Explore every episode of the podcast One-Drink Book Club

This week’s episode isn’t actually an episode of the ODBC! I thought I’d share it here, though, because I think faithful One Drink Book Club listeners would enjoy it.

Back in the long-long ago, I used to be on one of the first major self-publishing podcasts … early enough, in fact, that we simply called ourselves “The Self Publishing Podcast.” It was me and two fun, irreverent partners: Sean Platt and David Wright.

And guys, we had SO MUCH FUN on that show. It wasn’t just us, either; it was the audience that made it fun as well. We had a great community … and doing the Kickstarter for The Artisan Author (which is still going for just a bit longer, by the way) got me thinking about that old show and community. So I pitched Sean and Dave on doing a single “reunion episode of SPP” … and this is it.

OH! And if you’d prefer the video version of this show, it’s here.

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* We opened by talking about my thinking about the “college” portion of my current Kickstarter campaign for The Artisan Author. The short version is that college is cool and we should all watch more 80s movies about it. (Or, rather, the short version is that you should check it out here before it ends, if you happen to be a writer.)

* Do kids still read? If yes, how and how much do they read? And do they (as well as adults, really) take IDENTITY from their reading?

* Bill took us down a weird rabbit hole wherein he’s reading only parts of his favorite book out of order … and how the dissection ruined it, but not for the reasons that sound obvious as you read this sentence.

* Which led to a fascinating chat about how all kinds of art are collaborative, meaning that the creator can’t control at least half of the experience … which depends on what the reader/observer/listener/consumer brings to that art. This one was such a cool thread that it will be our topic for next time!

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

We really just hit one topic today, but we hit it well, thoroughly, and from a hundred angles: What happens when writing doesn’t come in the way it should, or that you want it to? What happens when you’re blocked, and you don’t know what to do about it?

Emma and I are both going through our own version of the shit, and we unpack it all in this big, juicy episode.

Let us know what you think in the comments!

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* Emma returned triumphantly after months away … but only for the first 20 minutes. She opened a really interesting and seldom-talked-about topic: The fact that sometimes things really suck as a writer … and here’s how we deal. (NOTE: We’ll unpack this issue more next week if people are interested … so, you know, let us know if you are.)

* We talked a bit about backlist and advertising, and standing up for the books we’ve already written.

* Then a bit about imposter syndrome, being vulnerable, and more of that downer stuff. (Writing can be awesome, but it’s not always sunshine and roses, people!

* After Emma had to leave, Bill and I talked about “the writer’s unique fingerprint” — how repeated words and standard “safe home base” scenes become an individual writer’s DNA, so that readers can easily recognize their favorite writers’ style.

* Lastly, we talked about telling stories in person. Do good verbal storytellers make good writers, and what do you do when your best verbal stories just kind of stop landing like they used to?

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* Bill showed-and-told (there’s no good verb for “show and tell”) some of his old books from his collection, and talked about the special place they have in his life and home.

* Spinning off of this, I shared a strange revelation: Now that I’m selling my books in person, I feel like “a real author” in ways I never have before. After a dozen years in this business, only now — with physical books in hand and real readers in front of me — do I truly feel like I belong here.

* We talked about “writing and seeing where it goes” versus plotting (Bill’s current dilemma).

* And finally we talked about writing things you aren’t an expert in and how to avoid looking like an asshole by getting things wrong … which led me to one of my favorite writerly topics: Getting some obvious facts right as a way of buying yourself the leeway you need to flat-out invent fantastical things to follow.

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* Reading order: do you read in publishing order, chronological order, the order books were written, or some other order?

* Are we attached to the characters in a series or the world itself? (Watch for the place in this one where I say “The Beam” when I clearly meant “Dune.” Did you know what a great series The Beam is, according to me in this episode?)

* How sequels to a book can ruin a book you loved … and the different ways we deal with it.

* Who also wrote romance despite being known for writing some other famous genre?

* The different motivations of various writers and matching what they deliver with what readers actually expect … which became an AI and James Pattern sort of discussion.

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* With Emma and I fresh from our Las Vegas trip to the Author Nation conference (and the RAVE bookselling event at its end), we started off by talking about Emma’s new branding, which she lined up in advance of Vegas.

* This led to a discussion of judging books by their covers … which, by the way, everyone actually does.

* We talked about selling books in person, and the unique eccentricities of that market.

* I shared how well-received my “Artisan Author” talk was, making us feel that artistry isn’t dead.

* We shared our experiences hand-selling books …

* … and Bill followed up by asking if we “partook” of Vegas too much, or if we saw other people who did.

