Diy Mfa Radio

Hey there word nerds! Joe is a bestselling writer, novelist, and a dad. He leads The Write Practice community, an award-winning community of creative writers. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia with his wife Talia and three kids and enjoys coffee and corpse reviver no. 2s. In this episode Joe and I discuss: The inspiration behind Crowdsourcing Paris A small, but powerful trick to overcoming writer’s block  Finding awe in the ordinary Structuring a memoir Creating risks and stakes in any story Developing a writing practice Plus, his  #1 tip for writers. For more info and show notes: www.diymfa.com/305

Hey there word nerds! Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Helen J. Darling. Helen is the author of two humorous women’s fiction novels: Terms and Conditions and I’ll Know Me When I Find Me. She is also the resident self-publishing expert and columnist at DIY MFA. Helen worked in publishing for twenty years before acknowledging she’d like to write something herself. When she’s not writing or spending time with her family, she dabbles uncontrollably in hobbies from photography and painting to gardening, carpentry, and home renovations. She reads three or four books at a time. She also keeps bees. That’s why she takes so long to write her novels. You can learn about her latest distractions by joining her mailing list or following her on social media. She lives in North Carolina with her husband, two children, a codependent beagle, and a cat who owns them all. In this episode Helen and I discuss: How working in academic publishing led to Helen’s writing career The flexibility that comes with self-publishi

Hey there word nerds! Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Sonja K. Solter. Sonja graduated from Stanford University and earned an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Hamline University, with a critical thesis on writing trauma in middle grade and young adult realistic fiction. She is currently a creative writing mentor to youth with the Society of Young Inklings and enjoys writing poetry and prose for children of all ages. When You Know What I Know is her gorgeous debut novel. Visit her website and follow her on Twitter and Facebook. In this episode Sonja and I discuss: The inspiration behind When You Know What I Know Plot points in a character-driven story Writing a book in verse instead of prose How an ensemble cast effects the main character Writing about trauma in middle grade and YA How attending a conference led to publication Plus, her #1 tip for writers. For more info and show notes: www.diymfa.com/303

Hey there word nerds! Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Jade Dee and Wilnona Marie, the “And I Thought” Ladies! Jade is the 2019 Poet of the Year, and Wilnona is Advocate Awarded. Both ladies recently accepted the job as US correspondents for UK TV show Chrissy B on Sky TV. They recently made the list of 20 Iconic Authors according to Every Writers Resource Magazine. This dynamic duo has contributed to eleven books: The And I Thought Series & The Miss-Fit Guides. In addition, Jade and Wilnona are the Co-Founders of The Inspirational Women in Literature Media and Journalism Awards, The Thoughtful Book Festival, the 25 Hottest Authors Magazine & And I Thought Literary Magazine. They starred in docuseries Just Writin Life about authors. They will be starring in the film Create, Aspire & Inspire. They have co-hosted conferences on three continents. They have read poetry for loving fans in Australia, the U.K., Greece, and Canada, by Invitation for a regional poet laureate, and at the U.K. lite

Hey there word nerds! Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Jeff Garvin. Jeff is an author, musician, and podcaster and his debut novel, Symptoms of Being Human has received a ton of accolades. It is an ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults Selection, Lambda Literary Award Finalist, and has garnered starred reviews from Booklist and Publishers Weekly.  Before becoming a novelist, Jeff acted on TV and toured as the lead singer of a rock band. He has a BFA in Film from Chapman University and lives in Southern California. Now, I have been looking forward to this episode since last July, when Jeff and I met at a ThrillerFest cocktail party. We connected right away and when Jeff told me about his new novel The Lightness of Hands I knew I just had to have him on the show. This book grapples with some heavy topics, but one in particular that really hits home for me: mental health. I am so thrilled to be recording this interview (finally! After 8 months!) and to introduce Jeff and his moving (sometimes gut-wrenching

