Writers Authors On Fire Podcast

Here's the link to Dave's Show Notes page with highlights and quotes and links to his website and social media connections. Dave Jaworski worked for Microsoft for eight years as a marketing representative and then two years in product development. He values his ability to translate tech to normal human speak so he can help people understand technology. In this excite interview we learn about Microsoft as it grew from worst to first in software applications. Dave shares the interesting process he used to write Microsoft Secrets, the challenges of writing a book about secrets, confidentiality, his motivation and much more.

Here's a link to Heather's Show Notes page with highlights, quotes, and links to her website and social media connections. Heather Day Gilbert is a successful fiction and nonfiction author who has a keen eye for marketing. She likes indie publishing and wrote the Indie Publishing Handbook. In fiction she writes historical, mystery and romance suspense. After getting her start in 2013, she now has 10 books and has contributed to several boxed sets. In this interview we talk about her writing process, getting ideas, indie publishing pros and cons, and a lot about boxed sets. 

Here's the link to the Show Notes page with highlights, quotes, and links to Janet's websites and social media. Janet Thompson didn't start writing until she was 50. After attending seminary she was trying to find out what she should be doing. She soon found herself in charge of creating a Women to Woman mentoring program at Saddleback Church in southern California. After that she write a kit on forming a mentoring program to women, which they self-published. It was picked up by Lifeway. Her books since then have all included some aspect of mentoring. In this interview we talk about her writing process, her motivation to write, how she gets her stories, and where her ideas come from and how she tracks them. She talks about all her books and how they came about. She's always collecting stories. 

Here's the link to the Show Notes page for Tony & Alisa's  show with highlights, quotes, and links to their websites and social media connections. Tony and Alisa launched ONE Extraordinary Marriage to fill a need in their marriage when they could not find the resources they needed. They started a blog but discovered they didn't like writing that much. Soon they discovered podcasts and the rest is history. They launched in January 2010 and recently recorded episode 400! Their main product is the podcast but they offer lots of other products: coaching, print and ebooks, audio and video courses, sharable quotes, and more. Their goal is to impact one marriage. They ask themselves everyday, "Where's the one marriage that we're going to impact today." It's simple and effective.

Dorcas Cheng-Tozun is the author of a book about staying in love with your entrepreneur, which is applicable for us writers and authors.  Here's the link to the Show Notes page from the interview with highlights and quotes, and links to her website and social media. Dorcas studied journalism and found she loved writing as a career. After starting as a blogger, she became a columnist. She's also contributed to several anthologies. Her new book Start, Love, Repeat: How to Stay in Love with your Entrepreneur in a Crazy Start-up World is also perfect for anyone married to or in a relationship with anyone in a very intensive career, which is often us writers. But the book has useful advice for both partners.

Here a link to the show notes from Julie's interview with highlights and key thoughts, and links to her websites and social media connections. Julie Broad is an entrepreneur who does not consider herself a writer. Writing is the vehicle she uses to her ideas out there. She's a former real estate investor turned author turned entrepreneur with two books to her credit. Her first book, More Than Cashflow, made her an expert and gave her speaking opportunities. As a child she loved to write. Working in real estate, she started a newsletter and soon had 700 subscribers. That turned into More Than Cashflow, which has been number one in Amazon and a huge success. Hew new book, The New Brand You, is a hit too. We talk about branding for writers. whether one can have more than one brand, mistakes writers make, the value of a writing coach, and her company BookLaunchers that helps writers through the publishing process. Great advice that all writers can use.

Here's the kink to the Show Notes page for Jodi's quotes, highlights, and ling to her website and social media. Jodi Weiss was an English major in college with a Masters degree in English and an MFA in creative writing. She's worked as an literary agent, has worked in the publishing industry, and is a professor. Her work in publishing has mainly been in the field of careers. She has a passion to teach full-time. Jodi runs ultra marathons, with more than 30 100 miler races completed. She does yoga and is a yogi. The first draft of her novel was over 1000 pages and she cut 300 of those by the time it was published. She's an organized and disciplined writer and had binders of dialog, timelines, notes, month by month breakdowns, and more. Careers are important to her having worked in academia for many years. Jodi is a prolific writer who can write five articles at a time. 