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* After a looooong time away from the first-draft page, I finished my first book in forever today. I talked about how that felt and what I had to re-learn to do it … and asked the crew whether or not I should “celebrate its completion” like Stephen King talks about doing.

* We talked about tense and voice of prose: first versus third-person narratives, as well as past tense versus present tense. We had a great discussion about suiting the style of narration to the book in question.

* On the topic of following “the rules implied by a certain style of or device for writing,” we talked about my old phrase “put a unicorn in it,” which bridges the at-some-point decision writers need to make about how much they want to follow the rules vs. how much they want the reader to actually understand the story.

* Most of the remainder of our chat today was consumed with talking about our preparations and excitement to hand-sell books in person at the RAVE book event in Vegas two weeks from when we were recording.

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* After a months’-long cliffhanger, we finally got to Emma’s story about how mentoring robotics crosses over into her storytelling. It’s not what you expect!

* Bill has started writing as a result of our goading, after a lifetime of loving to read and on-an-off trying to do pen a decades-in-the-making masterpiece himself.

* Talking Bill through some questions led to a riveting discussion about how all three of us write, from top to bottom …

* Which in turn led to one of the cooler chats I’ve had about how we “discover” things while writing — through runaway dialogue and science for me.

* We ended by discussing how writing a novel is like spinning plates. (Seriously, this is the best-fit metaphor I’ve come up with for it so far.)

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

In this episode, we talked about:

* Do we ever put real people in our books, either as homage or revenge when we’re pissed off at them?

* When a writer is emotional (excited, happy, sad, etc), does the work come out just as emotional, or is it cathartic … or is it Option 3?

* We talked about how Bill still refuses to read poems and songs when they’re in his books, even if one of the narrators is a poet.

* I went on for a bit about my thoughts on how books are better than TV and film for the creator, because the consumer (reader/watcher) fills in the details using their brains rather than us having to specify every little thing.

* Lastly, I talked about how differently I write on my own versus with a collaborator.

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

In this episode, we talked about:

* My discovery that I can’t write a branching-narrative story, but not for reasons you might expect.

* Mike asked an interesting question: How would I find the story I wanted to tell in a memoir, if I were to write one about myself? I talked a bit about finding the core “character arc” for the subject in real life and proposed one for myself … then asked Mike and Bill what the main arcs of their lives would be.

* The spun us off into a side question: Does the body of work a writer makes over their lives reflect their own developmental arc in real life?

* … and THAT spun me off into a spur of a spur, wherein I talked about the idea of creators (like myself) warring with the question of truly being ourselves versus being like others in the field … really leaning into our own unique weirdness. It’s truly freeing, being yourself.

* That got us talking about homage versus cheap imitation of other creators, using Mike’s example of others trying to write like Douglas Adams.

* We finished off with a really interesting chat about how Bill, who as a reader follows BOTH the similar-books-in-a-genre, all-you-can-read Kindle Unlimited plan with his reading … AND seeks out highly “artisan” authors from that culling.

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

In this episode, we talked about:

* The “Artisan Author” approach, which I’ll be giving a presentation on in Las Vegas in November, and the spectrum between Artisanship and algorithmic thinking … a “quality or quantity first” dichotomy for authors.

* True Fans, and what makes them True Fans

* Creating communities of like-minded people through fandom, and how we signal that we’re part of those communities in the wild: an almost invisible way of forming connections.

* How we make connections by being human and breaking our own rules.

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* Mike, who just finished a poetry book he’s been working on, said he didn’t feel excitement or happiness on finishing … just sort of done. We talked about the “finishing the project” vibes and the oddity of it, seeing as I feel the same.

* Reliving the writing and editing of my very first book (The Bialy Pimps), I regaled the others with stories of how self-indulgent the first draft was, and how I fixed it.

* When is it true that theres’s “too much of the author in a book,” and how can you tell?

* I then dropped a BIG OL’ BTS EXCLUSIVE: A story about The Bialy Pimps’s early draft and exactly what I removed because it was so personal, it made for terrible reading. You’ll hear a scoop I’ve literally never shared before, about those early drafts, what I cut from them, and the true of this particular writer’s earliest working days.

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

In this episode, Emma and I really only covered one topic: How to talk to our artistic children about the self-doubt, creative blocks, and general angst that comes with being creative.

I could list all of the sub-details, but there’s really no point. This one got philosophical at the same time as it was dropping all sorts of knowledge bombs. We certainly don’t know everything … but personally, *I* plan to listen back to this the next time *I’m* feeling angst, or when I need advice for my kids with their own existential angst.

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* It’s back to school time! We now have quiet times in which to write, though the chaos continues.

