Writers Authors On Fire Podcast

In this special episode we recap episodes 51-75 of Writers & Authors on Fire. Here's the link to the Show Notes page for the special recap show. We'll go from episode 051 to episode 075 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. These 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. The 25 include authors of general fiction - novels of all types and for all ages, humor, romance fiction, coloring books, outdoor books, trail guides, mystery and suspense, writing for children, girls, devotionals, personal stories of struggles of health and faith, and more. Each interview is unique and each will provide you with tips, advice,

Clive Riddle has three books about zombie thrillers and the supernatural with elements of science fiction. Here's the link to the Clive's Show Notes Page for highlights, quotes, and links to his books, website, and social media connections. Clive's first book included supernatural events. He has always been a big fan of science fiction. His two most recent books are about zombies, but he does not follow the classic zombie apocalypse format. Instead he brings in elements of science fiction. His first zombie book, The Burning Z, takes place at the Burning Man Festival. The Z Tailgate, his third book, is a sequel to The Burning Z. In this interview we talk about writing zombie thrillers and supernatural stories, plot lines, character development, developing the story line, deviating from the classic zombie format, adding elements of science fiction, knowing your audience, and more.

Dr. Michelle Bengtson is the author of Hope Prevails, a book about depression. Here's a link to the Show Notes page with highlights, quotes, and links to her book, website, and social media connections. Dr. Bengtson is a neuropsychologist, meaning she assesses brain behavioral relationships, and makes diagnosis of different conditions of the brain. In her spare time, she writes and speaks. Her new book, Hope Prevails: Insights from a Doctor's Personal Journey through Depression is for those suffering from depression, their families and those wanting to help them - and those who are struggling with the lies they believe about their self worth. Overall, one in four adults are likely to experience depression in their lifetime. Hope Prevails comes from Michelle's personal experience with depression and her training as a neuropsychologist and finding what she was prescribing for her patients didn't fully work for her. This led to the discovery of the spiritual component to resolving depression. She confesses

Sydney Avey has written two literary fiction novels about the human experience. Here's the link the Sydney's Show Notes with highlights, quotes, and links to her books, website, and social media connections. Sydney saw writing as a lifestyle - a way of life, and she knew her life would change as she got into writing. Her husband supported her desire to write and they both talked about the costs of doing this. Friendships and commitments changed. Her love of writing began with assignments to write poetry in the 3rd grade. She wrote all the way through school and college. She wrote for magazines, journals, and literary magazines, even winning a silver pen award for a letter to the editor. Those all affirmed her desire to write and provided great connections to other writers. She values the collaborative effort between authors and the editor and publisher - knowing her work would be better because of it. We talk about her writing processes, story development, plot and character development, creating a timeline f

Susie Finkbeiner is the author of successful historical and contemporary fiction books—but offer a whole lot more. Here's the link to Susie's Show Notes page for quotes, highlights, links to her books, and links to her website and social media connections. After two successful contemporary contemporary fiction books, Susie made the switch to historical fiction—and loves it. She takes us through her process of writing A Cup Of Dust, a depression era novel centered around the dust bowl. She relates the experience of rewriting Paint Chips 11 times and how her writing has changed in the years since. She stresses the importance of writing in other areas, working on social media, blogging, and getting your work out there as good exposure. Susie walks us through lessons she learned on her way to become published. Other topics included tips on finding and getting an agent, the collaborative efforts of working with an editor and publisher, and the problems with reading your books after they're published. The perfect i

Kelly Klepfer and Michelle Griep have a new book just released, Out of the Frying Pan - a cozy mystery with murder on the side. Here's the link to Kelly and Michelle's Show Notes Page with highlights, quotes, links to their books, and links to their websites and social media connections. The book is loaded with humor and romance. We laughed our way through the interview. We talked about character development and who wrote what, scene transitions, the difficulties and the value of writing together, the strength of the book idea, how they worked together, plot versus character, communication back and forth, marketing, and more.

Dony Jay ioves reading in the spy thriller genre, so it made sense for his first book to be a spy thriller. Here's the link to Dony's Show Notes page with show highlights, quotes, links to his book, and link to his website and social media. The Warrior Spy is his first book, with a second due out later in 2016. After years of reading other spy thrillers, he decided to write his own story with a Christian faith worldview. After not finding an agent, he decided to publish The Warrior Spy on his own. The main character, Regan Rainey, is developed after Dony's love of George Washington. Dony shares how he balances the faith element in the book with the rest of the gritty story. We talk about his writing process with scenes and dialogue. 

