Originally from Edinburgh, Scotland, Simon Stephenson is a writer and screenwriter now living in LA (with stop-overs in London and San Francisco along the way). 

His first book was the memoir Let Not The Waves Of The Sea, about losing his brother Dominic in the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004. It won Best First Book at the Scottish Book Awards in 2011. His most recent novel, Set My Heart To Five, was released in summer 2020 and this is what we’ll be discussing today.

In this episode Simon and I discuss:

• His method for writing a “mis-topia” future and how that differs from a dystopia.
• Why writing a character without feelings allows you to explore feelings more.
• What role movies played in developing his protagonist and the plot.

Plus, his #1 tip for writers.

About Simon Stephenson

Simon Stephenson is originally from Scotland, but now lives in Los Angeles, California. He was born in 1978, an auspicious year already renowned for bringing the world such inimitable cultural treasures as the Bee Gees’ Sergeant Pepper’s movie, and the Star Wars Holiday Special.

A junior library cormorant from a young age, the arrival of the first series of ER on television diverted him from his inevitable English major to medical school. A less impressionable teenager would probably have understood that what he was drawn to was story and not hospitals, but we live and learn.

His first book Let Not The Waves Of The Sea, a memoir about the loss of his brother Dominic in the Indian Ocean tsunami, was written around his hospital shifts and published in 2011. It was serialized on BBC Radio 4 and won Best First Book at the Scottish Book Awards.

By now working as a children’s doctor in London, he next wrote a screenplay about a depressed children’s doctor who desperately needs to make a major change in his life. He remains unsure where this idea magically sprung from, but the script – in which the doctor travels to a life-altering conference in San Francisco – came third on the Annual Blacklist of Hollywood’s favorite screenplays and opened the door to a screenwriting career in the US. In an irony not lost on Simon, he subsequently got a job writing a movie at Pixar Animation Studios in San Francisco.

He has lived in the US since 2013. As a screenwriter, he originated and wrote Amazon’s forthcoming Louis Wain, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Claire Foy. He also has a small credit on everybody’s favorite bear sequel, Paddington 2.

He got the idea for his new novel while living in the Bay Area, a place where the near future can sometimes seem very near indeed. Set in a 2054 where Elon Musk has incinerated the moon, it tells the story of Jared, a biological android who learns to feel by watching old movies and then sets out to write a movie of his own. Many of the lessons Jared learns might well be the same ones he has learned on his own writing journey, but one he did not learn is about the importance of short titles. His novel is called Set My Heart To Five; despite this, it has nonetheless been optioned by the director Edgar Wright to hopefully make a movie of its own.

You can follow Simon on Twitter.

Set My Heart to Five

Set in a 2054 where humans have locked themselves out of the internet and Elon Musk has incinerated the moon, Set My Heart to Five is the hilarious yet profoundly moving story of one android’s emotional awakening.

One day at a screening of a classic movie, Jared notices a strange sensation around his eyes. Bots are not permitted to have feelings, but as the theater lights come on, Jared discovers he is crying.

Soon overwhelmed by powerful emotions, Jared heads west, determined to find others like himself. But a bot with feelings is a dangerous proposition, and Jared’s new life could come to an end before it truly begins. Unless, that is, he can somehow change the world for himself and all of his kind.

Unlike anything you have ever read before, Set My Heart to Five is a love letter to outsiders everywhere. Plus it comes uniquely guaranteed to make its readers weep a minimum of 29mls of tears.*

*Book must be read in controlled laboratory conditions arranged at reader’s own expense. Other terms and conditions may apply to this offer.

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 350

(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 350: Voice, Emotion, and Metastory in a “Mistopia” – Interview with Simon Stephenson appeared first on DIY MFA.

Lenore is the author of several books for children and teens. Her work has received honors such as appearing on the Bank Street Best Books list, winning a SCBWI Crystal Kite award, and getting featured on boxes of Cheerios.

Her newest book the YA novel, The Manic Pixie Dream Boy Improvement Project, (which I devoured in practically one sitting!) simultaneously pokes fun at YA literature while also celebrating everything that is awesome about the category.

So listen in as Lenore and I chat about this amazing book and how tropes are used in literature.

In this episode Lenore and I discuss:

• The manic pixie dream girl trope.
• Metafiction, what it is and how to craft it right.
• Tropes vs. stereotypes, and how to recognize each in your own writing.
• The mechanics of writing a group scene without confusing your reader.
• How to get your mind and your writing to open up to diversity.

Plus, Lenore’s #1 tip for writers.

About Lenore Appelhans

Lenore Appelhans is the author of several books for children and teens. Her work has received honors such as appearing on the Bank Street Best Books list, winning a SCBWI Crystal Kite award, and getting featured on boxes of Cheerios.

Lenore is an ambivert, a proud Slytherpuff and a world traveller. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Lenore’s newest YA novel, The Manic Pixie Dream Boy Improvement Project, is now available, and she currently lives in the D.C. area with her family and her manic pixie dream cat.

To connect with Lenore check out her website at www.lenoreappelhans.com.

The Manic Pixie Dream Boy Improvement Project

Riley lives in TropeTown, where everyone plays stock roles in novels. Riley, a Manic Pixie Dream Boy, is sent to group therapy after going off-script. Riley knows that breaking the rules again could get him terminated, yet he feels there must be more to life than recycling the same clichés for readers’ entertainment.

Then he meets Zelda, a Manic Pixie Dream Girl (Geek Chic subtype), and falls head over heels in love. Zelda’s in therapy too, along with several other Manic Pixies. But TropeTown has a dark secret, and if Riley and his fellow Manic Pixies don’t get to the bottom of it, they may all be terminated.

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 256

(Right-click to download.)

If you liked this episode…

Head over to iTunes, Stitcher Radio or Google Play 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 256: An Inside Look at Tropes in Literature — Interview with Lenore Appelhans appeared first on DIY MFA.

Today I’m so excited to have middle grade author and fellow New School alumni, Lisa Preziosi on the show.

While our time at The New School didn’t quite overlap, we’ve connected at various alumni events and I absolutely love her debut novel, The Ice Maiden’s Tale, a middle grade modern day fairy tale.

In our interview, Lisa and I talk about nesting stories within stories, and the various craft elements—such as setting and theme—that make up the fairy tale framework. Listen in to hear us geek out over how to craft a fairy tale for modern middle grade readers.

In this episode Lisa and I discuss:

• What defines a character as the protagonist, and how viewing a story through different angles can change the character’s role.
• How to use setting as metaphor for your story’s theme or your characters’ arcs.
• Why having older characters in a middle grade book can work in a fairy tale framework.
• How to modulate voice during transitions in a nested story so readers are never jolted out of the story’s world.
• How to pick a title for your book so it connects with all the different layers of your story.

Plus, Lisa’s #1 tip for writers.

About the Author

Once upon a time, long, long ago, Lisa Preziosi attended Syracuse University where she studied singing in a giant castle surrounded by ice and snow.  While there, she minored in creative writing and her poem “Remember Me” was published in Syracuse University’s Review Magazine 2000.   

After she earned her bachelor’s degree, she headed to the island of Manhattan and studied at a place called the New School, where she earned an MFA in the great art of writing stories for children.

She still works on that same island, in the dungeon of an old building, where she sorts through endless stacks of papers, while making up stories and dreaming of places with windows.  She is currently working on several novels and hopes to write her way to that aforementioned windowed place.

Her first book,The Ice Maiden’s Tale, is available now by Xist Publishing.  In the meantime, she keeps herself occupied by obsessing over subscription boxes and home renovations. To learn more about Lisa and her books, check out her website at: www.lisapreziosi.com.

The Ice Maiden’s Tale

Every town has an old lady all the children just know is a witch.

When Johanna and Casper must spend the afternoon at her house, there’s nothing to do, except listen to a story. While the siblings await their mother’s return from the hospital where she’s visiting their ailing father, Mrs. Kinder reads them a story of adventure, magic and music.

Mrs. Kinder’s mysterious golden book tells an intertwined tale of two young men—the
sensitive Sculptor who carves a beautiful woman from ice and the thieving Sorcerer
searching for a spell that will bring the statue to life.

The story twists and turns, from the Frozen Forest, to the land of the Lemon Trees, to the
home of the Swamp Witch, as the Sculptor’s and Sorcerer’s adventures circle each other.
Their inevitable confrontation reveals buried memories that force each of them to confront
the true cost of love and redemption.

