The 7am Novelist

Today, we’ve got the wonderful Lauren Aliza Green, author of The World AfterAlice, and she’ll be talking to us about practicing rewriting over revision and how to do it while the world seems to be falling apart. Lauren will also be talking about how she continues her writing community even after a big move abroad.

Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. 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 Green’s latest book as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.

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Lauren Aliza Green is the author of The World After Alice (Viking, 2024) and the chapbook A Great Dark House, which won the Poetry Society of America’s Chapbook Fellowship. Her work has appeared in Conjunctions, Virginia Quarterly Review, American Short Fiction, and elsewhere. She is currently based in Rome.

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Today we have another of our roundtables and we’re focusing on one of the hardest things for an author to get right: world building. Because this issue is complex, I’m going to hold two world building roundtables, one for writers trying to establish place in either a speculative work or a work that takes place in a non-U.S. location, and this one today about world building for historical fiction. What is world building? How do you it without boring the reader to death or brazenly showing all of your research? And how do you work it into your story line? We’ve got four incredible writers joining us for the discussion: Allison Amend, Rachel Barenbaum, Janet Rich Edwards, and Hesse Phillips.

Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for only 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 our roundtable authors’ latest book as well as many other books by our guests, visit our Bookshop page.

Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.

Allison Amend is a professor of creative writing at Lehman College, CUNY in New York City and is the author of a short story collection and three novels.

Rachel Barenbaum is the author of the critically-acclaimed novels Atomic Anna and A Bend in the Stars and the creator and host of the literary show Check This Out that airs on NHPR and focuses on emerging and diverse authors.

Janet Rich Edwards is a graduate of Grub Street’s Novel Incubator program. She is a professor of epidemiology at Harvard University. She lives in Brookline, Massachusetts.

Hesse Phillips‘s debut novel Lightborne was a finalist in the Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair and a London Times’ Top Historical Fiction Book of 2024.

Today, I’m talking to author and book-seller Josh Cook about book bans, the beloved community space of bookstores, and what he thinks authors should know about book selling.

Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. 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 Cook’s latest book as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.

Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.

Josh Cook is a bookseller and co-owner at Porter Square Books in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he has worked since 2004. He is also the author of the critically acclaimed postmodern detective novel An Exaggerated Murder as well as the 2023 book: The Art of Libromancy: On Selling Books and Reading Books in the Twenty-first Century, which was one of Lit Hub’s most anticipated books of 2023 and Esquire’s August 2023 Book Club pick. His fiction, criticism, and poetry have appeared in numerous leading literary publications. He grew up in Lewiston, Maine and lives in Somerville, Massachusetts.

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Today, we’re talking to the wonderful Jyoti Chand who will be discussing the inspiration behind her YA graphic novel, Fitting Indian, why the story needed to be told, and how she built a vibrant online community where she is known as Mamajotes through authenticity and vulnerability.

Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. 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 Chand’s book as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.

Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.

Jyoti Chand, known as Mamajotes online, is a writer, comedian, and advocate for mental health, using humor and honesty to connect with audiences about the realities of motherhood. With a background in stand-up and improv, she brings an engaging and unfiltered perspective to conversations about self-care, identity, and the challenges of balancing family and creativity. She has an undergraduate degree in Creative Writing and MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults. In addition to her digital content, Jyoti is the author of Fitting Indian, a teen graphic novel that explores mental health and identity within a South Asian family.

Today, I’m lucky to get a chance to talk to Zee Carlstrom about their debut: Make Sure You Die Screaming. Zee practices a special kind of brainstorming for their projects, bringing together disparate styles, genres, ideas in a way they learned from the advertising world in order to make something fresh and new and avoid the regurgitating effects of AI on all of our creative pursuits.

Interested in the PageBreak reading retreats Carlstrom talks about? Click here.

Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. 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 Carlstrom’s latest book as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.

Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.

Zee Carlstrom is a writer from Illinois. MAKE SURE YOU DIE SCREAMING is their first novel. It was named one of the "hottest debut novels of 2025" by Goodreads, a Barnes & Noble pick for their 2025 Yearly Reading Challenge, one of Them's Most Anticipated Books of 2025, one of Debutiful's Most Anticipated Debut Novels of 2025, and The Mary Sue pick for its 15 Most Anticipated LGBTQ Books of 2025. The book was also just listed as one of the 20 Best Queer Novels of 2025 so far by Elle Magazine.

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In our roundtable today, we’re focusing on the question: How does your book invite a reader’s interest, both intellectually and emotionally? What might that look like? What methods might an author use? And we’ve got four incredible writers joining us for the discussion: Nancy Crochiere, Janet Rich Edwards, Christine Murphy, and Hesse Phillips.

Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for only 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 our roundtable authors’ latest book as well as many other books by our guests, visit our Bookshop page.

Want to join our July write-a-thon? Click here for more information.

Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.

Nancy Crochiere’s comic-roadtrip novel, Graceland, about a single mom forced to chase her Elvis-obsessed mother and pink-haired teenage daughter to Memphis, was an Amazon Kindle bestseller and named a top summer read by Parade, Woman’s World, and Deep South Magazines.

Janet Rich Edwards' debut novel, Canticle, features a mystic who joins a defiant community of women to fight the medieval Church for their faith and independence, will launch on December 2 from Spiegel & Grau.

Christine Murphy is the author of Notes on Surviving The Fire, considered one of the best crime novels of the year so far by NYT, “brilliant” by the Financial Times, and praised by the New Yorker for its layered narrative and spirit of anarchy.

Hesse Phillips's debut Novel Lightborne was a finalist in the Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair and was chosen as both a Book of the Month and a Best Historical Fiction Novel for 2024 by The Times (UK), who said "there has never been a fictional retelling [of Christopher Marlowe's mysterious death] as vivid and original as this one."

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Today, I enjoy talking to Beth Castrodale about her latest: The Inhabitants, an award-winning novel that brings new twists to one of my favorite sub-genre settings—a haunted house. And we discuss her efforts to bring Small Press Books and their authors more attention through her longtime project, the review website known as Small Press Picks.

Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. 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 Castrodale’s latest book as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.

Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.

Beth Castrodale was a senior editor at Bedford/St. Martin’s and is the founding editor of the book-review website Small Press Picks. Her most recent novel, The Inhabitants, won the Horror categories of the Independent Publisher Book Awards, the National Indie Excellence Awards, and the Best Book Awards. It was a finalist in the Horror category of the Next Generation Indie Book Awards. An excerpt from her second novel, In This Ground, was a shortlist finalist for a William Faulkner – William Wisdom Creative Writing Award. Her début novel, Marion Hatley, was a finalist for a Nilsen Prize for a First Novel from Southeast Missouri State University Press. Castrodale has been awarded for her work with an artist grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and her stories and essays have appeared in multiple publications, including CrimeReads, Ars Medica, The Writing Disorder, and Writing and Wellness.

Today, I’m talking to author and art historian Libby Buck, whose first novel Port Anna, was released in July from Simon & Schuster. Libby is going to tell us how her art historian background helped her write her novel… and how it might help you. We’re also going to talk about the importance of museums as a vital source of community building and how they allow us to join together “in awe.”

Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. 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 Buck’s book as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.

Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.

Libby Buck earned her BA in English from the University of Virginia, her MA in art history from Columbia University, and PhD. in art history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. While her general area of expertise is Nineteenth Century France, her dissertation focused upon the Gustave Moreau museum and its challenge to traditional museology. She taught as a visiting lecturer for over a decade at various institutions, including Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She and her husband raised three daughters in North Carolina, where she still lives with her husband when she is not beside the sea in Downeast Maine.

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Today, we’ve got an incredible community organizer joining us, the co-founder of the London Writers' Salon, Matt Trinetti, and he’s going to tell us all about it.

Want more from LWS, check out Writers' Hour Magazine.

Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. 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 my favorite craft books and the latest from our authors, visit our Bookshop page.

Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.

Matt Trinetti is a writer, publisher, TEDx speaker, and cofounder of London Writers' Salon. Prior to LWS, Matt spent a decade helping thousands of individuals around the world navigate career changes, start businesses, and build purposeful careers a places like Google, Red Bull, Airbus, Unilever, Escape The City, London Business School, General Assembly, Education First, and Creative Mornings.

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Today we have the first of our roundtables and we’re focusing on the mysterious (or not so mysterious) REVERSE OUTLINE. What is it? Why might you want to do it (or not?) And what methods are the most helpful. And we’ve got four incredible writers joining us to round out our discussion: Desmond Hall, Christine Murphy, Patricia Park, and Hesse Phillips

Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for only 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 our roundtable authors’ latest book as well as many other books by our guests, visit our Bookshop page.

Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook 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, and long listed for Massachusetts Book Award.

Christine Murphy is the author of Notes on Surviving The Fire (out this year from Knopf), considered one of the best crime novels of the year so far by NYT, “brilliant” by the Financial Times, and praised by the New Yorker for its layered narrative and anarchic spirit.

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?

Hesse Phillips's debut novel Lightborne was a finalist in the Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair and a London Times' Top Historical Fiction Book of 2024.