Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing

Mark interviews Dre Baldwin the CEO and Founder of Work On Your Game Inc. about his books and his experience helping others in finding their own paths to success.

Prior to the interview Mark shares comments from recent episodes, a personal update, and a word about this episode's sponsor

This episode is sponsored by FROM PAGE TO PLATFORM by Matty Dalrymple and Michael La Ronn. You can learn more about the book at https://theindyauthor.com/platform.

During the interview, Mark and Dre talk about:

• The importance of the simplification process as a great place to begin
• The 80/20 rule and the less-than-smooth ways we have of not being able to drop the 80%
• How, over time, Dre has accumulated little pieces of wisdom that have ended up being part of the training and coaching that he does
• The first question that Dre often asks which is: What is your goal?
• The challenge of being inundated with so many messages which results in trying to work on more than one priority
• How Dre has always been a big reader and a bit of a closet computer geek
• The appeal of self-generated media and being able to articulate his ideas
• Putting videos on YouTube about the basketball he was playing professionally and how other players began to take advantage of his advice and coaching
• How even people who weren't playing sports could benefit from those basketball videos, which led to Dre recognizing he could help people beyond athletes
• How a lot of Dre's mindset stuff started to come out around 2009/2010
• Blogging his ideas and starting to put out his books
• How discipline is the most important hallmark of the professional
• The way people can fall off their structure and the importance of finding the structure that works best for you
• Coaches being one of the ways that people can find/apply the proper structure
• How a true professional holds themselves accountable to a structure
• Shortcuts as something that can come from the right coach
• The way that a coach can KEEP a professional athlete good
• Human beings doing better work when accountability is involved
• The importance of showing yourself the same respect you would show to a "boss" or some other supervisor or superior you report to at work
• How the two golden questions related to your goal (What do you want and why do you want it?) help you build that bridge to the structure that can get you there
• Knowing that he had always wanted to write a book and combining that with the fact he knew he already had an audience via his YouTube channel
• The reason Dre didn't really pursue traditional publishing and decided to publish it himself in 2010
• Dre's book Buy Me A Game (which is available as a free download)
• Publishing about 19/20 books between 2010 and 2017
• Doing an in person speaking gig in Atlanta all on his own dime and what opportunities that led to, including a New York publisher (McGraw Hill) who was interested in publishing a book for him. That book was Working on Your Game
• Why Dre wasn't interested in reliving that experience again without the right offer/contract in place
• Adapting part of the traditional publishing editing process into his own procedure for self-publishing his books
• Why Dre prefers to have direct sales of his books on his own website
• How in business the most valuable thing you have is your customer list
• Dre's book The Third Day: The Decision That Separates The Pros From The Amateurs
• How a professional shows up and delivers even when they don't "feel like it" - that's what makes them a professional
• The fact that most people don't hear something you say - repeating it or exploring it in different ways can help
• And more . . .

After the interview Mark reflects on several of the points Dre brought up in the conversation, including re-leveraging your own IP by exploring a single topic into further detail and the fact that a professional always shows up.

Links of Interest:

• Dre Baldwin's Website
• Work on Your Game/Dre
• Third Day (Book)
  • http://Instagram.com/DreBaldwin
  • http://YouTube.com/Dreupt
  • https://www.facebook.com/WorkOnYourGameUniversity
  • http://LinkedIn.com/in/DreAllDay
  • http://Twitter.com/DreAllDay
  • http://TikTok.com/WorkOnYourGame
• Mark's Kickstarter for ONE HAND SCREAMING: 20 Haunting Years
• Wide for the Win
  • Wide for the Win New YouTube Channel
• EP 378 - Multimedia Storytelling with Dominician Gennari
• Mark's Stark Reflections on Writing & Publishing Newsletter (Signup)
• Buy Mark a Coffee
• Patreon for Stark Reflections
  • How to Access Patreon RSS Feeds
• An Author's Guide to Working With Bookstores and Libraries
• The Relaxed Author
  • Buy eBook Direct
  • Buy Audiobook Direct
• Publishing Pitfalls for Authors
• An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores
• Wide for the Win
• Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books
  • This Time Around (Short Story)
  • A Canadian Werewolf in New York
  • Stowe Away (Novella)
  • Fear and Longing in Los Angeles
  • Fright Nights, Big City
  • Lover's Moon
  • Hex and the City
  • Only Monsters in the Building
• The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles
• Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard

Dre Baldwin is CEO and Founder of Work On Your Game Inc. He has given 4 TEDxTalks and has authored 35 books.

Dre's content has been consumed over 103 million times. His daily Work On Your Game MasterClass has amassed over 2,900 episodes and over 7.3 million listeners.

Dre had a 9-year professional basketball career, playing in 8 countries. Dre's framework is the "roadmap in reverse" for professional Mindset, Strategy, Systems & Accountability.

The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast ("Laser Groove") was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Mark interviews Dominician Gennari, a writer, storyteller, composer, and musician about his multimedia book and novella opus, The War for Ascension.

Prior to the interview Mark shares comments from recent episodes, a personal update, a word from this episode's sponsor, as well as a word about a previous episode sponsor.

One Hand Screaming: 20 Haunting Years - Kickstarter

NEWS: Please note that the Feb/March 2025 Writers Retreat at Sea from Cruising Writers has been cancelled.

During their conversation Mark and Dominician talk about:

• How Dominician's creative and artistic voice started with music at about the age of 13/14
• Discovering Tolkien about six or seven years later
• How, when writing, Dominician was imagining the accompanying soundtrack and the way the process became inseparable
• Learning from one of the most incredible music teachers
• Dominician's Italian heritage and how his family would gather in the kitchen and, while cooking together, would sing works like the music from Madame Butterfly and other classical sources
• How that learning is layered and added in to the other styles and genres of music that Dominician composes and plays
• The way that Richard Wagner would compose music with the elaborate use of leitmotifs (musical phrases associated with individual characters, places, ideas, or plot elements)
• Dominician picking ten of the key moments in his story to hit really hard with his own compositions
• The various members of the local musical community who participated in the recording
• About the 2nd track, "Light of the Hydroverse"
• Advice that David Farland, a mentor who worked with Dominician, offered in relation to this project
• Being told by Dave Farland that Dominician reminded him of Gene Wolfe
• Unpacking numerous languages in order to re-package them into the original language he created for this universe
• The Kenorian greeting in the language Dominician invented which says "may serenity follow you"
• Working with producers on a script adaptation of The War for Ascension but coming to irreconcilable differences that resulted in an end to that project
• How Dominician connected with Dave Farland via a course he took online from Writers of the Future
• Turning down what could have been millions of dollars on that cancelled Hollywood project
• How people can get ahold of the accompanying soundtrack
• The process that Dominician uses when writing the stories and composing the music
• What's next for Dominician
• And more . . .

After the interview Mark reflects on the idea of creating in the kitchen and the power of that type of collaboration, as well as the integrity to say no to a huge opportunity if it crosses the line of what is deemed as acceptible.

Links of Interest:

• Dominician's Website
  • Dominician on Instagram
• Mark's Kickstarter for ONE HAND SCREAMING: 20 Haunting Years
• EP 377 - Pivoting Your Publishing Dreams with Denise Massar
• Mark's Stark Reflections on Writing & Publishing Newsletter (Signup)
• Cruising Writers
• Buy Mark a Coffee
• Patreon for Stark Reflections
  • How to Access Patreon RSS Feeds
• An Author's Guide to Working With Bookstores and Libraries
• The Relaxed Author
  • Buy eBook Direct
  • Buy Audiobook Direct
• Publishing Pitfalls for Authors
• An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores
• Wide for the Win
• Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books
  • This Time Around (Short Story)
  • A Canadian Werewolf in New York
  • Stowe Away (Novella)
  • Fear and Longing in Los Angeles
  • Fright Nights, Big City
  • Lover's Moon
  • Hex and the City
  • Only Monsters in the Building
• The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles
• Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard

Dominician Gennari grew up in the rough western suburbs of Melbourne, Australia, in the 80's after his migrant parents fled war-torn Europe after WW2. As a young child, he would fantasise about imaginary creatures living in his backyard and he would dream of magical worlds.

As the years unfolded, Dominician's creative spirit flourished, giving birth to his mythical world, Númaria. This world, meticulously crafted, boasts a rich history and a complex ecosystem, providing the perfect backdrop for the vast timeline of his unfolding story called The War for Ascension.

Submerging himself in the fields of forbidden archaeology, esoteric wisdom, USAPs of the US government, and ancient warfare, a great awakening occurred as the veil of secrecy was lifted from his eyes. After learning humanity's obscured past was stranger than fiction, his desire to create a truthful and artistic message through fiction arose. This acquired knowledge segued into writing his epic fantasy series The War for Ascension and the sequential standalone series The Ascension Archive.

Having spent 3 years working alongside renowned Hollywood producers, Dominician garnered invaluable knowledge of screen craft and storytelling. But due to unforeseen events, he chose an alternative path to pursue his dream of writing wholesome fantasy stories.

Guided by fantasy author and genius, David Farland, Dominician is set to expand his grand mythology, The War for Ascension into a multimedia book and novella opus, along with accompanying soundtracks of epic music.

Dominician is also the producer of the epic industrial metal band Ark of Light, and a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu instructor and National Champion. He currently lives in Melbourne, Australia.

The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast ("Laser Groove") was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Mark interviews Denise Massar, a writer, an adoptee, and a mom via birth and adoption about her new memoir MATCHED and the ten-year journey she took getting it published.

Prior to the main content, Mark shares comments from a recent episode, a personal update, and a word from this episode's sponsor.

This episode is sponsored by Cruising Writers.

During their conversation Mark and Denise talk about:

• How Denise had been "big five or die" when it originally came to her publishing dream and how and why that changed over the years
• Some of the feedback that Denise's agent got back on submission of her memoir in 2020 and how they fueled her in a positive way
• Denise's agent coming up with a strategy to change the title, to wait a year as publishing shifts and movements within editorial departments would naturally occur, then to try to send it out on sub to the market again
• Some of the limitations within traditional publishing that happen with titles that might be perceived by some as "somewhat similar"
• How memoir from an "unknown" person is one of the hardest things to sell
• Prince Harry's penis
• Having run the course with her agent on this book, and the respectful mutual decision to part ways
• Submitting the book to a number of university presses without her agent
• The sudden health scare that turned out to be a benign lump that Denise had to have surgery to remove
• Resetting those initial big dreams that she had about what would happen when her book was finally published
• The importance of her kids seeing her "finish this book" that she'd been working on for 10 years
• Deciding to take the indie publishing approach which allowed her several freedoms, including changing the title back to MATCHED, working with the cover designer artist that she knew and liked, among other things
• Leveraging 60 different ARC readers for her memoir
• The power of hearing readers say things like "me too" - and "I never knew that anybody else went through that" and other ways a writer can come to feel that their writing resonates with readers
• Writing about her own adoption and realizing that for the first six months of her life, before she was adopted, that she must have been in foster care
• Altering the names of some of the people in the book in order to preserve their privacy
• How the eight different birth mothers Denise was in contact with via the course of adopting her son who ended up changing her life
• Advice Denise would give to her younger self as well as advise she'd give to beginning authors
• And more . . .

After the interview Mark reflects on just how significant it is when an editor provides any sort of feedback beyond a form/token "not for us at this time" rejection, as well as an agent that's willing to "re-package" a book in order to try to put it out on submission for a second round. He also reflects on how nothing can stop a determined writer.

Links of Interest:

• Denise Massar's Website
  • Denise on Instagram
• Mark's Kickstarter for ONE HAND SCREAMING: 20 Haunting Years
• EP 188 - A Gritty & Real Adoption and Publishing Journey with Denise Massar
• Mark's Stark Reflections on Writing & Publishing Newsletter (Signup)
• Cruising Writers
• Buy Mark a Coffee
• Patreon for Stark Reflections
  • How to Access Patreon RSS Feeds
• An Author's Guide to Working With Bookstores and Libraries
• The Relaxed Author
  • Buy eBook Direct
  • Buy Audiobook Direct
• Publishing Pitfalls for Authors
• An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores
• Wide for the Win
• Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books
  • This Time Around (Short Story)
  • A Canadian Werewolf in New York
  • Stowe Away (Novella)
  • Fear and Longing in Los Angeles
  • Fright Nights, Big City
  • Lover's Moon
  • Hex and the City
  • Only Monsters in the Building
• The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles
• Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard

Denise Massar is a writer, an adoptee, and a mom via birth and adoption. Her essays have been published in HuffPost, Writer's Digest, Mutha Magazine, Raise Magazine, An Injustice!, and she's a recurring guest blogger for Jane Friedman. Denise's memoir, Matched, is about the nine months she spent obsessively searching for a baby to adopt, the nine potential birth moms she met on that journey, and how, in a twist of fate, her son's birth mom led Denise to the one person she thought she'd never meet: The woman who gave birth to her. You can find Matched anywhere you buy books, and you can read the first ten pages right now, and get Denise's Top Ten Memoir Recommendations on her website, http://www.denisemassar.org/

The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast ("Laser Groove") was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Mark interviews bestselling and award-winning author Dianne Scott about her Christine Lane Mystery series which is set on Toronto Island in the 1960s.

Prior to the main content, Mark shares comments from a recent newsletter he sent out asking writers to share their thoughts on the collective noun for a group of editors, a personal update (including the launch of his new Kickstarter campaign), and a word from this episode's sponsor.

This episode is sponsored by Cruising Writers.

During their conversation Mark and Dianne talk about:

• How, after writing a creative writing piece in University that was supposed to be a research essay, Dianne's teacher suggested that she switch her major over to English
• The teaching that Dianne has done for the past 30+ years
• Other writing that Dianne has worked on and published
• Dianne learning from her father, how he, as a police officer, used to patrol Toronto Island, and the spark of that into some ideas for her novels
• Deciding to make her main character a female officer in that place in the 1960s
• Preparing the final and 5th book in the series, FINAL LOOK, for publication in June 2025
• Pitching and submitting her work to various Canadian markets
• The innate conflict that was part of the first novel in Dianne's Christine Lane series
• The "old VS new" conflict that happens in the stories in this setting
• Dianne's first two years in self/indie publishing
• Some of the volunteer work that Dianne does within her realms of expertise
• The importance of literacy
• The different types of creativity that can fulfill that internal desire
• Advice Dianne would give to other writers
• And more...

After the interview Mark reflects on the research Dianne had to do as well as the concept of being creative in different ways.

Links of Interest:

• Dianne Scott's Website
• Mark's Kickstarter for ONE HAND SCREAMING: 20 Haunting Years
• EP 374 - WMG Publishing Editor Round Table
• Mark's Stark Reflections on Writing & Publishing Newsletter (Signup)
• Cruising Writers
• Buy Mark a Coffee
• Patreon for Stark Reflections
  • How to Access Patreon RSS Feeds
• An Author's Guide to Working With Bookstores and Libraries
• The Relaxed Author
  • Buy eBook Direct
  • Buy Audiobook Direct
• Publishing Pitfalls for Authors
• An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores
• Wide for the Win
• Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books
  • This Time Around (Short Story)
  • A Canadian Werewolf in New York
  • Stowe Away (Novella)
  • Fear and Longing in Los Angeles
  • Fright Nights, Big City
  • Lover's Moon
  • Hex and the City
  • Only Monsters in the Building
• The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles
• Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard

Dianne Scott lives a short ferry ride from Toronto Island, which is the setting of her mystery novels. She is the award-winning author of the Christine Lane Mystery series. The first book, Final Look, was a #1 Amazon bestseller, Kobo Emerging Writers Award nominee and winner of the Crime Writers of Canada Arthur Ellis Award. The second book, Missing, was a Finalist for the CWC Excellence in Writing Award. Lost and Found and Sabotage are the third and fourth books in the series.

When Dianne is not writing, she is walking Toronto's neighborhoods, coffee klatching with friends and cuddling her Bichon Poodle. She also teaches literacy skills and is working on her Erne in pickleball. For more information about Dianne, visit her website at diannescottauthor.com

The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast ("Laser Groove") was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Mark shares some behind-the-scenes insights and helpful tips offered to him for his forthcoming Kickstarter.

He also loses it briefly after discovering that 40 minutes of in depth and detailed recording was lost due to a tech issue with Audacity crashing.

Prior to the main content, Mark shares comments from recent episodes, welcomes a new patron, and introduces a word from this episode's sponsor.

This episode is sponsored by Cruising Writers.

Mark's Kickstarter, coming very soon, is for the 20th Anniversary edition of his book One Hand Screaming.

Links of Interest:

• Mark's Kickstarter (Preview link as of Aug 15, 2024)
• Anthea L. Sharp's Kickstarter for Authors
• EP 374 - WMG Publishing Editor Round Table
• EP 373 - Musings on Getting a Masters and Getting Married
• Kickstarter Episodes
  • EP 149 - Russell Nohelty - Killing it on Kickstarter
  • EP 327 - Joanna Penn - Writing the Shadow
  • EP 357 - Kevin J. Anderson - 50 Years of Short Stories
  • EP 356 - T. Thorn Coyle - The Midlist Indie Author Mindset
• DropCap Marketplace
  • Use coupon STARK20 to get 20% off
• Cruising Writers
• Buy Mark a Coffee
• Patreon for Stark Reflections
  • How to Access Patreon RSS Feeds
• An Author's Guide to Working With Bookstores and Libraries
• The Relaxed Author
  • Buy eBook Direct
  • Buy Audiobook Direct
• Publishing Pitfalls for Authors
• An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores
• Wide for the Win
• Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books
  • This Time Around (Short Story)
  • A Canadian Werewolf in New York
  • Stowe Away (Novella)
  • Fear and Longing in Los Angeles
  • Fright Nights, Big City
  • Lover's Moon
  • Hex and the City
  • Only Monsters in the Building
• The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles
• Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard

The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast ("Laser Groove") was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

In this episode Mark has a round-table discussion with the seven other editors in the August 2024 WMG Publishing Anthology Workshop.

Prior to the main content, Mark shares a word from this episode's sponsor.

This episode is sponsored by Cruising Writers.

The WMG Publishing Anthology workshops help authors see behind-the-scenes on how editors compile and select stories for anthologies. This in-depth and in-person experience involves a panel of editors (for August 2024 it was a panel of 8 editors) debating the merits of stories written by the attending authors.

In this round-table discussion, Mark chats with the other editors:

• Kristine Kathryn Rusch
• Dean Wesley Smith
• Loren Coleman
• Anthea Sharp
• Chris York
• Ron Collins
• Brigid Collins

They discuss advice for writers, some of the details about the process as well as the learnings (both as writers and editors).

Links of Interest:

• WMG Publishing Workshops
• DropCap Marketplace
  • Use coupon STARK20 to get 20% off
• Cruising Writers
• Buy Mark a Coffee
• Patreon for Stark Reflections
  • How to Access Patreon RSS Feeds
• An Author's Guide to Working With Bookstores and Libraries
• The Relaxed Author
  • Buy eBook Direct
  • Buy Audiobook Direct
• Publishing Pitfalls for Authors
• An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores
• Wide for the Win
• Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books
  • This Time Around (Short Story)
  • A Canadian Werewolf in New York
  • Stowe Away (Novella)
  • Fear and Longing in Los Angeles
  • Fright Nights, Big City
  • Lover's Moon
  • Hex and the City
  • Only Monsters in the Building
• The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles
• Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard

The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast ("Laser Groove") was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

In this solo episode, Mark reflects and muses on the past couple of weeks where we got his Masters in Creative Writing with a concentration on Publishing (July 26th in Gunnison, CO) and got married to his partner Liz (July 29th in New York City, NY).

Prior to the interview, Mark thanks Patrons and Buy Me A Coffee buddies, welcomes new patron Jo-Ann Carson, shares comments from recent episode, and announces the winner of the mindset coaching session with Thorn Coyle.

