Ep 5.26 - LIVE! Fighting the Middle & More!
Josh, Chuck, and Scott sit down to discuss how they battle the murky middle and anything else that happens to come up! Come and Hang out with us!
Hosts: Josh Hayes, Scott Moon, C. Stephen Manley
[00:00] Opening remarks
[05:15] Weekly update—Toilet In the Yard Edition
Josh: Josh learns to waterski in skis not made in 1934. Wrote a couple of chapters into Tranquility and more in another novel.
Chuck: Still plugging away at Jack Dark #2. More Softball Time™. Used copious Liquid Courage® to watch Hamilton. Damn Merriam Webster!
Scott: Getting used to the new job time. Grinding away at the new series—Resistance Day goes out next week, working on Victory Day. Finishing up a third Brothers in Arms novel. Working on some promotions and ad spend.
[27:15] Sponsor: Battle Luna by Various Authors (including Josh Hayes)
[28:40] Main Event: LIVE! Fighting the Middle & More
-What propels you thought a book/movie as a reader/viewer?
Josh: A character like Glokta from Joe Abercrombie’s First Law Trilogy, or a story like Core (The Demon Cycle #5) by Peter V. Brett
Chuck: 99% characters, 1% for a good mystery.
-Can you put a subplot in the middle to help?
-Don’t make a list!
-Josh can’t finish Stephen King’s 11/22/63 because of its soggy middle beyond the engaging hook.
-Plot reversals.
-Best genre mashups
Scott: They are hard to market. Dark Landing is a genre mashup of Western and Sci-Fi; most love their genres, but perhaps not the mashup that’s too different.
Example: Firefly
Scott is a fan of genre mashup writing, but you should really bring your A game to a mashup.
Example: Hayley Stone’s Make Me No Grave: A Weird West Novel
Example: Alien is a sci-fi horror mashup
-Chuck discusses an approach to do a 70-30 mix of the genre vs. 50-50.
-Sci-Fi and Fantasy venn diagrams.
Example: Jay Kristoff’s Stormdancer: The Lotus War Book One is Japanese samurai steampunk and post-apocalyptic
[1:04:30] Closing remarks
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