I hope you enjoy this interview!

About Sara Bennett Wealer

Sara grew up in Manhattan, Kansas (the “Little Apple”), where she sang in all the choirs and wrote for the high school newspaper. She majored in voice performance at the University of Kansas before deciding she had no business trying to make a career as an opera singer and transferred to journalism school, where no one cares if you can hit a high C or convincingly play a Valkyrie. She went on to become a reporter covering everything from house fires to Hollywood premieres.

These days, she writes event scripts and marketing copy while the sun is out. By night, she writes books for young adults. Sara lives in Cincinnati with her husband, two daughters, two dogs and four cats, and she still sings sometimes when her schedule allows. When Sara is not writing or running around doing Mom Things, you’ll find her at the ballet, or obsessively watching ballet on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok.

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

Grave Things Like Love

Elaine lives in her family-run 1800’s funeral home that she’s set to inherit, so she’s used to being around a dead body or two. Only no one has asked her if she wants to take over the family business. Enter Xander, the new boy in town with a passion for ghost hunting who makes Elaine feel like she’s transforming from Funeral Girl to Fun Girl. But not everyone is thrilled to see her changing, least of all her childhood best friend, Miles. When Xander convinces Elaine to ghost hunt in the funeral home Elaine must face her fears, in more ways than one.

Interview with Sara Bennett Wealer

Lori Walker: First off, I’d love to hear a bit about how you became a writer. What is your journey as an author? What drew you to YA?

Sara Bennett Wealer: My mom was an English teacher, so I grew up watching her read books and the writings of her students. I especially remember Sunday nights watching Masterpiece Theater on PBS. Mom’s specialty was British Lit, so I got the whole Austen/Bronte/Shakespeare immersion at a young age. I don’t remember what prompted me to start writing, only that I felt an urge to do it and filled up notebooks with stories. I won a big award in 4^th grade for one of them, which encouraged me even more.

Writing was always something I knew I could do well. So when I decided my first choice of college major—voice performance/opera—wasn’t going to get me a career I could live on, I switched to journalism. I thrived in feature writing, especially when I could write about arts and entertainment. But when I ventured into the working world as a newspaper reporter, I found myself getting assigned municipal beats or transportation, or sitting at the city desk on weekends listening to the police scanner and racing out to house fires. One evening I had a revelation: If I didn’t write something that came from my own creativity—something not assigned by an editor and due at the end of the day about a topic I really cared nothing about—then I was going to have a mental health crisis. I literally stood up from the couch, went to my computer, and started writing my first novel. (It never went anywhere, BTW. It was my training book, and [it was] awful. But writing it saved my sanity.)

The voice that came out of me that night was a teen voice. And I honestly can’t explain why I’m drawn to YA except to say that I find many adult conflicts boring. Young adulthood is filled with choices and obstacles and hope and fear and fun, plus so many opportunities to make mistakes that help build you into the person you’re just starting to become. I love exploring all of that, as opposed to writing about career angst or failed marriages or strained family relationships. (I’m not saying that’s ALL adult fiction is about—obviously! But it’s all I can think of when I think about what I might write in that genre, which probably tells you all you need to know about why I don’t write it!)

LW: What does a typical day of writing look like to you?

SBW: I don’t make my living writing novels—I do marketing, so I sort of mash it all together as I’m able. I get up and get my daughter to school, then come home and spend a couple of hours on whatever work needs to be done for my day job. Most days I do a half-hour weights and HIIT workout at home, then I walk the dogs and get a little lunch.

In the afternoon, I do more day job writing, until it’s time to get my kid from school. Then it’s dinner and spending time with my husband and helping with homework until I’m able to sit down and do some novel work. If I’m drafting, I try to get at least 500 words done a day. If I’m editing, I go until I run out of steam. I decompress watching comfort shows on TV (The Office, Dark on Netflix, whatever new thing is out or new seasons of Only Murders in the Building, Umbrella Academy, House of the Dragon, etc.) or YouTube videos of people cooking or thrifting or whatever other rabbit hole I’ve gone down, before heading to bed. It’s all very exciting!

LW: Your bio says that by day you write event scripts and marketing copy. How do you manage to find the bandwidth to write creatively at night? Any advice on juggling both?

SBW: Being a newspaper reporter was great training for writing on command and on deadline, staying fresh and finding ways to keep going even when you don’t really feel like it. Each day I had a story to write that was due by 5 p.m. I turned it in to an editor who would give me feedback in real time (often with not a lot of regard for my feelings—we had work to get done, and I could cry later at home if I needed to). That kind of work ethic has followed me. I know I can’t wait for inspiration from “the muse.” I can’t wait until I feel like writing. The only way to write a novel is to write it, which means sitting my butt down and doing the work.

