Episode #29: Dr. Stuart Fischer Talks Dieting, Grooming and Writing Fiction for the First Time

The Invisible Worm That Flies in the Night.

Sound Creepy? It’s supposed to. It’s from William Blake’s poem The Sick Rose and represents disease. It is also the apt name of Dr. Stuart Fischer’s upcoming fiction novel. For Fischer it also represents a very real fear. The fear of disease. The fear of disease may have been a part of his inspiration for his three books. The throughline of all three he says, “is health.”

The first, is The Little Book of Big Medical Emergencies. It’s a great handbook to have around to inform most every possible inury. The second is The Park Avenue Diet, all about becoming the person you want to be, not through diet alone (did I mention Fischer worked for years with Dr. Atkins, and appreciates but doesn’t quite agree with his dieting advice) but through a total renovation of self—through grooming, exercise, diet and fashion.

In the interview we talk extensively about health and wellness and also about the life of a physician—the everyday life as well as the tragic and horrifying incidents doctors have to deal with. These incidents make up the numerous short stories that constitute The Invisible Worm That Flies in the Night. And they are horrifying—as the eloquent Fisher tells us.

Take a Look at:

The Park Avenue Diet

The Little Book of Big Medical Emergencies

Dr. Stuart’s Site—The Fit Dr.

Episode #28: Amy Sue Nathan Talks Writing Women’s Fiction, Writing a Debut Novel

For the first time, we’re releasing an interview on the day that a new book is released—it just kind of happened that way. The book is called The Glass Wives, the author is Amy Sue Nathan and this is her debut novel. She calls it women’s fiction which happens to be the name of her popular blog, Women’s Fiction Writers.

In the interview, I ask her to walk us through the productions process for her novel from start (inception in her brain) through getting a publisher, going through rounds of edits and finally today, seeing her book on the shelves of Barnes and Nobel.

She’ll also talks about what exactly Women’s Fiction is and isn’t.

Take a Look at:

The Glass Wives

Amy’s Blog (Women’s Fiction Writers)

 

Related Interviews:

Kathy Logan On Mysterious Romance

Sam Florman Talks Existential Pleasures of Writing

Franklin Yudkin on Writing True Romance

Gwen Thompson On Coming of Age Romance

Episode #27.5: Paulette Mahurin Talks Donating Book Profits, Prejudice (Audio Only)

Paulette Mahurin lives in the nearest thing to heaven on earth: Ojai, California. This may lead you to think it difficult for her to picture suffering, pain or prejudice. But she succeeds in pulling herself out of the orange groves and into the nitty-gritty of a haunting tale: The Persecution of Mildred Dunlap.

Each chapter of the book is lead by a quote from Oscar Wilde. Mahurin wanted to highlight tolerance, and became inspired by Wilde after reading De Profundis, a letter from Wilde to his lover. “What Oscar Wilde went through was nothing short of torture,” says Mahurin about Wilde’s imprisonment and torturous treatment after his homosexuality was discovered. “It’s really my homage to Oscar Wilde,” she says.

Mahurin’s book is not about Wilde himself, but a lesbian couple who get discovered and persecuted for their lifestyle: thus the name.

During the interview we talk about using your personal network to market your book the grassroots way and how to find a book editor for your work. We talk about the importance of being tolerant of others’ lifestyles. Mahurin talks about her good luck of getting her book read and performed at the Ojai Art Center and she mentions the World Literary Cafe, which I had never heard of.

It’s our first and probably only audio-only interview. But Mahurin’s work is important and needs to be highlighted. All proceeds of her book go to animal rescue (the Santa Paula Animal Rescue shelter in Ventura County, Calif. to be exact).

Take a Look at:

The Persecution of Mildred Dunlap (affiliate)

Paulette’s Website

 

Related Interviews:

Venessa Kimball On Street Teams

Patrick Wensink on Viral Marketing

Sam Florman on Memoir Writing

Dinty W. Moore On Non-Ficiton Writing

Episode #27: Patrick Wensink Talks Amazon Bestsellers, Viral Marketing

Screen Shot 2013-05-07 at 3.51.45 PMYou never  know what will go viral until it does.

That was certainly the case when Patrick Wensink’s clever book-cover idea, turned cease and desist letter, turned viral news story, turned Amazon Bestselling book.

His book, Broken Piano for President, mimicked the Jack Daniel’s label on its cover.  Jack Daniel’s reached out, and Wensink says, “sent me a ridiculously polite cease and desist letter.” The design, Jack Daniel’s felt, was too similar to its labels. The liquor company offered to help re-design the cover, but Wensink’s publishers thanked the liquor company and did a redesign on its own.

But the letter was enough. The story went, as the kids say, viral hopscotching through major media outlets like NPR, Forbes and Time magazine. And Wensink’s book went viral with it, outselling The Hunger Games and Bossypants. The book rocketed to No. 6 on Amazon’s bestseller list for a week.

Then it stopped.

So Wensink talks to us all about his Amazon bestseller and about what this really means. It doesn’t always equate to millions of dollars like his wife’s family thought. He writes a great article about it in Salon.

But of course, we go into way more detail than Salon. We talk about what is it like to be a full-time author, how do we do it and not give up? (Hint: only take non-writing jobs if you hate them, it keeps the motivation alive). We also talk about how to prepare for viral blessings like Wensink’s so we can take the most advantage of them. And we talk about how Wensink got published and some of his other work like Black Hole Blues and Everything was Great Until it Sucked..

Take a Look at:

Broken Piano for President (affiliate)

Patrick Wensink’s Website

 

Related Interviews:

Gwen Thompson On Writing Life-Based Novellas

Dinty W. Moore On Non-Fiction Writing

Guy Kawasaki On Marketing

Marc Watson Talk About God

Oh, and here’s the new cover if you’re interested:

Broken Piano New Cover

Episode #26: Venessa Kimball Talks Street Teams and Why We Write

Venessa-KimballVenessa Kimball was a real estate agent and a mother before the became the author of what she calls a Young Adult, Paranormal, Fringe Sci-Fi series called Piercing the Fold. She had always loved writing because she says that with writing she could “think outside the box.”

As a realtor, Kimball says she got some priceless experience in marketing at that time, which she now uses for her books. Then, right before Thanksgiving one year, Kimball got an idea that she couldn’t get out of her head. It kept plyaying over and over again. She decided she wanted her story out there, and she tackled her first novel. It was published within 12 months. Her second book came out last March 14. She’s writing the third and hopes it will be out this summer, and the fourth will be finished before the end of the year.

Kimball cites the Discovery Channel for the inception of her idea. An episode was talking about wormholes and the universe. It sent her mind spinning and she followed the “what if’s” until they turned into a story. Kimball says she just needed to write the characters. She had to write them to get them out of her head.

Sound crazy? It’s much more normal and similar to many authors’ experiences than you might think.

She talks about how to get a street team of fans and fellow writers together to promote your work with you. She is very passionate about encouraging other writers to finish their work. She talks about following the passion of your story to completion. Kimball says that anyone who has an idea and wants to turn an idea into a story should test it rigorously and see if it either falls apart, or if it galvanizes them into figuring out how to keep it together. She thinks writing is an innate gift or passion, and they should not give up.

Kimball says indie authors should support one another, because they all understand the strangeness of being an author.

Take a Look at:

Piercing the Fold

Surfacing the Rim: Piercing the Fold Book 2

Venessa’s Site 

Related Interviews:

Chris DiGiuseppi and Mike Force on Paranormal Fiction

M.C.V. Egan on Supernatural Research

Daniel Diehl on Urban Fantasy

Janette Rallison on Young Adult Fantasy

© Author Feast 2013