SHOW NOTES

In this week’s episode, I give an update on two speaking engagements I’ll be participating in, and I share an old cassette from an old career that might surprise you.

I’ll be speaking live at the following events:
indieLAB Conference by Writer’s Digest (Sep 29-30): http://www.indielab.writersdigest.com 
20Booksto50k Vegas Conference: http://www.20booksvegas.com 

TRANSCRIPT

Hello, and welcome to episode 25. I just celebrated my birthday…the big 3-1…I didn’t do much. Birthdays are just another day for me, a day to drink tea, listen to jazz and contemplate my life.

WRITING & MARKET UPDATES

But I did have something really cool happen on my birthday, and that’s that Author Level Up reached 5,000 subscribers. I’m still shocked at how the channel is growing, so thanks to everyone who is subscribing and supporting me.

In writing news, I’m in the process of developing my first information product. I can’t share what it is yet, but it’s for writers, and it will help them a lot. I’ll share more on that soon, probably in the coming months, as I plan to launch it in the near future if all goes well.
In marketing news, I’m making my first public appearances at speaking engagements this fall!

On September 29-30 I’ll be in Cincinnati, OH for indieLAB, which is a conference sponsored by Writer’s Digest. I’ll be representing the Alliance of Independent Authors, and I’ll be speaking on how to build your platform and reach readers with blogging, podcasting, and online video. So if you’re in Cincinnati and are attending indieLAB, be sure to stop by and say hi!

On November 6-8, I’ll be in Las Vegas at the 20Booksto50K conference, sponsored by Michael Anderle and Craig Martelle. I’ll be speaking on how to balance writing with a full-time job. I love Vegas—I’ve been there many times, but never for a conference, so I’m really looking forward to this one. If you’re going to be there, holler at me and let me know!

So most of my month this month has been spent preparing slides and material for both conferences, since they’re coming up on me pretty fast. But it’s definitely awesome to know that my work is paying off, and I’m excited about speaking in front of big crowds and seeing how I can improve my public speaking skills.

LISTENER QUESTIONS

We’ve got some listener questions this week. Big thanks to S. Chipasula-Perry, who emailed me a couple of great questions.

The first is: My biggest frustration with my writing is getting words on the page. I have all of the outlines done. But my struggle is coming up with the words to start the story. How do you handle this?

This is a common problem. After all, starting a novel is one of the most daunting things to do, especially if you fear the blank page. If you’ve done the work to outline, it sounds like you at least have an idea of how your story is going to start. A great technique I use is to think about the character and the problem they’re facing in that first scene—get inside their head, describe how they’re feeling or what they’re experiencing. Let that be the first line.

Another technique that works for me is to either go on Amazon or to your local library, go to any section, and randomly pick five books. See how they start. Pick the most interesting one and copy the style of the opening couple of paragraphs. Don’t plagiarize, but try to imitate the spirit. I often find that this is enough to get me going.

The second question is: When is a good time to collaborate on a project? Should you do it for your debut novel if you just want to get out there or wait until you are established?
The best time to collaborate is when you’ve found your own voice. I don’t recommend collaborating on your first novel, or your tenth, honestly. Get a few books under your belt, and collaborate with someone who has a similar number of books out and who is in the same spot as you on their journey, maybe a little further ahead.

I have collaborated on a series of novels. I wrote my Modern Necromancy series with my friend, Justin Sloan. We both had a few books published, and we had our own distinctive styles. Because we were aware of our writing voices, we were able to blend them together. If you aren’t aware of that, you’ll end up with a mess. To date, Modern Necromancy is one of my most commercially successful series. Readers even praised us for how well our styles blended together, so much that they didn’t even notice there were two people writing. That’s the goal you want to achieve, and it’s hard to do that if you’re brand new.

And the final question is: I live in a town that doesn’t have a writer's community as far as jobs, groups, events, etc. How do I find a community with like-minded people?
Personally, the best writers’ communities are online. You might start at a place called Kboards or 20Booksto50K. Those are both great places to meet new authors—there are some trolls lurking there, but the moderators do their best to control them. Comment on a few posts, find some authors on a similar wavelength as you, and then start your own group. I think the days of local groups are pretty much over. I’ve only ever had successful with a local group once—and that’s one out of 50. I don’t recommend them unless you can find people who are truly motivated, have actually published, and take their careers seriously. In all the local groups I’ve been part of, it’s been mostly writers who “want” to write, but never actually get around to it. Maybe that’s a topic for another show.
Anyway, thank you S. Chipasula-Perry for your questions and for listening to the show.
In other news, I found something cool to share with you guys.

We had some really bad rains in Iowa this summer, and my basement flooded. Fortunately, the basement is unfinished so we didn’t lose much, but as my wife and I were going through my old things, I found a box of old cassette tapes.

Many of you know that I’ve had a lot of odd jobs over the years. Janitor, soda delivery guy, auctioneer, etc. Well, one of the most interesting jobs I had was moonlighting as a therapist.

I’ve been told that I have a calming voice and I’m good at building rapport with people. Many years ago I found an ad on Craigslist for a company that does therapy sessions for high-risk clients. And when I say high risk, I don’t mean suicide or drugs or anything like that. I’m talking high risk to society.

That’s right, this company held therapy sessions for super villains. When they heard my calming voice, they hired me on the spot and paid me two-thousand dollars an hour. I helped a lot of bad guys become functioning members of society, and it’s one of the crowning achievements of my life that I don’t talk about very much.

Anyway, I happen to have a recording from my therapy session with a villain called Rathgeist the Destroyer. I diffused what could have been a very difficult situation for the galaxy. Check this out.

\*\*\*

MICHAEL: Hello there. Can you pronounce your name for me again? I don’t think I caught it.

RATHGEIST: My name is Rathgeist the Destroyer and if you address me as an equal one more time, I will rip you apart and feed your bones to the crows.

MICHAEL: Well, that’s a hell of an introduction. Rathgeist, it’s a pleasure to meet you. My name is Michael. Do you understand why you’re here?

RATHGEIST: I got caught.

MICHAEL: Yeah. Big time.

RATHGEIST: I would do it all over again if I could.

MICHAEL: The part where you obliterated a skyscraper or the part where you ripped a hole in the Andromeda Galaxy?

RATHGEIST: Both, human.

MICHAEL: OK. Let’s talk about that, then.

RATHGEIST: It was glorious.

MICHAEL: There are other things in the universe that are glorious without, you know, death. For example, just the other day, I had a cup of Jasmine tea, and it smelled like grapes. It was fantastic.

RATHGEIST: I enjoy tea very much. You have impressed me, human.

MICHAEL: That’s awesome, Rathgeist. Tea really brings people together. I have some my cabinet. I just bought a tea set. How about we continue this session, Gong-Fu style?

RATHGEIST: I would like that very much. I prefer my tea crimson, infused with the blood of my enemies.

MICHAEL: Uhh…why didn’t I see that coming? Why don’t we change topics? Have you ever considered alternatives to crime? You’ve been all of the universe, so would it be safe to assume you enjoy travel? I hear Helsinki is nice this time of year.

RATHGEIST: Are you calling me weak?

MICHAEL: Quite the opposite. What I said was—

RATHGEIST: [ROARS]

MICHAEL: Whoa, hey, Rathgeist, I didn’t mean to insult you.

RATHGEIST: Screw this therapy. Screw society. I will destroy it.

MICHAEL: Hey buddy, we’re making good progress. Why don’t you—Hey, stop—[SCREAMS]

RATHGEIST: Puny human. [LAUGHS]

***

Well, umm…that didn’t quite end like I thought it did. I could’ve sworn I convinced him to patch a hole that he made in the space-time continuum. That must have been a different client. Anyway, I learned a lot from my short-lived time as a therapist…but probably not a job I’d take again.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Humility is the solid foundation of all virtues.” Confucius

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS WEEK'S EPISODE?

 Let me know!