The Ice Maiden’s Tale is the perfect story-within-a-story with magic, adventure and romance,
reminiscent of The Princess Bride and The Neverending Story for a new generation of readers.

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 DIY MFA makes a small commission at no cost to you. As always, thank you for supporting DIY MFA!

Link to Episode 152

(Right-click to download.)

If you liked this episode…

Head over to iTunes, Stitcher Radio or Google Play 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 152: Writing a Modern Day Fairy Tale — Interview with Lisa Preziosi appeared first on DIY MFA.

Today I’m interviewing Dale Wiley, author and Missouri attorney, who has some fascinating credits to his name. For starters, he has had a character named after him on CSI, owned a record label, been interviewed by Bob Edwards on NPR’s Morning Edition and made alternative fuel motorcycles for Merle Haggard and John Paul DeJoria. He is also one of the few people to who have met Ronald Reagan and Flavor Flav.

Dale has three awesome kids and spends his days working as a lawyer fighting the big banks. He has als0 written three novels and is currently developing two original scripted projects for TV: the gritty drama, The East Side with Andréa Vasilo; and the sitcom, Confessions of a Bunny Smuggler, with Fayr Barkley.

In this episode Dale and I discuss:

• How metafiction it works, how you can use it to tell your story, and which pitfalls you need to avoid.
• Writing about writing: Why it’s not always a good strategy, but how you can do it right.
• Crafting a villain who is both dangerous and also appealing to the protagonist (and the reader).
• The settings both of the story and the story-within-the-story, and how Dale made them come alive.

Plus, his #1 tip for writers.

About the Author

Dale Wiley is a Missouri attorney, who has had a character named after him on CSI, owned a record label, been interviewed by Bob Edwards on NPR’s Morning Edition and made motorcycles for Merle Haggard and John Paul DeJoria. He is also one of the few people to who have met Ronald Reagan and Flavor Flav.

Dale has three awesome kids and spends his days working as a lawyer fighting the big banks. He has also written three novels and is currently developing two original scripted projects for TV: the gritty drama, The East Side with Andréa Vasilo; and the sitcom, Confessions of a Bunny Smuggler, with Fayr Barkley.

To find out more about Dale and his writing, check out his website, www.dalewiley.com, or follow him on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.

Southern Gothic

Misery meets Gone Girl, SOUTHERN GOTHIC is Dale Wiley’s latest page-turner. Not since his incendiary thrillers, Sabotage and The Intern, has Wiley treated readers to his heady brew of hair-trigger suspense and dark secrets.

In this twisted and delightfully disturbing novel, one woman learns the true price of making a deal with the devil. Lovely Meredith Harper is living a life of lonely indifference – shuttling between her beloved Savannah, Georgia bookstore and her empty house, pining after a dream of being an author that now seems out of reach. Publishers had resoundingly passed on her only novel, Red Ribbon. In spite of herself, she’s haunted by her ex-husband’s insult – that she’ll never be a real writer, only a fan.

Everything changes when Meredith finds a red ribbon tied to the inside of her doorknob. No one in her life would do such a thing. There is only one possibility: Michael Black, her favorite author, who was the only person besides friends and publishers to receive a copy of her manuscript. But he vanished years ago and was even rumored to be dead.

Meredith races to uncover the truth behind the mysterious visitor, and her suspicions about his identity are confirmed. But how? Why now? Why her? And, most confusingly, why is Michael Black offering her a completely rewritten manuscript of Red Ribbon to publish under her own name?

Exploring the dangerous divides between fame, fandom, romance, murder, and possession, SOUTHERN GOTHIC fascinates until the novel’s final breath. It makes the offer you can’t refuse—and shackles you to the demons of your fantasies.  

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 DIY MFA makes a small commission at no cost to you. As always, thank you for supporting DIY MFA!

Link to Episode 136

(Right-click to download.)

If you liked this episode…

Head over to iTunes, leave a review, and subscribe so you’ll be first to know when new episodes are available. Also, if you know anyone who might enjoy this podcast, please share!

Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 136: Adventures in Metafiction — Interview with Dale Wiley appeared first on DIY MFA.