Congratulations to our Top 10 Podcast Guests for 2008! You have made the biggest difference for our listeners in generously sharing your expertise and experiences. The lasting value of your message really shows, regardless of when your show was aired. Our hat is off to you!
On December 10th, 2008 Irene Watson and Victor R. Volkman spoke with screenwriting guru Alexis Niki Alexis Niki is a writer, producer, and script consultant originally from New York and now living in Paris, France. She started her writing career with a seven-year stint as a freelance script translator and film subtitler for customers such as Columbia Tristar and Warner Brothers. Alexis shared with us some key questions about how to get started as a screenwriter including: what is an adaptation, how are novels different than screenplays, what is the “concept” of a screenplay and why is it important, how to pitch your screenplay, how to register your screenplay, and success tips for screenwriters from her new book 101 Screenwriting Tips.
Alexis continues to provide script analysis, translations, and rewriting services directly to writers and producers who are preparing their projects for the US market. In 2007, Alexis wrote the book 101 Screenwriting Tips (published by LifeTips), a practical guide to screenwriting that has been described as “fun, informative, and to the point.” In November of the same year, she partnered with George Leclere, former Executive Director of the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and the current Director of the Banff World Television Awards, to write and develop ecology-themed stories for film, television, and the Internet. Two of these projects are currently in development.As a team member of international film association DreamAgo, she helps choose the scripts for DreamAgo’s annual screenwriting workshop in Switzerland. In addition, Alexis is on the development team of the newly-for
med Pavaline Studios, New York. Alexis runs the Paris-based screenplay critiquing group Les Scénaristes, and she continues to work on her spec projects. She is also a certified Alexander Technique teacher. We are very pleased to have her on the line with us live from Paris for this transcontinental interview.
On December 4th, 2008 Irene Watson and Victor R. Volkman spoke with veteran travel writer Barbara Hudgins. Barbara Hudgins is best known as the original author and self-publisher of New Jersey Day Trips. This guidebook sold over 110,000 copies in several editions before she sold the rights to Rutgers University Press. She also co-authored the 10th edition put out by that press. Her most recent book is Crafting the Travel Guidebook. Barbara helped us answer key questions in travel writing including: howw should a travel writer get started, how do you get credentials, and/or a platform, what goes into travel writing and construction, and how do you go from written the manuscript to publication.
Barbara’s travel column, which covers both local and foreign trips, has appeared in several newspapers in northern New Jersey.. National magazines such as Signature, Woman’s World and Foreword have published her free-lance pieces on a variety of subjects.She has lived in New York, New Mexico, Hawaii and Virginia, but has made her home in New Jersey for the past 30 years. She holds a Master’s degree in Library Science and has worked at the New York Public Library, Hunter College and the University of Hawaii. A former English major in college, she began writing music, movie and theater reviews before gravitating to travel writing.
It was only after she had worked with a traditional publisher and gone through all the phases of working with an editor and a co-author that the concept for Crafting the Travel Guidebook was formed. Although there are several books about travel writing on the market, they all concentrate on selling to magazine, newspaper and internet editors. Why not, she thought, create something geared to travel book publishing? Barbara’s experience as an author for a traditional publisher, as a self-publisher and as a freelance writer positions her as a unique expert in all of these fields.
On November 20th, 2008 Irene Watson and Victor R. Volkman spoke with Suzanne Lieurance about how to convert your passion for writing into a viable career as a freelance writer. In addition to being the author of more than 20 published books, Lieurance offers a variety of coaching programs via private phone calls, teleclasses, listserv, and private email for writers who want to turn their love of writing (for children and/or adults) into a part-time or full-time career. We talked about all types of freelance writing and what it takes to get started as a freelance writer, common pitfalls and mistakes to avoid, how much you can really expect to make, how to build your writing resume, and ghost writing. We also touched on some secrets for success in writing for children’s books.
Suzanne Lieurance is a fulltime children’s author, freelance writer, and The Working Writer’s Coach. She teaches children’s writing for the Institute of Children’s Literature based in West Redding, Connecticut, and is the founder and director of the National Writing for Children Center. Lieurance has written articles for a variety of magazines, newsletters, and e-zines like Family-Fun, Kansas City Weddings, Instructor Magazine, New Moon for Girls, Children’s Writer, and many others. She hosts a talk show about children’s books, called Book Bites for Kids, every weekday afternoon on blogtalkradio.com.
Hello and welcome to a special edition of Authors Access Live. This program was recorded in front of a live audience on November 9th 2008 at the 5th Annual Essence of Motown Literary Jam Weekend at the Southern Fires Restaurant in Detroit Michigan. This event was sponsored by the the Motown Writers Network. This talk features Ryan Johnson of the Guild of Blades Retail Group talking about POD Printing Books and Games. GOB is the only POD printer in the USA with walk-in service (as opposed to uploading your files to an impersonal web server) and features mixed (color and black-and-white pages) book printing as well as POD card deck printing, both of which are extremely rare in my experience.
The Guild of Blades Publishing Group is a Detroit area based adventure games and entertainment publishing company. Today the company is the publisher of a half dozen unique gaming brands and publishes and distributes more than 100 in print gaming SKUs. These games range from historical and fantasy board games, miniature games, role playing games and general strategy games. Its core brands include the Empires of History line of historical board games, Overlords: Fantast Battlescape Wargame line, Button Wars Tactical Spaceship Combat Game, Worlds of Heroes & Tyrants Fantasy Quest Board Game and Epic Adventure Role Playing Game and Heroes Forever Role Playing Game. The Guild of Blades is also the publisher of a growing catalog of electronic downloadable PDF games with brands such as Grunt 3rd Edition Fantasy Miniature Battles, Dark Realms Role Playing Universe, Risk Variants, G-spot Games’s adult humor products and e-product versions of select print games. More recent major expansion programs include the
Guild’s launch of the Empires of History Online Gaming Network, a growing network of turn based multi-player online strategy computer games plus the Guild of Blades Fiction Group
