Welcome to our autumn series Fall into Poetry. Here where I live, it’s not quite Fall, but I’m desperate for it, and this series is one way I can feed that devouring desperation. This season, we have poets who also write fiction, and that informs the direction of our episodes. While we writers may weave multiple strands into these episodes, the tapestry created depicts creative writing at its best ~ formed of many, many threads in a variety of writing styles, black-and-white nonfiction, the red-hot colors of the mystery genre, the blues and purples of speculative fiction, the glorious greens that run through all of our writing. Our very first interview is with Joan Leotta, whose first publication occurred at 14 with a poem. Life offered many opportunities for writing, and she’s woven the diverse threads into a glorious tapestry melding desire and passion with duty and obligation. Let’s begin our interview with Joan Leotta. Bio: Joan Leotta plays with words on page and stage. She’s a multiple nominee for Pushcart and Best of the Net. Her poetry, essays, and stories have appeared in many journals in the US and abroad. She performs folktale programs on stage, radio, television, and zoom,  often highlighting heritage, food, family, and strong women, and offers the one-woman show, “Meet Louisa May Alcott, Civil War Nurse, and Writer”.  TIMINGS 00:40 Welcome and Introduction 02:20 Interview Topics: Poetry helping Fiction, Value of Each Word / Conciseness / Form, Haiku / Tanka / Haibun poetic forms, her novels and children’s books & rights reversion, backburner items, performance of writing, ideas & more ideas, her poetry background and her various types of writing 31:19 Closing Total Run Time: = 32:21 Links Joan’s Facebook https://www.facebook.com/joanleotta Two Mini-Chapbooks are available free to download from Origami Press:  https://www.origamipoems.com/poets/257-joan-leotta  Morning by Morning and Dancing Under the Moon Feathers on Stone” poetry chapbook available from me and at https://mainstreetragbookstore.com/product/feathers-on-stone-joan-leotta/ Languid Lusciousness with Lemon from Finishing Line Press https://www.amazon.com/Languid-Lusciousness-Lemon-Joan-Leotta/dp/1635341450/ Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/ Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away. Our current focus is Summer Writing Challenge, 13 episodes every Wednesday in June, July, and August, to achieve 65,000 words or 5K a week. We’ll have a quick tip on writing, interviews from writers on challenges, and check-ins. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KE2gUjunhC7MgkXmsLiQap Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand. For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  . Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com. If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

We have reached the last episode associated with the Summer Writing Challenge. Our Quick Tip covers the 3 Sets of 7 that we writers need for every story start—because you’re moving on to the next writing, right? Reiner Prochaska offers a fascinating view of writing challenges in discussing his two novels and scripts for stage. Reiner Prochaska is a playwright, a novelist, an actor, a director, a filmmaker, and a university lecturer. His plays have been produced at Maryland Ensemble Theatre and published nationally and internationally. His new novel, Bergthora’s Saga: A Heathen Revenge in a Christian Iceland—a historical fantasy set in Iceland in the late tenth and early eleventh century, as well as in mid-fourteenth century Greenland—was published by Europe Books in London in November 2024. His previous novel, Captives, which tells the story of German soldiers interned at the historical POW camp in Frederick, Maryland, between 1944 and 1946, was published by The Permanent Press in 2019. He is the Producer and a Co-Director of the Catoctin Furnace Living History Festival, to which he contributes in creative and administrative capacities. A graduate of Towson University, Reiner teaches writing at his alma mater. He lives in Frederick, Maryland. For our Check-In, I’m talking the next series. We’re wrapping up everything, so let’s begin. TIMINGS 00:40 Welcome & Quick Tip # 15 09:22 Interview with Reiner Prochaska 43:33 Next with The Write Focus (2 series) 44:08 Closing Total Run Time = 45:08 LINKS His Site https://reinerprochaska.com/ TWF Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/09/636-summer-writing-challenge-week-15.html   Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away. Our current focus is Summer Writing Challenge, 13 episodes every Wednesday in June, July, and August, to achieve 65,000 words or 5K a week. We’ll have a quick tip on writing, interviews from writers on challenges, and check-ins. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KE2gUjunhC7MgkXmsLiQap Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand. For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  . Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com. If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

