Tue, 10 December 2019
First Draft Episode #223: Amanda Montell Amanda Montell, debut author of Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language, joins Sarah to talk about socio-linguistics, and her upcoming book Mindfuck: The Secret Language of Cults (Spoiler: You’re Already Using It). Links and Topics Mentioned In This Episode -
Amanda loved reading memoirs growing up, including David Sedaris (author of Calypso, Me Talk Pretty One Day, and Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim), Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt, Dry: A Memoir and Running with Scissors: A Memoir by Augusten Burroughs, and Tiny Ladies in Shiny Pants: Based on a True Story by Jill Soloway, writer on Six Feet Under and creator of Transparent. When she was very young, she read the Chicken Soup for the Soul books, including Chicken Soup for the Teenaged Soul -
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers and Gulp: Adventures Down the Elementary Canal, both by Mary Roach, whom Amanda admires greatly -
Joan Didion (author of The Year of Magical Thinking and Slouching Toward Bethlehem: Essays) and Nora Ephron (author of Heartburn and I Feel Bad About My Neck, and writer and director of Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail) -
She took a few classes at Writing Pad in Los Angeles to keep up her nonfiction writing chops -
Amanda desperately wanted to be published in The Rumpus, like one of her role models, Julie Buntin, who wrote Marlena: A Novel. Julie also wrote “How Queen Became the Ultimate Compliment” for Cosmopolitan. And she was! Read her article, “Baltimore, Offline.” -
With Rebecca Odes, creator of Wifey.tv with co-founder Jill Soloway, Amanda developed the web series The Dirty Word -
Amanda was edited by Karen Rinaldi, publisher of HarperWave, an imprint of HarperCollins -
Rose Wong illustrated pieces of art for the book -
The New York Times wrote a glowing review of Wordslut, though it did take issue with the number of times Amanda used the word “dude” -
There are lots of stories of men super geniuses -- like House, Psych, The Mentalist, Mr. Robot. But Amanda is writing a female language genius for FX, with whom she struck a deal for the TV rights to Wordslut. -
Pamela Adlon, creator of Better Things, is working with Amanda on her proposed TV show -
If you’re interested in Scientology, definitely check out Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief by Lawrence Wright, or Wright’s New Yorker piece, Apostate: Paul Haggis vs. The Church of Scientology which the book was based on, or the HBO documentary, Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief. -
Amanda has a personal connection to cults through her father’s experience of being forced to live in the Synanon cult in the Bay Area. Learn more about Synanon in, “The Story of This Drug Rehab-Turned Violent Cult is Wild, Wild Country-level Bizarre,” by Hillel Aron for Los Angeles Magazine -
The Daily podcast episode that featured WeWork made me insane -
Lindy West’s The Witches are Coming discusses how utterly unconvincing these cult leader men can be -
Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos is another fascination of mine - I recommend listening to The Dropout podcast series about her, and Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in Silicon Valley by John Carreyrou is amazing -
30 For 30’s podcast series about Bikram Yoga -
I refer to “The President’s Speech,” one of the many case studies included in Oliver Sack’s The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat I want to hear from you! Have a question about writing or creativity for Sarah Enni or her guests to answer? To leave a voicemail, call (818) 533-1998. Subscribe To First Draft with Sarah Enni Every Tuesday, I speak to storytellers like Veronica Roth, author of Divergent; Linda Holmes, author and host of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast; Jonny Sun, internet superstar, illustrator of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Gmorning, Gnight! and author and illustrator of Everyone’s an Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too; Michael Dante DiMartino, co-creator of Avatar: The Last Airbender; John August, screenwriter of Big Fish, Charlie’s Angels, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; or Rhett Miller, musician and frontman for The Old 97s. Together, we take deep dives on their careers and creative works. Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. It’s free! Rate, Review, and Recommend How do you like the show? Please take a moment to rate and review First Draft with Sarah Enni in Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Your honest and positive review helps others discover the show -- so thank you! Is there someone you think would love this podcast as much as you do? Please share this episode on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or via carrier pigeon (maybe try a text or e-mail, come to think of it). Just click the Share button at the bottom of this post! Thanks again!
