Latest / WriterCon / LIVE from WriterCon: Lisa Gardner, Tosca Lee, John Wooley & Barry Friedman
Transcript
- 0:00This week on the writer KHN podcast. I realize at some point, at
- 0:04about two or three in the morning, one dark night of the soul morning,
- 0:08that there was a simple equation, and the equation was you wear them
- 0:13down or they wear you down. And that is the equation and the advice
- 0:19that I would like to pass on, you wear them down or they wear
- 0:22you down. Welcome to Writer Khan, a gathering place for writers to share
- 0:27their knowledge about writing and the writing world. Your hosts are William Bernhardt,
- 0:32best selling novelist and author of the Red Sneaker books on writing, and Renee
- 0:36Gutteridge, best selling author of over thirty novels and screenplays. Hey, they're
- 0:41writers. Welcome to Writer Khan twenty three. As you can hear, we
- 0:51are coming to you live from the grand ballroom of the Renaissance Waterford and Oklahoma
- 0:57City. I am joined today as usual by our fabulous sound engineer, Jesse
- 1:02Ulrich, who thank you, thank you, that's nice, and of course
- 1:11my wonderful co host, Renee Gutteridge. We have, as you may be
- 1:18able to tell, we have been having a fabulous time here at Ryder KHN
- 1:23with all these writers and agents and publishers, and everybody else. Renee,
- 1:27you keep in your head above water. Yes, give me a little more,
- 1:33Come on way above water. This has been so funky, Jesse.
- 1:38You have been charged with the arduous task of recording all of the sessions,
- 1:42and I think there's more than eighty. Are you staying on top of it?
- 1:46I am. I wish more speakers were talking to their microphones. But
- 1:49other than that, we're doing great. I started to wander away when I
- 1:53was doing my talk yesterday and I said, wait, no, stay on
- 1:56the microphone. Thank you. We are taking advantage of the fact that we
- 1:59have every everyone gathered together in one place, so instead of the usual interview
- 2:04guest singular, we're having an interview panel with the brightest lights, some of
- 2:08the best people in the writing world, like yesterday's keynote speaker, New York
- 2:14Times best selling author Tascale, today's keynote speaker, New York Times best selling
- 2:23author Lisa Gardner, the author of Old Fears and about fifty other books.
- 2:32The book but Old Fears is the one that will not die. John Woolley
- 2:40and stand up comic and author of a book whose title I cannot say on
- 2:45the air, but it's a wonderful book. Barry Friedman, I told you
- 2:52this would be live as you saw it. We will talk to this panel
- 2:55of experts about everything that's happening in the writing world today. After the news
- 3:00segment and a few testimonials from the people at Ryder Khan Jesse take us away.
- 3:07My name is Noah Helsey. This is my first year at writer Karn.
- 3:09My favorite two events were definitely open Mike Night and Karaoke Night, which
- 3:14we're at huge hits and had a lot of really fun positive feedback from that.
- 3:17And then I also really enjoy getting the pitch two couple agents and publishers,
- 3:22and I'm ball out of really good feedback and I'm planning to continue those
- 3:27conversations to move forward. Hi. I'm Sarlat Hoffman. I'm at thirteen and
- 3:31I've published two books. Writer Con has been a great experience for me because
- 3:36I've gone so many helpful tips and it's just been wonderful and it's gonna help
- 3:42me so much with my writing career, and I really encourage everyone to come
- 3:46with and it's just it's wonderful the people who are so nice, and I've
- 3:51gotten so much out of it that my name is Sheila KABEROI and I write
- 3:55under the pet name Atlas Fay. I've really loved all of Panels and the
- 4:00Pitch Slam obviously for writer Coom and honestly I can't wait to come back next
- 4:05year. This was such a summer camp experience, but like only full of
- 4:11things that I love and like creative writing everything, just seeing everyone again it
- 4:15is enough to make you want to come back, but definitely for the Panels.
- 4:29We have talked before about the huge influence that TikTok and its subdivision,
- 4:34book Talk is having on the book world. Well we've got another book talk
- 4:40sensation that has now become a very successful film. It's been out for a
- 4:44couple of weeks now and it's a hit. That's Red, White and Royal
- 4:47Blue, the film adaptation of a twenty nineteen novel by case I mink Quisten.
- 4:54This romantic comedy follows the bisexual son of the first five female US President
- 5:00and Prince Henry, the younger brother of the heir to the British phone throne.
