Discovered Wordsmiths

Overview

Terry has had several jobs through the years with writing being his latest. After he moved to Florida to be by family, he took up writing more seriously, and has five books published.

His latest books are cop thrillers with a Latina detective. We discuss writing characters of different backgrounds and why he chose the character he did.

We also talk about other items - like a cookbook and game - that he is working on based on his own books. Besides all of this, he wrote a kids book for his grandson.

His Book

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1955171068/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1955171068&linkCode=as2&tag=saschneider-20&linkId=9b79a0d7674e0c77f216f67d5094ee6e

Website and Podcast

https://terryshepherd.com/

His Website

https://soundcloud.com/authorsontheair/sets/authors-on-the-air-1

His Podcast

Favorites

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08HY34S9N/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B08HY34S9N&linkCode=as2&tag=saschneider-20&linkId=c60f21b21a2a5368895eb41887560379

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08QJ5BCK5/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B08QJ5BCK5&linkCode=as2&tag=saschneider-20&linkId=f817262cc3913ce35de318ae304f746a

YouTube

https://youtu.be/oc1oBRMeyrk

Promo of the week

The Serial Fiction Show

Transcript

Stephen: Hey discovered word Smithers. Welcome to another episode. This is a great fun one. Uh, Terry Shepherd and I talked for a while. Chatted just had a good old time, probably, uh, got off topic a few times. We probably could've talked longer, uh, but we decided, Hey, maybe we really should record. And, uh, do some book talk.

Uh, Terry also has a podcast called authors on the air. Uh, he. Uh, has done a whole lot of great interviews with some great folks. So I'll put a link in for everybody to go check that podcast out. See what you think is Terry and the guests. But speaking of podcasts, I have a couple other friends that do a podcast, uh, and I'd like you to hear from them, uh, and go check their podcast out.

So Christine and JP take it away.

[00:01:48] Terry: 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 reader podcast. 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, upping our 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.

We hope to see you there.

[00:02:39] Stephen: All right, so go check their podcast out. It is great fun. They're good people. And now here's Terry. It sounds good. All right, Lynn,

Overview

Samantha reads a chapter from her memoir Blind Pony.

Her Book

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1649700938/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1649700938&linkCode=as2&tag=saschneider-20&linkId=82e3be14b452eb2c4ea7fd6c1b99ed18

RDJ

Overview

WARNING: there may be some offensive spoken words in this episode

Jennifer had problems with a solo play and had it censored. This also affected her book and she changed the name. We discuss this situation and why she decided to handle it the way she did.

YouTube

https://youtu.be/xciXh3sFspU

Transcript

We're back, boom, part two, the B episode for authors delving into that.

Jennifer, is this your first book, the year of the, what is that your first book?

[00:35:38] Jennifer: It's my first novel. It is not my first book. So my first book was published in 2014 and it was a collection of poetry. And it was published as like an offshoot of trying to get your, of the slut published which is now year of the what?

Because. It was based on my one woman show where I basically chose five poems, five racy poems that I had written, and I created a story arc around these five poems. There is some poetry in year of the, what, there are a few of the poems in the book, but when I was trying to pitch that to some different publishers, one gentlemen that I came across, I just, I wanted to have a backup because I always knew that I wanted to have a collection of my poetry published as well.

And this is like coming on. Like the height of 50 shades of gray being the biggest book in the world. So it's erotic poetry and the book is called oral sex oral with an a, because I think I'm clever and probably is meant to be listened to and write a loud. So it's called oral sex, naughty notes for levers.

So that was my first book. And it's not available anymore. I got a little disheartened through the process, so it was available on Amazon for a couple of years. And then I took it down and decided to go forward with a year of the slut, full force on my own without partnering with anybody.

[00:37:17] Stephen: You said you're working on a SQL. So what are some things through this process that you have learned that you're doing different now than you did when you started,

[00:37:26] Jennifer: I'm utilizing more help? Yes. So the first time around, I guess I was a little cocky because the play had done well and I had won an award for it.

So when I wrote my first draft of the book. Oh. And also because an agent had said, oh, write that book and I'll wreck you. So I took things for granted in the sense that like I sent the manuscript to him without sending it to a proofreader or an editor first, because I was like he said he was going to wrap it.

I'll just send it to him when it's done. I'm like, no, honey no. That's not how it works, but you don't know what you don't know. I was so green and I was so naive about the literary world. Like why did I know? I didn't need an editor for my play. That's what my director was for to tell me what worked and what didn't and what jokes were funny and which ones were terrible.

