In the first half, Shawn Shiflett, author of Hey, Liberal! talks to co-host Nicole Nelson about the challenges of humanizing evil characters, writing realistic dialogue, and how being a natural mimic helps him create authentic-sounding voices. In the second half, Barbara DeMarco-Barrett talks to Jim Fusilli, editor of, and contributor to Crime Plus Music about how being a music critic influenced him as a fiction writer, how he finds short stories more challenging to craft than novels, and why noir seems to work better in short fiction and movies as opposed to longer formats. Download audio. (Broadcast date: November 9, 2016)