One of the Mad Writers has a little bit of news to share relating to their goals for the year. They discuss it all in this first ever minisode.

On this very special episode of Mad Writers Union, the Mad Writers finally get serious. They delve deep into their psyches and come through on the other side as changed writers. Follow along on their journey to where no man, woman or non-binary person has ever been before. Welcome to the Mad Writers Union.

Most working writers agree that there is one quality above all needed to make it in the business: persistence. The Mad Writers invited the legendary Cat Rambo over to talk persistence and writing. From her days at Johns Hopkins through to keeping up writing a short story a week after Clarion West and all the way to her days working in SFWA. Cat Rambo is a writer, teacher, SFWA president and previously secretary. Generous in her encouragement of new writers and brilliant in her turn of prose, she can be found at catrambo.com

Cat's recommendation: Lovecraft Country: A Novel by Matt Ruff

Tim's recommendation: Definitely Maybe (Neversink) by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky

Jay's recommendation: The Art of Language Invention: From Horse-Lords to Dark Elves, the Words Behind World-Building by David J Peterson

Nina's recommendation: Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye

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Intro and outro music comes from “Cephalopod” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com); licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

On this action-packed episode, the Mad Writers talk to Kameron Hurley. Their path wanders through non-fiction, characters, plotting or, rather, the lack thereof. Especially writers finding their own way in terms of the way they approach their methodology. Kameron shares her wisdom gained over more than a half-dozen books as well as several funny anecdotes from along the way.  The big takeaway from this interview being, of course, that you need to figure out the best way for you to write, however you can.

Kameron Hurley is a writer of books and relentless mover and shaker. She is responsible for badass female bounty hunters and bug magic in the Bel Dame Apocrypha -series, sentient, carnivorous trees in the Worldbreaker Saga and a balls-to-the-wall call to action of an essay collection, The Geek Feminist Revolution. She can be found online at KameronHurley.com and on various social media sites as Kameron Hurley. Her latest novel, The Stars Are Legion, is out now.

Kameron's recommendation: River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey

' Tim's recommendation: Medicus: A Novel of the Roman Empire (Novels of the Roman Empire) by Ruth Downie

Jay's recommendation: The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor Lavalle

Nina's recommendation: Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation by Octavia Butler and John Jennings (illustrator) and Damian Duffy (adapter)

Please support Mad Writers Union by reviewing it on iTunes or Stitcher! You can subscribe to this show on iTunes or via RSS.

Intro and outro music comes from “Cephalopod” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com); licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Viable Paradise, without hyperbole, changed the lives of all the Mad Writers. 16 months ago our intrepid hosts arrived on Martha's Vineyard and together with 21 other hopefuls went through a grueling week. In this episode, they go through their journey to the island as well as some of the things that have them thinking about their time there frequently. They share some reasons why they applied and what they did to get there. They also touch on the community of Viable Paradise teachers and alumni, all of whom are anxiously awaiting for next year's students, VP XXI. You can apply today!

Tim’s recommendation: Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang

Jay’s recommendation: Behind the Throne (The Indranan War) by K.B.Wagers

Nina’s recommendation: Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake

Please support Mad Writers Union by reviewing it on iTunes or Stitcher! You can subscribe to this show on iTunes or via RSS.

Intro and outro music comes from “Cephalopod” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com); licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

It's 2017! All the Mad Writers survived 2016 which at times seemed somewhat unlikely! They are now hesitantly ready to tackle not only the second season of the podcast but also a number of writing goals. Tune in to our Mad Writers planning novel drafts, workshop applications and querying, they do it all! Or at least plan to. It might even be that they are finally learning their own, human limitations and are starting to consider them in their goals. Although their podcasting may be a little rusty this time.

Tim's recommendation: Nine Princes in Amber: Book One (The Chronicles of Amber 1) by Roger Zelazny

Please support Mad Writers Union by reviewing it on iTunes or Stitcher! You can subscribe to this show on iTunes or via RSS.

Intro and outro music comes from “Cephalopod” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com); licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

The time has come for all mad writers to check in on their 2016 goals one last time! Spoiler warning; we had two failures and an epic win! As the year turns, so do the minds of our Mad Writers, returning to see what happened there.

Tim's recommendation: Story Genius: How to Use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel (Before You Waste Three Years Writing 327 Pages That Go Nowhere) by Lisa Cron

Jay's recommendation: Monstress Volume 1: Awakening by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda

Nina's recommendation: Letters to the Pumpkin King by Seanan McGuire

Please support Mad Writers Union by reviewing it on iTunes or Stitcher! You can subscribe to this show on iTunes or via RSS.

Intro and outro music comes from “Cephalopod” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com); licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Characterization, meaning presenting character through non-verbal means. This shows up in the way they choose their words, the way they dress, the way they hold themselves and all kinds of other details. The Mad Writers get flummoxed but then manage to rally and figure out several things about creating characters through showing and not telling. They discuss examples from Daredevil (the Netflix show), Mary Robinette Kowal, their own work as well as the sleazy lounge singer, Lionel Cheese that sprung out of Tim's effort to speak in a lounge singer voice.

• Mary's room exercise

Tim's recommendation: The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction September/October 2016

Please support Mad Writers Union by reviewing it on iTunes or Stitcher! You can subscribe to this show on iTunes or via RSS.

Intro and outro music comes from “Cephalopod” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com); licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

NaNoWriMo is the bane and simultaneously the hope of many a writer. Every November, millions of people get together to write 50.000 words. Our intrepid Mad Writers have entirely varying experiences with this yearly event.

Jay has broken up with NaNoWriMo because while she always gets the trophy, it usually comes with completely unusable prose that she doesn't even consider worth editing. Nina on the other hand has very positive experiences with NaNoWriMo in that it is largely based on gamifying the writing of thousands of words and Nina is nothing if not a sucker for gamification. Tim, for his part, is somewhere in the middle, preferring the community over the gamification. They discuss what they each get out of NaNoWriMo (or don't, in the case of Jay), how to approach it so that you'll have the greatest chance of winning as well as making sure to emphasize not sending your newly finished NaNoWriMo story out to agents and editors.

Tim's recommendation: Borderline (The Arcadia Project) by Mishell Baker

Please support Mad Writers Union by reviewing it on iTunes or Stitcher! You can subscribe to this show on iTunes or via RSS.

Intro and outro music comes from “Cephalopod” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com); licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0