The Habit

JJ Heller's songs remind people that they are loved. She and her husband Dave have been writing together since before they were married. Lately they have taken up a new discipline: On the first Friday of every month, they release a new song to the various digital platforms.

In this episode, Jonathan talks with JJ and Dave Heller about the quest of finding one’s voice, anxiety, the tension between wanting to be impressive and wanting to make something that lasts, and the liberating gift of collaboration.

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John Hendrix is a much-decorated author and illustrator and an art professor at Washington University in St. Louis. His work has appeared in Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, The New Yorker, Esquire, The New York Times, and elsewhere. His most recent book, The Faithful Spy, is a graphic novel about Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the plot to kill Adolph Hitler. It won a gold medal from the Society of Illustrators. In today's episode, Jonathan and John discuss the painstaking process of crafting The Faithful Spy, the interdependence of text and image, and the many motivations for making things.

Writer who makes John Hendrix want to write: 

• Annie Dillard (Pilgrim at Tinker Creek)

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John Hendrix is a much-decorated author and illustrator and an art professor at Washington University in St. Louis. His work has appeared in Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, The New Yorker, Esquire, The New York Times, and elsewhere. His most recent book, The Faithful Spy, is a graphic novel about Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the plot to kill Adolph Hitler. It won a gold medal from the Society of Illustrators. In today's episode, Jonathan and John discuss the painstaking process of crafting The Faithful Spy, the interdependence of text and image, and the many motivations for making things.

Writer who makes John Hendrix want to write: 

• Annie Dillard (Pilgrim at Tinker Creek)

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Maryrose Wood is the author of The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place, an exceedingly funny six-book series about a governess whose three young charges have been raised by wolves. She is also the proprietor of The Swanburne Academy, an online academy for families who love to learn and grow together. In this episode, Jonathan and Maryrose discuss the ways that stage acting has impacted Maryrose's writing, the implications of improv for overcoming writer's block, and some ways to get comfortable with uncertainty in the writing process.

Writers who make Maryrose want to write:

• William Shakespeare
• Stephen Sondheim
• Charlotte Bronte
• E.B. White (Charlotte's Web)
• J.R.R. Tolkien (The Hobbit)

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Drew Miller is a Nashville singer-songwriter, content developer for the Rabbit Room, and the producer of this podcast. This fall and winter he is releasing two EPs, Desolation and Consolation. In this episode, Jonathan and Drew discuss the interdependence of desolation and consolation, how to evoke genuine emotion in listeners, and the importance of truth-telling in a world full of false consolations.

Writers who make Drew Miller want to write:

• Madison Cunningham (Who Are You Now?)
• Sara Groves (Floodplain)

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Jonny Jimison is a graphic novelist and the author of The Dragon Lord Saga. In October of 2019, Rabbit Room Press is re-releasing Martin and Marco, Book 1 of Jonny's Saga, in full-color. In this episode, Jonathan and Jonny discuss visual storytelling, the age-old search for authentic voice, and board games.

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James K.A. (Jamie) Smith is a philosophy professor at Calvin College and the author of many important books, including Desiring the Kingdom, You Are What You Love, How (Not) To Be Secular, and (most recently) On the Road with Saint Augustine. In this episode, Jonathan and Jamie discuss Augustine’s account of human desire and its implications for fiction-writing; the ever-elusive mystery of the self; and the drama of redemption as the re-directing of our deepest loves.

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Sarah MacKenzie is the host of Read-Aloud Revival and the author of The Read-Aloud Family. In this episode, Jonathan and Sarah discuss the curious connection between the writer who works in quiet solitude and the family reading aloud together, the instructive power of life's limitations, and Sarah's recent forays into writing picture books.

Writers who make Sarah want to write:

• Jeanie Birdsall (The Penderwicks)
• Karina Yan Glaser (The Vanderbleekers)
• Barbara Cooney (Miss Rumphius)
• Sarah Stewart (The Gardener, The Library)

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Randall Goodgame is the creator of Slugs & Bugs, a family music and entertainment brand that includes eight albums, two books, and now a television show. It starts streaming on September 27. In this episode, Randall and Jonathan talk about the truth-telling of a childhood perspective, the relationship between silliness and sincerity, collaboration, and the sticking to one's vision even when the other people in the room know more than you do.

Preorder the Slugs and Bugs TV Show.

Writers who make Randall want to write:

• J.R.R. Tolkien
• Kate DiCamillo
• Maurice Sendak

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Rebecca Reynolds is the author of Courage, Dear Heart: Letters to a Weary World. She is currently "transposing" Spenser's Faerie Queene for a 21st-century audience. In this episode, Jonathan and Rebecca use the trinitarian paradigm of Dorothy Sayers' Mind of the Maker (Idea, Energy, Power) to discuss the multitude of influences that together make an artist's voice, then apply this wisdom with excellent practical advice on how we can better know and tend to our own creativity.

To see Rebecca's diagrams on general and particular inspiration and the energy cycle, click here. 

Writers who make Rebecca want to write:

• Gerard Manley Hopkins
• Wendell Berry
• T.S. Eliot
• George Herbert and John Donne
• Nature

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