Writing Off the Deep End

Hosts Geoffrey Edwards and Mary Thaler talks about the challenges of writing really short fiction, called “flash fiction”. What choices need to be made to get a coherent story in around 500 words? What kind of writing is required?

Hosts Mary Thaler and Geoffrey Edwards interview a writer of fantasy and speculative fiction from the LA area, who has published short fiction and is at work on a novel. L.P. began his professional life as a singer and songwriter, which gives his ficti …

Hosts Mary Thaler and Geoffrey Edwards discuss a subset of future-looking fiction they call “Prophetic Fiction”. Drawing on different traditions around prophecy, including religious traditions and the writings of E.M. Forster, they explore different as …

Mary Thaler and Geoffrey Edwards talk with Marco Morelli, poet, editor and publisher, about the process of writing poetry and how this process led him to develop a publishing business and take on editorial responsibilities. Marco V Morelli is the found …

Authors Mary Thaler and Geoffrey Edwards talk about the benefits to doing a Writing Residency and present highlights from recent residencies in which they took part, including a residency on the Isle of Crete and another in upstate New York.

Hosts Mary Thaler and Geoffrey Edwards dive into the murky study of historically motivated fiction from their contrasting perspectives, exploring issues of veracity and where there is scope for imagination, subjects that are sometimes neglected while o …

Hosts Mary Thaler and Geoffrey Edwards conduct an interview with writer Thea Boodhoo. Thea (pronounced “tay-ah”) is a science fiction writer based in San Francisco, California. Her short stories ‘Growing Swirling Clouds’ and ‘A Layer Thin As Breath’ ca …

Hosts Mary Thaler and Geoffrey Edwards finish up the episode on Endings by switching from talking about how to write endings, to how to end writings – often itself a tricky step.

Hosts Mary Thaler and Geoffrey Edwards talk about Endings across two related episodes. This first deals with Writing Endings. We talk about several contexts, single book endings or endings of series, stories with more or fewer subplots, and other aspec …

Hosts Mary Thaler and Geoffrey Edwards talk about some of the challenges and issues that arise when one is writing about war and war situations.

Hosts Mary Thaler and Geoffrey Edwards talk about some of the different ways that issues of age and aging come into play in writing, with focus on our own diverse ways of dealing with the question.

Hosts Mary Thaler and Geoffrey Edwards talk about how the worldwide pandemic, as well as being in “lockdown”, that is, confined to our homes, has affected our activities as writers. Maybe our experience will help you deal with your own!

Karin Murray-Bergquist is a PhD. candidate in Folklore at Memorial University, Newfoundland. She’s the author of a poem in the upcoming issue of Augur Magazine, and numerous travel essays that can be found at the following links: https://www.travelade. …

Hosts Mary Thaler and Geoffrey Edwards finish reading excerpts from each other’s work in this third instalment of our 19th Episode of “Writing Off The Deep End”. These include a second excerpt from Geoffrey’s novel “Goodness in Small Doses”, and two ex …

Hosts Mary Thaler and Geoffrey Edwards continue reading from their work. In this episode, Geoffrey reads two excerpts from one of Mary’s short stories called “The Island Lovers”, which can be found online at Eclectica Magazine : http://www.eclectica.or …

Hosts Geoffrey Edwards and Mary Thaler read from each others’ work as a complement to the other episodes concerned with different aspects of writing. In this first part, Mary is reading from “Plenum : The First Book of Deo”, Geoffrey’s first novel whic …

Hosts Mary Thaler and Geoffrey Edwards talk about how they undertake diverse worldbuilding activities, not just within SF and fantasy but also in historical and contemporary fiction. The claim is that worldbuilding tasks for SF and fantasy constitute a …

Hosts Mary Thaler and Geoffrey Edwards talk about the ins and outs of the relationships (some of them!) between writing and family. How does family inform one’s writing? Whose family?

Hosts Geoffrey Edwards and Mary Thaler venture off the deep end to talk about religion, faith, spirituality… and writing. Foolhardy, perhaps, but it makes for an interesting discussion.

Hosts Mary Thaler and Geoffrey Edwards talk about the challenges, and benefits of writing poetry, both for its own sake and as a support to other writing efforts.

Hosts Mary Thaler and Geoffrey Edwards explore the process of dramatic writing. In this first of two parts, the focus in on writing for opera.

Hosts Geoffrey Edwards and Mary Thaler discuss the strengths and weaknesses of writing short fiction.

Hosts Mary Thaler and Geoffrey Edwards discuss the process of writing characters. Do you love them or hate them? How do you separate them from yourself as a writer? And other issues as they arise.

Hosts Mary Thaler and Geoffrey Edwards talk about drawing on larger communities of writers for various kinds of support, both online and offline.

Hosts Mary Thaler and Geoffrey Edwards discuss some of the issues around writing when one lives in a city that speaks a different language than one’s native tongue.

Hosts Mary Thaler and Geoffrey Edwards talk about (and show!) the development of visual story telling ideas in relation to writing fiction. Shown below are the illustrations referred to within the dialogue. Brulierie St-Denis, Montreal, circle 2350, fr …

Hosts Mary Thaler and Geoffrey Edwards continue their discussion of Dramatic Writing, this time focusing on writing for theatre. This is the second of two parts, the first dealt with writing for opera.

Mary Thaler and Geoffrey Edwards talk about how they choose names for characters, places and sci-fi concepts, whether they’re writing about the distant past, the present day or the far future.

Geoffrey Edwards and Mary Thaler discuss writing practices — the habits, daily routines and techniques they use to get words down on page.

Geoffrey Edwards and Mary Thaler discuss writing practices — the habits, daily routines and techniques they use to get words down on page.