Yeah over the course of all the rejections, so I first started, I just sent it to five girlfriends, five of my squad who were avid readers and who had an interest in books. One was a journalist, one was a teacher, one was a English professor. One was my sister-in-law one was my best friend.

And I just sent it to that group and took for granted that they all thought it was great and their excitement, and didn't seek professional help, which I should have. So yeah, so this time around definitely like working with a writing coach to help me with story structure...

Claim to Fame

Overview

Jennifer started as a gymnast but is now an actress and a writer. Her life in New York influenced her book - which she describes as a cross between 50 Shades of Gray and Sex in the City.

Her writing started young with her own fan fiction based on TV shows. Now she has been a writer, producer and one of the stars. This helped with her book that started as a one woman show.

As a note - she was in "The Neighbours" by Tommy Wiseau who made The Room.

Her Website

http://www.jenniferliebermanactor.com/

Her Book

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08NT1PV64/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B08NT1PV64&linkCode=as2&tag=saschneider-20&linkId=c14a185af4e705b489d06d9b0e073bea

Favorite Books

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0553348973/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0553348973&linkCode=as2&tag=saschneider-20&linkId=ff104f5b93a1059f8385790c2b86e0d5

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000A7XML2/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000A7XML2&linkCode=as2&tag=saschneider-20&linkId=adbfae02c03fcc19864ada4df754674c

Favorite Bookstores

https://www.booksoup.com/

https://www.shopthelastbookstore.com/

https://iliadbooks.com

YouTube

https://youtu.be/AVd4AOcVvlY

Promo

The serial fiction show

Transcript

Today I've got Jennifer Lieberman on discovered pod discovered wordsmith podcast. Jennifer, how you doing today? I'm

[00:04:18] Jennifer: great.

Stephen, how are

[00:04:19] Stephen: you? I'm doing good. It's a little warm still, which is nice for end of September. Yes. Where are you? I am in Ohio. Where are you?

[00:04:27] Jennifer: I'm just north of Toronto in a small town called me.

[00:04:31] Stephen: Okay. So we're actually not super far apart.

[00:04:35] Jennifer: We probably have

[00:04:36] Stephen: similar weather. Yes. Very similar. I'm sure. So tell everybody a little bit about yourself and some of the things you like to do besides right.

[00:04:45] Jennifer: Okay. So I'm an actor, I'm an actor, I'm a filmmaker, I'm a independent film and theater producer. And I've been doing that for almost 20 years now. So I love to perform, I also dabble in standup comedy and I love to entertain. So I love to be silly. I love to make people laugh. I don't mind being the butt of the joke.

So that's one of the things I love to do, but I also, I love yoga and hiking and outdoor activities. I'm super active. I used to be in my first life, I used to be a competitive gymnast. So I spent 20 to 30 hours a week training in the gym for quite a large part of my life. And then I coached,

Overview

This episode is a continuation from episode 07 with Michele T. Berger. She reads a chapter from her book Reenu-You.

Her book

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B083W68BJC/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B083W68BJC&linkCode=as2&tag=saschneider-20&linkId=be6bb17ae3f71a7afdbb6aba4f0c7547

Overview

Susan wants us to keep writing. That's what she has done and the advice she gives to other authors. We talk about writing more than one thing and how you keep writing regardless of your other feelings on the issue.

YouTube

https://youtu.be/wjFQZtBL2ow

Transcript

All right. Susan, welcome back to discovered wordsmith podcasts.

Let's talk a few authors things. So you've done some screenplays and screenwriting. You've been an actress. So what did you learn from that, that you apply to writing book and what have you learned from writing the book that you're applying to the next one?

[00:40:36] Susan: I'm good at dialogue, because I wrote so many plays and you really have to get good at making the characters, do what you need them to do within the, within the scene that they're in.

I like my dialogue. I think it's I think I get a lot of stuff in it. So I learned that from playwriting in terms of structure. I'm not a structuralist to begin with. I find if I [00:41:00] sit down and I know that I want to write something. If I think about it long enough I write little essays first.

What do you want to say? Do you want to say that a 50 year old woman could have a voice then once I've done that plotting out and essay form what the book is about? Then I sit down and the book writes me and I am very grateful for that. I very rarely have to make major cuts or major changes because I'm not really, it's not, I don't want to get all woo.

It's not automatic writing, but it does come so directly from my soul and from my brain. And if I've already mapped out, I want to write about. This, that then it will write it for me. And I can tell if it's not right and I will, I rewrite every day. So I go over what I wrote yesterday, every, the next day.

And that's how I rewrite. I change words. I change phrases, but I very rarely writing novels have had writing a novel, have had to change big [00:42:00] chunks. And my second novel, which I gave to an editor, she said, you really don't like commas. Do you? Which I've been told before. And there were no edits. She said, I didn't put in any edits.

