Nonsense-Free Kristin

Kristin McTiernan
  • 4.5 (2)
  • Books
  • Updated Weekly

Nonsense-Free Kristin is where independent authors and creators learn to build their platforms, master their craft, and create on their own terms—without begging for permission from gatekeepers who hate them kristinmctiernan.substack.com

  1. Brian McCoppin - Writing Christian Fiction Without Sermons

    1d ago

    Brian McCoppin - Writing Christian Fiction Without Sermons

    Brian McCoppin’s a cloud and AI consultant by day, and a Tang Soo Do instructor and author by night. With books sold in more than 12 countries, he specializes in Christian supernatural action fiction, a corner of the market most people assume doesn't exist, where the demons wear senators' faces and a small-town pastor learns he's been drafted into a war nobody around him believes is real. In this episode, he joins us to talk about building the Record of the Paladins series, why he refuses to let writing stop being a hobby, and how he keeps faith on the page without ever slipping into a sermon. In This Episode * Writing as a hobby, on purpose: Brian McCoppin has no interest in replacing his day-job and explains why that freedom is the whole point. He and Kristin compare notes on the strange pressure authors put on themselves to monetize even when the money isn’t needed. * Why his nonfiction outsells his fiction: His most successful book is the short nonfiction title he wrote to practice the publishing process. Both authors dig into why that happens to the same audience, and why you can’t market the two the same way. * The gap nobody was filling: Walk into the Christian fiction section and you’ll find shelves of bonnets and farms with almost nothing for men. Brian planted his flag in men’s action fiction with explicit faith, and talks about walking the tightrope between biblically sound and genuinely violent. * Demons who look reasonable: His evil doesn’t show up with wings and fangs. It shows up in politics, in institutions, in the polished public figure who suddenly changes. He explains why that version of evil unsettles readers more than any monster. * He thought his readers would be men: More than half turned out to be women walking up at events to tell him which senator is definitely a demon. Brian and Kristin get into who actually reads new fiction right now and why the numbers surprised him. * Profanity, pushback, and his favorite two-star review: Why the F-bombs stayed in, why he’s gotten less heat than expected, and why a critical review from an attentive reader is a gift, not an insult. * In-person selling beats the internet: Most of his sales happen face to face at churches, cons, and book fairs, and he argues the reviews are better too. * Content warnings, reconsidered: Kristin shares how one book changed her hardline stance against content warnings, and Brian explains why he puts them on his audiobooks as a fellow parent trying to filter what reaches his kids. * Writing humans is harder than writing demons: Evil is easy to rationalize on the page. Two people quietly talking about faith is where it gets hard, especially with female leads, which is why he leans on his wife, his daughters, and a female editor. * Tang Soo Do, firearms, and fatherhood: A decade of training alongside his daughters reshaped what he thinks masculinity is for, and that idea, protecting what matters rather than dominating, runs straight through the books. * Media that’s actually healthy: Why Bluey and WALL-E keep coming up in his house, and what both authors think Gen Z is quietly asking for from stories. * What’s next: Book of Turpin, the fourth Paladin novel, is on presale now, plus upcoming events (including a cigar bar in Port Richey), karate tournaments, and his honest take on AI narration for audiobooks. Guest Links * Read Record of the Paladins: https://amzn.to/4u3pZbM * Website: thepaladinbooks.com * Facebook: RecordOfThePaladins * X: @brianmccoppin Kristin’s Links * Editing Services: nonsensefreeeditor.com * Newsletter: https://www.fictionalinfluence.com * YouTube: https://youtube.com/@nonsensefreekristin Timestamps 00:00 - Meet Brian McCoppin. 01:05 - From Fanfic to Publishing. 02:46 - Fiction vs Nonfiction Sales. 03:29 - Christian Action Niche. 05:34 - Peretti and Going Darker. 06:54 - Demons in Institutions. 08:37 - Who Actually Reads It. 10:38 - Profanity and Pushback. 12:21 - In Person Sales Wins. 14:16 - Why Indie Publishing. 16:53 - Content Warnings Matter. 19:34 - Writing Humans vs Demons. 21:54 - Overwriting Lessons. 22:18 - Faith Without Preaching. 24:16 - Guns In The Story. 25:02 - Writing Hardship And Poverty. 26:46 - Building Oliver The Warrior. 28:49 - Family Martial Arts Journey. 30:16 - Fatherhood And Masculinity. 33:06 - Media Picks For Teens. 36:00 - New Books And Events. 37:09 - Conventions And Book Signings. 38:15 - Selling Tips And Swag. 39:49 - Audiobooks And AI Narration. 41:53 - Where To Find The Author And Final Thanks. About This Podcast Nonsense-Free Kristin is where independent authors and creators learn to build their platforms, master their craft, and create on their own terms—without begging for permission from gatekeepers who hate them. New episodes weekly. Subscribe on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube Music. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kristinmctiernan.substack.com

    43 min
  2. Neal Asher | 40 Books. Three Netflix Adaptations. One Brutal Truth About Publishing

    Jun 24

    Neal Asher | 40 Books. Three Netflix Adaptations. One Brutal Truth About Publishing

    Neal Asher has been writing science fiction for Pan Macmillan for 25 years and published 40-plus books, but before any of that he was hauling coal sacks in the rain and fishing typewriters out of skips. In this episode, the man behind Gridlinked and the Love, Death + Robots episodes "Snow in the Desert," "Bad Travelling," and "Mason's Rats" talks about clawing up every rung of the publishing ladder back when distribution was a brick wall, why he thinks indie writers have never had it better, and what's gone wrong with the books the big houses keep putting out. It's a clear-eyed history lesson from someone who lived the old days and isn't romantic about them. In This Episode * The working man who became a writer: Neal walks through the decade of being a machinist, gardener, barman, and skip-lorry jobs that came before the books, including a two-week stint delivering coal. * Rejection, small presses, and the writer’s folio: How he built a career sending sample chapters by post and circulating manuscripts in a literal envelope of writers before email existed. * The £1,000 phone call: The first novella sale that knocked him to the kitchen floor, and the 1999 SFX review of The Engineer that he stuck on top of the slush pile to catch Pan Macmillan’s eye. * Extending Gridlinked in two weeks: Why his first Macmillan book was too short for the British market, and how he rewrote it from 65,000 to 135,000. * From Heavy Metal to Netflix: The cold email to Tim Miller that started 15 years before Love, Death + Robots, the story Tom Cruise reportedly said could carry a film on its own, and working with David Fincher on “Bad Travelling.” * What traditional publishing still does and where it’s failing readers: Neal on the distribution and editing the big houses do well, and his blunt take on “the message,” the reading slump among men, and why he reads by word of mouth now. * Keeping your mouth shut vs. not giving a damn: The cost of being a vocal conservative or libertarian in publishing, the Dark Diamond dedication to Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos that got books returned, and where he’s landed on all of it. * AI governance in fiction and in real life: How the Polity’s AI-run society grew out of his short stories, his dystopian counterweight in the Owner trilogy, and whether a real superintelligence would wipe us out or keep us around like silverbacks. * Indie books worth reading: The titles that pulled him out of a years-long reading hiatus, including Devon Eriksen’s Theft of Fire, Larry Correia’s catalog, and Michael F. Kane’s space western After Moses. * Where to start and what’s next: Neal’s advice for new readers (and the blog post on his site that settles it), plus the Time’s Shadow trilogy: Dark Diamond out now, Dark Agent in May, and Dark Horizon next year. Guest Links * Read the Agent Cormac series: https://amzn.to/3P6xy2c * Website: nealasher.co.uk * X: @nealasher Kristin’s Links * Editing Services: nonsensefreeeditor.com * Newsletter: https://www.fictionalinfluence.com * YouTube: https://youtube.com/@nonsensefreekristin Timestamps 00:00 - Meet Neal Asher. 02:24 - Choosing Writing Seriously. 03:10 - Rejections and Small Presses. 06:26 - Writers Folio Breakthrough. 08:40 - Why Publishing Was Harder. 12:12 - Macmillan Calls in 1999. 15:14 - Love Death and Robots Origins. 20:07 - Traditional vs Indie Today. 21:45 - Publishers Without Publicity. 22:15 - Sci Fi And The Message. 23:59 - Finding Indie Sci Fi Gems. 26:17 - Word Of Mouth Wins. 28:02 - Politics And Speaking Out. 28:37 - Dark Diamond Dedication Fallout. 30:41 - AI Rule In The Polity. 32:32 - Singularity Fears And Hopes. 37:34 - Where To Start Reading. 40:04 - Dark Diamond Trilogy Preview. 42:25 - Writing More Than Planned. 43:01 - Closing Thanks And Wrap Up. About This Podcast Nonsense-Free Kristin is where independent authors and creators learn to build their platforms, master their craft, and create on their own terms—without begging for permission from gatekeepers who hate them. New episodes weekly. Subscribe on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube Music. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kristinmctiernan.substack.com

    43 min
  3. Nick Nethery - The Bomb Tech Building Better Mil Sci-Fi

    Jun 17

    Nick Nethery - The Bomb Tech Building Better Mil Sci-Fi

    Nick Nethery spent a career as an Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal officer before he wrote fiction full-time. His debut started with a working observation that unexploded ordnance looks completely different depending on which country built it, which spiraled into a better question: what would a weapon look like if it came from something that wasn't human? In this episode he argues that technical accuracy has to yield to story, explains why he writes faith into characters without ever climbing into the pulpit, and walks us through Raconteur Press — the "pirate skiff" of a developmental press that gave an unknown writer his shot. Join us for a conversation about craft, faith, authenticity, and why the future of storytelling might not be a book at all. In This Episode * The bomb tech who became a novelist: Nick walks through a military career that ran from maintenance officer to WMD team chief, and explains the leadership philosophy that pulled him toward EOD in the first place. * Alien ordnance and the spark for the debut: Different cultures build weapons with wildly different philosophies — how much they’ll spend to protect their own troops, what they want a device to actually do. Nick took that fascination to its strangest conclusion and asked what humanity would make of ordnance left behind by something that doesn’t share our senses, let alone our intentions. * The crowdfunded airstrike that came true: His US Naval Institute prize-winning story imagined a Marine platoon Kickstarting a JDAM strike they couldn’t get approved through normal channels. Nick explains the real-world signals he and co-writer Mike Burke were watching — drones, 3D printing, soldiers leaking their own base locations through fitness trackers — and why any tech handed to grunts will get gloriously abused. * Detail versus story, and who wins: Every technical writer eventually meets the guy at the back of the panel pointing at one wrong line. Nick makes the case that story has to win, that 99% of your research should never reach the page, and that learning to walk away from hard-won knowledge is what makes the writing feel lived-in instead of like an encyclopedia entry. * A Thirty Years’ War fantasy with the magic dialed low: The Peace Child trades future tech for period-accurate wheel locks, taverns, and travel — an alternate Europe where the church and the nations are recognizable but renamed. Nick explains why he leaned on real historians to keep him honest and why the era fascinates him as a genuine before-and-after in how the West thought about faith and money. * Faith on the page without the sermon: Nick argues that scrubbing belief out of every character is its own kind of unrealistic, especially in the military and law-enforcement worlds he knows. The trick, he says, is that the moment “the moral of the story” is the first line in your outline, you’ve already lost the reader — so he just lets his characters pray, argue, and stay faithful to their spouses the way the people he served with actually did. * Is gaming the next novel: Nick lays out a genuinely provocative thesis: just as epic poetry gave way to the novel, interactive games may become how we primarily live our stories. He points to the emotional gut-punch of certain games as proof, while wondering aloud what we lose when there’s no longer a book or show everyone has read. * Raconteur Press and the return of the pulps: Nick calls Raconteur a “pirate skiff” — a developmental press in the old pulp tradition, taking chances on unknown writers who can tell a good story and are easy to work with. He and Kristin land on the unglamorous truth that answering your emails and learning track changes will do more for your career than being edgy online ever will. Guest Links * Read Relics of the Fallen: https://amzn.to/4uwSwpN * Website: nicknethery.com * X: @nicknetherybro Kristin’s Links * Editing Services: nonsensefreeeditor.com * Newsletter: https://www.fictionalinfluence.com * YouTube: https://youtube.com/@nonsensefreekristin Timestamps 00:00 - Meet Nick Nethery. 01:56 - What EOD Really Does. 04:08 - Ordnance Inspires Sci Fi. 06:51 - Nonfiction to Fiction Skills. 10:02 - Crowdfunded Airstrike Satire. 14:14 - Accuracy Versus Story. 17:02 - Writing Peace Child. 20:31 - Faith Without Preaching. 23:35 - Faith Feels Normal. 24:22 - Romance and Infidelity Tropes. 26:15 - Military Religion Culture Shock. 27:35 - Secular Myths and New Religions. 28:24 - Gaming as Future Literature. 32:11 - Raconteur Press Pulp Revival. 36:01 - Editing Lessons for Writers. 38:55 - What Nick Writes Next. 40:18 - Where to Find Nick. 41:27 - Publishing Plans and Farewell. About This Podcast Nonsense-Free Kristin is where independent authors and creators learn to build their platforms, master their craft, and create on their own terms—without begging for permission from gatekeepers who hate them. New episodes weekly. Subscribe on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube Music. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kristinmctiernan.substack.com

