Discovered Wordsmiths

Overview

When she was in her mid-twenties, debut author Diane Zinna found herself completely on her own in a new city, teaching at a small Catholic college outside of DC. She was in the middle of a long period of grief following the loss of both of her parents when she met and befriended a Swedish student at the school. Their bond deepened, and the student invited her to visit Sweden with her for the summer. This trip was a sort of thawing out for Zinna, and the start of a long-awaited healing process. But questions stuck in her mind long after she returned home: what if things had gone wrong on the trip, when Zinna was still so emotionally fragile? What if things took a turn at the school she worked at, which had been a lifeline for her at the time? What would she have had to learn to keep going? Out of these questions came THE ALL-NIGHT SUN, a propulsive, memorable debut.Diane Zinna is originally from Long Island, New York. She received her MFA from the University of Floridaand has taught writing workshops for more than a decade. She formerly worked at AWP, the Association of Writers & Writing Programs, and in 2014, Diane created the Writer to Writer Mentorship Program, helping to match more than six hundred writers over twelve seasons. Diane has become well-known for her popular, online grief writing sessions that have grown each Sunday since the start of the pandemic. Diane lives in Fairfax, Virginia, with her husband and daughter. The All-Night Sun is her first novel.

Her Book

All-night sun

Favorites

Lincoln in Bardo

https://www.bardsalley.com/

YouTube

https://youtu.be/-fCXLZ_Lyqw

Transcript

Diane, I want to walk him into the podcast. And how are you doing today?

[00:01:38] Diana: I'm doing great. Thank you so much for having me.

[00:01:41] Stephen: It's good to see you. I'm glad we could get on. Let's tell everybody a little bit about you tell us where you live and what you like to do besides.

[00:01:51] Diana: Sure. So I live right now, right outside of Washington, DC in Northern Virginia, but I grew up on long island and went to college on long island and [00:02:00] did my masters and were pretty writing in Florida.

So I've been all up and down the east coast, but I'm a Northern Virginia girl now. Other than writing. I love to travel, which I haven't been able to do much lately, but people who've read my work can really see and feel my love of visiting other cultures and countries. And part of that I think is also my love for learning other languages.

And so I'm always, probably have my nose in my phone doing an app or. I am just reading a little bit of something and another language has to keep adding more and more words and sounds to

[00:02:37] Stephen: my heart. Yeah. And I know a lot of people are discovering reading on the phone, actually isn't bad,

Overview

Will is an interesting writer. When he started writing, he wrote kids choose your own adventure books. Now he is switching to writing adult thrillers. That's what he loves, and it makes the writing more fun and leads to a better story.

We discuss his influences, which are a bit surprising for a thriller writer, and what's next.

YouTube

Transcript

[00:00:50] Stephen: Yeah. All right. So let's talk some author stuff, which we do quite a bit. Yes. And the publishing the [00:01:00] business, and there's a whole lot to it. Now you said you wrote the, choose your own adventure books almost as an experiment, which I thought was great because I did the same thing with a few fiction books.

I wrote them to see if I could do it, to see what it's like to publish, see if they would sell, see how all of that jet. What did, what were some other things you learned from writing the, choose your own adventure books that are helping you now writing thriller?

[00:01:28] Will: Yeah. They cover that showcases your general.

I say that because we were very fortunate that we had a great cover artist who did the first two covers for our a series of fund mistakes. He donated them and he is very tired. He is a comic book artist though. So the covers people contacted us and said, I don't have all the images. I don't have all the illustrations.

And that was something that we had not thought about. So the last two books go [00:02:00] more along with the John. So I would say your cover is extremely important. Study others in your genre and don't feel bad if you think I'm stealing from them. Everybody steals from everybody. Okay. If you are writing a mystery and there is somebody with a magnifying glass and a trench coat on another book, see how that book sold.