- 5:05This movie happened because the book generated a huge following on book Talk,
- 5:13which is of course the literature loving corner of TikTok, where fans have shared
- 5:17their obsessions and videos tagged, in this case hashtag Red White and Royal Blue,
- 5:25which has received more than five hundred million views. They are now talking
- 5:30about turning Red White and Royal Blue into a stage musical. Jesse, could
- 5:35you please arrange for one of my books to be embraced by the book talk
- 5:40world. Sure, I'll do my best. As listeners to this podcast now,
- 5:44I'm an expert at TikTok. You know, we talked a couple of
- 5:46weeks ago on the podcast about how TikTok is now becoming a publisher, which
- 5:51is true, and it's just incredible. Going to Barnes and Noble now and
- 5:57you'll see book Talk Special, It'll have its own section or table or something.
- 6:02It's really incredible. Renee, you have boldly on this very podcast admitted
- 6:11to occasionally spending some time on TikTok. What is the appeal there for book
- 6:15readers. Well, I think it's amazing place because you can first of all,
- 6:19get quickly to what's happening in the book world, which is nice,
- 6:23and you can see what is touching other readers. I think that's really fun.
- 6:28I think it I mean I think it's a great place, a great
- 6:30thing. I'm not opposed to it. Well, no, I love it
- 6:35a lot more if they were doing my books. But congrats to this one
- 6:39and Colleen Hoover and everybody else. Okay, news story number two. We
- 6:44have also, of course talked about AI a lot in recent weeks, because
- 6:47I know people are concerned about AI generated books. Now we have AI being
- 6:55used to ban books, which is not exactly where I thought as we be
- 7:00going. I mean, when I was worrying about all the things AI can
- 7:02do, like replacing me, I didn't see this coming. But now to
- 7:09the list of what AI can do, you can add regressive academic censorship.
- 7:15In Iowa, a school district reportedly deployed AI software to identify and remove nineteen
- 7:21books from school libraries to comply with state legislation there that has prohibited titles with
- 7:30and I quote descriptions or visual depictions of a sex act end quote this book.
- 7:38I mean, you might well, let me just explain how that's been
- 7:42employed. The law has been used and has led to the hasty removal of
- 7:47such horrors as Tony Morrison's Beloved and Maya Angelous, where the caged bird sings
- 7:56books. I never expected to see on any of these maybe in kindergarten,
- 8:01but beyond that, I wouldn't expect that to happen. AI models apparently scanned
- 8:05libraries books and flagged them to administrators. Here's a quote from someone in the
- 8:13Iowa legislature. Frankly, we have more important things to do than spend a
- 8:18lot of time trying to figure out how to protect kids from books. At
- 8:22the same time, we do have a legal and ethical obligation to comply with
- 8:28the law. Okay, Renee, now that our future computer overlords are deciding
- 8:33what we can and cannot read, how do you feel about this? Well,
- 8:37all of our listeners know how I feel about this and how it makes
- 8:41me crazy. So but yeah, I mean, well we know how I
- 8:46feel about this. Right They can't see my face right now, but they
- 8:50can that's a camera. See. You use computers in your work, are
- 8:54you going to let them tell you what you can and can't read. I'm
- 8:56less mad at the AI and more mad at State of Iowa for using the
- 9:01AI instead of just doing the work themselves. Obeying the books. If you're
- 9:03going to ban them, you have to take the time and read the books.
- 9:07First, so like the Human Eyes. Yeah, all right. Third
- 9:11and final news story one that took me by surprise. I've been in the
- 9:16book world a long time, but I didn't even know this was a thing.
- 9:20But apparently there has been a huge surge in hockey romance fiction. Two
- 9:26words I never expected to put together in the same sentence, hockey and romance
- 9:31and soon to be banned by AI. It is the sexiest ice sport because
- 9:35a niche world of hockey romance novels is getting mainstream attention after the wife of
- 9:41an NHL player criticized book fans, who she said had made comments and videos
- 9:48on social media about her husband that were an I quote, predatory and exploiting
- 9:54end quote. First there was book talk, Second, romance is a big
- 9:58part book talk. And now we have the broader sports romance category and it's
- 10:05subdivision subdivision hockey romance books. Recent hits have included Anna Zabo Scoreless Game,
- 10:15a love story between two long time friends who are players on the fictional team
- 10:20the Pittsburgh Griffins. I don't know, are there any fans of hockey romance?
