The 7am Novelist

Today, I’m talking to Karen Dukess fresh off of hearing that her latest novel, Welcome to Murder Week, has hit the USA Today bestseller list. We discuss how writing groups and writing retreats, including DIY ones, got her there and why the best advice is sometimes: “Just Keep Going.”

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 Dukess’ latest book as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.

Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.

Karen Dukess is the author of The Last Book Party and Welcome to Murder Week, which was an instant USAToday bestseller. She lives outside New York City and in Truro on Cape Cod, where she interviews some of today's most acclaimed writers as host of the Castle Hill Author Talks for the Truro Center for the Arts.

Photo by Illiya Vjestica on Unsplash

Today, I’m talking to Nova Ren Suma who found herself at a crossroads in her career and her long-chosen genre while working on her latest book Wake the Wild Creatures.

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 Suma’s latest book as well as many other books by our authors, 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.

Nova Ren Suma is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling The Walls Around Us and A Room Away from the Wolves, which were both finalists for the Edgar Award. She also wrote Imaginary Girls and 17 & Gone and co-edited the story & craft anthology Foreshadow: Stories to Celebrate the Magic of Reading and Writing YA. She has an MFA in fiction from Columbia University and has taught creative writing at the University of Pennsylvania and Vermont College of Fine Arts. Originally from the Hudson Valley, she spent most of her adult life in New York City, and now lives in Philadelphia. Her new novel Wake the Wild Creatures is out now from Little, Brown.

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Today, I’m happy to be talking to Stephanie Elizondo Griest about her search for community in the process of writing her latest book: Art Above Everything: One Woman’s Global Exploration of the Joys and Torments of a Creative Life. It was released on June 10. It’s a book that sees art as inheritance, dissent, devotion, revenge, celebration, and more. In the end, it asks: Is the all-encompassing quest to become a self-sustaining artist worth the sacrifices it often requires?

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.

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

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

Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.

Stephanie Elizondo Griest is a globetrotting author from the Texas/Mexico borderlands. Her six books include Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana; Mexican Enough; All the Agents and Saints; and Art Above Everything: One Woman’s Global Exploration of the Joys and Torments of a Creative Life. Currently Professor of Creative Nonfiction at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Elizondo Griest has performed in capacities ranging from a Moth storyteller to a literary ambassador for the U.S. State Department. Wanderlust has led her to 50 countries and 49 states. She recently endowed Testimonios Fronterizos, a research grant for student journalists from the borderlands enrolled at her alma mater, the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Journalism.

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Today we’re focusing on the idea of trying to get beyond the usual character development tricks in our writing. What does it really take to get a flesh and blood character who captures our imaginative on the page? And we’ve got four incredible writers joining us for the discussion: Allison Amend, Rachel Barenbaum, Julie Carrick Dalton, and Andrea Meyer.

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.

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.

A former organic farmer and beekeeper, Julie Carrick Dalton is the author of The Last Beekeeper, Waiting for the Night Song, and a forthcoming third novel, The Forest Becomes Her. She’s part of the core faculty at Drexel University’s MFA program.

Andrea Meyer is an author, editor, writing instructor, and book coach who has written three novels, a screenplay for MGM, numerous essays and film articles, and teaches fiction and nonfiction writing at GrubStreet.

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Today, we’re talking to Alison Langley whose debut novel, Ilona Gets a Phone, has at last been released in the U.S. Alison and I discuss the methods she used to convey Hungarian history without leaving her characters behind and how that history rings a warning bell for today.

Catch Alison and me at the Parkside Bookstore this Wednesday, July 9.

Watch a recording of our interview 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 Langley’s book as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.

Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.

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

Alison Langley is a former foreign correspondent with extensive experience covering events across Europe, including Hungary, the setting for her 2024 debut novel Ilona Gets A Phone by Dedalus Books UK. Her short stories have been featured in several literary magazines, including one that was shortlisted for the Bournemouth Writing Prize. When not writing, Langley splits her time between the Swiss Alps and Brooklyn.

Women in Budapest march in honor of the Hungarian men who died in revolution fighting Soviet-backed communist regime.© Time Inc.Michael Rougier

Today, I talk to esteemed editor and writer Christine Pride about her experience co-writing with novelist Jo Piazza, going it alone with two tricky timelines, and opening her home to women in need. Her latest book is All the Men I’ve Loved Again.

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.

Note: If you’ve subscribed to this newsletter hoping to join our July writing challenge, the registration for that is separate (sorry!). You’ll need to email me at [email protected] and I’ll send you the zoom registration to join. Click here for more information.

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

To find Pride’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.

Christine Pride is a writer, editor, and longtime publishing veteran. She’s held editorial posts at many different trade imprints, including Doubleday, Crown, and Simon & Schuster. As an editor, Christine has published a range of books, with a special emphasis on inspirational stories and memoirs, including numerous New York Times bestsellers. As a freelance editorial consultant, she does select editing and proposal/content development, as well as teaching and coaching, and pens a regular column—“Race Matters”—for Cup of Jo. She splits her time between New York City and LA.

(Photo by Christine Han.)

It’s simple: Come late, stay early, join however many days you like. We start at 7am EST with a prompt, turn off our mics to write together, come back at 8:20am to talk about how we did, sign off at 8:30, and repeat. It’s all about accountability, shutting out distractions, and getting things done. And it’s all free.