Giacomo Giammatteo writes what he loves to read - hard-boiled gritty mysteries. Here's the link to the Show Notes page for Giacomo's interview, show highlights quotes, his books, and he website and social media connections. Giacomo has eight fiction books in three different series and two books in a nonfiction series. He writes what he knows, believing in the power of a well-told story, and does extensive outlining and synopsis building before starting to write his books. He spends much of that energy on character development, feeling that building likable and strong characters are what keeps his readers coming back to read more of his books. He stresses the use of beta readers for their feedback. Coming back from a year of medical struggles, he's back to writing with a goal on one new book per year in each of his series.

Jane Daly is the author of two books on lives hard issues - the loss of a child and the challenges of caring for your elderly parents. Here is the link to the Show Notes page for Jane's interview with highlights, quotes, her books, and links to her websites and social media connections. As a young mother she took a correspondence writing course and always knew someday she'd be a writer. She started writing seriously in 2008. Over the years she has written magazine articles, a column, flash fiction, a novel, and nonfiction. Writing articles and the column taught her to write tight and to specific short word counts. She describes flash fiction as fun and challenging because of the strict word count. Her writing has led to speaking opportunities about writing topics. In the interview, we talk about the hard issues she writes about - grieving through the death of their son from cancer and working through the seasons of caregiving elderly parents, which many of us will experience. We talk through gaining confidenc

Christopher P. N. Maselli is the award-winning author of more than 50 books including Zonderkids' Amazing Laptop series. Here's the link to the Show Notes Page for Christopher's interview, highlights, quotes, his books, and links to his websites and social media. Chris has been writing for 20 years and his experience includes children's writing, advertising, ghostwriting, online marketing and more. But more than anything, Chris loves helping put other writers on the fast track to success through his training at WritingMomentum.com. Chris started writing for children by winning a children's devotional writing contest. He tells us to always enter contests and reminds us we always need to pitch our work. Chris shares his idea splat method of story development and how it helps to draw the best possible story out of an idea. After he has his main idea, he moves to what he calls plot webbing where he fleshes out the story and introduces subplots. He admits to often spending more time on his plot web than

Luana Ehrlich is a fiction author with three books about espionage and covert operations with a faith element. Here's the link to her Show Notes page with show highlights, quotes, links to her books, and links to her websites and social media connections. Luana read her first spy novel at age 11. After that, she was hooked on that genre. Her start came as a freelance writer for several Christian publications. After her minister husband retired, five years ago, she started writing. Her goal was to simply write a really good spy novel - what she enjoyed reading. She quickly found out that as a minister's wife and housewife without a platform, publishers were not interested in her books. She put her books through Amazon's platforms and like how she has the control and doesn't have to share the profits. Her main character, Titus Ray, is a culmination of lots of people she has known. As a news hound all her life, she calls herself a intelligence junkie. In addition to reading in her genre, she receives news feeds,

Jami Amerine never considered herself a writer. Her gift is in her unique voice as a blogger. Here is the link to the Show Notes page for Jami's interview with quotes, highlights, and links to her website, her viral blog posts and social media.  On September 26, 2015 she wrote a blog post "An open letter to my children... you're not that great" that went viral. Her blog went from 69 blog views in August 2015 to over 680,000 views by the end of September and by the end of October the number was right at 1,000,000 views! She admits to going into blogging kicking and screaming but is now having the time of her life. Several blog posts during that time went viral. The Write 31 Days website challenge helped her focus. Jami stresses the importance of writing for an audience of one and talks about blog posts going viral. She shares her feeling on comments, both negative and positive. Not surprisingly, Jamie says writers who want to be published and want to be heard need to blog. She struggles being told she nee

Eva Marie Everson is an award winning author with over 30 fiction and nonfiction books published. Here's the link to Eva Marie's Show Notes page with show highlights, quotes, a sampling of her books, her websites and social media connections, and more. Eva Marie Everson has accomplished much in her writing career. She has written over 30 books, is the president of Word Weavers International, director of the Florida Christian Writers Conference, Acquisition Editor at Firefly Southern Fiction, and loves coaching new authors through her company Pen In Hand. She's having the time of her life through writing and its related endeavors, and loves pouring herself into other writers. Her fiction carries a southern view. In this interview we talk about writing southern fiction and nonfiction, writing with a coauthor, the value of attending writers conferences, the challenges and obstacles of writing, the value of critique groups, and much more.

James Dziezynski has been a professional writer for about 18 years and writes Colorado hiking guidebooks, magazine articles, and blogs. Here's the link to James' Show Notes page for interview highlights, quotes, his books, and his website and social media connections. James says anyone who wants to write does so to recapture something they have experienced, or thought about, or have been moved by. One of the keys to his becoming a professional writer was always that he always wanted to be better at it. He got his start writing for print magazines. He says if writers don't think that they can write better than what's out there, they probably shouldn't be writing. He wrote his Colorado hiking guidebooks by putting himself inside the hiker's mind and wrote in a narrative tone. He stresses that if you decide to become a professional writer, you have to write even when you're not inspired, when it's not your time of day, when you're not in a great mood - and be able to write quality content even when you're in tho

Emily Grosvenor is an award winning reporter, travel writer, essayist, children's picture book author, and blogger. Here's the link to her Show Notes page with highlights, quotes, links to her book, her websites, and social media connections. Her recent successful Kickstarter.com crowdfunding campaign resulted in a new children's picture book, Tessalation!. She also identifies as a super sniffer with a heightened sense of smell, and has a book project on that subject being shopped by her agent as well as a project Scent in Literature. She attributes much of her success to her journalism and reported background. She calls herself an idea machine. She describes her six blogs, how she teaches blogging and that she loves it because of its immediacy. She's also a magazine junkie. We spent time talking about her book Tessalation!, the idea, how she wrote it, found an illustrator, and built her crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter. Her process of identifying her Tessalation! audience is perfect for all writers.

Sheila Slavich is the author of a novel about two boys who experience time travel back to the Civil War era in the 1860s. Here's the link to Sheila's Show Notes page with highlights, quotes, her book, and website and social media connections. Sheila's novel, Jumpin' the Rails! was selected as a finalist in the Florida Authors and Publishers Association 2016 President's Book Awards. Sheila has a journalism degree from Auburn University and has worked as a newspaper reporter and the Public Information Officer for the Alabama Supreme Court. She found a strong pull to southern literature. Jumpin' the Rails! was a seven year writing effort. You'll be fascinated by her story of writing the book and the connection to their historic 1858 house, and her son as a central character in the story and on the cover. She says she's a writer that was put in a house with a unique and exciting history, which she witnessed as school groups toured the house. As you hear Sheila talk about what she loves about writin

Allyson Machate is a dedicated book nerd with a mission to help serious authors create better books. Here's the link to Ally's Show Note page with highlights, quotes, and links to her website and social media. Ally has a Masters degree in English and Creative Writing, and has worked in book publishing for Simon & Schuster. She has a freelance business as a book collaborator, book editor, book doctor, and ghostwriter - often working with publishers on projects that need help. She dissects these terms and how they can help writers make their work better. In today's interview, Ally talks about book ideas, knowing your audience, becoming published, editing your work, selling your book, moving from writer to author, and more. She gives tough love advice on marketing your book. We talk about the muse and how we can help it work for us. And finally, she shares candid thoughts on investing in your writing, why it's important, and how you can help yourself.

Ginger Kolbaba is an accomplished and award-winning author, editor, and speaker who helps writers take the next step in their writing, whatever that might be. Here is the Show Notes Page for Ginger's interview with highlights, quotes, links to her books, and links to her website and social media connections. As an accomplished author, Ginger has written, ghostwritten, collaborated, or contributed to 30 books, including Your Best Happily Ever After. She got started writing when she kept telling herself that she could do better than whatever she was reading. Her career took off when she started as an editorial coordinator and learned the craft, the business of writing, and what goes into a book or a magazine article. A line on her website declares that "behind every great author is one humdinger of an editor" - so editing is in her blood. Based on her vast experience writing and editing articles, she shares advice on the value of writing articles. Her advice on writing obstacles is spot on including to not comp

Paula Treick DeBoard is a fiction author who writes what she calls "could be true" stories. She puts them in the category of family drama and suspense - writing about families at their breaking point or at a crisis in their lives. Here's the link to Paula's Show Notes page that features show highlights, quotes, her books, her websites, and her social media connections. In this interview Paula takes us through her process of writing her novels describing how her characters develop and how the plot comes alive. She wrote her first novel when she was nine years old and admits it wasn't very good. Writing was a hobby and she didn't envision it becoming a career. But she became an English major in college and then an high school English teacher. Later she received a Masters degree in creative writing. Her thesis became the Mourning Hours, her first novel. She talks us through a pivotal moment in writing The Drowning Girls where the story changes because she tapped into the heart of the work. 

Kathryn Kemp Guylay is a nonfiction author and speaker out to change the world through wellness. Here's the Show Notes Page for Kathryn's interview with highlights, quotes, links to her books, and links to her websites and social media connections. Kathryn defines wellness as encompassing mind, body and spirit - a holistic way at looking at life. Her new book, Mountain Mantras, is filled with stories with takeaways about leadership and wellness. She shares how our writing can change the world as it appeals to different unique people who connect with your writing. She explains her writing process and how the book evolved differently from what she had first envisioned. It's important to listen to her decisions to change her publishing model based on decisions from her heart and then forming a team of beta-readers and coaches to help with the project. Kathryn takes us behind the scenes of the new kid's picture book done with her son, Give it a Go, Eat a Rainbow, a resource to support Rainbow Days in sc