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Jonathan Edward Durham did something so awesome we had to reach out and bring him in to talk about it. He self-published Winterset Hollow, and was so very successful with it that he got a big publisher re-release! We sit down with Jonathan to shriek with delight over his bloodthirsty but adorable anthropomorphized animal characters, and the deep roots of fairy tales and complicated individual reactions to grief and loss as represented by the sinister activity of Barley Day. … Continue...Episode 231 – Jonathan Edward Durham

Come meet P.A. Cornell, a Chilean-Canadian speculative fiction author with a delightful collection of short stories that’s coming up in publication this fall. She keeps getting nominated for Nebulas, which ought to tell you that we, her fellow writers, think she’s fantastic. Once you hear about The Astronaut Among the Flowers, you’ll rush right out and pre-order it! … Continue...Episode 230 – Interview with P.A. Cornell

Kristie De Garis is a writer, photographer, and artist. Her premier novel, Drystone: A Life Rebuilt, is a beautiful gut-punch of a memoir that offers an unflinching view of a childhood being different and alien, dysfunctional family ties, and alcohol abuse that acts as undiagnosed neurodivergent coping skills. Everyone has a story to tell, and Kristie is here to talk about how she got it wrong but still persisted, and how her eventual fascination with stones and their visual impact helped her do course corrections to success. Kristie says write your story! Start today! … Continue...Episode 229 – Interview with Kristie De Garis

We always say that all storytelling is important, because every story written has someone else needs to hear it. Jeannie’s old high school friend Dari DeSousa runs an HR consulting business, and she got together with other HR leads to tell stories from their own lived experiences. They turned these anecdotes into a book with warnings and advice for leaders in industry. The book, HR After Dark, looks to be the first of a series of stories and the lessons that can be learned from them. Come listen to Dari recounting how she learned about finding a cover artist, editing, and publishing as a group project! … Continue...Episode 228 – Stories from HR

From an idea pitched to the film industry for a TV series, Lynn Harrod has created a thrilling novel based on a genius Filipino gangster making his way into the power structures of the greater Los Angeles sprawl. The Duke of Temple Street is a great thriller, outlining a neurodivergent man navigating the web of family and heritage against making money and surviving in a very real scenario of multiple gangs and undercover OCC agents. Enjoy! … Continue...Episode 227 – LA Gangsters with Lynn Harrod

Come meet the author of the Black Swan Trilogy as we talk about book 2, Black Swan Shock. Helen was a Senior Medical Intelligence Analyst before the covid pandemic, specializing in planning and preparing for biological incidents. She brings that vivid, very real knowledge of how Black Swan events start and spread and “should” be contained — so the reactions of her fictional personas are true to life. In Black Swan Shock, our heroine represents as an athlete with Down’s Syndrome, who rescues people after a catastrophic earthquake. … Continue...Episode 226 – Interview with Helen Hynson Vettori

Leokadia joins us to talk about the series of children’s books she wrote featuring Trumpet, the grey wolf. Her writing grew out of volunteering at a Wolf Conservation Center aiming to introduce kids to wolves in a new way. These children’s books explore Trumpet’s life from being the baby miracle pup through to having pups of her own, and the whole journey is beautifully illustrated by Maddy Moore. Come meet Trumpet, Wolf F1505! … Continue...Episode 225 – Interview with Leokadia George

Jendia Gammon is involved in multiple facets within the industry, from writing that gets nominated for all the best awards to running as a writer to editing anthologies and running her own publishing house. Jendia is CEO of Roaring Spring Productions, LLC, as well as Editor-in-Chief of its publishing imprint, Stars and Sabers. Today we chat about her collection of fairy tales that scatter across the imagination from fantasy to science fiction and tentacles, “To Wonder and Starshine.” … Continue...Episode 224 – Interview with Jendia Gammon

Our own Chaz Brenchley has a prolific year with 4 (5?) new books published. We gathered to talk about his first in a new series, “Of The Emperor’s Kindness”. It is written within a new genre I had to go delve into learning more about, a Fantasy of Manners with only a touch of violence here and there. It is a delightful sapphic romp into a world of his own devising, of warring nations, diplomacy, and noble scheming. The romance of Ambassador Malance and her staff and Vivi (the Emperor’s… niece?) whirl their way through palace intrigues, murder plots, and politics at the highest level of the land. … Continue...Episode 223 – Chaz and the Emperor’s Kindness

Never say it’s too late in your life to start writing! Steve Shlam joins us to talk about his first published novel, “The Harvesting of Haystacks Kane”. It was nominated for two prizes, and is a fascinating dive into the world of 1950’s-60’s wrestling. Haystacks, a nice Jewish boy, goes on the road with his manager into the world of scripted wrestling and discovers it’s far more dangerous than he was first informed. Told from the perspective of a man in and out of consciousness in a hospital, the hero’s journey breaks the mold from many of the strictures of the genre. … Continue...Episode 222 – Interview with Steve Schlam

Everyone who wants to write has a work in progress. At least one. Jeannie sits down with Andrew Walsh, a prized hockey network friend-writing crossover, to talk about making progress on writing his first novel. We hope the discussion triggers something in any listener to say, “I could try that” or “yeah, thanks for kicking my ass to get me in motion again.” Because everyone has a story - whether their own or something else in their imagination. Write it! Start right now! … Continue...Episode 221 – A Discussion of Progress

M.N. Lee shares her first novel, Proof of Origin, which we think belongs on bookshelves right next to Atwood’s The Handmaid's Tale for near future speculative literature. It follows three main perspectives from a Vietnamese politician, the caucasian wife of a conservative politician, and a mixed-race couple that faces deportation and a new life back in Vietnam together. The prose is compelling, her character building flawless, and the emotional content poignant as they each thread their way through a world of citizenship evaluation and unintended consequences. … Continue...Episode 220 – Interview with M.N. Lee

Dr. Bernstein is a cultural historian at Harvard, teaching US Racial Formation since the early 19th century. Her latest book, Freeman's Challenge: The Murder That Shook America’s Original Prison for Profit, delves into the history of America’s first prisons in New York built along capitalist ideals, and how one young man violently rebelled against the unfair and abusive treatment therein. One man’s violent resistance response to injustice continues today to shape American perspectives on race, violence, and incarceration. … Continue...Episode 219 – Interview with Dr. Robin Bernstein

Dheepa started out as a poet, but found herself drawn into novel writing to express bigger ideas, such as the social interconnection necessary for human prosperity and the corresponding good treatment of the earth as part of our social ecosystem. Come listen as she talks about 108: An Ecothriller, which is full of vedic writing and eastern beliefs and how her characters need to overcome their family tragedies, emotions, and a zeitgeist of futility to work together for a common good. … Continue...Episode 218 – Interview with Dheepa Maturi

There is a lot of stuff floating around the internet about Autism, from ridiculous assertions about causality to silly things about what someone with Autism can do in their life. This is the first in an ongoing series where your WDC team grabs professional therapists and psychiatrists to talk about what different diagnoses mean, what they look like in terms of symptom clusters, and then armchair analyze our favorite literary and fictional characters through these lenses. Our first volunteer is Elizabeth Mueller, a marriage and family therapist and awesome goalie. … Continue...Episode 217 – Writing Autistic Characters