Writers Drinking Coffee

We’re thrilled to have a long sit down with the amazing Ellen Klages. Did she really win an award for everything she’s ever written? Sure seems like it. Let’s hear about her work with children’s fiction along with the Nebula win, and every major award nomination. Wow. How does she do it? … Continue... Episode 53 – Interview with Ellen Klages

We’ve been at this a year now! Happy anniversary to us! In celebration of being alive for a year, we welcome new Nebula Award winner Cat Rambo! She’s also the past president of SFWA. … Continue... Episode 52 – Interview with Cat Rambo

We interviewed Kevin Andrew Murphy, a frequent contributor to the Wild Cards series edited by George R. R. Martin. Kevin talks about his various Wild Card projects from short stories to graphic novels, and what he's up to lately. … Continue... Episode 51 – A Wild Card

As we keep maintaining that there are many career paths open to the aspiring writer, we’re focusing today on technical writing for fun and profit. We interviewed Paul Gustafson of Expert Support to hear about his views on what makes a good technical writer. … Continue... Episode 50 – Tech Writing for Fun and Profit

From space opera to fantasy and YA, Kate writes great character-driven stories for everyone. We contacted Kate from the ground-to-space zoom medium on Planet Hawaii, and with minor robotic interference here and there managed to get her to tell us how she does it. … Continue... Episode 49 – Kate Elliott Totally Rules

Alone. All alone. Jeannie considers how much she misses drinking coffee with her cohosts, and reads you a short science fiction story about a space maneuver called The Rising Sun … Continue... Episode 48 – The Rising Sun

Today we zoom into focusing on writing song lyrics and music. Our guest Jeff Brown is a singer and songwriter who talks about his writing process, how he got started writing his own music, and inspiration as well as methods. … Continue... Episode 47 – With a Song in my Heart

Today we sat down with Hugo-award winning author David D. Levine to talk about how he got started in writing from short stories up to his latest novels. Grab a coffee and come learn his path to being a novelist, from engineering to fiction. … Continue... Episode 46 – David Levine

We welcome John Baltisberger - horror writer, poet, publisher, and all-around amazing guy. John made the leap of faith into being full-time involved in the writing biz, and has enjoyed success through thrilling, chilling stories, hard work, and a lot of diversification. … Continue... Episode 45 – Oh, the Horror!

The Jeff Berry? Well, -A- Jeff Berry. Redeeming the name, we bring you the story of a man who studied Computers so he wouldn't have to wait tables, then ran away to New York to be an actor and playwright. Now he lives in England, and writes Medieval cooking articles as well as plays and stories. … Continue... Episode 44 – An Interview with Jeff Berry

Jeannie and John sit down with the splendid Madeleine Robins, author of multiple books and series. She talks about how she got started writing, her inspirations, and the constant love of research that helps her write great historic fiction. … Continue... Episode 43 – An Interview with Madeleine Robins

We have the answers – what were the questions? With so many universities and classes starting to have their various curricula online, we shopped around to look at various definitions and opinions on what elements make up stories of varying lengths. Then we throw out some of our favorite stories and compare against the formula, to test for accuracy. … Continue... Episode 42 – Life, the Univer...

Online writing sessions with friends has produced some interesting questions, and we chat about them today. How does the identity of the writer make a difference? How does identity inform the writing, and how does it portray the characters? We invite Alice Cornwell and Tiana Hanson back to the coffee couch to discuss the topic. … Continue... Episode 41 – The Writer’s Identity

Welcoming back Sandra Brenchley to chat about amulets, charms, talismans, and other fetishes. To this day, everyone has a lucky charm of some sort. What do they mean in antiquity? What should they mean for the characters in your story? #WhatsInYourGrisGrisBag? … Continue... Episode 40 – A Charming Fetish

Here we are, all safely quarantined. How do we stay focused on our creativity? How do we keep creating art? Can we use these current events as inspiration for characters, for scenarios, for plot points? I think we can. Have a cup of coffee with John and Jeannie as they chat on the topic of creativity in a stifling, stressful environment. … Continue... Episode 39 – Podcasting in the Tim...

John sits down with Steaphen Fick, a master of sword fighting, to talk about their favorite books on fighting and weapons as well as how to think about choreographing fight scenes. … Continue... Episode 38 – Interview with a Sword Master

In which the coffee club writers sit down and talk about Poetry. From romance to horror to comedy, and even mixed up therein, we look at all the forms and nature of poems we collectively love and memorize for no reason. … Continue... Episode 37 – A Rose by any other Poetry

When you're world building for a story or novel, you need to figure out how magic works. The coffee shop writers chat about how to build something coherent, something that makes sense, and the pondering of magic that doesn't get in the way of a story. Or how magic can become a story. And how red coffee is the best coffee. … Continue... Episode 36 – Systemic Magic

Are you writing a historic fantasy which contains divination or prognostication? Want to make it more historically accurate? Sandra Brenchley joins the coffee club to talk about her studies into mediaeval divination, soothsaying, and other prognostication devices. … Continue... Episode 35 – Divination and Prophecy

With special guest L. Douglas Garrett. Doug writes novels about the life of an operative in various parts of the world. From dirt, tribal loyalties, and the importance of family, he describes bringing real life experience as an operative to create realism in his thrillers. … Continue... Episode 34 – Knife Fight to the Death, baby!

Chaz, Karen, and Jeannie sit around talking about their favorite crime and mystery novels. What makes a crime or mystery work? How has the genre changed over time? What is believable vs. credible for the writer? … Continue... Episode 33 – Crime and Mystery

Over the Christmas holidays we collected ghost stories. Here's one told with pictures, narrated by Heather Rose Jones herself. … Continue... Episode .5 – Captain’s Log, Supplemental

In which we talk about the motivational power of the deadline, and missing them, and what to do instead of making a deadline. How do they affect the creative process? … Continue... Episode 32 – Deadlines Go Woosh!

We are joined in the coffee house by Violette Woods, a writer of romance novels. Violette has five guidelines for successful writers of romance (or, we think, anyone) to share with you! … Continue... Episode 31 – Romancing the Romance

Yes, indeed friends, welcome to Season 2. This is episode Triple-X, and it would be wrong not to honor that numeral designation with a talk about sex. There’s an ocean of possible targets here, so we’ve narrowed our focus how we and some of our favorite authors use sex to advance plot. … Continue... Episode 30 – Not Safe For Work