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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’s Author Website
- Author Level Up
- Findaway Voices
- Buy Mark a Coffee
- Patreon for Stark Reflections
- Best Book Ever Podcast
- Lovers Moon Podcast
- The Relaxed Author
- Publishing Pitfalls for Authors
- An Author’s Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores
- Wide for the Win
- Mark’s Canadian Werewolf Books
- The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles
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