The 7am Novelist

Today’s is a special bonus episode in which we get to hear from some of our listeners about they’ve learned from the past few episodes, what ideas they consider the most important, what questions or confusions they have, and their own advice and/or experience in dealing with the same issues in their writing. Welcome listeners and writers Cat Green, Carol Willis, and Judy Kessler.

By the way, we still have one more spot for YOU to take part in a listener’s roundup. If you’re interested, email me at [email protected].

Also, I’ll be teaching at a writing retreat in the Himalayas this April and you’re welcome to join. For more info, go to https://www.himalayanwritingretreat.com/event/international-retreat-with-michelle-hoover/ 

A few of the craft books mentioned in this episode:

* David Jauss’s chapter “From Long Shots to X-Rays: Distance and Point of View in Fiction” from his craft book Alone with All that Could Happen: On Writing Fiction

* Robert Boswell’s chapter “On Omniscience” from his craft book The Half-Known World

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 all of my fave craft books plus books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. 

Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. 

Cat Green (they/them) is a graduate of GrubStreet's Novel Immersive for Queer and Trans Writers, and their debut hybrid chapbook, I Am Never Leaving Williamsburg, is out with fifth wheel press in February 2025.

At age sixty, Carol Willis is a recovering physician with an MFA in Writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts, and has published numerous short stories and written several novels, whose current work-in-progress is a contemporary midlife coming-of-age story, HERE COMES THE SUN. 

Judy Kessler retired from her career as a technical writer in 2015 to focus on fiction; since then she's drafted 2 novels (one complete, one in progress), published 2 short stories, taken MANY writing classes at GrubStreet and beyond, and volunteers at The Muse and the Marketplace and as a fiction reader for Pangyrus, a Boston-based literary magazine.

Photo by Amber Kipp on Unsplash

Today, we hear from Jessica Anthony whose latest novel, THE MOST, will be  released in July. We’re talking to Jessica about how to cover a large amount of time by using time itself as your organizing principal, especially when writing a short novel or novella.

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 Anthony’s debut and many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. 

Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. 

Jessica Anthony is the author of three books of fiction, The Convalescent, which won the Amanda Davis Highwire Fiction Award from McSweeney’s, Chopsticks, which she coauthored with graphic designer Rodrigo Corral, and most recently the novel Enter the Aardvark, a finalist for the New England Book Award in Fiction. A recipient of the Creative Capital Award in Literature, Anthony wrote The Most while guarding the Mária Valéria Bridge in Štúrovo, Slovakia. She lives in Portland, Maine.

Photo: Matt Cosby

Today, we hear from Joseph Moldover whose second novel, JUST UNTIL, will be released in October. We’ll be talking about the psychology of creative writing and the mental challenges of bringing a story or book to publication.

Watch a recording of our live webinar here. The audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.

To find Moldover’s latest and many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. 

Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. 

Joseph Moldover is the author of Every Moment After (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019) and of Just Until (Holiday House, October 29, 2024). He is also a clinical psychologist. He works with children and adolescents and specializes in learning and developmental challenges. He is the author of The Empowered Parent, a short guide for parents of children with special needs. He lives with his wife and four children outside of Boston, Massachusetts.

Photo by Rey Seven on Unsplash

Today, we hear from Alison Langley, whose debut novel, ILONA GETS A PHONE, was released in the UK in April. We’re talking to Alison about the use of specific language, when to use scene vs summary, and what to do when readers misread your book.

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 many books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. 

Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. 

As a foreign correspondent, Alison Langley's stories appeared in The New York Times, Financial Times, Guardian and Deutsche Welle. She freelanced for The Wall Street Journal Europe in Budapest from 1990-94. That experience forms the backdrop of her first novel, Budapest Noir: Ilona Gets A Phone, now published by Dedalus Books, UK. It was a finalist of the Irish Writer’s Centre Novel Prize 2022. Alison Langley is an avid gardener, mushroom hunter, and proud mother of three amazing adults. Langley lives in the Swiss Alps with her husband and dog.

Photo by David Travis on Unsplash

Today we hear from Shalene Gupta whose new book, THE CYCLE: Confronting the Pain of Periods and PMDD, was released in February. Shalene and I will be talking about the ways authors can get past their fear of conducting interviews when writing about deeply personal material.

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

To find Gupta’s debut and many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. 

Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. 

Shalene Gupta is a reporter whose work has appeared in Fortune, The Atlantic, ESPN, Fast Company, and Harvard Business Review. She is the coauthor of The Power of Trust: How Companies Build It, Lose It, Regain It with Harvard Business School professor Sandra Sucher.  In 2022, she was identified as a thinker to watch out for and made the Thinkers50 Radar list. She’s also the host of the Trustonomy podcast. She has an MS from Columbia Journalism School and is a graduate of GrubStreet’s Novel Incubator program. Shalene has taught writing classes in the Boston area, and speaks regularly at conferences about trust and diversity issues.

Photo by Andrea Cassani on Unsplash

Today we get to hear from Henriette Lazaridis whose novel, LAST DAYS IN PLAKA, was released in April 2024. Henriette and I will be talking about her choice to use the omniscient point of view and how she tackled the notoriously tricky narrative perspective.

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

To find Lazaridis’s debut and many books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. 

Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. 

