Building on last weeks’ Valentine’s Day episode about romantic chemistry and the 4-type framework of attraction (Physical, Intellectual, Social, and Emotional), Fable and the Verbivore continue to discuss dynamic relationship development using character examples from Marie Rutkoski’s Winner’s Trilogy.

For those who are unfamiliar with the story, The Winner’s Curse opens to find the characters Kestral and Arin on opposing sides of a struggle between their people groups the Valorians and the Herani. Due to circumstances that are at times orchestrated outside their direct control, the fates of these two characters begin to become tied up together, and a complex attraction and fragile relationship is forged.

Kestral and Arin’s relationship dynamic is complicated by their loyalties, and throughout these novels their unique chemistry is formed through areas where they have affinity and where they clash which helps propel forward their own personal narratives and builds romantic tension.

Though we mostly focus on a potentially romantic pairing in this episode, we believe that elements of this attraction framework can also be used to develop ambiguous or platonic character relationships as well. Throughout this series author Marie Rutkoski does a fantastic job of demonstrating the push and pull of romantic, platonic, and familial relationship dynamics. These are especially shown through the two main characters thoughts, choices, interactions with each other, and interactions with those around them.

Just in time for Valentine’s day, this episode of Fable and the Verbivore discusses a framework for elements of interpersonal attraction and uses that lens to consider the art of creating and developing romantic chemistry in writing.

Love is in the air, as we call on some classic literary couples to lend some examples of character chemistry that demonstrate why these relationships “work” and feel so timeless. From Pride and Prejudice’s Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, to Beatrice and Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing, we explore both aversion and attraction as part of the relationship dynamics that ultimately bring couples together in a realistic and interesting character arc.

As a kind of companion to our book review episode from last week, Fable and the Verbivore discuss literary criticism and grapple with how we want to approach reviewing other author's works.

We want to treat the stories and books we review with the utmost respect for the creator and look at the work from the point of view of artist intention, while also analyzing what we enjoyed and what personally worked and didn't work for us while we interacted with the story.

We are still working to find our balance between the analytical and supportive aspects of reviewing someone else's words and know that this will be an ongoing discussion. We hope you enjoy this impromptu conversation of both how we want to support other writers and appreciate what it is they are creating, while also critically thinking about what their work means to us.

We are grateful to you, our listeners, and would love to hear your thoughts on criticism and critical reviews! And keep daring greatly!

Into the woods,

Fable & The Verbivore

In this our second book club episode, Fable and the Verbivore dive into the Red Queen series by Victoria Aveyard. Our discussion covers the novella Cruel Crown as well as her four novels: Red Queen, Glass Sword, King’s Cage, and War Storm. There is an additional book of novellas that was recently published under the name of Broken Throne. Please note that this episode does not cover those additional stories.

The Red Queen series follows the story of Mare Barrow, who is of the serving class known as red bloods, as she is unexpectedly thrust into a game of survival within the cutthroat world of the reigning silver blood’s royal court. The world of Norta is harsh, and everyone is scheming to further their own agendas and protect their own existence. Filled with characters that have supernatural abilities and complex loyalties, as well as a rebellion on the horizon, this story is a wild ride of betrayal and conflict.

There are many compelling elements we enjoyed within this series including the ever-changing power dynamics of the characters with supernatural abilities, believable and complicated relationships, and well-crafted tension and court intrigues that keep expanding over time.

As part of our conversation, we dissect story elements ranging from the fascinating premise, well designed action sequences, and a stunning plot twist. We also discuss some choices by the author, where we recognize the intention of the artform, but the outcome did not connect with us as readers. We also discuss the possibility of this story being made into a movie, and what we hope that medium could do for this narrative.

If you haven’t read these books, we do get into plot points and several outcomes of given character arcs, so listen at your own discretion and feel free to skip this if you plan to read these books in the future.

If you have read the Red Queen series, we hope you enjoy our convervation about what made us continue to read through hundreds of pages of this world and as we attempt to unpack a quadrilogy of books.

Keep reading, and writing, and putting yourself out there!

Into the woods,

Fable & The Verbivore

In this episode, Fable and the Verbivore go out on a writing limb and venture into the assignment of taking in and then recreating a poem from memory. Embracing the vulnerability of creating outside our comfort zone, we share our words in the form of poetry.

Though the idea of imitating other writers to help find your voice is not new, this specific exercise required some pushing out of our creative boundaries. The structural freedom and no holds barred nature of poetry made for an invigorating writing experience, while reading our work out loud tapped into feelings of exposure and finding the courage to share our stripped down voice.

