Podcast Picks for Writers - March 2015

Since January, there have been some changes in my household that left me struggling with balancing my writing work, my teaching work and my family life. So even though I've been listening to podcasts, I haven't blogged about any for a while. My goal is to get back to that a little more often. Here are three that I found especially interesting this March:

Writing Excuses 10.9 – Where Is My Story Coming From?

This year, the team at Writing Excuses is following a different format, where for three of their weekly podcasts in a month, they focus on one aspect of creating a book, e.g., characters, structure. I found this episode on structure especially useful. 

Something that stuck with me was their discussion about considering the overall tone of the book during the planning stage.

Dabblers vs Doers with Dan Blank: Interview with Debbie Ridpath Ohi

I recently started listening to this series of podcasts about creative professionals taking risks as they develop their craft. I really enjoyed this interview with author-illustrator Debbie Ridpath Ohi, and not just because she's my friend. Like Debbie, I’m a total introvert.

Debbie:  “I bet there are so many introverts out there who were in my position, getting rejections, who could feel they were on the edge, on the cusp of success. If I could talk to my younger self, I would say, get out and starting meeting people.”

Debbie's latest picture book WHERE ARE MY BOOKS? is coming out on May 12, 2015 from Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers.

Introducing Generation Z: A Special Edition of The Current with Anna Maria Tremonte at CBC Radio.

These three podcasts aren't focused on writing, but if you are writing YA or upper MG, they might give you a peek into what teens are thinking and talking about and how they view the world.

Today's Writing Excuse: Tomato Overload

I love eating sun-warmed tomatoes right out of the garden. But there are only so many I can eat. We have large yellow ones, small yellow ones, medium-sized red ones, and small red ones. (Somebody was a little overenthusiastic at the garden centre in the spring.)

Of course, I don't want to waste these beauties that I've tended carefully all summer (I did have to water them once or twice). Here's what else I've been doing with them, instead of writing:

• making pseudo sun-dried tomatoes (in the oven)
• making tomato soup
• making tomato bread (in the breadmaker)
• taking the skins off, chopping them up and freezing them for future use 

 My kids were excited by the process of removing the skins, which involves boiling them for a couple of minutes

and then plunging them into ice water.

But what the kids really like to do is to pick the green tomatoes or collect rotten ones and squish them up for "potions class".

Interesting how adults and kids can have different perspectives on the same thing! Other things kids might do with a lot of tomatoes:

• make tomato mud pies
• feed pet crickets or ants
• make a target and let them rip
• have a tomato throwing contest
• cut them open to see what's inside

It's cool to take an ordinary object and think about the different perspectives people of different ages might have about it.

After all this thinking, I considered writing a quick story about a girl who has a big tomato problem. But first I have to go make some salsa.