SHOW NOTES

In this week’s episode I give an update on how well the relaunch of my YouTube channel Author Level Up went. I also answer some questions about my first job and my tea habit.

TRANSCRIPT

Hello, welcome to episode 21. In this month’s progress update, I have a lot of cool stuff to share.

For starters, my YouTube channel. For the first two months, I picked up around 500 subscribers and am very close to passing the 5,000 subscriber mark, which is crazy. It’s small, but as I say on this podcast all the time, everyone has to start somewhere, and the fact that I started with some momentum is really important.

My Scrivener vs Ulysses Cage Match video where I compare the two writing programs is already poised to be my best video of all time. And I’m just getting started.

So huge shout out to my YouTube subscribers for supporting me, and if you’re not a subscriber yet, visit authorlevelup.com or YouTube.com/authorlevelup to get lots of helpful writing videos!

In writing news, I have unfortunately decided to set aside my Sound Mage Sonata series. I won’t go into it in this show, but I gave it a lot of thought and talk about it in a video on my YouTube channel. Check the show notes for a link.

For my fiction, I’ve decided to return to my Magic Trackers urban fantasy series, continuing on the story of my heroine, Aisha Robinson and her two cousins. I love this series and it’ll be fun for me to write.

For nonfiction, I am planning a book on the basics. Basically, 20% of my audience has never written a book, so I want to write something for them that will help them break through their barriers and wade through a lot of the crap that’s out there targeted toward new writers. I’ll share more about this as I build it out, and I plan on being super transparent and let you guys watch over my shoulder as I design and create it.

In marketing news, the interview with Anais Concepcion and Maya Goode at the Literary Roadhouse Podcast is now live, so I’ll drop a link in the show notes. Be sure to check it out.

Oswald Q&A

My biggest fan, Oswald is back this month with more questions.

Oswald McChipperson asks:

“As a robot fresh out of my manufacturer’s factory, I had to find a job. My first job was on an assembly line creating wind-up mice. It enhanced my artificial intelligence in immeasurable ways. Tell me, Michael, what was your first job?”

Great question, Oswald!

My stepdad is a barber, and for a time he ran a barber college. You could go there to get cheap haircuts because the barbers there were still learning their craft. Because it was a school, my dad ran things on a tight budget.

Instead of an allowance, my dad paid me to go to his school every other weekend and clean up the place. I swept all the hair off the floor, vacuumed, cleaned the bathrooms, washed all the sinks, and mopped. I usually did it on a Sunday afternoon, and it was quiet, solitary work. That job taught me a lot and it was easy money.

Time for the next question.

Oswald asks, “Did you know that the creator of the Frisbee had himself cremated and his ashes turned incorporated into Frisbees as a memorial to himself? Tell me, Michael, did you know that?”

Umm…Oswald, two things…that’s not a question, and well, that’s just creepy. Next question.

“In order to remain healthy, my creator recommends a daily regimen of lubricants and joint greases, which I take faithfully and are quite similar to coffee and tea. Tell me, Michael, do you prefer coffee or tea?”

Tea. Tea, all the way. Believe it or not, I am a huge loose leaf tea drinker, and the fact that I drink tea at all is a major lesson in your taste buds changing.

As a kid, tea was always available in my house, but it was the crappy kind. You couldn’t drink it without puckering up.

I never drank coffee, either. I always believed that if you needed coffee to help you stay awake, then you needed to get more sleep.

When I started working, however, I learned to like coffee. I never got attached to it, and I preferred the cheap K-Cups, which are so, so bad for you. That wouldn’t have been horrible, except for the fact that I was using two little cups of cream and at least three packets of sugar per cup.

One of my coworkers saw me one day and said “Umm, what are you doing?”

“Making my coffee,” I said.

“That’s an awfully lot of sugar, don’t you think?” she asked.

I looked down at my cup and realized, holy crap, this IS a lot of sugar. Honestly, it never occurred to me.

I’ll never forget that intervention.

I told myself I had to stop and committed to drinking tea again.