    42 min
  4. Matthew Bockholt - Why "Writing Rules" Won't Make You Better

    Jun 10

    Matthew Bockholt - Why "Writing Rules" Won't Make You Better

    Matthew Bockholt spent years in video games and marketing before he ever wrote a novel full-time — and it shows in how he thinks about the work. While most indie authors are great storytellers and shaky prose stylists, he treats writing like a skill you drill, not a gift you're born with. In this episode he makes the case for killing the phrase "rules of writing" entirely, explains why genre stopped serving readers and started bossing authors around, and walks us through Fable Vine — his pitch for a third path that sits between the trad-pub trickle and the Amazon firehose. He also writes YA that refuses to talk down to teenagers, opening his debut novel Bloom at a funeral and meaning it. It's a conversation about craft, death, sincerity, and why "just write every day" might be the worst advice in the business. In This Episode * Rules don’t make you good — technique does: Bockholt’s basketball analogy reframes everything: anyone can follow the rules and still be terrible. Rules let you play; technique determines whether you’re worth watching. The fix is treating prose like free throws — something you practice on purpose, not something that improves by accident. * The crutch words bleeding into your prose: His weekly prompt group writes under 300 words with constraints like “no ‘to be’ verbs” and “no adverbs.” The point isn’t a lower word count — it’s precision, and the discipline of the micro quietly upgrades the macro. * When genre flipped from a favor to a cage: Genre started as a way to shelve books readers would like. Now marketing departments use it to dictate what authors are allowed to write, and the defining classics of any genre, Bockholt argues, are the ones that didn’t fit a shelf in the first place. * “Twilight if Orson Scott Card wrote it”: His comp for Bloom is a masterclass in positioning: everyone knows Twilight, and the people who perk up at Orson Scott Card are exactly the readers he wants. A good comp narrows your audience instead of flattering everyone. * Fable Vine and the third option: Trad pub is a careful drip; Amazon is a waterfall you drown in. Bockholt’s concept puts the author in the gatekeeper’s chair — pay to shelve your book, keep 100% of the return, and let an upfront cost do the quality filtering that readers are desperate for. * Killing the five-star review: Borrowing from Steam’s recommend / don’t-recommend model and element-based ratings (concept, execution, ending), he argues for a system that tells readers what an author is actually good at. * Writing death honestly for young readers: Bloom opens at a funeral, and its narrator tells you up front that he dies. Drawing on his own experience with loss, Bockholt makes the case that kids are smarter than we write for them, and that respecting death is what gives a story weight. Guest Links * Read Bloom: https://www.fablevine.com/ebook/bloom * X: @MatthewBockholt Kristin’s Links * Editing Services: nonsensefreeeditor.com * Newsletter: https://www.fictionalinfluence.com * YouTube: https://youtube.com/@nonsensefreekristin Timestamps 00:00 - Meet the Matthew Bockholt. 01:54 - Sharpening Prose Skills. 03:12 - Prompts and Style Challenges. 04:31 - How Genre Became a Cage. 07:28 - Writing Across Genres. 09:54 - Fable Vine Third Path. 12:20 - Gatekeeping and Reviews. 15:26 - Rethinking Rating Systems. 17:59 - Visibility and Silent Launch. 20:54 - Rules Versus Techniques. 23:15 - Practice Beats Habit. 23:54 - Ditch Genre Rules. 25:05 - Writing Smart YA. 28:40 - Death as Story Engine. 30:51 - Respecting Mortality. 32:11 - Stories That Face Death. 36:08 - Heroes and Sincerity. 38:27 - Where to Read Bloom. 39:07 - Free Copies Debate. 40:52 - Community and Conventions. 42:52 - Wrap Up and Thanks. About This Podcast Nonsense-Free Kristin is where independent authors and creators learn to build their platforms, master their craft, and create on their own terms—without begging for permission from gatekeepers who hate them. New episodes weekly. Subscribe on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube Music. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kristinmctiernan.substack.com

