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Now in Paperback: Matt Bell Refuses to be Done, Dammit

By Brendan O’Meara

Matt Bell (@mdbell79) is here. Why? He’s got a great craft book out called Refuse to be Done: How to Write and Rewrite a Novel in Three Drafts.

What a great handbook to walk you through the generative pages and then the arduous task — the REAL work — of refining, rewriting, and revising.

This book will teach you patience.

This book will teach you perserverance.

This book will teach you the meaning of work.

Now in Paperback: Susan Orlean on Writing for an Audience and the Entrepreneurial Nature of a Writing Career

This episode originally aired on August 11, 2017 as Episode 61

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These “now in paperbacks” are a nice reprieve for me work-wise and time-wise, and it’s nice to scroll through my Pocket Casts apps and go, “Oh, that’d be a snazzy one!”

And so we’re here with Susan Orlean’s first rodeo at CNF Pod HQ. Great stuff, like:

always having an audience in mind
having supreme focus
and needing to see yourself as a business person if you plan on doing this type of work

Naturally, a lot more stuff to gnaw on. There was no book to promote, so this is really a writing and craft-centered pod. Future pods dig into her recent work, being The Library Book and On Animals as of this date, Nov. 24, 2023.

The show’s Instagram handle, @creativenonfictionpodcast, and you can always keep the conversation going on Twitter @CNFPod. Or not … you know what’s better? Keep reading …

And you know I’d rather you sign up for my Up-to-11 Newsletter. Here’s the latest. Signup form is below you and to your right. Book recs, book raffles, cool stuff curated by me for you, CNFin’ happy hour or writing group, writing prompts, fun and entertaining. First of the month. No spam. Can’t beat it.

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Episode 392: Damon Brown Goes from Zero to 18,000

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By Brendan O’Meara

Damon Brown is an author, entrepreneur, and coach and his latest book is The Complete Bring Your Worth Collection. It is definitive. It is his capstone.

Much of Damon’s work has been centered on writing, but the past few years he’s started a fine YouTube show that showcases his particular expertise and how he can get you where you want to go.

In this episode, we talk about:

How he grew is YouTube channel from 0 to 18K
The BYW Collection as capstone
And how obscurity is your friend … to a point

There’s lots of other stuff to chew on as well, naturally. I also share a parting shot about the needless and senseless worry over platform building and where we really need to put our focus. It’s kinda like this blog I wrote … but with more swears.

Now in Paperback: Glenn Stout on Combining the Things You Love, Effort, and the Poem That ‘Knocked Him on his Ass’

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By Brendan O’Meara

This was originally published as Episode 14 on Dec. 6, 2015.

Always nice blow the dust off an older podcast. By virtue of the being older, the snap judgement is that they’re dated. I do go back through and re-edit the paperback podcasts to scrub out what feels dated and keep what’s evergreen.

It helps that, by and large, I try and produce evergreen interviews from the start, but this one had some references to a old job of Glenn’s, which didn’t really fit for 2023.

But what’s left is sure to give you a run for your money, man.

Episode 390: How Did the Pitcher Pedro Martinez Help Will Harrison’s Writing?Episode 390:

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By Brendan O’Meara

Will Harrison (@thechillestwill) came on the show to talk about his essay My Unlikely Writing Teacher: Pedro Martinez for the New York Times Magazine.

Loved. This. Essay.

And it’s short, which is always kind of a bonus.

Will is an instructor at the School for Visual Arts in New York City. He has written for The Cleveland Review of Books and The Baffler, among others. You can learn more about him at his website, willharrisonwriter.com.

Now in Paperback: Dinty W. Moore on the Gift of Feedback, Reading Like a Mechanic, and Patience

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By Brendan O’Meara

Dinty W. Moore (@brevitymag) runs the creative writing program at Ohio University. He founded Brevity Magazine, an online magazine dedicated to short (<750 words) nonfiction. He’s written a dozen books.

Dinty’s book, The Story Cure: A Book Doctor’s Pain-Free Guide to Finishing Your Novel or Memoir (Ten Speed Press), will help diagnose—and cure!—common ailments in your project, whether you’re far along in a book (as I am) or you’re just getting starting.

Now in Paperback: Andre Dubus III

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By Brendan O’Meara

As my book work intensifies, we lean on these paperback editions of the podcast! (Listeners are digging them, I think. One, they’re the greatest hits. Two, it keeps you from having to dig through the overwhelming backlog). This one with Andre Dubus III might be my favorite of the entire run of the podcast, no shade thrown to the others.

It’s just … he brought it. And it’s one of the a rare episodes of the show’s run when, after listening, I wanted to get up and write. Right away.

This originally aired as Ep. 54 in June of 2017.

Episode 387: Tom Donaghy

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By Brendan O’Meara

“Who Killed the Fudge King?“

Tom Donaghy, a playwright and screenwriter, needed to find out.

Harry Anglemeyer was a fixture of Ocean City with a fudge empire on the Jersey Shore, The Copper Kettle. He wanted to lift up and move forward the ocean-side city. He was openly queer in a time that wasn’t as accepting. In 1964, he was murdered and the case was never solved.

Enter Tom.

Now in Paperback: Jericho Brown

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By Brendan O’Meara

Hi, CNFers, nonfictionistas, verifiably true people, re-upping the brilliant Jericho Brown (@jerichobrown) for your listening pleasure.

As I said in the original intro, and as I re-say in this intro, this entire episode is like an hour-long pull quote. It’s so money, baby.

Since this episode originally aired on April 19, 2019, Jericho won the Pultizer Prize for his poetry collection The Tradition, which is what we talked about in this conversation.

Now in Paperback: Mary Karr

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By Brendan O’Meara

It was bound to happen: re-runs.

But that’s fine! How many people go back through hundreds of conversations and find a gem? My guess is very little, so this is a great chance to showcase some older pods … now out in paperback (haha).

You know Mary Karr. She ushered in the memoir boom with The Liars’ Club and followed that up with Cherry and Lit. Her craft book The Art of Memoir is brilliant, as is her poetry in Tropic of Squalor.

This episode originally aired in 2018 with the publication of ToS, so I hope you’ll enjoy (or re-enjoy) this conversation with Mary Karr!