I interview a lot of writers for JaneFriedman.com, and I’ve also been listening to many interviews with writers, primarily on The VJ Books Podcast and The Thriller Zone. My favorite part of any interview is one in which the writer shares something illustrative of a determination to retain or honor an independent artistic spirit, to write what they want … Read more
Over at JaneFriedman.com, author Philip Persinger answers ten questions for 5 On. “I don’t think there is a silver bullet for marketing. There’s just good old-fashioned stick-to-it-iveness. If there were a magic formula, the guy who wrote it up would be rich. Oh wait! He did. He wrote How to Market Your Book. Unfortunately, he’s … Read more
__________________ * __________________ “No ideas?” “Oh,” he thumbed his mug handle, “I have ideas.” “Well, then. There you go. Write them.” “Can’t.” “Why not?” “Because. What’s the point?” “What do you mean?” “I mean,” he said, “what’s the point? I start writing a paragraph, or I imagine a scene, and I just stop. I think, … Read more
Leora Skolkin-Smith, author of Edges and Hystera and contributing editor to readysteadybook.com, answers five questions about writing and five questions about publishing at JaneFriedman.com. . What is failure? That it sells only a few copies and doesn’t get review coverage? . . . Kristen TsetsiKristen Tsetsi is the author of the post-Roe v. Wade novel … Read more
Not too long ago, I started 5 On because I wanted to find a way to connect people who have a certain amount of experience with people who might learn or benefit from that experience, and I wanted to do it in an informal, entertaining way. I sent an interview invitation and an explanation of … Read more
In this installment of 5 On, retired journalist Rick Shefchik, author of the novels Amen Corner, Green Monster, Frozen Tundra, and Rather See You Dead, talks about the everywriter fantasy of leaving a job to write novels, shares his mystery/thriller-writing technique, and discusses his choice of genres. He also explains why he crossed from traditional … Read more
In this 5On interview, author Russell Rowland on publishing horror stories, what keeps him writing through “why bother?” moments, marketing, and more. _____ Russell Rowland is the author of In Open Spaces, The Watershed Years, and High and Inside, and and editor with Lynn Stegner of the anthology, West of 98: Living and Writing the … Read more
No matter how long someone has been writing and publishing (traditional or self), there’s always something to learn. And there’s usually, at one time or another, a desire to hear from someone who’s gone through, or is going through, something similar. I thought it would be fun to have a series of Q&As with writers … Read more
In the latest episode of The Flickcast, hosts Chris Ullrich and Joseph Dilworth Jr. are discussing the latest Star Wars movie when the conversation touches on the perceived value of independent art. Ullrich: I’m starting to worry that we’re going to be inundated with all these genre movies and people are going to get burned … Read more
Don’t know much about poetry. I studied it in high school and college the way most people do in high school and college, but I never developed the same feel for it that I did for fiction, whether reading or writing. I can make a rhyme, choose a good word here and there, and technically … Read more
