The Secret Library Podcast

Mike Hembury has a permission slip for you In speaking with Mike about his novel New Clone city and the wild ride of a story that it is, he mentioned that when he writes, he likes to cut out all the boring bits. This struck me as a piece of true freedom: as writers, some scenes feel like taking vitamins, thinks that have to be included, but what if that wasn't true? If you are not having fun writi...

I've loved Jasper Fforde for years and years. Ever since Lost in Austen, I was hooked on his witty book-nerd stories. A little bit sci-fi, a little bit fantasy, and a whole lot wacky dry British wit, it was an easy sell to see him speak at the Edinburgh Book Festival. But when he spoke about the devastating experience of writer's block he endured through the process of writing his latest novel, Ea...

Point of View is Everything Christopher Castellani told me this as we discussed the ins and outs of writing his latest novel, Leading Men. Not only does he believe that POV is everything, he went so far as to write a book on the topic in order to get it right for his novel. With so many books out these days with shifting POV and the tricky question of which one to use and how it impacts your book,...

I love getting meta on the show. Lauren Wilkinson was so much fun to talk to, not only because American Spy is such a satisfying read, but also because she was more than willing to dive into deep topics like figuring out what it means to tell the truth when writing fiction. I adore talking about craft on this show, but sometimes even more than craft it's important to go further into what it means...

Sometimes the siren call of ambition is just too seductive to resist. When Theresa Reed's publisher pitched TWO books for her to write last year, she thought "Sure- I can do that." What followed was a year of early mornings, a schedule that eliminated her social life AND a near meltdown when a draft got eaten by the cruel technology gods. Learn how Theresa calibrated her schedule to get all the wo...

When you don't sweat the small stuff and just write I was lucky enough to get connected to Caroline Wright and immediately wanted her to come on the show. She has that groovy job so many of us have dreamed of, food stylist, recipe creator and big glossy cookbook author. Swoon! However, there's much more than meets the eye to Caroline. Several years ago, she was diagnosed with a rare brain tumor an...

Bigger isn't always better for writing. Of course, we'd all love a movie deal for our books or a huge advance, but the actual process of writing isn't about making everything bigger and better. Paul Jarvis lives in the woods in Canada and has managed to make a successful living centered around writing for nearly twenty years. In this conversation, we explore what it means to be a Company of One as...

I honestly think of a more intimidating character to write than Anne Frank Not only is she an actual historical figure, she's also known and beloved by generations who've begun writing diaries -as I did- after reading hers. David Gillham had an idea for a book based on Anne Frank but taking an alternative historical approach, one in which Anne survived the Holocaust along with her father. he set t...

I thought I'd never do a solo episode   But after nearly 3 years of the show, it was time. Through the process of interviewing nearly 150 writers, I've learned a lot about the process of writing and publishing books, but I've never talked about the process of writing my own novel.   Moving into a new year, here are the goals and plans I'm putting in place for a successful writing year, as well as...

Talking to Ryder Carroll was a particularly meta experience   As both the creator of the Bullet Journal Method and author of a book with the same title, we not only got to talk about the process of writing a book about Bullet journaling, we also got to talk about using the Bullet Journal method in the process of writing a book about, you guessed it... The Bullet Journal Method. It almost hurts my...

As writers, we spend a lot of time thinking about how we can take care of our words. On the other side, we don't spend nearly as much time thinking about how words can take care of us as well. For the past 4 or 5 years, I've been picking a word for the year to guide me along in both my living and my writing. Since we work with language after all, why not use language for a supportive purpose as we...

What if you didn't have to be a scientist to write science fiction?   Guess what people, Mary Robinette Kowal is about to blow your mind. She has the most incredible background I have heard on the show so far: Jim Henson Puppeteer, Voiceover actor, and Hugo-award-winning Science Fiction author. YES. There is nothing I love more than writers who are multi-passionate and unafraid to pursue everythin...

It's obvious: I love having Mary Laura Philpott on the show.   I just couldn't wait to talk about her essay collection, I Miss You When I Blink, coming in spring 2019, so we dive into the experience she's having now: the book is finished and in the pipeline for publication, and the Messy Middle is in full effect. We talk about the feelings having the book out in the world with early readers brings...

