Best-selling author Susy Flory has learned much about writing compelling stories over the past few years. This week she returns to the podcast, talking with host Kathi Lipp about how to use key moments to bring intangible themes to life. 

Listen in and learn techniques such as: • How to communicate big ideas without specifically naming them. • Bringing to life each character and the settings in which they interact. • The importance of suspense and surprise in a story arc. • Ideas for keeping track of all the particularities.

If you missed last week’s episode, be sure to check that out here. Next week, Susy and Kathi will be back to talk about discovering the story. Don’t miss out! Sign up here to be notified when future episodes are released.

About Sanctuary: For decades, his family rescued lost and forgotten donkeys in the Irish countryside. He had no idea that one day, the donkeys would rescue him.

Patrick Barrett grew up on the back of a donkey. In the small village of Liscarroll, the young boy helped his family run a sanctuary for abandoned and abused donkeys. Struggling in school, Patrick only felt truly accepted in the presence of these funny, fuzzy, touching animals. It was like magic, how he and the donkeys understood each other. He became a true “donkey whisperer”—reading their body language, communicating with them in ways they could understand, and teaching himself how to “speak” in their distinctive calls.

But when Patrick was of age, he shipped out with the Irish Army and encountered unimaginable wartime horrors in Lebanon and Kosovo. In the aftermath, he returned home a broken man, sinking into the depths of PTSD and addictions. He believed nothing could save him. But he hadn’t counted on the donkeys.

Sanctuary is the remarkable true story of how faith turned one lost man’s life around with the help of the rescue animals who loved him. It’s an antidote to despair and a call to hope, revealing the beauty and wonder of Ireland as you’ve never seen it before.