The Write Focus

Be Willing to Lose Control / Quick Tips for Writers 5 / 7:20

Wed, 13 May 2026 04:48:00 -0300

As writers we control many things about our writing, but times do come when we lose control.

And that is not a bad thing. It’s actually a blessing.

That’s our topic: Be willing to lose control.

The Write Focus offers the Quick Tips for Writers series from Spring into Summer. We hope these bite-sized takes on writing inspire your words this week.

TIMINGS

00:40 Introduction
01:10 Be Willing to Lose Control
03:00 Closing

Total Run Time = 3:59

LINKS

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/05/be-willing-to-lose-control-quick-tips.html

Licensed Music with the Quick Tips content is “Simple Acoustic Guitar” from the creator applehillstudios on Audio Jungle. The music is licensed for podcast and YouTube. Music for the opening and closing segments are in the narration, also licensed from Audio Jungle for the purpose of podcast and YouTube.

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools.

As a Blast from the Past, our current focus is a series entitled Quick Tips for Writers. Here is a link to the playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7JoFvT3aJEZPpneLjOH1Ur_&si=j8n2yOeaJz05H4bY Select the most recent episode through the URL after the TIMINGS.

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Also available: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

Write a Coherent Story / Quick Tips for Writers 4 / 7:19

Wed, 06 May 2026 04:18:00 -0300

Our topic this time is a little tricky, but we have a fairly simple solution—if we will use that solution.

Here’s the question: How do I make my writing form a coherent story?

Because if the story confuses us when we finish it, in what state will our readers be?

Quick Tips for Writers is a Blast from the Past, extricated from much longer episodes a year ago. TWF hopes you enjoy these quick takes.

TIMINGS

00:40 Introduction
01:08 QT 4 Write a Coherent Story
03:38 Closing

Total Run Time = 4:38

LINKS

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/05/write-coherent-story-quick-tips-for.html

All short videos with the video are from Pexels.com, a site that offers free short videos, some with sound (turned off for this posting).

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools.

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Also available: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

3 Cornerstones of Every Story / Quick Tips for Writers 3 / 7:18

Wed, 29 Apr 2026 04:22:00 -0300

We’re onto our third episode in the Quick Tips for Writers series. What are the three cornerstones of every story we write, no matter the length or genre or purpose?

TIMINGS

00:40 Introduction
01:10 QT 3: Three Cornerstones of Every Story
03:17 Closing

Total Run Time = 4:17

LINK

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/04/three-cornerstones-of-story-quick-tips.html

All short videos with the video are from Pexels.com, a site that offers free short videos, some with sound (turned off for this posting).

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools.

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Also available: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

Before I Start Writing / Quick Tips for Writers 2 / 7:17

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 04:06:00 -0300

In this second episode of the Quick Tips for Writers series, we look at another topic which trips writers up. Whether a total newbie or a seasoned writer, we all ask the same question. It’s the same questions every time we start a new story. How much do I need before I start writing?

TIMINGS

00:40 Welcome
01:10 How much do I need before I start writing?
04:33 Closing

Total Run Time = 5:33

LINK

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/04/quick-tips-for-writers-2-717.html

All short videos with the video are from Pexels.com, a site that offers free short videos, some with sound (turned off for this posting).

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools.

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Also available: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

Content copyright is 2020 to 2026, Writers Ink Books.

How do I start writing? / Quick Tips for Writers 1 / 7:16

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 04:45:00 -0300

The Write Focus brings in a Blast from the Past, from Summer 2025. Thirteen—count `em, 13—posts that distill over 30 years of writing knowledge and 10 years of publishing writing.

Host M.A. Lee has 60-plus novel-length titles under three pen names that guide this information. We hope you find a spot of wisdom in each of these Quick Tips for Writers.

In our first episode of the series, we answer every writer’s burning question: “What do I need to start writing?”

TIMINGS

00:40 Introduction
01:10 Quick Tip 1
4:14 Closing

Total Run Time = 5:14

LINK

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/04/quick-tips-for-writers-1-716.html

All short videos with the video are from Pexels.com, a site that offers free short videos, some with sound (turned off for this posting).

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools.

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Also available: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

Listen on your favorite podcast site: from Apple to YouTube, Spotify and Podbean (my favs), Google Play, Amazon Music and Audible, Samsung and Player FM, Deezer and Podcaster, the rivals iHeart and Tune-in, and too many to list.

Here are the easiest. Make us a favorite, and follow along easy-peasy, once a week, while you fix a quick dinner, drive a short commute, or take a brisk walk.

My favorite podcast is Podbean. https://eden5695.podbean.com/

YouTube direct link to the Current Playlist https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7IZWMlW9kLwMNEkuLMySGnq

Apple https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-write-focus/id1546738740%20

Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/4fMwknmfJhkJxQvaaLQ3Gm?si=ffeb71ed17c3409d

Amazon/Audible https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/062ecc60-d61c-432a-ad99-8234c1044ef1

ListenNotes https://lnns.co/y_Jg5rpaMNo

Google https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkLnBvZGJlYW4uY29tL2VkZW41Njk1L2ZlZWQueG1s

Tune-In https://tunein.com/podcasts/p1608565/

IHeart Radio https://iheart.com/podcast/90647163

Content copyright is 2020 to 2026, Writers Ink Books.

MORE: Easter / Bright Sunday with Creativity Refresh 15 / 7:15 (last in series)

Sun, 12 Apr 2026 04:29:00 -0300

Our More: Easter series concludes in this episode with my confession of a longtime failing and the way I’m casting off that sin … which was one of the motivations for the entire series on More.

And our final Creativity for Writers segment, we consider the daily practice of gratitude to the greatest Creator of all.

TIMINGS

00:40 Introduction
00:50 Bright Sunday
06:20 Creativity Refresh 15
10:22 Last Words and Next Series
11:05 Closing

Total Run Time = 12:05

LINKS

Prazoli Christian Bible Prayer Journal https://www.amazon.com/Prazoli-Christian-Prayer-Journal-3-Month/dp/B0D3PFXNX5/

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/02/more-easter-bright-sunday-with.html

Licensed Music with the Easter segment is entitled “Soft Beautiful Hope Piano” from the creator Nehliudoff on Audio Jungle while that with the Writing segment, with the same title, is from the creator Little Victory, also on Audio Jungle. Music for the opening and closing segments are in the narration.

MORE: Easter / Bright Saturday with Creativity for Writers 14 / 7:14

Sat, 11 Apr 2026 04:24:00 -0300

David’s prayer in Psalm 143 is our focus, following God’s timeline rather than the world’s.

In the Creativity for Writers segment, we look at three techniques to generate new ideas from the blankness.

TIMINGS

00:40 Introduction
00:50 Bright Saturday
06:06 Creativity Refresh 14
11:12 Closing

Total Run Time = 12:12

LINK

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/02/more-easter-bright-saturday-and.html

MORE: Easter / Bright Friday with Creativity Refresh 13 / 7:13

Fri, 10 Apr 2026 04:08:00 -0300

As we age, we think the three most common bedtime prayers for children are only for the little people. They seem too plain for our complex lives.

Our mistake is when we try to make our prayers more when simple is better.

In looking at the simple, we often see things we have forgotten because our so-called complex lives are actually only filled with distractions.

In the Creativity for Writers segment, we look at overcoming the burdens of the daily grind by awakening our child.

TIMINGS

00:40 Introduction
00:50 Bright Friday
08:40 Creativity Refresh 13
12:02 Closing

Total Run Time = 13:03

LINKS

Versions of Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Now_I_Lay_Me_Down_to_Sleep

The Shema https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KQLOuIKaRA

Christ with four arch-angels Painting https://media.craiyon.com/2025-04-10/cNA-qexEQ2SwteWDcqbNKg.webp

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/02/more-easter-bright-friday-with.html

MORE: Easter / Bright Thursday with Creativity Refresh 12 / 7:12

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 04:57:00 -0300

While the Lord's Prayer and the Apostles' Creed and even little Glory Be offer the basic tenets of Christian faith, we can still add more to intensify our daily walk with Christ.

More can mean a greater understanding of the church year, such as knowing Holy Week and Bright Week. More can also mean additional readings to add to our daily devotions.

Reading through the Bible can be a challenging daily devotion, especially when we are deep into Leviticus or the minor prophets or weeping Jeremiah. Supplementing with additional small readings can make the uphill struggle of the laws or the Lamentations bearable.

The Peace Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi is one such addition.

In the Creativity for Writers segment, we consider the hardest method of all to refresh our creativity.

TIMINGS

00:40 Introduction
00:50 Bright Thursday
04:40 Creativity Refresh 12
09:05 Closing

Total Run Time = 10:30

LINKS

The Prayer As a Song https://youtu.be/ZABZroCGXTU?si=J0OYhJ763_KXJnZf

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/02/more-easter-bright-thursday-with.html

MORE: Easter / Bright WED, Emmaus, & Creativity Refresh 11 / 7:11

Wed, 08 Apr 2026 04:48:00 -0300

He is Risen! That’s the word the women gave, based on the evidence of the tomb and the word of the bright angel who reassured them.

Yet the disciples could not bring themselves to believe. They wanted to, desperately, but their earthly realism prevented complete belief.

Our focus today is on the event three days after the Crucifixion, on the day of the Resurrection, when two of the Jesus’ followers are walking on the road to Emmaus.

In the Creativity Refresh segment, we discuss the management of two guiding principles of writing that constantly affect creativity.

TIMINGS

00:41 Introduction
00:50 Bright Wednesday
06:00 Creativity Refresh 11
10:50 Closing

Total Run Time = 11:51

LINK

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/02/more-easter-bright-wednesday-emmaus-and.html

All short videos with the video are from Pexels.com, a site that offers free short videos, some with sound.

MORE: Easter / Bright Tuesday with Creativity Refresh for Writers 10 / 7:10

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 04:39:00 -0300

In this day of contemporary music and blended worship services, with guitars and drums accompanying the pianos and organs, the bland traditional services of my childhood now seem strange.

God calls upon us to make a joyful noise in praise to Him. Music creates a harmonious celebration. Psalm 150 even lists the instruments for accompaniment.

Our question today is how do we use music in our daily life?

In the Creativity Refresh segment, we focus on managing the flatness of our ideas and words and encountering roadblocks.

TIMINGS

00:40 Introduction
00:50 Bright Tuesday
03:35 Creativity Refresh 10
11:05 Closing

Total Run Time = 12:05

LINK

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/02/more-easter-bright-tuesday-and.html

Audio

All short videos with the video are from Pexels.com, a site that offers free short videos, some with sound.

MORE: Easter / Bright Monday with Creativity Refresh 9 / 7:09

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 04:54:00 -0300

Easter began with Sunrise—the tomb open and empty, the faithful women first to see, first to receive the good news, first to spread the good news.

This week should be the most celebrated time in the church, yet it is often more neglected than any other time of the church.

Fasting and grief are over; feast and joy return. Christ is Risen! Christ is Lord of All!

Today is Easter Monday, Bright Monday. On this day, let’s examine one of the foundational creeds of Christianity, a creed that helped fight heresies of the past and that can fight heresies of today.

In our Creativity for Writers segment, our focus continues to be ways to fuel the creative spark.

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome
00:40 Introduction
00:50 Bright Monday / Apostles’ Creed
10:10 Fuel for the Creative Spark / Refresh 9
17:17 Closing

Total Run Time = 18:16

LINK

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/04/more-easter-bright-monday-with.html

All short videos with the video are from Pexels.com, a site that offers free short videos, some with sound.

MORE: Easter / Easter Day with Creativity Refresh 8 / 7:08

Sun, 05 Apr 2026 04:05:00 -0300

On Easter, we greet each other with “He is risen.”

The traditional response is “He is risen indeed.”

Easter is our great hope and assurance, the fulfillment of the promise of John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

My efforts for an Easter reflection to share with you were poor indeed, and it is a wise writer who recognizes her inadequacies. Thus, I have three reflections by others to share on this most holy day.

In the Creativity for Writers segment, the topic is finding a new perspective.

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome
00:40 Introduction
00:50 Easter Day
05:15 Refresh 8
10:30 Closing

Total Run Time = 11:30

LINKS

Johann Habermann https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Habermann

Book of Common Prayer, 1552 :: 1928 edition https://www.amazon.com/1928-Book-Common-Prayer/dp/0195285255/ OR 1979 edition https://www.amazon.com/Book-Common-Prayer-Deluxe-Personal/dp/0898691117/

Charles Spurgeon, sermon delivered April 21, 1889, in London. Available in its entirety in The Complete Spurgeon Sermons Collection. https://www.amazon.com/Spurgeons-Sermons-Volumes-C-Spurgeon/dp/1598568329/ OR https://www.spurgeongems.org/spurgeon-sermons/

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/04/more-easter-easter-day-with-creativity.html

All short videos with the video are from Pexels.com, a site that offers free short videos, some with sound.

MORE: Easter / Black Saturday with Creativity Refresh 7 for Writers / 7:07

Sat, 04 Apr 2026 04:01:00 -0300

What is the key to Holy Saturday? The church is bare, the altar blackened, all hope entombed with Christ.

Black Saturday is the vigil before Easter’s Resurrection. After the Crucifixion, the black veil is removed from the altar cross, for Christ is brought down from the 300-pound cross that the Sanhedrin and the Romans intended to be His failure.

They didn't know the key, though.

After our focus on Black Saturday, the creativity segment considers our physical workspace for writing.

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome
00:40 Introduction
00:50 Black Saturday
05:05 Refresh 7
09:36 Closing

Total Run Time = 10:37

LINKS

Michelangelo’s “Last Judgment” https://images.fineartamerica.com/images/artworkimages/mediumlarge/2/3-michelangelos-sistine-chapel-michele-falzone.jpg

Matt Papa “The Story of God” https://youtu.be/E4cL-Zcxa9M

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/01/more-easter-black-saturday-with.html

All short videos with the video are from Pexels.com, a site that offers free short videos, some with sound.

MORE: Easter / Good Friday / Creativity Refresh 6 for Writers / 7:06

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 04:55:00 -0300

Why is Good Friday “Good”?

That is the official title of this meditation, but the focus is something else.

First, the answer to the question is basically because we received the best gift in the world, the gift of redeeming salvation from Christ Jesus.

Our focus is an aspect of that question / answer, wrapped up in a behavior of self-denial. On this Good Friday, let us consider the reason we say no to opportunities.

In the Refresh that Creativity segment, we focus on a strong method to awaken new ideas.

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome
00:40 Introduction
00:50 Good Friday
10:00 Refresh 6
14:52 Closing

Total Run Time = 15:53

LINK

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/04/more-easter-good-friday-and-creativity.html

All short videos with the video are from Pexels.com, a site that offers free short videos, some with sound.

MORE: Easter / Maundy Thursday & Creativity / 7:05

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 04:08:00 -0300

The “Maundy” of Maundy Thursday is such an odd word.

It comes down to us from the Middle Ages, entering English in the old French form of mandé, which leads back to Latin and mandatum, meaning command, order.

The mandatum comes from Jesus’ words to his disciples. In this episode, we explore Christ’s new commandment to his disciples at the Last Supper.

We also have a bit on the Tenebrae service that often concludes a Maundy Thursday service.

In the Writing segment, we look at several types of journals in order to Refresh that Creativity that writers depend upon.

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome
00:40 Introduction
00:50 Maundy Thursday
06:30 The Tenebrae
08:20 Creativity Refresh # 5
13:46 Closing

Total Run Time = 14:35

LINKS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Y9qCsIPzNo taken from The Passion of Christ

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/04/more-easter-maundy-thursday-tenebrae.html

All short videos with the video are from Pexels.com, a site that offers free short videos, some with sound.

#Easter #Maundythursday #holyweek #creativity #journal #morningpages #tenebrae #writing

MORE: Easter / Spy Wednesday and Creativity 4 / 7:04

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 04:28:00 -0300

Holy Wednesday is often called Spy Wednesday.

Spy Wednesday sounds like a cool name with more going on than simply Holy Wednesday.

Holy Wednesday is given the name Spy to remind us of the horrible conspiracy that began on this day: Judas Iscariot and the high priests negotiated a deal in which Judas would betray Christ Jesus, who would then be brought before the Sanhedrin Court, an assembly of rabbis.

That means SPY Wednesday is not cool.

In our writing segment, our focus is seeking the other arts to Refresh our Creativity.

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome

00:40 Introduction

00:50 Spy Wednesday

08:06 Refresh # 4

13:00 Closing

Total Run Time = 13:59

LINKS

Who Can Be Called Rabbi? - Torah Musings https://www.torahmusings.com/2012/05/who-can-be-called-rabbi/

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/01/more-easter-spy-wednesday-704.html

MORE: Easter / Holy Tuesday and Creativity 3/ 7:03 episode

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 04:07:00 -0300

In this episode for Holy Tuesday, The Write Focus looks at the More we need to do for God.

