Category: Indie Authors Podcast

How do you properly mix science in science fiction? J. Dianne Dotson has found the recipe. In my podcast for the Alliance of Independent Authors, I interview a sci-fi writer who also does actual science.

I love science fiction, but the worst thing is to wade through pages and pages of technical detail about some technology invented by the author. Just tell me, simply, that it works and I’ll suspend my disbelief and believe you … like warp speed in Star Trek.

Interviews like this one with Dianne make my gig with ALLi especially enjoyable. Interviewing authors who inspire me is my favorite part of what I do. Inspirational Indie Authors is the SEO-friendly (I’ve been told) version of my old IndieVoices podcast. Every week, I focus on a new author, learn their backstories, and let them talk about their work. I don’t discuss marketing plans, or any other business-related stuff. Believe me, nobody wants business advice from me. My interviews focus purely on story and writing.

Here’s some of what Dianne had to say:

On the Proper Mix of Science When Writing Science Fiction

“I think that the level of science in science fiction is going to vary depending on what you’re trying to tell, what kind of story, what setting. And so for my series, for example, it’s a combination of science fiction with a touch of fantasy. But even with that, you have to have a set of rules to address both.”

On Why She Studied Ecology

“I wanted to know how everything fit together and in ecology you really do learn about how systems all fit together and how everything affects everything else in the environment. And, you know, from the microscopic to macroscopic level, that just fascinated me and I was just like, ‘This is my jam.’”

Listen to the whole interview on my podcast for the Alliance of Independent Authors.

In this episode from my IndieVoices podcast archive from June 2018, I feature an interview and a reading by Wattpad user Jandra Sutton, a special interview with Ashleigh Gardner, deputy general manager of Wattpad Studios.

If you think your kids aren’t reading books like you did when you were young, they may just be doing something more important: reinventing the way books are written and read. It’s collaborative, it’s a need for instant reaction from friends, and, if you haven’t already guessed it, it’s Wattpad: a reading and writing and social network service that has your kids’ attention, and increasingly, adult writers, too, along with major studios like Netflix and Hulu, which are adapting Wattpad stories.

Jandra Sutton, author: My first guest is Jandra Sutton, who seems to have made the most out of the platform. A couple of years ago, she jumped onto the platform to hone her writing skills with fanfiction, anonymously. There, she developed a fan base, finally outed herself with her real name, and felt confident enough to self-publish a book called Fragile, based on her Wattpad work.

I asked her how she feels about making her writing available for a lot of strangers to critique.

“It’s still terrifying to this day, every time I post something on Wattpad because, obviously, this is the first draft,” Sutton said. “First drafts are usually terrible 99 percent of the time. But one of the invaluable things about Wattpad is that I get real-time critiques on my work as I’m writing it.”

Ashleigh Gardner, Wattpad Studios: She runs the publishing side of the business, working with publishers around the world to help authors get book deals, self-publish, and work on projects directly with retailers. So, if you’re a Wattpad author and you hear from Ashleigh, that’s bound to be good news. She invites more indie authors to try the service.

“I’d love to see more of your audience log on and try Wattpad,” Gardner said. “I think there’s a story for everyone there. There are over 65 million members that have written over 565 million stories and that number keeps growing … it’s a great place for writers to find readers for their stories.”

Listen to the AskALLi IndieVoices Broadcast

Rachel Thompson is an author and book marketing expert. Her series of books, Broken Pieces and Broken Places, about coming to terms with sexual abuse she suffered as a child, has inspired many other survivors to come out of hiding and seek help. In this episode, Rachel talks about the abuse, but also how writing the books and helping others brought healing after almost a lifetime of guilt and trauma. Her books and online forums, including her Twitter forum #SexAbuseChat, have been an inspiration to many other trauma survivors.

Highlights

On how she began writing about her childhood sexual abuse trauma: “Something like a death of somebody very close to you, or who used to be very close to you … can be a turning point in any person’s life, particularly for a writer, because we carry so much in our heart and in our brains that at some point we just need to get it out.”

On readers’ reaction to her first ‘Broken‘ book: “The response was overwhelming. People came to me from all over the world, emailing me DMing me, PMing me, with their own stories of being sexually abused. But they didn’t want to tell anybody else. They didn’t want to share it publicly, but I constantly was asked, ‘Can you create some kind of forum where we could get together and talk about it?”

Author reading: Rachel reads an excerpt from Broken Places called “Aftershocks.”

It began as IndieVoices, when I was executive editor at Foreword Reviews, and is now called Inspirational Indie Authors in its incarnation for the Alliance of Independent Authors. But no matter what it’s called, I enjoy making these podcasts because I get to interview some incredibly brilliant authors. Listen to some of my other audio interviews with indie authors.