Latest / WriterCon / Magic and Horror with Cynthia Pelayo
Transcript
- 0:02Speaker 1: This week on the writer Con podcast.
- 0:05Speaker 2: I think we need to just be a little bit
- 0:08Speaker 2: hinder to ourself, so just really enjoy the process.
- 0:13Speaker 3: Welcome to writer Con, a gathering place for writers to
- 0:16Speaker 3: share their knowledge about writing and the writing world.
- 0:19Speaker 1: Your hosts are William.
- 0:20Speaker 3: Bernhardt, best selling novelist and author of the Red Sneaker
- 0:23Speaker 3: books on writing, and Laura Bernhardt, award.
- 0:26Speaker 1: Winning author of the want LNN Files book series.
- 0:31Speaker 4: Thank you, Jesse Ulrich and hey, they're writers, thanks for
- 0:35Speaker 4: joining us today. We are all three of us, I
- 0:38Speaker 4: think recently back from big travel expeditions. Laura and I
- 0:42Speaker 4: were in New York recently. And Jesse, you just got
- 0:46Speaker 4: back from the Star Trek.
- 0:47Speaker 1: Cruise, right, that is correct.
- 0:49Speaker 4: Did you have a decent time?
- 0:52Speaker 3: I did have a decent time. I did happen to
- 0:54Speaker 3: catch COVID on the way home. So oh that's been
- 0:56Speaker 3: a fun week.
- 0:57Speaker 5: Yeah, so sorry.
- 1:00Speaker 1: That's all right. I got some Pact slot bit on Thursday.
- 1:03Speaker 3: Feeling better now, I will say, the energy to get
- 1:06Speaker 3: ready for this recording took.
- 1:07Speaker 1: A lot out of me. I'm like, oh, I am
- 1:08Speaker 1: more tired than but we'll talk quickly.
- 1:11Speaker 4: Yes, but you're feeling at right now?
- 1:14Speaker 1: Oh yeah, the cruise was great.
- 1:16Speaker 3: You know, uh, the you know, each cruise has a captain, right,
- 1:20Speaker 3: like the sort of who they think the biggest celebrity.
- 1:26Speaker 1: Yeah, and it was.
- 1:27Speaker 3: It was Kate Mogrew for this year because it was
- 1:29Speaker 3: a voyager and reverse year. And she's always great. She's
- 1:32Speaker 3: just like such an honest, earnest, deep person, Like any
- 1:36Speaker 3: time you get to get to hear it talk is fantastic.
- 1:39Speaker 4: So more importantly for this podcast, when's she going to
- 1:42Speaker 4: write her book?
- 1:44Speaker 1: I think she was talking about that, so she's working
- 1:47Speaker 1: on it.
- 1:48Speaker 4: Possibly every star on that book on that boat may
- 1:50Speaker 4: be working on a memoir.
- 1:52Speaker 1: That's true. That's true.
- 1:54Speaker 4: We know there's an audience.
- 1:55Speaker 3: Seriously, the actress who plays you know her on Street
- 2:00Speaker 3: New Worlds, Like she's only twenty five years old. She's
- 2:01Speaker 3: already lived like a full life of doing shows and whatnot.
- 2:05Speaker 1: It's incredible.
- 2:06Speaker 4: Yeah, so yeah, impressive. Laura, we of course were on
- 2:11Speaker 4: New York kind of research slash fun visit. What was
- 2:15Speaker 4: your favorite part?
- 2:19Speaker 5: You know, I hate picking favorites. Okay favorite, Yeah, I
- 2:23Speaker 5: get three, Okay, I could do three. So while you
- 2:26Speaker 5: were in the library doing your research, I went to
- 2:31Speaker 5: the Guggenheim Museum and that was amazing. I had a
- 2:36Speaker 5: really good time there and saw some fantastic artwork and
- 2:40Speaker 5: learned some art history, so that was wonderful. And of
- 2:44Speaker 5: course we we had we had pizza at an old
- 2:50Speaker 5: old history right right that establishment, Yes, that one of
- 2:56Speaker 5: our former podcasts.
- 3:00Speaker 4: Reviews.
- 3:01Speaker 5: Yeah, Thomas invited us and so we got to meet
- 3:03Speaker 5: him in real life, which was fabulous. And then of
- 3:07Speaker 5: course all the shows, that's my third thing, all the
- 3:12Speaker 5: shows that we saw, I'm gonna lump them all together.
- 3:14Speaker 5: I just loved it.
- 3:15Speaker 4: We had to try to Tiffany's would at least make
- 3:18Speaker 4: the top three. But that's just my own selfish, very fun.
- 3:24Speaker 5: There's my there's my new acquisition, which for.
- 3:27Speaker 4: Your well you're not wearing you're wearing another Tiffany thing.
- 3:31Speaker 4: Although that one, yes, yes, like before we were been married, right.
- 3:36Speaker 5: Yes, this one was.
- 3:37Speaker 4: It's a classic now it.
- 3:39Speaker 5: Is vintage now they don't make them anymore. That was
- 3:42Speaker 5: your first Christmas present to me? Ever, yes, there before
- 3:46Speaker 5: I even knew what a little blue box meant.
- 3:51Speaker 4: Okay, Jesse, no pressure, But what was your first present
- 3:55Speaker 4: to Michelle?
- 3:56Speaker 3: It was actually a uh I wrote a not a poem.
- 4:00Speaker 3: What does it call where you do a thing where
- 4:01Speaker 3: you use the first letter of a thing to start
- 4:04Speaker 3: a ligne?
- 4:05Speaker 1: Yes, I made Michelle one of those.
- 4:07Speaker 4: So oh, that's actually better.
- 4:08Speaker 3: Luckily, I'm very lucky that she does not care for diamonds,
- 4:12Speaker 3: so my gift budget is lower than most tonight.
- 4:16Speaker 5: Well, this one's not a diamond. I will say I
- 4:19Speaker 5: didn't much care for diamonds either, but Bill said, I
- 4:23Speaker 5: don't care. I want everyone to know that you spoke
- 4:26Speaker 5: for He wanted no misunderstanding on what that ring was.
- 4:31Speaker 4: It's clear that's true, all right. Our interview today is
- 4:35Speaker 4: with Cynthia Palaio. She is the Bram bram Stoker Award
- 4:41Speaker 4: winning author of Forgotten Sisters and many other genre blending
- 4:46Speaker 4: novels that incorporate fairy tale and mystery and horror elements.
- 4:51Speaker 4: Esquire called her novel Liuteria one of the best horror
- 4:55Speaker 4: books of twenty twenty three. She's written numerous short stories too,
- 5:00Speaker 4: and even a collection of poetry. Can't wait to talk
- 5:03Speaker 4: to her about all that, But first, the news news
- 5:24Speaker 4: story number one authors can now create AI narrated audio
- 5:29Speaker 4: books for free through the leading AI audio company eleven
- 5:34Speaker 4: labs and they can be distributed everywhere. This is a
- 5:40Speaker 4: big change for anybody who's involved in the audiobook business.
- 5:44Speaker 4: They've launched a subsidiary company called eleven Reader Publishing. I'll
- 5:48Speaker 4: put the link in the show notes. Authors can go
- 5:52Speaker 4: there and create and sell these AI narrated audiobooks, which
- 5:56Speaker 4: I'll just say again sound better than you think. Not
- 6:00Speaker 4: a substitute for real people, but not horrible, and free
- 6:05Speaker 4: and you can do it through their app, and it
- 6:08Speaker 4: doesn't cost anything up front. They take their cut on
- 6:11Speaker 4: the back end. They get a dollar ten per listener.
- 6:15Speaker 4: But when you think about what audiobooks cost, that's really
- 6:19Speaker 4: not very much. And the big thing is you can
- 6:22Speaker 4: distribute it anywhere. I mean we already have. Amazon can
- 6:26Speaker 4: generate an AI narrated audiobook, but you can only sell
- 6:31Speaker 4: it an Amazon. Google do the same thing, but you
- 6:33Speaker 4: can only sell it Google Play. This one you can
- 6:37Speaker 4: send anywhere. Even Spotify has announced that it's going to
- 6:42Speaker 4: team up with them and accept these AI narrated audio
- 6:44Speaker 4: books and find a Way Voices, which we've mentioned several
- 6:49Speaker 4: times as a great audio book producer. Well, they're now
- 6:51Speaker 4: owned by Spotify, So are you really surprised that they
- 6:55Speaker 4: will also distribute those audio books. But here's the catch.
- 7:00Speaker 4: Any audiobooks created with AI will be clearly marked as such. Laura,
- 7:07Speaker 4: is this good news for the world of writing and writers?
- 7:12Speaker 5: So before I would hop into that, I would want
- 7:16Speaker 5: to go to the site. I'd want to hear some samples.
- 7:20Speaker 4: Magnificent is if they're magnificent?
- 7:23Speaker 5: Yes, because those those Amazon audiobook narrations that you're talking
- 7:29Speaker 5: about are still in beta. That's not available to everyone.
- 7:32Speaker 5: So that's kind of a flaw there. It's great for
- 7:36Speaker 5: people who have access to it, but not everyone does.
- 7:40Speaker 5: I mean great if you want to use it, right,
- 7:44Speaker 5: I'd like, I mean, I'll go look at it. I'll
- 7:47Speaker 5: go look at it and check it out. But as
- 7:48Speaker 5: far as what they keep, I think it is less
- 7:54Speaker 5: than it's it's less than what ACX takes. It seems
- 7:57Speaker 5: like it could be something that for help independent authors.
- 8:03Speaker 4: Yeah, or so small publishers. A small publishers just we're
- 8:07Speaker 4: not trying to disor eliminate human narrators, some of whom
- 8:12Speaker 4: are the best, but they're also expensive and some people
- 8:15Speaker 4: just can't afford that or don't want to share profits. Well,
- 8:19Speaker 4: here's a workaround for that, Jesse, would you buy AI
- 8:24Speaker 4: narrated audio? You listened to audio books, right?
- 8:26Speaker 3: I actually I don't listen to audio book which is
- 8:29Speaker 3: podcasts podcast yeah, okay, I don't. Mentally it's better for
- 8:35Speaker 3: me to read it than it is for me to
- 8:36Speaker 3: listen to it. Me too, yeah, which iron considering the
- 8:40Speaker 3: work I do, but other than taking money directly out
- 8:45Speaker 3: of my pocket, I don't think I would listen to
- 8:49Speaker 3: if I was going to listen to an aisle because
- 8:50Speaker 3: I have listened to some I don't think. I don't
- 8:54Speaker 3: think I could put up with an AI narrator because
- 8:56Speaker 3: I would be able to tell. And that might be
- 8:57Speaker 3: because of the work I do. And I also think
- 9:00Speaker 3: most people will probably pick up on it because it's
- 9:03Speaker 3: not going to be perfect.
- 9:04Speaker 1: It never is. And I also don't like that it's free.
- 9:08Speaker 3: Like like free things, it's one of the things where
- 9:11Speaker 3: the money's coming from somewhere, so they're either yes, they're
- 9:14Speaker 3: getting money on the back end, but that means they're
- 9:15Speaker 3: also probably using your book to help train whatever.
- 9:20Speaker 1: And that's one of those you know.
- 9:22Speaker 5: I'm going to say, an ACX, you don't pay them
- 9:25Speaker 5: anything up front, ACX when you log in and create
- 9:29Speaker 5: that it is free. They take their money for every
- 9:33Speaker 5: book sale. So that's why I'm saying, I'd want to
- 9:35Speaker 5: go look at it, like you said, I would like
- 9:37Speaker 5: to look for some kind of fine print or some
- 9:40Speaker 5: kind of catch like you're talking about them. I'm with you.
- 9:43Speaker 5: I'm like, if it's free, what do we think. But
- 9:45Speaker 5: ACX was like that too. They just take a huge
- 9:48Speaker 5: piece of it and you don't get a lot. And
- 9:52Speaker 5: it's a little discouraging. We hear all the time about
- 9:56Speaker 5: how audiobooks are exploding and blowing up and you can
- 9:59Speaker 5: make so much money from audiobooks. And I'm sure for
- 10:03Speaker 5: some people that is true, But I've used ACX in
- 10:07Speaker 5: the past, and discouraging and dismayed are good words there.
- 10:13Speaker 5: It's it resulted in something, which is always better than nothing.
- 10:17Speaker 5: But even having a narrator who was willing to share
- 10:22Speaker 5: loyalties with me so that there was no upfront cost
- 10:25Speaker 5: for either of us, yeah, I felt I felt disappointed
- 10:29Speaker 5: with the results. And she's she's great.
- 10:32Speaker 2: I like her.
- 10:32Speaker 4: But yeah, now, Jesse, when you record audio books, you're
- 10:36Speaker 4: usually recording for the author, right an author wants to
- 10:39Speaker 4: read their own book, and you know, anybody with that
- 10:43Speaker 4: big an ego, They're still going to read their own books, right,
- 10:46Speaker 4: And yes, I'm talking about you Berry out in Portugal.
- 10:50Speaker 1: I hope you're.
- 10:50Speaker 4: Listening to this. That's Barry Friedman, frequent guest on this podcast.
- 10:56Speaker 1: He seems to be having fun, so.
- 10:59Speaker 4: Yeah, I miss him.
- 11:00Speaker 1: I know.
- 11:01Speaker 4: Okay, news story number I'm so sorry.
- 11:04Speaker 5: Did you have you seen like the cost of audio
- 11:07Speaker 5: books through that? Because that's another thing I hear from
- 11:10Speaker 5: some people that if you don't have a subscription service
- 11:15Speaker 5: to Audible or someplace something like that, that audiobooks are
- 11:20Speaker 5: actually kind of expensive and some people shy away from
- 11:22Speaker 5: them for that reason. So if it made the audiobook costless,
- 11:26Speaker 5: perhaps that's open additional doors and get more people listening
- 11:30Speaker 5: to that.
- 11:31Speaker 3: And like, this would ben interesting question for our listeners.
- 11:33Speaker 3: Like everyone I know who's a big audiobook listener has.
- 11:36Speaker 1: An Audible subscription.
- 11:38Speaker 3: Yeah, they don't buy the audiobooks, correct, And you know,
- 11:42Speaker 3: so that means like would they buy, would they listen
- 11:45Speaker 3: to more? Would they you know, what would they pay
- 11:48Speaker 3: for it? If it wasn't in the Audible subscriptions that
- 11:50Speaker 3: I would like to change that out.
- 11:52Speaker 4: Yeah, I think that's a great point. I got to
- 11:54Speaker 4: point out, you know, when I did the audio books
- 11:56Speaker 4: for all of those books on writing, the Red Sneaker
- 11:58Speaker 4: Books and the I Can't Story structure and creating character
- 12:04Speaker 4: and all those, I did the audio books and they
- 12:08Speaker 4: sold like crazy in the first years because I think
- 12:12Speaker 4: they're relatively short, and so the price was lower. So
- 12:17Speaker 4: price really does matter to people. Okay. New story number two,
- 12:21Speaker 4: Amazon Kindle is removing the download option via USB. If
- 12:28Speaker 4: you use any kind of Kindle device, you may have
- 12:31Speaker 4: seen this announcement because it went into effect on February
- 12:35Speaker 4: twenty six.
- 12:36Speaker 5: Helpful.
- 12:37Speaker 4: The users will no longer be able to download purchase
- 12:41Speaker 4: purchased ebooks onto your computer via USB, which sometimes people
- 12:47Speaker 4: would do to have a backup copy if they're going
- 12:50Speaker 4: to be someplace when they're not connected to Wi Fi,
- 12:54Speaker 4: or for various other reasons. Some people just like it,
- 12:57Speaker 4: I think, to get out of the store, or because
- 13:00Speaker 4: sometimes files are updated, the author makes a minor change,
- 13:03Speaker 4: and then it goes everywhere, except not if you've already
- 13:06Speaker 4: saved a cup a copy to your computer, which maybe
- 13:10Speaker 4: why Amazon's doing it. I don't know. They don't explain themselves.
- 13:13Speaker 4: They just announce changes. It doesn't affect users' ability to
- 13:18Speaker 4: manually copy documents to their kindles using the sin to feature.
- 13:23Speaker 4: But you're not going to be able to leave us
- 13:25Speaker 4: be it down to your computer, Laura, what's the motive here?
- 13:30Speaker 5: I'm not sure even fully understand.
- 13:33Speaker 6: I mean, I always load up on books before we
- 13:36Speaker 6: travel so that I have something to read on the.
- 13:38Speaker 5: Airport on your ica. You're not saying yes on my iPad.
- 13:42Speaker 4: Yes, but you used to be able to download them
- 13:45Speaker 4: to a computer and now, oh.
- 13:47Speaker 5: I've never done that, So I since I'm unaffected, I
- 13:53Speaker 5: I assume that they're trying to stop piracy, or at
- 13:56Speaker 5: least that's their argument that they're probably I don't. I
- 14:00Speaker 5: don't really know.
- 14:01Speaker 4: And it does point out that when you buy an
- 14:03Speaker 4: e book, you're not actually buying an emails. You're licensing the.
- 14:08Speaker 5: Licensing that's right, which is.
- 14:11Speaker 4: A big difference. Jesse, have any thoughts on this, well, I.
- 14:14Speaker 3: Do, as someone who has pirated UH ebooks before.
- 14:18Speaker 1: This is this is clearly.
- 14:19Speaker 4: A the FBI is not listening.
- 14:22Speaker 1: Yeah, uh, I.
- 14:23Speaker 3: Don't come back and listen if it makes a feeling better.
- 14:25Speaker 3: It was like the Wheel of Time books, which you
- 14:27Speaker 3: know are long.
- 14:29Speaker 4: I probably need three computers to hold it.
- 14:31Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, it's fun it's funny how small ebook sized
- 14:35Speaker 3: books are. Even for ginormous books, it's still like, you know,
- 14:38Speaker 3: a couple of hundred kilobytes and that's it. This goes
- 14:43Speaker 3: to the fact that these companies think we don't own
- 14:46Speaker 3: the things we buy, and that's very upsetting and annoying,
- 14:49Speaker 3: Like we're not license, that's not what we agree to,
- 14:51Speaker 3: that's not how our capitalistic, capitalistic system normally works.
- 14:55Speaker 4: And I don't like it, right, right, I think you're
- 14:58Speaker 4: right about that.
- 15:00Speaker 5: Okay, it sounds like I shall be unaffected, so I'm
- 15:04Speaker 5: not arms. Yeah, that's it now.
- 15:08Speaker 1: Well, I mean, like for example, like Jesse, no, it's fine.
- 15:10Speaker 3: Well, like I'm thinking of like moving to a Cobo
- 15:13Speaker 3: reader instead of a Kindle, and will I be able
- 15:16Speaker 3: to get the books that I bought?
- 15:18Speaker 1: Right?
- 15:18Speaker 3: And then you know, use Kleebri, which is a free,
- 15:21Speaker 3: open source program it's great for like managing e books.
- 15:24Speaker 3: Will I be able to use that to convert it
- 15:26Speaker 3: into the format that you know, a Cobo could use,
- 15:30Speaker 3: or we're gonna have to re buy everything, which really
- 15:31Speaker 3: changes my decision. And it's also a little uh, you know,
- 15:37Speaker 3: what's a that's very monopoly esque of Amazon to do.
- 15:41Speaker 5: But if you bought something for a Nook, it would
- 15:44Speaker 5: likewise be specific to the Nook. When Cobo announced they
- 15:49Speaker 5: were going to have a reader, how new is that.
- 15:51Speaker 1: Oh, Cobo reader has been around for a while.
- 15:53Speaker 5: Around for a while.
- 15:54Speaker 3: Yeah, you can now actually buy them on Amazon. It's
- 15:58Speaker 3: been a long problem where you couldn't get them on
- 15:59Speaker 3: an Amazon didn't want.
- 16:01Speaker 4: To sell it anything on Amazon, Yes.
- 16:03Speaker 1: Except competitors to Amazon products most of the time.
- 16:06Speaker 5: Well, that's that's that's part of it. I mean, people
- 16:09Speaker 5: who are specific to Nook can only get the Nook.
- 16:13Speaker 5: And so now it sounds like the Cobo is going
- 16:14Speaker 5: to be specific to cobone. You're going to have to
- 16:16Speaker 5: figure out where you are.
- 16:17Speaker 3: Every other e reader other than Amazon uses the same format,
- 16:21Speaker 3: the format. Amazon's the only one that has their own
- 16:24Speaker 3: modified format, but.
- 16:27Speaker 4: That's going out. They've announced that in March they're no
- 16:30Speaker 4: longer going to accept dot mobi files what we used
- 16:34Speaker 4: to call mobi files is their own. Not only are
- 16:39Speaker 4: they not going to accept it if you've done it
- 16:41Speaker 4: in the past, which you know at one point you
- 16:44Speaker 4: were required to do by Amazon, but you're going to
- 16:47Speaker 4: have to replace all those files now with epubs.
- 16:51Speaker 5: But they've been so we've been. I've been uploading kindle
- 16:57Speaker 5: epub files for a while now because we heard this
- 17:00Speaker 5: was coming. Is it still different? Is it a different
- 17:03Speaker 5: epub file?
- 17:04Speaker 3: Yeah, Well, as far as I know, they have their
- 17:06Speaker 3: own format, which is like dot I think something something,
- 17:09Speaker 3: which yeah, maybe.
- 17:11Speaker 5: It might still be neat.
- 17:14Speaker 4: Well, we will find out. That'll be the top story
- 17:17Speaker 4: in a week, so stay tuned. In the meantime. Today
- 17:22Speaker 4: in craft Corner we have longtime writer, con friend and
- 17:26Speaker 4: sponsored Desiree Duffy of Black Chatteau and Books that Make You.
- 17:31Speaker 4: Her topic is getting editorial book reviews, which can be
- 17:36Speaker 4: challenging but very important, so take it away, Desiree.
- 17:45Speaker 1: Craft Quarner.
- 17:47Speaker 7: There are three main types of book reviews editorial which
- 17:51Speaker 7: we covered in Part one. Endorsements were recovering now in
- 17:56Speaker 7: Part two, as well as consumer types of reviews. Talk
- 18:00Speaker 7: about those later. Right now, let's dive into author endorsements,
- 18:04Speaker 7: influencers and expert types of book reviews. These are solicited
- 18:10Speaker 7: endorsements and reviews from respected figures, and that includes best
- 18:15Speaker 7: selling authors or other authors, high profile influencers, or celebrities, experts,
- 18:22Speaker 7: or academic peers. The purpose of these types of reviews
- 18:27Speaker 7: is to leverage name, recognition and authority to build your credibility.
- 18:33Speaker 7: You lean on their brand a little bit to help
- 18:37Speaker 7: uplift yours. You align the book with respected individuals or
- 18:43Speaker 7: even niche influencers who resonate with your target audience. Because
- 18:48Speaker 7: you might share a target audience. Let's kind of purse
- 18:54Speaker 7: that out just a little bit more. When it comes
- 18:56Speaker 7: to author endorsements, your publisher may have similar authors that
- 19:01Speaker 7: they will reach out to. There might not be too
- 19:04Speaker 7: much for you to do if you're with a traditional
- 19:07Speaker 7: publisher because they know other authors who can blurb or
- 19:10Speaker 7: give a recommendation about your book. If you're an indie
- 19:14Speaker 7: author or self published maybe worth a small press or
- 19:17Speaker 7: a hybrid press, and they don't necessarily have those connections, well,
- 19:21Speaker 7: you can use your connections as an author with similar
- 19:25Speaker 7: authors can even swap endorsements with one another. When it
- 19:29Speaker 7: comes to influencers or celebrities, let's purse that down just
- 19:35Speaker 7: a little bit further. You can identify these influencers who
- 19:39Speaker 7: are on social media, bookstrogrammers for example, and booktop creators
- 19:45Speaker 7: or even bloggers look for them in your genre. As
- 19:49Speaker 7: an author, you should be doing this months even years
- 19:52Speaker 7: before your book is out. You should be part of
- 19:54Speaker 7: the community that is already out there talking about the
- 19:57Speaker 7: type of book that you are writing. You can reach
- 20:00Speaker 7: out to these types of influencers with personalized pitches. Offer
- 20:05Speaker 7: them free copies or an arc of your book swag
- 20:09Speaker 7: if you got any merch or anything. Give them some previews,
- 20:13Speaker 7: and don't be surprised, especially if they have large followings
- 20:18Speaker 7: if they're looking for compensation as well. Now, if they're
- 20:21Speaker 7: more of a celebrity, or maybe a journalist with a
- 20:24Speaker 7: premium platform think New York Times or LA Times, or
- 20:29Speaker 7: an athlete for example. In those cases, you probably want
- 20:33Speaker 7: to find out who represents them, their publicists or their agent,
- 20:38Speaker 7: or even their publisher to make that formal request. When
- 20:42Speaker 7: it comes to experts or academic reviews, use your network
- 20:47Speaker 7: of professionals in your niche Chances are you know people already.
- 20:53Speaker 7: This is especially true in nonfiction books or anything that
- 20:57Speaker 7: might be in the world of academia. You're going to
- 21:00Speaker 7: know who to talk to, probably more so than your
- 21:02Speaker 7: publisher does. Reach out to these folks. You can do
- 21:06Speaker 7: anything from that formal request that we just talked about,
- 21:10Speaker 7: or a letter to a direct message and email, and
- 21:14Speaker 7: if you know them well enough, okay, just give them
- 21:17Speaker 7: a call or text them yourself. The benefits of these
- 21:21Speaker 7: types of endorsement reviews is that they can go on
- 21:24Speaker 7: the back cover of your book, in press releases, in ads.
- 21:28Speaker 7: Those people have name recognition and you're going to be
- 21:30Speaker 7: able to utilize that. Influencers create a oftentimes a visual
- 21:36Speaker 7: buzz that goes along with your book. Think of Instagram
- 21:40Speaker 7: esthetics and TikTok videos. Influencer and celebrities can reach their
- 21:48Speaker 7: audience and that creates word of mouth buzz that oftentimes
- 21:53Speaker 7: can go beyond what an author or a publisher's reach
- 21:56Speaker 7: can accomplish. These types of reviews also have the most
- 22:01Speaker 7: potential to go viral. A big thank you goes up
- 22:05Speaker 7: to William Burnheart and the team for making me a
- 22:08Speaker 7: part of Craft Corner.
- 22:11Speaker 4: Thank you so much, Desiree. Now let's talk to Cynthia Palio.
- 22:21Speaker 4: Cynthia PALAIOH, welcome to the podcast.
- 22:24Speaker 2: Hi, thank you for having me.
- 22:26Speaker 4: Oh, I'm glad you could be here all right. Traditional
- 22:29Speaker 4: first question, if you could offer writers one piece of
- 22:33Speaker 4: advice what would it be.
- 22:35Speaker 2: I think we need to just be a little bit
- 22:38Speaker 2: kinder to ourselfs, so just really enjoy the process. It's
- 22:44Speaker 2: sometimes I think we're a little overwhelmed with the overabundance
- 22:49Speaker 2: of advice and it's nice just to kind of step
- 22:52Speaker 2: back and remember why we're doing it this we really
- 22:56Speaker 2: enjoy it, and when you find that point of your joy,
- 23:00Speaker 2: the writing will come so much easier.
- 23:03Speaker 4: It's deadlines that always killed the joy for me, right,
- 23:07Speaker 4: It's like, I've got to get this done. And how
- 23:10Speaker 4: did you get interested in writing books?
- 23:14Speaker 2: So? I was a journalist back in the nineties and
- 23:17Speaker 2: early two thousands, and you know, journalism is its entire
- 23:23Speaker 2: own field. And I left it because I was working
- 23:26Speaker 2: in marketing research and I still wanted to continue writing,
- 23:31Speaker 2: and I pursued Masters of Fine Arts and writing. I
- 23:35Speaker 2: experimented with short story form and it was there that
- 23:38Speaker 2: I started developing longer length work and I've been in
- 23:43Speaker 2: love with it since then.
- 23:48Speaker 4: Apologies to anybody that I'm maligning, but I think you
- 23:54Speaker 4: are the first guest we've ever had who is an
- 23:56Speaker 4: actual Bram Stoker Award winner, which is pretty cooled just
- 24:02Speaker 4: for the uninitiated that is the award in the world
- 24:06Speaker 4: of horror. That must have been a big deal. How'd
- 24:10Speaker 4: you feel when you found out about that?
- 24:12Speaker 2: I had to be practically carried to the stage by
- 24:16Speaker 2: my friend. He walked around, picked me up out of
- 24:23Speaker 2: my seat and helped direct me to the stage because
- 24:27Speaker 2: I could not believe it. It was shocking and an honor.
- 24:32Speaker 2: And I yes, the entire time.
- 24:35Speaker 4: That's fantastic. And which book was that for?
- 24:38Speaker 2: This was for a book of poetry titled crime Scene,
- 24:41Speaker 2: where I wrote a not a poem like a novee
- 24:47Speaker 2: verse about following one detective across the life of crime.
- 24:53Speaker 2: And I did it as a long pong a.
- 24:55Speaker 4: Serious crime is I want that? Yeah? Checking that out tonight?
- 25:01Speaker 5: Excellent, I'll borrow it. Okay, Well, tell us about your
- 25:06Speaker 5: new book, Vanishing Daughters, So now we're intrigued by your
- 25:10Speaker 5: crime scene.
- 25:12Speaker 2: Vanishing Daughters follows Briar Rose Thorne, who returns home after
- 25:18Speaker 2: her mother died. Her mother left their ancestral home to
- 25:21Speaker 2: her crumbling mansion on Chicago's South Side. The family made
- 25:26Speaker 2: their wealth and radios, but radios aren't really that they
- 25:31Speaker 2: will turn to anymore, and so she's overwhelmed with grief,
- 25:34Speaker 2: overwhelmed with the maintenance of this massive property. And as
- 25:39Speaker 2: she starts she's a journalist, and so as she starts
- 25:42Speaker 2: researching her next article, she stumbled upon a series of connected,
- 25:48Speaker 2: unsolved murders of women in the new in the neighborhood,
- 25:53Speaker 2: and she determines that there's likely a serial killer operating
- 25:58Speaker 2: and she gets too close to the real color, and
- 26:01Speaker 2: he sets his heights on her.
- 26:03Speaker 5: Oh, oh, very good. Well, your work has been described
- 26:09Speaker 5: as genre blending. Was that intentional? And what do you
- 26:14Speaker 5: think people mean when they describe it that way.
- 26:18Speaker 2: I don't like intentionally set out to say I'm going
- 26:23Speaker 2: to create a piece of work that leans detective and
- 26:27Speaker 2: mystery or whatnot. I just start writing, and I know
- 26:32Speaker 2: I I noticed that certain elements would just balance out
- 26:37Speaker 2: a little bit. Further So, most of my works are
- 26:40Speaker 2: fairy tale adaptations. So Vanler deals heavily with the fairy
- 26:46Speaker 2: tale of sleeping beauty, and in it, the serial color
- 26:50Speaker 2: is obsessed with putting women to sleep. And then I
- 26:55Speaker 2: think horror is sort of like the underlying like foundation
- 27:00Speaker 2: I have, but from there I built upon it. Because
- 27:03Speaker 2: some of my major influences were like Ageta Christie and
- 27:07Speaker 2: even like Sir Conan Doyle and so I think for me,
- 27:10Speaker 2: mystery just makes sense, and it appears really with horror
- 27:15Speaker 2: as well as like detective fiction and the procedure.
- 27:18Speaker 4: So in Vanishing Daughters, you talked about serial killers and
- 27:22Speaker 4: things we associate with thrillers or mystery crime novels, but
- 27:26Speaker 4: I think there's also some horror.
- 27:28Speaker 1: What do you call it?
- 27:30Speaker 2: What do I call it? Cause it a thriller?
- 27:34Speaker 4: Oh?
- 27:34Speaker 1: Really?
- 27:35Speaker 4: Okay, I will.
- 27:36Speaker 2: Admit that I think most of my novels should are
- 27:40Speaker 2: just genre funding they're a little bit they sort of
- 27:43Speaker 2: do defy genre. They have like fantastical elements to them,
- 27:47Speaker 2: a little bit of natural, so they're not based in realism.
- 27:52Speaker 2: Might be you know, reading thing and it's you feel
- 27:55Speaker 2: like it's based in reality, and then a ghost will appear.
- 28:02Speaker 5: I love it. It sounds really good to me.
- 28:05Speaker 4: I'm not sure how many thrillers I've ever read that
- 28:07Speaker 4: I really thought were credible, but they don't always have
- 28:10Speaker 4: ghosts exactly.
- 28:11Speaker 2: I usually caution, like the mystery reader or a traditional
- 28:17Speaker 2: thriller reader, that my works are like supernatural supernatural thriller
- 28:21Speaker 2: or supernatural mystery.
- 28:24Speaker 5: That's really I mean, yeah, sounds really good.
- 28:28Speaker 4: And you're not only you know, mixing and matching and
- 28:32Speaker 4: messing around with genres, you're also dealing with different literary forms.
- 28:36Speaker 4: Like you've already said, you've written short stories, you've written
- 28:39Speaker 4: poetry or verse, you've written novels. How do you decide
- 28:44Speaker 4: you get that great idea, how do you decide what
- 28:46Speaker 4: kind of project it's going to be?
- 28:48Speaker 2: Oh, so I think it right now. I think a
- 28:55Speaker 2: lot of the short story projects are come to me. Well,
- 28:59Speaker 2: I'll be in by it to a lot of projects.
- 29:02Speaker 2: Generally with my novels, those need to be very multi layered.
- 29:09Speaker 2: So a short story will just be like one idea
- 29:14Speaker 2: as opposed to a novel, I'll have like multiple themes involved.
- 29:19Speaker 2: So like in Vanishing Daughters, there's like the theme of grief.
- 29:22Speaker 2: Then there's also a lot of about Coggle's history with
- 29:29Speaker 2: being a home to like multiple serial killers, which is
- 29:32Speaker 2: very strange John Wayne Gacy, H Charles. And then there's
- 29:36Speaker 2: also this concept of true crime element where nearly fifty
- 29:43Speaker 2: one or over fifty one women have been murdered in
- 29:45Speaker 2: the Chicagoland area, which is true, and it seems like
- 29:49Speaker 2: that serial killer is at Lace. So I will weave
- 29:51Speaker 2: in multiple things and see if they compliment one another,
- 29:55Speaker 2: and then that will be a novel.
- 29:57Speaker 4: Interesting. And before we move on, I just got to
- 30:01Speaker 4: ask because Laura and I work with writers all the
- 30:05Speaker 4: time and many are writing short stories, and then they
- 30:08Speaker 4: ask and where do I send it? And I'm like, yeah,
- 30:11Speaker 4: that's tough. How do you get your short stories published?
- 30:16Speaker 2: So those it depends, because it's true the market for
- 30:20Speaker 2: short stories is very slim. There are a lot of
- 30:25Speaker 2: online magazines still that will publish short stories, and it's
- 30:31Speaker 2: important to you know, be involved in writing communities. There's
- 30:35Speaker 2: different websites now that will give like the timelines and
- 30:38Speaker 2: be aware of like submission deadlines. There's also calls for
- 30:42Speaker 2: anthologies where that's a great place if you can get
- 30:46Speaker 2: your short story placed and an anthology. I would really
- 30:49Speaker 2: recommend that, especially for like you writers, because that's an
- 30:53Speaker 2: opportunity to have your work showcased with established authors alongside,
- 30:59Speaker 2: and that would be a great opportunity to get more
- 31:01Speaker 2: eyes on your.
- 31:03Speaker 5: That's excellent advice. How do you how do you start
- 31:08Speaker 5: a new project? You've talked about how you consider your
- 31:11Speaker 5: themes and what elements you want to include, but do
- 31:14Speaker 5: you do you outline take notes? Would you call yourself
- 31:18Speaker 5: a panther or a planner?
- 31:21Speaker 2: I gosh, I am struggling right now with my next project,
- 31:27Speaker 2: which is interesting. I think it is true for some
- 31:30Speaker 2: writers say that every project it's a little bit different.
- 31:33Speaker 2: I am an out and I love taking copious amounts
- 31:39Speaker 2: of notes. So I love just stocking up on notebooks
- 31:43Speaker 2: when I'm going to start writing a new project. And
- 31:46Speaker 2: I love your research. I love, you know, going to
- 31:50Speaker 2: coffee shops and listening in on conversations that might kind
- 31:54Speaker 2: of be able to weave in to my stories from
- 31:57Speaker 2: how But I typically will write out my outline and excel.
- 32:03Speaker 2: It just makes sense for me because there's different fields,
- 32:06Speaker 2: and so I will break the note down chapter by chapters,
- 32:11Speaker 2: so I'm usually I write about thirty five is chapters,
- 32:18Speaker 2: So I tend to know like the midpoint is going
- 32:19Speaker 2: to be in the middle of the novel, and then
- 32:21Speaker 2: from there I'm able to kind of plot out where
- 32:24Speaker 2: the beats will fall. I usually write my novels more
- 32:28Speaker 2: based on like a traditional three act structure. No, it's
- 32:31Speaker 2: easier to map that out.
- 32:34Speaker 4: Well, I've just got to ask what are in the
- 32:36Speaker 4: different cells or the columns in your Excel spreadsheet. Is
- 32:39Speaker 4: that like chapter, plot, character or what.
- 32:42Speaker 2: Yeah, so I'm going to open one of mine that
- 32:45Speaker 2: I was actually looking at.
- 32:46Speaker 5: I used, I used an Excel sheet once I tried that.
- 32:50Speaker 2: It is a yeah, it's a little overwhelming, but I
- 32:53Speaker 2: call it my map, novel map. So what I will
- 32:57Speaker 2: have like on one column it's like the chapters, and
- 33:01Speaker 2: then over on the other tabs I will have like
- 33:06Speaker 2: so for example, I have you heard of Saved the Cat?
- 33:09Speaker 8: Of course yes, So I will have a series of columns,
- 33:14Speaker 8: so I have the Saved the Cat, and for example,
- 33:18Speaker 8: I have a column there that says save the cat.
- 33:20Speaker 2: Opening image generally happens between zero to one percent. And
- 33:24Speaker 2: so then I know, right chapter one, I'm going to
- 33:27Speaker 2: have to have my opening image around there. But then
- 33:30Speaker 2: next to save the Cat, I also have two other
- 33:34Speaker 2: comparable columns, a horror beat sheet and then a mystery
- 33:38Speaker 2: beat sheet. So in the mystery beat sheet column, I
- 33:43Speaker 2: have it written dramatic opening, an incident that sets the
- 33:47Speaker 2: story into motion. That's usually what within a mystery, something's
- 33:51Speaker 2: happening we're in there. And then with the horror beat
- 33:55Speaker 2: sheet column that says the world is not what it seems.
- 34:00Speaker 2: And then across that I will have like the character names,
- 34:04Speaker 2: what history. I'll have something written out in history so
- 34:10Speaker 2: that I can start pinning and understanding. It sounds really complicated.
- 34:13Speaker 2: It's difficult to that way, I know, all right. In
- 34:17Speaker 2: chapter one, this is what I'm going to target. I'm
- 34:21Speaker 2: targeting and opening sequence that says things in motion that
- 34:25Speaker 2: will make it seem like everything isn't what it seems,
- 34:28Speaker 2: and it will have that opening image from Saving the Cat.
- 34:31Speaker 2: And then I will list out for the characters within
- 34:35Speaker 2: that chapter. So it's overwhelming. It doesn't work for everyone,
- 34:40Speaker 2: but you can do it and outline in different ways.
- 34:43Speaker 2: You can just have an outlining word. I've told people
- 34:47Speaker 2: who don't like outlining think of it as even developing
- 34:51Speaker 2: something that's a guide post. You don't have really detailed
- 34:55Speaker 2: because the fun is sometimes just discovering. You can just
- 34:57Speaker 2: write down like one sentence or a few so that
- 35:00Speaker 2: you know these certain things are happening in this chapter
- 35:04Speaker 2: and you can continue building from there.
- 35:06Speaker 5: M M. You are very much a planner. I like that,
- 35:10Speaker 5: and I might revisit the Excel street I used. I
- 35:13Speaker 5: found it helpful to a point. And then I did
- 35:16Speaker 5: get kind of overwhelmed and reverted back to my just
- 35:19Speaker 5: line by line outline that I work from.
- 35:23Speaker 6: But I really like that, so thank you for sharing
- 35:25Speaker 6: that with this. And every novel is different. So what
- 35:30Speaker 6: ever worked for one novel, I'm seeing now what I'm
- 35:34Speaker 6: used to were from my previous novels isn't quite working
- 35:36Speaker 6: for this novel. So I'm tweaking my good advice.
- 35:40Speaker 5: So now can you describe your daily writing process so
- 35:44Speaker 5: that gets you started, and then how do you approach
- 35:46Speaker 5: the work each day to get it finished.
- 35:48Speaker 2: So I am a mom of two, yes nice, it
- 35:53Speaker 2: really my days are chaotic for any parents out there
- 35:59Speaker 2: daring for a love ones. So I generally in the morning,
- 36:03Speaker 2: I will try to wake up before everyone, get a
- 36:05Speaker 2: few things, a few key things done, shuffle everyone off
- 36:10Speaker 2: to school, and then when I come home, I have
- 36:12Speaker 2: a nice block of time and that's my time to
- 36:16Speaker 2: really write. And I am a big proponent of just
- 36:21Speaker 2: get the words down, however messy they look. They cause
- 36:24Speaker 2: can't edit what you don't have. So I just absolutely
- 36:28Speaker 2: and there'll be typos and things that don't make sense
- 36:32Speaker 2: now and it's you're not and it's just a jumble mess,
- 36:35Speaker 2: and then I get everybody back home, and then my
- 36:40Speaker 2: evening is sort of my opportunity to plan what I'm
- 36:43Speaker 2: going to do tomorrow. So like I'll look at my
- 36:46Speaker 2: outline and then I kind of like repull the levers
- 36:48Speaker 2: and tweak things around, because just because you're outlining, that
- 36:51Speaker 2: doesn't mean that that's set in stone. You can keep
- 36:55Speaker 2: tweaking things along. So my days are a little chaotic,
- 37:00Speaker 2: but I get the writing. However, I need to get it.
- 37:03Speaker 4: Done, and you are getting it done, and you've been
- 37:07Speaker 4: doing it for a while. Now, what are some of
- 37:10Speaker 4: the lessons you've learned along the way about writing or
- 37:12Speaker 4: publishing or something you didn't know when you started but
- 37:17Speaker 4: is apparent to you now.
- 37:19Speaker 2: Oh gosh, I just there's just so much. It's a
- 37:22Speaker 2: very I think it's a it's just an overwhelming industry,
- 37:28Speaker 2: the business aspect of it all. And I think what
- 37:33Speaker 2: I wish I knew then is that you have to
- 37:37Speaker 2: separate both of them. Yes, in your mind, there is
- 37:41Speaker 2: one component, which is the business, and you have no
- 37:45Speaker 2: control over that, and then there is the other component,
- 37:49Speaker 2: which is your writing, which is all that you have
- 37:51Speaker 2: control over. And as long as you're enjoying the writing.
- 37:57Speaker 2: Then that's like the best part because you can't control
- 38:01Speaker 2: all the other stuff. So I wish I didn't put
- 38:04Speaker 2: so much pressure on myself to feel like I had
- 38:07Speaker 2: to be, you know, perfect and everything and everything had
- 38:11Speaker 2: to work out. I think I would have just focused
- 38:14Speaker 2: more on me what I've learned, and so I'm back.
- 38:20Speaker 2: I think I've recalibrated and all of my energy is
- 38:23Speaker 2: back and to just focusing on the writing. And you know,
- 38:26Speaker 2: thankfully I'm agented. And then I just send stuff off
- 38:29Speaker 2: to my agent and then hi in a corner and
- 38:31Speaker 2: tel every reads it.
- 38:33Speaker 4: All right, fantastic. Well you sort of suggested you're working
- 38:37Speaker 4: on something. Now, what's coming out next? After Vanishing Daughters?
- 38:42Speaker 2: I'm working on a historical horror novel that takes place
- 38:45Speaker 2: in World War two. So right now I am really
- 38:50Speaker 2: just involved in all things research. Well, I hope to
- 38:57Speaker 2: for you all hon to see that soon, so we'll
- 38:58Speaker 2: see how it goes. But there's that's a fascinating time period. Yeah,
- 39:02Speaker 2: and in time, so it's just a lot of research,
- 39:05Speaker 2: no doubt.
- 39:06Speaker 4: Well, maybe a year from now, when you've gotten all
- 39:09Speaker 4: that worked out, we can have you back on the podcast.
- 39:12Speaker 4: To talk about that one which fairy tale will that
- 39:14Speaker 4: involve your pan? Oh, that's really intrigued, But it is.
- 39:20Speaker 2: Did I say world War two? I said World War One?
- 39:22Speaker 2: So it's World War one? Okay, So yeah, so that's
- 39:26Speaker 2: what I'm working on right now.
- 39:29Speaker 4: Sounds fantastic. Hey, well, good luck with Vanishing Daughters, and
- 39:35Speaker 4: thank you so much for being on the podcast.
- 39:37Speaker 2: Thank you, this is lovely. I appreciate your time.
- 39:45Speaker 4: Just a few parting words. Let me remind you that
- 39:49Speaker 4: we are getting ever closer to the writer Con Cruise,
- 39:53Speaker 4: which is May thirty first to seven, going to Alaska,
- 39:56Speaker 4: leaving from Seattle, and I want to emphasize that we
- 40:01Speaker 4: have reserved a block of rooms and have gotten a
- 40:05Speaker 4: great discount I mean a serious discount for people coming
- 40:10Speaker 4: for writer Con, you know, for the writing classes on board.
- 40:14Speaker 4: But it is not infinite and when it runs out,
- 40:17Speaker 4: it's gone. So if you're thinking about this register now
- 40:22Speaker 4: and take advantage of that discount, pluck. You're going to
- 40:26Speaker 4: get twenty hours of writing instructions scheduled while the boats
- 40:30Speaker 4: at sea, not when you want to go off and
- 40:32Speaker 4: see the ice cap, smelt or whatever. And we always
- 40:36Speaker 4: have a great time and get a lot done. Laura
- 40:39Speaker 4: Quick final jeopardy. How many people who have come on
- 40:42Speaker 4: that quiz? Would you guess? Are published now on the cruise?
- 40:47Speaker 4: Yeah is good quiz, but on the crewise this.
- 40:52Speaker 5: Is the Cruise now published quite a few, with more
- 40:56Speaker 5: in the pipeline, and some of them are starting to
- 40:59Speaker 5: win aboards for their work.
- 41:01Speaker 4: Ooh good point. Yeah. Anyway, it's really worth doing if
- 41:05Speaker 4: you're interested in bringing or writing up to the next level.
- 41:09Speaker 4: Not to mention seeing the beauty of Alaska. I'm so excited,
- 41:13Speaker 4: Google writer con I'll leave a link in the show
- 41:15Speaker 4: notes and may I also mentioned that I got a
- 41:19Speaker 4: new novel out's coming out next Oh, it'll be yesterday
- 41:25Speaker 4: when this book is released, when this podcast is released.
- 41:29Speaker 4: I can't get anything right today. But it is Challengers
- 41:32Speaker 4: of the Dust change a pace for me because it's
- 41:35Speaker 4: set in nineteen thirty five dust Bowl, Oklahoma. Two young
- 41:40Speaker 4: men are forced to undertake an impossible mission find the
- 41:45Speaker 4: local big wigs wayward daughter, which sends them on a
- 41:48Speaker 4: cross country trek during which they meet a lot of
- 41:52Speaker 4: Depression era people, including some famous and soon to be
- 41:57Speaker 4: famous people. It's a change pace, but it's a lot
- 42:01Speaker 4: of fun, and especially if you're interested in history or
- 42:04Speaker 4: the time period the Depression, World War two, the period
- 42:08Speaker 4: that literally transformed America in a good way. Here's your book,
- 42:13Speaker 4: Challengers are the dest Okay.
- 42:15Speaker 5: I think I heard that you had a pretty good
- 42:17Speaker 5: editor for that too.
- 42:19Speaker 4: I have a pretty good editor on all of my works,
- 42:22Speaker 4: and it's just so good. I made her a co
- 42:24Speaker 4: host on the podcast. So and on that note, until
- 42:30Speaker 4: next time, keep writing and remember you cannot fail if
- 42:35Speaker 4: you refuse to quit. All right, See you next time.