Today we get to share a conversation with the delightful Lauren Wolk, Newbery Honor and Caldecott winning author who crafts stories for middle-grade readers. We discuss her story development process, finding connection to place, her lyrical use of language.

The stories we cherished in our childhood seem to have a magical spark to them. How can we capture that spark in our writing today? And do you really need to write differently for kids than adults? Spoiler alert: it’s all about being true to oneself and letting the characters speak their truth, no matter how complex or dark the themes may get!

Chapters:

• 00:00 - Introduction
• 09:05 - Writing for Younger Readers or Older
• 23:18 - Exploring Themes with Story
• 29:11 - Letting Characters Develop
• 45:10 - Candle Island
• 48:18 - Supporting Young Readers

Lauren's Information:

Lauren Wolk is best known for her novels, including the New York Times bestselling novel Wolf Hollow, which won a 2017 Newbery Honor, the 2016 New England Book Award, a 2017 Jane Addams Honor, the 2018 Massachusetts Book Award, and other honors.

Wolk's latest novel, Candle Island, published in 2025, was a finalist for the New England Book Award.

Collectively, her books have won over 50 state book awards. Lauren is also the Massachusetts Reading Association’s 2024 Children’s Literature Award winner and the author of two new picture books, currently in production.

She is also as a visual artist represented by the Larkin Gallery (Provincetown and Harwich Port, Massachusetts), an award-winning poet, and a filmmaker.

laurenwolk.com

Lauren's Books:

• Beyond the Bright Sea or audiobook
• Wolf Hollow or audiobook
• My Own Lightning or audiobook
• Echo Mountain or audiobook
• Candle Island or audiobook

Links:

islandreadersandwriters.org

Lauren's headshot photo credit: Robert Nash

Visit

Welcome to the Epilogue...this time I'm talking to award-winning and best selling author Gail Carriger! We discuss her Parasol Protectorate and Finishing School series, the archaeology of writing, writing connected series, and most especially, the Heroine's Journey--what it is, the structure, and viewing as an alternative to the Hero's Journey.

Chapters:

• 00:00 Intro
• 02:19 The Parasol Protectorate
• 13:28 The Archaeologist Role of the Author
• 22:58 Alien and Normal in Science Fiction
• 35:11 The Heroine's Journey
• 45:09 The Hero's Journey vs. The Heroine's Journey
• 56:41 Genre and Audience Alignment
• 01:01:54 Finding Your Role as an Author

Gail's Information:

Gail Carriger writes books that are hugs, mostly comedies of manners mixed with steampunk, urban fantasy, and sci-fi (plus cozy queer joy as G. L. Carriger). These include the Parasol Protectorate, Custard Protocol, Tinkered Stars, and San Andreas Shifter series for adults, and the Finishing School and Tinkered Starsong series for young adults. Also nonfiction: The Heroine’s Journey. She is published in many languages, has over two million books in print, over a dozen New York Times and USA Today bestsellers, and starred reviews in Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Kirkus, and Romantic Times.

Her first book, Soulless, made Audible’s Best list, was a Publishers Weekly Best Book, an IndieBound Notable, and a Locus Recommended Read. She has received the American Library Association’s Alex Award, the Prix Julia Verlanger, the Elbakin Award, the Steampunk Chronicle‘s Reader’s Choice Award, and a Starburner Award. She was once an archaeologist and is fond of shoes, cephalopods, and tea. Get early access, specials, and exclusives via her website gailcarriger.com.

Gail's Books Mentioned:

The Heroine's Journey - or audiobook version

Soulless (Parasol Protectorate Book 1) or audiobook version

Prudence (Custard Protocol Book 1) or audiobook

Etiquette & Espionage (Finishing School Book 1) or audiobook

Crudrat (Tinkered Stars Book 1) or audiobook

Divinity 36 (Tinkered Starsong Book 1)

This episode I talk to Hugo and Nebula award-winning author Charlie Jane Anders! In this chat, we discuss her work, including how she gets inside her characters' heads, challenging the traditional ideas of protagonist and antagonist, and writing your way through personal challenges. We discuss examples from her work including All the Birds in the Sky, City in the Middle of the Night, as well as her latest book, Lessons in Magic and Disaster.

Chapters:

• 00:00 - Intro
• 04:30 - Leading the Reader into the Darkness
• 10:52 - Character Perspectives
• 14:40 - Protagonists and Antagonists and Neither
• 16:49 - Points of View and Structure
• 26:11 - Young Adult Perspectives
• 32:52 - Defamiliarization in Science Fiction
• 41:11 - Finding the Perspective
• 46:04 - Writing Through Personal Challenge
• 51:53 - Outro

Charlie Jane's Information:

Charlie Jane Anders is the author of Lessons in Magic and Disaster, coming August 2025 from Tor Books. Her other novels include All the Birds in the Sky, The City in the Middle of the Night and the young-adult Unstoppable trilogy. She's also the author of the short story collection Even Greater Mistakes, and Never Say You Can't Survive, a book about how to use creative writing to get through hard times.

She's won the Hugo, Nebula, Sturgeon, Lambda Literary, Crawford and Locus Awards. She co-created Escapade, a transgender superhero, for Marvel Comics and wrote her into the long-running New Mutants comic. And she's currently the science fiction and fantasy book reviewer for the Washington Post. With Annalee Newitz, she co-hosts the podcast Our Opinions Are Correct.

charliejaneanders.com

buttondown.email/charliejane

Charlie Jane's Books Mentioned:

• All the Birds in the Sky
• City in the Middle of the Night
• Victories Greater than Death (first in the Unstoppable Trilogy)
• Never Say You Can't Survive
• Even Greater Mistakes
• Lessons in Magic and Disaster

Charlie Jane Anders Photo credit: Sarah Deragon/Portraits to the People

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