Tim Beals transitioned from being an author to partner with authors as an agent. Here's the link to Tim's show notes page with quotes, highlights, and links to his websites and social media connections. After college he worked for Zondervan in a variety of roles from proofreader editor, to acquisitions to publisher. He spent the first 25 years of his career in publishing. Twelve years ago he founded Credo Communications and Credo House Publishers. In this interview we talk about agents, what they do, what they cost authors, how they specialize, the benefits of having an agent, when to approach an agent, what to submit to them, concerns when looking for an agent, how writing across different genres affects an agent representing me, and much more. 

Tracy wrote Unashamed: Candid Conversations About Dating, Love, Nakedness, and Faith for young women and girls. Here's the link to the Show Notes page for highlights and quotes, and links to her website and social media connections. Tracy Levinson grew up with dyslexia and a learning disability but became a high school teacher. Her book Unashamed came out of a late night feeling that God was telling her to write. Young girls and women reached out to her with their questions about dating and sex. So she wrote Unashamed: Candid Conversations About Dating, Love, Nakedness, and Faith to give them a safe place to wrestle with these topics. In this interview we talk about how being dyslexic affected her writing, the processes she used to write the book and do a survey to collect content, how she got into five categories in Amazon - resulting in being number 1 in all five categories, and much more. She took a planned aggressive role in asking for endorsements. 

Cathy Turney wrote Get 10,000+ Twitter Followers: Easily, Quickly, Ethically. Here's the Link to Cathy's Show Notes page with quotes, highlights, and links to her website and social media connections. Cathy Turney first wrote a book about her dog, then an award-winning book about success with real-estate, and now, a book on getting 10,000+ Twitter followers, which I know will be a winner. Cathy taught herself how to use Twitter even though she was not a technical person. In the interview we talk about her book writing process, Twitter tips, differences between Twitter and Facebook to gain a following, her system to promote herself and get more followers, using hashtag searches, getting a banner, picking your Twitter name, and much more.

Laura Taggart wrote a new marriage book for millennials. Here's a link to the Show Notes page for highlights and quotes, and links to Laura's website and social media connections. Laura is the author of the book Making Love Last: Divorce-Proofing Your Young Marriage. The book is written for young marrieds, millennials in fact. However the book can help any married couple. Being a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, she had to write when time allowed, writing two days a week - and completed the book in about 10 months. Laura took a writing course, hired a freelance editor to help her and got the book done. It's an inspiration to hear her story with the obstacles she had to overcome, her motivation, and what she learned in the process. 

Peter Keim made a career in advertising and nearing retirement, decided to dabble in writing. Here's the link to Peter's Show Notes page with quotes, highlights, and links to his social media pages and Amazon Author's page. Peter classifies his writing as a hobby, mainly because he's had no formal training to write, but has managed to write 43 novels. He write westerns, murder mysteries, zombie, zombie westerns, and christian spiritual novels. He was drawn to the western culture as a child. In this interview Peter shares his tips for research, writing westerns, how he markets his books, how he got into writing zombie western books, and much more.

Major Mitchell has written 10 western novels and two children's chapter books books. Here's the link to Major's Show Notes page with interview highlights and quotes, and links to his books, website, and social media connections. His first western book, Manhunter, was written as a gift to his wife. As a youth he read Zane Grey, which peaked his interest in eventually writing westerns. Major loves writing and has 10 western novels published, along with two children's chapter books. He started Shalako Press, which has published close to 20 other authors. Many of his books are part of a series built around a character. Major takes us through building characters, doing research for 1850 to 1890, and then we talk about his books for children. He share a lot of valuable information on writing westerns and on writing in general.

