So I'm Writing a Novel...

Alasdair Stuart  is a professional enthusiast, pop culture analyst, and writer behind the award-nominated weekly newsletter,  The Full Lid , as well as a multiple Hugo finalist and co-owner of the Escape Artists podcast network. He's also a really kind and fascinating man, whom Oliver greatly enjoyed chatting with about building your own podcast empire, financing such an empire, balancing writing...

Oliver finally dives into the musical side of sword & sorcery by speaking with author & composer Steve Babb, of the band Glass Hammer!   https://stephenrbabb.com ( FB ) www.glasshammer.com ( Twitter , Youtube ) Buy Skallagrim – In The Vales of Pagarna The Lay of Lirazel   www.soimwritinganovel.com PATREON: www.patreon.com/soimwritinganovel BUY OLIVER'S BOOKS: https://www.oliverbrackenbury.com/stor...

Oliver has a great time talking with Kirk A. Johnson about his new sword & soul story collection, The Obanaax and Other Tales of Heroes and Horrors. We cover the afternoon movies which helped form Kirk's idea of what heroes should be, his own first collision with Conan and Frazetta, why martial arts films were such a big thing in the black community back in the day, is Robin Hood S&S?, Fafhrd & Gr...

Oliver experimented with sending six S&S tales to a younger, contemporary fantasy fan, then got her reactions, and discussed promoting sword & sorcery to younger, more diverse audiences. Among other things, we discuss the work of Robin Hobb, the dilution of the term "sword & sorcery" and other branding issues, living in a character's head, struggling to connect with Tower of the Elephant, reading...

David C. Smith remains a lovely and talented author with whom Oliver spoke for so long we decided to split the interview into two parts. Here's that second part! In this half we discuss the 80's sword & sorcery publishing implosion, the importance of adapting to changing tastes and not just telling the same limited range of stories ad infinitum, how expanding something - like a genre's possibiliti...

David C. Smith is an author whose career began in the 1970’s during the second wave of sword & sorcery, he still writes to this very day, and Oliver felt very lucky to get the chance to have this epic, first-ever two-part interview with him! In this first part we cover David's original aspirations to work in film, the incredible role having the right English teacher can play in your life, discover...

It's the one year anniversary show! What have I learned? How have I benefited? What's coming up next? Feat. Behind the scenes stuff on my launching this podcast/novel project, and how it's been this past year, including details on the technical stuff, promotion, the Patreon, a listener question about liking your antagonist more than your protagonist, and more. Wanna support the show ? There's Patr...

Oliver discusses with Mike the ways anxiety has affected them when trying to write, and how Mike overcame a thirty year block to end up making his first ever short story submission! Subjects they cover include playing Dungeons & Dragons leading to creative writing, the potential long-term impact of complimenting your child's creativity, the validation brought by writing, a state of flow found when...

Oliver and Nicole Emmelhainz discuss her essay on feminism and sword & sorcery, " A Sword-Edge Beauty as Keen as Blades: The Gender Dynamics of Sword-and-Sorcery "! This covers things like Weird Tales Magazine, Robert E. Howard and Conan, Jirel as "Alice in Wonderland with a big sword", Howard and Lovecraft's correspondence with each other as well as fellow Weird Tales writers like Moore, S&S writ...

Returning champion Nat Webb joins us to discuss his recent founding of a literary magazine, Wyngraf! Their discussion covers alternate titles for the magazine, defining cozy fantasy & backpack fantasy, conflict in stories and other things that can drive story, writing delicious food scenes, the cozy fantasy scene on Reddit and elsewhere, getting into short stories, his first submission and rejecti...

Oliver takes you through the end of a friendship in this outline of the final Voe & Tiravam story for the novel. Among other things he discusses an epiphany he had which caused him to look at how his outlining had evolved over this first half of the novel, plotting an emotional journey for the reader, and being reminded of how there are certain things you're only able to discover in writing prose!...

Oliver also gets into an outlining snarl which is solved by his trying a whole new method of working out what happens, when it happens, and what the reader learns when it happens. Tom McHenry comic whose fourth panel Oliver mentions. Chalicotherex is a fun follow on Twitter . www.soimwritinganovel.com PATREON: www.patreon.com/soimwritinganovel BUY OLIVER'S BOOKS: https://www.oliverbrackenbury.com/...

