Write The Book: Conversations on Craft

Tony Whedon - Interview #428 (11/28/16)

Vermont Poet Tony Whedon, whose new collection is The Hatcheck Girl (Green Writers Press/Sundog Poetry). 

This week, thanks to my guest Tony Whedon, we have two Write the Book Prompts: 

* Either imagine an attic or remember one from your past, and describe the things you see there.

* Find a piece of music that you don’t know that well and explore it with words as you listen.

Good luck with your work in the coming week, and please listen next week for another prompt or suggestion.

Music credits: 1) "Dreaming 1″ - John Fink; 2) "Filter" - Dorset Greens (a Vermont band featuring several former South Burlington High School students).

Mary Dingee Fillmore - Interview #427 (11/21/16)

Vermont Author Mary Dingee Fillmore, whose new novel is An Address in Amsterdam (She Writes Press). 

This week’s Write the Book Prompt was generously offered by Mary Dingee Fillmore, who says that when she is stuck in her writing, she likes to describe the environment: the weather, the shadows in the snow or grass... This nearly always works to get her work going again.

Good luck with your work in the coming week, and please listen next week for another prompt or suggestion.

Music credits: 1) "Dreaming 1″ - John Fink; 2) "Filter" - Dorset Greens (a Vermont band featuring several former South Burlington High School students).

Megan Mayhew Bergman - Archive Interview #426 (11/14/16)

Interview from the archives with Vermont author Megan Mayhew Bergman. We discussed Birds of a Lesser Paradise, published by Simon and Schuster. Since this interview, Megan has published another story collection: Almost Famous Women.

Today's Write The Book Prompt is to write about the way light is coming through a nearby window.

Good luck with this prompt, and please listen next week for another!

Music credits: 1) "Dreaming 1″ - John Fink; 2) "Filter" - Dorset Greens (a Vermont band featuring several former South Burlington High School students).

Pamela Heinrich MacPherson - Interview #425 (11/7/16)

Vermont Poet Pamela Heinrich MacPherson, whose work keeping vigil with the dying inspires her poems, with her 2016 collection Vigil: The Poetry of Presence. 

This week’s Write the Book Prompt comes to us from Pam MacPherson, who suggests looking into the work of the “Wake Up to Dying” Project, an awareness and action campaign that encourages people to think and to talk about dying. In reading about the Montpelier-Vermont-based organization, you may find inspiration in the stories that you find.

Good luck with your work in the coming week. If you are having a difficult week, given the election and all of the uncertainty about what's to come, write about that. Write your fear and your anger, your hope and your dedication. And perhaps look into a cause that you can support on the local level to help your community.

C.D. Bell - Interview #424 (10/31/16)

C.D. Bell, author of Weregirl, the first Choose Your Own Adventure (Chooseco) project with a single, dedicated ending! 

To some extent, change is a part of every book. The main character goes through a change, or her town goes through a change, or the situation that sets up the book changes. Perhaps these aren’t all as abrupt or significant as the change that takes place when a werewolf transforms, but still… This week’s Write the Book Prompt is to write about a transformation. Or just study the piece you’re working on a decide what is changing, because that’s probably something you should understand.

Good luck with this prompt, and please listen next week for another!

Music credits: 1) "Dreaming 1″ - John Fink; 2) "Filter" - Dorset Greens (a Vermont band featuring several former South Burlington High School students).