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Hey there, CNFer, let’s come right out and say it: no interview this week.
I know, I know.
No worries, it’s fine, it’s all good. I put all my research and reading eggs into one basket for an interview that’s embargoed until November. So I decided to put together an all-star team of the ten most downloaded episodes (actually 11 since there was a tie).
And as a bonus, I read a work-in-progress, a little essay called “Raph, the Space Cadet.” It’s one in a series of essays I’m writing about middle school.
I hope you dig it. It helps to show you I’m in the mud, too, right?
It’s a whole new world. I remember I was reporting for the Stephen Miller book, I went to Trump’s first reelection rally in Orlando. And it was the first time that I had ever been in a place where I felt reluctant and kind of scared to tell people that I was a journalist. I wasn’t there undercover. I was there to interview people. It made me nervous to be walking around with my notebook out because there were so many chants against journalists.
In this episode we talk about networking as community, or community as networking, blasting through this book in six months, and getting to the bottom of Stephen Miller (Hint: There isn’t much depth.).
Keep the conversation going on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook @CNFPod. Easy as pie. Mmmmm, pie.
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Seyward talks about how editing The Atavist Magazine has made her a better writer, how she was able to write this book while holding down her full-time job, and three core tenets of why people get drawn into the vitriole of white nationalism.
Email the show with any questions you might want answered or to say hello.
It’s a love letter to her midwest roots and the topics are so wide ranging, yet have this connective tissue that once you’re in the thick of reading it you like “How the fuck did she do this?”
Seriously.
In this episode we talk about how she finds the groove, her workspace, the books she keeps on her desk, softball, BDSM, and F5 tornados.
Keep the conversation going on social media @CNFPod across them all. If you feeling kind, link up to the show and consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. A complimentary editing consult awaits you: Just screenshot your review, email it to the show, and I’ll reach back out.
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Melissa’s work has appeared in Bitch magazine, the Millions, Prairie Schooner, Isthmus, DIAGRAM, Midwestern Gothic, and Green Mountains Review. She’s a Best American Essays notable writer as well.
It’s a wonderful story about memory, fathers and sons, and the hunt for the identity of Roberto Clemente’s bat, the one that struck his 3,000th and final hit.
Kevin shares stories about his time growing up in Cooperstown, home of the baseball Hall of Fame and dealing with a young Barry Bonds while an intern for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
He’s written two novels and one movie and I loved it when he said, “You become a writer by writing.”
It’s the same sentiment that Austin Kleon espouses: In order to be the noun, you have to do the verb.
Keep the conversation going on on social media @CNFPod and consider leaving a kind a review on Apple Podcasts.
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Rose Andersen is the author of The Heart and Other Monsters (Bloomsbury, 2020) and we jam about that, the writing process, deadlines, music, groove, and addiction.
It’s one of the best books I’ve read this year, so you should listen here and then consider buying it for the memoir/true crime lover in your circle of CNFers.
And I’m bringing back the review-for-coaching deal. If you leave a review on Apple Podcasts, I will give you an hour of my editing/coaching time, a $50 value, so act fast!
Leave a review, wait for it to post, screenshot it, and email it to me creativenonfictionpodcast at gmail dot com. Then I’ll reach out. Keep the work to 2,000 words or fewer.
Also, if you’re feeling kind, link up to the show on social media, tagging the show @CNFPod so I can give you the props and elbow bumps you deserve!
Want the transcript to this episode?! PayPal brendan at brendan omeara dot com $5 and I’ll send you the PDF!
“But there was a sense that I had let down my younger self and ought to find a way to make writing at least in some way, a part of my part of my life.” — Stephanie Gorton.
In this conversation we talk about her Page Turner piece for New Yorker dot com about an H.P. Lovecraft conference in Providence, her home city. We riff on what it was like for her to go from publishing to writing. We talk about the social media and why anyone with platform would trust a journalist with their stories. It’s good, clean fun.
Keep the conversation going on social media by linking up the show and tagging it @CNFPod.
Be sure you’re subscribed to the podcast wherever you get your podcasts and subscribe to my monthly newsletter for book recommendations, writing tips, and what you might’ve missed from the world of the podcast. You’re also entered to win books. What’s not to like?! Sign up below.
Beth Compson Bradford, better known as Beth Roars, comes on the podcast because she embodies the new way creatives need to be creative to make a living.
She’s a vocal coach and performer, but she’s best know for her YouTube channel where she reacts to various vocal performances. Like this one:
Be sure to keep the conversation going on Instagram, all @creativenonfictionpodcast.
Things Beth and I talk about:
Self-doubt
Taking tiny steps
Giving up on her dreams
Subscribing to my monthly newsletter gets you reading recommendations, podcast news, and enters you into raffles for free books. Sign up below, friend.
“That was always my understanding that if you want to be a freelance journalist, you’re probably going to have to do a lot of things that you don’t want to do, so it creates time, space, and resources for you to dig into the things that you want to do.” — Wudan Yan
You know when an episode is especially juicy? Of course you do! and this is one of them.
Wudan Yan is a freelance superstar. You can find her on Twitter (an amazing follow) @wudanyan. She’s one of those wicked smaht people who breaks things down and makes things supah approachable and, damn, maybe you can make a go of it, too.
She’s a Seattle-based journalist and co-host of The Writer’s Co-op, a business podcast for writers. Wudan got internet famous for a blog post she wrote about chasing late fees for the $5,000 she was owed. Unfortunately this is the ugly side of freelancing, chasing late payments like Pac-Man on a ghost.
Instead of me linking up to so much of her incredible work, just go here and dig in. Get some coffee. Pour in some delicious vegan creamer into your coffee (I prefer Oatly’s barista creamer) and settle in for some world-class journalism, bruh.
Be sure you’re subscribed to the show wherever you get your podcasts and consider leaving a nice review on Apple Podcasts. They help.
Keep the conversation going on social media, @CNFPod across Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Sign up for that newsletter, too. Book raffles, reading recommendations, writing tips, and what you might have missed from the world of the podcast. First of the month. No spam. Can’t beat it.
In this conversation, Roy Peter Clark, author of Murder Your Darlings: And Other Gentle Writing Advice from Aristotle to Zinsser (Little, Brown), he says, “Every story is a workshop.”
What a great way to approach reading and writing. I love it.
Roy is the author of several books on writing including Writing Tools, The Glamour of Grammar, Writing Short, Help! for Writers, and The Art of X-Ray Reading.
There’s lots of great stuff I know you’ll dig in this episode, so I’ll leave you to it.
Be sure to keep the conversation going on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook, @CNFPod.
If you dig the show, consider leaving a nice review on Apple Podcasts. I make it a point to review shows I like, so I’m not just asking for reviews and not dishing it out!
Also subscribe to my monthly newsletter to be entered in book raffles, and to receive reading recommendations, and podcast news.
