Mad Writers Union

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Episodes

Speculative destruction, one episode at a time

Episodes

Thursday May 18, 2017

Minisode 1: Goals update

Thursday May 18, 2017

One of the Mad Writers has a little bit of news to share relating to their goals for the year. They discuss it all in this first ever minisode.

Saturday Apr 01, 2017

Episode 2.5: Oxygen Deprivation

Saturday Apr 01, 2017

On this very special episode of Mad Writers Union, the Mad Writers finally get serious. They delve deep into their psyches and come through on the other side as changed writers. Follow along on their journey to where no man, woman or non-binary person has ever been before. Welcome to the Mad Writers Union.

Friday Mar 17, 2017

Episode 2.4: Persistence with Cat Rambo

Friday Mar 17, 2017

Most working writers agree that there is one quality above all needed to make it in the business: persistence. The Mad Writers invited the legendary Cat Rambo over to talk persistence and writing. From her days at Johns Hopkins through to keeping up writing a short story a week after Clarion West and all the way to her days working in SFWA. Cat Rambo is a writer, teacher, SFWA president and previously secretary. Generous in her encouragement of new writers and brilliant in her turn of prose, she can be found at catrambo.com

Episode 2.3: Characters and Space Opera with Kameron Hurley

Sunday Feb 19, 2017

On this action-packed episode, the Mad Writers talk to Kameron Hurley. Their path wanders through non-fiction, characters, plotting or, rather, the lack thereof. Especially writers finding their own way in terms of the way they approach their methodology. Kameron shares her wisdom gained over more than a half-dozen books as well as several funny anecdotes from along the way. The big takeaway from this interview being, of course, that you need to figure out the best way for you to write, however you can.

Kameron Hurley is a writer of books and relentless mover and shaker. She is responsible for badass female bounty hunters and bug magic in the Bel Dame Apocrypha -series, sentient, carnivorous trees in the Worldbreaker Saga and a balls-to-the-wall call to action of an essay collection, The Geek Feminist Revolution. She can be found online at KameronHurley.com and on various social media sites as Kameron Hurley. Her latest novel, The Stars Are Legion, is out now.

Episode 2.2: Viable Paradise

Wednesday Feb 08, 2017

Viable Paradise, without hyperbole, changed the lives of all the Mad Writers. 16 months ago our intrepid hosts arrived on Martha's Vineyard and together with 21 other hopefuls went through a grueling week. In this episode, they go through their journey to the island as well as some of the things that have them thinking about their time there frequently. They share some reasons why they applied and what they did to get there. They also touch on the community of Viable Paradise teachers and alumni, all of whom are anxiously awaiting for next year's students, VP XXI. You can apply today!

Episode 2.1: 2017 Goals

Friday Jan 06, 2017

It's 2017! All the Mad Writers survived 2016 which at times seemed somewhat unlikely! They are now hesitantly ready to tackle not only the second season of the podcast but also a number of writing goals. Tune in to our Mad Writers planning novel drafts, workshop applications and querying, they do it all! Or at least plan to. It might even be that they are finally learning their own, human limitations and are starting to consider them in their goals. Although their podcasting may be a little rusty this time.

Episode 1.22: Final Goals Checkin

Tuesday Dec 27, 2016

The time has come for all mad writers to check in on their 2016 goals one last time! Spoiler warning; we had two failures and an epic win! As the year turns, so do the minds of our Mad Writers, returning to see what happened there.

Episode 1.21: Characterization

Friday Dec 02, 2016

Characterization, meaning presenting character through non-verbal means. This shows up in the way they choose their words, the way they dress, the way they hold themselves and all kinds of other details. The Mad Writers get flummoxed but then manage to rally and figure out several things about creating characters through showing and not telling. They discuss examples from Daredevil (the Netflix show), Mary Robinette Kowal, their own work as well as the sleazy lounge singer, Lionel Cheese that sprung out of Tim's effort to speak in a lounge singer voice.

Mary's room exercise

Episode 1.20: NaNoWriMo - threat or opportunity?

Wednesday Nov 16, 2016

NaNoWriMo is the bane and simultaneously the hope of many a writer. Every November, millions of people get together to write 50.000 words. Our intrepid Mad Writers have entirely varying experiences with this yearly event.

Jay has broken up with NaNoWriMo because while she always gets the trophy, it usually comes with completely unusable prose that she doesn't even consider worth editing. Nina on the other hand has very positive experiences with NaNoWriMo in that it is largely based on gamifying the writing of thousands of words and Nina is nothing if not a sucker for gamification. Tim, for his part, is somewhere in the middle, preferring the community over the gamification. They discuss what they each get out of NaNoWriMo (or don't, in the case of Jay), how to approach it so that you'll have the greatest chance of winning as well as making sure to emphasize not sending your newly finished NaNoWriMo story out to agents and editors.

Episode 1.19: Serial fiction with Mur Lafferty

Thursday Oct 20, 2016

There are many ways to serial fiction and Mur Lafferty knows about them all. From serializing her novellas and the book Playing For Keeps to participating in the Serial Box Bookburners serial fiction. The conversation goes from topic to topic, touching on her Star Wars novella as well as her upcoming book, Six Wakes. The Mad Writers really enjoyed talking to Mur and we hope you will enjoy listening to it.

Mur Lafferty is a podcaster, writer, editor, winner of the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer and all around reneissance creative. She can be found online at Murverse.com and on whichever social media she's on (such as Twitter) as mightymur.

Please Note! There are some audio issues with this episode that we could not get rid of and cannot figure out where they came from. We appreciate your patience.