Henriette Lazaridis' novel TERRA NOVA was published by Pegasus Books in December, 2022 and was called "ingenious" and "provocative" by the New York Times. She is the author of the best-selling novel THE CLOVER HOUSE. Her short work has appeared in publications including Elle, Forge, Narrative Magazine, The New York Times, New England Review, The Millions, and has earned her a Massachusetts Cultural Council Artists Grant. Having taught English at Harvard, she now teaches at GrubStreet in Boston and runs the Krouna Writing Workshop in northern Greece. She also writes the Substack newsletter The Entropy Hotel, about athletic and creative challenges at henriettelazaridis.substack.com. Her new novel, LAST DAYS IN PLAKA, was released in April 2024.

photo credit: Sharona Jacobs

Today we get to hear from Jennine Capo Crucet whose newest novel, SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIEND, was released in March. Jennine and I will be talking about writing in a voice and POV that originates in a sense of place.

Watch a recording of our live webinar here. The audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.

To find Crucet’s debut and many books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. 

Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. 

Jennine Capó Crucet is a novelist, essayist, and screenwriter. She’s the author of three books, including the novel Make Your Home Among Strangers, which won the International Latino Book Award, was named a New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice book, and was cited as a best book of the year by NBC Latino, the Guardian, the Miami Herald, and other venues; it has been adopted as an all-campus read at over forty U.S. universities. Her other books include the story collection How to Leave Hialeah, which won the Iowa Short Fiction Prize, the John Gardner Book Award, and the Devil’s Kitchen Reading Award; and the essay collection My Time Among the Whites: Notes from an Unfinished Education, which was long-listed for the 2019 PEN America/Open Book Award. A former Contributing Opinion Writer for the New York Times, she’s also a recipient of a PEN/O. Henry Prize, the Picador Fellowship, and the Hillsdale Award for the Short Story, awarded by the Fellowship of Southern Writers. Her writing has appeared on PBS NewsHour, National Public Radio, and in publications such as the Atlantic, Condé Nast Traveler, and others. She’s worked as a professor of Ethnic Studies and of Creative Writing at the University of Nebraska and at Florida State University. She’s also worked for One Voice Scholars Program as a college access counselor to first-generation college students and as a sketch comedienne (though not at the same time). Born and raised in Miami to Cuban parents, her fourth book, a novel titled Say Hello To My Little Friend, is forthcoming from Simon & Schuster. She lives in North Carolina with her family.

Today, we’ve got a special bonus episode which I’m calling our “Listener’s Roundup” with listeners Anne Buckley, Jean Carlton, and Anna Carvlin. We’re going to do a few of these over the course of the summer. This is when we get to hear from some of our listeners about they’ve learned from the past few episodes, what ideas they consider the most important, what questions or confusions they have, and their own advice and/or experience in dealing with the same issues in their writing. 

And by the way, we still have one more spot for YOU to take part in a listener’s roundup. If you’re interested, email me at [email protected].

Also, I’ll be teaching at a writing retreat in the Himalayas this April and you’re welcome to join. For more info, go to https://www.himalayanwritingretreat.com/event/international-retreat-with-michelle-hoover/ 

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 books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. 

Also mentioned in this episode: Mavis Gallant’s short story “Mlle. Dias de Corta” and Michael Noll’s craft book, The Writer’s Field Guide to the Craft of Fiction. (psst: you can find all my fave craft books on the Bookshop page too!)

Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. 

Anne Buckley is a self-confessed stalker of debut novelists for all the right reasons, and is currently revising her own debut novel, Friendship Falls. 

Jean Smith Carlton self-published her first novel, Nothing Else Matters, in 2022 through Amazon KDP at the age of 76. 

Anna Carvlin lives with her family on the far South Side of Chicago, where she is writing fiction, including a novel and short stories, and pursuing a master's degree in English.

Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash 

Today, we hear from Colwill Brown whose debut novel, WE PRETTY PIECES OF FLESH, is forthcoming in 2025. We’ll be talking about the art of sentences and how Colwill had to wrangle with their own to make the unique voice of the book work.

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’s debut and many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. 

Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. 

Colwill Brown is the author of the novel We Pretty Pieces of Flesh, forthcoming in 2025 from Holt/Macmillan (North America), Chatto & Windus (UK & Commonwealth) and Sellerio (Italian trans.). Born and raised in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, UK, Colwill holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Texas at Austin and an MA in English literature from Boston College. Recipient of a James A. Michener Fellowship, scholarships to the Tin House Summer Workshop and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, a 2022 Glenna Luschei Prairie Schooner Award, and top-fifty placing in the 2021 BBC National Short Story Award, Colwill’s writing has also received awards and support from Hedgebrook, the Ragdale Foundation, the Anderson Center, and elsewhere.

Today, we hear from Bryan VanDyke, whose debut novel, IN OUR LIKENESS, will be published in September. We’re talking to Bryan about what to do when gatekeepers consider your writing “too quiet” and ways an author can make some noise with their new work without sidelining their own vision and style. 

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 VanDyke’s debut and many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page. 

Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page. 

Bryan VanDyke is a former staff writer at The Millions. He holds an MFA from Columbia University and a BA from Northwestern. His debut novel, IN OUR LIKENESS is forthcoming from Little A this September. He is also the author of a book-length essay, ONLY THE TRYING: OR, HOW TO LIVE AFTER NOT QUITE DYING, a meditation on the nature of illness and recovery. His fiction has appeared in The Rumpus, Carve and elsewhere. He lives in New York City with his wife and two children.

Photo by Kristina Flour on Unsplash