    43 min
  5. Jason Hunt - Author Habits That Kill Reviews Before They Start

    Jun 3

    Jason Hunt - Author Habits That Kill Reviews Before They Start

    Jason Hunt founded Sci-Fi4Me in 2009, right after the sci-fi channel became "SyFy," and has spent 17 years covering science fiction, fantasy, and horror through reviews, commentary, and his interview show Live from the Bunker. In this episode, he joins us to break down what makes an author pitch an instant yes, why so many writers sabotage their own marketing, and how the Hugo Awards went from a career-defining honor to a warning label. In This Episode * The Rebrand That Started a Network: When the sci-fi channel became “SyFy” and filled the schedule with wrestling and cooking shows, Jason saw an abandoned audience up for grabs. He started blogging from a basement like everyone else. Seventeen years later it’s become reviews, commentary, and a live show. * Wearing the Franchise Like a Skin Suit: Creators don’t like what they’re making, and they’re gutting beloved properties to use as a platform for message fiction. * The Hugos Are a Mean Girls Sleepover: Sad Puppies, Larry Correia, and the year the whole thing burned to the ground. Now a Hugo sticker tells you to stay away. Locus and the Dragon Awards still carry weight; the Hugos are the Oscars now — a club patting itself on the back. * Baen vs Tor Tells You Everything: Whether a book leads with story or ideology comes down to the imprint, not whether it’s hard or soft sci-fi. * Choosing the Bear: The romantasy wave where the heroine ends up with the monster, and how women becoming the gatekeepers — editors and agents both — shapes what gets greenlit and what never makes it past the slush pile. * What Gets an Indie Book a Yes: Pitches come through PR firms or email, and page count matters more than authors think — a 150-page book beats a 700-page tome on time alone. * The Headshot Nobody Has: The single most common media-kit failure. A blurry, half-lit phone selfie is not a headshot. He walks through what a kit actually needs — bio, blurbs, links to past interviews — and why follow-up is where authors blow it. * Nobody Markets You Anymore: Unless you’re Stephen King or George R.R. Martin, you book your own podcasts, signings, and conventions. A.C. Crispin told him the same thing years ago. Trad or indie, new authors get thrown in the deep end. * What Makes a Guest Worth Having Back: Knowledge of the craft, a list of things you can talk about beyond the plot, and the discipline not to spoil your own book. The James Doohan line he lives by: he may have heard the question a thousand times, but it’s the audience’s first time hearing the answer. * What Actually Drives Traffic: Hating on Star Trek and Kathleen Kennedy news does numbers, but author interviews pull just as well as actor interviews. It’s the conversation, not the name on the marquee. If you’re interesting, people stay for two hours. * The TikTok Press-Tour Problem: Clip-bait reviewers asking vulgar questions they don’t care about the answer to, and why a host who does real research lands as a relief. * When to Push Back: He’ll press on a loaded statistic or something outrageous, but keeps it a conversation, not an ambush. * Step One With Zero Audience: Headshot, a simple website, and active socials with the politics dialed way down. * 800 Words a Chapter, on Purpose: His novella experiment, where every chapter is exactly 800 words and the last one lands on 666. A brutal drill in word choice and cutting the fat. He’s sold maybe 15 copies in 12 years and has no regrets. * Read Outside Your Genre: Write sci-fi, sure, but go read a Western, read some Fenimore Cooper. It freshens your approach and gives you new structures to steal. * Where Sci-Fi 4 Me Goes Next: COVID blew up the live-from-conventions plan, the elections scattered the volunteer crew, and YouTube keeps changing the algorithm. The goal now is getting a few shows back on the air. Guest Links * Youtube: @SciFi4Me * Website: SciFi4Me.com * X: @SciFi4Me * Substack: SciFi4Me * IG: @scifi4me Kristin’s Links * Editing Services: nonsensefreeeditor.com * Newsletter: https://www.fictionalinfluence.com * YouTube: https://youtube.com/@nonsensefreekristin Timestamps 00:00 - Meet SciFi4Me’s Jason Hunt. 03:59 - Hugo Awards Fallout. 07:23 - Hard vs Soft SciFi. 09:26 - Indie vs Trad Trends. 14:13 - Choosing Books to Review. 18:17 - PR Pitches and Press Kits. 23:18 - Great Author Interviews. 25:32 - Tech Angles for Sci-Fi. 30:06 - Fresh Questions Beat Clickbait. 32:56 - When to Push Back. 34:39 - Author Visibility Basics. 36:39 - Building an Audience on YouTube. 37:41 - Writing with Word Limits. 40:35 - Discipline and Reading Habits. 42:41 - Future of SciFi4Me. 46:41 - Where to Find Them. 47:33 - Thanks and Wrap-Up. About This Podcast Nonsense-Free Kristin is where independent authors and creators learn to build their platforms, master their craft, and create on their own terms—without begging for permission from gatekeepers who hate them. New episodes weekly. Subscribe on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube Music. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kristinmctiernan.substack.com

