The Complete Creative

This is my 200th show! 

It's also my last show for the decided future. I promised myself I would hit 200 shows and keep this show going for a year, and I have. 

I hope you have enjoyed this show, and now let's go out with a bang. I'm so excited to welcome Ella Barnard onto the show for our 200th episode! 

Woot! 

Ella and I have been friends for a long time and I've been on her show multiple times. She's amazing. A successful author who helps other author be successful, and in this episode she basically lays out the step-by-step formula for jumpstarting your author career. 

Listen to this episode if you want to learn: 

How to choose your genre

What makes a great cover and blurb

How to get out books faster than you ever thought possible

How to make a living as an author

...and much more. 

I couldn't have asked for a better episode to be my last one. If you want to check out Ella's work, head over to http://authorlikeaboss.com/.

If you want to see what's next for me, you can check out my work at www.russellnohelty.com. 

See you on the bestseller list. 

Russell

This week on the show we have author Christie Stratos. We did a deep, deep dive on one of her books, Anatomy of a Darkened Heart, which was just a phenomenal work that I loved so much. Here's her bio, straight from her website. 

Christie Stratos is an award-winning writer who holds a degree in English Literature. She is the author of the psychological suspense novels Anatomy of a Darkened Heart and Brotherhood of Secrets, the first two books in the Dark Victoriana Collection. Also a poet and short story writer, Christie has been published in anthologies, literary journals, and magazines. Christie has been featured on the radio, in magazines, and on podcasts, and she has given presentations for writing organizations and at writing conferences.

She owns her own editing company, Proof Positive, where she works one-on-one with authors as well as with small presses as a freelance editor, and she has enjoyed working with a rising press as an acquisitions editor.

Christie hosts the well-received podcast Writers Showcase on the Authors on the Air Radio Network. She has interviewed New York Times bestsellers, publishers, and major award-winning authors, including #1 New York Times bestselling author Peter Straub, Hugo Award winner Robert J. Sawyer, BBC correspondent Humphrey Hawksley, and Mary Higgins Clark Award winner Hank Phillippi Ryan.

I was introduced to Christie from friend of the pod Jennifer Gordon, and reading Anatomy of a Darkened Heart made me realize I just really love Victorian Gothic horror suspense. It's not something I would have ever known about myself until reading both Jennifer and Christie's book, but I really, really do. Christie's work is nuanced and complex, diving into historical traditions while explaining them so even somebody without a history of reading the genre can understand. 

Listen to this episode if you want to learn: 

How to keep a book from lagging

How to plot an intimate book without a lot of action while still keeping engagement

How to make the reader feel a character and root for them

...and much more. 

If you liked this episode, check out Christie's work at: https://christiestratos.com/

If you love this show, please rate, review, and subscribe on your favorite podcast app. You can also connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

This week on the show we have my dear friend Barbra Dillon, editor-in-chief of Fanbase Press and my dear friend. Fanbase Press gave Ichabod Jones: Monster Hunter, my first book, its first review, and I have been honored to call her and Bryant friends for years. 

Fanbase Press celebrates fandoms and creates new ones! As an award-winning comic book publisher and geek culture website, Fanbase Press produces new and distinctive works, as well as daily reviews, interviews, and podcasts, that span the pop culture spectrum and give voice to the themes, ideals, and people that make geekdom so exceptional.

Here is a little about the company, which is both a member of the press AND a comics company.The company was founded in 2010 (originally under the name Fanboy Comics) by Barbra and Bryant Dillon and Sam Rhodes and rebranded to Fanbase Press in May 2016.Fanbase Press' graphic novels, including the 2018 Eisner Award-nominated Quince, the 2020 IPPY Award-winning Quince: The Definitive Bilingual Edition hardcover, the 2019 IPPY Award-winning A Geek's Guide to Cross-Stitch: Journeys in Space, the 2014 Bram Stoker Award-nominated Fearworms: Selected Poems, The Sequels, The Margins, The Gamma Gals, Something Animal, Identity Thief, The Arcs, and Penguins vs. Possums, are available online at www.fanbasepress.com.

Barbra is seriously one of the most lovely humans of all time, and she's also a fount of knowledge about a whole range of topics, including, most recently, how to run a company and have a full-time job while pregnant with twins. 