A sidestep into screenwriting led Ryan Hines back to writing short stories, novels, and flash fiction. He talks challenges and the Writer as a Thief of Life. That’s the best Quick Tip any writer can offer. Ryan Michael Hines is a novelist, podcaster, and screenwriter based in Los Angeles, CA, who loves the Southland sun but misses the beauty and mystery of the Appalachian Mountains every day. A graduate of UCLA’s prestigious MFA Screenwriting Program, Ryan has written several award-winning scripts. His TV pilot EASTSIDE OUTLAWS was developed under a First Look Agreement with Sony Crackle. His feature adaptation of EASTSIDE OUTLAWS won Best Crime Feature Screenplay at the 5th LA Crime and Horror Film Festival. Ryan is the author of MOONSHINELAND: A Tale of Haunted Appalachia and the writer / director of the MOONSHINELAND podcast. Connect to the podcast at this link: https://moonshineland.podbean.com/ Our Summer Writing Challenge has concluded, and in the last Check-In I offer stats and more. We open with a Quick Tip before Ryan talks writing challenges. TIMINGS 00:40 Welcome and Quick Tip # 14 6:33 Interview with Ryan Hines 36:36 Final Check-In 38:30 Closing Total Run Time = 39:28 LINKS Ryan’s Site https://ryanmhines.com/ His podcast https://moonshineland.podbean.com/ Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/09/635-summer-writing-challenge-week-14.html   Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away. Our current focus is Summer Writing Challenge, 13 episodes every Wednesday in June, July, and August, to achieve 65,000 words or 5K a week. We’ll have a quick tip on writing, interviews from writers on challenges, and check-ins. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KE2gUjunhC7MgkXmsLiQap Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand. For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  . Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com. If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

Santa Barbara screenwriter Todd Goodlett talks scripts, drafting and revising, conflict, and more in this week’s episode of our Summer Writing Challenge. Todd Goodlett is a screenwriter and a playwright. He is the recipient of the 2019 Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship in Screenwriting. Todd is also the winner of the 2019 Final Draft Big Break TV Grand Prize. His plays have been developed and produced across the country including the Tony Award-winning Utah Shakespeare Festival. He lives in Santa Barbara, California. Our last Quick Tip, # 13, is entitled the Writing Wonderland, and it feels like a Wonderland when I considered the statistics for our 13th Check-In. Our final Check-In will be the next episode. On to our last August episode, with two more to come in September. TIMINGS 00:40 Welcome & Quick Tip #13 04:25 Interview with Todd Goodlett 35:00 Check-In # 13 36:53 Closing Total Run Time = 37:53 LINKS Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/08/634-summer-writing-challenge-week-13.html   Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away. Our current focus is Summer Writing Challenge, 13 episodes every Wednesday in June, July, and August, to achieve 65,000 words or 5K a week. We’ll have a quick tip on writing, interviews from writers on challenges, and check-ins. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KE2gUjunhC7MgkXmsLiQap Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand. For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  . Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com. If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

Thriller writer Jeffrey James Higgins turns our interview into a smooth journey without any hitches in today’s episode. Located in the DC area, he helps writers with his salon, located at Elaine’s Restaurant , the literary hub of Alexandria, VA. If you’re in that area, do check out the salon. * Jeffrey James Higgins is a retired supervisory special agent who writes thrillers, short stories, creative nonfiction, and essays. He has wrestled a suicide bomber, fought the Taliban in combat, and chased terrorists across five continents. * Jeffrey received the Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Heroism and the DEA Award of Valor. Jeffrey has been interviewed by CNN, National Geographic, and The New York Times. He’s a #1 Amazon bestselling author with numerous literary awards, including the Claymore Award, PenCraft’s Best Fiction Book, and a Reader’s Favorite Gold Medal. He has been a panelist at ThrillerFest, Killer Nashville, Creatures, Crimes, and Creativity, and other conferences. * Black Rose Writing published his first three novels, FURIOUS, UNSEEN, and THE FOREVER GAME. Severn River Publishing acquired Jeffrey’s forthcoming Nathan Burke espionage series, which will launch in June 2025. Jeffrey is an active member of the Authors Guild, The Virginia Writers Club, International Thriller Writers, Sisters in Crime, and the Royal Writers Secret Society. Discover Jeffrey’s writing at https://JeffreyJamesHiggins.com. * The podcast for writers can be found at Inkandescent Radio http://www.inkandescentradio.com/ . We’re winding down the last days of the Summer Writing Challenge with a Quick Tip on Cover Considerations. Check-In # 12 and my novella is finally on the last portion of its journey, all smooth traveling now. Let’s begin. TIMINGS 00:40 Welcome and Quick Tip # 12 05:15 Interview with Jeffrey James Higgins 36:12 Check-In #12 37:42 Closing Total Run Time = 38:42 LINKS Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/05/633-summer-writing-challenge-week-12.html   Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away. Our current focus is Summer Writing Challenge, 13 episodes every Wednesday in June, July, and August, to achieve 65,000 words or 5K a week. We’ll have a quick tip on writing, interviews from writers on challenges, and check-ins. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KE2gUjunhC7MgkXmsLiQap Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand. For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  . Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com. If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

