Best Craftofwriting Podcasts (2025)

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Ep. 143 Callan Wink 23:47

4d ago23:47

23:47

.By Marion Roach Smith

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Anti-Hustle Culture with guest Rachel May and Emily Golden (Ep187) 56:49

5d ago56:49

56:49

Main Topic: Anti-Hustle Culture with guests Rachel May and Emily Golden, book coaches and editors at Golden May Editing, and podcast hosts of the Story Magic podcast. Up to 48% off your first subscription or 20% off one time purchases with code VALERIE20 at checkout You can claim it at: https://magicmind.com/VALERIE20 #magicmind #mentalwealth #ment…

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Must-Have Elements in Every Nonfiction Book (Ep186) 37:00

12d ago37:00

37:00

Main Topic: Elements of a Nonfiction Book (Starts at 16:55) Up to 48% off your first subscription or 20% off one time purchases with code VALERIE20 at checkout You can claim it at: https://magicmind.com/VALERIE20 #magicmind #mentalwealth #mentalperformance PATREON: Thank you to our existing patrons for believing in our work offline and here in the …

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Ep. 142 Jessica Gutierrez 26:43

18d ago26:43

26:43

Jessica Gutierrez is a former journalist who has earned several awards for her work and is the current author of A Product of Genetics and Day Drinking: A Never Coming of Age Story, just published by Tiny Reparations House, a division of Penguin Random House. Listen in as she and host Marion Roach Smith discuss writing memoir, and specifically how …

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Ep185: Beyond the Hero’s Journey: Exploring the Hidden Arcs in Every Story 41:40

21d ago41:40

41:40

Main Topic: 3 arcs in every book (begins at 15:31) Up to 48% off your first subscription or 20% off one time purchases with code VALERIE20 at checkout You can claim it at: https://magicmind.com/VALERIE20 #magicmind #mentalwealth #mentalperformance PATREON: Thank you to our existing patrons for believing in our work offline and here in the podcast. …

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Ep184: The Confidence Paradox with guest Angus Nelson 57:44

27d ago57:44

57:44

Main Topic: The Confidence Paradox with guest Angus Nelson Up to 48% off your first subscription or 20% off one time purchases with code VALERIE20 at checkout You can claim it at: https://magicmind.com/VALERIE20 #magicmind #mentalwealth #mentalperformance PATREON: Thank you to our existing patrons for believing in our work offline and here in the p…

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Ep183: ChatGPT and Writing Exercises 40:55

1M ago40:55

40:55

Up to 48% off your first subscription or 20% off one time purchases with code VALERIE20 at checkout You can claim it at: https://magicmind.com/VALERIE20 #magicmind #mentalwealth #mentalperformance PATREON: Thank you to our existing patrons for believing in our work offline and here in the podcast. Become a patron of the arts at Patreon.com/valeriei…

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Ep. 141 Joan Wickersham 30:10

1M ago30:10

30:10

While Joan Wickersham is best known for her astonishing book, The Suicide Index, a National Book Award finalist, her work over her many years as a professional journalist, writer and tuhor, has taken her nearly everywhere, including to Stockholm to witness a mysterious object: the seventeenth-century Swedish warship Vasa, which sank only minutes in…

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Ep182: How to Start a Ghostwriting Business 54:49

1M ago54:49

54:49

Main Topic: Starting a Ghostwriting Business Up to 48% off your first subscription or 20% off one time purchases with code VALERIE20 at checkout You can claim it at: https://magicmind.com/VALERIE20 #magicmind #mentalwealth #mentalperformance PATREON: Thank you to our existing patrons for believing in our work offline and here in the podcast. Become…

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Ep181: Autofiction: Letting Go at Launch Time with guest H.H. Rune 55:16

2M ago55:16

55:16

Main Topic: Autoficiton: Letting Go at Launch Time with guest H.H. Rune (main topic starts at 16:06) Up to 48% off your first subscription or 20% off one time purchases with code VALERIE20 at checkout You can claim it at: https://magicmind.com/VALERIE20 #magicmind #mentalwealth #mentalperformance PATREON: Thank you to our existing patrons for belie…

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Ep180: (B)Romance: How Dumb & Dumber and When Harry Met Sally are the Same Screenplay 58:36

2M ago58:36

58:36

Bromance: How Dumb & Dumber and When Harry Met Sally are the Same Screenplay (21:42) Up to 48% off your first subscription or 20% off one time purchases with code VALERIE20 at checkout You can claim it at: https://magicmind.com/VALERIE20 #magicmind #mentalwealth #mentalperformance PATREON: Thank you to our existing patrons for believing in our work…

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Ep. 140 Gloria Huang 25:21

2M ago25:21

25:21

Gloria L. Huang is a freelance writer whose fiction has appeared in literary journals including Michigan Quarterly Review, The Threepenny Review, Chicago Quarterly Review, Witness Magazine, Massachusetts Review, Pleiades, Southern Humanities Review, Fiction Magazine, North American Review, Arts & Letters, Washington Square Review, The Chattahoochee…

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Ep. 139 Nicole Graev Lipson 31:09

2M ago31:09

31:09

Today my guest is author Nicole Graev Lipson, whose work has appeared in The Sun, Virginia Quarterly Review, LA Review of Books, The Millions, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe, among other venues. Her work has been awarded a Pushcart Prize, nominated for a National Magazine Award, and selected for The Best American Essays anthology. She is…

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Ep. 138 Brooke Randel 25:32

3M ago25:32

25:32

The author Brooke Randel has just published a memoir titled Also Here: Love, Literacy and the Legacy of the Holocaust, in which she explores the third generations's efforts to understand the Holocaust. In Also Here, she captures one woman's harrowing survival and another's struggle to excavate the story from her grandmother's fading memories so we …

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Ep179: The 3 Types and 5 Rules of Screenwriting 37:23

3M ago37:23

37:23

Main Topic: 5 Rules of Screen-Writing (starts at 18:23) Up to 48% off your first subscription or 20% off one time purchases with code VALERIE20 at checkout You can claim it at: https://magicmind.com/VALERIE20 #magicmind #mentalwealth #mentalperformance PATREON: Thank you to our existing patrons for believing in our work offline and here in the podc…

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Ep178: How to Find Writing Community 34:03

3M ago34:03

34:03

Segment 1 (Announcements/Author Updates): (Valerie) decluttering, pitching conferences, starting new projects Aligned Author: A Workshop in Intuitive Planning and Strategy "Using strategic principles, core values, and your desired feelings as a guide, you can create goals that feel good to pursue. Aligned Embodied Action is an intuitive and authent…

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Ep. 137 Julie Kabat 28:11

3M ago28:11

28:11

In the summer of 1964, the FBI found the smoldering remains of the station wagon that James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman had been driving before their disappearance. Shortly after this awful discovery, Julie Kabat’s beloved brother Luke arrived as a volunteer for the Mississippi Summer Project. He was one of more than seven hundred…

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Ep177: Favorite Writing Craft Books 33:42

3M ago33:42

33:42

Main Topic: Favorite Writing Craft Books (starts at 13:02) Up to 48% off your first subscription or 20% off one time purchases with code VALERIE20 at checkout You can claim it at: https://magicmind.com/VALERIE20 #magicmind #mentalwealth #mentalperformance PATREON: Thank you to our existing patrons for believing in our work offline and here in the p…

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Ep176: How to Resuscitate a Trunk Novel 44:53

3M ago44:53

44:53

Main Topic: How to Revive Old Project (What About That Trunk Novel?) (at 23:36) Up to 48% off your first subscription or 20% off one time purchases with code VALERIE20 at checkout You can claim it at: https://magicmind.com/VALERIE20 #magicmind #mentalwealth #mentalperformance PATREON: Thank you to our existing patrons for believing in our work offl…

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Ep. 136 Amy Wilson 29:46

3M ago29:46

29:46

Today my guest is writer, author and actor, Amy Wilson. She is the author of the memoir, When Did I Get Like This?: The Screamer, the Worrier, the Dinosaur-Chicken-Nugget-Buyer, and Other Mothers I Swore I'd Never Be, as well as the co-host of the popular parenting podcast WHAT FRESH HELL: LAUGHING IN THE FACE OF MOTHERHOOD. The author of the MOTHE…

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Ep. 135 Anita Felicelli 28:38

4M ago28:38

28:38

Anita Felicelli's short stories have appeared in The Massachusetts Review, Midnight Breakfast, Air/Light, The Normal School, and elsewhere. She has contributed essays and criticism to the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Alta Journal, Slate, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Review of Books, and the New York Times Modern Love column, amon…

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Ep. 134 Sarah LaBrie 25:37

4M ago25:37

25:37

Sarah LaBrie is a TV writer, librettist and memoirist whose new memoir, No One Gets to Fall Apart, is just out from Harper Collins. Listen in as host Marion Roach Smith asks the author about the vulnerability needed to write memoir, how to find the language for defining ourselves and writing about family mental illness. The QWERTY podcast is brough…

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Ep175: Problem Solving Your Novel 53:24

4M ago53:24

53:24

Main Topic: Problem Solving in Your Novel (and your life!) Get 45% off the Magic Mind bundle with with my link: https://magicmind.com/VALERIEJAN #magicmind #mentalwealth #mentalperformance PATREON: Thank you to our existing patrons for believing in our work offline and here in the podcast. Become a patron of the arts at Patreon.com/valerieihsan for…

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Ep. 133 Liz Morrow 24:51

5M ago24:51

24:51

Liz Morrow is a ghost writer and collaborator for thought leaders and and industry experts. With Ariel Curry, she runs Hungry Authors, which coaches authors to publish their books. They have co-authored the new book, Hungry Authors, The Indispensable Guide to Planning, Writing and Publishing a Nonfiction Book, just out from Rowman and Littlefield. …

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Ep174: What Are You Bringing to 2025? 50:07

5M ago50:07

50:07

Main Topic: End of Year Review Mental Performance Shot: MagicMind.com/Valerie20 for 20% off one purchase, or up to 48% off monthly subscription. Use code VALERIE20 at checkout. PATREON: Thank you to our existing patrons for believing in our work offline and here in the podcast. Become a patron of the arts at Patreon.com/valerieihsan for books, writ…

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Ep173: Battling Self-Doubt 40:07

5M ago40:07

40:07

Main Topic: Self-Doubt Mental Performance Shot: MagicMind.com/Valerie20 for 20% off one purchase, or up to 48% off monthly subscription. Use code VALERIE20 at checkout. PATREON: Thank you to our existing patrons for believing in our work offline and here in the podcast. Become a patron of the arts at Patreon.com/valerieihsan for books, writing inst…

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Ep. 132 Teresa Wong 27:46

5M ago27:46

27:46

Comics artist and writer, Teresa Wong is the author of the 2019 graphic memoir Dear Scarlet: The Story of My Postpartum Depression, a finalist for The City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize and longlisted for CBC Canada Reads 2020. Her comics have appeared in The Believer, The New Yorker and McSweeney’s. Her new book, All Our Ordinary Stories, is…

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Ep172: Pricing Author Services 48:10

6M ago48:10

48:10

Main Topic: Pricing for Author Services (starts at 16:33) PATREON: Thank you to our existing patrons for believing in our work offline and here in the podcast. Become a patron of the arts at Patreon.com/valerieihsan for books, writing instruction, coaching, and planning. Go to Patreon.com/strangeairstories for short stories in the paranormal myster…

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Ep. 131 Sara Sherbill 25:50

6M ago25:50

25:50

Sarah Sherbill's memoir, There was Night and There was Morning: A Memoir of Trauma and Redemption, is just out from Union Sq. and Co., and chronicles a road to redemption after her father, a beloved rabbi in an Orthodox Chicago community is also a man who abuses his family. In Sarah's role in the family, she is the secret keeper, until a secret so …

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Ep171: The Process of Planning Your Book Without Getting Bored 55:26

6M ago55:26

55:26

Hello Writers and Crafters! I'm Valerie Ihsan, And I'm Erick Mertz, and this is Episode 171 of the podcast and it's November 20, 2024 as we record this. Main Topic: PATREON: Thank you to new patron Elizabeth Amber from Anchorage, Alaska. THANKS! I appreciate you. Thank you to our existing patrons for believing in our work offline and here in the po…

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Ep. 130 Sarah Leavitt 32:34

6M ago32:34

32:34

Sarah Leavitt is a cartoonist and author of the graphic memoir, Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer’s, My Mother, and Me (2010), and the author of the award-winning historical fiction comic Agnes, Murderess (2019). Sarah is an assistant professor in the School of Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, where she has develo…

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Ep170: Courage in Story Telling with guest Anne Abel 58:22

7M ago58:22

58:22

Thank you to our existing patrons for believing in our work offline and here in the podcast. Become a patron of the arts at Patreon.com/valerieihsan for books, writing instruction, coaching, and planning. Go to Patreon.com/strangeairstories for short stories in the paranormal mystery genre. Segment 1 (Announcements/Author Updates): (Accidental Stra…

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Ep169: Writing as a Black Woman in the Speculative Fiction Genre, with guest Dr. Michele Tracy Berger 1:05:55

7M ago1:05:55

1:05:55

Main Topic: Writing as a Black Woman in the Speculative Fiction World (Main Topic starts at 28:00.) PATREON: Thank you to our existing patrons for believing in our work offline and here in the podcast. Become a patron of the arts at Patreon.com/valerieihsan for books, writing instruction, coaching, and planning. Go to Patreon.com/strangeairstories …

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Ep168: Fostering Creativity 27:25

7M ago27:25

27:25

Segment 1 (Announcements/Author Updates): (Accidental Stranger Book 2 out) Print out NOW! On Amazon. Write in the Harbor (Erick teaching.) (Valerie will be at Write in the Harbor in Gig Harbor, WA this year, too! Host of Ghost Story Weekend for Wordcrafters. (Erick) print books going forward. wrapping up writing projects, PB out on the 15th of Acci…

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Ep167: Hiring an Editor: What My Book Should Look Like 49:50

7M ago49:50

49:50

Segment 1 (Announcements/Author Updates): (Accidental Stranger Book 2 out) Print out NOW! On Amazon. Write in the Harbor (Erick teaching.) (Valerie will be at Write in the Harbor in Gig Harbor, WA this year, too! Host of Ghost Story Weekend for Wordcrafters. (Erick) print books going forward. wrapping up writing projects, PB out on the 15th of Acci…

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Ep166: Conference Expecatations 53:33

7M ago53:33

53:33

Segment 1 (Announcements/Author Updates): (Accidental Stranger Book 2 out) Write in the Harbor (Erick teaching.) (Valerie will be at Write in the Harbor in Gig Harbor, WA this year, too! Host of Ghost Story Weekend for Wordcrafters. (Erick) wrapping up writing projects, PB out on the 15th of Accidental Stranger (plus prequel), finishing another boo…

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Ep165: Story Retellings with Guest Jeanne Blasberg 59:14

8M ago59:14

59:14

Main Topic: Jeanne Blasberg, Story Retellings (starts at 21:39 on video) PATREON: Thank you to our existing patrons for believing in our work offline and here in the podcast. Become a patron of the arts at Patreon.com/valerieihsan for books, writing instruction, coaching, and planning. Go to Patreon.com/strangeairstories for short stories in the pa…

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Ep. 129 Brigit Bins 24:05

8M ago24:05

24:05

Brigit Binns is a prolific author of cookbooks, with more than 100,000 copies in print, including eleven titles she has authored for Williams Sonoma. She has also co-authored cookbooks, edited cookbooks and written 90 shows for the Food Network series, The Hot Tamales. And now she has turned her attention to memoir. Her new book is titled Rottenkid…

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Ep. 128 Caro de Robertis 25:13

9M ago25:13

25:13

Caro De Robertis, whose pronouns are they/theirs, is a Uruguayan-American author and full tenured professor in the creative writing dept at San Francisco State University. They are the author of five novels and the editor of an award-winning anthology, Radical Hope. Their books have been translated into seventeen languages and have received numerou…

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Ep164: Welcome to Season 5! 28:45

9M ago28:45

28:45

Main Topic: Welcome to Season 5 PATREON: Thank you to our existing patrons for believing in our work offline and here in the podcast. Become a patron of the arts at Patreon.com/valerieihsan for books, writing instruction, coaching, and planning. Go to Patreon.com/strangeairstories for short stories in the paranormal mystery genre. Segment 1 (Announ…

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Ep. 127 Juli Min 28:15

9M ago28:15

28:15

Writer and novelist Juli Min is the editor-in-chief and fiction editor of the Shanghai Literary Review. Currently a resident of Shanghai, she was born in Seoul, Korea, and raised in New Jersey, and has just published her debut novel. Entitled Shanghailanders, the book is just out from Spiegel and Grau. Listen in as she and I discuss book structure,…

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Ep. 126 Deborah Paredez 28:47

10M ago28:47

28:47

Deborah Paredez is the author of the critical study, Selenidad: Selena, Latinos, and the Performance of Memory (Duke 2009) and the poetry collections, This Side of Skin (Wings Press 2002) and Year of the Dog (BOA 2020). Her poetry, essays, and commentary have appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Review of Books, National Public Radio, Boston…

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Ep163: How Writing Heals with Guest Becky Ellis 1:13:43

10M ago1:13:43

1:13:43

Announcements: 2024 Writer Craft Writing Retreat and Workshop registration open; https://valerieihsan.com/retreat (Day Passes $400) I've got four spaces left. I have decided that because of the Costa Rica move next year, I will NOT be having a retreat in 2025. So, if you've been on the fence, NOW is the time to make the decision to purchase a ticke…

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Ep162: Announcement Only Episode 11:06

10M ago11:06

11:06

Announcements: 2024 Writer Craft Writing Retreat and Workshop registration open; https://valerieihsan.com/retreat (Day Passes $400) I've got four spaces left. Burnout Recovery Series on Patreon, and part of my recovery is the addition of The Artist's Way. I'll be hosting a creative cluster via Zoom, starting Aug 8, Thursday, 10am-noon Pacific. It's…

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Ep. 125 Rusty Gear 28:22

10M ago28:22

28:22

Rusty Gear is an Americana recording artist whose work explores the story of the USA and for whom the Qwerty Podcast host, Marion Roach Smith, writes lyrics. In this episode, they explore working together as creatives. What is the nature of good artistic collaboration? How do two writers work together? Listen in as we explore those themes and much …

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Ep161: Writing (in Multiple Genres) During the Stolen Moments 1:08:09

11M ago1:08:09

1:08:09

PATREON: Thank you to our existing patrons for believing in our work offline and here in the podcast. Become a patron of the arts at Patreon.com/valerieihsan for books, writing instruction, coaching, and planning. Go to Patreon.com/strangeairstories for short stories in the paranormal mystery genre. Announcements: 2024 Writer Craft Writing Retreat …

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Ep. 124 Margaret Juhae Lee 27:11

11M ago27:11

27:11

Margaret Juhae Lee has been been published in The Nation, Newsday, Elle, ARTnews, The Advocate, The Progressive and most recently in The Rumpus and Ploughshares Blog. She received a Bunting Fellowship from Harvard University and a Korean Studies Fellowship from the Korean Foundation in support of research for her recently published book, book, Star…

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Ep160: Using Imagery in Your Writing 59:23

11M ago59:23

59:23

Listener comment: suggestion to timestamp if the video is about a specific thing (Main Topic starts at 24:58) Announcements: PNW inspired horror [email protected]; Submissions closed. Reading stories now. 2024 Writer Craft Writing Retreat and Workshop registration open; https://valerieihsan.com/retreat (Day Passes $400) Three Story Method: W…

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Ep. 123 Lissa Soep 30:35

11M ago30:35

30:35

Lissa Soep knows how to reanimate the voices of the dead, and she is here to teach you how to get those voices into your memoir writing. She is a senior editor for audio at Vox Media and special projects producer and senior scholar-in-residence at YR Media. She has a PhD from Stanford, where she studied education, social theory, and linguistic anth…

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Ep159: Discovery Writing with KimBoo York 1:01:26

11M ago1:01:26

1:01:26

Main Topic: Discovery Writing with KimBoo York PATREON: Thank you to our existing patrons for believing in our work offline and here in the podcast. Become a patron of the arts at Patreon.com/valerieihsan for books, writing instruction, coaching, and planning. Go to Patreon.com/strangeairstories for short stories in the paranormal mystery genre. An…

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Craftofwriting Podcasts

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