Listen to this episode if you want to learn: 

how to have some semblance of work life balance while building an empire.

how to introspect in order to move forward

how to rebrand and evolve an established business

...and much more.

Make sure to check out Fanbase Press's work at http://fanbasepress.com

If you love this show, please rate, review, and subscribe on your favorite podcast app. You can also connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

This week on the show I have artist and founder of PhantasMeow, Saturn Santiago. Here's here bio. 

PhantasMeow, the new name of pastel goth, was conceived when Saturn Santiago blended pink, blue, and decay onto the canvas for the first time back in 2016. This riveting take on the occult, fantasy, and taxidermy-conceptual art became a place for her imagination to grow; and like most dead things left alone in the dark, her artwork was stripped to the emotional bones. What rose from the grave was the CATton Candy Nightmare Series, a chilling set that blends her favorite colors into scenes that terrify and captivates the senses.Saturn started practicing with all mediums in 1997; born from a family of varied artists, she was always pushed to grow her talent. Saturn’s early career consists of School of The Arts Programs, where in 2004 she was inducted into the National Art Honors Society. More recently, she has become an art instructor and is the cover artist for Horror Author J.L. Gipson’s, The Effect Trilogy.

J.L. Gipson actually introduced us and we had a blast talking about pastel goth, building an art business, and general creative things. 

Listen to this episode if you want to learn: 

How to run a successful art campaign on Kickstarter

How to tell a story with your art

Why duality in art is so important

...and much more. 

If you want to check out PhantasMeow's awesome work, you can go to: https://www.phantasmeow.com/

This is also the last week on my Kickstarter, which ends on October 1st. You can check it out at: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/russellnohelty/ichabod-jones-volume-1-2-a-lovecraftian-dark-fantasy-comic

If you love this show, please rate, review, and subscribe on your favorite podcast app. You can also connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

This week on the show I have my new friend Liz Manashil. I was introduced to Liz by previous guest Kris Wile, and I loved our conversation.

Here's her bio. 

Liz Manashil earned her B.A. in Film and Media Studies at Washington University in St. Louis, and her M.F.A. from USC's School of Cinematic Arts. Post-graduation, Liz spent several years as a film critic for the PBS/Hulu series JUST SEEN IT (which she also helped produce and direct). Overlapping this, Liz worked with distribution guru Peter Broderick. In 2016, Liz became the sole manager of Sundance's groundbreaking Creative Distribution Initiative until the program's close in 2019. As a filmmaker, her debut feature, BREAD AND BUTTER (starring Christine Weatherup, Bobby Moynihan, MIcah Hauptman, Eric Lange, and Lauren Lapkus), was called “an absolute must-watch for women everywhere” by HelloGiggles. It was released by The Orchard and can be seen on VOD nearly everywhere.

Her second feature, SPEED OF LIFE (starring Ann Dowd, Allison Tolman, Jeff Perry, and Ray Santiago), was called “Delightful in just about every way,” by noted film critic Tim Cogshell. Liz has started production on her third feature, LADY PARTS.

She lives in Los Angeles with her dog, Laura Palmer, her partner, Sean Wright, and her son, Colin. She is a Women in Film mentee and currently works as the Senior Manager, Impact Distribution at Picture Motion.

I was so excited for this interview because I watched Speed of Life before our interview and frigging LOVED it. Since my background is in film and TV, it was amazing to be able to talk with a filmmaker about her process. 

Listen to this episode if you want to learn: 

-How to make an amazing indie film for less than $100,000. 

-How to write a movie script

-How to use crowdfunding to seed your budget and then go out to find investors

-How to cast top tier talent for a low budget movie 

...and much more. 

If you want to find more about Liz's work, http://www.lizmanashil.com. 

This is also the last full week of my Kickstarter, and if you want to support check out, you can do so at: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/russellnohelty/ichabod-jones-volume-1-2-a-lovecraftian-dark-fantasy-comic

If you love this show, please rate, review, and subscribe on your favorite podcast app. You can also connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

Today on the show I have my good friend Greg Anderson-Elysee, creator of Is'nana: The Were-Spider, which is on Kickstarter now. Here's a summary of the book straight from the Kickstarter page: 

A horror-fantasy, coming of age story, Is'nana the Were-Spider: Showtime (64 page one-shot) is the fourth release of an on-going series of graphic novels and one-shots. Is'nana the Were-Spider has won 7 Glyph Awards (2018 Fan Award, Rising Star Award, & Best Male Character Award; 2019 Best Male Character Award, 2019 Best Writer Award, & Story of the Year Award; 2020 Best Male Character Award).

Accidentally breaking a barrier between our world and theirs (called THE MOTHER KINGDOM), Is'nana (the son of Anansi the Spider God of Stories) accepts the responsibility for releasing creatures of horror into our reality, villains who want nothing more but to cause chaos and mayhem to achieve their own diabolical or selfish goals. With guidance from his father, Is'nana not only strives to live up to his father's name but to also reach his own potential while he seeks to discover his individuality and place in the world.

I absolutely love this series. Greg uses a collection of artists to do a one-character, one writer, anthology series. My good friend Walter Ostlie draws a several of the stories, and they are just all so great, and Greg is so great. We started our creator journey at around the same time, and it's amazing to watch how he's grown as a creator while I've grown at a creator. 

This is why the people you come up with are so important to your career, because you've gone through the ringer together and come out stronger on the other side. I'm so grateful for our friendship, and love watching his success. 

Listen to this episode if you want to learn: 

How to work with multiple artists at the same time

How to make a single character anthology book

How to collaborate better 

Why ideas are only the first step

...and much more. 

If you want to check out Is'nana the Were-Spider for yourself, check out his Kickstarter at: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/isnanashowtime/isnana-the-were-spider-showtime

AND I also have a Kickstarter for my book Ichabod Jones: Monster Hunter, about a mental patient that escapes from an asylum and becomes a monster hunter during the Apocalypse, but doesn't know if he's killing monsters, humans, or its all in his head the whole time. You can check that one out at: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/russellnohelty/ichabod-jones-volume-1-2-a-lovecraftian-dark-fantasy-comic

If you love this show, please rate, review, and subscribe on your favorite podcast app. You can also connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

Holy crap. This week I'm interviewing Shelly Bond. When I first set out to make this show, I made a dream list of people to get on my show and she was on the list! Then, friend of the pod Kris Simon edited an anthology with her called Insider Art that's RIGHT NOW on Kickstarter, and BOTH of them came on to geek out about editing and tell me all about this book. 

So, this episode is a twofer, not only did one of my favorite humans, Kris Simon, co-editor of the Cthulhu is Hard to Spell: The Terrible Twos anthology, come on the show, but Shelly FRIGGING Bond came on the show, too. 

If you don't know Shelly Bond's work, then just pick up any Vertigo title and there's a good chance her editing fingerprint is all over it. She helped mold and grow the Vertigo line and has worked on over 1,100 comics titles according to ComicsVine, along with rising up to become executive editor at Vertigo from 2013-2016 and having her own imprint at IDW called Black Crown. 

She's a comics legend, basically. 

If you don't remember Kris, she was on the show in March during our Cthulhu is Hard to Spell: The Terrible Twos campaign. She's edited just about everybody in comics as well, including ME, which makes her Wannabe Press royalty. 

Listen to this episode if you want to learn: 

How to become a world-class editor

How to work and choose the right editor for your project

How to get the best out of the people you work with 

Why passion is the key to making a great comic

...and much more. 

Most importantly, Shelly and Kris have a Kickstarter campaign going right now for an incredibly cool anthology called Insider Art, which is a love letter to editing and the art of making comics. I have bought both the ebook AND the print book, and highly recommend it.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sxbond/insider-art

And while you're on Kickstarter, I ALSO have a campaign going right now for my book Ichabod Jones: Monster Hunter. 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/russellnohelty/ichabod-jones-volume-1-2-a-lovecraftian-dark-fantasy-comic

Go back both books today, especially since Shelly's book only has a couple days left on it. 

If you love this show, please rate, review, and subscribe on your favorite podcast app. You can also connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

This week on the show I have my good friend David Pepose, creator of Spencer and Locke, Going to the Chapel, and The O.Z., which is live on Kickstarter right now.  Here's his Comixology bio: 

After starting his career at DC Comics, David Pepose has gone on to write thousands of articles about comic book storytelling. SPENCER & LOCKE, Pepose's debut series with artist Jorge Santiago, Jr., has been praised by IGN as "a fiendishly fun take on an age-old classic." A St. Louis native, Pepose currently lives in Los Angeles, where he works in the television industry.

I met David years ago on the con circuit when he just had the first volume of Spencer and Locke, and I thought it was BANANAS. He pitched it as Calvin and Hobbes meets Sin City, and it absolutely delivered. Plus, he's just a very pleasant human to converse with, so we got along well. 

He's been blowing up recently, and his latest book raised over $20,000 on Kickstarter...in a single day. We recorded this episode right after the Kickstarter went live, so we talk about his incredible first day, and more. 

Listen to this episode if you want to learn: 

How to raise $20,000 in a single day on Kickstarter

How to deal with the press and make them want to promote you

How to build a world-class network

...and much more. 

If you want to check out David's amazing Kickstarter, then it's still live at this link: 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/theozcomic/the-oz-1

I ALSO have a Kickstarter live right now, and it's launching TODAY. I would love to get even half of what David did on his first day. I've been working on Ichabod Jones: Monster Hunter for a decade, and this is the first new volume of the book to launch since 2014. 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/russellnohelty/ichabod-jones-volume-1-2-a-lovecraftian-dark-fantasy-comic

I am super excited for it, and I hope you are too. Ichabod is my most beloved property, and I look forward to bringing the new evolution of the book to you. 

If you love this show, please rate, review, and subscribe on your favorite podcast app. You can also connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

This week on the show we have my good friend Jonas Saul, bestselling author of more than THREE MILLION BOOKS. Here's his Amazon bio: 

Jonas Saul is the bestselling author of the Sarah Roberts Series and has written and published over thirty thrillers. After selling more than two million books, he signed with the Gandolfo Helin & Fountain Literary and Dramatic Rights Management.His recent releases are, THE FUTURE IS WRITTEN, published by pioneering media company Adaptive Studios, and THE IMMORTAL GENE, published by Vesuvian Books.

Saul has traveled extensively throughout the world to scout settings for his thrillers, spending several years between Greece, Italy, Denmark, and Hungary. He is regularly invited to be a guest speaker, teacher, or workshop presenter at international writing conferences.

I caught up with Jonas while he was in Greece, and I was hella jealous of it. I've known Jonas since we were both guests at a writer's conference years ago, and we stayed in touch. We both have a very business mindset to our writing careers, and both owned businesses before getting into writing, so we connected almost immediately. 

Listen to this episode if you want to learn: 

How to structure a book

Why a writing career is about the long term

How to make a series last

What's more important than whether you are self published or traditionally published

...and much more. 

The TWENTY-FOURTH Sarah Roberts book is out today, and if you are interested in checking it out, you can go here.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08F4N4K4X

Otherwise, you can check out his work at jonassaul.com/

If you love this show, please rate, review, and subscribe on your favorite podcast app. You can also connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

Today on the show we have Travis Vengroff and Kaitlin Statz, the creative team behind The White Vault, Vast Horizon, Liberty, and Dark Dice audio dramas, and founders of Fool and Scholar Productions. 

I've known Travis for YEARS, back when he was deep into trying to make a go of it as an independent comic creator. So, when he suddenly blew up with The White Vault, an audio drama, I took notice. I've been wanting to speak with him and Kaitlin for years, and I was so excited we could set this up. I know several indie comic creators and authors who have successfully transitioned into audio dramas, and since I have a podcast I'm fascinated by that kind of thing. 

I love all their shows, but for my money, Vast Horizon is my favorite. However, it costs NO MONEY to check them out. Fool and Scholar rely on Patreon to create and fund their shows, and with over 1,000 patrons, they are one of the most successful Patreon creators that I personally know. 

Listen to this episode if you want to learn: 

How to subvert listener expectations

Why audio is one of the best mediums for horror

How to collaborate with your spouse and live harmoniously

...and much more. 

If you want to find our more about Travis and Kaitlin, check out their Patreon at: https://www.patreon.com/LibertyPodcast

If you love this show, please rate, review, and subscribe on your favorite podcast app. You can also connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.