Can you see Autumn yet? I’m yearning for it, my special time of the year. Autumn is the anniversary of this podcast, starting five years ago, and my publishing journey, 10 years ago. It’s always wonderful to me. I see no signs yet, but I’m definitely looking—even though it’s much too soon. We can be that way with our writing: rushing toward the end, especially when we juggle multiple projects—that’s the focus of our Quick Tip this week Our interview is with Michael Dabney, a former journalist now inspired to write about a private detective in mid-1980s Philadelphia. MB Dabney is a retired award-winning journalist whose writing has appeared in numerous local and national publications, including Indianapolis Monthly, the Indianapolis Business Journal, Ebony magazine, and Black Enterprise.com. He has co-edited two anthologies, and has published a number of short mystery stories. Michael’s latest novel, A Deadly Game: A David Blaise Mystery, is a prequel to his 2021 debut novel, An Untidy Affair. The third novel in the David Blaise series is scheduled for Fall 2025 publication. The father of two adult daughters, Michael lives in Indianapolis with his wife, Angela. The Check-In closes the episode. Let’s begin. TIMINGS 00:40 Welcome and Quick Tip # 11 05:35 Interview with Michael Dabney 37:55 Check-In # 11 40:20 Closing Total Run Time = 41:21 LINKS Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/08/632-summer-writing-challenge-week-11.html   Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away. Our current focus is Summer Writing Challenge, 13 episodes every Wednesday in June, July, and August, to achieve 65,000 words or 5K a week. We’ll have a quick tip on writing, interviews from writers on challenges, and check-ins. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KE2gUjunhC7MgkXmsLiQap Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand. For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  . Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com. If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

Into August and the last month of the Summer Writing Challenge with Week 10. Our interviews will stretch two extra weeks of September. Delia Pitts gives us a wonderful interview with fantastic information to share. * Born and raised in Chicago, Delia Pitts graduated from Oberlin College with a Bachelor’s degree in history. After working as a journalist, she earned a Ph.D. in African history from the University of Chicago. She is a former university administrator and U.S. diplomat. * Her contemporary noir mystery, Trouble in Queenstown, was published by Minotaur Books in 2024. It features a Black private investigator who solves tough cases in her New Jersey hometown. The second book in this series, Death of an Ex, will be published on July 15, 2025 by Minotaur Books. * Delia is also the author of the Ross Agency Mysteries, a series set in Harlem. She has published several acclaimed short stories, including “The Killer,” which was selected for inclusion in Best American Mystery and Suspense 2021. Delia is an active member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and Crime Writers of Color. * Delia and her husband live in central New Jersey and have twin sons living in Texas. To learn more about Delia and her books visit her website, deliapitts.com. We’re thinking Cocoons in the Quick Tip ~ it’s always wise for writers to think in metaphors, don’t you think? My Check-In is all over the place as I’m finishing the Rough and Drafting the manuscript and working on this podcast, all at once. Let’s begin. TIMINGS 00:40 Welcome and Quick Tip # 10 03:51 Interview with Delia Pitts 36:38 Check-In # 10 38:39 Closing Total Run Time = 39:40 LINKS Delia’s site deliapitts.com Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/08/631-summer-writing-challenge-week-10.html Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away. Our current focus is Summer Writing Challenge, 13 episodes every Wednesday in June, July, and August, to achieve 65,000 words or 5K a week. We’ll have a quick tip on writing, interviews from writers on challenges, and check-ins. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KE2gUjunhC7MgkXmsLiQap Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand. For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  . Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com. If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

