The 7am Novelist

Kelly J. Ford returns to the 7am Novelist to talk project management, finding your genre, and not giving up.I don’t charge for subscriptions, but if you’d like, you can support my work with with a small donation here.To find Ford’s latest book as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.Kelly J. Ford is the Anthony-nominated author of Real Bad Things; Cottonmouths, a Los Angeles Review Best Book of 2017; and The Hunt. An Arkansas native, Kelly writes crime fiction set in the Ozarks and Arkansas River Valley. 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

Today, fabulous fiction duo Patricia Park and Desmond Hall talk about how writing is like exercise, how to invest in your writing career, and the importance of finding a great teacher and writing community.I don’t charge for subscriptions, but if you’d like, you can support my work with with a small donation here.To find Park and Hall’s latest book as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.Desmond Hall is the author of two award-winning YA novels, including most recently Better Must Come, which was a top ten In the Margins book pick, CariCon Award for best Caribbean YA novel, and won honors for the Massachusetts Book Award.Patricia Park is the author of The New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice Re Jane, a Jane Eyre retelling; Imposter Syndrome, a Gotham Book Prize finalist; and most recently, What’s Eating Jackie Oh?Photo by Fitsum Admasu 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

Tessa Fontaine and Annie Hartnett return to talk about accountability (and their new writing retreat). I don’t charge for subscriptions, but if you’d like, you can support my work with with a small donation here.To find Fontaine and Hartnett’s latest books as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.Tessa Fontaine is the author of THE ELECTRIC WOMAN: A MEMOIR IN DEATH-DEFYING ACTS, a New York Times Editors’ Choice, Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers pick, and best book of 2018 by Southern Living, Refinery29, Amazon Editors’, and The New York Post. THE RED GROVE, her first novel, was a best book of May from Amazon and People Magazine, and long listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. Raised outside San Francisco, Tessa is part of the MFA faculty of the Warren Wilson program. She lives in Asheville, North Carolina, with her daughter, goofy dog and sassy cat.Annie Hartnett is the award-winning author of three novels: Rabbit Cake, Unlikely Animals, and the national bestseller The Road to Tender Hearts, which won the 2025 New England Book Award for fiction. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband Drew, daughter Leora, and a border collie named Willie Nelson.Photo by Tanya Barrow 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

Today, I’m happy to be talk again with AE Osworth as we revisit the concept of Joy-Writing since their publication of their latest novel, AWAKENED. I don’t charge for subscriptions, but if you’d like, you can support my work with with a small donation here.To find Osworth’s latest book as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.A.E. Osworth is a transgender novelist. Their debut, WE ARE WATCHING ELIZA BRIGHT, was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award and was long-listed for The Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize, the Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize, and The Tournament of Books. Their latest book, AWAKENED, was a USA Today Bestseller and received starred reviews from Library Journal and Kirkus. They are a lecturer at the University of British Columbia’s School of Creative Writing where they teach fiction, interactive fiction, and new media. They research the intersection of creative writing and artificial intelligence with their research collective, called Artificial Intelligence Does Not Exist and they are currently undertaking a project on Undisciplined Art Practices with philosopher Carrie Jenkins. 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

Today, I finally get a chance to talk to Crystal King whose latest novel, THE HAPPINESS COLLECTOR, was released in December. We’re talking about how a writer might transition into using speculative elements in their fiction—something a lot of authors are playing with right now—as well as the thorny issue of technology, not only how to handle it, but how to make sure it doesn’t squash any mystery you’re trying to create.Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for a few weeks. 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 King’s latest book as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.Crystal King is the author of IN THE GARDEN OF MONSTERS, which was a MassBook Must Read, THE CHEF’S SECRET, and FEAST OF SORROW, which was long-listed for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize and was also a MassBook Must Read. Her latest is THE HAPPINESS COLLECTOR, is an Amazon best fantasy pick. She is an author, culinary enthusiast, and marketing expert. Her writing is fueled by a love of history and a passion for the food, language, and culture of Italy. She has taught classes in writing, creativity, and social media at several universities including Harvard Extension School and Boston University, as well as at GrubStreet, one of the leading creative writing centers in the US. A Pushcart Prize–nominated poet and former co-editor of the online literary arts journal Plum Ruby Review, Crystal received her MA in critical and creative thinking from UMass Boston, where she developed a series of exercises and writing prompts to help fiction writers in medias res. She resides in Boston.Photo by Edu Lauton 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

Today, I’m talking to Rosie Sulton & Barbara Best, directors of a new initiative called Peer Coaching for Writers.Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for a few weeks. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.For more info, go here. Or email Rosie and Barbara directly: [email protected] / [email protected] don’t charge for subscriptions, but if you’d like, you can support my work with with a small donation here.To find books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.Rosie Sultan is an award-winning novelist, educator, and founder of Peer Coaching for Writers & Artists. Trained through the Harvard University Peer Coaching Initiative, where she served as Principal, facilitator, coach, and coachee, she brings evidence-based listening practices to creative communities. Unlike traditional workshops focused on critique, peer coaching asks: What’s challenging in your writing life? What’s getting in the way? Through presence and deep listening, writers turn isolation into connection and sustain creative momentum together. Rosie is the author of Helen Keller in Love (Viking/Penguin), praised by The Washington Post. Her essays appear in The New York Times and elsewhere. She helps writers discover that the bravest work comes when we feel supported, not judged.Barbara Best is Executive Director of Convu—where listening happens—and a trained peer coaching facilitator using Harvard University’s peer coaching methodology. Her participation in a Harvard-based peer coaching program deepened her understanding of how structured peer support cultivates dialogue and leadership development. Barbara is a key collaborator in bringing peer coaching to writers. She leads a vibrant community at Convu centered on deep listening and peer coaching across schools, workplaces, and organizations. Previously Executive Director of the Harvard Kennedy School Center for Public Leadership and Texas Executive Director of the Children’s Defense Fund, Barbara holds an EdLD from Harvard and centers the transformative potential of peer relationships in all her work.Photo by Danilo Acosta 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

Today, I’m talking to Elizabeth Searle, author most recently of the story collection: THE DRAMA ROOM: A Collection in Three Acts. We’re going to be talking about how her scriptwriting has helped her fiction and vice versa, for any of you who might be “script curious.”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 Searle’s latest book as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.Elizabeth Searle is the author of six books of fiction. Her new short story collection—THE DRAMA ROOM: A Collection in Three Acts—was released in the fall of 2025. Her previous books include CELEBRITIES IN DISGRACE, produced as a short film, and A FOUR-SIDED BED, a finalist for an ALA award and in development as a feature film. Over 30 of Elizabeth’s short stories have been published in magazines such as Ploughshares, New England Review, Kenyon Review, AGNI and Solstice. Elizabeth is the playwright of Tonya & Nancy: The Rock Opera, and co-writer of the feature film I’LL SHOW YOU MINE (2023; Duplass Brothers Productions). Her film was released in select theaters and is now widely available on home screens. Both her film and her rock opera have drawn national media attention.Photo by Anastasia Zhenina 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