Hey there word nerds!  Welcome to the three hundredth episode of DIY MFA Radio! The original plan for this episode was to unveil our first-ever DIY MFA live event—Writer Igniter LIVE—which we were planning for October. In light of current events, we’ve put the planning  for that on hold. That said, we still wanted to honor this special milestone episode by doing something a little bit different. To that end, I’ve gathered Team Awesome together to talk about a new approach we’ve been taking with DIY MFA. While from an outside perspective DIY MFA has been chugging away as it always has been, over the past three months the team and I have been doing a lot of internal work, getting our house in order and making key shifts to how we approach the work that we do. One of these key shifts is the concept of building mental theme parks.  Now, theme parks hold a special significance for me. For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated with theme park design. Most kids go to Disney World for the rides; I was tha

Hey there word nerds! Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Chris Banks! Chris Banks is the CEO and Founder of ProWritingAid. In his varied career, he has built neural networks to model language learning, worked on the BBC’s scriptwriting product, written books, been a ski guide, and given talks on creativity, artificial intelligence, and language technologies. He started ProWritingAid to help with his own writing, but he soon saw how useful it was for everyone else. Now, he wants to help more people put their ideas into words and those words into the hands (and hearts) of readers. In this episode Chris and I discuss: How a broken ankle led to the creation of the ProWritingAid Software How ProWritingAid can help improve your writing  Approaching writing like building a building Taking your writing from good to great How a thesaurus can be a powerful writing tool Plus, his  #1 tip for writers. For more info and show notes: www.diymfa.com/299

Hey there word nerds! Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Brandy Colbert, the critically acclaimed author of several YA and Middle Grade novels. Her books include Pointe, Stonewall Award winner Little & Lion, Finding Yvonne, The Revolution of Birdie Randolph, and her 2020 releases, The Only Black Girls in Town, and The Voting Booth. Her short fiction and essays have also been published in several critically acclaimed anthologies for young people. Born and raised in Springfield, Missouri, Brandy spent a few years living in Chicago before relocating permanently to Los Angeles. She is very active on social media and also works as a copy editor for magazines and books. She is also on faculty at Hamline University’s MFA program in writing for children. In this episode Brandy and I discuss: The inspiration behind The Revolution of Birdie Randolph Exploring black friendships and experience in The Only Black Girls in Town How books can functions as both mirrors and windows Exploring the theme of family ov

Hey there word nerds! Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing E.J. Wenstrom J. Wenstrom believes in complicated heroes, horrifying monsters, purple hair dye and standing to the right on escalators so the left side can walk. Her award-winning fantasy series Chronicles of the Third Realm War (City Owl Press) features a peculiar mashup of Greek mythology, Judeo-Christian folklore, and an extra dash of her own special brand of chaos. The series includes Florida Writers Association’s 2016 Book of the Year Mud, Rain (which is the prequel), Tides, and—most recently—Sparks, which concludes the series. In this episode E.J. and I discuss: How an internship led E.J. to discover a love of writing How research on monsters became the inspiration for finding Adem’s voice Finding hope in the midst of a seemingly hopeless story Setting up a satisfying series ending How E.J. uses an “ugly draft” to facilitate writing a book a year The benefits of publishing with a small press Plus, her #1 tip for writers. For more info

Hey there word nerds! Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Curdella Forbes. Curdella is a Jamaican writer who lives in Takoma Park, Maryland, and teaches at Howard University. Her latest novel, A Tall History of Sugar, has been praised by BuzzFeed, Essence, Bookish, The Rumpus, Electric Lit, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, SyFy, and many others. Writing for the New York Times Book Review, Veronica Chambers said of the novel: "Forbes’s writing combines the gale-force imagination of Margaret Atwood with the lyrical pointillism of Toni Morrison.” In this episode Curdella and I discuss: The inspiration behind A Tall History of Sugar Writing about the experience of not belonging Moving between third and first person The dark origins of fairy tales The story behind the title “A Tall History of Sugar” Plus, her #1 tip for writers. For more info and show notes: www.diymfa.com/296

