Vickie Lan writes humorous #OwnVoice science fiction/fantasy novels. She loves reading, knitting, and baking, and moonlights during the day (sunlights?) in communications. She is the creator and host of the Speculative Sandbox podcast. In her podcast, Vickie unpacks a trope with a fellow creator. From dystopian governments to parallel universes, ghost therapy to interplanetary travel, let's speculate. Speculative Sandbox is for entertainment purposes only. Opinions expressed by individuals on the podcast are their own.
Lauren Sefchik is an Arizona native who avoids the sun by day, and conquers raid bosses by night. Her love for geek culture started with a video game system from the 70's, a set of polyhedral dice, and a team of heroines in sailor suits.
Her first book in the Carving Legacies series is The Key of Arcandus
Three mages need her.
A warlock is using her.
The goddess of death is hiding her.
And Siroun's story is only the beginning.
A bookish pariah finds her world turned upside down when a nefarious outsider leaves a trail of death in his wake. As the sole survivor of the onslaught, Siroun finds herself accused of crimes she didn't commit and banished from her homeland. With nowhere to go and only one way to clear her name, Siroun's journey takes her far from comfort and into the arms of destiny.
Follow Lauren on TikTok for book-related videos @lsefchik, and visit her website for the latest updates on her work in the world!
Katherine's unique approach to structuring her writing time allowed her to prosper in both high-intensity work environments and the sudden freedom of time provided by the early pandemic, and now she's sharing that method with Round Table Radio! With fifteen completed and highly polished projects ready to go by the end of this year, including work from three different genres of writing, Katherine has systematized her artistic output to an incredible degree.
Katherine Michalak earned her BFA in Creative Writing at Goddard College. Her work has appeared in Shark Reef, Concho River Review, and Crestone: A Sacred Earth Journal, among others. She is a former editor for Duende and Plains Paradox. She lives in Colorado and often finds clarity for her writing projects when hiking, running, or backpacking in the West.
Join Lex and Odin as they talk about what it means to have a supportive community, and explore how such communities can change the world... one supported person at a time.
The Write&W(h)ine community strives to provide a safe, inclusive, and encouraging environment for writers of all genres at all stages to talk openly about their craft. The community also aims to destigmatize discussions of mental health in the arts by offering a judgement-free space for writers to talk about their mental health struggles and find support in one another. Above all else, Write&W(h)ine is a community made by writers, for writers.
Lex Vranick is a dark fiction author and poet based in Sarasota, Florida. She holds a B.A. from Excelsior College and is a J.D. candidate at Florida State University. Her work has been published by Cagibi, Kissing Dynamite Poetry, Rhonda Parrish Anthologies, and Fahrenheit Press, among others. Lex is the founder and host of Write&W(h)ine, an online community focused on supporting writers at all stages and advocating for mental health in literary spaces. She is an ambassador for National Novel Writing Month and former contributor to Morbidly Beautiful.
When not writing, Lex works as a writing coach and English language tutor. She can often be found at the nearest dog park, plant shop, or record store. She apologizes for never shutting up about Wes Craven, and is always down to discuss ‘80s rock and vampire movies.
Join Astrid Knight and Odin Halvorson as they talk about mental health and trauma recovery through the creation of fiction. Then, follow them as they dive into the world of tabletop role-playing, and its "role" in creating deep characters and character interactions.
Perception Check (The Mages of Velmyra Saga: Book One)
Violet Spence wants nothing more than to have a normal life. After witnessing her childhood best friend get abducted by monsters, that’s easier said than done. At twenty-three years old, Violet cannot seem to move past that fateful night ten years ago. Her only solace is Mages of Velmyra, a tabletop roleplaying game filled with goblins, fairies, and all-powerful magicians. But of course, that’s all fantasy.
Or, so she thought. As it turns out, the land of Velmyra is very real and the home of the monsters that took her best friend.
For as long as she can remember, Astrid Knight has wanted to tell stories. A native to West Michigan, Astrid fostered a love of storytelling in all forms from a very young age. In 2012, she graduated from Adrian College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English-Writing and Theatre. Since then, she has been an avid writer, actress, and podcast host. She currently resides in Michigan with her husband, her dogs, Bucky and Oswin, and her pet rat, Nugget.
What is it like to develop a story through dialogue, how do you get your work on the stage, and where does inspiration itself come from? These questions and many more are explored as Odin and Rachel sit down for a deep dive into the world of writing for the stage and the page.
Rachel's play, "Little Egg, Big World" premiered Off Broadway at Theatre Row on June 24th, 2022. An autofiction piece about growing up as a sperm donor child and then becoming an adult egg donor. Co-Produced with BBTF.
Rachel Leighson is an actress/singer/writer hailing from Los Angeles, CA. She literally fell into performing at the age of seven when she nearly spun off stage during the tornado dance in The Wizard of Oz and never looked back. In Los Angeles, she performed with the Los Angeles Opera in Noye's Fludde, Judas Maccabaeus, and Friedl under Maestro James Conlon. She then attended Oberlin College and Conservatory and Vancouver Film School for Acting in Film and Television.
Rachel has performed all over the United States (38 states and counting!) and in NYC at Carnegie Hall, Playwrights Horizons, St. Luke's Theatre, and The Actor's Temple Theatre. Her acting and writing passions center around moralistically grey women and finding the nuanced perspective in a piece or character. She believes theatre gives people a safe opportunity to explore uncomfortable truths and grow, and that is the base of everything she wants to do.
Rachel is a donor child with two moms, too many cats, too many half-siblings, and too many opinions. She wouldn't have it any other wacky way.
Blending research and play into the construction of epic fantasy worlds is key to success as a writer. Lucas and Odin explore the nuances of deep research work in the writing life, how to build the perfect ending, and what it's like to bring a science background to the creative writing field.
Read Lucas's short fiction in Galaxy's Edge today!
Lucas studied Evolutionary Biology in his undergrad at the University of Tennessee. However, he grew up amongst the rich storytelling tradition of Appalachia and the wild tales of myth and fantasy his family enjoys, so the transition from science to writing his own grand fantasy stories might have been inevitable. His work has been published online and in print with Galaxy's Edge. When he is not writing (or scheming up stories), Lucas can be found tutoring at his local college, indulging in video games, or taking hikes through The Great Smoky Mountains.
From the state of the indie-publishing landscape, to the use of footnotes in fantasy fiction, Erika McCorkle and Odin Halvorson dive deep into the edges of the literary landscape.
Erika McCorkle is an avid world-builder and consumer of all things fantasy, whether that be books, video games, or anime. She has been developing the Pentagonal Dominion for over two decades and has just recently begun publishing novels that take place in that fantastic world. She has a Bachelors of Science in Biology and works as a laboratory technician on the graveyard shift at her local blood bank, which qualifies her as a vampire. Her debut novel, Merchants of Knowledge and Magic, is available now.
How do you become a published author if you've never written before? Quillem McBreen has the answers! Join Odin and Quillem for a deep dive into the world of fantasy fiction, agenting, and how to make it in the hard-tack world of publishing.
The Church of the Righteous Truth stretches ever outward across Alytheia. Jealous defenders of the Goddess’s magic, the Church sees all, controls all: trade, military, the ancient arts of Wielding and Cognation—even life and death. Now, as the Church’s Premiero Irmao prepares to seize yet more power, the Goddess’s light fades darker still…
McBreen, who lives in Liverpool, England, is a writer of adult fantasy, and The Tenets of Truth is his debut novel and the first in his Alytheian Cycle series. Inspired to write through his discovery of audiobooks and his fascination with the way words are transformed off the page, he cites Brandon Sanderson, Bernard Cornwell and John le Carré as influences on his own work. Away from his writing career, he works in local government. Quillem also enjoys to travel, cook and listen to music.
Katrina Ray-Saulis is a writer and creator living in Maine. She has a BFA in Creative Writing from the New Hampshire Institute of Art, and an MFA from Stonecoast USM. Katrina lives with her wife and their pets in a 200-year-old house that was once used as the local undertaker. She thrives off coffee and literature and uses sitcoms to quiet her overactive mind. Visit her website, here.
A new season of Round Table Radio is about to begin! This season brings a wealth of information directly from the indie writers community, with fresh weekly episodes from the writers and authors who are deep in the trenches.
Season Two of Round Table Radio will premiere every Monday at 6am Pacific / 9am Eastern.
Produced by RoundTableWriters.org and hosted by Odin Halvorson.
In this last episode of season one, we continue to explore getting a degree in creative writing, following from our BFA episode last week. We ask whether a creative writing MFA is right for you. A degree like this can take your life and work to the highest peaks, but it requires a huge amount of effort and commitment, especially if you're doing it on the back of a BFA. There's no right or wrong answer, in the end, but our insights might help you make your choice. Want to join an incredible writing community that's all about artists supporting other artists? Follow us on Twitter @TheRTWriters, or join our Discord by going to www.roundtablewriters.org.
Today, we talk about getting a creative writing degree, including how what to look for, what to expect, and what will be required of you inside such a degree to reach fulfillment and success. This is the first part of a multipart series, concentrating on creative writing college degrees. In this episode, I look at the BFA in creative writing program, to be followed up next week with an exploration of the MFA in creative writing. Ask questions over at our Discord community! Learn more at www.roundtablewriters.org
Want an editor to pay attention when you submit a story or an article? There's a world of nitty-gritty advice out there, but the simplest steps are sometimes the best. In this episode, we discuss how you can stay true to your writing experience, make friends with the editors out there in the world, and learn the magic number of submissions you should aim for with every single piece that you write.
In this episode, we explore a major plot against established and new authors recently uncovered by the FBI, look into a vital resource writers can use to protect themselves from scams, and introduce the concept of general internet privacy and security as something all authors should take seriously. Questions or comments? Visit www.roundtablewriters.org to learn more.
2022 brings us a massive collection of exciting public domain content, as well as a merger between two indie publishing houses that bodes really well for the industry in a time of seriously terrifying corporate monopoly. As we slide into the 3rd year of our global pandemic, we also have a poem for the new year that captures some of the feeling of the zeitgeist at this time. We also update our contact info to make sure listeners can reach out to us with questions and comments, and talk a bit about the future of the podcast.
A better future is possible, but it requires artists to take the lead, and it requires communities to act. The power of capitalism seems inescapable, but remember that, once, so too did the divine rights of kings. We discuss the big issues facing us as we enter 2022, and then explore some hot titles coming out next year.
Every writer needs to learn how to write beyond their favorite project, but much harder to learn is how to write beyond your favorite genre. The thing is? Writing beyond your genre is an absolute blast once you get into it.
J. Michael Straczynski is an author with one of the most incredible lives—and careers—of any living writer. Here, we dig deep into his book “Becoming Superman” as one of the top books that every writer should read.
What is creativity, and where does it come from? In this episode, we explore the driving force beneath our creative efforts and search for new ways to help that passion grow. We also talk about book banning and censorship and read some recent news regarding censorship in libraries and schools. Finally, we close with this week's poem: a sonnet from Shakespeare. Follow us on Twitter @theRTWriters www.RoundTableWriters.org
