Discovered Wordsmiths

Michele is not only an author, she is a college professor at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a creativity coach. She works with students in women's and gender studies and authors to improve their ability to tap into their creativity.

Her story, Reenu-You, is a post apocalyptic story where civilization is destroyed through a hair care product. As far as she knows, it's the only post-apocalyptic story using hair relaxer as the downfall of civilization. She has gone through Falstaff books, so knows traditional, indy, and hybrid publishing.

Transcript:

Stephen 0:50Welcome to Episode Seven of discovered wordsmiths. I appreciate you taking the time to listen and I hope you've been finding something interesting. And finding some new authors to go read about find out more about discovering some new wordsmiths that are out there. I wanted to make a note on this particular episode. I am talking with Michelle t Berger, about her novella Renu you, and the internet was acting up a little bit. We had some issues with it. So you may hear some dropouts, you may hear some bad wording, it may sound funny, and I apologize for that we did the best we could edit in it. But I do hope you enjoy it. There's a lot to learn from Michelle. She is a professor that writes and helps other authors by coaching. So sit back, listen to what Michelle has to say about her journey to the published word. And I hope you enjoyed the show and will subscribe and give us a review. It would really help a lot. Thanks. Here's Michelle. So, Michelle, tell us a little bit about yourself. Outside of being a writer, you mentioned your professor, tell us about that and the rest of your life a little bit. Yeah,

Michele 2:06so I will say that I am a speculative fiction writer, I write kind of across this specula fiction universe, so sci fi, modern fantasy, magical realism. But everything I write tends to have a hard edge or element to it. And I also am a creativity coach. And so I work with people to help them realize their dreams and remove obstacles to pursuing more of what they love to do in life. And I've been writing, I would say, I've been writing seriously, for the last at least 10 years. And then the 10 years before that I was writing. And in a what I like to say seeming like more like metaphorically in the basement. And like I was writing without community. And I would just rewrite parts of the novel that probably will never see the light of day, even though I've mined it, but I would just kind of rewrite that. And I would read craft books, and I would think to myself late I'm really clever, and why can't I just figure this out? Well, um, you know, I think if I hadn't met my writing teacher and mentor friend, Marjorie Hudson, about 10 years ago and kind of gotten into the literary community and done some other things, I probably would have given up to be quite honest. Because I think once you're in your late 30s, early 40s, and if you've had this desire to write, and you haven't seen that fulfilled, it gets harder to do that, because you obviously have other kinds of life phase issues. So for people who are artistically inclined, and they keep going, you know, usually by your 40s, you're starting to see the kind of payoff of that.

Stephen 3:44So you said, you're a professor, what are you a professor of what do you teach?

Michele 3:50So I'm at University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, I'm in the department of Women's and Gender Studies, and I do research primarily on gender and racial health disparities.

Today's episode I welcome Ron Murphy - the Crypto-Guru. That's crypto as in cryptozoologist. Ron actually helped mentor Colin from episode 02.

Ron has been giving lectures at various conventions and festivals and has written several books about various crypto and supernatural topics. He has been on tv (with Robert "Freddy Krueger" England) and he also co-hosts a weekly podcast that explores the strange.

Lately, Ron has written some poetry and fiction. And on top of all that - he just became a grandfather!

If you'd like to check out his work:

Ron's Amazon author page

Inside the Goblin Universe podcast

Corridor 13

and some of his books:

Today's episode I welcome Ron Murphy - the Crypto-Guru. That's crypto as in cryptozoologist. Ron actually helped mentor Colin from episode 02.

Ron has been giving lectures at various conventions and festivals and has written several books about various crypto and supernatural topics. He has been on tv (with Robert "Freddy Krueger" England) and he also co-hosts a weekly podcast that explores the strange.

Lately, Ron has written some poetry and fiction. And on top of all that - he just became a grandfather!