Direct download: Amanda_Montell_FINAL.mp3
Category: Literature
-- posted at: 3:00am PDT
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Tue, 3 December 2019
First Draft Episode #222: Ryan La Sala Ryan La Sala, debut author of fantasy YA novel Reverie. If you enjoy this conversation with Ryan, hear more from him over at the What Book Hooked You? podcast! Links and Topics Mentioned In This Episode -
Some of the animation that inspired young Ryan came from seminal video game Final Fantasy, and epic superhero series Sailor Moon -
Glee (TV show) -
Ryan found Alex London’s book Proxy (listen to Alex’s First Draft interviews here and here) and books written by David Levithan, New York Times bestselling author of Every Day, Boy Meets Boy, and Two Boys Kissing, and that inspired Ryan to write his own gay YA story. Ryan also found A. R. Kahler and Adam Silvera’s episodes of First Draft! -
Jeffree Starr, famous makeup artist, with whom Ryan got into a MySpace fight -
The epigraph of Reverie is a quote from Yoko Ono’s Grapefruit -
Ryan’s short pitch for Reverie was: Inception meets RuPaul’s Drag Race -
Ryan had a situation in high school that was not unlike what was portrayed in the Love, Simon movie, based on Simon Versus the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertali (listen to her First Draft episode here) -
The Netflix TV show Sex Education -
Marsha P. Johnson, trans activist -
Ryan talked about his #DVPit experience on the Write or Die podcast -
In the cartoon of Beauty and the Beast, the wardrobe commits manslaughter - Ryan’s Halloween costume as the Wardrobe is everything -
Kirsten Hubbard, author of Like Mandarin, Wanderlove, and Watch the Sky and Race the Night, and more (listen to her First Draft episode here) talks on voice memos on her phone to break story I want to hear from you! Have a question about writing or creativity for Sarah Enni or her guests to answer? To leave a voicemail, call (818) 533-1998. Subscribe To First Draft with Sarah Enni Every Tuesday, I speak to storytellers like Veronica Roth, author of Divergent; Linda Holmes, author and host of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast; Jonny Sun, internet superstar, illustrator of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Gmorning, Gnight! and author and illustrator of Everyone’s an Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too; Michael Dante DiMartino, co-creator of Avatar: The Last Airbender; John August, screenwriter of Big Fish, Charlie’s Angels, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; or Rhett Miller, musician and frontman for The Old 97s. Together, we take deep dives on their careers and creative works. Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. It’s free! Rate, Review, and Recommend How do you like the show? Please take a moment to rate and review First Draft with Sarah Enni in Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Your honest and positive review helps others discover the show -- so thank you! Is there someone you think would love this podcast as much as you do? Please share this episode on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or via carrier pigeon (maybe try a text or e-mail, come to think of it). Just click the Share button at the bottom of this post! Thanks again!
Direct download: Ryan_La_Sala_FINAL.mp3
Category: Literature
-- posted at: 3:08am PDT
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Tue, 26 November 2019
First Draft Episode #221: Zan Romanoff and Sarah Enni open the mailbag! Got five minutes? Help First Draft by taking this 2019 Listener Survey! Zan Romanoff, author of A Song to Take the World Apart, Grace and the Fever, and the forthcoming Look (out March 31, 2020) joins Sarah Enni to answer listener questions. Have a question about writing or creativity for Sarah Enni or her guests to answer? To leave a voicemail, call (818) 533-1998. Links and Topics Mentioned In This Episode -
Make sure to listen to Zan’s first appearance on First Draft, here! -
My cat Hammer! -
The Bluebeard story -
A question from Morgan Matson, New York Times bestselling author of Save the Date, The Unexpected Everything, and more (listen to her First Draft interviews here and here)! -
A question from Elissa Sussman, author of Burn and Stray (listen to her First Draft interview here) -
Kate O'Shaughnessy is the author of The Lonely Heart of Maybelle Lane, a middle grade novel coming out March 3, 2020 -
I reference the wisdom that Cindy Pon (author of Want and its sequel Ruse, the Silver Phoenix series and more) and Justin A. Reynolds (debut author of The Opposite of Always; and Sarah Enni, author of Tell Me Everything) both agreed on this First Draft LIVE from YA-Hoo Fest episode that they don’t know if a book is going to be a book until they’re written 40,000 words -
I turned off my brain and enjoyed RuPaul’s Drag Race -
