In the spotlight this episode is Steven Spatz, founder and president emeritus of BookBaby, one of the country’s many self-publishing houses for book authors.We discuss:>> Success stories in self-publishing>> Book marketing strategies>> Advantages of self-publishing vs. traditional publishing>> The use of AI in creating future audiobooks>> Rising costs of self-publishing>> How to guard against second-rate publishing houses>> Etc.Novelist Spotlight is produced and hosted by Mike Consol, author of “Hardwood: A Novel About College Basketball and Other Games Young Men Play,” and three yet-to-be-published manuscripts, including “Family Recipes: A Novel about Italian Culture, Catholic Guilt and the Culinary Crime of the Century,” “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.

When The Economist published its best books list for 2021, “Mother for Dinner” by Shalom Auslander was among the featured. The magazine dubbed it a “laugh-out-loud, gravely serious satire on identity politics” during which “a mother’s deathbed presents a solemn decision: whether or not to eat her. The family are Cannibal-Americans, the most reviled minority in a place where ‘everyone else was retreating to their cages and calling it freedom.’ What, the novel asks uproariously, do individuals owe history?”In addition to “Mother for Dinner,” we discuss: >> The nature of God>> The author’s split with his orthodox Jewish community>> Samuel Beckett, Franz Kafka and others>> The all-day writing regimen>> The quality lit coming from Iraq, Syria and other Middle East countries>> The folly of “knowing” Learn more about the author’s other black comedies and idiosyncrasies at: https://www.shalomauslander.com/ Novelist Spotlight is produced and hosted by Mike Consol, author of “Hardwood: A Novel About College Basketball and Other Games Young Men Play,” and three yet-to-be-published manuscripts, including “Family Recipes: A Novel about Italian Culture, Catholic Guilt and the Culinary Crime of the Century,” “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.

Always a wanderer, novelist Boo Walker has lived in locales ranging from St. Petersburg, Florida and Valencia, Spain to the Yakima River Valley in Washington State and Cape Elizabeth, Maine with his wife and son. He writes under both his given name and writes thrillers under the pseudonym Benjamin Blackmore. We discuss: >> Pat Conroy, Nelson DeMille and John Corey>> His alter ego, Benjamin Blackmore>> His use of “beta readers”>> How to produce 3,000 words per day>> How he markets his work>> Etc. Learn more about Boo Walker and his novels at: https://www.boowalker.com/Novelist Spotlight is produced and hosted by Mike Consol, author of “Hardwood: A Novel About College Basketball and Other Games Young Men Play,” and three yet-to-be-published manuscripts, including “Family Recipes: A Novel about Italian Culture, Catholic Guilt and the Culinary Crime of the Century,” “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 novelist Jami Attenberg, who has now written her memoir, “I Came All This Way to Meet You: Writing Myself Home.” As the daughter of a traveling salesman in the Midwest, Attenberg was drawn to a life on the road. Frustrated by quotidian jobs and hungry for inspiration and fresh experiences, her wanderlust led her across the country and eventually on travels around the globe. Through it all she grapples with questions of mortality, otherworldliness, and what we leave behind.Learn more about Jami at http://www.jamiattenberg.com/Novelist Spotlight is produced and hosted by Mike Consol, author of “Hardwood: A Novel About College Basketball and Other Games Young Men Play,” and three yet-to-be-published manuscripts, including “Family Recipes: A Novel about Italian Culture, Catholic Guilt and the Culinary Crime of the Century,” “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 Stephanie Storey, author of the art history novels “Oil and Marble” and “Raphael: Painter in Rome.”We discuss: >> Art history>> Michelangelo, Raphael and Leonardo da Vinci >> Fictionalizing historical figures>> Cinematic writing>> Taking the novel to the Silver Screen>> Her next work in progress>> Etc.Learn more about the author at: https://stephaniestorey.com/Novelist Spotlight is produced and hosted by Mike Consol, author of “Hardwood: A Novel About College Basketball and Other Games Young Men Play,” and three yet-to-be-published manuscripts, including “Family Recipes: A Novel about Italian Culture, Catholic Guilt and the Culinary Crime of the Century,” “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.

An interview from decades ago with Mick Jagger about the writing and editing of the Rolling Stones’ “Some Girls” album revealed a valuable lesson for any writer. In this episode we extrapolate from what the rock legend had to say about the writing of “Some Girls” and apply it to our own efforts to produce literature.Novelist Spotlight is produced and hosted by Mike Consol, author of “Hardwood: A Novel About College Basketball and Other Games Young Men Play,” and three yet-to-be-published manuscripts, including “Family Recipes: A Novel about Italian Culture, Catholic Guilt and the Culinary Crime of the Century,” “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 London-based novelist Marek Handzel, author of three titles: “The Dojang,” “Redemptio” and “I Must Stay at Home.” In addition to martial arts and vigilante gangs, we discuss: >> Self-publishing>> The daily regimen>> The crime genre>> Writing dialog>> Liking the struggle>> Writing advice>> Major influences>> Etc. Learn more about Marek Handzel here. Novelist Spotlight is produced and hosted by Mike Consol, author of “Hardwood: A Novel About College Basketball and Other Games Young Men Play,” and three yet-to-be-published manuscripts, including “Family Recipes: A Novel about Italian Culture, Catholic Guilt and the Culinary Crime of the Century;” “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 author, editor and writing coach Roy Peter Clark, who is also senior scholar and vice president of the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, a journalism think-tank in St. Petersburg, Fla., and founder of the National Writers Workshop. We discuss: >> The Poynter Institute for Media Studies>> The art of x-ray reading>> “The green light” in The Great Gatsby>> The power of repetition>> The opening line of Moby Dick>> The electrocution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg>> Writing tools>> Etc.Novelist Spotlight is produced and hosted by Mike Consol, author of “Hardwood: A Novel About College Basketball and Other Games Young Men Play” and three yet-to-be-published manuscripts, including “Family Recipes: A Novel about Italian Culture, Catholic Guilt and the Culinary Crime of the Century,” “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.

Think you’re putting the finishing touches on the final draft of your manuscript? Hold that thought. Before calling your newly minted novel “complete,” employ the power of the “one paragraph rewrite” and see where it takes you. This episode explains of how it works.Novelist Spotlight is produced and hosted by Mike Consol, author of “Hardwood: A Novel About College Basketball and Other Games Young Men Play” and three yet-to-be-published manuscripts, including “Family Recipes: A Novel about Italian Culture, Catholic Guilt and the Culinary Crime of the Century,” “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, the upcoming publication of “Family Recipes: A Novel about Italian Culture, Catholic Guilt and the Culinary Crime of the Century.” Novelist Spotlight is produced and hosted by Mike Consol, author of “Hardwood: A Novel About College Basketball and Other Games Young Men Play” and three yet-to-be-published manuscripts, including “Family Recipes: A Novel about Italian Culture, Catholic Guilt and the Culinary Crime of the Century,” “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.