winey writers

this episode, we discuss everything book covers: which covers are our favourites, which covers do we hate, what are our book cover pet peeves (movie editions, stickers, short covers, hardbacks), and how do we feel about AI art used on book covers?

this episode, we challenge each other to a new writing task where we create characters, plots, and settings to match the songs we have selected for one another. This turned into conversations about our favourite artists (incl. Chappell Roan, Billie Eilish, Noah Kahan, etc.) and the use of music as inspiration.

this episode, we sit down to chat about our writing progress and the challenges we are running into as we shape our debut novels. We discuss separating the critic from the author, a characters emotional journey, the cycles of imposter syndrome, and the urge to chase after new, shiny things instead of finishing the task at hand.

this episode, we discuss books that we thought would be 5 star reads but were not, and then books that we expected to be flops but were actually 5 star reads. Without spoiling which are which, our lists included: Assassins Blade by Sarah J. Maas; When The Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker; One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig; If We Were Villians by M. L. Rio; and more. 

Welcome to #3 of the WineyWriters Book Club! 

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir follows a sword-wielding, lesbian ginger with an undercut and aviators—what else could you possibly need in a novel, really? Join us as we rave about all things necromancer and cavalier, the brilliant mind of Muir, and our predictions for the rest of the Locked Tomb series.

Spoiler Alert: we are OBSESSED.

this week, we are attending a trope themed cocktail party, and so we're taking this opportunity to discuss everything book tropes! Our favourite tropes, least favourite tropes, how we feel about books being marketed by their tropes, which tropes we are absolutely sick of, and which tropes we use in our own writing. 

TW: discussions of trauma, injury, illness, and death.

this episode, we discuss the craft of writing in terms of torturing characters — how to torture your characters, the importance of internal torturing, how to write emotion and trauma that you are unfamiliar with, and how much trauma is too much trauma?

what makes the perfect villain? This episode we're chattin' monsters and villains, which includes discussions about how to write a convincing villain, how to keep readers invested in your monsters, and our favourite monsters/villains from books and media. 

this episode, Harry has cooked up some f*ckin' wild way for us to do tarot readings with books, and we put aside our pessimism to try our hand at reading fortunes. Can our (extremely) random assortment of novels tell us how successful are careers are? And what does the future say about our love lives? 

is a PhD in Creative Writing really worth it?

this episode is a PhD check in, in which we discuss what it looks like to be 18 months into a doctorate degree for Creative Writing. We chat about the drastic changes in our research topics, what we're working on now, what a PhD schedule looks like for us, and whether the PhD is worth it for aspiring writers. 

this episode we discuss how we feel about editing a novel, including what it's like to edit your own work, the different stages of a draft, and receiving constructive criticism. We also dedicate a significant amount of this conversation to which grammar choices make a sentence hotter (spoiler, a correctly used semi-colon is hot as hell and the em-dash is rising in popularity). 

Happy Pride Month!!

this episode, we celebrate Pride Month by having an open conversation about what it means to be queer, the definition of queerness, and queer politics. We apply these discussions of the LGBTQIA+ community to recent debates about Bridgerton, drag queens, and Gen Alpha activism while also recommending a range of fictional and academic readings. 

Harry is a fanatic of everything J.R.R. Tolkien, and Abby (who knows very little) finally watched The Rings of Power. This episode, we review Amazon Prime Video's adaption of the history of the Middle-earth, as detailed in the appendices of The Lord of the Rings. We discuss character, plot, predictability, and our opinion on book to film adaptions. 

this episode, we play a self-invented game/plotting exercise called 'Fake Book Titles' or 'These Books Do Not Exist' in which we exchange fabricated book titles and must brainstorm a relevant plot, characters, setting, etc. according to the book title alone. Listen in to hear all about a book with a burning sea, a budding romance between a bronco and his pickup rider, boys who fall in love over penne pasta, and more. 

this episode, we discuss the importance of mental health days, regardless of where you sit on the rotting scale — from slightly bruised banana to wholemeal sandwich that has been in the bottom of a child's backpack for a week.