Today I chat diversity in fiction and writing diverse characters outside your identity with fellow cozy mystery author ACF Bookens. Diversity in fiction is a topic that is close to both of our hearts. We talked about why representation is so important as well as how to write someone different from you while being respectful and listening to the voices of people in those communities.

I do want to preface the episode by saying we can only speak from our points of experience. We don’t want to talk over others. This isn’t the first episode touching on diversity issues, and there’s at least one more episode coming up in the next few weeks on this important topic, so we can all hear from more voices and perspectives. We are two white ladies talking about diversity, so that by itself wouldn’t be much diversity! I also welcome feedback on anything we may have gotten wrong. Part of being a good ally is listening and being open to learn from what you get wrong.

Finally, we talk in the episode about a lack of diversity in our subgenre of cozy mystery, so I’ve started a list to put a spotlight on diverse cozies. It’s far from complete–I’m still compiling things and linking to other lists elsewhere–but if anyone’s curious, here’s a place to start.

About ACF Bookens:

ACF Bookens is a lover of small towns, charming but imperfect people, and animals of all sorts but especially plump cats and loyal pooches. The St. Marin’s Cozy Mystery Series is her first of what she hopes will be many cozy series.

Find more on her website…

and find more writing and author services on her site as Andi Cumbo-Floyd.

Hi, folks. This week on the show, we’re taking a deep dive into reader expectations in the cozy mystery subgenre in my chat with author Traci Hilton.

Have you ever wondered just what the difference is between cozy mystery and other kinds of mystery? Curious about this cute and murderous subgenre? Listen in for all the details of what readers are looking to get out of their cozies.

Transcript again coming at a later date, I’m afraid. We’re at the crunch time of the school year, with my husband both a teacher and a doctoral student, so we’re a bit swamped for just a couple more weeks.

About Traci:

When not writing, Traci knits socks, and accompanies her mandolin playing husband on the spoons.

As Traci Tyne Hilton, she’s the author of the several Christian mystery series, including the Plain Jane Mysteries.

As Tess Rothery she’ll be launching the Taylor Quinn Mysteries, a general market cozy series.

She’s taught indie publishing at  the Oregon Christian Writers Summer Coaching Conference in 2016 and in September 2015, at the national conference for the American Christian Fiction Writers. She was the Mystery/Suspense Category winner for the 2012 Christian Writers of the West Phoenix Rattler Contest, and has a Drammy from the Portland Civic Theatre Guild. She served as the Vice President of the Portland chapter of the American Christian Fiction Writers Association for two terms.

She has a degree in history from Portland State University and still lives in the rainiest part of the Pacific Northwest with her goofy family and two small dogs.

 

Find more from Traci on her website.

Hi, folks! It’s a busy, busy week here at the Dowell household, but at last we’re ready to move onto a new topic: reader expectations. This week’s episode is an introduction to reader expectations in terms of story, genre, and tone, as well as when you might go contrary to expectations. This episode gets us ready for a deeper dive into reader expectations for individual genres through conversations with writers in those genres. All that will be coming up in future episodes.

A couple issues, though: The audio quality on this episode is not quite what I would like, but having listened to the episode on my phone, I don’ t think it is too distracting, and I feel the content is good, so please bear with me on this one. Just one of the realities podcasting during a pandemic.

Also, because it has been so busy, I don’t have a transcript ready yet. I just didn’t have time to proof it on top of everything else, but I hope to have it ready next week.

And an announcement: How would you like to win an author service (book cover, editing, etc.)? I’m donating a package of 2 writer consulting sessions to an author services giveaway on the LitRing Facebook group. The giveaway happens May 1st. There will be a lot of great stuff and chances to win.

Yay, it’s interview time again! Today, I have a chat with romance author Cee Perkins about how she’s coping with writing while social distancing. I won’t give it all away, but chocolate is a tip on the list. Yum.

Just like the last few weeks, a transcript appears below in addition to the audio. I’m trying a new company’s service this week, so I can choose the best one going forward…and catching up with transcripts for all the back episodes over time.