- 10:26Can anybody speak to this? Anybody? Oscar? Are you a big
- 10:31Hoska hockey romance person. I live in Nebraska. We do not tell.
- 10:37Well, I guess we have some hockey, but no, I can't say
- 10:39that I've really been exposed. Yeah, yeah, well, you know,
- 10:45good luck to them. I think we know what our friend and guests of
- 10:48the podcast, Amy would say about these books is are they spicy? Yeah?
- 10:52Right, so, Jesse, to you and Michelle go on romantic hockey
- 10:58dates all the time is out right? That's right, Renne. You seem
- 11:03like you'd be a huge hockey fan. Am I right about this? Yeah?
- 11:05I am. I'm a huge hockey fan. Being from Oklahoma. It's
- 11:09just huge here. We have a team. I've been there. Yes,
- 11:15I mean Arizona also has a team, should they? Though, thank you
- 11:20for alienating every Arizona listener to the podcast. Okay, yeah, no,
- 11:28all right, enough with this news. Let's get to this fabulous panel of
- 11:31writers. We've got, Jesse, queue up the music. I think many
- 11:43of you know we have a traditional first question, but since this panel of
- 11:48friends of the podcast of all answered it before, I'll just ask does anybody
- 11:52have anything they want to add to my first question, which is always if
- 11:56you could offer writers one piece of advice, what would it be? Yeah,
- 12:03I can do that, Okay. Nineteen eighty three Ron Wolf and I
- 12:07sold a book called Old Fears. It was auctioned. Franklin Watts got it,
- 12:11which is no longer around. Franklin wattson double Day had actually a bidding
- 12:16war on it ended up getting a fifteen thousand dollars advances is eighty three and
- 12:20we thought we had it made its book called Old Fears, which is still
- 12:24in print, Thank you bill. It took me nine years to sell another
- 12:28book. And I realized at some point, and probably beer was involved,
- 12:37but I realized at some point, at about two or three in the morning,
- 12:39one dark night of the soul morning, that there was a simple equation,
- 12:45and the equation was you wear them down or they wear you down.
- 12:50And that is the equation and the advice that I would like to pass on.
- 12:54You wear them down or they wear you down. Cool, All right,
- 13:00Going to toss another question. I will direct this to Lisa Gardner,
- 13:03but anybody feel free to jump in. How and perhaps more importantly, why
- 13:09did you get started writing? I mean you must have realized there were simpler
- 13:13ways to make a living, right, Yes, And my father made a
- 13:16long list of them. Your dad and mine went to the same school.
- 13:22I think, yes, I owe my career spectacularly to ignorance, big fan.
- 13:30It is often better not to know what you're about to get yourself into
- 13:33in this business. Huge reader. Decided one day when I was seventeen,
- 13:37I could write a book. Took two months, and I wrote a book
- 13:41and it was really spectacularly bad as well. Went off to college so I
- 13:46could get a real job to make my father happy, and actually found the
- 13:50thing called the writer's market and how to sell a book, and again never
- 13:52met an editor, an agent or an author. So I was like,
- 13:56cool, I'll follow the steps. I'll sell a book. I saw the
- 13:58book made enough money to buy fries with that, so my father wasn't totally
- 14:03wrong. Worked a day job for a very long time, but continued to
- 14:11write. And how many books now? I stopped counting a while ago,
- 14:15but thirty something. I'm gonna say, well, how about the rest of
- 14:18you? Anybody else got a good How I got started story? I told
- 14:24my dad I wanted to try writing a book, and he said that he
- 14:28would pay me what I would have made working at the bank that summer,
- 14:31which I was lined up to do if. I wrote my first novel that
- 14:35summer, treated it like a job and wrote it full time. And I
- 14:37didn't want to work at the bank. So I wrote my first book and
- 14:41it was very bad. A friend of mine once told me that you want
- 14:48your advance to cover the lunch. It was discussed over. I think you're
- 14:56right at first because you want to or need to, and then you continue
- 15:01writing because somebody actually cares to read you, and the motivation is that you
- 15:07have an audience and you owe them something. But the initial has to be
- 15:11because you have a desire to tell a story and you hope to God that
- 15:16somebody will care. That's good. I like that. That's actually very well
- 15:20suck. Okay, our next question, Tasca, I'll start with you.
- 15:24Can you describe a mistake that you made early in your career or I would
- 15:31add early in your style of writing, either of those. I submitted my
- 15:37book to Writer's House with the twenty three page synopsis that said don't. But
- 15:45the other thing is when I sold my first novel, I had really not
- 15:48worked on my follow up books while I was waiting. After I wrote my
- 15:54first one. It took six years to sell I could have written a lot
- 15:56of things in that amount of time, and so I wish I had plunged
- 16:00ahead and not just kind of sat around waiting, that's good, that's good,
- 16:06go ahead. I've always thought there's only two things in life you can
- 16:11control, as your weight in your wardrobe. That if you were heavy,
- 16:15you could just stop eating food, and if you wore stupid clothes you could
- 16:18stop. But everything else in life you needed help relationship, sex, marriage,
- 16:22real estate, whatever. So it seems to me the only you can
- 16:26actually control is what you write, and you spend more time writing than thinking
- 16:30about writing. Mistake I made is I kept thinking that what I had to
- 16:33say about any particular topic would be interesting to anybody, and it wasn't until
- 16:37it was interesting to somebody, and they decide when that is. It's sort
- 16:41of a performing performance art. It's very performative. It's not really as solitary
- 16:47as I would like to think it is. And Barry and I've talked about
- 16:51this a lot. Matter of fact, we've done panels on it. It's
- 16:53not interesting just because it happened to you, and that's something that everybody needs
- 16:59to know, including me, and it becomes then if you're writing, especially
- 17:03non fiction. It becomes then are you a good enough writer to make something
- 17:08interesting or as we were talking on the way down here, or something inherently
- 17:11interesting enough to make your book good, or you're famous. Those are the
- 17:17three three ways that it can break. And I will say is my biggest
- 17:22mistake was being too influenced by Raymond Chandler and HP Lovecraft together. That's what
- 17:27informed my first novel called Demon Wind, and boy it is horrible. Matter
- 17:32of fact, I had a person tell me a while back, a very
- 17:36good friend, say, you know, you ought to write your autobiography and
- 17:38call it how I became a professional writer and earned hundreds of dollars. So
- 17:48when I decided I actually wanted to start earning possibly money while being a writer,
- 17:53yeah, I was getting you know, I wanted to go from hundreds
- 17:56to maybe several hundreds. It was a high. And I decided to get
- 18:00my first agent and she advised me to go out because it was very timely
- 18:04and write a really great dark thriller with you know, a burnt out former
- 18:10marine and he was going to help save this woman's life and you know,
- 18:12dark, dark, dark redemption ARC worked on this felt so good at myself
- 18:18turned it in, and her first words to me that man should have killed
- 18:21himself a long time ago. Certainly by chapter one I was expecting it.
- 18:26So I learned a lot about revision work and that you can't over commit to
- 18:33a premise. Yeah, okay, So Lisa, we'll start with you.
- 18:37What's your process for starting a book? Generally procrastinating on the computer. See,
- 18:45ignorance will only take you so far, and then procrastination becomes your friend.
- 18:52Inevitably, there's something I read, and because I'm a thriller writer,
- 18:55often it's crime. Often it's odd crime. Often it's those moments when you're
- 18:59like, who the hell would do that? And then well I have to
- 19:03know who the hell would do that, and so the ideas get off and
- 19:06running. My favorite part is research, so I try to find professionals who
- 19:10can't explain who the hell would do that, and the writing process begins.
- 19:19Well, first of all, I would say that ideas are overrated and executions
- 19:23underrated, because any of us in here could sit down and come up in
- 19:30one day with a list of book ideas that would probably last us the rest
- 19:36of our lives. Execution is what matters, and so it's not so much
- 19:41the idea. I've got a backlog of ideas. Probably you do too,
- 19:44We've all got a backlog of ideas. It's actually the execution that I've found
- 19:48is the most important thing. How many of you no show your hands,
- 19:52been to a party? Find out you're a writer? Which is always fairly
- 19:56easy, isn't it what you do? Well, I'm a writer and they
- 20:02say, you know, I've got a great story. I'll tell you that
- 20:04story and we'll just split the money you write it, We'll split the money.
- 20:08Well overwriteed. How I start is the question. I also procrastinate.