Links of Interest:

• EP 356 - The Midlist Author Mindset with T. Thorn Coyle
• EP 370 - Questioning and Reflecting with Becca Syme
• EP 371 - Rambling Reflections from the Road July 2024
• DropCap Marketplace
  • Use coupon STARK20 to get 20% off
• Cruising Writers
• Buy Mark a Coffee
• Patreon for Stark Reflections
  • How to Access Patreon RSS Feeds
• An Author's Guide to Working With Bookstores and Libraries
• The Relaxed Author
  • Buy eBook Direct
  • Buy Audiobook Direct
• Publishing Pitfalls for Authors
• An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores
• Wide for the Win
• Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books
  • This Time Around (Short Story)
  • A Canadian Werewolf in New York
  • Stowe Away (Novella)
  • Fear and Longing in Los Angeles
  • Fright Nights, Big City
  • Lover's Moon
  • Hex and the City
  • Only Monsters in the Building
• The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles
• Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard

The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast ("Laser Groove") was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Mark interviews Rick Hipson, author of the new book A REVIEWER'S GUIDE TO WRITING BOOK REVIEWS: AND HOW TO GET PAID FOR THEM.

Prior to the interview, Mark thanks Patrons and Buy Me A Coffee buddies, welcomes new patron Kevin J. Anderson, shares comments from recent episode, a personal update, and a word from this episode's sponsor.

Learn more about this self-publishing/WIDE-publishing focused cruise.

In the interview Mark and Rick talk about:

• Rick getting his first stint at writing (A ginger man story) back in Grade 2 or Grade 3
• Catching the horror bug first when reading "The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" when he was about nine years old
• Getting into vampires and reading stories about them at a young age
• Starting off writing for publication (fiction, interviews, and reviews) for a magazine called Insidious Reflections
• Rick's first author interview with Jack Ketchum and how it's one of the most memorable interview and one of his absolute favorites
• How Jack was a true gentleman who was gracious and so supportive of so many other people in the horror industry
• Rick interviewing Brian Keene through tweets
• Some of the struggles with transcription
• The way that Rick likes to conduct interviews
• Rick's podcast of interviews with horror authors and the various articles that he writes based on the context from those interviews
• Rick's interview with Frank Darabont of The Walking Dead, The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
• Interview advice that Frank Darabont offered to Rick
• Leveraging one's non-fiction interview assets in as many ways possible
• Rick's book, which launched July 26, 2024, A Reviewer's Guide to Writing Book Reviews: And How to Get Paid for Them
• Deciding to go with a publisher (Crystal Lake Publishing) instead of self-publishing this title, and why
• The way that Rick worked his way through having his non-fiction pieces published in various horror markets
• A horror story Rick shares about his first review
• The importance of meeting people in person
• The single conference Rick will go to every single year and why
• A bit about Rick's podcast, Dark Bites
• And more . . .

After the interview Mark reflects on Rick's reasoning to go with a publisher as well as the long-term marketing effect of a reviewer feeling like they "owe" an author.

Links of Interest:

• Dark Bites
• Rick's Book
• Rick's Linktree
• DropCap Marketplace
  • Use coupon STARK20 to get 20% off
• Cruising Writers
• Buy Mark a Coffee
• Patreon for Stark Reflections
  • How to Access Patreon RSS Feeds
• An Author's Guide to Working With Bookstores and Libraries
• The Relaxed Author
  • Buy eBook Direct
  • Buy Audiobook Direct
• Publishing Pitfalls for Authors
• An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores
• Wide for the Win
• Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books
  • This Time Around (Short Story)
  • A Canadian Werewolf in New York
  • Stowe Away (Novella)
  • Fear and Longing in Los Angeles
  • Fright Nights, Big City
  • Lover's Moon
  • Hex and the City
  • Only Monsters in the Building
• The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles
• Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard

The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast ("Laser Groove") was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

In this solo episode, Mark reflects and talks his way through a several week stretch where there are many things to do and too little time to get them done.

