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By Valerie Ihsan
5
22 ratings
The podcast currently has 173 episodes available.
Main Topic: Writing as a Black Woman in the Speculative Fiction World (Main Topic starts at 28:00.)
PATREON:
Thank you to our existing patrons for believing in our work offline and here in the podcast.
Become a patron of the arts at Patreon.com/valerieihsan for books, writing instruction, coaching, and planning. Go to Patreon.com/strangeairstories for short stories in the paranormal mystery genre.
Segment 1 (Announcements/Author Updates):
What are you reading?
Tidbit #2: Eat fries before dinner.
Segment 3 (Mindset-Craft-Biz Check):
Segment 4 (Main Topic):
Dr. Michele Tracy Berger is a professor, an award-winning writer, a creativity coach and a pug-lover. Her main love is writing speculative fiction, though she also is known to write poetry and creative nonfiction, too.
1. Spec fiction definition: ideas that are outside the regular laws of the universe; Margaret Atwood (feminist author used ); sci fi, fantasy, paranormal, horror. Toni Morrison's Beloved is a ghost story (literary). Horror is a feeling (also a genre) (elevated horror, social horror). In social horror, Creatives of Color now write systems of power as the monster in the basement.
2. What challenges do you face? Meet reader's expectations; gatekeepers have changed; a decade of rejections for Doll Seed story; understanding African American literary history (more space now, public ready now for more interesting characters); black women were absent or monstrous in horror media from the 70s and 80s, now there's interest in a rebalance, and an appetite for complex characters, indie pubbing lead the way for this. Trad pub catching up.
"This May Hurt a Bit" (horror podcast)
3. Marketing through this lens: finding a press that resonates with you, being authentic and consistent, IG Live, learning as you go, embrace the work of marketer, watch documentary of Jackie Collins (Lady Boss: The Jackie Collins Story) and Harlan Ellison (Dreams with Sharp Teeth: A Film About a GrandMaster), writers have always had to think about how people find them.
Aunt Lute Press: mood board with intersection of empowered female characters, black readers of spec fiction, how to think about ideal reader ("If you like Octavia Butler, Kelly Link, AND Dean Koontz, you'll love Michele Tracy Berger").
Start with a character, then construct the story and follow the character through. Think about audience in the submission process.
4. Author services:
Write affirmations. Neutral to positive self-talk for writers as a pattern interruptor.
Coaching creatives for 15 years. The Creative Tickle. "Tickle your genius awake."
Specialize in writers interested in mindset work. Online classes. Group coaching.
"More Joy on the Path."
"See the joy in the process."
Next episode:
Find Us:
Valerie's Linktree: https://linktr.ee/valerieihsan
Erick's Linktree link: https://linktr.ee/erickmertzauthor
Patreons:
https://patreon.com/valerieihsan
https://patreon.com/strangeairmysteries
Tools:
Passion Planner: https://passionplanner.rfrl.co/e86j8 (affiliate link) Discount Code: VALERIE184
ProWriting Aid: https://prowritingaid.com/?afid=9378 (affiliate link)
Resources:
"How to write an eavesdropping scene" on Erick's blog
Reading Critique Group for Writers FB Group (Jennie Komp's group)
3 Bird View FB page (Jennie Komp's business page)
Author XP (marketing for authors) (bi-monthly promotions)
Raven Publicity (publicity for authors)
The Shades of Orange (Rachel, Book Blogger on YouTube) for book recommendations SF/Fantasy/Horror
Contact Erick for business-starting advice or building a website.
Contact Valerie for author coaching.
Thomas Umstattd Jr, at Novel Marketing Podcast. Ep255: How to Create an Email Onboarding Drip Campaign
Russell P. Nohelty and Monica Leonelle's book, Get Your Book Selling on Kickstarter.
Balance meditation app.
Book Recs for writing/creativity/business:
Segment 1 (Announcements/Author Updates):
What are you reading?
Tidbit #2: Exercise Gives You Energy (Valerie)
Segment 3 (Mindset-Craft-Biz Check):
Segment 4 (Main Topic): Foster Curiosity:
*moment of inspiration comes
what do you do when you get the idea?
don't memorialize the idea too fast (set in stone), instead, live with it. See how long I can tease it out.
