Home of The Creative Nonfiction Podcast

Episode 211: What to Do When You Hate the Work with Rose Andersen

Rose Andersen is the author of The Heart and Other Monsters.

This episode is sponsored by Scrivener, by writers for writers.

“Great, so you’re at the point in the writing process where you hate all your work. We all do that.” — Rose Andersen (@roseandersen)

By Brendan O’Meara

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!

Episode 210: Stephanie Gorton Looks to the Past with ‘Citizen Reporters’

Stephanie Gorton (Photo credit Rachel Hulin)

This episode is sponsored by Scrivener, by writers for writers.

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.

By Brendan O’Meara

Stephanie Gorton (@sdgortonwords) is the author of Citizen Reporters: S.S. McClure, Ida Tarbell, and the Magazine that Rewrote America. It’s a ripping-good yarn.

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.

This podcast was sponsored in part by Scrivener, made by writers for writers! It’s also sponsored by Casualty of Words, a writing podcast for people in a hurry.

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.

Episode 209: The Evolution of Beth Roars

View on Zencastr

This episode is sponsored by Scrivener, by writers for writers.

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.

Episode 208: From Floundering to Freelance Superstar with Wudan Yan

This episode is sponsored by Scrivener, by writers for writers.

“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

By Brendan O’Meara

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.

Episode 207: Every Story is a Workshop with Roy Peter Clark

This episode is sponsored by Scrivener, created by writers for writers.

By Brendan O’Meara

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.

In this episode we talk about a deep dive he took on a 19-year-old college freshman’s brilliant story of a man washing the stain of blood from the sidewalk after a killing.

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.

Episode 206: Neal Bascomb on Deep Research, Failed Novels, and Locking into Nonfiction

By Brendan O’Meara

Hey there, CNFers! How are you? You hanging in there? That’s good. Keep wearing a mask.

For Episode 206, I welcome Neal Bascomb, author of Faster: How a Jewish Driver, an American Heiress, and a Legendary Car Beat Hitler’s Best (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020). It’s a great read. I really loved the characters.

In this episode we also talk about his soiree in novel writing and how writing four failed novels put him on the path he’s on now. We talk about his approach to research and how he organizes is. Lots of great stuff here.

I hope ya dig.

As always, be sure to subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts and if you’re feeling kind, leave a nice review on Apple Podcasts.

Keep the conversation going on social media by pinging the show @CNFPod on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. And if this show means anything to you and your circle of CNFers, please share it. This only spreads hand to hand.

Books by Neal Bascomb

The Racecars
The Escape Artists
The Winter Fortress
The Perfect Mile
Hunting Eichman
Red Mutiny
The New Cool
Higher

Episode 205: The Art of Biography with Larry Tye

By Brendan O’Meara

Hello, there, CNFers, we’ve got the incredible biographer Larry Tye joining us in conversation.

He’s the author of Demagogue: The Life and Long Shadow of Senator Joe McCarthy (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020).

Larry has written several biographies including ones on Satchel Paige, Super Man (!), and Bobby Kennedy, you know, your average ditch diggers.

In this episode we talk about book proposals, his approach to organizing his notes, and how being a reporter was like being in a “candy store.” Good, good stuff.

I had a lot of fun, and I hope you do, too.

If you’re feeling, leave a review on Apple Podcasts and consider signing up for the monthly newsletter. And keep the conversation going on social media. @CNFPod on Twitter, IG, and Facebook.

Episode 204: Peter Brown Hoffmeister on Self-Control, Internal Drive and Regret in Memoir

By Brendan O’Meara

Hey, there, CNFers, Peter Brown Hoffmeister returns to the show!

Peter is the author of the memoir The End of Boys and the novels Too Shattered for Mending and This is the Part Where You Laugh.

He’s also the creator of the new podcast Boring is a Swear Word, and it is a great listen. It’s not an interview show. It’s these little riffs, poems, and essays from his life. I highly recommend adding it to your podcast feed.

Speaking of podcasts, I’ve re-started the Casualty of Words feed. John Steinbeck had journals for his novels. I have a podcast to document the process and what you might glean from my rewrites. So you could say John Steinbeck was doing what I’m doing.

Anyway …

In this episode, we talk about:

Role models
Internal drive
Self-control
Taking in art to reach greater depth
Regret in memoir
And he reads a poem!

As you know, keep the conversation chugging @CNFPod across all the social networks. And if your work needs that kick in the pants, I’d be honored to serve you and your work. Email me and we’ll start a dialogue to whip that manuscript into the shape it deserves.

Episode 203: Emma Copley Eisenberg — A Window into Journalism World

“I often talk to my students and I feel like I’m looking at the story through a dirty window. And I just want you to take the pane of glass out so I can see the story,” says Emma Copley Eisenberg, @frumpenberg.

By Brendan O’Meara

Happy #CNFriday, CNFers!

Emma Copley Eisenberg is here to talk about The Third Rainbow Girl. It’s been highly touted as one of the better debut works of nonfiction. It’s great for its blending of genres and pushing the boundaries of what it means to write “true crime.”

If you’re looking for a whodunnit, this is not your book, which should pique your interest even more.

A few things we riff on:

A window in journalism world
Structure
Her book’s many false starts
And pushing the boundaries of creative nonfiction

Be sure you’re subscribed to the podcast wherever you get them (search Creative Nonfiction Podcast) and keep the conversation going on social media: @CNFPod here, here, and here.

If you dig the show, consider leaving a kind review on Apple Podcasts.

And, of course, subscribe to the monthly newsletter to receive reading recommendations and to be entered in a monthly raffle for books!

Episode 202: Ruby McConnell — … And Nothing but The ‘Ground Truth’

By Brendan O’Meara

Ruby McConnell is here.

She’s @rubygonewild across the socials. She and I jam a bit on Twitter, so I’ll link up to that. Here.

Ruby’s got a new book out: Ground Truth: A Geological Survey of a Life (Overcup Press, 2020).

It’s a damn good book and I’ll take you to the woodshed if you think otherwise.

Sorry.

Feeling aggressive.

Ruby is also the author of A Woman’s Guide to the Wild.

We had a pretty rad conversation where we talk about how dance taught her the discipline it takes to be a writer and how geology is a, perhaps, the most writerly science. She’s a native Oregonian and a fellow Eugenian and, I don’t know, I had about as good a time as I’ve ever had on this show with Ruby.

Be sure you’re subscribed to the show wherever you get your pods and if you’re feeling kind, leave a nice review on Apple Podcasts. They’ve stalled and it’d be nice to crest that 100-rating threshold.

Keep the conversation going on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, all @CNFPod. And if you sign up for the newsletter, you’re automatically — and perpetually — entered in a raffle to win books. I give out reading recommendations and news you might have missed from the world of the podcast. It’s fun. You’ll dig it.

First of the month. No spam. Can’t beat it!

First of the month. No spam. Can’t beat it!

First of the month. No spam. Can’t beat it!

MONTHLY NEWSLETTER!: Once a Month. No Spam. Can’t Beat It.

Books by Neal Bascomb

MONTHLY NEWSLETTER!: Once a Month. No Spam. Can’t Beat It.

MONTHLY NEWSLETTER!: Once a Month. No Spam. Can’t Beat It.

MONTHLY NEWSLETTER!: Once a Month. No Spam. Can’t Beat It.

MONTHLY NEWSLETTER!: Once a Month. No Spam. Can’t Beat It.

MONTHLY NEWSLETTER!: Once a Month. No Spam. Can’t Beat It.