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Author interviews, discussing reading, writing, and everything in between.
Episodes
Monday Jul 20, 2020
Monday Jul 20, 2020
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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