"In 90 minutes you get camaraderie, accountability, a habit! And that habit compels progress not just in the word-count but in the craft. One is able to burrow, to borrow Michelle's word, much more effectively with consistent practice. Two more benefits: the mini-lessons at the beginning and the wrap up convo at the end, where people share progress, questions, doubts and insights. And at 8:30, you've already accomplished a whole lot." —Lisa Birk

To register, email me at [email protected]. Registration is easy. Prioritize your writing. And feel like you’re a part of something.

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Good morning everyone! A little note about what’s upcoming on the 7am Novelist. I’ll be focusing on author interviews and craft discussions that I hope allow our listeners to feel you are working together on a similar goal, discussions that encourage community involvement, kindness, engagement, beauty, and even joy while I know that many of you are plugging away alone at your own stories—and that can be really isolating.

The historian Heather Cox Richardson has said that one way for us to weather the current state of affairs is to “find friends and join them. Meet new people, meet new communities, try new things. Channel that frustration and fear and anxiety into something positive.”

So that’s what I’ll be trying to do here within the framework of what the 7am Novelist has always done. Beyond the usual craft-focused author interviews, I’ll be talking to people who are reaching out to help others and forging communities of their own. I’ll also be holding regular roundtable discussions among a small group of writers about such things as outlining, voice, how to draw a reader into your book, and much much more.

To further support this push toward channeling our frustrations to the positive, I’m also running a write-a-thon in July in which we’ll write together on zoom starting July 1st every weekday morning from 7am to 8:30 EST. Yep, it’s the same thing I did in January, with a quick inspirational message or prompt to start us off and a few minutes at the end when we come back together to talk about what we accomplished (or troubleshoot what we didn’t).

We had 80 people writing together in January and we’ve continued to have a small dedicated group ever since. Honestly, it’s been a life saver for me when I have trouble focusing and getting work done. Is 7am painfully early? Yes it is. Does it make you feel like you’ve accomplished something by the time 8:30 rolls around. Yes, it does. You can join as many mornings or as few as you like. You can show up late or continue writing with the group after 8:30 after I’ve signed off. However you want to do it, we’ll make it work.

So if you’re interested in joining our writing sessions, email me at [email protected] and I’ll send you the registration info. It’s all free. Otherwise, as long as you’re subscribed to the 7am Novelist on Substack or following the podcast, you’ll be able to listen to all of our content the same as you always have.

So come join us. Email me at [email protected] to register for our July writing sessions. Or stay subscribed to my Substack newsletter to keep up to date about all things writing. Thank you everyone. It’s summer. It’s time to get some writing done.

Want to support my work without paying for a subscription? Consider a small donation through my Kofi page.

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Today, we hear from Milo Todd and Julie Carrick Dalton, close friends and supporters of each other, from their early novel drafts to their debuts and beyond. They’re going to talk about how they’ve done it, the work they do for others, and their hopes for the New Year.

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.

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

Want to join our January write-a-thon? Go here for more information: 7amnovelist.substack.com/p/join-our-january-group-write

Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.

Milo Todd is co-EIC at Foglifter Journal, runs The Queer Writer newsletter, and teaches creative writing primarily to queer and trans adults. He’s received awards, accolades, and fellowships from such places as Lambda Literary, Tin House, Pitch Wars, GrubStreet, Monson Arts, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. His debut, THE LILAC PEOPLE, publishes through Counterpoint on April 29, 2025.

Julie Carrick Dalton is the Boston-based author of Waiting for the Night Song and The Last Beekeeper. She is the winner of the New Hampshire Writers' Project's People's Choice Award for Best Novel, and a finalist for the Massachusetts Book Award and the Siskiyou Prize for New Environmental Literature. A former beekeeper and farmer, she is a frequent speaker on the topic of fiction in the age of climate crisis at universities, museums, and conferences nationally and internationally. She is on the faculty of Drexel University's Creative Writing MFA program and is an adjunct instructor at Tufts University where she teaches Climate Fiction & Activism. When she isn't reading or writing, you can usually find Julie skiing, swimming, kayaking, or working in her garden.

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Today, we hear from Jennifer S. Brown and Randy Susan Meyers about how they’ve supported each other’s writing careers, the work they do both locally and nationally to help others, and how staying true to your characters is the best policy when writing politically-charged fiction.

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.

To find Brown and Meyers’ latest books as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.

Want to join our January write-a-thon? Go here for more information: 7amnovelist.substack.com/p/join-our-january-group-write

Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.

Jennifer S. Brown’s debut novel, Modern Girls, was a USA Today bestseller, a Massachusetts Book Award “Must Read,” and a 2016 Goodreads Choice semifinalist for Historical Fiction. Her writing has been published in Fiction Southeast, McSweeney’s, The Best Women’s Travel Writing, The Southeast Review, and the Bellevue Literary Review, among other places. She teaches writing, both in-person in the Boston area and online through the Loft Literary Center. She holds a BFA in film and television from NYU and an MFA in creative writing from the University of Washington. The Whisper Sister is her second novel.

Randy Susan Meyers is the internationally bestselling author of six novels and a three-time Massachusetts Book Award finalist and “Must Read” awardee. Though her books explore domestic drama, societal issues, and cultural nuances—informed by her years working with community and governmental agencies—she gained the most insight into family and politics during four years bartending in a small Boston neighborhood pub. A Brooklyn-Boston mix, she believes happiness requires family, friends, books, and an occasional NY bagel. Meyers lives in Boston with her husband where she teaches writing seminars at Boston’s GrubStreet Writers’ Center.

Photo by Ben Wicks on Unsplash