* Emma bemoaned the “moving target” of the business of writing, while I declared again how I refuse to spread the word through social media. It’s always a challenge, people!

* I asked Bill how he discovers new books, resulting in a discussion about word-of-mouth discovery versus algorithmic recommendations served up by the likes of Amazon.

* At its root, writing is about delivering an emotional experience for the reader. We talked a bit about how those emotional-experience needs vary from reader to reader.

* I asked Emma if her writing style has changed over time. Her answer was interesting, involving a “hobbling” of her voice that happened when she was writing for Harlequin.

* Bill ended things by asking which series or book we’d most like to be remembered for. You’ll have to listen to find out which books we chose!

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* I kicked us off by asking Bill’s thoughts, as a reader, on generating interest in my previous books as if they were new ones. There’s just “something” about new books that’s hard to move over to old books, even if readers may never have heard of the older books. I want to know how to re-introduce my not-this-year releases to readers who might love them … but who might be bogged down in the miasma of “this is old, so why bother?”

* We then talked about how to write branching-narrative books, of which the old Choose Your Own Adventure books were a prime example. Emma talked about her experience writing that kind of books for an app called Zory, which uses a “vines” instead of “tree branches” style of branching — more like a video game than a book.

* We then talked about how impossible it is to write short stories. WE NEED MORE WORDS THAN THAT, PEOPLE!

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* We were light on crew today, having only me and Bill in attendance. It’s okay, though; we improvised and proved that WE DON’T NEED NOBODY NOHOW.

* We began by talking about the function of characters in pacing and exposition: When do you add a character to a scene as “spice” and when are they unnecessary?

* Bill then asked about how I handle converging storylines, which I flipped into a discussion about flashbacks and how their order matters, scene-to-scene, even though the two storylines are happening at different times.

* We then talked some about BAD GUYS. Which are truly evil, which are just misunderstood, and which are evil … but still able to be understood (if not forgiven)?

* … which led me to talk some about how I love writing because it lets me explore psychology. I just love figuring out why people are the way they are, and trying to understand their actions (even if said actions are inexplicable to me).

* We ended by talking about endings that feel rushed, and a tangential discussion about “many epilogues and endings” versus a slow progression toward a single ending.

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* When is a story or a story world complete? Robert asked about Firefly, Stargate, and my Vampire Maurice side series, but we expanded it into a larger discussion of how and when to create more stories in an existing world … and when creating those additional stories can actually be disruptive in a Schrödinger sort of way.

* Bill mentioned “A Quiet Place But with Farts.” Which I think is autobiographical.

* We discussed genre stories as a way to tell real human stories, because who would want to watch the humans stories without extra cool stuff going on?

* I told a way-back story about humor as a trojan horse.

* In closing, we talked about storytellers saving their suspension of disbelief for when it truly matters in order to fully satisfy and not annoy readers: Emma’s example of a “library owner” reference totally disrupting a story that was otherwise full of all sorts of unbelievable stuff. (You have to get most things right if you want us to believe the single unbelievable thing that’s the centerpiece of the story!)

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* We have reader questions! Robert asked for Emma’s take on the romance in the show Firefly, as well as what we thought about out-of-order narratives. If you also have questions for this, just reply to this notification (or email me at johnny@johnnybtruant.com) and ask!

* I talked about my philosophy on reading order: Read my books in the order I wrote them. This led to a further discussion about lore in series, and how it always screws me up even though readers like it.

* We chatted about “method acting in writing” - getting into the skin of a character.

* What about writing in the voices of varied characters? Or writing as them? What’s the right use of vernacular and accent without being confusing or distracting for the readers?

* Emma proposed “Newtonian physics of writing.” (You’ll just have to listen to understand.)

* We closed by discussing the difficult need to “get the opening right from the very start.”

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* Today was just me and Emma again, doing a very unconventional “coffee hour recording” at 11am instead of our usual end-of-Friday because this was the only time that we (but not our readers, unfortunately) were able to record at all. We apologize for our lack of alcohol.

* Instead of hitting many topics, we stayed pretty story-geeky today and talked about the pacing and purpose and payoffs of three-act structure, as well as the need for a story to “breathe.” It’s something we both feel intuitively as we write (though Emma’s workflow is different from mine) more than plan meticulously and rigorously in advance.

* This entire discussion was gold to us, and we both really like talking about it … but we’re not sure if you, the listeners, like it or not. So please do let us know — you can leave a comment on this post at johnnybtruant.substack.com, or you can just email me (see below).