    48 min
  6. Spotlight on Indie SFF - A New Home for Based Sci-Fi

    May 27

    Spotlight on Indie SFF - A New Home for Based Sci-Fi

    Spotlight on Indie SFF's founder — a Catholic novelist with nearly 50 books across 16 years who keeps her platform persona separate from her author byline — joins Kristin to talk about the curated referral site she launched last summer after the indie sci-fi space made it clear that authors with her convictions weren't welcome. This conversation covers the long road from Kindle's original gold rush, to realizing the publishing industry’s bias, to building the based-fiction home Indie SFF didn't have. In This Episode * “I Could Do Something Better”: A few years back, someone tried to crowdfund a conservative book site and quietly let it die. When she found the abandoned attempt, the decision to create a new home was simple. * The Email That Funded a Website: The straw that broke the camel’s back was the Indie Sale’s narrative announcement saying authors with her convictions weren’t welcome. The funding came together the same week — a paid-off bill, an extra paycheck, and a saddle she wasn’t using anymore that covered exactly what the dev quote required. * Kindle Before the Gold Rush: She published into the original Kindle wave nearly twenty years ago, when readers were hungry and a non-bestseller could comfortably pay off a mortgage. * Why Scammers Made It Harder for Everyone: Every adaptation Amazon makes to clamp down on KU and ratings abuse hits the honest authors first. The page-read economy collapsed, ratings got gated behind a $50/month spend, and the platform keeps contorting around the worst actors. * Author-Rated Content, Not Surprise Content: The site lets authors rate their own books across four categories. Readers can filter on the front end instead of finding the surprise on page eighty. She isn’t pretending to be the content cop — the system runs on author honesty plus a reader-feedback loop. * Based ≠ Christian: True conservatism conserves something, and Western civilization conserves Christianity, so a real Christian will be based, but a based reader isn’t necessarily Christian. The site is built for the overlap and the people standing next to it, not a denominational gate. * The Grimdark Ink “Sisters of Mercy” Mess: A recent contest billed itself as non-discriminatory and then had judges call Christian themes in an incense-punk novella “blatant in-your-face zealotry.” Comments got closed on the response. The pattern keeps repeating. * The Hidden Exorcism Prayer in the Footer: At the bottom of every page on Spotlight sits a small circle of Latin initials — the Saint Benedict exorcism prayer. Anyone offended at being excluded from the site is, in her read, exactly who that footer is addressing. * Author Nation Got Anonymized Selection Right: This year Author Nation anonymized presenter submissions so the committee judges the proposal, not the name behind it. She’d like to see more of the industry do the same. * Free Now, Free Later: She pays for the site out of pocket and runs a Buy Me a Coffee tip jar for upgrades. The early fear among authors was that she’d flip it to a paid model. She won’t. * Don’t Rush a Book Out — The Audra Winter Cautionary Tale: A TikTok-famous fantasy author took pre-orders, raised hype, then refused edits even after a major-press editor offered help. Once a name is tarnished, the climb back is harder than the climb up. * Hire One Editor for One Short Story: The best money she spent on her craft early on was an edit of a single short story she could actually afford. The advice jumped her writing forward by years and is still her highest-leverage recommendation for developing authors. * 50 Books, a Day Job, and a Friend Who Wrote 100: The output looks intimidating until you remember how many were short. Burnout is real — her answer is permission to rest, not the write-every-day catechism. She knows a romance author who has cleared 100 books in the same window. Guest Links * Join Spotlight on Indie SFF: https://spotlightonindiesff.com * Youtube: @Spotlightonindiesff * X: @spotlightfic Kristin’s Links * Editing Services: nonsensefreeeditor.com * Newsletter: https://www.fictionalinfluence.com * YouTube: https://youtube.com/@nonsensefreekristin Timestamps 00:00 - Introducing Spotlight on Indie SFF. 01:40 - Early Kindle Gold Rush. 02:51 - Scammers KU and AI. 05:36 - Building a Better Site. 07:22 - Content Ratings System. 08:14 - Based vs Christian. 09:40 - Submission Rules Lines. 11:38 - Curated Sales Backlash. 13:08 - Anti Christian Bias. 15:19 - Do Awards Matter. 16:57 - Fixing Popularity Contests. 18:59 - Submitting Books to Indie SFF. 20:31 - Trust, Ratings, and Moderation. 21:35 - Funding and Future Sales. 23:53 - YouTube and Rumble Strategy. 27:34 - Writing Pace and Burnout. 28:57 - Craft First, Publish Later. 32:01 - Avoiding Indie Author Pitfalls. 34:41 - Building Sites and Reputation. 36:18 - Where to Find Spotlight on Indie SFF. 37:03 - Final Thanks and Wrap-Up. About This Podcast Nonsense-Free Kristin is where independent authors and creators learn to build their platforms, master their craft, and create on their own terms—without begging for permission from gatekeepers who hate them. New episodes weekly. Subscribe on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube Music. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kristinmctiernan.substack.com

