The Story Craft Cafe Podcast

Self Publishing Like A Pro With James Blatch | SCC 211

James Blatch is a former BBC Defence Reporter and a former BBFC Film Examiner. He reported for the BBC on the UK military from, among other places, HMS Invincible (Operation Desert Fox build up), Kuwait (Ali Al Salem allied air base), the Arctic Circle as well as covering the UK air offensive during the Kosovo Conflict in 1999.
Blatch works in publishing, teaching authors at learnselfpublishing.com and publishing writers at vinci-books.com. He is the cohost of the weekly podcast for authors indiewritersclub.com.

Small Stories, Big Impact: The Art of Short Fiction Week Four: Finishing Touches and Future Growth | SCC 210

Complete your short story journey with this final session focused on polishing and celebration of your accomplishment. We will share insider techniques for effective line editing, crafting satisfying endings, and selecting titles that capture your story's essence. We will read from our work, reflect on our progress, and receive feedback. Beyond completing a publishable short story, we’ll leave with sustainable writing habits, revision confidence, and a clear roadmap for our next creative steps.
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Try out Dabble free for 14 days and see why it’s the best writing tool on the planet—no credit card required! Visit our website at www.dabblewriter.com to get started.
Subscribe to our channel for more live events like author interviews, Word Sprints, and Fireside Chats.
We're all about helping authors hone their craft with engaging, fun, and educational content.
On top of all that, Dabble Premium members get access to exclusive content like Office Hours, Premium Workshops, Deep Dive articles, bonus resources, and guest speaker workshops.
Happy writing!

Small Stories, Big Impact: The Art of Short Fiction Week Three The Art of Revision | SCC 209

Transform your rough draft into polished prose in this crucial third session. You'll learn to strengthen character arcs, develop thematic depth, and enhance your unique voice through strategic revision choices. We will share a key scene and receive targeted feedback from our fellow participants. These revision techniques will not only elevate your current story but become valuable tools for all your future writing projects.
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Try out Dabble free for 14 days and see why it’s the best writing tool on the planet—no credit card required! Visit our website at www.dabblewriter.com to get started.
Subscribe to our channel for more live events like author interviews, Word Sprints, and Fireside Chats.
We're all about helping authors hone their craft with engaging, fun, and educational content.
On top of all that, Dabble Premium members get access to exclusive content like Office Hours, Premium Workshops, Deep Dive articles, bonus resources, and guest speaker workshops.
Happy writing!

Small Stories, Big Impact: The Art of Short Fiction Week Two Crafting Your First Draft | SCC 208

Move from concept to creation in our second session. This week focuses on the architecture of effective scenes, the art of gripping openings, and dialogue that reveals character while advancing plot. We will share techniques for maintaining narrative momentum, balancing showing versus telling, and creating the emotional impact that distinguishes memorable short fiction. In week 2 you'll have transformed your story concept into a complete first draft—an accomplishment worth celebrating!
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Try out Dabble free for 14 days and see why it’s the best writing tool on the planet—no credit card required! Visit our website at www.dabblewriter.com to get started.
Subscribe to our channel for more live events like author interviews, Word Sprints, and Fireside Chats.
We're all about helping authors hone their craft with engaging, fun, and educational content.
On top of all that, Dabble Premium members get access to exclusive content like Office Hours, Premium Workshops, Deep Dive articles, bonus resources, and guest speaker workshops.
Happy writing!

Small Stories, Big Impact, The Art of Short Fiction Week One: Finding Your Story | SCC 207

Discover the foundations of compelling short fiction in our first session. Our panel will guide you through proven story generation techniques, character development essentials, and the key elements that make short stories resonate with readers. You'll learn to mine your experiences for authentic material, observe the world with a writer's eye, and transform simple prompts into story gold. From this session, you'll have a fully developed story concept, complete with a memorable protagonist and a clear narrative direction.
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Try out Dabble free for 14 days and see why it’s the best writing tool on the planet—no credit card required! Visit our website at www.dabblewriter.com to get started.
Subscribe to our channel for more live events like author interviews, Word Sprints, and Fireside Chats.
We're all about helping authors hone their craft with engaging, fun, and educational content.
On top of all that, Dabble Premium members get access to exclusive content like Office Hours, Premium Workshops, Deep Dive articles, bonus resources, and guest speaker workshops.
Happy writing!

Writing into the dark with Dean Wesley Smith | SCC 206

Considered one of the most prolific writers working in modern fiction, USA Today bestselling writer, Dean Wesley Smith has published over two hundred novels in forty years, and hundreds and hundreds of short stories across many genres.
 
At the moment he produces novels in five major series, including the time travel Thunder Mountain novels set in the old west, the galaxy-spanning Seeders Universe series, the urban fantasy Ghost of a Chance series, and the superhero series starring Poker Boy, and the highly acclaimed puzzle mystery series The Cold Poker Gang.
 
His monthly magazine called Smith’s Monthly, consisting of only his own fiction, premiered in October 2013 and each month has over 60,000 words per issue, including a new and original novel every month.
 
During his career, Dean also wrote a couple dozen Star Trek novels, the only two original Men in Black novels, Spider-Man and X-Men novels, plus novels set in gaming and television worlds. Writing with his wife Kristine Kathryn Rusch under the name Kathryn Wesley, they wrote the novel for the NBC miniseries The Tenth Kingdom and other books for Hallmark Hall of Fame movies.
 
He wrote novels under dozens of pen names in the worlds of comic books and movies, including novelizations of almost a dozen films, from The Final Fantasy to Steel to Rundown.
 
Dean also worked as a fiction editor off and on, starting at Pulphouse Publishing, then at VB Tech Journal, then Pocket Books, and now at WMG Publishing where he and Kristine Kathryn Rusch serve as executive editors for the acclaimed Fiction River anthology series. He is now also the editor of Pulphouse Fiction Magazine and Writers of the Future.
 
https://deanwesleysmit...
 
Workshops on Teachable…
 
https://wmg-publishing...
 
The WMG Writer Store
 
https://wmgwriterstore...
 
The WMG Publishing Main Store
 
https://wmgbooks.com/

Writing Thrillers While Sailing The World With Rosa Linda Román | SCC 205

Rosa Linda Román is an Emmy-nominated, William Randolph Hearst Award-winning reporter, anchor & podcaster. Rosa Linda’s broadcasting career includes WCTV Tallahassee, KVIA El Paso, KOAT-7 Albuquerque, KSAZ Fox 10 Phoenix, WTVT-13 Tampa & KION-46 Salinas/Monterey. She’s also a successful independent director & screenwriter.
In 2005, Rosa Linda left TV news to start her family. In 2007 she created New Mexicast, New Mexico’s 1st video podcast, which became a weekly, ½ hour TV show for 2 seasons.
From New Mexicast sprang New Mexi-Castaways audio podcast chronicling life aboard sailing catamarans, s/v Hakuna Matata & s/v Dawn Treader, with 3 kids & a German Shepherd; also the subject of her memoir, Losing Sight of the Shore; How to Live on a Boat Without Killing Your Family.
Rosa Linda holds a BS in Telecom from UF & "Ducktorate" Degree from Disney University. She’s currently finishing a trilogy of thrillers while cruising the Mediterranean with her family on m/v Kungaloosh!

Laugh Out Loud Crime Fiction With Jesse Q. Sutanto | SCC

Jesse Q Sutanto grew up shuttling back and forth between Indonesia, Singapore, and Oxford, and considers all three places her home. She has a Masters from Oxford University, but she has yet to figure out how to say that without sounding obnoxious. Jesse has forty-two first cousins and thirty aunties and uncles, many of whom live just down the road. She used to game but with two little ones and a husband, she no longer has time for hobbies. She aspires to one day find one (1) hobby.

Using Short Stories To Explore Characters with Elly Griffiths | SCC 203

Elly Griffiths has always written short stories to experiment with different voices and genres as well as to explore what some of her fictional creations such as Ruth Galloway, Harbinder Kaur, and Max Mephisto might have done outside of the novels. The Man in Black gathers these bite-sized tales all together in one splendid volume.
There are ghost stories, cozy mysteries, tales of psychological suspense, and poignant vignettes of love and loss.
In the title story, Ruth Galloway crosses paths with a mysterious man in a bookstore, setting in motion a rescue mission that hinges on the legends and lore of Norfolk.
Looking into the past, a young magician in 1920s Leeds wonders just what happened to his missing landlady in “Max Mephisto and the Disappearing Act.”
In “Justice Jones and the Etherphone,” a witty girl detective investigates the dire prediction of a fortune teller in dreary postwar London.
A flashback in time reveals Harbinder Kaur as a Detective Sergeant surviving her first day on the job at Shoreham DCI.
To celebrate the holidays, Ruth gets her very first Christmas tree, and her beloved cat narrates his own seasonal story in “Flint’s Fireside Tale.”
And readers can armchair travel with stories set on the Amalfi Coast, in Capri, and in Egypt as Ruth and DCI Nelson experience their very own version of Death on the Nile.
The Man in Black illustrates the breadth and variety of Elly Griffiths’s talent for blood-chilling, page-turning stories all with her trademark humor and heart. 
 
Elly Griffiths is the USA Today bestselling author of the Ruth Galloway and Brighton mystery series, as well as the standalone novels The Stranger Diaries, winner of the Edgar Award for Best Novel; The Postscript Murders; and Bleeding Heart Yard. She is the recipient of the CWA Dagger in the Library Award and the Mary Higgins Clark Award. She lives in Brighton, England.

Speculative Short Fiction With Henry Herz, David Mack, Jonathan Maberry, and Scott Sigler | SCC 202

Today we talk about writing and publishing short stories. Have you thought about how writing short fiction might help your creative process? Tune in today to hear these four masters talk craft with Hank.
Henry Herz has authored fourteen picture books and edited eight anthologies for Albert Whitman & Co., Blackstone Publishing, and others. His short stories have been published by Weird Tales, Baen Books, Pseudopod, Metastellar, Titan Books, Highlights for Children, and Ladybug magazine. He holds a BS in engineering from Cornell University, an MS in engineering from George Washington University, and anMA in political science from Georgetown University. 
Number one New York Times bestselling author Scott Sigler is the creator of eighteen novels, six novellas, dozens of short stories, and thousands of podcast episodes. He is an inaugural inductee into the Podcasting Hall of Fame. His podcast fans fervently anticipate their weekly story fix, so much so that they’ve dubbed themselves “Sigler Junkies” and have downloaded over fifty million episodes.
Jonathan Maberry is a New York Times bestselling author, five-time Bram Stoker Award winner, four-time Scribe Award winner, Inkpot Award winner, and comic book writer. His vampire apocalypse book series, V-Wars, became a Netflix original series. He writes horror, science fiction, epic fantasy, thriller, and more. He is the president of the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers and the editor ofWeird Tales magazine.
David Mack is the award-winning New York Times bestselling author of more than thirty-six novels and numerous short works of science fiction, fantasy, and adventure, including the Star Trek Destiny and Cold Equations trilogies. Mack’s writing credits span television (for episodes of Star Trek: Deep SpaceNine), film, and comic books. He also has worked as a consultant on the animated television series Star Trek: Lower Decks and Star Trek: Prodigy. The International Association of Media Tie-in Writers honored him as a Grandmaster with its Faust Award.