The TufFish Show

Welcome Susanne Dunlap to The TufFish Show, a place to help writers and aspiring authors get out of their own way to leave a legacy by telling the stories they want to share through writing their own books and confidently sharing them with others. The writing process can be tough and the business side can feel scary, but TufFish makes both feel smoother and achievable. Visit https://www.jennifermilius.com/tuffish to learn more.

When you think about historical fiction, there’s so many nuances that go into it in order to create a powerful story. And it’s these details that Susanne Dunlap and I discussed in this episode. Setting, character development, a strong familiarity for the period of time the story, and even dual timelines are areas where Susanne shared so much wisdom. I can’t wait for you to listen!

Susanne Dunlap is the award-winning author of historical fiction for adults and teens, and an Author Accelerator Certified Book Coach. Her books span periods from the Middle Ages to the 20th century, all feature strong female protagonists and illuminate something about women's history. Many owe their genesis to the research she did for her PhD in music history from Yale University. She lives in Biddeford, Maine with her 15-year-old dog Betty.

Visit - https://susanne-dunlap.com

Book purchase link - The Courtesan's Daughter

Welcome Shawn Peters to The TufFish Show, a place to help writers and aspiring authors get out of their own way to leave a legacy by telling the stories they want to share through writing their own books and confidently sharing them with others. The writing process can be tough and the business side can feel scary, but TufFish makes both feel smoother and achievable. Visit https://www.jennifermilius.com/tuffish to learn more.

When you think about getting feedback on your writing, whether it’s from an editor or a beta reader, do you feel excited or nervous? Do you feel overwhelmed with how to process all of the feedback you’ve received, so that you don’t miss anything? If any of these questions have run through your mind before now, let this conversation with Shawn Peters help you work through them. Shawn’s energy is vibrant, and he shared so much goodness not only about feedback and processing edits, but also structure and character development. And after you’ve listened, we’d love to hear how you incorporated his tips.

Shawn Peters has written a little bit about a lot of things in a lot of places. Ads for huge premium cable networks and all kinds of small businesses. Movie ideas that ended up on the shelf and domestic date-nights that ended up in the newspapers. Columns about fantasy sports and finally, a pair of books about a neurodiverse hero in the making. Shawn lives in Massachusetts with his wife who is a real superhero (aka a public school teacher), as well as their two children, a dog and a cat that might appear during this podcast if she decides to.

Shawn's debut MG adventure novel, The Unforgettable Logan Foster, was published on January 18th, 2022 by Harper Collins, and the paperback was released on November 8th, 2022. It’s currently nominated for The Rebecca Caudill Young Readers Award and The Bluestem Award. The sequel, The Unforgettable Logan Foster and the Shadow of Doubt, is out now as well.

Visit - http://www.shawnpeterswrites.com
Book purchase links:

THE UNFORGETTABLE LOGAN FOSTER (Paperback) https://www.amazon.com/Unforgettable-Logan-Foster-1/dp/0063047683
THE UNFORGETTABLE LOGAN FOSTER AND THE SHADOW OF DOUBT (Hardcover) https://www.amazon.com/Unforgettable-Logan-Foster-Shadow-Doubt/dp/0063047721
Signed Copies of THE UNFORGETTABLE LOGAN FOSTER SERIES - https://aesopsfable.com/search?q=%22shawn+peters%22

Welcome Sarah Vie to The TufFish Show, a place to help writers and aspiring authors get out of their own way to leave a legacy by telling the stories they want to share through writing their own books and confidently sharing them with others. The writing process can be tough and the business side can feel scary, but TufFish makes both feel smoother and achievable. Visit https://www.jennifermilius.com/tuffish to learn more.

As writers, we do our best to craft and develop an incredible journey or story for our readers, yet are we mindful of the stories we tell ourselves? This deep conversation with Sarah Vie goes into this exact thing - the stories we tell ourselves and how we can reprogram them. Edit the narrative in a more expansive and positive way, so we are willing to take calculated risks with our writing and our businesses in order to grow.

Sarah Vie Is an award winning author, energy facilitator and manifesting light worker. She helps women shift their limited inner energy so that they can attract massive abundance in their lives.

Visit - http://Sarahvie.com

Book purchase link Sarahvie.com/books

I wish I’d known - Memoir and a guide to release ancestral patterns.

Let your inner golden sparkle shine - Children's book teaching children how to believe in themselves

Welcome Valerie James Abbott to The TufFish Show, a place to help writers and aspiring authors get out of their own way to leave a legacy by telling the stories they want to share through writing their own books and confidently sharing them with others. The writing process can be tough and the business side can feel scary, but TufFish makes both feel smoother and achievable. Visit https://www.jennifermilius.com/tuffish to learn more.

When my previous guest, Valerie James Abbott, told me about her latest accomplishment, I had to have her back on the show to share with you. As a recap, our first conversation centered around shifting point of view and the illustration process for her children’s book, and this conversation is about how Valerie republished Padapillo from English into Spanish. Valerie’s desire was for this edition to feel as if it was always written in Spanish, so our conversation is a deep dive into her process, so that she achieved her goal. 

Valerie James Abbott is the co-founder of the national pediatric Late Onset Hearing Loss Awareness Campaign and a nationally recognized parent-leader for early childhood hearing loss detection and intervention. She serves as director of Listen Up! at Padapillo PBLLC, an organization dedicated to improving community awareness about postnatal hearing loss. Her award-winning children's book Padapillo is based on the true story of how her family discovered and came to terms with their child's mysterious permanent hearing loss.

Visit - www.valeriejamesabbott.com

Book purchase link: https://www.valeriejamesabbott.com/bookstore

Welcome Lauren Sapala to The TufFish Show, a place to help writers and aspiring authors get out of their own way to leave a legacy by telling the stories they want to share through writing their own books and confidently sharing them with others. The writing process can be tough and the business side can feel scary, but TufFish makes both feel smoother and achievable. Visit https://www.jennifermilius.com/tuffish to learn more.

What a fabulous deep conversation with Lauren Sapala about being highly intuitive and how that affects your writing or creative process. One of the biggest things when you are running a business or working on a creative project is getting as comfortable as you can with not knowing all the answers and being uncomfortable. If you are stuck with your writing, are highly sensitive or highly intuitive, then let Lauren’s wisdom offer some ways through it.

Lauren Sapala is the author of The INFJ Writer, Firefly Magic: Heart Powered Marketing for Highly Sensitive Writers, and The INFJ Revolution, as well as The West Coast Trilogy, an autobiographical fiction series. She is also a writing coach for writers of the INFJ and INFP personality type and blogs about writing, creativity and personality theory at laurensapala.com.

Visit - www.laurensapala.com

Book purchase link: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Lauren-Sapala/author/B01G7RO33E

Welcome Samantha Otto Brown to The TufFish Show, a place to help writers and aspiring authors get out of their own way to leave a legacy by telling the stories they want to share through writing their own books and confidently sharing them with others. The writing process can be tough and the business side can feel scary, but TufFish makes both feel smoother and achievable. Visit https://www.jennifermilius.com/tuffish to learn more.

So many of the writers I work with share their concerns about balancing real life with writing. Whether they are running their own business, juggling a couple of different jobs, or spending time with family, it can feel challenging to navigate “all the things” and work on your book. If this is resonating, then let this conversation with Samantha Otto Brown offer encouragement and a reminder that you’re not alone. During our chat, Samantha shared some guidance she received which helped her shift her perspective and give herself permission to go at the pace she needed to write and publish her book.

Samantha Otto Brown is based in St. Louis, Missouri. She works in medical publishing and corporate PR/social media. Sub Wife is her first book-length publication.

Visit - Samanthaottobrown.com

Welcome Lisa Roe to The TufFish Show, a place to help writers and aspiring authors get out of their own way to leave a legacy by telling the stories they want to share through writing their own books and confidently sharing them with others. The writing process can be tough and the business side can feel scary, but TufFish makes both feel smoother and achievable. Visit https://www.jennifermilius.com/tuffish to learn more.

What do you do when you get feedback for your book that might have bigger implications when you address them? That’s what this in depth conversation with Lisa Roe covers. During our chat, Lisa shared ways to develop stronger characters and how to handle structural changes to your book. She likened the process to smoothing out a bedsheet to get all the wrinkles out, and the way she moved between her writing process and her metaphor was brilliant. Because in the end, you want to make sure that any changes you do are worked out entirely, so that the reader gets the best experience with your book.

Lisa Roe graduated from the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University and spent many years as an advertising creative director and copywriter in New York City until she accepted the tougher job of stay-at-home mom and turned to writing fiction — mostly to entertain her kids, but then to tell her own stories. A classic first born, reluctant empty nester, Dr. Doolittle wannabe, and the author of Welcome to the Neighborhood, Lisa lives in New Jersey with her husband and three incorrigible dogs.

Visit - lisaroe.com

Book purchase link: Welcome to the Neighborhood

Welcome Natalya Androsova to The TufFish Show, a place to help writers and aspiring authors get out of their own way to leave a legacy by telling the stories they want to share through writing their own books and confidently sharing them with others. The writing process can be tough and the business side can feel scary, but TufFish makes both feel smoother and achievable. Visit https://www.jennifermilius.com/tuffish to learn more.

Working on anything that’s a long term project, like a dissertation or a book, requires something more than stamina. It requires trusting the writer within you, and that’s what Natalya and I talked about in this deep and powerful conversation. Natalya shared so much wisdom about trusting the nudge to share your writing, honoring the balance between listening and applying feedback and staying true to what you wrote originally, and connecting with your inner writer when the inner critic shows up.

Natalya Androsova is an award-winning writing and dissertation coach with over two decades of experience teaching writing. Her passion is helping writers become more courageous, authentic, and kind to themselves. Through her coaching, writing groups, and retreats, she has helped hundreds of writers overcome writer’s block, achieve clarity and writing momentum, as well as complete their projects.

Visit - www.writingdissertationcoach.com

7 Minutes to Freedom

Dissertation Without Tears

Welcome Wendy Koenig to The TufFish Show, a place to help writers and aspiring authors get out of their own way to leave a legacy by telling the stories they want to share through writing their own books and confidently sharing them with others. The writing process can be tough and the business side can feel scary, but TufFish makes both feel smoother and achievable. Visit https://www.jennifermilius.com/tuffish to learn more.

If you haven’t worked with an outline at all for writing your book, let this conversation with Wendy Koenig give you some tips for how to incorporate one after you’ve written the first draft. Wendy shared so many tips for how to shape and structure your book by using an outline after writing the first, and rough, draft of a manuscript. She not only  demonstrates how this helps with character development, but also can be applied across multiple genres.

Wendy Koenig is a novelist and poet who lives in New Brunswick, Canada. Two of her novels have won international awards, as well as some of her poetry and a short story. She loves animals, especially her two cats: Missy (named after that character in Dr. Who) and Jake (named from the Blues Brothers).

Visit - www.wendylkoenig.com

Welcome back Wayne Applewhite to The TufFish Show, a place to help writers and aspiring authors get out of their own way to leave a legacy by telling the stories they want to share through writing their own books and confidently sharing them with others. The writing process can be tough and the business side can feel scary, but TufFish makes both feel smoother and achievable. Visit https://www.jennifermilius.com/tuffish to learn more.

This fun conversation with my co-author and friend, Wayne Applewhite, is a wonderful way to celebrate the release of our audiobook! We narrated our book, You Know it’s a Verb, Right?, and it was a wonderful experience for us. In this chat, we talked about what it was like to narrate our book, how we planned and prepped, and how the imperfect recordings were handled for a seamless and engaging experience for our listeners.

Wayne Applewhite is a lifelong learner. His leadership practices started in high school as he witnessed firsthand that leadership was something more than what met the naked eye. Using his curious and ever asking observational notions, Wayne knew early on that leadership was more - much more - than being in charge by title only.

Wayne was co-founder of a leadership development firm, Just Leadership, LLC, and holds a Doctor of Management degree.  He has an eclectic experience base that he brings to the community and to the nation at large.  Wayne has over thirty-five years of diverse and challenging leadership experiences, coupled with a solid foundation of continuing education. He has held challenging positions such as Associate Professor (Boston University), Director of Graduate Military Programs (Boston University, Metropolitan College), Associate Dean, Instructor, Lecturer, Adjunct Professor, Outside Director, Thought Leader, Non-commissioned Officer in Charge, Officer in Charge, Commander, and COO. In each of those leadership positions, Wayne continued to build his leadership skillset as he also pursued formal and informal education.

Most recently, he is the co-host of 27 Minutes with Sheila and Wayne!, a podcast focused on providing tips on being a better "you" while at work, play or life with a mission to change the world “One verb at a time!”  Wayne’s latest book, You Know it’s a Verb, Right?, co-authored with Jennifer Milius, is about leadership.

However, if you ask him, his greatest joy and accomplishment, is being a husband and a dad

Visit https://mindsyncing.com/