SAM Magazine

Prolific award-winning thriller author Karen Dodd joins me, and we have a good discussion about characters making mistakes, keeping our characters real, corruption, the mafia as well as being a discovery writer. Karen is the president of the Sisters In Crime – Canada West chapter. I was excited to talk with her about her novel Everybody Knows, a sophisticated thriller which is hard to put down. It’s the first novel in a new series, the Nicolo Moretti Crime Thriller Series. There are a few spoiler alerts. We talk about everything, including her blog and The Prostitute Pasta Sauce.

https://karendodd.com/home/

Lisa Kessler's writing career was foretold to her by a fortune teller. When she received writing advice from Ray Bradbury, she knew she was on the right path. Forty books within a 10 year period, Lisa has numerous series under her belt. She writes a blog, and she is a podcast host. Lisa's books have won the PRISM award, she has twice won the San Diego Book Award, and her vampire story, Immortal Beloved, was a Bram Stoker finalist.

Lisa and I discuss the writing advice Ray Bradbury shared with her. Great advice that involves short stories and commitment. Using tarot cards to plot your novel, and we even discussed what an author should put on their Tik Tok account! Sunshine pirates and grumpy heroines, it's all in today's electric podcast. Thank you, Lisa.

https://www.authorlisakessler.com/

Cindy DeJager is a gracious human and an amazing magazine publisher. She is the entrepreneur behind Opal Writer's Magazine and Opal Rising Magazine. Her magazine is packed with great information for writers and authors at various stages of their career. She shares why the magazine is called opal, which is a beautiful and tender story in itself. Opal Writer's Magazine started in Alberta seven years ago, now, it has subscribers from all over Canada, the US, the UK, Australia and just recently Denmark. Each month the magazine showcases an author as well as featuring individuals in the business, such as Mark Leslie Lefebrve, who was the Director of Author Relations and Self-Publishing for Rakuten Kobo. In the May 2019 issue (attached) there is advice from Jenny Hoops about D-I-Y audiobooks. Links to both issues are attached. As well, her cat Sophie, expresses her opinions. Thank you very much Cindy for coming on the podcast.

https://opalpublishing.ca/

Award-winning YA author, Alisha Sevigny chatted with me about the 2nd and 3rd books in her Secret Sands Series, The Desert Prince and The Oracle of Avaris. The original novel in the series being The Lost Scroll of the Physician. Alisha is a talented author. Her novels can be read by all age groups, and her fierce heroine, Sesha, is an inspiration for all females. Her novels deal with issues relevant today. In fact, we acknowledged what's going on in the world and the connection to her novels. As well, The Oracle of Avaris is a YAdudebooks Award winner. Congratulations Alisha. Thank you for joining me.

https://www.alishasevigny.com/

Award-winning Vancouver crime writer of the Wakeland novels, Sam Wiebe, and I discuss his latest novel, Hell and Gone, which is the third novel in his Dave Wakeland series. Sam's prose is gritty and authentic. He gives the reader a great sense of living on the streets of Vancouver. We talk about beats, and Sam's not meaning music, conflict, as well as the writing courses he offers, the flagship course being Mystery Writing Mastery.  I came away from this interview thinking dig down when it comes to your protagonist's conflict, keep adding layers. 

Sam’s work has won the Crime Writers of Canada award and the Kobo Emerging Writer’s prize. He has been shortlisted for the Edgar, Hammet, Shamus and City of Vancouver book prizes. As well, I got a scoop. Small screen. Tune in to find out what's on the horizon for Sam.

http://samwiebe.com/

The Joanna and Benny Show. Yes, two authors, myself and Benny Sims, we are fans of each other's novels and writing styles. We talk about everything from writing in the 3rd person point-of-view to the first person point-of-view. Character arcs. What we've learned and what we still want to learn. Book trailers, promotion, and using life experiences in plotting a novel. 

Benny joins me from his writing shed in Alabama. We celebrate Benny's novel Code Gray winning Killer Nashville's Silver Falchion Award for best mystery, and Dealer's Child placing #60 and #64 in Amazon's top 100 during it's first week of release. And did Benny really have 70 questions for me to answer? It's a fun conversation across the border.

⁠Benny Sims | Writing, reading, and various other mayhem⁠

Cover art photo courtesy of Jeremy Yap.

Artist Cory Scott, moved back to Canada with three suitcases. A creative soul since a child, he's travelled the world and worked various jobs. When he and his fiancée left Australia and were selling their possessions, Cory was pleasantly surprised when Australians wanted to buy his paintings hanging on the walls. Cory knew this was a sign and pursued art fulltime. Cory’s art has won numerous awards, including in 2020, the Award of Excellence at the Sooke Fine Arts Show. On Cory’s website, Cory writes that he, “was born a daydreamer in the prairie city of Brandon, Manitoba, spending his days fishing in the Assiniboine River and melting coins on the railway tracks.” Cory explains the backstory behind the yellow VW bus, the yellow house and the yellow mailbox in his painting, Victoria, The Redfern Nursery, featured in the podcast art.  

https://www.coryscottgallery.com/

Have you heard the term story bible? Or reading guides? Multi-published, bestselling historical romance author, Celeste Barclay, joins me in the studio. She is the author of 31 historical romances and after 16 years in the classroom where she was a Social Studies and English teacher, she is now a full-time author, entrepreneur, independent publisher and mentor. We talk about her historical romances, writing as a business, and her upcoming new releases. Celeste and I had a great conversation, and two days shy of Valentine's Day, it was great to talk about romance.

https://www.celestebarclay.com/

Author Mark Creedon joins me on the podcast and we talk about his historical fiction novel, Caught Between Two Devils, which is based on the real experiences of family members, Antanas Paskevicius, and Antanas's wife Jadwyga and his sister Maria in April 1944, when they, along with other prisoners, escaped from a forced labor camp during WWII. A moving interview, Mark and I discuss favourite scenes, the little Polish car that looks like a small frog, war, romance, humanity and helping your neighbour.

Mark worked in Child Welfare and Family Services agencies for 38 years until he retired in 2013. Caught Between Two Devils is available in paperback and Kindle format through Amazon.com and Amazon.ca.

DISCLAIMER: this podcast contains a story or two about war crimes which some listeners may find upsetting.

Amazon bestselling author Gordon Mott returns to the podcast. Gordon and I previously talked on the podcast about his hugely popular novel, Lithuanian Lullaby and today we talk about Gordon’s second novel, The Angels of Klaipeda.

Gordon and I have an extensive discussion about characters, their strengths, their weaknesses and finding the character to carry a new series or new story. We also talk about the Stockholm syndrome and using life events to fuel a novel, in particular the kidnapping of Terry Waite.

If you live in the Chicago, Illinois area, on Saturday, April 9, 2022 at 2:00 PM, Gordon will be speaking about and signing his latest novel, The Angels of Klaipeda at the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture.