In this episode, Sarah reviewed the first chapter of Crafting Novels & Short Stories: The Complete Guide to Writing Great Fiction by Writer's Digest Books (Editor) which gave handy tips about how to organize your writing life. Ashley explored an article called Fantasy World Building: The Power of Detail by C.S. Pacat from the the journal Writing Queensland which looked at how the addition of small details to your setting can make your novels feel more real.

On our Author Spotlight segment this month we chatted with M.K. Stabley. She is a US based author who writes cozy mysteries with a paranormal twist. She has two series, The Eva St. Claire Mysteries and The Alexa Vandagau Mysteries. The next novel in her Eva St. Claire Series will be released in August. When she's not writing, she's talking about writing on her podcast, The Talking Book Podcast. We had an engaging conversation about her writing process, her inspiration, and her writing journey so far.

On this culturing creativity episode, we talked all about developing a healthy writing mindset. We explored what a 'writing mindset' is, why it's so important for your writing, and how to work out an approach to writing that is suited to your individual circumstances.

This craft episode was devoted to the art of creating emotion in your characters and in drawing out emotion from your readers. We discussed tips and tricks we use to engage readers by creating realistic emotion-driven scenes, and why the reader's emotional connection to the characters is important.

On our author spotlight segment this month we had a wonderful chat with Julie Higgins. Julie is a mystery/thriller writer based in the UK. Her debut novel, Finding Ruby, was released in 2019. The sequel, A Long Time Burning, is a Christmas mystery that will be released near the end of this year. We had an engaging conversation with Julie about the process of writing mystery novels, her inspiration, and her writing journey so far.

On this craft episode of Dear Writer, we discussed how to weave backstory into your novel, and why it is important, especially when it comes to the craft of character and relating to your readers.

We introduced two more writing resources on this talking shop episode. Though both articles we chose were more directed at instructors of creative writing classes, they were enlightening and thought-provoking reads. Sarah explored an article called "Writing Here, Writing Now; Making Sense of It All: Examining Cultural and Historical Context in the Introductory Creative Writing Class", by Oindrila Mukherjee. Ashley examined an article called "Before the First Draft: Cultivating Inspiration and Creative Insight in the Classroom", by Brandi Reissenweber.

You can find both articles here:

https://scholarworks.rit.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1261&context=jcws

https://scholarworks.rit.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1043&context=jcws

On our author spotlight this month we were delighted to talk to Melissa McTernan. Melissa is a paranormal/fantasy romance author based in New York. She has three novellas published by small presses: Missing Maren, Through the Fairy Ring, and Secret Family Recipes for Love and Butter Cookies. Her new self-published book, Bewitched By My Best Friend came out last month. We had an inspiring conversation with Melissa about her books, her writing process, and her road thus far.

On another culturing creativity episode, we immersed ourselves once again in genre. But this time, we focussed on how to find the genre that suits you best. To some, it seems like an obvious answer. But we discussed how this affects your writing and your confidence, particularly as a new writer if you're not sure where to start.

On this craft episode of Dear Writer, we talk about how to craft the perfect villain, and the many reasons why the villain is so central to the plot of your novel.