The Story Craft Cafe Podcast storycraftcafe

Michael Callahan is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Searching for Grace Kelly and The Night She Won Miss America, as well as a coffee-table history of the famed Musso & Frank Grill restaurant in Hollywood. A contributing editor at Vanity Fair, his work has been published in Esquire, Town & Country, and the New York Times, among others. He lives in Los Angeles.
In the summer of 1959, rising Hollywood ingenue Mercy Welles is on the cusp of stardom when she vanishes without a trace. Almost 60 years later, Kit O’Neill, a young television producer in New York, is stunned to discover that her recently deceased grandmother, the woman who raised her, was, in fact, Mercy Welles. As Kit embarks on a journey to uncover the truth about what happened that fateful summer, long-forgotten correspondence offers a window to the past that reveals the shocking secrets that forever changed Mercy’s life—and may also change Kit’s.

You want to create a cast of characters that your readers want to root for, but readers don't want a character that is so perfect that they become unrelatable. So, how do you create characters that represent real life while also having a character arc that readers will be drawn to? That's what we'll discuss in this Fireside Chat.

An Amazon Top 100 Best Selling Author, Sarra Cannon writes magical contemporary fantasy novels with both teen and college aged characters (and lots of twists you'll never see coming). Her novels often stem from her own experiences growing up in the small town of Hawkinsville, Georgia, where she learned that being popular always comes at a price and relationships are rarely as simple as they seem.
With over three quarters of a million books sold, Sarra loves writing witchy books and connecting with fans.
Connect with Sarra online!
Website: SarraCannon.com
Facebook: Facebook.com/sarracannon
Instagram: instagram.com/sarracannon
Twitter: twitter.com/sarramaria
Goodreads: Goodreads.com/Sarra_Cannon
Sarra goes live on YouTube to hang out, answer questions, and read original stories every single week. Join our amazing community there at 4PM est every Friday. youtube.com/sarracannon

On this week's fireside chat, Doug and Hank talk about mistakes they made in their writing and publishing careers, and share some tips they with they'd known about earlier. Come join in!

Celeste Barclay, a nom de plume, lives near the Southern California coast with her husband and sons. Growing up in the Midwest, Celeste enjoyed spending as much time in and on the water as she could. Now she lives near the beach. She's an avid swimmer, a hopeful future surfer, and a former rower. Before becoming a full-time author, Celeste was a Social Studies and English teacher. She holds degrees in International Affairs (BA), Secondary Social Science (MAT), and Political Management (MPS). She channels that knowledge into creating rich historical romances that bring the heat.

In today's episode we check in with Author Daniel Kenney to talk about maintaining your author career longterm. Burnout is a very real thing that authors deal with, and today we try to dissect the cause of burnout and Dan shares some strategies he uses to combat and to keep the dream moving forward.