Last week, I sat down with Jake McAtee and Jared Longshore on The Right Stuff and talked about some of my favorite aspects of the MFA program, how to chase a fresh idea, and one of my biggest pet peeves when writers talk about their goals. Give it a listen here and pay attention to the part where Jake gives a fantastic X meets Y idea that one of YOU could write. Or maybe you’re already writing it. If you are, let me know, I want to read it.

I also had a great discussion with Lennox Kalifungwa on Of Flames and Crowns about storytelling, dystopian literature, and escapism. If you’re inspired to write great stories after listening, then please do remember to mention me in your acknowledgements page.

I am this close (THIS CLOSE!) to getting to share some exciting news publicly, but as is the way with publishing, you’ll have to wait a little longer. When it’s time, I shall send a special raven thundering into your inboxes, screeching loudly. You won’t miss him. Unless these emails are going into your spam filter, in which case you won’t even see this email, so I’m not sure why I’m talking to you.

What I’m Working On:

If you listened to The Right Stuff episode linked above, you’ll notice I said I’m working my way through a rough draft. I didn’t want to talk about it on the show, but readers of the Harbinger could probably guess that it’s the sequel to The Winter King. I’m now over 30K words in and, to my surprise, I’m still loving the story. Usually, this is the point where I start to see all the ugly blemishes, and my writing sessions become more work and less frolicking in fields.

Let the reader understand, I can still see all the blemishes (I write little notes to myself in the margins like “too many demons??” and “why does his injury keep disappearing and reappearing??”) but I haven’t had this much fun writing a story in a while. I credit this partially to discovering so many moments I was excited about writing in the brainstorming stage (for more on that, see the writing tip here) and I keep hitting those moments every few days. Also, the scene I’m most excited about writing is near the end, so I’ve got that carrot dangling in front of my nose to keep me going.

What I’m Reading:

I’m trying something new for a while! Rather than just run through a list of books I read that month, I’m going to highlight a favorite recent read instead. If you’d like to see the full list, you can follow me on Goodreads, but since I don’t care to publicly slam books I didn’t like, this portion of the newsletter has always felt a little vague (did she like that one? Why did she read that?).

So, my pick for April is My Family and Other Animals. “When the unconventional Durrell family can no longer endure the damp, gray English climate, they do what any sensible family would do: sell their house and relocate to the sunny Greek isle of Corfu.” If you’re in the mood for a light, humorous trip to a Greek island populated with a cast of eccentric characters, then this is the book for you. If you love rich descriptions and natural history, then this is also the book for you. It was a perfect, quick excursion to another place and time, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

A Writing Tip:

One of the best ways to relieve the solitude of writing is by finding other writer friends. The next best thing is imaginary friends. And by imaginary friends, I mean podcasters. Admit it, we’ve all been there, listening along to a podcast and chuckling at the jokes and thinking, “typical Brandon” as if we knew them when they couldn’t pick us out of a lineup.

I have found different podcasts helpful over the years, whether it’s the practical tips, insider secrets, or even pep talks. While I’m not a huge podcast listener, and there are probably thousands of writing podcasts out there, the three I’ve found the most helpful are Writing Excuses (I don’t listen anymore, but the seasons I found most helpful were the ones led by Brandon Sanderson), The Novel Marketing Podcast, and The Manuscript Academy.

That’s all for April! See you in May. Hopefully earlier than the end of May. But I make no promises, nor do the ravens.

Christine