We’ve reached the end of July, two-thirds of our Summer Writing Challenge. How are you doing on your summer goal? Share your progress in the Comments. In this week’s episode our talk is with cozy fantasy mystery writer Elle Hartford. * Elle writes the award-winning Alchemical Tales series, a blend of cozy mystery and cozy fantasy. She has also published a spin-off series, Pomegranate Cafe Romance, and numerous short mysteries in anthologies. * For other writers and authors looking to go “wide,” Elle is excited to offer coaching services and support. She made all the self-publishing mistakes, and you can learn from her experience! Check out her indie publishing blog at ellehartford.substack.com. * When not writing, Elle is an active member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America. As a historian and educator, she believes in the value of stories as a mirror for complicated realities. She currently lives in New Jersey with a grumpy tortoise and a three-legged cat. Find free stories and more at ellehartford.com.  We start with a Quick Tip on creating Reader Magnets, and we conclude with our Check-In. Let’s begin. TIMINGS 00:40 Welcome and Quick Tip # 9 02:50 Interview with Elle Hartford 25:45 Check-In # 9 28:05 Closing Total Run Time = 29:04 LINKS Elle’s website: https://ellehartford.com/ The Silver Deck Link: https://books2read.com/the-silver-deck  *The ebook is still free for new newsletter subscribers! The purchase link is for anyone interested in the special print edition. Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/07/630-summer-writing-challenge-week-9.html   Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away. Our current focus is Summer Writing Challenge, 13 episodes every Wednesday in June, July, and August, to achieve 65,000 words or 5K a week. We’ll have a quick tip on writing, interviews from writers on challenges, and check-ins. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KE2gUjunhC7MgkXmsLiQap Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand. For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  . Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com. If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

It’s Week 8 of the Summer Writing Challenge. Eight is symbolic of two disparate meanings: 1] almost to completion, when completion is symbolic 10, and 2] a step beyond perfection, as 7 is the perfect number. We’re not perfect. We’re not even a step before, let alone beyond. We do try. After a Quick Tip on the 2 Requirements for Every Story, we have our interview with writer Paula Messina. Closing, as usual, is the Check-In. Paula Messina grew up on the site of the Ursuline convent and school destroyed by a violent, hate-filled mob on August 11 and 12, 1834. She writes contemporary, historical, and humorous fiction and essays. Her work has appeared in various publications, including Black Cat Weekly, Devil’s Snare, Wolfsbane, Indelible Literary and Arts Journal, and Ovunque Siamo. She is writing a novel set in Boston’s North End during 1944. She does not own a cat. Let’s begin. TIMINGS 00:40 Welcome and Quick Tip # 8 04:30 Interview with Paula Messina 20:46 Check-In # 8 22:55 Closing Total Run Time = 23:55 LINKS Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/07/629-summer-writing-challenge-wk-8-and.html   Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away. Our current focus is Summer Writing Challenge, 13 episodes every Wednesday in June, July, and August, to achieve 65,000 words or 5K a week. We’ll have a quick tip on writing, interviews from writers on challenges, and check-ins. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KE2gUjunhC7MgkXmsLiQap Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand. For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  . Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com. If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

Welcome to our mid-July week for the Summer Writing Challenge. Our interview introduces Ron Katz, who brands his mysteries as Silver Sleuths. We open with a Quick Tip on Antagonists and close with a Check-In. I’m burning ahead to my goal—which is always a good place to be. On to the episode! Ron Katz, a lifetime Baby Boomer, was a trial lawyer for over four decades. A Rhodes Scholar, in 2016 he was a Fellow at Stanford University’s Distinguished Careers Institute, which inspired him to start a new writing career. He has given a one-hour presentation, “Becoming a Mystery Writer at Age 74”, to numerous groups in person and by Zoom. For more information, visit his website barbandbernie@thesleuthingsilvers.com. TIMINGS 00:40 Welcome and Quick Tip # 7 3:30 Ron Katz’s Interview 18:17 Check-In # 7 20:18 Closing Total Run Time = 20:52 LINKS Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/07/628-summer-writing-challenge-interview.html   Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away. Our current focus is Summer Writing Challenge, 13 episodes every Wednesday in June, July, and August, to achieve 65,000 words or 5K a week. We’ll have a quick tip on writing, interviews from writers on challenges, and check-ins. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KE2gUjunhC7MgkXmsLiQap Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand. For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  . Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com. If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

