Host Mindy McGinnis chats with guest Gwenda Bond, whose work includes the Lois Lane series, and the Cirque American series. She also co-writes the Supernormal Sleuthing Service with her husband author Christopher Rowe. She has written for Publishers Weekly, Locus, and the Los Angeles Times, among others, has been a guest on NPR’s Weekend Edition, and has an MFA in Writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Gwenda joined Mindy to talk about mentors who helped direct her path early on, the long wait of three years between becoming agented and her first sale, co-authoring a middle-grade series with her husband, and giving herself permission to not work constantly once she became a full-time author. 

Gwenda's Links:

Site

Twitter

Instagram

Tiny Letter

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Tor Maddox Series 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:

Twitter

Instagram

Site

Host Mindy McGinnis is joined by Jeff Zentner, author of the William C. Morris Award winning and Carnegie Medal longlisted book The Serpent King (2016). Jeff shares about how his love of music led him into a career as a novelist, drawing inspiration from people in real life to populate the pages of your fiction, and how to effectively write the opposite gender. 

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Jeff's social media links:

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Facebook

Guest Madeleine Roux, New York Times Bestselling Author of the ASYLUM series, joins host Mindy McGinnis to talk about the neglect of genre fiction in the educational setting, her unique method of garnering an agent, the ever-present disdain of YA, the pressure of following up a New York Times Bestselling series, and the pain of having a project close to your heart not find its audience.

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Episode Links, Including Madeleine's Social Media

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Facebook

Illustrator Iris Compiet Instagram 

Today’s guest is Jody Casella, author and a former high school English teacher. Her YA novel Thin Space received a starred review from Kirkus. She blogs, reviews books, speaks at libraries and schools, and teaches workshops at the Thurber House in Columbus, Ohio. She is the Regional Director of the Ohio Central/South region of SCBWI. Jody joined host Mindy McGinnis to talk about MFA’s, querying as an already published writer, the benefits of joining SCBWI - the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators - and how attending book festivals geared for readers can also be beneficial to writers. 

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Links for this Episode:

SCBWI

Jody's Website

Jody's Twitter

Jody's Facebook

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:

Acting Out of Character – Writers In the Storm

Writer’s Digest

Jessica’s Site

Facebook

Twitter

Author Tiffany McDaniel, an Ohio native whose writing is inspired by the rolling hills and buckeye woods of the land she knows, joins host Mindy McGinnis. She is the winner of The Guardian's 2016 "Not-the-Booker Prize" for her debut novel, The Summer that Melted Everything. The novel is a current nominee for the Lillian Smith Book Award, and a finalist for the Ohioana Literary Award and the Women's Fiction Writers Association Star Award for Outstanding Debut. Tiffany talks about eleven years of rejection, making sure that human emotion and characters trump the setting, being a female author who prefers to write dark themes, and the cons of using technology in your manuscript.

Links:

Tiffany's Site

The Summer That Melted Everything

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:

Michelle's Site

Barbara Claypole White author of The Unfinished Garden, The In Between Hour, The Perfect Son and Echoes of Family joins host Mindy McGinnis to talk about finding inspiration for her fiction in real life, writing through personal tragedy and how to write characters with mental illnesses. 

Links:

Book Pregnant

Barbara's Site, Twitter, Facebook, & Instagram

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:

Query Tracker

Writer's Digest Guide to Literary Agents

Famous Paintings Photoshopped To Look Like Fashion Models

Alyssa's Blog

Alyssa's Twitter

Ayssa's Instagram