Future Best Seller

Author and Editor Bryan Thomas Schmidt returns to the show to tell us about his new book, Shortcut.

Guest Chat:

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A.I. News:

Tools for Authors:

Creatives on F.I.R.E.:

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Creatives on F.I.R.E.:

Artist Harold Neal joined us this week for a chaotic good episode!

Guest Chat:

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AI News:

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Creatives on F.I.R.E

Guest Chat:

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Creatives on F.I.R.E.:

Our guest this week runs a horror themed book review channel on Youtube called Bookworm of the Damned. Alex Brown has also been an author, editor, and short film creator.

Also Phill has been diagnosed with Carpal Tunnel Syndrom and he's oddly happy about it.

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Creatives On F.I.R.E.:

Chrisafer abandoned us and the pod gods were not pleased. We casted our pod anyway. Author A. Lee Martinez joined us this week for a chaotic episode that was so good we recorded it twice!

Guest Chat:

- A. Lee Martinez's Brilliant Book Titles: Gil's All Fright Diner, A Nameless Witch, the Automatic Detective, In the Company of Ogres

- That time Lee almost gave up writing to pursue juggling

- Hollywood Smallshot

- Movie Options

- Lee's writing process

- Lee's advice for newbs

News:

- Simon and Schuster SOLD

- Reading and Our Brains

- Pirates. Arrrggg!

AI News:

- Somebody uploaded a bunch of crappy books and pretended they were written by Jane Friedman. Strangely, she wasn't happy about it.

- Authors mad at a Prosecraft

- Dungeons & Dragons fans ain't havin' no stinkin AI

- AI written Travel Guides, what could possibly go wrong?

Tools:

- Wix for your Author Website

Creatives on F.I.R.E.:

- Lee gives us his villain origin story and we talk about the importance of building a network

Author Abigal Linhardt joined us this week for a conversation so good we managed to break Chris. He required a hard reboot mid-show.

Guest Chat:

- Abigail's Dark Fantasy Series - Season of the Runner

- Why Phill loves the Witcher

- Ghost writing

- Narrating audiobooks

- Altered Reality Magazine

- Abigail's writing process

News:

- Amazon Monopoly?

- Fantasy Magazine Shutting down. Boo. Sad. Boo.

- Wattpad Publishing Scheduler has Launched

- Writualna Polska Holding Group has audiobook company Audioteka

AI News:

Article Phill referenced about Grammarly

WorldCon Glasgow 2024 has put out a statement about AI.

SFWA collects links to numerous authors' thoughts on AI.

Supposedly, AI books took over Amazon best seller list.

Tools:

- Abigail's favorite tools: Scrivener (writing), GIMP (Graphic Design), Garage Band (Audio Editing)

Creatives On Fire:

- Phill attempts to correct a mistake he made in last week's episode. Referenced links: Investopedia / The Motley Fool

- Good reasons for using a pen name

We're joined this week by award winning author, JC Crumpton.

- How we met JC

- The "My Body Is Ready" / "We Aren't Mature Enough For The Filk Circle" story.

Previous Guest Shoutouts:

- David J Pedersen mentioned us on his blog over at djpwrites.com!

- Gary Phillips's One-Shot Harry is up for a Macavity Award!

- Bryan Thomas Scmidt's Robots Through the Ages is out!

Guest Chat:

- JC has a poetry collection coming out called Newspaper Reading. Poetry that's accessible.

- Why JC writes poetry.

- Writing Historical Fiction.

- The Bumbershoots Writer Society.

- JC won a car by hitting a hole-in-one.

- Elitist Art (Or Alyita Stark)

- Panster or Plotter

- JC's advice for the newbie author

News:

- Harper Collins shutting down YA imprint, Inkyard Press.

- Draft2Digital buys SelfPubBookCovers.com

- Hacker mag don't need your stinkin distribution!

- Adult Only question in the KDP forums.

AI News:

- SFWA joins those signing THE letter.

Tools for Writers:

- Abbie Emmons's Immersive Writing Sessions on Youtube.

- Why JC likes pen and paper

Creatives on F.I.R.E.:

- JC shares how he is pursuing his dream

- Credit Card Update: An unconventional way to erase credit card debt.

- Value based purchasing & using credit cards for good, rather than evil.

This week we have our first musical guest! Marc Mills, otherwise known as Marco from Music the Gathering, joins us to talk about telling stories through song and the life of a traveling minstrel. Let's Play!

- What to do about the beginning? How to start your stories.

GUEST CHAT:

- Marc gives us his villain origin story.

- Music the Gathering.

- Marc and the Echo Folk.

- Marc shares his experiences playing at ren faires across the U.S..

- Storytelling through music.

- Marc's process for songwriting.

NEWS:

- Book store sales were up in May, but Publishing industry sales were flat.

- Penguin Random House Layoffs. Boo.

- Amazon sold a lot of Kindles on Prime Day. Yay! Readers! Yay!

- The Internet Archives takes action against piracy.

AI News:

- 8,500 authors have signed the letter

TOOLS:

- Phill tells us about his super awesome travel writing chair

CREATIVES ON FIRE:

- Marc gives a glimpse into the life a traveling minstrel, and talks to us about the business side of performing at ren faires, side gigs, and how he's designed his life to pursue his dream.

“In the tradition of Dashiell Hammett . . . Makes us feel that the war he’s waging is for our own salvation.” —Walter Mosley

Gary Phillips has over 20 novels to his name. A best selling and award winning crime fiction, historical fiction, and pulp author, his latest novel, One-Shot Harry, has more accolades than you could haul in a dump truck. The sequel, Ash Dark As Night, will be out in 2024. He also co-authored the novelization of Batman the Killing Joke and has an upcoming collection titled, The Unvarnished Gary Phillips: A Mondo Pulp Collection.

Gary Phillips is also an award wining anthology editor with title likes The Obama Inheritance, Culprits, and Hollis for Hire (Which includes a story by our very own Phillip Drayer Duncan). Gary was also a writer and co-producer for the FX hit show, Snowfall.

GUEST CHAT:

- Gary is getting in his steps joining the WGA strikes.

- What's it like working with big traditional publishers versus the smaller presses? Comics? Hollywood?

- Working on Batman the Killing Joke novelization.

- Being the lead editor on anthologies.

- Balancing too many characters.

- For new authors - Don't sweat the market! Write the story you want to write!

NEWS:

- WGA Writer Strike: Gary gives us a first hand account of the strike, as he's been on site and participating in demonstrations.

- Chuck Tingle takes over Tor.com.

- We can enjoy the Nebulas year round now with the Nebulas Online!

- The Library of America honors Ray Bradburry with an upcoming panel: The Enduring Genius of Ray Bradburry on July 19th.

- Writer Beware - Scammers pretending to be the Zon!

- Ingram Spark updates it's Shipping.

- Amazon beta testing new library system which we can't see because it's a private beta.

- Wattpad has revamped its Creator Program .

- Harlequinn adds new imprint, Afterglow Books.

- USA Today's Bestseller list is back.

- The Hugo finalists have been revealed.

AI NEWS:

- Gary Phillips A.l. Short Story - "It's all over, baby!"

- How to tell human writing from AI, according to CNN.

- Voice Actors not happy with how their voices are being used, according to a story from PC Gamer.

TOOLS:

- Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules for Writing.

CREATIVES ON FIRE:

- Gary tells us about working with Hollywood.