#AmWriting

Jess here. A.J. Jacobs has long been my inspiration for both writing and writerly mentorship, so I was thrilled when his forthcoming book, The Puzzler: One Man’s Quest to Solve the Most Baffling Puzzles Ever, from Crosswords to Jigsaws to the Meaning of Life landed on my doorstep. I adore A.J.’s work and this book might be a new favorite. We talk about the book, yes, but we also discuss where the ideas come from, how to stay curious and the effect that curiosity has on the writing, and the work of crafting proposals that resemble the final book.

Links:

A.J. Jacobs: https://ajjacobs.com

Kevin Roose: https://www.kevinroose.com

The Unlikely Disciple

World Jigsaw Puzzle Championship

Great Vermont Corn Maze

COMING JULY 1: It’s the #AmWriting Blueprint for a Book Challenge! 10 episodes, 10 guests, 10 weeks to you being ready to write your best novel, memoir or non-fiction book this fall. There will be homework. There will be deadlines. Complete all 10 weeks, and you could win a critique of that Blueprint from KJ or Jennie Nash—but you’ll already be a winner, because you’ll have a plan that will put you way ahead of the game. Play for free—or reserve an Author Accelerator critique for your finished product to hold your feet to the fire and make sure you do the work and get bonus episodes and write-alongs. Want details? Ready to sign up? CLICK HERE.

PS: Along those lines, Author Accelerator has opened registration for the 2022 Manuscript Incubator, an intensive, 7 month coaching opportunity that offers one-one-one support and guidance for novelists and memoirists planning to have a submission-ready project by early 2023—and includes the opportunity to have that project reviewed by a group of agents and editors when it’s ready. For more information, head to authoraccelerator.com/manuscript-incubator.

Fave return guest alert! We talked to Mary Laura Philpott in episode 71–#YouandYourBookstore, back when she was a Parnassus Books guru. And then in Episode 150: #NeverReady, when MLP (as we like to call her) launched her first book of essays, I Miss You When I Blink, into the world—and then again, for episode 163 #BookTourReality.

And now she’s back with a new book of essays: Bomb Shelter: Love, Time and other Explosives. (Read an excerpt here. And here. And then go order the book here.) The difference? Blink was, as MLP says, a book of essays that, together, became a memoir. Bomb Shelter is a memoir that took on the form of a book of essays—essays that went deeper than those shared in Bomb Shelter, that cut so much closer to the heart and were so much harder to write, and to share.

Links from the Pod:

marylauraphilpott.com

Mary Laura’s newsletter

Bomb Shelter

#AmReading

MLP: The Arc, Tory Henwood Hoen

The Mutual Friend, Carter Bays

Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting, Clare Pooley

KJ: Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus

Olga Dies Dreaming, Xochitl Gonzalez

Jess: Girl in Ice, Erica Ferencik

Also mentioned: The Sober Diaries, Clare Pooley

Mitchell’s Book Corner

Stories of Your Life and Others, Ted Chiang

COMING JULY 1: It’s the #AmWriting Blueprint for a Book Challenge! 10 episodes, 10 guests, 10 weeks to you being ready to write your best novel, memoir or non-fiction book this fall. There will be homework. There will be deadlines. Complete all 10 weeks, and you could win a critique of that Blueprint from KJ or Jennie Nash—but you’ll already be a winner, because you’ll have a plan that will put you way ahead of the game. Play for free—or reserve an Author Accelerator critique for your finished product to hold your feet to the fire and make sure you do the work and get bonus episodes and write-alongs. Want details? Ready to sign up? CLICK HERE.

PS: Along those lines, Author Accelerator has opened registration for the 2022 Manuscript Incubator, an intensive, 7 month coaching opportunity that offers one-one-one support and guidance for novelists and memoirists planning to have a submission-ready project by early 2023—and includes the opportunity to have that project reviewed by a group of agents and editors when it’s ready. For more information, head to authoraccelerator.com/manuscript-incubator.

Where should your energy go? KJ here, and in this episode Jess and I catch up on what’s worth it and what isn’t when it comes to travel, the importance of getting over any (non-pandemic-related) hesitation around taking the time for conferences and work events and also, in our usual digressive fashion, covers, paperback launches and boots.

