Diy Mfa Radio

Hi there Word nerds! I’m so excited for today’s interview with bestselling author JoJo Moyes on the art of the sequel. Jojo Moyes is the New York Times bestselling author of Me Before You, One Plus One, The Girl You Left Behind, The Last Letter from Your Lover, Silver Bay, The Ship of Brides and Honeymoon in Paris. She lives with her husband and three children in Essex, England.Me Before You was truly a word-of-mouth sensation, launching Moyes to worldwide acclaim. It spent more than 65 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list and worldwide sales exceed five million copies. Reviewers, booksellers, and readers all raved about Me Before You for its unforgettable romance and emotional, challenging storyline. Moyes’ books are now available in 36 foreign languages and have sold more than nine million copies in total. Her newest book, After You: A Novel, sequel to Me Before You, is out now. In this episode JoJo and I discuss: Sequels, and how they are not always planned. How to write that sequel that can stand

Today's episode is all about the m-words of writing: marketing and money. These topics are often hard for writers to discuss, but I wanted to address them for a couple of reasons. First, they are super-important. And second, I believe that all writers can be awesome at both at the creative and the business sides of their work. As writers, we tell ourselves a lot of lies. Sometimes these lies are just part of getting through what needs to be done, but sometimes they can hold us back. I’ve heard many authors say “I don’t care if I make money, I just want to write,” or “I don’t want to sell out. I can’t promote myself.” It’s as if we equate suffering and starvation with good art. Finally, I hear some writers say “If I make something amazing it’ll just sell itself.” What a lot of us don’t realize is that we’re living in a paradox. On the one hand we say “I don’t wanna corrupt my art” but on the other hand we say “If only I could make money doing what I love…” How do we reconcile this contradiction? That's what th

Hello word nerds! Today I'm interviewing Ken Zak about writing poetic prose and the process behind his book, The Poet's Secret. Kenneth Zak is an aquatic nomad of Bohemian-Polish ancestry. As a lad, he dove into Lake Erie in search of a silver coin. Decades later, he surfaced off the island of Crete with a tale filled with mystical sea turtles, sunken treasure and a young woman’s search for a reclusive poet, his muse and the myth of eternal love. A summa cum laude graduate of The Ohio State University with a degree in Business and concentration in Art History, Zak went on to receive his JD and follow the waves to California. He eventually shut down a successful law practice in quest of a deeper purpose, freeing his creative self in a mountaintop village in Crete where he began his debut novel, The Poet’s Secret. Since his time in Crete, he continued work on the manuscript and his poetry in Bali, Costa Rica, Thailand, Cambodia and South America. An avid surfer and free diver, Ken’s passions also include readin

Hey Word Nerds! Today’s episode is going to be so awesome because I'm talking to debut author Kim Liggett, a fabulous YA author and good friend. Her book, Blood and Salt, is out now, and in this episode she and I chat about taking this project from concept to bookshelf.   In this episode Kim and I discuss: World-building, sensory detail, and creative descriptions. Having an obsession and using it to fuel your writing. Organizing the plot to build suspense, with shifting timelines and surprise reveals. Navigating the revision and edit process to get the best result. Creative promotion for books. Plus her #1 tip for writers. For more info and show notes: DIYMFA.com/062

Hey there, Word Nerds! Thanks for joining me for today’s episode. Today I’ll be interviewing Barbara Baig about how to write spellbinding sentences, based on her new book by the same title. This episode was so much fun to record because as soon as Barbara and I started chatting, I knew I had found a likeminded word nerd and writing teacher. Her approach to writing as a practice and as a teachable skill goes hand in hand with the DIY MFA philosophy and her focus on sentence-level craft will compliment the more "big picture" techniques you learn here at DIY MFA. I hope you get as much out of this conversation as I did, and if you want to learn more about how to use language in a way that moves and resonates with your readers, check out her books below or enter to win her latest book in a Goodreads giveaway! For more info and show notes: DIYMFA.com/061

Hey there, Word Nerds! I’m so excited to share this interview with you today. I’ll be talking to Linda Fairstein about the world she built in her famed "Alex Cooper" series. Linda is a former Manhattan prosecutor and New York Times bestselling author. Her books are international bestsellers and have been translated into more than a dozen languages. Her latest (the 17th in the series) is Devil's Bridge, which is out now. Before turning to writing, Linda was chief of the Sex Crimes Unit of the district attorney’s office in Manhattan for more than two decades, so basically she's like an SVU prosecutor, but for real. Not only that, she is America’s foremost legal expert on sexual assault and domestic violence. Linda lives in Manhattan and on Martha’s Vineyard. For more info and show notes: DIYMFA.com/060

