The Lives of Writers

Austin Ross [Host: Aaron Burch]

Episode Summary

Aaron Burch interviews Austin Ross. Topics include: editing for Harper Collins, the Sci-Fi -> literary genre pipeline, his first novel GLORIA PATRI, isolationist home church experience as a kid, researching militia groups, rotating POV, birds, and more.

Episode Notes

On today's episode of The Lives of Writers, Aaron Burch interviews Austin Ross.

Austin Ross is the author of the novel Gloria Patri   and is a senior editor with HarperCollins, where he acquires and develops a wide variety of nonfiction titles. His fiction and essays have been featured in Publishers Weekly, Literary Hub, and elsewhere. 

Aaron Burch is the author of the essay collection A Kind of In-Between and editor of How to Write a Novel: An Anthology of 20 Craft Essays About Writing, None of Which Ever Mention Writing, both from Autofocus Books. He's also the author of several other books, including the novel, Year of the Buffalo. He is currently the editor of Short Story, Long and the co-editor of WAS (Words & Sports) and HAD. 

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PART ONE, topics include:

-- promoting a small press novel

-- becoming an editor at Harper Collins

-- the day-to-day of remote editing

-- the Sci-Fi  -> literary genre pipeline

-- moving into your own territory as a writer

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PART TWO, topics include:

-- Austin's first novel, Gloria Patri, a thriller about religious extremism/terror

-- writing versions of the book across 20 years

-- the year of really writing the book 

-- writing novels vs stories

-- finding the structure of the novel

-- putting experience as a kid in an isolationist home church into the novel

-- researching about militia groups for the novel

-- rotating point of view

-- placing the novel where he didn't/doesn't live

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PART THREE, topics include:

-- influential books and reading while working on the novel

-- finding publication with Malarkey Books 

-- having the first book out

-- birds

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Podcast theme music provided by Mike Nagel, author of Duplex. Here's more of his project: Yeah Yeah Cool Cool.

The Lives of Writers is edited and produced by Michael Wheaton.