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Hey there word nerds! Today I’m pleased to have Katherine Neville on the show. Katherine’s colorful, swashbuckling adventure novels, in the epic “Quest” tradition, have graced the bestseller lists in forty languages. In fact, her works—including The Eight which we discuss in the interview—have “paved the way” for books like the The Da Vinci Code and others in that genre. In our interview, Katherine and I dive into her book The Eight and the craft elements she used in writing the expansive quest novel. This episode is brought to you buy our amazing word nerd fans and supporters on Patreon. If you’d like to help support this show, hop over to patreon.com/DIYMFA.   Embed Episode Here In this episode Katherine and I discuss: How influences as varied as The Odyssey, the French Revolution, and chess inspired The Eight’s intricate plot and kept readers turning pages. What defines a quest novel, and how Katherine adapted this structure in her writing. Katherine’s unexpected strategy for introducing the main protagonist in chapter two, and why draws readers into the story. How to hook readers and build tension with a subtle but powerful opening line. Plus, Katherine’s #1 tip for writers. About the Author Katherine Neville’s swashbuckling adventure novels have graced the bestseller lists in forty languages. In fact Publisher’s Weekly described Katherine’s works, such as her book The Eight which we discuss in the interview, as having “paved the way” for books like the Da Vinci Code. Neville herself has been dubbed “the female” Umberto  Eco, Charles Dickens, Alexandre Dumas, and Stephen Spielberg. Her work has been reviewed and has received awards in categories as diverse as Mystery, Thriller, Historical, Romance, Science Fiction as well as classical literature. Despite writing across many genres and categories, Neville’s books remain hard to pigeonhole. Katherine Neville has been an invited speaker at many universities and other venues around the world, including the Today show, National Public Radio, and the Library of Congress. In a national poll by the noted Spanish journal, El Pais, her novel, The Eight, was voted one of the top ten books of all time.She is the co-creator of several awards and grants, including most recently: Art in Literature: the Mary Lynn Kotz Award presented by the Library of Virginia and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and the Neville-Pribram Mid-Career Grant presented by the Smithsonian Libraries. Neville resides in Washington DC and Virginia, where she is restoring a fabled Japanese house from the 1960s while writing her new novel set in the art world of the 1600s. To learn more about and connect with Katherine Neville check out her website here:www.katherineneville.com The Eight New York City, 1972—A dabbler in mathematics and chess, Catherine Velis is also a computer expert for a Big Eight accounting firm. Before heading off to a new assignment in Algeria, Cat has her palm read by a fortune-teller. The woman warns Cat of danger. Then an antiques dealer approaches Cat with a mysterious offer: He has an anonymous client who is trying to collect the pieces of an ancient chess service, purported to be in Algeria. If Cat can bring the pieces back, there will be a generous reward. The South of France, 1790—Mireille de Remy and her cousin Valentine are young novices at the fortress like Montglane Abbey. With France aflame in revolution, the two girls burn to rebel against constricted convent life—and their means of escape is at hand. Buried deep within the abbey are pieces of the Montglane Chess Service, once owned by Charlemagne. Whoever reassembles the pieces can play a game of unlimited power. But to keep the Game a secret from those who would abuse it, the two young women must scatter the pieces throughout the world.     For more info and show notes: DIYMFA.com/145

Hey there word nerds! This episode is brought to you buy our amazing word nerd fans and supporters on Patreon. If you’d like to help support this show, hop over to patreon.com/DIYMFA Today I’m thrilled to have Herb Freed on the show. Herb started his adult life as an ordained rabbi and became the spiritual leader of Temple Beth Shalom in Lake Mahopac, New York, at the same time producing and directing three shows at the Maidman Playhouse in New York City. Eventually, he resigned his pulpit to become a movie director. Today we’ll be speaking about his book Bashert, which is out now.   