Welcome back to another LEGENDARY Storybeast episode! Our Legendaries are special guests who are an expert within their area of storytelling. In this episode, Courtney Shack and Ghabiba Weston have the pleasure of interviewing Aurora Ascher. Paranormal & fantasy romance author Aurora Ascher loves misunderstood monsters, lovable anti-heroes, and epic happily-ever-afters. A woman of many creative pursuits, Aurora is also a musician and visual artist. She currently resides in Montreal with her trusty espresso machine and her endlessly patient husband, whom she sometimes doesn’t see for hours until she emerges from her writing cave like a bear in springtime. **SANCTUARY OF THE SHADOW is now available wherever books are sold** In this episode, you'll hear: about pretty books and publishing with Red Tower about facing the blank page Aurora telling us about the delicious tropes and morally grey characters in SANCTUARY OF THE SHADOW how other creative pursuits influence Aurora's storytelling about the circus inspo behind SANCTUARY OF THE SHADOW Aurora's recs for long series where the villain gets a turn to shine about alien-themed reading in a cave Courtney recs the anime : The Devil is a Part-Timer about cultivating safe spaces for yourself as a writer Aurora's wisdom on leaving what doesn't serve you Find us on our ⁠⁠⁠website ⁠⁠⁠and on Instagram at @storybeastpodcast.  For more storytelling content to your inbox, subscribe ⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠.  Feel free to reach out if you want to talk story or snacks!  A warm thank you to Deore for our musical number. You can find more of her creative work on Spotify.  As ever, thank you for listening, Beasties! Please consider leaving a review to support this podcast.  Be brave, stay beastly! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/storybeastpodcast/message

Welcome back to another episode of Storybeast, where Courtney Shack and Ghabiba Weston discuss the transformative power of story. In this episode, you'll hear about: Gabi's definition of "snack characters" A brief-ish digression into venus fly traps--flowers or just fiends? Gabi calls Courtney a snack Gabi talks about how first lines can be used to introduced character and mentions Six of Crows...again. Reader magnets--what they are, how to distribute them, and ideas for your newsletter Our favorite side/snack characters and why we like them Of course, snacks that include pumpkin cookies and a warm brussel sprout salad. Courtney learns something new about Gabi that she should have already known. Find us on our ⁠website ⁠and on ⁠Instagram ⁠(@storybeastpodcast).   For more storytelling content to your inbox, subscribe ⁠here⁠.   Feel free to reach out if you want to talk story or snacks!   A warm thank you to Deore for our musical number. You can find more of her creative work on Spotify.   As ever, thank you for listening, Beasties! Please consider leaving a review to support this podcast.   Be brave, stay beastly! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/storybeastpodcast/message

Welcome to our first LEGENDARY episode of Season 3! Our Legendaries are special guests who are an expert within their area of storytelling. In this episode, Courtney Shack and Ghabiba Weston have the pleasure of interviewing TWO legendaries: Kamilah Cole and Emily Forney. Kamilah Cole is a Jamaican-born, American-raised author. By day she works in publishing and by night she frantically types words she hopes to see in a book on shelves one day. In the past, she’s also worked as a journalist and at a hotel, two jobs that give you amazing stories to tell at parties. You know, if she went to parties. A graduate of New York University, Kamilah is currently based in the Tri-State Area, where she’s usually playing Kingdom Hearts for the hundredth time, quoting early Spongebob Squarepants episodes, or crying her way through Zuko’s redemption arc in Avatar: The Last Airbender. Emily Forney is a literary agent for BookEnds Literary, a digital media and rhetoric teacher, cultural critic, and a writer for what feels like an eternity. After earning her MFA in Creative Writing from Northern Arizona University, Emily worked in editorial roles for literary magazines, journals, and digital prints before finding her home at BookEnds. She was named a 2022 Publisher's Weekly Star Watch honoree and was previously a Publishing Fellow with the LA Review of Books. She currently directs the BookEnds Publishing Fellowship, which mentors aspiring publishing professionals from marginalized communities and provides them with hands on education, resources, and workshops for roles throughout the industry. As a writer and former editor, she actively writes about identity, Blackness, and pop culture. When she isn't reading submissions, working with her authors, or procrastinating her own writing, she's usually binge watching an unhealthy amount of television and stress baking when deadlines are near. **Warning: this episode contains a lot of banter. Do not consume hot beverages while listening.** In this episode, you'll hear: about Emily Forney, international woman of mystery how Emily grosses Kamilah out by going on public record with her affection the story of Courtney's meet cute with Emily and Kamilah how Emily and Kamilah saved the day but didn't look for cars when crossing the street on their hero mission Kamilah talking Avatar the Last Airbender, and being more of a corruption arc than a redemption arc kinda girl what Kamilah's Roman Empire is how Emily fought for Kamilah and snagged her at the very last minute Gabi forgetting where she met Courtney and getting into trouble about author book amnesia  Emily's take on story play patterns making a comeback how Kamilah almost gets Emily to walk into the center of the ocean about what Emily is looking for next on her agent list Kamilah giving us a subconscious stroke of brilliance via a full circle moment drawing parallels to Zuko's redemption arc (hint: think mermaids) which one of us has a stomach of steel Find us on our ⁠⁠website ⁠⁠and on Instagram at @storybeastpodcast.  For more storytelling content to your inbox, subscribe ⁠⁠here⁠⁠.  Feel free to reach out if you want to talk story or snacks!  A warm thank you to Deore for our musical number. You can find more of her creative work on Spotify.  As ever, thank you for listening, Beasties! Please consider leaving a review to support this podcast.  Be brave, stay beastly! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/storybeastpodcast/message