Okay. Maybe you need something just like that or just a variation. And the other thing I've learned is to listen to your fans. I had no intention of writing an entire saga for port. Until the fans started saying, where does it go? What's next? And then it really helped me get feedback to start saying, okay, let's take the character in this direction.

Let's see what people think. Let's listen to our launch team, see what they think about this. So it really was something, listen to your fans and get a cover that fits your job. There

[00:02:55] Stephen: you go. And I agree. Over and over, [00:03:00] even from J D Barker, J D burger's been with Jim Patterson on the, a New York times bestseller.

And he said, if the guy over here in your genre is selling books and he has a girl looking to the left and there's a sunset behind her, you should put a girl looking to the left with a son. It is not just because the cover is what. Need to say, oh yeah, I like that type of book. It's not to say, oh, the story in that book looks great.

[00:03:32] Will: You don't see a vampire book with just like a ship on the cup. It might take place on a ship, but you need to see something that is power related. You need to see things, you see blood, you need to see a bat and you see it. But you know, it takes place on a ship then maybe you see like bigger and a cake Dracula on a ship, but you don't have.

And

[00:03:54] Stephen: I think it's changed through the years. I think sometimes people look at stuff from like the seventies [00:04:00] that they read loved growing up and they go, oh, I want it like that because you mentioned vampires.

Overview

Will knows technology and has a PhD in technology. He uses that knowledge for his latest book.

He lives in Mississippi with his wife. Together they've worked on his author and publishing career, starting out with a Kids Choose Your Own Adventure book. Lately, Will has switched gears and is finishing his first adult thriller - You Will Know Vengeance.

Our discussion is focused on the thriller book that will be out soon, but we talk about the CYOA book also and contrast how different it is to write a change in genre.

His Book

Favorites

https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Hitchhikers-Guide-Galaxy-Boxset/dp/1529044197?&_encoding=UTF8&tag=mindarchitect-20&linkCode=ur2&linkId=e9d0e8c51876495fedea39d63a338a4d&camp=1789&creative=9325

https://www.amazon.com/Brad-Meltzer/e/B000APEDVC?&_encoding=UTF8&tag=mindarchitect-20&linkCode=ur2&linkId=a1c43779d47d946e68f266e4d64fcbeb&camp=1789&creative=9325

Square Books - https://www.squarebooks.com/

YouTube

Transcript

[00:00:51] Stephen: All right, here we go. Episode 100. How crazy is that? I'm super pumped, super excited. Uh, this interview today is with will pepper. [00:01:00] Uh, we actually did this many months ago, but it got kind of back logged and it got put somewhere. I totally forgot about it. Uh, and now just getting it. And I had told them, um, it wouldn't come out for a while, but I didn't mean for this long, but we'll start it off.

And this is how I met him writing a, choose your own adventure kids book. And that's how I kind of discovered him. He's also in the author success mastermind, which is now, uh, author. Uh, sorry, the author life, uh, group with J thorn and a bunch of others and will, and I have been to, uh, some events together.

So it was a great talk, had a great time. Uh, he, I love the shirt that he puts on. So please go check out the YouTube, uh, see what we look like if you haven't done that before. And, uh, we had a good talk because he is changing from the kids' books to thrillers, which I thought was [00:02:00] an interesting change. So for all of you readers out there, this first part is about the thriller book talking about what it's going to be like coming out.

But we do talk about the, choose your own adventure book and starting off with writing kids books, but then for all the writers out there, we talk about what it's like to switch genres, what you have to think about what you have to do. And again, he doesn't have a lot of data yet to back up how well it's going to go for him, but it was an interesting talk.

So something for everybody. So sit back and enjoy Wilbur. Today, discover the world Smith discovered wordsmith. I happy to have rolled pepper on with me today. And will you look wonderful? I must say thank

[00:02:44] Will: you. Dress for success. That's what it is

[00:02:46] Stephen: right there. I love that it hearkens back to the dress for the job you want, and I'm going to dress up like Batman getting ready to say, or

[00:02:52] Will: a jet

[00:02:53] Stephen: at night or Jedi Knight.

Yeah, that would fit both. I do have a star wars shirt on, so there you go. Yeah.

Overview

All authors can relate to imposter syndrome. This typically happens to new authors, but everyone seems to experience it at some point.

We have a good discussion on what is imposter syndrome, why you may feel that way, and why it isn't true.

YouTube

https://youtu.be/XmF2nfwZ7tE

Transcript

Let's talk a little author stuff. Since you are a published author you, this is your first book, correct? It's, you're working on your second one. You have ideas for others.

So what are some things you've learned from when you first started to what you're doing now? You're doing,

[00:16:24] Davia: When I first started, everything was just done so rushed within two weeks and then a month later I published it and everything writing my second, but now giving me that time to like really go in, really edit every single piece.

Make it say what it is that I wanna say and capture what it is that I wanna capture. I think giving spent time is what I've really learned in this entire process. Even if one day you can't write that's okay. You're just, you're giving yourself and your work, the time to be exactly what it is that you want it to be.

Apart from that I'm really learning about like social media marketing. It's been a long road. I'm slowly getting, [00:17:00] but right. I barely even post on my social media in my personal life. That's been the major Problems that I've been facing this entire time. So I've been learning a little bit about like when to post and hashtag fees and all of that, but it's been a interesting journey.

[00:17:14] Stephen: We were just talking about TikTok and the videos and ideas I get on and update. Author pages and stuff. And then my wife gets irritated if I'm not reading her posts and stuff. yeah. You mentioned your first book you wrote it in two weeks. You, weren't under pressure to write it.

Do you feel, maybe you wrote it too quick and you're thinking you should have taken long or do you feel it was just right?

[00:17:38] Davia: I actually feel it was just right. The only reservation or issue that I had with my first book was that. I do feel like it's too short and I've gotten a lot of reviews about that saying that it's too short.

So I like to classify it as more of a Chatbook than an actual book. But it just, when I wrote that last sentence on that last page I was like, I don't need to go any further. This is exactly what I wanted to say. But I [00:18:00] hope to make my second book a lot longer. To appease my readers and myself too.

[00:18:07] Stephen: Okay. And how long is the first book?

[00:18:09] Davia: It is 48 pages,

[00:18:11] Stephen: I believe. Okay. How many poems is that?

[00:18:14] Davia: It works out to roughly, I wanna say 22 poems. Okay. And it, I have a preface that explains like the whole book and kinda a little letter to Alex.

[00:18:26] Stephen: Very nice. So your second book's also poetry once that's published, you'll have two separate volumes have you, and this may be way ahead of thoughts for what you may do, but have you thought of combining them into one volume to put out? So people have a choice between individual or the complete volume, making it a little bigger.

[00:18:48] Davia: Actually I have it, but you have some great ideas.

[00:18:55] Stephen: Things that other authors have done.

Overview

D.A. hails from Georgia, though she grew up in Jamaica. When a friend passed, she poured her grief into poetry, which led to her book - To Fight Fire with Sun.

Her Book

https://www.amazon.com/Fight-Fire-Sun-D-Andrews-ebook/dp/B08QMFLX45

Favorites

The Bridge Kingdom

https://amplifybookstore.com/

YouTube

https://youtu.be/IO1Y8Jmuq94

Transcript

Davia morning or afternoon, welcome to a discovered wordsmith. Great to talk to you. How are you doing today? I'm good. How are you doing good. Great. Let's find out a little bit about you before we talk about your book. So tell everybody what you like to do some of the things you do outside of writing, where you live, things that

well, currently I live in Brunswick, Georgia.

I'm originally from Jamaica. I born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica. I think I moved when I was 21. Oh, wow. Yeah. so I'm like full BR Jamaican. I currently live in Brunswick, Georgia, and outside of writing. I pretty much just, I read a lot and , I'm always watching Netflix something.

got it. So why'd you move from Jamaica?

