Too Many Words

Mark Oshiro of the Mark Does Stuff Community joins Jayme this week. They talk about his YA debut ANGER IS A GIFT, dreams coming true, and Mark's current work in progress. Mark and Jayme talk about their anxiety disorders and how important it is to have characters to relate to and to learn from.

Max Gladstone is the author of the Craft Sequence series, several short stories and has been nominated twice for the John W Campbell Best New Writer Award.  His most recent project is the globetrotting urban fantasy serial BOOKBURNERS, available in ebook and audio from Serial Box, and in print from Saga Press. Max and Jayme talk fantasy and science fiction tropes and explore fantasy and literary inspirations. They also discuss world building and writing process.

Ken Liu's short stories have won Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy awards. He is the author of The Dandelion Dynasty, a silkpunk epic fantasy series and The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories (2016), a collection. Ken and Jayme discuss his inventions for the Dandelion Dynasty and how he decided which ones would work for his books. Ken talks about how virtual reality is a great new tool for writers and how he came to writing short stories and how each one is different.

L.E. Sterling is the author of The True Born Trilogy. She is on the show talking about the most recent installment TRUE STORM and her path to telling a story about identical twins. Jayme and L.E. discuss world building, finding the right story and the point of view to narrate it. L.E. shares her early inspirations and the impact and presence of powerful female characters in fantasy fiction.

Jerry Gordon talks about his debut novel BREAKING THE WORLD and what it was like writing an apocalyptic thriller that takes place during the fifty-one day standoff between the FBI and the Branch Davidian Church. Jerry and Jayme explore the lure of the apocalypse and what our brains do while they receive stories. Jerry shares about his writing process and the books that have inspired him.

Oli Jacobs is back on the show. He is the author of Kirk Sandblaster, a  sci-fi comedy series and horror short story collection, Filmic Cuts. Between jokes, iced-bun recipes and some mild choking, Oli and Jayme get into some serious plot and character talk, some of the time while dissecting popular tv shows.

Cari Luna is the author of THE REVOLUTION OF EVERY DAY which won the Oregon Book Award for Fiction. She gets into how she writes a novel without an outline and why promising herself no one will see the first draft is essential. Cari and Jayme also get into the learning experience of building a revision process and their shared love of birds.

Lauren Baratz-Logsted is the author of twenty novels with more on the way. Lauren and Jayme talk about her new release ZOMBIE ABBEY. Lauren gets into the joy of combining the early 1900s with zombies and glamour with gore. She also speaks about writing humor and following character archetypes.

Erica Cameron is on the show talking The Ryogan Chronicles. Erica and Jayme climb inside the challenges of world-building, from environmental to history to how the character interacts with the setting. They also speak to what it's like to gradually build a writing career and how every path to publishing is different.

Katherine Locke is the author of the 2018 Sydney Taylor Award-winning THE GIRL WITH THE RED BALLOON and contemporary romance series, DISTRICT BALLET COMPANY. Katherine and Jayme dive deep into talk about revisions, outlining, bullet journals, and listening to your process.