Hey there word nerds! Gabriela here with another exciting interview episode on DIY MFA Radio. Today I’m thrilled to share my recent conversation with Alka Dhillon, author of The OM Factor: A Woman's Spiritual Guide to Leadership. Alka Dhillon is the founder and CEO of Technalink, one of the leading companies in the Washington Metropolitan area providing Information Technology and Management Consulting services to both government and commercial clients. She has won numerous awards and honors, and she blogs at The Spiritual CEO. In this episode Alka and I discuss: Accessing your creative potential through meditation. (Everyone has two minutes) Being able to release your creative agenda to meet your creative inspiration. How to be more responsive than reactive. Writers and leadership. For more info and show notes: DIYMFA.com/059

Hello Word Nerds! Thanks for joining me today. Man, it's been a while since I've done a solo show. It feels like it's been forever since I've had a chance to chat with you. We’ve been doing so many awesome interviews, and we have a bunch more coming up, but today I felt like it was time to have more of a heart-to-heart. In this episode, I've decided to share some mindfulness tips that turned my approach to writing on its head. I call this my Mindfulness Manifesto for Writers. This was a very tough episode for me. I had been resisting the idea for a while. You see, I’m very pragmatic and my creative process is very linear. Plus (how do I put this nicely) I always felt like the whole idea of mindfulness, of meditation, all that mind/heart/soul was a little to “woo woo” for me. The thing is, being intentional about where your thoughts go is really important to writing. This skill is the essence of mindfulness and challenging myself to be open to it has changed my writing for the better. I used to really hate med

Hey there, word nerds! Thanks for joining me for another episode of DIY MFA Radio. I’m so glad you’re here! Today I’m interviewing Jandra Sutton, the digital media coordinator for PR by the Book, a boutique literary PR firm based in Austin, TX and Nashville, TN. While her job title might not make sense, it's helpful to know that she is essentially a social media publicist. Her job is to connect authors with their online audiences in a meaningful way, whether that's managing a full social media campaign for the author or teaching him/her how to navigate the ins and outs of social media (DIY Social Media!) In this episode, Jandra and I will geek out over one of my favorite topics: social media. She'll share some pro tips specifically for writers and show you how to use social media to build your author brand and your career. For more info and show notes: DIYMFA.com/057

Hi there Word nerds! I’m so excited to share today’s interview with bestselling author Tana French and her process in crafting series and writing literary mysteries. Tana French has been called “one of the most talented crime writers alive” by the Washington Post. With four bestselling, critically acclaimed, and award-winning novels in print worldwide, she excels in portraying fallible, deeply human detectives, as broken as the cases they investigate. In her new book, The Secret Place, she revisits characters from a previous book, plus she gives readers an inside look at a all-girls prep school. It turns out that the private underworld of teenage girls is more mysterious and more dangerous than it appears. In this episode Tana and I discuss: Different elements of crafting a series. Using viewpoint to structure your narrative. The writing and rewriting process. Recurring characters. Sticking to genre conventions or bucking the trends. Plus, Tana shares her #1 tip for writers. For more info and show notes: DI

This is our one-year anniversary of DIY MFA Radio and for this episode, Elisabeth and I decided to change things up. Since I'm usually the one doing the interviewing, this time around Elisabeth interviewed me about DIY MFA, writing, and other fun things. We also celebrated this milestone by doing a live Periscope broadcast of the unedited recording session and it was SO MUCH FUN. While you can't catch the Periscope recording anymore (they're only available for the first 24hours after the broadcast) we WILL be doing these live recording sessions again in the future. Stay tuned because it's going to be epic! For show notes and more info: DIYMFA.com/055

I’m so excited to interview Sara Paretsky, author of 20 books, including the renowned V.I. Warshawski novels. In 1982 she introduced the world to  private eye V.I. Warshawski in her book Indemnity Only. V.I. – tough, credible, street-smart, and feminine – challenged the stereotypes of women in fiction as victims or vamps and Paretsky made it possible for a new generation of crime writers to thrive. In, Brush Back,  the latest book in this series, V.I. must uncover the truth about a crime that hits very close to home, and forces her to take a good look into her family’s past. As V.I. digs for clues and tries to piece the story together, she must put her life—and career—on the line until she can finally discover what happened on a fateful night many those years ago. It could be the biggest case of her career—if V.I. manages to survive. Sara Paretsky was named 2011 Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America and is also the recipient of the Cartier Diamond Dagger Award given by the British Crime Writers’ Asso

