Melissa Woodruff interviews her friends and colleagues Carolyn Clare Givens, Rachel S. Donahue and Annie Beth Donahue for this end of season question & answer episode filled with as many questions that we could answer, taken from all the questions that you listeners sent in. Thank you for sending questions, thank you for listening and thank you for taking an interest in Bandersnatch Books! Also we touch on the future directions that Bandersnatch Books will be moving into for 2026 and beyond!

Preorder Joe the Fourth and the King’s Crown

Preorder I’ve Got a Bad Case of Poetry

(must be before Dec. 5th for Christmas delivery!)

Audiobook for The Song of the Stone Tiger - Now Available

Mentioned in this episode:

* Melissa Woodruff

* SDG Morgan

* Carolyn Clare Givens

www.carolyncgivens.com

* The King’s Messenger

* Rachel S. Donahue

* Annie Beth Donahue

* Interview with “Librarian Laura”

* Daughter of Arden Series - Loren G. Warnemuende

* The Habit Writing Group

Also mentioned in this episode:

* In the Grip of Ice - Doraine Bennett (Spring 2026)

* Currently Untitled MK-CoA-YA - Bethany Faulk (Mid-2026)

* Pen & Paintbrush Mysteries: Book 2 - Katherine Ladny Mitchell (Summer 2026)

* Red Rex: Book 2 - Matthew Mellema (Summer 2026)

* The Birding Tree - Krista Weeks (Fall 2026)

* Magda’s Butterflies - Marcia Strykowski (2027)

* Elizabrie - Rachael Watson (2027)

Click to learn more about Bandersnatch Books!

www.bandersnatchbooks.com

Special Thanks to:

Son of Laughter for our theme song: “Cricket in a Jar”

Evelyn Warnemuende for our artwork

S.D.G. Morgan for audio engineering: sdgmorgan.substack.com & bammerhab.substack.com

Diana Pavlac Glyer for our namesake book, Bandersnatch

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bandersnatchbooks.substack.com

Rachel S. Donahue interviews her friend and colleague Carolyn Clare Givens (author of Rosefire and The King’s Messenger). In this discussion, Carolyn shares the multiple roots of her career as an author and the many origin points of each of her stories. Every author tends to be inspired differently, and Carolyn describes how poetry, shoofly pie, music, and classroom settings all variously sparked little ideas that grew into big stories, and eventually found paper and an illustrated cover along their path to your hands as a reader!

Mentioned in this episode:

* Carolyn Clare Givens

www.carolyncgivens.com

* Rosefire

* The King’s Messenger

* I’ve Got a Bad Case of Poetry

* “The Four Quartets” by T.S. Eliot

* Shadow of the Moon by M.M. Kaye

* Seth G. Antes

* Through a Screen Darkly by Jeffrey Overstreet

* “The Great One” - Son of Laughter

* “On His Blindness” by John Milton

* Notes from the Tilt-A-Whirl by N.D. Wilson

* The Plantagenets by Dan Jones

Also mentioned in this episode:

* Jane Eyre

* Shoofly Pie

* Dorothy L. Sayers and Harriet Vane

* Sense & Sensibility

* Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Click to learn more about Bandersnatch Books!

www.bandersnatchbooks.com

Special Thanks to:

Son of Laughter for our theme song: “Cricket in a Jar”

Evelyn Warnemuende for our artwork

S.D.G. Morgan for audio engineering: sdgmorgan.substack.com & bammerhab.substack.com

Diana Pavlac Glyer for our namesake book, Bandersnatch

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bandersnatchbooks.substack.com

Annie Beth Donahue interviews our newest Bandersnatch Books author and illustrator Mary Barrows (author of Joe the Fourth and the King’s Crown). About ten years ago, Mary switched careers and started writing her Middle Grade novel Joe the Fourth while also making an effort to begin working as a freelance illustrator. As her illustration business grew, so did her confidence and the scope and size of her hilariously adorable kid’s adventure Joe the Fourth and the King’s Crown. We interview Mary about all the steps and obstacles that stood in her way as she struggled to create a career as both an author and an illustrator simultaneously.

Stay tuned for a reading of the first chapter of Joe the Fourth after the interview!

PREORDER - JOE THE FOURTH!

Mentioned in this episode:

* Joe the Fourth and the King’s Crown

* Mary Barrows Illustration

* The Rabbit Room

* Andrew Peterson

* The King’s Messenger

* No Clues, You Lose

* Kathryn Ladny Mitchell - Not To Be

* Red Rex

* Lemony Snicket

* Procreate®

* Little Critter Books

Click to learn more about Bandersnatch Books!

www.bandersnatchbooks.com

Special Thanks to:

Son of Laughter for our theme song: “Cricket in a Jar.”

Evelyn Warnemuende for our artwork.

S.D.G. Morgan for audio engineering: sdgmorgan.substack.com & bammerhab.substack.com

Diana Pavlac Glyer for our namesake book, Bandersnatch

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bandersnatchbooks.substack.com

Rachel S. Donahue interviews Emily J. Person (illustrator of I’ve Got a Bad Case of Poetry) about a behind the scenes look at all the stresses and joys of illustrating such a huge project while simultaneously navigating several life changes and moving her studio and all her art supplies from state to state to state!

