Deadline City's Podcast

Welcome to the longest episode we've done on Deadline City yet! We invited Tessa Gratton, author of Queen of Innis Lear and Night Shine, to talk about big worldbuilding challenges. We talk about racial coding and queering the worlds we love to read about. What succeeds? How do some fail? Dhonielle has it out for The Witcher and Star Wars, and Zoraida tries to defend her faves. There is a lot of love, shouting, and serious advice on how to get down to business creating new and epic fantasy novels. 

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To celebrate the release of Dhonielle's TINY PRETTY THINGS, we are talking Hollywood adaptions! We cover everything from how books get optioned to some of our favorite properties that have received the Hollywood treatment, and what are we excited to see up next! Make sure you stream TINY PRETTY THINGS on Netflix!

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Deadline City goes to the Library! What books populate your shelves? What makes you love a story forever? What turns you away? This discussion is focused on recent industry conversations involving the place of classic novels and how that ties into a larger discussion about the state of YA, and beyond.  

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This week we do a deep dive into the revision process. Or as Dhonielle calls it, the Revision Dumpster. That's right, we live here. Revision can often feel like a huge mountain to climb. So how do you actually do it? What do you focus on? We go over our process, what has worked in the past, what is working now, and more bickering from your Deadline City aunties. 

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Welcome to the jungle! On this week's episode of Deadline City, we tackle all kinds of jealousy monsters. Each one has a character and purpose because we know that there are tons of forms of jealousy. The question is, which one are you and which have we been? This topic is tricky and sometimes hard to talk about. But as always, we strive to be as transparent as we can, and hope that these anecdotes can help you resolve some of your own publishing dilemmas--or even better--avoid them! 

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Love is in the air. Sort of. This week on Deadline City we do a deep dive into what makes for a compelling love triangle. What makes a love triangle versus a love tent? We look at the most popular books like the Twilight and Shadowhunters series, as well as discuss our tips to write our own versions, as well as what to steer away from. 

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It's that time of the year again and we are in the trenches of deadlines, specifically NaNoWriMo. Whether you're new to National Novem Writing Month or you wait for November to roll around to get to work, this episode is for you! It focuses on how we write and how we prepare for the marathon. What's your NaNo novel this year? 

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Come with us on a journey to the past...ish. This section of Deadline City is called Oldville, where historical fiction waits for us. Our first special guest of the season is Chloe Gong, author of The Violent Delights. How much research is too much research? What books do we love that mix historical and fantasy? Get some tips and more on this week's episode of Deadline City. 

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We're living in Burn Out Borough this week on Deadline City. What does burn out look like for working authors? We talk about our biggest fears, our worst habits, and the things we do to get out of this part of Deadline City. Plus, every writing metaphor we can find! 

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We are back for season three! That means more deadlines, more book shop talk, and more Dhonielle and Zoraida shenanigans. This week we're headed to the Short Story Zone. We've been involved in a lot of short story anthologies lately and we wanted to break down the process a little bit, especially the ingredients that we thinking about when writing in this medium in particulate. Thanks for listening and be sure to subscribe! 

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