Discovered Wordsmiths

Overview

Donna takes us back and explores what it was like growing up in the 60's. It is a memoir of her remembrances as a teen.

Besides that, she has written a historical fiction called Last Magdalene. It is a 4 book series that is Christian based. While it isn't non-fiction, it uses known events to create a fiction series. The focus is on Mary Magedalene.

Book

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0972344314/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0972344314&linkCode=as2&tag=saschneider-20&linkId=85d21158f1ec3aab7254ea259651535b

Website

https://donnaconrad.com/category/house-of-the-moon/

YouTube

Transcript

[00:00:49] Stephen: Hey, welcome to episode 87 of discovered wordsmiths. Now, before we get to the interview with Donna, let's hear a few words from Kindle writing life. One of my [00:01:00] shutout promos.

[00:01:04] Donna: Hi, I'm Rachel. 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 working hard to help offers, reach new readers around the world. With Cobra writing life authors can now publish audio books and eBooks right in their KWL account.

We don't ask for exclusivity and you'll always control your pricing. And up to 16 currencies, you can also create a pre-order for your audio books or e-books with no date limited. We have a lot of freight opportunities for indie authors, including the option to include your books in our Kobo plus subscription catalog and select regions, as well as great promotional opportunities available in the promotions tab, in your KWL dashboard.

If you're a KWL author and you don't yet have access to the promotions tab or the audio book tab, email [email protected] and we'll get you sorted. We're all about providing excellent. Create your free account today at [00:02:00] kobo.com/writing. If you want to learn more about Cobra writing life, check out our blog podcast and find us on socials.

[00:02:08] Stephen: Okay. Now let's get onto the interview with Donna. Donna has an interesting book that is about the sixties surviving the sixties which she did. And we had a really great talk about the time period, how things have changed, and it's important to have books like this. That Chronicle, what really happened in various times things happening today, we'll get some good books in the future by people who lived through it.

This is an auto biography and she talks about why she wrote it. And some of the interesting things, we had a good discussion about Kent state, which is very close to me. And I just want to apologize up front. We had some internet problems that day and it dropped a couple of times. I've spliced things together, but it seems we're missing part of the interview the second half.

So all we've got is the first half talking about her wonderful book. I apologize for [00:03:00] this and we'll have to have Donna on again sometime and talk more author stuff. I hope you'll sit back and enjoy this episode with Donna. Here she is. So Diana, welcome to discovered mood Smith. How are you doing?

[00:03:12] Donna: I'm doing pretty well, except for a bit of a cold.

So excuse me, if I cough or my voice breaks.

[00:03:18] Stephen: Yeah.

Overview

Amanda loves to watch classic movies and television when she isn't writing and reading. And a lot of that consists of horror, which started with R.L. Stine.

We discuss her interesting book - Smithy - about a group of college students working with a chimpanzee to study language. That is, until it appears Smithy is signing with a ghost.

Her Book

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1950301214/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1950301214&linkCode=as2&tag=saschneider-20&linkId=dafa4e8f52119a2bde498377ff379e2e

Favorites

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FGKT89M/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B01FGKT89M&linkCode=as2&tag=saschneider-20&linkId=dd5eb4817c6bd493721aefe5206b9417

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/014313017X/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=014313017X&linkCode=as2&tag=saschneider-20&linkId=61a9d2a9d35d8c06abfc7252ab68dbeb

Book Off - https://www.bookoffusa.com

YouTube

https://youtu.be/OdziEoqcbqg

Transcript

I've got a really great interview with Amanda. She does some horror and has written a really cool, interesting horror book. That's different [00:02:00] than most. Anything else I'd heard about? Uh, so you really have to listen to the interview, find out more about it. If you like horror, this is definitely one you should want to check out.

I also wanted to mention again, uh, that promo, uh, you just heard was from my friends, JP and Christine. If you are a reader and you want to try reading some serial fiction, go check out their show. They talked to some of the hottest serial fiction authors out there today. Uh, and they themselves have serial fiction that you might want to check.

I've got a whole bunch of episodes lined up for this year and some really good stuff coming up. So please come back, listen to the authors, you know, give us some, a thumbs up on the podcast. Get some more people here discovering us, discovered wordsmiths. It is and help out the authors, especially new authors with just one book like Amanda.

