Interview

Episode 237 – Building and Destroying Worlds with Angeline Trevena

Mark Leslie

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In this episode Mark interviews Angeline Trevena, an author of dystopian urban fantasy and post-apocalyptic fiction, a podcaster, an events manager, and the author of a number of phenomenal books about world-building.

Prior to the main content, Mark shares a short personal update, including the fact one of his patrons will win a copy of Angeline’s latest edition of 30 Days of Worldbuilding, a coupon code to get $100 off registration for Superstars Writing Seminars 2023 (STARKSSWS2023) and a word about this episode’s sponsor.

You can learn more about how you can get your work distributed to retailers and library systems around the world at starkreflections.ca/Findaway.

During their conversation, Mark and Angeline talk about:

  • The release of the 2nd edition of her book 30 Days of World-Building
  • How Angeline has always loved fantasy, and choose-your-own-adventure books
  • The way reading The Chronicles of Narnia was one of the factors that led to her love and passion for world-building
  • The original 30 Days of World-Building starting as an 30 day Instagram challenge, that became a worksheet, that eventually became a book
  • How to Destroy the World, the 2nd world-building book in the same series that Angeline released
  • The original 30 days of world-building prompts that takes you from scratch, all the way up to creating a world ready to drop your characters into
  • Angeline’s three rules for world-building: Revealing character, pushing the plot forward, and exploring the themes of your novel
  • Being a panster and an avid world-builder at the same time
  • Destroying a world or creating a dystopian or post-apocalyptic setting
  • How dystopian stories can often be filled with a lot of hope
  • Food within world-building, including all the rituals and festivals that have been created around food
  • How food can be a massive part of religion and magic
  • Some of the other writing that Angeline has done
  • Involving her 9 year old in the writing/early critique process of her middle grade books
  • And more…

After the interview, Mark reflects on the use of food in culture, religion, society, in rituals, as well as a way to help demonstrate or establish character and conflict in a scene.

Links of Interest:

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 

Published by Mark Leslie

Writer, editor and bookseller who haunts Southern Ontario. Craft beer enthusiast. Author of thrillers and horror novels such as A CANADIAN WEREWOLF IN NEW YORK, EVASION and I, DEATH. Also writes a series of stand-alone non-fiction titles exploring ghosts and the paranormal which include HAUNTED HAMILTON, SPOOKY SUDBURY, CREEPY CAPITAL, TOMES OF TERROR, HAUNTED HOSPITALS, and MACABRE MONTREAL. Editor of the anthologies CAMPUS CHILLS, TESSERACTS SIXTEEN, FICTION RIVER: EDITOR'S CHOICE and FICTION RIVER: FEEL THE FEAR.

3 thoughts on “Episode 237 – Building and Destroying Worlds with Angeline Trevena”

  1. Fantastic interview. Could have listened to you chatting for hours. I’m also a pantser writing post apoc – all I know when I start a series is what caused the world to end (which happens in chapter 1). My preparation is to build a cast of characters, then let them loose in the rubble 🙂

    Reply

    1. Thanks, Kevin. Glad that you enjoyed the fun chat with Angeline. And love the “let them loose” in the rubble” phrase, BTW.

      Reply
  2. Pingback: Episode 240 – Character, Story, and Industry Alignment with Clarie Taylor – Stark Reflections

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