Links of Interest:

• EP 301 - Procrastinating Partners: Collaborating with Liz Anderson
• DropCap Marketplace
  • Use coupon STARK20 to get 20% off
• Cruising Writers
• Buy Mark a Coffee
• Patreon for Stark Reflections
  • How to Access Patreon RSS Feeds
• An Author's Guide to Working With Bookstores and Libraries
• The Relaxed Author
  • Buy eBook Direct
  • Buy Audiobook Direct
• Publishing Pitfalls for Authors
• An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores
• Wide for the Win
• Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books
  • This Time Around (Short Story)
  • A Canadian Werewolf in New York
  • Stowe Away (Novella)
  • Fear and Longing in Los Angeles
  • Fright Nights, Big City
  • Lover's Moon
  • Hex and the City
  • Only Monsters in the Building
• The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles
• Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard

The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast ("Laser Groove") was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Mark interviews Becca Syme, an author and a Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach who has been helping writers with coaching success alignment for more than a decade.

Prior to the interview, Mark thanks Patrons and Buy Me A Coffee buddies, shares comments from recent episode, a personal update, and a word from this episode's sponsor.

Learn more about this self-publishing/WIDE-publishing focused cruise.

In the interview Mark and Becca talk about:

• How Becca deals with unexpected situations such as someone being late for a virtual meeting (Mark was 20 minutes late getting to this interview) and how this aligns with her strength of "Arranger"
• The Clifton Strengths personality metric and how Becca uses it to help writers
• Mark's top 5 strengths and Becca's top 5 strengths
• The pros and cons that come with a strength such as Empathy
• How emotions can have residue - that emotions are not false just because they're fictional
• Becca first taking the Clifton Strengths in 2005 and then immediately wanting to become certified and to figure this out; which is when her coaching began
• The "Dear Writer"/"Question The Premise" books that Becca has written to help writers
• How Becca's first book "Dear Writer You Need to Quit" has become a running joke, especially from people who have never read the book and have only heard the title
• The challenge related to the new place Becca lives and trying to get audiobooks recorded
• People who are pressure-prompted and the leveraging external motivation VS internal motivation
• A look at home office versus having an office space separate from the home and how that can work better for some people
• How our visions of ourselves are not correct because so much of it is based on impressions we were fed before we were able to effectively grasp a more pure vision of ourselves
• Being able to look at what's often seen as a weakness as a strength
• How even the more benign moments and experiences in childhood can have a dramatic life-long impact upon us
• The way that Becca questions almost everything, including the thoughts and feelings that she has
• Being an intuitive writer verses writing a book to outline
• How 100% of the things that "everyone says" are for everyone, are definitely NOT for everyone
• That most people are not lying to you, but they are lying to themselves, often because they just don't understand
• How a person who NEVER questions themself is a major red flag
• The "reach for my phone" game that Becca plays when she's traveling or out in public
• The 12-Hour Walk
• Becca dating someone who was comfortably disconnected from their phone, rarely ever reaching for it, but just being in the moment
• The problem with interrupting the thought cycle and being able to get all the way to the bottom of the cognitive process
• And more . . .

After the interview Mark reflects on a handful of things that came up in their conversation, which he felt was a lot of good therapy for him.

Links of Interest:

• Becca Syme's Better Faster Academy Links
• The QuitCast Blog
• QuitCast Podcast for Writers
• Becca Syme YouTube
• EP 359 - The DIY Writer with Kaye Lynn Booth
• DropCap Marketplace
  • Use coupon STARK20 to get 20% off
• Cruising Writers
• Buy Mark a Coffee
• Patreon for Stark Reflections
  • How to Access Patreon RSS Feeds
• An Author's Guide to Working With Bookstores and Libraries
• The Relaxed Author
  • Buy eBook Direct
  • Buy Audiobook Direct
• Publishing Pitfalls for Authors
• An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores
• Wide for the Win
• Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books
  • This Time Around (Short Story)
  • A Canadian Werewolf in New York
  • Stowe Away (Novella)
  • Fear and Longing in Los Angeles
  • Fright Nights, Big City
  • Lover's Moon
  • Hex and the City
  • Only Monsters in the Building
• The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles
• Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard

Becca Syme (MATL) is a Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach and has been coaching success alignment for more than a decade. She is the author of the Quitbooks for Writers series and the popular Write Better-Faster course. She also writes mystery novels in her spare time and lives on one of the thousand lakes in Minnesota.

The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast ("Laser Groove") was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0