Sci-fi, fantasy, and writing--who could ask for more?

Author: jhardt1 (Page 1 of 2)

Episode 59 – Donita K. Paul & Evangeline Denmark

We have a special mother-daughter show for you this week! Our guests are Donita K. Paul and her daughter, Evangeline Denmark.

In this week’s episode…

  • Donita learns something new about her daughter right off the bat.
  • We talk WIPs that sound really cool.
  • Growing up with an author for a mom.
  • Minigames!
  • How Donita raised Evangeline with a love for words.
  • Donita & Evangeline’s collaborations, including their children’s books.
  • Living up to your mom’s standards.
  • Legacies.
  • Catching Didactics.
  • Other creative endeavors
  • Favorite parts of the creative process.
    (We have some technical difficulties with Donita’s feed–we apologize!)
  • How to balance family & writing
  • Having gifts you need to use as a wife and mother.
  • How you need other writers to give you feedback.
  • And, we explore some fun new questions!

Links
Donita K. Paul

Donita’s Facebook

Evangeline Denmark

Evangeline on Facebook

The Dragon and the Turtle

The Dragon and the Turtle go on Safari

LDK Episodes 53 – The Accounting Episode!

Our guest this week was the Most Interesting Accountant in the World! He also goes by Chris Morris. Chris is a CPA who caters to artists and authors, using easy to understand terms.

In Episode 53:

Chris Morris, CPA

  • Laughter immediately ensues when we get into a discussion about colors.
  • Authors and other artists all need help with accounting and tax services. Chris’ goal is to build his business to serve the author-entrepreneur community.
  • Discussion on the special challenges that authors face.
  • Rabbit trails on the most expensive pens!
  • How to determine if expenses are business-related.
  • How to treat your writing like a business.
  • ID 10T errors
  • Deductions that people miss
  • Crazy things people have asked if they can deduct.
  • Ben Wolf’s marketing practices (Ep. 10 & Ep. 11)
  • We get into a lot of the nitty-gritty of setting up businesses and funding your business when you’re not making money yet.
  • Should you hire a bookkeeper?
  • Google & Taxes are not a good combination. šŸ˜‰
  • Oh $@!*# I’m Making Money, Now What?

Links:

Chris Morris
Chris’s book (as above)
Cam Scanner app
Lindsay Franklin & Wombatman
Failbook

Episodes 49&50: The Co-Host Grilling!

This episode brought us the joy of interviewing co-host and producer Liberty in regards to her latest book,Ā Omission (Now available in e-format!)speidel-058

In Episode 49:

  • Who makes the better Liberty?
  • What it’s like to be a series writer.
  • Who would make the best cast for a TV or movie version of the Darby Shaw Chronicles?

512hrr9qdvlIn Episode 50:

  • We hear what the perfect music for writing mysteries is.
  • Gluten-free snacks are discussed.
  • We get profound as Liberty tells us how writing has changed her!

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Links:
Liberty Speidel
Omission

LDK 38 – Young Author Roundtable!

We had the pleasure of sitting down with Jill Williamson, Nadine Brandes, Lauren Brandenburg, and Katie Grace to discuss writing from a young author point of view.

You’ll notice that we have fewer laugh tracks because we all had our microphones muted!
Also, we had 7 people on a chat, so some of us had some technical issues. šŸ™ Sorry about that!)

Some of the topics we discussed were:

  • Challenges that young writers face, from their own perspective.
  • Challenges for mentors to young writers.
  • Who mentors the mentors?
  • Creative people versus non-creative people.
  • Making time for writing and editing.
  • Different writing software–and tools and apps!
  • Character arcs of favorite superheroes.

There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting. — Robert Graves

Listen to the Roundtable HERE!

Books you have to read (besides our own):
The Lunar Chronicles

Episodes 29 & 30 – Patrick Carr

On this episode we spoke with Patrick Carr, author of the Staff and Sword Series, about his venture into the Darkwater Saga and the Shock of Night.

A trilogy of trilogies awaits!

In these episodes, Patrick keeps us laughing. Also, you’ll never believe how accident prone Patrick is!a1lciw73q9l-_ux250_

All of us wax nostalgic at some point…you’d think we’re old or something!

In Episode 29

  • Odd character traits with Patrick’s main character. (How does sleep walking and murders correlate?)
  • Writing with an unreliable protagonist.
  • Hating your writing while you’re writing.
  • Juggling. Emergency room visits! We manage to gross Aaron out. How Patrick uses his own accidents to inform his books.
  • How to recast your books from one setting to another when your editor and agent tell you to.
  • Fencing stories! Some engineering talk, which is totally fascinating.
  • Googling has some interesting answers…including how dogs see.
  • We get off into old time radio and radio broadcasts in general because of Patrick’s answer to the superhero question.
  • You will NEVER guess Patrick’s answer to his Captain. Never, never, never!
  • Patrick’s looking forward to teaching a class at Realm Makers!