Hello and welcome to another episode of DIY MFA Radio! I’m so excited to be sharing this interview with you from Thrillerfest! I met with Le French Book founder Anne Trager, and Le French Book authors Eric Giacometti, and David Khara to talk about writing thrillers for French and American markets. We had an amazing conversation andI can't wait to share it with you in this episode. Le French Book is a company that translates French mysteries and thrillers for the American audience. These books have been wildly popular in Europe and now they are available here in the United States, thanks to Le French Book and its founder, Anne Trager. I don't know about you, but after speaking with these fascinating authors, I can't wait to check out these books! For more info and show notes: DIYMFA.com/053

Hi Word Nerds! Thanks so much for joining me. In this episode, I'm thrilled to interview debut author Susannah Marren. She and I talk about her process for writing her debut novel, her inspiration and the different thematic elements in her writing Get ready to be inspired by this lovely interview. Susannah is originally from Long Beach Island, New Jersey. She currently lives in Manhattan with her family and still spends her summers on the Jersey Shore. Between the Tides is her first novel. In this episode, Susannah Marren and I discuss:   What inspired her to write Between the Tides. Different thematic elements in her writing. The most enjoyable and most challenging parts of being a writer. How knowing the ending can drive your story forward. How to let your experience inform your writing. What the publishing process looks like for a debut author. Plus, Susannah shares her #1 tip for writers. For more info and show notes: DIYMFA.com/052

Hello and welcome to another exciting episode of DIY MFA Radio! Today I’m interviewing Calee Lee, the founder and CEO of Xist Publishing, the largest independent digital-first children's publisher. She is also the author of more than 15  books for children. Dedicated to helping kids develop a lifetime love of reading, she founded Xist Publishing in 2011 to provide beautiful books for the touchscreen generation. Today she’ll share insights about alternative paths to publishing. For writers who don't want to go with abig 5 publisher but also don't want to self-publish, there is an alternate route. In this episode Calee tells us about medium and small press publishers, in particular her own company, Xist Publishing, which is a digital-first independent children's publisher. For more info and show notes: DIYMFA.com/051

Hey Word Nerds! Welcoem to another episode of DIY MFA Radio. Back in June, I went on my first mini writing retreat right here in my howntown of NYC. I didn't go too far, just a couple of miles, but I got a hotel and spent about 24 hours immersed in my writing. In those 24 hours, I managed to knock out around 7000 words of the manuscript I've been working on. To give you some perspective, on a good week at home, I'm happy if I get 4000 words. And that's in a whole week! I discovered I could hammer out almost double the number of words in a 24-hour writing retreat than I do on a regular week at home. What a HUGE return on investment! This retreat taught me that occasionally putting my life on hold and immersing myself in writing (even if just for a little while) can have a huge impact on my manuscript. Especially since my first deadline is only a few weeks away. To learn more about this retreat, and get some actionable tips to help you create one of your very own, check out this episode. For more info and show

Hello and welcome to another exciting episode of DIY MFA Radio! Today I'm so excited to interview Beatriz Williams. She is the author of international best sellers Overseas, A Hundred Summers, and The Secret Life of Violet Grant. Her new book, Tiny Little THing, hit bookstores on June 23 and is out now. I'm reading it right now and let me just say, it's incredible! In his episode, Beatriz and I talk about her creative decisions as she crafted this fascinating book. DIYMFA.com/049

Today I want to talk to you about a crucial part of my own creative life: The Brain Book. It's my portable office. When I have the Brain Book with me, I know I can be creative and productive anytime, anywhere. Not only does the Brain Book contain my book's outline, my to-do list, etc., it also carries little totems and mascots so that I don't have to be attached to any place in particular when I want (or need) to write. In this episode, I'm going to give you a quick rundown of what my brainbook looks like. Then I'm going to challenge you to build your own Brain Book and share pictures of it with me! To see pictures of the Brain Boon in action, follow me on Instagram. For more info and show notes: DIYMFA.com/048

Hey Word Nerds! Thanks so much for being here with me today. We're going to talk about a bit of DIY MFA's core philosophy and I'll teach you a game-changing techique that has helped writers turn their writing lives around completely. I usually only share this technique with my DIY MFA 101 course, but it is SO important that I wanted to talk about it on the podcast today. If you take only one lesson away from DIY MFA, I hope this is the one. This small change can have a HUGE impact on your writing. For more info and show notes: DIYMFA.com/047 

Welcome to our official Book Expo America (BEA) 2015 recap. In this episode, I pull together insights I gained from attending various sessions at BEA this year, plus trends I observed while exploring the show. Overall, I can sum up the direction that publishing is going in two words: identity and community. In this episode I dig into different reasons why these themes will dominate the industry in comming years and what they mean for us as writers. For more info and show notes: DIYMFA.com/046