Hey there word nerds! Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Claire Waller. Claire is a secondary school teacher who works with teenagers with mental health issues. She has had two adult horror novels (Predator X, Nine Eyes) published by Australian indie publisher, Severed Press. FUGLY is her first YA novel. Claire lives with her husband, two daughters, a cat called Hiccup, and various dinosaurs. Her interests include drawing, baking, palaeontology, horror, and roleplaying. In this episode Claire and I discuss: The very personal inspiration for Fugly The toxic love of cruelty online Writing a character that behaves in a problematic way Expectations for negative female characters verses male ones Bringing personal experience to a fictional character Plus, her #1 tip for writers. For more info and shownotes: www.diymfa.com/295

Hey there word nerds! Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing H.R. Hobbs. H.R. Hobbs (or Heather Hobbs, as I know her) is the Amazon-bestselling author of a series of compassionate and empowering stories for middle-grade readers. Set in a typical middle school, her books address the topics of belonging, friendship, and bullying. A lifelong learner and teacher, Heather started writing in 2015 as a retirement project. Recently, she began taking art lessons with the hopes of illustrating her own children’s books in the future. Heather is the mother to three grown sons and grandmother to three little darlings. She lives with her husband in the small prairie town where she was born and raised. Also, Heather and I have been part of the same mastermind group for just about two years (shoutout to our third group member Angelica!). For those who don’t know, a mastermind group is basically like a critique group but instead of giving feedback on each other’s writing, we brainstorm around each other’s careers and busi

Hey there word nerds! Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Jessica Abel. Cartoonist and coach Jessica is the founder of the Creative Focus Workshop, and author of Growing Gills: How to Find Creative Focus When You're Drowning in Your Daily Life, the graphic novel La Perdida, and two textbooks about making comics, Drawing Words & Writing Pictures and Mastering Comics. Her book Out on the Wire is about how the best radio and podcast producers in the world use story to keep us listening. Jessica’s latest work of fiction is the Eisner-nominated Trish Trash: Rollergirl of Mars. She is chair of the illustration program at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. In this episode Jessica and I discuss: The inspiration behind Growing Gills The myth of the muse and “right brain versus left brain” The power of time tracking Dealing with external and internal nay-sayers The power of planning and creating your own rules Plus, her #1 tip for writers. For more info and show notes: www.diymfa.com/293

Hey there word nerds! Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing K.S. Villoso who writes speculative fiction with a focus on deeply personal themes and character-driven narratives. Much of her work is inspired by her childhood in the slums of Taguig, Philippines. She now lives amidst the forest and mountains of Vancouver, Canada with her husband, children, and dogs. Her novel, The Wolf of Oren-Yaro is a gripping adventure about a queen, trying to unite her divided kingdom, even though everybody hates her. In this episode K.S. and I discuss: The inspiration behind The Wolf of Oren-Yaro Building on a previous series Creating a deeply flawed character that readers can still root for The interplay between the external and internal journey of the protagonist Meeting genre expectations in a new way Building a world through character Plus, her #1 tip for writers. For more info and shownotes: www.diymfa.com/292

Hey there word nerds! Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Robert Dugoni. Robert Dugoni is the critically acclaimed New York Times, #1 Wall Street Journal and #1 Amazon Internationally Best-Selling Author of 17 novels in The Tracy Crosswhite police detective series set in Seattle, the David Sloane legal thriller series, and the Charles Jenkins espionage series. He is also the author of several standalone novels including The Eighth Sister and The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell, both #1 Amazon kindle downloads, as well as The 7th Canon and The Cyanide Canary, a Washington Post best book of the year. Several novels have been optioned for television series. Robert is the recipient of the Nancy Pearl Award for fiction and many other awards. We’ll be talking about his book A Cold Trail which is out now. In this episode Robert and I discuss: The power of dedicated, daily work Revisiting an old crime in a new book The particular appeal of a small town as a mystery setting The interplay between setting, theme