Now that Steve and I are settling into our routine, I’ll be scheduling more author interviews in upcoming weeks. Plus, next week is the 50th official episode (how did that happen already?), so watch out for something special!

Transcript (This is a machine-generated transcript of a conversation, not a representative sample of my work as an editor.)

[00:00:00] Connie: Hello and welcome to another episode of Book Echoes, the podcast on making great books while making creative lives that work for us. I’m your host, author Connie B. Dowell. And today I’m coming to you on week five or six of our families, social distancing measures. And I actually have an author interview this week.

We spoke a couple of weeks ago, and I recorded the conversation, and I talked to romance author Cee Perkins about her experience during social distancing as she balances this new working world and new family situation [00:01:00] with her writing and her preparations for a book launch. And so that short maybe about 10 minute conversation is coming up in just a minute.

So at the time that Cee was talking to me, she actually found that she had a little bit more writing time every day. So kind of a unique position, at least maybe not so unique for non parents who now have eliminated their commutes, but a little bit of a unique situation for parents that she found she had a little more time to write every day now that she wasn’t getting up and going other places.

I wish I could say the same for me, but I, I have a little bit less free time now that we’re having to balance everybody being on at once. And the blessed free time, well not really free time, work time that I had during preschool [00:02:00] hours. It’s gone away. Gone away for the rest of the school year, but hopefully we’ll come back in the fall.

So without too much further ado, let’s have a listen to what Cee has to say.

All right. Today on the podcast, I am interviewing romance author Cee Perkins  , and that’s C E E,  right? That’s the way you would spell that first name.

Cee: Yes. Yes.

Connie: All right. So thank you for coming on and talking to me. Cee, could you tell us a little bit about, your kind of darker romance series?

So warning for especially some of our more sensitive listeners that this is definitely not a children’s series.

Cee: Yeah, no. Not a children’s series. It’d definitely be 18 and up. My series is called Love is Dangerous. The first book is Corrupt Love, [00:03:00] and it is about Corra who is a hit woman and Dan who is a very straight laced accountant. And it tells their story about how they meet and fall in love. Okay. And it just, the series is four books and they’re all stand alones with different characters for each book.

Connie: Oh, excellent. So it sounds like an exciting series with an adventurous woman. Very interesting adventure. So Cee, I’m talking to you at a really weird time for us, a weird time in world history where we’re all just crammed inside with our families and a lot of writers…a lot of writers have pressed pause on their writing, which is okay to do. But for those of us who are still trying to press on, it might be helpful to hear what’s [00:04:00] changed for you and how you’re coping with this situation.

Cee: Oh, well, I’m able to write more now than I was bef...

Hi, folks!

It’s just another day writing in social distancing land. Today’s episode is on dealing with the negatives for those of us trying to write during this unusual time in our history. Just like last week, there’s a transcript below! Also, don’t forget Writing Without Childcare is now permafree. If you find it helpful, reviews are much appreciated.

Here’s the transcript. Scroll on down if you just want to play the episode.

Please note: This is a machine-generated transcript of a conversational-style podcast. Sentence fragments and run-ons abound. It is not a representative sample of my work as an editor.

Hello and welcome to another episode of Book Echoes, the podcast on making great books while making a creative lives that work for us. I’m your host, author Connie B Dowell. And I am coming to you guys today on our family’s fifth week of social distancing. Now, I am somebody who normally gets a little antsy after one whole day in the house. So you can just imagine what it kind of feels like here on week five. And that is part of what I am going to deal with in today’s episode. So I’ve tried to keep things really bright and cheery. I think we all need bright and cheery nowadays. However, I would do you all a disservice if I didn’t talk about some of the dark sides of writing while social distancing. And this again sets aside a whole lots of much darker sides.

