For this month’s KC Writes interview, I put on my Managing Editor hat and put away my podcast recorder to speak with Angela Cervantes. Angela is a middle grade writer based in Kansas City; we met at the Missouri Writers Guild Convention in March of this year. I sat in the audience during her presentation, and fifteen minutes in a slide of Kansas City Voices popped up. Turns out we published her back in 2007. (Long before I was involved …
This week I sat down with Annie Raab as part of the KC Writes Interview series. I know Annie from her fiction writing, but Raab is best known in Kansas City as an art critic at The Pitch and as the Senior Prose Editor for Kansas City Voices magazine. We had a great chat in her tree house of an apartment talking about: How invisibility makes you a stronger fiction writer. The need for bravery to write criticism. A more …
This week I sat down with Dane Zeller-master of dialogue, short story writer, playwright, novelist, and unbeknownst to me prior to this interview, actor and producer. You can hear the full interview at http://jessica-conoley.podomatic.com/ where we talk about: Using dialogue as an outline for a short story. The difference of writing a short story with a lot of dialogue verses a story that is acted out on the radio. How his “silly little words” were turned into drama via radio …
Meet the (indirect) inspiration for the KC Writes interview series: Shannon A. Thompson! I had a great time interviewing Shannon—not only is she an extremely versatile writer, but she’s also the first fantasy author I’ve been lucky enough to interview. Check out the full podcast at http://jessica-conoley.podomatic.com/ for details on: The surreal nature of being the guest of honor for events that you used to sit in the audience for. Novel writing vs. writing shorter works, and how going back and …
I had a great time interviewing Pamela Eglinski for my KC Writes interview series. Pam and I first met through Kansas City Writers Group, and we worked together on Volume 10 of Kansas City Voices. We had tons of fun talking about: The challenges of writing: novels, novellas, and anthologies. Pam talks about how each form is a beast of their own. How her art background can serve as inspiration, and how a Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec fits into her current …
I launched my KC Writes interview series this month, and Dawn Downey was brave enough to be my first interviewee. The series evolved from the Missouri Writers Guild conference and a conversation I had with another Kansas City based writer. She said she had a hard time meeting writers around town, which was crazy to me because it feels like everyone I know is a writer. After a few days ruminating I came up with the idea to interview KC …
If you missed part 1 click here to catch up. “How do you balance your editorial brain with your writing brain? Is it symbiotic? Or do you have to mute your editorial brain to finish your first drafts?” I ask. George R.R. Martin pauses, “Now that’s an interesting question.” Interesting. That could be good. It means all my words came out of my mouth, in somewhat of the right order, in a way that made sense. And he’s not answering …
You may remember My Great Escape a few weeks ago that ended at a super secret library event. At that event the guest of honor was George RR Martin. While I would like to assume everyone knows who GRRM is, I realize my blog includes readers (like my Grandma) who may not have stumbled upon one of his novels. The important thing to know is not only is he a hell of a writer, but he’s also an extremely talented …