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EP 370 - Questioning & Reflecting with Becca Syme

Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing

Release Date: 07/11/2024

EP 382 - From Page to Platform: How to Succeed as an Author Speaker

Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing

EP 381 - Showcasing Independent Bookstores, Publishers, And Authors with Andrew Snook

Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing

Mark interviews Andrew Snook about his writing and editing work as well as Canadian Independent Publishers magazine, which is celebrating its first anniversary. Prior to the interview Mark welcomes new Patrons, shares comments from recent episodes, a personal update, and a word about this episode's sponsor This episode is sponsored by FROM PAGE TO PLATFORM by Matty Dalrymple and Michael La Ronn. You can learn more about the book at . In their conversation, Mark and Andrew talk about: Celebrating the first year of publishing Canadian Independent Author Andrew's first ventures self-publishing...

EP 380 - Passion Project Publishing with Brianna Wodabek

Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing

Mark interviews Brianna Wodabek, Assistant Manager of Digital Marketing at HarperCollins about her lifelong love of reading, books, and writing, and her evolution in the book industry. Prior to the interview Mark welcomes new Patrons, shares comments from recent episodes, a personal update, and a word about this episode's sponsor This episode is sponsored by FROM PAGE TO PLATFORM by Matty Dalrymple and Michael La Ronn. You can learn more about the book at . In their conversation, Mark and Brianna talk about: How Brianna always loved reading and writing, but also knew that she wasn't...

EP 379 - Simplifying Your Life & Work with Dre Baldwin

Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing

Mark interviews Dre Baldwin the CEO and Founder of Work On Your Game Inc. about his books and his experience helping others in finding their own paths to success. Prior to the interview Mark shares comments from recent episodes, a personal update, and a word about this episode's sponsor This episode is sponsored by FROM PAGE TO PLATFORM by Matty Dalrymple and Michael La Ronn. You can learn more about the book at . During the interview, Mark and Dre talk about: The importance of the simplification process as a great place to begin The 80/20 rule and the less-than-smooth ways we have of not...

EP 378 - Multimedia Storytelling with Dominician Gennari

Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing

Mark interviews Dominician Gennari, a writer, storyteller, composer, and musician about his multimedia book and novella opus, The War for Ascension. Prior to the interview Mark shares comments from recent episodes, a personal update, a word from this episode's sponsor, as well as a word about a previous episode sponsor. NEWS: Please note that the Feb/March 2025 Writers Retreat at Sea from Cruising Writers has been cancelled. During their conversation Mark and Dominician talk about: How Dominician's creative and artistic voice started with music at about the age of 13/14 Discovering...

EP 377 - Pivoting Your Publishing Dreams with Denise Massar

Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing

Mark interviews Denise Massar, a writer, an adoptee, and a mom via birth and adoption about her new memoir MATCHED and the ten-year journey she took getting it published. Prior to the main content, Mark shares comments from a recent episode, a personal update, and a word from this episode's sponsor. This episode is sponsored by . During their conversation Mark and Denise talk about: How Denise had been "big five or die" when it originally came to her publishing dream and how and why that changed over the years Some of the feedback that Denise's agent got back on submission of her memoir in...

EP 376 - Dianne Scott on Writing Historical Mysteries

Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing

Mark interviews bestselling and award-winning author Dianne Scott about her Christine Lane Mystery series which is set on Toronto Island in the 1960s. Prior to the main content, Mark shares comments from a recent newsletter he sent out asking writers to share their thoughts on the collective noun for a group of editors, a personal update (including the launch of his new ), and a word from this episode's sponsor. This episode is sponsored by . During their conversation Mark and Dianne talk about: How, after writing a creative writing piece in University that was supposed to be a research...

