Lit Service

Bonus episode! Listen to our our fabulous guests at FanX (Charlie Holmberg and Brian Lee Durfee) answer questions from the audience.

Charlie N. Holmberg is a Wall Street Journal and Amazon bestselling author, whose debut series, The Paper Magician, has been optioned by the Walt Disney Company. Her stand-alone novel, Followed by Frost, was nominated for a 2016 RITA Award for Best Young Adult Romance, and her novel The Fifth Doll won the 2018 Whitney award for Speculative Fiction. She is a board member for Deep Magic Ezine. Visit her at www.charlienholmberg.com.

Brian Lee Durfee is an artist and writer raised in Fairbanks Alaska and Monroe Utah. He has done illustrations for Wizards of the Coast, Tolkien Enterprises, Dungeons & Dragons, Humane Society Wildlife Land Trust (Denali National Park) and many more.

Have you started a novel you've never finished? Wanted to write a novel and never started? Award winning authors Charlie Holmberg and Brian Lee Durfee join us to talk about their first novels and share tips and strategies for actually finishing. 

Charlie N. Holmberg is a Wall Street Journal and Amazon bestselling author, whose debut series, The Paper Magician, has been optioned by the Walt Disney Company. Her stand-alone novel, Followed by Frost, was nominated for a 2016 RITA Award for Best Young Adult Romance, and her novel The Fifth Doll won the 2018 Whitney award for Speculative Fiction. She is a board member for Deep Magic Ezine. Visit her at www.charlienholmberg.com.

Brian Lee Durfee is an artist and writer raised in Fairbanks Alaska and Monroe Utah. He has done illustrations for Wizards of the Coast, Tolkien Enterprises, Dungeons & Dragons, Humane Society Wildlife Land Trust (Denali National Park) and many more.

Books and media we talk about:

The Paper Magician by Charlie Holmberg

The Forgetting Moon by Brian Lee Durfee

A Night of Blacker Darkness by Dan Wells

How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy by Orson Scott Card

Save the Cat by Blake Snyder

Safehold by David Weber

You have your fabulous main character, their deliciously dark past, their wealth of relationships, habits, memories, and everything else that makes them who they are-- and then you have to write the first chapter. What can you put in, what should you leave out, and how do you make it interesting? Listen in as we discuss how to best drop your back story in a way that is natural and interesting.

Some books and media we talk about:

Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls

The Last Jedi (movie)

Animorphs (series) by H. A. Applegate

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

Isabel: Taking Wing by Annie Dalton

Powerful themes and well-explored issues often make the difference between a good story and a great one. However, many writers struggle to find the balance between exploring issues and sounding "preachy". In this episode, Emily R. King talks with us about how to help our writing have a heart.

Emily R. King is a reader of everything and a writer of fantasy. Born in Canada and raised in the USA, she has perfected the use of “eh” and “y’all” and uses both interchangeably. Shark advocate, consumer of gummy bears, and islander at heart, Emily’s greatest interests are her four children. She’s a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and an active participant in her local writers’ community. She lives in Northern Utah with her family and their cantankerous cat.

Books and media we talk about:

The Hundredth Queen by Emily R. King

Before the Broken Star by Emily R. King

Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Tricia Levenseller is the author of the Daughter of the Pirate King duology and standalone Warrior of the Wild. She likes to describe her books as young adult alternate–world historical fantasies with heavy romantic subplots.

Some things we mention on the podcast:

Star Wars (movie series)

The Winner's Trilogy by Marie Rutkoski

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Zombies Run (Mobile App)

Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson

The Swan Princess (Movie)

The Harry Potter Series

If you want to read the text of this week's submission, check out our website at https://litservicepodcast.wixsite.com/litnation/ 

Kelly Barnhill received the Newbery Medal in 2017, won the World Fantasy Award, the Parents Choice Gold Award as well as many other honors. She is a New York Times bestseller, and the author of THE GIRL WHO DRANK THE MOON, THE WITCHES BOY, IRON HEARTED VIOLET, and THE MOSTLY TRUE STORY OF JACK as well as the novella, “The Unlicensed Magician”.

In this episode, we chat about using misunderstandings between characters as a plot point that rings true rather than frustrating readers.

Check out the text of the submission we critique on our website: https://litservicepodcast.wixsite.com/litnation 

We're back with an all new season of Lit Service!

Announcement!! We are going to be doing live shows at the Life the Universe and Everything Symposium in Provo, Utah, Saturday February 16th. If you haven't been to a writing conference yet (and you really should go...) this is a relatively inexpensive one, espeically if you are a student. We'd love to meet up and see you at our show!

The last time we tried to talk about writing a good villain on the podcast, we got distracted and talked about the difference between antagonists and villians instead. This time, we really get into what makes villains interesting, how to incorporate those things into your work, and whether or not we need our villains to be interesting at all.

Some things we mention: 

The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Eragon by Christopher Paolini

Kim Possible

If you'd like a first chapter critique from the podcasters, check our submission guidelines here: https://litservicepodcast.wixsite.com/litnation/submissions

You can find out more about the podcaster, see the submissions we critique with all our notes, and listen or watch the video feed of the podcast on the same site.

Thanks for listening!

For our final episode of the season we chat with Dan Wells about how to incorporate horror elements into our work. Because Dan is really smart, we let this one go a little long.

Some of the things we mention:

Zero G by Dan Wells (available for free on audible for the month of December!! https://www.audible.com/pd/Zero-G-Audiobook/B07K4VYQ5X)

Holly Black's collective work

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

I Am Not a Serial Killer by Dan Wells

There's Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins

Sand Kings by George RR Martin

Steven Spielberg's Jaws

If you'd like to look at the chapter critiqued during this episode, the text with our notes is available on our website: https://litservicepodcast.wixsite.com/litnation

If you'd like a first chapter critique, our submissions will open again in January! Keep an eye out for guest announcements!

Ben mentioned during the podcast that this is one of the most important topics for newer writers to learn about. #1 NYT bestseller Kathryn Purdie joins Ben, Caitlin Sangster, Aliah Eberting, Kristen Evans, and Cameron Harris to talk about what it means to put your characters in a crucible in order to increase tension in a story and how to go about doing it.

Some books and movies we mention:

The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

The Office (TV series)

Star Wars

Dr. Who season 4 episode 10 "Midnight"

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Avatar: the Last Airbender

Thanks for listening, and please remember that if you'd like to read the submission (along with our notes) we critiqued in this episode, you can find it on our website: https://litservicepodcast.wixsite.com/litnation/2-19

If you'd like a first chapter critique, you can find the guidelines here: https://litservicepodcast.wixsite.com/litnation/submissions

Remember to follow us on social media and to leave us ratings, likes, and comments because it helps others to find the show. And makes us love you more :)

Literary agent Ben Grange joins the Lit Service crew to chat about how to approach writing original characters.

Some things we mention:

The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill

Avatar: The Last Airbender

The Scarlet Pimpernell by Baroness Orczy

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway

If you'd like to see the text of the submission we critique, you can find it on our website: https://litservicepodcast.wixsite.com/litnation

If you'd like a first chapter critique, check out our submission guidelines!

Thanks for listening!