Zee Carlstrom: The Business of Brainstorming

Today, I’m lucky to get a chance to talk to Zee Carlstrom about their debut: Make Sure You Die Screaming. Zee practices a special kind of brainstorming for their projects, bringing together disparate styles, genres, ideas in a way they learned from the advertising world in order to make something fresh and new and avoid the regurgitating effects of AI on all of our creative pursuits.Interested in the PageBreak reading retreats Carlstrom talks about? Click here.Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.I don’t charge for subscriptions, but if you’d like, you can support my work with with a small donation here.To find Carlstrom’s latest book as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.Zee Carlstrom is a writer from Illinois. MAKE SURE YOU DIE SCREAMING is their first novel. It was named one of the "hottest debut novels of 2025" by Goodreads, a Barnes & Noble pick for their 2025 Yearly Reading Challenge, one of Them's Most Anticipated Books of 2025, one of Debutiful's Most Anticipated Debut Novels of 2025, and The Mary Sue pick for its 15 Most Anticipated LGBTQ Books of 2025. The book was also just listed as one of the 20 Best Queer Novels of 2025 so far by Elle Magazine.Photo by Zachary Kadolph on Unsplash This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com