Our guest this week is Renee Harleston, founder of Writing Diversely, which offers sensitivity reading services that provide authors, writers, and content creators the tools and support they need to tell diverse and inclusive stories. Find more information about our podcast, including links to our guests' books here. If you're ready to start your publishing journey, visit kobo.com/writinglife.   

#288 - Writing Diversely with Renee Harleston

The Kobo Writing Life Podcast features exciting interviews with bestselling authors, tips on the craft and business of writing, and advice for a successfully self-publishing career. Millions of readers are waiting to  discover your book - publish today at www.kobo.com/writinglife.

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  In this episode, we are joined by Vancouver-based Bal Khabra, debut author of hockey romance novel Collide! Bal started out as an avid reader of romance and reviewer of romance titles, and after reading over 150 romance novels in one year, decided she was ready to write one! That novel, Collide, was picked up and published by Penguin Random House after starting out as a self-published work. We can’t wait to see what Bal writes next!   We talked about Bal’s writing journey, her beginnings on Wattpad, how she utilizes social media and what happened when her book went viral on TikTok, advice for using social media to market books, reader vs. author spaces, her interest in hockey (and found family, and friendship) and how these subjects fit into her novel, and much more!  Learn more on Bal’s website, and follow her on Instagram, TikTok and Twitter/X. 

#343 – From Romance Reader to Romance Author with Bal Khabra

 In this episode, we spoke with Patrick E. Horrigan, academic and author of American Scholar, published by Lethe Press. Since recording this episode, American Scholar was shortlisted for the 2024 Lambda Literary Awards in the Gay Fiction category. Congratulations, Patrick! Patrick is also the author of two other novels, plays, essays, and more. He and taught literature for twenty-five years at LIU Brooklyn, and was a previous winner of Long Island University’s David Newton Award for Excellence in Teaching, among many other accolades.   We had a great time talking to Patrick about his career as an author, his history in academia, his past experiences at Columbia and LIU Brooklyn that helped shape him, his latest novel, the inspiration behind it, and much, much more. This episode was informative, illuminating, and an all-around great interview! Don’t miss out on listening in. And learn more via Patrick’s website or follow him on Facebook and Instagram.  

#342 – Academics and Authorship with Patrick E. Horrigan

 In this episode, we are joined by Jeff Adams and Michele Lucchini, online and digital accessibility experts who work at UsableNet, whose goal is to “make the digital world more accessible and usable.” Jeff and Michele recently wrote and published their first book together, an amazing guide to all things digital accessibility, Content for Everyone: A Practical Guide for Creative Entrepreneurs to Produce Accessible and Usable Web Content!   Jeff is the Accessibility Operations Direct at UsableNet, as well as a queer romance author and podcaster. Michele is Vice President of Delivery and Accessibility Operations at UsableNet, and has over twenty-three years of experience working with accessibility projects in digital spaces. Together, these two authors and accessibility experts offer so much info in this episode for anyone (and everyone) interested in broadening their knowledge of accessibility online. We at KWL learned a lot, too!   We discussed all things digital accessibility, their book “Content for Everyone,” how making small changes makes a big difference, how to think about accessibility, all about alternative text, headers, and images, and much, much more! This is a great episode for anyone wanting to learn more about accessibility online and in their own writing life.  To learn more, visit Jeff’s website.     

#341 – Accessibility Tips for Indie Authors with Jeff Adams and Michele Lucchini

 In this episode, we are joined by author Alison Cochrun, writer of the best-selling romance novels The Charm Offensive and Kiss Her Once For Me. Her latest work, Here We Go Again, is a “new queer rom-com following once childhood best friends forced together to drive their former teacher across the country.”  Here We Go Again is available now from Simon & Schuster Canada!   We had a great time hearing about Alison’s journey to becoming an author after being a full-time high school English teacher, the ups and downs of publishing, being inspired to write a story based on personal experience, how Alison incorporates humour into her books, how she writes queer characters with varying experiences of being queer, and so much more! Be sure to also check out Alison’s other titles, The Charm Offensive (one of Laura’s fave reads!) and Kiss Her Once For Me, both available from Simon & Schuster Canada.  Learn more on Alison’s website, and follow Alison on Instagram! 

#340 – Writing a Road Trip Romance Novel with Alison Cochrun

 In this week’s episode, we spoke to Jodi Drake, a bestselling author who writes multiple series under the name J.L. Drake! Jodi’s series span over thirty books, and these include the Broken Trilogy, the Quiet Mafia series, and her latest, Havoc of Sins, which begins with Grim – available to read now! For more info on her series, check out her reading order guide here.   Jodi spoke to us about her writing career, writing dark romance, what drew her to dark romance, how she plots her novels, how she uses her “murder board” to keep track of all her characters and plotlines, and much, much more! Jodi gave us many great insights into what it’s like being a series author and an author (and reader) of dark romance. We had a great time chatting with Jodi, and if you’re a burgeoning dark romance author (or a romance author in general), you don’t want to miss this episode of the KWL podcast!  For more, check out J.L.’s website, and follow her on X, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.

#288 - Writing Diversely with Renee Harleston

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