DIY MFA Radio

Hey there word nerds!

Today I'm delighted to welcome Todd Harra to the show.

It seemed fitting to have Todd as our guest for our Halloween episode, since he is the author of Mortuary Confidential: Undertakers Spill the Dirt and Over Our Dead Bodies: Undertakers Lift the Lid.

As writers' we're often advised not to quit our "day jobs," usually because people think having a sensible, reliable profession is safer than trying to have a creative career. In this episode, I speak with an author who not only hasn't quit his "day job" but his profession is part of the inspiration behind his books, and helped get his start as a writer. And for the record, no, his "day job" is not in publishing or a field related to writing. This author happens to be an undertaker.

In this interview we're going to talk about drawing inspiration from our "day jobs," using writing to process what we experience in our jobs, and--most important--how we as writers can use our words as a way to honor the lives of others.

• How he got started in his "day job" and how he connected with his co-author.
• The collaborative process of writing not one, but two books together.
• Why persistence pays off, and why it's so important for writers to be flexible and try different approaches.
• How the structure of his day job affected the structure of these particular books.
• How he uses writing to process his experiences in his "day job" and how his "day job" also fuels his writing.
• How he picked up and learned the business of writing, and how writers can educate themselves about the industry.

Todd Harra has working in the funeral profession since 2004. He is a fourth generation funeral director, working for his uncle at McCrery & Harra Funeral Homes and Crematory in Wilmington, DE. His great great great grandfather was a cabinet maker and tradesman undertaker in Milford, Delaware prior to the Civil War.

Todd graduated from Elon University and the American Academy McAllister Institute of Funeral Service. He received certification in Advanced Post Mortem Reconstruction from the Fountain National Academy of Professional Embalming Skills, and is a Certified Crematory Operator.

Todd appeared on the cover of the 2008 "Men of Mortuaries" calendar, a fundraiser for the KAMM Cares breast cancer foundation, where he met Ken and they decided to collaborate on a non-fiction mortuary series of books.

Todd is currently working on several fiction based projects. To learn more about him and his writing, visit his website, www.toddharra.com.

Kenneth McKenzie first became interested in the death care industry at the age of twelve, following his father's suicide. He has been a funeral director for over 22 years and a funeral home owner for 14. In 2007 Ken created and published the well-received Men of Mortuaries calendar, also the inspiration for this book, to benefit Breast Cancer Awareness, and he received California's Outstanding Funeral Director of the Year Award. He resides in Long Beach, CA. For more information please visit www.MenOfMortuaries.org.

If you want to check out both of Todd's books, visit the book websites below or purchase them via our Amazon affiliate links (where DIY MFA gets a small commission at no cost to you). As always thank you for supporting DIY MFA!

• Mortuary Confidential: Undertakers Spill the Dirt | Book Website: www.mortuaryconfidential.com
• Over Our Dead Bodies: Undertakers Lift the Lid | Book Website: www.overourdeadbodies.com

For more info and show notes: DIYMFA.com/118

Hey there word nerds!

Today I’m delighted to welcome Todd Harra to the show.

It seemed fitting to have Todd as our guest for our Halloween episode, since he is the author of Mortuary Confidential: Undertakers Spill the Dirt and Over Our Dead Bodies: Undertakers Lift the Lid.

As writers’ we’re often advised not to quit our “day jobs,” usually because people think having a sensible, reliable profession is safer than trying to have a creative career. In this episode, I speak with an author who not only hasn’t quit his “day job” but his profession is part of the inspiration behind his books, and helped get his start as a writer. And for the record, no, his “day job” is not in publishing or a field related to writing. This author happens to be an undertaker.

In this interview we’re going to talk about drawing inspiration from our “day jobs,” using writing to process what we experience in our jobs, and--most important--how we as writers can use our words as a way to honor the lives of others.

• How he got started in his “day job” and how he connected with his co-author.
• The collaborative process of writing not one, but two books together.
• Why persistence pays off, and why it’s so important for writers to be flexible and try different approaches.
• How the structure of his day job affected the structure of these particular books.
• How he uses writing to process his experiences in his “day job” and how his “day job” also fuels his writing.
• How he picked up and learned the business of writing, and how writers can educate themselves about the industry.

Todd Harra has working in the funeral profession since 2004. He is a fourth generation funeral director, working for his uncle at McCrery & Harra Funeral Homes and Crematory in Wilmington, DE. His great great great grandfather was a cabinet maker and tradesman undertaker in Milford, Delaware prior to the Civil War.

Todd graduated from Elon University and the American Academy McAllister Institute of Funeral Service. He received certification in Advanced Post Mortem Reconstruction from the Fountain National Academy of Professional Embalming Skills, and is a Certified Crematory Operator.

Todd appeared on the cover of the 2008 "Men of Mortuaries" calendar, a fundraiser for the KAMM Cares breast cancer foundation, where he met Ken and they decided to collaborate on a non-fiction mortuary series of books.

Todd is currently working on several fiction based projects. To learn more about him and his writing, visit his website, www.toddharra.com.

Kenneth McKenzie first became interested in the death care industry at the age of twelve, following his father's suicide. He has been a funeral director for over 22 years and a funeral home owner for 14. In 2007 Ken created and published the well-received Men of Mortuaries calendar, also the inspiration for this book, to benefit Breast Cancer Awareness, and he received California's Outstanding Funeral Director of the Year Award. He resides in Long Beach, CA. For more information please visit www.MenOfMortuaries.org.

If you want to check out both of Todd’s books, visit the book websites below or purchase them via our Amazon affiliate links (where DIY MFA gets a small commission at no cost to you). As always thank you for supporting DIY MFA!

• Mortuary Confidential: Undertakers Spill the Dirt  |  Book Website: www.mortuaryconfidential.com
• Over Our Dead Bodies: Undertakers Lift the Lid  |  Book Website: www.overourdeadbodies.com

For more info and show notes: DIYMFA.com/118

Hey there word nerds!

Today I am so pleased to have Teddy Wayne on the show.

Teddy is the author of several books, most recently his novel Loner, which is out now. Teddy has won numerous writing awards, is regular contributor to several prestigious publications, and has taught at Columbia University in NYC and Washington University in St. Louis.

In this interview, we talk about Teddy's newest book and the craft behind bringing an anti-hero to life on the page. During the episode, we geek out about anti-heroes, Hitchcock movies, and how trying to understand reprehensible characters can help expand our humanity. Listen below.

• What writers can learn about crafting an anti-hero from the TV show All in the Family, and how to create a character who is deeply flawed but also relatable.
• How much of an anti-hero's character is shaped by internal qualities versus environmental or situational factors.
• How to avoid making an anti-hero seem over-simplified and make readers feel connected to an evil character.
• The difference between an extraordinary character's slow descent into darkness, and a regular character making a terrible choice and having to "fix" the situation.
• The two components that writers can infuse into literary fiction to make it come to life and hook readers.

Teddy Wayne is the author of the novels Loner, The Love Song of Jonny Valentine, and Kapitoil. He is the winner of a Whiting Writers' Award and an NEA Creative Writing Fellowship as well as a finalist for the Young Lions Fiction Award, PEN/Bingham Prize, and Dayton Literary Peace Prize. A columnist for the New York Times, he is a regular contributor to The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and McSweeney's and has taught at Columbia University and Washington University in St. Louis. He lives in New York.

With the same knack for voice and piercing social commentary Wayne gave readers in The Love Song of Jonny Valentine and Kapitoil, LONER is a riveting, frighteningly believable portrait of obsession on a college campus. Much like Claire Messud's The Woman Upstairs, Herman Koch's The Dinner, and Charlotte Rogan's The Lifeboat—and, further back, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Lolita, and Notes from Underground—it is one of those rare novels where, as the pages fly by, readers feel everything from fear to rage to empathy for characters they might not like, but nevertheless find completely mesmerizing.

Wayne's New York Times column the last couple of years, "Future Tense," has demonstrated his critical talents for dissecting the alienating effects of contemporary culture, and LONER continues this with the misfit David Federman at the center of the novel. An academically gifted yet painfully forgettable member of his New Jersey high school class, the withdrawn, mild-mannered freshman arrives at Harvard fully expecting to be embraced by a new tribe of high-achieving peers. But, initially, his social prospects seem unlikely to change.

Then Veronica Morgan Wells enters his life. Immediately struck by her beauty, wit, and sophisticated Manhattan upbringing, David falls feverishly in love with the woman he sees as an embodiment of what he's always wanted to be: popular, attractive, powerful. Determined to stop at nothing to win her attention and an invitation into her glamorous world, he begins compromising his moral standards. But both Veronica and David, it turns out, are not exactly as they seem.

Check out these previous podcast episodes talking about systematic and deliberate practice in writing. These interview share some great insights about how to practice as a writer.

Episode 61: How to Write Spellbinding Sentences–Interview with Barbara Baig DIYMFA.com/061

Episode 89: The Power of Deliberate Practice – Interview with Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool DIYMFA.com/089

For more info and show notes: DIYMFA.com/117

Hey there word nerds!

Today I am so pleased to have Teddy Wayne on the show.

Teddy  is the author of several books, most recently his novel Loner, which is out now. Teddy has won numerous writing awards, is regular contributor to several prestigious publications, and has taught at Columbia University in NYC and Washington University in St. Louis.

In this interview, we talk about Teddy’s newest book and the craft behind bringing an anti-hero to life on the page. During the episode, we geek out about anti-heroes, Hitchcock movies, and how trying to understand reprehensible characters can help expand our humanity. Listen below.

• What writers can learn about crafting an anti-hero from the TV show All in the Family, and how to create a character who is deeply flawed but also relatable.
• How much of an anti-hero’s character is shaped by internal qualities versus environmental or situational factors.
• How to avoid making an anti-hero seem over-simplified and make readers feel connected to an evil character.
• The difference between an extraordinary character’s slow descent into darkness, and a regular character making a terrible choice and having to “fix” the situation.
• The two components that writers can infuse into literary fiction to make it come to life and hook readers.

Teddy Wayne is the author of the novels Loner, The Love Song of Jonny Valentine, and Kapitoil. He is the winner of a Whiting Writers’ Award and an NEA Creative Writing Fellowship as well as a finalist for the Young Lions Fiction Award, PEN/Bingham Prize, and Dayton Literary Peace Prize. A columnist for the New York Times, he is a regular contributor to The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and McSweeney’s and has taught at Columbia University and Washington University in St. Louis. He lives in New York.

With the same knack for voice and piercing social commentary Wayne gave readers in The Love Song of Jonny Valentine and Kapitoil, LONER is a riveting, frighteningly believable portrait of obsession on a college campus. Much like Claire Messud’s The Woman Upstairs, Herman Koch’s The Dinner, and Charlotte Rogan’s The Lifeboat—and, further back, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Lolita, and Notes from Underground—it is one of those rare novels where, as the pages fly by, readers feel everything from fear to rage to empathy for characters they might not like, but nevertheless find completely mesmerizing.

Wayne’s New York Times column the last couple of years, “Future Tense,” has demonstrated his critical talents for dissecting the alienating effects of contemporary culture, and LONER continues this with the misfit David Federman at the center of the novel. An academically gifted yet painfully forgettable member of his New Jersey high school class, the withdrawn, mild-mannered freshman arrives at Harvard fully expecting to be embraced by a new tribe of high-achieving peers. But, initially, his social prospects seem unlikely to change.

Then Veronica Morgan Wells enters his life. Immediately struck by her beauty, wit, and sophisticated Manhattan upbringing, David falls feverishly in love with the woman he sees as an embodiment of what he’s always wanted to be: popular, attractive, powerful. Determined to stop at nothing to win her attention and an invitation into her glamorous world, he begins compromising his moral standards. But both Veronica and David, it turns out, are not exactly as they seem.

Check out these previous podcast episodes talking about systematic and deliberate practice in writing. These interview share some great insights about how to practice as a writer.

Episode 61: How to Write Spellbinding Sentences–Interview with Barbara Baig DIYMFA.com/061

Episode 89: The Power of Deliberate Practice – Interview with Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool DIYMFA.com/089

For more info and show notes: DIYMFA.com/117

Hey there word nerds!

Today I am thrilled and delighted to be speaking with author Amor Towles about his latest book A Gentleman in Moscow.

If you've ever struggled with world-building, this book is a master class on how to navigate the multiple layers of setting and that's what we talk about this interview today. As you'll hear in this conversation, world-building is not just relevant for writers of historical fiction, science fiction, or fantasy. Setting and world-building is important for any type of story.

As we discuss in this interview, world also exists on multiple levels. Like ripples in a pond, where the setting can influence your character, but your character can also affect your story's world.

• The premise latest book, and how world-building factored in from the very beginning of his writing process.
• How to avoid the biggest world-building mistake in writing, and how to work around these constraints wit your setting.
• Using supporting characters to add layers of interest to your setting, when your main character is confined in a limited space.
• Why it's important to understand all aspects of a time period or culture, so you can convey multiple layers of complexity to your story.
• The ripple effect of world-building and how setting operates on both micro and macro levels.
• Why applied research and artificial details don't capture the emotional truth of a scene or description, and how to use character to make setting come to life.
• Creating characters and stories that seem to extend beyond the pages of the book.
• How the world of your story impacts your character, and how your character can affect your story's world.