We would highly recommend this practice as a way to continue the journey of finding your own voice and analyze what resonates with you as part of a given work of writing. If you would like to join us in this exercise, we would love to hear what ideas and words you create. The hashtag we are using on Instagram is #imitatelikeawriter.

Into the woods,

Fable & The Verbivore

We are incredibly excited to share our second author interview! For this episode, Fable and the Verbivore spoke with writer and podcaster Maile Silva. Maile is currently querying a grade school level book called Marigold, while also working on a follow-up novel that will further explore this world. She discusses with us some of the challenges she has faced while querying this first book, and gives a taste of the themes and inspiration for her work. After hearing the premise, Bethany and I are captivated and can’t wait to be able to pick up a copy of this book once it’s released into the world!

Maile also co-hosts the delightful podcast The Stories Between Us which showcases entertaining and informative conversations with her husband writer Shawn Smucker focused on creating, publishing, and the ups and downs of the writing life. Their conversations have us laughing and crying, often in quick succession!

We talked with Maile for well over an hour and it was a significant challenge to cut this conversation down to something roughly the same length as our typical episode. If you want to hear the full conversation, you can find it on our Patreon page. For just $5 a month you can support this podcast and get full author interviews each month.

In this episode, we talk with Maile about when she first knew she was a writer, how she juggles prioritizing writing while also being present for her family, the daunting task of editing her first book, and her experience sending out query letters to agents. We hope you enjoy this conversation as much as we did in making it, and that you will check out Maile Silva and The Stories Between Us.

Into the woods,

Fable & The Verbivore

Fable and the Verbivore dig into words or themes that they are holding onto and hoping to become self fulfilling prophesies for this new year.

For Laura, 2019 was a year of actively working to be open and not reject an idea just because it felt scary or impossible. This led to a lot of unexpected opportunities, and ultimately deciding to leave a 12 year career and rededicate herself for the present to writing and spending more time with her two kids. This year she envisions walking through the doors that have now been opened, and stepping into whatever lies beyond them.

The year 2019 for Bethany involved a lot of staying indoors and care giving for her daughter as she recovered from hip surgery and her husband as he continues cancer treatment. A benefit of this time at home was that she could focus more on her writing projects, reading tons of books, and working to create this podcast. In 2020, she is resonating with the theme of going into the woods and holding herself in active, directed tension between the forces outside herself (as you would a yoga pose).

We wish you a 2020 that holds excitement, challenges, peace, relaxation, overcoming fear, joy, opportunities, and the unexpected! We would love to hear if any of our listeners have any words or themes that they are holding onto for the new year!

Into the woods,

Fable & The Verbivore

Fable and the Verbivore jump into the plans that they have for their writing projects as they head into the year 2020 (wow, that feels like a crazy number). Bethany is working towards finishing the outline of her YA trilogy series and planning to move forward into the process of querying agents. Laura has agressive goals to finish a draft for the historical fiction that she is writing with her sisters by June, and at the same time to continue to move forward with her son’s picture book with a hopeful completion timeframe of October.

We discuss the need to frame daily success as the completion of small daily/weekly/monthly habits that support these overarching goals and keep the momentum on these projects moving forward while staving off potential feelings of failure. From a psychology perspective, what you tell yourself about the work you are doing can be as important as the work itself.

We wish you a very Happy New Year, and look forward to hearing all about your own goals and habits that will be part of your 2020! We are also delighted to continue this journey with you into the new year!

Into the woods,

Fable & The Verbivore

This is the Fable and the Verbivore’s all things Christmas episode, where Bethany and Laura talk about their favorite holiday narratives found in books, movies, and music. From A Christmas Carol to Die Hard, we reflect on what we enjoy about this time of year and what Yuletide themes and ideas personally resonate.

We also discuss breaking free of the myth that there are already enough people writing about the concepts and core ideas that we are interested in persuing with our own works in progress. Bethany talks about the strong themes that holiday works tend to have, and discusses finding the theme for her WIP. Laura describes how she records her random ideas that don’t yet have a story to call home in a separate writing journal, so that they are not lost to time and a short memory.

We hope you all enjoy this episode as you follow your own traditions, and have a wonderful Christmas and holiday season!

Into the woods,Fable & The Verbivore

In this episode we explore how to keep people reading your book and discuss examples of books that are (for us) page turners. We also discuss examples of books that weren't page turners for us, or that were slower reads.

We talk a great deal about connecting with characters and what makes us connect with a character. Relating to a character and having an emotional attachment to a character can be a big reason we keep turning pages. Some others do this really well, others struggle to create connection worthy characters.

We also announce our "book club" book/series for January: The Red Queen Series. We'll be talking in depth about this series for one episode in mid-January if you want to read it now and have a better idea of what we're talking about in January.

Into the woods,

Fable & The Verbivore