Welcome back to another episode of Storybeast, where Courtney Shack and Ghabiba Weston discuss the transformative power of story. In this episode, you'll hear: Beastly updates An overview of Season 3 legendaries Gabi bringing back the spicy hope about Courtney's agent and her book release "Getting writing time back" The beginnings of an endless conversation on "butter" from Seven Figure Fiction Courtney's chili recipe from her wedding About friendship (obviously) Find us on our ⁠website ⁠and on ⁠Instagram ⁠(@storybeastpodcast).   For more storytelling content to your inbox, subscribe ⁠here⁠.   Feel free to reach out if you want to talk story or snacks!   A warm thank you to Deore for our musical number. You can find more of her creative work on Spotify.   As ever, thank you for listening, Beasties! Please consider leaving a review to support this podcast.   Be brave, stay beastly! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/storybeastpodcast/message

Welcome back to the final Season 2 episode of Storybeast, where Courtney Shack and Ghabiba Weston discuss the transformative power of story with Summer beast, Nadine Flint.  WARNING: This episode contains *a lot* of food talk! In this season finale, you'll hear about: writing fear separating your fear from your characters' fear(s) working through and alongside fear support systems and their value when telling stories that hit deep the beauty on the other side of fear fear as a sign of your path getting out of your own way scary podcast recs for inspiration a show that terrified Courtney (approach with caution) emotional goo Gabi gets made fun of for not knowing a common American snack a biscuit tangent a couple of Season 3 secrets being revealed the Beasts' snackdown menus Find us on our website and on Instagram (@storybeastpodcast).   For more storytelling content to your inbox, subscribe here.   Feel free to reach out if you want to talk story or snacks!   A warm thank you to Deore for our musical number. You can find more of her creative work on Spotify.   As ever, thank you for listening, Beasties! Please consider leaving a review to support this podcast.   Be brave, stay beastly! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/storybeastpodcast/message

Welcome to another LEGENDARY episode! Our Legendaries are special guests who are an expert within their area of storytelling. In this episode, Courtney Shack and Ghabiba Weston have the pleasure of interviewing legendary Kelly Andrew. Kelly Andrew is an author, wife, mother, and dog-mom from New England. When not busy writing she can be found parsing through flea markets or hand-feeding her crows. Kelly is the author of THE WHISPERING DARK and the forthcoming YOUR BLOOD, MY BONES, releasing 2 April 2024. You can also find her work in IN THESE HALLOWED HALLS: A DARK ACADEMIA ANTHOLOGY which is out now. In this episode: We begin with a fun digression about Kelly's pet murder chickens Kelly talks about her inspiration behind THE WHISPERING DARK Kelly discusses her process for reverse engineering her story and her characters We delve into a spirited discussion on Buffy the Vampire Slayer Kelly tells us how her beautiful prose is partly inspired by "saying it with less" Kelly reveals that she is perfect for Storybeast with a list of snacks Find us on our ⁠website ⁠and on Instagram at @storybeastpodcast.  For more storytelling content to your inbox, subscribe ⁠here⁠.  Feel free to reach out if you want to talk story or snacks!  A warm thank you to Deore for our musical number. You can find more of her creative work on Spotify.  As ever, thank you for listening, Beasties! Please consider leaving a review to support this podcast.  Be brave, stay beastly! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/storybeastpodcast/message

Welcome back to another episode of Storybeast, where Courtney Shack and Ghabiba Weston discuss the transformative power of story with Summer beast, Nadine Flint.  In this episode, you'll hear: about story flavour bombs the Beasts share what you can learn from cooking shows as a writer: microtension! scene hops! pacing! looking at villainy from a different perspective! relationship building! trust! the Beasts discuss tools for character building, including flaws. Shout out to the Negative Trait Thesaurus ways to seek out your inspiration about finding the unusual in the ordinary how to practice writing with less pressure Find us on our website and on Instagram (@storybeastpodcast).   For more storytelling content to your inbox, subscribe here.   Feel free to reach out if you want to talk story or snacks!   A warm thank you to Deore for our musical number. You can find more of her creative work on Spotify.   As ever, thank you for listening, Beasties! Please consider leaving a review to support this podcast.   Be brave, stay beastly! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/storybeastpodcast/message

Welcome to another LEGENDARY episode! Our Legendaries are special guests who are an expert within their area of storytelling. In this episode, Courtney Shack and Ghabiba Weston have the pleasure of interviewing legendary Stacey McEwan. Stacey is a fantasy author and school teacher, living on the Gold Coast in Australia with her husband and two kids. She is known on social media for relentlessly bothering her husband with ridiculous antics, as well as skits entitled “Me vs. Brain”. Stacey released the first book in her Glacian Trilogy - LEDGE, in September of 2022. **CHASM, the second book in THE GLACIAN TRILOGY is now available wherever books are sold.** In this episode: We discuss the ins and outs of Audiobooks, from choosing a narrator to what it's like hearing your words read by someone else Stacey offers Gabi a job (JK) We agree on hurting readers feelings (and our own) Stacey shares her insight on balancing writing, social media, and life We discuss reframing social media as a stepping stone We hear about Stacey's writing journey and Michael being the brains of the family Stacey's story beast inspires us for Halloween Courtney reveals how many daggers she has Courtney fails Gabi and Stacey, but makes up for it by committing family wall space to pictures of them, and training story beast mascot, Sweet P, to recognize Stacey's voice We share the foolproof method of identifying The Chosen One Find us on our ⁠website ⁠and on Instagram at @storybeastpodcast.  For more storytelling content to your inbox, subscribe ⁠here⁠.  Feel free to reach out if you want to talk story or snacks!  A warm thank you to Deore for our musical number. You can find more of her creative work on Spotify.  As ever, thank you for listening, Beasties! Please consider leaving a review to support this podcast.  Be brave, stay beastly! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/storybeastpodcast/message

Welcome back to another episode of Storybeast! This week, Gabi and Nadine fly solo in their chat about the transformative power of story.  In this episode, you'll hear about: interpreting excerpts by emotion using sentence cadence and rhythm to evoke emotion how reading as a writer might take different forms for you reading while drafting vs reading while revising playing with structure: timelines, white space, physical placement and formation of words on a page, borrowing craft inspiration from non-novel based forms how clever use of humor and device can provide scaffolding for setting up reader expectations and work to introduce subtle foreshadowing striking the balance of giving readers enough to be present while trusting them to fill in the blanks plenty of examples where we analyze lines and paragraphs of excellent books which one of us won't run to catch the bus Find us on our website and on Instagram (@storybeastpodcast).   For more storytelling content to your inbox, subscribe here.   Feel free to reach out if you want to talk story or snacks!   A warm thank you to Deore for our musical number. You can find more of her creative work on Spotify.   As ever, thank you for listening, Beasties! Please consider leaving a review to support this podcast.   Be brave, stay beastly! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/storybeastpodcast/message

Welcome to another LEGENDARY episode! Our Legendaries are special guests who are an expert within their area of storytelling. In this episode, Courtney Shack and Ghabiba Weston have the pleasure of interviewing legendary Rachel Gillig. Rachel Gillig was born and raised on the California coast. She is an author, with a B.A. in literary theory and criticism from UC Davis. If she is not ensconced in blankets dreaming up her next novel, Rachel is in her garden or walking with her husband, son, and their poodle, Wally. She is the author of One Dark Window and forthcoming Two Twisted Crowns. In this episode: Rachel talks about her publishing journey for ONE DARK WINDOW and TWO TWISTED CROWNS She discusses her story process and a talks about using art to be in her story in a different way Rachel discusses the price of story magic--and why she does it Gabi, Courtney, and Rachel all agree romance is great Rachel admits to not being a snacker, but Courtney lets her know she still likes her book. ONE DARK WINDOW is now available. TWO TWISTED CROWNS publishes October 17th, 2023 wherever books are sold. Order it today. Find us on our ⁠website ⁠and on Instagram at @storybeastpodcast.  For more storytelling content to your inbox, subscribe ⁠here⁠.  Feel free to reach out if you want to talk story or snacks!  A warm thank you to Deore for our musical number. You can find more of her creative work on Spotify.  As ever, thank you for listening, Beasties! Please consider leaving a review to support this podcast.  Be brave, stay beastly! Feel free to reach out if you want to talk story or snacks!  --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/storybeastpodcast/message