If you'd like to check out his work:

Ron's Amazon author page

Inside the Goblin Universe podcast

Corridor 13

and some of his books:

Transcript:

Stephen 0:47All right. little technical difficulties. Yeah, just a little technical difficulties. That's right. It's all good. All right. Well, Ron, thank you. I appreciate you taking the time coming on this to talk to me a little bit. It's great to see you. We've been friends for a couple years now. So

Ron 1:04Oh, yeah. We've been friends for probably. I bet you what's going on about four years now? Yeah. I mean, Collin, is almost 20. So that's That's right. That's right. So I think that Oh, yeah. He may have been 15 years old. So yeah, it's probably been a little bit longer. Yeah. But I've been excited ever since you asked me to come on. I've been I actually was very flattered. And I'm sorry about those little monitor tech, I think will be it will be fine. Now. No big deal. All right.

Stephen 1:31Well, let's just jump right into it. So I appreciate it. First of all, let tell us a little bit about you outside of writing who you are.

Ron 1:41All right. Well, I mean, I think that's the same way with you. I think the one of the reasons why we hit it off so well, is that we're both dads who are basically with her families, right. I mean, that is the thing. I think the overall thing about who I am anymore as a father and now just a month ago today a grandfather so that's packs and shapes you who you are, you know, but you know I'm I work with families have worked with families for most of my adult life. I've been working with young kids and I've also been working with the senior population as well. So I've always had a form of counseling in my background that I've been doing, like I said, for most of my adult life, I like the outdoors. I like to read I like to write I like, like Chinese food. I like Italian food. I like long strolls on the beach, you know, all that good stuff.

Stephen 2:31You like yogurt?

Ron 2:34That's right, that's right. Yogurt with a little bit of granola and, and my daughters are the ones that got me onto that. Yeah, I

Stephen 2:39agree. That's, that's pretty good. Okay, so I know a little bit about your background and what you do, you're an interesting writer in that you don't focus on nonfiction or fiction, you kind of do both. And it kind of ties into a lot of your daytime work and some of your e...

Mike Dibaggio has been trying something a bit different with his books. He writes superhero stories set in his own unique world. This world combines elements from many great fantasy stories - War of the World by HG Wells being the main basis.

He has combined these stories into his own unique universe and even invites others to share in that universe and write stories in it.

He works with his wife (who does the art) and has just started a companion magazine.

You can find Mike at: https://www.ascensionepoch.com/ where you can register to get a free story.

He is on Amazon at: https://www.amazon.com/Michael-DiBaggio/e/B00JX865L8

He also runs: https://www.heroicadventurefiction.com which contains many other stories set in his world.

Four stories set in his ascesion epoch universe - these are about the martian war (which was started in HG Wells War of the Worlds)

This is Mike's own superhero group. Still based in the same universe, just a different era.

About

Mike Dibaggio has been trying something a bit different with his books. He writes superhero stories set in his own unique world. This world combines elements from many great fantasy stories - War of the World by HG Wells being the main basis.

He has combined these stories into his own unique universe and even invites others to share in that universe and write stories in it.

He works with his wife (who does the art) and has just started a companion magazine.

Website

You can find Mike at: https://www.ascensionepoch.com/ where you can register to get a free story.

He is on Amazon at: https://www.amazon.com/Michael-DiBaggio/e/B00JX865L8

He also runs: https://www.heroicadventurefiction.com which contains many other stories set in his world.

His Books

Four stories set in his ascesion epoch universe - these are about the martian war (which was started in HG Wells War of the Worlds)

This is Mike's own superhero group. Still based in the same universe, just a different era.

YouTube

https://youtu.be/bSRIzzhJfz0

TRANSCRIPT

Stephen 0:00Hi Mike How you doing? I am so apologetic I took one get out driving and then stopped and picked up another good from work and came home and my phone had been dead and I saw the pop up that's all I

Mike 0:12got. I don't mind at all. Well, I'm a little hot here so I have the air conditioning on I don't know if it's interfering with the recording at all. I don't know if you can hear it behind me.

Stephen 0:26Oh, no, actually, that's pretty good. Yeah. Pa right. Okay, so I'm just a little ways from you. It was pretty hot today. It

Mike 0:36was Yeah, it's a it's it's getting to the to the the sticky and humid time of year which, unfortunately, it wasn't like only totally, I guess it was three weeks ago now we had snow. And it just it just got really cold one night and it snowed for like a day. And then I went back to being in the 60s. It's just, you know that that weird? that weird. time of year. Yeah. Geography we live in.

Stephen 1:03Right? Yeah, I totally agree. It's people don't get when you say yeah, just wait an hour, it'll change.

Mike 1:12I remember, especially when I went to I was out of school at Pitt. And like the weather out there really did change in the span of of hours. I mean, you'd have, I'd wake up in the morning and it would be a nice, nice, thick, warm day out. By lunch, it would be snowing then it would be raining. And then I don't know what it's just like the elevation there the way the mountains were. But it was really weird.

Stephen 1:37Yeah, I lived in San Diego. If you ever want the easiest job in the world, weatherman in San Diego, because the weather is mild, or drought with a slight chance of rain. So all right, well, I appreciate this. It's good to talk to you. Yeah. I mean,

Lon has been writing for several years and has written several fantastic books, but he struggles to catch fire and launch his career to the heights he's like. He loves to write and has been working on figuring out his voice and genre.

Lon writes sci-fi, horror and fantasy books, all genres he enjoys to read. Hear about why he writes such diverse genres and what his plans are for the future.

Lon has offered a free origin story for his Junker Blues: Mars - get it here.

You can find Lon on Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/Lon-Varnadore/e/B002UIICLO

Check out Lon's latest books:

Lon has been writing for several years and has written several fantastic books, but he struggles to catch fire and launch his career to the heights he's like. He loves to write and has been working on figuring out his voice and genre.

Lon writes sci-fi, horror and fantasy books, all genres he enjoys to read. Hear about why he writes such diverse genres and what his plans are for the future.

Free Story:

Lon has offered a free origin story for his Junker Blues: Mars - get it here.

Author Profile:

You can find Lon on Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/Lon-Varnadore/e/B002UIICLO

Lon's Books:

Check out Lon's latest books:

Update:

[update] - Lon is really making things happen lately. Here is a short video showing the magazine he recently appeared in.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CKPZY39giMI/?igshid=1t92sorzitxpo

Watch on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/CnuwKtNdz5o

TRANSCRIPT

Stephen 1:46Hey lon, Hey, how are you? I'm good. How about yourself? Good. It's been a while. It has your you live over what San Francisco area I believe?

Lon 1:59No, no, no, California. I live in Southern California and Long Beach.

Stephen 2:04Oh, nice. I lived in Escondido for a while. Okay, awesome. Nice. So, okay, I appreciate you taking a bit of time on this, like talking to other authors and we've met so that's always a good thing to just do this. Okay, we'll just get right into it. Tell us a little bit about yourself first, who you are and what you like to do other than writing.

Lon 2:33Okay, uh, names lawn Varna door or lawn he Varna door. Both both. I use both his names. So I mean, I have born in California raised here. Most of my life. I had a very brief stint on the East Coast for a few years. But California had been live 90% of my life. I love to read love to do reading love to play Dungeons and Dragons because I'm a gigantic nerd. I have because of the whole thing with quarantine, I've fallen down several YouTube holes. So um, and I also just recently moved so I've also, you know, I'm finding that I need to unpack more. And I'm, I'm even more of a procrastinator than i that i thought possible.

Stephen 3:47Funny how those things like, point out the worst parts of yourself that you don't need to admit. Yeah, so so in d&d, what's your favorite character type to play?

Lon 3:57Ah, I I love the first first character I ever played was a ranger. I just I've always loved that character and that character class. But I do love playing the wizard. The really smart guy, you know, who's carrying around the book and sits in the back and through spells. Like you guys go handle the difficult stuff. I'll be over here throwing fireballs, you'll be fine.

