Lazette Gifford
Publisher & Editor
zette@cableone.net

Website Review:

Writer's FM

Reviewed By Ann Isik
Copyright © 2007 by Ann Isik, All Rights Reserved


Writers FM (http://www.writersfm.com)

Writers FM is a free, online radio station whose goal is to help writers grow.  It broadcasts music, writing prompts, and writing markets, but the pivot on which it turns is the author interview.

A chance to pick the brains of published authors is of great value to the fledgling writer.  Writers who succeed in getting books into print have made the arduous migration to publication and often beyond -- to the marketing and distribution of the finished product.  They are, therefore, treasure troves of practical and inspirational advice to the novice.  They’ve conquered the problem of finding time to write.  They’ve learnt how to hone their writing skills to publishable standard.  They’ve conquered the subtle art of persuading agents to represent them and of getting the attention of publishers.

Ask how often the new-born writer gets a chance to chat, one-on-one and at length, with seasoned authors, and I suspect the answers will range from "never" to "rarely."  Published writers are even busier after a book is launched.  They have to wring-out even more time from their day, for book signings and other events.  Writers FM asks the questions that writers who want to become published would like to ask of best-selling authors.  The interviews are conveniently broadcast across the web twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.  If finding time to listen-in is not possible, the interviews are also available as podcasts, to download and play back at the listener’s convenience.

The radio station is headed and hosted by Karl Moore, who also conducts the author interviews.  Karl is managing director of White Cliff Computing Ltd, the online part of which is the WCCL Network of companies.  WCCL consists of over 100 websites, some of which, such as Writers FM, are free to the community.  The focus of the WCCL Network falls under three headings: writing, self-development, and software, which also happen to be Karl’s three personal passions.  As well as Writers FM, he broadcasts daily from Self-Dev.com, which is focused on self-growth and can benefit the writer.  In addition, he is founder of http://www.MyWritersCircle.com, an active online community of writers with a four-figure membership.  Karl is also an award-winning author.  His two best-selling books, Visual Basic and The Ultimate Code Book, have been translated into several languages.  He has written for over twenty national publications and hosted a technology show with the BBC for over six years.  He has three books in development for 2007.  If you want to know more about Karl, visit his blog:  http://www.karlmoore.com.  He was interviewed as "The Midnight Man" online at How to Tell a Great Story.com: http://www.howtotellagreatstory.com/byot/byot61.html.

In his interview, Karl admits that one of his favourite interviews for Writers FM was that with Edwina Currie, well known in the UK as the one-time Health Minister in the cabinet of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.  She later revealed, in Diaries 1987-1992, that for four years she had been the secret mistress of Lady Thatcher’s successor, John Major.  Her novels have been instant best-sellers.  For more information, go to her website: http://edwina.currie.co.uk.

Karl also revealed another favourite author interview: with historical biographer and travel writer Lucinda Hawksley.  Lucinda is the great-great-great granddaughter of Charles Dickens.  In the interview, she chats about her two biographies, one of which is Katey: The Lives and Loves of Dickens’s Artist Daughter.  Lucinda won the Ed Lacy Travel-Writing Award for an article about Gibraltar.  For more information on Lucinda Hawksley, check here: http://www.lucindahawksley.com.

A brief description of the other authors reveals the diversity of the interviews on Writers FM.  Nick Daws, for instance, is a well-known, best-selling author of over forty books, as well as CD courses and numerous articles and short stories.  How he is so prolific is revealed in his books: Write Quickly and Write any Book in 28 days (at one hour a day).  These are available from http://www.writequickly.com.  I can recommend Write Any Book in 28 days.  It’s fun and his techniques helped get me my first professional writing job.  Nick Daws's website is here: http://www.nickdaws.co.uk.

I’m using interviewee Randy Ingermanson’s Fiction 101 course to help me write my first novel.  Randy is a physicist and Christian, an award-winning author of six fiction best-sellers, and author of the non-fiction book Who Wrote the Bible Code.  Randy talks with Karl about Oxygen, a science-fiction novel co-written with John Olson, and in particular, about the research carried out at NASA.  He talks of his Snowflake Method of novel development based on a mathematical model and, since he’s a physicist, whether he thinks it's possible to travel through time.  He has recently launched Fiction 201, his second (of four) fiction-writing courses.  In July 2007, Randy is tutoring a writers’ workshop on a one-week cruise from Seattle to Alaska.  As well as his website on the craft of fiction writing, he maintains a second website for writers on marketing.  His information can be found here: http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com and http://www.madgeniuswriter.com.

Another interviewee who teaches "on board" is Anna Rushton.  She describes to Karl how she's earning her living by teaching writing on a cruise ship.  Anna is a best-selling author of five books.  She has worked in press, theatre, radio, television, and advertising.  She has also trained as a creativity coach with Eric Maisel, US psychotherapist, writer, and creativity consultant.  For more information about Anna Rushton, check here: http://www.creativecatalyst.co.uk.

Jo Condrill has served in leadership positions in the Pentagon and is listed in Who's Who of American Women and Who's Who in America.  She is the author of From Book Signing to Best Seller: An Insider's Guide to Conducting a Successful Low-Cost Book Signing TourShe is also author of Take Charge of Your Life: Dare to Pursue Your Dreams and 101 Ways to Improve Your Communication Skills Instantly.  In her Writers FM interview, she explains how to set up a book signing tour on a shoestring budget.  Jo Condrill's website is http://www.jocondrill.com.

Author Gabriella Godard was born and grew up in New Zealand and is a leadership coach.  She speaks to Karl about the launch of her first book Gulp: The Seven-Day Crash Course to Master Fear & Break Through Any Challenge and about how she's using modern technology to increase sales.  Her website is http://www.gulptime.com.

It’s mentioned in the interview with Phil Harris that he has been referred to as the next Dan Brown (The Da Vinci Code).  The first of Harris's trilogy, Waking God, was co-written with Brian L Doe.  Phil chats with Karl about his trilogy of books and his experience of co-writing a novel.  The book’s website is an interactive presentation of the locations, ideas, images, and concepts revealed in the text.  What’s the connection with Dan Brown?  Chapter One of Waking God starts with a laboratory technician awaiting DNA results having been given a mysterious and important sample of blood to analyse.  He was to look for a particular sequence.  I’m hooked!  For more about the book, and an excerpt of chapter one, click here: http://www.wakinggod.com.

Jeff Phelps is a part-time writer and full-time architect.  He talks about his novel The Painter Man and how he found success for this book through a local publisher.  The Painter Man is set in an industrial region of England known as the Black Country.  It is the story of the difficulties faced by an artist who tries to follow his artistic dreams, and at the same time, support his young wife and family.  There’s a twist to this tale.

Stephen Jackson is a children’s author and illustrator.  He describes the journey to publication of MirrorWorld, an illustrated story book and adventure game written for nine to eleven year olds.  The work was five years in development.  The goal is to help a character called Seymour save the planet with a miraculous mirror (supplied with the book).  Stephen describes his exciting UK book signing tour.

Joe Vitale is best-selling author of The Attractor Factor, The Hypnotic Writer, and many other books and products.  He is also one of the stars of the movie The Secret.  More information is available here: http://www.mrfire.com.

How could Writers FM improve?  I’d like more of the same, that is, more interviews, including with poets.  I’ve read that Karl is asking for recommendations for author interviews, so if you have a favourite author you’d like to interrogate by proxy, (that is, by Karl), you could let Karl know.  The website is http://www.writersfm.com.

Citations:

Karl Moore

Visual Basic.NET, Published by Apress, ISBN-10:159059021X; ISBN-13: 978-1590590218

The Ultimate Code Book, Published by Apress, ISBN: 1590591062

Edwina Currie

Diaries 1987-1992, Published by Time Warner Paperbacks, ISBN-10: 0751534943; ISBN-13: 978-0751534948

Lucinda Hawksley

Katey: The Lives and Loves of Dickens’s Artist Daughter, Published by Doubleday UK, ISBN-10: 0385607423; ISBN-13: 978-0385607421

Nick Daws

Write Quickly, Published by http://www.writequickly.com

Write Any Book in 28 days, Published by http://www.writequickly.com

Randy Ingermanson

Who Wrote the Bible Code, Published by Waterbrook Press, ISBN-10: 1578562252; ISBN-13: 978-1578562251

Randy Ingermanson and John Olson

Oxygen, Published by Bethany House Publishers, ISBN-10: 0764224425; ISBN-13: 978-0764224423

Who's Who of American Women, Published by Marquis

Who's Who in America, Published by Marquis

Jo Condrill and John B. Slack

From Book Signing to Best Seller: An Insider's Guide to Conducting a Successful Low-Cost Book Signing Tour, Published by GoalMinds, Inc., ISBN-10: 0966141431; ISBN-13: 978-0966141436

Jo Condrill

Take Charge of Your Life: Dare to Pursue Your Dreams, Published by GoalMinds, Inc., ISBN-10: 0974097004; ISBN-13: 978-0974097008

Jo Condrill and Bennie Bough, PHD

101 Ways to Improve Your Communication Skills Instantly, Published by GoalMinds, Inc., ISBN-10: 097409708X; ISBN-13: 978-0974097084)

Gabriella Godard

Gulp: The Seven-Day Crash Course to Master Fear & Break Through Any Challenge, Published by Penguin Books Ltd, ISBN 9780141025285

Dan Brown

The Da Vinci Code, Published by Doubleday, ISBN-10: 0385504209; ISBN-13: 978-0385504201

Phil Harris and Brian L Doe

Waking God, Published by Star Publish, ISBN-10: 1932993398; ISBN-13: 978-1932993394

Jeff Phelps

The Painter Man, Published by Dufour Editions, ISBN-10: 0954791339; ISBN-13: 978-0954791339

Stephen Jackson

MirrorWorld, Published by Hutchinson, ISBN-10: 0091769299; ISBN-13: 978-0091769291)

Joe Vitale

The Attractor Factor: 5 Easy Steps for Creating Wealth (or Anything Else) from the Inside Out, Published by Wiley, ISBN-10: 0470009802; ISBN-13: 978-0470009802

The Hypnotic Writer: How to Seduce and Persuade Customers with Only Your Words, Published by John Wiley & Sons, ISBN-10: 0470009799 ISBN-13: 978-0470009796