- 20:18I procrastinate by doing anything but writing, and I let really good at cleaning
- 20:22out drawers and closets, and then I eventually kick it into gear. Usually
- 20:26the deadline. I start panicking. And also I reached a point of self
- 20:32loathing where if I don't start, I will feel bad, and I will
- 20:37feel bad about the way that my husband and family are looking at me so
- 20:41and I'm bothering them by cleaning so much. So that's how I start.
- 20:47Yeah, I think two things. One is you kind of forget I forget
- 20:55the process of it, because that does tend to slow me down. And
- 20:59that does tend to make me procrastinate. My daughter one time called me and
- 21:03said, you never write anything just to write, And said, no,
- 21:07who does that? And she says, everything you write has somewhere to go,
- 21:12which is a great motivator when you have somewhere to put it. But
- 21:17the other thing that hit me was, and I don't know why I keep
- 21:18thinking about this, I have no idea if this is true, but I
- 21:22heard somewhere that Bob Dylan wrote mister Tamboreen Man in thirty five minutes. I
- 21:26also heard it somewhere that Leonard Cohne took five years to write Hallelujah. That's
- 21:36because he hit adding more versus right. And I thought, all right,
- 21:41well, if you decide I'm going to write three four hours a day,
- 21:45that's a perfectly fine way to approach your craft. On the other hand,
- 21:48if you write mister Tamboreen Man in thirty five minutes on a Monday, to
- 21:53me, you can take the rest of the week off. So look at
- 21:57your output to see what kind of process you need. You may not need
- 22:02to write every day. That may be a great start for most people,
- 22:04but some people really if the light from God hits you, but it only
- 22:08hits you for a few minutes. That's when you're right. And if God
- 22:11misses you, he misses you. Okay. I think that's interesting though,
- 22:15because the other analogy you often hear for writing is that it's like going to
- 22:19the gym, and when you take a big break off, it's hard to
- 22:23get back to it. Whereas if you start forcing yourself okay today, I'm
- 22:26going to do it tomorrow a little bit more, it just becomes habit.
- 22:30It becomes a form of abuse. You've become adjusted to it. You expect
- 22:34to hurt a little every day, and you don't question it as much.
- 22:37So you're right, And I actually want to be that kind of writer.
- 22:41I mean I really do. But somehow it just seems to me that writing
- 22:45when there's something that has to be written or again, you look at output.
- 22:49You've written thirty some odd books, so nobody has to no one can
- 22:53question your process. I knew somebody, and John knows her two who in
- 22:59twelve years wrote eighty pages. Clearly that process is not working. But if
- 23:04you look at your what you put out, whether it's published or not,
- 23:08if there's material, I don't think you have to worry about the process.
- 23:14You've got the process down instinctually. But I agree with you. I think
- 23:18I would like to be the kind of writer sits down every day. That
- 23:21old great Hemmingway story about said standing at the podium and he starts with the
- 23:25and after four hours this one morning he just wrote the hell with it again.
- 23:30That's a good way to start, if again, you're not writing anything.
- 23:33Okay, here's a question. I've heard a lot of people asking in
- 23:37one form or another this weekend. So you write a book after you're done
- 23:44procrastinating, and then you revise it, and then you advise it, and
- 23:48then you revise it, probably ten more times, and as always possible that
- 23:52you could revise it again. How do you know when it's done? Tasca
- 23:59got some thoughts. I think it's hard to know, because you know,
- 24:02no book is ever even when it's published, any book, any piece of
- 24:06writing, it's just a snapshot in time. It could totally change, it
- 24:08could it could always be improved. But at some point you just have to
- 24:12say, all right, that's it. We're going to take the shutters,
- 24:15going to click. This is the snapshot as it is today, and today
- 24:19this is the best I can make it and the best I can make.
- 24:22It means that I've usually enlisted the help of an editor friend every book I
- 24:26turn in. Before I even turn it in, I have an editor friend
- 24:29go through and read, and that is the best I can do today.
- 24:34But the best I can do tomorrow might be different. And that's why I
- 24:38always do enlist the help of experts who can who can see the mess that
- 24:44I've I've made I've been writing, So I worked as a business consultant to
- 24:48pay the bills the ten years I was already published. But you know for
- 24:53the hundred of dollars, and we used to have an expression, are you
- 24:57actually making it better? Are you just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic?
- 25:03So that's what I always start to ask it myself. Is this actually
- 25:06proving it? Or am I just playing with deck chairs? And then because
- 25:08I can never decay the answer, I rewrite it again. And I would
- 25:12also say that, you know, the fourth draft is always better than the
- 25:17first, but the eleventh isn't always better than the seventh. Yeah, and
- 25:21so yeah, there is that point. Aren't good friend who edits me when
- 25:25I used to write geology and or anything about rocks? But he with my
- 25:27geology editor. He said, the best thing about deadlines is vern best thing
- 25:32about deadlines is you may not be done, but it's done. Yeah.
- 25:37So there are times and again you say, okay, Monday, I'm done,
- 25:41and then you send it to an editor and he or she says,
- 25:45could you would you revise all this? And you go sure. So you're
- 25:48really not done until somebody publishes it. And even then, as you say,
- 25:52you look at it and go, oh my god, oh my god.
- 25:56Yeah. I was an entertainment writer. It's also war for twenty three
- 26:00years in the last great days of the newspaper business, and I learned I
- 26:04often had a deadliner to a day and you had no time. As a
- 26:08newspaper writer. You had no time. You polished it like a diamond,
- 26:11the best you could do, and took it out the door because there's something
- 26:17coming up behind it. Okay, John, we'll start with you. We're
- 26:22talking marketing. Now. How much do you do? What do you definitely
- 26:26do, and what do you definitely not do. You see my friend's bill
- 26:30and very very such a you're a your cousin, you're his cousin, right,
- 26:36yeah, uh, laughing at me because yes, chuckling evilly. I'm
- 26:44at it. I'm funderstand. John has said more than once, what's an
- 26:49appy? I am the world's biggest lud eyed. However, I am doing
- 26:56well enough with those hundreds of dollars to hire a couple of people who do
- 27:00online stuff for me. And so I have a website, I have a
- 27:03newsletter. I have all of these things. A thing I had to get
- 27:07really really used to. And Barry and I've talked about this a long time.
- 27:10You'll probably know this is you have now you have to give away your
- 27:14words. You have to write online for free. And as my people tell
- 27:19me, if I can be so whatever fatuous, my people tell me,
- 27:26you have to give them something they like, and if they like you,
- 27:29then they will support you by buying your books. So I'm writing all of
- 27:33this free stuff. And I hell I wrote fanzines when I was a comic
- 27:37book collector in the sixties. It feels like going back to that. But
- 27:41you have to do that now. And that's the thing I had to get
- 27:44used to. You have to give people stuff for free, and I just
- 27:48hate it. I enjoy the marketing, I really do, probably because it's
- 27:56a good procrastination that part. You know, one of the best things that
- 28:03happened is we got this big dog who's more popular on my social media than
- 28:07I am. But people tune in to see what the dog is doing a
- 28:11lot. So if you're really stumped, get a cute animal and try that.
- 28:15But you know, beyond that, people just want to connect and that's
- 28:18really all it's about. And they want to connect with you in your writing.
- 28:22They want to connect with you and your stories, and they want to
- 28:25feel seen and known. And so when they feel like you connect with them
- 28:29wherever on social media, book talk, whatever it is, they will always
- 28:33want more. So, yeah, they do want you. They want to
- 28:40get a piece of you. And I don't have people the way John does.
- 28:45I need people. Yeah, people o the world. That's a good
- 28:52idea for some. I think you have to get over whatever problem you have
- 29:02with self promotion. It's just part of the game though, that you write
- 29:07something and it's not anybody else's job to get it out to people. It's
- 29:11your job, and social media makes that somewhat easier to do. And when
- 29:17you get people who respond to you. I don't know how you feel,
- 29:18Tosic, but I think at some point engaging in with people who are already
- 29:26attracted to you as a very good way to market yourself is not to shut
- 29:30them out, is to put put up a wall between you and your readers.
- 29:34Not until you can. I mean, you know, Philip Roth didn't
- 29:38have to talk to people, and Joseph Heller didn't have to talk to people,
- 29:41and Joe didn't even have to talk to people. Well, until we
- 29:44get to that point, I think you have to engage again with your readers
- 29:48because it is a performance between you and them. I'm a stand up comedian
- 29:52and one of the mistakes that comedians make is that it's not a monologue,
- 29:56although it seems like one of It is a dialogue between you and the audience.