Hey there word nerds!  Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Samuel Shem, a novelist, playwright, and activist. He is a Professor in Medical Humanities at NYU School of Medicine, and Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome. His novels include The House of God, Fine, Mount Misery, In the Heart of the Universe, and The Spirit of the Place (which won two national "Best Literary Novel" awards in 2008 and 2009). He is coauthor with his wife, Janet Surrey, of The Buddha's Wife, and the award-winning Off-Broadway play Bill W. and Dr. Bob, about the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous, and also We Have to Talk: Healing Dialogues Between Men and Women. Also, just a quick heads up, we have a teeny bit of explicit language towards the end of the interview. Due to the nature of the discussion I decided not to bleep anything out, but I wanted to let you know in case you have small children in the room or you, yourself, are not comfortable with explicit language. In this episode Samuel and I discuss: The desire

Hey there word nerds! Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Constance Sayers talking about her debut novel, A Witch in Time, which is forthcoming in February. A finalist for Alternating Current’s 2016 Luminaire Award for Best Prose, her short stories have appeared in Souvenir and Amazing Graces: Yet Another Collection of Fiction by Washington Area Women as well as The Sky is a Free Country. Her short fiction has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. She received her master of arts in English from George Mason University and graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor of arts in writing from the University of Pittsburgh. She attended The Bread Loaf Writers Conference where she studied with Charles Baxter and Lauren Groff. Currently, she is a media executive at Atlantic Media (publisher of The Atlantic).  She lives in Maryland and is the co-founder of the Thoughtful Dog literary magazine.  In this episode Constance and I discuss: How a painting inspired A Witch in Time Blending together

Hey there word nerds!  Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Janae Marks! Janae is an award-winning children's book author living in Connecticut. She has an MFA in Creative Writing with a concentration in Writing for Children and Young Adults from The New School, and is an active member of the Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). Her debut is the middle grade novel,  From the Desk of Zoe Washington, which we’ll be discussing today. Janae also happens to be one of my dearest writing besties. She’s known me since before DIY MFA was even a twinkle in my eye, like back when it was still just a “crazy idea” I was kicking around on my personal blog. She and I were also in the same thesis critique group so she has seen my writing in all its many forms: from the good, to the bad, to the… what the heck were you thinking, Gabriela? One of my favorite things—one of the things that brings true joy to my heart—is when I get to introduce my favorite people to the word nerd community. I’ve know

Hey there word nerds! Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Kiley Reid! An Arizona native, Kiley Reid is a recent graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she was the recipient of the Truman Capote Fellowship. Her short stories have been featured and are forthcoming in Ploughshares, December, New South, and Lumina. With the latter publication, her short story won first place in the 2017 Flash Prose Contest. In Summer 2018, Kiley attended the Cuttyhunk Island Residency as the recipient of the Paul Cuffee Scholarship. Such a Fun Age is her debut novel, and the film and TV rights have already been acquired. In this episode Kiley and I discuss: How the idea of awkwardness and ownership inspired Such a Fun Age Using the imbalance of three characters to create a charged scene Creating complex and multi-faceted protagonists An in-depth analysis of a pivotal scene Using external and internal wants to deepen characterization Plus, her #1 tip for writers. For more info and shownotes: www.diymfa.com/287

Hey there word nerds! Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Marie Force. Marie is the New York Times, USA TODAY and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of more than seventy contemporary romances, including the Fatal Series. Thirty of her books have been New York Times bestsellers, and she has sold more than nine million books worldwide. Today we’ll be discussing book #15 in the Fatal series—Fatal Accusation—and the craft of putting together a romantic suspense series. In this episode Marie and I discuss: How a news story inspired the Fatal series Building a romance series around one couple The difference between romance with suspense and romantic suspense Managing writing multiple series at once Balancing indie and traditional publishing Plus, her #1 tip for writers For more info and shownotes: www.diymfa.com/286