This episode is a conversation with the author and international speaker Derek Künsken. Derek is a Canadian writer who learned the trade with short stories. For a number of years now his work has been accepted by some of the premier magazines in SciFi including Asimov. Derek now has an agent, has signed a two-book deal and is negotiating a further deal and is published in multiple territories and languages. In this conversation, we talk about the transition to novel writing, how to introduce compelling themes and characters, and the perils of hitting the Strunk and White 'Kool-aid'! ...
One of the most popular genres for fiction writers is the murder mystery or police procedural. But this is also a genre where writers can easily get things wrong. In this episode I'm joined by crime writer Wendy H Jones and we speak to Patrick O’Donnell, a serving officer with 25 years of experience in a large city police department in the US. In this conversation we cover: responding to a homicide, the arrest and court process, hostage situations, and what writers usually get wrong with police work. ...
In this episode we start to explore the third of the six stages of story, and answer the question: how can we make this tricky middle section of our work as compelling and excellent as possible? The answer comes from knowing one of the fundamental truths of human psychology: we all love a challenge, and we all love to see others challenged. This episode explores how to harness this truth in the third stage of story, and capture readers and keep them all the way through to the end. ...