Links from the Pod

Sana, a rehab in Stowe Vermont

For info on the Sana Scholarship Fund

Oliver Burkeman 4 Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals

Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus

The Harvey Foundation

KJ’s boots on Instagram

#AmReading

KJ: How to Stop Time, Matt Haig

Jess:

Explorer Booksellers, Aspen Colorado

The Bookworm, Edwards Colorado

Boulder Bookstore, Boulder Colorado

Trailblazer, Dorothy Butler Gilliam

COMING JULY 1: It’s the #AmWriting Blueprint for a Book Challenge! 10 episodes, 10 guests, 10 weeks to you being ready to write your best novel, memoir or non-fiction book this fall. There will be homework. There will be deadlines. Complete all 10 weeks, and you could win a critique of that Blueprint from KJ or Jennie Nash—but you’ll already be a winner, because you’ll have a plan that will put you way ahead of the game. Play for free—or reserve an Author Accelerator critique for your finished product to hold your feet to the fire and make sure you do the work and get bonus episodes and write-alongs. Want details? Ready to sign up? CLICK HERE.

PS: Along those lines, Author Accelerator has opened registration for the 2022 Manuscript Incubator, an intensive, 7 month coaching opportunity that offers one-one-one support and guidance for novelists and memoirists planning to have a submission-ready project by early 2023—and includes the opportunity to have that project reviewed by a group of agents and editors when it’s ready. For more information, head to authoraccelerator.com/manuscript-incubator.

New York Times investigative journalists Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey broke the story of Harvey Weinstein’s sexual assaults in 2017 and harassment and won a Pulitzer Prize for their efforts. Their book about the Weinstein investigation, She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement, came out in 2019 and the film version will be out this November.

Now, Jodi and Megan offer the lessons of their investigation - the process involved and the rules that governed its publication - to student journalists so they may be inspired and informed. I (Jess) got to talk to Jodi Kantor about the book they created for those young journalists, Chasing the Truth: A Young Journalist’s Guide to Investigative Reporting.

Links from the Pod:

#AmWriting Facebook group

COMING JULY 1: It’s the #AmWriting Blueprint for a Book Challenge! 10 episodes, 10 guests, 10 weeks to you being ready to write your best novel, memoir or non-fiction book this fall. There will be homework. There will be deadlines. Complete all 10 weeks, and you could win a critique of that Blueprint from KJ or Jennie Nash—but you’ll already be a winner, because you’ll have a plan that will put you way ahead of the game. Play for free—or reserve an Author Accelerator critique for your finished product to hold your feet to the fire and make sure you do the work and get bonus episodes and write-alongs. Want details? Ready to sign up? CLICK HERE.

PS: Along those lines, Author Accelerator has opened registration for the 2022 Manuscript Incubator, an intensive, 7 month coaching opportunity that offers one-one-one support and guidance for novelists and memoirists planning to have a submission-ready project by early 2023—and includes the opportunity to have that project reviewed by a group of agents and editors when it’s ready. For more information, head to authoraccelerator.com/manuscript-incubator.

Like all great stories, The Vortex: A True Story of History’s Deadliest Storm, an Unspeakable War, and Liberation was born out of writerly curiosity and a deceptively simple question: Why would India build a wall around Bangladesh?

I (Jess) spoke with co-authors Scott Carney and Jason Miklian about their collaboration and the work involved in answering this question.

I’ve known Scott for a while, as I became a fan of his work about a decade ago when I read The Red Market: On the Trail of the World’s Organ Brokers, Bone Thieves, Blood Farmers, and Child Traffickers and later became one of those crazy cold plunge people after reading his books, What Doesn’t Kill Us and The Wedge. I’m new to Jason Miklian, though, and thoroughly enjoyed getting to know this venerable academic, writer, photographer, researcher, breakbeat DJ, and world record holder (for the fastest drive across North America).

In this episode, we talk about choosing narrative structure, finding your subjects, discovering the most relevant stories, and creating a comprehensible, cinematic story out of an incredibly complex topic.

The highlight of this podcast for me? Being reminded, “I don’t need to be the world expert on everything, I just need to be the world expert on the people whose stories I’m telling.”

Ka-boom. Blammo.

I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did.

Hey—have you been spending small amounts on short term classes, watching videos and using up every possible opportunity for free feedback? Reworking the same pages over and over in your writing group? Are you starting to feel like you’re stuck in one stage of the process? Maybe it’s time to consider making a bigger investment in your career and working with an Author Accelerator Book Coach. No one can guarantee that you’ll write a book that will snag an agent or a excite an editor. But a coach can help you move forward, finish a book or proposal you’re proud of and approach the next stage of the process like a pro. I kmow it helped me! If that sounds like something you need, visit https://www.authoraccelerator.com to get matched with a coach who can help you.

Urban fantasy. Paranormal romance. Historicals. Plus the occasional billionaire, and now a rom-com, complete with a cute graphic cover that tells you exactly who you’ll be rooting for and what to expect. What do all of these things have in common, besides being written by todays’ guest, Seressia Glass?