I think most of us live a minimalist lifestyle with God. He’s in a neat little corner, tucked away, with a bit of brightness, brought out only when we need him. There He is, over there. See Him? He’s for Sunday.

No. No, no, no. He’s for every day.

For writers, Refresh 3 offers a way to sink into Flow while drowning out unnatural noises.

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome

00:44 Holy Tuesday

04:48 Refresh 3

09:42 Closing

Total Run Time = 10:41

LINK

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/01/more-easter-holy-tuesday-703.html

All short videos with the video are from Pexels.com, a site that offers free short videos, some with sound.

MORE: Easter ~ Holy Monday with Creativity Refresh for Writers 2 / 7:02

Mon, 30 Mar 2026 04:32:00 -0300

On Holy Monday, many churches observe the anointing of Christ with oil at Bethany. The scourging of the money-lenders from the churches may also have occurred on this date.

Most modern paintings and captions on old artwork say “cleansing” rather than “scourging”, which requires anger. Christ became angry at the people who turned the church into a money-making scheme. People could not reach God unless they passed the money-lenders.

Here’s the question for this episode: What often stands between us and Christ?

For writers, Refresh 2 offers a whole-body experience to spark the mind.

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome

00:42 Holy Monday

05:50 Refresh 2

10:14 Closing

Total Run Time = 11:13

LINK

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/01/more-easter-holy-monday.html

All short videos with the video are from Pexels.com, a site that offers free short videos, some with sound.

MORE: Easter ~ Palm Sunday with Creativity Refresh for Writers 1/ 7:01

Sun, 29 Mar 2026 04:38:00 -0300

Changing churches will change your life, especially if you are Wanting More.

I grew up in one of those stripped-down Protestant churches that barely, barely noticed the church year. We had Easter—which was usually a competition to see who brought the most family members. (Yes, I know. I thought that promotion inappropriate, too.) I wanted More.

Join The Write Focus throughout the 15 days of the Easter season, called Holy and Bright Weeks, when I share my journey and findings as a Christian.

Each episode concludes with an appropriate writing focus for Spring, Refresh that Creativity. Our first writing focus offers 3 solutions to that tricky problem of starting a new project from total blankness.

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome

00:42 Intro and Palm Sunday

07:50 Refresh 1

14:32 Closing

Total Run Time = 15:32

LINKS

Hosanna (Praise is Rising) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMBDWG9tseU

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2026/01/more-easter-palm-sunday.html

All short videos with the video are from Pexels.com, a site that offers free short videos, some with sound.

MORE: Advent week 4 with Writing Connection

Sat, 20 Dec 2025 04:33:00 -0400

The fourth candle for the last Advent Sunday stands for Love. What Christ has done for us, what He is doing, and what He will do—all reveal His love for us.

The greatest gift in the world? That is giving what is most dear. Sacrificing what we want to provide what others need.

The dearest thing in the world? Our own lives.

What would cause us to sacrifice ourselves for others? Great love.

So, we ask again ~ what is the greatest gift in the world? Christ, who sacrificed His mortal life to grant redemption for us all.

In today’s episode of The Write Focus, we discuss Christian Love and review our last seven Chrismons.

The Writing Connection discusses crafting stories with flow and breaking the flow, positive and negative, order and chaos, appropriate at this transition time, Old Year becoming New Year.

TIMINGS

00:00 Intro

00:40 Advent ~ the Week of Love

02:30 Chrismons ~ last 7

06:21 Twelve Days of Christmas

09:35 For Writers

12:30 Closing

Total Run Time = 13:33

LINK

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/12/more-advent-week-4.html

MORE: Advent week 3 with Writing Connection

Sat, 13 Dec 2025 04:38:00 -0400

Look around. Even with the sun radiantly bright, our world is dark.

Humans can argue about raising a family, budgeting for expenses, politics, politicians, climate change, whether the change is cyclical or anthropogenic, diet, exercise, sleep deprivation, big Pharma, vaccines, green spaces, carbon footprints, and more and more and more and more.

That list barely grazes the debatable differences we have with each other. Shadows upon shadows create a darkening world.

Then we remember cancer and other diseases, the bad health suffer from our own causes and the poisoning that the modern industrial world causes. Drug abuse and depression and other psychical injuries can destroy our interest in the world, damaging us as much as disease does. And I haven’t even touched upon digital addictions.

Count all of these shadows, and our world is dark.

What gives us light? What gives us Joy?

Hope. Promise. Unconditional love. Peace. All embodied in Christ our Savior, the Light of the World.

Christ’s all-powerful light casts the darkness away.

That gives us JOY, the theme of the third week of Advent.

In this episode, we discuss the spectrum of crosses that reveal all aspects of Christ, then in the Writing Connection, we reveal the uses a writer can make of spectrum as well as how to use spectrum, with an example story discussed.

TIMINGS

00:00 Opening

00:40 Content

03:37 Chrismons

05:42 For Writers

08:48 Closing

Total Run Time = 9:48

LINK

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/12/more-advent-week-3.html

More on Advent / Week 2 with Writing Connection

Sat, 06 Dec 2025 04:31:00 -0400

As the first week is Hope, the second week is preparing the way for Christ. That knowledge—of what Christ has done, is doing, and will do—gives us PEACE, for we know that He directs our lives.

Many people become caught up in the questions: Who and What? Why and How? Christ is a mystery that we can’t answer. Should we try to understand Him? Yes, but the factual details only reveal bits and pieces. We have historical evidence of His life. Yet we also have Truth, and Truth is eternal. Christ is Truth, at one with God the Father, the great Atoner. Everything He does and says reveals to us the Kingdom of Heaven. When we believe on Him, we have our entry to Heaven.

This is the heavenly Peace, when everyone is dealt with equally, when the innocent are protected and the violent are judged.

The Chrismons for this week all contain symbolic imagery, a picture or icon. Each presents an essay of meaning through the image.

The Lighted Candle / the Burning Bush / Manger / Lyre / Alpha & Omega / Crossed Keys / the Lamb with a Flag

The Writing Connection of More:

This time let’s look at motifs, metaphorical imagery that return several times during the course of a story. Chrismons are metaphorical imagery, images that carry meanings. Motifs occur several times for stories as long as novellas and longer, at 30,000 words and more. For shorter than novellas, think of repeating the motifs about one per 4,000 to 5,000 words. More than that becomes too repetitive and obvious.

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome

00:40 Content

02:36 Chrismons

07:23 Writing Connection

10:58 Closing

Total Run Time = 11:56

Website Link: https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/12/more-advent-week-2.html

MORE: Advent wk 1

Sun, 30 Nov 2025 04:18:00 -0400

More: Advent, Chrismons, & Writing ~ 1st Week

Welcome to More and a celebration of the Advent season.

The denomination of my formative Christian years didn’t celebrate the church year. We had Easter and Christmas, but those two Sundays were the only ones devoted to special events of the church: Sunrise Service and Gift-Giving for the Poor. All the other Sundays were a ceaseless progression of one sermon to the next.

My soul was unhappy. I didn’t know that I needed more, and that part of that more was discovering the church year as a constant reminder of God’s relationship with people.

Gradually, I encountered elements of the church year. Lent was mentioned because my high school French class celebrated Mardi Gras. All Hallow’s Eve was followed by All Hallow’s Day on an almanac calendar. Epiphany and Pentecost were Christian words; while I knew them, I didn’t understand their importance.

Advent is upon us, and I’ve learned to celebrate More. Join me as I share a bit of More with you as well as relate each Advent with More on Writing.

TIMINGS

00:00 Intro

1:15 Opening

1:55 Advent ~ the Week of Hope

4:10 Chrismons ~ 1st 7

7:12 For Writers

10:00 Closing

Total Run Time = 11:00

LINKS

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/11/more-advent-week-1.html

6:43 / On Hiatus / The Write Focus

Wed, 29 Oct 2025 04:05:00 -0300

Well, this has never happened. Changes disrupt ~ but do bring progress. Listen to learn while The Write Focus is on hiatus.

6:42 / Fall into Poetry with Poets / Nancy Brewka-Clark

Wed, 22 Oct 2025 04:04:00 -0300

Nancy Brewka-Clark is our guest poet for this episode of The Write Focus. With clever one-liners, Nancy shares how poetry affects writing and life.

Her collection Beautiful Corpus published just as Covid struck, and the intended splash of a new publication became lost in the lock-down world and had lost all shiny newness when society re-opened its doors. Yet Nancy continued, for—as with any true writer—we are happiest when we are creating.

BIO: Winner of the 2019 Amy Lowell Poetry Prize and the 2024 Maria Faust Sonnet Laureate Prize, Nancy Brewka-Clark is the author of the 2020 poetry collection Beautiful Corpus. Her short mysteries have been anthologized in the U.S. by Malice Domestic and Crime Spell Books, in the U.K. by Flame Tree and Midnight Street Press, in Australia by Black Hare Press and in South Africa by Sentinel Creatives. She's a member of the Short Mystery Fiction Society and lives in Beverly, MA.

TIMINGS

00:40 Welcome and Introduction
1:19 Interview with Nancy Brewka-Clark
34:54 Last Words and Closing

Total Run Time = 36:33

LINKS

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/10/642-fall-into-poetry-with-poets-nancy.html

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools.

Our current focus is Fall into Poetry, 12 episodes of writers sharing how poetry improves their fiction. These 12 episodes will broadcast this autumn, September to December. Here is a link to the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg Select the most recent episode through the URL after the TIMINGS.

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

6:41 / Fall into Poetry with Poets / donalee Moulton

Wed, 15 Oct 2025 04:10:00 -0300

Returning to The Write Focus podcast, this time to talk poetry and fiction, is Canadian writer donalee Moulton. We talk free verse vs. pure verse, twilight creativity, the benefits of poetry to our writing and to our souls, and many more topics.

We also consider the dilemma facing many writers. It’s the question Am I spreading myself too thin by pursuing many different types of writing, or does pursuing poetry and fiction and different genres keep me fresh? Is there an easy answer to this?

donalee Moulton’s first mystery book Hung out to Die was published in 2023. A historical mystery, Conflagration!, was published in 2024. It won the 2024 Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense (Historical Fiction). Her newest release is Melt.

A short story “Swan Song” was one of 21 selected for publication in Cold Canadian Crime. It was shortlisted for an Award of Excellence. Other short stories have been published in numerous magazines, journals, and anthologies. donalee’s short story “Troubled Water” was shortlisted for a 2024 Derringer Award and a 2024 Award of Excellence from the Crime Writers of Canada.

As well, donalee is the author of The Thong Principle: Saying What You Mean and Meaning What You Say and co-authored the book, Celebrity Court Cases: Trials of the Rich and Famous.

TIMINGS

00:40 Welcome and Introduction

1:21 Interview with donalee Moulton

28:15 Last Words and Closing

Total Run Time = 29:43

LINKS

Website: donaleemoulton.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/donaleemoultonauthor
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donaleemoulton/
X: @donaleeMoulton
Instagram: donaleemoulton

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/10/641-fall-into-poetry-with-poet-donalee.html

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools.

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

6:40 / Fall into Poetry with Poets / Janet Innes

Wed, 08 Oct 2025 04:35:00 -0300

Welcome Back to Fall into Poetry with a Poet, from The Write Focus. Our poet for this episode is crime fiction writer Janet Innis. While we suffer through storms and glitches, we do still manage to have a great conversation about poetry, fiction, and writing in general.

Poet before she began writing crime, Janet Innes has always told stories, writing narrative poetry as well as flash fiction, short stories, longer poems, and novels. Whether poetry or prose, her focus is the exploration of personality, with the motivators and drive toward boundary-breaking action.

Janet Innes is a crime fiction writer whose work can be found in Mystery Tribune, Guilty Flash, Lucent Dreaming, Savage Cheese, and the anthology Futures That Never Were. Based in Rhode Island, she's a member of the Short Mystery Fiction Society and Sisters in Crime.

When she’s not writing, she’s logging the insect life in her native plant garden.

Find her at janetinnes.net or on Bluesky @janetinnes.bsky.social

TIMINGS

00:40 Welcome and Introduction

1:30 Interview with Janet Innis

33:57 Last Words and Closing

Total Run Time = 35:15

LINKS

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/10/640-fall-into-poetry-janet-innes.html

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools.

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

6:39 / Fall into Poetry with Poets / Michael Cody

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 04:18:00 -0300

Welcome to the official start of autumn. We’re two episodes into our Fall into Poetry series—this is the third—with a focus this season on poets who also write fiction.

Our primary question is How Writing Poetry Made our Guest a Better Fiction Writer, but I guarantee we will delve into a lot of other corners of writing as well.

Today’s guest is Michael Cody, a songwriter-poet who has added fiction to his repertoire, with short stories and novels. He finds poetry does more than enrich his words, deepening the work in a wealth of ways.

Here’s the Interview.

Bio: Michael Amos Cody is author of the novel Gabriel’s Songbook (Pisgah Press, 2017) and the story collection A Twilight Reel (Pisgah Press, 2021), winner of the Short Story category in the Feathered Quill Book Awards 2022.

His literary suspense novel Streets of Nashville appeared in April 2025 from Madville Publishing. He lives in Jonesborough, TN, with his wife Leesa and teaches in the Department of Literature and Language at East Tennessee State University.

TIMINGS

00:40 Welcome and Introduction
01:35 Interview with Michael Cody
30:15 Last Words and Closing

Total Run Time = 31:36

LINKS
michaelamoscody@gmail.com

https://michaelamoscody.com/

https://michaelamoscody.com/michael-amos-cody/macblog/

https://www.amazon.com/stores/Michael-Cody/author/B001KHHWW6

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17352683.Michael_Amos_Cody

https://soundcloud.com/michael-cody-9

The Write Focus website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/10/639-fall-into-poetry-michael-cody.html

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools.

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

6:38 / Fall into Poetry with Poets / Pam Ebel

Wed, 24 Sep 2025 04:07:00 -0300

Welcome to our second episode for Fall into Poetry with a Poet.

Our poet this time is Pam Ebel, and this makes her third appearance on the podcast. Pam is a pure writer, which in my opinion means she writes many different styles and she shares her knowledge freely with us, with other writers at local seminars, and with other writers at national conferences. This year she’s one of the keynote speakers at the Killer Nashville awards banquet.

In our wide-ranging conversation, Pam talks specifically about poetry as performance and immediate audience interconnection which guides writers as they place words on the page. While some poems are not suitable for performance, other poems lend themselves naturally to that combination art form, poetry performance. Pam covers many topics in our scant time. Here’s the interview.

Bio: Ebel has been published in Shotgun Honey, YELLOW MAMA EZINE, Kings River Life Magazine, The BOULD AWARDS 2020 and 2021 Anthology, Tomorrow and Tomorrow 2021 Anthology, and other venues. Her poetry has appeared in the Delta Poetry Review. A native of California, she now concentrates on tales from her original home state and tales from the highways of the South. She also knows, like the Ancient Greeks and the Irish, that as a Southern writer you can’t outrun your blood.

She has turned to writing full time as of 2020, obviously either perfect or bizarre timing, and this will be her fifth career. She lives in Metairie, Louisiana, with her husband and two cats.

TIMINGS

00:40 Welcome and Introduction

2:00 Interview with Pam Ebel

Topics: Killer Nashville, Bouchercon in NOLA, sharing with writers, poetry as performance, audience reaction, influence of “Howl” by A. Ginsberg, Aristotle, poems not suitable for performance, One Rule when performing, how poems live on after the presentation, poems inserted into fiction

34:00 Last Words and Closing

Total Run Time = 35:29

LINKS

Pamela Ebel https://pamebel.com/

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/09/638-fall-into-poetry-with-poets-pam-ebel.html

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

6:37 / Fall into Poetry with Poets / Joan Leotta

Wed, 17 Sep 2025 04:36:00 -0300

Welcome to our autumn series Fall into Poetry.

Here where I live, it’s not quite Fall, but I’m desperate for it, and this series is one way I can feed that devouring desperation.

This season, we have poets who also write fiction, and that informs the direction of our episodes. While we writers may weave multiple strands into these episodes, the tapestry created depicts creative writing at its best ~ formed of many, many threads in a variety of writing styles, black-and-white nonfiction, the red-hot colors of the mystery genre, the blues and purples of speculative fiction, the glorious greens that run through all of our writing.

Our very first interview is with Joan Leotta, whose first publication occurred at 14 with a poem. Life offered many opportunities for writing, and she’s woven the diverse threads into a glorious tapestry melding desire and passion with duty and obligation.

Let’s begin our interview with Joan Leotta.

Bio: Joan Leotta plays with words on page and stage. She’s a multiple nominee for Pushcart and Best of the Net. Her poetry, essays, and stories have appeared in many journals in the US and abroad. She performs folktale programs on stage, radio, television, and zoom, often highlighting heritage, food, family, and strong women, and offers the one-woman show, “Meet Louisa May Alcott, Civil War Nurse, and Writer”.

TIMINGS

00:40 Welcome and Introduction

02:20 Interview

Topics: Poetry helping Fiction, Value of Each Word / Conciseness / Form, Haiku / Tanka / Haibun poetic forms, her novels and children’s books & rights reversion, backburner items, performance of writing, ideas & more ideas, her poetry background and her various types of writing

31:19 Closing

Total Run Time: = 32:21

Links

Joan's Facebook https://www.facebook.com/joanleotta

Two Mini-Chapbooks are available free to download from Origami Press:

https://www.origamipoems.com/poets/257-joan-leotta

Morning by Morning and Dancing Under the Moon

Feathers on Stone" poetry chapbook available from me and at

https://mainstreetragbookstore.com/product/feathers-on-stone-joan-leotta/

Languid Lusciousness with Lemon from Finishing Line Press

https://www.amazon.com/Languid-Lusciousness-Lemon-Joan-Leotta/dp/1635341450/

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/

Our current focus is Summer Writing Challenge, 13 episodes every Wednesday in June, July, and August, to achieve 65,000 words or 5K a week. We’ll have a quick tip on writing, interviews from writers on challenges, and check-ins. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KE2gUjunhC7MgkXmsLiQap

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

6:36 / Summer Writing Challenge / Week 15 & Interview with Reiner Prochaska

Wed, 10 Sep 2025 04:35:00 -0300

We have reached the last episode associated with the Summer Writing Challenge.

Our Quick Tip covers the 3 Sets of 7 that we writers need for every story start—because you’re moving on to the next writing, right?

Reiner Prochaska offers a fascinating view of writing challenges in discussing his two novels and scripts for stage.

Reiner Prochaska is a playwright, a novelist, an actor, a director, a filmmaker, and a university lecturer. His plays have been produced at Maryland Ensemble Theatre and published nationally and internationally.
His new novel, Bergthora’s Saga: A Heathen Revenge in a Christian Iceland—a historical fantasy set in Iceland in the late tenth and early eleventh century, as well as in mid-fourteenth century Greenland—was published by Europe Books in London in November 2024.
His previous novel, Captives, which tells the story of German soldiers interned at the historical POW camp in Frederick, Maryland, between 1944 and 1946, was published by The Permanent Press in 2019.
He is the Producer and a Co-Director of the Catoctin Furnace Living History Festival, to which he contributes in creative and administrative capacities. A graduate of Towson University, Reiner teaches writing at his alma mater. He lives in Frederick, Maryland.

For our Check-In, I’m talking the next series.

We’re wrapping up everything, so let’s begin.

TIMINGS

00:40 Welcome & Quick Tip # 15
09:22 Interview with Reiner Prochaska
43:33 Next with The Write Focus (2 series)
44:08 Closing

Total Run Time = 45:08

LINKS

His Site https://reinerprochaska.com/

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/09/636-summer-writing-challenge-week-15.html

Our current focus is Summer Writing Challenge, 15 episodes every Wednesday in June, July, and August, to achieve 65,000 words or 5K a week. We’ll have a quick tip on writing, interviews from writers on challenges, and check-ins. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KE2gUjunhC7MgkXmsLiQap

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

6:35 / Summer Writing Challenge / Week 14 & Interview with Ryan Hines

Wed, 03 Sep 2025 04:30:00 -0300

A sidestep into screenwriting led Ryan Hines back to writing short stories, novels, and flash fiction. He talks challenges and the Writer as a Thief of Life. That’s the best Quick Tip any writer can offer.

Ryan Michael Hines is a novelist, podcaster, and screenwriter based in Los Angeles, CA, who loves the Southland sun but misses the beauty and mystery of the Appalachian Mountains every day.
A graduate of UCLA’s prestigious MFA Screenwriting Program, Ryan has written several award-winning scripts. His TV pilot EASTSIDE OUTLAWS was developed under a First Look Agreement with Sony Crackle. His feature adaptation of EASTSIDE OUTLAWS won Best Crime Feature Screenplay at the 5th LA Crime and Horror Film Festival.
Ryan is the author of MOONSHINELAND: A Tale of Haunted Appalachia and the writer / director of the MOONSHINELAND podcast. Connect to the podcast at this link: https://moonshineland.podbean.com/

Our Summer Writing Challenge has concluded, and in the last Check-In I offer stats and more. We open with a Quick Tip before Ryan talks writing challenges.

TIMINGS

00:40 Welcome and Quick Tip # 14
6:33 Interview with Ryan Hines
36:36 Final Check-In
38:30 Closing

Total Run Time = 39:28

LINKS

Ryan’s Site https://ryanmhines.com/

His podcast https://moonshineland.podbean.com/

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/09/635-summer-writing-challenge-week-14.html

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

6:34 / Summer Writing Challenge / Week 13 & Interview with Todd Goodlett

Wed, 27 Aug 2025 04:35:00 -0300

Santa Barbara screenwriter Todd Goodlett talks scripts, drafting and revising, conflict, and more in this week’s episode of our Summer Writing Challenge.

Todd Goodlett is a screenwriter and a playwright. He is the recipient of the 2019 Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship in Screenwriting. Todd is also the winner of the 2019 Final Draft Big Break TV Grand Prize. His plays have been developed and produced across the country including the Tony Award-winning Utah Shakespeare Festival. He lives in Santa Barbara, California.

Our last Quick Tip, # 13, is entitled the Writing Wonderland, and it feels like a Wonderland when I considered the statistics for our 13th Check-In. Our final Check-In will be the next episode.

On to our last August episode, with two more to come in September.

TIMINGS

00:40 Welcome & Quick Tip #13
04:25 Interview with Todd Goodlett
35:00 Check-In # 13
36:53 Closing

Total Run Time = 37:53

LINKS

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/08/634-summer-writing-challenge-week-13.html

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

6:33 / Summer Writing Challenge / Week 12 & Interview with Jeffrey James Higgins

Wed, 20 Aug 2025 04:06:00 -0300

Thriller writer Jeffrey James Higgins turns our interview into a smooth journey without any hitches in today’s episode. Located in the DC area, he helps writers with his salon, located at Elaine’s Restaurant , the literary hub of Alexandria, VA. If you’re in that area, do check out the salon.

Jeffrey James Higgins is a retired supervisory special agent who writes thrillers, short stories, creative nonfiction, and essays. He has wrestled a suicide bomber, fought the Taliban in combat, and chased terrorists across five continents.
Jeffrey received the Attorney General's Award for Exceptional Heroism and the DEA Award of Valor. Jeffrey has been interviewed by CNN, National Geographic, and The New York Times. He’s a #1 Amazon bestselling author with numerous literary awards, including the Claymore Award, PenCraft’s Best Fiction Book, and a Reader’s Favorite Gold Medal. He has been a panelist at ThrillerFest, Killer Nashville, Creatures, Crimes, and Creativity, and other conferences.
Black Rose Writing published his first three novels, FURIOUS, UNSEEN, and THE FOREVER GAME. Severn River Publishing acquired Jeffrey's forthcoming Nathan Burke espionage series, which will launch in June 2025. Jeffrey is an active member of the Authors Guild, The Virginia
Writers Club, International Thriller Writers, Sisters in Crime, and the Royal Writers Secret Society. Discover Jeffrey's writing at https://JeffreyJamesHiggins.com.
The podcast for writers can be found at Inkandescent Radio http://www.inkandescentradio.com/ .

We’re winding down the last days of the Summer Writing Challenge with a Quick Tip on Cover Considerations.

Check-In # 12 and my novella is finally on the last portion of its journey, all smooth traveling now.

Let’s begin.

TIMINGS

00:40 Welcome and Quick Tip # 12
05:15 Interview with Jeffrey James Higgins
36:12 Check-In #12
37:42 Closing

Total Run Time = 38:42

LINKS

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/05/633-summer-writing-challenge-week-12.html

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

6:32 / Summer Writing Challenge / Week 11 & Interview with MB Dabney

Wed, 13 Aug 2025 04:13:00 -0300

Can you see Autumn yet? I’m yearning for it, my special time of the year.

Autumn is the anniversary of this podcast, starting five years ago, and my publishing journey, 10 years ago. It’s always wonderful to me. I see no signs yet, but I’m definitely looking—even though it’s much too soon.

We can be that way with our writing: rushing toward the end, especially when we juggle multiple projects—that’s the focus of our Quick Tip this week

Our interview is with Michael Dabney, a former journalist now inspired to write about a private detective in mid-1980s Philadelphia.

MB Dabney is a retired award-winning journalist whose writing has appeared in numerous local and national publications, including Indianapolis Monthly, the Indianapolis Business Journal, Ebony magazine, and Black Enterprise.com. He has co-edited two anthologies, and has published a number of short mystery stories.
Michael’s latest novel, A Deadly Game: A David Blaise Mystery, is a prequel to his 2021 debut novel, An Untidy Affair. The third novel in the David Blaise series is scheduled for Fall 2025 publication. The father of two adult daughters, Michael lives in Indianapolis with his wife, Angela.

The Check-In closes the episode. Let’s begin.

TIMINGS

00:40 Welcome and Quick Tip # 11
05:35 Interview with Michael Dabney
37:55 Check-In # 11
40:20 Closing

Total Run Time = 41:21

LINKS

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/08/632-summer-writing-challenge-week-11.html

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

6:31 / Summer Writing Challenge / Week 10 and Interview with Delia Pitts

Wed, 06 Aug 2025 04:02:00 -0300

Into August and the last month of the Summer Writing Challenge with Week 10. Our interviews will stretch two extra weeks of September.

Delia Pitts gives us a wonderful interview with fantastic information to share.

Born and raised in Chicago, Delia Pitts graduated from Oberlin College with a Bachelor’s degree in history. After working as a journalist, she earned a Ph.D. in African history from the University of Chicago. She is a former university administrator and U.S. diplomat.
Her contemporary noir mystery, Trouble in Queenstown, was published by Minotaur Books in 2024. It features a Black private investigator who solves tough cases in her New Jersey hometown. The second book in this series, Death of an Ex, was published on July 15, 2025 by Minotaur Books.
Delia is also the author of the Ross Agency Mysteries, a series set in Harlem. She has published several acclaimed short stories, including “The Killer,” which was selected for inclusion in Best American Mystery and Suspense 2021. Delia is an active member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and Crime Writers of Color.
Delia and her husband live in central New Jersey and have twin sons living in Texas. To learn more about Delia and her books visit her website, deliapitts.com.

We’re thinking Cocoons in the Quick Tip ~ it’s always wise for writers to think in metaphors, don’t you think?

My Check-In is all over the place as I’m finishing the Rough and Drafting the manuscript and working on this podcast, all at once.

Let’s begin.

TIMINGS

00:40 Welcome and Quick Tip # 10
03:51 Interview with Delia Pitts
36:38 Check-In # 10
38:39 Closing

Total Run Time = 39:40

LINKS

Delia’s site deliapitts.com

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/08/631-summer-writing-challenge-week-10.html

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

6:30 / Summer Writing Challenge / Week 9 & Interview with Elle Hartford

Wed, 30 Jul 2025 04:02:00 -0300

We’ve reached the end of July, two-thirds of our Summer Writing Challenge. How are you doing on your summer goal? Share your progress in the Comments.

In this week’s episode our talk is with cozy fantasy mystery writer Elle Hartford.

Elle writes the award-winning Alchemical Tales series, a blend of cozy mystery and cozy fantasy. She has also published a spin-off series, Pomegranate Cafe Romance, and numerous short mysteries in anthologies.
For other writers and authors looking to go “wide,” Elle is excited to offer coaching services and support. She made all the self-publishing mistakes, and you can learn from her experience! Check out her indie publishing blog at ellehartford.substack.com.
When not writing, Elle is an active member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America. As a historian and educator, she believes in the value of stories as a mirror for complicated realities. She currently lives in New Jersey with a grumpy tortoise and a three-legged cat. Find free stories and more at ellehartford.com.

We start with a Quick Tip on creating Reader Magnets, and we conclude with our Check-In.

Let’s begin.

TIMINGS

00:40 Welcome and Quick Tip # 9
02:50 Interview with Elle Hartford
25:45 Check-In # 9
28:05 Closing

Total Run Time = 29:04

LINKS

Elle's website: https://ellehartford.com/

The Silver Deck Link: https://books2read.com/the-silver-deck *The ebook is still free for new newsletter subscribers! The purchase link is for anyone interested in the special print edition.

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/07/630-summer-writing-challenge-week-9.html

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

6:29 / Summer Writing Challenge / Wk 8 & Interview with Paula Messina

Wed, 23 Jul 2025 04:05:00 -0300

It’s Week 8 of the Summer Writing Challenge.

Eight is symbolic of two disparate meanings: 1] almost to completion, when completion is symbolic 10, and 2] a step beyond perfection, as 7 is the perfect number.

We’re not perfect. We’re not even a step before, let alone beyond. We do try.

After a Quick Tip on the 2 Requirements for Every Story, we have our interview with writer Paula Messina. Closing, as usual, is the Check-In.

Paula Messina grew up on the site of the Ursuline convent and school destroyed by a violent, hate-filled mob on August 11 and 12, 1834. She writes contemporary, historical, and humorous fiction and essays.
Her work has appeared in various publications, including Black Cat Weekly, Devil’s Snare, Wolfsbane, Indelible Literary and Arts Journal, and Ovunque Siamo. She is writing a novel set in Boston’s North End during 1944. She does not own a cat.

Let’s begin.

TIMINGS

00:40 Welcome and Quick Tip # 8
04:30 Interview with Paula Messina
20:46 Check-In # 8
22:55 Closing

Total Run Time = 23:55

LINKS

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/07/629-summer-writing-challenge-wk-8-and.html

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

6:28 / Summer Writing Challenge / Interview with Ron Katz

Wed, 16 Jul 2025 04:10:00 -0300

Welcome to our mid-July week for the Summer Writing Challenge.

Our interview introduces Ron Katz, who brands his mysteries as The Sleuthing Silvers.

We open with a Quick Tip on Antagonists and close with a Check-In. I’m burning ahead to my goal—which is always a good place to be.

On to the episode!

Ron Katz, a lifetime Baby Boomer, was a trial lawyer for over four decades. A Rhodes Scholar, in 2016 he was a Fellow at Stanford University’s Distinguished Careers Institute, which inspired him to start a new writing career.
He has given a one-hour presentation, “Becoming a Mystery Writer at Age 74”, to numerous groups in person and by Zoom. For more information, visit his website https://www.thesleuthingsilvers.com

TIMINGS

00:40 Welcome and Quick Tip # 7
3:30 Ron Katz’s Interview
18:17 Check-In # 7
20:18 Closing

Total Run Time = 20:52

LINKS

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/07/628-summer-writing-challenge-interview.html

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

6:27 / Summer Writing Challenge / Wk 6 & Interview with donalee Moulton

Wed, 09 Jul 2025 04:13:00 -0300

July 9 means we’re in the 6th week of the Summer Writing Challenge.

Returning to us in this episode is donalee Moulton, a great writer living in one of my favorite locations, Halifax, Nova Scotia.

We open with a Quick Writing Tip on Using Twists then close with a Check-In, as usual.

A short story “Swan Song” was one of 21 selected for publication in Cold Canadian Crime. It was shortlisted for an Award of Excellence. Other short stories have been published in numerous anthologies and magazines. donalee’s short story “Troubled Water” was shortlisted for a 2024 Derringer Award and a 2024 Award of Excellence from the Crime Writers of Canada.

donalee is an award-winning freelance journalist. She has written articles for print and online publications across North America including The Globe and Mail, Chatelaine, Lawyer’s Daily, National Post, and Canadian Business. As well, donalee is the author of The Thong Principle: Saying What You Mean and Meaning What You Say and co-authored the book, Celebrity Court Cases: Trials of the Rich and Famous.

TIMINGS

00:40 Welcome and Quick Tip # 6
04:46 Interview with donalee Moulton

The Wide Set of Writing Challenges / Repeating Challenges / Challenges when Writing in Different Genres / Developing a Second Skin / Conflicting Feedback / Acquiring Objective Distance / New Releases in a Series

29:17 Check-In # 6
33:18 Closing

Total Run Time = 34:17

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

6:26 / Summer Writing Challenge / Week 5 & Interview with Karen Grose

Wed, 02 Jul 2025 04:04:00 -0300

Midsummer brings us to July, and we start July with an interview of Toronto writer Karen Grose.

Before the interview, we have a Quick Writing Tip: Don’t completely panic when characters take over the story. It’s then that we cede control of the story to them.

After our interview, we close with the 5th Check-In.