Practice keeping the idea flowing. Live in the possible for as long as I can. Gather the what ifs.
Then download the ideas. Lose some of the ideas, but learned to trust the leaves that fall off.
Learn by playing. See yourself in the story and feel bigger.
Usually happens when not at home.
Next episode: Guest Michelle Berger Tracy on Being a Black Woman in the Speculative Fiction
Find Us:
Valerie's Linktree: https://linktr.ee/valerieihsan
Erick's Linktree link: https://linktr.ee/erickmertzauthor
Patreons:
https://patreon.com/valerieihsan
https://patreon.com/strangeairmysteries
Tools:
Passion Planner: https://passionplanner.rfrl.co/e86j8 (affiliate link) Discount Code: VALERIE184
ProWriting Aid: https://prowritingaid.com/?afid=9378 (affiliate link)
Segment 1 (Announcements/Author Updates):
What are you reading?
Tidbit #2: If you aren't an early adopter (I'm not?), then start using A.I. as you need it. We're all creative. We can find creative ways of using it in our business. Starting using it with Pro-Writing Aid (affiliate link in the show notes), or using the free version of ChatGPT to get copywriting done. Like book blurbs, ad copy, workshop descriptions, sometimes you can even get a book summary if it's an older book. Finding book comps. My A.I. Assistant is super nice.
Segment 3 (Mindset-Craft-Biz Check):
Segment 4 (Main Topic): Starts at 19:14 on the video.
Next episode:
Find Us:
Valerie's Linktree: https://linktr.ee/valerieihsan
Erick's Linktree link: https://linktr.ee/erickmertzauthor
Patreons:
https://patreon.com/valerieihsan
https://patreon.com/strangeairmysteries
Tools:
Passion Planner: https://passionplanner.rfrl.co/e86j8 (affiliate link) Discount Code: VALERIE184
ProWriting Aid: https://prowritingaid.com/?afid=9378 (affiliate link)
Segment 1 (Announcements/Author Updates):
What are you reading?
Tidbit #2: Query Manager (filtering, but not totally accurate--check the agent's website)
Segment 3 (Mindset-Craft-Biz Check): A previous guest said Erick and I reminded her of being on a morning radio show. I brought up the sitcom "Community," with the "Troy and Abed in the morning" tagline, and CRICKETS. Ha! Here's what I mean: https://images.app.goo.gl/rG9fff2Xko9PSAQMA
Segment 4 (Main Topic): Starts at 20:40
Can nudge an agent about submission after 6-8 weeks.
Why are you going?
Networking, learning something, building relationships, clients, creating community, make fans, building confidence,
"If you plant bulbs today, you get flowers in May."
Why don't they reach out?
Conference Buddy
Set Boundaries for yourself, and be aware of other's boundaries.
Need for brevity in questions, pitches, and elevator pitches.
Next episode:
Find Us:
Valerie's Linktree: https://linktr.ee/valerieihsan
Erick's Linktree link: https://linktr.ee/erickmertzauthor
Patreons:
https://patreon.com/valerieihsan
https://patreon.com/strangeairmysteries
Tools:
Passion Planner: https://passionplanner.rfrl.co/e86j8 (affiliate link) Discount Code: VALERIE184
ProWriting Aid: https://prowritingaid.com/?afid=9378 (affiliate link)
Main Topic: Jeanne Blasberg, Story Retellings (starts at 21:39 on video)
PATREON:
Thank you to our existing patrons for believing in our work offline and here in the podcast.
Become a patron of the arts at Patreon.com/valerieihsan for books, writing instruction, coaching, and planning. Go to Patreon.com/strangeairstories for short stories in the paranormal mystery genre.
Segment 1 (Announcements/Author Updates):
What are you reading?
Jeanne Blasberg's reads:
Land Rich, Cash Poor: My Family's Hope and the Untold History of the Disappearing American Farmer (Brian Reisinger)
Entitlement (Rumaan Alam)
Tidbit #2: Squibler (new writing organizer); Knowing what your boundaries are is key. I get to say what I do.