Two things. First, they’re all—as she says on her website— tales of overcoming the odds to achieve love and acceptance–universal desires for everyone no matter who or what they are.

Second? They’re all books readers want. Books, in other words, that will sell.

I heard Seressia say briefly on another podcast that she and her agent had strategized about exactly that. On the pod, we dive more deeply into the balance between writing what you love, and writing what people will read. We also talk about super-agent Jenny Bent (travel back in time to listen to her on Episode 24 of the pod), Marlon James, the brilliance of Seressia’s pinned tweet and more.

Links from the Pod:

7 Figure Fiction

The “butter” episode with Theodora Taylor

#AmReading

Seressia: Island Queen, Vanessa Riley

The Dating Playbook, Farrah Rochon

KJ: The Sweetest Remedy, Jane Igharo (also mentioned Sankofa by Chibundu Onuzo)

Jess: The Almost Legendary Morris Sisters, Julie Klam

(also mentioned The Stars in Her Eyes)

IG: @seressiaglass

https://seressiaglass.com

I just finished Author Accelerator’s book coaching course and submitted my materials—and let me tell you, I learned a ton. If you’ve been listening for a while, you know I spent five years as an editor with The New York Times—but I still had a lot to learn about helping writers through the process of taking a book from idea to manuscript, and I loved learning it with the Author Accelerator team. What they taught me has changed my approach to editing completely. I didn’t just learn how to help a writer move from one stage of the process to the next—I learned how to help them appreciate how far they’ve come and feel excited about what’s coming next, see their strengths and how they can build on them and trust me to guide them into the hard work that lies ahead. If you’d like to learn more about coaching fiction or non-fiction, you need to visit bookcoaches.com to learn more.

Abby Kincer is a reader and a bookstagrammer, a fun person, an enthusiastic consumer of bookish socks and t-shirts, a user of filters, a wearer of glasses, a possessor of many tote bags and—that’s what I know about her! Because her Instagram is bookstagram through and through, and that’s why she’s here. We asked Abby everything we ever wanted to know about bookstagramming, from how she got started to how she chooses books to how she prefers to interact with authors (kinda not much!).

Abby on:

Instagram: @bookmarkedbya

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/90454496-abby-kincer

#AmReading: (none for KJ)

Abby: The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan “I loved it and I wanted to throw it out the window.”

The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton

The People We Keep by Allison Larkin

Sarina:

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

The Other Woman by Sandie Jones

I just finished Author Accelerator’s book coaching course and submitted my materials—and let me tell you, I learned a ton. If you’ve been listening for a while, you know I spent five years as an editor with The New York Times—but I still had a lot to learn about helping writers through the process of taking a book from idea to manuscript, and I loved learning it with the Author Accelerator team. What they taught me has changed my approach to editing completely. I didn’t just learn how to help a writer move from one stage of the process to the next—I learned how to help them appreciate how far they’ve come and feel excited about what’s coming next, see their strengths and how they can build on them and trust me to guide them into the hard work that lies ahead. If you’d like to learn more about coaching fiction or non-fiction, you need to visit https://www.bookcoaches.com to learn more.

Crew, Anne Le Tissier is a listener with a question: What should I have on my website—and how can I get there without breaking the bank? She’s also the author of six traditionally published inspirational titles, some out of print, a speaker and the creator of a rather genius non-blog blog idea that I may just have to steal for myself. We critique her website and offer ideas for making it more professional without learning to code or spending big bucks—because there are some absolute must-haves, more than a few must-nots, and one important question to answer. Listen—and then go poke around on your own site!

Links from the Pod

AnneLeTissier.com

Authors Guild

Squarespace

Blogspot

Mailchimp

Mailerlite

Flodesk

Newsletter Ninja

#AmReading

Anne: Word by Word: A Daily Spiritual Practice by Marilyn McEntyre

KJ: The Nineties by Chuck Klosterman

Sarina: Local Woman Missing by Mary Kubica

Twitter: @AnneLeTiss

IG @AnneLeTissier

I just finished Author Accelerator’s book coaching course and submitted my materials—and let me tell you, I learned a ton. If you’ve been listening for a while, you know I spent five years as an editor with The New York Times—but I still had a lot to learn about helping writers through the process of taking a book from idea to manuscript, and I loved learning it with the Author Accelerator team. What they taught me has changed my approach to editing completely. I didn’t just learn how to help a writer move from one stage of the process to the next—I learned how to help them appreciate how far they’ve come and feel excited about what’s coming next, see their strengths and how they can build on them and trust me to guide them into the hard work that lies ahead. If you’d like to learn more about coaching fiction or non-fiction, you need to visit https://www.bookcoaches.com to learn more.