I think the book is ready. I put in a lot of commas cause you seem to have a prejudice against them. It's the product of not having paid attention in grammar class. And my computer tells me when to put in commas and I get into arguments with it. But I learned from writing documentaries also, I learned a lot from writing documentaries about.

What are you writing about? W what are you doing here? You know what I mean? If you're writing a documentary about, I'm going to try to keep it light, I didn't write any light documentaries. If you're writing a documentary about an election, okay. That's as light as it gets then please don't find yourself talking about what you wore to go vote that day, because it's really not, nobody cares.

So I know how to stay on topic. And my topics are usually somewhat surreal, [00:43:00] or if not surreal, the debtors are usually a part of the living in my books. And I like that. I like to be able to do that. So I learned that is not part of documentaries, but it was definitely where I was headed. My first play was about a nightclub in the clouds where everybody had to perform something to get off the nightclub into their next existence, because they had all done.

So I've learned a lot of that. I've learned that

[00:43:29] Stephen: you mentioned your computer tells you when ...

Overview

Susan lives an interesting life - I mean, she lives in Hollywood and knows Steven Spielberg! She has been involved and written many plays through the years and brings the lessons learned to her current writing.

She wrote a fiction book that has some elements based on her own life. The Road Not Taken is the story of a 50 year old woman and the struggles she goes through.

And she has thoughts on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

Website

https://susanrubinwriter.com/

Susan Rubin Writer website

Her Book

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1941861687/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1941861687&linkCode=as2&tag=saschneider-20&linkId=31be61d1ef1b36ed0b426a0947bfab71

Favorites

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00309SD02/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00309SD02&linkCode=as2&tag=saschneider-20&linkId=ab681951d2c08a463ba11d7b67303029

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0684803852/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0684803852&linkCode=as2&tag=saschneider-20&linkId=38883bd1f9ccf2afbd00c81b058674b7

Local Bookstore

https://www.counterpointla.com/

https://www.skylightbooks.com/

YouTube

https://youtu.be/yROPBTnck7A

Transcript

So Susan, welcome to a discovered wordsmiths podcast. How are you doing? I'm

[00:01:15] Susan: doing great. And I really appreciate you inviting.

[00:01:19] Stephen: Yeah, I think this is great. I can't wait to find out more about you and your book. So let's start there. Tell us a little bit about you who you are, where you live, what you like to do outside of writing.

[00:01:29] Susan: I am a writer. I've been a writer a long time, but I've written many things. I've had nine plays produced in Los Angeles. I've written 25 documentaries for an organization. Those documentaries are really fun cause you're writing about the hard stuff in the world. And I've done a ton of blogging for Ms.

Magazine. And I had a bunch of stuff on funny or die. That didn't seem that funny to me, but it didn't die. So it was on funny or die for a really long time. I've done a lot of different kinds of writing, [00:02:00] decided to write a book. Cause I didn't have to work with actors. I'm sorry. I probably shouldn't say that, but that's the truth.

A book means no production. Good.

[00:02:13] Stephen: That's funny. Cause I just talked to someone else's sent the same thing about writing a book is easier than a movie because you don't have to deal with that. And you live in Hollywood, so movies are big.

[00:02:24] Susan: These are big. And what will probably happen to the book eventually is what's happening now is that there's so many different platforms for TV and film that there never used to be that a book like mine would make a perfect movie because it's about a 50 year old woman and there aren't, a lot of movies are playing.

TV shows like that.

Overview

Tyler reads a chapter from his book Alive Again.

The Book

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09HSHWM6Y/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B09HSHWM6Y&linkCode=as2&tag=saschneider-20&linkId=dcce94d75b52a7a0db074e370739c643

Clip

Overview

Tyler talks about pantsing vs plotting and how his technique has changed over his decade of writing. He found that working with a partner made it almost necessary to have to plot.

He likes to use Trello.

https://trello.com/

Stay tuned until the end to hear some hair metal discussion.

YouTube

https://youtu.be/rwgZrJAWcgA

Transcript

[00:00:48] Stephen: Tyler. Welcome back. Second half mark. I mark these as the B podcast. I don't know if that helps anybody, but it helps me. It looks like you haven't moved, so that's wonderful.

[00:00:58] TW Piperbrook: I love it. Yeah, I'm still in my [00:01:00] dungeon down here. This is my music room. Like the basement, my little man cave. You can't see it, but I've got my electronic drum set here and all my guitars and basses and all that stuff.

