Mark interviews bestselling writer, editor, and writing instructor, Wulf Moon, who won the national Scholastic Art & Writing Awards at the age of fifteen, and followed that with winning the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Contest, and Writers of the Future. He leads the Wulf Pack Writers group and is the author of The Illustrated Super Secrets of Writing and How to Write a Howling Good Story.

Prior to the interview, Mark reads comments from previous episodes, shares a personal update, and then says a word about this episode's sponsor.

This episode is sponsored by the Stark Publishing book How to Write a Howling Good Story by Wulf Moon.

The book is 25% off at the Smashwords store until the end of Jan 2024.

Patrons of the Stark Reflections Podcast can get the book for 75% off until the end of Feb 2024.

In their conversation Mark and Moon talk about:

• How Wulf Moon might not have been the name that he was born with and how the name "Moon" which he has been called most of his life came from his Ojibwe grandmother
• Moonbeam Road, a local road his father named after him when he was growing up
• Not having a father who was supportive of his writing, and even having to run away from home when he was younger
• Finding an important positive voice as a youngster in a teacher
• The additional lengths this one teacher went to support and encourage Moon in his writing
• Winning the Scholastic Art and Writing Award at the age of 15, among so many other awards that this teacher helped him find
• Getting beat up so often in high school that the only thing he could do was look down as he walked in the hallways - but how he found his power in writing
• The importance of finding a way to be who you are and to not allow others to repress you from that
• Starting up Wulf Moon's Super Secrets Writing Workshop right after winning Writers of the Future - and offering all this support to other writers for free
• The repeated authors who have gone through Moon's teachings and then ended up winning Writers of the Future
• The Wulf Pack Writers group that Moon manages
• Following the concept of "how can I help you with what I know"
• How writers don't understand proper Manuscript Format
• The high ranking sales that HOW TO WRITE A HOWLING GOOD STORY has hit since its release in November 2023
• Moon's concept of Heart's Desire as the most important principle in a story
• Caring that happens in the heart of the reader, which can create the Reader/Hero bond
• Getting to a point in his life that was so low that he took risks and was burning bridges behind him and not writing for 10 years
• Realizing that he couldn't be happy and couldn't be fulfilled not being a writer
• Moon's experience meeting Dean Wesley Smith at the Nebula Awards in Eugene Oregon
• The importance of having both the fundamenals of writing and the belief in yourself
• The mantra "belief determins reality" that Moon instructs his students to write down
• The dedication in Moon's HOW TO WRITE A HOWLING GOOD STORY
• Meeting other people "like me" at writer conferences, etc and the incredible value that can bring
• Advice Moon would offer to newer writers
• And more...

After the interview, Mark reflects on the importance of not denying who you are and not denying the things that bring you pleasure. He also reflects on the concept of finding your people, your Tribe, and the positive impact we can have on one another if we just take the time to listen, to reach out, to others.

Links of Interest:

• Wulf Moon's Website
• How to Write a Howling Good Story
  • Smashwords link
  • Patron Coupon for 75% off
• EP 340 - Personality, Passion, Presentation, and Persistence with Todd Fahnestock
• Mark's YouTube Channel
• Buy Mark a Coffee
• Patreon for Stark Reflections
• Best Book Ever Podcast
• Lovers Moon Podcast
• The Relaxed Author
  • Buy eBook Direct
  • Buy Audiobook Direct
• Publishing Pitfalls for Authors
• An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores
• Wide for the Win
• Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books
  • This Time Around (Short Story)
  • A Canadian Werewolf in New York
  • Stowe Away (Novella)
  • Fear and Longing in Los Angeles
  • Fright Nights, Big City
  • Lover's Moon
  • Hex and the City
• The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles
• Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard

Wulf Moon is a bestselling writer, editor, and writing instructor. At fifteen, Moon won the national Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, and followed that with winning the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Contest, and Writers of the Future. He leads the Wulf Pack Writers group. He's won both Best Author and Best Writers Workshop four years running in the Critters Readers' Choice Awards, and is the author of The Illustrated Super Secrets of Writing and How to Write a Howling Good Story. www.thesupersecrets.com

The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast ("Laser Groove") was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0