July 9 means we’re in the 6th week of the Summer Writing Challenge. Returning to us in this episode is donalee Moulton, a great writer living in one of my favorite locations, Halifax, Nova Scotia. We open with a Quick Writing Tip on Using Twists then close with a Check-In, as usual. donalee Moulton’s first mystery book Hung out to Die was published in 2023. A historical mystery, Conflagration!, was published in 2024. It won the 2024 Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense (Historical Fiction). donalee has two new books coming out in 2025, Bind and Melt, the first novels in a new series, the Lotus Detective Agency. A short story “Swan Song” was one of 21 selected for publication in Cold Canadian Crime. It was shortlisted for an Award of Excellence. Other short stories have been published in numerous anthologies and magazines. donalee’s short story “Troubled Water” was shortlisted for a 2024 Derringer Award and a 2024 Award of Excellence from the Crime Writers of Canada. donalee is an award-winning freelance journalist. She has written articles for print and online publications across North America including The Globe and Mail, Chatelaine, Lawyer’s Daily, National Post, and Canadian Business. As well, donalee is the author of The Thong Principle: Saying What You Mean and Meaning What You Say and co-authored the book, Celebrity Court Cases: Trials of the Rich and Famous. TIMINGS 00:40 Welcome and Quick Tip # 6 04:46 Interview with donalee Moulton The Wide Set of Writing Challenges / Repeating Challenges / Challenges when Writing in Different Genres / Developing a Second Skin / Conflicting Feedback / Acquiring Objective Distance / New Releases in a Series 29:17 Check-In # 6 33:18 Closing Total Run Time = 34:17 Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away. Our current focus is Summer Writing Challenge, 13 episodes every Wednesday in June, July, and August, to achieve 65,000 words or 5K a week. We’ll have a quick tip on writing, interviews from writers on challenges, and check-ins. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KE2gUjunhC7MgkXmsLiQap Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand. For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  . Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com. If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

Midsummer brings us to July, and we start July with an interview of Toronto writer Karen Grose. Before the interview, we have a Quick Writing Tip: Don’t completely panic when characters take over the story. It’s then that we cede control of the story to them. After our interview, we close with the 5th Check-In. We’re early days still for our writing challenge and the novella that I’ve chosen to write. Share your successes and problems AND solutions in the Comments. Karen Grose’s debut novel, The Dime Box, was selected by Amnesty International for its 2021 Book Club. The Chinese language version, retitled as The Lost Daughters, was published by Sharp Point Press, Taiwan, in 2023. Karen’s second and third novels are Flat Out Lies and All June Left Behind. Karen has flash, poems and short stories in journals and anthologies, both in print and online. She is a member of Crime Writers of Canada, Sisters-in-Crime-Toronto and National, and the #thrillsandchills writing group. Track her down on X: @kgrose2, IG: karengrosewrites, FB or at www.karengrose.ca TIMINGS 00:40 Welcome and Quick Tip # 5 03:18 Interview with Karen Grose Her Writing / Revising based on Themes / Using Writers’ Groups / Paying it Forward / Newest Release 21:40 Check-In # 5 24:50 Closing Total Run Time = 26:00 LINKS Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/07/626-summer-writing-challenge-wk-5-and.html   Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away. Our current focus is Summer Writing Challenge, 13 episodes every Wednesday in June, July, and August, to achieve 65,000 words or 5K a week. We’ll have a quick tip on writing, interviews from writers on challenges, and check-ins. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KE2gUjunhC7MgkXmsLiQap Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand. For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  . Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com. If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

