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 Tour.
She 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 |