Chicago Writes

On this the final episode of Chicago Writes, Time Management for the writer. Part two of my conversation with Paul Bryan Roach author of Jack's Rogues available on Amazon . The art of the Press Release and building a Media Contact List. Plus, we catch up with The Spine Bookshop owner Lindsay Schultz on her historic fight against book bans in Tennessee.  And I say so long to this great CWA audience...

We spent the past couple of episodes with an exploration of the science fiction genre. Fantasy and magic are popular subgenres. Often over-looked is the spiritual sub-sub-genre. Paul Roach served twenty-seven years in the US Navy Medical Corps, with multiple combat and noncombat deployments. His memoir, Citizen-Surgeon, recounts his experiences as a combat surgeon in Afghanistan. His latest novel...

Jotham Austin, is a Research Associate Professor at the University of Chicago. He is also a Chicago Writers Association Board Member and Director of the Book of the Year Contest. Professor Austin is the author of the sci-fi psychological thriller, ‘Will You Still Love Me, If I Become Someone Else?” He is also the co-host of the Rabbit Hole of Research Podcast, which explores the science in fiction...

Jotham Austin, is a Research Associate Professor UChicago. He is also a Chicago Writers Association Board Member, Director of the Book of the Year Contest. Professor Austin is the author of the sci-fi psychological thriller, " Will You Still Love Me, If I Become Someone Else? ” He is also the co-host of the Rabbit Hole of Research Podcast , which explores the science in fiction and tries to separa...

A great city writes its own blood and spit and sweat and Chicago is a writer’s city. That muscle and toil can never be told from the outside but can only be rightfully told by those who have lived and walked the avenues and alleyways. Sinclair’s The Jungle was written here. We are at once bellicose and pious, corrupt and righteous. Chicago built its metropolis from the heartland and the heart dema...

First up, Sharon Woodhouse is a former Chicago-based indie publisher, and the current owner of a book business agency, Conspire Creative. Sharon is also the author of the new book,  The Profitable Author: 1,001 Ways to Build a Business You Love Around Your Books . Sharon is offering a free six-part writer’s workshop at indie-bookstores around Chicago, running every other Tuesday beginning July 15t...

Mark Taylor is a former newspaper and trade magazine reporter who covers the business, financing and delivery of healthcare. Taylor is a former Kaiser Fellow and a co-founder of the Association of Health Care Journalists. He is the author of Hospital, Heal Thyself: A Mathematician’s Plan for Saving American Lives and Billions of Dollars , available at Amazon… Mark Taylor is also one of our book of...

Adam Kaz on getting published with Zines, and a writing and organizing technique. Adam talks about beat words. Connect with Adam at thegroundisuneven.com  and check out his portfolio at  kazadam97.journoportfolio.com . And on Facebook and  Instagram you can find him at kazadam97. Zine World’s website, www.undergroundpress.org , has event listings, a list of zine libraries and infoshops, how-to art...

On this episode of Chicago Writes, Christopher Hawkins is an award-winning author and a current book of the year winner from the CWA. His works of short fiction have been published in numerous magazines and anthologies, including Cosmic Horror Monthly, Fusion Fragment, Underland Arcana and The Big Book of New Short Horror. He is a member the Chicagoland chapter of the Horror Writers Association. H...

Lindsay Schultz owns/manages The Spine Bookshop in Smyrna, Tennessee. Lindsay is battling efforts to ban or restrict books at schools and libraries. She is also the host of The Spine Bookcast on Youtube . The website is The Spine Bookshop . com Sharon Ann LaCour’s debut literary novel, The Meeting of Air and Water , tells the story of three generations of Cajun women. The Meeting Of Air And Water...

From maximizing your local market to building in history to deepen a novel and cautionaries on dialogue in memoir writing, Pat Camalliere is a survivor in more ways than one. Pat Camalliere is the author of The Cora Tozzi Historical Mystery Series, including The Mystery at Black Partridge Woods. Her new memoir is a remarkable story of survival, Staying Alive is a Lot of Work: Me and My Cancer now...

David Ladensohn is the author of an extraordinary and truly unique perspective on the brilliance of Leonardo da Vinci, titled Fly Fishing with Leonardo da Vinci. Fly-fishing is his passion. That passion has taken him around the world. Ladensohn is a graduate of the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, he was the CEO of a manufacturing company in San Antonio. Ladensohn comp...

In the age of AI and social media it is easy to be cynical about the future of writing. In highlighting the best high school writing, across multiple genres, Depaul's Blue Book is testimony to the timelessness and vibrancy of written self-expression.  Critically acclaimed, Chris Solís Green is the author of four books of poetry. He currently is a Distinguished Writer in Residence in the English De...