Alan Fadling is the founder, with his wife, of Unhurried Living, which grew out of his two books on that theme. Here's the link to Alan's Show Notes page with quotes, highlights, and links to his websites and social media. Alan is a pastor and spiritual director, mainly to other pastors. The unhurried life is about an intentional deepening of one's relationship with God. Alan has journaled for most of his life, with over 9000 journal pages. The Unhurried Living books came out a 20-year journey of using spiritual practices as a Christian leader and finding mentors in the practices to slow him down. Their focus is on personal leadership. The first book is The Unhurried Life and the second, just released, is An Unhurried Leader. An Unhurried Leader is for people who want to be persons of influence exactly where God has placed them. Alan describes grace-paced leadership and overflow leadership. He shares principles on how we can become unhurried people. We talk about the writing process of both books, the unhurri

Susan Vandepol tackles the hard topic of grief after the death of a loved one. Here's the link to the Show Notes page for highlights, quotes, and links to Susan's website and social media contacts. Susan was married to a firefighter who was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease after a 911 call on duty. She founded Families of the Fallen and wrote protocols for firefighters and churches to help them assist widows and their families with their needs after the death of a firefighter. This important resource has provided guidance in the undefined area of supporting these widows. Out of that came her book Life After Breath: After Her Husband Takes His Last Breath, and After She Tries to Catch Hers. Susan wrote out of her life experiences in order to help others. She discovered that she loved speaking and now does that regularly. Writing and talking about death and grief is a hard subject, but Susan has mastered it. Her book, protocols, blog, speaking, and website all reflect her desire to help and bless others

Paula Bicknell is an indie auh=thor with three novels. Here's the link to the Show Notes page with highlights, quotes, and links to her books, website, and social media connections. Paula is an author with seven children who lives in a farm. As a child she was an avid writer. In her 20's she wrote feature stories for the local newspaper. Because of her large family and life on the farm, she often struggles with finding time to write - but she wants to write a book every six months.  Shed has two books out in what will be a three book series of California history, and one contemporary fiction. More books are planned. 

Melissa Keir is a fiction author who never wanted to be a writer - but now it's one of her passions. Here's the link to Melissa's Show Note page with highlights, quotes, and links to her websites and social media. Melissa is a teacher who now guests teaches and writes movie reviews for a local radio station. She's an avid reader and after writing book reviews for two years, she tried writing her own book. In 2012 her first book was published and now she has 19 original stories in 25 books including boxed sets. In 2016 she was able to become a full time writer. In this interview, Melissa shares about boxed sets, writing series, her writing process for a new book, developing characters, adding the plot to develop the full story, and much more. She rereads and rewrites as she goes to deepen the story. Then focus is on good editing and a quality cover. Melissa owns InkSpell Publishing.

In this special episode we recap episodes 76 – 100 of Writers & Authors on Fire. We'll go from episode 076 to episode 100 with a short description of the show and then share a short clip from the interview. You will learn about authors, what they shared, and in their words, a bit of wisdom culled from their interview. This fourth batch of 25 episodes are entertaining, but more important, informative as they share what they have learned about writing, their tips and advice, and the exciting direction their writing journey has taken them. It is our hope that the short clips might entice you to listen to the full shows.

Arlene Miller is the Grammar Diva with eight books published about grammar. Here's the link to Arlene's Show Notes page with highlights, quotes, and links to her website and social media.  Arlene wrote a book about common grammar mistakes after being a teacher and seeing people repeating the same writing mistakes. That led to a second book, then a book on grammar lessons,, a big workbook, them turned blog post into another book, She repurposes content. She then did a second edition of the first book and a little workbook with that. She has all kinds of ideas for future books. She publishes the books herself but has the covers and interior design done for her. She currently has eight books on grammar, a niche market in which she has a strong presence. Arlene has been a technical writer, technical editor, author, editor, credentialed school teacher and school administrator, blogger, speaker, tap dancer, and most important, a mom.

Lynne Thompson writes books  and lots of articles. Here's the Show Notes page with quotes, highlights, and links to her website and social media. Lynne's first book was The Official Soccer Mom Devotional: A Book of 50 Brief and Inspiring Devotions. Two more have followed, written for teens - Wag the Mouth and Wag the Teacher, with more in the series coming. Lynne got her start as the editor of her high school newspaper. Later she wrote articles, lots of articles- over 500! Her newsletter led to Focus on a Family radio show stint where she read some of her works, which turned into The Official Soccer Mom Devotional. The book is filled with fun stuff for busy moms. Lynne's Wag series is written to capture some of the silliness off high school with little nuggets of truth and value. They are about what's important in life - friendship and family and faith. Substitute teaching helps her keep in touch with how kids talk and helps her think young in her writing.