[00:01:10] Stephen: Great. That's cool. Yeah. I played bass. I talked to a lot of authors that also play music. That seems to be a thing.

[00:01:17] TW Piperbrook: Yeah. Yeah, it is. I think it's all the artistic stuff.

[00:01:20] Stephen: You've been doing this for eight and a half years. What have you learned that you're doing different now than you did clear back when you started?

[00:01:28] TW Piperbrook: Yeah, I think maybe as we said in part a there just looking on general terms I guess I've maybe grown thicker skin for things, as far as like feedback and reviews and stuff like that. And I, I think you're always learning you're learning about your process. Ideal you're reading.

I make reading a part of my day if I can. So always reading and learning new words and new ways to plot things and all that stuff. Yeah, I guess I've learned that I'm always gonna make mistakes, but ideally, and hopefully I'm getting better at my craft, but who knows? And that's not really for me to decide, but that's the goal, right?

So this is to try to get [00:02:00] better and yeah, you fall and you get back.

[00:02:02] Stephen: Yeah, absolutely. And that's, I've heard many times the successful people are just the ones that kept writing that wrote that next book and got them out. Not just the one. I'm, I haven't been doing this forever, but I've already talked to enough authors.

That they get a book out and they're like, yeah, it didn't really do anything. So I stopped doing it. I knew a guy that spent, took off, put working, spent four years writing without working his wife, supported them with kids. And it's going to be the best book ever. And then he basically said I don't want to use an editor because I don't think they'll understand what I'm trying to do.

And it's man. Gotcha. And, I think he sold 20 copies or something like that total. Yeah, just keep going, keep writing, do more learn.

[00:02:51] TW Piperbrook: I agree with, yeah. Yeah. And I guess to your point, like I've had a couple of different editors over the last batch of years. Each one will teach you so much.

Cause they're all, they [00:03:00] all have their unique skill sets. And so I guess I'm always looking for somebody to beat me up a little more, as I say, because I've got an editor now that's really beating me up. And I like it when I see like a whole bunch of red on the word document and the comments and track changes.

Clip

Overview

Tyler lives with his family in Connecticut and has been writing for about 10 years. Yes, he is full time with his apocalyptic fiction.

Like many authors, he also plays music besides writing. He and I talked hair metal for awhile - until he lost power.

His writing career started when he was 10 and submitted manuscripts to publishers

Website

http://twpiperbrook.com/

His Book

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09HSHWM6Y/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B09HSHWM6Y&linkCode=as2&tag=saschneider-20&linkId=db0531652716aa0d2ae2060dcb4cf0df

Some Favorites

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1594749760/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1594749760&linkCode=as2&tag=saschneider-20&linkId=cccd1b0eba73f21cda4882298d98fe80

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AA2FCO2/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00AA2FCO2&linkCode=as2&tag=saschneider-20&linkId=72fc5a7473cacad9478b4f5b8df4d4c6

The Book Barn:

https://www.bookbarnniantic.com/

YouTube

https://youtu.be/qAXcKSjA6jg

Transcript

[00:00:37] Stephen: Hey, all welcome to episode 72 of discovered wordsmiths. Today. I've got TW paper Brook and he writes dystopian fiction and we had a really good conversation.

Mostly about hair metal. We both liked to hair metal and we were getting so intense in our hair metal discussion that he lost power. Maybe that wasn't the reason, but, I just wanted to say it is now [00:01:00] fall. I love fall that the snow is going to be coming. I know a lot of you hate that, but not me.

I love snow. I can't wait. So I'm very excited these next couple of months, I've got a lot of great interviews coming and it's a great time of year for me. So be. Fun couple of months. And as a reminder, please, if you've been listening to the podcast or if it's your first time, please go to your favorite podcast app and give us a give us a review, give us some stars, a thumbs up, whatever it helps others discover.

And the more people that discover the podcast, the more new authors are being discovered and read. And that's the goal here. We want our authors to get the recognition that they deserve. Also, we have a YouTube channel, check that out if you like listening to things on YouTube at us, into the playlist, subscribe to us there.

Without further ado, here's. Tyler welcome. Today's discover wordsmiths. Great talking to you again. Face-to-face if not in the same room like we were before, how are you [00:02:00] doing?

[00:02:00] TW Piperbrook: Yeah. Good. How are you doing? Thanks for having me on.

[00:02:03] Stephen: Yeah, it's great to see you again. Oh, sorry. I think we got a bit of a lag.

If I over-talk top you. I apologize. I'll try not. Sure. Okay. So to get started, we want to find out a little bit about you. So tell everybody a little bit about yourself things you like to do, where you live outside of writing, things like that.