Margaret Ann Philbrick is an award-winning author and poet. she is the contributing editor of the essay and poetry collection for women, Everbloom —Stories of Deeply Rooted and Transformed Lives. Her poems and articles have been featured in numerous anthologies and publications, including her award-winning poem, A Mother’s Art. Margaret is a founding member of the Red-bud Writers Guild NFP and a m...

On this episode of Chicago Writes, the Podcast of the Chicago Writers Association, Educator and Award-winning Children's Author of Calvin, Vanessa Ford M.A.T. and Author of the Critically-acclaimed No Gender Left Behind and Educator Rebecca Kling, Authors of The Advocate Educator’s Handbook: Creating Schools Where Transgender and Non-Binary Students Thrive available on Amazon .  The websites are t...

From CWA BOTY winner Linda Gartz' Redlined: A Memoir of Race, Change, and Fractured Community in 1960s Chicago, to Civic Lab founder Tom Tresser's NO GAMES CHICAGO How A Small Group of Citizens Derailed the City’s 2016 Olympic Bid, there are lessons writers can learn about storytelling, structure, media messaging, and marketing. The websites is nogameschicagobook.com . CWA’s 9th Annual First Chapt...

Miles Harvey is the author of three nonfiction books, The King of Confidence (a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice selection), Painter in a Savage Land, and The Island of Lost Maps, a national and international bestseller. He teaches creative writing at DePaul University in Chicago, where he chairs the Department of English and is a founding editor of Big Shoulders Books, a nonprofit, soci...

Kevin M. Hall is a New York author. He is the author of 3 books, Ilion My Childhood My Memories, My Rosemount MN. Memories, and SIGNS - The Veil is Thinner Than We Imagine. The website is Kevin-Hall.com. Risa August is a champion. She is the author of the award-winning memoir, or the biography of Bubba the tumor, if you like… The book is The Road Unpaved: Border to Border with a Brain Tumor and a...

Jonathan Eig is an American journalist and biographer and the author of six books. His most recent King: A Life (2023), a biography of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was just awarded the Pulitzer Prize. Mr. Eig is also the author of… Luckiest Man : The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig (2005). Ali: A Life . Opening Day : The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Season. For  Get Capone , Eig discovered thousand...

Host WC Turck takes you along for a need-to-know marketing hack on Amazon for his new novel, The Assassination of Baby Hitler: A Love Story with Dan Davies from Renegade Press LLC, renegadepresspublisher.com . Unlock a wealth of writer resources by joining the Chicago Writers Association today. Visit chicagowrites.org .

After recovering from a brain aneurysm in 2004 that left her blind and paralyzed, Janet Sutherland Madden wrote an astounding book of trauma and the courage to overcome is titled “ Nose Over Toes .” Her latest project is a children's book titled, " Rhett, the kind little Corgi ," a No.# 1 Amazon bestseller. Janet spent a life in media, journalism and marketing and shares some lessons learned. Jane...

On this episode of Chicago Writes, our remaining Book of the Year authors, Prof. Jill Christman and Gary D. Wilson discuss their award-winning books and offer advice they give their writing students.  Gary D. Wilson is a critically acclaimed novelist and writer of narrative short story fiction. His latest Book of the Year winning collection is For Those Who Favor Fire . Gary's latest novel, The Na...

Lois Hoitenga Roelofs is one of CWAs Book of the Year winners for her moving memory, Marv in Charge: A story of Bold Love and courage, from Deep River books. An uncommonly candid book on death, dying and faith. Her website is loisroelofs.com Rita Woods Latest novel, The Last Dreamwalker, was just named one of the Chicago Writers Association’s Book of the Year. This sumptuous mystery is destined to...

Happy New Year! In our season 3 opener: An author scam alert, plus a conversation with one of last Year's Book of the Year award winning author Mark Hutson of the critically acclaimed " So Costly a Sacrifice ," available on Amazon. Plus, a bit of WC Turck's conversation with Rick Kaempfer, author of the runaway bestseller " The Loop Files: An Oral History of the Most Outrageous Radio Station Ever...

Do you think of Book marketing as confusing and complex? You are hardly alone! Long time friend of the podcast and one of the most proactive authors for marketing, David W. Berner’s success doesn’t just happen but requires a bit of work and effort from the author. After speaking with Mike O’Malley from LitNuts last month, host WC Turck thought it would offer keen insights by prying open David’s ba...