After embracing her desire to write in her thirties and putting herself on a steep learning curve, Rachel Cantor found her voice with two lively and funny novels, A HIGHLY UNLIKELY SCENARIO and GOOD ON PAPER. She and James debate whether it’s harder to make people laugh or bring them to tears, and she details the difficulties of translation and the Arnold Schwarzenegger approach to novel writing. Plus, Meredith Scott describes the great work of the Children’s Literacy Foundation (CLiF) and, finally, her daughter, Zoey Irwin, talks about her book club and why reading is important for kids.

 

 

Rachel and James Discuss:

James Joyce

T.S. Eliot

Agatha Christie

Tim Burton (film director)

WAR AND PEACE by Leo Tolstoy

Ross Macdonald

THE ARTIST’S WAY by Julia Cameron

WHAT IF? WRITING EXERCISES FOR FICTION WRITERS by Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter

Leslie Epstein

Theo Epstein

CASABLANCA (film)

REDIVIDER

ONE STORY

Matthew Salesses

Melville House

Italo Calvino

Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA)

EILEEN by Ottessa Moshfegh

HOMESICK FOR ANOTHER WORLD: STORIES by Ottessa Moshfegh

Katie Kitamura

WE, THE DROWNED by Carsten Jensen

The Bronte siblings

Arnold Schwarzenegger

 

Meredith and James discuss:

We Need Diverse Books

First Book

The Eric Carle Museum

Elephant and Piggie books by Mo Willems

Everybody Wins

 

Zoey and James discuss:

The Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling

THE LAND OF STORIES by Chris Colfer

SHILOH by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor