Podcast
The 7am Novelist
Hosted by Michelle Hoover · EN
Join award-winning novelist and writing coach Michelle Hoover and special guests for your morning writing wake up call, starting with a 50-day writing challenge.
7amnovelist.substack.com
7amnovelist.substack.com
13episodes
Episodes
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Kristin Vukovic & Jo Piazza: The Complexities of Place
Jan 1300:38:10Tap to summarizeToday, I’m talking to Kristin Vukovic and Jo Piazza, who are co-instructors of the Adriatic Writers Conference that takes place on the island of Lošinj in Croatia’s Kvarner Bay. Jo finished her most recent novel during the conference, titled THE PARISIAN HEIST which will be released on Bastille Day, and Kristin, who founded the conference, got her inspiration there for her debut, THE CHEESEMAKER’S DAUGHTER. We’ll be talking about the importance of setting in fiction and how to navigate a country’s complex history if your reader might not share it.Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for one week. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.Join us for Kristin’s reading at Belmont Books, January 15.And for more info about the Adriatic Writer’s Conference, click here.I don’t charge for subscriptions, but if you’d like, you can support my work with with a small donation here.To find Vukovic’s and Piazza’s latest books as well as many other books by our authors, visit our Bookshop page.Kristin Vuković’s award-winning debut novel, THE CHEESEMAKER’S DAUGHTER, was published in August 2024. She is the founder of Adriatic Writers Conference—the first literary conference of its kind in Croatia—and has written travel and lifestyle articles for the New York Times, BBC Travel, Travel + Leisure, Virtuoso, Robb Report, AFAR, Fodor’s, and Public Books, among others. She received the 2024 Rising Star Award in Arts and Culture from the Association of Croatian American Professionals, and two Golden Pen awards for her writing about Croatia from the Croatian National Tourist Board, most recently in May 2024. She was also named a “40 Under 40” honoree by the National Federation of Croatian Americans Cultural Foundation. She holds a BA and MFA from Columbia University and lives in New York City with her husband and daughter.Jo Piazza is a bestselling author, journalist, and podcast host whose work explores ambition, identity, and modern womanhood. She is the creator and host of the acclaimed podcast Under the Influence, which examines influencer culture, media, and how the internet shapes our ideas about success, beauty, and belonging. Jo is the author of multiple bestselling books, including Everyone Is Lying to You, The Sicilian Inheritance, Charlotte Walsh Likes to Win, and How to Be Married, blending sharp cultural insight with propulsive storytelling. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, New York Magazine, Elle, and more.Photo by Kat von Wood on Unsplash This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
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Roundtable: Can Climate Fiction Move the Needle?
Jan 600:54:25Tap to summarizeToday our roundtable focuses on Climate Fiction: What is it? Why do authors write it? What role does it have in today’s literature, in our environment, in the way writers and others see the world? We’ll discuss these questions and a whole lot more with our authors: Ash Davidson, author of Damnation Spring; Wren James, creator of The Climate-Conscious Writers Handbook and founder of the Climate Fiction Writers League; Emma Pattee, a climate journalist, author of Tilt, and the person who coined the term “Climate Shadow”; Tim Weed, author of The Afterlife Project, a finalist for Prism Prize in Climate Literature; and Kate Woodworth, author of Little Great Island and creator of the grassroots climate change initiative, Be the Butterfly. Watch a recording here. This audio/video version is available for only a few weeks. Missed it? Check out the podcast version above or on your favorite podcast platform.Important Links: Climate Fiction Writers League Substack and Handbook landing page. Database of Climate Fiction writers.Wren James’ Green Rising.Kate Woodworth’s Be the Butterfly initiative.To find our roundtable authors’ latest book as well as many other books by our guests, visit our Bookshop page.I don’t charge for subscriptions, but if you’d like, you can support my work with with a small donation here.Looking for a writing community? Join our Facebook page.Ash Davidson is the author of the nationally bestselling novel Damnation Spring, which was named a best book of the year by the Los Angeles Times, Newsweek and Amazon and was a New York Times Editor’s Choice and a Washington Post notable book. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, her work has been supported by the Arizona Commission on the Arts, MacDowell, and the National Endowment for the Arts. She lives in Flagstaff, Arizona.Wren James is the award-winning British author of many young adult novels, including a speculative novel about climate change, Green Rising. They are the founder of the Climate Fiction Writers League, the creator of The Climate-Conscious Writers Handbook and the editor of Future Hopes Hopeful stories in a time of climate change. They are on the Society of Authors’ Sustainability Steering Committee and work as a consultant on climate storytelling with a focus on optimism and hope for museums, production companies, and major brands and publishers. Their books have sold more than 200,000 copies in eight languages.Emma Pattee is a climate journalist and a fiction writer. She has written about the climate crisis for The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, and more. In 2021, she coined the term “Climate Shadow” to describe an individual’s potential impact on climate change. Her debut novel, Tilt, is a national bestseller, a New York Times Book Review’s Editors’ choice, and was named a best book of the year by TIME, NPR, Vogue and Scientific American. Emma lives in Oregon with her two children.Tim Weed is the author of four books of fiction. His most recent novel, The Afterlife Project, was a Library Journal Best Books of 2025 pick and a New Scientist Best New Science Fiction Book of the Month choice. His essays and articles have appeared in numerous journals including Writers Digest and The Writer’s Chronicle. A member of the core faculty of the Newport MFA in Creative Writing, Tim is a former featured expert for National Geographic Expeditions.Kate Woodworth is the award-winning author of Little Great Island, a novel about a small Maine island community needing to find a new way forward after the lobster fishery collapses due to climate change. She is also the creative force behind the grassroots climate change initiative, Be the Butterfly, that invites everyone to perform one small act or behavioral change to help mitigate climate change. Kate’s first novel, Racing into the Dark, about a family reeling from the impact of a sister’s mental illness, will be re-issued in April, 2026. After 30 years living in Salt Lake City, Kate returned to the Boston area in 2005.Photo by Bernd 📷 Dittrich on Unsplash This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
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Day 35: Dialogue with Pamela Loring & Michele Ierardi Ferrari
Nov 7, 2022Tap to summarizeBest practices for getting your dialogue right, waking up your scenes, determining what dialogue to keep and what to cut, and staying true to your characters’ internal worlds as they speak (or don’t speak) their minds.Michele Ierardi Ferrari currently teaches Novel In Progress at Grub Street, a topic she knows very well. She completed GrubStreet's Novel Generator and Novel Incubator programs. She has participated in Breadloaf Sicily, the Tin House Summer Workshop and the Sirenland Writers Conference. She is a TedX Beaconstreet speaker and a Moth GrandSlam storyteller. This year she has been querying a novel set in the punk scene in 1980s New York City, and is currently working on a memoir about her brother's unexpected death as well as revising a different novel. She lives in Cambridge, with her husband and Jack Russell, Zelda.Pam Loring is a writer and editor who completed Grub Street’s Novel Incubator in 2017 (“Season Six”). She’s currently working on a novel called THE DISAPPEARANCE OF BELMIRA ALVAREZ, whose main character has plenty of attitude and isn’t afraid to say so. Some people might say a little of loud, angry women goes a long way, but writing characters who won’t toe the line is one of Pam’s favorite things to do. Happily, Belmira’s voice resonated with the Barbara Deming Fund which awarded Pam a grant this year, and this year too Pam received the Michael Kenneth Smith fellowship from Porches Writing Retreat, where she worked with Greg Michaelson in a 3-day one-on-one workshop. Pam also runs the Salty Quill Writers’ Retreat, which she co-founded in 2015 with writers Deb Parsons and Anna Da Silva, who’s been attending 7am Novelist every morning at 6am from Chicago (Go, Anna!). This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com
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