February 2019 - Authors Love Readers

Episode 60: Don’t Fight the Story, with Laura Durham

September 28, 2020February 27, 2019

North Carolina-based Laura Durham has been writing for as long as she can remember and plotting murders since she began planning weddings. Better Off Wed, inspired by her wedding planner work, won the Agatha Award for Best First Novel. The Annabelle Archer wedding planner mystery series is now up to 12 with the Feb. 4 release of The Truffle With Weddings, which involves a Valentine’s Day wedding and a poisoned box of chocolates.

When Laura isn’t writing or wrangling brides, she loves traveling with her family, paddleboarding, perfecting the perfect brownie recipe, and reading.

Laura talks with host Patricia McLinn about how stories have a mind of their own and, as much as the writer might desire the story to go one place, she or he must heed the story.

In her words: “I feel like when you’re writing and something is stuck, or you feel like you are … sometimes we’re fighting against what needs to happen in the story.” [26:02]

You can follow Laura at her:

website

Twitter

Instagram

laura durham authors love readers

Thank you so much for listening. We hope you enjoyed the podcast enough to want to support us for future episodes. You can do that with as little as $1 a month — that’s only 25 cents per episode! What a deal! — by pledging at Patreon. It’s vital to Authors Love Readers to have your support. Thank you!

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Thanks to DialogMusik for the instrumentals that accompany this podcast.

Episode 59: Writing the Familiar and Unknown, with Jeff Carson

September 28, 2020February 21, 2019

Jeff Carson is an Amazon bestselling author of the David Wolf thriller/mystery/suspense series set in the high country of Colorado and mountain west. The first David Wolf novel, Foreign Deceit, is an international mystery-thriller Jeff wrote while living in Italy for a year with his family. The David Wolf series is now 12 books and counting.

Jeff and his wife, Cristina, live with their two sons in Colorado. When not writing, Jeff enjoys golfing, hiking, camping and whatever his sons are into at that particular moment.

Jeff talks with host Patricia McLinn about how he began writing while missing things familiar but digging into the freedom of writing things that are unknown.

In his words: “One of the biggest mantras I was telling myself was ‘what would I not do in this situation?’. I’m a super cautious person in real life — probably like a lot of people — but David Wolf goes into danger head on! So I ended up not writing what I knew.” [8:10]

You can follow Jeff at:

His website

Facebook

Twitter

Please also consider rating/reviewing the podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.

Thanks to DialogMusik for the instrumentals that accompany this podcast.

Episode 58: From Creative to Researcher, with Brenda Hiatt

September 28, 2020February 13, 2019

Brenda Hiatt is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of nearly 25 novels, including sweet and spicy historical romance, time travel romance, humorous mystery, and the young adult science fiction Starstruck series. Brenda began in traditional publishing with Harlequin, HarperCollins and Avon Books and later made a transition to indie publishing.

She is an active member of Romance Writers of America and Novelists Inc, where she has served as president. In addition to writing, Brenda is passionate about embracing life to the fullest, to include scuba diving (more than 60 dives to her credit), Taekwondo (she’s attained her 3rd degree black belt), hiking and traveling.

Brenda talks to host Patricia McLinn about her experiences of growing up creative but learning to plot and research their stories.

In her words: “I did’t start out as much of a plotter. I kinda made it up as I went along [but] after selling that first book I became much more of a plotter, I would outline.” [24:05]

You can find Brenda at:

Her website

Facebook

Twitter

Please also consider rating/reviewing the podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.

Thanks to DialogMusik for the instrumentals that accompany this podcast.

Episode 57: Writing to the Finish, with Melissa F. Miller

September 28, 2020February 6, 2019

Former attorney Melissa F. Miller is a USA Today bestselling author of more than 25 bestselling legal thrillers, suspense thrillers, romantic comedy mysteries and forensic thrillers. Her books share two common threads: pulse-pounding, tightly plotted action and smart, unlikely heroines and heroes.

Born in Pittsburgh, Melissa followed life and love to Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and ultimately south central Pennsylvania. But she secretly still considers Pittsburgh home.

As a lawyer, she clerked for a federal judge, practiced in the offices of major international law firms and ran a two-person law firm with her lawyer husband. Now, powered by coffee, she writes legal thrillers and homeschools her three children.

More than 1 million readers have downloaded Irreparable Harm, the first book in her 11-title Sasha McCandless series. Twisted Path, Book 4 of her Bodhi King series, is set to release Feb. 19. Her most recent release (December) is the fifth story in the We Three Sisters romantic mystery series, Wedding Bells and Hoodoo Spells: Sage’s Wedding.

Melissa talks with host Patricia McLinn about source envy, how deadlines affect your writing, and what to do when you’re ready to throw out your half-written book.

In her own words: “I never go hunting for ideas. And I’m sure you’ve had this experience: people will tell you they have a great idea for a book and maybe you want it. And you think, I have more ideas than I could possibly write.” [11:09]

You can find Melissa at:

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