Today, I’m talking to Charlene Wang, whose debut novel, I’LL FOLLOW YOU, was released in October. We’re going to be talking about how she woke up her passive protagonist by paying attention to the tactile and—simply or not simply—giving her character “something to do with her hands.”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 Wang’s book as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.Charlene Wang was born in Beijing and, after immigrating to the US when she was three, has lived in seven different cities from Los Angeles to Pittsburgh to Biloxi. Graduating with a B.A. in English from Dartmouth College and a J.D. from University of Virginia School of Law, she worked as a litigator for six years before quitting to pursue her childhood dream of becoming an author. She now lives in Brooklyn, NY, with her fiancé and their dog Winky.Photo by Ilona Panych 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

Today, I’m so happy to get the chance to talk again with Sheri Joseph. I’ve always been a fan of her work, and her latest, Angels at the Gate, is the kind of dark, academic mystery that also takes its time in digging into the realities of a certain kind of campus life. We’ll be talking about an idea she often teaches about at Georgia State University, and that is how revision is about pushing toward the center of what she calls the life-artifice spectrum.Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for a few weeks. 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 Joseph’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.Sheri Joseph’s fourth book, ANGELS AT THE GATE, was published by Regal House in September. Of the book, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote: “This deeply immersive coming-of-age serves up a compelling slice of dark academia that interrogates the complex ways gender roles intersect with class to impact privilege.” And Kevin Wilson called the book “mesmerizing… more than a campus novel, more than a mystery, more than a reflection on memory. It’s heartbreaking, joyful, and utterly unforgettable.” Her previous books are the novels WHERE YOU CAN FIND ME and STRAY, and a cycle of stories, BEAR ME SAFELY OVER. She has received a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship and the GrubStreet National Book Prize, as well as numerous residency fellowships including Yaddo and MacDowell. A resident of Atlanta, she teaches in the creative writing program of Georgia State University.Photo by Alexey Demidov 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

Today, I’m excited to have acclaimed writer Peter Orner with us, author most recently of The Gossip Columnist’s Daughter. We’ll be talking about how he struggled with the structure and timeline of the book. It took him fourteen years. He explains that he was trying to say something slowly. We discuss exactly what that means and how to do it in a time when very little seems slow and it’s difficult to have the patience we need to let a story grow on the page.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 Orner’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.Born in Chicago, Peter Orner is the author of seven acclaimed books including Maggie Brown & Others, Love and Shame and Love, Esther Stories, finalist for the Pen/ Hemingway Award, and Am I Alone Here?, finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. His work has appeared in the New Yorker, the Paris Review, Best American Stories, and been awarded four Pushcart Prizes. A former Guggenheim fellow and recipient of the Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Orner is chair of the English and Creative Writing Department at Dartmouth College. His latest, The Gossip Columnist’s Daughter, was recommended by the New York Times and was listed as one of the best books of the year by the New Yorker, The Chicago Tribune, and many more/ He lives with his family in Vermont, where he’s also a volunteer firefighter. 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

Today, I’m talking to Kristin Vukovic and Jo Piazza, who are co-instructors of the Adriatic Writers Conference that takes place on the island of Lošinj in Croatia’s Kvarner Bay. Jo finished her most recent novel during the conference, titled THE PARISIAN HEIST which will be released on Bastille Day, and Kristin, who founded the conference, got her inspiration there for her debut, THE CHEESEMAKER’S DAUGHTER. We’ll be talking about the importance of setting in fiction and how to navigate a country’s complex history if your reader might not share it.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.Join us for Kristin’s reading at Belmont Books, January 15.And for more info about the Adriatic Writer’s Conference, click here.I don’t charge for subscriptions, but if you’d like, you can support my work with with a small donation here.To find Vukovic’s and Piazza’s latest books as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.Kristin Vuković’s award-winning debut novel, THE CHEESEMAKER’S DAUGHTER, was published in August 2024. She is the founder of Adriatic Writers Conference—the first literary conference of its kind in Croatia—and has written travel and lifestyle articles for the New York Times, BBC Travel, Travel + Leisure, Virtuoso, Robb Report, AFAR, Fodor’s, and Public Books, among others. She received the 2024 Rising Star Award in Arts and Culture from the Association of Croatian American Professionals, and two Golden Pen awards for her writing about Croatia from the Croatian National Tourist Board, most recently in May 2024. She was also named a “40 Under 40” honoree by the National Federation of Croatian Americans Cultural Foundation. She holds a BA and MFA from Columbia University and lives in New York City with her husband and daughter.Jo Piazza is a bestselling author, journalist, and podcast host whose work explores ambition, identity, and modern womanhood. She is the creator and host of the acclaimed podcast Under the Influence, which examines influencer culture, media, and how the internet shapes our ideas about success, beauty, and belonging. Jo is the author of multiple bestselling books, including Everyone Is Lying to You, The Sicilian Inheritance, Charlotte Walsh Likes to Win, and How to Be Married, blending sharp cultural insight with propulsive storytelling. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, New York Magazine, Elle, and more.Photo by Kat von Wood 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

Today our roundtable focuses on Climate Fiction: What is it? Why do authors write it? What role does it have in today’s literature, in our environment, in the way writers and others see the world? We’ll discuss these questions and a whole lot more with our authors: Ash Davidson, author of Damnation Spring; Wren James, creator of The Climate-Conscious Writers Handbook and founder of the Climate Fiction Writers League; Emma Pattee, a climate journalist, author of Tilt, and the person who coined the term “Climate Shadow”; Tim Weed, author of The Afterlife Project, a finalist for Prism Prize in Climate Literature; and Kate Woodworth, author of Little Great Island and creator of the grassroots climate change initiative, Be the Butterfly. Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for only a few weeks. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.Important Links: Climate Fiction Writers League Substack and Handbook landing page. Database of Climate Fiction writers.Wren James’ Green Rising.Kate Woodworth’s Be the Butterfly initiative.To find our roundtable authors’ latest book as well as many other books by our guests, visit our Bookshop page.I don’t charge for subscriptions, but if you’d like, you can support my work with with a small donation here.Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.Ash Davidson is the author of the nationally bestselling novel Damnation Spring, which was named a best book of the year by the Los Angeles Times, Newsweek and Amazon and was a New York Times Editor’s Choice and a Washington Post notable book. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, her work has been supported by the Arizona Commission on the Arts, MacDowell, and the National Endowment for the Arts. She lives in Flagstaff, Arizona.Wren James is the award-winning British author of many young adult novels, including a speculative novel about climate change, Green Rising. They are the founder of the Climate Fiction Writers League, the creator of The Climate-Conscious Writers Handbook and the editor of Future Hopes Hopeful stories in a time of climate change. They are on the Society of Authors’ Sustainability Steering Committee and work as a consultant on climate storytelling with a focus on optimism and hope for museums, production companies, and major brands and publishers. Their books have sold more than 200,000 copies in eight languages.Emma Pattee is a climate journalist and a fiction writer. She has written about the climate crisis for The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, and more. In 2021, she coined the term “Climate Shadow” to describe an individual’s potential impact on climate change. Her debut novel, Tilt, is a national bestseller, a New York Times Book Review’s Editors’ choice, and was named a best book of the year by TIME, NPR, Vogue and Scientific American. Emma lives in Oregon with her two children.Tim Weed is the author of four books of fiction. His most recent novel, The Afterlife Project, was a Library Journal Best Books of 2025 pick and a New Scientist Best New Science Fiction Book of the Month choice. His essays and articles have appeared in numerous journals including Writers Digest and The Writer’s Chronicle. A member of the core faculty of the Newport MFA in Creative Writing, Tim is a former featured expert for National Geographic Expeditions.Kate Woodworth is the award-winning author of Little Great Island, a novel about a small Maine island community needing to find a new way forward after the lobster fishery collapses due to climate change. She is also the creative force behind the grassroots climate change initiative, Be the Butterfly, that invites everyone to perform one small act or behavioral change to help mitigate climate change. Kate’s first novel, Racing into the Dark, about a family reeling from the impact of a sister’s mental illness, will be re-issued in April, 2026. After 30 years living in Salt Lake City, Kate returned to the Boston area in 2005.Photo by Bernd 📷 Dittrich 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

A short and special episode for those of you interested in our unique in-person novel revision program, now in its fifteenth year.For more info: https://grubstreet.org/write/novel-incubatorTo attend our student showcase on January 12, register here: https://grubstreet.org/event/novel-incubator-alumni-celebration-showcaseAnd for our next info session, visit: https://grubstreet.org/event/novel-incubator-info-w2026 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

Today, we’re talking to Josh Barkan, an author of three books of fiction, who has turned at last to memoir writing. We discuss his experience in writing about a particular moment in his life before his subject gave him his ending. Ten years later, he revised the book again in the aftermath. How did the writing change him and his subject? How did those years benefit his book and his understanding of what happened?Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for a few weeks. 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 Barkan’s books as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.JOSH BARKAN won the Lightship International Short Story Prize and was runner-up for the Grace Paley Prize for Short Fiction, the Paterson Fiction Prize, the Juniper Prize for Fiction, and the Eric Hoffer Award for memoir. He is the recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and his writing has appeared in Esquire. He has taught creative writing at Harvard, NYU, the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa, Hollins University and MIT. His books include the novel Blind Speed and short story collections Before Hiroshima and Mexico (Hogarth/Penguin Random House)—named one of the five best story collections of 2017 by Library Journal. His latest book is the memoir Wonder Travels. He lives in Boston.Photo by abshky 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

Today, we’ve got one of my favorites, Milo, who has just published his debut novel to critical acclaim. It’s called THE LILAC PEOPLE. He’s going to be talking to us about writing challenging fiction in an age when we’re suffering a flattening and simplifying of our culture.I don’t charge for subscriptions, but if you’d like, you can support my work with with a small donation here.To find Todd’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.Milo Todd (he/him) is a writer, speaker, and instructor. He’s a Lambda Literary Fellow, a Massachusetts Cultural Council grantee, and co-editor in chief for the award-winning LGBTQ+ literary journal, Foglifter Journal. He also runs The Queer Writer newsletter. His debut novel, THE LILAC PEOPLE, is a national bestseller, a Goodreads Choice Award finalist, a New England Book Award Finalist, an Indie Next Pick, an Amazon Editor’s Pick, an Apple Best of the Month Pick, and has received starred and/or glowing reviews from such places as Publishers Weekly, Foreword Reviews, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, the Boston Globe, the LA Times, the Washington Post, WBUR, Electric Lit, and more. About THE LILAC PEOPLE, Shelf Awareness said Milo “has made an enormous contribution to historical fiction” and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette called Milo “an important new voice in American fiction.”Photo by Jerry Chen 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

Today, I’m talking to Jessica Francis Kane, author of the recently released novel, FONSECA, based on a trip that acclaimed English writer Penelope Fitzgerald took in the Winter of 1952 in an attempt to inherit a personal and creative lifeline from two elderly relatives. We’ll be talking about how Jessica wove personal letters into the narrative as well as how she managed the point of view of a literary personality that many readers know and love.Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for a few weeks. 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 Kane’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.JESSICA FRANCIS KANE is the author of two short story collections, Bending Heaven and This Close, which was named a best book of the year by NPR. Her first novel, The Report, was a finalist for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize, the Indie Booksellers’ Choice Award, and a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection. Her second novel, Rules for Visiting, was a national and LA Times bestseller. It was selected for the Indie Next List of the American Booksellers Association and was named a best book of the summer and/or year by Oprah Magazine, Good Housekeeping, The Wall Street Journal, The San Francisco Chronicle, Vulture and The Chicago Tribune. Her latest novel, Fonseca, has been named a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice and a best book of the year by Kirkus, Esquire, and BookPage. 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

Today, we’ve got one of our star Novel Incubator alums, Emily Ross, who has just published her second novel, SWALLOWTAIL, a book that combines mythology, teenage longing, and small-town murder. It’s one of the first books out from the new Galiot Press. We’ll be talking about how Emily, normally an intuitive writer, had to sink her teeth into the more intentional plotting and structure of a mystery thriller, while not leaving her characters behind.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 Ross’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.Emily Ross is the author of the mystery thriller, Swallowtail, which Publishers Weekly says maintains plenty of “nerve-shredding tension” and of the International Thriller Writers Awards finalist, Half in Love with Death. She won the Al Blanchard best story award for her short story, “Let the Chips Fall”, which appeared in Devil’s Snare: Best New England Crime Stories 2024. 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

Today we have another of our roundtables and we’re focusing on voice: What really is voice? How does a writer create it? Change it? How do we differentiate between the writer’s voice and that of the narrator or character? When is voice too writerly or too uninspired? And how is it different from style? We’ll talk about these questions and a whole lot more with our four authors: Juliet Faithfull, Stacy Mattingly, Andrea Meyer, and Emily Ross.Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for a few weeks. 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 books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.Juliet Faithfull is a Spanish-British-American writer who grew up in Brazil. Liar’s Dice, her first novel which will be released in April, was a winner of the 2024 Irish Writers Centre’s Novel Fair and a semifinalist for the James Jones First Novel Fellowship.Stacy Mattingly is coauthor of the New York Times bestseller Unlikely Angel, an Atlanta hostage story now a feature film, Captive. She was a 2024-25 Fulbright U.S. Scholar to Bosnia and Herzegovina, where she has collaborated with writers for more than a decade. She teaches at Boston University, where she earned an MFA in fiction, and is an associate professor at Berklee College of Music. She has led workshops for the Elizabeth Kostova Foundation and the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program. Her recently completed first novel is set in present-day Sarajevo.Andrea Meyer is an author, editor, writing instructor, and book coach who has written three novels, a screenplay for MGM, numerous essays and film articles, and teaches fiction and nonfiction writing at GrubStreet.Emily Ross is the author of the mystery thriller SWALLOWTAIL (coming from Galiot Press in November 2025) and the International Thriller Writers Thriller Awards finalist, HALF IN LOVE WITH DEATH. She won the Al Blanchard best story award for her short story, “Let the Chips Fall”, which appeared in Devil’s Snare: Best New England Crime stories 2024. She is a graduate of Grub Street’s Novel Incubator and lives in Quincy, MA, with her husband and Obi-Wan Kenobi, their very playful cat.Photo by Jason Rosewell 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