Zan is obsessed with Apple TV’s new series, Dickinson -
I want to watch it because I approve of the way John Mulaney rips on Henry David Thoreau -
The way Zan feels about Dickinson is the way I felt about Booksmart, which is the same spot that was tickled by The O.C. -
Ava Dellaira, author of Love Letters to the Dead and In Search of Us. Listen to her episode of First Draft here -
Zan just read Brandy Colbert’s The Voting Booth, coming out July 7, 2020 (listen to her episodes of First Draft here and here), and Robyn Schneider’s You Don’t Live Here (coming out June 2, 2020) -
Sarah is about to read Topics of Conversation: A Novel by Miranda Popkey (coming out January 7, 2020), and Medallion Status: True Stories by Secret Rooms by John Hodgman (I loved Vacationland: True Stories From Painful Beaches as well), and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: And Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks I want to hear from you! Have a question about writing or creativity for Sarah Enni or her guests to answer? To leave a voicemail, call (818) 533-1998. Subscribe To First Draft with Sarah Enni Every Tuesday, I speak to storytellers like Veronica Roth, author of Divergent; Linda Holmes, author and host of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast; Jonny Sun, internet superstar, illustrator of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Gmorning, Gnight! and author and illustrator of Everyone’s an Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too; Michael Dante DiMartino, co-creator of Avatar: The Last Airbender; John August, screenwriter of Big Fish, Charlie’s Angels, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; or Rhett Miller, musician and frontman for The Old 97s. Together, we take deep dives on their careers and creative works. Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. It’s free! Rate, Review, and Recommend How do you like the show? Please take a moment to rate and review First Draft with Sarah Enni in Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Your honest and positive review helps others discover the show -- so thank you! Is there someone you think would love this podcast as much as you do? Please share this episode on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or via carrier pigeon (maybe try a text or e-mail, come to think of it). Just click the Share button at the bottom of this post! Thanks again!
Direct download: Mailbag_FINAL_2.mp3
Category: Literature
-- posted at: 1:48am PDT
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Tue, 19 November 2019
First Draft Episode #220: Rick Yancy, Cindy Pon, Justin Reynolds, and Sarah Enni LIVE at YA-Hoo Fest Got five minutes? Help First Draft by taking this 2019 Listener Survey! YA-Hoo Fest kicked off with this LIVE recording of the First Draft with Sarah Enni on Sept. 21, 2019. Hear writers talk about plotting the end of humanity, domed Chinese playgrounds, reef-keeping, the universal experience of grief. Featuring: Rick Yancey, New York Times bestselling author of the Fifth Wave series, the Monstrumologist series, and more; Cindy Pon, Want and its sequel Ruse, the Silver Phoenix series and more; Justin A. Reynolds, debut author of The Opposite of Always; and Sarah Enni, author of Tell Me Everything. Links and Topics Mentioned In This Episode I want to hear from you! Have a question about writing or creativity for Sarah Enni or her guests to answer? To leave a voicemail, call (818) 533-1998. Subscribe To First Draft with Sarah Enni Every Tuesday, I speak to storytellers like Veronica Roth, author of Divergent; Linda Holmes, author and host of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast; Jonny Sun, internet superstar, illustrator of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Gmorning, Gnight! and author and illustrator of Everyone’s an Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too; Michael Dante DiMartino, co-creator of Avatar: The Last Airbender; John August, screenwriter of Big Fish, Charlie’s Angels, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; or Rhett Miller, musician and frontman for The Old 97s. Together, we take deep dives on their careers and creative works. Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. It’s free! Rate, Review, and Recommend How do you like the show? Please take a moment to rate and review First Draft with Sarah Enni in Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Your honest and positive review helps others discover the show -- so thank you! Is there someone you think would love this podcast as much as you do? Please share this episode on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or via carrier pigeon (maybe try a text or e-mail, come to think of it). Just click the Share button at the bottom of this post! Thanks again!
