What Were You Thinking?

Ali Bryan's words are everywhere: in her 5 novels, in anthologies, magazines, newspapers...pretty much anywhere the printed words can appear. She chased the dream of being a full-time writer and crossed the finish line. But just because you win one marathon, doesn't mean you'll win them all. Ali shares her writer journey candidly and with transparency in this episode.

TINYabc stands for This Is Not Your average book club, and it most certainly isn't. Karen Sokoloff decided to create a paid-membership book club, a risk she wasn't entirely comfortable with, but took anyways. The result is a vibrant club that meets 4 TIMES PER MONTH, to meet authors, discuss books, and build camaraderie around the printed word.

Nora Nickum, author of Superpod, wasn't always interested in writing non-fiction for kids. Her day job requires a lot of non-fiction writing - she is the senior ocean policy manager at the Seattle Aquarium. But don't let that dry title fool you. Superpod is a fasctianting narrative that will make you want to jump in, get your feet wet, and help the whales in our oceans.

In November of 2021, Travis Baldree set out to try NANOWRIMO again. He was not new to National Novel Writing Month, but in 2021, he was focussed on finishing this time. He did, and he self-published his first novel, Legends and Lattes in February of 2022. By November, that little project was on the New York Times bestseller list. From self-published, to agented, then traditionally published, Travis' journey is really the stuff of fantasy.

There is no way I could possibly land on one book to discuss with Eric Walters, since he's penned more than 130 of them. In this episode, we talk about building a career as an author, some of the keys to success and the process required to keep going.

Jennifer Savran Kelly's debut novel, Endpapers, explores the journey of a genderqueer book binder who is trying to navigate through her relationships while following the trail of a secret love note she finds tucked into the endpapers of a book. While classified as literary fiction, this book engaged me so thoroughly, I didn't even realize it was literary. A must read for 2023.

Watch Jennifer in her acting roles:

Are you ready to have your mind blown? Genalea Barker has three novels in the queue for publishing over the next two years. She managed to find publishers WITHOUT AN AGENT, WHILE RAISING FOUR KIDS!

A unicorn? For sure.

An extremely talented writer? Unarguably.

Jennie Ogilvie always knew there was something different about her. She has a deep connection with spirit and has catapulted to the top as Alberta's favourite medium. Her debut book, Inside my Head, is a combination of memoir and Chicken Soup for the Soul. Within its pages, readers are taken on a journey to recover from grief, move through death with ease and grace, and carve out a better life for the time they still have.

I asked past guests to share the best book they read over the past year. I have a few of my own that I added to the list, so get busy with your Goodreads list.

Links to the podcast episodes for each guest:

James Fell is the author of his own rules. He does everything writers are told not to, and it works beautifully every single time. Does he have the Midas touch? Maybe. Can he turn a dying career into syndicated fitness column? For sure. Can he make history interesting? Fuck yes.

I had a fantastic and fun interview with Cass and Meredith from The Clopen Effect: A Retail Podcast. They interviewed me by phone to chat about my latest memoir, Spent: My Accidental Career in Retail. We giggled over the ridiculousness that happens in the retail world. We conspired over the tricks we use to get through the day. It was a nice opportunity for me to talk with people who are still in the retail world and who loved my book. It made them feel seen, they said.

Jenny L Howe's debut novel is one you'll fall in love with, literally. Her main character, Allison, mirrors some of the challenges Jenny faced in her own life - professionally, but not necessarily romantically. Allison, who is, as Jenny would say, unapologetically fat, finds herself entangled with an on-again, off-again lover. Let the games begin! In this episode, we talk about her agent and publication journey, the HEA (Happily Ever After), and why we need more diverse characters in romantic comedy novels, and many other topics.

Real Bad Things will leave with some real bad dreams. At least it did for me. To say I LOVED this book is a gross misrepresentation of just how deep I fell. It was my first 5-star read of 2022 and I knew before I was halfway done that I wanted to interview the author, Kelly J Ford. We cover a lot of topics in this episode: the agent journey, GritLit/Southern Gothic/Southern Noir, LGBTQ+ genre, her process (helo, playlists!) and much more.

If this was an episode of Who Would Win: Dinosaurs or Cephalopods, the squids would come out on top. While dinosaurs fossils get all the glory, it's the cephalopod fossils who have been doing all the work of telling the story of survival. After already surviving five (5!!!) mass extinctions, the cephalopods are likely the ocean creatures that will survive the next one. They are truly the Monarchs of the Sea, rising to the top from the deepest, darkest places of the sea.

In this episode, I talk to author Danna Staff whose book examines the fossil records of cephalpods - squid, octopus and cuttlefish. We talk about their evolution, their survival skills, the challenges of studying creatures of the sea, and how they have managed to stick around this blue marble for so long.

This debut novel is a crazy ride. From the very first page, I was hooked, wanting to know why a priest murdered a parishioner with a candlestick. If that feels reminiscent of a game of Clue (Colonel Mustard, in the library, with a knife), you're not wrong. There are enough twists and turns and unexpected, laugh out loud moments in All is Well to give you literary whiplash.

Brittney Morris performed what most writers would consider an impossible feat: she wrote an entire novel in 12 days. After being inspired by the Black Panther movie, Brittney decided to write a story about a 17-year-old high schooler who developed a game played by the global black community. Brittney wanted to participate in Pitch Wars, a mentoring program where published/agented authors, editors, or industry interns choose one writer each, read their entire manuscript, and offer suggestions on how to make the manuscript shine for an agent showcase.

She had 14 days to produce an entire manuscript. So she did.

In this episode, Brittney shares how she feels the pressure to represent her race, how she overcame more than 200 rejections and what the full-time writing life means to her.

Both of Clare Pooley's novels do a fantastic job of capturing what it is to be authentically human. It's ironic, given that she wrote a blog about her alcoholism anonymously for years. She is a master at multiple character narratives; The Authenticity Project and Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting are heartwarming, with characters you hate and love and back again.

In this episode, Clare shares what led her to start the Mommy was a Secret Drinker blog, her journey to publication, managing multiple characters, and how she waled away from a complete 90,000 word manuscript.

The love Beth Duke holds for her home state of Alabama is abundantly clear in her novels. Through It All Comes Back to You and Tapestry, she brings the south to life through her characters, their dialogue and the way they live. She charmed me through her novels and through this conversation.

She shares her experiences with book clubs, agents and the traditional publishing world and is candid about how she found INCREDIBLE success as an independent author.

Kelly DeVos is the author of 5 young adult novels. She has a remarkable gift for tapping into the fears and insecurities of teenagers, but it's the dark side of her characters that really shines. The young women who are her main characters are determined, saucy and smart- mouthed. It's hard not to see your younger self in the pages of her novels.

In this episode, we talk about strong YA characters, her journey to publication and the not always nice feedback.

Pat Duckworth was caught off guard by the need to share what she knows about menopause. After time at a retreat, she discovered she did have a book in her, trying to get out. Actually, she had five books waiting to see the light of day. Over the UK, where she lives and works, Pat has become the go-to expert on managing menopause symptoms using mind/body techniques. She is also leading the way for workplace awareness, helping businesses understand how to keep menopausal women working and making accommodations for their changing needs.

When you first meet Marci Warhaft, you immediately recognize a woman who is confident in who she is. She is fun and outgoing. She dances on TikTok. She is never afraid to take a chance. That's the Marci I've known for a decade. But when I picked up The Good Stripper, I was stunned with what I found in those pages: a series of traumatic events, the struggle with an eating disorder, a sex life she really didn't want, and a lifestyle not commonly associated with motherhood. 

The Good Stripper is so candid, I felt uncomfortable learning these things about my friend. It proved that you never know what is happening behind closed doors or in someone's head. In this episode we talk about Marci's life, her experience writing the book, and how she manages the feedback and fallout common when writing memoir.

Young Adult author Christina Kilbourne has tackled some tough topics in her novels: suicide, homelessness, and mental health, to name a few. The Limitless Sky, a dystopian YA novel set 700 years in the future was a complete departure from what she is accustomed to writing. In this episode, we discuss her process, her challenges and and why she decided to switch gears to dystopian fiction.

H.N. Khan was going to be a lawyer, until he realized there were other choices he could make. His journey took a very different turn, exposing and connecting HN Khan to the startup and tech world. As his career as a tech writer emerged and evolved, Humayun enrolled in Humber’s writing program. That program led him to new connections in the writing world, laying the groundwork for Wrong Side of the Court.

If this was an episode of Who Would Win: Dinosaurs or Cephalopods, the squids would come out on top. While dinosaurs fossils get all the glory, it's the cephalopod fossils who have been doing all the work of telling the story of survival. After already surviving five (5!!!) mass extinctions, the cephalopods are likely the ocean creatures that will survive the next one. They are truly the Monarchs of the Sea, rising to the top from the deepest, darkest places of the sea.

In this episode, I talk to author Danna Staff whose book examines the fossil records of cephalpods - squid, octopus and cuttlefish. We talk about their evolution, their survival skills, the challenges of studying creatures of the sea, and how they have managed to stick around this blue marble for so long.

Mary Boone is the author of more than 60 non-fiction books for young readers. She has written about everything from boy bands, the Biebs and in her latest book, bugs.

Bugs for Breakfast is an informative, engaging book, not just for middle grade readers, but for adults as well. It will open your eyes (and you mind) to a culinary experience that is becoming less quirky trend and more global necessity.

During this interview, Mary talks about her experience as a non-fiction author, her journey to writing Bugs for Breakfast, and how to get over our squeamishness when it comes to ingesting insects.

When first-time author and full-time business owner Laura Ballerini sat down to write some stories, she didn't anticipate the transformation that would take place inside her soul. From a very young age, Laura was introduced to art through her mother's skill with crafting, fixing, and cooking. Now, as a graphic designer, Laura realizes just how endemic art is to all our lives. In this episode, we discuss the impact of art, how she found time to fit writing into an already busy creative life and the power of story.

Kalena  Miller's debut novel will take you back to everything that was horrible and awesome about high school. There's junk food, fighting, texting, and prom night. You know what's missing? Sex. The night that was carefully planned goes horribly wrong. You'll laugh out loud, but also feel deeply connected to the characters in The Night When No One Had Sex.

As the author of 3 bestselling dystopian novels with strong female characters, Christina Dalcher is often painted as a feminist. There are so many more layers to this linguist-now-author. While her first novel, Vox, brought the issue of silencing women to the table, her latest, Femlandia, examines life in broken-down world, where women are building colonies and not everything is as idyllic as it appears.

SHOW NOTES:
Watch MRI and ultrasound footage of a tongue in motion:

Sorry For Your Loss is a poignant, touching and sometimes funny story about Evie, a girl whose family runs a Jewish funeral home. In this episode, Joanne and I talk about how kids can learn about hard topics through reading, what some of the challenges are when writing for middle grade and why the feedback from young readers means so much to her.

Bev Katz Rosenbaum never intended to write a pandemic book. She had written the story about high schooler Kelsey Kendler long before lockdowns, but she was struggling with how to frame the story. When COVID-19 forced us all to remain in our homes, Bev knew this was the perfect environment for Kelsey's story to emerge and grow. It's a story of survival, failure and how one girl makes it through the wreck of a year.

In this episode, Bev shares how she was able to find her YA (Young Adult) voice, the challenges she faced when booking author events, and how she has grown as a writer.

In this unconventional (for me) episode, I chat with five o the six poets behind the Espresso Poetry Collective. Over the course of our conversation, these wonderful women school me on what it means to be a poet, how to read poetry, and where we can see poetry in our everyday lives. Where poetry once once relegated to a small section at the back of the bookstore, the art form has exploded into mainstream over the last few years (Rupi Kaur, anyone?).

The poets of the collective started as a course and finished as a close group whose friendship goes beyond the bindings of their book.

Julie Van Rosendaal has built a brilliant career as a cookbook author, food blogger, chef, and teacher. She is an icon in Calgary's food community and an ardent advocate for food access. In this episode, not only do we talk about Dirty Food (her 11th cookbook), we discuss the publishing industry, diet culture, #buttergate and food security. In an extremely bold move, Julie decided to make her 12th cookbook, Cookies I Have Loved available only through her purchase and independent bookstores. A portion of direct sales through her website —$1 per book— will directly support food-related community initiatives (school and community pantries and kitchens, sending meals to ICU staff).

Whether you are a reader or a writer, you have THAT ONE BOOK that changed things for you. It might be the book you read as a teen that rocked your world, or the book that made you want to become a writer - or a better writer. Maybe it's a book that gives you comfort when you need it, that is as familiar as your own face looking in the mirror.

For this special episode, which I had planned on releasing as a holiday special later in December, I asked the authors I've interviewed to share that book with us. And with supply chain issue affecting bookstore all over the world, I wanted to give you adequate time to pick these up, should you want to gift them or keep for yourself.

This debut novel is a crazy ride. From the very first page, I was hooked, wanting to know why a priest murdered a parishioner with a candlestick. If that feels reminiscent of a game of Clue (Colonel Mustard, in the library, with a knife), you're not wrong. There are enough twists and turns and unexpected, laugh out loud moments in All is Well to give you literary whiplash.

There is nothing about P.L. Stuart that I found intimidating. He is friendly, kind and generous with his time. A law enforcement employee by day (and night, because shift work), he has been in some harrowing situations. His calm demeanour would diffuse any tense situation, a handy trait when it comes to managing the seven children he and wife Debbie share. He is quite the opposite of the protagonist he created in A Drowned Kingdom. Othrun is entitled, spoiled, racist, bigoted - not entirely likeable at the start. But over the course of 400+ pages, you'll feel connected to the prince without a kingdom. I have not read much high fantasy. It's not my typical genre. But the fact that I am eagerly awaiting book 2 (coming in 2022), tells you a great deal a bout P.L.'s skill as a writer.

Dana Church's new middle grade non-fiction, The Beekeepers, isn't just for kids. Her research is sound and the information shared within its pages is valuable for readers of any age. If you didn't know our bees were in trouble, this book will help you understand why and give you tools to do something about it. The Beekeepers changed my relationship with the chonky buzzers in my own backyard and I now watch them with interest rather than run squealing into the house.

In this episode, you’re going to meet Elise Russel, author of Behave Boldly, a memoir of her entrepreneurial journey so far. The book chronicles the details of her struggles and successes as she built her company, Pony Friday. Her story is not complete however, and during the conversation Elise is candid about what it’s really like to build and run your own business.

Full disclosure here - I’ve known Elise for more than half of her entrepreneurial life. I’m proud to call her my friend and have supported her through many walks in the park, chats about clients and coffee dates in the before times. I was a fan before she had even written the first paragraph of Behave Boldly.

Waubgeshing Rice, Waub to all those who know him, has been crafting stories from the age of 17. He started reporting when he was an exchange student in Germany, went to journalism school and worked for CBC Television as a reporter before his latest novel, Moon of the Crusted Snow, enabled him to focus on writing full time. Anyone who remembers the blackout of 2003 will find parallels to that eastern seaboard chaos in Waub's novel. In this episode, Waub talks about his early experience as an exchange student, how his culture influences his writing, and how his grandmother is a voice he paid tribute to in the novel.

Judith Clark absolutely set out to write a novel about a gay boy living in rural Alberta. The controversy in the province over GSA's - Gay Straight Alliances - inspired her to tell the story of a high schooler who choses to keep his sexuality a secret until he graduates. Gunnar has a lot at stake: his space on the wrestling team, his friendships and his plans to stay under the radar until his final day. Life gets in the way, and Gunnar is set on a path he never intended to take so soon.

In this episode, we talk about how Judith was able to get inside a teenager's head and her path to writing the novel.

Brittney Morris performed what most writers would consider an impossible feat: she wrote an entire novel in 12 days. After being inspired by the Black Panther movie, Brittney decided to write a story about a 17-year-old high schooler who developed a game played by the global black community. Brittney wanted to participate in Pitch Wars, a mentoring program where published/agented authors, editors, or industry interns choose one writer each, read their entire manuscript, and offer suggestions on how to make the manuscript shine for an agent showcase.

She had 14 days to produce an entire manuscript. So she did.

In this episode, Brittney shares how she feels the pressure to represent her race, how she overcame more than 200 rejections and what the full-time writing life means to her.

When Canadian Karen Patterson moved to China, she fully intended to spend the rest of her life there. While there, she built businesses, learned the language, got married and gave birth to her daughter. She never imagined her life would be completely upturned when her husband, Chinese artist Wu Yuren, disappeared.

For years, Karen struggled to find him, and when she did, the fight to free him from the clutches of the Chinese government began. As a foreigner in a foreign land, Karen was the only one who could help. Taking on China is a riveting look behind the red wall - at the people, the art world, and the obstacles one woman faces in her search for freedom.

From the very first lines of Walking Through Needles, you'll know you're in for a ride. This debut novel, by Heather Levy, is rich with characters that will run you through the spectrum of emotion and will make you squirm. Yet still, you won't be able to stop turning the pages.

In this conversation, Heather talks about BDSM, Pitch Wars and the challenges of writing about sexual assault.

WARNINGS: We talk about some very adult topics: masturbation, assault, bondage, sadism and masochism.

Tammy Plunkett started writing Clinical Trial to quell the boredom of being a stay-at-home-mom to four children. Ten years after she first completed the book, she took it out of the drawer to revisit the romantic thriller, updated it, edited it and hit publish. It was perfect timing for this ex-ICU nurse to launch a book that reads like a string of Grey's Anatomy episodes. In the midst of a pandemic, there was something medical we could get into without feeling scared or overwhelmed.

I thought it was probably a good idea to introduce myself in a solo episode. I've kept it short (the self-effacing voice in my head tells me I'm not that interesting), and I've dropped a couple of weird things most people don't know about me. I've shared why I decided to start this podcast and how I use book reviews on Goodreads.

Michelle Good took 9 years to write Five Little Indians. As a member of the Cree nation, she had first-hand knowledge of the experiences of those who had been sent to Canada's residential schools. She wanted her novel to answer two questions: what happens when the children are released and how do they function in the world. She answers both of those with an emotional, thought provoking novel.

When Christina Sweeney-Baird started writing The End of Men, she was exploring the idea of a world without men. She gave serious thought to how the world would function without men filling typically male jobs: electricians, garbage disposal and infrastructure. When she was creating this dystopian world, a pandemic seemed a reasonable way to eliminate 50 percent of the world's population. What she didn't count on, was seeing the plague in her pages come to life in the real world.