Uh, why don't we just get to the interview? Here's Amanda. So Amanda, welcome to discover the word Smith. Good evening. How are you today? [00:03:00] Oh,

[00:03:00] Amanda: I'm well, thank you for having

[00:03:01] Stephen: me. Yeah, it's great that you're on. I'm glad to have you on here. Uh, so, uh, to get started, let everybody know a little bit about you and your background, what you like to do, uh, where you live that.

[00:03:15] Amanda: Sure thing. I live in California. I've lived all my life in the Los Angeles area. I studied psychology and anthropology when I was in college. And both of those topics have inspired. Some of my work psychology was definitely influential in the writing of this novel Smithy. Uh, when I'm not writing, I'm reading a lot as I'm sure you can imagine.

I also love classic movies. Classic television shows. I've always been drawn to the horror genre and I'm a member of the horror writers association.

[00:03:46] Stephen: Well,

Overview

Amanda had an interesting experience getting her book published through Ink Shares. She discusses how important it is to choose a good editor and listen to your editor.

She first entered a contest where the books were basically crowd funded. She won and feels they did a great job helping her finish publishing her book.

She also has tried dictation and shares her results with working that way.

YouTube

https://youtu.be/-yToAeNoDSU

Transcript

[00:00:45] Stephen: All right before we get to the second half of the interview with Amanda, where we talk a lot about editing. Uh, working with editors and the company she went through to get her book published. Uh, let's hear from Emma. She right now is [00:01:00] running a masterclass. So if you listen to this, you may want to go check out her masterclass.

There's a lots of authors in there that have some great information to teach you. I'll put a link in the show notes, but, uh, let's hear from Emma and then we'll get right to the interview with.

[00:01:16] Amanda: Hi, I'm Emma Desi. And I host turning readers into writers, a podcast for first time novelists each week I interviewed debut authors, editors, publishers, and even number one best sellers who help you find the time and confidence to write your own first.

Together, we'll keep you inspired, motivated, and educated on all things, writing, editing, and publishing. So head on over to Emma, desi.com, where you'll find everything you need to know to start and finish your novel.

[00:01:51] Stephen: So before we get started talking about our topic, uh, which I have several questions on, um, what are some things you have learned with your [00:02:00] first book that you're doing differently with your next couple of.

[00:02:06] Amanda: Um, my first book was published almost by chance. I entered it in a contest that a hybrid publisher was offering. Um, having had the chance to work with a hybrid publisher. I think I'd like to have a chance to self publish one of my books to see. How it would feel to have a little more control over the books.

Um, the publisher that I worked with did make a lot of points about the marketability of the book that I hadn't considered. They brought up issues about manuscripts that might make it difficult to create an audio adaptation. It talked about audience expectations and how to pitch the book to read her.

And those were all things that I never thought about. I'm looking at the book from the artistic perspective about the story. I want to tell him, not necessarily thinking about. The nitty gritty features. So now that I have a little bit of preface to what goes into marketing book, I'm [00:03:00] going to be a little bit more aware of those issues as whether I end up self-publishing it, or whether I publish it traditionally.

Um, but I'm going to have to think about how those factors are going to impinge on my narrative.

[00:03:12] Stephen: Okay, well, let's talk a little bit more about anxious, cause I'm not familiar with them and they sound like something, uh, other others may be interested in. So you said they do a, like a crowdfunding. So essentially they have a whole big list of books and the ones that get the most attention and votes are the ones they help promote and get out into the world.

Does that sound okay?

Here is chapter 13 from Antoine's book "TJ and the Orishas".

Overview

Antoine returns and has exciting updates. He has continued to create stories for his series, and has started something new.

The most exciting is that he is in talks with a producer to turn one of his books into a movie! We discuss how this happened and what's going on with the whole process.

Previous Episode - https://www.discoveredwordsmiths.com/2020/07/17/episode-10-antoine-bandele-by-sea-and-sky/

YouTube

https://youtu.be/OYEIh_RI1uc

Transcript

[00:01:31] Stephen: Hey, that was ever Desi. One of my friends that does a podcast. If you are interested in going from a writer to becoming an earth, sorry, if you're interested in going from being just a reader to becoming a writer, Emma is the one, check her out.

