The New Podcast: 3 Cylinder Stardrive

I haven’t posted in a while. Like…a while. The fact is that life has been keeping me quite busy lately, and I haven’t had the time to do much other than be a full time teacher and a full time dad to four teenage kids.  I am still writing (off and on) and plan on

New Podcast Up: Road to Memphis Part 2

In this special episode (try to ignore the road noise in the background) Ryan and I discuss our trip to Memphis, Tennessee and how one trip to Sun Studio and the origin story of how Elvis Presley almost didn’t record “That’s All Right” spoke to the novelist in both of us. We recount the story of

New Podcast Up: Short Story Writing and Invested Characters

In this episode Ryan and I discuss the writing of short stories and how you can use short stories to wet your appetite for writing a novel. How many of your short stories could eventually become novels? How do you translate a short story into a novel? We also discuss characters in fiction that cause us

New Podcast Up: The Three Types of Stories

In this first episode of 2014, Ryan and I discuss an article written in Writer’s Digest which posits that there are basically three types of stories and that all novel plots fall into these three types. The podcast is on a new server now, and you can get all of our previous episodes there.  We love partnering

New Podcast Up: A Writer’s New Year’s Resolution

On this final podcast of the year, Ryan McKinley and I discuss what might be the top three things that any writer needs to say to themselves or goals they should set for the coming year.  We also talk about the casting decisions for Wonder Woman and that we might possibly be changing our minds

New Podcast Up: 2013 Christmas Episode

In this episode, we discuss the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol and its many adaptations.  What works are worthy of adaptation and what work could you adapt to make your own in some unique way?  We also talk about our favorite fanboy Christmas classic films, namely the top three that each of us watch in

New Podcast Up: What Would Make You Quit Writing?

Today Ryan posed an interesting question: “What would make you quit writing?”  When we recorded this podcast, Ryan hadn’t written anything in nearly a month, and was really bogged down in it.  Maybe you are suffering from the same problem.  Should you continue or hang it up?  I think we have some very good answers

New Podcast Up: Food and the Ender

In this latest podcast, Ryan and I discuss the importance of a good diet for the increase of creativity.  I’m an advocate of good food (healthy food) for the production of great creative spark.  We discuss the myth of coffee, a little bit about where we go to write and how these places can take

New Podcast Up: NaNoWriMo and Adaptations

On the latest podcast, Ryan and I discuss NaNoWriMo, our experience with it, some advice to those attempting it this year, and the things you need to know before starting on such a complicated endeavor.  We also discuss our favorite book adaptations and some that are not our favorites at all. Shame on you, Hollywood.

New Podcast Up: Layering Plots and Breaking Bad #writetip

In today’s fresh new podcast, Ryan and I discuss the importance of layering a plot so that it is not simply one dimensional.  How do we do this, though, if we don’t have an English degree?  There are many ways to layer a plot so that it is much more complex and interesting to a