Tidbit #3: Chris Frizzell (Frizz Lit) Book club of the classic, chapter by chapter, funny host
Segment 3 (Mindset-Craft-Biz Check):
Segment 4 (Main Topic): Jeanne Blasberg is an award-winning and bestselling author and essayist. Her novel The Nine (SWP 2019) was honored with the 2019 Foreword Indies Gold Award in Thriller & Suspense and the Gold Medal and Juror’s Choice in the 2019 National Indie Excellence Awards. Eden (SWP 2017), her debut, won the Benjamin Franklin Silver Award for Best New Voice in Fiction and was a finalist for the Sarton Women’s Book Award for Historical Fiction. Her forthcoming novel, Daughter of a Promise (SWP, April 2, 2024) is a modern retelling of the legend of David and Bathsheba, completing the thematic trilogy she began with Eden and The Nine.
Jeanne cochairs the board of the Boston Book Festival and serves on the Executive Committee of GrubStreet, one of the country’s preeminent creative writing centers. Jeanne was named a Southampton Writer’s Conference BookEnds Fellow in April 2021. She reviews contemporary fiction for the New York Journal of Books, When not in New England, she splits her time between Park City, UT, and growing organic vegetables in Verona, Wisconsin.
Jeanne Blasberg
Daughter of a Promise
Retellings: def -- not side story (that's its own genre) -- have the events from the original tellings (same or parallel); reimagined in different setting; make things contemporary and relevant. Not a 'diss' on the original. Opportunity to retell is a fun journey for reader and author. Plots are familiar (off-beat romance, forbidden relationship, etc), can insert or end story at a different point. In conversation with other works.
Only so many plots, we process our lives with story. Not derivative.
Our human struggle has really never changed. The setting has, but universal truths haven't. As a species, have we really made much progress?
Take plot, make modern day, explore the relationships.
Do the research of retellings (all) already written first. Find what hasn't been said. Why are you telling this version? What questions exist? Why are you driven to write about it?
Follow your why's? What story has you still thinking about it? Follow your curiosity. This is the ultimate fan fiction. What are you obsessed with?
What are you wanting to say with this retelling?
"Inspired by" -- have permission to make these stories our own.
Insert our own thoughts and conversation with this art.
Art evolves this way. Museums hold many variations of the Virgin Mary. For instance.
License to play with it.
What about exposing yourself to the "scholars" and experts response?
Interest and curiosity is the response. Tip: Don't feel like anything is out of bounds for you. Just do it well. You are allowed to do it. If it lights you up, I think you should do it.
If you've triggered someone, clearly you've done it right.
@jeanneblasbergauthor
Constantly Curating on Substack (writing and farming)
Sonic Branding (link TBD)
Next episode:
Find Us:
Valerie's Linktree: https://linktr.ee/valerieihsan
Erick's Linktree link: https://linktr.ee/erickmertzauthor
Patreons:
https://patreon.com/valerieihsan
https://patreon.com/strangeairmysteries
Tools:
Passion Planner: https://passionplanner.rfrl.co/e86j8 (affiliate link) Discount Code: VALERIE184
ProWriting Aid: https://prowritingaid.com/?afid=9378 (affiliate link)
Resources:
"How to write an eavesdropping scene" on Erick's blog
Reading Critique Group for Writers FB Group (Jennie Komp's group)
3 Bird View FB page (Jennie Komp's business page)
Author XP (marketing for authors) (bi-monthly promotions)
Raven Publicity (publicity for authors)
The Shades of Orange (Rachel, Book Blogger on YouTube) for book recommendations SF/Fantasy/Horror
Contact Erick for business-starting advice or building a website.
Contact Valerie for author coaching.
Thomas Umstattd Jr, at Novel Marketing Podcast. Ep255: How to Create an Email Onboarding Drip Campaign
Russell P. Nohelty and Monica Leonelle's book, Get Your Book Selling on Kickstarter.
Balance meditation app.
Book Recs for writing/creativity/business:
Main Topic: Welcome to Season 5
PATREON:
Thank you to our existing patrons for believing in our work offline and here in the podcast.
Become a patron of the arts at Patreon.com/valerieihsan for books, writing instruction, coaching, and planning. Go to Patreon.com/strangeairstories for short stories in the paranormal mystery genre.
Segment 1 (Announcements/Author Updates):
What are you reading?
Tidbit #2: Open rate and engagement rate on mailing list is more important than the size of the mailing list.