I have a list of hers and other podcasts on my website under recommendation. All right. As we get ready to do the final episode of this year, 2021 and [00:02:00] moving into 2022, I have a second interview with Antwan Mandalay. He was one of the first ones. I think one of the first 10 or 15 people I interviewed very exciting.

His fantasies are about something other than the typical European mythology. And he also has some exciting news about possible movie based on one of his books. So as excited to talk to Antwan, um, I would like to ask again, if you are listening to these podcasts and you're enjoying them, please check out the books, the authors books, that's why they're doing this.

They want to provide entertainment and they enjoy doing it, but without support, they stopped doing it. And that's not what we. Also, it would really help a lot. If you would pass on to somebody else, Hey, you might enjoy this and have listened to the podcast or go do a review, do a thumbs up. It would really help the podcast a whole lot.

Uh, so here is [00:03:00] Antwan Antwan. Welcome back to discovered wordsmiths. It's good to talk to you again. How are you doing.

[00:03:07] Antoine: I am doing well, particularly because last night, my softball team and I won the championship at our little rec league.

[00:03:13] Stephen: Nice. Congrats. Very good. So that answers the next question. What are some of the things you're doing lately?

Winning, winning softball.

[00:03:21] Antoine: That's like my only outside activity right now. Everything else is publishing or YouTube.

[00:03:26] Stephen: Okay. So let's dive into that. I want to hear some of the things you're doing because I think some other authors would be very in. So when we talked about remind us what type of books you

[00:03:37] Antoine: write?

I write fantasy books in particular. Although right now I'm thinking about doing lit RPG. I'm actually having a conversation with a few RPG authors one tonight, and then hopefully another one within the week. But all of my fantasies are based on African or African diaspora, myth and folklore.

[00:03:54] Stephen: Okay. So we talked last time, uh, is not the typical [00:04:00] epic token.

Fantasies something different. One

[00:04:03] Antoine: series is expansive like that. Cause I have two main series, one being TJ young in DOD shows, which is modern day that one's more akin to Lucy Jackson and area. And then I have son story,

Overview

Diane lives in Los Angeles and is a teacher, though she used to live in Ohio and had her book published by KSU press. Her work, teaching, and book focus on the Inklings - the famous writer's group that C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien were a part of.

She has insights into the group that anyone interested in these writers - or a writer interested in the group - will find fascinating. She has discovered writing and connected them to show the changes to the manuscripts because of the feedback from the other writers.

Her book

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1606352768/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1606352768&linkCode=as2&tag=saschneider-20&linkId=f6fe0fde093fad3698d1cbccc607d44e

YouTube

https://youtu.be/BMh3u6zCqqg

Transcript

[00:01:53] Stephen: that was JP and Christine from the serial fiction show. Great podcast. Whether you are a writer or a reader, they [00:02:00] have a separate. Show for each one of you. So if you're would like to get into serial fiction as a writer or a read some of the serial fiction available, they've got something for you.

Wonderful podcast check. In today's episode, I'm really excited to welcome Diane glider. You may not recognize her name, which is why we have this podcast to introduce you to people. You may not recognize, but I was very excited to talk Diane, because she is a professor that has studied and written several books on the inklings, which was the group writer group formed by several people, including CS Lewis and JRR token.

And she talks a lot about. The group, how they influence each other, the benefits of how they influence each other. It's a great conversation. Had really fun talking to her. What really got me interested in her book. It's called Bandersnatch, but I was introduced to it through J thorn in his mastermind group.

And he. Lives here [00:03:00] in Ohio. So that gave me some interest. If another Ohio author was interested in it, but also Diane printed the book through Kent state press, which I live eight miles away from. So it has a lot of Ohio connections. So I figured I'd add to that list. By interviewing Diane from me, she is not from, not in Ohio, she's out in California, but this is a really great interview, really fun time talking to her, learned a whole lot and had a whole lot of things to think about afterwards.

So enjoy the interview and I hope it gives you a lot to think about also here's Diane.

[00:03:37] Diane: My desire in writing Bandersnatch was to get outside of just the people who are. Familiar with Lewis and Tolkien, and really reach out to creative people of all stripes and to encourage that collaborative way of working.

[00:03:50] Stephen: Yeah. So let's officially get started and feel free. If you have something really exciting and fun to share, jump in, I try and keep it casual [00:04:00] conversation as much as possible. So it's not just back and forth questions and answers. All right, Diana. Welcome to discovered wordsmith. I'm very excited to have you here today.

How are you?

[00:04:10] Diane: I'm doing great. What a privilege it is to talk with you. I'm really excited about today's conversation.

[00:04:16] Stephen: You used to live in Ohio. So right now we've got gray skies in Northeast Ohio. So that's what you're missing. I

Overview

David reads a chapter from Crow Tower entitled Garden of Jacob.

His Book

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08W3PCLDP/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B08W3PCLDP&linkCode=as2&tag=saschneider-20&linkId=0500b84e79c6b4845d5c420e35495ea9

Overview

David is back to update us on his Crow Man book world. He's had some problems and we discuss what he's doing to help that and thoughts on what any author could do.

He also would like to get a book of short stories based in his Crow Man world and offers any author that would like to participate in a short story compilation to get in contact with him

raedvdr at netscape.net (replace at with @)

To hear a bit from one of his Crow books, listen to the next episode 83C where he reads a chapter from his latest book.

Previous episode - https://www.discoveredwordsmiths.com/2020/12/21/episode-31a-david-rae-crowman/

YouTube

Transcript

[00:00:46] Stephen: All right. Welcome to episode 83 of discovered words. This is the second interview with David Ray. He was on early on in the podcast and he's come back to give us a little update about his Crow [00:01:00] series. We talk a little bit about issues faced. Don't really come up with a good solution to it though. We do have a good talk.

David also is offering anyone that would like to write in his Crow world that has read the books and enjoys the settings and joys of the character. And you may have an idea for a story, a short story. Anybody that's interested can get ahold of him. I'll put his, uh, website on the show notes. And if you write a short story, he'll curate them to compile into a short story collection.

So if you're looking for a collection to get into a, this could be it, check out his book and you might find something. You really enjoy and would like to be a part of, so it's nice, David, Doffer this? Check it out. If you're an author looking for some world to write in, I want to wish everybody a Merry Christmas.

If you've noticed there've been two episodes coming out each week and. Particular episode [00:02:00] has the interview and then a separate episode with a chapter read, which I've been doing with some of the authors who would like to do that. So it ends up being three, four episodes per week. That's because I've had so many people want to be on so many people want to get back on so many people wanting to read their chapters.

Everything's gotten very busy with discovered wordsmith. So I hope you're enjoying things. Uh, let me ask if you are listening to it and enjoy. Go check out the author's books, give them some love. They work really hard to get these books out. And that's one of the issues David and I talk about is how hard it is to get a book out and make some money.

You might spend a hundred hours on it and make a hundred dollars off of it. If you're like. So the authors, the reason I wanted to do this is to help authors that are struggling authors that are trying to figure out how to make a, make some money with selling books and entertaining people [00:03:00] by doing that, by letting their create creative urges and juices flow.

Okay. There you go. Um, but that would help a lot and to help the podcast, if you're listening to it, that's great. Let somebody else know. That, Hey, check this podcast out. Uh, listen to some of these authors and read their books. And if you're, if you go to your podcast, Provider the app, uh, apple, wherever it is, give us a thumbs up, give us some stars, give us a review.

It would help a lot. The more reviews a podcast gets, the easier it is to be discovered.

Overview

Before Justin wrote his own books, he was involved with writing stories for video games like Tell Tale's Walking Dead series. His writing also has included screenwriting.

Justin is an ex-marine and lives with his family in California. He has moved from San Francisco to the L.A. area.

His first books were middle grade with the pen name Justin M Sloan. This is on top of the video game writing, screenwriting, sci-fi, and ghost writing.

Book

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1503125831/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1503125831&linkCode=as2&tag=saschneider-20&linkId=adb3285fd3b26acc5a84e4b3a2df079b

Heading

https://youtu.be/PWAd9LUdSdY

Transcript

[00:00:49] Stephen: Hey, discovered word Smith. Uh, before we get to the second half of the interview with Justin, where we talk more storytelling, video games, just like last week, I [00:01:00] wanted to let you listen to one of the shout out promos. This is for my friends, Christine and JP. They do these serial fiction show and they'll tell you all about it.

And then we'll get right to Justin.