Direct download: Yahoo_Fest_FINAL.mp3
Category: Literature
-- posted at: 3:21am PDT
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Tue, 12 November 2019
First Draft Episode #219: Janet Varney Janet Varney, Emmy-Nominated actor, comedian, writer, producer, and podcaster. She has appeared in dozens of TV shows, including You’re the Worst, Take My Wife, Burning Love, Stan Against Evil, and Fortune Rookie, and the voice of Korra in The Legend of Korra. She is also the co-founder, creative director, and producer of SF Sketchfest: the San Francisco Comedy Festival (now in its 19th year!), and hosts The JV Club podcast. Links and Topics Mentioned In This Episode -
Take the First Draft listener survey! -
David Owen and Cole Stratton were in a sketch group, Totally False People, with Janet Varney. Together the three of them founded SF Sketchfest, and continue to run the annual month-long comedy festival to this day -
Totally False People got asked to perform at the Aspen Comedy Festival, and Janet was scoped out by Mad TV -
Bruce McCullough, one of the members of influential sketch comedy group Kids in the Hall, is one of Janet’s closest friends. They met in Janet’s capacity as producer of Sketchfest -
One of Janet’s earlier roles was on Love, Inc., a Busy Phillips project about a matchmaker -
Janet was able to craft her character on Burning Love with the blessing of Ken Marino and Erica Oyama, creators of the movies -
Janet plays “Janet Varney” on her IFC show, Fortune Rookie -
Janet (and I) went through the Upright Citizens Brigade improv school, which is focused on “game” as opposed to iO West and The Groundlings, where comedians create broad characters. Matt Besser is one of the four founders of UCB. -
Janet was the voice of Korra in The Legend of Korra, the sequel to Avatar: The Last Airbender (not for nothing, but I interviewed Michael DiMartino, co-creator of Avatar, and you can listen to that conversation here). -
Much like with Korra, I have read that the cast of Adventure Time recorded the show all in a room together. -
Janet’s podcast The JV Club is amazing! Check it out — you can start with my episode, if you like! -
Doug Benson’s podcast, Doug Loves Movies, and Jimmy Pardo’s podcast, Never Not Funny, were two comedy podcasts that were around when Janet started her own -
Pete Holmes’s You Made it Weird and Marc Maron’s WTF with Marc Maron are two long-form interview podcasts that inspired me to start First Draft -
Memento was a wildly original movie, but Janet argues that level of uniqueness should not be the standard all creators hold themselves to. Save the Cat: The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need by Blake Snyder is a great shorthand guide for a formula to write a screenplay. I want to hear from you! Have a question about writing or creativity for Sarah Enni or her guests to answer? To leave a voicemail, call (818) 533-1998. You can also email the podcast at firstdraftwithsarahenni@gmail.com. Subscribe To First Draft with Sarah Enni Every Tuesday, I speak to storytellers like Veronica Roth, author of Divergent; Linda Holmes, author and host of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast; Jonny Sun, internet superstar, illustrator of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Gmorning, Gnight! and author and illustrator of Everyone’s an Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too; Michael Dante DiMartino, co-creator of Avatar: The Last Airbender; John August, screenwriter of Big Fish, Charlie’s Angels, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; or Rhett Miller, musician and frontman for The Old 97s. Together, we take deep dives on their careers and creative works. Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. It’s free! Rate, Review, and Recommend How do you like the show? Please take a moment to rate and review First Draft with Sarah Enni in Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Your honest and positive review helps others discover the show -- so thank you! Is there someone you think would love this podcast as much as you do? Please share this episode on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or via carrier pigeon (maybe try a text or e-mail, come to think of it). Just click the Share button at the bottom of this post! Thanks again!