51kwf1dzaql-_sx322_bo1204203200_In Episode 30

  • Character-driven fantasy, and how he accomplishes this in his plotting process.
  • Patrick and his disagreeable muse.
  • Planning for a series long-term + happy circumstance
  • Re-doing books from scratch…under deadline
  • Carrying around your books and your characters in your head all the time.
  • Patrick’s advice: be a merciless critic where your writing is concerned.
  • Patrick’s methods for attacking writer’s block
  • Candy bar in a cup drinks at Starbucks at Christmas
  • Patrick shares some of his techniques for making perfect fudge (yes, seriously)
  • Patrick and Liberty discuss rigor mortis…and gross Aaron out
  • Traditional marketing advice from Patrick’s agent, Steve Laube. The phrase “literary Amway guy” comes into play.
  • Patrick’s funny experiences of being an author

Links:

Patrick Carr
The Darkwater Saga
The Shock of Night
Home Improvement
Steve Laube (Patrick’s agent!)
David Eddings (The Belgariad)
Steven R. Donaldson (The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant)
Robert Ludlum
Brandon Sanderson
C. S. Lewis (Screwtape Letters; The Space Trilogy)
Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time series
The Magician by Raymond Feist

 

Episode 24 & 25 – Tosca Lee!

We had the pleasure of having Tosca join us on this episode of LD&K. In between ramblings by the hosts we got to hear how much Tosca loves car chases. And fashion. A donkey race may have been spoken of as well. Believe it or not, that all ties in to her latest bookĀ Progeny, due to drop in stores on May 24th!

Stick through the whole thing to hear Tosca’s views on naming favorite authors – and to get some good Audible recommendations! (Pssst! Go to the bottom of the page for an awesome giveaway of a SIGNED copy of The Progeny!)1540340_10152630653828118_4301051613352698061_o

In Episode 24:

We discuss Tosca’s hidden love of fashion, her past as a gamer, and how Biblical fiction doesn’t have car chases.

There isĀ some ‘fun’ discussion about Count & Countess Bathoroy and their torture techniques.

81vihvl5nilLiberty and Tosca come to an agreement on who the best Star Trek Captain is.

 

In Episode 25 :

  • Plotsing, and how Tosca handles plotting. Hint: she references looking at her plot from 30,000 feet is way different than when you’re “boots on the ground”.
  • Panera Mac & Cheese
  • Tosca discusses techniques to overcome writer’s block, even though she doesn’t get it very often.
  • Tosca imparts a ton of wisdom.

Links!
Tosca Lee
MYST
Call of Duty
Shazam/Isis Power Hour
Thundarr the Barbarian
Marion Zimmer Bradley
Thomas Locke
Ronie Kendig
Ted Dekker
Frank Peretti
Ben Wolf
Robert Lipaluro
The 5th Wave
Six of Crows
Red Rising
Legend
Big Magic
Jim Gaffigan

This is the giveaway you’re looking for! –> a Rafflecopter giveaway

LD&K Episode 22 & 23 – Amy McNew

Supernatural gifts, demons, and martial arts – oh my!

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Amy Brock McNew

In our two segments with Amy Brock McNew, Aaron manages to break Amy before we barely even get started. Which is totally epic.

Amy, for those of you not in the know, is the author of REBIRTH, which debuts May 24th. She is an interesting character (and one you may be hearing more from in the near future!)

In Episode 22:

  • Why Amy wrote REBIRTH, which sounds a lot like many other authors’ reasons for writing their books.
  • The cathartic background of REBIRTH for Amy.
  • Amy teases the sequel, RECONCILIATION, in her description of her favorite character in the book. (There’s popcorn involved!) And it makes all of us want to read Rebirth.
  • Crazy looks from the neighbors (this story is totally worth the entire interview)
  • Some of the freaky things that Amy ran across in the course of research, and how off so much of it was.
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Isn’t this an amazing book cover?

In Episode 23:

  • We are Josh-less in this part!
  • The myriad of places that Amy’s notes end up during her plotsing process.
  • Her unbelievable production rate during NaNoWriMo
  • Her crazy Scrivener/note card hybrid organizing process.
  • Paydays, yellow Starbursts, Jelly Bellies, and all the other goodies in Amy’s desk.
  • Vampiric blood (you have to listen to hear how this figures in).
  • How Pinterest figures in to her relating to her readers.
  • How her background in journalism led to her being surprised by the author culture.
  • Where her heart is and what she wants to do in the future where that is concerned.

