Conversation
Author Panel: The Brutal Truth About Writing Characters You Love
Seven writers share their insights on writing processes, creative habits, and the challenges of the craft. They discuss how they manage ideas, the importance of reading, and the hobbies that inspire their storytelling.
Episode notes
Seven authors join Willow for a lively roundtable: Alana Dail, Bobby Nash, Chanel Spellman-Timmons, Chris Harrison, K.E. Poland, Parker A. Garner, and Stephanie Pass. Between them they cover dark romance, dark fantasy romance, young adult horror, urban fantasy, thrillers, westerns, and poetry.
The panel opens with introductions and new work, including K.E. Poland's Freedom's Inferno, Parker's Heart of the Raven Prince, and Bobby's Dante's Express. Horror favorites come next, from Sinners and The Exorcist to Jaws and Alien. Bobby and Chris both turn out to have been in horror films: Bobby was killed in a slasher comedy, and Chris once crossed London carrying a real scythe to play Death.
The conversation then turns to the writer's life. They talk about the emotional drop after finishing a book, which Parker compares to crossing a marathon finish line and suddenly having no more road. Chris asks whether the others can read while writing, and the answers differ: Parker avoids her own genre, Chanel reads whatever she isn't writing, and Bobby has learned to switch that off.
Their hobbies round it out. Stephanie roller skates and goes to goth nights in Texas, Chris and Bobby draw, and Alana, who owned a bakery until COVID, decorates cakes.
In this episode
- Horror movies that shaped each author
- The emotional crash after finishing a book
- Whether to read while you write
- The hobbies that feed creativity
- Inside the indie author community
Books mentioned
- Freedom's Inferno by K.E. Poland
- Heart of the Raven Prince by Parker A. Garner
- Dante's Express by Bobby Nash
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