We’re early days still for our writing challenge and the novella that I’ve chosen to write.

Share your successes and problems AND solutions in the Comments.

Karen Grose’s debut novel, The Dime Box, was selected by Amnesty International for its 2021 Book Club. The Chinese language version, retitled as The Lost Daughters, was published by Sharp Point Press, Taiwan, in 2023. Karen’s second and third novels are Flat Out Lies and All June Left Behind.

Karen has flash, poems and short stories in journals and anthologies, both in print and online. She is a member of Crime Writers of Canada, Sisters-in-Crime-Toronto and National, and the #thrillsandchills writing group. Track her down on X: @kgrose2, IG: karengrosewrites, FB or at www.karengrose.ca

TIMINGS

00:40 Welcome and Quick Tip # 5
03:18 Interview with Karen Grose

Her Writing / Revising based on Themes / Using Writers’ Groups / Paying it Forward / Newest Release

21:40 Check-In # 5
24:50 Closing

Total Run Time = 26:00

LINKS

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/07/626-summer-writing-challenge-wk-5-and.html

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

6:25 / Summer Writing Challenge / Interview with Judy Penz Sheluk

Wed, 25 Jun 2025 04:38:00 -0300

The Summer Writing Challenge enters the 4th week of June with a slight tiptoe into July.

How is your challenge progressing? Share your goal and project, problems and solutions, and successes in the Comment Section.

Our interview this week is with Judy Penz Sheluk. As a Quick Tip, I chatter about writing a coherent story. We finish with the Check-in.

A former journalist and magazine editor, Judy Penz Sheluk is the bestselling author of two mystery series: The Glass Dolphin Mysteries and Marketville Mysteries. Her short crime fiction appears in several collections, including the Superior Shores Anthologies, which she also edited.

With a passion for understanding the ins and outs of all aspects of publishing, Judy is the founder and owner of Superior Shores Press, which she established in February 2018.

Judy has also written two how-to guides to publishing. Finding Your Path to Publication: A Step-by-Step Guide was the Winner of the 2024 Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award for Best Nonfiction. Finding Your Path to Publication also won First Place in the Prescriptive/Informative Nonfiction category of the 12th Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published E-book Awards (to be announced May 2025). The follow-up to that book, Self-publishing: The Ins & Outs of Going Indie, provides an insider’s insight into the world of self-publishing.

Judy is a member of International Thriller Writers, Inc., the Short Mystery Fiction Society, and Crime Writers of Canada, where she served on the Board of Directors, most recently as Chair.

She lives in Northern Ontario, Canada, with her husband, Mike, and their golden retriever, Enzo. Find her at www.judypenzsheluk.com.

Here we go.

TIMINGS

00:40 Welcome and Quick Tip # 4
04:20 Interview with Judy Penz Sheluk

Challenges with health and attending Killer Nashville / Challenges with a Publishing Closing / Challenges with Self-Publishing / Writing Short Chapters / Killing the Darlings / Judy’s Newest Release

29:15 Check-In # 4
32:05 Closing

Total Run Time = 32:44

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

6:24 / Summer Writing Challenge / Week 3 & Interview with Al Sirois

Wed, 18 Jun 2025 04:50:00 -0300

Welcome to our third week of June and our third week of the Summer Writing Challenge.

How is your challenge going? Share your progress in the Comments, and hit the LIKE button whenever you enjoy an episode.

Our interview this week is with veteran writer Al Sirois, based in North Carolina although he began writing in his home state of Connecticutt.

We’ll conclude this episode with our check-in.

However, first is our third Quick Tip. We’ve started our idea, and we’ve prepped the background. Now we must consider the 3 Cornerstones of Story.

Sirois’ Bio~

I am a writer, ghostwriter, developmental editor & graphic artist. I sold my first story in 1973. I’ve appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, Fantastic, Amazing Stories, and online at Electric Spec, Mystery Weekly, Every Day Fiction and Flash Fiction Online, et al. My first book was a children's book, DINOSAUR DRESS UP, from William Morrow in 1992. My story “In the Conservatory” was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. I have also ghostwritten more than a dozen works of science fiction and fantasy, as well as memoirs and cozy mysteries. In June 2024, Regal House Press published MURDER IN MENNEFER, the first volume of my YA trilogy set in ancient Egypt. The second volume, IMHOTEP AND THE QUEST FOR KUSH, will be published in June of 2025. My first self-published book, BEFORE BAKER STREET, is now available from Amazon. I live in North Carolina with my wife, novelist Grace Marcus.

TIMINGS

00:40 Welcome and Quick Tip #3
03:40 Interview with Al Sirois

His Challenge View / Pantstering vs. Plotting / Using Life Experiences / Outlining / Juggling Projects / Freelancing since 2009 / Collaborating / Benefit of Change

27:55 Check-in #3
30:28 Closing

Total Run Time = 31:28

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

6:23 / Summer Writing Challenge / Wk2 & Interview with Joan Ramirez

Wed, 11 Jun 2025 04:47:00 -0300

In this episode of the Summer Writing Challenge~

A Quick Tip on what you need before you start writing, the Interview with Joan Ramirez on Organizing and Prioritizing and Reaching into Characters, and our Check-in for the week.

TIMINGS

00:40 Welcome
01:18 Quick Tip #2
5:00 Interview with Joan Ramirez

Bio and The Write Rules, Challenges in Writing, Prioritizing Tasks, Solutions to Challenges, Allotting Specific Times for the Major Elements of Story, Using Life to Inform Writing, Notes in Writing and Presentations, Letting Characters Lead, Using Body Language and Sensory Details

29:20 Check-in #2
31:15 Closing

Total Run Time = 32:15

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

6:22 / Summer Writing Challenge / Welcome and Introduction

Wed, 04 Jun 2025 04:24:00 -0300

Welcome to the Summer Writing Challenge which continues all through June, July, and August for 13 episodes.

Join us for quick writing tips, writers talking about challenges, and goal check-ins. [The final check-in will occur the first Wednesday in September, in the 1st episode of the Fall into Poetry series.]

In today’s episode, host M.A. Lee talks tech tools (only one with a cost) that create this series as well as the nuts and bolts for the writing challenge. 65,000 total words. 5,000 words per week. Counting all the words that go through the fingers.

Share your own challenge goals in the comments … and subscribe so you don’t miss an episode of The Write Focus. And whatever occurs, Write on!

Host M.A. Lee has published over 60 book-length titles of fiction and nonfiction under her three pen names. The Write Focus, started in 2020, offers information and guidance on productivity, process, craft, and tools, all for writers.

TIMINGS

00:40 Welcome / Intro to the Summer Writing Challenge
01:48 Quick Tip #1 How to Start Writing
04:52 “Interview” with M.A. Lee on Tech Tools
10:15 Check-In How-Tos for the SWC
11:34 Closing

Total Run Time = 12:34

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

6:21 / Writers on Writing / Teresa Inge

Wed, 28 May 2025 04:35:00 -0300

Writing in her car at midday is all Teresa Inge needs to create stories with strong protagonists. With 18 years of publishing experience, she keeps writing simple with laptop and trusty battery.

Once she has a theme placed in her Outer Banks setting, she gives her sleuth a business so they can encounter and investigate murder.

Teresa Inge is an award-winning mystery author in over a dozen anthologies and novellas. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, the Short Mystery Fiction Society, the Virginia Writer’s Club, and Hampton Roads Writers. By day, Teresa is an administrative assistant, notary administrator, and corporate reporter for a global financial firm. When not writing, she can be found on the classic car show circuit with her Torch Red 1955 Thunderbird.

This episode concludes our Writers on Writing series. Coming Next is the Summer Writing Challenge. M.A. Lee is setting the goal of 500 words daily, persistent and consistent—which can be very hard with all the distractions and disruptions of summer. The episode opens with a couple of minutes on the Challenge. The first SWC episode is June 4. Join in.

TIMINGS

00:40 Wrapping Up this Series / Unwrapping the Next Series
2:20 Welcome / Introduction to Teresa Inge
4:50 Writing Anywhere
8:00 Her Writing Process
15:35 Writing Humor / Researching
22:22 Marketing & Promotions / Her Upcoming Releases
24:40 Considering Indie
28:15 Books at the Banks Festival, October 18, 2025
30:10 Closing

Total Run Time = 31:15

LINKS

Teresa’s Website: http://www.teresainge.com

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/05/621-writers-on-writing-teresa-inge-next.html

Our current focus is Writers on Writing, a series of interviews with active writers on technology, social media, process and productivity, and much more. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7Kctg7OayipF1tU2xl6TKjy

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

6:20 / Writers on Writing / Linda Kay Hardie

Wed, 21 May 2025 04:24:00 -0300

Linda Kay Hardie may appear as the classic cat lady, but a conversation quickly revealed the deadly mind for dastardly deeds that she applies to her fiction.

Hardie is vice president of the Short Mystery Fiction Society and is an award-winning author who has appeared in many anthologies, four in 2024 and three in 2023.

She writes crime, horror, and fantasy stories but no romance. She tried once, and everyone ended up dead. Tragic. When not writing adult short stories, she writes stories and books for children, ages 2 to 12.

Linda writes recipes and is the reigning Spam champion for Nevada (yes, the tasty treat canned mystery meat) for her blue-ribbon recipe. Her first writing award was in fifth grade, when she won a first place trophy for an essay on fire safety. In 2022, she was honored with the Sierra Arts Foundation Literary Arts Award for fiction.

Linda is a member of Short Mystery Fiction Writers, Horror Writers Association, Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators, and Cat Writers’ Association. She has a master’s in English from the University of Nevada, Reno, where she makes a living as a freelance writer and as staff working for Abyssinian cats.

TIMINGS

00:40 Welcome / Introduction
3:00 A Knack for Dastardly Deeds
7:15 Tech from the Early Days
11:35 Word Perfect and Open Office
15:25 Tech Refined but not New
21:00 Writing Stories, Short vs. Long
27:50 Brainstorming / the Subconscious
30:30 Charity Anthologies
35:30 Independent Bookstores
38:40 Closing

Total Run Time = 39:41

LINKS

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/05/620-writers-on-writing-linda-kay-hardie.html

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

6:19 / Writers on Writing / Lois Winston

Wed, 14 May 2025 04:08:00 -0300

Lois Winston is a strong writer, best known for her Anastasia Pollock Crafting series of cozy mysteries.

Early in her career, with Manuscript #2, she acquired an agent, but the roses of her writing journey still had thorns, a lesson to us writers that we control our success. Winston definitely controlled her success. She survived a bankrupt publishing house and the closure of a publisher’s entire cozy mystery line, but it was shenanigans with the contract that brought her into self-publishing.

She talks about it all, along with writing tools that can be a distraction, in this episode of The Write Focus.

Bestselling and award-winning author Lois Winston writes mystery, romance, romantic suspense, chick lit, middle-grade, and nonfiction. She sold her first book in 2005.

Currently she writes the critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries, featuring magazine crafts editor and reluctant amateur sleuth Anastasia Pollack, along with a supporting cast of characters, including Ralph, the Shakespeare-quoting parrot. Learn more at www.loiswinston.com where you can sign up for her newsletter and receive a free Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mini-Mystery.

TIMINGS

00:40 Welcome / Writing Bug Bites
4:15 First Cozy Mystery
6:40 Writing with Humor
12:00 Finding the Direction for the Anastasia Pollock series
15:00 Crime Scene Writer / Researching
17:33 Saving the Work
20:50 Story Collages, Images for Story, and on to Covers
25:00 Dealing with Distractions
29:25 Writing is a Marathon, not a Sprint
35:00 Winston’s Next Release and Audiobooks Releasing
37:25 Closing

Total Run Time = 38:25

LINKS

Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers blog: www.anastasiapollack.blogspot.com

Booklover’s Bench: https://bookloversbench.com

The Stiletto Gang: https://www.thestilettogang.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Anasleuth

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/722763.Lois_Winston

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/lois-winston

TWF Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/05/619-writers-on-writing-lois-winston.html

6:18 / Writers on Writing / Elizabeth Zelvin

Wed, 07 May 2025 04:06:00 -0300

While most writers settle into the comfort of one format, Elizabeth Zelvin explores the contrasting realms of poetry, novels, novellas, short stories, and flash fiction, all of them distinctly different in approach, situation, and writing style. Zelvin even loves writing cross-genre. She shares freely her writing, building a community, and writing tool tips.

Elizabeth Zelvin is the author of two long-running series, the Bruce Kohler Mysteries and the Jewish historical Mendoza Family Saga as well as the Emerald Love urban fantasy mysteries. Her series and standalone short stories appear in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, and Black Cat Mystery Magazine. EQMM has called her "one of our genre's most celebrated short story writers." She currently blogs on SleuthSayers.

In addition to writing fiction, Liz is a poet, a singer-songwriter and a psychotherapist who was one of the pioneers of online mental health. Liz lives in New York City and summers at the unpretentious end of East Hampton, where she swims in the ocean, gardens, photographs the resident hummingbird, and exchanges waves with the occasional whale.

TIMINGS

00:40 Welcome and Introduction
2:30 When Poetry, Mystery, and Therapy Combine
6:00 The Wide-Ranging and Expanding Mendoza Family Saga
11:45 Narrative License yet Maintaining Historical Fact
14:26 Group Mystery Blogging
17:00 Networking and the Short Mystery Fiction Society
21:00 Using Track Changes in Word
28:45 Correcting Text, Designing Books, and Creating Covers
30:45 Cross-Genre Writing
35:00 Finding Places to Read Poetry Online
37:20 Closing

Total Run Time = 38:26

LINKS

Her website https://www.elizabethzelvin.com/

Poe's Deadly Daughters https://poesdeadlydaughters.blogspot.com/

Short Mystery Fiction Society https://shortmystery.blogspot.com/ and Subscribe to https://shortmystery.groups.io/g/main

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/05/618-writers-on-writing-elizabeth-zelvin.html

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

6:17 / Writers on Writing / Pamela Ebel

Wed, 30 Apr 2025 04:15:00 -0300

Pamela Ebel offers a wealth of wisdom in this interview for our writer-focused series. She pursues writing with the drive and curiosity and wit that she devoted to her previous careers.

Ebel has been published in Shotgun Honey, YELLOW MAMA EZINE, Kings River Life Magazine, The BOULD AWARDS 2020 and 2021 Anthology, Tomorrow and Tomorrow 2021 Anthology, and other venues. Her poetry has appeared in the Delta Poetry Review. A native of California, she now concentrates on tales from her original home state and tales from the highways of the South. She also knows, like the Ancient Greeks and the Irish, that as a Southern writer you can’t outrun your blood.

She has turned to writing full time as of 2020, obviously either perfect or bizarre timing, and this will be her fifth career. She lives in Metairie, Louisiana, with her husband and two cats.

TIMINGS

00:40 Welcome / Introduction
6:25 Writing for the Love of It
8:45 The Money that Writers Make
11:35 Treat Writing as a Business
14:35 Connecting with other Writers / SMART Plan
18:12 Submission Guidelines / the Shunn Format
23:40 Writing Tools
26:15 Traditional vs Self-Publishing / Writing is Competitive
28:15 Short Story Advantages / Opening up Creativity
33:30 Building the Writing Resumé
36:36 Last Words / Closing

Total Run Time: 38:47

LINKS

The Shunn MS Format https://www.shunn.net/format/

Pamela Ebel https://pamebel.com/

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/04/617-writers-on-writing-pamela-ebel.html

6:16 / Writers on Writing / Charlotte Morganti

Wed, 23 Apr 2025 04:39:00 -0300

Charlotte Morganti uses a variety of tech, tracking her words, editing to improve those words, and formatting, all the way into marketing and newsletters. She shares tech helps, including ones that I haven’t heard of, as well as her journey into indie writing and publishing.

Before turning to writing award-winning mysteries, Charlotte Morganti was, at various times, a burger flipper, a beer slinger, and a corporate finance/mining lawyer.

Her novels and short stories range from gritty investigations to lighter capers. She usually sets her stories in small towns that miraculously harbor both villains and the sleuths who pursue them. Find out more at https://charlottemorganti.com.

TIMINGS

00:40 Welcome / Introduction

03:05 Morganti’s Writing Journey

07:05 Going Indie

13:09 Tech and the Writing Basics

16:25 Editing Helps

21:15 Vellum / Atticus

22:55 Tracking Progress

23:40 Marketing Tech

27:45 Newsletters

30:35 Her Releases this Spring

33:08 Closing

Total Run Time = 34:08

LINKS

Morganti’s site https://charlottemorganti.com.

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/04/616-writers-on-writing-charlotte.html

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

6:15 / Writers on Writing / Joan Ramirez

Wed, 16 Apr 2025 04:32:00 -0300

A writer does more than work with words. The heart becomes involved, often draining us emotionally. The logical side of our brain helps balance out emotions. When we venture beyond our desks and interact as Writer with the world, the ways we present ourselves and the opportunities we explore enrich us when we return to our little corner desks.

Joan Ramirez discusses all of the above and more in this episode of Writers on Writing. Her guidebook The Write Rules covers the various aspects of speaking, writing, presentations, and representing our official “writer-dom” to the world.

Joan Ramirez holds a Master of Science in Business, Medical, and Technical Journalism as well as two others in English as a Second Language and Elementary Education/Autism. She has published on a variety of topics from cochlear implants to the economy and has conducted workshops –domestic and foreign–on the nuances of business communications for managers and start-up companies. She is the leader of her own enterprise with training programs (over twenty-five years of expertise) for entrepreneurs at all levels. For many years she trained the technical staff of a large engineering firm in the nuances of business writing and verbal presentations.

The Write Rules, her latest publication, offers communications guidelines for becoming an entrepreneur. She has short stories in several anthologies and is working on a historical suspense trilogy set in WWII. She can be reached at writerjr1044@gmail.com.

TIMINGS

00:40 Welcome / Introduction

05:13 The Write Rules, a guidebook for English and Non-English Speakers

10:50 Importance of the Non-Verbal when Presenting Yourself

16:40 Writing The Write Rules

19:40 Writing Historical Fiction that Comes from the Heart

23:07 Opportunities Lurk Beyond the Job Description

26:32 Writing NonFiction vs. Historical Fiction

27:55 Venturing into other Writing

30:22 Closing

Total Run Time = 31:23

LINKS

https://www.facebook.com/joan.ramirez.98031

www,joansbookshelf.com

TWF Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/04/615-writers-on-writing-joan-ramirez.html

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

6:14 / Writers on Writing / O'Neil de Noux

Wed, 09 Apr 2025 04:11:00 -0300

Does a life in law enforcement give a special insight into crime? It certainly seems that way to me after interviewing O’Neil de Noux.

His first books were police procedurals, following his career in law enforcement just outside of New Orleans. Now he’s writing about private investigators and semi-retired detectives … and pursuing his stories in historical fiction as a satisfying challenge.

Like many writers, O’Neil delves into many genres, following his curiosity into multiple stories.

O’Neil De Noux (www.oneildenoux.com) is a retired police officer, a former homicide detective, and former private eye with 49 books and over 400 short stories published. His writing has been awarded the SHAMUS AWARD twice as well as the DERRINGER AWARD and POLICE BOOK of the YEAR (www.PoliceWriters.com). Two of his stories have been featured in the BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES annual anthology (2003 and 2013). He is a past Vice-President of the Private Eye Writers of America.

TIMINGS

00:40 Welcome / Introduction

2:11 Historical Fiction vs. Mystery Fiction

10:10 Writing Mentors

15:00 Indies Control Everything: Idea to Cover Design

18:46 Ideas Drive his Character Selection

24:30 Inspiration from Titles

28:00 Newest Release

32:00 Using Downtime to allow Drafts to Percolate

36:48 Closing

Total Run Time = 37:48

LINKS

website: https://www.oneildenoux.com/

Latest book: https://www.amazon.com/Golden-Dandelions-Lucien-Caye-Private-ebook/dp/B0D5YVPVHZ

Amazon Author’s Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/ONeil-De-Noux/author/

TWF Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/04/614-writers-on-writing-oneil-de-noux.html

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

6:13 / Writers on Writing / Randy Overbeck

Wed, 02 Apr 2025 04:30:00 -0300

Fellow Podcaster (and fellow former English teacher) talks technology, writing, and his Haunted Shores mysteries. We delve into ways to avoid anachronisms when writing historical fiction before venturing into his writing process, linear rather than a mix-match puzzle process.

Overbeck’s novel Cruel Lessons was categorized as “one of the best mysteries of 2023” and “ene of the best thrillers I’ve ever read!” Of his Haunted Shores mysteries, critics have called Overbeck a “master storyteller” who provides a “rollicking good” read.

TIMINGS

00:40 Introduction / Welcome

3:42 From Paper to Electronic

8:40 Authenticity with Historical Writing

13:30 Linear Story Writing

19:25 Podcast Creation

26:10 Echoes of Life in his 1st Novel

30:50 Haunted Shores mysteries

36:15 Closing

Total Run Time = 37:15

LINKS

Randy Overbeck’s site https://www.authorrandyoverbeck.com/books

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/04/613-writers-on-writing-randy-overbeck.html

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

6:12 / Writers on Writing / Denise Forsythe

Wed, 26 Mar 2025 04:14:00 -0300

Business by day, fiction by night, writer Denise Forsythe is constantly looking for new ways to bring her writing into the world. She’s pursuing her longtime dream of writing fiction around the corners of her world and finding the vast differences between fiction and nonfiction, writing short vs. writing long, pantstering vs. outlining. Creativity comes with all of it.

Denise Forsythe is an awarded and recognized writer of mystery, horror, and science fiction short stories under the pen name Denise Johnson. Her domestic suspense debut novel, MISCONCEPTION, is now available for purchase. A member of Sisters in Crime, Inc. and multiple Sisters in Crime chapters, she is a Charter Member of the Sisters in Crime Grand Canyon Writers chapter. Find out more about upcoming projects at deniseforsythe.com

TIMINGS

00:40 Introduction
1:20 Constant Writing Tools
3:27 Scrivener vs. Word
5:40 Search Engines: an Indie Writer’s Friend
7:50 Marketing / Distributing
8:50 Catchy Ways to Attract Readers
15:33 Writing Dream / Writing Short vs. Long
18:40 Pantstering vs. Outlining
25:45 Closing

Total Run Time = 26:46

LINKS

https://deniseforsythe.com/

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/03/612-writers-on-writing-denise-forsythe.html

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

6:11 / Writers on Writing / Paul O'Connor

Wed, 19 Mar 2025 04:32:00 -0300

Jam-packed with goodness is this interview with Paul O’Connor, a writer of short stories and novels.

You’re going to take tons of notes and bookmark this episode; the guidance is that fantastic. (No, that’s not hyperbole; that’s reality.)

Paul O’Connor came into writing after he left the data-driven gaming industry. Gaming’s focus on productivity, Agile Planning, Return on Investment, and more to determine a product’s profitability are ideas that he converted to his own writing. He shares the simple yet important ways he uses data in this interview and in a slide show.

Look for the Slide Show on Paul O’Connor’s page on the TWF website. Click the shareable link to copy, load into the URL of your browser, “go” and voila: the slide show.

Paul Ryan O’Connor is a frequent contributor to Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, where his debut short story, “Teddy’s Favorite Thing,” was voted a 2023 Readers Award. He has also been published by Mystery Magazine and Shotgun Honey. Paul is an active member of the Mystery Writers of America, and lives in Carlsbad, California, with his family and a borrowed dog.

TIMINGS

00:40 Welcome / Opening Info

02:50 Tech’s Job = Speed our Process and Increase Publication

09:25 Slide Show Begins / Writing Process

13:50 Word Count vs. Writing Log

22:00 Marketing Trackers and Platforms for Submissions & Agents

30:00 Progress / Idea Tracking / Productivity

33:40 Closing

Total Run Time = 34:40

#writing #writingtools #plotting #marketing #submissions #agents #progresstracker #revision #AI

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/03/611-writers-on-writing-paul-oconnor.html

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

6:10 / Writers on Writing / Deede Blake

Wed, 12 Mar 2025 04:45:00 -0300

First-time author Deede Blake shares the story of her first novel, The Russian Orphan. This epic thriller was a ten-year journey, required tons of research, and tells a story that demanded to be told. And we’re all over the world of writing in this interview.

Deede is new to publishing although she’s been working on writing projects for years.

While her training is in science, her greatest passion is reading, writing, traveling, history, and learning in general. Indeed, Deede has traveled to places on the globe that no American has ever been. She dabbled in writing poetry, essays op-eds and newsletters while practicing pharmacy until in her mid 30’s.

She is currently working on a sequel to The Russian Orphan, entitled We Were Lost. This novel will deal directly with the issue of human trafficking.

TIMIINGS / None

Total Run Time = 38:08

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/03/610-writers-on-writing-deede-blake.html

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

6:09 / Writers on Writing / Kathleen Kalb

Wed, 05 Mar 2025 04:34:00 -0400

The mystery writer and seasoned audio broadcast pro Kathleen Kalb joins TWF for this episode. We have a wide-ranging conversation, touching on tech, the writing community and social media, her process, and changes in software. We end with her next release featuring Grace the Hit Mom, a consecrated assassin. That I have to read.

Kathleen Marple Kalb describes herself as an Author/Anchor/Mom…not in that order. An award-winning weekend anchor at New York’s 1010 WINS Radio, she writes short stories and novels including the The Stuff of Murder, and the upcoming Ella Shane mystery, A Fatal Reception, both from Level Best Books. The Stuff of Murder will publish this March.

As Nikki Knight, she writes the Grace the Hit Mom and Vermont Radio mysteries. Her most recent publication is Hound of the Bonnevilles, also coming out in March.

Her stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Black Cat Weekly, and others, and been short-listed for Derringer and Black Orchid Novella Awards. She’s served as Vice President of the Short Mystery Fiction Society and is a co-VP of the New York/Tri-State Chapter of Sisters in Crime. She, her husband, and son live in a Connecticut house owned by their cat.

TIMINGS

00:40 Intro / Clock-watching and More

04:17 Tech for Writing / the Writing Community

09:55 Instagram vs. TikTok / Writing Bibles in Tech / Tracking Changes

15:10 Outlining / Ideas File / Timelines

17:46 Avoiding Strict Strucure / Maintaining Character Voice

22:47 From Typewriter to Word

26:10 Grace the Hit Mom

32:00 Closing

Total Run Time = 33:05

#writing #writingtools #plotting #coverdesign #booknarration #AI

LINKS

Website: https://kathleenmarplekalb.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Kathleen-Marple-Kalb-1082949845220373/

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/03/609-writers-on-writing-kathleen-kalb.html

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

6:08 / Writers on Writing / Rebecca Olmstead

Wed, 26 Feb 2025 04:23:00 -0400

The whimsy on a coffee cup is Rebecca Olmstead’s motto for her writing life.

In an interview about that technology that started with a tech failure—a laptop crash—Rebecca Olmstead begins by discussing her bravery in moving from Word to Scrivener to Atticus to bring the best experience to readers of her fiction and nonfiction.

Rebecca Olmstead is the award-winning author of the Gabrielle Dorian Mystery Series as well as several nonfiction books and multiple short stories.

Her stories and articles have appeared in Malice, Matrimony, & Murder anthology, The Cellar Door: Dark Highways #3, The Upper Room, Focus on the Family’s Clubhouse, Jr., Live, Now What?, and Houseboat Magazine. Her story “A Deadly Conundrum” appeared in MURDER NEWYORK STYLE: NEWYORK STATE OF CRIME this year.

She lives with her husband and the youngest of their five children in southeastern Washington with Sophie, their dorky black lab, Agatha, a black cat, and host of Jersey Wooly show bunnies.

TIMINGS

00:40 Intro / Tech Failures
02:25 Pacemaker and Tech Successes
6:03 Tech as a Distraction
11:10 Problems with Writing a Series
13:33 Beginning her Writing Career
18:45 Writing (like Crochet) Opens the Unconscious
21:37 the Gabrielle Doran series / Newest Release
24:42 Venturing into another Series and Nonfiction
28:18 Writers Thrive on Reviews
29:18 Closing

Total Run Time = 30:20

LINKS

www.rebeccaolmstead.com

www.watchgodwork.com

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/02/608-writers-on-writing-rebecca-olmstead.html

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

6:07 / Writers on Writing / donalee Moulton

Wed, 19 Feb 2025 04:53:00 -0400

In cold Halifax, we meet writer donalee Moulton, who talks all aspects of technology. It’s everything tech: from the tech that we take for granted to knowing how detailed our tech descriptions have to be, and from the depths and limits we have on understanding tech to the practicalities of tech that’s helpful in our daily writing lives.

As well, donalee is the author of The Thong Principle: Saying What You Mean and Meaning What You Say and co-authored the book, Celebrity Court Cases: Trials of the Rich and Famous.

LINKS

Website: donaleemoulton.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/donaleemoultonauthor

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donaleemoulton/

X: @donaleeMoulton

Instagram: donaleemoulton

TIMINGS

00:40 Welcome / Distractions and Disruptions

04:35 Tech Tools

08:22 Tech that we take for granted

13:36 How deeply we need to understand tech in our novels

20:00 Helpful Tech

26:27 donalee’s Writing journey

33:00 A Psychopath for a Protagonist

36:00 Closing

Total Run Time = 37:29

#writing #writingtools #plotting #coverdesign #revision #AI

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/02/607-writers-on-writing-donalee-moulton.html

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

6:06 / Writers on Writing / Two Writing B's

Wed, 12 Feb 2025 04:53:00 -0400

A Couple of Bees came for an interview, and we laughed all the way through. Elise Brown is a young writer who has reached the pinnacle that some never achieve: a book on the verge of publishing and another book in revision, an agent who loves her work and a publisher eager to get the books out.

Elise Burke Brown comes from a family of detectives, including a grandfather who filled her childhood with true crime stories she learned not to repeat at daycare. She is the award-winning author of the New Orleans-based Chase Harlem series. She teaches composition at the University of Alabama and runs the popular book blog A Couple of Bees Read, https://coupleofbeesread.com/. You can connect with her on Instagram as @EliseBurkeBrown_Author on on X as @couple_of_bees.

Becky Brown has had several careers in her lifetime: retail management, stay at home mom, a charity organizer, a teacher, and a principal. She loves taking care of her granddaughters, quilting, photography, and reading. She’s new to writing and just started her memoir, Wings of Eagles: My Journey of Faith. Becky currently is president of her local quilters guild and is active in her church. She enjoys working with her daughter-in-law on our blog A Couple of Bees Read as well as serving as her beta reader and acting as her amateur publicist.

TIMINGS

00:40 Welcome / their Podcast A Couple of Bees Read

04:50 Weekly Wine

9:00 Tech and more

14:57 Reading Out Loud

17:48 An agent who supports the work

23:55 A Two-Book Deal

27:00 Elise’s Process

Total Run Time = 30:52

#writing #writingtools #plotting #coverdesign #revision #AI

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/02/606-writers-on-writing-couple-of-bees.html

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

6:05 / Writers on Writing / Dawn Barclay and Bloody Murders

Wed, 05 Feb 2025 04:27:00 -0400

Travel and Death. We don’t normally put these two topics together unless we’re talking tragic accidents, but Dawn Barclay has found a way to create entertaining mysteries and relate true crime stories.

After talking about Tech and tools, the writing process and productivity, she shares with us the two publications she will have this winter. In January she’ll release her newest domestic thriller, Deadly When Disturbed. February sees the multi-volume nonfiction Vacations Can Be Murder: The True Crime Lovers’ Travel Guide to New England. She will return with more true crime in a Mid-Atlantic edition followed by the Southeast before she explores bloody murder in the Mid-West.

D.M. Barr is the pseudonym for Dawn M. Barclay, an award-winning author who writes psychological and romantic suspense under this pen name and non-fiction under her own. Her published novels include Expired Listings, Murder Worth the Weight, Saving Grace: A Psychological Thriller, The Queen of Second Chances, and Simple Tryst of Fate.

TIMINGS

00:40 Welcome / Introduction / Tech Tools
5:09 Finding True Crimes of the Past
7:53 Trying AI for Translations
10:50 Problems with Tech and AI
19:30 Tech used in Active Writing
23:54 Dawn’s Process
25:00 True Crime, RomComs, and Domestic Thrillers

Total Run Time = 31:10

#writing #writingtools #plotting #coverdesign #booknarration #AI

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/02/605-writers-on-writing-dawn-barclay-and.html

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

6:04 / Writers on Writing / Sarah Smith talks Tech Tools

Wed, 29 Jan 2025 04:52:00 -0400

Coming in this episode is a wealth of technology resources which only someone with a tech background can provide. Sarah Smith presents a powerpoint packed with resources.

From assists in idea generation and organization, to plot and structure, formatting manuscripts and crafting covers, book descriptions, and audiobook development (so necessary in today’s marketplace), Sarah explains the riches available.

We end with Sarah’s offer to consult with 25 writers through Zoom interviews about all things related to audiobooks.

Check the Show Notes and the website for her powerpoint and special offer.