Now… how do you do that when you’ve got two kids of varying ages and a day job plus other grown-up worries and responsibilities? My advice is to set a daily word count. I tell myself I can stop after 500 words, and I don’t put any pressure on myself to make those 500 words good. I just need to get them done. And I’ve found something interesting happens… once I start writing, I often can do more. Ideas start flowing. The muscle gets stronger as I exercise it. Even when those 500 words feel like a massive struggle of suckiness, I’ll go back the next day and see that what I’ve written wasn’t half bad. And even if I barely made it through those words, and they did truly suck, well, 500 words builds up if you do it every day, and before you know it you’ve got something you can work with to make better. You can’t improve something that hasn’t been drafted yet!

To help with creative bandwidth, I’ll seek out things that inspire me—books, TV shows, my “rabbit holes” of topics to explore on YouTube. It helps to see what other people are doing, what they’re passionate about, how they tackle creative problems and express themselves.

LW: As I read more and more YA, I realize that at their heart, most YA books are coming of age tales that have elements of different genres pulled in—in the case of Grave Things, romance. And YA appeals to teens and adults alike. Why do you think the coming of age tale resonates with such a wide variety of audiences?

SBW: Like I mentioned earlier, young adulthood is the time when we sort of have permission to try and fail and grow and stretch. I think it’s often more fun and hopeful and engaging to spend time with someone who is evolving and just starting out in life vs. someone who’s seen a lot of it already. YA lets younger readers see that they’re not alone, and I think it helps adults appreciate where they’ve been, while also giving a glimpse of what could still be.

LW: Grave Things Like Love has paranormal romance elements. Your novel Now & When seems to have some sci-fi elements in that she can communicate with the future. And your first two novels, Rush and Rival focus on friend relationships. These are pretty diverse types of stories! What is your process for generating ideas for a new story?

SBW: Most of my story ideas come from situations I’ve been in or relationships I’ve had, or a topic that’s captured my imagination. That’s not to say any of my books are autobiographical; those ideas have more been a jumping-off point to explore all sorts of “what ifs?” And the “what ifs” occasionally lead me to some out-there places. In Now & When, it went in a time-travel-ish direction. In Grave Things Like Love, I wanted an element of fun to balance out what could have been a pretty heavy setting and topic, and in brainstorming a romance, I found a ghost-ish story taking shape. (I say “ish.” because the paranormal and sci-fi in my books are often more like fun elements than the whole story. In general, I see all of my books as contemporary, sometimes with a little extra “something” sprinkled in.)

LW: Fun fact about me, I used to work in a funeral home. So I’ve seen the behind-the-scenes stuff and totally get the desensitized feeling of being around bodies and that guilt over being disappointed when my plans would get derailed while somebody was living the worst day of their life and you did a great job of capturing it. I’m curious what your research was like for this novel. You had to have spent quite a lot of time around a funeral home.

SBW: I got the idea for Grave Things while working one of those newspaper jobs I hated so much. I stumbled upon a family-owned funeral home in one of the communities I covered and thought it would make a great feature story. The family was kind enough to let me spend a good amount of time with them, soaking up the atmosphere, talking about the business, etc. I left town for a different job before I could write the feature, but I kept the idea of a book about a teen growing up in a funeral home setting. I’m glad it rang true for you!

LW: Does writing YA affect your social media strategy in terms of what you post and how you interact with followers? If so, how?

SBW: I know it should, but I can’t bring myself to dive too deeply into creating content for things like TikTok because I think it’s worse to look like an old person trying to be cool for a teen audience. (My 13-year-old has drummed this fear into me by letting me know how cringey any attempts I’ve made so far are.) Basically, I try to be reachable and relatable wherever I DO post. So I’ve invested in a good website, and I post on Instagram and Twitter when I think I’ve got something interesting to show, tell or share. I know I should have a much more robust and well-thought-out social media strategy, but I also know social media only really works when it’s something you enjoy doing, and if I’m just going to look like I’m trying too hard, then I’d rather default to a more minimalistic approach.

LW: A lot of authors are creating playlists to accompany their books, but this being a reading column, I’d like to know what your “reading playlist” is. What books should people read after reading Grave Things Like Love?

SBW: Ooh! Well, if we’re talking about spooky season books, I can tell you I’m dying to read The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay. That’s next on my TBR list. Also, anything by Shirley Jackson will get you in the creepy fall mood.

As far as books I love that tell you a little more about my tastes, my all-time favorite is The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton. I highly recommend a book of short stories by Nafissa Thompson-Spires called Heads of the Colored People. And for YA books, I love a good bit of subversive humor. Kill the Boy Band by Goldy Moldavsky and Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews fit the bill there. For stories full of heart, I’m loving anything written by David Yoon.

