Episodi

  • April White Talks The Divorce Colony

    April White Talks The Divorce Colony
    Jul 9 2024
    On the Season One Finale of Neighborhood Bookstore, historian and journalist April White discusses her narrative nonfiction book THE DIVORCE COLONY.

    This episode particularly warms my heart. First, it is the culmination of all our work to make season one of Neighborhood Bookstore happen. Second, I have known this author, April White, since high school. It is such a privilege to see her career blossom and to chat about her amazing book.On this episode:
    • Accidentally writing a Feminist narrative
    • Recording the forgotten corners of American history
    • How 19th century “paparazzi” made it possible to research the Divorce Colony
    • Writing a women’s story, a frontier story, a story about scandal, a railroad story, a western, and a history book
    • Deadwood in the days after Wild Bill Hickok’s murder
    • The amazing record keeping of Sioux Falls, South Dakota
    • What The Divorce Colony can tell us about our lives today
    • Coming off of Smithsonian Magazine, the Washington Post, Boston Globe Magazine, Philly Magazine, and Atlas Obscura
    • The emergence and (maybe) the end of no-fault divorce
    • Following your curiosity back through history
    Special thanks to: my co-host, Craig Duster, owner and head ne’er-do-well at my favorite used bookstore Pop Art Books Culture. Craig always brings an enthusiastic, important, and original perspective to our interviews; my co-producers Eliza Osborn and Julie Cancio Harper, who helped this show get off the ground as well as cross the finish line; I must acknowledge the (uncredited) feedback I received from Robert Osborn, who surfed the first big wave of podcast production and shared his wisdom and experience with me; my narrator, Adam Federman, who donated his time and craft in between jobs in Los Angeles; my guests, who made time and space to talk with me about their craft and their experiences: James Grady, Christopher Barzak, Abby Vandiver (aka: Abby Collette), Peter Brandvold, David Morrell, and April White; and most of all, I must thank you, reader and listener, for showing up, for sharing community with me, and for providing encouragement and feedback. I enjoyed spending time with you so much.Neighborhood Bookstore podcast will be back, after a brief hiatus, for Season Two.You’re going to love it.
    Mostra di più Mostra meno
    1 ora e 10 min
  • David Morrell Talks Creepers

    David Morrell Talks Creepers
    Jun 3 2024
    On episode 5 of the Neighborhood Bookstore podcast, bestselling author David Morrell (creator of Rambo) discusses his Bram Stoker Award-winning horror novel CREEPERS.

    In this episode:
    • Researching and writing an urban exploration (UrbEx) thriller
    • Writing in “real time”
    • The fascination of life frozen in time
    • Never getting over The Wild Bunch, and Peckinpah’s influence on writing action in First Blood
    • Combining thriller, horror, mystery, and history
    • Writing the weird-but-true thing
    • Readers feel more than they understand
    • Being a fan of James Grady
    • Dan Brown . . . IYKYK
    • The limiting nature of modern media
    • How Creepers the novel became Do Not Enter the (forthcoming) movie
    • Writing a western, and what Taylor Sheridan got wrong
    • Edgar Allen Poe’s theory of composition
    • John Barth’s triangulation of the senses: 3 senses in every scene.
    Mostra di più Mostra meno
    1 ora e 19 min
  • Peter Brandvold Talks The Devil and Lou Prophet

    Peter Brandvold Talks The Devil and Lou Prophet
    May 6 2024
    Welcome to Episode 4 of Neighborhood Bookstore! Host Eric Harper talks with popular western author Peter Brandvold about his bounty hunter novel THE DEVIL AND LOU PROPHET.

    In this episode:
    •Baking bread and talking books
    •Writing a lighthearted western
    •Being classmates with David Foster Wallace
    •Writing for a market, being practical, and making money
    •Sex and violence!
    •The marketing genius of Mike Bray at Wolfpack Publishing
    •Wanting to be Norman Maclean, Jim Harrison, or Roger Welsh
    •The versatility of the western genre
    •Willa Cather is a western author
    •The challenge of wrapping up a series
    •Getting Craig started reading westerns
    •Will the western survive the next 10 years?
    •How Lou Prophet joined the Daisy Gumm Mysteries by Alice Duncan
    •Writing nonfiction about dogs
    •Planning a Viking series, exploring the rhinestone
    Mostra di più Mostra meno
    50 min
  • Abby Collette Talks A Deadly Inside Scoop

    Abby Collette Talks A Deadly Inside Scoop
    Apr 7 2024
    Welcome to the third episode of Neighborhood Bookstore, an author interview podcast. Each month I’ll talk to an author about a book from their back catalog, then take a look at what they have coming up next.

    This time around, co-host Craig Duster and I chat with cozy mystery author Abby Collette about her novel A Deadly Inside Scoop.

    In this episode:
    • Learning the rules of writing cozy mysteries
    • The mysteries and charms of Chagrin Falls, Ohio
    • Does Crewse’s Creamery really exist?
    • The similarities and differences between indie publishing and mainstream publishing
    • Tackling a book series
    • Creating characters that are educated and professional
    • Writing a book in 30 days, and teaching others how to do it too
    • Transitioning from being an attorney and economics professor to full-time author
    • Receiving monthly checks from Amazon versus earning out an advance from Penguin
    • What makes a thriller?
    Mostra di più Mostra meno
    54 min
  • Christopher Barzak Talks The Gone Away Place

    Christopher Barzak Talks The Gone Away Place
    Mar 4 2024
    Host Eric Harper talks with fantasy, horror, and Young Adult author Christopher Barzak about his haunted town novel The Gone Away Place.

    Listen to Neighborhood Bookstore here: or on other major podcast platforms.

    Coming soon:
    • Transcripts and Closed Captioned Video

    Buy The Gone Away Place here:

    Buy Christopher Barzak’s latest books, MONSTROUS ALTERATIONS and A VOICE CALLING here and support POP Art Books Culture:

    In this episode:
    • Having a book banned
    • When the countryside is dark and creepy
    • Sad ghosts and haunted towns
    • The tornadoes that attacked Ohio
    • Studying Clarissa Pinkola Estes and writing about community trauma
    • The supernatural: do you believe?
    • Having your work adapted: the novel One for Sorrow into the movie Jamie Marks Is Dead, and The Gone Away Place into a youth theater play
    • Sophomore slumps and new audiences
    • Recreating myths for a modern audience
    • No guilty pleasures, no gatekeeping
    Mostra di più Mostra meno
    1 ora e 15 min
  • James Grady Talks Steeltown

    James Grady Talks Steeltown
    Feb 4 2024
    Host Eric Harper talks with bestselling author James Grady (Six Days of the Condor) about his hard-boiled crime novel Steeltown — based on Youngstown, Ohio and Butte, Montana.

    In this episode:
    • Riffing on Dashiel Hammett’s Red Harvest
    • Visiting Youngstown in 1988 and finding an underground casino five years before the FBI
    • 58 car bombings in a year
    • “The Bug” (IYKYK)
    • Hammett’s murder-for-hire contract
    • The killing of union organizer Frank Little
    • Organized crime in the heartland
    • Bruce Springsteen, the greatest author of a generation
    • Next time it will be Stealtown with an A
    • Changing pop culture with Six Days of the Condor
    • Day of the Locust by Nathanael West
    • Starting a new crime trilogy, and writing about working people
    Mostra di più Mostra meno
    1 ora e 5 min