Coffee & Ideas
Online writing sessions with friends has produced some interesting questions, and we chat about them today. How does the identity of the writer make a difference? How does identity inform the writing, and how does it portray the characters? We invite Alice Cornwell and Tiana Hanson back to the coffee couch to discuss the topic. … Continue…Episode 41 – The Writer’s Identity
Welcoming back Sandra Brenchley to chat about amulets, charms, talismans, and other fetishes. To this day, everyone has a lucky charm of some sort. What do they mean in antiquity? What should they mean for the characters in your story? #WhatsInYourGrisGrisBag? … Continue…Episode 40 – A Charming Fetish
John sits down with Steaphen Fick, a master of sword fighting, to talk about their favorite books on fighting and weapons as well as how to think about choreographing fight scenes. … Continue…Episode 38 – Interview with a Sword Master
In which the coffee club writers sit down and talk about Poetry. From romance to horror to comedy, and even mixed up therein, we look at all the forms and nature of poems we collectively love and memorize for no reason. … Continue…Episode 37 – A Rose by any other Poetry
When you’re world building for a story or novel, you need to figure out how magic works. The coffee shop writers chat about how to build something coherent, something that makes sense, and the pondering of magic that doesn’t get in the way of a story. Or how magic can become a story. And how red coffee is the best coffee. … Continue…Episode 36 – Systemic Magic
Are you writing a historic fantasy which contains divination or prognostication? Want to make it more historically accurate? Sandra Brenchley joins the coffee club to talk about her studies into mediaeval divination, soothsaying, and other prognostication devices. … Continue…Episode 35 – Divination and Prophecy
With special guest L. Douglas Garrett. Doug writes novels about the life of an operative in various parts of the world. From dirt, tribal loyalties, and the importance of family, he describes bringing real life experience as an operative to create realism in his thrillers. … Continue…Episode 34 – Knife Fight to the Death, baby!
Chaz, Karen, and Jeannie sit around talking about their favorite crime and mystery novels. What makes a crime or mystery work? How has the genre changed over time? What is believable vs. credible for the writer? … Continue…Episode 33 – Crime and Mystery
Over the Christmas holidays we collected ghost stories. Here’s one told with pictures, narrated by Heather Rose Jones herself. … Continue…Episode .5 – Captain’s Log, Supplemental
In which we talk about the motivational power of the deadline, and missing them, and what to do instead of making a deadline. How do they affect the creative process? … Continue…Episode 32 – Deadlines Go Woosh!