Ledger is a podcast about the craft of writing, from novels to non-fiction to computer code! Stories are an essential part of life. We need them so we seek them out in every way possible. Ledger features interviews with writers across formats and genres to focus on the craft itself, the thoughts and actions that led to stories being written. How do writers deliver the words from their heads and out into the world for others to find? Give the show a listen!
Alex Wrekk is the writer and creator of Stolen Sharpie Revolution, a fantastic book now two decades into its print run and continuing to influence zinemaking and zinemakers the world over.
Alex also creates the zine Brainscan, and, sometimes, a handful of years will go by before a new issue shows up - but! - it’s always being worked on.
We chat about doing multiple drafts of zines, about the presentation of the zines themselves, an...
Carolyn J Carpenter is a cofounder of Hollywood Gatekeepers and a story analyst, writer, producer, and script reader, which is how I met her! This is another entry in my “Austin went to a film festival” series (along with Drew Larimore and Jim Burnstein) because I met Carolyn at Austin Film Festival in October 2024.
Carolyn has a ton of industry experience as a reader and writer, and has worked as a story analyst on movies like "B...
Jim Burnstein, the John H. Mitchell Professor of Entertainment and Director of Screenwriting Program at the University of Michigan stopped by Ledger to talk about his career as a screenwriter. He's written such films as Renaissance Man, starring Danny DeVito and directed by Penny Marhsall, Mighty Ducks 3, a particular childhood favorite of mine, and more.
We discussed how he became a successful screenwriter without moving from Plym...
Playwright Drew Larimore joins Ledger today for a special reason: I read his play UPSTATE in the very first round of submissions as a script reader for the Austin Film Festival, which is THE film festival/contest/conference for writers. I happily put Drew's play through to the next round and also wrote that it had a serious chance of winning the category. It made it to the semifinals and Drew dropped by to talk about the difficult...
Today’s guest is cartoonist, designer, teacher, and Pinball Wizard Ryan Claytor. I’m one of his stops on the digital (and AFK) book tour for his brand-new book, One Bite At a Time: The First 20 years of Elephant Eater Comics. You can purchase the book at OneBiteAtaTimeBook.com along with more of his work
Ryan stopped by to talk about his path from Marvel Comics intern to auto-bio cartoonist to totally unhinged (in a fun way) pinbal...
Rana Tahir writes poetry, non-fiction, and fiction, and is the author of Heroes and Monsters, the Stranger Things Choose Your Own Adventure novel as well as SPIES: Noor Inayat Khan, a CYOA tale of the eponymous WWII spy.
During the interview I reference a chat she had on the Books With a Past show, which you can find here: https://www.youtube.com/live/-0IiY5wkreo?si=JoUvs-FSfzNaqHkl
Rana and I discuss how you never know who is seei...
Glenn Stout is a writer, editor, consultant, teacher, and more. Perhaps most best known as the series editor of The Best American Sports Writing series, which ran from 1991 to 2020, Glenn has been involved with narrative non-fiction in some form since the late '80s and early '90s. His book The Young Woman and the Sea was recently adapted for Disney, starring Daisy Ridley. It is the tale of Trudy Ederle, the first woman to ever swim...
Eugenio Volpe is the author of I, Caravaggio, out now from Clash Books. Go to Clash Books.com or EugenioVolpe.com to grab a copy and find out more about what Eugenio is up to. We cover the warring halves of an artist, Caravaggio's prescient nature as a thinker/creative, Catholicism, and yes also we talk about civets. This one is NSFW in places so heads up!
Thank you so much to Eugenio for stopping by and thank you to Clash Books fo...
Beyond the Bounds of Infinity is a fiction anthology featuring 20 stories from marginalized voices, all inspired by the works and worlds of H.P. Lovecraft. Stephanie Pearre and Vaughn A. Jackson are the anthology's editors and both joined Ledger to chat about the successful Kickstarter launch in 2023 as well as the book's publication on July 10, 2024.
We cover the horrible nature of Lovecraft the person and the ways in which it mus...
Ken Lowery is a tabletop roll-playing game (TTRPG) writer most well-known for writing the fantastic game VOID 1680 AM. He stopped by Ledger to discuss his journey in starting Bannerless Games and the process of writing VOID as well as other games like Lighthouse At the End of the World and Hell Grinders.
We chat about the community aspect of VOID 1680 AM, including how he actually has his own AM radio broadcaster from which he broa...
Brian Allen Carr is a novelist originally from Texas, author of the books Sip; Opioid, Indiana, and his newest book, Bad Foundations, which is out via Clash Books as of January 23, 2024.
It is a peek into a hidden and ignored world beneath the feet of midwesterners, a world that literally supports their entire lives. The narrator is a man named Cook, someone who will essentially become a coworker to readers as they open this book.
...
Debut novelist David Connor joins me to chat about his book Oh God, the Sun Goes which is out TODAY, August 1st, 2023 from Melville House.
Although this is his first novel he has in fact always been writing, which we talk about for sure. He has an undergrad degree in neuroscience and during that time in school he took a writing workshop with Maggie Nelson. Things changed after that.
Also, what’s becoming a touchstone for the show, ...
Brock Swinson is the author of Ink By the Barrel: Secrets from Prolific Writers which is available now at BrockSwinson.com. He's also a regular contributor to CreativeScreenwriting.com, a marketing copywriter, the host of the Creative Principles podcast, and currently is creating a docuseries titled Daredevil Society.
He stopped by to chat about what prolific means for him as well as for writing in general, what it's like to ghost ...
Albert Wendland is the author of three sci-fi novels and a poetry collection, all featuring his character Mykol (pronounced "Michael") Ranglen as a universe-exploring poet adventurer. His newest novel is "Haunted Stars" and is available now from Dog Star Books.
Apart from the poetry collection - which features poems written by Ranglen - the books are adventures colored by Golden Age sci-fi yearnings but with a noir sensibility adde...
Lor Gislason is the author of Inside Out, a goopy gross horror adventure out now from DarkLit Press. They are also the editor of the anthology Bound In Flesh from Ghoulish Books, an author of non-fiction horror reviews and appreciation, and are currently writing more entertaining body horror filled with memorably gross scenes and stories.
Lor stopped by to talk about their writing journey, the dreams that led to Inside Out gooping ...
Emily Marie Passos Duffy is the author of the poetry collection Hemorrhaging Want & Water, out now from Perennial Press and available on Perennial Press.com. It’s hard to beat the publisher’s description of the book, which describes it as "Pastoral city smut for bad girls with big hearts.”
If you’re looking for poetry that travels the globe but also hops across the borders of genre and form then you might really dig this. Emily...
James Spooner is the author of The High Desert out now from Harper Collins, available here - https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-high-desert-james-spooner?variant=40828374777890 Set in the late eighties and starring James as a teenager discovering punk rock and as the book's synopsis says, "Mixed race, acutely aware of his Blackness, James doesn't know where he fits until he meets Ty, a young Black punk who introduces him t...
Justice Warriors Vol. 1 is out NOW from Ahoy Comics and available wherever books are sold. Buy it from your local bookstore or comic shop! It's a wild satire, disgusting but delightfully so – it’s one of the most unique comics on the shelves.
How did these two storytellers get together? How did Matt Bors decide to step away from political cartooning to cowrite this story about a cop made out of poop with Ben Clarkson, an experience...
Author of 27 Essential Principles of Story Daniel Joshua Rubin joined me for Ledger to chat about his book, writing in general and so much more. He's written for the stage, for TV, screenplays and new media, and now this "here's why" book about writing.
We discuss why book blurbs work, how important knowing yourself is to writing, battling our inner critics, and even sort of dead low-level mobsters and how their existence can help ...
Bella Poynton is a playwright, director, actor, and theatre scholar. She's the director of the Playwrights’ Wing at First Look Buffalo Theatre Company in Buffalo, NY; literary manager for Post-Industrial Productions and is also the director of Queen City Playwrights, Buffalo’s new play development workshop for career playwrights in Western New York. Her plays have been featured in The Best Ten-Minute Plays of 2019, The Best America...
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