Interview

Episode 279 – A Writer’s Manifesto With Michael La Ronn

Mark interviews Michael La Ronn, the author of over 80 science fiction & fantasy books and self-help books for writers.

Prior to the main segment, Mark shares a personal update and a word about this episode’s sponsor.

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

During their conversation, Mark and Michael talk about:

  • How long it has been since Mark and Michael saw one another
  • Michael getting back on the travel circuit and being one of the guest speakers for Superstars Writing Seminars in Feb 2023
  • How Michael got extremely ill in 2012 with an extreme case of food poisoning combined with a hospital infection he acquired, and how that laid him up for a full month
  • Taking the time to realize, while he was stuck in the hospital how he’d been working in a dead-end job and not being the writer he wanted to be
  • Having a beautiful vision of being a successful published writer, and the feeling of happiness that came from that
  • Learning about self-publishing from the Alliance of Independent Authors and The Creative Penn
  • The more than 80 books Michael has written while working full-time, raising a family, and going to law school at night
  • The “secret weapons” that Michael relies on for his writing goals
  • Writing using Scrivener on the MAC and the Scrivener app on his iPhone as well as using dictation
  • Getting writing done using dictation while walking the dog
  • Being a pantser (or “discovery writer”)
  • Michael’s writer manifesto
  • The different pseudonyms Michael uses for fiction VS his books for writers
  • Michael’s role as ALLI’s outreach manager
  • The two estate planning books Michael has. One for writers and the other for a writer’s heirs
  • Loving his day job and not wanting to give it up despite how successful and prolific his writing career has been
  • The enjoyment of challenging himself
  • And more…

After the interview Mark reflects on the prioritizing of finding every available small moment for getting just a few extra words in and how that all adds up. He also considers Michael’s thoughts on “balance.”

Links of Interest:

Michael La Ronn is the author of over 80 science fiction & fantasy books and self-help books for writers. He writes from the great plains of Iowa and has managed to write while raising a family, working a full-time job, and even attending law school classes in the evenings. You can find his fiction at http://www.michaellaronn.com and his videos and books for writers at http://www.authorlevelup.com.


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 

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.