People Who Do Things

Laura and John discuss the do's and don'ts of dialogue in writing, from proper punctuation to sounding natural. They also talk about tense and point-of-view, head-hopping, and the upcoming AWP22 writer's conference in Philadelphia.

Laura talks to her good friend Elizabeth Prinvault about her work as a journalist in Paris and as an author/adaptor translating American TV and movies into French.

With Laura on travel in Paris, we talk about creativity derived by where you are (like Paris), writing during global events, how to process new ideas that come at unexpected times, how we handle, and how different people have different versions of their home cities.

Today we talk to Kitty Zeldis, author of Not Our Kind , a look at 1940's New York City and the unexpected friendship between two women, one Jewish and one gentile. We discuss researching the era, everything from fashion to anti-semitism. Kitty is also author of several of the children's Who Was picture book series as Yona Zeldis McDonough.

We speak with USA Today bestselling romance author Alexx Andria about getting her first manuscript bought by Harlequin, writing with pseudonyms, how romance novels have changed over the years, and her new suspense thriller trilogy under the name JH Leigh.

We have a great chat with Brian Hutchison about the podcast he wrote and stars in, I Still Think About You , a psychological suspense based on real events from his life. Also on being in a Tony award winning play with Zachary Quinto, Jim Parsons, and Matt Bomer. 

Laura and John talk about the different ways of getting words out of your head and onto the page, from longhand on paper, Microsoft Word, Pages, and the software platform Scrivener.

We talk with writer, playwright, actor Ronnie Marmo about his one-man show I'm Not a Comedian...I'm Lenny Bruce , about what it's like working with director Joe Mantegna (Criminal Minds, Simpsons, Spenser), getting the approval of Bruce's daughter Kitty Bruce about his portrayal of her father, being naked on stage, and the impact Lenny Bruce had on comedy and language.

Laura and John talk to screenwriter Hannah Bos about her new HBO series Somebody Somewhere , starring Bridget Everett, about the challenges of shooting during a pandemic, writing with a partner, her film Driveways, working with Brian Dennehy, and the allure of old shopping malls.

This week Laura and John talk with songwriter, musician, and new father Jack Grace about creating after having a baby (during a pandemic, no less), how the music industry has changed, the changing genres of music, the Beatles and Spinal Tap, and getting an unexpected wad of cash from Neil Young.  

On the first episode of 2022, Laura and John talk about the old writing idea of "write what you know" and what that really means, using editors and writing groups, and more.

In this extra episode to end 2021, Laura and John talk about the last year (or two), losing Joan Didion, and what we are planning for 2022!

Laura and John talk about the research that goes into writing, from traveling to other cities and countries, to checking routes on Google Maps, or talking to ghosts in restaurant bathrooms.

Laura and John talk with Michael McGlone. Actor, writer, comedian, musician, poet... he does it all. From his breakout role in Brothers McMullen to his upcoming part in an episode of SWAT on CBS, McGlone has been working hard in showbiz for 20 years. He has three studio albums of music and a long list of credits on IMDB. 

A special episode featuring Michael McGlone doing a reading from his novel, Cal. Music: Dreams Of War  by Rafael Krux Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/5404-dreams-of-war- License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

After Laura and John's talk with Claudia Zuluaga, they invited her to record part of her novel Fort Starlight to add to the episode. They then decided to let it stand on its own and made a new episode out of it. Please enjoy this reading of part of Chapter 2 of Fort Starlight , read by the author, Claudia Zuluaga.

To create, you must be inspired by...something. Laura and John talk about what inspires them to sit down and write as well as inspirations for specific works. 

Laura and John talk to Claudia Zuluaga, author of the novel Fort Starlight, about her experiences with her first novel compared to work on her second, teaching college students writing, balancing a work/family/writing life, and more!

Welcome to the first episode of People Who Do Things with Laura Buchwald and John H. Matthews!  In this initial outing, Laura and John talk about how they got started writing, inspiration, writer's block, and much more.