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 March is Magic, and you can become an insider by signing up with your email at diymfa.com/insiders.

In this episode Rob Hart and I discuss:

• Why naming characters is important and where he found the names for these characters. 
• How to write an unlikeable character that your readers will actually like.
• Using storytelling to shine a light on bad things that are happening in the real world.

Plus, his #1 tip for writers.

About Rob Hart

Rob Hart is the author of The Paradox Hotel. He also wrote The Warehouse—which sold in more than 20 countries and was optioned for film by Ron Howard—as well as the Ash McKenna series, the short story collection Take-Out, and Scott Free with James Patterson.

You can find him on his website or follow him on Twitter or Instagram.

The Paradox Hotel

An impossible crime. A detective on the edge of madness. The future of time travel at stake. From the author of The Warehouse. January Cole’s job just got a whole lot harder.

Not that running security at the Paradox was ever really easy. Nothing’s simple at a hotel where the ultra-wealthy tourists arrive costumed for a dozen different time periods, all eagerly waiting to catch their “flights” to the past.

Or where proximity to the timeport makes the clocks run backward on occasion—and, rumor has it, allows ghosts to stroll the halls.

None of that compares to the corpse in room 526. The one that seems to be both there and not there. The one that somehow only January can see.

On top of that, some very important new guests have just checked in. Because the U.S. government is about to privatize time-travel technology—and the world’s most powerful people are on hand to stake their claims.

January is sure the timing isn’t a coincidence. Neither are those “accidents” that start stalking their bidders. There’s a reason January can glimpse what others can’t. A reason why she’s the only one who can catch a killer who’s operating invisibly and in plain sight, all at once.

But her ability is also destroying her grip on reality—and as her past, present, and future collide, she finds herself confronting not just the hotel’s dark secrets but her own.

At once a dazzlingly time-twisting murder mystery and a story about grief, memory, and what it means to—literally—come face-to-face with our ghosts, The Paradox Hotel is another unforgettable speculative thrill ride from acclaimed author Rob Hart.

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 403

(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 403: Setting as Character in Speculative Fiction – Interview with Rob Hart appeared first on DIY MFA.

I thought it might be fun to take a look at how the element of time travel creates a tangent between historical fiction and sci-fi.

A Visualization

As in the earlier article, it seemed like a picture might be useful for discussing the relationship and interplay of the genres.

If a narrative’s time travelers always go to the future, then the story remains solidly in the realm of science fiction. The genre junction occurs when the characters travel to the past.

The Author’s Basic Responsibility

Regardless of the basic premise or genre of the story—whether it’s romance or a mystery or fantasy or even horror—when an author embraces time travel as a mechanism for revealing the plot, they share the same responsibilities as the historical fiction author. 

They must research the time period in which their characters will land. That portion of the narrative that occurs in the past must be authentic in every respect. The details of everyday life. Clothing. Events occurring in the larger world in which the characters must exist. The language of the time and place. Food, medicine, tools, gender roles. All the elements of authenticity that we’ve discussed in other articles for this column, including the less savory ones. An author can’t send characters back to the US in the first half of the nineteenth century without acknowledging the existence of slavery.

The Author’s Added Responsibility

Beyond that, authors who use time travel have some additional responsibilities related to when their characters become aware of traveling backward in time.

Is the time travel intentional? Do the characters return to the past of their own volition for their own particular purposes? In such stories, the characters must have a pre-awareness of how the past will differ from their present. Most likely, their intention is to fit in from the moment of their arrival in the earlier time period, so preparation is required. At a very minimum, they must be dressed in the proper clothing before undertaking the travel so that they don’t stick out like a sore thumb wearing a T-shirt, shorts, and flip-flops when they materialize among the Barbary Pirates in 16th-century Algiers. 

In the manuscript that was the inspiration for this column, the author was careful to show the characters’ preparation for the journey, including subtle details like the acquisition of coins that wouldn’t be suspect in the target era so that the characters could buy food and temporary lodgings while they were getting themselves established.

The other side of the awareness coin for intentional time travelers is anachronism awareness—knowing what they must leave behind. A cell phone or a modern firearm during the Napoleonic wars is just wrong on so many levels. For the author, however, anachronisms are a rich opportunity for creating or exacerbating conflict in the narrative.

And then, of course, there’s the time-travel mechanism. If it’s a physical device, how do the characters prevent discovery? That’s probably a little easier in a genre where spoken incantations or mystical use of ordinary objects is permissible.

But what if the characters are transported back in time at the whim of some other characters or some other force within the story? For such tales, the author must be prepared to provide time-period-plausible cover stories for the characters while they figure out where they are and what they’re going to do about it. Or perhaps bumbling cover stories that only sort of ring true and serve to heighten the suspense by raising suspicions about this character that has just appeared as if from nowhere into the ordinary lives of people native to the time period.

Regardless, when science fiction meets “The Past,” it only works successfully when the author embraces the same guiding principles that are the bread and butter of historical fiction authors.

An award-winning author of historical fiction and a freelance editor, Pamela Taylor loves helping others polish their stories almost as much as she enjoys writing her own. She’s a member of the DFW Writers Workshop and the Editorial Freelancers Association and for four years was on the judges panel for the Ink & Insights Writing Contest. She shares her home with two Welsh Corgis who frequently remind her that a dog walk is a great way to get inspiration for that next chapter.

The post Time Travel: When Sci-Fi Meets Historical Fiction appeared first on DIY MFA.

Before shifting to writing, she used to work at CNN.com in NYC where she helped build the first web publishing tool for a newsroom, so science and innovation have been a huge prat of her career from the get-go. She is also the former chief technology officer at Figment.com (now called GetUnderlined.com) and Space.com.

But her talents don’t stop there. A fellow crafter, when she was placed on bedrest pregnant with her daughter, she designed a line of literary needlework samplers that got picked up by a national distributor and became very popular for a number of years.

Nicole loves science and as a writer enjoys pondering the times when science falls short of explanation and magic has room to sneak in. She’s the founder of steaMG.org, The Middle-Grade Sci-fi Authors Alliance. A Time Traveler’s Theory of Relativity is her debut novel.

When not engaged in fictional world-building, Nicole can often be found with a hawk on her arm. She lives in Pennsylvania with her human family, two giant dogs named Merlin and Arthur, and two small cats named Tink and Pickwick.

In this episode Nicole and I discuss:

• The origins of A Time Traveler’s Theory of Relativity 
• Using “real life anchors” to create a realistic magical worlds
• Using adults in middle grade fiction
• Time travel as a metaphor for grief
• Carving a place for upper middle grade
• Bringing real science to time travel

Plus, her #1 tip for writers.

About Nicole Valentine

Nicole Valentine earned her MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from the Vermont College of Fine Arts and teaches writing workshops at the Highlights Foundation in Honesdale, PA. As the former chief technology officer at Figment.com and Space.com, Nicole loves science and as a writer enjoys pondering the times when science falls short of explanation and magic has room to sneak in. She’s the founder of steaMG.org, The Middle-Grade Sci-fi Authors Alliance. When not engaged in fictional world-building, Nicole can often be found with a hawk on her arm. A Time Traveler’s Theory of Relativity is her debut novel. She lives in Pennsylvania with her human family, two giant dogs named Merlin and Arthur, and two small cats named Tink and Pickwick.

A Time Traveler’s Theory of Relativity

He believes in science, but only magic can help his mom.

Twelve-year-old Finn is used to people in his family disappearing. His twin sister, Faith, drowned when they were three years old. A few months ago, his mom abandoned him and his dad with no explanation. Finn clings to the concrete facts in his physics books―and to his best friend, Gabi―to ward off his sadness. But then his grandmother tells him a secret: the women in their family are Travelers, able to move back and forth in time. Finn’s mom is trapped somewhere in the timeline, and she’s left Finn a portal to find her. But to succeed, he’ll have to put his trust in something bigger than logic.

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 #276

(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 276: A Stitch in Time: Pacing, World Building, and Time Travel – Interview with Nicole Valentine appeared first on DIY MFA.

From the Indus River to the Italian Renaissance, no topic has piqued the imagination of this high school history teacher’s students as intensely as the study of Ancient Egypt. As a result of both their interest and his own childhood curiosity about the mysteries of that era, he wrote the Horace j. Edwards and the Time Keepers series.

Listen in as we chat about his fantastic series and how to keep consistency and momentum going in a story.

In this episode Bill and I discuss:

• How to keep your momentum going to write your second book.
• Tips and tricks to write a novel under a deadline.
• Why middle grade readers want the same but different story, and how to write it  for them.
• World building and magic in historical fiction , and how to stick to your own rules.
• How to balance giving young characters agency while grounding them in reality.

Plus, Bill’s #1 tip for writers.

About William Meyer

William Meyer is an author, a teacher, and a student of history. He was born in Detroit and lives with his wife and son in New York, where he is finishing his PhD at New York University. He continues to teach his high school students about the mysteries of Ancient Egypt and share his love for his hometown of Detroit. He is the author of the Horace J. Edwards and the Time Keepers middle grade series, which in many ways reflects his experiences as both a kid and a teacher. Books one and two of Bill’s fantastic series are available now.

To connect more with Bill check out his website at horaceandthetimekeepers.com.

Horace J. Edwards and the Time Keepers

Book 1: The Secret of the Scarab Beetle

Horace Edwards is an ordinary boy who’s just moved to Niles, Michigan. That is, until the start of 6th grade when he not only learns of the mysterious death of his grandfather, but also becomes the recipient of a strange inheritance. In his efforts to uncover the truth about his grandfather’s death and the secrets of his new inheritance, Horace finds himself transported back in time to the Ancient Egyptian city of Amarna. There he meets the future pharaoh, King Tut, and together these two boys become engaged in a dramatic fight to save the city from total destruction

In the process Horace discovers that he is the heir to an order of guardians, known as the Time Keepers. With help from two friends and a bully, Horace and Tut attempt to save the ancient city, stop the sale of Horace’s family farm, and protect a secret that lies at the very heart of Egypt’s existence, the magical power of the Benben Stone. However, their task won’t be easy. Tut’s uncle Smenk, is trying to erase the memory of Tut’s father from the pages of history and Tut with him. There is only one small problem with Smenk’s plan; he needs Horace’s magical scarab beetle to do it.

Book 2: The Search for the Lost Prophecy

In the sequel to The Secret of the Scarab Beetle, Horace continues to search for more information about the Time Keepers and his role in this secret order. After he discovers that the tree portal at his grandparents’ farm is destroyed, Horace, along with his friends Anna and Milton, travels back in time to 1920s Detroit, hoping to learn more.

There they meet keeper Herman at the Scarab Club and learn that someone is threatening the Time Keepers and the order’s mission. Horace finds out that the mystical Benben Stone is being stored in a crypt back in present-day Niles, Michigan. And Horace is now tasked with keeping the sacred stone safe. Will the person or persons threatening the Order learn of Horace’s true identity?

If you decide to check out The Secret of the Scarab Beetle or The Search for the Lost Prophecy, we hope you’ll do so via these links, 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!

(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 170: Writing a Middle Grade Series — Interview with William Meyer appeared first on DIY MFA.