A.J. Jacobs has been on my wishlist of guests for ages.   From The Know-It-All to The Year of Living Biblically, I have loved reading along through his lifestyle experiments that took on challenges I wish I was dedicated enough to undertake: reading the entire encyclopedia? Following all the rules in the Bible for a year even as a non-religious person? He has incredible guts to both start and fini...

I could have easily talked to Ada Palmer for Six Hours.   You might wish I had after listening to our conversation. Ada is the author of the Terra Ignota series, a science fiction epic saga that stole my will to read anything else the entire time I was in the clutches of the first book. I cannot wait for my next long flight to continue the journey.   Ada is also a history professor, and we talk ab...

Ever caught yourself thinking "I could never write like that?" when reading a published book?   It's so important to remember that a lot goes on behind the scenes between writing "the end" and seeing the book out in the world. It's hard to remember that beyond the drafts the author goes through, there are also rounds of edits that follow.   This week, I chat with the founder and two editors from N...

By Day, Sarah St. Vincent is a researcher and advocate, but by night and early morning, she is a novelist. Sarah St. Vincent studied law at the University of Michigan and now works for the US Program of Human Rights Watch, specializing in national security, surveillance and domestic law enforcement.   At the same time as working in this important area, Sarah has been working on the novel, Ways to...

With hundreds of audiobooks narrated, Rachel Fulginiti was the perfect guest to lead us through the wild world of audio. This episode will take you through the entire process, from finding potential narrators to audition, how to hire them, pricing, the timeline from booking to recording to receiving the finished product. Full of tips to get the best audiobook possible, you'll be ready to make the...

Every year November 1 brings the same question to writers: to NaNo or not to NaNo? Tasha Harrison and I dive into NaNo 2.0: tips and hacks for writers looking to do more than just bang out 50,000 words of a brand new project. Already working on a book? Great. We'll walk you through ways to approach the madness of NaNoWriMo so you come out the other side with something you're proud of. Here's hopin...

When Alexandra Franzen first wrote her novel, So This is the End, she wasn't ready to publish it with the wide world.   She released it as a gift - a free download she gave to her mailing list. She was terrified it really wasn't that good.   A torrent of replies came in, sharing how much the book had moved them. She got braver and put it up for sale on her site. Then, over a year later, she though...

When I found out Susan Orlean's latest was called The Library Book it took me exactly 2 minutes to invite her on the show to discuss it. Bless her, she said yes less than 5 minutes later. This book is SO GOOD. Granted, I am an easy sell with a podcast called The Secret Library. But this book has arson, crazy characters, scandal, history, and everything a book nerd could ever want. We discuss the p...

When I did 100 readings a few years ago, a friend asked if I could read for her writing project instead of her life. We tried it out and were amazed at the results. After exploring a bit, I discovered that the very brilliant Jessa Crispin had been reading tarot for writers for years. Her book, The Creative Tarot has been a favorite ever since and I was thrilled she was open to coming on and discus...

This conversation was absolute and total heaven.   Much like Simon Van Booy's latest book, the story collection "The Sadness of beautiful Things," this episode covers a wide variety of topics. However, even as we moved from beginnings, to endings, to the thought and work it took to get various stories right, we kept coming back to one central theme" what does it take to write a good story?   Simon...

When Allie Rowbottom lost her mother to cancer, she dove headfirst into writing. Having already completed an MFA and a Ph. D. in Creative Writing, Allie was no stranger to writing but something changed after her mother died. She felt an increased urgency to tell the story her mother had invested many years of her own life writing: the story of the women and generations impacted by the money made f...

How to Write Non-Fiction Non-fiction books are a different animal than fiction, with as many reasons to write them as there are categories. With more people than ever wanting to reach a wider audience, the appeal for writing nonfiction is clear.  Show favorite Joanna Penn of the Creative Penn was the perfect guest to speak about how to write nonfiction well, and all the steps to take to make your...