* In addition to contacting me with feedback and questions at johnny@johnnybtruant.com, Emma encouraged listeners to follow up with her at EmmaLeeJayne.com

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* Today was just me and Emma, so we got really book-geeky and “inside baseball” in the absence of our readers, Bill and Mike.

* Emma is currently screening narrators for a romance, introducing the “duet” form of audiobook that I’d never heard about.

* We talked about audiobooks in general, the challenges unique to them, and how I’m trying to shake things up with a primo narrator I’ve worked with before.

* How can we reach more non-US, non-Amazon readers? We love our USA Amazon readers, but there’s a big, wide world out there of hungry English-speaking readers we haven’t yet been able to put our books in front of.

* We talked a bit about some bullshit that Draft2Digital (a publishing aggregator service I use) does in terms of not allowing young adult categories to intermingle with adult categories. When forced to choose “for kids” or “for adults” but not both for series like Unicorn Western and The Dream Engine, what should I do? It’s a total Sophie’s choice.

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* Bill asked how we describe scenes in our books that we find difficult to explain, which led to me (Johnny) telling a spooky story about Heidelberg, Germany. Trust me; there’s a logical connection there.

* Then, reveling in the freedom-of-speech that comes with the ODBC’s migration to a not-necessarily-safe-for-work podcast feed of its own, Bill got all up in Emma’s business by asking if her sex life and her books’ sex scenes overlap at all. Things got uncomfortable for everyone. But also hilarious.

* We circled back to the “writing what you don’t know well” thing after that, and I told a story about flowers. (Again; you’ll have to trust me that there’s a logical connection there.)

* I talked a bit about the whole “Fat Vampire vs. the Reginald the Vampire TV show” question: Does having something adapted change how I write? I reframed the question in terms of “creative playing off of one another” instead of conforming to a new medium.

* I asked Emma how her quest to recondition and re-release her Harlequin books is going. We chatted a bit about what happens when you re-release books into the huge Wild West of Amazon …

* … which became a discussion about reader behavior vs. the behaviors that we, as writers, want to try to nudge people toward. As part of it, I shared some insights gleaned from a recent reader survey … and Bill weighed in as our resident reader, giving the whole discussion a bit more “reader-centered context.”

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* To open things up, we talked about how the ODBC now has a brand-new home on its own unique feed — no longer tied to the Art of Noticing podcast. Now we can be crude. But actually, we can be more REAL.

* Bill asked us which of our books would convert nicely into video games, on the heels of Fallout. Shockingly, we both had candidates in mind.

* I told some stories about my new “marketing” angle, which should be in quotes because it doesn’t feel like marketing at all. It’s just communicating with humans … and finding our ideal readers.

* Emma read a piece from an online column about the new preciousness of real things in an AI-led, increasingly digital world … and we theorized what it means for us as authors, our readers, our connections, and the value of our books.

* Most of the remainder of the episode was us talking about a different way of seeing ourselves as authors: as true connectors, as those willing and eager to connect with real people not just as fans but as humans … and about NOT ignoring most of the globe’s readers in the way almost all American authors tend to do.

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* We have our first guest, despite the fact that we don’t have guests on the show. Actually, we just expanded outward from the four of us who usually host ODBC from the local wine night group and this time included Bill’s wife Paula. (My wife will never come on. Sorry. She’s the opposite of into it.)

* We talked about how there are sometimes “seasons” for writers, and how it can be best to accept sometimes that you’ll be able to write and sometimes your attention should go elsewhere. (Teaser: Paula actually had a whole line of questions on this one that we talked about afterward and will definitely be discussing the next time she’s on.

* Then we talked bout the local book club and how terrified I am to have my book read by it. Also: What’s the function of book clubs? Is it really mostly about the wine?

* What’s this phenomenon of “reading the same book over and over” about? Bill and I equated it to the no-bullshit way we watch some TV shows.

* Everyone shared how they read differently as writers … or as regular listeners of the ODBC. What do you notice? What gets spoiled?

* Finally, we talked about a favorite geek-out topic of mine: the fine balance as a writer between sharing just enough information so that you’re being honest with a reader, while still subtly misdirecting them so they’ll be surprised by a twist or shock ending.

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* I talked about how I go through “seasons of focus” as a writer, wherein sometimes I’m writing feverishly and other times I’m just trying to run the business and get things done. This led us into a whole discussion about where writers spend their time … and how complicated being an “independent authorpreneur” really is.

* Emma talked a bit about print-on-demand and how far it’s come since the old days. More importantly, this led us into a chat about how bookstores buy lots of printed books and then destroy (or expensively return) them when they don’t sell.

* We talked some about whether gatekeepers are bad (because they decide who gets to publish and who doesn’t) or whether you could call the same function “curation” sometimes, and maybe that’s good because otherwise, there’s too much noise out there to find the “signal” of good books. (I won’t even browse Amazon for books. It’s a personal recommendation (curation) or nothing.)

* What’s the role of AI these days — not in writing books, but in how Amazon and others are now making rules around it?

* We talked about the perniciousness of typos, and how Bill thinks there’s a lot more now than there used to be in published books. (I think we Indies are to blame for that.)

* Emma talked about an embarrassing experience narrating her own books, including the sex scenes.

* We ended by talking a bit about Reginald the Vampire (the SyFy show based on my Fat Vampire books) and how Season Two is debuting this coming Wednesday!

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* Mike was curious how we worked with other people, either as writing partners or for the purpose of critique. The answer was that it depends on who we’re working with, how we work with them, and if we know they’re not assholes.

* I talked about a recent email I sent to my reader list, asking for ideas about what I could do to serve them better. The results were both overwhelming and awesome.

* Bill was chomping at the bit to discuss my new book Gore Point, but because nobody else had read it yet, he diverted into asking if we’ve ever triggered readers, or if we’ve ever written something that meant much more to us than to readers - those under-performing diamonds in the rough.

* After talking about a time she unintentionally triggered a reader, I shared how I refuse to write bad stuff happening to little kids or animal cruelty or death, nor will I read or watch it. Cue the helpful site DoesTheDogDie.com.

* Bill asked how writers learn, and what we do when we go to conferences and what we get out of them. We went a bit into what it means to “study craft” (as opposed to studying business).

* We ended by talking about whether there’s a hierarchy of writers, or if people who talk about one kind of writer being better than another are really just pretentious assholes. (Hint: We feel the latter.)

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* Bill started us off by asking about our influences — which authors inspired us, and how much did we try to emulate them, and do we still today? This became a discussion of voice … and a theory that maybe creation isn’t really creation so much as remixing what’s already there.

* Bill then asked what we thought might happen with AI in the future: not a question of whether AI will change books or writing, but whether it might change the ability or way that authors actually write. Will AI neuter us? The answer ended up depending on the question of why we write, and what stories mean to the author.

* On a roll, Bill then asked if our questions have their own lives, or whether we control their backstories and they have no existence beyond what we make for them. This became a really interesting discussion about what Emma called “Schrödinger’s parents” — a concept I explained as everything in a character that’s not explicitly spelled out being “quantum and indeterminate” until there is need to define and specify it.a

* We ended with a discussion of how we hope our books will be received by future generations … which ended up becoming about the butterfly effect somehow.

* BUT WAIT; THERE’S MORE! Emma actually had a come-backer at the end, as a PS, about a new choose-your-own adventure story engine she’s part of, called Zory. You can check Zory out here.

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* I (Johnny) gave everyone the rundown on my currently-running Kickstarter campaign for my new book Gore Point (ends 9am ET on 4/5/24), the best descriptor of which is “it’s very interesting.” I told everyone about how it reframes my entire approach to selling books and to my reader fandom … and how the hoops I needed to jump through to create the campaign end up opening new avenues that wouldn’t be possible if the situation hadn’t “forced” me to try new things. It’s also a way of allowing me to be professional: allowing my truest fans to get what they most want from me in exchange for funds that end up buying assets that make my books better. Everyone wins!

* The entire rest of the show was taken up discussing our moral and legal questions about fan fiction. Before we delved into the core of it, though, Emma raised a question that made me double-take: On the extreme end of the spectrum, is it possible that ALL stories are technically borrowing from other stories? I had thoughts on this as well, because all of my stories, to some degree, remix elements from popular culture and other stories as homage. But where it the line?

* Most of the discussion about fan fiction centered on a bit of Harry Potter fan fic brought to us by Emma called Manacled, for which the author recently got a big book deal. What’s theft of IP and what’s original creation? None of us knew where exactly to come down on the issue, but the discussion around it was fascinating. Shit also got real when we asked the question, “How would we feel if someone borrowed one of our worlds and our characters … and then got a book deal for themselves based on them?

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* Emma found a new used bookstore, causing us to fall into a discussion about the lure of physical books

* … which made Johnny announce the two book Kickstarter campaigns he just launched. One campaign is for his new book Gore Point and the other campaign is for his bestsellling Fat Vampire.

* Then Johnny talked about revisiting his Unicorn Western series and how he’d like to do a special edition of that one, especially after talking to the original cover artist, Ben Mehlos.

* We talked briefly about whether our kids read our books … a no for a lot of Emily’s romance (that cringe factor), but a yes for some of Johnny’s.

