Ileana Munoz Renfroe Interview ~ Magic from the Pandemic

 A paranormal “fixer” and her spirit guide named Raul along with a former spy with a secret cypher at a bookshop: these are just three of the intriguing characters from separate series by Ileana Muñoz Renfroe.


Ileana began writing during pandemic lockdown; she doesn’t let her newbie status slow her down.

Timings

  • 0:40 Ileana’s cozies and children’s books, esp. Rosa the Cuban psychic and Raul in A Fashionable Bait
  • 4:02 Writing multiple story lines simultaneously, heading for a rapid release
  • 6:00 Puzzling Pantster with an outline that is tossed
  • 6:40 Plotter software: scenes, characters, timelines / Scrivener for actual writing
  • 7:41 Ileana’s publishing journey and the Cozy Mystery Village on Facebook
  • 9:11 Long-hand writing vs. writing on computer; the flexibility of Scrivener
  • 12:17 Her writing planner and a little writing Bible
  • 13:30 Idea to End as a Pantstering Puzzler, using real settings to generate ideas

  • 17:50 Reaching a work’s end, teasing to the next book
  • 22:15 After the first draft
  • 23:25 Avoiding negativity
  • 24:50 Hybrid on cover designs: some contracted, some indie
  • 27:00 Exclusive to Amazon; choosing the indie route over traditionally published.
  • 30:00 Maintaining productivity, re-charging by reading
  • 34:07 Advice to newbies
  • 35:50 Website, upcoming books, Cozy Mystery Village on FB

At the end, host M.A. Lee burbled over a question, which she remembered as soon as the interview ended: Are any books be translated into Spanish? Ileana replied via email, “Not yet,” which means translations will come!

LINKS

Her website imrenfroe

Amazon Author page https://www.amazon.com/Ileana-Munoz-Renfroe/e/B08P2C4DYY/

Accolades - Press — imrenfroe

Direct link to the episode on YouTube https://youtu.be/QOdq6bLEui0 

Direct link to the episode on Podbean  

https://eden5695.podbean.com/e/336-interview-with-ileana-munoz-ramirez/?token=14a5cca39ad2a8759dae9b7d0a112f20


Thanks for listening to The Write Focus.

We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.

Our current focus is A Mixed Miscellany: Interviews with Writers / Fiction / Poetry / Nonfiction.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  .

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Jane Sloven Interview ~ Serendipity is Her Friend

 Serendipity is the best word to describe Jane Sloven’s writing.

Listen to an audio of the podcast.
View the video on YouTube.


Timings

  • 0:08 Jane’s journey into writing; her focus on problem-solving, relationships, female protagonists, psychotherapists, trauma, and managed care
  • 6:00 Real life informing the writing
  • 7:00 Blurb for Termination of Benefits
  • 8:50 Jane’s original writing process. (complete pantstering)
  • 11:00 Her forward path: mentors (“All writing is revision”), critique groups, courses and workshops
  • 16:00 Compassionate Journey: Honoring Our Mothers’ Stories, essays with other writers
  • 17:44 Publishing with the attendant queries, summaries, and synopses; honesty with agents; editing; and small presses
  • 25:52 Working on the sequel Fragment of Doubt and a prequel

  • 29:22 Changing her writing procedure, bingeing on writing
  • 31:30 Revising to add twists and braiding in other plot threads
  • 33:20 Writing should be pleasurable
  • 35:45 up to the wire on finding critique groups
  • 38:56 Closing

 Bio

Jane Sloven started her career doing law reform work, working with juvenile offenders in a program that diverted them from court to counseling, tutoring, and job training. Then she went to law school and worked with a small feminist firm in Boston before moving to Maine to take a position developing services for victims of juvenile crime in a restitution program.
After working in a traditional law practice, she switched careers to social work, focusing on counseling. She says, “I let go of law and never looked back—other than to do training in mediation and do some volunteer mediation. I had a private psychotherapy practice for about 25 years.”

She wrote her first mystery, Termination of Benefits, (published in 2018) to subversively teach about trauma and recovery. Jane also wanted to explore how people come to terms with clairvoyance, which is one of her protagonist’s struggles. She placed her novel in the Portland, Maine, area.

Termination of Benefits was Foreward Reviews Indies Finalist for Suspense and Thrillers, a 2019 Next Generation Indie Award Finalist for suspense, and the Grand Prize Winner of the Maine Romance Writers 2019 Peoples Choice Strut Your Stuff Award.

LINKS

www.janesloven.com

https://maineauthorspublishing.com

https://maineauthorspublishing.com/termination-of-benefits/

More from Jane

An interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83nFFo-onXo

Compassionate Journey: Honoring Our Mothers’ Stories:

https://www.mainepublic.org/show/maine-calling/2019-05-10/mothers-stories-women-authors-on-their-book-honoring-the-role-of-mothers

https://www.mainewomenmagazine.com/parental-control/

https://www.compassionatejourneyhonoringourmothersstories.com/about.html

http://www.internationalbookawards.com/aboutus/2019awardannouncement.html

Poetry

https://www.riverpoetsjournal.com/The_Signature_Poem_Issue_-_2016.pdf

Sarah E. Burr ~ Technology is her Friend

 Technology is Sarah E. Burr’s friend. It provided the sub-niche for her cozy mystery series, helped her locate an agent, and offers several side endeavors.



TIMINGS

  • 0:43 Sarah E. Burr and her books and series. #FollowMe for Murder is out now.
  • 4:58 the hybrid world: both indie and traditionally published
  • 7:52 70 rejections before an agent; the wonder of the Twitter writing community
  • 11:37 Creating a niche in tech info based on life experiences
  • 16:15 Writing process: ideas at the beginning and during
  • 19:38 Drafting and revision and a working document as a master book
  • 25:14 Indie publishing and Kindle Create
  • 29:20 Maintaining productivity
  • 36:30 Best tool for writers

 Sarah E. Burr is the award-winning author of the Glenmyre Whim Mysteries, Trending Topic Mysteries, and Court of Mystery series. She currently serves as the social media guru for the New York chapter of Sisters in Crime and is the creative mind behind BookstaBundles, a content creation service for authors. Sarah is the co-host of The Bookish Hour, a streaming YouTube series featuring live author interviews and book discussions. When she's not spinning up stories, Sarah is singing Broadway tunes, reading everything from mystery to manga, and enjoying walks with her dog, Eevee.


Links:

·         Website: www.saraheburr.com

·         Newsletter: https://bit.ly/saraheburrsignup

·         #FollowMe for Murder: https://bit.ly/followmeformurder

·         You Can’t Candle the Truth: https://bit.ly/glenmyrewhimmysteriesbook1

·         Court of Mystery series: https://bit.ly/courtofmystery

·         The Bookish Hour: The Bookish Hour -- Episode 1: Judy L. Murray - YouTube

·         BookstaBundle, Social Media Content Creative Service https://www.saraheburr.com/bookstabundle

Direct link to the audio episode: https://eden5695.podbean.com/e/334-interview-with-sarah-e-burr-mixed-miscellany-summer-series/?token=e0dc197d734c7cb5f94f1a6f60333955 

Direct link to the video:

Anne Louise Bannon ~ Inspired by a History Lecture

 History and setting offer rich ideas for Anne Louise Bannon. When characters begin speaking to her, she knows that she has a winning series.

TIMINGS

  • 0:04 Opening, Anne Louise Bannon and the turbulent LA County history, the setting of one series

  • 2:00 Newest release: Death of an Heiress (see buy links below)
  • 3:15 Anne’s interest in LA County’s history
  • 7:12 Inspired by a history lecture
  • 10:05 Cabot Cove syndrome; stumbling into a rich setting; characters who begin speaking
  • 15:15 Anne’s publishing journey, finding the protagonist’s voice
  • 20:35 Her writing process
  • 23:03 Best tool for writing?
  • 26:44 Hard vs. Easy: promotions and visual elements vs. dialogue and character voice
  • 31:18 Switching from series to series
  • 32:31 Maintaining productivity
  • 34:20 the Chicken story
  • 37:07 Closing

Record date June 17, Friday; release date for her newest novel June 18, Saturday


Anne Louise Bannon is an author and journalist who wrote her first novel at age 15. Her journalistic work has appeared in Ladies' Home Journal, the Los Angeles Times, Wines and Vines, and in newspapers across the country. She was a TV critic for over 10 years, founded the YourFamilyViewer blog, and created the OddBallGrape.com wine education blog with her husband, Michael Holland. She is the co-author of Howdunit: Book of Poisons, with Serita Stevens, as well as author of the Freddie and Kathy mystery series, set in the 1920s; the Operation Quickline series; and the Old Los Angeles series, set in the 1870s. Her most recent title is book four in the Old Los Angeles series, Death of an Heiress. She and her husband live in Southern California with an assortment of critters.

Website: https://annelouisebannon.com

Buy links:

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/death-of-an-heiress

https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=9AtvEAAAQBAJ

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/death-of-an-heiress-anne-louise-bannon/1141254895?ean=9781948616218

https://books.apple.com/us/book/death-of-an-heiress/id1619307081?itsct=books_box_link&itscg=30200&ls=1

https://www.amazon.com/Death-Heiress-Anne-Louise-Bannon/dp/1948616211/

https://www.vromansbookstore.com/book/9781948616218

https://bookshop.org/a/14104/9781948616218


Direct Link to audio episode here 

Direct Link to video https://youtu.be/laH8CJCq9VQ 

MELISSA BOURBON ~ A Thread of Magic in Every Story

 Melissa Bourbon ~ A Thread of Magic in Every Story

& the Writer Spark Academy

A fantastical thread through every mystery with serendipitous finds from daily life inspires the best-selling author Melissa Bourbon. Also writing as Winnie Archer, she has several series, including the Book Magic series, Magical Dressmaking series, and the Bread Shop series.


Paying it forward, Melissa also has the Writer Spark Academy, with a blog and resources on a website and several courses on Teachable, the best place for self-paced and recursive learning online.

Her advice and inspiration is “Write the best book you want to read.”

Timings

  • 0:03 Opening, with intros to her three main series
  • 8:10 Starting a novel, with the focus on her Bibliomancy series
  • 9:35 (Branding) the magical thread in all of her series
  • 10:30 Melissa’s publishing journey
  • 15:45 Idea to Publication: Melissa’s writing process
  • 19:15 A Hybrid of pantster and plotter
  • 19:48 Maintaining Productivity
  • 20:30 the Writer Spark Academy
  • 21:45 Melissa’s daily schedule
  • 22:40 more on the Writer Spark Academy: website and Teachable courses
  • 25:50 WSA example: Field Guide to Writing a Cozy Mystery
  • 27:24 importance of recursive learning and Teachable’s model
  • 29:00 workbooks for the WSA courses
  • 32:38 Craft Chats on YouTube
  • 33:50 Best Tool for Writing; writing out of order
  • 36:30 Motivation to keep writing through the hard parts
  • 39:54 Switching among different series
  • 41:20 Brain FM for focusing and study music on Spotify
  • 43:40 Closing 

LINKS

https://melissabourbon.com/ 

FB: https://www.facebook.com/MelissaBourbonWinnieArcherBooks/ 

Instagram: https://instagram.com/bookishly_cozy

Book Warriors book group on FB: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BookWarriors

FOR WRITER SPARK ACADEMY

Courses: https://writersparkwritingacademy.teachable.com/

Website: https://writersparkacademy.com/

FB: https://www.facebook.com/TheWriterSpark

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/writer_spark/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnKN2ZVZwjoAOeHlBO-cRIw


Direct Link to the Audio episode 

on Podbean: https://eden5695.podbean.com/e/332-interview-with-melissa-bourbon-mixed-miscellany-summer-series/?token=275f7f2d550df40086aebe2cb92ad102

Direct Link to the Video episode 

on YouTube: https://youtu.be/FrcjXMGc3O4


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