Direct download: Janet_Varney_FINAL.mp3
Category: Literature
-- posted at: 2:40am PDT
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Tue, 5 November 2019
First Draft Episode #218: Kyle Flynn Kyle Flynn is the keyboardist with indie rock group Father John Misty, as well as writer of television and movies. Links and Topics Mentioned In This Episode -
The documentary, The Decline of Western Civilization: Part II, is absolutely incredible -
Kyle taught himself to play guitar using tablature in Guitar World magazine -
Kyle and I both went to the University of Washington and graduated from the English department -
Acceptance (check out their debut album Phantom, and they have reunited and released a new record, Collision By Design) was the pop-punk band who first brought Kyle on tour as a merch guy, and he ended up filling in and touring with them for months -
Other bands in Kyle’s post-college musical world included my then-favs (okay, still some of my favs), Further Seems Forever, Thursday, Finch, and Yellowcard -
Kyle and his brother Kevin were friends with comedian and actor Nick Thune (check out his specials, Folk Hero and Good Guy), and when Nick went to Los Angeles to pursue comedy, he sold Kyle and Kevin’s script in the room with Warner Brothers -
In 2007, right when Kyle and his brother Kevin got to LA to work on the script they’d sold to Warner Brothers, the WGA (Writer’s Guild of America West) went on strike. But Kyle and Kevin made a lot of great connections while picketing with other writers, like Steve Zaillian, Academy Award-winning screenwriter of Schindler’s List -
Kyle’s friend from Acceptance, Christian McAlhaney went on to join a new band, Anberlin -
Kyle played in The Narcs, the house band for Nick’s BIG Talk Show, the late night talk show spoof Nick Thune put on monthly at the Upright Citizens Brigade theater in Los Angeles. Other members of The Narcs include: Liv Marsico (of Liphemra and previously drummer with Cold War Kids and Gothic Tropic) and Miles Gray (comedian and current co-host of The Daily Zeitgeist podcast). While doing that gig, Kyle met Josh Tillman (a.k.a. Father John Misty) and left an interesting impression. -
Josh Tillman (a.k.a. Father John Misty) was previously the drummer in the Seattle indie band Fleet Foxes I want to hear from you! Have a question about writing or creativity for Sarah Enni or her guests to answer? To leave a voicemail, call (818) 533-1998. You can also email the podcast at firstdraftwithsarahenni@gmail.com. Subscribe To First Draft with Sarah Enni Every Tuesday, I speak to storytellers like Veronica Roth, author of Divergent; Linda Holmes, author and host of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast; Jonny Sun, internet superstar, illustrator of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Gmorning, Gnight! and author and illustrator of Everyone’s an Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too; Michael Dante DiMartino, co-creator of Avatar: The Last Airbender; John August, screenwriter of Big Fish, Charlie’s Angels, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; or Rhett Miller, musician and frontman for The Old 97s. Together, we take deep dives on their careers and creative works. Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. It’s free! Rate, Review, and Recommend How do you like the show? Please take a moment to rate and review First Draft with Sarah Enni in Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Your honest and positive review helps others discover the show -- so thank you! Is there someone you think would love this podcast as much as you do? Please share this episode on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or via carrier pigeon (maybe try a text or e-mail, come to think of it). Just click the Share button at the bottom of this post! Thanks again!g
Direct download: Kyle_Flynn_FINAL_2.mp3
Category: Literature
-- posted at: 2:38am PDT
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Tue, 29 October 2019
First Draft Episode #217: Ruta Sepetys Ruta Sepetys, #1 New York Times bestselling and Carnegie-winning author of Between Shades of Gray, Out of the Easy, and Salt to the Sea, talks about her newest novel, Fountains of Silence. This episode was brought to you by Freedom — upgrade to Premium and use code FIRSTDRAFT for 40% off a yearly or Forever plan! Links and Topics Mentioned In This Episode I want to hear from you! Have a question about writing or creativity for Sarah Enni or her guests to answer? To leave a voicemail, call (818) 533-1998. You can also email the podcast at firstdraftwithsarahenni@gmail.com. Subscribe To First Draft with Sarah Enni Every Tuesday, I speak to storytellers like Veronica Roth, author of Divergent; Linda Holmes, author and host of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast; Jonny Sun, internet superstar, illustrator of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Gmorning, Gnight! and author and illustrator of Everyone’s an Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too; Michael Dante DiMartino, co-creator of Avatar: The Last Airbender; John August, screenwriter of Big Fish, Charlie’s Angels, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; or Rhett Miller, musician and frontman for The Old 97s. Together, we take deep dives on their careers and creative works. Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. It’s free! Rate, Review, and Recommend How do you like the show? Please take a moment to rate and review First Draft with Sarah Enni in Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Your honest and positive review helps others discover the show -- so thank you! Is there someone you think would love this podcast as much as you do? Please share this episode on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or via carrier pigeon (maybe try a text or e-mail, come to think of it). Just click the Share button at the bottom of this post! Thanks again!
