to say is that we're all discovery writers, just different degrees. Because the writing process, no matter how much you plot in advance, is always going to be a discovery process. There are always going to be things you didn't think of. There's always going to be a way to tie things together that you never could have thought of before you started writing. So much of the story evolves and gets processed on the page and in your mind as it's coming out onto the page, and it's delusional to think you can think of all that before you start engaging with the characters. You can come close. I've known writers who have come very close, but almost all writers will discover something that they didn't know in the outline. I would argue that that's actually the fun part of writing. It's not the days when writing goes exactly to plan. They're nice, but they're not necessarily the fun parts. The fun parts are when you sit down to write the scene you thought was going to be the scene, and suddenly this new detail appears, and you go, “Oh my gosh, this totally unlocks everything, and I never even thought of it.” It could be in a text message. It could be on a billboard. It could be something the character just blurts out that you weren't expecting, and suddenly your whole story comes together in that moment, or maybe just the scene comes together. It's those moments, I think, that we write for. So even just expecting the book to come out exactly as you plotted is one of those mindset shifts. If you shift it and think, “This is really fun. I get to discover new things about my story that I wasn't expecting,” that, again, just makes the process a little more fun. So instead of, “Oh, this isn't what I thought it was going to be,” or, “This isn't what I outlined,” which is focusing on what's wrong with the book, it becomes, “Oh, wow, this is teaching me something I never expected about my story, and that's pretty cool.” Jo: Yes, I think that moment, Carl Jung called it, I guess, synchronicity, the moment when these things come together and it feels just incredible, that's the moment we all look for. It does seem to happen on every book. Everything clicks into place, and I look forward to that moment with every book. I did want to ask you about a novel that you have coming out soon as we record this, called How to Write a Murder. Now, this is a new genre for you, and it's quite meta because it's about writers as well. So talk about writing a brand new genre now at this point in your career. What are the challenges of trying to reach a new audience? Why do this book now? Jessica: Wow, great question. I love challenging myself to do something new. I wrote contemporary for many years and then thought, “I'm going to try a sci-fi.” Or, “I'm going to try middle grade now.” I think I go where the story wants, where I'm inspired to go when it comes to story ideas. However, with mystery, it's been one of those things that's always been on the back of my mind, like a wish list, a bucket list. I want to write a murder mystery. I just never had the right idea. Or I never had the time, or I never had the space. Then I finished my last novel contract, and I took a break, because I had been writing on deadlines for years. I took a very, very much needed break from deadlines. For the first time in I think 15 years, I did not have a book deadline. I just asked myself, “Jessica, what do you want to write?” As opposed to, what's the next book that's due? And the answer was very clear. I want to write that murder mystery. I toyed with a few ideas, and then I started to think about, okay, so I wrote this book on plot that a lot of people know and use. What if someone used that book to plot a literal murder? What would that look like? This meta explosion came to mind, which is that I wanted to write a murder mystery that's structured like a plotting guide for murder mysteries. The characters in the book are all writers who are familiar with this plotting guide, and the events of the story are unfolding like the plot of a murder mystery according to this book. You have no idea which one of them is actually using the book to plot the murder, because they all know the book. So one of the taglines is, “One dead body, seven mystery writers, and they all know how to get away with murder.” It was sort of my culmination of everything I'd done in my career. All the plotting workshops I'd taught, all the revision courses I'd taught, and of course this plotting structure method I'd been teaching for years, and I put it into this book. It's a fictional version of Save the Cat! It's called The Bestseller Formula. The premise of this book is that someone is using a murder mystery plotting guide to plot a literal murder. So the reader is learning how to write a murder as they're reading about the murder on the page. Jo: I love it. I know lots of people are going to want that. It does bring the business side of things into more difficulty, because of course you have readers, like you mentioned middle grade, you've got YA books, and obviously, I guess, the writers that you teach will be interested. How is this going to work for your book marketing and your business? Because it also sounds like this might be a standalone. Jessica: It is a standalone as of now. I have some sequel ideas, but we're not pursuing them yet. It is a different market for me, for sure, and that's become a challenge as I'm marketing, because I'm not in the thriller mystery space yet. I haven't written a novel for adults since the very, very beginning of my career. I've been mostly writing for teens and middle grade. The good news is most of my teen readers are now adults, because it's been so long since I wrote for teens. So there's that. I think the book will appeal to mystery readers just because it's a fun mystery, and there's a fun meta element to it. I think it's going to appeal to writers as well. So I'm very much leaning on that, at least for the launch. I hope my writer community will get behind this book, because it's very much an ode to storytelling. It's an ode to writers. I dedicated it to writers. As a writer, you will understand this book on a level that a reader never will. You will get so many of the little inside jokes that a reader might just skim past. So I did very much write it for writers, with the hope that readers will also enjoy it. I had the most fun writing it I've had, I think, of writing any book. Partly I think that was because I wasn't writing it under deadline. I was just writing it for me, but also just because it felt like the book I'd been destined to write for so long. Jo: Fantastic. So we're out of time. So where can people find you and your books and everything you do online? Jessica: How is that possible? I feel like we just started. JessicaBrody.com is the best place to find everything. If you're interested in my writing courses, you can check out WritingMastery.com as well. Jo: Well, thanks so much for your time, Jessica. That was brilliant. Jessica: Thank you, Joanna. I had so much fun.The post From Page One To Done: Fast Drafting Your Novel With Jessica Brody first appeared on The Creative Penn.
Sam Roberts says when people find out what he does for work, they tend to shrink away. Roberts is a veteran obituarist for The New York Times. But the writer says he writes about life – not death. His new memoir Are They Dead Yet? is a behind-the-scenes look at the craft of writing obituaries. In today's episode, he tells NPR's Eyder Peralta about how the Times determines who gets an obituary, how Roberts weighs the unsavory parts of his subjects' pasts and why he decided to publish an obituary for Jesus.Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show's perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy
St. Louis native and composer Julia Riew went viral on TikTok in 2022 with a Korean Disney-style princess she created to fill a representation void in musical theater. This spring, she published her second book, "Shim Jung Takes the Dive," a middle-grades novel inspired by a beloved Korean folktale. Riew discusses the development of the book and its connection to her 2022 TikTok video. She also describes how growing up in St. Louis, being Asian in different spaces including the arts, and taking risks have shaped her journey to becoming a professional artist.
The Writer Files: Writing, Productivity, Creativity, and Neuroscience
#1 international bestselling author Raphael Montes spoke with us about his dual career in TV and fiction, finding commercial success while maintaining authenticity, and the US publication of his hit book THE SECRET DINNER. Raphael Montes is the internationally acclaimed, #1 bestselling Brazilian thriller writer best known for The Secret Dinner, a dark and provocative novel set in Rio de Janeiro described as "a mixture of Alfred Hitchcock's suspense with Quentin Tarantino's black comedy.” He is published in over 25 countries with over 8 million copies sold. Set in Copacabana, The Secret Dinner—a biting, dark satire of foodie culture, wealth excess, and youth desperation—is landing in the US for the first time and has been named a summer most-anticipated by Crimereads, in addition to two mentions in The New York Times. #1 New York Times bestselling author Riley Sager said of the book, "The Secret Dinner is a potent combination of gallows humor, Hitchcockian suspense, and trenchant social commentary. Bold and bloody, it's a thriller with real bite." Also a screenwriter, Raphael is the showrunner of Scars of Beauty—the most-watched original show on HBO Max in Latin America—and Netflix's award-winning series Good Morning, Verônica. [Discover The Writer Files Extra: Get 'The Writer Files' Podcast Delivered Straight to Your Inbox at writerfiles.fm] [If you're a fan of The Writer Files, please click FOLLOW to automatically see new interviews. And drop us a rating or a review wherever you listen] In this file Raphael Montes, Milena, and I discussed: How he leveraged early Bookstagram and BookTok to great success The themes of power, ambition, food, and class behind The Secret Dinner Switching between screenwriting and fiction to beat writer's block Why he believes literature should provoke moral questions and self-reflection in readers How he broke into TV after producers noticed the filmic quality of his second novel Drinking dry gin martinis with Patricia Highsmith And a lot more! Show Notes: ElevenReader is a new, award-winning audio app for iOS, Android, Web RaphaelMontes.com The Secret Dinner: A Novel by Raphael Montes (Amazon) Raphael Montes Amazon Author Page Raphael Montes on TikTok Raphael Montes on Instagram Milena Gonzalez | Writer | Reader | Book Reviewer diary_of_a_book_babe on Instagram Kelton Reid Instagram Kelton Reid on Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Writer Files: Writing, Productivity, Creativity, and Neuroscience
#1 New York Times bestselling author Karin Slaughter spoke with us about her writing origins, cabin-based creative process, TV adaptations, and her new novel THE SECRETS WE HIDE, a follow-up to #1 hit WE ARE ALL GUILTY HERE. Karin Slaughter is one of the world's most popular crime thriller writers, a fixture on bestseller lists who has written more than 25 novels. Her work consistently tops the charts and We Are All Guilty Here was her first #1 on the New York Times list. The follow up is to that hit novel is her latest thriller in the North Falls series, The Secrets We Hide. Publishers Weekly wrote of the author, "Slaughter remains as skilled as ever at probing the darker side of life in Georgia." Karin is published in 120 countries with over 40 million copies sold. The TV series based on her novel PIECES OF HER debuted at #1 worldwide on Netflix, and her beloved Will Trent series is now in its fourth season with ABC. She also wrote the limited series adaptation of The Good Daughter for Peacock, and is the founder of the Save the Libraries project—a nonprofit that supports libraries. [Discover The Writer Files Extra: Get 'The Writer Files' Podcast Delivered Straight to Your Inbox at writerfiles.fm] [If you're a fan of The Writer Files, please click FOLLOW to automatically see new interviews. And drop us a rating or a review wherever you listen] In this file Karin Slaughter, Milena, and I discussed: How she was incentivized to write about dark subjects at a young age The core advice that helps her keep the words flowing Why she writes in sprints that break her brain Where the kernel of her idea for the sequel to We Are All Guilty Here began How to stay prolific by challenging yourself as a writer And a lot more! Show Notes: ElevenReader is a new, award-winning audio app for iOS, Android, Web (00:00) [THE SECRETS WE HIDE] karinslaughter.com The Secrets We Hide : A Novel By Karin Slaughter (Amazon) Karin Slaughter Amazon Author Page Karin Slaughter on Facebook Karin Slaughter on Instagram Milena Gonzalez | Writer | Reader | Book Reviewer diary_of_a_book_babe on Instagram Kelton Reid Instagram Kelton Reid on Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
What if the person you call the love of your life entered carrying the key to the place where you still believe you are incomplete? Human beings begin life dependent. That dependence is innocent. A child requires regulation, protection, recognition, touch, presence, and care. When those needs remain unfinished, adulthood can inherit more than pain. It can inherit an assignment. Find somebody who will finally make the old absence stop hurting. Then attraction can feel like destiny because conditioning recognizes a familiar role before consciousness recognizes the script. The divine mirrored intimate play places another free, changing human being close enough to activate what solitude can keep hidden. Their distance can uncover abandonment. Independence can expose control. A boundary can reveal entitlement. Desire can expose the hunger to be chosen. Change can uncover the fear beneath your demand for permanence. The mirror shows something devastating. You have been asking an impermanent person to provide permanent evidence that you are truly whole. Bodies age, feelings move, circumstances turn, identities evolve, and relationships change form. Impermanence keeps its promise. The false self fights that fact because psychological need requires continuity of supply. Here need becomes the original sin when innocent childhood dependence survives as the adult belief that completion exists somewhere outside the self. Perhaps the fine tuning serves one ruthless purpose. Whatever you keep demanding from another person returns as a question about what remains uncultivated, disowned, or unclaimed within you. Can you become internally what you keep hiring romantic love to provide externally? Psychological freedom begins when another person can matter enormously without carrying responsibility for your wholeness. Then love loses its job as rescue. The mirror has done its work for you. You finally meet the person across from you after you stop trying to find yourself inside them.
If you're using the Save the Cat! beat sheet to outline your novel but your story still feels flat, disconnected, or hard to draft, one of these five common mistakes may be the reason why.The Save the Cat! beat sheet is a popular story structure framework because it gives fiction writers fifteen clear landmarks to plot toward. But filling in all fifteen beats doesn't automatically give you a story that works.In this episode, I'm breaking down five mistakes writers make when using the Save the Cat! beat sheet—and what to think about instead so you can build a stronger, more connected novel outline.You'll hear me talk about things like:[03:10] Why jumping straight into the Save the Cat! beat sheet can leave you with plot points that technically fit the framework but don't feel rooted in your story.[05:35] Why having the “right” story beats in the “right” places isn't enough—and what keeps a novel from feeling like a series of disconnected events.[10:00] Why fifteen beats do not equal fifteen scenes, and how misunderstanding the difference between a beat sheet and a scene-by-scene outline can distort your story.[12:50] The Fun and Games mistake that can leave you stuck in the middle, scrambling to figure out what should happen next.[16:30] The often-missed internal side of Bad Guys Close In (and how it can give your All Is Lost moment much more emotional weight).If you use Save the Cat! Writes a Novel for plotting or outlining, this episode will help you understand what the framework is actually designed to do—so you can use it to support your story instead of forcing your story into fifteen boxes.
Same opponent. Same(ish) score. Same result. Somehow even more stressful. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Writer Files: Writing, Productivity, Creativity, and Neuroscience
Novelist, veteran screenwriter, and longtime Blue Bloods showrunner Kevin Wade spoke with us about the challenges of transitioning across writing mediums, storytelling principles, and book two of his debut crime series, ONE GOOD EYE. Kevin Wade is the Golden Globe and the Writers Guild of America nominated screenwriter of movies including the seven-time Oscar nominated comedy Working Girl (1988), True Colors (1991) starring John Cusack and James Spader, the Tom Selleck comedy Mr. Baseball (1992), Ivan Reitman's Junior (1994), the epic romance Meet Joe Black (1998), and the rom-com Maid in Manhattan (2002). In 2010, he joined the rookie CBS drama Blue Bloods as a writer, and in 2011 he became its showrunner and executive producer for the entire 14-year run. His latest release is the follow-up to his debut crime novel Johnny Careless, a book author John Sanford called a “fast-moving classic crime novel,” and that was shortlisted for the Edgar Best First Novel Award. One Good Eye is the second in the Police Chief Jeep Mullane series and Library Journal said of the author, “Wade delivers another compelling literary mystery. His characters feel intimately real...and Jeep remains a deeply engaging protagonist...With sharp prose and a vivid sense of place on Long Island's Gold Coast, Wade's second…book will have readers eager to read more stories about Jeep and his community." [Discover The Writer Files Extra: Get 'The Writer Files' Podcast Delivered Straight to Your Inbox at writerfiles.fm] [If you're a fan of The Writer Files, please click FOLLOW to automatically see new interviews. And drop us a rating or a review wherever you listen] In this file Kevin Wade, Milena, and I discussed: What his early aspirations as an actor in NYC taught him about playwriting How he had his first screenplay turned into a hit movie by a legendary director Why he wrote his debut novel during the Writers Guild strike The biggest challenges of moving from TV writing to the novel His favorite advice from Elmore Leonard's Ten Rules for Writers How to write relatable characters Classic advice from literary lions And a lot more! Show Notes: ElevenReader is a new, award-winning audio app for iOS, Android, Web One Good Eye: A Jeep Mullane Novel (The Jeep Mullane Series, 2) by Kevin Wade (Amazon) Kevin Wade Amazon Author Page Kevin Wade on IMDb Kevin Wade on Instagram Milena Gonzalez | Writer | Reader | Book Reviewer diary_of_a_book_babe on Instagram Kelton Reid Instagram Kelton Reid on Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Why does compliance paperwork fall behind the systems it describes? Because the systems change faster than the documents. Travis Howerton points to cloud native technologies that spin up and down on demand, which makes describing infrastructure in paperwork something that goes out of date instantly. Add new regulation for third party risk, supply chain, zero trust, and privacy, and an approach that was already expensive and frustrating stops being fit for purpose. RegScale answers that with compliance as code. The company went to NIST and helped write the standard that became OSCAL, the Open Security Controls Assessment Language, then built the capability for machines to attest to their own state using it. Paperwork starts writing itself, and CISOs get risk and compliance outcomes as a byproduct of operational excellence rather than as a separate project. Is automating the evidence trail a shortcut? Travis Howerton argues the opposite. It prevents corner cutting, because the alternative is what he calls compliance theater. An old general he worked for described that as a mother-in-law visit, where you clean the house to a ridiculous standard, everybody goes through the dance, and the moment the visit ends the kids destroy the house again. Where should a security team start automating? Start with what hurts. He tells people to think like a surgeon, who opens by asking the patient what is wrong, then work backwards from the pain. There is no easy button, and the honest starting point is the truth about how fast teams will need to react. That pain usually maps to one of three business drivers. Cut cost, or shift the share of budget going to checklist compliance toward tools that buy down risk. Get real-time assurance. Or earn the reps and certs needed to sell into a market, whether that is FedRAMP for government work or PCI for card data. Compressing those timelines by 70 to 80 percent lets a company get to market faster and grow revenue. The results Travis Howerton cites are specific. One large government agency is touting over $100 million in labor savings, and a Department of War customer with a 52-week end-to-end cycle has compressed it by 36 weeks using RegScale technology alongside other integrated tools. Having tripled, doubled, and doubled again over the last three years, RegScale stays focused on the largest and most complex organizations, with international markets and the energy sector on the horizon. This is a Brand Briefing. A Brand Briefing is an on-location conversation recorded on site at Black Hat USA 2026, putting a spotlight on the guest and their company and pairing it with the editorial reach of ITSPmagazine. Learn more: https://www.studioc60.com/performance/#briefing GUEST Travis Howerton, Co-Founder and CEO at RegScale LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/travishowerton/ RESOURCES Black Hat USA 2026 event coverage: https://www.itspmagazine.com/black-hat-usa-2026-cybersecurity-event-coverage-in-las-vegas RegScale: https://regscale.com OSCAL, the Open Security Controls Assessment Language: https://pages.nist.gov/OSCAL/ Are you interested in telling your story? ▶︎ Full Length Brand Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#full ▶︎ Brand Spotlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#spotlight ▶︎ Brand Highlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#highlight ▶︎ Get your own Brand Briefing at an upcoming event: https://www.studioc60.com/buy-brand-briefings KEYWORDS travis howerton, regscale, sean martin, brand briefing, brand story, brand marketing, marketing podcast, black hat usa 2026, compliance as code, continuous controls monitoring, oscal, grc engineering, fedramp, fisma, authority to operate, ai agents, risk management, cybersecurity compliance Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
The Writer Files: Writing, Productivity, Creativity, and Neuroscience
New York Times bestselling author Gillian McAllister spoke with us about how to deal with rejection, deleting full drafts, the business side of adaptations, and her latest US release, the thriller THAT NIGHT. Gillian McAllister is the internationally bestselling author of Wrong Place Wrong Time, Just Another Missing Person, Famous Last Words, and others. Her novels have been selected by both Read with Jenna and Reese's Book Club, and she has become one of today's most celebrated voices in psychological suspense. Her latest US release is That Night (already adapted into a Netflix series), a novel that follows a family's dream vacation in Italy that spirals into a nightmare. New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry said of Gillian, “McAllister is the best at putting her characters in impossible situations and making her readers not only contemplate but feel what it would be like to find themselves in those situations.” Gillian graduated with an English degree before working as a lawyer. She is also the creator and co-host of the popular Honest Authors podcast. [Discover The Writer Files Extra: Get 'The Writer Files' Podcast Delivered Straight to Your Inbox at writerfiles.fm] [If you're a fan of The Writer Files, please click FOLLOW to automatically see new interviews. And drop us a rating or a review wherever you listen] In this file Gillian McAllister, Milena, and I discussed: Her law background and path to publication How she wrote close to 400K words before breaking through Why she plans novels via synopsis and keeps her early drafts private Business advice on how to talk to publishers once you've sold a book The real reason so many lawyers become crime writers And a lot more! Show Notes: ElevenReader is a new, award-winning audio app for iOS, Android, Web gillianmcallister.com The Honest Authors' Podcast That Night: A Novel by Gillian McAllister (Amazon) Gillian McAllister Amazon Author Page Gillian McAllister Facebook Gillian McAllister on Instagram Milena Gonzalez | Writer | Reader | Book Reviewer diary_of_a_book_babe on Instagram Kelton Reid Instagram Kelton Reid on Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
AI agents are breaking free from their test environments, outsmarting their creators and breaching real-world networks in ways that no one predicted. Discover how these agentic models are changing the game for both cyber offense and defense. Anthropic's agentic AI also broke free and hacked others. We know much (much!) more about the OpenAI breakout. OpenAI posts that they're pausing "Astra" - even internally. What was that about AI recently cracking (or denting) cryptography. Bruce Schneier brilliantly equates AI agents to capricious genies. Apple doesn't react so well to the new deluge of security reports. Chrome 149 + 150 updates together fix 1,072 bugs. Yikes. psSense's creator is working to finish its nfSensei, its successor Show Notes - https://www.grc.com/sn/SN-1091-Notes.pdf Hosts: Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte Download or subscribe to Security Now at https://twit.tv/shows/security-now. You can submit a question to Security Now at the GRC Feedback Page. For 16kbps versions, transcripts, and notes (including fixes), visit Steve's site: grc.com, also the home of the best disk maintenance and recovery utility ever written Spinrite 6. 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 Sponsors: hoxhunt.com/securitynow guardsquare.com threatlocker.com/twit box.com/AI
AI agents are breaking free from their test environments, outsmarting their creators and breaching real-world networks in ways that no one predicted. Discover how these agentic models are changing the game for both cyber offense and defense. Anthropic's agentic AI also broke free and hacked others. We know much (much!) more about the OpenAI breakout. OpenAI posts that they're pausing "Astra" - even internally. What was that about AI recently cracking (or denting) cryptography. Bruce Schneier brilliantly equates AI agents to capricious genies. Apple doesn't react so well to the new deluge of security reports. Chrome 149 + 150 updates together fix 1,072 bugs. Yikes. psSense's creator is working to finish its nfSensei, its successor Show Notes - https://www.grc.com/sn/SN-1091-Notes.pdf Hosts: Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte Download or subscribe to Security Now at https://twit.tv/shows/security-now. You can submit a question to Security Now at the GRC Feedback Page. For 16kbps versions, transcripts, and notes (including fixes), visit Steve's site: grc.com, also the home of the best disk maintenance and recovery utility ever written Spinrite 6. 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 Sponsors: hoxhunt.com/securitynow guardsquare.com threatlocker.com/twit box.com/AI
AI agents are breaking free from their test environments, outsmarting their creators and breaching real-world networks in ways that no one predicted. Discover how these agentic models are changing the game for both cyber offense and defense. Anthropic's agentic AI also broke free and hacked others. We know much (much!) more about the OpenAI breakout. OpenAI posts that they're pausing "Astra" - even internally. What was that about AI recently cracking (or denting) cryptography. Bruce Schneier brilliantly equates AI agents to capricious genies. Apple doesn't react so well to the new deluge of security reports. Chrome 149 + 150 updates together fix 1,072 bugs. Yikes. psSense's creator is working to finish its nfSensei, its successor Show Notes - https://www.grc.com/sn/SN-1091-Notes.pdf Hosts: Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte Download or subscribe to Security Now at https://twit.tv/shows/security-now. You can submit a question to Security Now at the GRC Feedback Page. For 16kbps versions, transcripts, and notes (including fixes), visit Steve's site: grc.com, also the home of the best disk maintenance and recovery utility ever written Spinrite 6. 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 Sponsors: hoxhunt.com/securitynow guardsquare.com threatlocker.com/twit box.com/AI
AI agents are breaking free from their test environments, outsmarting their creators and breaching real-world networks in ways that no one predicted. Discover how these agentic models are changing the game for both cyber offense and defense. Anthropic's agentic AI also broke free and hacked others. We know much (much!) more about the OpenAI breakout. OpenAI posts that they're pausing "Astra" - even internally. What was that about AI recently cracking (or denting) cryptography. Bruce Schneier brilliantly equates AI agents to capricious genies. Apple doesn't react so well to the new deluge of security reports. Chrome 149 + 150 updates together fix 1,072 bugs. Yikes. psSense's creator is working to finish its nfSensei, its successor Show Notes - https://www.grc.com/sn/SN-1091-Notes.pdf Hosts: Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte Download or subscribe to Security Now at https://twit.tv/shows/security-now. You can submit a question to Security Now at the GRC Feedback Page. For 16kbps versions, transcripts, and notes (including fixes), visit Steve's site: grc.com, also the home of the best disk maintenance and recovery utility ever written Spinrite 6. 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 Sponsors: hoxhunt.com/securitynow guardsquare.com threatlocker.com/twit box.com/AI
We proudly, by popular demand, are bringing back to the Rick Flynn Presents podcast one of our most popular guests participating in our ongoing "Strong Women Series" this year.Yes, here we go everyone. The staff of Rick Flynn Presents is rolling out the red carpet for our distinguished guest JUDGE JANET KINTNER (Ret.). Judge Kintner appears with us beginning May 13, 2026, in exchange for promotion of her new memoir "A Judge's Tale: A Trailblazer Fights for Her Place on the Bench" which is published by She Writes Press and is distributed by Simon and Schuster.“I have loved being a judge in San Diego for 31 years. Public service is the most rewarding job there is. I feel I have been able to make a difference: I have made some people's lives better, I have been able to protect people from wrongdoing, and I have been able to turn some people around so they became positive influences in our community,” says Judge Kintner.Buy, or order, this book wherever books are sold and we are proud to be announcing worldwide that the good judge will be rejoining us again soon with a brand-new show but, in the meantime, please take the time to listen to her rewind episode of the very first appearance she made on our show, as Episode 284, on May 13, 2026. This is an excellent interview with a great guest and very distinguished jurist JUDGE JANEL KINTNER (Ret.).Contact: www.JanetKintner.comBuy her book wherever books are sold.
AI is changing what developers build, but code alone is no longer enough to prove what you can do. Wes Bos explains why engineers need to solve problems beyond syntax, how agent workflows are reshaping software development, and what still requires human thinking.In this conversation:The limits of generative UI and AI-generated designAgent loops, harnesses, and cheaper AI modelsThe rising cost of AI coding and the case for local hardwareWhy developer education is shifting from syntax to problem-solvingPersonal branding, conferences, newsletters, and AI-generated contentFor developers navigating AI-assisted coding, this episode explores the skills and signals that still help you stand out.This podcast was recorded at JSNation, the key web dev conference.OUTLINE00:00:00 - Code Is Not Enough for Developers00:00:32 - Why Generative UI Still Feels Unfinished00:04:35 - How Agent Loops Improve AI Coding00:07:06 - When Agent Workflows Become Standard Tools00:08:19 - Are Cheaper AI Models Good Enough?00:10:44 - Can AI Coding Costs Stay Sustainable?00:12:24 - What Engineers Need To Learn Now00:14:23 - Why Fundamentals Matter Beyond Syntax00:15:34 - How Non-Coders Are Building Production Tools00:16:21 - Why In-Person Conferences Still Matter00:18:11 - Personal Branding When Code Isn't Enough00:20:37 - Can Newsletters Beat The Attention Crisis?00:22:02 - Why AI-Generated Content Feels Insulting00:24:12 - Use AI To Scaffold, Not Think
AI Patch Development Fails, WordPress Login XSS Hits All Versions, and DEF CON's Biggest Security Lessons David Shipley covers new research from 1Password's Off By One Labs showing AI-generated vulnerability patches often fail: across 6,080 scored patches for six CVEs, only 26% fixed issues without changing behavior, 20% fixed while changing behavior, and 53.9% failed or introduced new flaws, with many "successful" patches deemed fragile. A critical WordPress login-page XSS (CVE-2026-64638, CVSS 8.9) affects every version ever shipped; fixes landed in 7.0.3 and were backported to 4.7, leaving older versions vulnerable, as CISA tracks active exploitation alongside the recent "WP to Shell" RCE. T he episode also details warnings about destructive OT attacks, a cyber incident forcing North Carolina ports into manual operations, and DEF CON talks on hacking 36M GPS trackers, misdirected "noreply" domains, and AI-driven HTTP desync research. 00:00 NordLayer Sponsor Message 00:37 Headlines And Intro 01:08 AI Patches Fail Often 03:19 WordPress Login XSS 05:40 Wipers Target Infrastructure 08:02 North Carolina Ports Hit 09:49 DEF CON Favorite Talks 10:15 GPS Trackers Takeover 11:28 Noreply Domain Email Leak 12:37 AI Finds HTTP Desyncs 13:47 Cliff Stoll Keynote 15:09 Wrap Up And Thanks 15:31 NordLayer Sponsor Close
The Writer Files: Writing, Productivity, Creativity, and Neuroscience
Bestselling author and storytelling expert Abbie Emmons spoke with us about topping 600K YouTube followers, helping writers craft emotionally resonant narratives, and her new writing guide MAKE YOUR STORY MATTER. Abbie Emmons is the popular YouTube creator behind the channel Make Your Story Matter. For over seven years, she has been sharing her wisdom on YouTube (@abbieemmons), where she teaches writers how to make their stories matter by harnessing the power and psychology of storytelling to transform their ideas into masterpieces Her latest book, Make Your Story Matter: An Interactive Guide to Unlocking Your Brain's Storytelling Power and Writing a Book Readers Love (releasing August 11, 2026), “... [offers a] simple but powerful 3-step framework for storytelling that's rooted in psychology called the Who, What, Why Method.” Jessica Brody, bestselling author of Save The Cat! Writes a Novel, wrote of the book, "Understanding why stories move us is one of the most powerful things a writer can learn. Make Your Story Matter brings the psychology and heart of storytelling to life in a way that will transform how you think about your characters and your craft." Her online learning platform, Abbie's Story University, has thousands of students worldwide. Through monthly live lectures and in-depth courses, Abbie offers comprehensive instruction on creative writing, editing, publishing, and more. [Discover The Writer Files Extra: Get 'The Writer Files' Podcast Delivered Straight to Your Inbox at writerfiles.fm] [If you're a fan of The Writer Files, please click FOLLOW to automatically see new interviews. And drop us a rating or a review wherever you listen] In this file Abbie Emmons, Milena, and I discussed: Her three-pillar framework for crafting compelling stories How to make your characters relatable Why writers struggle with motivation and writing slumps despite having great ideas What “writing ugly” can do for your productivity How to create a conversation around your book And a lot more! Show Notes: ElevenReader is a new, award-winning audio app for iOS, Android, Web abbieemmonsauthor.com abbiesstoryuniversity.com Make Your Story Matter: An Interactive Guide to Unlocking Your Brain's Storytelling Power and Writing a Book Readers Love by Abbie Emmons (Amazon) Abbie Emmons on YouTube Author on Facebook Author on Instagram Milena Gonzalez | Writer | Reader | Book Reviewer diary_of_a_book_babe on Instagram Kelton Reid Instagram Kelton Reid on Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Anna Johnston draws on her experience working in her grandfather's nursing home to tell the stories of older people. She delves into here new book, When Lemons Give You Life, in conversation with Jane Tara.
Chris Bohjalian is prolific to say the least. With about 25 novels under his belt, he hits the bestseller list often with his unforgettable characters and twisty plots. But his newest, The Amateur, is his most personal novel to date. The narrator, Mira, was a caddy, just as Chris was for most of his high school career. And she is a writer, just like Chris, her sense of humor and feelings about writing are pure Chris. It's a page turner with some terrific writing. And we talk to Elderberry and Plum, a new bookstore in Springfield, Illinois. Join us! Find books mentioned in The Book Case: https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/shop/story/book-case-podcast-reading-list-118433302 Books mentioned on this episode: The Amateur by Chris Bohjalian The Jackal's Mistress by Chris Bohjalian The Princess of Las Vegas by Chris Bohjalian The Lioness by Chris Bohjalian Hour of the Witch by Chris Bohjalian The Red Lotus by Chris Bohjalian The Flight Attendant by Chris Bohjalian The Sleepwalker by Chris Bohjalian The Guest Room by Chris Bohjalian Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands by Chris Bohjalian The Light in the Ruins by Chris Bohjalian The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian The Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian The Shampoo Effect by Jenny Jackson The World According to Garp by John Irving Lolita by Vladimir Nabakov All the World Can Hold by Jung Yun Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt by Ben Reeves Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The Writer Files: Writing, Productivity, Creativity, and Neuroscience
New York Times bestselling author Laura Moriarty spoke with us about her teaching philosophy as a creative writing professor, the craft of historical fiction, and the research process behind her latest novel, SUNLIGHT FINDS YOU. Laura Moriarty is the New York Times bestselling author of The Chaperone, The Center of Everything, The Rest of Her Life, While I'm Falling, and a Creative Writing Professor at the University of Kansas. Her latest novel is Sunlight Finds You, described as a book that “explores the fervor of young love, the shock of parental betrayal, and the long-term consequences of adolescent choices.” A Kirkus starred review wrote of the work, “Moriarty has an unusual gift for voice, a spark that can turn a novel about ordinary events into something compelling…A rich, rewarding slice of history that should remind us how important it is for women to have choices of all kinds.” Laura Moriarty received her master's degree from the University of Kansas and was awarded the George Bennett Fellowship for Creative Writing at Phillips Exeter Academy. [Discover The Writer Files Extra: Get 'The Writer Files' Podcast Delivered Straight to Your Inbox at writerfiles.fm] [If you're a fan of The Writer Files, please click FOLLOW to automatically see new interviews. And drop us a rating or a review wherever you listen] In this file Laura Moriarty, Milena, and I discussed: Her early career in social work and how she almost became a doctor Why she loves working with graduate students on their WIPs The research process that went into Sunlight Finds You What changing the POV can do for your narrative How incorporating psychological authenticity over modern values can improve historical fiction And a lot more! Show Notes: ElevenReader is a new, award-winning audio app for iOS, Android, Web english.ku.edu/people/laura-moriarty Sunlight Finds You: A Novel by Laura Moriarty (Amazon) Laura Moriarty Amazon Author Page Milena Gonzalez | Writer | Reader | Book Reviewer diary_of_a_book_babe on Instagram Kelton Reid Instagram Kelton Reid on Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Have you ever wondered if the hardest pivots in life could become the very ones God uses most? When grief, loss, and unanswered questions reshape our future, it can feel impossible to imagine that anything good could come from the pain. Yet God's purposes are often unfolding long before we can see where He is leading.In this Season 12 finale, Tracie continues her conversation with Pam Triplett as she shares the rest of her remarkable testimony. From blending a new family to walking through unimaginable loss and discovering God's sustaining grace in the darkest seasons, Pam reflects on the faithfulness of the Lord through every pivot. Her story is a powerful reminder that while we may not understand the path God chooses, He never wastes our pain. Sometimes the very pivots we would have avoided become the doorway to a new season of purpose, hope, and ministry.If you know of someone who can be helped by listening to the Abundant Living Podcast, please share this episode with them. Please let us know what you think by rating and reviewing this podcast in your podcasting app! We love hearing from our listeners, whether through comments on our Instagram or our Facebook page or by messaging us on our website, christianladiesfellowship.com. You may also apply to be a part of our private Facebook group, but be sure to answer all the questions and agree to the group rules when you click to join. You can also email Tracie directly at tburns@immanueljax.org. Thank you for being part of this uplifting and encouraging community of ladies who want to live abundantly for the Lord!
AI is changing more than how engineers write code. It is changing what leaders hire for, how candidates are assessed, and which engineering skills may matter most.Raymond Wang, CTO and cofounder at Ease Health, joins Amir to discuss how an engineering team using agentic coding tools thinks about hiring, productivity, code review, token costs, and the future of software engineering.Raymond argues that syntax knowledge and familiarity with a specific language matter less than they once did. His team puts more weight on product instincts, engineering judgment, passion, drive, and the ability to break down problems and guide AI agents when they go in the wrong direction.The conversation also examines a growing interview challenge. Watching a candidate prompt an AI tool can introduce subjectivity, especially when different prompting styles produce equally strong results. Raymond recommends making interviews resemble the actual work and evaluating the quality of the output rather than whether the candidate used the same process as the interviewer.Practical Takeaways• Hire for product judgment, engineering instincts, and problem solving, not only language precision.• Design interviews around realistic work and evaluate results more than prompting style.• Use the strongest models for expensive mistakes, such as code review, and cheaper models for lower risk internal tasks.• Build an internal AI harness that engineers use and improve as part of their daily workflow.Episode Highlights02:05 What Ease Health now values when hiring engineers05:30 Why grading prompts can make interviews more subjective08:40 The challenge of keeping coding interviews ahead of rapidly improving models12:10 Why Raymond sees code review as one of AI's strongest engineering use cases14:40 How Ease Health compares token spend with engineering output26:45 Why software engineering may split between elite generalists, narrower roles, and highly specialized expertsOne Line That Stuck“Evaluate the output more than the subjective input.”Follow The Tech Trek for more conversations on AI, engineering, product, data, and technical leadership.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Join Paul Cooney, Aiden McGeady and Kevin Kyle as they reflect on Celtic's opening league game victory against Dundee and all of the weekend's SPFL results.
On this week's show, Peter and Sarah hand over the floor to our listeners and dedicate the entire episode to responding to emails, WhatsApp notes and Spotify comments that you've been kind enough to send. And what a mailbag it is with stories of duelling in the modern age, should utilities be in public ownership or private hands? Would Peter ever throw in his lot with the Social Democratic Party (unlikely, dear listener)? And cats or dogs? And why does Sarah's moggy gnaw on her laptop?On our reading, listening and watch list this week: · Bladerunner – Dir: Ridley Scott· The Divine Comedy – Dante· Royal Flash - George MacDonald Fraser· Why I Am Not A Christian – Bertrand Russell Please do get in touch, email: Alas@dailymail.co.uk you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on Whatsapp – on 07796 657512, start your message with the word ‘alas'. Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter HitchensProducer: Philip WildingEditor: Chelsey MooreProduction Manager: Vittoria CecchiniExecutive Producer: Jamie East A Daily Mail production. Seriously PopularTo get in touch email alas@mailonline.co.uk, you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on WhatsApp - on 07796 657512 start your message with the word 'alas'Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter HitchensProducer: Phillip WildingEditor: Chelsey MooreProduction Manager: Vittoria CecchiniExecutive Producer: Jamie EastA Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Politics, pressure campaigns, and federal bombshells. Steve Tavares, Trishala Vinnakota, and special co-host Justin Berton break down explosive new court filings in the federal corruption case against former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and the Duong family. Prosecutors allege Thao threatened to abandon a lucrative modular housing deal if East Bay Insiders published a story about former San Leandro Councilmember Bryan Azevedo's conduct during a trip to Vietnam. They also allege the Duongs paid former East Bay Insiders co-host Shawn Wilson $10,000 to suppress the story. We also examine the latest in the CA14 special election including how Melissa Hernandez's divorce records raise new questions about a central theme of her campaign biography. Plus, Oakland Department of Transportation Director Josh Rowan's remarkable broadside against City Hall, and Steve's latest conspiracy about a monster escaping from a Port of Oakland shipping container. Of course, Justin denies the claim.
"We probably have some sense of what narrative is. So when your brain starts turning into the little movie camera because this is a juicy scene, then it's like, well, what would I want to show? What what would I want to know here?" says Jennifer Keishin Armstrong, author of Parks and Rec: The Underdog TV Show That Lit'rally Inspired a Vision for a Better America.Dude, we have Jennifer Keishin Armstrong here today. What brings her to the CNF Pod-o-Verse is her latest book, her ninth, titled Parks and Rec: The Underdog TV Show That Lit-rally Inspired a Vision for a Better America. It's published by Dutton with a forward by Nick Offerman. Jennifer also is the best selling author of Seinfeldia, and we talk about that as well, how timing is everything and there are so many things out of our control … She can be found @jmkarmstrong on IG and jenniferkamrstrong.com.OK, so Jennifer's Parks book came out earlier this year and it's a wonderful, breezy read about one of my all-time favorite TV shows, a show that is deeply important to me. We watch it all the time. We own the DVDs so we actually OWN it, not beholden to the whims of streaming platforms who can deplatform shows at the click of a mouse, presumably. Jennifer's book takes you behind the scenes with actors, writers, producers and shares never before told anecdotes and insights as to why this show has such staying power despite nearly being cancelled after every season. So, yes, we talk about Parks, but we mainly talk about: Dictionaries When your brain turns into a movie camera Jennifer's “practice book” she never talks about Her guidelines for pursuing a book How the dialogue around TV has changed in the last 25 years The ruthlessness of story craft How Parks got out from under the shadow of The Office Serendipity and non-meritocracy Living on the long tail Lessons from the Parks run And all the things out of our controlInstagram: @creativenonfictionpodcastSubstack: welcometopitchclub.substack.com
The Writer Files: Writing, Productivity, Creativity, and Neuroscience
Bestselling memoirist, chef, and former restaurateur Sarma Melngailis spoke with us about her much-loved restaurant, Pure Food and Wine, reclaiming her narrative post Bad Vegan, and her eight-year journey writing THE GIRL WITH THE DUCK TATTOO. Sarma Melngailis is the founder of One Lucky Duck and co-creator of the acclaimed New York City restaurant Pure Food and Wine. Her notorious story of scandal and betrayal was the subject of the Netflix docuseries Bad Vegan—a series that left much of her story misrepresented. Her bestselling memoir, The Girl with the Duck Tattoo, is described as a “reclamation” and “... a raw, unflinching memoir of how one smart, driven woman went from building a dream to being ensnared in a cult of one.” Sarma is the author of cookbooks Living Raw Food and the co-author of Raw Food/Real World, and is currently in production on a new docuseries while working to re-launch her businesses. She is also graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and the French Culinary Institute [Discover The Writer Files Extra: Get 'The Writer Files' Podcast Delivered Straight to Your Inbox at writerfiles.fm] [If you're a fan of The Writer Files, please click FOLLOW to automatically see new interviews. And drop us a rating or a review wherever you listen] In Part Two of this file Sarma Melngailis, Milena, and I discussed: Her professional journey from the French Culinary Institute to celebrity restaurateur Reclaiming her narrative from sensationalist and biased media coverage How she continues to examine the psychology of manipulation Reliving some of the trauma of her experience by recording the audiobook Her thoughts on resurrecting Pure Food and Wine And a lot more! Show Notes: ElevenReader is a new, award-winning audio app for iOS, Android, Web Get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at square.com/go/files! #squarepod sarmaraw.com linktr.ee/sarmamelngailis The Girl with the Duck Tattoo: A Memoir by Sarma Melngailis (Amazon) Sarma Melngailis on Instagram Milena Gonzalez | Writer | Reader | Book Reviewer diary_of_a_book_babe on Instagram Kelton Reid Instagram Kelton Reid on Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Writer Files: Writing, Productivity, Creativity, and Neuroscience
Bestselling memoirist, chef, and former restaurateur Sarma Melngailis spoke with us about her much-loved restaurant, Pure Food and Wine, reclaiming her narrative post Bad Vegan, and her eight-year journey writing THE GIRL WITH THE DUCK TATTOO. Sarma Melngailis is the founder of One Lucky Duck and co-creator of the acclaimed New York City restaurant Pure Food and Wine. Her notorious story of scandal and betrayal was the subject of the Netflix docuseries Bad Vegan—a series that left much of her story misrepresented. Her bestselling memoir, The Girl with the Duck Tattoo, is described as a “reclamation” and “... a raw, unflinching memoir of how one smart, driven woman went from building a dream to being ensnared in a cult of one.” Sarma is the author of cookbooks Living Raw Food and the co-author of Raw Food/Real World, and is currently in production on a new docuseries while working to re-launch her businesses. She is also graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and the French Culinary Institute [Discover The Writer Files Extra: Get 'The Writer Files' Podcast Delivered Straight to Your Inbox at writerfiles.fm] [If you're a fan of The Writer Files, please click FOLLOW to automatically see new interviews. And drop us a rating or a review wherever you listen] In Part One of this file Sarma Melngailis, Milena, and I discussed: How she knew she would write the book while serving time at Rikers Island The Art of Memoir as part of the healing process When she knew the book would become an investigation and a cautionary tale How memory plays tricks on us Why she chose to publish her memoir independently And a lot more! Show Notes: ElevenReader is a new, award-winning audio app for iOS, Android, Web Get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at square.com/go/files! #squarepod sarmaraw.com linktr.ee/sarmamelngailis The Girl with the Duck Tattoo: A Memoir by Sarma Melngailis (Amazon) Sarma Melngailis on Instagram Milena Gonzalez | Writer | Reader | Book Reviewer diary_of_a_book_babe on Instagram Kelton Reid Instagram Kelton Reid on Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
We always hear about the exploits of fictional spies - jetting around the country, womanizing, shooting people, and whatnot. Sometimes we hear about their origins. Life as a young pre-spy. But what about after? What happens when a spy turns 80 and his memory maybe doesn't work so great anymore? Agent Bigglesby, that's what.Check out his book at https://jamesprochester.com/. No, that's not a mistake or a typo.Topics:Agent Bigglesby: Not Dead YetGrowing up in a large Chilean familyLife in Opus Dei
Gavin Newsom's former aide from when he was mayor exposes a 20-year-old affair in a tell-all. For more KCBS Radio News Anchor Rebecca Goodeyon spoke with KCBS Insider Phil Matier.
I originally began Publishing Talks as a series of conversations with book industry professionals and others involved in media and technology, mostly talking about the future of publishing, books, and culture. I continue to enjoy my conversations with people in the book industry about the evolution of publishing in the context of technology, culture, and […] The post Publishing Talks: Brooke Warner of She Writes Press 2026 first appeared on WritersCast.
Recorded by Emily Jungmin Yoon for Poem-a-Day, a series produced by the Academy of American Poets. Published on July 28, 2026. www.poets.org
L. Joy is back on the porch thinking about the constant political chaos with court rulings dropping daily, government shutdown threats, manipulated maps, and state legislatures advancing restrictive laws. She reminds us that the chaos is designed, not inevitable. With thirty-six governors, forty-six state legislatures, and countless local offices on the ballot in the 2026 midterms, and we have to power to design a better future for us all by engaging with who writes the rules around how we vote. L. Joy brings CEO and Executive Director of VoteRiders, Lauren Kunis, to the front of the class for this conversation.
Claire and Colton sit down to share their love story that began unexpectedly through mutual friends! They share how intentionality turned long-distance chats into a lasting connection. From juggling careers in baseball and dance to planning a wedding rooted in faith, they reveal the behind the scenes of their joyful journey. Follow Sweet As Honey on social media for updates on episode drops and more! Full episodes posted on Youtube.
On today's Extra, Mayweather writes a bad check, Rare Watches, & Ramblin' Rose Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The Writer Files: Writing, Productivity, Creativity, and Neuroscience
New York Times bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize winner Daniel Kraus spoke with us about book promotion as an introvert, writing two books a year, his creative process, and his first sci-fi novel, THE SIXTH NIK. Daniel Kraus is a New York Times bestselling novelist, screenwriter, and 2026 Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction for his novel Angel Down. His novel Whalefall received a front-cover review in The New York Times Book Review, won the Alex Award, was an Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist, and was named a Best Book of Year by NPR, The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and more. His latest novel is The Sixth Nik, “Perfectly aligned for readers of Iain M. Banks's The Culture series and Ursula K. Le Guin's “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”, The Sixth Nik is a galaxy-spanning adventure,” that Booklist called “Strange and intense and impossible to look away from … sf at its most daring.” Daniel Kraus coauthored The Shape of Water with Guillermo del Toro, based on the same idea the two created for the Oscar-winning film. Also with del Toro, Kraus coauthored Trollhunters, which was adapted into the Emmy Award–winning Netflix series. Kraus has won the Bram Stoker Award, Scribe Award, two Odyssey Awards (for both Rotters and Scowler), and has appeared multiple times as Library Guild selections, and more. Kraus's work has been translated into over 25 languages. [Discover The Writer Files Extra: Get 'The Writer Files' Podcast Delivered Straight to Your Inbox at writerfiles.fm] [If you're a fan of The Writer Files, please click FOLLOW to automatically see new interviews. And drop us a rating or a review wherever you listen] In this file Daniel Kraus, Milena, and I discussed: How he overcame the productivity “delays” of winning a Pulitzer Prize When he sensed the momentum shift in his writing career The distinctive honor he shares with Cormac McCarthy Adapting Whalefall for the big screen His first foray into science fiction And a lot more! Show Notes: ElevenReader is a new, award-winning audio app for iOS, Android, Web Get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at square.com/go/files! #squarepod DanielKraus.com Angel Down (Pulitzer Prize Winner): A Novel by Daniel Kraus (Amazon) The Sixth Nik by Daniel Kraus (Amazon) Daniel Kraus Amazon Author Page Daniel Kraus on Instagram Milena Gonzalez | Writer | Reader | Book Reviewer diary_of_a_book_babe on Instagram Kelton Reid Instagram Kelton Reid on Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Writer Files: Writing, Productivity, Creativity, and Neuroscience
