A writing podcast for writers and curious readers, featuring interviews with authors, poets, agents and editors. Twice chosen as one of Writer’s Digest Magazine’s 101 Best Website for Writers. Vermont-grown.
Episodes
Sunday Jul 11, 2021
Sunday Jul 11, 2021
Award-winning Irish Author Rachel Donohue, whose new novel is The Temple House Vanishing (Algonquin).
This week’s Write the Book Prompt was generously offered by my guest, Rachel Donohue, who suggests writing a paragraph in which your character is in one mood at the beginning, and a different mood by the end.
Good luck with your work in the coming week, and tune in next week for another prompt or suggestion.
Music Credit: Aaron Shapiro
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Tuesday Oct 13, 2020
Tuesday Oct 13, 2020
Award-winning Irish Author Tana French, whose new novel is The Searcher (Viking).
This week’s Write the Book Prompt was inspired by my conversation with Tana French, who, as an actress, seems to have a leg up on many issues of craft as she writes. One habit she mentioned is her tendency to act out gesture. So this week, try that. Your character has to admit to something shameful, or is feeling aggressive, or is really excited. What will he do that both fits the situation and isn’t the same old gesture we’ve all read in dozens of books before? Act out the moment. Try to get yourself into the frame of mind of your character, and go through her motions. Does she pick at a loose thread? Does she chew the inside of her cheek? Does she absentmindedly doodle on her bedroom wall with a pencil? Don’t have her ash the cigarette unless that is literally the only move that fits her frame of mind in this particular scene.
Good luck with your work in the coming week, and tune in next week for another prompt or suggestion.
Music Credit: Aaron Shapiro
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Tuesday Mar 17, 2020
Tuesday Mar 17, 2020
Just in time for Saint Patrick's Day! A conversation with the very Irish (American) Kathryn Guare, author of Deceptive Cadence, the first of the Conor McBride series of international suspense novels.
This week’s Write the Book Prompt is to think about where you’d most like to be quarantined, and write about what would meet your expectations as you spent time in that place, and what might defy them.
Good luck with your work in the coming week, stay well, and tune in next week for another prompt or suggestion.
Music: Aaron Shapiro
Friday Feb 14, 2020
Friday Feb 14, 2020
A conversation with the author Kathleen Donohoe, whose latest is Ghosts of the Missing (Mariner), a novel that follows the mysterious disappearance of a twelve-year-old girl during a town parade.
This week's Write the Book Prompt was generously offered by my guest, Kathleen Donohoe. Open a favorite poetry collection to a random page, write the first line of the poem you see there, and let that be the starting point for your writing session. Kathleen finds that, even if that first line can't stay ultimately, this can be an excellent way into new work.
Good luck with your work in the coming week, and tune in next week for another prompt or suggestion.
Music Credit: Aaron Shapiro
Thursday Jul 06, 2017
Thursday Jul 06, 2017
Award-winning Irish/Vermont poet Greg Delanty, who teaches at Saint Michael's College.
Today's Write The Book Prompt is to write about an event that elicits skepticism from one person and awe from another.
Good luck with this prompt and tune in next week for another.
Music credits: 1) “Dreaming 1″ - John Fink; 2) “Filter” - Dorset Greens (a Vermont band that existed briefly in 2008 and 2009, featuring several South Burlington High School students - now grads)
Wednesday Mar 18, 2015
Wednesday Mar 18, 2015
Vermont poet Angela Patten, author of the new collection, In Praise of Usefulness, published by Wind Ridge Books of Vermont.