* We talked about the wild ride of being a creator: You bomb a lot before you succeed, but we’re not really able to do things other ways.

* Our closing question was posed by Johnny, who asked what ultra-high-end experiences he could offer his fiction readers through his Kickstarters. (And if you listeners have any ideas, reply to this and let me know!)

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* Emma’s not getting enough done in her quest to change tenses on her re-acquired Harlequin books. I could relate, having just launched my bookstore at JohnnyBTruantBooks.com: Every task requires 10 prerequisites tasks.

* Bill asked what happens when we write ourselves into a corner. At first, Emma and I seemed to offer opposite answers (she backtracks; I plunge ahead), but then we differentiated between problems to creatively solve vs. stories that just get stupid.

* Emma told a story about getting inspiration from a children’s book at the dentist’s office about a duck and an alligator. This is how she resolved a problem in her vampire book. Yes, you read that right.

* We talked about how soon to reveal big secrets: meter the reveals out, or save them for the end? I saw a lot of danger (and a lot of insecurity, on the writer’s part) by doing the latter. Emma agreed: It’s best to make readers feel SMART by finding those things along the way.

* Emma posited that once a book is out, it belongs as much or more to the readers as it does to the author, giving JK Rowling and Veronica Ross as examples. SPOILERS FOR THE DIVERGENT SERIES ON THIS ONE!

* This discussion continued until a question about who’s right if an author does something unpopular … capped by Emma’s assertion that stories exist already, and the author is discovering them instead of creating them. This is something that I and Stephen King agree on: us being old buddies and all.

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* Bill opened up with a salvo of questions about erotica for Punjabi widows. No, seriously. That’s what he asked.

* This led to discussions of topics like: How many sex scenes go into romance/erotica books, and how spicy should they be? Why and when does it vary from book to book?

* But the larger discussion was about what people want out of those kinds of books and therefore what you, as the author, should provide.

* The whole “Punjabi widows” discussion, though, got us wondering about where the line is between “inclusiveness and diversity” versus “cultural appropriation.” Should we write more diverse cultures as a positive thing … or is it negative because in this example we don’t know crap about those cultures, and would resort to cliches?

* I spent a bit of time explaining all the ways that my new online store at johnnybtruantbooks.com has been eating my face this week. I’ve had to learn so many new things, but it’s such exciting work. I talked a bit about all the bells and whistles I’m building into my thought process as I build to attract TRUE FANS instead of just “traffic” like I did in the past.

* We closed by talking about fictional worlds in which the subjects of those fictions do or do not exist. Example: zombie worlds where nobody knows what a zombie is. I’ve played with this idea in some of my books, reversing the psychology: for instance, in Dead City, pop-culture zombies exist before real zombies start popping up … and because the idea of “zombies” exists in the zeitgeist, it creates a sort of “fake zombie” thing too, like psychosomatic illness.

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* Bill kicked things off by asking about prequels that conveniently answer all questions in the span of a convenient period of time.

* I countered by comparing and contrasting prequels with what we call “lower decks” stories — stories that happen at some point in the timeline, but fill in gaps more than set things up. (I said that I prefer to “evoke curiosity” rather than “set things up.”)

* I announced that after some time being around the TV industry, I’ve decided I don’t want to be part of it like I used to think I did, then explained why.

* Mike asked a question that basically centered on writer’s block. This led Emma into a story about how wiping her mother’s butt isn’t sexy. (Don’t ask. You’ll just have to listen.)

* We talked about what I think of as “cheap shot” writing: tragedies that had no reason to occur, but the writer shoved them in anyway. (I also spoiled Cujo, so there you go.)

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

Today marked two things: The first time that Emma and I were joined by Bill AND Mike for drinks, but also the return of some persnickety wi-fi issues. But who cares? The ground we covered more than made up for any small tech issues.

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* Emma talks about joining a group called Future Fiction Academy and playing with AI tools. This devolved (ahem - Evolved - into a larger discussion of the use of AI for authors and creativity.

* Bill asked about whether it’s wise for authors to subvert a genre’s usual tropes. This sent me down a rabbit hole about my book Dead City, which subverted tropes so hard, we had to move it into a different genre (biological thriller instead of zombie novels).

* Emma informed us that brains are actually not very tasty. Silly zombies.

* Should we insert pop culture into our books, or does that date them? I described my “blue jeans” philosophy of using timely references to answer the question.

* We talked a bunch about when authors or filmmakers “futurize” stories in dumb ways. Nobody need an explanation of how everyday things work, people!

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

Today, Emma drank a gin and tonic with a splash of cranberry, Mike (new to the ODBC, standing in for Bill) poured himself a vodka tonic without a twist, and I had a glass of Freakshow Zinfandel.

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* Mike prompted Emma and I with a question: Do writers get creative when they want to decompress like non-writers?

* I got a bunch of newly-printed hardback books in the mail and showed off the details that make them special and the excitement that makes me want to do more and more.

* My further plans for “making beautiful books” going forward.

* Emma’s new “Writing and Taylor Swift” podcast is coming soon, following a hostel-chaos and illness incident.

* My plans to form stronger bonds with my cherished readers …

* … which rolled into me gushing about my True Fandom of Bob Schneider and his new audio waveform art …

* … which led to a really cool discussion of our philosophies on what fans want most, and how we can best give them.

* We ended by acknowledging the excellent noises of Mike’s dog Freddy, who sounds like Chewbacca.

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* We began with a rousing discussion of writing techniques that annoy Bill, several of which I’ve definitely done. We then espoused our own annoyances, which made us all look like judgmental fuckers. Like: Excessive cliffhangers, too many short chapters, shocking openings, dialogue that would never make sense in the real world, too many adverbs, and the ever-popular practice of head-hopping.

* We then pivoted to what sounds like a super geeky discussion but was actually sort of fascinating: the strengths and value of various point-of-view/tense styles. Which style do you like best, and why?

* I told my famous “em dash” story. Which wasn’t actually famous at all.

* Emma then asked everyone a question about selling content that she’s also using for a lead magnet to get people onto her email list. Is a bonus story worth 99 cents? (HINT: I said yes. It’s 99 fucking cents, people.)

* We then spent the final three of the show with a rousing and sort of profound and existential discussion about whether or not genre writing is noble - whether we’ll be remembered after we’re gone as having made a difference. What do you think — is only Literature-with-a-capital-L helping to change the world? Or is it instead pretentious bullshit and we, the genre writers, are this world’s real heroes?

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal (almost) weekly writers’ break-down in which my creative friends and I talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

INCLUDING THESE TOTALLY MESSED-UP AI SHOW NOTES FOR THIS EPISODE BECAUSE THEY’RE HILARIOUS:

The conversation covers topics such as addressing feedback and reviews, accepting different opinions, technical difficulties, working on Wi-Fi issues, continuing the conversation, inviting other participants, making future plans, and ending the conversation.

Takeaways

* Addressing feedback and reviews can be useful for improving future work.

* Accept that not every book will appeal to every reader.

* Technical difficulties can disrupt conversations and require troubleshooting.

* Working on Wi-Fi issues is important for a smooth conversation experience.

* Continuing the conversation with other participants can enhance the discussion.

* Inviting other participants can bring new perspectives and insights.

* Making future plans for similar conversations can help ensure better preparation.

* Ending the conversation on a positive note is important.

Chapters

00:00 Addressing Feedback and Reviews

27:34 Accepting Different Opinions

28:12 Technical Difficulties

28:24 Working on Wi-Fi Issues

28:45 Continuing the Conversation

29:05 Inviting Other Participants

29:31 Making Future Plans

30:07 Ending the Conversation

Today, I’m debuting a new feature for paid members of this site: a weekly audio series called the “One-Drink Book Club.”

It’s not the kind of club where we read books and discuss them. It’s the kind where my creative friends and I talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

In this inaugural episode, I’m joined by soon-to-be-Book-Club-regulars Emma Lee Jayne, an award-winning romance author, and our friend Bill Rehm, who doesn’t write yet but who reads pretty well and has what’s essentially a “booze Keurig” at his house.

In each episode, we’ll discuss what we’ve been doing over the past week and what we’re excited about book-wise, usually with Bill asking questions and representing readers and newer authors — folks who aren’t as experienced as Emma and me.

For us, it’s an accountability check-in. For you, it’s a chance to listen in as if you’re sitting beside us at a bar, overhearing friendly shop talk. We’ll share new episodes on most Sundays.

This series is stupidly casual: No editing. No punches pulled. No swearing, because these episodes will be posted on the “clean” Art of Noticing podcast feed … but otherwise this is as real as it gets.

I can’t be assed with the hassle of writing proper show notes, so instead I’m going to grab some AI-generated show notes every single time and not edit them at all. That’s how “real” this show is. It’s so real, I’m lazy.

IN THIS EPISODE:

Summary

In this conversation, the hosts introduce themselves and discuss what they are drinking. They then share their backgrounds as writers and readers. The purpose of the conversation is explained as a weekly check-in and accountability session. The hosts discuss what they have been working on, including print on demand options and the importance of cover design. They also explore the differences between digital reading and physical books. The conversation concludes with final thoughts and plans for future episodes.

