The 7am Novelist

Today, I’m talking to Trisha Blanchet, author of the recently released debut, Murder Like Magic. Trisha is a former journalist, and I know plenty of journalists who are great with cranking the pages out. But Trisha often found that she just needed to slow down and give more. So we’ll talk about how she did it.

Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one month. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.

I don’t charge for subscriptions, but if you’d like, you can support my work with with a small donation here.

To find Blanchet’s book as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.

Trisha Blanchet is the author of Murder Like Magic (Crooked Lane Books, Aug 25, 2026) and The Neath Trilogy (Herrick’s End, Herrick’s Lie, and Herrick’s Key). She’s also the producer and host of A Mighty Blaze Podcast, which features interviews with authors, and the founder of Operation Delta Dog: Service Dogs for Veterans. Trisha is a member of the Tall Poppy Writers, Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and ITW.

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Today, I’m talking to Andrew Ridker, author of his upcoming third novel, Everything Must Go, which will be released next year. We’ll be discussing voice and how a writer might retain one’s voice while crossing into a new genre. This seems a particularly tricky issue, because different genres often demand different kinds of voices, but of course as a writer still wants their work to sound like themselves.

Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one month. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.

I don’t charge for subscriptions, but if you’d like, you can support my work with with a small donation here.

To find Ridker’s latest book as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.

Andrew Ridker is the author of the novels Hope and The Altruists. His third novel, Everything Must Go, is forthcoming from Viking. His writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, New York Magazine, Le Monde, Bookforum, Guernica, Lit Hub, and on his Substack newsletter, Half Sour. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Andrew is the founder of the Prospect Writers’ Workshop. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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Today, I’m talking to Alexis M. Wright about how she’s built a writing career through literary citizenship. She’ll share concrete examples of how one act of service or connection tends to cascade into the next. For Alexis and others, being a good literary citizen is as career-defining as the writing itself.

Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one month. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.

I don’t charge for subscriptions, but if you’d like, you can support my work with with a small donation here.

To find books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.

Alexis M. Wright is a writer whose essays have appeared in The Common, Shenandoah, and The Maine Review, with work recognized as notable in the Best American Essays. Alongside her writing, Alexis has built her career through deep community engagement: she reads for Ploughshares, teaches at organizations like The Loft Literary Center, has interviewed the leadership of The McCormack Writing Center (formally Tin House) for Electric Literature, and has worked in arts administration supporting writers and artists at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. She is a passionate advocate for the idea that a writing life is built not only through publication but through service, connection, and showing up for other writers and the institutions that sustain them, relationships that open doors that publishing alone cannot. Alexis is represented by Julia Kim at The Rights Factory and is at work on her debut essay collection.

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Today, I’m talking to Rachel Kousser, author of Alexander at the End of the World: The Forgotten Final Years of Alexander the Great. As a Classics professor, she had to make a big adjustment from argument-focused academic writing to story-focused narrative nonfiction. Her writing partner, Ilyon Woo, was critical to her success.

Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one month. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.

I don’t charge for subscriptions, but if you’d like, you can support my work with with a small donation here.

To find Kousser’s book as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.

RACHEL KOUSSER writes and teaches about Alexander the Great, ancient iconoclasm, and the representation of gender and power in the Mediterranean world. For her work, she has received fellowships from the National Endowment of the Humanities, the Getty Research Institute, and the Center for the Advanced Study of the Visual Arts. Her most recent book is Alexander at the End of the World: The Forgotten Final Years of Alexander the Great (HarperCollins 2024). She’s also published articles in Art Bulletin, American Journal of Archaeology, and Res: Archaeology and Aesthetics as well as two books with Cambridge University Press. Rachel is currently the chair of the Classics Program at the Graduate Center, City University of New York and a professor of ancient art and archaeology at Brooklyn College. She has a B.A. in Classics and Art History from Yale University and a Ph.D. in Classical Art and Archaeology from New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts.

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Today, I’m talking to Peter Ho Davies about the difficult task of writing about your loved ones. He struggled with this both in his recent novel and in the memoiristic frame he created for his book The Art of Revision. And he’s still struggling with it with his new work-in-progress. What advice does he have for us to get through it?

Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one month. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.

I don’t charge for subscriptions, but if you’d like, you can support my work with with a small donation here.

To find Ho’s latest book as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.

Peter Ho Davies’ most recent books are the novel A Lie Someone Told You About Yourself, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and The Art of Revision: The Last Word, his first work of non-fiction. Other books include the novels, The Fortunes, winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Award; The Welsh Girl, long-listed for the Booker Prize, and a London Times bestseller; as well as two critically acclaimed collections of short stories. A recipient of the PEN/Malamud and PEN/Macmillan awards, his fiction has appeared in Harpers, The Atlantic, The Paris Review and Granta and been anthologized in O. Henry Prize Stories and Best American Short Stories. Born in Britain to Welsh and Chinese parents, he currently directs the Helen Zell MFA Program at the University of Michigan.

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Kelly J. Ford returns to the 7am Novelist to talk project management, finding your genre, and not giving up.

I don’t charge for subscriptions, but if you’d like, you can support my work with with a small donation here.

To find Ford’s latest book as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.

Kelly J. Ford is the Anthony-nominated author of Real Bad Things; Cottonmouths, a Los Angeles Review Best Book of 2017; and The Hunt. An Arkansas native, Kelly writes crime fiction set in the Ozarks and Arkansas River Valley.

Today, fabulous fiction duo Patricia Park and Desmond Hall talk about how writing is like exercise, how to invest in your writing career, and the importance of finding a great teacher and writing community.

I don’t charge for subscriptions, but if you’d like, you can support my work with with a small donation here.

To find Park and Hall’s latest book as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.

Desmond Hall is the author of two award-winning YA novels, including most recently Better Must Come, which was a top ten In the Margins book pick, CariCon Award for best Caribbean YA novel, and won honors for the Massachusetts Book Award.

Patricia Park is the author of The New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice Re Jane, a Jane Eyre retelling; Imposter Syndrome, a Gotham Book Prize finalist; and most recently, What’s Eating Jackie Oh?

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Tessa Fontaine and Annie Hartnett return to talk about accountability (and their new writing retreat).

I don’t charge for subscriptions, but if you’d like, you can support my work with with a small donation here.

To find Fontaine and Hartnett’s latest books as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.

Tessa Fontaine is the author of THE ELECTRIC WOMAN: A MEMOIR IN DEATH-DEFYING ACTS, a New York Times Editors’ Choice, Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers pick, and best book of 2018 by Southern Living, Refinery29, Amazon Editors’, and The New York Post. THE RED GROVE, her first novel, was a best book of May from Amazon and People Magazine, and long listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. Raised outside San Francisco, Tessa is part of the MFA faculty of the Warren Wilson program. She lives in Asheville, North Carolina, with her daughter, goofy dog and sassy cat.

Annie Hartnett is the award-winning author of three novels: Rabbit Cake, Unlikely Animals, and the national bestseller The Road to Tender Hearts, which won the 2025 New England Book Award for fiction. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband Drew, daughter Leora, and a border collie named Willie Nelson.

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Today, I’m happy to be talk again with AE Osworth as we revisit the concept of Joy-Writing since their publication of their latest novel, AWAKENED.

I don’t charge for subscriptions, but if you’d like, you can support my work with with a small donation here.

To find Osworth’s latest book as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.

A.E. Osworth is a transgender novelist. Their debut, WE ARE WATCHING ELIZA BRIGHT, was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award and was long-listed for The Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize, the Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize, and The Tournament of Books. Their latest book, AWAKENED, was a USA Today Bestseller and received starred reviews from Library Journal and Kirkus. They are a lecturer at the University of British Columbia’s School of Creative Writing where they teach fiction, interactive fiction, and new media. They research the intersection of creative writing and artificial intelligence with their research collective, called Artificial Intelligence Does Not Exist and they are currently undertaking a project on Undisciplined Art Practices with philosopher Carrie Jenkins.

Today, I finally get a chance to talk to Crystal King whose latest novel, THE HAPPINESS COLLECTOR, was released in December. We’re talking about how a writer might transition into using speculative elements in their fiction—something a lot of authors are playing with right now—as well as the thorny issue of technology, not only how to handle it, but how to make sure it doesn’t squash any mystery you’re trying to create.

Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for a few weeks. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.

I don’t charge for subscriptions, but if you’d like, you can support my work with with a small donation here.

To find King’s latest book as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.

Crystal King is the author of IN THE GARDEN OF MONSTERS, which was a MassBook Must Read, THE CHEF’S SECRET, and FEAST OF SORROW, which was long-listed for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize and was also a MassBook Must Read. Her latest is THE HAPPINESS COLLECTOR, is an Amazon best fantasy pick. She is an author, culinary enthusiast, and marketing expert. Her writing is fueled by a love of history and a passion for the food, language, and culture of Italy. She has taught classes in writing, creativity, and social media at several universities including Harvard Extension School and Boston University, as well as at GrubStreet, one of the leading creative writing centers in the US. A Pushcart Prize–nominated poet and former co-editor of the online literary arts journal Plum Ruby Review, Crystal received her MA in critical and creative thinking from UMass Boston, where she developed a series of exercises and writing prompts to help fiction writers in medias res. She resides in Boston.

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