Somebody Write This

"In Camden Town, the most famous U.S. Olympic wrestling champion, looks out of her window." Well, that's not a whole lot to go on. What happens next? Why is this woman in Camden Town? How does she encounter a psychopathic serial murderer? Author Megan Darragh is here to help us sort it out. You can follow Megan on social media: Twitter- @megandarragh3 Instagram- @megandarraghbooks Facebook- Megan...

"Three cute little old ladies, living in the twentieth century, try to help each other refuse to kill people." Why is refusing to kill people difficult for these little old ladies? How do they help each other? Are they the wealthy ones mentioned in the title? Our guest Vernon Greene joins us to make it all makes sense! Check out his YouTube series A Fan's View (on Twitter @a_fansview) and you can...

"A monster film where a dead body helps the penguins embark on a road trip." How can a dead body help anyone? Is it the monster of the monster film? And how do the sewers of London play into this? Our guest Cynthia Hand helps us figure out these questions and more! You can check out her website at cynthiahandbooks.com (or the Lady Janies series at ladyjanies.com) or follow her on Instagram @cynthi...

"A lonely sociopath hired to manipulate a parole officer discovers just how dark mysterious artifacts are." How are they trying to manipulate a parole officer? What are these mysterious artifacts? Is one of them a stolen script? Our guest C. Rae D'Arc is here to help us out! You can follow her blog at https://craedarc.wordpress.com/, follow her on Instagram @craedarc, or find her books on Amazon.

"Jabba the Hutt must choose between his desire to find a unique and beautiful therapeutic outlet and the responsibilities of receiving daily visits from his downstairs neighbors." ...Well, that's a mouthful to begin with, and our guest Josh Garcia-Cotter has some ideas of his own he wants to work in, so before we know it we have something wild and wonderful in front of us! You can follow our guest...

"A former British Army officer arrives in Arizona, 1873." What is this British Army office doing in Arizona? How is 1873 significant? And who is this colleague who's been murdered? Glad we've got our guest Ono Northey here to flesh out this seemingly simple story. Check out his website at ononorthey.com and his book series, The Shard Chronicles, on Amazon!

"The infamous story of Frankenstein, who gets Santa's flight off the ground on a worm farm in California." What are Santa and Frankenstein doing in a story together? And what are they doing on a worm farm? And... there are rocket ships here too? Fortunately, our guest Andy Luke is here to make it all make sense -- or get as close as we can. Check out his website at andy-luke.com to find his work a...

"Her peers join forces with a soldier and an extremely burned-out Manhattan ambulance paramedic to fall in love with a beautiful young woman." Whose peers? Is everyone trying to fall in love? And what is the title referring to? Author Justine Manzano helps us work all this out! Follow her work at justinemanzano.com or @justine_manzano on Instagram and Twitter!

"A pop star finds her love in a confused girl through drastic measures." What kind of drastic measures? Why is the girl so confused? And what on earth is that title about? Fortunately, our guest Katie Ahnberg is here to help us sort this out! Follow her on Instagram at @things.katie.did.

"A small-time bank robber and Woody Harrelson fulfill the promise to their recently deceased best friend in Russia." What? What is Woody Harrelson doing in our story? And in Russia? And with that title? Well, thank goodness we have Lorien Megill to help us make sense out of this wild beginning. Check out Lorien's blog at https://101digressions.wordpress.com/

"A small town sheriff fights through grief and trauma to regain her mythical shark." Where is this shark coming from? Is the trauma shark-related? And... what do we even do with the title? Fortunately we have Jake White to help us flesh this out, and he's no stranger to following through on wild ideas. Make sure to check out his fantasy serial A Many Tale at www.amanytale.com to see how he does it...

"In order to pursue the Holy Grail, an ecstasy dealer must put aside their differences." Differences with whom? Is this the literal Holy Grail? And who on earth is this cabinet minister who's never been released? Jennie's sister, Katie Castaldi, joins us to figure out what in the world's going on with this story. Check out Katie's nail wraps at girllookatmynails.com!