In this episode Herb and I discuss: When you’re writing based on true events, which elements do you change for the book? Which things do you keep the same? What are some of the considerations that drive these choices? Why tell a story as a novel instead of a memoir, if it’s based on true events? What do you need to consider when you are deciding between telling the absolute truth versus the conceptual Truth? Write about things you are passionate about. Write the story you can’t not tell. How screenwriting can shape a novel writer’s process. What skills transfer over? What aspects don’t translate? Plus, his #1 tip for writers. About the Author Herb Freed started his adult life as an ordained rabbi and became the spiritual leader of Temple Beth Shalom in Lake Mahopac, New York while producing and directing three shows at the Maidman Playhouse in New York City. Eventually, he resigned his pulpit to become a movie director. He has directed and produced 15 feature films most of which have had psychological, spiritual and/or social themes in spite of their commercial categories. He is best known for Graduation Day, a horror film, and Tomboy, a teenage romp, as well as the psychological drama Haunts, and CHILD2MAN, a story of survival during the Watts riots. You can find out more about Herb Freed at herbfreed.com Bashert Would you recognize your soul’s complement in another? Beyond the bliss of actually finding your soul mate, there is a belief that the universe hinges on predetermined people finding their other half, their bashert, to maintain cosmic balance. In Bashert (Bellrock Press; February 14, 2017) author, screenwriter, director and former rabbi Herb Freed immerses us in the heady intoxication and thunderous losses of what it really means to be bashert. Dan Sobol and Marion Gladstone meet by chance at a screenwriter’s event in Los Angeles. He’s a rabbi turned director known for his cinematic television commercials; she’s a writer and film editor who is recovering from a tabloid-headline screaming Hollywood divorce. From the moment Marion hears Dan’s voice, she knows—and so does he. It’s bashert. But when did the course of true love ever run smooth? Dan and Marion are soon partners in business as well as life, traveling the world to create movies. He directs, she writes and edits, and life becomes an amazing adventure—until Cancun. There, among the ruins of the Mayan civilization, Marion has an eerie premonition that has the potential to change everything. Drawing upon his own personal experience, Freed spins a tale unflinching in its examination of life, but weaving along the edge of magical realism. From the bright lights of Hollywood to Mexico, Israel, Paris and the dreamy exhilaration of Jamaica, Bashert is a love story about transcending life, loss and the boundaries we mistakenly place on our lives and our hearts. For more info and show notes: DIYMFA.com/144

Hey there word nerds! Today I’m pleased to have K.J. Howe on the show. K.J. is the executive director of Thrillerfest, the annual conference of International Thriller Writers. This is one of my favorite genre conferences and I look forward to it every year. Today I'm talking to Daphne du Maurier Award winner, K.J. Howe about her debut thriller, The Freedom Broker and how to craft a strong female lead in this genre. We also talk about why it's important to give even the most heroic characters a flaw or personal obstacle and for the first time ever on this show, I share a behind-the-scenes look at a personal obstacle I have in my own life. This was such an honest and deep conversation and I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed interviewing K.J. Howe. In this episode K.J. and I discuss: Some of the challenges of writing a strong female character. How do you walk that line between over-masculinizing her or making her seem like a “token” character in a male-dominated world? Giving your characters limitations that help them feel more realistic on the page. Weaknesses, flaws, and the ability to recognize the limits of their power are important aspects of your characters that keep them from tipping over the edge into indestructible superhero territory. Weaving invisible disabilities into stories. Creating characters who are real, who struggle with real health and mental health issues, but who are not defined by their disabilities. The dynamics and tension between characters and how to bring their relationships to life for the reader. Plus, her #1 tip for writers. About the Author K.J. Howe is the executive director of Thrillerfest, the annual conference of International Thriller Writers. A three-time Daphne du Maurier Award winner, she completed her MA in Writing Popular Fiction at Seton Hill University. She is an avid traveler who has raced camels in Jordan, surfed in Hawaii, and dove with the great whites in South Africa. She became fascinated by the kidnap and ransom (K&R) world after meeting Peter Moore, a British computer consultant who became the longest-held hostage in Iraq and the only person to survive of the five men who were taken that day. The Freedom Broker is her debut novel. The Freedom Broker There are twenty-five elite kidnap and ransom (K&R) specialists in the world. Only one is a woman: Thea Paris. And she's the best in the business.Twenty years ago, a terrified young boy was abducted in the middle of the night by masked intruders while his sister watched, paralyzed with fear. Returned after a harrowing nine months with his captors, Thea's brother has never been the same.This life-shattering experience drove Thea to become what she is today: a