Lit Service

Morgan Rath, senior publicist at Macmillan Children's publishing, joins Caitlin this week to talk about what a publicist actually does, what authors can expect while working with one, and things authors can do on their own or to help a publicist get the word out about your book.

No first chapter critique this week! Let us know on social media or e-mail to let us know why you listen to the show--do you like the critiques? Do you prefer the behind the scenes in publishing episodes or the craft discussions? Who would you like to hear from on the show?

Aliah, Caitlin, Cameron and Kristen talk about constructing fake political intrigue in stories and how to make it interesting and peak amounts of "intrigue-y".

The chapter we critique is here.

Find out how to support Lit Service on our Patreon.

Lyndall Clipstone joins the podcast to chat about what gothic romance is and how to write it. Lyndall writes YA Gothic romance about monsters and the girls who like to kiss them. A former youth librarian, she has a Bachelors in Creative Writing and a Graduate Diploma in Library and Information Management and is the author of Lakesedge. Find out more about Lyndall on her website, or you can order her book here.

To check out the submission we critique go here.

To find out how to support the podcast, visit us on Patreon.

Margaret Owen joins the Lit Service Crew to chat about character stakes, both personal and existential, and how to build them up so your readers minds explode (but not because there are thousands of planet-killing weapons waiting to declare war.)

Margaret is the authorThe Merciful Crow,The Faithless Hawk, andLittle Thieves which just barely came out this week as of this podcast publishing. It is a fabulous twist on Grimm's The Goose Girl with lots of scamming, teasing, and a girl cursed to turn into jewels if she cannot give back the things she's stolen and you should check it out.

If you would like to see the chapter we critiqued with all our notes, go here.

To learn more about Margaret, buy a copy of the book, and see the fun character art and comics she's illustrated herself to go with Little Thieves, visit her website.

We mentioned in the show that we're looking for a sound designer, if you are interested in working with us, please e-mail us at [email protected].

To learn how to support he podcast, visit our Patreon, where you can get early access to the show, sometimes video versions of our recordings, as well as occasional bonus content.

If you'd like to submit your work for us to critique, check out our submission guidelines and see who we have coming on next on our website.

Ayana Gray joins the Lit Service Crew to chat about the nuts and bolts of building a scene, ways to ground your reader, how to balance different types of interaction on the page and how to know if your scene is interesting.

Ayana is the author of (highly anticipated!) YA fantasy Beasts of Prey, and is a lover of all things monsters, mythos, and #MelaninMagic. To learn more about her and her book, check out her website.

For the chapter we critiqued with our notes, go here.

To learn how to support Lit Service (and get early access to episodes and some bonus content), check out our Patreon.

The Lit Service crew does a full cast reading of a chapter from Caitlin's upcoming book, SHE WHO RIDES THE STORM, out September 21, 2021.

If you'd like to get a copy of the book, please consider supporting your local independent bookstores!

For a signed copy, you can pre-order from The King's English (before September 19th)

Or from Anderson's Bookshop (whenever!) Both bookstores can ship to you wherever you are and each signed copy will come with a special bookmark. For either bookstore, be sure to put in the comments that you want it signed an personalized.

Bethany C. Morrow and CB Lee join the cast to talk about how to approach writing historical fiction, problems that crop up when writers don't do proper research for the time period and society they are trying to represent and the peoples and cultures that are often left out of the narrative.

Bethany C. Morrow is an Indie Bestselling author who writes for adult and young adult audiences, in genres ranging from speculative literary to contemporary fantasy to historical. She is author of the novels MEM and A SONG BELOW WATER, which is an Audie, Ignyte and Locus finalist. She is editor/contributor to the young adult anthology TAKE THE MIC, the 2020 ILA Social Justice in Literature award winner. Her work has been chosen as Indies Introduce and Indie Next picks, and featured in The LA Times, Forbes, Bustle, Buzzfeed, and more. She is included on USA TODAY's list of 100 Black novelists and fiction writers you should read. You can find more about her and buy her books here.

CB Lee is a Lambda Literary Award nominated writer of young adult and middle grade fiction. Her works include the Juinor Library Guild selectedA Clash of Steel: A Treasure Island Remix(Feiwel and Friends), theSidekick Squadseries (Duet Books),Ben 10graphic novels (Boom! Studios),Out Now: Queer We Go Again(HarperTeen),Minecraft: The Shipwreck(Del Rey Books),From A Certain Point Of View: The Empire Strikes Back(Del Rey Books). Lee’s work has been featured in Teen Vogue, Wired Magazine, Hypable, Tor’s Best of Fantasy and Sci Fi and the American Library Association’s Rainbow List. For more about her and to buy her books, visit her website.

If you'd like to read the chapter we critiqued with our notes, you can find it here.

To find out how to support Lit Service, get extra content (like the video versions of these episodes, bonus hot seat critiques and occasional other bonus material, as well as opportunities to get critiques from the cast) visit our Patreon!

The Lit Service Crew chats about the role of betrayal between characters and how to accomplish it so your reader is both surprised and betrayed as well.

If you'd like to see the video version of the episode (and a few other episodes that we've already recorded that aren't available on the feed yet!) check out our Patreon. There are are extra episodes and critiques to listen to as well as opportunities to get personal critiques from the cast!

We critiqued this chapter hot-seat critique-style (we read it out loud!) so there's no text chapter to look at this week.

Jeff Zentner joins the Lit Service cast to chat about poetry, how it can be used in a novel, and how authors who are interested in learning to write poetry (or more poetic prose!) can get started.

Jeff Zentner is the author of New York Times Notable Book The Serpent King, Goodbye Days, Rayne & Delilah’s Midnite Matinee, and In the Wild Light which released on August 10th (with four starred reviews!). For more about Jeff and his books, visit his website.

If you'd like to read the chapter we critique and read our written notes, it can be found here.

Please consider supporting this podcast! You can find out how (along with the benefits to supporting us, like early access to episodes, video versions of the podcast, extra episodes, and a chance to get critiques from cast members) by visiting our Patreon.

John Blackham joins Caitlin in talking about constructed languages authors create for their sci-fi and fantasy worlds.

Resources and other tidbits John mentions:

Caillou clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiSLxeszVCo&ab_channel=tovaeditshttps://www.cnn.com/2021/07/17/health/sunscreen-recall-cancer-wellness/index.html

Instant conlang generator: https://gwistix.github.io/ling/conlanger

Mark Rosenfelder’s Language Construction Kit: https://www.zompist.com/kit.html

For fun, some of John’s conlang, The Lord’s Prayer in Hellish-Latin creole:

Bader noṣerum, qui eḷwet in ǧevu Saṇificátus nomeus tuí foṣet. Venítus foṣet regḷeṛu tuí. Beṇorwium tuí facétus foṣet in teṛa et quoque in ǧevu. Panum nóbís dá xadix lebiére pro ǧuic dié Et iteredá nóbís debití noṣerum et iteredámus iḷós que debitátí nóbís sunet. Et non lemá nós in deṇaší, autem liberá nós ex malí.

Audio link, if you’d like to hear it spoken.