    38 min
  7. Jarrod Christman - Guerrilla Storytelling Done Right

    May 20

    Jarrod Christman - Guerrilla Storytelling Done Right

    Jared Christman is a writer, musician, and filmmaker who came up in the Victory Records era of metalcore, escaped the 360-deal grinder, and "fell ass-backwards" into making a feature film when three music videos turned into one. In this episode, he joins to discuss his 400,000-word fantasy debut, why he believes power reveals rather than corrupts, and the through-line connecting Ripley in Aliens to a saloon scene reshot in a horse arena. In This Episode * “What’s It Really About?”: Ridley Scott is famous for hammering screenwriters with that question. Jarrod’s answer for his debut is structural — the book is an interrogation of whether absolute power corrupts or whether it reveals. * 400,000 Words on Accident: It started as a single image from the last scene of the book — who are these people, why are they here, why is that on fire? * Why He Despises Nihilistic Storytelling: The line isn’t dark versus light. It’s whether you can see the author’s hand. When the structure sets up good to prevail and then the author yanks it away without justification, that’s the tell. * Knocking Men Down to Raise Women Up: The pattern is a ladder problem. Cut three feet off a six-foot ladder and step up — you’re only three feet off the ground when you could be six. Two losses, not one win. He calls modern feminism “masculinism” — trying to make women into men. * Ripley Did It Right: Alien and Aliens are the template. She’s a woman, as strong as the job requires, contending with men without becoming one. * The Crisis Is Insecurity, On Both Sides: Young men and women are screaming into the void asking what the other wants and getting back contradictory garbage. Everyone performs because the camera never turns off. One cringe moment can end a life. He worries about the pendulum swing already coming. * MySpace Killed the Music Industry: From roughly 2003 to 2008, the metalcore scene transitioned from a music event to a social event. Labels started signing bands off MySpace numbers. Then the records didn’t sell, because online presence didn’t translate to sales. * The Universal Truth About Record Labels: A New York entertainment lawyer told Jared’s old boss that in 35 years of doing industry law, he had never once audited a record label and found they didn’t owe their artists money. The labels were already stealing bewfore the 360 deals showed up to take a cut of everything else, too. * Publishing Just Copy-Pasted the Model: A reality TV star who didn’t read for leisure got a traditional book deal off TikTok fame. Nobody has produced data showing social following translates to book sales, but the industry keeps signing on it anyway. * From Corpus Christi to Missouri Breaks: Victory Records is in the rearview. The new project is independent through DistroKid. * Three Music Videos Became a Feature: The plan was three consecutive music videos sharing a narrative thread. Then a little interstitial footage. Then his co-director said there’s a feature here, and a three-page treatment turned into a full screenplay. * $25K on an AmEx and the Saloon That Wasn’t: Two and a half days of guerrilla filming in southern Idaho with two cameras, a drone, and a volunteer crew. The opening saloon scene came back perfect — except for the modern power outlets and exit-sign switches nobody noticed on set. They built a sound stage in the back of an actor’s riding arena and shot the whole scene again.. * The Next Film — Where Even Shadows Fear to Tread: Modern crime thriller, small town, modern wardrobe. Every obstacle from Missouri Breaks (period authenticity, modernity bleeding into every frame) is gone by design. * Why Multiple Kickstarters Instead of One: A smaller ask is an easier ask. If two campaigns hit and one misses, that’s still a lot of movie. Spread the burden, spread the asks, respect that gas just jumped a dollar overnight. Guest Links * Support Jarrod’s Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/danielpriley/where-even-shadows-fear-to-tread-phase-one * X: @jarrodchristman * IG: @wearemissouribreaks Kristin’s Links * Editing Services: nonsensefreeeditor.com * Newsletter: https://www.fictionalinfluence.com * YouTube: https://youtube.com/@nonsensefreekristin Timestamps 00:00 - Meet the Jarrod Christman. 00:45 - Storytelling Across Mediums. 01:44 - The 400K Fantasy Epic. 02:09 - Power Reveals Character. 03:40 - From Final Scene to Outline. 05:17 - Rejecting Nihilistic Endings. 06:41 - Masculine Heroes Today. 10:16 - Gender Tensions and Online Life. 13:44 - Advice for Stuck Creatives. 15:19 - Music Industry vs Publishing. 18:50 - Fame Over Craft. 19:51 - Followers vs Sales. 20:11 - Music Industry 360 Deals. 22:15 - Going Independent Today. 23:52 - Accidental Feature Film. 26:18 - Guerrilla Production Lessons. 28:54 - Directing Non Actors. 30:51 - New Thriller Kickstarter. 32:42 - Funding Strategy and Wrap. About This Podcast Nonsense-Free Kristin is where independent authors and creators learn to build their platforms, master their craft, and create on their own terms—without begging for permission from gatekeepers who hate them. New episodes weekly. Subscribe on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube Music. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kristinmctiernan.substack.com

