Cold

This week in the Cold, we're talking about writer's block, being at war with time, and surviving an apocalypse or two. Especially the apocalypse part.  This episode is also available as a blog post: https://victoriadougherty.wordpress.com/2015/10/31/apocalypse-now-and-then/

This holiday week in the Cold, we're celebrating art that's on the edge, that's...creepy. To me, creepiness is a much broader concept than it would seem, at least on the surface. It’s not just eerie, ominous, weird or macabre. Creeps and creepy images, concepts, and stories are zoetic and always in motion. I mean that literally. The very nature of a creep is to…creep. To move slowly, stealthily ac...

This week in the Cold, I have some suggestions for getting the Christmas spirit right this year. For getting our stories straight. I’ve collected these from experience and tried every single one of them myself. I can say with complete confidence that even putting some of these directives into play has brought people closer to me - whether they be family, friends, colleagues or readers.  And i...

The week in the Cold, we talk about the middle place in any creative endeavor. If you're a writer, it's that frustrating, hard won, simultaneously deflating and thrilling point in any novel, trilogy, or series. It's one that always leaves us with the question, "What now?"  This episode is also available as a blog post: https://victoriadougherty.wordpress.com/2022/06/17/a-dispatch-from-the-mid...

The Cold annual list of all things (great and small) for which to be grateful is here! Happy Thanksgiving, my friends!  This episode is also available as a blog post: https://victoriadougherty.wordpress.com/2022/11/18/for-all-things-great-and-small/

This week in the Cold, we talk about the holiday that is the ultimate storyteller's dream: Halloween!  This episode is also available as a blog post: https://victoriadougherty.wordpress.com/2021/10/29/transformation-transcendence-and-realization-the-spirit-of-halloween-has-a-greater-impact-than-we-might-think/

This week in the Cold, we talk about the wild, wonderful and weird Romance genre. Pour yourself a glass of champagne and slip into something more comfortable because this one will leave you breathless! This episode is also available as a blog post: https://victoriadougherty.wordpress.com/2022/10/07/romance-a-love-story/

This week in the Cold, we talk about the existential thrill of the struggle. How taking on enormous endeavors - like writing novels or running marathons - has unique rewards that are great for our both our mental and physical health. They make us feel alive, of consequence, and at times...invincible. This episode is also available as a blog post: https://victoriadougherty.wordpress.com/2022/07/29/...

This week in the Cold, I'm not only paying homage to my male readers (and the women who love them) but offering you all a glimpse into the historical fantasy BREATH series and giving you the lowdown on my newest BREATH novel, titled " Of Sand and Bone ."  In just a few short days - Tuesday, Sept. 20th to be exact - I’ll be debuting this new novel…another I owe to you. All of you, but especial...

The week in the Cold, we're talking art. Book cover art to be more precise.  Probably my favorite part of the pre-launch of any new novel is when I get the finished cover in my inbox. For me, a book cover is a work of art, and its composition must reflect the heart of the story. But the cover must also communicate quality, years of passionate story writing, plus the world-building and fine-tu...

This week in the Cold, we wrap up our ongoing autopsy of the fairytale genre, as well as finish the fairytale we have been building chapter by chapter from scratch. Although like many, if not all fairytales, the end can signify a new beginning. That beginning might be assured – with the time-immortal words “And they lived happily ever after,” or it might be more ambiguous... This episode is also a...

This week in the Cold, we continue our autopsy of the fairytale, focusing on the quest. In most fairytales, at least the ones that really capture our imaginations in a lasting, generations-long manner, a lover – often a prince or princess – must go on a quest. He or she has to perform a series of trials in order to prove worthy, not only of true love, but of a kingdom they are poised to inherit –...

This week in the Cold we continue our autopsy of the fairytale genre, focusing on the role of the friend. The friend, in any fairytale worth its salt, is instrumental in conquering evil and often acts as love's handmaiden. He clears the path for a pair of would-be lovers, so that order and prosperity can be restored to the realm. We are also continuing to write our own fairytale and building on ou...