EP 375 - One Hand Kickstarting

Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing

Mark shares some behind-the-scenes insights and helpful tips offered to him for his forthcoming Kickstarter. He also loses it briefly after discovering that 40 minutes of in depth and detailed recording was lost due to a tech issue with Audacity crashing. Prior to the main content, Mark shares comments from recent episodes, welcomes a new patron, and introduces a word from this episode's sponsor. This episode is sponsored by . Mark's Kickstarter, coming very soon, is for the 20th Anniversary edition of his book One Hand Screaming. Links of Interest: (Preview link as of Aug...

EP 374 - WMG Publishing Editor Round Table

Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing

In this episode Mark has a round-table discussion with the seven other editors in the August 2024 WMG Publishing Anthology Workshop. Prior to the main content, Mark shares a word from this episode's sponsor. This episode is sponsored by . The WMG Publishing Anthology workshops help authors see behind-the-scenes on how editors compile and select stories for anthologies. This in-depth and in-person experience involves a panel of editors (for August 2024 it was a panel of 8 editors) debating the merits of stories written by the attending authors. In this round-table discussion, Mark chats with...

EP 373 - Musings on Getting a Masters and Getting Married

Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing

In this solo episode, Mark reflects and muses on the past couple of weeks where we got his Masters in Creative Writing with a concentration on Publishing (July 26th in Gunnison, CO) and got married to his partner Liz (July 29th in New York City, NY). Prior to the interview, Mark thanks Patrons and Buy Me A Coffee buddies, welcomes new patron Jo-Ann Carson, shares comments from recent episode, and announces the winner of the mindset coaching session with Thorn Coyle. Links of Interest: Use coupon STARK20 to get 20% off The...

More Episodes

Mark interviews Becca Syme, an author and a Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach who has been helping writers with coaching success alignment for more than a decade.

Prior to the interview, Mark thanks Patrons and Buy Me A Coffee buddies, shares comments from recent episode, a personal update, and a word from this episode's sponsor.

Learn more about this self-publishing/WIDE-publishing focused cruise.

In the interview Mark and Becca talk about:

How Becca deals with unexpected situations such as someone being late for a virtual meeting (Mark was 20 minutes late getting to this interview) and how this aligns with her strength of "Arranger"
The Clifton Strengths personality metric and how Becca uses it to help writers
Mark's top 5 strengths and Becca's top 5 strengths
The pros and cons that come with a strength such as Empathy
How emotions can have residue - that emotions are not false just because they're fictional
Becca first taking the Clifton Strengths in 2005 and then immediately wanting to become certified and to figure this out; which is when her coaching began
The "Dear Writer"/"Question The Premise" books that Becca has written to help writers
How Becca's first book "Dear Writer You Need to Quit" has become a running joke, especially from people who have never read the book and have only heard the title
The challenge related to the new place Becca lives and trying to get audiobooks recorded
People who are pressure-prompted and the leveraging external motivation VS internal motivation
A look at home office versus having an office space separate from the home and how that can work better for some people
How our visions of ourselves are not correct because so much of it is based on impressions we were fed before we were able to effectively grasp a more pure vision of ourselves
Being able to look at what's often seen as a weakness as a strength
How even the more benign moments and experiences in childhood can have a dramatic life-long impact upon us
The way that Becca questions almost everything, including the thoughts and feelings that she has
Being an intuitive writer verses writing a book to outline
How 100% of the things that "everyone says" are for everyone, are definitely NOT for everyone
That most people are not lying to you, but they are lying to themselves, often because they just don't understand
How a person who NEVER questions themself is a major red flag
The "reach for my phone" game that Becca plays when she's traveling or out in public
The 12-Hour Walk
Becca dating someone who was comfortably disconnected from their phone, rarely ever reaching for it, but just being in the moment
The problem with interrupting the thought cycle and being able to get all the way to the bottom of the cognitive process
And more . . .

After the interview Mark reflects on a handful of things that came up in their conversation, which he felt was a lot of good therapy for him.

Links of Interest:

Becca Syme (MATL) is a Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach and has been coaching success alignment for more than a decade. She is the author of the Quitbooks for Writers series and the popular Write Better-Faster course. She also writes mystery novels in her spare time and lives on one of the thousand lakes in Minnesota.

The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

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