There are a lot of people who are sick, a lot of people worried about relatives people out of work or with reduced income who are lacking a certain amount of security. But, and that’s, that’s more than I can touch on in this episode today, but even if you are safe and your family are safe and you have a certain amount of economic security, the realities of writing while social distancing are, they’re tough. And I think it’s important to talk about the tough parts and how to address them as much as possible, acknowledging that not all things are possible.

So let’s get started with number one. Just the negative emotions that you experience while living in this unusual world that make it really hard to get some writing done. You’re probably going to be feeling a lot of frustration that your, your plans are completely canceled for basically the foreseeable future. We don’t know how long this is going to last. And every time there’s a prediction it gets moved back or forward and it’s really hard to plan things. There’s a lot that people looked forward to doing this spring and summer that they’re just going to have to miss out on. We’re all probably also a bit worried even if we are currently safe. It’s scary checking the news every day and seeing what’s going on out there.

We all also probably miss the outside world. For me a lot, a lot, a lot. I know there were a lot of jokes that kind of went around the internet when all of this began, “Oh, introverts have it made,” but everybody, introverted, extroverted, somewhere in middle needs some outside time. We all crave some amount of social interaction and we’re gonna miss that.

So, ways to deal with these emotions: Number one, take a break, take a break if at all possible. And again, I’m gonna reiterate like I did in last week’s episode, taking a break is not equal to working on your writing. Writing is joyful and wonderful. It certainly is for me, but it is also work. Taking a break means seriously doing absolutely nothing or doing something that has nothing to do with your work of any kind. Even if you’re not getting paid to write, if it’s more than a hobby to you, if it’s an ambition, it is actually work. So take a break, especially if you are starting to feel that frustration rise while you are writing or thinking about writing.

Happy writing everyone.  Today’s episode focuses on creating a new routine for your writing or other work during social distancing. I know I’m still changing and adjusting. Trying to get up early again after letting myself and my family sleep in… well, it’s an ongoing challenge.

Here at the Dowell house, when we aren’t trying to make a balance between work and home (when both are in the same place!), we’ve been keeping spirits up by doing all the COVID-era cliches. Steve’s been baking nonstop. I’ve dyed my hair a weird color (purple!) and started a journal. We’ve all been gardening. All we need is a sourdough starter to hit bingo.

Two announcements:

Writing Without Childcare is now free as an ebook! Find it on Amazon here, Kobo here, and this link leads to Apple, B&N, and eventually library apps.

Next, for the first time, I’ve got a transcript for an episode. I’m trying out different transcription services, planning to make this a regular thing. Transcription make podcasts accessible for the deaf and hard of hearing, and it improves SEO, making the show easier for folks to find. Here it goes!

Transcript below:

Please note: This is a machine generated transcript that I have proofed only once, for time’s sake. It’s not been edited for style and grammar. Therefore, as is common in speech, sentence fragments and run-ons abound. Episode transcripts are not representative of the quality of work I provide as an editor.

So today I’m talking about routines in this weird social distancing era that we are all experiencing and specifically about making yourself a new routine to get your writing done, to get your work done, to get your house work done, whatever it is that you are trying to do. Now, I want to preface this episode by saying, that if you don’t want to write during this incredibly stressful period that’s more than okay. It’s okay to press pause on your creative work. And you shouldn’t feel any shame about that. There’s a lot of articles and blog posts and podcast episodes going around lately about how we can all really focus in and be hyper productive while social distancing. And that’s fine to do. For many folks, that’s how they cope with a scary situation they can’t control, to just really throw themselves into work because that is something they can control.

But sometimes that discourse goes too far and shames people who are really just trying to hang on, and frankly just hanging on is an achievement right now. So, even though this is a productivity focused episode, especially for those of us who really can’t press pause on our writing–it’s part of our income–or those us who just don’t want to press pause and want to keep going, even if it’s at a slower pace–none of this is to say that you have to be productivity focused during this time. Survival, mental health, and self care are honestly pretty good goals right about now. So going into this, let’s launch right into the first tip for making yourself a new schedule. I don’t know about you, but my old schedule doesn’t work anymore.

