The 7am Novelist

Today, we’ve got the wonderful Lauren Aliza Green, author of The World AfterAlice , and she’ll be talking to us about practicing rewriting over revision and how to do it while the world seems to be falling apart. Lauren will also be talking about how she continues her writing community even after a big move abroad. Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. Missed...

Today we have another of our roundtables and we’re focusing on one of the hardest things for an author to get right: world building. Because this issue is complex, I’m going to hold two world building roundtables, one for writers trying to establish place in either a speculative work or a work that takes place in a non-U.S. location, and this one today about world building for historical fiction....

Today, I’m talking to author and book-seller Josh Cook about book bans, the beloved community space of bookstores, and what he thinks authors should know about book selling. Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform. I don’t charge for subscriptions, but if you’d like, you can supp...

Today, we’re talking to the wonderful Jyoti Chand who will be discussing the inspiration behind her YA graphic novel, Fitting Indian , why the story needed to be told, and how she built a vibrant online community where she is known as Mamajotes through authenticity and vulnerability. Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast versio...

Today, I’m lucky to get a chance to talk to Zee Carlstrom about their debut: Make Sure You Die Screaming. Zee practices a special kind of brainstorming for their projects, bringing together disparate styles, genres, ideas in a way they learned from the advertising world in order to make something fresh and new and avoid the regurgitating effects of AI on all of our creative pursuits. Interested in...

In our roundtable today, we’re focusing on the question: How does your book invite a reader’s interest, both intellectually and emotionally? What might that look like? What methods might an author use? And we’ve got four incredible writers joining us for the discussion: Nancy Crochiere, Janet Rich Edwards, Christine Murphy, and Hesse Phillips. Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is av...

Today, I enjoy talking to Beth Castrodale about her latest: The Inhabitants, an award-winning novel that brings new twists to one of my favorite sub-genre settings—a haunted house. And we discuss her efforts to bring Small Press Books and their authors more attention through her longtime project, the review website known as Small Press Picks . Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is av...

Today, I’m talking to author and art historian Libby Buck, whose first novel Port Anna, was released in July from Simon & Schuster. Libby is going to tell us how her art historian background helped her write her novel… and how it might help you. We’re also going to talk about the importance of museums as a vital source of community building and how they allow us to join together “in awe.” Watch a...

Today, we’ve got an incredible community organizer joining us, the co-founder of the London Writers' Salon , Matt Trinetti , and he’s going to tell us all about it. Want more from LWS, check out Writers' Hour Magazine . Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform. I don’t charge for...

Today we have the first of our roundtables and we’re focusing on the mysterious (or not so mysterious) REVERSE OUTLINE. What is it? Why might you want to do it (or not?) And what methods are the most helpful. And we’ve got four incredible writers joining us to round out our discussion: Desmond Hall, Christine Murphy, Patricia Park, and Hesse Phillips Watch a recording here. This audio/video versio...

Today, I’m talking to Karen Dukess fresh off of hearing that her latest novel, Welcome to Murder Week , has hit the USA Today bestseller list. We discuss how writing groups and writing retreats, including DIY ones, got her there and why the best advice is sometimes: “Just Keep Going.” Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast versi...

Today, I’m talking to Nova Ren Suma who found herself at a crossroads in her career and her long-chosen genre while working on her latest book Wake the Wild Creatures . Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for only a few weeks. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform. I don’t charge for subscriptions, but if you’d like, you can s...

Today, I’m happy to be talking to Stephanie Elizondo Griest about her search for community in the process of writing her latest book: Art Above Everything: One Woman’s Global Exploration of the Joys and Torments of a Creative Life. It was released on June 10. It’s a book that sees art as inheritance, dissent, devotion, revenge, celebration, and more. In the end, it asks: Is the all-encompassing qu...

Today we’re focusing on the idea of trying to get beyond the usual character development tricks in our writing. What does it really take to get a flesh and blood character who captures our imaginative on the page? And we’ve got four incredible writers joining us for the discussion: Allison Amend, Rachel Barenbaum, Julie Carrick Dalton, and Andrea Meyer. Watch a recording here. This audio/video ver...

Today, we’re talking to Alison Langley whose debut novel, Ilona Gets a Phone , has at last been released in the U.S . Alison and I discuss the methods she used to convey Hungarian history without leaving her characters behind and how that history rings a warning bell for today. Catch Alison and me at the Parkside Bookstore this Wednesday, July 9. Watch a recording of our interview here. This audio...

Today, I talk to esteemed editor and writer Christine Pride about her experience co-writing with novelist Jo Piazza, going it alone with two tricky timelines, and opening her home to women in need. Her latest book is All the Men I’ve Loved Again. Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for only a few weeks. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite po...

It’s simple: Come late, stay early, join however many days you like. We start at 7am EST with a prompt, turn off our mics to write together, come back at 8:20am to talk about how we did, sign off at 8:30, and repeat. It’s all about accountability, shutting out distractions, and getting things done. And it’s all free. "In 90 minutes you get camaraderie, accountability, a habit! And that habit compe...

Today, we hear from Milo Todd and Julie Carrick Dalton, close friends and supporters of each other, from their early novel drafts to their debuts and beyond. They’re going to talk about how they’ve done it, the work they do for others, and their hopes for the New Year. Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on y...

Today, we hear from Jennifer S. Brown and Randy Susan Meyers about how they’ve supported each other’s writing careers, the work they do both locally and nationally to help others, and how staying true to your characters is the best policy when writing politically-charged fiction. Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version ab...

Today, we hear from Josh Barkan whose fiction and nonfiction skirts our most pressing political issues, either directly or indirectly, and his advice about how other writers might do the same. Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform. To find Barkan’s latest book as well as many o...

Today, we get some hilarity (and good advice) from Hilary Isabelle Lahan and Christine Murphy about how the special nature of writing friendships and how to manage your own. Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform. To find their latest books here as well as many other books by ou...

Today, we hear from Grace Talusan and Calvin Hennick about how they made their unique writing partnership work. Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform. To find Talusan and Hennick’s debuts as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page . Want to join our Jan...

Today, we hear from Whitney Scharer and Celeste Ng about their friendship, how they’ve supported each other through the years as writers, the work they do in their communities to support other writers and their careers, and how they plan to keep working in the new year. Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on...

Today, we hear from writers and married couple Lori Ostlund and Anne Raeff and their work with the LGBTQI+ refugee organization, Rainbow Railroad, which also inspires their fiction and their writing process. Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform. To find Ostlund and Raeff’s lat...

Today, we hear from Theresa Okokon whose memoir in essays will be released on February 4. We talk about the power of delusions, controlling what your writing means to you, and letting go of the meaning others might try to assign to you. As Okokon says: “That’s not my problem.” Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above...