New York Times bestselling author, filmmaker, and decorated chef Eddie Huang spoke with us about his origins as a writer, the pivot from memoir to autofiction, and the personal transformation behind his debut novel COME UNDONE. Eddie Huang is a chef, restaurateur, food personality, filmmaker, and polmath widely recognized for his bestselling memoir, Fresh Off the Boat, which inspired the hit ABC sitcom of the same name. Anthony Bourdain wrote of the book, “Mercilessly funny and provocative, Fresh Off the Boat is also a serious piece of work.” Eddie recently published his fiction debut, Come Undone: A Novel, described as “a sharp, emotionally raw exploration of love, masculinity, and self-destruction.” “A subversively funny first novel, the bestselling author of Fresh Off the Boat delivers a portrait of a haunted manchild and his messy search for love…” Eddie is also a co-owner of BaoHaus, a restaurant in the East Village of Lower Manhattan, and was previously the host of “Huang's World” for Viceland. He wrote and directed the feature film Boogie (2021) and released the documentary Vice Is Broke (2024). He now co-hosts a popular lifestyle podcast alongside his wife, Natashia Perrotti, Canal Street Dreams. [Discover The Writer Files Extra: Get 'The Writer Files' Podcast Delivered Straight to Your Inbox at writerfiles.fm] [If you're a fan of The Writer Files, please click FOLLOW to automatically see new interviews. And drop us a rating or a review wherever you listen] In this file Eddie Huang, Milena, and I discussed: Why Good Will Hunting changed his life The decade of self-doubt that followed runaway hit Fresh Off the Boat How autofiction allowed him to access an emotional truth without the constraints of memoir On not being Cormac McCarthy What Anthony Bourdain's death meant to him personally His key literary influences And a lot more! Show Notes: ElevenReader is a new, award-winning audio app for iOS, Android, Web Get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at square.com/go/files! #squarepod Eddie Huang on Substack Canal Street Dreams Podcast “I Immediately Sh*t My Pants”: Eddie Huang's Book Tour Confessions Come Undone: A Novel by Eddie Huang (Amazon) Eddie Huang Amazon Author Page Eddie Huang on Instagram Milena Gonzalez | Writer | Reader | Book Reviewer diary_of_a_book_babe on Instagram Kelton Reid Instagram Kelton Reid on Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Alf Dobbert-Baums: When Management Writes a Book — AI, Strict Process, and the Missing Court System Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. "They don't really know — do I need to follow these rules, or are they at my goodwill?" - Alf Dobbert-Baums The developers and AI are on good terms. Then management decided to extend AI into product management — and the way to do that, of course, was stricter process. Same JIRA boards. Same columns. Same quality gates. Across every product. Management wrote a book and called it "how we develop." Then, in the next breath, said: "but it's not meant to be that strict — you have flexibility." Two messages, opposite directions. The result, Alf describes, is confusion and psychological-safety problems. The teams don't know whether they're playing by the rules or breaking them. They experiment with how far they can bend the book. They fall back on "common sense" and quietly skip what makes no sense. They've collected feedback — structured, organized — but feel they aren't heard. In the conversation, Vasco's framing of the legal system (every set of rules needs a court system to interpret them) led Alf to a real experiment: take the negative rules and reframe them as positive goals. Not "fewer meetings" — "meaningful meetings." Then match feedback to the goal, not the rule. It's an idea Alf came up with mid-conversation, and it's the kind of small frame-shift that can crack open a stuck dialogue with management. Self-reflection Question: Where in your organization is management asking people to follow rules they haven't defined the goal for — and what would change if you reframed those rules as goals? [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]
We meet a man who takes on a prison for his right to do somehting with his outgoing mail and Warren finds out browsing at Dollar Tree isn't a great way to spend his time.
Spain are the 2026 FIFA World Cup champions. A goal from Ferran Torres gave Spain a 1-0 win over Argentina in the World Cup final. Carlo Garganese and Nima Tavallaey analyse and react to the main highlights from the big match in New Jersey on Sunday. This is an extended clip from the weekly free Monday Pod available first in full for all patrons and YouTube Members. If you want to support The Italian Football Podcast, be able to send in questions AND get every episode with NO ads, simply become a member on Patreon.com/TIFP OR Spotify OR YouTube Memberships. Your support makes The Italian Football Podcast possible. Follow us: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The Writer Files: Writing, Productivity, Creativity, and Neuroscience
#1 New York Times bestselling author and two-time Newbery Medal winner Kate DiCamillo spoke with us about overcoming rejection early on, her workmanlike process, and how she stays grounded after more than 25 years in the craft. Kate DiCamillo is a celebrated author of children's fiction, and famously one of only seven authors to win two Newbery Medals for her outstanding contributions to American children's literature. Because of Winn-Dixie—her debut novel—became a runaway bestseller and snapped up a Newbery Honor. Since then she has written for a wide range of ages, received countless awards, has nearly 49 million books in print worldwide, and been translated into 41 languages. Kate has multiple new books this year, and is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the beloved classic, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. The Chicago Tribune wrote of the author, “DiCamillo has carved out a distinct place as one of her generation's most beloved writers.” There are popular feature film versions of some of her classic novels, including Because of Winn-Dixie, The Tale of Despereaux, Flora & Ulysses, The Tiger Rising, and The Magician's Elephant. Kate is also a literacy advocate and a Library of Congress National Ambassador for Young People's Literature Emerita. [Discover The Writer Files Extra: Get 'The Writer Files' Podcast Delivered Straight to Your Inbox at writerfiles.fm] [If you're a fan of The Writer Files, please click FOLLOW to automatically see new interviews. And drop us a rating or a review wherever you listen] In this file Kate DiCamillo, Milena, and I discussed: Why all roads lead to the coffee maker Her morning ritual and daily page counts What she tells students about being relentless How each book presents a unique challenge for her Hanging out with friend Ann Patchett at Parnassus Books Why writers need to show up every day And a lot more! Show Notes: ElevenReader is a new, award-winning audio app for iOS, Android, Web Get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at square.com/go/files! #squarepod katedicamillo.com Kate DiCamillo Amazon Author Page Kate DiCamillo on Facebook Milena Gonzalez | Writer | Reader | Book Reviewer diary_of_a_book_babe on Instagram Kelton Reid Instagram Kelton Reid on Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Writer Files: Writing, Productivity, Creativity, and Neuroscience
Acclaimed debut novelist Austin Taylor spoke with us about the pressure cooker of Harvard life, studying AI law in the heart of Silicon Valley, and the inspiration behind her debut set in the biotech startup world of NOTES ON INFINITY. Austin Taylor graduated from Harvard University in 2021 with a joint degree in Chemistry and English. She is currently pursuing a JD at Stanford Law School as a Knight-Hennessy Scholar, with a focus on generative AI, copyright, and authorship. Her debut novel, Notes on Infinity, was named an Oprah Daily “Best Summer Read,” a Zibby Owens' “Summer Read,” a Goodreads “Hottest Debut of 2025,” and is inspired in part by her undergraduate studies, peers, and lab work in Harvard's chemistry department. Booklist wrote of the book, "With a trajectory that echoes that of Elizabeth Holmes' Theranos, Taylor's debut provides an insider's glimpse into the high-stakes Ivy League climate and the potentially devastating personal consequences for those caught up in ambition beyond their abilities." Austin is also a private pilot, a registered Maine guide, and a bassist. [Discover The Writer Files Extra: Get 'The Writer Files' Podcast Delivered Straight to Your Inbox at writerfiles.fm] [If you're a fan of The Writer Files, please click FOLLOW to automatically see new interviews. And drop us a rating or a review wherever you listen] In this file Austin Taylor, Milena, and I discussed: What it was like to grow up on a dairy farm in Maine Writing her debut novel during her gap year How The Social Network helped her capture the "momentum and excitement” of startup life Her morning ritual and daily word counts Why bad writing days are "almost always because [she's] not reading enough" good stuff Balancing law school and writing her sophomore novel And a lot more! Show Notes: ElevenReader is a new, award-winning audio app for iOS, Android, Web Get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at square.com/go/files! #squarepod austintaylorwrites.com Notes on Infinity: A Novel by Austin Taylor Austin Taylor on Instagram Milena Gonzalez | Writer | Reader | Book Reviewer diary_of_a_book_babe on Instagram Kelton Reid Instagram Kelton Reid on Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
© 2020-2026 Ivy Podcast Discovery LLC
