Drunken Pen Writing Podcast

Today we discuss some novels that we consider great. Not good, not awesome, but truly great! After that, we talk about what things literary magazine editors are tired of seeing in submissions. Here's a hint: EVERYTHING! Caleb ends the episode by doing some live editing of an old story he's fixing up.  You can follow us @dpwpodcast on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

We begin our episode with our annual Edgar Allan Poe toast to celebrate Halloween. This year we read Spirits of the Dead and then discuss Poe's booze of choice. We also talk about the absinthe we drank for the toast. After that, we are super excited to have Nicolás Obregón back on the podcast. Author of the Inspector Iwata trilogy—featuring the novels Blue Light Yokohama, Sins as Scarlett, and Unk...

We open things up with a mini-review of Kevin Smith's Clerks 3. After that, we somehow stumble upon the topic of beer which eventually leads to the discussion of absinthe and Caleb's annual Poe Toast. We end things by talking about our recent foray into the world of literary magazine story submissions.  Check us out on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook @dpwpodcast

We open the episode with a mini-review of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick. After that, we get into some fun by reading Stephen King excerpts and seeing if Spencer is able to guess what story or book they came from. Since we liked it so much, we also broadened our range and did the same thing for other famous works.  Follow us on Twitter @drunkpenwriting On Instagram @drunkenp...

This is a packed episode! We discuss some tips on submitting to literary journals and our current efforts. Then talk about people's weird obsession with serial killers, the importance of creating a writing gimmick, woke vs anti-woke bs, and why manufactured outrage is hurting the movie and TV industries.   

After an unnecessarily long cold open about math, we discuss the novel Chasing the Boogeyman by Richard Chizmar. We highly recommend it. Five out of five whiskey shots!

Well, it has been a sad week. We had to shut down the Drunken Pen Writing website and are no longer accepting submissions, nor can you read any of our back catalog of work. In today's episode, we discuss what led to this awful outcome and what the future holds for DPW.  You can follow us on Twitter @drunkpenwriting On Instagram @drunkenpenwriting And like us on Facebook @drunkenpenwriting

Caleb informs the world of his new status in life. After that, we discuss our current writing projects, what it's like getting stuck in a literary bog, and a bunch of other writing-related topics.  This episode was recorded before certain events unfolded, but our Halloween Submission period has been canceled and the website is shut down for the time being.  Follow us on Twitter @drunkpenwriting On...

After we botched the first take of recording this episode, we decided to go easy on you by ditching the cold open and just reading about some of the most challenging books ever written.  Check out our work at www.drunkenpenwriting.com Follow us on Twitter @drunkpenwriting On Instagram @drunkenpenwriting And like us on Facebook @drunkenpenwriting

Oh, this episode is PACKED full of goodies! We kick things off by discussing literature's evolution (or devolution) and why challenging fiction is necessary for the progression of art. After all that, we go into the real topic of the day, banned books. We cover two lists. The first list is the top ten books currently banned or being boycotted in the United States. The second list is the top ten ba...

We discuss our August pick for book of the month, The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut. There are many sci-fi shenanigans to cover, but we also cover the book's essential themes: free will, religion, war, and loneliness.  This was a fun book to read and we highly recommend checking it out.  

We begin the episode with our opinions on the Freewrite, a distraction-free writing apparatus that is sort of like a keyboard with a Kindle attached. After that, we get into a great discussion on the importance of word choices.  We use multiple examples from the work of famous authors to show how and why being purposeful with your word choices is so damn important. We offer the simplicity of Jk Ro...

We start by discussing what a great show The Orville is. After that, we have a good conversation about what really makes a hero in fiction (or real life). We use examples from a bunch of superhero movies and comics, plus some other sources that exemplify what it truly means to be a hero.  Check out our work at www.drunkpenwriting.com Follow us on Twitter @drunkpenwriting On Instagram @drunkenpenwr...

We start by discussing diversity in literary magazines and how the submission process can be unfair to some authors. After that, we talk about a poll we ran which showed that the majority of people (who follow us on Twitter) consider audiobooks to be the same as reading a book. We break things down further and give our definitive opinions on the matter, factoring in things like visual impairment t...

We start things off with a comic book review for the first volume of Crossover by Donny Cates (if you want to skip straight to the main topic, the episode begins at 12:35). For the main topic of the day, we discuss publishing trends until Caleb loses his voice.  Check out our work at www.drunkenpenwriting.com Follow us on Twitter @drunkpenwriting On Instagram @drunkenpenwriting And like us on Face...

We kick things off with a wine tasting inspired by the Prosseco N Prose Podcast. And you know what? It was alright! After that, we get into the heart of things by discussing what goes into writing a good romance novel . Here's a hint, do the opposite of what we would do! Be sure to listen to the Prosseco N Prose podcast and check out all the fun things Wendy and Amy are up to. You can check out ou...

Oh, fudge. There's a lot to unpack in this episode. We start things off with Caleb reading an excerpt from his most recent story submission failure. Then we get into a discussion about writing and reading children's books and YA books.  After that, we really go into this weeds and spend the rest of the show ranting about fake woke people, cancel culture, bad conservative comedy, and the importance...

Caleb is alone in today's episode and uses the opportunity to ramble about aesthetics in literature. He talks about the romance period writers, the beauty in the language used by authors such as James Joyce and Professor Tolkien, and why he feels that contemporary writers should focus more on aesthetics in their work.  If you want to check out our work, head to www.drunkenpenwriting.com You can al...

We open things up by discussing how we dislike this new Hollywood trend of making villains likable or turning classic bad guys into anti-heroes. After that, we have a long conversation about the pitfalls of becoming a writer. The central ideas we discuss are the importance of effort, improving as a writer, and why it's more important to finish work as opposed to simply showing up and hoping for th...

Ever wonder how many different ways there are to write the exact same scene? How about a simple, two-sentence scene?  Today we do just that by giving examples of a simple scene written in the literal form, with similes, one using metaphor, and a lyrical style. Then we end things off by mimicking specific famous authors and how they would write that scene. We try David Foster Wallace, James Joyce,...

We're back with another Book of the Month! This time around, we're discussing the very first Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet, written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. We have a lot of fun breaking down the origin of Holmes and Watson, as well as how unique this first story was written.   

We discuss different ways of using dialogue tags and Caleb gives some examples from his current work in progress.  Check out our work at www.drunkenpenwriting.com

This is the end of the Inebriated Reading Challenge for Oblivion: Stories by David Foster Wallace. In this episode, we discuss the final story, The Suffering Channel. This is by far the poopiest story of the bunch. And we mean that literally. The Story is all about poop!   We give our overall rating of the collection and talk about what we took away from it, including the things we disliked most....

We start things off by talking about the new season of Stranger Things. After that, we cover one of Caleb's articles on developing your personal author's voice to better stand out from other writers. We discuss the importance of being unique enough in your writing that the readers will be able to recognize your work even if they don't know it's your story. Caleb also gives tips on how to find and...

In today's episode, we cover the stories "Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature" and "Oblivion" by David Foster Wallace. We go into more detail about the things we dislike in DFW's writing style and why we feel that you shouldn't always have to dig deep into a story to find the true meaning.