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome / Introduction

02:22 Four Requirements of Tech

11:10 Powerpoint Tools begins / Planning and Plotting

18:30 Unusual Helps: Beeftext and Reverso

21:20 Editing / Formatting / Covers / Publishing

29:00 Audiobooks / AI Narration

35:14 Consultation Offer / https://app.simplymeet.me/soundwrights

37:33 Closing

Total Run Time = 38:33

#writing #writingtools #plotting #coverdesign #booknarration #AI

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/01/604-writers-on-writing-sarah-smith.html

Special Offer https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/p/sarah-smiths-special-offer.html

Powerpoint Access to Tools as an mp4 https://youtu.be/S1qe1AFg1EM

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

6:03 / John Connor Talks Writing & Publishing

Wed, 22 Jan 2025 04:23:00 -0400

Two fountain pens and specific paper to encourage creativity. Computer systems like Linux as best tools. In a wide-ranging interview with everything from fonts to covers, John Connor with the UK press Murderous Ink shares it all.

A connectivity glitch smack in the middle of the interview didn’t derail Connor. We continued on, with manuscript format and the concerns of publishers about document file types. The interview could easily have lasted all afternoon, but alas, Zoom called for an end.

John ‘Jay’ Andrew Connor has been writing and publishing under a menagerie of names and genres since the late 1970s—sometimes even professionally. He’s worked at a variety of jobs, in various locations, and has also published small press, and semi-pro magazines in the past. Sadly, even though he is now on full time medication, he’s at it again.

Memindip and the Persian Poet is the second in the Memindip Quartet—The Death and Life of an Unwilling Investigator series, set in an ‘alternative’ North African city, in 1969. The first of the four, Memindip Solves a Problem, appears in Crimeucopia — We’ll Be Right Back — After This!

www.murderousinkpress.co.uk

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome and Introduction
5:40 “Write what you want to write.”
11:50 Tech and Critical Failures
15:30 Word Processing / MS Format & into Fonts
25:00 International Connection Glitching !*#@(%&)
27:00 Finding Software that Works
36:00 Print “Reads” Differently in Audio Form
39:00 Closing

Total Run Time = 39:30

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/01/603-john-connor-on-writing-publishing.html

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

6:02 / Writers = Scott Ellis Talks the Narration Biz

Wed, 15 Jan 2025 04:09:00 -0400

In this episode we have All Things Narration ~ clearly, concisely, professionally ~ explained by the award-winning narrator / producer Scott Ellis of Scott Ellis Reads.

From the various unseen and unheard jobs of the narrator before beginning, through major job of recording sessions and re-recording and the pick-ups after, to making the many files easily available for the writer’s use, the role of a great narrator is to help the writer’s story become more accessible to a wider audience.

And Scott Ellis knows all of these jobs.

He’s narrated over 100 audiobooks and coached several authors through the production or narration of their first audiobook. Being a retired teacher, Scott is all about performing and teaching. Scott Ellis Reads, his audiobook production company, started in 2019 and has a team of over 20 people that work in narrating, editing, marketing, and managing the business.

Awards

Audiobook Producer of Magda, Standing - IBPA 2024 Gold Medal Winner Young Adult Fiction Audiobook of the Year

Narrator of Puck and Minnie: All That Is - named 2021 Young Adult Fiction Audiobook of the Year by Audiobook Reviewer.

LINKS

Visit his website:www.scottellisreads.com

Visit his Classroom www.serclassroom.com

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome
00:40 Introduction / Narration as a Business
03:15 Technology and Narration
07:55 How a Narrator Works
11:50 Launching into a Narration
16:57 Funny Story about Accents
20:05 Taking a Chance on the Narration Biz
26:00 A Team of Narrators
33:55 No-No's
36:33 Closing

TOTAL RUN TIME = 37:29

#narrationforwriters #narrationbusiness #pickinganarrator #voicesforbooks

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/01/602-writers-scott-ellis-talks-narration.html

Our current focus is Writers on Writing, a series of interviews with active writers on technology, social media, process and productivity, and much more. The previous series was Fall into Poetry, at this link ~ https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg&si=Te8Jo1vLeu3rVkS4

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

6:01 / Writers on Writing / Marie Still

Wed, 08 Jan 2025 04:36:00 -0400

Welcome to Writers on Writing, interviews with active writers to inspire us all for our great start to 2025.

In this week’s episode, our focus is Marie Still, an award-winning thriller and horror author. She’s a marketer turned writer in the coronacoaster year. She took the giant step upon the urging of a friend.

Marie Still torments her characters from Tampa Bay. She also writes women's fiction under Kristen Seeley. Her novels include My Darlings (currently in development as a television series with Amazon MGM Studios), Bad Things Happened in This Room, We're All Lying (named by Buzzfeed as one of the most anticipated mystery/thrillers of 2023), and Beverly Bonnefinche is Dead (a Silver Falchion Award finalist).

Off the page, Marie can be found attempting to corral her five mostly friendly cats for a cuddle, surviving the affection from her very cuddly 150 lb Rottweiler, or keeping up with her four children. She's also known to surprise her incredibly supportive husband with a new cat, to which he doesn't complain (too much).

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome

00:41 Introduction / Marie’s technology use

06:18 How Marie Writes

10:00 Roller Coaster Writing

13:00 Deciding to be a Writer

17:33 Marketing a Book vs. a Product

23:13 My Darlings’ Release / Hurricane Interference

27:08 Closing

LINKS

MarieStill.com

Instagram: instagram.com/mariestillwrites

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mariestillwrites

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

6:00 / Writers on Writing / Introduction from host M.A. Lee

Wed, 11 Dec 2024 04:38:00 -0400

Start 2025 with information about tech tools, productivity, and process as well as a few snippets on craft, all from active writers ... and narrators and publishers. Zoom interviews give us this opportunity.

Write on!

5:49 / Fall into Poetry / Journey with TSEliot

Wed, 04 Dec 2024 04:30:00 -0400

Our poem for the Christmas holidays has two lessons for all writers. It comes from T.S. Eliot.

My introduction to TSE came in college, either a survey course in modern poetry or as part of a literature survey. Professor C. Hines Edwards, dry and erudite, was one of two that I admired for his knowledge of poetry classical and structure-less.

He introduced TSE’s “The Wasteland” to us, a long poem known for its allusions. The literary device allusions has its place in writing. In a few brief words, it opens doors to additional meaning … much as Christina Rossetti’s “From Sunrise to Starshine” did, with our realization that she’s a sleeping beauty, briefly awakened, now in her thorn-guarded tower.

The allusion is the first of our two lessons, but it leads into the second, a contradictory lesson and our final one for this series.

In January, The Write Focus starts a new series called Writers on Writing, active writers who share their knowledge of tech tools, productivity, and process, with a few snippets on the craft.

Here’s Eliot’s poem, perfect for the holiday season.

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome

00:40 Introduction

01:17 Allusions / Easter Eggs

03:11 First Lesson

04:40 Symbolic Motifs

05:17 Re-Connecting with TSE

07:45 Second Lesson: Two-Sided

10:13 “The Journey of the Magi”

16:40 Closing

Total Run Time = 17:38

#TSEliot #JourneyoftheMagi #Wasteland #HollowMen #allusion #discoverability #symbolicmotifs #motif #writingadvice

Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used

LINKS

TSEliot bio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._S._Eliot

“The Wasteland” https://genius.it/www.bartleby.com/201/1.html

“The Hollow Men” https://poets.org/poem/hollow-men

“Journey of the Magi” https://allpoetry.com/The-Journey-Of-The-Magi

Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/12/549-fall-into-poetry-journey-with-ts.html

Our current focus is Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

5:48 / Celebrate Thanksgiving

Wed, 27 Nov 2024 04:29:00 -0400

The Write Focus wishes you a Happy Thanksgiving week ~ full of rich holiday food, joyous time with people we love, awkward encounters with other people, and a money blast on Black Friday—which usually extends to Cyber Monday.

This episode doesn’t fit with our Fall into Poetry series ~ although it does gift you with poems stuffed with thanks—and not so stuffed. No analysis or advice to writers, just poetry.

It’s a Cornucopeia of Poems to share for Thanksgiving.

TIMINGS

00:00 Introduction

00:40 “There’s Nothing like the Sun”

2:00 “November Night”, a cinquain

2:23 “I went to thank her”

3:10 Two called “November”

4:30 “Winter”

Total Run Time = 5:37

5:47 / Fall into Poetry / Prepare for 6 Lessons

Wed, 20 Nov 2024 04:38:00 -0400

We’re a week to Thanksgiving here in the USofA, and we have not one or two but three poems of gratitude to examine, giving us 6 lessons of Advice for All Writers. These three poems have quirky ways of matching to the holiday, thanks-giving and gratitude.

The gratitude doesn’t take the gushing that usually fills most writings about thankfulness. The individual poets present their heartfelt emotion in a realistic manner. They’ve lived real lives and experienced pain and heartbreak, and they share this reality in the hopes that we can gain from their experiences.

Reality rather than gushy platitudes? I’m in for that, every time.

Like writing strong, rational characters with strong counterparts, allies and antagonists rather than weak straw-men which doesn’t prove anything about strength and intelligence and logic.

Oops, preaching again. Herewith, our six lessons and three poems for this episode.

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome
00:40 Introduction / Lessons 1 & 2
03:40 Lessons 3 & 4
06:22 Cowper “Gratitude”
08:45 Sandburg “Our Prayer of Thanks”
13:20 Lesson 5
14:45 Nesbit “Gratitude”
16:15 Lesson 6
17:25 Last Words / Closing

Total Run Time = 19:31

#audiencereaction #eclecticaudience #discoverability #williamcowper #gratitude #carlsandburg #edithnesbit

Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used

LINKS

William Cowper bio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Cowper

Cowper’s poem https://allpoetry.com/Gratitude-And-Love-To-God

Carl Sandburg bio https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/american-literature-biographies/carl-sandburg

Sandburg’s poem http://carl-sandburg.com/our_prayer_of_thanks.htm

Edith Nesbit bio https://www.britannica.com/biography/E-Nesbit

Nesbit’s poem https://www.poetry.com/poem/8831/gratitude

Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/11/fall-into-poetry-prepare-for-6-lessons.html

Our current focus is Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

5:46 / Fall into Poetry / Writing Dark and Bright

Wed, 13 Nov 2024 04:35:00 -0400

When we live our life in the present, being in the moment, we can develop a love-hate relationship with people and things we encounter daily.

We don’t “love to hate” these; we love them at some times while at other times we hate them. We may happily encounter and deal with them, then on a day not too far away, we groan and say, “Not today, please, not today.”

That contradiction, that contrariness, is engrained in our human nature. We aren’t changing our minds. Five days from now, love will re-emerge. When someone reminds us “You said you hated thus-and-so,” we retort “When did I ever?”, conveniently forgotten.

As writers, we work to keep the predominant mood of a work. We don’t wish to confuse a reader. In longer works, we can gradually shirt the mood, dark to bright, Shorter works are better with one mood.

We have strong tools to create mood and manipulate our audience with that mood. Our words are influencers upon the world.

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome

00:40 Introduction / Mood / Lesson 1

2:53 Tools to Influence Mood / Lessons 2 and 3

5:35 Frost and Clare

6:19 Frost’s “My November Guest” / Lesson 4

9:57 Clare’s “November”

13:00 Writer as Influencer

14:00 Last Words / Closing

Total Run Time = 16:07

Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used

Bio of Frost https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Frost

Bio of Clare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Clare

“My November Guest” https://poets.org/poem/my-november-guest

“November” https://pickmeuppoetry.org/november-by-john-clare/

#johnclare #robertfrost #novemberpoems #mood #connotation #imagery #tone #atmosphere #poetaslegislator

Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/11/fall-into-poetry-writing-dark-and-bright.html

Our current focus is Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

5:45 / Fall into Poetry / Writing Public vs. Private

Wed, 06 Nov 2024 04:21:00 -0400

“Share your innermost life,” marketing gurus advise writers, “with your readers, your newsletter folks, with everyone. Make it all public Make it pop-ular.”

That’s a certain way to burn out most of your audience, who just want the knowledge you have or just want to be entertained.

“Open the window. Let them see into part of your life.” That’s reasonable and rational marketing advice.

A window doesn’t give access to every room of your home, and it certainly doesn’t give access to what you’ve stored in closets or tucked deep in drawers or hidden in old boxes in the attic.

We writers have a constant push-pull dynamic of revealing ourselves. Heartfelt emotion is one of the four requirements of song, applicable to all writing. It speaks to us, touches us soul-deep, and leaves us weeping because we have a similar wound.

In this segment we have two poems by a man who wrote for public consumption but also purged his private anguish in a poem meant only to be published posthumously.

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome

00:40 Introduction / Public vs. Private

2:20 Deceit with Reader / Heartfelt Emotion

4:23 Longfellow / Long Rant

7:05 HWL Public vs. Private Poems

8:53 Lessons 1, 2, and 3

9:50 “The Harvest Moon”

11:00 Lessons 4 and 5

12:30 “Mezzo Cammin”

14:45 Lesson 6

15:50 Last Words / Closing

Total Run Time = 17:58

Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used

#henrywadsworthlongfellow #marketingadviceforwriters #harvestmoonpoem #mezzocamminsonnet #sonnet

LINKS

Bio on Wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Wadsworth_Longfellow

“Harvest Moon” https://poets.org/poem/harvest-moon

“Mezzo Cammin” https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/50629/mezzo-cammin

Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/11/fall-into-poetry-writing-public-vs.html

Our current focus is Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

5:44 / Fall into Poetry / Deceptive Monsters

Wed, 30 Oct 2024 04:15:00 -0300

Monsters of all sorts inhabit literature, for they crowd into people’s consciousness whenever we face trials and tribulations.

The unnatural monsters, goy and terrifying, gorging themselves without mercy or conscience, these are our nightmares, rarely encountered.

The deceptive monsters, the ones that camouflage who and what they are, still gorging themselves, relishing each victim, these inhabit our everyday lives. We should be wary of them, but we still find ourselves caught in their devastating traps, even after we finally recognize them. Only when we are burned enough or wounded enough do we manage to escape, scarred for all future encounters with people who aren’t monsters.

These deceptive monsters are alluring, beautiful enticements that we can’t quite let go. And that unwillingness to escape is truly the monstrous behavior.

Join The Write Focus as we offer 6 Lessons for all Writers as we examine the famous deceptive monster of the wild fairy in two poems by John Keats and e.e.cummings.

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome
00:40 Introduction / Deceptive Monsters
02:40 Keats’ “La Belle Dame sans Merci”
4:00 Lessons 1 2, and 3 for All Writers
11:26 Lessons 4 and 5
14:00 e.e.cummings’ Wild Fairy
17:00 Lesson 6
18:45 Last Words / Closing

Total Run Time = 20:51

#wildfairy #labelledamesansmerci #johnkeats #eecummings #allingreenwentmyloveriding #dreams #writingtips #artasinspiration #4requirementsofsong #writingtheseasons

Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used

LINKS

Keats’ bio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Keats

“La Belle Dame” https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44475/la-belle-dame-sans-merci-a-ballad

The Artwork https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Belle_Dame_sans_Merci

e.e.cummings bio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._E._Cummings

[all in green went my love riding] https://allpoetry.com/all-in-green

Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/10/fall-into-poetry-deceptive-monsters.html

Our current focus is Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

5:43 / Fall into Poetry / Unexpected Monsters

Wed, 23 Oct 2024 04:51:00 -0300

Love. Betrayal. Death. Those subjects we discussed in our story-song and in other recent poems, including Christina Rossetti’s particular version of false love and twisted betrayal—Lust that isn’t love, summer friends abandoning her in her self-exile, her false love leaving her to face her trouble alone.

When we’ve endured betrayal, our memories of that traitors are as a monster.

Monsters need not have venom-dripping fangs and wicked-sharp talons. The worst monsters are in our own selves, the ones who want to stay with that “dragon who keeps so fair a cave” (Shakespeare).

As we near All Hallow’s Eve, we look for stories and poems and blogs about monsters. The horror genre gives us unreal monsters while the thriller genre gives over-the-top monsters, like Hannibal. We have fantasy monsters and domestic villains as monsters. We writers bend tropes.

The best monsters, though, never seem like monsters until we fall into their clutches.

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome
00:40 Introduction / Monsters
03:55 Heinrich Heine’s “The Lorelai” / the femme fatale
08:10 Lessons for all Writers #1 and #2
11:48 Lesson #3 Find your Monster
15:00 Last Words / Closing

Total Run Time = 17:04

#heinrichheine #lorelai #femmefatale #blackwidow #theme #thesis #womenasmonster #goddessofrevenge #nemesis #siren #gorgon #graiae #odysseus #mythology #revenge

LINKS

Heine’s bio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Heine

“Lorelai” http://www.poetryatlas.com/poetry/poem/2255/the-lorelei.html#:~:text=The%20Lore-lei%20has%20done!%20The%20American%20Poet%20Thomas%20Bailey

Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used

Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/10/fall-into-poetry-unexpected-monsters.html

Our current focus is Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

5:42 / Fall into Poetry / Rossetti's 3 Cold Poems

Wed, 16 Oct 2024 04:31:00 -0300

October is a month of changes, of transitions, anticipation of the colors even as summer gives us a few reminders of his warmth.