Y’all, it’s an uber-informative, down in the trenches episode about writing memoir when it feels like your topic is on the lighter side—but of course, no truly successful memoir ever stays on the surface. Cate Doty is the author of Mergers and Acquisitions: Or, Everything I Know About Love I Learned on the Wedding Pages. She is a writer and former editor at The New York Times, where she covered the news of food, weddings, business, New York, and more.

To write Mergers and Acquisitions, Cate had to look at what was in some ways an obvious story—I fell in love at the NYT while working on the Wedding pages!—to the real story of growing up in an iconic newsroom and learning about what makes relationships get as far as the wedding pages—and then get past that one day. She had to find ways to dig into her past, and to write about real people she still loves and respects (and a few she doesn’t). And she had to accept that writing about the NYT probably means you’re not working there again.

And then she had to answer all my questions about it! You’re going to love it.

Links from the pod:

Jenny 8. Lee’s memoir The Fortune Cookie Chronicles

The little church around the corner

#AmReading

Cate:

Kaye Gibbons: Ellen Foster, A Cure for Dreams, Charms for an Easy Life

Having and Being Had, Eula Biss

Learning in Public, Courtney E. Martin

KJ:

Arsenic and Adobo, Mia P. Manansala

Other books we mentioned:

To Tell You the Truth, Gilly MacMillan

Admissions: A Memoir of Surviving Boarding School

Alexander McCall Smith’s Isabel Dalhousie / The Sunday Philosophy Club books

Find out more about Cate: https://www.catedoty.com and follow her on Instagram: @CateDoty

Hey—have you been spending small amounts on short term classes, watching videos and using up every possible opportunity for free feedback? Reworking the same pages over and over in your writing group? Are you starting to feel like you’re stuck in one stage of the process? Maybe it’s time to consider making a bigger investment in your career and working with an Author Accelerator Book Coach. No one can guarantee that you’ll write a book that will snag an agent or a excite an editor. But a coach can help you move forward, finish a book or proposal you’re proud of and approach the next stage of the process like a pro. I kmow it helped me! If that sounds like something you need, visit https://www.authoraccelerator.com to get matched with a coach who can help you.

Here’s the deal: Jess and I (KJ here) have been rolling with different energies lately. She’s letting the spirit move her. Being inspired. Putting time into other creative projects and inviting that to feed her soul. I’m stepping over other projects, telling the spirit I’m not home right now and keeping the spotlight in one place.

In this episode, we talk about when you can—and can’t—go with the flow. How we handle it when other ideas beckon, but a deadline demands our attention. What we do between projects and why. And why KJ puts a meal plan on the fridge every week, while Jess asks “what do we feel like eating?”—but that does NOT mean Jess can’t make a plan and stick to it, or that KJ never follows the muse. (Although, re: dinner: I don’t CARE what you feel like eating. This is what we’re having.)

As always, if you’ve got a pressing writerly question you’d like us to answer or that you might be willing to work through on the show, email us: [email protected].

Links from the Pod:

Special Care Instructions blog post

Jess’ video on Instagram

KJ’s dumb headphones

A Soft Murmur web app

Inventing Anna

2k to 10k: Writing Faster, Writing Better, and Writing More of What You Love by Rachel Aaron

Blueprint for a Book by Jennie Nash

Save the Cat! Writes a Novel: The Last Book on Novel Writing You'll Ever Need by Jessica Brody

Take Off Your Pants!: Outline Your Books for Faster, Better Writing by Libbie Hawker

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Outlander Lady: Diana Gabaldon

#AmReading

Jess:

The Vortex: A True Story of History's Deadliest Storm, an Unspeakable War, and Liberation, Scott Carney and Jason Miklian

KJ: The Secret to Superhuman Strength, Alison Bechdel

Hey—have you been spending small amounts on short term classes, watching videos and using up every possible opportunity for free feedback? Reworking the same pages over and over in your writing group? Are you starting to feel like you’re stuck in one stage of the process? Maybe it’s time to consider making a bigger investment in your career and working with an Author Accelerator Book Coach. No one can guarantee that you’ll write a book that will snag an agent or a excite an editor. But a coach can help you move forward, finish a book or proposal you’re proud of and approach the next stage of the process like a pro. I know it helped me! If that sounds like something you need, visit authoraccelerator.com to get matched with a coach who can help you.