The Summer Writing Challenge enters the 4th week of June with a slight tiptoe into July. How is your challenge progressing? Share your goal and project, problems and solutions, and successes in the Comment Section. Our interview this week is with Judy Penz Sheluk. As a Quick Tip, I chatter about writing a coherent story. We finish with the Check-in. A former journalist and magazine editor, Judy Penz Sheluk is the bestselling author of two mystery series: The Glass Dolphin Mysteries and Marketville Mysteries. Her short crime fiction appears in several collections, including the Superior Shores Anthologies, which she also edited.  With a passion for understanding the ins and outs of all aspects of publishing, Judy is the founder and owner of Superior Shores Press, which she established in February 2018.   Judy has also written two how-to guides to publishing. Finding Your Path to Publication: A Step-by-Step Guide was the Winner of the 2024 Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award for Best Nonfiction. Finding Your Path to Publication also won First Place in the Prescriptive/Informative Nonfiction category of the 12th Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published E-book Awards (to be announced May 2025). The follow-up to that book, Self-publishing: The Ins & Outs of Going Indie, provides an insider’s insight into the world of self-publishing.   Judy is a member of International Thriller Writers, Inc., the Short Mystery Fiction Society, and Crime Writers of Canada, where she served on the Board of Directors, most recently as Chair.  She lives in Northern Ontario, Canada, with her husband, Mike, and their golden retriever, Enzo. Find her at www.judypenzsheluk.com.  Here we go. TIMINGS 00:40 Welcome and Quick Tip # 4 04:20 Interview with Judy Penz Sheluk Challenges with health and attending Killer Nashville / Challenges with a Publishing Closing / Challenges with Self-Publishing / Writing Short Chapters / Killing the Darlings / Judy’s Newest Release 29:15 Check-In # 4 32:05 Closing Total Run Time = 32:44 Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away. Our current focus is Summer Writing Challenge, 13 episodes every Wednesday in June, July, and August, to achieve 65,000 words or 5K a week. We’ll have a quick tip on writing, interviews from writers on challenges, and check-ins. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KE2gUjunhC7MgkXmsLiQap Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand. For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  . Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com. If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

Welcome to our third week of June and our third week of the Summer Writing Challenge. How is your challenge going? Share your progress in the Comments, and hit the LIKE button whenever you enjoy an episode. Our interview this week is with veteran writer Al Sirois, based in North Carolina although he began writing in his home state of Connecticutt. We’ll conclude this episode with our check-in. However, first is our third Quick Tip. We’ve started our idea, and we’ve prepped the background. Now we must consider the 3 Cornerstones of Story. Sirois’ Bio~ I am a writer, ghostwriter, developmental editor & graphic artist. I sold my first story in 1973. I’ve appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, Fantastic, Amazing Stories, and online at Electric Spec, Mystery Weekly, Every Day Fiction and Flash Fiction Online, et al. My first book was a children's book, DINOSAUR DRESS UP, from William Morrow in 1992. My story “In the Conservatory” was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. I have also ghostwritten more than a dozen works of science fiction and fantasy, as well as memoirs and cozy mysteries. In June 2024, Regal House Press published MURDER IN MENNEFER, the first volume of my YA trilogy set in ancient Egypt. The second volume, IMHOTEP AND THE QUEST FOR KUSH, will be published in June of 2025. My first self-published book, BEFORE BAKER STREET, is now available from Amazon. I live in North Carolina with my wife, novelist Grace Marcus. TIMINGS 00:40 Welcome and Quick Tip #3 03:40 Interview with Al Sirois His Challenge View / Pantstering vs. Plotting / Using Life Experiences / Outlining / Juggling Projects / Freelancing since 2009 / Collaborating / Benefit of Change 27:55 Check-in #3 30:28 Closing Total Run Time = 31:28 Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away. Our current focus is Summer Writing Challenge, 13 episodes every Wednesday in June, July, and August, to achieve 65,000 words or 5K a week. We’ll have a quick tip on writing, interviews from writers on challenges, and check-ins. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KE2gUjunhC7MgkXmsLiQap Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand. For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  . Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com. If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

In this episode of the Summer Writing Challenge~ A Quick Tip on what you need before you start writing, the Interview with Joan Ramirez on Organizing and Prioritizing and Reaching into Characters, and our Check-in for the week. TIMINGS 00:40 Welcome 01:18 Quick Tip #2 5:00 Interview with Joan Ramirez Bio and The Write Rules, Challenges in Writing, Prioritizing Tasks, Solutions to Challenges, Allotting Specific Times for the Major Elements of Story, Using Life to Inform Writing, Notes in Writing and Presentations, Letting Characters Lead, Using Body Language and Sensory Details 29:20 Check-in #2 31:15 Closing Total Run Time = 32:15 Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away. Our current focus is Summer Writing Challenge, 13 episodes every Wednesday in June, July, and August, to achieve 65,000 words or 5K a week. We’ll have a quick tip on writing, interviews from writers on challenges, and check-ins. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KE2gUjunhC7MgkXmsLiQap Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand. For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  . Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com. If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

