The Brainwave Podcast with Gail Hulnick

This week on The Brainwave Podcast, my guest is author Frank Scalise, who has dozens of crime fiction novels in print as Frank Zafiro.
We talk about the origin of his pen names, the ways in which his career as a police officer have affected his novels, and the way that writers feel about their first book.

You can find out more about his work at http://www.frankzariro.com

The Brainwave Podcast is produced and presented b...

This time on The Brainwave Podcast, my guests are Hejsa and Alie Christensen, a mother-daughter writing duo who had their first novel published last year. Stealing John Hancock is published by Turnstone Press. I talked with Hejsa and Alie about the inspiration for the story, about people living through the nightmare of identity theft, and about their method of working together.

To find out more about their work, visit htt...

On The Brainwave Podcast, I make a point of not stereotyping -- for any reason, and that includes age. Creativity in the arts  lives and blooms at a professional level in the minds of people of all ages. It is fascinating to find out about the influences and the sparks that start that process. This time, my guest is filmmaker Thomas Halle, the 23 year-old creator of an animated series titled The Not So Secret Academy, which will de...

"I create with AI". What does that mean? This month, the introduction of a new artificial intelligence tool called Chat GPT has writers debating the pros and cons of using AI tools in their work, and it's a controversy that visual artists are addressing, too.  
My guest this time is author/artist Tery Spataro who uses AI to make books and artwork. 

The Brainwave Podcast is produced and presented by WindWord Group ...

A few weeks ago, Paul McCartney's lyrics were published in a fabulous two-volume set, dedicated to his wife Nancy and his parents. In this bonus episode of The Brainwave Podcast, Gail reviews the books.

The Brainwave Podcast is produced and presented by WindWord Group Publishing and Media. 
Please visit our website at https://www.windwordgroup.com to sign up for our newsletter and receive regular information about upcom...

This time my guest is travel book writer Jacqueline Lambert, who has written and published five books about her life, traveling around Europe, living in a truck with her husband and four dogs. The latest is title To Hel in a Hound Cart: Journey to the Center of Europe. I talk with Jackie about the origin of her traveling lifestyle and her first travel memoir, about the pros and cons of living in a huge truck, and about the places s...

Where were you in '92? Wouldn't it be awesome if you could travel back in time to the 90s? First-time novelist Andy Frye, who works in a day job interviewing sports legends about their business endeavors for Forbes magazine, turned his imagination to that premise, decided to write a main character who is female, and set the story on the music scene. We talk about the day he got the idea, the way he approached developing i...

The Man Who Invented Christmas is the title of a very popular holiday season movie starring Dan Stevens playing the role of Charles Dickens. It began its life as a book, written by New York Times best-selling author Les Standiford, who is also founding director of the Florida International University Creative Writing program in Miami. Les has written dozens of nonfiction books and novels, including the John Deal crime series and  L...

In this episode of The Brainwave Podcast, Gail talks with French director Pierre Coffin about the development of his career as an animator, his work on the four films in the Despicable Me franchise, and the way the unique voices of the Minions were created.

The Brainwave Podcast is produced and presented by WindWord Group Publishing and Media. 
Please visit our website at https://www.windwordgroup.com to sign up fo...

In Episode 75, Gail talks with a return guest on The Brainwave Podcast -- musician Ivan Bodley. She reached out to him when she wanted to talk about the creative moment that happens on stage when players and vocalists truly connect. Ivan is host of the podcast Am I Famous Yet? and author of Am I Famous Yet? Memoir of a Working Class Rock Star. 
You can find out more about him at https://funkboynyc.wixsite.com/funkboy and follow...

David-Matthew Barnes has published sixteen novels,  three collections of poetry, seven short stories, and more than seventy stage plays that have been performed in three languages in twelve countries. Gail talks to him today about his YA Christmas novel, The Everlasting Gift, about his stage and screenplays, about teaching creative writing, and about the author's voice. You can find out more about his work at http://dmbarnes.b...

While we wait for the opportunity for Gail to interview Paul McCartney about the inspirations for his songs, we came upon the work of David Bedford of Liverpool, England, who has made it his life's second career to research the origin stories of the Beatles' songs and the Liverpool roots of their lives and music. Gail talks with David about the geography behind the well-known phrases of "Penny Lane", about the r...

In this episode, Emmy-winning TV news producer/author/radio host talks with Gail about the origins of his show Martini Music, tells stories about Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, and Eartha Kitt, and reminisces about being a disc jockey.

The Brainwave Podcast is produced and presented by WindWord Group Publishing and Media. 
Please visit our website at https://www.windwordgroup.com to sign up for our newsletter and rec...

Gail was a guest on the Florida Writer Podcast and talked with host Alison Nissen about winning two of the Royal Palm Literary Awards the Florida Writers Association gives out, about the challenges of writing loglines or book descriptions, and about the fiction writing process.
You can check out the Florida Writer Podcast and the Florida Writers Association at https://floridawriters.org
You can find Alison Nissen at https:/...

David Kirschner has produced, written or executive-produced some of the most famous family movies to come out of Hollywood in the past three decades. The most recent is Hocus Pocus 2, which is setting records on the Disney Plus channel and giving new life to the original, starring Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimi. Gail talks with him about the original idea for Hocus Pocus, the intertwining of children's st...

Making the Cut, hosted by Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn, is a reality TV competition show that has fashion designers aiming for a million-dollar prize while they design and sew  everything from outrageously creative runway outfits to gotta-have-it accessible outfits. In Episode 68 of the Brainwave Podcast, Gail interviews designer Andrea Pitter, who won Season 2 of Making the Cut. They talk about the childhood memory that sparked Andrea&...

Asher Laub puts on dynamic, often jaw-dropping performances that showcase his violin, dance, and musical composition talents. Gail talked with him about the inspiration for his latest single "Atlantis", the health issues that held him back for a while, and the joy he finds in performing and playing the violin today. You can find out much more about Asher, and see videos of his violin/breakdancing style, at his website htt...

In Episode 66, Gail talks with first-time author Brian Livingston about his novel The Habits of Squirrels, about his decision to leave a career as an attorney to become a professional writer, and about the challenges of independent publishing.

Mentions during the interview: writer services marketplace www.reedsy.com; Facebook group 20Books50K; and literary craft book On Writing  by Stephen King.

You can find out ...

Novelist Jennifer Steil is interested in the inner journey that people make when they choose to live in a country other than the one where they were born. In this conversation with Gail Hulnick, they explore writing fiction as a means of processing a traumatic event, and Jennifer shares her story of coming up with the idea for Exile Music, a novel about a family that flees to Bolivia when the Nazis invade their home in Austria.