Uncorking a Story

I believe that, no matter how old we are, we never stop trying to secure the approval of one or both of our parents. While my twin brother was always searching for our father’s affections, I was always trying to vie for my mother’s approval in everything I did. Today’s guest, Brian O’Hare can relate. Imagine having a larger than life character as a father—someone who casts so wide a shadow, you mi...

Most people who now make their living as authors had a day job at some point. It is common for me to interview former teachers, professors, journalists and, interestingly, lawyers, but today was the first time I got to interview a former theoretical physicist—and there was nothing theoretical about this conversation! Meet Dilani Kahawala: Dilani earned her Ph. D. in theoretical physics from Harvar...

For so many of us writers, the actual act of writing is a solitary process. We write alone and maybe, after a while we will share something with a confidant or perhaps our agent. Of course, at the end of the first draft it will go to an editor and, at that point, writing becomes more of a collaborative process. Well, today’s guests do things a little bit differently—Alli Frank and Asha Youmans met...

How well do you remember high school? Chances are you are more likely to remember the big events that happened—prom, the homecoming dance where you spilled spiked fruit punch all over your crisp white shirt*, and graduation, but would you remember something as random as someone coming up to you and saying something off beat? Probably not, right? Well, my guest today not only remembered a random (a...

Parenting is supposed to come naturally to us, right? Especially moms! After the baby (or babies in my case) arrives, those motherhood instincts are supposed to kick in and you are supposed to know exactly what to do, right? Wrong! Postpartum depression is real, and many mothers don’t realize they are living with it. This leads to feelings of shame, guilt, and oftentimes resentment. Now you may be...

In my opinion, werewolves don’t get enough attention in the horror genre. Vampires are a bit higher on the food chain as are traditional slashers, but when was the last time you could point to a good werewolf character in a horror novel? Well, the wait is over with Rachel Harrison’s Such Sharp Teeth! Meet Rachel Harrison: Rachel Harrison took the horror genre by storm with debut novel The Return,...

After interviewing almost two hundred authors on Uncorking a Story I’ve come to believe that the real superpower authors wield isn’t their ability to string words together, but to find stories simply by paying attention to everyday occurrences and being very curious about them. I was reminded of this while interviewing the celestial Barbara Linn Probst. Meet Barbara Linn Probst: Barbara Linn Probs...

Today’s guest, Clare Pooley, and I share a few things in common. We both have backgrounds in advertising, we were both bloggers before becoming authors, and we both appreciate the music of Abba, which my inner heavy metal loving teenager would never admit. She recently joined me to talk about her latest novel, Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting. Meet Clare Pooley: Clare spent twenty years in the w...

I remember being called home from school during my senior year in High School because my grandmother, who lived with us at the time, had slipped into a coma. When I got home, I wanted to see her but my cousin said not to get my hopes up as she had been unresponsive for some time. Undeterred, I climbed up the stairs and sat by her bedside. As if on cue, her eyes opened and said, “My Michael, I’ve b...

U2’s seminal album Achtung Baby was released during my senior year in high school. At the time, I was a huge fan and didn’t know what to make of this new release as it was so different from their earlier work. Once I heard the song Mysterious Ways, though, I really started to dig what I was hearing. I can honestly say I love that album even more today than I did back then. What’s the connection be...

I spent most of my corporate career working in the area of market research. In short, I talk to consumers for a living and then turn their stories into narratives my clients can use for better decision making. When I think about it, Robert Kerbeck did something with the same intentions, but went about it in a completely different manner—and I was delighted to uncork his story. Meet Robert Kerbeck:...

As writers, we are eager for feedback and validation that something we’ve birthed has value and waiting for it, to paraphrase the late Tom Petty, is sometimes the hardest part. Today’s guest, Ali Michael, Ph. D. echoed that in something she said during our conversation, but make no mistake, this really isn’t a conversation about the writing process. It’s a conversation about her path to working to...

I remember being a kid never rushing away after big holiday dinners as I enjoyed listening to the adults tell stories. My twin brother was always bored by such things, but I loved hearing the stories of my grandmother coming to America from Italy and what it was like not being able to speak the language. She told me how the Italians would mime out the things they needed at the grocery store and my...