* Emily J. Person

www.emilyjperson.com

* PREORDER: I’ve Got a Bad Case of Poetry

Mentioned in this episode:

* The Rabbit Room

* Andrew Peterson

* Every Moment Holy

* Square Halo Conference

Also mentioned in this episode:

* Jonathan Rogers - The Habit Podcast

* Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design

* Anselm Society Imagination Redeemed Conference

* Jennifer Trafton - If Only We Could See

* Lilias Trotter

* Gyo Fujikawa - The Child’s Book of Poetry

* Tasha Tudor - A Time to Keep

* Jessie Wilcox Smith

* Eloise Wilkin

* Prayers for Children

* Rovina Cai

* Hope Christofferson

* Ruth Speer

* Arthur Rackham

* Alphonse Mucha

* Brandywine Museum of Art

* N.C. Wyeth

* Howard Pyle - School of Illustration

* Anselm Society - Imagination Redeemed

* C. S. Lewis - The Chronicles of Narnia

Click to learn more about Bandersnatch Books!

www.bandersnatchbooks.com

Special Thanks to:

Son of Laughter for our theme song: “Cricket in a Jar.”

Evelyn Warnemuende for our artwork.

S.D.G. Morgan for audio engineering: sdgmorgan.substack.com & bammerhab.substack.com

Diana Pavlac Glyer for our namesake book, Bandersnatch.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bandersnatchbooks.substack.com

Carolyn Clare Givens interviews our “fairy godmother” Diana Pavlac Glyer (author of our publishing company’s namesake book Bandersnatch!) about her life’s work reinterpreting the Inklings (J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and their friends) not as a group of solitary men occasionally meeting together, and keeping their creativity strictly boundaried from each other. Instead, Glyer challenged the academic standard story about the Inklings by demonstrating from painstaking research the evidence of all the collaborative sparks that caught fire among a group of men who all served as resonators for one another. She highlights that in her academic classic The Company They Keep. But Glyer is not content to leave creativity in the history books! In Bandersnatch Glyer is equally interested in bringing those same sparks to your writing group and emboldening resonators to create new hubs of art and faith.

Mentioned in this episode:

* Clay in the Potter’s Hand - Diana Pavlac Glyer

* Square Halo Books

* Azusa Pacific University

* The Inklings

* Thomas Aquinas

* Out of the Silent Planet

* Humphrey Carpenter - J.R.R. Tolkien Biography

* The Company They Keep

* Karen Burke Lefevre

* The Habit Writing Community

* Jonathan Rogers & Alligators

* Bandersnatch

* The Wade Center

* Hamilton

* Hutchmoot

* No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency

* Mitford Book Series

Click to learn more about Bandersnatch Books!

www.bandersnatchbooks.com

Special Thanks to:

Son of Laughter for our theme song: “Cricket in a Jar.”

Evelyn Warnemuende for our artwork.

S.D.G. Morgan for audio engineering: sdgmorgan.substack.com & bammerhab.substack.com

- - - - - - - - - - -

👉‼️ 👉 ‼️👉 Diana Pavlac Glyer for our namesake book, Bandersnatch 👈 ‼️👈 ‼️👈

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bandersnatchbooks.substack.com

Annie Beth Donahue interviews Amanda M. Brindley & Sofia Rector (author & illustrator of Doodle’s Mountain) about the unexpected joys and pitfalls of two friends collaborating as author and illustrator for a children’s picture book. During the nap times of their littles, Sofia and Amanda slowly pieced together the ideas for this picture book and slowly shepherded Doodle’s Mountain toward becoming a reality. From that experience, Amanda and Sofia learned a great deal and they gladly share all their lessons with us!

Mentioned in this episode:

* Doodle’s Mountain

* Hutchmoot

* Rabbit Room

* Mount Desert Island, Maine (Acadia Nat’l Park)

* Lupinus

(Note: Apologies for some audio issues during this interview. We did our best mitigate them by editing and post-production afterward!)

Click to learn more about Bandersnatch Books!

www.bandersnatchbooks.com

Special Thanks to:

Son of Laughter for our theme song: “Cricket in a Jar.”

Evelyn Warnemuende for our artwork.

S.D.G. Morgan for audio engineering: sdgmorgan.substack.com & bammerhab.substack.com

Diana Pavlac Glyer for our namesake book, Bandersnatch

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bandersnatchbooks.substack.com

Carolyn Clare Givens interviews Andrew Mackay (co-creator of Story Warren publisher of the Green Ember series) about publishing, brand new Green Ember video games and how Story Warren got started in the first place. There are wonderful side discussions abou the smell of giant printing presses, why Carrie is a “Newsletter Ninja”, why Andrew is “human Benadryl” and many more. By the end of this episode, you’ll be hard pressed to decide whether Andrew Mackay’s has a deeper fascination with the history, lore and intricacies of book publishing or instead the much maligned Olympic sport of Curling.