Welcome to the Summer Writing Challenge which continues all through June, July, and August for 13 episodes. Join us for quick writing tips, writers talking about challenges, and goal check-ins. [The final check-in will occur the first Wednesday in September, in the 1st episode of the Fall into Poetry series.] In today’s episode, host M.A. Lee talks tech tools (only one with a cost) that create this series as well as the nuts and bolts for the writing challenge. 65,000 total words. 5,000 words per week. Counting all the words that go through the fingers. Share your own challenge goals in the comments … and subscribe so you don’t miss an episode of The Write Focus. And whatever occurs, Write on! Host M.A. Lee has published over 60 book-length titles of fiction and nonfiction under her three pen names. The Write Focus, started in 2020, offers information and guidance on productivity, process, craft, and tools, all for writers. TIMINGS 00:40 Welcome / Intro to the Summer Writing Challenge 01:48 Quick Tip #1 How to Start Writing 04:52 “Interview” with M.A. Lee on Tech Tools 10:15 Check-In How-Tos for the SWC 11:34 Closing Total Run Time = 12:34 Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away. Our current focus is Summer Writing Challenge, 13 episodes every Wednesday in June, July, and August, to achieve 65,000 words or 5K a week. We’ll have a quick tip on writing, interviews from writers on challenges, and check-ins. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KE2gUjunhC7MgkXmsLiQap Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand. For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  . Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com. If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

Writing in her car at midday is all Teresa Inge needs to create stories with strong protagonists. With 18 years of publishing experience, she keeps writing simple with laptop and trusty battery. Once she has a theme placed in her Outer Banks setting, she gives her sleuth a business so they can encounter and investigate murder. Teresa Inge is an award-winning mystery author in over a dozen anthologies and novellas.  She is a member of Sisters in Crime, the Short Mystery Fiction Society, the Virginia Writer’s Club, and Hampton Roads Writers. By day, Teresa is an administrative assistant, notary administrator, and corporate reporter for a global financial firm. When not writing, she can be found on the classic car show circuit with her Torch Red 1955 Thunderbird. This episode concludes our Writers on Writing series. Coming Next is the Summer Writing Challenge. M.A. Lee is setting the goal of 500 words daily, persistent and consistent—which can be very hard with all the distractions and disruptions of summer. The episode opens with a couple of minutes on the Challenge. The first SWC episode is June 4. Join in. TIMINGS  00:40 Wrapping Up this Series / Unwrapping the Next Series 2:20 Welcome / Introduction to Teresa Inge 4:50 Writing Anywhere 8:00 Her Writing Process 15:35 Writing Humor / Researching 22:22 Marketing & Promotions / Her Upcoming Releases 24:40 Considering Indie 28:15 Books at the Banks Festival, October 18, 2025 30:10 Closing Total Run Time = 31:15 LINKS Teresa’s Website: http://www.teresainge.com Website  https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/05/621-writers-on-writing-teresa-inge-next.html Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away. Our current focus is Writers on Writing, a series of interviews with active writers on technology, social media, process and productivity, and much more. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7Kctg7OayipF1tU2xl6TKjy Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand. For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  . Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com. If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

Linda Kay Hardie may appear as the classic cat lady, but a conversation quickly revealed the deadly mind for dastardly deeds that she applies to her fiction. Hardie is vice president of the Short Mystery Fiction Society and is an award-winning author who has appeared in many anthologies, four in 2024 and three in 2023. She writes crime, horror, and fantasy stories but no romance. She tried once, and everyone ended up dead. Tragic. When not writing adult short stories, she writes stories and books for children, ages 2 to 12. Linda writes recipes and is the reigning Spam champion for Nevada (yes, the tasty treat canned mystery meat) for her blue-ribbon recipe. Her first writing award was in fifth grade, when she won a first place trophy for an essay on fire safety. In 2022, she was honored with the Sierra Arts Foundation Literary Arts Award for fiction. Linda is a member of Short Mystery Fiction Writers, Horror Writers Association, Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators, and Cat Writers’ Association. She has a master’s in English from the University of Nevada, Reno, where she makes a living as a freelance writer and as staff working for Abyssinian cats. TIMINGS 00:40 Welcome / Introduction 3:00 A Knack for Dastardly Deeds 7:15 Tech from the Early Days 11:35 Word Perfect and Open Office 15:25 Tech Refined but not New 21:00 Writing Stories, Short vs. Long 27:50 Brainstorming / the Subconscious 30:30 Charity Anthologies 35:30 Independent Bookstores 38:40 Closing Total Run Time = 39:41 LINKS Website  https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/05/620-writers-on-writing-linda-kay-hardie.html Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away. Our current focus is Writers on Writing, a series of interviews with active writers on technology, social media, process and productivity, and much more. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7Kctg7OayipF1tU2xl6TKjy Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand. For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  . Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com. If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

