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Hi, I’m Wayne Jones. Welcome to Writing & Editing. This is episode 147, which is 0.00159 Scaramuccis long. My guest is Neil Berliner, who is a comedy writer and coach. In his career, he’s also performed standup, and his writing has appeared in media from Mad Magazine to the New York Times to the Village Voice. He’s now also an author, having co-written the Ha Ha History joke book, which was published in January. 

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I talk about the basic clauses you should expect in any contract you sign with an editor, as well as some of the things that the editor should deliver or provide to you apart from the edited text.

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My guest is Matt Witten, who now writes thrillers for a living after spending 20 years writing for television, including shows such as Law & Order and CSI. 

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My guest is Jane Friedman, who is an internationally known publishing expert based in New York. Jane has over 25 years experience in the publishing business, having worked as President and CEO of HarperCollins as well as holding senior executive positions at other major publishers. She’s the author of the book The Business of Being a Writer, produces the biweekly email newsletter called The Hot Sheet, which covers the publishing industry for authors, and offers classes online.

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This is the premiere episode of a weekly series I am going to be doing on Saturdays about words in the English language. This week’s word is "Etymology."

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Before I introduce today’s guest, I wanted to talk briefly about a new feeature—and a new episode—that I’m adding weekly to the show. I’m calling it “One More Word,” and it will be just me talking about an English word. It could be a word in the news, it could be some new jargon, it could be a word you’ve used for years but which has an interesting history. The episode will be short (5 minutes or so) and I hope you’ll find it interesting. The premiere episode is this Saturday, February 18. Please listen.

So for today’s show … This is episode 141 — How to Stay Busy: Writing, Coaching, Getting Others Unstuck, and World Peace.

My guest is Murielle Marie, who has over 20 years experience in business, most recently as a thriving international career in coaching and helping creatives and entrepreneurs get unstuck. She’s got a large social media following, and in the midst of everything she is also writing a thriller.

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My guest is actor Mollie Leivars, who is also the owner of Spirit Productions, a film production company she founded in 2019 when she was only 15 years old. Beyond making films centred on issues about youth, she gives online classes for young people wanting to learn various aspects of filmmaking and acting. 

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I talk about some of the words and rituals around the seemingly intractable problem of mass shootings in the US.

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My guest is Jan McInnis, whose activity schedule for the past 25 years has been incredibly varied. “Worklady,” BTW is the apt name of her website. She started in standup comedy and eventually was working in the niche of comic keynote speaking. She also has a podcast called Comedian Stories, and has sold comedy material to Leno’s Tonight Show and to radio stations across the US. She’s been featured for her clean material in several magazines. And somehow in the middle of all that, she’s also published two books: Finding the Funny Fast, and Convention Comedian. We talk about her amazing career and as well as the genre she finds hardest to write in.