I love connecting with fellow marketers. I love it even more when those fellow marketers are also fellow podcasters! I’m not ashamed to admit it, when today’s guest, Sarah Panus, started talking about upper funnel content strategies and how data is one of the three pillars of a brand storytelling framework, my heart started to race a bit more! If you are seeking a successful career in marketing, a...

Way back in 1985, my sister Mia took my twin brother Jimmy and me to see Back to the Future. Shortly after leaving the theater, her car ran out of gas and my brother started balling his eyes out as he thought we’d be left for dead on the side of the road. Fortunately, we were only in Darien, Connecticut and a block away from a gas station so disaster was averted. I bring this up for two reasons; 1...

I remember the days before our triplets could read and I’d spend at least an hour between the three of them reading stories every night. By the time I got to my son, who always wanted to be last so he could get “more daddy time,” my eyes would be so heavy that I’d fall asleep with a book over my nose (usually it was Harold and the Purple Crayon). Today’s guest, Maya Smart, reminded me of the impor...

One thing stayed with me after my conversation with Joy Jordan Lake. She opened up to me about how a fear of failure as a writer prevented her from fully embracing it as a career. Don’t get me wrong, most authors have a challenging time making ends meet solely by their writing, but there’s a difference between having a day job and treating writing as a hobby vs. treating writing as a passion. It’s...

Prior to meeting Nobel Prize winning author Abdulrazak Gurnah a few weeks ago, the only thing I knew about his home country of Zanzibar was that Freddie Mercury was born there and Billy Joel wrote a song by that name, though I’m pretty sure it was about a nightclub in New York City. I was unaware of the Zanzibar Revolution and the dangerous living conditions that caused Abdulrazak to flee his home...

Do you wonder why bad things always seem to happen to good people? Do you want to know how to overcome adversity and become successful despite terrible odds? Would you like to know what a parkway on Long Island has to do with two evil dictators? Well, today’s Guest, Steve Borys, has been struggling with these questions all his life and graciously let me uncork his story. Meet Steve Borys: Steve Gr...

Many years ago I was taking guitar lessons with a great teacher named Ken Volpe, or Master Ken as I liked to call him. When shooting the breeze over a song one day, I said to him, “I don’t like the solo. I would do something differently.” He said, “Oh really. Well, put those minor pentatonic scales to use and come up with something different.” I simply couldn’t do it. Why am I sharing this embarra...

When I was eighteen, I was very clear on what I wanted to be when I grew up—a psychologist. Two people are to blame for my fascination in this social science; Mr. Michael Roper, who taught Intro to Psychology at my high school and Thomas Harris, who wrote Silence of the Lambs. The former was an amazing teacher who brought the subject to life in such a way that I was captivated to read everything I...

I’ll admit it, I became a subscriber to Sirius XM when Howard Stern left terrestrial radio for satellite. One evening, though, on a long drive from Boston to Connecticut, I came across The Catholic Channel and listened to a program called The Busted Halo show, in which the host, Fr. Dave Dwyer, took calls from the audience who posed questions of faith. The host had a very relaxed and very humorous...

Sometimes when I’m writing I get into what I call "the zone." Time seems to stop and I’m only pulled out of it when my presence is missed, which is a nice way of saying someone is yelling at me to rejoin the family. Lauren Forsythe calls this catching a wave, and I’m totally stealing that metaphor. Meet Lauren Forsythe: By day, Lauren is a content marketing manager, finding ways to get writing int...

I’ve interviewed a lot of lawyers turned authors on Uncorking a Story but who I haven’t interviewed is a lawyer turned author who received a call from former President Bill Clinton to shoot the breeze about his work. That all changed the day I interviewed David Pepper Meet David Pepper: David Pepper is the author of The Voter File, The People's House, and The Wingman, all of which feature Jack Sha...

For the past twenty years, I’ve been the father of triplets and so much of my identity is tied to my role as father. But what happens when they fly the nest and begin living independently? I’ll admit it, I had a bit of an identity crisis when they went off to college and it took me some time to identify with other parts of my identity that I had suppressed or even forgotten. Today’s guest, Giovann...