The Resilient Writers Radio Show

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In this episode of The Resilient Writers Radio Show, I’m talking with novelist Whitney Cubbison, who lives in Paris and writes romantic comedies inspired by her experiences as an American expat navigating dating, divorce, friendship, and life abroad. 
But what makes Whitney’s story so interesting isn’t just the Paris setting or the dating disasters—it’s how she became a novelist in the first place.
Whitney didn’t grow up planning to write novels. She spent many years working in communications and PR for Microsoft, writing speeches and corporate communications. Writing was always part of her life—she journaled for years—but fiction wasn’t something she had seriously considered. 
That all changed after her divorce, when she found herself going on a series of truly terrible dates in Paris. Every time she told the stories to friends, they kept saying the same thing: “You have to write a book.”
Eventually, she did.
She started writing down her experiences on a plane after a work trip, without really knowing how novels worked or how to structure a story. Like many first-time writers, she wrote first and figured out structure later. 
She describes that early draft as basically pouring her life onto the page and then trying to figure out how to turn that into an actual novel. What followed was a long learning process—hiring editors, restructuring the story, rewriting large sections, pitching agents, getting rejected, hiring another editor, and rewriting again. 
Through that process, she learned how novels are built and what it really takes to turn a story into a book.
Her first novel, Will There Be Wine?, grew out of that experience and became a romantic comedy about an American expat in Paris trying to rebuild her life after divorce. 
But her second novel, Will There Be Love?, was a completely different challenge. This time she wrote a fully fictional story told from four different points of view and set mostly over the course of a single dramatic weekend in Ibiza. She intentionally wanted to challenge herself as a writer by working with multiple narrators, writing from male perspectives, and compressing the timeline of the story.
One of my favorite moments in this conversation was when Whitney said that after her first book, she still wasn’t sure she was really a writer. But after writing the second book—from a blank page, building characters and story from scratch—that was when she finally thought, “Okay, I think I’m a writer now.”
We also talked about self-publishing and marketing, because of course when you self-publish, you’re not just the writer—you’re also the marketing department. Whitn

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If you love stories that explore art, history, identity, and the lives of women artists across time, this episode will absolutely fascinate you.
In this conversation on The Resilient Writers Radio Show, I’m joined by writer, translator, and literary critic Merav Fima, author of the short story collection Late Blossoms and the forthcoming novel The Rose of Thirteen Petals and the Pomegranate Tree. 
Merav’s work explores the lives, struggles, and artistic legacies of Jewish women artists across history, and this conversation is a wonderful deep dive into how a book can grow slowly over many years and eventually become something much larger than originally imagined.
Merav shares that Late Blossoms actually began as part of her master’s thesis in creative writing, but the earliest story in the collection was written even earlier, inspired by a painting she encountered while studying art history. That moment sparked a story about Else Lasker-Schüler, a Jewish expressionist poet and artist persecuted by the Nazis, and that story eventually became the seed for an entire collection focused on Jewish women artists and their lives, struggles, and creative work.
One of the most fascinating parts of this conversation is how the collection came together over more than twenty years. Rather than writing all the stories at once, Merav wrote them slowly—sometimes only one story per year—until she eventually realized she had a full collection. 
We also talk about the challenge of structuring a short story collection and how important it is to think about the book as a whole, not just individual pieces. Merav shares how organizing the stories chronologically and thematically helped create a narrative arc across the collection.
We also talk about her upcoming novel, The Rose of Thirteen Petals and the Pomegranate Tree, which follows a contemporary Sephardic family tracing their lineage back through history to medieval Spain. The novel moves backward through time across different countries and generations, exploring migration, memory, identity, and cultural legacy. Merav explains how this novel grew out of her doctoral research and required extensive historical and literary research to bring the settings and time periods to life.
Another wonderful part of this conversation is our discussion about writing across different genres. Merav has written short stories, novels, memoir, scholarly writing, and even picture books, and she shares how each form requires a different mindset and writing process. She talks about how short stories focus on a single turning point, while novels require expansion and deeper emotional exploration, and memoir required a completely different drafting process.
We also talk about perfectionism, mindset, and learning to see a book as a whole project rather than just individual chapters or stories — something so many writers struggle with.
This is a thoughtful, inspiring conversation about writing across genres, writing about art and history, and how books sometimes take many years to become what they are meant to be.

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If you’ve ever wondered whether a personal essay might actually be the seed of something much bigger—or if you’ve felt the tug to write a memoir but weren’t sure where to begin—this episode is for you.
In today’s conversation on The Resilient Writers Radio Show, I’m joined by Carolyn Flynn: eight-time published author, TEDxWomen speaker, winner of the 2014 Rick Bass Montana Prize for Fiction, and founder of The Story Catalyst at Soulfire Studios. 
Carolyn is also the author of Boundless, a moving and darkly funny memoir that grew from an essay published in Fourth Genre into a full-length book after nearly a decade of reflection.
Carolyn shares how that transformation happened—and why memoir often begins not with “my whole life story,” but with one meaningful slice of life that won’t let you go. 
For her, that slice was a season of enormous change in 2017, when her twins were leaving for college at the same time she was stepping away from a long career in journalism. In other words: two huge parts of her identity were shifting all at once.
What followed became the emotional heart of Boundless, which Carolyn describes as a tragicomic empty-nest memoir guided by one central question: When you have become no one, how do you become someone again?
We talk about what makes memoir different from autobiography, and Carolyn offers such a smart, grounded way of thinking about it. Memoir, she says, is about selecting the events that carry the most meaning—and then reflecting on them. 
She explains the importance of the two voices always present in memoir: the remembering self who narrates, and the experiencing self who is living through the events without yet understanding them. That distinction alone is worth the listen.
Carolyn also shares several of the “superpowers” she believes memoir writers need. We discuss why theme can be more useful when framed as a main dramatic question, how time-boxing your memoir can keep it from sprawling, and why writing in scene is essential if you want readers to feel the story instead of simply being told what happened.
And yes—we also talk about one of her most memorable pieces of advice: get a therapist. Carolyn speaks candidly about the vulnerability memoir requires, and why emotional support can be just as important as craft support. 
She also makes a compelling case for working with a book coach—someone who can help you shape the scope, validate your voice, and keep the revision process from becoming overwhelming.
This is such a rich conversation about identity, reinvention, structure, and the courage it takes to turn lived experience into art. If memoir has been calling to you—or if you’re navigating a season of change and trying to write your way through it—I think you’ll find a lot of wisdom here.

