Welcome back to another episode of Storybeast where Courtney Shack and Ghabiba Weston discuss the transformative power of story.

In this episode of Season 4 Part 2:

• Courtney and Ghabiba reflect on the past season
• The duo discusses the concept of "dreaming big" and how to do it when you feel like you can't
• The banter is as high as the heat as Ghabiba explains the concept of the snackdown
• The beasts battle it out in an epic snack battle with the menu you voted for!
• Ghabiba and Courtney wish you a fantastic summer!

For more storytelling content to your inbox,⁠⁠⁠ subscribe to our newsletter. Feel free to reach out if you want to talk story or snacks!

A warm thank you to Deore for our musical number. You can find more of her creative work on Spotify.

As ever, thank you for listening, Beasties! Please consider leaving a review to support this podcast.

Be brave, stay beastly!

Welcome to another LEGENDARY episode of Storybeast! Our Legendaries are special guests who are an expert within their area of storytelling. In this episode, Ghabiba Weston and Courtney Shack have the pleasure of interviewing legendary Daniel Habib.

Daniel Habib is an American-Lebanese author, teacher, and acclaimed filmmaker. A student of King, Barker and Ito, his prolific screenwriting career has birthed numerous successful series and feature films, earning both critical acclaim and commercial success. Today, he channels his dark gift into crafting thrilling and heart-pounding stories across various media formats.

In this episode:

• Daniel elaborates on his "dark gift" of the story craft

• we chat about stepping into your story identity
• Daniel shares about his storytelling journey
• you'll hear more about the politics of TV
• you get a peek behind the scenes of the horror anthology, Arabian Nightmares
• Daniel shares advice for writers who want to write across media formats
• you'll hear about bleeding through the pen and being a buffet
• Daniel shares some insight into his latest film, "Cobra."

For more storytelling content to your inbox, subscribe to our newsletter.⁠⁠⁠

Feel free to reach out if you want to talk story or snacks!

A warm thank you to Deore for our musical number. You can find more of her creative work on Spotify.

As ever, thank you for listening, Beasties! Please consider leaving a review to support this podcast.

Be brave, stay beastly!

Welcome back to another episode of Storybeast where Courtney Shack and Ghabiba Weston discuss the transformative power of story.

In this episode of Season 4 Part 2:

• Ghabiba introduces the topic of today’s discussion, “space,” with a pun (please clap)
• The duo pulls apart concepts of scene setting, feelings in spaces, and connect it to the last G&C episode on “time.”
• The beasts discuss the pressures to create quickly and how it can conflict with a creative’s need to play
• Courtney recommends Zoe York to help you figure out your long term goals
• Ghabiba brings up the concept of giving yourself “space” as a creative and Courtney vows to clean her room. 
• The duo discusses how if you’re not looking at your dream, it doesn’t mean it’s gone.
• Ideas of small person image and safe places in one’s mind surface
• A loving chat about snacks, including pasta and crackers
• The beasts banter about the smackdown- don’t miss your chance to vote on April 4th!

For more storytelling content to your inbox,⁠⁠⁠ subscribe to our newsletter. Feel free to reach out if you want to talk story or snacks!

A warm thank you to Deore for our musical number. You can find more of her creative work on Spotify.

As ever, thank you for listening, Beasties! Please consider leaving a review to support this podcast.

Be brave, stay beastly!

Welcome to another LEGENDARY episode of Storybeast! Our Legendaries are special guests who are an expert within their area of storytelling. In this episode, Ghabiba Weston and Courtney Shack have the pleasure of interviewing Legendary Eva Des Lauriers.Eva Des Lauriers is the author of the Young Adult romance, I WISH YOU WOULD, out with Henry Holt & Co (BYR) May 21, 2024. When she isn’t writing, you can find her wandering through the redwoods, staring at the sea, or pretending she’s in a music video. She lives with her family and her collection of kissing books in Oakland, CA.In this episode, you'll hear about

• the aftermath of I WISH YOU WOULD's debut
• the gorgeous editions of IWYW
• the mental health experience after debuting
• Eva's way to protect her creative space
• the quiet grief cycle of creation
• Eva's one piece of advice to debut authors
• Eva sophomore novel
• Eva's advice for channeling your inner young adult when writing YA
• what book 2 has taught Eva (be prepared to feel inspired)
• how Eva gets unstuck
• Eva's writing ritual, including a meditation by Julia Jackson
• how Eva settles the tea battle between Ghabiba and Zeyneb Holdridge

For more storytelling content to your inbox, subscribe to our newsletter.⁠⁠⁠

Feel free to reach out if you want to talk story or snacks!

A warm thank you to Deore for our musical number. You can find more of her creative work on Spotify.

As ever, thank you for listening, Beasties! Please consider leaving a review to support this podcast.

Be brave, stay beastly!

Welcome back to another episode of Storybeast where Courtney Shack and Ghabiba Weston discuss the transformative power of story.

In this episode of Season 4 Part 2, the Beasts:

• discuss various ways time is used in stories
• how time done well is often unnoticeable, but executed poorly can ruin a story
• give examples of how time is used in Six of Crows, the Way of Kings, Arcane, and New Moon.
• use every opportunity to make puns about time
• Courtney discusses her use of a ticking clock in her novel, Lady of Roses and Ruin
• Ghabiba raves about a new book
• 
  

For more storytelling content to your inbox,⁠⁠⁠ subscribe to our newsletter. Feel free to reach out if you want to talk story or snacks!

A warm thank you to Deore for our musical number. You can find more of her creative work on Spotify.

As ever, thank you for listening, Beasties! Please consider leaving a review to support this podcast.

Be brave, stay beastly!

Welcome to another LEGENDARY episode of Storybeast! Our Legendaries are special guests who are an expert within their area of storytelling. In this episode, Ghabiba Weston and Ruth McKell have the pleasure of interviewing Legendary Taylor Grothe.

Taylor Grothe is an autistic, nonbinary queer writer passionate about voice-driven narratives centering on strong, compelling femmes and enbies. A 2024 Nonfiction MFA Candidate in Fairfield University's Creative Writing Program, their work can be found in Coffin Bell, Bag of Bones Press, Haven Speculative, Shortwave Magazine, and various other places. They were a Round 9 Author Mentor Match adult mentor, the graduate Assistant Managing Editor of Brevity Magazine for 2022-23, one of the founding members of and the 2023-24 program coordinator for Round Table Mentor, and a host of Queer Author Talk (#QATalk) on X, formerly Twitter. They are scheduled to speak at StokerCon San Diego 2024, on the Modern Young Adult Horror panel. When not writing or playing cello, you can find them planting the garden alongside their two young children and spouse in the most haunted state in America, Connecticut.

In this episode, you'll hear:

• how to say French words like an American (spoiler, none of us actually knows the correct way)
• how Taylor started writing horror
• about the joy of unhinged freedom in writing horror
• about using atmosphere to build character
• what's behind Taylor's story inspiration
• what we consider the book version of a jump scare
• about Taylor's incredible debut, HOLLOW: where craft skills meet heart skills
• about Taylor's top 3 horror writing tips for aspiring horror writers
• Taylor's research process
• the secret to sounding like an expert in anything you write
• about a jumping off point for starting your own idea trove (great for short story ideas!)
• Taylor's advice on how to tackle writing a short story
• what writing non-fiction can teach you as a fiction writer
• some love for cheese

For more storytelling content to your inbox, subscribe to our newsletter.⁠⁠⁠

Feel free to reach out if you want to talk story or snacks!

A warm thank you to Deore for our musical number. You can find more of her creative work on Spotify.

As ever, thank you for listening, Beasties! Please consider leaving a review to support this podcast.

Be brave, stay beastly!

Welcome back to another episode of Storybeast where Courtney Shack and Ghabiba Weston discuss the transformative power of story.

In this episode of Season 4 Part 2, the Beasts:

• discuss some amazing achievements
• give revision tips for pantsers
• get real about embracing "the suck" of hard tasks and balancing that with real life
• talk about some amazing snacks (like usual, but also, these really are good)

For more storytelling content to your inbox,⁠⁠⁠ subscribe to our newsletter. Feel free to reach out if you want to talk story or snacks!

A warm thank you to Deore for our musical number. You can find more of her creative work on Spotify.

As ever, thank you for listening, Beasties! Please consider leaving a review to support this podcast.

Be brave, stay beastly!

Welcome to another LEGENDARY episode of Storybeast! Our Legendaries are special guests who are an expert within their area of storytelling. In this episode, Ghabiba Weston and Courtney Shack have the pleasure of interviewing Legendary Maddie Martinez.

Maddie Martinez was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where her love of stories began with desert plumes and watermelon sunsets. She has a Bachelor's in Political Science from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, and a Master's in International Peace and Conflict Resolution from American University in Washington, DC. You can now find Maddie in New York City, filling her tiny apartment with an unwieldy number of books. The Maiden and Her Monster is her first novel.

In this episode:

• Courtney and Maddie bond over living in New Mexico.
• We chat all things The Maiden and Her Monster.
• Maddie shares more about her research process and story inspiration.
• We get into the love of broadway, freaks, and monsters
• Storybeast fieldtrip to a Hozier concert anyone?
• We chat lessons in pacing and the fashion icon advice that can help guide your story craft.
• Maddie shares her horror recs and offers us candy.

For more storytelling content to your inbox, subscribe to our newsletter.⁠⁠⁠

Feel free to reach out if you want to talk story or snacks!

A warm thank you to Deore for our musical number. You can find more of her creative work on Spotify.

As ever, thank you for listening, Beasties! Please consider leaving a review to support this podcast.

Be brave, stay beastly!

Welcome to a special FANGIRLING episode, in which your Beasts (Courtney and Ghabiba) discuss Season 1 of Arcane with the incredible ⁠⁠Ruth Mckell⁠⁠.

In this episode, you'll hear:

• Major fangirling!! And spoilers!!! Don't say we didn't warn you!
• Different corruption arcs in Arcane and how we view them
• Jinx apologists defending her
• Theories for season 2

Thank you for joining us on this mini series. We hope to do more. If you have special requests for future FANGIRLING topics, let us know!

For more storytelling content to your inbox,⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠subscribe ⁠to our newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.⁠⁠⁠

Feel free to reach out if you want to talk story or snacks!

A warm thank you to Deore for our musical number. You can find more of her creative work on Spotify.

As ever, thank you for listening, Beasties! Please consider leaving a review to support this podcast.

Be brave, stay beastly!

Welcome to another LEGENDARY episode of Storybeast! Our Legendaries are special guests who are an expert within their area of storytelling. In this episode, Ghabiba Weston and Courtney Shack have the pleasure of interviewing legendary Alix E. Harrow.

Alix E. Harrow is the NYT-bestselling author of The Ten Thousand Doors of January, The Once and Future Witches, Starling House, and various short fiction, including a duology of retold fairy tales (A Spindle Splintered and A Mirror Mended). Her work has won a Hugo and a British Fantasy Award, and been shortlisted for the Nebula, World Fantasy, Locus, Southern Book Prize, and Goodreads Choice awards.

 She's from Kentucky, but now lives in Charlottesville, Virginia with her husband and their two semi-feral kids.

Her writing is represented by Kate McKean at Howard Morhaim Literary Agency.

In this episode, Alix

• shares how she approaches short vs long form fiction
• talks about her writing process
• shares advice on honing your writing skills
• gives us a delightful intro to a 1926 novel that revived her story joy. A witch who runs off to the woods? Deals with the devil? Please and thanks.
• delves into how she likes to use framing devices in her writing
• tells us her fav fairy tale and tropes
• indulges Courtney's need for secrets by telling us more about her forthcoming "lady knight time travel" book (Fall 2025)
• points out what happens as the Tamora Pierce girls are coming of age: i.e. more lady knight books to look out for soon

For more storytelling content to your inbox,⁠⁠⁠ subscribe to our newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.⁠⁠⁠

Feel free to reach out if you want to talk story or snacks!

A warm thank you to Deore for our musical number. You can find more of her creative work on Spotify.

As ever, thank you for listening, Beasties! Please consider leaving a review to support this podcast.

Be brave, stay beastly!