Good morning everyone. Today’s short episode is dedicated to Charles Coe, who passed away suddenly this weekend. His death is a shock to a lot of us. He was a beloved poet, educator, arts advocate, and friend to many many writers and creatives across New England and beyond. Charles helped our group Writers for Democrat Action raise funds for Kamala Harris the fall before last. As part of the event, he read a really thoughtful piece about how he approaches political writing, including two poems of his own that he shared. His words aren’t only a testament to his work, but also helpful in considering our roles as writers in the political sphere. Rest of peace, Charles. We’ll miss you. 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

We’ve got one of Boston’s best literary citizens with us, Jessica Kent. She’s the founder of Literary Boston, a website that covers the local literary community, marketing advice for authors, and a chance to take your own literary history tour. Today, she’ll be sharing with us a list of ways for you to connect to your literary community and be a stronger literary citizen. We’ll also talk her efforts to put literary Boston on the map, as well as how she started her work with Literary Boston in the first place.Read Kent’s post: “How is Building Content Strategy Like Plotting a Novel?”Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for a few weeks. 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 books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.Jessica A. Kent is a freelance marketing writer by day and creative writer by night. She’s the founder of Literary Boston, a website that covers the local literary community. Other past literary roles include library assistant, bookseller, and book festival director. She holds a BFA in Creative Writing from Emerson and a Master’s in Literature from Harvard, where her thesis on Moby-Dick and Calvinism won the Director’s Prize. Her short fiction has appeared in the North American Review, the Emerson Review, and others, and has received the Leah Lovenheim Award for Short Fiction. She recently graduated from GrubStreet’s Novel Incubator program, where she’s working on a novel about paramedics in 1970s Boston.Photo by Tiffany Chan 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

Today, I’m thrilled to be speaking to Janet Rich Edwards, whose debut novel, Canticle, will be released in December. I’ll be interviewing her for that release on the stage at Porter Square Books in the Seaport on December 3. Today we’ll be talking about how she handled four points of view and how language conveys class and gender as well as her characters’ assumptions about how the world works.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 Edwards’ book as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.Janet Rich Edwards is a graduate of Grub Street’s Novel Incubator program. A professor of epidemiology at Harvard, Janet had written more than 300 papers for scientific journals, but was left wondering if she could convey more truth, or at least different truths, through story. When she’s not sneaking hours to write fiction, Janet’s researching facts about women’s health. Canticle is her first novel. She lives outside of Boston with her husband and never more than two cats.Photo by Francesco Ungaro 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

Today, I’m talking to author Nicole Graev Lipson about where fiction ends and truth begins and how she searched for answers about being a mother among her literary forebears, without being too heavy-handed with her allusions or assuming too much from the reader.Imagination and fiction make up more than three quarters of our real life. —Simone WeilWatch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for a few weeks. 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 Lipson’s book as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.Nicole Graev Lipson is the author of the memoir-in-essays Mothers and Other Fictional Characters, a USA Today national bestseller. Her writing has been awarded a Pushcart Prize, selected for The Best American Essays anthology, and shortlisted for a National Magazine Award. Her work has appeared in The Sun, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Gettysburg Review, River Teeth, Alaska Quarterly Review, LA Review of Books, The Millions, Nylon, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe, among other publications. Nicole holds a BA from Cornell University and an MFA from Emerson College. Originally from New York City, she lives outside of Boston with her family.Photo by The Cleveland Museum of Art 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

Today we have another of our roundtables and we’re focusing on one of the hardest things for an author to get right: world building. Because this issue is so complex, I’m doing two world building roundtables, one for writers working on historical fiction and today for writers who are trying to establish place in a location that the reader might not know about, either in the real world or in the speculative one. In this case, how complicated does that speculative world need to be to be truly convincing? Or is simplicity the key, working through implication instead of information? And if the book is released in U.S., what is the writers responsibility for providing context for non-U.S. locales? Any at all? Maybe the reader should do the work. We’ll talk about these questions and a whole lot more with our four authors: Julie Carrick Dalton, Juliet Faithful, Shalene Gupta, and Desmond Hall.Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for only a few weeks. 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 our roundtable authors’ latest book as well as many other books by our guests, visit our Bookshop page.Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.A former organic farmer and beekeeper, Julie Carrick Dalton is the author of The Last Beekeeper, currently a nominee for the NH People’s Choice Award for Best Novel, as well as Waiting for the Night Song, and a forthcoming third novel, The Forest Becomes Her. She’s part of the core faculty at Drexel University’s MFA program.Shalene Gupta is the author of The Cycle: Confronting the Pain of Periods and PMDD (Flatiron, 2024) and the co-author of The Power of Trust: How Companies Build It, Lose It, Regain It (Public Affairs, 2021). She’s the staff editor at Fast Company and is currently revising her first novel with her agent.Juliet Faithfull is a Spanish-British-American writer who grew up in Brazil. Liar’s Dice, her first novel which will be released in April, was a winner of the 2024 Irish Writers Centre’s Novel Fair and a semifinalist for the James Jones First Novel Fellowship.Desmond Hall is the author of two award-winning YA novels, including most recently Better Must Come, which was a top ten In the Margins book pick, CariCon Award for best Caribbean YA novel, and won honors for the Massachusetts Book Award.Photo by Francesco Ungaro 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

Today, we’ve got a very special guest, the person I cofounded the GrubStreet Novel Incubator program with and who is a beloved teacher and writer in the Boston area, Lisa Borders. Lisa’s latest novel, Last Night at the Disco, was released on October 7. We’re talking about using an unreliable narrator, character liability, and how our dear late agent, Esmond Harmsworth, helped her with the novel’s structure. You can catch Lisa at Brooklyn’s Lofty Pigeon Books with Patricia Park tonight, October 21st, as well as Harvard Bookstore on October 27. 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 Borders’ latest book as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.Lisa Borders is the author of the novels Cloud Cuckoo Land, chosen by Pat Conroy as the winner of River City Publishing’s Fred Bonnie Award and a Massachusetts Book Awards honoree, and The Fifty-First State. A frequent humor contributor at McSweeney’s, her essays and short fiction have appeared in Past Ten, The Rumpus, Cognoscenti, Black Warrior Review and other journals. She has received grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Somerville Arts Council and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and residencies at the Millay Colony, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Hedgebrook, Blue Mountain Center and St. Nell’s. Lisa taught for many years at Boston’s GrubStreet, where she founded the Novel Generator program and co-founded the Novel Incubator program. She currently teaches her own Novel Reactor workshops and does private manuscript consulting. After growing up largely in Central Jersey – a part of New Jersey whose very existence is the topic of much debate – Lisa moved to the Boston area and now lives in Central Massachusetts with her partner and two rescue cats. Lisa’s new novel, Last Night at the Disco, will be published by Regal House on October 7, 2025. 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

