Episode 78: Encore of It Always Goes Dark Episode

Since we are on a temporary hiatus while our editor catches up from his mysterious and zombie-like illness, it’s time for another encore episode. Another Mom Writes favorite. It goes to a place that’s deep and dark. We connect my middle grade novel about a girl and her father’s magic library to something more. Something Jennie said this episode has always stuck with me. That it doesn’t matter what you’re writing, it always goes dark.

IN TODAY’S EPISODE

  • Jennie and I chat about my daughter’s amazing male kindergarten teacher, “Mr. E,” while we wait for Mel to dial in.

  • We chat about the Pete the Cat empire, Mr. E’s Pete the Cat scavenger hunt, and Jennie makes a confession about Amazon.

  • Mel and I have a little mom competition over diapers. I talk about the Fort Worth Competitive Mom Circuit, and Jennie talks about the dreaded school car pool.

  • “All the people are just alone in their own little bubble” of SAMENESS.

  • I talk about going to see a medium, who I end up interviewing for the podcast (episode to come)! Jennie jokingly tries to edit my conversation as I tell the story. But I connect my visit to the medium with my writing as I tell the story about my best friend, Robyn, dying over a decade ago and how it has affected both my life and my writing. Jennie goes into full-blown therapist mode and reminds us that these deep WHYs are what we come to writing for. She also connects the book world I’ve written about in my story to the psychic realm, where characters go and can’t come back.

  • I write about the first moment my main character notices a boy in middle school. I had just attended a workshop where the instructor said not to write about bodily sensations, which only served to challenge me to go back and write about bodily sensations… Jennie translates “don’t write body sensations” to “don’t write bad crap!” She persuades me to read part of the “body sensations” scene I wrote, and we talk about why it works.

  • Massive amounts of information go through our heads really fast in the real world. Sometimes you have to figure out how to work in small connections in your writing, small important bits that your characters will process without belaboring them.

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Episode 79: Interview with Crystal Duffy

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Episode 77: #TBT Encore of the Mom Guilt Episode