A Novel Idea

A Novel Idea

By Suzanne M. LangArtsBooks
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A Novel Idea episodes

  • Christy Warren and Susan Farren on A Novel Idea (Aired: July 2, 2023)
    Fire Captain Christy Warren was born to deal with crisis situations and rescuing others. She was tough and decisive under pressure, but when she started experiencing uncontrollable emotional distress, she turned on herself in self-destructive ways and struggled for her own survival. Christy tells her story in Flash Point, a Firefighters Journey through PTSD . We also feature Susan Farren, founder and Executive Director of First Responders Resiliency, Inc., an organization that takes a proactive and science-based approach to address the effects of trauma and stress faced by first responders and their families.
    59 min
  • Tina Davidson and Francesco Lecce-Chong on A Novel Idea (Aired: June 18, 2023)
    Tina Davidson is a composer whose music is autobiographical, so her memoir is of course, musical. Suzanne Lang talks with composer Tina Davidson, on her life, work, and memoir: Let Your Heart Be Broken, Life and Music from a Classical Composer. Also featured is Francesco Lecce-Chong, Conductor and Music Director of the Santa Rosa Symphony and the Eugene Symphony orchestras and impetus behind the First Symphony Project. A Novel Idea airs on the first, third, and fifth Sundays on KRCB 104.9 .
    59 min
  • Mary Jo McConahay and Kate McElwee on A Novel Idea (Aired: June 4, 2023)
    Suzanne Lang talks with prize-winning journalist Mary Jo McConahay on her book Playing God, American Catholic Bishops and the Far Right , which reveals the big money, unholy alliances, and far right agendas held by a faction of American Catholic Bishops. Suzanne also talks with Kate McElwee, Executive Director of the Women’s Ordination Conference, a grassroots-driven movement that promotes activism and dialogue to call for women's ordination and gender equity in the Roman Catholic Church. It’s A Novel Idea, every first, third, and fifth Sunday on KRCB 104.9 .
    59 min
  • Dale Tafoya and Mark Shrager join Suzanne on A Novel Idea (Aired: May 7, 2023)

    Baseball and horseracing are two sports that have been with us since before the Civil War and we still enjoy them in one way or another today.

    Suzanne Lang is joined by sportswriter Dale Tafoya to talk about Billy Ball: Billy Martin and the Resurrection of the Oakland A’s.

     

    Then, it's prolific turfwriter Mark Shrager with his book The First Kentucky Derby: Thirteen Black Jockeys, One Shady Owner, and the Little Red Horse that Wasn’t Supposed to Win.

    A Novel Idea airs every first and fifth Sunday at 10:00 am PT on KRCB 104.9.

    Streaming at krcb.org.

     

     

     

    58 min
  • Beth Ann Mathews and Skye Blaine on A Novel Idea (Aired: April 30th, 2023)
    Suzanne M. Lang is joined by Beth Ann Mathews, Marine biologist and author of Deep Waters, A Memoir of Loss, Alaska Adventure, and Love Rekindled. When her active and energetic husband suffers a rare type of stroke, his idea of recovery -through sailing in the ocean waters off Alaska- challenges Beth’s notions of sense and safety.
    Her story is frank, intimate, and filled with an honesty and verve that are gripping.
     
     
    Also featured in conversation with Suzanne is award winning author Skye Blaine who is a mentor and writing coach to many. Skye talks about the safe critical place needed by authors when writing memoirs.
     
    A Novel Idea airs every first and fifth Sunday at 10am PT on 104.9 FM in Sonoma County, streaming at krcb.org.
     
     
     
    58 min
  • Author Joan Frank on A Novel Idea (Aired: April 2, 2023)

    Joan Frank is simply a master of language and expression, and she has two new books to prove it:

    a novel, Juniper Street, 

    and a book of essays, Late Work, a Literary Autobiography of Love, Loss, and What I Was Reading. 

    Joan joins Suzanne Lang in a freewheeling conversation on her work and the writer’s life.

    It's A Novel Idea every first and fifth Sunday at 10am on KRCB 104.9.

    55 min
  • Donnaldson Brown and Samuel W. Gailey on A Novel Idea (Aired: March 5, 2023)
    Absorbing literary fiction comes from Donnaldson Brown with her decades spanning epic novel Because I Loved You and Samuel W. Gailey with Come Away from Her, his bold mystery set in the cold of Eastern Pennsylvania. 
     
     
     
     
    Both authors are in conversation with Suzanne M. Lang on A Novel Idea, heard first and fifth Sundays at 10:00 am PT on KRCB 104.9 Sonoma County's NPR station.
     
     
     
     
     
    58 min
  • Candi Milo and Loren Niemi on A Novel Idea (Aired: February 5, 2023)
    Actor, singer, and Warner Brothers voice artist for many animated characters, Candi Milo, tells the story of her unusual upbringing in her memoir Surviving the Odd. 
    Her father was entertainer Tony Milo, and when he gave up show business to run a half-way house for mentally ill and emotionally disturbed adults and bring his family into the house, the course of her childhood was changed forever.
    The book is funny, irreverent, and heartbreaking. Candi joins Suzanne Lang in conversation.
     
    Also featured is award winning storyteller Loren Niemi with his memoir A Breviary for the Lost, Poems from the During and After.
     
     
     
     
     
     
    59 min
  • Marylee MacDonald and Elisa Stancil Levine on A Novel Idea (Aired: January 29, 2023)
    What happens in our youth ripples through our entire lives. Authors Marylee MacDonald and Elisa Stancil Levine join Suzanne M. Lang in conversation on their memoirs of resilience and courage.
     
    MacDonald’s Surrender, a Memoir of Nature, Nurture, and Love explores the double circumstance of her being adopted as an infant and then her giving up her first child to adoption; she eventually reunites with both her birth mother and her son.
     
    Stancil Levine’s This or Something Better, a Memoir of Resilience starts with the firestorm of 2017 that had her fleeing Sonoma Mountain and takes us to her troubled youth along the American River.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    56 min

About A Novel Idea

From the publisher's feed

Non-fiction to pulp fiction, host Suzanne M. Lang explores the world of books featuring conversations with writers, academics, and readers. We all have a story to tell. It’s A Novel Idea.