I searched long and wide for a tea I could believe in, and I found some. I got so hooked that I developed a tea habit—but no sugar—which was far healthier.

At the current time, some of my favorite teas are Ceylon tea from Sri Lanka—it’s fantastically full-bodied with a slight caramel taste. I recommend Ahmad Tea’s Ceylon blend.

Another of my all-time favorite teas is Hot Cinnamon Spice by Harney and Sons. Cinnamon and tea shouldn’t go together, but my god, with a little bit of honey—it’s like Christmas in a cup.

I also like Ahmad’s Lemon Vitality tea.

But really, I like green teas, too. I love a good jasmine tea, as well as gunpowder and hojicha from Japan.

I tend to stay away from anything artificial.

I like tea not only for the taste, but because it lifts my mood. It puts me in such a good mood. I also like the ritual of tea. Something about it makes everything slow down for me, which is much needed in my life.

So thanks Oswald, and if I ever see you in person, we’ll have a cup of tea together. I appreciate your questions as always.

[Oswald says “you're welcome.]

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Tea time is a chance to slow down, pull back, and appreciate our surroundings.” Letitia Baldridge

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS WEEK'S EPISODE?

 Let me know!

SHOW NOTES

Quick overview of this week's show:

• Two podcast interviews
• How the relaunch of my YouTube channel went
• New sponsor! (Seriously!)

TRANSCRIPT

Hello, and welcome to episode 17 of the podcast.

I was looking at stats for the show, and it has been downloaded over 1,000 times. That’s a great milestone for me.

I believe everyone starts at zero. I’ve got to start somewhere and I’ll take it, so thanks to all of you who have subscribed and have been listening to me every week.

I’d also like to welcome a new patron on Patreon, Amelia D. Hay. Thank you for your support!

Writing News

In writing news, I’ve been writing like a madman. I’ve written over 75 video scripts for my Author Level Up YouTube channel. I launched it early in the month, and the response has been overwhelming positive. Many of my subscribers commented in the first day alone and welcomed me back. It’s really amazing to see such great support, and I am grateful for it. I’m back to making videos again, and it’s a beautiful thing.

I’ve noticed that there are more YouTubers in the writing space since I left, and some might see that as negative, but I see it as a positive as I think there are some great collaborations that can be done.

Also, I’m making some pretty unique videos so I’m not worried about anyone copying me. Remember, when you’re authentic and create content that only you can, you don’t have to worry about copycats or haters.

For more information on why I started up my YouTube channel, check out Episode 14 of the podcast at michaellaronn.com/episode14. And check out the new Author Level Up videos at www.authorlevelup.com or www.youtube.com/authorlevelup.

As far as fiction goes, I’ve made minimal progress on my Sound Mage Sonata series, but as summer winds down and I’ve got the YouTube channel on autopilot, I cannot wait to dive back into it.

Marketing News

In marketing news, I did an interview with Dan Blank of the Dabblers vs Doers Podcast. Dan is my co-host for the AskAlli Member Q&A Podcast. We talk about creativity, how I’m able to write so fast, and all kinds of other fun aspects of being a creative. My wife heard this one—she doesn’t listen to all of my podcasts, but she thought this one was particularly good, so if my wife approves, then you should listen, too!

I also appeared on the Literary Roadhouse Podcast with my friend Anais Concepcion. I was a guest on this show a few years back, and what’s cool about them is that they discuss short stories. One short story per show, and the guest gets to pick. So I chose “The Bottleneck” by one of my favorite writers, Hans Christian Andersen. It was fun to get their reaction to this story.

I can also claim that I am probably the only guest on the Literary Roadhouse Podcast to pick a short story about an inanimate object. That’s how I roll.

Personal News

In personal news, my wife and I proud owners of a new rabbit. She’s a Flemish Giant named Fifi. She’s literally the size of a cat. It’s our first pet in many respects, and it’s interesting to watch rabbits. They’re very sensitive, social animals, and a lot like cats. Anyway, I’ll share some pictures of her on the blog post housing this podcast episode.

Also, life hit me pretty hard this month. We ran into some problems with childcare for my daughter, which ate into my writing time. For a while, things were really uncertain and I wasn’t sure what we were going to do. Of course, the writing was fine, but it was extremely stressful and definitely affected my output.

But I kept on charging forward and now that I’m on the other side of it, and things are okay now, I’m glad I did. But it just goes to show you that you never know when life will strike. All you can do is control your response.

Alien Dance Club Sponsorship

And no progress episode of this podcast would be complete without a new sponsor!

I’m telling you guys, Author Level Up is getting me some serious attention. I woke up yesterday and had an email from this guy—I think he goes by Green Man. He’s a DJ and my videos on creativity inspired him so much that he decided to write a book about being an unusual DJ in an unusual club. It’s a memoir, and I cried when I read it. I haven’t even made it past the first chapter. Poor dude.

Anyway, he sent some money my way and told me he’d sponsor a show as a thank you for all the help I gave him.

So thank you Green Man for the two thousand dollars, and here’s an ad for his dance club.

[CUE HOUSE MUSIC] This episode is sponsored by The Area 51 Dance Club. We’re a dance club like no other on Earth.

Open the door, step into the light and beam yourself up to the hottest singles club in the Andromeda Galaxy.

Our dance floor is made from the finest asteroids and we’ve got a live DJ every night, spinning dope records from artists like Galaxy Dude, 27 Moons, I Can’t Breathe, and more!

Don’t like to dance? Take a float in our anti-gravity room or go tanning under our microsun lights!

And don’t worry about finding a ride home—we’ll beam you down. After we observe your every move and implant a chip in your brain, that is.

Visit the Area 51 Dance Club today. There is an alien in us all. Let it out to play.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.” Albert Einstein.

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS WEEK'S EPISODE?

 Let me know!

SHOW NOTES

Quick overview of this week's show:

• Why I paused my current urban fantasy series to revive my YouTube channel
• Where to find my new nonfiction book
• Which new audiobook of mine just entered production
• Questions from a listener about my childhood

TRANSCRIPT

Hello, and welcome to episode 12 of the podcast.

Writing News

I’ve paused my Sound Mage Sonata series for a little while because I’ve decided to bring back my YouTube channel, Author Level Up. I’ll talk more about that in next month’s writing life episode, but I decided to bring the channel back because it was very successful for me with a large amount of subscribers continuously asking me for content.

So at the moment I’ve written about 50,000 words in video scripts, and I’ve upgraded my video gear with a new DSLR camera, lights, and programs to help me take the channel to the next level. I plan to create a business around it. More on that in the coming weeks.

So while I haven’t written much fiction, I have been writing quite a bit.

Also, the audiobook for Old Evil, Book 2 of my Last Dragon Lord series, is underway!

And finally, my newest writing book, Be a Writing Machine, is now available wide, so you can buy it at Barnes & Noble, Apple, or wherever you buy your books. You can find it at www.michaellaronn.com/beawritingmachine.

Marketing News

It’s been a quiet marketing month for me. But April was pretty busy. I’ve been focusing mainly on behind-the-scenes changes.

For example, I just wrapped up a complete rebrand of all my books, concluding with my Android X series. You can view the new covers at www.michaellaronn.com/androidx.

All my covers now have my name at the top in big letters. It’s a branding play for me.

Now, every book I write will have consistent branding. It will teach my readers to expect a certain look for my books. That’s really powerful and exciting for me, because I can now start to do some different marketing things that I haven’t in the past.

Listener Questions

Let’s move on to some listener questions.

My biggest fan, Oswald, is back this week with some new questions!

[CUE ROBOTIC MUSIC]

Oswald McChipperson asks:

“One time, another robot dared me to remove all my bolts to see how long I could last. What’s the craziest dare you ever took?”

I love this question, because actually, I took dares a lot as a kid.

Most kids did cool dares. Mine were dorky.

There are a couple that stand out for me. The first dare was in second grade, when a friend dared me to eat a pickle sandwich. I took one of those giant dill pickles that come in jars, and slapped it between two slices of white bread. It was awful. I didn’t even get halfway through. Yuck.

Time for the next question.

Geez, Oswald, I think you’re being too hard on yourself. You strike me as a nice guy. I wouldn’t call you completely emotionless.

To answer your question, I had a lot of crushes when I was elementary school. None of them ended well for me.

The one I remember most was a girl in my first grade class.

She paid zero attention to me, so I tried to do things to get her to notice me.

I became a boy scout. I thought a uniform might help. Nope.

I went to a boy scout camp, and at the camp, there was a sandbox where they taught us how people mined for gold during the gold rush. There were lumps of pyrite hidden in the sand. I’ll never forget their sparkle, and how coarse they were in my hand. I came home from camp with a bucket of pyrite.

I remember sticking some pyrite rocks in my pocket and walking three blocks over to the townhouse where she lived. I was so nervous. It was a quiet, windy day, and as I walked through the tree-filled corridor that led to her street, balancing myself on railroad ties, my heart was beating really fast.

I was going to give her the pyrite and declare my love for this girl. I was only in first grade, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

I knocked on the door.

She wasn’t home.

Turns out she moved away, and I never saw her again.

Yeah. Like I said, didn’t work out so well for me.

While we’re on embarrassing stories, let me tell you another one. In high school, there was a girl that I really liked—she was beautiful, and again, paid zero attention to me. I honestly don’t know if she knew I existed. She sat two seats ahead of me on the bus every day for two years.

One day, I mustered up the courage to write her a Christmas card. I thought if I did that, then it would open the door to talk to her. Then maybe we could get to know each other and I could ask her to prom down the road.

So on the final day of school before winter vacation, I get on the bus and I’ve got the card. I’m in a puffy winter coat with a stocking cap, and I’m sweating through them.

As we get off the bus, I hand her the card.

I had planned to say “Merry Christmas.”

But instead, I hand her the card and run away.

Get this: the next day, she’s sitting in front of me, talking to one of her girlfriends. And she’s holding the card.

She says in a snotty tone, “If someone was going to give me a Christmas card, it would be nice if I actually knew who they were. A real man would have stopped and talked to me.”

Then she slipped the card in her purse and never looked at me again for the rest of the time we rode the bus together.

Yikes.

I was kind of glad I didn’t get to know her. I guess in my infatuation of her, I failed to judge her character.

Oh well. You live and you learn.

Anyway, thanks for your questions again, Oswald. It’s always a pleasure.

[OSWALD SAYS “You're welcome.”]

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Love yourself. It is important to stay positive because beauty comes from the inside out. – Jenn Proske.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS WEEK'S EPISODE?

 Let me know!

SHOW NOTES

Quick overview of this week's show:

• Update on progress for my Sound Mage Sonata urban fantasy series
• Two new podcast interviews, a new patron, and listener questions
• Special surprise!

TRANSCRIPT

Hello, and welcome to episode 8 of the podcast.

Writing News

I’m still making progress on The Sound Mage Sonata series, so no major updates to report right now, other than that it’s coming along nicely and I’ll have some material to share with you very soon. For some more background on the research I’m doing on the series, be sure to check out episode 3 at www.michaellaronn.com/episode3.

Also, my dark fantasy series The Last Dragon Lord will be coming to audio.
I signed a deal with narrator Miles Meili. We just wrapped production on Book 1 and Book 2 will go into production around the middle of May. I can't wait to share it with you guys.

Marketing News

I recently appeared on the Anchor Coming Soon Podcast. Anchor is a social media platform for podcasting that is doing some really cool stuff things in the audio space. I sat down with Brendon Bigley at Anchor and we chatted about The Writer’s Journey Podcast. I'll drop a link in the show notes. I was featured on the front page of the app and I got some incredible exposure for the show.

How I did it: Anchor put out a request for people to create Coming Soon podcast trailers and they invited people to email them with their show ideas. I did exactly what they asked: made a quick pitch trailer, and I got their attention! It really was that simple. Shout out to Brendon, John, and Bryan at Anchor for providing me with this great opportunity.

I also did an interview with Russell Anderson-Williams of the Creative Action Takers podcast. That was a fun interview, too. We don’t talk just about writing—we talk about the overall act of creativity.

New Patrons on Patreon!

That’s it for news this week. I want to give a shout out to my new patron: Cariad Eccleston. Cariad has been following me for a while since back in my YouTube days, and I appreciate her support. She’s a fellow author working on her first novel and she’s got a really cool blog, so I’ll drop a link to her website in the show notes. Thank you, Cariad!

Listener Questions

And as luck would have it, our new patron also happened to ask two questions!

Great question, Cariad! I’ve used every outlining method you can think of: Hero’s Journey, Plot Point Theory, Snowflake Method, etc. These days I use the Writing into the Dark method by Dean Wesley Smith.

Essentially, you write without an outline and make up the story as you go. Not something I’d recommend for someone on their first book or two, but it’s an advanced storytelling method authors can aspire to.

On my YouTube channel, Author Level Up, I did a video called “How to Outline a Novel in 10 Different Ways.” I recorded this back in 2015, but it’s a good resource. In the video, I go through every major method of outlining and talk about the pros and cons of each. I’ll drop a link in the show notes.

I don’t outline anymore, but when I did, I was outlining in about 2-3 days prior to writing my novel. My very first novel took me four to five months to outline. It gets faster. Eventually, you don’t even need to outline. When you write your next novel, apply the lessons you learned from outlining the first time around and you’ll be surprised how much less time it takes. It should get exponentially faster with every novel you write. Great question!

The Podcast Now Has a Sponsor

And I have one final thing to talk to you guys about.

I also got…drum roll, please, a first sponsor for the show!

I’m only 8 episodes in, and I’m already making it rain.

That Anchor interview I did really opened some doors for me. A listener of the show reached out to me via email, and he offered to pay me two thousand dollars if I would advertise his business. I couldn’t turn this away. I have bills to pay!

Plus, this guy owns a really ritzy restaurant. I think it’s in Colorado or Wyoming or somewhere. I don’t even think two thousand dollars would buy me a napkin at this place. Seriously, it’s that lavish.

He sent me the script this morning and I haven’t had a chance to read it, but I know it’s going to be good, so I’m going to wing it. Here we go.

[CUE COUNTRY MUSIC]

This week’s episode is sponsored by Chesapeake of the West.

Say it with us: decadence. Decadence. After a hard day at work, you deserve the finer things in life. Stop by Chesapeake of the West, where we offer the finest selection of the best oysters the Rocky Mountains have to offer. These spring water oysters are raised under the big sky, and they’re GMO and gluten free!

Gulf of Mexico? Step aside.

The REAL Chesapeake Bay? Get outta here!

Don’t let the naysayers fool you—our pearls are the finest bull testicles money can buy…?

[Needle skip] [End commercial]

Rocky mountain oysters? Let me Google these [CUE KEYBOARD SOUNDS]…what the [expletive]? [Expletive], [Expletive], [Expletive]!!!!

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.” Pele

LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS WEEK'S SHOW

New Patrons: Cariad Eccleston – thank you so much!

Visit me on Patreon: www.patreon.com/michaellaronn

Anchor Coming Soon Interview: https://anchor.fm/comingsoon/episodes/The-Writers-Journey-e19duj

Creative Action Takers Interview: https://anchor.fm/creativeactiontakers/episodes/EP5-Michael-La-Ronn-and-the-cracks-in-life-e1b16n/a-a31ulv

Writing into the Dark by Dean Wesley Smith [AFFILIATE LINK]: https://amzn.to/2EVbVHP 

How to Outline a Novel in 10 Different Ways [VIDEO]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhjRZ18JwpY

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS WEEK'S EPISODE?

 Let me know!

TRANSCRIPT

Hello, and welcome to episode 4 of the podcast. I thought I would spend some time talking about what I’m working on writing-wise, marketing-wise, and then answer a few questions. 

WRITING NEWS

In writing news, I’m working on my new series. It’s an urban fantasy with a male hero called The Sound Mage Sonata. Think urban fantasy meets the Arabian Nights and Prince of Persia. It takes place in a modern city inspired by Dubai. Listen to episode 3 for a run-down of what the series is about and what kind of research I am doing for it. That episode is called “Sound Mage Sonata Series and Middle East Research.” 

Book 1 is called Prince of Nocturnes. I’m writing around 2000-3000 words a day, which is pretty good for a Book 1. My Book 1s tend to move slower because I’m still trying to figure out the world, but this one is going to be fun.

My hope is to be done with Book 1 by the middle or end of May.

MARKETING NEWS

In marketing news, this podcast is my big project right now. I’m spending a lot of time working on it and making sure that the quality is professional and the content is entertaining. I welcome your feedback, so please drop me a voice message and let me know how I’m doing.

I also participated in a promotion for GiveGrow.Net. They are a company whose sole focus is to help others grow and develop. This past month they are focused on authors.

This promotion was called the “Indie Author Superbundle” and 25% of their gross sales went to Pencils of Promise, which is a very noble cause. The audiobook version for Be a Writing Machine is in the bundle. There were some AMAZING books, courses and services, so I was honored to be invited to it. The value of all the services was around $5,000, and you could purchase them on a pay-what-you-want model. It was some good exposure for Be a Writing Machine, and I made some affiliate income from it, so that’s always a good thing.

***

LISTENER QUESTIONS

Let’s move on to some listener questions.

Confession: This is the first month of the show so as I record this, I haven’t actually published the show yet.

However, I have a true fan who sent in a ton of questions, and he couldn’t wait until the show was live. Seriously guys, he sent me a lot of questions, so many I can’t answer them all, so I’ll play his questions and answer a few.

[Cue weird robotic music] 

Thanks, Oswald, and I appreciate your question! Actually, yes, I have a habit of saying hello and smiling to strangers all the time. Once, I was in a gas station parking lot pumping gas, and I nodded to a gentleman at the car ahead of me. The guy then approached me and tried to get me involved in a pyramid scheme. True story.

And if you REALLY want to hear a funny story sometime, I’ll tell you about an experience I had first-hand with a pyramid scheme company. It’s really creepy, really hilarious, and really sad.

[Cue robotic music] Oswald has another question.

Wow, you’re getting deep, Oswald. OK, so I was scared of some weird stuff as a kid. Sewer grates, for example. One time, when I was six or seven, I was at a house party—my aunt and some relatives were sitting on the front porch and I was playing my Gameboy in the grass. Every time my family laughed, I thought a monster would come out of the sewer grate to eat us. No idea why. Maybe because the sewer grate looked like teeth. Completely irrational.

One more question.

[Cue robotic music]

Oh, Oswald. If you only knew. Anyone who knows me knows that I occasionally come up with some strange ideas, yet I always find a way to make them work. For example, my book Moderation Online is about a group of terrorist vegetables attempting to take down an empire of processed foods. I know, it sounds utterly ridiculous, but trust me…it works.

I had to browse through my sketchbook for some of my worst ideas. I happened to find some audio from a reader survey I did at a book reading once. I’ve never played this before, folks. Here we go.

[Cue jazz music, audience sounds]

“I have this idea for an urban fantasy…imagine Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles meets Little Shop of Horrors…”

[Crowd boos]

“Oh, come on. How about this one—it’s an idea for a post-apocalyptic novel. Imagine a blender and a gang of household appliances trying to make their way in a post-nuclear world. It’s like The Brave Little Toaster meets The Last of Us. Huh? Huh?

[Crowd boos]

“What the hell is the matter with you people?? Haven’t you read quality fiction lately? Hey, what are you—get your hands off me…stop, please stop—”

[Screams]

That one brings back painful memories. Thanks Oswald, for your questions. Very much appreciated.

[Oswald] “You're welcome.”

***

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today.” H. Jackson Brown, Jr.