Mon, 30 December 2019
First Draft Episode #221: Tahereh Mafi and Sarah Enni open the mailbag! Tahereh Mafi is the New York Times bestselling and National Book Award nominated author of the Shatter Me series, as well as A Very Large Expanse of Sea. The final book in her Shatter Me series, IMAGINE ME, hits shelves March 31, 2020. Watch this episode as a video on the First Draft podcast IGTV channel on Instagram! Links and Topics Mentioned In This Episode -
I mention the previous mailbag episode (check out the podcast version here), which featured Zan Romanoff, author of A Song to Take the World Apart, Grace and the Fever, and the forthcoming Look (listen to her episode of First Draft here). -
I cite Morgan Matson as my hero for writing lengthy contemporary young adult novels, like the New York Times bestselling The Unexpected Everything and Save the Date (listen to Morgan’s First Draft interviews here and here)! -
I positively could not keep myself from mentioning The Four Tendencies again, Gretchen Rubin’s metric for analyzing how you (or others in your life) respond to expectations. Seriously, take the quiz already! -
Maurene Goo used Rilo Kiley lyrics before The Way You Make Me Feel in the epigraph because she got permission from the band -
A brief primer on how the Walt Disney Company has impacted IP law — though in 2024 that may be up, and Mickey Mouse could be in the public domain for the first time. -
Tahereh’s husband, Ransom Riggs—New York Times bestselling author of the Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children series (listen to his First Draft episode here - and heads up that the newest book in the series, The Conference of the Birds, is coming out January 14!)—has a very different writing style than she does. A marathon runner, rather than a sprinter. -
I reference one of the most famous phrases in the entire history of Supreme Court opinions: "I know it when I see it." The phrase appears in Justice Potter Stewart's concurring opinion in Jacobellis v. Ohio, a pornography case decided by the Court in 1964. -
Room by Emma Donoghue features a child narrator, but is decidedly not a children’s book. -
When Tahereh wrote Furthermore, she was shocked to learn from her editor that she had actually written a middle grade novel, rather than a young adult novel -
Suzanne Collins is returning to fiction in the spring with a new Hunger Games novel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. -
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green brought on a surge of contemporary YA fiction -
Microsoft Word, Scrivener, and Highland 2 are all great options for writing software 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-Mafi_FINAL.mp3
Category: Literature
-- posted at: 5:41pm PDT
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Tue, 24 December 2019
First Draft Episode Re-release: Libba Bray (Eps (#18 and 19) Libba Bray, author of New York Times best-selling series A Great and Terrible Beauty, Printz award-winner Going Bovine, and genuinely terrifying historical paranormal The Diviners, among others, joins me to talk about having her rock collection stolen as a kid, that one time Wes Anderson helped stage a play she wrote, and how growing up in Texas set her head at a certain tilt. The episode originally released on Nov 3, 2014, and Nov 6, 2014. Links and Topics Mentioned In This Episode -
Seven Samurai, directed by Akira Kurosawa -
Citizen Kane -
Christopher ‘Kit’ Marlowe -
Aaron Sorkin worked at the concessions at the theater for years and only heard dialogue for years and that influenced him -
Harold Pinter is a writer who knows when to take a pause in dialogue -
The Thin Man, Bringing Up Baby, The Marx brothers influenced her sense of comedy -
Neil Simon plays (Odd Couple, Barefoot in the Park: A Comedy in Three Acts, and The Odd Couple: A Comedy in Three Acts) -
Singin’ In The Rain -
Peter Marks, theater critic of the New York Times and the Washington Post -
New York International Film Festival -
Mawkish -
Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (and Tiger Beat has a song called “Holden Caufield is Not an Asshole”), A Separate Peace by John Knowles, and The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath were the only examples of “YA” that Libba had growing up -
Laurie Halse Anderson, David Levithan, Rachel Cohn, Francesca Lia Block (listen to her First Draft interview here), and Angela Johnson were some of the writers that Libba discovered when she dove into YA fiction -
Aaron Zimmerman, who runs the non-profit New York Writers Coalition -
Ann Brashares (author of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants), Melissa Sinnet, and Cecily von Ziegesar (author of Gossip Girl) were Libba’s editors at Alloy Book Publishing -
Sweet Sixteen -
Holly Black, Newberry Honoree and New York Times bestselling author the Spiderwick Chronicles, The Curse Workers, Magesterium, and her most recent series, Folk of Air (listen to her First Draft interview here) -
“Miles and Miles of No Man’s Land,” Libba Bray’s post about depression -
Stephanie Perkins‘ blog post about depression (hear Stephanie and me on a panel together in this First Draft episode) -
Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi, Curt Gentry -
Carrie by Stephen King 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: Libba_Bray_FINAL.mp3
Category: Literature
-- posted at: 4:37am PDT
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Mon, 16 December 2019
First Draft Episode #224: Tim Baltz Tim Baltz, comedian and actor, co-created, co-wrote, and starred in Shrink, and can now be seen on HBO’s The Righteous Gemstones. He has also appeared in Bajillion Dollar Propertie$, The Opposition with Jordan Klepper, and Drunk History. Links and Topics Mentioned In This Episode -
Tim’s dad was a professional actor and he toured in one production starring Bill Daly, an actor who was in Newhart and I Dream of Jeanie -
Other early comedy influences for Tim were W.C. Fields, Fawlty Towers, and Monty Python’s Flying Circus -
The poet Robert Service -
The hubs of Chicago improv that Tim is familiar with: Improv Olympic, now known as iO, started by Del Close and Cherna Halpern; Second City, which featured some groundbreaking American comedians like the cast of Pinata Full of Bees, which was made up of Adam McKay (co-writer and director of Anchorman and Talladega Nights, writer and director of The Big Short and Vice, creator of Succession, and much more) Rachel Dratch (comedian and actress from Saturday Night Live, Sisters, and Wanda Jo from Last Week Tonight with John Oliver), John Glaser (comedian and actor from Parks and Recreation and Inside Amy Schumer), Scott Adsit (comedian known for 30 Rock, Veep, and The Goldbergs), Jenna Jolovitz (comedian known for MadTV and Greetings from Tucson) as well as Tina Fey, Steve Carrell, Stephen Colbert, Amy Sedaris; and The Annoyance theater, founded by Mick Napier -
“Breakups” was a web series created by Ted Tremper, who went on to co-create Shrink with Tim -
Sue Gillan, (actress from Shrink) and Claudia Wallace (actress from Shrink, Fred Claus, and The Oath) -
The Sopranos (TV Show) -
Seinfeld (TV Show) -
Michael Scott (portrayed by Steve Carrell) from the television show The Office 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: Tim_Baltz_FINAL.mp3
Category: Literature
-- posted at: 9:33pm PDT
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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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