Have you signed up to be a DIY MFA Radio Insider yet? This is an exciting new monthly newsletter, especially for our podcast listeners. Every month, you’ll get an email from our podcast producer with recaps of the most recent episodes, a curated Listening List of episodes on a particular theme, and other fun goodies we only share via email. Best of all, it’s free to join! The theme for October is Horror/Suspense, and you can become an insider by signing up with your email at diymfa.com/insiders.

In this episode Susan J. Austin and I discuss:

• Organizing your historical research for ease of use in your writing.
• Writing for the specific reading level of your audience. 
• Re-engaging with a manuscript that you have set aside for a while.

Plus, her #1 tip for writers.

About Susan J. Austin 

As an educator, Susan J. Austin knows the minds of young readers. Her first novel, The Bamboo Garden, is set in Berkeley, California, 1923, and describes an unlikely friendship between two girls that is tested by a fierce fire that threatens to destroy their town. Currently, she is writing about twelve-year-old Goldie, a whiz kid in the kitchen who hopes that her culinary magic can help her family’s delicatessen out of a pickle in 1928 Hollywood. Her characters are always brave, strong-willed risk-takers. Writing historical fiction offers her a way to educate and excite her readers about the past. She and her husband live in Northern California, surrounded by family, their splendid but fussy rose bushes, and a lifetime collection of books. Learn more at www.susanjaustin.com.

Drawing Outside the Lines

Drawing Outside the Lines is an imagined childhood of pioneering architect Julia Morgan, who left behind an extraordinary legacy of creativity, beauty, and engineering marvels.

In 1883, eleven-year-old Julia visits the amazing new Brooklyn Bridge, an experience that ignites within her a small but persistent flame. Someday, she too will build something wonderful. Her journey is not easy. Growing up in horse-and-buggy Oakland, she enjoys daring fence walks, climbing the tallest trees, and constantly testing her mother’s patience with her lack of interest in domestic duties and social events. 

At a time when “brainy” girls are the object of ridicule, Julia excels in school and consistently outsmarts her ornery brothers. A greater battle awaits her in college. The male students taunt her, and the professors belittle her. Through it all, Julia holds on to her dream of becoming an architect. She faces each challenge head-on, firmly standing up to those who are convinced that a woman’s place is in the home. Fortunately, the world is about to meet the indomitable Miss Morgan.

If you decide to check out the book, we hope you’ll do so via this Amazon affiliate link, where if you choose to purchase via the link DIY MFA gets a referral fee at no cost to you. As always, thank you for supporting DIY MFA!

Link to Episode 431

(Right-click to download.)

If you liked this episode…

Head over to iTunes, Stitcher Radio, Spotify, or Google and subscribe so you’ll be first to know when new episodes are available.

Also, remember that sharing is caring so if you know anyone who might enjoy this podcast, please tell them about it or leave us a review so other listeners will want to check it out.

Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 431: Writing the Imagined Childhood of a Historical Figure for Middle Grade Readers – Interview with Susan J. Austin appeared first on DIY MFA.

Have you signed up to be a DIY MFA Radio Insider yet? This is an exciting new monthly newsletter, especially for our podcast listeners. Every month, you’ll get an email from our podcast producer with recaps of the most recent episodes, a curated Listening List of episodes on a particular theme, and other fun goodies we only share via email. Best of all, it’s free to join! The theme for June is YA, and you can become an insider by signing up with your email at diymfa.com/insiders.

In this episode Shelley Blanton-Stroud and Lori discuss:

• Creating a contemporary character in a historical fiction novel.
• How we create our identity versus how we reveal our identity.
• The important role that reading plays in developing your craft as a writer.

Plus, her #1 tip for writers.

About Shelley Blanton-Stroud

Shelley grew up in California’s Central Valley, the daughter of Dust Bowl immigrants who made good on their ambition to get out of the field. She recently retired from teaching writing at Sacramento State University and still consults with writers in the energy industry. She co-directs Stories on Stage Sacramento, where actors perform the stories of established and emerging authors, and serves on the advisory board of 916 Ink, an arts-based creative writing nonprofit for children. She has also served on the Writers’ Advisory Board for the Belize Writers’ Conference. Her writing has been a finalist in the Sarton Book Awards, IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards, Killer Nashville’s Silver Falchion Award, the American Fiction Awards, and the National Indie Excellence Awards. 

She lives in Sacramento with her husband and many photos of their out-of-town sons and their wonderful partners.

Copy Boy is her first Jane Benjamin Novel. Tomboy, which we’ll be discussing today, is her second. The third, Working Girl, will come out in November 2023.

You can find her on her website or follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Tomboy: A Jane Benjamin Novel

It’s 1939. On the brink of World War II, Jane Benjamin wants to have it all. By day she hustles as a scruffy, tomboy cub reporter. By night she secretly struggles to raise her toddler sister, Elsie, and protect her from their mother. But Jane’s got a plan: she’ll become the San Francisco Prospect’s first gossip columnist and make enough money to care for Elsie.

Jane finagles her way to the women’s championship at Wimbledon, starring her hometown’s tennis phenom and cover girl Tommie O’Rourke. She plans to write her first column there. But then she witnesses Edith “Coach” Carlson, Tommie’s closest companion, drop dead in the stands of an apparent heart attack, and her plan is thrown off track.

While sailing home on the RMS Queen Mary, Jane veers between competing instincts: Should she write a social bombshell column, personally damaging her new friend Tommie’s persona and career? Or should she work to uncover the truth of Coach’s death, which she now knows was a murder, and its connection to a larger conspiracy involving US participation in the coming war?

Putting away her menswear and donning first-class ballgowns, Jane discovers what upper-class status hides, protects, and destroys. Ultimately—like nations around the globe in 1939—she must choose what she’ll give up in order to do what’s right.

If you decide to check out the book, we hope you’ll do so via this Amazon affiliate link where, if you choose to purchase via the link, DIY MFA gets a referral fee at no cost to you. As always, thank you for supporting DIY MFA!

Link to Episode 416

(Right-click to download.)

If you liked this episode…

Head over to iTunes, Stitcher Radio, Spotify, or Google and subscribe so you’ll be first to know when new episodes are available.

Also, remember that sharing is caring so if you know anyone who might enjoy this podcast, please tell them about it or leave us a review so other listeners will want to check it out.

Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 416: Costumes, Performance, and Identity in Historical Mysteries – Interview with Shelley Blanton-Stroud appeared first on DIY MFA.