Links!

Amy Brock McNew
Rebirth (on preorder until May 24, 2016)
Tosca Lee (Demon)
Ronie Kendig.
Michele Israel Harper
Scrivener
J.R.R. Tolkien
Firefly
Gilbert Morris HOUSE OF WINSLOW series
The Rigs
Red

Listen to Episode 22
Listen to Episode 23

Episode 17 & 18 with Morgan Busse

morgan-busse-nlr-5Dead bodies – and their viewing – were liberally sprinkled through our time with Morgan Busse. Morgan is a writer of epic fantasy. She’s recently branched out into Steampunk with theĀ soon-to-be-released Tainted. The idea for Tainted? A discussion on necromancy!

When we weren’t discussingĀ the history behind morgues and what rain did to Victorian-era graveyards (you won’t want to miss the answer!), we had fun talking about tea. Though Morgan did admit that she’d like nothing more than to enjoy aĀ Raktijino.

Her path to becoming an author is actually a bit unique, and Morgan didn’t always want to be a writer. You’ll have to tune in to find out how she came to be an author!

Her odd Google searches are truly odd, even for this crowd. You’ll want to tune in for that.51jd7b0r9xl-_sx322_bo1204203200_

How Morgan writes with four kids and as a pastor’s wife. If you have a crazy house, you’ll want to hear how she deals with writing in that environment.

And her marketing practices are very helpful…but you’llĀ  have to listen to hear what those consist of. One tip she has is that she sees an uptick in her sales when she finishes writing a series. (So maybe that’s a hint to all of us authors to produce more books more quickly!)

Enter to win TAINTED through a Rafflecopter giveaway

Links:
Morgan Busse
Tainted
Enclave Publishing
Star Trek: DS9
Captain America
Enclave PublishingĀ 
Evangeline Denmark
Terry Brooks (Shannara series & Sometimes the Magic Works)

Listen to Episode 17
Listen to Episode 18

Episode 14 – Robert Treskillard

Also known as the one with the Tartan!

61fr9mpxykl-_ux250_This week we had Robert Treskillard as our guest. He’s a swordsmithing writer of Merlinean and Arthurian fantasy. His latest book is Merlin’s Nightmare.

When we weren’t fighting with squeals, snarls, and bad connections we discussed how to give characters authentic names. The mythology of Merlin was discussed and theories about Stonehenge flew! (And on the bad connections issue, you will not notice it as our guest graciously re-recorded all of our bad patches–and trust me, if you’d heard the raw file, it was BAD. We wouldn’t have been comfortable putting that out for public consumption, so thank you so much, Robert!)

512b2bpbls59l-_sx331_bo1204203200_Robert’s answer to our superhero question broke a trend, and drew some oohs and aahs from your dedicated hosts.

Due to the above mentioned snarls, we were only able to record one half of our normal podcast. We hope to catch up with Robert again in the near future to discuss his writing process. So stay tuned for that!

Links:

Robert Treskillard
Merlin’s Nightmare
Stephen Lawhead
Andrew Peterson
L.B. Graham
Douglass Bond
Starship Troopers

Episode 14 Audio

Episodes 1 & 2 – Lindsay Franklin

Our first ever guest for the Podcast was the fabulous Lindsay Franklin. After the inevitable technical difficulties we took time out to discuss the merits of homeschooling.lindsay-franklin-LR-2

We got to learn the awesome origins of the name of her current work-in-progress, The Story Peddler. Believe us – it’s worth the listen just for that!

We got to hear some interesting facts about farming near salt water, cocaine addiction, and more in our ā€˜Weird Google-Fu’ segment.

Lindsay shared a bit about how Real Life stuff caused this book to take longer than her typical process…and why that’s not a bad thing.

We also had the chance to hear Lindsay wax eloquent on the plotter/pantser debate. Her editing process was also discussed.

Aaron couldn’t resist teasing our guest. A trend that we are all sure will continue for years to come.

We also all geeked out over Scrivener, the world’s most awesome writing software. You’d have thought we were sponsored by them or something.

Links to things we discussed:

Lindsay Franklin
Ashley Mays
Arrow

The Wizard of Oz
Return to Oz
The Wingfeather Saga

The Auralia Thread Series
The Blogging Bistro
Realm Makers
Splickety Publishing Group
Randy Ingermanson

James Scott Bell
Scrivener

Episode 1
Episode 2