Today, I’m talking to writers Whitney Scharer and Sonya Larson about an exciting new writing conference they’re starting up in the Boston area, the TBR conference which will be held this coming January 17th.For more info about the conference and to register, 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.Whitney Scharer’s first novel, The Age of Light, was a Boston Globe and IndieNext bestseller, People Pick, Amazon Book of the Month selection, Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Pick, and was longlisted for the Massachusetts Book Award. Internationally, The Age of Light won Le prix Rive Gauche à Paris, was a coups de couer selection from the American Library in Paris, and has been published in over a dozen other countries. Whitney has been awarded a Massachusetts Cultural Council Fiction Fellowship, Ragdale and VCCA residencies, a St. Botolph Emerging Artists Grant, and a Somerville Arts Council Artists Fellowship. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in numerous publications including Vogue, The Telegraph, and The Tatler. She lives with her husband and daughter in Arlington, MA, where she is at work on her second novel.Sonya Larson’s short fiction and essays have appeared in Best American Short Stories, Ploughshares, American Short Fiction, American Literary Review, Poets & Writers, Writer’s Chronicle, Amazon Originals, Audible.com, West Branch, Salamander, Memorious, The Harvard Advocate, Pangyrus, Solstice Magazine, Del Sol Review, Red Mountain Review, The Hub, and more. She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts 2020, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Vermont Studio Center, Ragdale, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the St. Botolph Club Foundation, and more. For 17 years she served as Director of GrubStreet‘s Muse and the Marketplace writing conference and other roles, and as an organizer for the Boston Writers of Color Group. She received her MFA in fiction from the Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. She lives in New York City and is writing a novel. 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

Today, we’ve got the wonderful Lauren Aliza Green, author of The World AfterAlice, and she’ll be talking to us about practicing rewriting over revision and how to do it while the world seems to be falling apart. Lauren will also be talking about how she continues her writing community even after a big move abroad.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 Green’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.Lauren Aliza Green is the author of The World After Alice (Viking, 2024) and the chapbook A Great Dark House, which won the Poetry Society of America’s Chapbook Fellowship. Her work has appeared in Conjunctions, Virginia Quarterly Review, American Short Fiction, and elsewhere. She is currently based in Rome.Photo by fotoweedio 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

Today we have another of our roundtables and we’re focusing on one of the hardest things for an author to get right: world building. Because this issue is complex, I’m going to hold two world building roundtables, one for writers trying to establish place in either a speculative work or a work that takes place in a non-U.S. location, and this one today about world building for historical fiction. What is world building? How do you it without boring the reader to death or brazenly showing all of your research? And how do you work it into your story line? We’ve got four incredible writers joining us for the discussion: Allison Amend, Rachel Barenbaum, Janet Rich Edwards, and Hesse Phillips.Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for only a few weeks. 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 our roundtable authors’ latest book as well as many other books by our guests, visit our Bookshop page.Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.Allison Amend is a professor of creative writing at Lehman College, CUNY in New York City and is the author of a short story collection and three novels.Rachel Barenbaum is the author of the critically-acclaimed novels Atomic Anna and A Bend in the Stars and the creator and host of the literary show Check This Out that airs on NHPR and focuses on emerging and diverse authors.Janet Rich Edwards is a graduate of Grub Street’s Novel Incubator program. She is a professor of epidemiology at Harvard University. She lives in Brookline, Massachusetts.Hesse Phillips‘s debut novel Lightborne was a finalist in the Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair and a London Times’ Top Historical Fiction Book of 2024. 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

Today, I’m talking to author and book-seller Josh Cook about book bans, the beloved community space of bookstores, and what he thinks authors should know about book selling.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 Cook’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.Josh Cook is a bookseller and co-owner at Porter Square Books in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he has worked since 2004. He is also the author of the critically acclaimed postmodern detective novel An Exaggerated Murder as well as the 2023 book: The Art of Libromancy: On Selling Books and Reading Books in the Twenty-first Century, which was one of Lit Hub’s most anticipated books of 2023 and Esquire’s August 2023 Book Club pick. His fiction, criticism, and poetry have appeared in numerous leading literary publications. He grew up in Lewiston, Maine and lives in Somerville, Massachusetts.Photo by Maxence Pira 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

Today, we’re talking to the wonderful Jyoti Chand who will be discussing the inspiration behind her YA graphic novel, Fitting Indian, why the story needed to be told, and how she built a vibrant online community where she is known as Mamajotes through authenticity and vulnerability.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 Chand’s book as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.Jyoti Chand, known as Mamajotes online, is a writer, comedian, and advocate for mental health, using humor and honesty to connect with audiences about the realities of motherhood. With a background in stand-up and improv, she brings an engaging and unfiltered perspective to conversations about self-care, identity, and the challenges of balancing family and creativity. She has an undergraduate degree in Creative Writing and MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults. In addition to her digital content, Jyoti is the author of Fitting Indian, a teen graphic novel that explores mental health and identity within a South Asian family. 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

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

In our roundtable today, we’re focusing on the question: How does your book invite a reader’s interest, both intellectually and emotionally? What might that look like? What methods might an author use? And we’ve got four incredible writers joining us for the discussion: Nancy Crochiere, Janet Rich Edwards, Christine Murphy, and Hesse Phillips.Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for only a few weeks. 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 our roundtable authors’ latest book as well as many other books by our guests, visit our Bookshop page.Want to join our July write-a-thon? Click here for more information.Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.Nancy Crochiere’s comic-roadtrip novel, Graceland, about a single mom forced to chase her Elvis-obsessed mother and pink-haired teenage daughter to Memphis, was an Amazon Kindle bestseller and named a top summer read by Parade, Woman’s World, and Deep South Magazines.Janet Rich Edwards' debut novel, Canticle, features a mystic who joins a defiant community of women to fight the medieval Church for their faith and independence, will launch on December 2 from Spiegel & Grau.Christine Murphy is the author of Notes on Surviving The Fire, considered one of the best crime novels of the year so far by NYT, “brilliant” by the Financial Times, and praised by the New Yorker for its layered narrative and spirit of anarchy.Hesse Phillips's debut Novel Lightborne was a finalist in the Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair and was chosen as both a Book of the Month and a Best Historical Fiction Novel for 2024 by The Times (UK), who said "there has never been a fictional retelling [of Christopher Marlowe's mysterious death] as vivid and original as this one."Photo by Kir Simakov 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

Today, I enjoy talking to Beth Castrodale about her latest: The Inhabitants, an award-winning novel that brings new twists to one of my favorite sub-genre settings—a haunted house. And we discuss her efforts to bring Small Press Books and their authors more attention through her longtime project, the review website known as Small Press Picks. 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 Castrodale’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.Beth Castrodale was a senior editor at Bedford/St. Martin’s and is the founding editor of the book-review website Small Press Picks. Her most recent novel, The Inhabitants, won the Horror categories of the Independent Publisher Book Awards, the National Indie Excellence Awards, and the Best Book Awards. It was a finalist in the Horror category of the Next Generation Indie Book Awards. An excerpt from her second novel, In This Ground, was a shortlist finalist for a William Faulkner – William Wisdom Creative Writing Award. Her début novel, Marion Hatley, was a finalist for a Nilsen Prize for a First Novel from Southeast Missouri State University Press. Castrodale has been awarded for her work with an artist grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and her stories and essays have appeared in multiple publications, including CrimeReads, Ars Medica, The Writing Disorder, and Writing and Wellness. 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