And October ends with All Hallow’s Eve, the evening before a holy day ~ a time of riotous revelry by the forces defiant against God, Father, Creator, Savior.

Creeping upon me with the early chill of October mornings was the realization that Christina Rossett should be next in our Fall into Poetry series. Born 1830 and died 1894, Rossetti is sister to the artist-poet Dante Rossetti of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, the Victorian painters who reached into the past and into mythology for the primary subjects of their lush artwork.

Most know Christina Rossetti for “Goblin Market”, a long narrative poem of two sisters. One sister succumbs to temptation and tastes the fruit sold by the goblins. We’re not going to look at “Goblin Market”. I know you’re disappointed.

Instead, we’re looking at three other poems, two straight-forward and people-pleasing, one personal and puzzling, all three with lessons for all writers, not just poets.

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome
00:40 Introduction / C.Rossetti
03:30 First Poem / First Lesson
07:25 Second Lesson
08:30 Second Poem / Cold Poems
11:00 Third Poem
17:02 Last 2 Lessons
19:00 Last Words / Closing

Total Run Time = 21:06

Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used

LINKS

Biography https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christina_Rossetti
“January Cold Desolate” https://www.poetrynook.com/poem/january-cold-desolate
“A Year’s Windfalls” https://allpoetry.com/A-Years-Windfalls
“From Sunset to Star Rise” https://genius.com/Christina-rossetti-from-sunset-to-star-rise-annotated
“Goblin Market” https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44996/goblin-market
“A Birthday” https://poets.org/poem/birthday

Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/10/fall-into-poetry-rossettis-3-cold-poems.html

Our current focus is Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

5:41 / Fall into Poetry / Dances of October

Wed, 09 Oct 2024 04:15:00 -0300

We have a theme of Dances of October for this episode ~ although one of our two poems doesn’t mention dancing and the other doesn’t mention October. How are we connecting these two works to that theme?

Well, my brain said “Put them together”, and here we are.

The first poem is by African-American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar. He’s barely anthologized anymore, but that doesn’t mean he should be neglected. Dunbar is an excellent writer with diverse style in different forms, including prose and plays. His verse elevates him above the one-trick ponies who are studied because they represent a type (Louise May Alcott, e.g.).

Our other poem is a lesser-known work by the famous William Butler Yeats.

Follow along as we find unexpected connections with these two unconnected poems. We’ll also add in a few writing lessons that will help all writers.

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome
00:40 Introduction
01:35 Dunbar’s “October”
07:09 First Lesson for All Writers
08:46 Yeat’s “To a Child Dancing in the Wind”
12:44 Second Lesson for All Writers
15:35 Reaching New Meaning / Dunbar & Yeats
17:25 Third Lesson for all Writers, A & B
18:25 Last Words / Closing

Total Run Time = 20:32

LINKS

Paul Laurence Dunbar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Laurence_Dunbar

“October” https://poets.org/poem/october-2

William Butler Yeats https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._B._Yeats

“To a Child …” https://www.poetryverse.com/william-butler-yeats-poems/child-dancing-the-wind

#paullaurencedunbar #williambutleryeats #writingadvice #dirtydozen

Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used

Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/10/fall-into-poetry-dances-of-october.html

become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.

Our current focus is Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

5:40 / Fall into Poetry / Two Autumn Poems

Wed, 02 Oct 2024 04:11:00 -0300

What sparks a love of poetry?

The highbrow puzzles of e.e. cummings or the imagism of Ezra Pound. The lyrical music of John Keats or Christina Rossetti. The logical jumps and intellectual gymnastics of the metaphysical poets. The gimmick that marks Ferlinghetti. The emotions that lurk in a Longfellow sonnet. The intriguing story-songs that we just examined last month.

None of the above sparked my love of poetry. They deepened my love and enriched it, teased me by simultaneously engaging mind and heart.

My love of poetry was sparked by my mother. She gifted her daughters with a love of birds, of flowers, of nature itself. She quoted poems that she’d memorized over the years, poems that echoed with her love of nature, and those poems still echo for me. When I saw poetic lines expressed in nature, poetry lived for me.

Over my years, I’ve found more poems that live, some highbrow, some with a lowbrow snicker, some middlebrow which are frowned upon by intellectuals as “not clever enough”. I say if the poem is to a person’s taste, then who has a right to disrespect their choice?

And so we come to this episode’s poems, two that reveal autumn’s glory, both with marketing and writing ideas for anyone interested in a writing-focused life.

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome
00:40 Introduction / Taste in Poetry
02:16 Writer’s Growth / Marketing Lesson
03:34 Helen Hunt Jackson
03:51 “September”
05:39 Easter Eggs and Secrets
08:41 “October”
13:25 Famous Love Story / Clever Word Choice
16:05 Marketing Genius / Audience-Focused
18:00 Last Words / Closing

Total Run Time = 20:07

Links

Helen Hunt Jackson bio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Hunt_Jackson

Her poetry https://www.poemhunter.com/helen-hunt-jackson/

#helenhuntjackson #writergrowth #marketingforwriters #septemberpoem #octoberpoem #octobersonnet

Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used

Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/10/fall-into-poetry-two-autumn-poems.html

Our current focus is Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

5:39 / Fall into Poetry / Sweet Wine

Wed, 25 Sep 2024 04:08:00 -0300

Wine is heady stuff. A simple goblet of wine relaxes us; a mega-pint or a bottle can tip us into trouble.

Do you prefer the creamy full-body of a fine cabernet or the bite of a sauvignon blanc? Perhaps a medium red like a spicy Zinfandel or a lighter Riesling? Or a fruiter, sweet-forward wine, like a strawberry wine? Homemade, requiring only fresh strawberries, sugar, yeast, and water?

Hi, everyone. This week’s episode is another story-song, not a ballad of love, betrayal, and death. This is a sweet song which still has a bite, a rite of passage that leaves a heady memory in the speaker. It’s “Strawberry Wine,” launched into country music in 1996 but still speaking to all of us.

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome
00:40 Introduction / “Strawberry Wine”
02:42 Song Structure / 4 Requirements of Song
06:28 Impact Events / Chorus
08:27 Second Stanza / Bridge
10:51 Speaker’s Dilemma / Inherent Drives
14:20 Last Words / Closing

Total Run Time = 16:29

LINKS

Song Lyrics https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/deanacarter/strawberrywine.html

Video Performance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up06CryWQpE

Bio of M. Berg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matraca_Berg

Bio of G. Harrison https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Harrison

Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used

Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/09/fall-into-poetry-sweet-wine.html

Our current focus is Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

5:38 / Fall into Poetry / Sweet Lies

Wed, 18 Sep 2024 04:37:00 -0300

Here’s an odd way to start a conversation about a song: the word moron.

Hi all. It’s the third episode in our autumn series Fall Into Poetry. We’ve featured two story-songs (narrative poems) that are ballads, not the modern power ballad of the music world but the literature-based ballad with its focus on the subjects of love, betrayal, and death.

This episode’s song is not a ballad, even though it concerns love and betrayal and the death of a relationship. It’s not even a story-song. It’s a lyric poem, which means that it expresses an emotion. We do have hints of a story but not really.

And we’re delving into the song by looking first at the word moron. Odd, I know. A little weird. But there you are.

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome
00:40 Introduction
03:44 Oxymoron / Shakespeare
07:52 Oxymoronic Characters
08:03 “Little Lies”
11:00 Stanza 2 Twist
13:23 Summation for Writers
14:20 Last Words / Closing

Total Run Time = 16:26

LINKS

“Little Lies” performance https://youtu.be/uCGD9dT12C0

“Little Lies” lyrics https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/fleetwoodmac/littlelies.html

#fleetwoodmac #christinemcvie #littlelies #oxymoron #hamlet #romeoandjuliet #poets #fictionwriters #indiepublishingforwriters

Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used

Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/09/fall-into-poetry-sweet-lies.html

Our current focus is Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

5:37 / Fall into Poetry / Clown Faire

Wed, 11 Sep 2024 04:26:00 -0300

Story-songs, like last episode’s “Read my Mind” by Gordon Lightfoot, leave a mark in our memories. Very little is needed to return them to the foreground of our mind.

That’s also the case with this episode’s story-song, another ballad, this time for Broadway, written by the fantastic Stephen Sondheim, a great in American stagecraft.

I first encountered this song in 1976 as part of my chorus class, not on the radio. It requires a maturity of experience, which I didn’t have then. I caught the song’s cosmic irony but didn’t truly comprehend the personal devastation of the character who sings it. Nor did I catch the revealing epiphany of the last line.

Many greats have performed it: Frank Sinatra, Judy Collins, Barbra Streisand, Judy Dench. The version in my head harkens to Bernadette Peters’ performance. First to perform it, though, and the singer for whom it was intended was Glynis Johns.

If you know Sondheim’s work, you’ve already guessed the song: “Send in the Clowns”.

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome
00:40 Introduction to “Send in the Clowns”
02:58 Clear Communication
03:30 Strong Imagery and Emotion
08:52 Powerful Lines / Ballad
13:10 Four Lessons for Fiction / Nonfiction Writers
15:52 Last Words / Closing

Total Run Time = 18:02

LINKS

Lyrics https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/judycollins/sendintheclowns.html

Performance by Bernadette Peters https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOZhmsp6iBQ

& by Glynnis Johns https://youtu.be/OAl-EawVobY

#stephensondheim #cosmicirony #ballad #sendintheclowns #writingpoetry #writingfiction #writingnonfiction

Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used

[Fair Use declares that we can quote from copyrighted works by other writers as long as we use those quotations for analysis, explication, and teaching examples.]

Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/09/fall-into-poetry-clown-faire.html

Our current focus is Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

5:36 / Fall into Poetry / Read my Mind

Wed, 04 Sep 2024 04:05:00 -0300

Every writer is after memorable writing, whatever will strengthen our words and ideas so they haunt our audience.

We want our audience to return again and again to our writing, either to recapture that original impact or to puzzle out a question that wasn’t answered.

Capture our audience, and they stay with our writing to the end.

Satisfy our audience, and they seek more of our writing.

This is our goal: win-win, us and them.

Our series Fall into Poetry would seem to appeal only to poets—but that’s a surface glance. We writers can learn from any writing style, poetry teaching fiction, dramas teaching nonfiction, any mix-up we can contemplate.

We begin with a story-song from the realm of popular music. This song’s endurance proves that it is memorable writing by one of our greatest modern songwriters, now sadly gone: “If You Could Read my Mind, Love” by Gordon Lightfoot, a ballad when most songs are lyrics.

If you’re unfamiliar with “Read my Mind”, then pause this podcast and head off to find a new song to add to your favorites list. Come back to hear our analysis. (Links Below)

Join The Write Focus all through autumn as we examine great poems that teach a multitude of lessons for all writers.

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome
00:40 Word Count Challenge / Final Check-in
03:10 Fall into Poetry introduction
05:40 “If You Could Read my Mind, Love”
07:00 Four Requirements of Song
13:57 “Read my Mind” as a Ballad
14:55 Two Special Touches
18:47 Closing

Total Run Time: 19:49

LINKS

Lyrics for “Read my Mind” https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/gordonlightfoot/ifyoucouldreadmymind.html

YouTube performance of “Read my Mind” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DK--A-IaZnA

Rick Beato’s analysis of the music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X33YyowZZxQ

Link to The Write Focus website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/09/fall-into-poetry-read-my-mind.html

#writing poetry #poetry #GordonLightfoot #Ifyoucouldreadmymind

Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used

[Fair Use declares that we can quote from copyrighted works by other writers as long as we use those quotations for analysis, explication, and teaching examples.]

Our current focus is Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC73Pe3yKV5HixAUjBNOg47A

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

5:35 / Word Count Challenge / Check-In # 4 / Surviving that Horrible Week

Wed, 28 Aug 2024 04:50:00 -0300

Hi, everyone. Welcome to the fourth check-in for the Word Count Challenge with the theme of Surviving that Horrible Week for Writing.

I thought I was smart, earlier in this year, when I scheduled a Wednesday to Tuesday trip. The hectic weekend driving would be avoided. When most people would be arriving or leaving, I would be snuggled in and could enjoy. That plan is great for a trip, not so much for a Word Count Challenge.

I delayed drafting this episode to Tuesday morning. I drove home on Tuesday and had the Start2Finish recording to posting of the audio file when I reached home—with unpacking and laundry still to do. Yet I did squeeze out the words for this episode as I drank my two cups of coffee.

How did I do with the week, start to finish? Let’s do the check-in.

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome

00:40 The Horrible Week

01:37 Check-In #4 begins

04:26 Friday Onward

09:34 Success vs. Failure

11:20 Closing

TOTAL RUN TIME = 12:19

All Original Content / No AI Used

Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/08/word-count-challenge-check-in-4.html

Our current focus is the Word Count Challenge. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KcgVD4ZFyCt54chOhRtiqI

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

5:34 / Word Count Challenge / 3rd Check-in / Challenging Problems

Wed, 21 Aug 2024 04:43:00 -0300

Hello, everyone. It’s the 3rd Check-in for the Word Count Challenge here in August, and we’re discovering problems.

I continue to meet my goal of 500 new words daily, no matter the interruptions. I’ve had to write fiction and nonfiction to achieve 500 new words, and other writing tasks are still occurring, all in a mix of daily fun time with family and commitments and responsibilities that I’m promised to.

I actually started this episode draft on Monday to finish words for that day because other things were going on that prevented my finishing 500 fiction words.

And I’ve discovered issues with the daily push for new words, issues related to achieving the word count. Join in as we discuss creativity and challenging problems.

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome
00:40 Opening / Creativity vs. Filler
06:43 Word Count Challenge Problems
08:30 WCC Check-in #3
12:20 Success vs. Failure / Next Steps
15:03 Closing

Total Run Time = 16:05

All Original Content / No AI Used

Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/08/word-count-challenge-check-in-3.html

Our current focus is the Word Count Challenge. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KcgVD4ZFyCt54chOhRtiqI

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

5:33 / Word Count Challenge / Check In 2 / Managing

Wed, 14 Aug 2024 04:07:00 -0300

Hi, Everyone. It’s the second check-in for the Word Count Challenge here in August.

How have you done? Leave a comment about your goals and successes.

I’ve managed to meet my goal of 500 words daily, no matter the interruptions, and they were many. Things tugged at me every day of the past week. The massive part of the day is lost to writing but early mornings and late evenings have saved me—and twice, both evening and morning writing saved me.

At our last check-in, the first draft of the third short story was finished and needed a week’s separation before revision started. After errands in the cool morning, the writing part of Wednesday began: something forgotten, something needing fixin’, something on the To-Do List, and finally writing.

Stay connected to hear how the rest of the week continued.

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome
00:40 Word Count Challenge Check-in #2
04:55 Success or Failure?
05:32 Next Steps
07:40 Closing

Total Run Time = 08:40

All Original Content / No AI Used

Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/08/word-count-challenge-check-in-2.html

Our current focus is the Word Count Challenge. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KcgVD4ZFyCt54chOhRtiqI

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

5:32 / Word Count Challenge / Old Challenge vs. New Challenge

Wed, 07 Aug 2024 04:10:00 -0300

Old Challenge vs. New Challenge ~ that’s the theme for this week’s episode.

We say goodbye to the Summer Writing Challenge, which tracked all the pesky jobs that writers have to do in addition to the writing, and we welcome in the August Word Count Challenge, which is the kind of challenge that writers want to focus on: NEW WORDS ONLY. No sketched words, just an estimate from the Rough, any overage in changing Rough to Draft as well as overage that comes with Revision and Proofing.

The only way to achieve the challenge consistently is to Write New Words Daily.

Join us as we challenge disruptions and distractions to derail us from a daily word count.

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome
00:40 Say Goodbye and Hello
01:18 Last on the Summer Writing Challenge
08: 35 Word Count Challenge for August
09:40 First Check-in for the WCC
12:43 Closing

Total Run Time = 13:44

All Original Content / No AI Used

Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/07/old-challenge-vs-new-challenge-word.html

Our current focus is the Word Count Challenge.

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

5:31 / Summer Writing Challenge / Check In 9 / Winding Down by Winding Up

Wed, 31 Jul 2024 04:33:00 -0300

Hi, all. It’s the last full week of the Summer Writing Challenge. We’ll have one last day to report in our first August episode. This week, though, finishes out our challenge.

Did I succeed? Did I fail? What can I do better? What changes can I make to be more successful in the future?

Let’s start with our day-to-day report before we answer those major questions.