    34 min
  8. Riley C. Bolt - Writing Combat That Reads True

    May 13

    Riley C. Bolt - Writing Combat That Reads True

    Riley C. Bolt is a 12-year Army intelligence veteran turned indie author who writes the kind of action thrillers Hollywood used to make before it forgot how. In this episode, he joins to discuss why the special operations community looks nothing like the Hollywood super-soldier myth, how to build a female protagonist men will actually read, and why "three times is enemy action" was all the market research he needed to go indie on day one. In This Episode * “I Don’t Exist. Please Don’t Look for Me.”: Riley’s running joke about his own bio isn’t just a bit. Twelve years inside the intel community — SCIFs, target packages, two tours to Iraq — left him with a body of work the public is never supposed to hear about. The book is what he can talk about. * The Comic Book That Saved Him a Decade: Eastern Blood Price started as a supernatural superhero comic set in New Orleans. Then he had a chance meeting with Chuck Dixon, who warned him off the comics industry entirely. * Hobbit in Third Grade, Dune by Seventh: Riley’s reading path runs through Tolkien, Narnia (which his school wouldn’t let him touch until fifth grade — he tried), and Herbert. * The Elevator Pitch — Extraction Meets The Sixth Sense: Just swap Chris Hemsworth for a much smaller Chinese-American woman. Read it and find the supernatural pieces yourself. * Built a Female Lead for Male Readers on Purpose: Anya is in the Sarah Connor / Ellen Ripley mold — not a girlboss, an ambush predator. Riley set it as a personal hurdle: write a dual-female-protagonist action story that men would actually care about. If he could land that, he’d earn the title “author.” * Senior Chief Shannon Kent — The Rarest Kind of Public Figure: A SIGINT operator who broke into a JSOC tier-one unit and was killed in Manbij, Syria. The intel community almost never produces a name the public knows. Kent did, and Anya is partly built from her. * Why Katya Reads as “Wishy-Washy” — And Why That’s Correct: Some reviewers don’t know what to make of her. Riley’s answer: she spends most of the book in shock. The entire story runs under 24 hours. Ninety-five percent of humans wouldn’t make it out of chapter two. * Pekiti Tirsia Kali Over BJJ — A Battlefield Philosophy: The Filipino military’s combat system isn’t built to look pretty. Riley breaks down why BJJ is fantastic one-on-one in a ring and disastrous the moment a second enemy walks into the room — and the famous practitioner who blew out his own kneecaps trying to take a street fight to the concrete. * Tier-One Operators Aren’t Hollywood Super Soldiers: Hollywood sells SEALs, Delta, and MARSOC as walking weapons. The reality is surprise, speed, and getting back behind cover. The only group built to “lay waste” is the Rangers — by design. Everyone else is an ambush predator, just like Anya. * Reacher’s Quiet Tell: Once someone points out that Jack Reacher goes passive the second a woman walks into the scene, you can’t un-see it. * “Three Times Is Enemy Action.”: Riley went indie before he ever queried. After researching how big publishers treat authors with his profile, he hit the Army’s old saying — once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action — and stopped counting well past three. * The Sequel Is Outlined: Book two is already on the table. Guest Links * Read Eastern Blood Price by Riley C. Bolt: https://amzn.to/4cOX0m9 * Website: rileycbolt.com * Substack: Riley C. Bolt * X: Riley C. Bolt Kristin’s Links * Editing Services: nonsensefreeeditor.com * Newsletter: https://www.fictionalinfluence.com * YouTube: https://youtube.com/@nonsensefreekristin Timestamps 00:00 - Meet Riley Bolt. 01:07 - From SCIFs to Stories. 01:41 - Comics Roots and Chuck Dixon. 03:52 - Early Fantasy and Sci Fi Reads. 04:57 - Building Eastern Blood Price. 06:12 - Why Anime Resonates. 09:12 - Shannon Kent Inspiration. 11:54 - Writing Strong Female Leads. 13:32 - Realism Under Pressure. 15:43 - Elevator Pitch and Action Focus. 16:24 - Martial Arts Background. 17:45 - BJJ vs Battlefield Reality. 19:58 - Bootcamp Lessons and Humbling. 23:46 - Bad Movie Fight Choreography. 26:51 - Writing Efficient Combat. 31:12 - Going Indie and Publishing. 33:17 - Sequel Plans and Where to Find Him. 34:10 - Where to Buy and Closing. About This Podcast Nonsense-Free Kristin is where independent authors and creators learn to build their platforms, master their craft, and create on their own terms—without begging for permission from gatekeepers who hate them. New episodes weekly. Subscribe on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube Music. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kristinmctiernan.substack.com

    35 min
See All (43)

Ratings & Reviews

4.5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

Nonsense-Free Kristin is where independent authors and creators learn to build their platforms, master their craft, and create on their own terms—without begging for permission from gatekeepers who hate them kristinmctiernan.substack.com

Information

  • Creator
    Kristin McTiernan
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2026
  • Episodes
    43
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Kristin McTiernan
  • Show Website
    Nonsense-Free Kristin

You Might Also Like