Chapters

00:00 Introductions and What We're Drinking

01:00 Introducing the Hosts

02:23 Recognizing Accomplishments

03:00 Purpose of the Conversation

04:12 What the Hosts Have Been Working On

07:43 Discussion on Print on Demand

09:51 Digital Reading vs Physical Books

13:21 Cover Art and Design

19:53 Special Edition Books

21:26 Final Thoughts and Wrap-Up

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* Why am I bothering to make bullet points? The entire episode was about the Artisan Author philosophy, and how that avenue might be the best (or only) option left for quality-and-art-minded authors to truly stand out. But it was a good chat. Really one for the ages.

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* I selfishly announced my new project — The Artisan Author book — which you can sign up to be notified about at JohnnyBTruant.com/Artisan

* What does success mean to different writers? It’s more than a Tony Robbins exercise. The difference actually matters.

* Fighting subconscious ego demands … which might actually serve to take you AWAY from whatever real “success” you actually want.

* The mindset shift for live selling: “I’m pathetic standing here alone” versus “This is/isn’t what I expected in advance.”

* Mike asked how to get started on the Artisan path, for his eldest kid.

* My response in a nutshell: Be yourself. That’s trite but the real differentiator, because “normal” is an illusion … and if you’re yourself, you are exactly what a group of disenfranchised weirdoes has been looking for (and I say “weirdoes” affectionately).

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* As it was just me and Bill this time, we went deep on a geeky discussion prompted by Bill reading an afterword to one of Alistair Reynolds’s books. Bill was super prepared this time with tons of questions, kids!

* We talked about how writers (or at least I) deal with complicated worlds — making sure to keep all the facts straight over time.

* Why Emma’s concept of “Schrödinger’s Parents” applies to worldbuilding and timelines, too.

* Now that I’m about to start a BRAND SPANKIN NEW project with Sean, Bill also asked about worldbuilding and beats (Sean’s part of the equation) and how it meshes with my part (the writing itself).

* We ended with a long and multi-faceted chat about whether or not it’s important to follow your own internal story rules (yes, absolutely essential) and how I handle it … especially when those restrictions create difficult situations that I then need to write my way through (hint: This is where the real magic is).

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* We each gave updates to last month’s writer’s block quagmire, talking about how each of us has chosen to address our individual issues — Emma by stepping back to organize the pieces and me by “getting the band back together” with Sean Platt.

* After Emma talked about all the paperbacks she used to have of her books in a zillion different translated languages, we discussed how myopic the indie author community tends to be, focusing only on a tiny slice from the big pie of all readers … and how if we just expand our thinking, we see abundance rather than the usual “the sky is falling” sentiments so common in our profession.

* After describing how hard I tried to get scammed by a fake comic con organizer, I talked a bit about finding real comic cons and stepping into those waters as an author instead.

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* We started off by giving updates on the last writer’s block episode, which a lot of people seemed to enjoy and take value from. Specifically, I shared a realization about my process that I’m hoping will break me through a current slow point.

* I’ve just finished re-reading my own Gore Point series and shared how unabashedly pleased I was with it, particularly since I’d forgotten the story since writing it. We talked about the discovery process and what it’s like to re-experience your own stuff as a reader.

* The conversation then shifted to “ALL ABOUT AUDIOBOOKS.” Topic covered were changing narrators in the middle of a series, “doing voices” for characters vs. neutral narration voice, taking artistic liberties, and more.

* I shared some recent realizations: that there are big groups of readers out there that few authors are reaching because they don’t overlap with the audiences they focus on, like Kindle-only readers.

* We finished by talking a bit about the idea of concept art to go with what’s in a book … and the fact that I, as the writer of my own books, couldn’t tell you what most of the things in those books look like to make art in the first place.

The One-Drink Book Club is an informal, (almost) weekly series in which fellow author Emma Lee Jayne joins me and our other creative friends to talk about the life, business, and art of writing and making books … for the duration of one Friday-afternoon drink.

Here’s what we talked about in this episode:

* I’m currently recording the audiobook of The Artisan Author (check it out here before it ends, if you’re a writer) — stories of recording foibles abound.

* Mike and I talked about the nebulous ideas of “the need to express oneself” and “refilling the creative well.” Both sound pretentious … and both are very real.

* I shared a “keeping track of the story” metaphor I haven’t talked much about before … that of “raking everything constantly back to the center.” (Stephen King doesn’t rake. He sets off bombs.

* And finally, I buried the lede with Mike by casually mentioning my return to the Unicorn Western story world — something I thought he knew, but that was instead an underwhelming announcement.