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If you love historical fiction that uncovers the hidden stories of ordinary people caught in extraordinary circumstances, this episode is going to pull you right in.
In today’s conversation on The Resilient Writers Radio Show, I’m joined by historical novelist Diane Shotton, author of Motty’s Vow and her latest novel, The Dictograph Case. 
Diane writes the kind of fiction that shines a light on forgotten people and overlooked moments in history—and this story began with one of those astonishing discoveries that simply won’t let a writer go.
Back in 1999, while researching her family history in a local library, Diane stumbled across a newspaper story about seven men accused of treason during World War I for talking among themselves in a shoe shop. 
The case involved a “Dictograph”—an early listening device used to secretly record their conversations—which were then used against them in court. Three of the men, all over the age of 65 and respected in their community, ended up in jail. Diane knew immediately this was a story she had to tell.
What makes The Dictograph Case especially compelling is the way Diane blends fact and fiction. At the core is a real historical event, but around that she builds a richly imagined mystery with noir undertones, a slow-burn romance, and a town full of secrets. 
We talk about the choices she made as a novelist: why she told the story through Michael, the grandson of the shoe shop owner, and how Olivia—whose father was killed during the events surrounding the case—became an essential part of the narrative.
Diane also shares some of the craft challenges behind writing the book, including working with dual point of view for the first time, trusting readers to pick up on clues without over-explaining, and figuring out how to raise the stakes for the antagonist so the mystery had real tension. 
It’s a thoughtful look at how historical fiction is shaped not just by research, but by storytelling decisions on the page.
We also talk about the delicate balance between truth and invention. Diane is a genealogist, so facts matter deeply to her—but in this case, fiction allowed her to explore what history left behind. 
In reality, the town seemed to move on and never speak of the incident again. In the novel, Diane imagines what it might look like if the emotional and social consequences lingered for decades.
Our conversation also touches on the eerie relevance of the novel’s themes today: free speech, patriotism, public pressure, and the ways fear can be used to divide communities. This is one of those historical novels that doesn’t just immerse you in another time—it also throws light on our own.

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If you’ve ever wished someone could take all those slippery, hard-to-explain storytelling principles and turn them into something you could actually see, this episode is for you.
In today’s conversation on The Resilient Writers Radio Show, I’m joined by book coach and editor Lori Puma, and we dive into a topic that is both delightfully nerdy and wildly useful: story structure infographics.
Lori came to this work in a fascinating way. With a PhD in epidemiology and a background as a Story Grid editor, she brings both analytical precision and deep story knowledge to the table. 
After working with writers and realizing that many of their biggest questions weren’t fully answered by the craft systems already out there, Lori set out to build visual tools that could help writers better understand what’s happening in a story—and how to manage multiple story elements at once.
And truly, that’s what makes this conversation so valuable.
We start with Lori’s action story diagram, which she explains is designed for any story where a hero must defeat a villain and save a victim. That includes action-adventure, crime thrillers, fantasy quests, and high-stakes “save the world” stories. 
Lori walks us through the eight major panels of this structure, from the moment harm is done, through complications, failed plans, rising stakes, and finally the one-on-one climax. Along the way, she introduces a set of “thermometers” that measure different types of danger—physical, social, environmental, and institutional—and explains how tracking those threats can help writers create stories that feel dynamic and escalating.
What I especially loved is how practical Lori makes all of this. She talks about time pressure, resources, allies, and even compares the flow of an action novel to a video game, which honestly makes so much sense. Using examples from The Hunger Games, Killing Floor, and The Martian, she shows how structure isn’t about formula for formula’s sake—it’s about helping the reader feel tension, momentum, and emotional investment.
From there, we shift into the investigation rhythm, which I found especially juicy as someone working on a historical mystery. Lori introduces the idea of “lenses”—different ways an investigator might interpret clues, suspects, motives, or locations. She explains how mystery plots move through discovery, narrowing, stalls, plot-twisting clues, resets, and eventual solution. 
One of the most helpful takeaways here is her insight that a real plot twist should actually change the diagram. If the way the clues fit together doesn’t fundamentally shift, it’s probably not a true twist.
We also touch on romance structure, including attraction, adhesion, connection, and the emotional vulnerability required for a satisfying happily-ever-after. Lori’s concept of “adhesion”—the force that keeps love interests in each other’s orbit even when things get hard—is especially smart and useful.
This is such a rich episode for writers who love craft, structure, and understanding why stories work. If you enjoy seeing the bones beneath the book, you’re going to love this one.
***TAKE LORI'S BREAKOUT NOVEL QUIZ HERE!