- 29:59And when the audience give you back something as a stand up comic,
- 30:02that's the direction you go because you're in the room with them. It's not
- 30:04just you, and so when you're right, it's not just you either.
- 30:08Well, I'm going to have to agree with John on this one. I
- 30:11was kind of really hoping this internet thing would go away. Yeah, it's
- 30:18like, I don't want to talk to the people in my house. Why
- 30:19do I want to talk to people in that house? And that house over
- 30:22there and that house over there. It makes no sense to me. So
- 30:26I'm with Tasca on this one. I have dogs. I informed them every
- 30:30day, earn your kibble, Come on, sit, look cute or do
- 30:34something stupid. Don't care which. I'm getting a third dog on Wednesday because
- 30:38I think the first two are getting a little tired of all the photoshops.
- 30:44And I'm sure we'll all live happily ever after and they won't earn much kibble.
- 30:49Both of you use dogs and your social media. Well I tried using
- 30:53a child, but they really don't perform for kibble. Just so you know,
- 31:00Just for the record, my cat shows up at least once a week,
- 31:03so it works for felines as well. All right, panel of experts,
- 31:10do you have any parting words of advice for all the writers and aspiring
- 31:15writers listening to this podcast? Taska, you got some thoughts. I look
- 31:22over and everybody's looking at me. It's okay, yeah, you know.
- 31:30My advice is, and I spoke about this earlier, is to always know
- 31:33your why. I always know why you're doing this, because there are days
- 31:37that it will be terribly hard, and there are days that it'll be terribly
- 31:41discouraging, and you may not want to do it anymore, or you might
- 31:45think why am I doing this? And I think as long as you know
- 31:48your why, why not letter why, that will get you through. You
- 31:53know what. I was in Tasca's panel when she was doing this or her
- 31:56presentation. It was excellent. It was very motivated speech on what makes us
- 32:00writers and how to find creativity. I just had this moment when You're like,
- 32:05what is your why? And I'm like, why do I breathe?
- 32:08And I think, once you accept this about yourself, you're going to do
- 32:12this not for the money because there's none, not because it makes any sense,
- 32:16because it doesn't. Not to make our parents proud. Let's face it,
- 32:20We're going to do it because we breathe. Then you just accept what
- 32:23happens next and enjoy your time writing. I want to butcher my favorite rider
- 32:29Steinbeck here, but John Steinbeck said the writer should labor under the illusion that
- 32:34what he or she is doing is the most important thing in the world,
- 32:39even when they know better. And again I go back to you either wear
- 32:45them down or they wear you down. I like them all right, One
- 32:49last question for each of you. Tell us what you're working on next or
- 32:54now tell us what's coming out next? And Lisa what you get. I
- 33:00completed the revision work because I rewrite a lot deck chairs on the Titanic again,
- 33:06the latest in a series for Frankie Elkin. It's still See You Everywhere,
- 33:09and it was based upon a very interesting ten days I had on a
- 33:13remote atoll in the middle of the Pacific and then the plane that could not
- 33:15come pick us up, which was also the plane that had the food.
- 33:22I just finished the first cut of a public television documentary on the horror movies
- 33:28made in Tulsa beginning of the nineteen eighties, which started the direct video horror
- 33:32movie craze with Blood Cult and it's going to be televised and also going to
- 33:38be we have some interest in it from distributors as well. It's called Tulsa
- 33:43Terrors. I wrote it and co produced it. Nice the book bill couldn't
- 33:47mention a mind Jack will one. Volume two of that is coming out probably
- 33:55in January February, and it's going to be called Wait for the Movie.
- 34:00It's and color Nice. I'm writing a medieval thriller about the European witch hunts.
- 34:07It's light to reading sounds fun. Thank all four of you so much
- 34:15for being part of this podcast. All right, they liked it too.
- 34:22Just a few parting words. If you haven't joined the rider KHN Facebook group
- 34:28yet, please do so. Subscribe to the completely Free Writer KHN e newsletter
- 34:34and the information for the links and whatnot will be in the show notes.
- 34:39If you're enjoying this podcast, please subscribe and then rate or review it wherever
- 34:45it is you get your podcasts. It really does make it easier for other
- 34:50people to find this podcast, all right, you know what I'm gonna say
- 34:53next. Until next time, keep writing and remember you can not fail if
- 35:00you're refused to quit. And that's the final word for this podcast. Coming
- 35:05to you live from Ryder Con twenty twenty three.