Stephen 4:27I always like to play characters that have some sort of like, problem or, oh, yeah, whatever. And I played a giant character once and made myself afraid of the dark. And little did I know that the DM had. The very first thing was we get attacked and we have to run through tunnels without lights. So I held up the whole group and we almost got stuck in a cave i...

Mark J Roman after traveling the world, it took brain surgery in his 60's for Mark to get his book out.

Marks career as a healthcare consultant has taken him all over the world. During that time, he developed his idea for a book about men and their relationship to each other.

It wasn't until Mark had emergency brain surgery for a birth defect that he decided to actually get his book out. His path may not be typical, but he has written a book that is relevant and needed.

You can find mark at:

markroman-author.com

email him at: [email protected]

https://www.linkedin.com/in/markroman/

His book, Conquering the Boundaries of Friendship, is available at Amazon and the print edition can be found at Barnes and Noble.

Mark J Roman after traveling the world, it took brain surgery in his 60's for Mark to get his book out.

Marks career as a healthcare consultant has taken him all over the world. During that time, he developed his idea for a book about men and their relationship to each other.

It wasn't until Mark had emergency brain surgery for a birth defect that he decided to actually get his book out. His path may not be typical, but he has written a book that is relevant and needed.

Website:

You can find mark at:

https://markroman-author.com

email him at: [email protected]

https://www.linkedin.com/in/markroman/

Book:

His book, Conquering the Boundaries of Friendship, is available at Amazon and the print edition can be found at Barnes and Noble.

Favorite Local Bookstore

Watch on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/VNqMS1bakUM

Transcript

Stephen 0:46Well, let's start off. First of all, Sir, I've met you We met at Jay thorns weekend retreat. So anyone listen to the podcast. Look up Jay Thorne. He's doing a mastermind. He does weekend retreats. He's got books out. Jay is a great guy, another Northeast Ohio native. So Mark, before we get started on books and writing, tell us a little bit about you. Who are you where you're from? Whatever you think would be interesting and relevant. Sure.

Mark 1:16I'm Mark Roman, I split my time between homes in Northeast Ohio and Virginia. My wife is an archaeologist. So that's always fun to hear some of the stories that she has about some of the digs. She volunteers for historic Jamestown in Jamestown, Virginia. And she also volunteers for the Colonial Williamsburg foundation. So she's always got some fun stories from a historical perspective. And so Hi, I'm originally was born in Cleveland and raised in Warren, Ohio, which is also in Northeast Ohio. I went to Case Western Reserve University here in the Cleveland area. And after school immediately moved to New York and lived in New York for a few years in New York City. And as I have always been a an information technology, and business consultant for the past 40 years hard, it's hard to say 40 years, but it'll be 40 years and in 2020 since I graduated from from college, and I've had the opportunity to live in some really fun places. I lived in Johannesburg, South Africa for a couple of years. lived in San Francisco for a few years. I lived in Salt Lake City, I lived in Charleston. I lived in London for a couple of years. So I've always had a breadth of experience of different people and different different cultures. And I was

Stephen 2:45all of was all of that for business or

Mark 2:49choice. All of that was for business and and by choice because like going to Joburg to Johannesburg. The United States was still in the process of establishing relationships with the South African government apartheid was was falling apart. And I was president of a division of IBM Corporation at the time. And IBM was reestablishing relationships. And I've always been involved in the healthcare industry. So I actually, IBM had a philanthropic effort. And we had semis that we had outfitted as mobile clinics.

Colin started his career much younger than most - he was 15 when he started to talk to groups at conferences. His research into the paranormal and cryptids allowed him to become a radio host and he interviewed some of the biggest names in the paranormal field. By the time he was 17, he had published his first book.

The audio for this episode was recorded on Skype.

You can find colin at:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100011613589718

https://paranorm101.blogspot.com

And you can get his book on Amazon (affiliate link):