[00:01:20] Justin: Hello, we're JP and Christine co-host of the serial fiction show. Do you like to read or write serial fiction and want to learn more? We have two podcasts, the reader serial fiction show and the writer serial fiction show on the readers, the cast, we escape into a new cereal each week. Then interview the author to tell us more.

On the writer serial fiction show, we break the serial episode down with the author and talk craft finger serial fiction game together. Come get lost in serial fiction and meet some amazing authors along the way to get you reading and writing serial fiction. So hop on over to serial fiction, show.com and check it out.[00:02:00]

We hope to see you there.

[00:02:09] Stephen: All right, Justin, welcome to discovered wordsmith. It's really good to see you today. But before we get started, tell everybody a little bit about yourself, where you live, what you like to do.

[00:02:21] Justin: Sure. So hopefully you don't hear the garbage truck outside just arrived as we started talking.

Yeah. I live in the LA area. It's funny. Cause I always thought about Los Angeles. Just hot and flat and dry and brown, but where I live, it's called lucky yadda it's right up against the mountains and it's just green and it feels like I'm in Seattle, almost not the same amount of rain for sure. But as far as like the greenery and the Hills and the trees it's.

I love it. So we moved here about two and a half years ago from San Francisco to pursue the screenwriting side of life. And I've been enjoying [00:03:00] myself and not regretting it one bit. And before that. Yeah, so we were in the San Francisco area, which is where I worked at telltale games and do a little, couple other little stints up there.

And before that I lived this whole weird life where I was in the Marines and I did a government stuff. I was in the federal reserve bank of San Francisco and I. Japan and Korea and Italy. So a little bit of all over the place and various careers. Yeah. I like to say I'm on my third year. At this point, the first was dishwasher bus boy.

The second one was government brain stuff. And now creative.

[00:03:33] Stephen: Yeah. Nice.

Overview

Justin joins us again for the first time (sorry, it's a thing) to talk about his books. Justin has written many fantasy and sci-fi, some of them have been with Michael Anderle.

We discuss how books are different than video games and what he is working on now, which includes his ghostwriting. Since he writes fantasy, he tells us how it's different than Game of Thrones.

Website

http://www.justinsloanauthor.com/

His Book

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09L1GVDQ7/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B09L1GVDQ7&linkCode=as2&tag=saschneider-20&linkId=718909cbf54b540ea1c2cc2f8f563a76

Favorites

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0545139708/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0545139708&linkCode=as2&tag=saschneider-20&linkId=d6ef0c8b153de68177e4762d9d4af216

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062073494/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0062073494&linkCode=as2&tag=saschneider-20&linkId=627353fbc3aa0228c7f9647dc63d78eb

YouTube

https://youtu.be/6pFkMLlVgZA

Transcript

[00:03:21] Stephen: Let's get started. So this is backwards for me. Usually I talk about books and then we discuss other things, but I got so excited talking to you. I talked about all the other stuff and totally forgot about your books. So this is actually part a when I put them out. So it'll be backwards for everybody listening, but that's fine.

It keeps life interesting. So Justin, where are we found that a little bit about you and all that it's coming up in the actually next part of the interview, but I wanted to talk about your books because you have some interesting titles. So tell us about the fiction that you write.

[00:03:58] Justin: Sure. So I write a lot of different [00:04:00] kinds of fiction and so a lot of it is Saifai a lot of is fantasy.

I got my start back in the day when I had been waiting for the next game of Thrones book to come out. So I wrote my own fantasy. And then it all went crazy from there. I did some middle grade stuff that I finished before that one was really done and inspired by Harry Potter and whatnot. And then went on to write more supernatural stuff I wrote with Michael Anderly for a little bit.

We did probably let me just think real quick, maybe like 16 books together and yeah, that was a lot of fun nowadays. I'm writing a lot more of like kind of space, fantasy, like star wars type stuff.

[00:04:35] Stephen: So couple of questions, first of all, do you find. Problems with going from fantasy sci-fi with readers or people like, Hey, this isn't like the last couple of weeks.

Cause I hear that a lot.

[00:04:49] Justin: Yeah. Uh, so what's interesting about Angelie's readership is that his is very much a mixture already. So. And a lot of those, we just carried over [00:05:00] to me, which is great. And so they don't really care. I would say that when you're trying to reach the broader market or when I'm moving away from that focus, then it's like lately I haven't read a book now with Michael and two years, at least.