I got a job offer in. First, originally I got a job offer in Buford, Georgia, which is Northern Georgia. And then I got another job offer like a year later down in Brunswick where I am today.

Okay. Do you go back to visit, you still have family back there?

Yes. I still have my parents back there.

My little brother is back there as well. I go back. I try to go back once a year, but it's been hard because of COVID. Yeah.

Yeah. I used to work on a cruise ship that went to grand Bahama island. So I haven't been everywhere down there, but , I definitely bragged everybody cuz it was over Christmas and I said, yeah, guess what?

I'm on a beach with a, it was like very beautiful and gorgeous.

Oh, I've always wanted to go to The Bahamas. Yeah.

So that's about as close as I've gotten. You said you like to go back, visit family. Do you do. Anything music or anything like that?

No, I just, I listen to a lot of music, but IM not musically inclined at all.

It just, it seemed you might be a musical person, a lot of writers it Okay. I dunno, maybe just I'm thinking back to the music when I was working on the cruise ship. So what made you start writing? What you said you got a job here and now you're writing. Do you still have the job?

Do you just write what got you started to wanna write?

Still, I still have the job. My work in hospitality in events. I run a lot of mostly weddings, but I don't think there was like a set time in my life when I wanted to write. I just always have been, I remember getting really good feedback from my high school English teacher on a short story I wrote and I just kept going and going.

And I took a creative writing in college in Jamaica when I did my bachelor's degree. And.

Overview

Authors talk about the different frameworks and structures they use to help their writing. These can be confusing for new authors - what are they and why should I use them?

On our panel, we have a diverse group of authors. Authors that have written for years and authors that have one book published. Non-fiction and fiction. Fantasy, historical fiction, and thriller. We cover the gamut and it is a nice perspective on the topic.

We talk about: Hero's Journey, Heroine's Journey, Save the Cat, Snowflake Method, and Three Story Method. Each author has at least one of these they've used, and most of the authors have used several. We discuss when it's good to use and when they don't work.

Participants

S.A. Schneider - https://sa-schneider.com

Middle grade fantasy author.

Joel Burcat - https://joelburcat.com

Episode 92

Mystery thriller author

Valerie Ihsan (Three Story Method Editor) - https://valerieihsan.com and https://valerieihsanauthor.com/

Women's fiction

Kathrese McKee (Three Story Method Editor) - https://kathresemckee.com and https://writingpursuits.com

Young adult epic adventure author

Dave Milbrandt - https://davemilbrandt.com

Episode 64

Mystery thriller author

Mary Jackson - https://maryejackson.com/

Episode 78

Kids author

Jessica Bertrand - https://www.jessicabertrand.com/

Episode 63

Superhero author

Catherine Spader - https://catherinespader.com/

Episode 59

Dark Fantasy author

K.S. Barton - https://ksbarton.com/

Episode 37

Historical Fiction author

Angela Haas

The Books

David reads the prologue from his first book - Breakthrough to Yes.

Breakthrough to Yes - David Savage

Overview

David and I discuss making sure your brand and book align and how they support each other. Even though David writes non-fiction, the advice applies to fiction and non-fiction.

David also offers any listeners of Discovered Wordsmith a free copy of his book - Better by Design. Contact him at his website:

https://davidbsavage.com

YouTube

Transcript

[00:01:27] Stephen: So let's move on to some author stuff and discuss a little bit about the process of writing and publishing. So you've written a whole series of books. What are some things that you have learned?

That you're doing different than you used to do?

[00:01:41] David: One of the things that I've found is I'm writing anyways, I'm a writer, I've always been a writer. So obviously one of the common things that you probably hear from your guests is just make the commitment. And for me that means sit down at my laptop at five 30 every morning.

And whether brilliance [00:02:00] comes out or not, you're committing. To that you're committing to your purpose. The other part of it is that while it's, you're either a writer or a pretender and to be a better writer, I look at the outcome that I want. So it's actually not the book. It's not having, seven books to others and then three to come.

