Bonus-“The Class of ’74 Meets Soaplore: The "“Scripts, Secrets & Survival: Laura Van Wormer on the Craft of Serial Storytelling” Episode

Send us Fan MailA single conversation can connect a suburban childhood, a Manhattan publishing office, and the glittering universe of Dynasty in a way that makes storytelling feel brand new again. We’re joined by author, editor, and audio drama creator Laura Van Wormer, and she brings the kind of behind-the-scenes history that soap fans and writers live for. We talk about how her mother trained her imagination with Life magazine photo prompts, why reading and research shaped her voice, and how she pulls character truth from real people to build fiction that feels lived-in. Laura also shares what inspired her serialized audio drama podcast Class of 74, a teenage soap set in 1971 that captures the awkwardness of adolescence, the start of the women’s movement, and what it meant to grow up before cell phones, social media, and constant parental tracking. Then the conversation swings into publishing and primetime soap opera history: Laura’s years at Doubleday, what she learned about the editor’s craft, and the surreal reality of seeing Jacqueline Onassis at work. From there, we get deep into serialized storytelling as a tradition, from Victorian novels to nighttime soaps, and Laura reveals how the Dynasty and Dallas companion books were built under intense deadlines with stacks of scripts, tight rights rules, and a relentless need for continuity. We also touch on sobriety, creative recovery, and how reinvention becomes possible even after life-changing trauma. If you love Dynasty, Dallas, Knots Landing, audio fiction podcasts, and the craft of writing scenes that keep people coming back, hit play. Subscribe, share with a fellow soap lover, and leave a review with the primetime soap that made you fall in love with serialized stories.