Amor Towles was born and raised just outside Boston, Massachusetts. He graduated from Yale University and received an MA in English from Stanford University. For many years a principal at an investment firm in Manhattan, he now devotes himself full time to writing. His first novel, Rules of Civility, published in 2011, was a New York Times bestseller in both hardcover and paperback. Towles lives in Manhattan with his wife and two children. To learn more about Amor and his writing, visit his website, AmorTowles.com , or follow him on Instagram or Facebook.

A big novel that embodies the grandiloquent style and spirit of Russia's Golden Age of literature, A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW is a captivating story of personal and emotional discovery. This novel immerses us in another elegantly drawn era with the story of Count Alexander Rostov. When, in 1922, he is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, the count is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin.

Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel's doors. Though stripped of most of his personal possessions and his dignity, the Count remains determined to preserve his passion for life, and finds his days propelled in profound and unanticipated directions through his encounters with the hotel's staff and guests, which unlock the doors to larger worlds within the hotel and ultimately himself.

Brimming with humor, a glittering cast of characters, and one beautifully rendered scene after another, this singular novel casts a spell as it relates the count's endeavor to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be a man of purpose.

For more info and show notes: DIYMFA.com/116

Hey there word nerds!

Today I am thrilled and delighted to be speaking with author Amor Towles about his latest book A Gentleman in Moscow.

If you’ve ever struggled with world-building, this book is a master class on how to navigate the multiple layers of setting and that’s what we talk about this interview today. As you’ll hear in this conversation, world-building is not just relevant for writers of historical fiction, science fiction, or fantasy. Setting and world-building is important for any type of story.

As we discuss in this interview, world also exists on multiple levels. Like ripples in a pond, where the setting can influence your character, but your character can also affect your story’s world.

• The premise latest book, and how world-building factored in from the very beginning of his writing process.
• How to avoid the biggest world-building mistake in writing, and how to work around these constraints wit your setting.
• Using supporting characters to add layers of interest to your setting, when your main character is confined in a limited space.
• Why it’s important to understand all aspects of a time period or culture, so you can convey multiple layers of complexity to your story.
• The ripple effect of world-building and how setting operates on both micro and macro levels.
• Why applied research and artificial details don’t capture the emotional truth of a scene or description, and how to use character to make setting come to life.
• Creating characters and stories that seem to extend beyond the pages of the book.
• How the world of your story impacts your character, and how your character can affect your story’s world.

Amor Towles was born and raised just outside Boston, Massachusetts. He graduated from Yale University and received an MA in English from Stanford University. For many years a principal at an investment firm in Manhattan, he now devotes himself full time to writing. His first novel, Rules of Civility, published in 2011, was a New York Times bestseller in both hardcover and paperback. Towles lives in Manhattan with his wife and two children. To learn more about Amor and his writing, visit his website, AmorTowles.com , or follow him on Instagram or Facebook.

A big novel that embodies the grandiloquent style and spirit of Russia’s Golden Age of literature, A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW is a captivating story of personal and emotional discovery. This novel immerses us in another elegantly drawn era with the story of Count Alexander Rostov. When, in 1922, he is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, the count is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin.

Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Though stripped of most of his personal possessions and his dignity, the Count remains determined to preserve his passion for life, and finds his days propelled in profound and unanticipated directions through his encounters with the hotel’s staff and guests, which unlock the doors to larger worlds within the hotel and ultimately himself.

Brimming with humor, a glittering cast of characters, and one beautifully rendered scene after another, this singular novel casts a spell as it relates the count’s endeavor to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be a man of purpose.

For more info and show notes: DIYMFA.com/116

Hello hello, word nerds!

Welcome to our latest episode of DIY MFA Radio. Today I'm speaking with Chad Dundas, the debut author of the historical sports novel: THE CHAMPION OF THE WORLD.

When publishing their debuts, writers have to contend with many different hurdles. They need to grab the attention of agents and editors. They need to hook readers from the very first page. And they must do all of this at a time when they don't yet have a track record of success and a huge fanbase to rely on.

Some authors might be tempted to play it safe, but not Chad Dundas. He chooses a topic--professional wrestling--that not many people are interested in. He sets his book in a world that most people don't know much about: the traveling carnivals of the 1920s. And he opens his book with a chapter where at the end it's unclear whether the point-of-view character is even still alive.

