Writers talk craft, agent hunt, query trenches, publishing industry, and more. Hosted by Mindy McGinnis.
Fauzia Burke of FSB Associates joined me to talk about how to build an online platform, the author as the product, social media, SEO, newsletters, building an author website, and the importance of fresh content.
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Today's guest is Anna Meriano, author of This Is How We Fly, a contemporary YA that focuses on a Muggle Quidditch team. Anna joined me today to talk about writing sports for young audiences, and how she navigated her debut being so closely tied to what has become a problematic fandom.
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Blacktooth the Pirate by Jay S. Willis
Today's guest is Hayley Chewins, author of The Turnaway Girls and The Sisters of Staygarden Place. Hayley joined me to talk about writing upper middle grade, the process of enduring multiple revise and resubmit stages, and her class - 100 Ideas in 10 Days.
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Today’s guest is Juan Pablo Villalobos, author of The Other Side: Stories of Central American Teen Refugees Who Dream of Crossing the Border. Juan Pablo joined me today to talk about the experiences of young refugees, and his approach to compiling their stories. Also covered: using a narrative within non-fiction.
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Vellum: Create Beautiful Books
Today’s guest is Marie Miranda Cruz, author of Everlasting Nora, an uplifting young reader debut about perseverance against all odds. Marie joined me to day to talk about the difficulty of querying a middle grade novel with complicated and heavy themes. Also covered: writing about tough topics for middle graders as a way to build empathy.
Links for Marie:
Website: https://cruzwrites.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/cruzwrites/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mariveecruz/
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When the Truth Unravels by RuthAnne Snow: https://amzn.to/353KSIM
Our Year of Maybe by Rachel Lynn Solomon: https://amzn.to/2OmKDlU
Today’s guest is T. Jefferson Parker, the bestselling author of 13 stand alone noir crime novels, as well as three separate series featuring the characters Merci Rayborn, Charlie Hood and his latest, Roland Ford. He joined me today to talk about knowing when it’s time to create a new character, as well as the bittersweetness of leaving an old one behind. Also covered: the importance of setting in fiction, and how to create a place readers want to return to, what has changed in publishing over time, and how to stay invigorated as a writer.
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All the Walls of Belfast by Sarah Carlson
Rachele Alpine Custom Made Teacher’s Guides
Today’s guest is Melanie Crowder, author of multiple YA and Middle Grade books, and a fellow 2013 debut. Melanie joins host Mindy McGinnis to talk about the pain of rejection, and how to view it as a learning experience that can help you become stronger, the fuzzy area of writing for upper middle grade versus writing YA, and tackling tougher subjects for that audience. Also covered: the power of writing for youth who are ready to change the world, the ability of SciFi and Fantasy to be more subversive than their counterparts, how difficult life can be for today’s youth, and why it’s important to tell their stories.
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The Captain’s Kid by Liz Coley
Mindy McGinnis welcomes Tiffany Jackson, author of ALLEGEDLY. Tiffany talks about setting goals while in the query trenches, and how skills developed working in TV crossed over to writing fiction for Tiffany. She also shares about how a hurricane made her go unplugged and provided the backdrop she needed to produce that first book, and how interviewing girls in the juvenile justice system helped shape Allegedly.
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Tiffany's Links:
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For a dollar a month you’ll get a thank you from me, Mindy McGinnis, on the blog or through one of my social media accounts. For five bucks you get a shoutout on a podcast episode, and for ten you can pose questions or suggest topics for the end of the month guest-free show. Twenty dollars will get you a Google chat with myself, or if you’re a writer looking to advertise your book, a freelance editor or copyeditor who would like to air your services to the aspiring writers who listen in here, checkout the patron crowd funding services offered through Podbean.
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?
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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:
