Author Magazine

Wondering how to best prepare for an interview? How to respond to a host’s questions? Here are my thoughts on being a great guest. There is a difference between describing your writing and editing process, delving into your characters, discussing the structure, themes, or arc of your book….and marketing. Listeners can tell when an author is genuine and engaged, and when they’re not. To prepare for the podcast: 1.

I’ve found classes and writing groups to be great ways to dip your toes into the pond. I once took a class from a well-known screenwriter who paired up participants for an exercise. I happened to be partnered with a like-minded woman who would become one of my very best friends and writing partners (Cheryl, are you out there?) She and I went on to take several trips together, both near and far.

Sgt. Rasul T. Freelain (Ret.) served twenty years with the Oak Park Police Department in Illinois. He is certified by CIT (Crisis Intervention Team) International as a coordinator and teaches for the Illinois CIT Training Unit. Currently he is working to bring increased awareness to the problem of child-to-parent violence and abuse (CPVA).

Dorothy Parker was famously quoted as saying, “I don’t like writing; I like having written.” Did it really start with her? No one knows for sure, in large part because it’s been echoed again and again over the decades by writers both famous and unpublished. That’s understandable.

I recently posted a short video about how the biggest difference between experienced writers and inexperienced writers is that the experienced writer understands how little they need to know about a story before they start working on it. To my surprise and delight, it received a lot of attention, at least compared to many of the other videos I share. I have no idea why.

When I was fourteen, a semi-famous local poet guest-taught our creative writing class for a couple weeks. I found him clever and erudite and was, by my count, the first real, living, published, working writer I’d ever met. We were, however, very different types of people – which, if he had been a good teacher, wouldn’t have mattered to him.

At which point your wife asks, “Are you listening?” No, you are not. It’s hard to be in two places at once. I’ve tried many times. Most writers have, I think. After all, the imagination, that boundless, fertile inner world, is one of our happy places, a ready refuge from boredom and uncertainty. We’ve learned to both enjoy and harvest its fruits. How tempting to step through that open door when the outer world seems unfriendly or flat.

Very few of the 275 authors I’ve spoken to for an NBN podcast have paid it forward by recommending another author. I still remember the names of the ones who have, and I have made sure to read more of their books. I’m thinking of asking anyone who pitches me to first suggest a new, well-written novel they loved (preferably by an author who deserves more attention). And if you can’t come up with a name before our interview, I’ll ask again after our podcast goes live but before I begin promoting it.

Fantasy author and folklorist Terri Windling once observed that we keep returning to these old stories because they're not really about fantasy at all; they're about real life. We've all encountered metaphorical wolves at our door, all faced impossible trials. Folktales solved a problem writers still struggle with: how do you show someone wrestling with their conscience? They externalized internal conflict. The demons we battle aren't metaphorical; they're actual demons.

Sarah Braunstein's novel, Bad Animals, was published by W. W. Norton in March 2024 and described by Claire Luchette in the New York Times Book Review as  "...a red-hot poker that skewers the limits of the white imagination…[A] sharp-witted, ravishing novel.” Sarah is also the author of The Sweet Relief of Missing Children (W. W. Norton), winner of the 2012 Maine Literary Award for Fiction.