Due to tech difficulties, we have no new Somebody Write This podcast this week... but we DO have an exclusive sneak preview of a new podcast by our co-host Hannah: The Bot Canon, in which she gives artificial intelligence the opening of a classic work of literature and lets it complete it. This first episode features a rewrite of J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit," so give it a listen and subscribe to...

"A London gangster is transformed into a celebrated actor when he makes his way to London with revenge on his mind." Isn't a London gangster already in London? How does he become a celebrity? And whose father's artistic work is at stake here? Thankfully we have horror author/podcaster Jack Pierce with us to work through this plot! You can find him @jackpiercebooks on social media, and be sure to c...

In this week's bonus episode, our last guest Connor talks more about country music as a storytelling platform, adapting those stories to other media, and how country music connects to oral storytelling traditions. Plus, we get a fun follow-up listener note on our "Major Struggling Holiday Traditions" episode -- turns out we may have taken more inspiration from real life than we knew!

"An aging gambler on a losing streak who lives with her longtime boyfriend Francis changes the course of history in 1800s England." Who is this aging female gambler in 1800s England? How is Francis important to this story? And who on earth is Homer? Thank you to Connor Adamson for joining us and working through this wild story! You can check out Connor's writing about film on the Flickchart blog:...

"A painter's muse must survive a wild 24 hours during which a journey quickly turns into a settling of old scores." What old scores need to be settled? Is the painter part of this wild 24 hours too? And is the muse named Quint or Britt? Our author guest Kit Falbo is with us to help pull out the pieces of this story! You can find him at kitfalbo.com and find his books on Amazon.

Starting this week, we're releasing bonus episodes on our off Thursdays, giving you FULL interviews with our guests and sharing podcast updates and what listeners have shared with us. This week you get to hear everything we had to edit out of our interview with Jenneh last week for time, so if you were still curious about narrative therapy and the way it works, give this a listen!

"Equally old teammates become increasingly jealous of a prisoner-of-war's inconsolable grief." Why would somebody be jealous of someone's grief? Why does their equal age matter? And how does the minivan become part of it? Thankfully, our guest Jenneh Sheetz is here to help us make sense of this confusing story!

"Lisa is a ventriloquist at a party, and married to a criminal. Things get complicated when she is neither naive nor attractive."  What kind of criminal? Do they do human sacrifices? There's a LOT going on in this plot -- fortunately our guest Nate Adams joins us to pull out the most important pieces and see how they fit together!

"The U.S. President fights the champ on a rapidly flooding mud island."  Our initial question here is: What? And also... what? Immersive storyteller Micki Cottam joins us to help us make sense out of this very confusing story. Follow her on Instagram and Facebook @mickicottam.

"Matt is wrongly implicated in a series of murders actually done by a roofer."  How does Matt prove his innocence? Why is Matt implicated in the first place? And what is the house of conflicted memories? Fortunately we've got our guest, author Bonnie Quinn, to help us untangle it! You can find her on Amazon as the author Bonnie Quinn, or on Twitter @bonnie_quinn.

"A rivalry develops between a teen-aged Australian heiress and a spoiled English girl." Who are these rich girls? What causes their rivalry? And is one of them named Bart? Thankfully we have our substitute co-host Kate Porter and our special guest Cary Kreitzer to figure out what to do with this! You can find Cary on the web on her website (cfkreitzer.com) or on Twitter and Instagram as @cfkreitze...

"Feisal is one of the Cambridge Spies. But when their long-lost leader remembers what he did with the painting, poverty and terminal illness overwhelm her." The same Cambridge Spies that existed in reality? What painting? How is Feisal involved now? Is the poverty and terminal illness somehow related to the painting? So many questions! Jennie's on vacation this week, so we're relying on our substi...

Hannah needs a little more time to finish editing this week's podcast, so you get to hear again one of our very favorite older episodes from the early days in 2019. We'll be back in two weeks - enjoy!