Lois Winston is a strong writer, best known for her Anastasia Pollock Crafting series of cozy mysteries. Early in her career, with Manuscript #2, she acquired an agent, but the roses of her writing journey still had thorns, a lesson to us writers that we control our success. Winston definitely controlled her success. She survived a bankrupt publishing house and the closure of a publisher’s entire cozy mystery line, but it was shenanigans with the contract that brought her into self-publishing. She talks about it all, along with writing tools that can be a distraction, in this episode of The Write Focus. Bestselling and award-winning author Lois Winston writes mystery, romance, romantic suspense, chick lit, middle-grade, and nonfiction. She sold her first book in 2005. Currently she writes the critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries, featuring magazine crafts editor and reluctant amateur sleuth Anastasia Pollack, along with a supporting cast of characters, including Ralph, the Shakespeare-quoting parrot. Learn more at www.loiswinston.com where you can sign up for her newsletter and receive a free Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mini-Mystery. TIMINGS 00:40 Welcome / Writing Bug Bites 4:15 First Cozy Mystery 6:40 Writing with Humor 12:00 Finding the Direction for the Anastasia Pollock series 15:00 Crime Scene Writer / Researching 17:33 Saving the Work 20:50 Story Collages, Images for Story, and on to Covers 25:00 Dealing with Distractions 29:25 Writing is a Marathon, not a Sprint 35:00 Winston’s Next Release and Audiobooks Releasing 37:25 Closing Total Run Time = 38:25 LINKS Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers blog: www.anastasiapollack.blogspot.com Booklover’s Bench: https://bookloversbench.com The Stiletto Gang: https://www.thestilettogang.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/Anasleuth Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/722763.Lois_Winston Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/lois-winston TWF Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/05/619-writers-on-writing-lois-winston.html

While most writers settle into the comfort of one format, Elizabeth Zelvin explores the contrasting realms of poetry, novels, novellas, short stories, and flash fiction, all of them distinctly different in approach, situation, and writing style. Zelvin even loves writing cross-genre. She shares freely her writing, building a community, and writing tool tips. Elizabeth Zelvin is the author of two long-running series, the Bruce Kohler Mysteries and the Jewish historical Mendoza Family Saga as well as the Emerald Love urban fantasy mysteries.  Her series and standalone short stories appear in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, and Black Cat Mystery Magazine. EQMM has called her ”one of our genre’s most celebrated short story writers.” She currently blogs on SleuthSayers. In addition to writing fiction, Liz is a poet, a singer-songwriter and a psychotherapist who was one of the pioneers of online mental health. Liz lives in New York City and summers at the unpretentious end of East Hampton, where she swims in the ocean, gardens, photographs the resident hummingbird, and exchanges waves with the occasional whale.  TIMINGS 00:40 Welcome and Introduction 2:30 When Poetry, Mystery, and Therapy Combine 6:00 The Wide-Ranging and Expanding Mendoza Family Saga 11:45 Narrative License yet Maintaining Historical Fact 14:26 Group Mystery Blogging 17:00 Networking and the Short Mystery Fiction Society 21:00 Using Track Changes in Word 28:45 Correcting Text, Designing Books, and Creating Covers 30:45 Cross-Genre Writing 35:00 Finding Places to Read Poetry Online 37:20 Closing Total Run Time = 38:26 LINKS Her website https://www.elizabethzelvin.com/ Poe’s Deadly Daughters  https://poesdeadlydaughters.blogspot.com/ Short Mystery Fiction Society https://shortmystery.blogspot.com/ and Subscribe to https://shortmystery.groups.io/g/main  Website  https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/05/618-writers-on-writing-elizabeth-zelvin.html Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away. Our current focus is Writers on Writing, a series of interviews with active writers on technology, social media, process and productivity, and much more. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7Kctg7OayipF1tU2xl6TKjy Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand. For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  . Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com. If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)