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Writers talk craft, agent hunt, query trenches, publishing industry, and more. Hosted by Mindy McGinnis.
Episodes
Monday Jul 10, 2017
Monday Jul 10, 2017
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Today's guest is Tara Dairman whose debut novel All Four Stars, about an 11 y/o restaurant critic moonlighting for New York’s biggest newspaper was published in 2014, followed by The Stars of Summer and Stars So Sweet in 2015 and 2016. A new standalone middle-grade novel, The Great Hibernation, will hit the shelves on September 12.
Tara joined me to talk about how a contest helped her gain an invitation to query a closed agency, how to navigate social media when your target audience may not be there, and the question of who you write for when you write middle grade – the kids, or the gatekeepers?
Episode Links:
Monday Jun 26, 2017
Monday Jun 26, 2017
Today’s guest is Jessica Strawser, editor of Writer’s Digest, and author of ALMOST MISSED YOU, which was named to the March 2017 Barnes & Noble Best New Fiction List. Jessica joins host Mindy McGinnis to talk about how her career in journalism led to a position at Writers Digest, and how that informs her fiction writing, as well as her novel, ALMOST MISSED YOU, which deals with miscommunication in relationships, the all-encompassing love of motherhood, and the question of if we truly know our significant other.
Episode Links:
Monday Jun 05, 2017
Monday Jun 05, 2017
Michelle Gagnon, author of the Kelly Jones mystery series, the YA tech-thriller Persefone trilogy, as well as her newest, a Jane Eyre retelling titled Unearthly Things, joins host Mindy McGinnis to talk about the process of acquiring an agent, the hard truth about discovering your agent is a bad fit after the fact, and the unique differences in screenplay writing versus fiction. Also covered: jumping from adult to YA audiences and reading Jane Eyre as an adult and discovering that Rochester is… kind of a creeper.
Links:
Monday May 15, 2017
Monday May 15, 2017
Guest historical fiction author Alyssa Palombo speaks with host Mindy McGinnis about her novels, The Violinist of Venice and The Most Beautiful Woman in Florence. Alyssa also shares about querying a novel that wasn't ready yet, immersing herself in the time period of her characters, the shifting standards of beauty from age to age, and how to balance blogging and writing fiction.
Links:
Writer's Digest Guide to Literary Agents
Monday May 08, 2017
Monday May 08, 2017
Writer, Writer, Pants on Fire welcomes Kurt Dinan, author of the YA novel, DON’T GET CAUGHT, which was recently nominated for YALSA’s Teen Top Ten. Kurt joins host Mindy McGinnis to talk about how querying is like taking a stick in the eye every day, and how writing short stories helped him be a better novelist. Also covered: how mashups not only help pitch a book, but can also help the author find a key to unlocking their project, as well as the specific struggles of writing humor, and every writer’s worst enemy – procrastination. Lastly, Mindy tries very hard to wheedle him into using social media more, and they talk about things you didn’t know were poisonous, as well as their porn names.
Links:
Monday Apr 24, 2017
Monday Apr 24, 2017
Guest author Sophie Perinot writes high concept fiction that is set in the past. Her works include THE SISTER QUEENS, MEDICI DAUGHTER and A DAY OF FIRE: A NOVEL OF POMPEII. Sophie joined host Mindy McGinnis to talk about querying the old-fashioned way, the brutal truth about agented projects that don’t sell, as well as the necessary research required for writing historical fiction while keeping story as the focus.
Links for Sophie Perinot:
Monday Apr 10, 2017
Monday Apr 10, 2017
Middle Grade author Janet Sumner Johnson talks about her debut novel, THE LAST GREAT ADVENTURE OF THE PB&J SOCIETY, as well as the challenge of writing for middle graders, the assumption that books for children are somehow lesser than books written for adults, as well as the question of what content to include for younger readers.
Links:
Dee Romito's Query Sign Submit
Janet Sumner Johnson: