What are the books which have drawn us from the bookshelf genres where you’re the most comfortable into bookshelves you haven’t read from? What can we learn about our own writing by reading these gateway books? How can we set about writing them ourselves?
Credits: this episode was recorded in Cosmere House Studios by Dan Dan the Audioman Thompson, and mastered at the intersection of Cowboys and the Great Lakes by Alex Jackson
You love ’em, we love ’em, and there’s never a shortage of questions so here’s another another fast-paced Q&A. Here are the questions that we field in this episode:
How do you prepare to write?
How do you write stories that are important without being heavy-handed?
Magical realism vs. Fantasy — what’s the difference?
Do you have recommendations or techniques for serving as a beta reader? (Here’s the promised liner-note bit from Mary.)
Is it possible to do a serial with short stories and novellas all in the same setting?
Why do publishers say they want crossed-genre books, but they’re not publishing crossed-genre books?
Picture books and books for beginning readers: can you ‘cast on this for us? (Answer: not until we’ve got an expert guest in that field. If you want that info, go to SCBWI.org)
Can you do a ‘cast on reading aloud? (Answer: yes. This is not that ‘cast.)
What is the primary thing you’ve learned from reading Literary Fiction that has informed your Genre Fiction writing?