Author, and Associate Editor of Witch House magazine, Chase A. Folmar joins Oliver to discuss his upcoming sword & sorcery novella, Frolic on the Amaranthyn. Chase and Oliver discuss his sword & sorcery and creative writing origin story, that sweet spot of horror and action, mood and plot, finding your voice as an author, the importance of reading outside the genre you write most, elevator pitchin...

Cora Buhlert is a Hugo-nominated author and genre scholar who Oliver was lucky enough to meet through his research for the novel, and he'd love for you to meet her too! Oliver and Cora discuss her falling in love with the very American body of work known as pulp fiction while she grew up travelling the world, the survival of dime novels in modern Germany, the irresistible pull of forbidden fiction...

Oliver has a fun, informative discussion with author Ryan North , whose new book " How to Take Over the World: Practical Schemes and Scientific Solutions for the Aspiring Supervillain " is now available for pre-order. They discuss having one footnote for each day of the year, cramming more jokes in the margin to make a comic have more bang for your buck, experimenting with the limits of what a for...

Oliver chats with Philippine author Dariel Quiogue about his sword & silk novel, "Sword of the Four Winds"! Their discussion covers portrayal of war elephants in history and stories, Alexander the Great being a war criminal to some, Carter & De Camp (and Nyburg) Conan tales, Howard Lamb's Khlit the Cossack stories (a huge influence on Robert E Howard), drawing from Asian history for his stories -...

Oliver speaks with the editor of "Whetstone: Amateur Magazine of Sword & Sorcery", covering a wide variety of subjects germane to running a semi-pro literary magazine, online community, and good old sword & sorcery. Oliver and Jason get to some INTERESTING places in their far-reaching discussion, including subjects like: writing workshops, working class literature, modernist literature, R.A. Salva...

This episode will introduce you to fantasy & horror author Karl Edward Wagner, as well as his iconic sword & sorcery supervillain, Kane! Oliver and Jordan discuss subjects like The Carcosa Papers, the magic of seeing author's original notebooks (and fantasizing about others feeling that way seeing yours), getting deep into why Kane stands out from other well read S&S protagonists, Kane as villain,...

In this story consult, featuring a personal sword & sorcery tale by Matt John, we discuss a story which was very polished, then submitted to a magazine and...rejected. Happens to pretty much all stories, but what do you do when it happens to you? Matt sought out an editor, Oliver, and in this episode you can hear them discuss strategies for Matt to consider in the next draft of his story. Hey, did...

Trying something new for the show, Oliver is sitting down with author Nathaniel Webb to consult him on his latest work-in-progress, a sword & sorcery short story! After a reading of the story so far, and a little getting-to-know-you, you'll get to listen in on a proper story consult where Oliver will discuss Nat's story, focusing in particular on his main concern - how to best weave fun worldbuild...

In three acts, Oliver shares the outlining of this second story in the sword & sorcery novel's second quarter, an escalating farce built around the theft of a saintly relic from one church within the same religion as the other, who has hired Voe & Tiravam to perpetrate said theft. Ah, if only it were so straightforward as all that... Oliver covers the joys of finding the piece of research which un...

In this episode Oliver tells you all about how he outlined the origin story for his protagonist's new friendship, a friendship that would be at the heart of a whole quarter of the novel's stories. This involves discussion of consulting others when you're feeling lost trying to make a vital decision, puppetry (and avoiding obvious metaphors), elements by which two friends might bond, differing atti...

Will Oliver succeed in finally naming his dang fantasy city by the end of the episode??? Oliver takes you through the process that got him to where he felt he knew enough about the fictional city where he'd be setting no less than four of his novel's stories in. He covers repurposing research from an older project, choosing when and how to shape setting with theme, when he decided a novel wasn't t...

Oliver takes you with him through the process by which he designed a new best friend for his novel's protagonist, a co-protagonist for the next four stories he has to outline, when Voe and this new best buddy will have swashbuckling, thieving adventures loosely inspired by the Fafhrd & Grey Mouser stories of Fritz Leiber! The writing book Oliver mentions in this episode, and has mentioned before,...

A lil' recap of the podcast & novel is followed by Oliver sharing how he figured out the most top-tier planning of his novel's middle, particularly its first half, and how it would fit into the novel as a whole! This includes discussion of "how much inspiration do you want to take from another author's works?", how to keep your thoughts organized when you finally get to a part of writing a story t...