Segment 3 (Mindset-Craft-Biz Check):
Segment 4 (Main Topic):
Next episode: Jeanne Blasberg on Story Retellings
Find Us:
Valerie's Linktree: https://linktr.ee/valerieihsan
Erick's Linktree link: https://linktr.ee/erickmertzauthor
Patreons:
https://patreon.com/valerieihsan
https://patreon.com/strangeairmysteries
Tools:
Passion Planner: https://passionplanner.rfrl.co/e86j8 (affiliate link) Discount Code: VALERIE184
ProWriting Aid: https://prowritingaid.com/?afid=9378 (affiliate link)
Resources:
"How to write an eavesdropping scene" on Erick's blog
Reading Critique Group for Writers FB Group (Jennie Komp's group)
3 Bird View FB page (Jennie Komp's business page)
Author XP (marketing for authors) (bi-monthly promotions)
Raven Publicity (publicity for authors)
The Shades of Orange (Rachel, Book Blogger on YouTube) for book recommendations SF/Fantasy/Horror
Contact Erick for business-starting advice or building a website.
Contact Valerie for author coaching.
Thomas Umstattd Jr, at Novel Marketing Podcast. Ep255: How to Create an Email Onboarding Drip Campaign
Russell P. Nohelty and Monica Leonelle's book, Get Your Book Selling on Kickstarter.
Balance meditation app.
Book Recs for writing/creativity/business:
Announcements:
Author Update:
Erick:
Erick:
Becky is reading: Annie Ernaux's "A Woman's Story" and "A Man's Place"
Notes:
Main Topic starts at: 11:42
Becky Ellis is a Timberwolf Pup. The
daughter of a highly decorated
World War II combat sergeant, she
is a veteran of a war fought at home. She earned a BA
in English Literature at UC Berkeley and has over
twenty years of experience in the publishing industry.
She teaches writing in Portland, Oregon, where she
lives, plays, and has raised three daughters. Little
Avalanches is her debut memoir. https://instagram.com/beckyellisauthor
Won Rubery Book Award 2024.
1. Did you yoga or write first? Yoga came first. Part of the process of getting into my body. Writers live in our heads. Yoga kept me body aware. Start feel yourself. Accesses to feel your feelings. Access internal world in more embodied way. Bad Acting = Facial Expressions. Get on the Body. Get off the face. Exercise: close eyes and feel everything.
2. How did writing impact your healing? Transformational impact as a person. Understanding my father, saw them separate from me. See myself for the first time. Writing from the child's perspective. A lot of inner-child work. Consciously explore my own reasons for doing what. Study of the self = memoir. Putting your characters IN the story. Concrete sensory details. Have access to that place.
3. Talk a little about the fears memoirists have around writing about their family. Any tips or guidelines? And how does that feed into breaking cycles of silence and secret-keeping?
So important to get the stories on the page. Be a Just God on the page. Give everyone their reasons for doing what they did. Take a step back, and ask Why they did it. Shifts out of victimhood. People want to be seen and felt. Everyone was totally fine with it. Take time to figure out why they did it.
4. Your media kit mentions Trauma Bounce (bouncing back from the trauma). What should we be on the lookout for when writing and getting retriggered? Spent half the time crying. Strategies: therapy while writing, yoga, find safety where you can.
Exercise for memoirists: Highlight all the exposition. Get rid of all the the exposition and repetition. You can thread it back in afterwards.
5 How can wisdom come through action? Show it in the character arc, actions at end of story different than at the beginning.
So many objects in rough drafts. Use them for metaphor. Don't mine your life, mine your page.
Positive side to trauma. Try and try and try. "If you quit, you'll die." Train to survive. Feel so powerful in the end.
Writing to be in service to the reader. What are we in service to? The reader. What psychological practice can we share with the reader?
Structure of book to manipulating reader's emotions.
Find Us:
Valerie's Linktree: https://linktr.ee/valerieihsan
Erick's Linktree link: https://linktr.ee/erickmertzauthor
Announcements:
PATREON:
Thank you to our existing patrons for believing in our work offline and here in the podcast.
Become a patron of the arts at Patreon.com/valerieihsan for books, writing instruction, coaching, and planning. Go to Patreon.com/strangeairstories for short stories in the paranormal mystery genre.
Announcements:
Author Update:
Erick:
Erick:
Notes:
Main Topic starts at 17:25.
https://ginasoldano.com/author-spotlight-valerie-ihsan/ (Valerie's Author Spotlight feature on Gina's blog)
Getting to the Heart of Why We Write (Gina's podcast)
The Curious Compassionate (marketing podcast for children's books) with currated booklist
Nia's Rescue Box (50% of profits go to Colorado Food Rescue)
Food Rescue U.S. (national)
Noise cancelling headphones
Writing short
Organized folders in Google and date every document (DATETitle.docx)
Type with thumbs.
Know what project I'm working on.
Think about it first (a lot).
Leave the sentence open (notes for rest of scene).
Prefer writing memoir or essays and middle-grade fantasy (faves), but picture books are easy right now for those stolen moments.
Writing in multiple genres not a choice. Have stories and ideas in brain. Have to get them out. Direction of energy is career and curiosity led. Focusing on picture book and middle grade (rather than memoir and novels) right now.
Would like to be more focused in my direction: querying and direct submissions.
Drafting emails and query moments during the screaming moments. Admin on laptop at couch.
Things that work for me:
Grace. Bullet journaling. Lists on post-it notes, less stressful to move the list than rewriting the list on a new day.
Daydreaming and stickers.
The Practice by Seth Godin (Your work needs to rhyme with itself.)
Ginasoldano.com
Podcast, all the socials, IG @gina.soldano, Substack, (check out new Core Connected Marketing/Substack)
Find Us:
Valerie's Linktree: https://linktr.ee/valerieihsan
Erick's Linktree link: https://linktr.ee/erickmertzauthor
Patreons:
https://patreon.com/valerieihsan
https://patreon.com/strangeairmysteries
Tools:
Passion Planner: https://passionplanner.rfrl.co/e86j8 (affiliate link) Discount Code: VALERIE150
ProWriting Aid: https://prowritingaid.com/?afid=9378 (affiliate link)
Resources:
"How to write an eavesdropping scene" on Erick's blog
Reading Critique Group for Writers FB Group (Jennie Komp's group)
3 Bird View FB page (Jennie Komp's business page)
Author XP (marketing for authors) (bi-monthly promotions)
Raven Publicity (publicity for authors)
The Shades of Orange (Rachel, Book Blogger on YouTube) for book recommendations SF/Fantasy/Horror
Contact Erick for business-starting advice or building a website.
Contact Valerie for author coaching.
Thomas Umstattd Jr, at Novel Marketing Podcast. Ep255: How to Create an Email Onboarding Drip Campaign
Russell P. Nohelty and Monica Leonelle's book, Get Your Book Selling on Kickstarter.
Balance meditation app.
Book Recs for writing/creativity/business:
Listener comment: suggestion to timestamp if the video is about a specific thing (Main Topic starts at 24:58)
Announcements:
Author Update:
Erick:
Erick:
Notes:
Imagery can be intimidating if you think it has to be beautiful, flowery, lurid, prose. Think more realistic expectations.
It's a tool. Imagery as tone setting. Character interacting with environment. Relevant to the action. More vivid images.
Use concrete sensory images to "explain" feelings.
Get unique with imagery. Use different senses besides visual.
Layer senses. Work in reverse in heightened scenes (tactile first?). Maximize effect. Cinematic thing. Sound cue, reaction cue, visual cue.
Cliches come from not having a grasp of a moment or character when use simile. Remember to use character's POV, not yours. Metaphor is more powerful than simile, often. Imagery progresses from simile to metaphor (personal style choice), character development. Using the old comparisons to make sense of the new thing, but as they continue exploring the new, it becomes more metaphor than simile.
The movie in my head will always be different than the reader's movie.
Set up imagery so the reader is allowed to watch their own movie.
Co-create with your reader.
Find the balance. Fresh but familiar.
Imagery can be (should be?) intentional. Happy accidents. ;-) What's new and unique? How can I riff on that?
Find Us:
Valerie's Linktree: https://linktr.ee/valerieihsan
Erick's Linktree link: https://linktr.ee/erickmertzauthor
The podcast currently has 173 episodes available.
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