I know we’re not alone. Our family, you know, we have all been sleeping in later, eating at weird times, and for those first few weeks it’s more than understandable. We were just really kind of coping with a new situation. But now I’m trying to reorganize and get myself in more of a work mode, even if that work has to be slowed considerably. So the first thing I’m going to do is, and I am doing right now, to some degree, is work on me first. New schedules, you know,

Hello again from social distancing land! I hope everyone is staying safe and well and getting outside if you are able. Going for walks in the neighborhood has been a sanity-saver for me, and it is still permitted, even under the governor’s stay-at-home order. I’m in Virginia, where we’re under that order until June 10th…so far.

Today, I’ve got a pre-recorded interview with author-illustrator Laurie Smollett Kutscera, she talks about her path to becoming an author-illustrator, her magician-themed book, Misadventures of a Magician’s Son, and more! We had a few technical issues recording, but with the magic of editing, I think it all came together nicely.

About Laurie:

Laurie Smollett Kutscera was born in Greenwich Village and grew up in Queens, New York. At the age of 11, she performed her first magic trick and was destined to be a ventriloquist with the aid of her childhood friend, Neil, who today is a real magician! But rather than follow in the footsteps of Houdini, she went on to study fine art and children’s book illustration at Queens College with Caldecott medalist Marvin Bileck. Laurie is an award-winning graphic designer, a published children’s book illustrator, and toy designer.

Laurie has cruised on a wooden boat from Nantucket to the British Virgin Islands. Today she continues to write and illustrate and is currently working on several contemporary picture books and middle grade novels. Laurie lives on the North Shore of Long Island with her husband Nick and rescue dog, Cody. You can learn more about Laurie by going to LSKillustration.com.

 

 

 

 

Well, in the past week, COVID-19 has upended the world even more. Our family has gone from anticipating two weeks of time at home to schools being closed for the rest of the year. I know a lot of other writers are in the same boat.

I’d love to know what you, the listeners would like to focus on during this odd time. Where do you need support? What would you like to see discussed as we all make adjustments together? Please leave a comment or email at connie (at) bookechoes.com

Today’s is an announcement-heavy episode as COVID-19 upended many of my plans for this podcast, but I’m adapting and still plan on putting out one episode a week.

The final portion of this episode features some questions to ponder on if you need to remind yourself why it is important to you to write, even in the hard times.

Stay safe, everyone.

Well, it’s been a weird week since the last podcast episode released. Like many folks, my family is doing this whole social distancing thing, meaning that my husband and I are both working from home, cooped up in the house with two preschoolers. And I’ve got a book launch coming next Thursday. So, you know, a recipe for a low stress couple of weeks, right?

While it’s not a great time for getting out and about, it is a great time for listening to podcasts. As promised, I’ve got a pre-recorded interview for you guys with author Lori Orlinsky, who has made library placements an important part of her marketing strategy. Right now is not a great time to visit libraries, or necessarily to contact them about shelving your book, but it is a great time to learn more about the process and make plans for when our lives return to something much more normal.

Have a listen and stay healthy. And, don’t forget, many libraries have e-books and audiobooks available for download. You can still get your read on while staying isolated.

About Lori:

Lori Orlinsky is a multi award-winning children’s book author, freelance writer and marketing director who lives in Chicago. Lori is certified by the CDC in Bullying Prevention and Response Training and is an ambassador for the PACER’s National Bullying Center. At 5″1, she wishes her book “Being Small (Isn’t So Bad After All)” was around while she was growing up.

Find more at her website: http://loriorlinskyauthor.com/

Have you ever dreamed of seeing your books on a library shelf?

Or maybe you’ve wondered “Why bother?”

Many authors wonder if library placement should be a focus for their writing business. In preparation for next week’s interview, which focuses on getting books in libraries, today’s episode looks at some good reasons for authors to pursue getting their books in libraries… as well as some reasons why certain authors might not worry about it.

Have a listen! See if marketing to libraries sounds right for you.