Today, I’m talking to author and art historian Libby Buck, whose first novel Port Anna, was released in July from Simon & Schuster. Libby is going to tell us how her art historian background helped her write her novel… and how it might help you. We’re also going to talk about the importance of museums as a vital source of community building and how they allow us to join together “in awe.”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 Buck’s book as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.Libby Buck earned her BA in English from the University of Virginia, her MA in art history from Columbia University, and PhD. in art history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. While her general area of expertise is Nineteenth Century France, her dissertation focused upon the Gustave Moreau museum and its challenge to traditional museology. She taught as a visiting lecturer for over a decade at various institutions, including Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She and her husband raised three daughters in North Carolina, where she still lives with her husband when she is not beside the sea in Downeast Maine.Photo by Simi Iluyomade 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

Today, we’ve got an incredible community organizer joining us, the co-founder of the London Writers' Salon, Matt Trinetti, and he’s going to tell us all about it.Want more from LWS, check out Writers' Hour Magazine.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 my favorite craft books and the latest from our authors, visit our Bookshop page.Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.Matt Trinetti is a writer, publisher, TEDx speaker, and cofounder of London Writers' Salon. Prior to LWS, Matt spent a decade helping thousands of individuals around the world navigate career changes, start businesses, and build purposeful careers a places like Google, Red Bull, Airbus, Unilever, Escape The City, London Business School, General Assembly, Education First, and Creative Mornings.Photo by Celine Ylmz 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

Today we have the first of our roundtables and we’re focusing on the mysterious (or not so mysterious) REVERSE OUTLINE. What is it? Why might you want to do it (or not?) And what methods are the most helpful. And we’ve got four incredible writers joining us to round out our discussion: Desmond Hall, Christine Murphy, Patricia Park, and Hesse PhillipsWatch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for only a few weeks. 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 our roundtable authors’ latest book as well as many other books by our guests, visit our Bookshop page.Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.Desmond Hall is the author of two award-winning YA novels, including most recently Better Must Come, which was a top ten In the Margins book pick, and long listed for Massachusetts Book Award.Christine Murphy is the author of Notes on Surviving The Fire (out this year from Knopf), considered one of the best crime novels of the year so far by NYT, “brilliant” by the Financial Times, and praised by the New Yorker for its layered narrative and anarchic spirit.Patricia Park is the author of The New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice Re Jane, a Jane Eyre retelling; Imposter Syndrome, a Gotham Book Prize finalist; and most recently, What’s Eating Jackie Oh?Hesse Phillips's debut novel Lightborne was a finalist in the Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair and a London Times' Top Historical Fiction Book of 2024. 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

Today, I’m talking to Karen Dukess fresh off of hearing that her latest novel, Welcome to Murder Week, has hit the USA Today bestseller list. We discuss how writing groups and writing retreats, including DIY ones, got her there and why the best advice is sometimes: “Just Keep Going.” 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 Dukess’ latest book as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.Karen Dukess is the author of The Last Book Party and Welcome to Murder Week, which was an instant USAToday bestseller. She lives outside New York City and in Truro on Cape Cod, where she interviews some of today's most acclaimed writers as host of the Castle Hill Author Talks for the Truro Center for the Arts.Photo by Illiya Vjestica 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

Today, I’m talking to Nova Ren Suma who found herself at a crossroads in her career and her long-chosen genre while working on her latest book Wake the Wild Creatures. Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for only a few weeks. 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 Suma’s latest book as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.Want to join our July write-a-thon? Click here for more information.Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.Nova Ren Suma is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling The Walls Around Us and A Room Away from the Wolves, which were both finalists for the Edgar Award. She also wrote Imaginary Girls and 17 & Gone and co-edited the story & craft anthology Foreshadow: Stories to Celebrate the Magic of Reading and Writing YA. She has an MFA in fiction from Columbia University and has taught creative writing at the University of Pennsylvania and Vermont College of Fine Arts. Originally from the Hudson Valley, she spent most of her adult life in New York City, and now lives in Philadelphia. Her new novel Wake the Wild Creatures is out now from Little, Brown.Photo by Maria Vlasova 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

Today, I’m happy to be talking to Stephanie Elizondo Griest about her search for community in the process of writing her latest book: Art Above Everything: One Woman’s Global Exploration of the Joys and Torments of a Creative Life. It was released on June 10. It’s a book that sees art as inheritance, dissent, devotion, revenge, celebration, and more. In the end, it asks: Is the all-encompassing quest to become a self-sustaining artist worth the sacrifices it often requires?Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for only a few weeks. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.To find Griest’s latest book as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.Want to join our January write-a-thon? Click here for more information. Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.Stephanie Elizondo Griest is a globetrotting author from the Texas/Mexico borderlands. Her six books include Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana; Mexican Enough; All the Agents and Saints; and Art Above Everything: One Woman’s Global Exploration of the Joys and Torments of a Creative Life. Currently Professor of Creative Nonfiction at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Elizondo Griest has performed in capacities ranging from a Moth storyteller to a literary ambassador for the U.S. State Department. Wanderlust has led her to 50 countries and 49 states. She recently endowed Testimonios Fronterizos, a research grant for student journalists from the borderlands enrolled at her alma mater, the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Journalism.Photo by Mayukh Karmakar 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

Today we’re focusing on the idea of trying to get beyond the usual character development tricks in our writing. What does it really take to get a flesh and blood character who captures our imaginative on the page? And we’ve got four incredible writers joining us for the discussion: Allison Amend, Rachel Barenbaum, Julie Carrick Dalton, and Andrea Meyer.Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for only a few weeks. 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 our roundtable authors’ latest book as well as many other books by our guests, visit our Bookshop page.Want to join our July write-a-thon? Click here for more information.Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.Allison Amend is a professor of creative writing at Lehman College, CUNY in New York City and is the author of a short story collection and three novels.Rachel Barenbaum is the author of the critically-acclaimed novels Atomic Anna and A Bend in the Stars and the creator and host of the literary show Check This Out that airs on NHPR and focuses on emerging and diverse authors.A former organic farmer and beekeeper, Julie Carrick Dalton is the author of The Last Beekeeper, Waiting for the Night Song, and a forthcoming third novel, The Forest Becomes Her. She’s part of the core faculty at Drexel University’s MFA program.Andrea Meyer is an author, editor, writing instructor, and book coach who has written three novels, a screenplay for MGM, numerous essays and film articles, and teaches fiction and nonfiction writing at GrubStreet.Photo by the blowup 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

Today, we’re talking to Alison Langley whose debut novel, Ilona Gets a Phone, has at last been released in the U.S. Alison and I discuss the methods she used to convey Hungarian history without leaving her characters behind and how that history rings a warning bell for today.Catch Alison and me at the Parkside Bookstore this Wednesday, July 9. Watch a recording of our interview 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 Langley’s book as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.Want to join our July write-a-thon? Click here for more information.Alison Langley is a former foreign correspondent with extensive experience covering events across Europe, including Hungary, the setting for her 2024 debut novel Ilona Gets A Phone by Dedalus Books UK. Her short stories have been featured in several literary magazines, including one that was shortlisted for the Bournemouth Writing Prize. When not writing, Langley splits her time between the Swiss Alps and Brooklyn.Women in Budapest march in honor of the Hungarian men who died in revolution fighting Soviet-backed communist regime.© Time Inc.Michael Rougier 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

Today, I talk to esteemed editor and writer Christine Pride about her experience co-writing with novelist Jo Piazza, going it alone with two tricky timelines, and opening her home to women in need. Her latest book is All the Men I’ve Loved Again.Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for only a few weeks. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.Note: If you’ve subscribed to this newsletter hoping to join our July writing challenge, the registration for that is separate (sorry!). You’ll need to email me at [email protected] and I’ll send you the zoom registration to join. Click here for more information.I don’t charge for subscriptions, but if you’d like, you can support my work with with a small donation here.To find Pride’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.Christine Pride is a writer, editor, and longtime publishing veteran. She’s held editorial posts at many different trade imprints, including Doubleday, Crown, and Simon & Schuster. As an editor, Christine has published a range of books, with a special emphasis on inspirational stories and memoirs, including numerous New York Times bestsellers. As a freelance editorial consultant, she does select editing and proposal/content development, as well as teaching and coaching, and pens a regular column—“Race Matters”—for Cup of Jo. She splits her time between New York City and LA.(Photo by Christine Han.) 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

It’s simple: Come late, stay early, join however many days you like. We start at 7am EST with a prompt, turn off our mics to write together, come back at 8:20am to talk about how we did, sign off at 8:30, and repeat. It’s all about accountability, shutting out distractions, and getting things done. And it’s all free."In 90 minutes you get camaraderie, accountability, a habit! And that habit compels progress not just in the word-count but in the craft. One is able to burrow, to borrow Michelle's word, much more effectively with consistent practice. Two more benefits: the mini-lessons at the beginning and the wrap up convo at the end, where people share progress, questions, doubts and insights. And at 8:30, you've already accomplished a whole lot." —Lisa BirkTo register, email me at [email protected]. Registration is easy. Prioritize your writing. And feel like you’re a part of something.Photo by Timon Studler 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

Today, we hear from Milo Todd and Julie Carrick Dalton, close friends and supporters of each other, from their early novel drafts to their debuts and beyond. They’re going to talk about how they’ve done it, the work they do for others, and their hopes for the New Year.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.To find Todd and Dalton’s latest books as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.Want to join our January write-a-thon? Go here for more information: 7amnovelist.substack.com/p/join-our-january-group-writeLooking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.Milo Todd is co-EIC at Foglifter Journal, runs The Queer Writer newsletter, and teaches creative writing primarily to queer and trans adults. He’s received awards, accolades, and fellowships from such places as Lambda Literary, Tin House, Pitch Wars, GrubStreet, Monson Arts, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. His debut, THE LILAC PEOPLE, publishes through Counterpoint on April 29, 2025.Julie Carrick Dalton is the Boston-based author of Waiting for the Night Song and The Last Beekeeper. She is the winner of the New Hampshire Writers' Project's People's Choice Award for Best Novel, and a finalist for the Massachusetts Book Award and the Siskiyou Prize for New Environmental Literature. A former beekeeper and farmer, she is a frequent speaker on the topic of fiction in the age of climate crisis at universities, museums, and conferences nationally and internationally. She is on the faculty of Drexel University's Creative Writing MFA program and is an adjunct instructor at Tufts University where she teaches Climate Fiction & Activism. When she isn't reading or writing, you can usually find Julie skiing, swimming, kayaking, or working in her garden.Photo by Alisa Golovinska 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

Today, we hear from Jennifer S. Brown and Randy Susan Meyers about how they’ve supported each other’s writing careers, the work they do both locally and nationally to help others, and how staying true to your characters is the best policy when writing politically-charged fiction. 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.To find Brown and Meyers’ latest books as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.Want to join our January write-a-thon? Go here for more information: 7amnovelist.substack.com/p/join-our-january-group-writeLooking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.Jennifer S. Brown’s debut novel, Modern Girls, was a USA Today bestseller, a Massachusetts Book Award “Must Read,” and a 2016 Goodreads Choice semifinalist for Historical Fiction. Her writing has been published in Fiction Southeast, McSweeney’s, The Best Women’s Travel Writing, The Southeast Review, and the Bellevue Literary Review, among other places. She teaches writing, both in-person in the Boston area and online through the Loft Literary Center. She holds a BFA in film and television from NYU and an MFA in creative writing from the University of Washington. The Whisper Sister is her second novel.Randy Susan Meyers is the internationally bestselling author of six novels and a three-time Massachusetts Book Award finalist and “Must Read” awardee. Though her books explore domestic drama, societal issues, and cultural nuances—informed by her years working with community and governmental agencies—she gained the most insight into family and politics during four years bartending in a small Boston neighborhood pub. A Brooklyn-Boston mix, she believes happiness requires family, friends, books, and an occasional NY bagel. Meyers lives in Boston with her husband where she teaches writing seminars at Boston’s GrubStreet Writers’ Center.Photo by Ben Wicks 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

Today, we hear from Josh Barkan whose fiction and nonfiction skirts our most pressing political issues, either directly or indirectly, and his advice about how other writers might do the same.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.To find Barkan’s latest book as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.Want to join our January write-a-thon. Go here for more information: 7amnovelist.substack.com/p/join-our-january-group-writeLooking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.JOSH BARKAN won the Lightship International Short Story Prize and was runner-up for the Grace Paley Prize for Short Fiction, the Paterson Fiction Prize, the Juniper Prize for Fiction, and the Eric Hoffer Award for memoir. He is the recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and his writing has appeared in Esquire. He has taught creative writing at Harvard, NYU, the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa, Hollins University and MIT. His books include the novel Blind Speed and short story collections Before Hiroshima and Mexico (Hogarth/Penguin Random House)—named one of the five best story collections of 2017 by Library Journal. His latest book is the memoir Wonder Travels. He lives in Boston.Photo by Markus Spiske 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

Today, we get some hilarity (and good advice) from Hilary Isabelle Lahan and Christine Murphy about how the special nature of writing friendships and how to manage your own.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.To find their latest books here as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.Want to join our January write-a-thon? Go here for more information: 7amnovelist.substack.com/p/join-our-january-group-writeLooking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.Hilary Isabelle Lahan’s novel-in-progress, Pollen Mitt, Massachusetts, was a 2023 Top Ten Finalist for Reese’s Book Club’s Lit Up Fellowship. In 2021-2022, she attended GrubStreet’s Novel Incubator program as a Pauline Scheer Fellow. Previously, she graduated in creative writing and literature from Wheaton College (Norton, MA), where she received the Helen Myers Tate Memorial Prize for Original Verse. For more information, visit www.hilaryisabelle.com.Christine Murphy has lived, worked, and traveled in more than a hundred countries, including living for eleven months in a tent across the African continent and a year as a resident in a Buddhist nunnery in the Himalayas. A trained Buddhologist, Murphy has a Ph.D. in religious studies. Her first novel, Notes on Surviving the Fire, will be released on February 25. And I’m lucky enough to be interviewing her at Porter Square Books, Boston Editon, at 7pm. 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