Direct download: Ruta_Sepetys_FINAL.mp3
Category: Literature
-- posted at: 3:14am PDT
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Tue, 22 October 2019
First Draft Episode #216: Mallory Kass (a.k.a. Kass Morgan) Kass Morgan, New York Times bestselling author of The 100 and Light Years (a.k.a. Mallory Kass, senior editor at Scholastic). Supernova, the sequel to Light Years, is out now! Links and Topics Mentioned In This Episode -
Kass’s father wrote for Seinfeld -
Paula Abdul (her iconic Forever Your Girl is a great starting point) and Janet Jackson (oh my god, where to begin? Rhythm Nation is a must, and The Velvet Rope is everything— also apparently she wrote a book! True You: A Journey to Finding and Loving Yourself) were two pop stars Mallory was totally unaware of when she moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles at age 11 -
Once she figured out that she was not destined to be an academic, Kass moved to New York and started an internship at Scholastic with Arthur Levine, who edited a little book series called Harry Potter (when she started at the publisher, Levine was working on Deathly Hallows in secret) -
Kass’s bosses at Scholastic, Rachel Griffiths and David Levithan (New York Times bestselling author of Every Day and Boy Meets Boy), were instrumental in making her feel comfortable pursuing writing as well as editing -
Cheryl B. Klein, associate editor at Scholastic and Kass’s co-worker, encouraged Kass to talk to Alloy Entertainment, a book packaging firm known for projects such as Gossip Girl by Cecily von Ziegesar and Vampire Diaries by L. J. Smith. Alloy contacted Kass to work on a new project, The 100! -
I loved Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century, which features a space school, and so did Kass! -
Looking for Alaska by John Green (which is about to be a Hulu show) is the type of boarding school narrative that we’re more accustomed to reading — Kass threw the boarding school into space! -
My humblebrag about moderating a panel on worldbuilding which featured N.K. Jemisin (and also Marie Lu, Marissa Meyer, and Joe Hill!) at BookCon. I want to hear from you! Have a question about writing or creativity for Sarah Enni or her guests to answer? To leave a voicemail, call (818) 533-1998. You can also email the podcast at firstdraftwithsarahenni@gmail.com. Subscribe To First Draft with Sarah Enni Every Tuesday, I speak to storytellers like Veronica Roth, author of Divergent; Linda Holmes, author and host of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast; Jonny Sun, internet superstar, illustrator of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Gmorning, Gnight! and author and illustrator of Everyone’s an Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too; Michael Dante DiMartino, co-creator of Avatar: The Last Airbender; John August, screenwriter of Big Fish, Charlie’s Angels, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; or Rhett Miller, musician and frontman for The Old 97s. Together, we take deep dives on their careers and creative works. Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. It’s free! Rate, Review, and Recommend How do you like the show? Please take a moment to rate and review First Draft with Sarah Enni in Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Your honest and positive review helps others discover the show -- so thank you! Is there someone you think would love this podcast as much as you do? Please share this episode on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or via carrier pigeon (maybe try a text or e-mail, come to think of it). Just click the Share button at the bottom of this post! Thanks again!
Direct download: Mallory_Kass_FINAL_2.mp3
Category: Literature
-- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 15 October 2019
First Draft Episode #215: Leigh Barudgo Leigh Barudgo, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Shadow and Bone series, the Six of Crows duology, and the King of Scars duology, discusses her first adult novel, Ninth House. This episode was brought to you by Freedom — upgrade to Premium and use code FIRSTDRAFT for 40% off a yearly or Forever plan! LINKS AND TOPICS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE -
Please check out Leigh’s two previous First Draft interviews, here and here! -
The Grishaverse has been developed by Netflix as a TV show -
Brandon Sanderson is the author of the Mistborn series, the Stormlight Archive series, and the Elantris series, and Leigh notes that he writes one million books and sees way, way far ahead as a writer -
NPR’s laudatory review for King of Scars had to include a lot of backstory, since technically it’s the sixth book in the Grishaverse -
Leigh could not wait for a friend to catch up on the past seasons of Stranger Things before watching the third season (unlike with Game of Thrones where she gave him time to catch up) -
Leigh loves how The Legend of Korra expanded on the universe established in Avatar: The Last Airbender (speaking of Avatar, have you listened to the First Draft interview with Michael Dante DiMartino, co-creator of the Avatar universe??) -
I risk a spoiler by mentioning the end of Laini Taylor’s Strange the Dreamer series… Curious readers should definitely pick up Daughter of Smoke and Bone and read Laini’s fantasy books all through - and listen to her First Draft interview here! -
When I was fortunate enough to moderate a panel on worldbuilding at BookCon, NK Jemisin—New York Times bestselling author of the Broken Earth trilogy and The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms series—brought up the Arthur C. Clarke’s third law, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” -
Leigh hopes to avoid the George R. R. Martin scenario — referencing the fact that the Game of Thrones TV show caught up, and then surpassed, Martin’s pace of writing A Song of Ice and Fire, the series the show is based on -
Leigh’s editor for Ninth House is Noah Eaker, editorial director at Random House. -
The Princess Bride by William Goldman (also a prolific screenwriter of movies like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and All the President’s Men) was entirely about digressions, and that is what made it so perfect. -
Jodie Foster and Anderson Cooper were both in Manuscript senior society -
Leigh points writers to Robin LaFevers’ Instagram account (and listen to her First Draft interview) and Susan Dennard’s newsletter, Misfits and Dreamers (and listen to her First Draft interview) for amazing craft advice -
Authors like Kelly Link, Lev Grossman, Joe Hill, and Stephen King (!!!), and Charlaine Harris have given Ninth House props. Not a bad list!!! I WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! Have a question about writing or creativity for Sarah Enni or her guests to answer? To leave a voicemail, call (818) 533-1998. You can also email the podcast at firstdraftwithsarahenni @ gmail.com. Subscribe To First Draft with Sarah Enni Every Tuesday, I speak to storytellers like Veronica Roth, author of Divergent; Linda Holmes, author and host of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast; Jonny Sun, internet superstar, illustrator of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Gmorning, Gnight! and author and illustrator of Everyone’s an Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too; Michael Dante DiMartino, co-creator of Avatar: The Last Airbender; John August, screenwriter of Big Fish, Charlie’s Angels, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; or Rhett Miller, musician and frontman for The Old 97s. Together, we take deep dives on their careers and creative works. Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. It’s free! RATE, REVIEW, AND RECOMMEND How do you like the show? Please take a moment to rate and review First Draft with Sarah Enni in Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Your honest and positive review helps others discover the show -- so thank you! Is there someone you think would love this podcast as much as you do? Please share this episode on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or via carrier pigeon (maybe try a text or e-mail, come to think of it). Just click the Share button at the bottom of this post! Thanks again!
Direct download: Leigh_Bardugo_FINAL.mp3
Category: Literature
-- posted at: 2:51am PDT
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Tue, 8 October 2019
First Draft Episode #214: Jason Reynolds Jason Reynolds, New York Times bestselling author of critically acclaimed books, including National Book Award finalist Ghost, Newberry and Printz-honored Long Way Down, Coretta Scott King Honoree As Brave as You, and his latest, middle grade Look Both Ways, which was just named to the National Book Award Longlist for Young People’s Literature. This episode was brought to you by Freedom — upgrade to Premium and use code FIRSTDRAFT for 40% off a yearly or Forever plan! Links and Topics Mentioned In This Episode -
Jason didn’t grow up writing prose, but he and all his friends had rhyme books where they would write lyrics. They wanted to be the next Nas, Slick Rick, Run DMC, Big Daddy Kane, or Rakim. -
Jason’s aunt would give him classic books as gifts, including Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson and Little Women by Louisa May Alcott -
Bob Marley’s “Kaya,” Nina Simone’s “Four Women,” Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” were hugely influential on Jason because of the beauty of the lyrics -
Jason teamed up with the artist and writer Jason Douglas Griffin for an early book, My Name is Jason. Mine Too: Our Story. Our Way. -
Jason credits Joanna Cotler, author and artist, and then publisher of her own imprint at HarperCollins, with teaching him how to write narrative and gave him the mantra: “Your intuition will take you farther than your education ever will.” -
Jacqueline Woodson (author of Brown Girl Dreaming, winner of the National Book Award, the Coretta Scott King Award, and Newberry Honor winner), Rita Williams-Garcia (author of Clayton Byrd Goes Underground, a National Book Award finalist), and Walter Dean Myers (author of more than 100 books for young people, including Monster, winner of the Printz Award, the Coretta Scott King Award, and National Book Award, and more) are people Jason considers predecessors to his career. -
Christopher Myers, writer, artist, and the son of Walter Dean Myers, pressed Jason to return to writing, to carry on his father’s legacy. At Christopher’s urging, Jason read The Young Landlords by Walter Dean Myers (which the TV show 227 was based on) -
Caitlyn Dlouhy, Vice President & Editorial Director of Caitlyn Dlouhy Books, nurtured Jason’s career by focusing on the integrity of his work -
Laurie Halse Anderson (author of Speak and The Impossible Knife of Memory), Eliot Schrefer (author of Threatened, a National Book Award finalist), and Gene Luen Yang (author and illustrator of American Born Chinese), and Jason also shouts out Sharon Draper’s New York Times bestselling Stella by Starlight -
Jason references part of Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself: “Unscrew the locks from the doors! Unscrew the doors themselves from their jambs!” -
Jason admires writers who use verse for all or many of their books, specifically Kwame Alexander (poet and educator, and New York Times bestselling author of The Crossover: A Novel, winner of the Newbery Medal and a Coretta Scott King Honor) and Ellen Hopkins (New York Times bestselling author of Crank) -
Alfred Hitchcock’s works (including Psycho and Rear Window), and Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining are examples of subtle ways that framing and design can make a viewer feel uncomfortable. -
Quincy Jones said about producing music, “I always say you have to leave space for God to walk into the room.” That’s how Jason feels about the appearance of poetry in text. -
The first scene of Boyz ‘n the Hood shows one kid asking another, “Do you want to see a dead body?” -
Fresh Ink: An Anthology, edited by Lamar Giles (author of Fake ID and Spin), and Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America, edited by Ibi Zoboi (author of American Street, a National Book Award finalist, and Pride) are among the anthologies that Jason thinks are wonderful. He wonders why we’ve moved away from the short story format for younger readers. -
The TV show High Maintenance is another example of vignette storytelling that Jason was going for with Look Both Ways -
Jason shouts out Jennifer Buehler, Ph.D., Associate Professor at St. Louis University, Educational Studies who specializes in young adult literature -
Jason’s friend and co-author of All American Boys, Brendan Keily (author of Tradition, listen to his First Draft episode here), refers to the story under the story as “vertical narrative” I want to hear from you! Have a question about writing or creativity for Sarah Enni or her guests to answer? To leave a voicemail, call (818) 533-1998. You can also email the podcast at firstdraftwithsarahenni@gmail.com. Subscribe To First Draft with Sarah Enni Every Tuesday, I speak to storytellers like Veronica Roth, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Divergent; Linda Holmes, New York Times bestselling author and host of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast; Jonny Sun, internet superstar, illustrator of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Gmorning, Gnight! and author and illustrator of Everyone’s an Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too; Michael Dante DiMartino, co-creator of Avatar: The Last Airbender; John August, screenwriter of Big Fish, Charlie’s Angels, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; or Rhett Miller, musician and frontman for The Old 97s. Together, we take deep dives on their careers and creative works. Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. It’s free! Rate, Review, and Recommend How do you like the show? Please take a moment to rate and review First Draft with Sarah Enni in Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Your honest and positive review helps others discover the show -- so thank you! Is there someone you think would love this podcast as much as you do? Please share this episode on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or via carrier pigeon (maybe try a text or e-mail, come to think of it). Just click the Share button at the bottom of this post! Thanks again!
Direct download: Jason_Reynolds_FINAL.mp3
Category: Literature
-- posted at: 2:33am PDT
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