This is a story about a struggling writer who gets invited to a writing retreat. She's thrilled because it's a once in a lifetime opportunity with a famous horror novelist. The retreat takes place at a remote estate, where even the house has a dark and storied past. We’re talking about the NY Times bestseller The Writing Retreat, with author, therapist and creative coach Julia Bartz.

Thanks to Simon and Schuster Audio for providing the foreboding moments from the audiobook narrated by the wonderful and award winning Gail Shalan. https://www.gailshalan.com/

To hear the rest of the story, you can purchase the audiobook and support this podcast by following this link to Libro.fm where you can also select a local book store to benefit from your purchase.

Thanks to episode sponsor Pozotron. Here's a ⁠link⁠ to get a free demo of all the great ways they help audio storytellers.

And finally, here's a link to connect to Julia's latest news. https://www.juliabartz.com/

If you enjoyed this episode, please interact in some way with the podcast - like, share, follow, subscribe, leave a review - wherever you listen.

Thanks!

This is a story about a detective, a cold case forensics expert named Elise. But this isn’t just a cold case, crime solving detective story. This story begins with our detective caught in the middle of an active crime scene. She fires her weapon for the first time. She takes a man’s life to save another man. Then, the saved man disappears from the scene, and Elise is drawn to him looking for answers. What she finds when this man enters her life is a very dangerous game.  

This is a scary story. A classic horror story - with a haunted house, a monster, and unflinching violence. But, there’s something else here too…  we’re talking about Everything the Darkness Eats by Eric LaRocca with narrator Andrè Santana. 

This is a story set in the Wild West in the early 1900’s. The story centers around a woman named Ruby who is living a mostly quiet and mostly lawful life… when out of the blue her past comes hustling into town and takes her and us on a journey filled with missteps and mayhem.

This is a story about a family.  It is a close up look at a father and daughter, at two sisters, at a husband and wife. But, it’s also this huge story about tradition and patriarchy and freedom. It felt like poetry to me at times.. and this conversation about it was so rich. We’re talking about In the Time of our History with author Susanne Pari on this Desideratum. 

This is a collection of 10 classic short stories written over a hundred years ago, brought together in a carefully curated anthology. Each story gives a feminine perspective on marriage - its role in society and the personal beauty and pain that can be found within its bonds. We’re talking about Marriage from the Feminine Perspective annotated, published and narrated by Christine Mascott. The anthology earned Christine an Audiofile Earphones Award and a coveted Audie Finalist in the Short Stories and Collections category. Listen to what led her to these public domain, royalty free, stories from the past in the first place and find out why she thinks they still have something to say today.

Find the audiobook here: https://www.amazon.com/Marriage-Feminine-Perspective-Classic-Stories/dp/B09MRVDZJL/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Our sponsor for this episode is Pozotron - the audio proofing platform designed to help narrators, proofers, and publishers produce more accurate and efficient audiobooks. Find out more and sign up for a free demo here: https://www.pozotron.com/

This is a story about a girl growing up in San Francisco in the 1930’s - her family suffers one tragedy after another and she decides to escape the city and head to Yosemite… 

Where she crosses paths with a real person in history - a Park Ranger named Enid Michael. 

We’re talking about the historical fiction, The View From Half Dome, with author Jill Caugherty. 

Jill shares how her storyline and characters evolved.  It always fascinates me to hear how one idea built up from the last - how one thing leads to another. I also really liked hearing Jill explain contrast and its importance to this story.

The scene you’ll hear from the audiobook is young Izzy’s first real hike in Yosemite.  She’s with Enid and Ansel and Virginia Adams. Thanks to the publisher Black Rose Writing for giving me the joy of narrating this story. And, thank you for listening. Remember when you enjoy a book in any format, please leave a review - reviews actively help with marketing and improve visibility and sales - plus it’s just nice. 

https://www.jillcaugherty.com/

https://www.amazon.com/The-View-from-Half-Dome/dp/B0C3J9JPH4/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Full Transcription with time stamps available here:

https://otter.ai/u/z2o5nwxAu7vXc_XOb4bvFO7G-mQ?utm_source=copy_url