It's actually a, what's my purpose. What's my. When people reach out to David B. Savage, who do they think they're reaching out to? So that's the bigger lesson that I've learned in the last, eight years as a publishing more often is that writing books helps me clarify. My thoughts helps me bringing in other wisdom helps me learn.

But it also. Really helps me to understand that I'm creating a promise to my readers. No, I haven't made a million dollars who got that big cash advance from, whomever. But [00:03:00] when people come to me for a coaching or consulting or a conflict resolution or helping them design new projects, they know what they're getting.

So it is really a stream of offerings where the books as a writer is only a part of it. So for example many of us just like the right, but we really don't like to stand in front of a podium or standing between two company presidents that are fighting. If that's the case, But for me, it's the full meal deal.

And I need to present myself and write consistently as somebody that really encourages and supports and provides proof of collaborative leadership. So they, I guess on the on the ego side, I think a lot of people. And orphan their books. Oh, I wrote a book now I can stop all of this challenge and pain for the last two years I've been through in developing this [00:04:00] masterpiece.

So now I can get back to my real life. No, it can't work that way. That, that is truly just an ego thing. If we know why we're writing who we are, the services we offer to our clients and to our grandchild. It all flows together and it has to flow together. So I really encourage other writers to be your brand.

What your book is, needs to be aligned with what your purpose is and what your, what you offer to the world.

[00:04:27] Stephen: And that's what we're going to talk a bit about is be your brand. Elaborate on that a little bit more. What are you trying to tell authors about be your brand and how their book is their brand that they are there?

[00:04:39] David: For me the the influence and my bank account is filled.

Overview

Today's author, David Savage, lives in British Columbia, Canada and loves living among the Rocky Mountains.

He used his career in oil and gas to get the start for his current work and book. His whole life has been helping people with conflicts and negotiation. That knowledge turned into a series of books to help everyone with conflict.

David is also offering to send a free copy of his book tothe first 20 people to email him. Visit his website:

Website

https://www.davidbsavage.com/

About David

David brings expertise, experience, and leadership including oil and gas, renewable energy, health care, entrepreneurship, stakeholder engagement, business development, coaching, and conflict management. Over a ten-year period, David and his partners collaborated to develop 5 companies and 4 not for profits. Since 2007, Savage Management has focused on building capacity, innovation, and accountability in people and in and between organizations and communities.

Beginning in 2015, David has published seven books and hosted forty-five podcasts on collaborative leadership, negotiation, critical thinking, and collaboration.

Currently, David is;

* President 2021/22, Rotary Club of Cranbrook Sunrise,* Co-Chair, Environmental Sustainability Rotary Action Group D 5080 (SEBC, E. Washington & N. Idaho),* Advisor, The Canadian Energy and Climate Nexus, and* Director, Waterton Glacier International Peace Park Association.

His Book

Better By Design - David Savage

Favorites

Think again - Adam Grant

https://huckleberrybooks.ca/

YouTube

Transcript

[00:00:49] Stephen: Hey, wordsmith humans. Welcome to another great episode. I've got. The important one for you today? David Savage, who has used his knowledge through business [00:01:00] from his whole life, helping people with conflicts and he's putting it into a series of books. So this is a good one. We could probably all use some at times, especially.

If we're in business and negotiating contracts. So it's a good talk with David. And if you have a need for that, this is a one to go check out before that though. I want to give you a quick listen Kobo writing life. If you are a reader and you're looking for someplace other than. The main one that people buy books online, check out, cover writing life.

They do a lot for the authors. They do a lot for the readers, so it'd be a good one to find some great books and get something. So here's Kobo writing.

[00:01:43] David: Hi, I'm Rachel and I'm Joni and we're from Kobo writing life Cobos free, fast and easy self publishing platform. KWL was built by authors for authors and our team of dedicated book lovers is always ...