From time to time, here at the Porchlight podcast we will be sharing a LIVE podcast directly from the party porch, with a live audience. Applause. Laughter. Wine and cheese. (Perhaps this will replace our tag line: Retreat. Create. Celebrate.) What could be better? Today we share with you our first LIVE AND DIRECT FROM THE PARTY PORCH episode, complete with audience questions.
Episode Three features the incredibly multi-talented Katherine Catmull, discussing her glorious new novel The Radiant Road.
Katherine and I discuss bad reviews, working in various creative communities, how she came to write about fairies, the “Freedom” to turn off the internet, character intention and motivation and how to teach that in our work with other writers, and how for Katherine acting is more like reading than writing, and the best description of show vs tell that I guarantee you will have ever heard.
We also get into the Oxford comma debate, and her work with her big famous editor Julie Strauss Gable, how Cynthia Leitich Smith hits delete at the end of first drafts, and how following our obsessions can lead to a career.
Show notes:
Julie Strauss Gabel feature in the New York Times.
Katherine Catmull’s article on World Building for the Austin Chronicle.
Texans: Austin, Dallas, Houston, Hill Country folks this means YOU–you can study with Katherine right here at The Writing Barn. She will be teaching World Building: Emotional Engagement with us THIS August. You can register for her class here.