Episodes

Monday Nov 20, 2017
Lisa Maxwell: The Rejection File
Monday Nov 20, 2017
Monday Nov 20, 2017
Today’s guest is Lisa Maxwell, author of the New York Times Best-Selling THE LAST MAGICIAN. as well as UNHOOKED, SWEET UNREST, and GATHERING DEEP. When she's not writing books, she teaches English at a local college. Lisa joins host Mindy McGinnis to talk about having a folder marked “the reject file,” why it’s so important to follow your gut when you have multiple agents offering representation, the never-ending popularity of Peter Pan and how hitting the New York Times Bestseller list can be a career-maker.
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Air & Ash by Alex Lidell Audiobook
Air & Ash by Alex Lidell Kindle
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Monday Nov 13, 2017
Tori Rigby: Red Flags For Agents
Monday Nov 13, 2017
Monday Nov 13, 2017
Host Mindy McGinnis talks with Tori Rigby, author of the dark fantasy DREAMCATCHER series, as well as the contemporary YA novel, BECAUSE I LOVE YOU. Topics covered include not letting excitement make decisions for you early on in your career, red flags to look for while searching for agents, why Tori disagrees with writing under different pen names for different genres, and knowing when to take your work to a small press.
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A Void the Size of the World by Rachele Alpine
The Most Beautiful Woman in Florence by Alyssa Palombo

Monday Nov 06, 2017
Geoffrey Girard: Learning Craft Through Short Stories
Monday Nov 06, 2017
Monday Nov 06, 2017
Today's guest is Geoffrey Girard, Bram Stoker nominee and author of CAIN'S BLOOD, PROJECT CAIN, TRUTHERS, and MARY ROSE. Geoff joins Mindy to talk about how losing an agent doesn't end a career, learning craft through writing shorts, how small indie pubs can teach you a lot, and the art of table selling.
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THE VIOLINIST OF VENICE by Alyssa Palombo
VIAL THINGS by Leah Clifford

Monday Oct 30, 2017
Kate Watson: Promoting A "Quiet" Book
Monday Oct 30, 2017
Monday Oct 30, 2017
Today’s guest is Kate Watson. Her debut novel, SEEKING MANSFIELD, came out May 16th, 2017, with the companion novel, SHOOT THE MOON to come in 2018.
Kate joins host Mindy McGinnis to talk about her unusual route to finding an agent, why Mansfield Park resonated with her more so than other Jane Austen novels and how to use your existing connections online to help promote a quiet book, as well as NaNoWriMo – how to use this program to begin and finish projects, or just produce words on the page in the month of November.
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TRADING FACES by Julia DeVillers & Jennifer Roy

Monday Oct 23, 2017
Liz Coley: Being A Hybrid Author
Monday Oct 23, 2017
Monday Oct 23, 2017
Today’s guest is Liz Coley author of the psychological thriller Pretty Girl-13 from HarperCollins. Liz’s short fiction has also appeared in Cosmos Magazine and several speculative fiction anthologies. Liz joins host Mindy McGinnis to talk about using short stories as a stepping stone to publishing a novel, how Liz’s degree in molecular biology helps boost the “science” in her science fiction, and to speak as a hybrid author about the pros and cons of both, as well as the different skills required for each.
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Monday Oct 16, 2017
Melanie Crowder: Upper Middle Grade Vs. Young Adult
Monday Oct 16, 2017
Monday Oct 16, 2017
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

Monday Oct 09, 2017
Elsie Chapman: The Pain of Publishing
Monday Oct 09, 2017
Monday Oct 09, 2017
Today’s guest is Elsie Chapman, whose work includes the YA Sci-Fi series DUALED and DIVIDED, as well as the upcoming ALONG THE INDIGO. Born and raised in western Canada and a graduate of UBC with a degree in English Literature, Elsie Chapman currently lives in Tokyo with her family.
Elsie joins host Mindy McGinnis to talk about how so much of the pain of publishing goes unspoken, the luck of hitting a trend, the downside of that trend falling out of style, writing the book of your heart even when you know it might not get published, and putting together teams for theme focused anthologies.
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Monday Oct 02, 2017
Gwenda Bond: Writing Mentors
Monday Oct 02, 2017
Monday Oct 02, 2017
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.
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Monday Sep 25, 2017
September Roundup & How Important Research Is In Fiction
Monday Sep 25, 2017
Monday Sep 25, 2017
In the September roundup episode host Mindy McGinnis shares how important research can be when writing fiction, even to the point of helping jump start the ever-frightening writer's block.
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Monday Sep 18, 2017
Tiffany Jackson: Setting Writing Goals
Monday Sep 18, 2017
Monday Sep 18, 2017
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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