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!

Lori Walker is the Operations Maven at DIY MFA. Though she’s fallen off the wagon as a writer, she’s hoping to return to writing essays (perhaps even a novel!) through her involvement with DIY MFA. She is also Launch Manager, Web Editor, and Podcast Producer for DIY MFA and a Book Coach. She resides in Smalltown, Oklahoma, with her husband and their cat, Joan Didion. You can follow her on Instagram at @LoriTheWriter.

The post The Book Nook: Interview with Sara Bennett Wealer appeared first on DIY MFA.

David is the author of the New York Times bestseller Frankly In Love, as well as the upcoming YA novel Super Fake Love Song and adult thriller Version Zero. He also drew the illustrations for his wife Nicola Yoon’s #1 New York Times bestseller Everything, Everything.

He and his wife are also heading up a new imprint of Random House Children’s Books called Joy Revolution. This imprint will debut in 2022 and will be devoted to publishing teen love stories by and about people of color.

In this episode David and I discuss:

• Why he decided to write a book for adults after success in the YA genre.
• Uncovering your central dramatic question and how to explore it in your writing.
• His process for “Marie Kondo-ing” his brain and what he does with the space.

Plus, his #1 tip for writers.

About David Yoon

David Yoon is the author of the New York Times bestseller Frankly In Love, a William C. Morris Award finalist and Asian/Pacific American Award for Young Adult Literature Honor book, as well as the upcoming YA novel Super Fake Love Song and adult thriller Version Zero. He also drew the illustrations for his wife Nicola Yoon’s #1 New York Times bestseller Everything, Everything. David grew up in Orange County, California, and now lives in Los Angeles with Nicola and their daughter.

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

Super Fake Love Song

From the New York Times bestselling author of Frankly in Love comes a moving young adult novel about friendship, identity, and acceptance. Perfect for fans of John Green and To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before.

When Sunny meets Cirrus, he can’t believe how cool and confident she is. So when Cirrus mistakenly thinks Sunny plays guitar, he accidentally winds up telling her he’s the front man of a rock band.

Before he knows it, Sunny is knee-deep in the lie: He gets his best friends to form a fake band with him and starts dressing like a rock star. But no way can he trick this amazing girl into thinking he’s cool, right?

Just when Sunny is about to come clean, Cirrus asks to see them play sometime. Gulp.

Now there’s only one thing to do: Fake it till you make it.

Version Zero

From the brilliant mind of New York Times bestselling author David Yoon comes a lightning-fast and scorchingly observant thriller about how we can save ourselves from the very real perils of a virtual world.

Max, a data whiz at the social media company Wren, has gotten a firsthand glimpse of the dark side of big tech. When he questions what his company does with the data they collect, he’s fired…then black-balled across Silicon Valley.

With time on his hands and revenge on his mind, Max and his longtime friend (and secretly the love of his life) Akiko, decide to get even by rebooting the internet. After all, in order to fix things, sometimes you have to break them. But when Max and Akiko join forces with a reclusive tech baron, they learn that breaking things can have unintended–and catastrophic–consequences.

If you decide to check out these books, we hope you’ll do so via these Amazon affiliate links, 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 353

(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 353: Making the Shift from YA Romance to Adult Thriller – Interview with David Yoon appeared first on DIY MFA.

Syed M. Masood grew up in Karachi, Pakistan, and now lives with his wife and children in Sacramento, California, where he is a practicing attorney. He wrote a few couplets in Urdu when he was a teenager, and his family still tells everyone he is an Urdu poet. He is not. More Than Just a Pretty Face is his young adult debut novel.

In this episode Syed and I discuss:

• Why you need to listen to what your characters want as you write
• How honoring universal experiences allows readers to understand your reality
• Ways to keep the romance trope interesting, but also staying within the form

Plus, his #1 tip for writers.

About Syed M. Masood

Syed M. Masood grew up in Karachi, Pakistan, and now lives with his wife and children in Sacramento, California, where he is a practicing attorney. He wrote a few couplets in Urdu when he was a teenager, and his family still tells everyone he is an Urdu poet. He is not. More Than Just a Pretty Face is his young adult debut novel. You can find Syed on his website and on Twitter.

More Than Just a Pretty Face 

For fans of Becky Albertalli and Jenny Han, a sweetly funny YA rom-com debut about arranged marriage, falling in love, familial expectations, and being a Renaissance Man.

