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 author The Merciful Crow, The Faithless Hawk, and Little 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 litservicepodcast@gmail.com. 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.

Lit Service

5.19 Nailing Character Stakes with Margaret Owen

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.

5.18 How to Build a Scene with Ayana Gray

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.

Bonus Episode: A Special Preview

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 selected A Clash of Steel: A Treasure Island Remix (Feiwel and Friends), the Sidekick Squad series (Duet Books), Ben 10 graphic 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!

5.17 Historical Fiction 101 with Bethany C. Morrow and CB Lee

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.

5.16 How to be a Master of Betrayal

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.  

5.15 Poetry: the Hows and Whys with Jeff Zentner

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.  

Bonus Episode: Conlang with John Blackham

Erin A. Craig joins the podcasters to chat about horror as a genre and how she approaches writing it. Erin is the New York Times bestselling author of House of Salt and Sorrows and Small Favors which will be out July 27th. For more about Erin and her books, visit her website. The chapter we critiqued with all our notes can be found here. To learn more about how to support the podcast (or participate in a writing group with some of the podcasters!) check out our Patreon.

5.14 Writing Fantasy Horror with Erin A. Craig

Axie Oh joins the podcast to talk about how to create a shiny (or not so shiny!) near future world. Axie is the author of Rebel Seoul, Rogue Heart, XOXO (releasing July 13th), and The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea (Releasing February 2022). Find out more about Axie and her books here. To read the chapter we critiqued with all our notes, go here. If you'd like to learn how to support the podcast, check out our Patreon (we'd really appreciate it!) Please remember to like, subscribe, comment, and tell your friends! All those things (maybe the last one most of all...) helps others to find the show.

5.13 Creating Near Futures with Axie Oh

Lori M. Lee joins us to chat about what it's like to work with a smaller publisher (compared with some of her other publishing experiences). What kind of publisher are you interested in working with? Lori is the author of The Gates of Thread and Stone series (Skyscape/Amazon), Forest of Souls and it's sequel Broken Web (Page Street), and Pahua and the Soul Stealer (Sept, Rick Riordan Presents/Disney Hyperion). To find out more about Lori and her book, check out her website! You can find the chapter we critiqued with all our notes here. If you'd like to find out how to support this podcast, check out our Patreon. For more about upcoming guests, first chapter submission guidelines, and the podcast, visit our website.

5.12 Smaller Publishers 101 with Lori M. Lee

Liselle Sambury joins the Lit Service crew to chat about how to use subplots to flesh out our stories (and where to find them!). Liselle is a Toronto-based Trinidadian Canadian author. Her brand of writing can be described as “messy Black girls in fantasy situations.” She works in social media and spends her free time embroiled in reality tv because when you write messy characters you tend to enjoy that sort of drama. She also shares helpful tips for upcoming writers and details of her publishing journey through a YouTube channel dedicated to helping demystify the sometimes complicated business of being an author. Check out her website and her book (out the 15th!)! If you'd like to see the chapter we critiqued with all our notes, there are two version: one with swearing and one without. To find out more about how to support the podcast, please visit our Patreon.

5.11 The Power of Subplots with Liselle Sambury

Katherine Cowley joins the Lit Service Crew to chat about why adaptations, both of fairy tales and other stories people love, are so common, and how to approach writing one so it becomes your own story.    To learn more about Katherine and her new book The Secret Life of Miss Mary Bennet, check out her website.   The first chapter we critique with all our notes is here.   To learn how to support the podcast, you can visit our Patreon page. Or, to find out how to submit your chapter for us to critique and upcoming guests, you can visit our website.

5.10 How to Write an Adaptation with Katherine Cowley

We chatted with Erin Beaty about the closing of Imprint/Macmillan and Simon Pulse and what happens to books that are orphaned because the imprint that acquires your book closed or your editor moves, leaves the business. To find out more about Erin and her books, check out her website. Here's the first chapter we critiqued! To find out how to support the podcast, check out our Patreon.

5.09 Orphaned Manuscripts (and what happens if your imprint closes!) with Erin Beaty

Erin Beaty joins the Lit Service crew to teach them a new word (it's pronounced AnagNORisis, if you were wondering.) which is the moment when a character realizes the truth of the situation they're in or who they are or that another character is not who they thought they were.    Erin Beaty is the author of The Traitor's Circle Trilogy (and provides many lovely moments of anagnorisis for readers to chew on). To find out more about her and her books, check out her website.   For the first chapter we critique, go here: To learn how to support the podcast, check out our Patreon. Want a first chapter critique from us? Our list of upcoming guests is on our website, as are our submission guidelines.

5.08 Anagnorisis: Characters Discovering Their True Circumstances with Erin Beaty.

Lisa Maxwell joins the Lit Service cast to talk about injecting your setting with that special something that makes it interactive and immersive, almost like an additional character in the story. Lisa is the NYT bestselling author of The Last Magician, The Devil’s Thief, The Serpent's Curse, and Unhooked. She grew up in Akron, Ohio, and has a PhD in English. She’s worked as a teacher, scholar, bookseller, editor, and writer. When she’s not writing books, she’s a professor at a local college. She lives in Virginia with her husband and two sons. Check out Lisa's books here or follow her Instagram. To see the chapter we critiqued with our notes, go here. To find out how to help support this podcast, visit our Patreon. We'd love to see your first chapter! To see who will be coming on the show next and how to submit your work, visit our website.

5.07 Setting as Character with Lisa Maxwell

A show meting out dodgy writing advice and first chapter critiques for aspiring writers.

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Lit Service

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