Mentioned in this episode:

* Curling!!! 🔥🔥🔥

* Brad Gushue - Curling Star

* Story Warren

* Brazen Animation

* S.D. Smith

* Andrew Peterson

* Zach Franzen

* Rebecca Reynolds

* Randall Goodgame

* Steam (digital distribution)

* Nintendo Switch

Books Mentioned in this episode:

* The Green Ember

* Daily Doctrine by Kevin DeYoung

* Green Ember: Helmer in the Dragon Tomb

* Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site

* The Last Dragon on Mars

* The Song of the Stone Tiger

Click to learn more about Bandersnatch Books!

www.bandersnatchbooks.com

Special Thanks to:

Son of Laughter for our theme song: “Cricket in a Jar.”

Evelyn Warnemuende for our artwork.

S.D.G. Morgan for audio engineering: sdgmorgan.substack.com & bammerhab.substack.com

Diana Pavlac Glyer for our namesake book, Bandersnatch.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bandersnatchbooks.substack.com

Annie Beth Donahue interviews Katherine Ladny Mitchell (author of the new mystery novel Not To Be) about why mysteries are about so much more than just whodunnit. Mysteries scratch a deep itch inside our souls, the longing for justice and the revelation of truth behind the lies. The conversation also winds its way into homesteading, emus, goats and tractors!

Visit Katherine Ladny Mitchell’s Substack:

katherineladnymitchell.substack.com

Mentioned in this episode:

* Not to Be - Katherine Ladny Mitchell

* Cup & Quill

* Dorothy Sayers

* Agatha Christie

* Sherlock Holmes & Watson

* The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency - Alexander McCall Smith

* Castle

Click to learn more about Bandersnatch Books!

www.bandersnatchbooks.com

Special Thanks to:

Son of Laughter for our theme song: “Cricket in a Jar.”

Evelyn Warnemuende for our artwork.

S.D.G. Morgan for audio engineering: sdgmorgan.substack.com & bammerhab.substack.com

Diana Pavlac Glyer for our namesake book, Bandersnatch.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bandersnatchbooks.substack.com

Carolyn Clare Givens interviews Carolyn Leiloglou (author of The Restorationist Trilogy) about her just-released book three: Beyond the Far Horizon! The conversation also delves into the origins of Carolyn Leiloglou’s love of art, how great artwork inspires her craft of writing, and the importance of building writing communities (specifically her writing partnership with recent Bandersnatch author Glenn McCarty).

Visit Carolyn’s site: www.carolynleiloglou.com

Mentioned in this episode:

* Glenn McCarty

* The Restorationist Trilogy

* Hutchmoot

* Russ Ramsey

* Makoto Fujimura

* Vivienne To - Illustrator of The Restorationist Trilogy

Also mentioned in this episode:

* Gillian Bronte Adams

* Wild Things and Castles in the Sky - Square Halo

* Anne of Green Gables - CBC

* Archives of Anthropos Series - John White

* The King’s Messenger - Carolyn Clare Givens

* Austin Kleon - Steal Like an Artist

Click to learn more about Bandersnatch Books!

www.bandersnatchbooks.com

Special Thanks to:

Son of Laughter for our theme song: “Cricket in a Jar.”

Evelyn Warnemuende for our artwork.

S.D.G. Morgan for audio engineering: sdgmorgan.substack.com & bammerhab.substack.com

Diana Pavlac Glyer for our namesake book, Bandersnatch.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bandersnatchbooks.substack.com

Rachel S. Donahue interviews Glenn McCarty (creator of The Song of the Stone Tiger and the Tumbleweed Thompson books) about his love of children’s literature and the origins of his newest book set in the mysterious mountains of western North Carolina. His book will be released at the one-year mark of the devastation of Hurricane Helene in those same mountains, and so it is important to us to highlight the magic of the region as it rebuilds!

Mentioned in this episode:

* Glenn McCarty

* The Song of the Stone Tiger

* The Tumbleweed Thompson Adventures & the Dead-Eye Dan Tales

* Story Warren

* Jeremy Casella - Death in Reverse album

Also mentioned in this episode:

* Robert McClosky - Centerburg Tales

* Beverly Cleary - Henry Huggins & Henry and Ribsy

* Beverly Cleary - The Mouse and the Motorcycle

* Carolyn Leiloglou

* James Witmer

* SD Smith

* Don Pape

* Jane Yolen

* Loren Warnemuende - Daughter of Arden Trilogy

* Gary D. Schmidt

* Kate DiCamillo

* C. S. Lewis - The Chronicles of Narnia

Click to learn more about Bandersnatch Books!

www.bandersnatchbooks.com

Special Thanks to:

Son of Laughter for our theme song: “Cricket in a Jar.”

Evelyn Warnemuende for our artwork.

S.D.G. Morgan for audio engineering: sdgmorgan.substack.com & bammerhab.substack.com

Diana Pavlac Glyer for our namesake book, Bandersnatch.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bandersnatchbooks.substack.com