Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing

Mark interviews Malcolm Coon about his plans for overcoming the "back-burner" state of his writing projects, why he doesn't plan on giving up should his writing income ever get to "that" level, his goal of completing a short story every month this year, and more.

Prior to the interview, Mark shares a brief personal update inside of the word about this episode's sponsor segment.

You can learn more about how you can get your audiobooks distributed to retailers and library systems around the world at starkreflections.ca/Findaway.

In their conversation, Mark and Malcolm talk about:

• Malcolm's full time work in tech while simultaneously having wanted to write since 1997
• A falling out Malcolm had with a partner in his tech business and how that led to working on a tech thriller that he worked on, but abandoned after about a month
• His long-time love of reading fantasy, which led to deciding to write fantasy
• Getting serious about his writing in about 2011, discovering various writing podcasts, and realizing that this was something he could do
• How the writing would regularly go on hold because of the fluctuations of the work-life
• Changing his tact a little and deciding to write a short story every month in order to create a story collection that would act like a prelude to the unfinished trilogy he'd been working on
• The challenge of being an entrepreneur in tech while also balancing being an authorpreneur
• The strategy of doing the writing first thing early in the morning for about thirty minutes BEFORE opening the email browser, which usually leads to getting sucked into work for the entire day
• Attempting to do a little bit, no matter how small, every day, because once he misses a day it's easy to miss a second day
• How the process of just trying to cram a large word count out with inserted notes about research to do for later insertion can often lead to a section of bad writing with additional work to do on it
• The way his current writing are based upon a world that Malcolm and his brother created when they were teenagers playing Dungeons & Dragons
• The parable storybook Malcolm created called The Greatest Writer in the World (in the style of "The Greatest Salesman in the World) that he published to Amazon, but then took down after a year upon realizing he hadn't invested the proper time in polishing and editing it
• Malcolm's goal of ultimately wanting to make a living of his writing, but to never give up the entrepreneurial tech business work that he loves
• Becoming less concerned with words per minute than with creating quality
• How Malcolm has found it far more difficult to manage himself in the writing roadmap plan compared to the way he very effectively manages developers for his entrepreneurial work
• The idea of that breakthrough moment of what it will take to get over that hurdle of getting the books done and published
• The importance of figuring out what works for us as writers, which is always going to be unique
• How the 25 words a day goal can be like a "just one more potato chip" methodology
• Malcolm's overall plan for getting this writing project back on track
• Mark's threat of holding Malcolm accountable for his stated goals by having him return to the podcast to share an update

After the interview, Mark reflects on false starts in writing, the importance of reasonable goals, and adapting the advice offered into one's own unique circumstances and preferences.

Links of Interest:

• The Writing Show Podcast (Apple) - "Getting Published with Mark Leslie" Series
  • Episode 1
  • Episode 2
  • Episode 3
  • Episode 4
  • Episode 5
  • Episode 6
  • Episode 7
  • Episode 8
  • Episode 9
  • Episode 10
  • Episode 11
• Superstars Writing Seminars (Save $100 with code: STARKSSWS2023
• Findaway Voices
• Buy Mark a Coffee
• Patreon for Stark Reflections
• Best Book Ever Podcast
• Lovers Moon Podcast
• 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
• The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Malcolm Coon is an author who works in tech full time as an entrepreneur. He doesn't yet have a website, and Malcolm will be returning to future episodes.

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 Canadian author Edo van Belkom about his life in writing, and the January 2023 the Paramount+ TV series adaptation of his Silver Birch Award-Winning Novel WOLF PACK by Jeff Davis and starring Sarah Michelle Gellar.

Prior to the interview, Mark shares comments from recent episodes, a brief personal update, welcomes new Patron Dharma Kelleher, and a word about this episode's sponsor.

You can learn more about how you can get your audiobooks distributed to retailers and library systems around the world at starkreflections.ca/Findaway.

In their conversation, Mark and Edo talk about:

• An old picture of the two of them at a "Sci-Fi Saturday" multi-author event from the late 90s where Mark was one of the managers (Attendees were David Shrogryn, Edo van Belkom, Carolyn Clink, Robert J. Sawyer, Douglas Smith, Andrew Weiner, Mark Leslie, Sally Tomasevic, Marcel Gagne)
• Edo's journey as a writer, beginning with his first published short story being published in an annual "Year's Best" anthology
• Writing about six or seven novels before his first one sold, and writing books that weren't published until more than twenty-five years later
• Working on gaming-tie-in related novels
• Landing his agent after having a short story appear in one of Jeff Gelb's "Hot Blood" anthologies
• Following his wife's advice to write a YA novel, which became the award-winning novel Wolf Pack and how that book was sold over a telephone pitch/proposal
• Having a couple of his mass market paperback novels (Scream Queen and Blood Road) be optioned for films
• Some of the silly things that writers hear when speaking to non-writers at parties such as "why don't you write a bestseller?"
• What being nominated for the Silver Birch Award did for that book
• Winning the Silverbirch Award
• Going from selling 10,000 copies of the first book in the series to only about 1,000 or so copies of the 2nd and 3rd books in that series
• How the greatest part of winning the Silver Biirch Award was the live event at a small stadium in downtown Toronto, Ontario
• Winning the Bram Stoker Award for a short story ("Rat Food") that he co-authored with David Nickle
• What it was like co-authoring a story well before the days of the internet
• Edo's short story collection Death Drives a Semi and how, when looking for places to market it, he found a trucker magazine that he ended up writing a series of stories in for fifteen years
• The "Mark Dalton: Owner, Operator" series of stories
• Converting a one-day workshop for truckers about fuel efficient driving practices into a novel
• Details and experiences related to the ice roads in Canada's Northwest Territories. (Ice roads are seasonal winter roads built over frozen bodies of water. The ice roads in Canada are about 400 KM (250 miles) long and are built over 64 frozen lakes
• The story behind how Wolf Pack got turned into a new Paramount+ television series
• What it was like seeing a teaser trailer for "Wolf Pack" after a year of hearing nothing about the option deal that had been signed
• How the book "Wolf Pack" got into the hands of Jeff Davis
• What it was like to be in Los Angeles for the premiere of the series, including walking the red carpet
• Seeing his name in the show's opening credits "Based on the novels by Edo van Belkom"
• Some of what's planned for the home-town showing of the first episode in the series in Brampton, Ontario
• Why, if he can help it, Edo plans on not doing any more soul-crushing in store book signings any longer
• And more...

After the interview, Mark reflects on three different things.

Links of Interest:

• Edo van Belkom (At Jabberwocky Literary Agency)
  • Edo on Twitter
  • Edo on Facebook
  • Edo on TikTok
• Wolf Pack on Paramount+
  • Wolf Pack TV Series - IMDB
  • Wolf Pack TV Series - Wikipedia
• Be a guest on the Stark Reflections Podcast
• Superstars Writing Seminars (Save $100 with code: STARKSSWS2023
• Findaway Voices
• Buy Mark a Coffee
• Patreon for Stark Reflections
• Best Book Ever Podcast
• Lovers Moon Podcast
• 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
• The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Edo van Belkom, a former reporter on the sports and police beats for newspapers in and around Toronto, arrived on the horror scene in 1990. His first short story sale, Baseball Memories, was selected for the prestigious Year's Best Horror Stories edited by Karl Edward Wagner. The story was also nominated for Canada's prestigious Aurora Award and appeared side-by-side with work by authors such as Mordecai Richler and W. P. Kinsella in The Grand Slam Book of Canadian Baseball Writing.

Van Belkom hasn't looked back since. Some 150 short stories have sold to a variety of top magazines and anthologies in the sf, fantasy, horror and mystery genres. He has twice won the Aurora Award, taken home the Bram Stoker Award and his YA novel WOLF PACK won Ontario's prestigious Silver Birch Award.

In January 2023, that same 2004 novel and the other three books in the series was adapted into an American supernatural teen drama on Paramount+ starring Sarah Michelle Gellar and produced by Jeff Davis, known for creating the drama series Criminal Minds and the TV series "Teen Wolf."

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 Liz Worth, a professional tarot reader, a poet and author.

Prior to the interview, Mark shares a brief personal update and a word about this episode's sponsor.

You can learn more about how you can get your audiobooks distributed to retailers and library systems around the world at starkreflections.ca/Findaway.

In their chat, Mark and Liz talk about:

• The many things that Liz "slings"
• Satisfying that craving Liz and her husband have to be surrounded by "vintage things" via owning an antique shop
• The importance of helping take something inherited off someone's hands in a meaningful way and to someone that will find use in it
• How Tarot, the occult, and writing have always been a part of Liz's life, and her mother's influence in this area
• Growing up going to psychic fairs, learning astrology and card reading
• Being draw to punk and goth culture in the 90s in high school
• Making her own goth zine (Last Breath Escapes), photocopying it, and making it available through a local record store
• Doing something similar for her poetry
• How zines were a precursor to the niche market ability of eBook digital publishing nowadays
• The first book projects Liz worked on
• How "Punk" is an entire ecosystem of creativity and not just a style of music and dress
• Liz's work not only doing Tarot readings but teaching others how to do a Tarot reading
• The things Liz would do during her performance poetry that she would never do in other professional aspects of her life
• How, logically, Tarot is a thing that shouldn't work
• The vulnerability and expectations that a person has going into a Tarot reading
• How you're always going out on a limb when you're interpreting and giving a Tarot reading
• Looking for narratives and story in the images and how do things make sense
• Some of the intangible things about Tarot that are difficult to explain
• Things that Hollywood, Television, and writers often get wrong about Tarot readings
• The importance of running with something in a creative way rather than feeling like everything had to be so "tamped down"
• Liz's latest vampire novel, The Mouth is a Coven
• And more...

After the interview, Mark reflects on that importance of letting one's creative license work its magic.

Links of Interest:

• Liz Worth's Author Website
  • Liz on Instagram
  • Liz's Books
• Liz Worth's Tarot Website
• Episodes with Jeff Elkins, The Dialogue Doctor
• Be a guest on the Stark Reflections Podcast
• Superstars Writing Seminars (Save $100 with code: STARKSSWS2023
• Findaway Voices
• Buy Mark a Coffee
• Patreon for Stark Reflections
• Best Book Ever Podcast
• Lovers Moon Podcast
• 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
• The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Liz Worth is the author of eight books. Her newest novel is called The Mouth is a Coven, published through Manta Press. She has been nominated twice for the ReLit Award for Poetry, and her writing has also appeared in FLARE Magazine, Chatelaine, and the Globe and Mail. She works as a professional tarot reader by day.

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 Juliette N. Banks, a bestselling, wide author who writes steamy contemporary and paranormal page-turning romances.

Prior to the interview, Mark shares recent comments, welcomes new patron Dharma Kelleher, and shares a personal update and a word about this episode's sponsor.

You can learn more about how you can get your audiobooks distributed to retailers and library systems around the world at starkreflections.ca/Findaway.

In their conversation, Mark and Juliette talk about:

• Juliette always believing that some day she would be a published author, but it was something she never chased
• Juliette's marketing background at a book she wrote in 2012 that was published by Random House in 2013
• The significant and tight Covid related lock-downs in New Zealand
• Juliette's adaptation to reading a lot of eBooks during the pandemic
• The incredibly expensive cost of print books in New Zealand
• Writing an archangel series and a vampire series
• Launching her books and reader magnet in Jan and March of 2021
• Working a full time job squeezed into 4 work days per week while writing all these novels
• The roughly 200 people Juliette was sharing her works with for free before she even published her first book (and how they've maintained their loyalty as readers to this day)
• Launching a new contemporary billionaire romance series at the beginning of 2022
• The parallel between the vampire characters and the billionaire characters
• Training herself to think very American in terms of her largest readership base
• Calculating the value of going to book signings, particular in the cost of flying from New Zealand to somewhere in the US
• The process Juliette works on with editing and publishing
• Having had five BookBubs in 2022
• The steady stream of releases and the stress that comes from that, particularly when illness like Covid occurs to throw a monkey wrench into it
• Where Juliette has been focusing in her initial goal to get to the 5 figures she needed in order to quit her corporate job
• Spending time on learning what she has to do to make her books "BookBub Worthy"
• Why she doesn't separate "indie" and "traditional" - you're competing in a store with suppliers of all sizes
• The pricing strategy that Juliette uses
• How only 10 of her books are creating income right now. The other 10 are things like reader magnets
• The way Juliette plans and maps out her writing business
• The importance of knowing what your skills and abilities and weaknesses are
• The value of professional coaches and taking some action upon those meetings/sessions
• And more...

After the interview, Mark reflects on the investment Juliette made by engaging for a long period and in detail with a group of 200 readers.

Links of Interest:

• Juliette N. Banks Website
  • BookBub Article: How I Maximized my First BookBub Deal
• EP 285 - Written Word Media's Top 10 Publishing Trends for 2023
• EP 284 - Collaborations in AI with Elizabeth Ann West
  • Walk Thru of Sudowrite with Elizabeth Ann West (Patreon)
• EP 280 - J.C. McKenzie & Jo-Ann Carson on the 2023 Jozie Planner for Authors
• Be a guest on the Stark Reflections Podcast
• Superstars Writing Seminars (Save $100 with code: STARKSSWS2023
• Findaway Voices
• Buy Mark a Coffee
• Patreon for Stark Reflections
• Best Book Ever Podcast
• Lovers Moon Podcast
• 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
• The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Juliette N. Banks is a bestselling, wide author who writes steamy contemporary and paranormal page-turning romances with alpha heroes who fall for sassy heroines and a healthy dose of action and suspense.

Juliette has a vast background in consumer marketing and previously published with Random House. She lives in Auckland, New Zealand with Tilly, her Maine Coon kitty, and is now a full-time author.

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

To kick off the new year, Mark shares a Jan 3, 2023 article from the Written Word Media blog on the Top 10 Publishing Trends for 2023.

Prior to the main content, Mark share a personal update and a word about this episode's sponsor.

You can learn more about how you can get your audiobooks distributed to retailers and library systems around the world at starkreflections.ca/Findaway.

Links of Interest:

• Written Word Media: Top 10 Publishing Trends for 2023
  • Join Written Word Media as an Author
• Be a guest on the Stark Reflections Podcast
• Superstars Writing Seminars (Save $100 with code: STARKSSWS2023
• Findaway Voices
• Buy Mark a Coffee
• Patreon for Stark Reflections
• Best Book Ever Podcast
• Lovers Moon Podcast
• 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
• The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles

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 talks with Elizabeth Ann West about her writing and using AI tools such as Sudowrite for intriguing new types of collaborations.

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

You can learn more about how you can get your audiobooks distributed to retailers and library systems around the world at starkreflections.ca/Findaway.

During their conversation Mark and Elizabeth talk about:

• Elizabeth's start in indie publishing back in the "early days" of self-publishing
• The Jane Austin Fan Fiction that Elizabeth writes for a living
• The panic in the writing community with the dropping of chatGPT (GPT = Generative Pre-trained Transformer)
• What Public Domain content is and a look at the grey area of AI generated content and copyright
• Changes to Public Domain and copyright law related to Disney and Mickey Mouse
• How Public Domain is really important to culture
• Some of the areas where AI has already been integrated into the tools we use as writers and just in general
• AI as a robotic co-writer that you can lean on as an author
• Sudowrite and how it's based on a UNIX command called "Super Do" and not "pseudo" making you the super user
• How as the human in this equation, you are the "creative director" still responsible for all of the final writing, the research, the voice, etc
• How prompts work within Sudowrite and the way authors can be very specific with them
• The importance of authors being unique and creative when creating their prompts
• How the AI works within the context of the most recent segment of the document an author is working within
• The idea that's in development of performing something like a "fine tune"
• A bit of the tech about how "tokens" work within the technology
• Playing within "Open AI Playground"
• How much time a tool like Sudowrite can help writers with outlining and summarizing a chapter
• Simulating readers reacting to a piece of writing
• The process of interviewing an AI character
• The cost structure for using Sudowrite
• How Elizabeth has written and released three books since Nov 2021 with the assistance of AI
• The re-write function in Sudowrite that performs a "show, don't tell" on a sentence
• Feeling like a writer with super-powers by having access to these types of tools
• How Elizabeth teachers her online classes for learning how to collaborate with AI
• The $99 fee that gives people access to all of Elizabeth's "Learning AI" classes and recorded live sessions past, present, and future
• Elizabeth's thoughts for writers who are nervous, anxious, or worried about the disruption that AI will bring to writing
• And more...

After the interview, Mark reflects on a few things Elizabeth said. He then shares his own recent experiment with creating a book description using chatGBT.

Links of Interest:

• Elizabeth Ann West's Website
• Elizabeth's Courses & Coaching
  • Intro to Collaborate With AI Tools - Outlining, Prose, & Editing (Affiliate Link)
  • 1:1 AI Consultation with Elizabeth Ann West (Affiliate Link)
  • AI COMMUNITY #WANTK (Affiliate Link)
• Elizabeth's Short Walk-Thru with Mark of Sudowrite
• YouTube Interview/Walk-Thru about AI / Sudowrite with Joe Solari
• Elizabeth's 20BooksVegas Presentation - "Selling Mr. Darcy"
• EP 265 - Elizabeth Ann West and Randall Wood from Scribecount
• EP283 - Doing LSB with Amy S. Peele
• Sanderson Takes on Audible
• Apple Digital Narration
• Be a guest on the Stark Reflections Podcast
• Superstars Writing Seminars (Save $100 with code: STARKSSWS2023
• Findaway Voices
• Buy Mark a Coffee
• Patreon for Stark Reflections
• Best Book Ever Podcast
• Lovers Moon Podcast
• 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
• The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles

A Jane-of-all-trades, mistress to none! Elizabeth Ann West is the author of 12 novels and 11 novellas, 22 of which are story variations of Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice. Her books have won reader conference awards and hit the Historical Bestseller lists on Amazon, Kobo, and the iBooks stores multiple times. A lover of all things geeky, Elizabeth codes websites, dabbles in graphic design, and is always looking for new technology to learn and master. She teaches authors at conferences like 20Booksto50KVegas, RWA Nationals, on topics of technology and business in the digital publishing world.

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 has a chat with Amy S. Peele, an Amazon best-selling and award-winning author. They discuss her medical mystery series, her healthcare background, comedy, laughing yoga, and so much more.

Prior to the interview, Mark shares a question from recent a episodes, an update regarding looking for guests (especially newer writers) for the podcast, and a word about this episode's sponsor.

You can learn more about how you can get your audiobooks distributed to retailers and library systems around the world at starkreflections.ca/Findaway.

In their conversation, Mark and Amy talk about:

• Having been an RN since 1974 and the life-long friends she has maintained her entire life
• Leveraging the "two best friends" theme in her mystery series as the two main protagonists
• Spending thirty-five years in organ transplants
• Deciding to kill people she didn't like in real life as fictional characters in her novels
• Writing the three murder mysteries after she retired in 2014 because she still had "transplants" that she needed to get out of her system
• The next book she is working on, a romantic comedy
• Amy's training with Second City Player's Workshop in Chicago because of her need to have some levity outside her day job work
• How Amy got started with where and how to publish her first mystery novel and how she found her agent
• The importance of relationships in the publishing world
• Why Amy values local independent bookstores, including her local bookstore, Book Passage
• The process of getting her books made into audio
• Self-care for writers and why it's important
• Laughter yoga and hand yoga
• How, especially lately, we've been in fight or flight mode and the fact that people are not breathing
• L.S.B. (Laughter, Stretch, and Breath)
• Why deep breathing and laughter is so valuable
• Advice Amy would offer to beginning writers
• And more...

After the interview Mark shares a reflection.

He then welcomes new patrons Lizbeth Meredith, Stephanie Tallent, and Angela Grit Landau and thanks all patrons.

Links of Interest:

• Amy S. Peele's website
• Amy's Hand Yoga Video
• Be a guest on the Stark Reflections Podcast
• Superstars Writing Seminars (Save $100 with code: STARKSSWS2023
• Findaway Voices
• Buy Mark a Coffee
• Patreon for Stark Reflections
• Best Book Ever Podcast
• Lovers Moon Podcast
• 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
• The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Amy S. Peele was born and raised in the Chicago area. Having graduated from South Chicago School of Nursing (SCCH) in 1974, Amy discovered her passion for organ donation and transplantation when she started as a transplant coordinator at the University of Chicago in 1976. She enjoyed a 35-year career in Transplantation retiring from University of California San Francisco in 2014. As President of the North American Transplant Coordinators Organization (NATCO), she was a guest on the Phil Donahue talk show as well as national and local radio stations, discussing the National Organ Transplant Act, which was passed in 1984.

Amy has a love for comedy and improv and graduated from Second City Players Workshop in 1985 in Chicago. She has also studied Improv at BATS (Bay Area Theatre Sports) in San Francisco. Amy's sense of humor comes through in all her writing.

Amy met her architect husband, Mark Schatz, through his mother who was her student at a transplant coordinator course. They were married in 1987 and have two children. Gracie is a butcher, fishmonger, and chef living in Eugene Oregon. Bennett works in the digital sound industry in San Francisco, enjoys building bikes, and playing music.

Amy now lives in Marin County where she has been writing creatively since 1988. With CUT, Amy infuses her passion for transplantation into her murder mysteries and brings a fresh, knowledgeable, and humorous new voice into the world of mystery novels.

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 reflections on a couple of topics: AI in creativity and writing to market with passion.

Prior to the main segment, Mark shares a brief personal update, comments from recent episodes and patreon, and a word about this episode's sponsor.

You can learn more about how you can get your audiobooks distributed to retailers and library systems around the world at starkreflections.ca/Findaway.

Links of Interest:

• EP 280 - The Jozie Planner with Jo-Ann Carson and J.C. McKenzie
• EP 86 of the Fantastic Comic Fan Podcast (with guest Mark Leslie)
• EP 453 of Sell More Books Show
• Superstars Writing Seminars (Save $100 with code: STARKSSWS2023
• Findaway Voices
• Buy Mark a Coffee
• Patreon for Stark Reflections
• Best Book Ever Podcast
• Lovers Moon Podcast
• 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
• The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles

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 extra, slightly shorter episode sponsored by the patrons of the Stark Reflections Podcast, Mark reflects on an episode of David Richman's Stop Making Yourself Miserable podcast where he discusses the power of crowds.

David's Podcast, Stop Making Yourself Miserable is a series of short (usually 15 minute) episodes where David shares an insight and reflects on what we can learn from it, or how we can grow.

Links of Interest:

• David Richman's Website
• David Richman's Podcast (Stop Making Yourself Miserable)
  • Episode 54
• Findaway Voices
• Buy Mark a Coffee
• Patreon for Stark Reflections
• Best Book Ever Podcast
• Lovers Moon Podcast
• 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
• The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles

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 J.C. McKenzie and Jo-Ann Carson, a mother and daughter team of Vancouver Island authors who share a strong desire to organize their hectic writing lives and have created the JoZie Planner for Authors by Authors.

Prior to the main segment, Mark shares a brief personal update, comments from recent episodes and patreon, and a word about this episode's sponsor.

You can learn more about how you can get your audiobooks distributed to retailers and library systems around the world at starkreflections.ca/Findaway.

In their conversation, Mark, J.C. and Jo-Ann talk about:

• How J.C. was indoctinated into the writing world via her mother, Jo-Ann being a creative person and writer
• Returning to Canada from New Zealand and how a combination of reading a lot and some vivid dreams led to the first book she wrote
• Looking at the first two books she wrote which she considers were a "hot mess"
• SHIFT HAPPENS, J.C.'s third book, and first published book, and the other 6 books that were published by The Wild Rose Press
• Jo-Ann's initiation into the world of writing, how she didn't start taking writing seriously until she retired, and the long-term view she has taken for her writing career
• How storytelling has always been important to Jo-Ann her entire life.
• J.C. writing locations that she doesn't often see represented, as well as the way she likes to drift back to urban fantasy with her writing
• Jo-Ann also enjoying writing about witches and vampires, and having a good time injecting more humor into her fiction
• Despite writing in similar genres, and critiquing one anothers' work, the fact they have not collaborated on any fiction projects yet
• The JoZie 2023 Planner, and how the name was created from a combination of their two names
• About the planner itself, and the binding (spiral bound) which allows it to lay flat
• Where this idea came from and why they feel this planner is important to writers and a writer's needs
• Their desire for more feedback to continue to improve the planner for 2024
• The option of hole-punching the pages from the binder each year and keeping previous year pages in a binder
• The current floral pattern of the planner, and their interest in looking at different styles for future years
• Tips for writers who have never actually used a planner before
• And more...

After the interview, Mark shares a couple of reflections, Mark welcomes new patrons and reminds them of their chance to indicate their interest in winning one of four copies of the 2023 JoZie Planner for Authors.

Links of Interest:

• J.C. McKenzie Website
  • Blog
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Goodreads
  • Amazon
  • Newsletter
  • BookTok
• Jo-Ann Carson Website
  • BookBub
  • Facebook
  • Goodreads
  • Amazon
  • Pinterest
• JoZie Planner (Vervante)
• JoZie Planner (Amazon CA)
• JoZie Planner (Amazon US)
• Episode 253 - Survival, Resilience, Grace, and Persistence with Lizbeth Meredith
• Findaway Voices
• Buy Mark a Coffee
• Patreon for Stark Reflections
• Best Book Ever Podcast
• Lovers Moon Podcast
• 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
• The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles

J.C. McKenzie and Jo-Ann Carson are a mother and daughter team of Vancouver Island authors who share a strong desire to organize their hectic writing lives. Some would call it an obsession. Together they've created the JoZie Planner for Authors by Authors.

J.C. McKenzie is a book loving, gumboot-wearing, unapologetic science geek. She predominantly writes urban fantasy and post-apocalyptic dystopian fantasy with strong romantic elements. When she's not spinning tales, she's in the classroom sharing her passion for science and mathematics while secretly warping the young impressionable minds of our future to carry out her evil plans for world domination. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her family.

Jo-Ann Carson is an award-winning Fantasy author of 31 books who loves the magic of storytelling. She places unique characters, in fast-paced plots, to tell tales about love, friendship, and family. Recently a critic likened one of her main characters to, "… Stephanie Plum with magic."Jo-Ann's last four series are the Dial Witch trilogy, Perfect Brew trilogy, Ghost & Abby Mysteries, and Gambling Ghosts novellas. Buy links for all her books can be found on her website.

A firm believer in the magic of our everyday lives, Jo-Ann loves watching sunrises, walking beaches near her home in the Pacific Northwest and reading by a crackling wood fire.

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