Danyal Jilani has no lack of confidence. He may not be the smartest guy in the room, but he’s funny, gorgeous, and going to make a great chef one day. His father doesn’t approve of his career choice, but that hardly matters. What does matter is the opinion of Danyal’s longtime crush, the perfect-in-all-ways Kaval, and her family, who consider him a less than ideal arranged-marriage prospect.

Then Danyal gets selected for the Renaissance Man, a school-wide academic championship and the perfect opportunity to show everyone he’s smarter than they think. He recruits the brilliant, totally-uninterested-in-him Bisma to help with the competition, but the more time Danyal spends with her…the more he learns from her…the more he cooks for her…the more he realizes that happiness may be staring him right in his pretty face.

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 317

(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 317: Be True to the Character and Tell Your Truth – Interview with Syed M. Masood appeared first on DIY MFA.

But first, some backstory. The RWA conference is the big event that the Romance Writers of America put on each year. I had the pleasure of speaking at this event a few years ago in San Diego, and this year because it’s back in New York, I’m delighted to be attending it once again.

My guest for this episode, is Nisha Sharma, whose YA novel, My So-Called Bollywood Life, has just won the RITA award (i.e., one of the top awards for romance writing) for best young adult romance. Nisha is also the author of the adult contemporary romance The Takeover Effect.

Now, because I can’t resist a good YA story, and because it’s been nominated for a RITA, our discussion focuses particularly on My So-Called Bollywood Life. But before we get to the interview, let me tell you a little more about our guest. 

Nisha’s writing has been praised in NPR, Cosmopolitan, Teen Vogue, Buzzfeed, Hypable and more.

She credits her father for her multiple graduate degrees, and her mother for her love of Shah Rukh Khan and Jane Austen. She lives in New Jersey with her Alaskan husband, her cat Lizzie Bennett and her dog Nancey Drew.

In this episode Nisha and I discuss:

• The inspiration behind My So-Called Bollywood Life
• How minor characters influence and develop the main character
• Building a real world as opposed to a fantasy world
• How Bollywood structure conventions influenced the book
• Using blog posts at the beginning of each chapter as an anchor for writing
• The similarities between Jane Austen and Bollywood

Plus, her #1 tip for writers.

About the Author

Nisha Sharma is the author of the YA novel My So-Called Bollywood Life, and the adult contemporary romance The Takeover Effect.

Her writing has been praised in NPR, Cosmopolitan, Teen Vogue, Buzzfeed, Hypable and more.

Nisha credits her father for her multiple graduate degrees, and her mother for her love of Shah Rukh Khan and Jane Austen. She lives in New Jersey with her Alaskan husband, her cat Lizzie Bennett and her dog Nancey Drew. You can find her online at nisha-sharma.com or on Twitter and Instagram.

My So-Called Bollywood Life

The romance of Stephanie Perkins meets the quirk of Maureen Johnson, then gets a Bollywood twist in this fate-filled debut that takes the future into its own hands.

Winnie Mehta was never really convinced that Raj was her soul mate, but their love was written in the stars. Literally, a pandit predicted Winnie would find the love of her life before her eighteenth birthday, and Raj meets all the qualifications. Which is why Winnie is shocked when she returns from her summer at film camp to find her boyfriend of three years hooking up with Jenny Dickens. As a self-proclaimed Bollywood expert, Winnie knows this is not how her perfect ending is scripted.

Then there’s Dev, a fellow film geek and one of the few people Winnie can count on. Dev is smart and charming, and he challenges Winnie to look beyond her horoscope and find someone she’d pick for herself. But does falling for Dev mean giving up on her prophecy and her chance to live happily ever after? To find her perfect ending, Winnie will need a little bit of help from fate, family, and of course, a Bollywood movie star.

The Takeover Effect

Hemdeep Singh knows exactly what he wants. With his intelligence and determination, he has what it takes to build his own legacy away from Bharat, Inc. and the empire his father created. But when his brother calls him home, Hem puts his dreams on hold once again to help save the company he walked away from. That’s when he encounters the devastating Mina Kohli in the Bharat boardroom, and he realizes he’s in for more than he had bargained.

Mina will do whatever it takes to recover control of her mother’s law firm, even if it means agreeing to an arranged marriage. Her newest case assignment is to assist Bharat in the midst of a potential takeover. It could be the key to finally achieving her goal while preventing her marriage to a man she doesn’t love—as long as her explosive attraction to Hem doesn’t get in the way.  

As Mina and Hem work to save Bharat, they not only uncover secrets that could threaten the existence of the company, but they also learn that in a winner-takes-all game, love always comes out on top.

If you decide to check out the book, we hope you’ll do so via the above Amazon affiliate links, 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 #268

(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 268: From Bollywood-Inspired YA to RWA — Interview with Nisha Sharma appeared first on DIY MFA.