world-class freedom broker. Most hostage-recovery work is done at the negotiation table, but when diplomacy fails, Thea leads Quantum Security International's black-ops team on highly sensitive rescue missions to political hot spots around the globe.Her childhood nightmare resurfaces when her oil magnate father, Christos Paris, is snatched from his yacht off Santorini on his sixtieth birthday, days away from the biggest deal of his career. The brutal kidnappers left the entire crew slaughtered in their wake, but strangely, there are no ransom demands, no political appeals, no prisoner release requests-just obscure and foreboding texts written in Latin sent from burner phones.Knowing the survival window for kidnap victims is small, Thea throws herself into the most urgent and challenging rescue mission of her life-but will she be able to prevent this kidnapping from destroying her family for good? For more info and show notes: DIYMFA.com/143

Hey there word nerds! Today we’ll be doing something a little bit different on the show. I am so delighted to welcome Kathleen Audet. Kathleen is a brilliant image consultant and is president and owner of Your Authentic Image. She is also a good friend and someone who has helped me turn my own mindset about clothing and image upside down (in a good way). Today we’ll be talking about how to use components of image to make your characters come to life and also help you shift your own mindset and attitude.   In this episode Kathleen and I discuss: Why is what we wear important? If we’re just hiding in our writing cave, why does it matter what we wear? The work you do around choosing your four words, how to do that, and what to do with those words once we have them. Using paint chips to represent different characters. Interestingly enough when you put characters of opposite sides of the color wheel in same scene, that’s usually when tension and conflict happens. Designing your characters visually. Think about what details you can include to make your character pop off the page. Clothing, including accessories. Grooming, including body hygiene, hair, skin, nail care, and makeup. Body language, including figure/body type, posture, eye contact, facial expressions, gestures, manners and etiquette. Semiotics and how clothing functions as a system of signs. Plus, Kathleen’s #1 tip for writers. About Kathleen Kathleen Audet is president and owner of Your Authentic Image. For more than 20 years she has been studying color, design and image management. Kathleen’s degrees in education and English form the foundation for her insatiable curiosity about people and ability to teach women on a deeply profound level. Having trained on both coasts of the United States, Kathleen’s image and style evaluations are thorough and comprehensive. Kathleen received image consultant training from the Conselle Institute of Image Management. She is a member of Association of Image Consultants International. She lives northern Nevada and works with clients locally and around the world through her virtual coaching programs.   For more info and show notes: DIYMFA.com/142

Hey there word nerds! Today I am excited to interview author and creative writing professor, Susan Perabo. Susan is the author of two short story collections and the novel, The Broken Places. Her fiction has been anthologized in Best American Short Stories, Pushcart Prize Stories, and New Stories from the South, and has appeared in numerous magazines, including One Story, Glimmer Train, The Iowa Review, The Missouri Review, and The Sun. She is a writer-in-residence and professor at Dickinson College, and her new book, The Fall of Lisa Bellow, is out now. In this episode Susan and I discuss: How we get to know characters through little glimpses of their lives (in writing workshop terms, we get a lot of “showing” rather than “telling”). We dive into one of those moments in Susan’s process and unpack how writers can give readers a full perspective of the characters by showing them in a scene. Why it is important for writers to be able to write short form as well as book-length fiction. We also discuss some of the challenges and some of the advantages that short form brings to the craft of writing. The use of imagery (both in simile and metaphor) to convey complex ideas or emotions. When using simile or metaphor in this way, we talk about what writers need to think about. Plus, Susan’s #1 tip for writers. About the Author Susan Perabo is the author of two short story collections, Why They Run the Way They Do and Who I Was Supposed to Be, and the novel, The Broken Places. Her fiction has been anthologized in Best American Short Stories, Pushcart Prize Stories, and New Stories from the South, and has appeared in numerous magazines, including One Story, Glimmer Train, The Iowa Review, The Missouri Review, and The Sun. She is Writer in Residence and Professor of English and Creative Writing at Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA. Her new book, The Fall of Lisa Bellow, is out now. The Fall of Lisa Bellow When a masked man with a gun enters a sandwich shop in broad daylight, Meredith Oliver suddenly finds herself ordered to the filthy floor, where she cowers face to face with her nemesis, Lisa Bellow, the most popular girl in her eighth grade class. The minutes tick inexorably by, and Meredith lurches between comforting the sobbing Lisa and imagining her own impending death. Then the man orders Lisa Bellow to stand and come with him, leaving Meredith the girl left behind. After Lisa’s abduction, Meredith spends most days in her room, slipping from her world into Lisa’s. As the community stages vigils and searches, Claire, Meredith’s mother, is torn between relief that her daughter is alive and helplessness over her inability to protect or even comfort her child. Her daughter is here, but not. Like Everything I Never Told You and Room, The Fall of Lisa Bellow is edgy and original, a hair-raising exploration of the ripple effects of an unthinkable crime. It is a dark, beautifully rendered, and gripping novel about coping, about coming-of-age, and about forgiveness. It is also a beautiful illustration of how one family, broken by tragedy, finds healing.   For more info and show notes: DIYMFA.com/141

Hey there word nerds! Today I’m absolutely thrilled to introduce you to Jessica Strawser, the editorial director of Writer’s Digest magazine, and author of the stunning debut novel Almost Missed You. As editor of Writer’s Digest magazine, she has interviewed luminaries like David Sedaris and Alice Walker and her debut novel—released yesterday from St. Martin’s Press—has already garnered early accolades from a humbling list of bestselling authors like, Garth Stein, Adriana Trigiani, and Jacquelyn Mitchard. Her second novel is slated for release in Spring 2018. In this episode Jessica and I discuss: Strategies for setting up your first chapter. Jessica and I unpack ways to craft your first chapter for maximum effect. Shifting POV between multiple main characters. Picking which elements of the characters’ stories you want to show, and which you want to keep hidden. Tapping your personal perspective, emotions, and experiences to help illustrate character experiences in your novel. Balancing work, writing, and family in such a way that sets you up to be successful, and helps you channel the strongest emotions possible to your characters. Knowing and being clear about your priorities to meet your goals. Plus, her #1 tip for writers. About the Author Jessica Strawser is the editorial director of Writer’s Digest magazine, North America’s leading publication for aspiring and working writers since 1920, where she counts her cover interviews with such luminaries as David Sedaris and Alice Walker among her career highlights. Her debut novel, Almost Missed You, is forthcoming in March 2017 from St. Martin’s Press and has garnered early accolades from a humbling list of bestsellers, including Chris Bohjalian, Garth Stein, Adriana Trigiani, Lisa Scottoline and Jacquelyn Mitchard, and a second novel is slated for a Spring 2018 release. Her diverse career in the publishing industry spans more than 15 years and includes stints in book editing, marketing and public relations, and freelance writing and editing (with work published in The New York Times and other fine publications). She blogs at WritersDigest.com and elsewhere, tweets @jessicastrawser and enjoys connecting at Facebook.com/jessicastrawserauthor. Learn more at jessicastrawser.com. Almost Missed You Violet and Finn were “meant to be,” said everyone, always. They ended up together by the hands of fate aligning things just so. Three years into their marriage, they have a wonderful little boy, and as the three of them embark on their first vacation as a family, Violet can’t help thinking that she can’t believe her luck. Life is good. So no one is more surprised than she when Finn leaves her at the beach—just packs up the hotel room and disappears. And takes their son with him. Violet is suddenly in her own worst nightmare, and faced with the knowledge that the man she’s shared her life with, she never really knew at all. Caitlin and Finn have been best friends since way back when, but when Finn shows up on Caitlin’s doorstep with the son he’s wanted for kidnapping, demands that she hide them from the authorities, and threatens to reveal a secret that could destroy her own family if she doesn’t, Caitlin faces an impossible choice. Told through alternating viewpoints of Violet, Finn and Caitlin, ALMOST MISSED YOU is a powerful story of a mother’s love, a husband’s betrayal, connections that maybe should have been missed, secrets that perhaps shouldn’t have been kept, and spaces between what’s meant to be and what might have been. For more info and show notes: DIYMFA.com/140  

Hey there word nerds! Today I am excited to interview Dan Blank, founder of WeGrowMedia and author of the new book Be The Gateway that just came out a few weeks ago. Dan helps writers and creative professionals share their stories and grow their audience. He has worked with hundreds of individuals and some amazing organizations who support creative people, such as Random House, Hachette Book Group, Sesame Workshop, Workman Publishing, J. Walter Thompson, Abrams Books, Writers House, The Kenyon Review, Writer’s Digest, Library Journal, And more. His work has been featured by Poets & Writers magazine, The National Endowment for the Arts, Professional Artist magazine, Compose Journal, and 99u. To read the post titled “Be the Gateway” where Dan first talked about the gateway idea, click here. Embed Episode Here In this episode Dan and I discuss: Sometimes setting limits helps you make something big out of something small. We talk about the ups and downs of writing this book and how Dan landed on this particular project The idea of being the gateway (instead of focusing on specific metrics) is a radical shift from how many people think about platform. We discuss why creative people get so hung up on the numbers and how can they get past that and focus on what really matters. Be the Gateway touches on these three themes: Story, Creator, and Topics. We talk about these three components and how they contribute to creating that gateway for an audience Why the “visualization” myth so dangerous and why people buy into it. We also talk about what people can do instead. Plus, Dan's #1 tip for writers. About the Author Dan Blank is the founder of WeGrowMedia, where he helps writers and creative professionals share their stories and grow their audience. He has worked with hundreds of individuals and amazing organizations who support creative people, such as Random House, Hachette Book Group, Sesame Workshop, Workman Publishing, J. Walter Thompson, Abrams Books, Writers House, The Kenyon Review, Writer's Digest, Library Journal, and many others. Dan's work has been featured by Poets & Writers magazine, the National Endowment for the Arts, Professional Artist magazine, Compose Journal, and 99u. Be the Gateway Many people feel the drive to do creative work, but get overwhelmed by the process of connecting with an audience. They follow “best practices” in marketing that never seem to pan out, don’t produce results, and make them feel lost and oftentimes, frustrated. Be the Gateway offers a powerful way to have an impact. If you want to share your voice and inspire people with your writing, art, craft, or creative idea, you have to be the gateway for them. Instead of throwing “products” out into the marketplace, you open them up to a new way of looking at the world, of knowing themselves, and connecting with others. You unlock new experiences for them — not just through what you create, but through the unique way in which you share it with the world. Too often we think about the creative process as being separate from the marketing process. Instead, view them as the same. Replace the inclination to “promote” with the desire to share and engage. How and why you create is a story — and is the best asset you can use to truly engage people. Be the Gateway shows you how to use that gift with joy and confidence. For more info and show notes: DIYMFA.com/139.

Hey there word nerds! Today I’m delighted to interview journalist and statistician, Ben Blatt, about his new book Nabokov’s Favorite Word Is Mauve. Ben is a former staff writer for Slate and The Harvard Lampoon who has taken his fun approach to data journalism to topics such as Seinfeld, mapmaking, The Beatles, and Jeopardy! His previous book, co-written with Eric Brewster, is I Don't Care if We Never Get Back, which follows the duo’s quest to go on the mathematically optimal baseball road trip, traveling 20,000 miles to a game in all thirty ballparks in thirty days without planes. Blatt’s work has also been published in The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, and Deadspin. In his latest book, Nabokov’s Favorite Word Is Mauve, he offers a playful and informative look at what numbers have to say about our favorite authors and a wide range of books, from bestsellers and classics to guilty pleasures. He sets up a slew of original analytical experiments and uses big data to answer some of our most persistent questions about literature. In this episode Ben Blatt and I discuss: The Adverb Question: Do great writers use more adverbs (or fewer) than their non-great counterparts? Should writers avoid adverbs altogether? Do men and women write differently? What does this say about our literary culture? His biggest finding is a sweeping disparity in male and female characters across all genres of writing: women write equally about men and women, but men write overwhelmingly more about men. Are books getting “dumber”? Blatt’s findings show that the grade level of #1 bestsellers has fallen by two levels—from 8th grade to 6th—in the past 50 years. Although this might be worrying, it might not necessarily damning—simple can be good at getting a wider audience reading, and the trend doesn’t mean that every book is being written at a lower level. What are our favorite writers’ favorite words? Using text analysis and setting up his own original experiment, Blatt develops a lengthy list of our favorite author’s favorite words. Among them: Nabokov’s favorite word is mauve, Jane Austen’s favorite is civility (of course it is), EL James’s is murmurs. What makes a great opening sentence? When in doubt, keep it short. Of twenty of the “best opening sentences” in literature, 60% of them are short and 40% are long (when compared to the author’s average sentence). Plus, Ben's #1 tip for writers. About the Author Ben Blatt is a former staff writer for Slate and The Harvard Lampoon who has taken his fun approach to data journalism to topics such as Seinfeld, mapmaking, The Beatles, and Jeopardy! His previous book, co-written with Eric Brewster, is I Don't Care if We Never Get Back, which follows the duo’s quest to go on the mathematically optimal baseball road trip, traveling 20,000 miles to a game in all thirty ballparks in thirty days without planes. Blatt’s work has also been published in The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, and Deadspin. He lives in Los Angeles. Nabokov’s Favorite Word Is Mauve There’s a famous piece of writing advice—offered by Ernest Hemingway, Stephen King, and myriad writers in between—not to use -ly adverbs like “quickly” or “fitfully.” It sounds like solid advice, but can we actually test it? If we were to count all the -ly adverbs these authors used in their careers, do they follow their own advice compared to other celebrated authors? What’s more, do great books in general—the classics and the bestsellers—share this trait? In Nabokov’s Favorite Word Is Mauve, statistician and journalist Ben Blatt brings big data to the literary canon, exploring the wealth of fun findings that remain hidden in the works of the world’s greatest writers. He assembles a database of thousands of books and hundreds of millions of words, and starts asking the questions that have intrigued curious word nerds and book lovers for generations: What are our favorite authors’ favorite words? Do men and women write differently? Are bestsellers getting dumber over time? Which bestselling writer uses the most clichés? What makes a great opening sentence? How can we judge a book by its cover? And which writerly advice is worth following or ignoring? Blatt draws upon existing analysis techniques and invents some of his own. All of his investigations and experiments are original, conducted himself, and no math knowledge is needed to understand the results. Blatt breaks his findings down into lucid, humorous language and clear and compelling visuals. This eye-opening book will provide you with a new appreciation for your favorite authors and a fresh perspective on your own writing, illuminating both the patterns that hold great prose together and the brilliant flourishes that make it unforgettable. For more info and show notes: DIYMFA.com/138

Hey there word nerds! Today I am thrilled (pun intended) to have award-winning and bestselling author, Clare Mackintosh on the show. Clare spent twelve years in the Thames Valley Police Department, during which time she worked on criminal investigations. After leaving the police force in 2011, she worked as a freelance journalist and social media consultant before writing her bestselling debut novel I Let You Go. She is the winner of two major international Crime Awards and for one of them, she even beat out J.K. Rowling’s pseudonym Robert Galbraith to win. She is the Director of the Chipping Norton Literary Festival and lives in the Cotswolds with her husband, a police officer, and their three children. In this episode Clare and I discuss: Balancing work and life and knowing how to give your best where it’s needed most. How work and life can influence your writing, both in terms of the topics you write about and the detail you give to certain aspects of the story. And some not-so-obvious ways that your experience can filter into your storytelling. Suggestions for how writers can use more “detective thinking” in their own work, and build up those investigative skills that they can then apply to their writing projects What you do when you feel your story has two strong protagonists. We discuss my theory on protagonists and then about how two strong characters can serve as counterpoints for each other. Sharing bits about the antagonist, the villain, to enhance the reader’s experience of the overall story. It’s a tricky thing to pull off a slow build-up in a thriller without losing your readers. Plus, Clare’s #1 tip for writers. About the Author Clare Mackintosh spent twelve years in the Thames Valley Police Department, during which time she worked on criminal investigations. She left the police force in 2011 to work as a freelance journalist and social media consultant. She is the winner of two coveted international Crime Awards: Prix Polar International, France’s foremost crime fiction award, and The UK’s Theakston Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year Award, beating J.K. Rowling’s pseudonym Robert Galbraith to win. She is the Director of the Chipping Norton Literary Festival and lives in the Cotswolds with her husband, a police officer, and their three children. Visit Clare Mackintosh online at claremackintosh.com, Facebook.com/ClareMackWrites and at twitter.com/claremackint0sh. I See You You do the same thing every day. You know exactly where you’re going. You’re not alone. That’s the nerve-tingling premise behind Clare Mackintosh’s second novel I SEE YOU, already a #1 London Times bestseller in the author’s native UK.  Like Mackintosh’s stunning debut I Let You Go, the book with the plot twist heard ‘round the world that was picked as one of New York Times’s “10 Best Crime Novels of 2016,” her new thriller kicks into high-gear from the first chapter and never lets up. When Zoe Walker discovers her own picture in the local newspaper’s classified ads, she’s shocked.  A photo from her Facebook page accompanies a listing for a website called FindTheOne.com.  All Zoe’s efforts to discover what the ad means lead to dead ends.  And then a second woman whose picture appeared in a similar ad is assaulted.  When a third woman is murdered, Zoe’s unease turns to fear and paranoia.  The only thing the three have in common is their daily commute on the London subway system. Someone is methodically tracking down these women...and Zoe is next on the list. The follow-up to the international phenomenon I Let You Go—a debut that sold more than half a million copies in the UK—I See You confirms Clare Mackintosh’s growing reputation as one of the most accomplished crime writers at work today.  Before turning to writing, Mackintosh spent twelve years as a detective and her police work informs her remarkably realistic, pulse-pounding thrillers. For more info and show notes: DIYMFA.com/137

Hey there word nerds! Today I’m interviewing Dale Wiley, author and Missouri attorney, who has some fascinating credits to his name. For starters, he has had a character named after him on CSI, owned a record label, been interviewed by Bob Edwards on NPR's Morning Edition and made alternative fuel motorcycles for Merle Haggard and John Paul DeJoria. He is also one of the few people to who have met Ronald Reagan and Flavor Flav. Dale has three awesome kids and spends his days working as a lawyer fighting the big banks. He has als0 written three novels and is currently developing two original scripted projects for TV: the gritty drama, The East Side with Andréa Vasilo; and the sitcom, Confessions of a Bunny Smuggler, with Fayr Barkley. In this episode we discuss: The subgenre of metafiction, how it works to tell a story, and how it might not work, as well. Writers writing about writing for writers. Finding ideas and inspiration from the fact that the elements of story are, in fact, universal. Plus, their #1 tip for writers. About the Author Dale Wiley is a Missouri attorney, who has had a character named after him on CSI, owned a record label, been interviewed by Bob Edwards on NPR's Morning Edition and made motorcycles for Merle Haggard and John Paul DeJoria. He is also one of the few people to who have met Ronald Reagan and Flavor Flav. Dale has three awesome kids and spends his days working as a lawyer fighting the big banks. He has als0 written three novels and is currently developing two original scripted projects for TV: the gritty drama, The East Side with Andréa Vasilo; and the sitcom, Confessions of a Bunny Smuggler, with Fayr Barkley. Southern Gothic Misery meets Gone Girl, SOUTHERN GOTHIC is Dale Wiley’s latest page-turner. Not since his incendiary thrillers, Sabotage and The Intern, has Wiley treated readers to his heady brew of hair-trigger suspense and dark secrets. In this twisted and delightfully disturbing novel, one woman learns the true price of making a deal with the devil. Lovely Meredith Harper is living a life of lonely indifference – shuttling between her beloved Savannah, Georgia bookstore and her empty house, pining after a dream of being an author that now seems out of reach. Publishers had resoundingly passed on her only novel, Red Ribbon. In spite of herself, she’s haunted by her ex-husband’s insult – that she’ll never be a real writer, only a fan. Everything changes when Meredith finds a red ribbon tied to the inside of her doorknob. No one in her life would do such a thing. There is only one possibility: Michael Black, her favorite author, who was the only person besides friends and publishers to receive a copy of her manuscript. But he vanished years ago and was even rumored to be dead. Meredith races to uncover the truth behind the mysterious visitor, and her suspicions about his identity are confirmed. But how? Why now? Why her? And, most confusingly, why is Michael Black offering her a completely rewritten manuscript of Red Ribbon to publish under her own name? Exploring the dangerous divides between fame, fandom, romance, murder, and possession, SOUTHERN GOTHIC fascinates until the novel’s final breath. It makes the offer you can’t refuse—and shackles you to the demons of your fantasies.    For more info and show notes: DIYMFA.com/136