Writers on Writing

Memoirist Vanessa McGrady, author of Rock Needs River, and novelist Glen Erik Hamilton, author of Mercy River talk about the art, craft, and business of writing their new books.   Download audio.  (Broadcast date: March 6, 2019)

Amanda Sthers, author of Holy Lands (Bloomsbury) talks with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett about her new epistolary novel and why she starts with the ending. Download audio. (Broadcast date: February 27, 2019)

Novelist Christopher Castellani, author of Leading Men, and Susan Shapiro, author of The Byline Bible, join Barbara DeMarco-Barrett on the show to talk about the art, craft, and business of writing.  Download audio. (Broadcast date: Feb. 13, 2019)

Tom Barbash, novelist and short story writer, joins Marrie Stone for the hour to discuss his latest novel, The Dakota Winters. Tom shares his research, his background in journalism, his secret to creating compelling short stories and more. We learn a little about John Lennon, and a lot about Tom, in this informative and fun 58 minutes. Download audio. (Broadcast date: February 6, 2019)

Pam Houston, author of Deep Creek: Finding Hope in the High Country, talks with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett about writing on airplanes, setting, balancing life with writing, finding structure, and more. Download audio (Jan. 30, 2019)

Iconic Vietnam War novelist and short story writer Tim O'Brien (author of The Things They Carried, In the Lake of the Woods, Going After Cacciato, and more) joins Marrie Stone for the hour to talk about memory, truth, storytelling, mortality and more. O'Brien shares his philosophy that the sound of the story—its cadence, rhythm, and music—should be its guiding principle. He also discusses his revisitation of Hemingway's work and the powerful persistence of childhood memories. Download audio. (Broadcast date: January 23, 2019)

David R. Gillham, author of Annelies, a novel based on Anne Frank and who would she might have been had she lived, and Janet Clare, author of the novel, Time is the Longest Distance, about a woman who learns her father is an Aussie, and goes to find him, talk with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett on this latest episode of Writers on Writing. Download audio. (Broadcast date: January 16, 2019)

Debut novelist Jenn Stroud Rossmann joins Marrie Stone to talk about her novel, The Place You're Supposed to Laugh. She shares her insights on how she unpacked the novel, writing from a young, black male's point of view, and how her work as a mechanical engineer and professor feeds her fiction. In the second half, June Casagrande shares her insights and wisdom into grammar and syntax with her latest book, The Joy of Syntax: A Simple Guide to All the Grammar You Know You Should Know. She discusses common mistakes writers make, how to play with syntax in fiction, good examples of bad writing, and more. Download audio. (Broadcast date: January 9, 2019)

Bestselling author Liane Moriarty joins Marrie Stone to talk about her latest novel, Nine Perfect Strangers. She shares her process, her weaknesses, and her affinity for multiple points of view, among many other things. In the second half, Mark Russell Gelade joins to share his debut collection, Navigating by Stars: 24 Very Short Stories of Love & Longing.  He reads a few pieces and talk about their origins, his revision process, his inspirations, arcs across his work and the art of compression. Download audio. (Broadcast date: December 26, 2018).

Actor Omid Abtahi, featured in American Gods, Boys of Abu Ghraib, Homeland, Argo, etcetera etcetera, spends the hour with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett. They talk about the creative process, his roles, and how it all begins with the word. Download audio. (Broadcast date: Jan. 2, 2019)

Memoirist Beth M. Howard, author of Hausfrau Honeymoon, talks with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett about her new memoir, a prequel to Making Piece, on KUCI-FM 88.9. The show is first broadcast from UC-Irvine Campus and later podcast on iTunes. Subscribe to the show on iTunes and when a new show is uploaded, you'll receive it in your podcast file. Download audio. (Broadcast date: January 2, 2019) Happy New Year!

Janet Fitch, author of The Revolution of Marina M, talks with Barbara about her newest novel, why she's a novelist and not a memoirist, composite characters, her undergraduate focus on Russia and her stay in Russia as a student, and so much more. Download audio. (Broadcast date: Dec. 19, 2018)

Novelist and short story writer Karen Bender joins Marrie Stone to talk about her latest collection, The New Order. Bender discusses her writerly instinct to create order from chaos, and how events in the real world shape her art. She shares her "octopus theory" for creating scope in short stories, as well as her "container theory" for stories. Bender dissects a few of her stories from original concept to final draft, and highlights some of the steps in her revision process. She also notes several stories she uses for teaching these various techniques. All this, and much more. Download audio.  (Broadcast date: December 12, 2018)

Los Angeles-based literary agent Betsy Amster talks with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett about the state of publishing, self-publishing, query letters, what she's looking for, and more.  Download audio. (Broadcast date: Dec. 5, 2018)

Louie Pérez, founding member of the American rock band Los Lobos, and Grant Hier join Marrie Stone for a round-table discussion of poetry, lyric-writing, prose, visual arts, music and more. Hier and Pérez collaborated on the double CD Joyride: Friends Take the Wheel, a compilation of various artists (including George Saunders) interpreting the words and music of Louie Pérez. The CD was created as a special companion piece to Pérez's new book, Good Morning, Aztlán: The Words, Pictures & Songs Of Louie Pérez. Hier is the author of several poetry collections and a forthcoming historical flash fiction book. His most recent work is Similitude.  Pérez and Hier discuss their creative process, the origin of some of their work, how setting personal boundaries breeds creativity, and much more. We also are treated to some Los Lobos songs. Download audio. (Broadcast date: November 28, 2018)