Workshop Episode 80 (Guest Host: Peter Orullian)

We must have been VERY good this year, ’cause Santa really came through and gave us James Sutter – author, musician, Managing Editor at Paizo Publishing, and co-creator of the fabulous Pathfinder role-playing game – as a Guest Host! We’re delighted to have James return to the Big Chair to lend his patented writerly mojo to our stock and trade here at the Roundtable… brainstorming stories. With author/editor Jennifer Melzer in the co-pilot’s chair, we buckle in for another adventure in awesomeness.

Dan Wells – author of “The Hollow City”, “Partials”, the John Cleaver series, and co-host of the Parsec-award winning “Writing Excuses” Podcast – returns to the Roundtable to add his experience and insights to this weeks workshop. Our Guest Writer is Dan Absalonson – an author with two tales on Amazon and his own podcast – who brings a marvelous zombie/robot scifi thriller tale to the table. The discussion is brisk, moving from one intriguing topic to the next, each stop revealing more literary gold. This is classic RTP goodness, friends… join us!

Mur Lafferty – podcaster and award-winning author “Six Wakes”, “The Shambling Guide to New York City”, and so much more – returns to the Big Chair in the Archivos Virtual Studios to brainstorm a tale of the death and apparent resurrection of a superhero by David “Doc Blue” Wendt.

Michael R. Underwood brings a rare combination of perspectives to any literary discourse. His insights into the industry and market of speculative fiction is informed by his experience as North American rep for Angry Robot Books. His knowledge of narrative form and structure is refined by his academic achievements. But his understanding of storytelling comes from a deep commitment and practice of the craft.

Joined by co-host Giles Hash (co-host of the Beyond the Trope podcast) we engage in (far more than) 20 minutes of writerly discourse of Michael, exploring the structure and execution of the novella, the effective utilization of tropes in storytelling, and a unique perspective on framing your writing towards a specific market. Writerly goodness is at your fingertips, friends… just click that “PLAY” button!

Jerry Gordon – editor of anthologies and author of tales (check his “Coming Up” section below for all his awesomeness) – returns to the Big Chair at the Roundtable for an ​epic​ story workshop. Guest Writer, Dan Scholes, brings a scifi tale of a distant culture dominated by nanites that infect every aspect of society.

Dan’s story becomes the foundation of one our most intriguing and in-depth workshops ever. You’ll be raking in the literary gold like autumn leaves, friends… just hit that “play” button.

Brion and I are joined by authors Colin F. Barnes, Alasdair Stuart, Starla Hutchton, and Stephen Godden to discuss the challenges of writing near-future scifi in a world where science fact keeps out pacing our imaginations. Along the way we manage to debunk the reported “death of cyberpunk” as well as explore the sources of the trend towards genre mash-ups.

“If we let the tropes and set-pieces of our chosen genre define and limit our work in it, then we’ve…

Last week, Guest Host Peter Newman’s book “The Vagrant” was released on the world and we couldn’t be more delighted for him. So delighted in…

[Featured Image is “Pillars of Creation” by roald92 on DeviantART] Guest Host K.C. Wayland – creator of the amazing and award-winning…

Jilly Dreadful – with a Ph.D. in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Southern California, Associate Editor of NonBinary Review and Unbound…

E. C. Myers – author of the acclaimed “Fair Coin” and “Quantum Coin” – returns to the Big Chair to bring his superb insights and aesthetic to help Brion and I workshop a very cool YA SciFi tale offered up by podcaster and Gentleman Twitter-kin Richard Green.

Richard brings a delightful tale of an alien school field trip on Earth that goes horribly wrong that inspires a great discussion about the qualities of YA stories, defining character arcs and relationships, and a superb exploration of how to take a great idea and make it even better (which is kinda what we do, right?). Literary Gold is pretty much a foregone conclusion.

Returning Guest Host Jilly Dreadful – founder and director of the remarkable  Brainery Workshop – returns to the Big Chair to lend her…

Andrew Weston – author of “Hell Bound” from Perseid Press – returns to the big chair to workshop a story of survival amid the frozen wastes of a planet in the cold darkness of space.

The story is served up by Guest Writer Justin Tseng whose tale of a colony ship arriving at its destination only to spark a bitter war between the inhabitants of the planet is a fabulous feast for the brainstorming table. With John Mierau (of Serving Worlds fame… known to some as “El Writer Libre”) joining us on this epic quest of epicness, we launch into a brain maelstrom fraught with thunderbolts, epiphanies, and lots of “Oh YEAHs”. A jump start for your creative mojo awaits behind that “PLAY” button… El Writer Libre says “CLICK IT!”

Alethea Kontis – author of the award-winning “Enchanted”, “The Wonderland Alphabet”, The “Alpha-Oops” series, and so much more – returns to the Big Chair to help workshop a rich luxurious story idea offered up by podcaster, voice actor, authoress (and so much more), Lauren “Scribe” Harris.

With Justin Macumber as guest co-host (founder and co-host of the Dead Robots’s Society podcast, and co-host on the Hollywood Outsiders podcast), we dive in to a delightful frothy discussion, inspirations bouncing around like pixies on egg nog, taking Lauren’s already fabulous idea and festooning it liberally in Literary Gold.

The quest for literary gold continues, and this time we have the pleasure of sharing the mic with Guest Host…