Textual Healing with Mallory Smart

In this episode, I got a chance to get to know first-time author, Amy Klinger. Amy just came out with the book, In Light Of Recent Events. It's a book about life, love, music, and work in the 1990s.

In the 1990s American workplace, survival of the fittest is sometimes less about clawing your way to the top than developing good camouflage. And Audrey Rohmer is doing her very best to blend in as an undistinguished middle manager. Uninspired by her job and uneasy about her father's new marriage, Audrey coasts through the workweek leaning on her “partner in apathy” – an admin assistant named Pooter – to keep her relationship with the married head of her department from becoming water cooler gossip.

Amy made a playlist for In Light Of Recent Events available on Spotify and Apple Music. You can read about it and find the links to it here: https://amyklinger.com/the-ilore-playlist/

In this episode, I got a chance to chat with one of my favorite writers: Wilson Koewing

Wilson is a writer from South Carolina. His work is featured in publications like X-R-A-Y, New World Writing, Maudlin House, No Contact, Wigleaf, and Hobart.

Listen to hear us talk about his crazy writing process, Foo Fighters, what music he liked in his formative years, the mystery of Weezer, presidential campaign songs and so many other random but literary-related things.

You can check out his writing at: https://www.wilsonkoewing.com/

OR

His Twitter: @WKoewing

In this episode we talk about Lee Matthew Goldberg’s new book, Vanish Me,  90’s grunge music, Heathers, Pete Davidson, SNL, public transit, his next projects, and what it's like to have your book optioned. 

Fun fact: this was recorded before the Russian/Ukraine War. Ignore our prediction that the extreme negative world events in our lifetime are slowly coming to an end and won't pop back up until global warming kills us all…

Fun fact #2: this is the last podcast I recorded before I had sinus surgery. So there is a little heavy breathing on my end 😂 

Lee Matthew Goldberg is the author of the novels THE ANCESTOR, SLOW DOWN, THE MENTORfrom St. Martin’s Press, THE DESIRE CARD, ORANGE CITY, and the Young Adult series RUNAWAY TRAIN and GRENADE BOUQUETS.

His books are in various stages of development for film/TV. He has been published in multiple languages and nominated for the 2018 Prix du Polar. He is the editor-in-chief and co-founder of Fringe, dedicated to publishing fiction that’s outside-of-the-box.

After graduating with an MFA from the New School, his writing has also appeared in The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Millions, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, LitReactor, Monkeybicycle, Fiction Writers Review, Cagibi, Necessary Fiction, Hypertext, If My Book, Past Ten, the anthology Dirty Boulevard, The Montreal Review, The Adirondack Review, The New Plains Review, Underwood Press and others. He is a contributor to Pipeline Artists.

His pilots and screenplays have been finalists in Script Pipeline, Book Pipeline, Stage 32, We Screenplay, the New York Screenplay, Screencraft, and the Hollywood Screenplay contests.

Lee is the co-curator of  The Guerrilla Lit Reading Series.

In this episode, I got a chance to catch up with Sean McCallum. Sean lives outside of Toronto, Canada, with his wife and two children. He just came out with his debut novel, The Recalcitrant Stuff of Life. It's published by Outcast Press and is available to buy on Amazon. To find out more about Sean, check out his website: https://www.seanmccallum.com/. He is also on Twitter @Sean42McCallum.

We talk about his book, traveling, obscure Canadian music, best concert experiences, and my favorite: dumpster diving. I also dish on what books inspired me to make this podcast and we discuss the best way to share a soundtrack for a book.

For those who were interested in getting a "textual dealer" t-shirt, you can grab them here: https://textualpodcast.com/#merch.

Mike Keren is a clinical psychologist with advanced training in psychoanalysis and family therapy. He currently maintains a private practice with adults and couples in central New Jersey, although in the past he has worked in a variety of community and correctional facilities. Although he has a general practice he has a particular interest in working with caregivers as well as helping families talk about end of life issues.

Mike enjoys a challenge in his free time and has explored the world of competitive gay tournament bowling (several trophies and a bit of prize money), golf (bored to tears) as well as stand-up comedy. His foray into stand-up comedy even became the subject of a friend’s senior thesis at film school.

Mike worked the open mic and bar comedy scene for several years but decided to leave the stage to the younger folks. He decided then to channel his humor into creative writing. If you are reading this paragraph you are holding his first book in your hands. It's called, Four Funerals, No Marriage: A Memoir.

Mike is supported in his endeavors by his loving husband, Tom, and their two canine children, Carley and Clyde. They divide their time between central New Jersey and the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania.

Bobby Miller is a writer + filmmaker known for making genre-bending comedies. His short film TUB and feature debut THE CLEANSE add horror and fantasy to the mix. The films’ world premiered at Sundance and SXSW and have screened at film festivals worldwide.

THE CLEANSE was released in theaters by Sony Pictures in 2018 and made RottenTomatoes Top 10 Best-reviewed horror films of 2018 list. It also earned several Fangoria award nominations including “Best First Feature”. He followed it up with directing, and executive-producing CRITTERS ATTACK, a reboot of the cult horror/comedy franchise, for Warner Brothers Home Video & SY FY in 2019.

Shortly before that, he wrote/directed the comedy short film: END TIMES, which played Fantastic Fest, Fantasia, and film festivals worldwide, winning several awards and premiering online as a Vimeo Staff Pick.

He's also written for animated television shows such as SUMMER CAMP ISLAND for Cartoon Network and STAR VS THE FORCES OF EVIL for Disney TV. Outside of his Film/TV work, he's been a digital comedy producer for places like BuzzFeed, SuperDeluxe, MTV, SoulPancake, and Google.

Christina Rosso-Schneider lives and writes outside of Philadelphia with her rescue pup, Atticus Finch, and bearded husband, Alex, where they run an independent bookstore and event space called A Novel Idea on Passyunk. In 2016, she received an MFA in Creative Writing and MA in English from Arcadia University in 2016. She is the author of CREOLE CONJURE (Maudlin House) and SHE IS A BEAST (APEP Publications). Her fiction and nonfiction work centers around gender, sexuality, fairy tales, and the occult, and has been nominated for Best of the Net, Best Small Fictions, and the Pushcart Prize. When she isn’t writing or working at the bookstore, she leads various writing and occult-based workshops. Check out the events page to get information on upcoming readings and workshops.

In this episode, I got a chance to speak with KKUURTT.

KKUURRTT is a fiction/comedy writer who has once been described (by someone he dislikes) as having panache. His debut novel Good at Drugs is out now on Back Patio Press. It, like most(?) of his writing, delves into music subculture, which is what made him a perfect (in his opinion) podcast guest for Textual Healing.

We kind of get into everything in this episode. Raves, jam bands, fake names, and so much more...

You can find KKUURRTT on Twitter @wwwkurtcom or on Neautral Spaces. Check out his book, Good At Drugs, from Back Patio Press.

In this episode, I got a chance to speak with Duncan Birmingham. 

Duncan Birmingham is a writer living in Los Angeles. He has worked on Maron on IFC. He also wrote and was co-executive producer for Blunt Talk. In 2021, he released a short story collection, The Cult in My Garage from Maudlin House. 

We talk about his latest projects, LA, jam bands, the music he’d put on a playlist for The Cult In My Garage, and first concerts.

In this episode, I got a chance to speak with Jessie Lynn McMains. 

Jessie is a cross-genre writer, punk poet, small press publisher, and spoken word performer. Their latest work includes Self-Portrait With Ghost And Trains from Hello America Stereo Cassette and Wisconsin Death Trip from Bone and Ink Press. 

We talk about books, riot grrl music, the new Matrix movie, what the difference is between folk and country music, payphones and so much more. 

Find out more info about Jessie at recklesschants.net.