This week in the Cold, we're tackling the love stories that are the heart-center of every fairytale. Whether it's a platonic love, like the one between the siblings in Hansel and Gretel , or a romantic love like in Sleeping Beauty , all fairytales are love stories. And as we continue in our endeavor to build our own fairytale from scratch, we have a big decision to make. Will our lovers live happi...

 This week in the Cold, we talk about the moral center of every story, and how in fairytales, curses and choices play a primary role in constructing that moral. As we continue to build our own fairytale, we're playing with the importance of these moral choices, too. How a fairytale’s protagonists are shaped by their responses to curses, magical forces, and plain old bum luck. Through their ac...

This week in the Cold, we’re continuing our autopsy of the fairytale genre, as well as the construction, from the ground up, of a brand new tale of magic, morality, and love, titled “Romakaji.” The role of magic is at the center of our episode, so get ready to be bewitched. All fairytales have an enchantment at their core, and the most memorable include some manner of sorceress casting spells and...

This week in the Cold, we venture into our third episode focusing on the fairytale genre. Not only are we writing our own fairytale, using all of the common tropes we loved as kids, and let's face it, still fall for as adults, but we're trying to figure out just what makes each of these tropes so compelling. Probably the most popular trope of is the damsel in distress. Writing a damsel in distress...

The moment a stranger enters a story there is a seismic shift, and reader or audience member knows things will never be the same...for good or ill. This week in the Cold, we examine the role of the stranger. How a stranger is introduced, and the way he is woven into a story. We then weave a stranger into our continuing story...the fairytale we've been writing by the seats of our pants. Please join...

This week in the Cold, we talk about how our very surroundings inspire us creatively, and how a change in our environment can find us walking new paths, dreaming new dreams, and conjuring stories we'd never entertained writing before. This happened to me recently, and I hadn't even left my house. I only contemplated doing so, staring at a picture of an old, stone cottage in the Cotswolds in Englan...

This week in The Cold, we're talking about S-E-X from the ground up. From the way teens (at least the ones I eavesdrop on during carpool) view their own budding sexuality, to how our choices affect our lives in the long term, to the manners in which we interpret all of the conflicting information about sex and love, all the way to what we read about this monumentally important topic and why. This...

This week in the Cold, we talk about THE END. Because the weeks after finishing a novel can be sticky. It’s a time of fits and starts, frustration, and lack of focus. Even if you've got a dozen story ideas tucked away for just this occasion, there’s this feeling of depletion. You've given all you've got, and while proud of the work and relieved the story has made it to the finish line, a pervading...

This week in the Cold, we talk about what we want to be when we grow up. Or at least, what we wanted to be when we were kids. This past week was also Carol Burnett's 89th birthday, and when I was a girl, more than anything in the world, I wanted to be Carol Burnett. That didn't happen, obviously. I became a novelist who writes some pretty serious books (although I'm still funny, damn it). But Caro...

Sounds crazy, right? But in a way, it's true. That's why this week in the Cold, we're talking about the ways in which we, as humans, and our favorite fictional characters, as people imagined by humans, process, interpret, and express pain and difficulty. We dive deep, we go to the roots of resilience and survival. You don't want to miss this one. This episode is also available as a blog post: http...

This week in the Cold, we talk about the night, and what it brings to our creative and spiritual lives. I've had a complicated relationship with the dark all my life. Truth be told, I'm afraid of it - always have been. Yet, when I'm awake in the middle of the night, I often find it to be a time of potent magic. It's when my best ideas come, and I find myself immersed in a world of wonder and fanta...

This week in the Cold, we talk about the importance of music as an inspiration in our work, and our lives. The way it can change a mood - have us get up to shake and groove, make our hearts race, or curl up into a ball and let the tears flow. It can focus our thoughts, and help us reimagine our futures. Music can, quite literally, be the conduit for a shift in our destinies. This episode is also a...