In the spotlight is historical novelist Joy Callaway, author of the historical novels that include “The Fifth Avenue Artists Society,” “Secret Sisters,” and “The Grand Design.”

We discuss:

>> Raising the stakes with your characters 
>> Limiting TV watching 
>> Getting her first agent 
>> Book tours 
>> Writing routines with children 
>> Family storytelling and ancestors’ lives 
>> Etc.

To learn more about Joy Callaway, go to this link: https://www.joycallaway.com

Novelist Spotlight is produced and hosted by Mike Consol, author of “Family Recipes: A Novel About Italian Culture, Catholic Guilt and the Culinary Crime of the Century,” “Hardwood: A Novel About College Basketball and Other Games Young Men Play,” and two yet-to-be-published manuscripts, “Lolita Firestone: A Supernatural Novel,” and the short story collection “Love American Style.” Write to him at [email protected]. We hope you will subscribe and share the link with any family, friends or colleagues who might benefit from this program.

In the spotlight are writing routines and Nancy Stohlman, a proponent of flash fiction and good writing practices. In a recent newsletter, Stohlman reasoned that writing routines eventually stop working and need to be refreshed. This episode gives voice to her perspectives on the subject.

Learn more about Nancy Stohlman at: www.nancystohlman.com

Novelist Spotlight is produced and hosted by Mike Consol, author of “Family Recipes: A Novel About Italian Culture, Catholic Guilt and the Culinary Crime of the Century,” “Hardwood: A Novel About College Basketball and Other Games Young Men Play,” and two yet-to-be-published manuscripts, “Lolita Firestone: A Supernatural Novel,” and the short story collection “Love American Style.” Write to him at [email protected]. We hope you will subscribe and share the link with any family, friends or colleagues who might benefit from this program.

In the spotlight is Northwestern University literature professor Gary Morson, an expert in Russian novelists and their novels. His also the author of a forthcoming book titled “Wonder Confronts Certainty: Russian Writers on the Timeless Questions and Why Their Answers Matter” (Harvard Press).

We discuss:

>> Why Russia produced so many great novelists

>> The place the novel occupies in modern day Russia and America

>> Is “Anna Karenina” or “War and Peace” the greatest novel ever?

>> Is Leo Tolstoy the greatest of all novelists?

>> Why are names such as Chekhov, Dostoevsky and Pushkin still present?

>> What do their great novels say about Russian history and its people?

>> Etc.

To learn more about professor Gary Morson, go here: https://slavic.northwestern.edu/people/faculty/morson-gary-saul.html

Novelist Spotlight is produced and hosted by Mike Consol, author of “Family Recipes: A Novel About Italian Culture, Catholic Guilt and the Culinary Crime of the Century,” “Hardwood: A Novel About College Basketball and Other Games Young Men Play,” and two yet-to-be-published manuscripts, “Lolita Firestone: A Supernatural Novel,” and the short story collection “Love American Style.” Write to him at [email protected]. We hope you will subscribe and share the link with any family, friends or colleagues who might benefit from this program.

Mike Consol, your producer and host of Novelist Spotlight, has just published his second novel and wants to tell you all about it — and beseech you to buy a print or e-book copy of this restaurant-based family saga and whodunnit.

Think, “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” but with Italians rather than Greeks.

Just go to Amazon and search “Mike Consol” to buy a print or e-book edition of “Family Recipes: A Novel about Italian Culture, Catholic Guilt and the Culinary Crime of the Century.”

Write to him at [email protected]

In the spotlight is Susan Shapiro, author of “The Book Bible: Sell Your Manuscript — No Matter What Genre — Without Going Broke or Insane.” She is also an award-winning writer and professor, authoring 17 best-selling books such as “Five Men Who Broke My Heart,” and her recent memoir “The Forgiveness Tour.” She lives with her scriptwriter husband in Manhattan and uses her writing and publishing guides “The Book Bible” and “The Byline Bible” to teach her popular “instant gratification takes too long” courses at The New School at NYU and Columbia University. 

We discuss: 

>> Confessional writing 

>> Why her family “hates” her writing 

>> The five men who broke her heart 

>> What authors do right and wrong in their query letters to agents 

>> What Arthur Miller, Williams Faulker said about the subject matter worth writing about 

>> What she tells her student about approaching writing 

>> Why she sees a “shrink” 

>> Etc. 

Learn more about Susan Shapiro here: https://www.susanshapiro.net/index.html
 

You can follow her postings at Twitter at @susanshapironet, Instagram at @Profsue123, and write to her at: [email protected] 

Novelist Spotlight is produced and hosted by Mike Consol, author of “Family Recipes: A Novel About Italian Culture, Catholic Guilt and the Culinary Crime of the Century,” “Hardwood: A Novel About College Basketball and Other Games Young Men Play,” and two yet-to-be-published manuscripts, “Lolita Firestone: A Supernatural Novel,” and the short story collection “Love American Style.” Write to him at [email protected]. We hope you will subscribe and share the link with any family, friends or colleagues who might benefit from this program. 