Today, we hear from Grace Talusan and Calvin Hennick about how they made their unique writing partnership work.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.To find Talusan and Hennick’s debuts as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.Want to join our January write-a-thon. Go here for more information: 7amnovelist.substack.com/p/join-our-january-group-writeLooking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.Grace Talusan is the author of THE BODY PAPERS, which won the Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant writing and the Massachusetts Book Award for Nonfiction. In 2022, she was awarded fellowships from United States Artists, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Brother Thomas Fund. She teaches in the Nonfiction Writing Program at Brown University.Calvin Hennick’s debut memoir, Once More to the Rodeo, won the Pushcart’s 2019 Editors’ Book Award and was published in December 2019 by Pushcart Press. He is also a business and technology writer based in Boston. He wrote for many years for The Boston Globe and his prize-winning work has appeared in over 50 publications.Photo by Magnus Jonasson 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

Today, we hear from Whitney Scharer and Celeste Ng about their friendship, how they’ve supported each other through the years as writers, the work they do in their communities to support other writers and their careers, and how they plan to keep working in the new year. 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.To find Ng’s and Scharer’s latest books as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.Excited about Whitney and Sonya’s new conference? Give them feedback here: https://0c9d64fvmv6.typeform.com/to/EX9NG3ecWant to join our January write-a-thon? Go here for more information: 7amnovelist.substack.com/p/join-our-january-group-writeFinally, are you looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.Whitney Scharer’s first novel, The Age of Light, based on the life of pioneering photographer Lee Miller, was published by Little, Brown (US) and Picador (UK) in February, 2019, and was a Boston Globe and IndieNext bestseller and named one of the best books of 2019 by Parade, Glamour Magazine, Real Simple, Refinery 29, Booklist and Yahoo. Internationally, The Age of Light won Le prix Rive Gauche à Paris, was a coups de couer selection from the American Library in Paris, and has been published in over a dozen other countries. Whitney is the recipient of a 2020 Massachusetts Cultural Council Artists Fellowship in Fiction, and has been awarded residencies at the Virginia Center for the Arts and Ragdale. She teaches fiction in the Boston area and is a co-founder of the Arlington Author Salon, a quarterly reading series. She lives with her husband and daughter in Arlington, MA, where she is at work on her second novel.Celeste Ng is a novelist who lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her first novel, Everything I Never Told You (2014), was a New York Times bestseller, a New York Times Notable Book of 2014, Amazon’s #1 Best Book of 2014, and named a best book of the year by over a dozen publications. Everything I Never Told You was also the winner of the Massachusetts Book Award, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, and the ALA’s Alex Award. It has been translated into over thirty languages and is being adapted for the screen. Her second novel, Little Fires Everywhere (2017) was a #1 New York Times bestseller, a #1 Indie Next bestseller, and Amazon's Best Fiction Book of 2017. It was named a best book of the year by over 25 publications, the winner of the Ohioana Award and the Goodreads Readers Choice Award 2017 in Fiction, and has spent over a year on the New York Times bestseller list. Little Fires Everywhere has been published abroad in more than 30 languages and has been adapted as a limited series on Hulu, starring Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington. Her third novel, Our Missing Hearts, was published in October 2022 in the US, Canada, and the UK, and was an instant New York Times bestseller.Celeste and Whitney together attempting to imitate their author photos! 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

Today, we hear from writers and married couple Lori Ostlund and Anne Raeff and their work with the LGBTQI+ refugee organization, Rainbow Railroad, which also inspires their fiction and their writing process.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.To find Ostlund and Raeff’s latest books as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.Want to join our January write-a-thon. Go here for more information: 7amnovelist.substack.com/p/join-our-january-group-writeLooking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.Anne Raeff's second novel, Winter Kept Us Warm, published in 2018, won the silver medal for the California Book Award for Fiction. Her short story collection, The Jungle Around Us won the 2015 Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction. The collection was also a finalist for the California Book Award and was on The San Francisco Chronicle's 100 Best Books of 2017 list. In 2019 she was a finalist for the Simpson Literary Award. Clara Mondschein's Melancholia, also a novel, was published in 2002. Her last novel, Only the River, was published on May 2020. After many years of being a proud high school teacher, she is now retired and lives in San Francisco.Lori Ostlund’s novel After the Parade (Scribner 2015) was a Barnes & Noble Discover pick and a finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and the Ferro-Grumley Award. Her story collection, The Bigness of the World, won the 2008 Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, the California Book Award for First Fiction, and the Edmund White Debut Fiction Award, and was a Lambda Finalist and a New York Times Editors’ Choice. Her third book, entitled Are You Happy?, will be published by Astra House in May 2025. The final story in the collection, “Just Another Family,” will appear in the the 2024 Best American Short Stories. She has been a teacher for over twenty-five years in New Mexico, Spain, Malaysia, and North Carolina and is currently on the Mile-High MFA faculty at Regis University in Denver. She is the series editor of the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction and a board member of the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, which supports feminist women in the arts. She lives in San Francisco with her wife, the writer Anne Raeff, and their cat Oscar. Photo by Sharon Pittaway 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

Today, we hear from Theresa Okokon whose memoir in essays will be released on February 4. We talk about the power of delusions, controlling what your writing means to you, and letting go of the meaning others might try to assign to you. As Okokon says: “That’s not my problem.”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.To find Okokon’s latest books as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.Want to join our January write-a-thon. Go here for more information: 7amnovelist.substack.com/p/join-our-january-group-writeLooking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.Theresa Okokon is a Pushcart Prize-nominated essayist whose work (and bathroom selfies!) has appeared in Elle, midnight & indigo, Hippocampus Magazine, the Independent, WBUR's Cognoscenti, and Boston.com. A Wisconsinite living in New England, she is he co-host of Stories From The Stage. In addition to writing and performing her own stories, Theresa also teaches storytelling and writing workshops and classes, coaches other tellers, hosts story slams, and frequently emcees events for nonprofits. An alum of both the Memoir Incubator and Essay Incubator programs at GrubStreet, Theresa's memoir in essays about memory, family stories, and the death of her father -- WHO I ALWAYS WAS-- is available NOW on preorder, and officially publishes with Atria Books at Simon & Schuster on February 4, 2025. Theresa Instagrams gorgeous cocktails, food porn, and pics about Blackness, fatness, and her very cute senior dog on her Instagram at @ohh.jeezzz. She believes very seriously in capitalizing the B in Black and the W in White, and you can read more about that here, with Kwame Anthony Appiah. 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