As writers, I think it's so important for us to hear not just from major bestselling authors with dozens (if not hundreds) of books under their belts. I also want you to hear from authors who are just a few steps ahead of where you are. I want you to know that you can take risks in your debut novel, and I want to introduce you to writers who are doing just that.

• Starting your novel when something happens
• Researching to get the historical elements just right
• The craft of writing on a chapter level
• Reality versus fiction in your writing and your life

Plus, Chad's #1 tip for writers.

Chad Dundas earned his MFA from the University of Montana, and his short fiction has appeared in the Beloit Fiction Journal, Sycamore Review, Sou'Wester, and Thuglit. Since 2001, he's worked as a sportswriter for national outlets including ESPN, NBC Sports, Sporting News, Bleacher Report, and the Associated Press, as well as local and regional newspapers. A fourth-generation Montanan, he lives with his wife and children in Missoula.

To learn more about Chad check out his website, or follow him on Twitter.

For more info and show notes: DIYMFA.com/115

Hello hello, word nerds!

Welcome to our latest episode of DIY MFA Radio. Today I’m speaking with Chad Dundas, the debut author of the historical sports novel: THE CHAMPION OF THE WORLD.

When publishing their debuts, writers have to contend with many different hurdles. They need to grab the attention of agents and editors. They need to hook readers from the very first page. And they must do all of this at a time when they don’t yet have a track record of success and a huge fanbase to rely on.

Some authors might be tempted to play it safe, but not Chad Dundas. He chooses a topic--professional wrestling--that not many people are interested in. He sets his book in a world that most people don’t know much about: the traveling carnivals of the 1920s. And he opens his book with a chapter where at the end it’s unclear whether the point-of-view character is even still alive.

As writers, I think it’s so important for us to hear not just from major bestselling authors with dozens (if not hundreds) of books under their belts. I also want you to hear from authors who are just a few steps ahead of where you are. I want you to know that you can take risks in your debut novel, and I want to introduce you to writers who are doing just that.

• Starting your novel when something happens
• Researching to get the historical elements just right
• The craft of writing on a chapter level
• Reality versus fiction in your writing and your life

Plus, Chad’s #1 tip for writers.

Chad Dundas earned his MFA from the University of Montana, and his short fiction has appeared in the Beloit Fiction Journal, Sycamore Review, Sou’Wester, and Thuglit. Since 2001, he’s worked as a sportswriter for national outlets including ESPN, NBC Sports, Sporting News, Bleacher Report, and the Associated Press, as well as local and regional newspapers. A fourth-generation Montanan, he lives with his wife and children in Missoula.

To learn more about Chad check out his website, or follow him on Twitter.

For more info and show notes: DIYMFA.com/115

Hey there, Word Nerds. Welcome to this week's episode of DIY MFA Radio. Today I'm talking to Steven Rowley, the author of the novel LILY AND THE OCTOPUS about an important topic in writing: the author's voice.

There are so many different voices that authors have to sift through when writing, from authorial voice to character voice to the critical voices that try to hold you back. Steven and I talk about how to differentiate between the voices, how to find what is useful for you, and how to shed what is weighing you down.

• Working through hard emotions via writing.
• Articulating the distinct voices of different characters in a story.
• "Finding" your authorial voice.
• Protecting yourself from the voices in your own head.
• What to read when you need to replenish the well.

Steven Rowley has worked as a freelance writer, alternative weekly newspaper columnist, and screenwriter. Originally from Portland, Maine, he is a graduate of Emerson College and currently lives in Los Angeles. For more information about Steven and his ongoing projects, check out his website, or follow him on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.

For more info and show notes: DIYMFA.com/114

Hey there, Word Nerds. Welcome to this week’s episode of DIY MFA Radio. Today I’m talking to Steven Rowley, the author of the novel LILY AND THE OCTOPUS about an important topic in writing: the author's voice.

There are so many different voices that authors have to sift through when writing, from authorial voice to character voice to the critical voices that try to hold you back. Steven and I talk about how to differentiate between the voices, how to find what is useful for you, and how to shed what is weighing you down.

• Working through hard emotions via writing.
• Articulating the distinct voices of different characters in a story.
• “Finding” your authorial voice.
• Protecting yourself from the voices in your own head.
• What to read when you need to replenish the well.

Steven Rowley has worked as a freelance writer, alternative weekly newspaper columnist, and screenwriter. Originally from Portland, Maine, he is a graduate of Emerson College and currently lives in Los Angeles. For more information about Steven and his ongoing projects, check out his website, or follow him on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.

For more info and show notes: DIYMFA.com/114