What happens when an accomplished novelist, the author of more than a dozen books, suddenly finds her writing life bogged down in an unsustainable period of crisis? This is the story of one such episode, and the famous musician whose eight-year bout with writer's block could prove instructional.

Novelist Spotlight is produced and hosted by Mike Consol, author of “Family Recipes: A Novel About Italian Culture, Catholic Guilt and the Culinary Crime of the Century,” “Hardwood: A Novel About College Basketball and Other Games Young Men Play,” and two yet-to-be-published manuscripts, “Lolita Firestone: A Supernatural Novel,” and the short story collection “Love American Style.” Write to him at [email protected]. We hope you will subscribe and share the link with any family, friends or colleagues who might benefit from this program.

In the spotlight is Charles Demers, Juno-nominated comedian, playwright and acclaimed author of “Vancouver Special” and “The Horrors.” His latest novel, “Noonday Dark,” is the second installment in the Annick Boudreau mystery series. Demers writes from a place of intimate understanding of mental illness, having lived with chronic depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder. In “Noonday Dark” he unpacks the deeper philosophical questions around depression, such as what it means to be unsure if life is worth living, and how one carries on in spite of the answer.

We discuss: 

>> Cognitive therapy 

>> Antidepressants 

>> Comedic writing 

>> City-based novels 

>> Writing middle-grade fiction 

>> Etc. 

Learn more about Charles Demers at www.charliedemers.com

Novelist Spotlight is produced and hosted by Mike Consol, author of “Family Recipes: A Novel About Italian Culture, Catholic Guilt and the Culinary Crime of the Century,” “Hardwood: A Novel About College Basketball and Other Games Young Men Play,” and two yet-to-be-published manuscripts, “Lolita Firestone: A Supernatural Novel,” and the short story collection “Love American Style.” Write to him at [email protected]. We hope you will subscribe and share the link with any family, friends or colleagues who might benefit from this program.

In the spotlight are Prudence Emery and Ron Base, co-authors of “Death at the Savoy.” Prudence Emery is former press secretary at the Savoy Hotel and publicist extraordinaire for scores of movies. She is good friends with Ron Base, a prolific author who has been writing the Sanibel Sunset Detective series of novels for the past 12 years — and a host of other books. The two teamed up to write this hotel-based murder mystery during which an international arms dealer is found dead in his room, and Priscilla Tempest, herself the press secretary for the Savoy, becomes the tale’s protagonist.

We discuss:

>> The process of co-authoring a novel

>> Using real celebrities in your story

>> The glory days of hoteling

>> The role of hotel press secretary

>> Free drinks for members of the press

>> The “waiter button”

>> Hospitality innovations by The Savoy

>> Liza Minelli and Peter Sellers

>> Etc.

Prudence Emery is also author of “Nanaimo Girl: A Memoir,” available here.

Ron Base is author of numerous books, all of which are listed on his website, www.ronbase.com

Novelist Spotlight is produced and hosted by Mike Consol, author of “Family Recipes: A Novel About Italian Culture, Catholic Guilt and the Culinary Crime of the Century,” “Hardwood: A Novel About College Basketball and Other Games Young Men Play,” and two yet-to-be-published manuscripts, “Lolita Firestone: A Supernatural Novel,” and the short story collection “Love American Style.” Write to him at [email protected]. We hope you will subscribe and share the link with any family, friends or colleagues who might benefit from this program. 

Authors have never had more competition for people’s time and attention than today, pitted against social media platforms, videogames, movies, streaming services, etc. Social media sites, in particular, offer mostly tenuous relationships, and that creates opportunities for writers. I muse about exactly that — and the utility of the flash fiction mindset — during this episode.

Mentioned during this podcast:

>> Nancy Stohlman
>> Andre Dubus III

>> Donna Tartt

>> Anthony Doerr

>> Etc.

Novelist Spotlight is produced and hosted by Mike Consol, author of “Family Recipes: A Novel About Italian Culture, Catholic Guilt and the Culinary Crime of the Century,” “Hardwood: A Novel About College Basketball and Other Games Young Men Play,” and two yet-to-be-published manuscripts, “Lolita Firestone: A Supernatural Novel,” and the short story collection “Love American Style.” Write to him at [email protected]. We hope you will subscribe and share the link with any family, friends or colleagues who might benefit from this program.

Speed reading isn’t a gimmick — at least not in this case. I learned the technique many years ago and have used it to great effect ever since. During this episode I share it with you, along with some thoughts on overwritten nonfiction (and fiction) books.

Novelist Spotlight is produced and hosted by Mike Consol, author of “Family Recipes: A Novel About Italian Culture, Catholic Guilt and the Culinary Crime of the Century,” “Hardwood: A Novel About College Basketball and Other Games Young Men Play,” and two yet-to-be-published manuscripts, “Lolita Firestone: A Supernatural Novel,” and the short story collection “Love American Style.” Write to him at [email protected]. We hope you will subscribe and share the link with any family, friends or colleagues who might benefit from this program.