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome

00:40 Check in 9

02:10 Counting Projects this Year

03:20 Priorities, Goals, Boundaries

08:34 Hurry Up to Wait

10:10 Busy Monday

17:40 Final Day to Come / New Challenge

19:10 Last Words / Closing

Total Run Time = 21:04

All Original Content / No AI Used

Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/06/summer-writing-challenge-check-in-9.html

Our current focus is the Summer Writing Challenge at this YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7LEoaG-XelXEjBW_Xukjy3I

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

5:30 / Summer Writing Challenge / 8th Check-in / A Miscellany of Jobs

Wed, 24 Jul 2024 04:58:00 -0300

Hi, all! It’s our 8th check-in for the Summer Writing Challenge. A little over a week to go to the end of July BUT not the end of the Summer Writing Challenge.

I’ve struggled and I’ve soared in this past week. It’s all a matter of juggling the bad with the good to keep a mental balance and motivation.

Last Wednesday, first day of our work week, is a perfect example of this juggling act.

We cover a lot this week, including characters who are ciphers and easy-out solutions to plots; objective distance; copyright, ideas, and the Fair Use doctrine; crafting newsletters and book descriptions, fiction and nonfiction; and our tally of Success vs. Failure.

We’ve a lot to discuss. Let’s do it.

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome
00:40 Check-in 8
2:00 Ciphers / Objective Distance
7:00 Copyright, Ideas, and Fair Use
10:26 Newsletters
15:00 Book Descriptions, NonFiction and Fiction
17:33 Success & Failure
18:22 Last Words / Closing

Total Run Time = 20:18

All Original Content / No AI Used

Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/07/summer-writing-challenge-check-in-8.html

Our current focus is the Summer Writing Challenge at this YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7LEoaG-XelXEjBW_Xukjy3I

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

5:29 / Summer Writing Challenge / 7th check In / What's Up, Doc?

Wed, 17 Jul 2024 04:04:00 -0300

Hi, all. Time for Check-In #7 of our Summer Writing Challenge with the theme of “What’s Up, Doc?”

The challenge this week was to steady up and recover from last week’s losses. Luckily, most of my weekly activities are on hiatus in July although my personal commitment remain strong.

A Special BONUS this episode: 9 minutes from Dashiel Hammett on Accurate Details

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome
00:40 Check-in 7
02:01 Kanban Flow
05:55 Sputter to Flow
08:50 Research for Reality
11:15 Failure vs. Success
13:45 Dashiel Hammett on Accurate Details
22:33 Last Words / Closing

Total Run Time = 24:30

LINKS

KanbanFlow project board https://kanbanflow.com/

Audacity Recording Software https://www.audacityteam.org/

Bach Toccata and Fugue snippet, licensed from AudioJungle, by creator sviridpavlov https://audiojungle.net/

All Original Content / No AI Used

Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/06/summer-writing-challenge-check-in-7.html

Our current focus is the Summer Writing Challenge at this YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7LEoaG-XelXEjBW_Xukjy3I

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

5:28 / Summer Writing Challenge / 6th Check-In / Land of the Lost

Wed, 10 Jul 2024 04:27:00 -0300

Hi, All! Welcome from the Land of the Lost ~ Lost Days, Lost Time, Lost Plans, Lost Chances.

That’s me this past week, and I’m still dealing with the aftermath. I’m also scouting the area to find out who infected me.

Yes, in a week when I knew I would lose three days before it started—the holiday, you know—I lost three more days because I came down with a horrid respiratory sickness, with coughing and crusty eyes as the bane of my existence. This episode is only coming to you with the assistance of powerful drugs that are slowly pulling me back from the brink. The doctor refused to give an infection window—but I have recon going to find the culprit.

To start the week with high hopes and to end with hopes in fragments on the ground … cue violins. Let’s talk about what did happen to the good and the little highlights that keep us going.

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome
00:40 Check-in #6
03:20 Task Lists / Incentives
05:23 Rotating Promos
08:35 Cover Design
13:40 Writing Hell
17:35 Writer’s 3-Part Mantra
19:20 Last Words / Closing

Total Run Time = 21:17

All Original Content / No AI Used

Link to the Blog Site: https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/06/summer-writing-challenge-6th-check-in.html

Our current focus is the Summer Writing Challenge at this YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7LEoaG-XelXEjBW_Xukjy3I

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

5:27 / Summer Writing Challenge / 5th Check-In

Wed, 03 Jul 2024 04:26:00 -0300

Hi, all! Herewith is our 5th check-in for the Summer Writing Challenge. We’ve started a new month; we still have the same goals.

Of everything that I expected to happen in June, that did happen, disruptions and distractions but also a slow-moving progress toward the goals. Of everything that I wanted to accomplish, not there yet.

Am I upset and frustrated by the disruptions? No.

Did I have some time-wasters? Yes. Do I want to kick myself for those. Yes and No.

Am I irretrievably behind? Well—One thing that I learned while in the business world and also in this writing realm is that nothing goes as smoothly as we plan.. Nothing actually functions like a regular work week. No matter where we are, disruptions occur.

We can have a Do or Die attitude about our writing … but I want to enjoy it.

I cannot enjoy it when I feel chained to the work, to constant on-demand performance.

And creativity suffers.

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome
00:40 The Do or Die Attitude
06:15 Check-In #5
12:25 Be a Writer, All 13 Steps Listed
13:27 Track Reality to Overcome Blinkered Thinking
15:25 Last Words / Closing

Total Run Time = 17:21

All Original Content / No AI Used

Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/07/summer-writing-challenge-5th-check-in.html

Our current focus is the Summer Writing Challenge at this YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7LEoaG-XelXEjBW_Xukjy3I

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

5:26 / Summer Writing Challenge / 4th Check In

Wed, 26 Jun 2024 04:47:00 -0300

Hi, y’all! It’s been a hectic week of the expected and unexpected again, with so many things swirling about that it’s best to call this Challenge episode “Spinning Wheels” or “Tornadoes”.

“Spinning Wheels” seems more appropriate because I did gain headway in all three project areas. It’s a tornado, though, because—well, I’ll explain as I detail this week.

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome
00:40 Check-in #4
03:35 Major Goal Achieved!
05:10 Three-Step Proofing
07:11 Walk Away from a Problem
11:03 Step 11 (continuing Be a Writer)
13:22 Step 12
15:50 Step 13
17:30 Last Words / Closing

Total Run Time = 19:25

All Original Content / No AI Used

Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/06/summer-writing-challenge-4th-check-in.html

Our current focus is the Summer Writing Challenge.

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

5:25 / Summer Writing Challenge / 3rd Check In

Wed, 19 Jun 2024 04:44:00 -0300

Hi all! We’re onto our third check-in for the Summer Writing Challenge.

As usual, I’ve overloaded myself in contemplating everything that I want to accomplish for June and July. To complete everything may take me into August.

And I’ve already encountered one problem that may require me to extend the Challenge into August.

This means that I’ve bitten off much more than I should have with my three projects and the additional admission that I may switch a project mid-stream … if Project 2 continues giving trouble.

Let’s get into the nitty-gritty of the past week, before we discuss the problem and then head off into some musings from “Be a Writer”.

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome
00:40 3rd Check-In
05:45 Problem!
07:11 Be a Writer Step 7
08:30 Step 8
09:22 Step 9
10:50 Step 10
12:05 Last Words / Closing

Total Run Time = 14:00

All Original Content / No AI Used

Our current focus is the Summer Writing Challenge.

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

Link to the Blog Site https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/06/summer-writing-challenge-3rd-check-in.html

5:24 / Summer Writing Challenge / 2nd Check-In

Wed, 12 Jun 2024 04:36:00 -0300

Hi! It’s the 2nd Check-in for the Summer Writing Challenge, all through June and July, tracking not only words but also those other tasks that a write needs to do to pursue success.

For the first days of June, four days, Saturday to Tuesday, we had achievements on two of our projects in the Master Plan. Project 1 had 15,617 new words on the manuscript of Defeat Writers Block. Project 3, we had the 1st check-in Podcast, prep, draft, and everything involved in producing a podcast episode.

These past seven days, Wednesday to Tuesday, didn’t achieve as much.

Join us to hear what happened.

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome
00:40 Second Check-in
04:49 Three Creative Stages for Writing
07:35 Lessons from the Week
08:40 Be a Writer Step 4
10:40 Step 5
12:25 Step 6
15:40 Last Words / Closing

Total Run Time = 17:35

Link to Blogsite https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/06/summer-writing-challenge-2nd-check-in.html

Our current focus is the Summer Writing Challenge.

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

5:23 / Summer Writing Challenge / 1st Check-in

Wed, 05 Jun 2024 04:39:00 -0300

Welcome to our 1st Check-in for this Summer Writing Challenge, tracking not only words but also other tasks that a writer needs to pursue success. We began tracking on June 1, and we’ll continue to July 31.

As part of my Master Plan, I have three projects.

Turning the Defeat Writer’s Block series into audiobook, ebook, and paperback.
A massive project writing five short story, creating audiofiles for 15 stories, and publishing the 5-story collection and the 15-stoory bundle in ebook, paperback, and audiobook.
All the miscellaneous tasks that writers do, including this podcast

The check-ins will list what occurred with the projects as well as classifying them as successes or failures.

We’ll conclude with five minutes or so of inspirational musings on writing.

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome
00:40 1st Check-in
06:50 Be a Writer
07:35 Step 1
08:14 Step 2
09:28 Step 3
11:55 Last Words / Closing

Total Run Time = 13:51

Our current focus is the Summer Writing Challenge.

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

5:22 / Summer Writing Challenge / Introduction

Wed, 29 May 2024 05:06:00 -0300

All through June and July, The Write Focus turns its lens to the Summer Writing Challenge, 61 days of writing as well as presenting all the other tasks that writers should be doing in their writing business.

In addition to tracking our progress on writing projects, we’ll cover market copy, cover designers, promotional posts, and newsletters as well as audio projects. These are just a sample of the myriad additional tasks performed by every writer, indie or traditionally published.

Podcast posts covering the previous week’s work will be recorded on Tuesday evenings for publishing on Wednesday mornings.

Join us as we detail the accomplishments and failures for every writer’s Summer Challenge.

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome
00:40 Opening
01:35 Raison d’Etre / Introduction
04:15 Project 1
04:55 Project 2
07:05 Project 3
07:55 Prep Work
11:26 Last Words / Closing

Total Run Time :: 12:26

Blog Site Link https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/05/summer-writing-challenge-introduction.html

Our current focus is the Summer Writing Challenge.

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

5:21 / Wish I'd Known / Writing Retrospective

Wed, 22 May 2024 04:14:00 -0300

This year and the next are celebratory years for me. I began publishing in 2015 and podcasting in 2020 (yes, that coronacoaster year). It’s time for a retrospective, totting up the gains, cringing at the worst failures (some of which will never see the light of day), and dwelling on the chief lessons. You know, what I do wish that I’d known before launching into the ocean realm of writing.

The ocean of writing is a great metaphor. Writing has depths that no one will ever reach. Each writer is a tiny ship surging through the billowing waves. We dwell on the surface with only forays into the upper levels.

Where does this Writing Retrospective begin? Before publication, where all writing begins. We’ll also look at where my arrogant brain tried to take me in 2021, and finally a mistake that I keep making and having to re-learn. Geez, I know I’m slow, but still.

So, herewith, a Retrospective of Writing Regrets.

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome
00:40 Introduction
02:02 Regret 1
06:11 Regret 2
10:17 Regret 3
13:05 Final Words
14:11 Closing

Total Run Time :: 15:12

All Original Content / No AI Used

Link to Blog https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/05/wish-id-known-writing-retrospective.html

Our current focus is Defeat Writer’s Block, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook Think like a Pro: a New Advent for Writers.

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

5:20 / Wish I'd Known / A Podcasting Retrospective

Wed, 15 May 2024 05:11:00 -0300

We don’t often take the time to look back, to do a retrospection. We track our accomplishments and diligently write down the small steps that take us to our short-term goals and on to our long-term ones.

If we’re good little bunnies, we check our Master Plan once a year and rewrite it every third or fifth or seventh year. I can’t imagine a 10-year Master Plan. I had to drop back from five to three because my plans change so much. I get new information. I clarify my goals I shove things forward that I wasn’t able to accomplish when I first envisioned them through rosy-colored glasses.

Even so—when we do stop and look back, we should consider all we’ve gained, all we’ve learned, and share that with others. Advice along the lines of “Wish I’d Known”.

Let’s start this two-episode Retrospective with Podcasting, especially since many people are exploring podcasting as a new endeavor They’ve leapened into TikTok and Instagram, and now they’re contemplating the longer format of podcasting.

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome

00:40 Introduction

02:20 Podcast Retrospective

04:25 Podcast Decisions

06:25 Minor Wishes 1 & 2

07:40 Minor Wish 3

10:10 Major Wishes 1 & 2

12:35 Major Wish 3

14:15 Major Wish 4 & 5

15:28 Final Greatest Wish (8 total)

15:58 Closing

Total Run Time = 16:59

All Original Content / No AI Used

Link to Blog https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/05/wish-id-known-podcast-retrospective.html

Our current focus is Defeat Writer’s Block, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook Think like a Pro: a New Advent for Writers.

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

5:19 /Defeat Writer's Block / Whitney's Solutions

Wed, 08 May 2024 05:23:00 -0300

A handful of years ago, after I had started publishing, I stumbled across Phyllis A. Whitney’s Guide to Fiction Writing.

Originally published in 1982, that date was 6 years before the Mystery Writers of America gave her a Grand Master award for Lifetime Achievement and 8 years before a similar award came from the Romance Writers of America.

When she died in 2008, Whitney had published more than 70 novels, mostly for adults but a few for young teenagers were also in that total. Whitney has also been described as an inspiration for the founding of the Sisters in Crime organization. There’s a whole back story to that; needless to say, MWA and the reviewers and more were giving scant attention to women writers in the mystery field.

Many current writers decry Whitney as “Old School”. Indeed, the writers that I’ve focused on for this series on Defeating Writer’s Block—Gardner and Delton, Stewart and Whitney—have done what current names in the publishing business have not. They have numerous published works which have endured past their writing lives.

They are all “Old School”. Paper-based. With writer’s notebooks in binders and journals rather than software apps.

But their advice is highly valuable to us, for we want they achieved: long-term writing success that didn’t succumb to Writer’s Block.

And Whitney gives us the largest and strongest and final key to Defeating Writer’s Block.

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome
00:40 Introduction
02:30 Old School Writers vs. New School Ones
06:48 Viewing Our Writing Selves
11:00 Scheduling
15:43 Growing the Story
18:34 Sparking New Ideas
24:55 Last Words / Closing

Total Run Time = 26:23

SOURCE

Whitney, Phyllis A. Guide to Fiction Writing. The Writer, Inc. Publishers, 1982. https://www.amazon.com/Guide-fiction-writing-Phyllis-Whitney/dp/087116129X/

Blog https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/05/defeat-writers-block-whitneys-solutions.html

Our current focus is Defeat Writer’s Block, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook Think like a Pro: a New Advent for Writers.

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

5:18 / Defeat Writer's Block / Burnham Talks Blocks

Wed, 01 May 2024 05:33:00 -0300

We’re approaching the finale of our examination of Writers Defeating Writer’s Block.

We’ve diagnosed the three major issues, how to recognize them, and how to resolve them to return to writing.

We’ve examined advice from 10 different writers, from Neil Gaiman to Barbara Kingsolver, Charlaine Harris to Philip Pullman.

We delved deeply into famous blockbuster Erle Stanley Gardner’s techniques as he dealt with the unmentioned unmentionable.

Mary Stewart revealed the writer’s life in her short novel The Stormy Petrel, and we analyzed Stewart’s covert and overt advice for writers.

The great storyteller / story teacher Kate Wilhelm wrote of her writing world in her writing memoir Storyteller, and we barely skimmed the surface of all she had to impart.

Now we’ve reached an odd little book—inspiration and musings, advice and commentary, compiled into For Writers Only by Sophy Burnham. Novelist, journalist, playwright, and nonfiction writer, Burnham describes her book as a “patchwork quilt about my craft”, collected over the years by her, her friends, and her editors.

I like this book for its various chapters, some not surprising, some very surprising. She has such chapter titles as Starting, How, Where, Letting Go, Productivity, Rewriting, one chapter entitled Waiting Spinning Drifting, another on jealousy, yet another on Aloneness, for writing is a lonely occupation.

And then we have the chapter on Writer’s Block.

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome
00:40 Introduction to the Book
04:27 Introduction to the Chapter
06:15 The Infectious Block
07:53 Be in the Story
10:59 The Frustration
15:23 The Other Side
20:00 Last Words / Closing

Total Run Time = 22:09

LINKS and MORE

Burnham, Sophy. For Writers Only. New York: Ballantine Books, 1994.

Blog https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/05/defeat-writers-block-burnham-talks.html

Our current focus is Defeat Writer’s Block, from host M.A. Lee’s guidebook Think like a Pro: a New Advent for Writers.

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)