In this episode, we discuss our naming process for our own characters and some of our favorite within some popular books too. We found so much to talk about and honestly still have more surface to scratch but it was a really interesting and fun conversation. A lot of names are really instinctive but also need to resonate and can really make or break a story!

What are some of your favorite character names?

Intro and Outro Music is by Chasing West

https://www.instagram.com/chvsingwest/

http://www.youtube.com/@chasingwest

Chapters:

00:00–Cold open, intro song, and episode intro

00:51–Reading check-ins!

Sam read the third and fourth of the Beasts of the Briars series

Allie read ~200 pages of Outlander

5:34–Writing check-ins!

Allie didn’t write much after last week’s ep

Sam wrote 1400 words (and broke her writing slump!)

11:06–Main Discussion: Character names! Our own and general discussion of some famous popular romantasy names too

1:04:34–Poem of the Week! “This living hand” by John Keats! (Read it here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/50375/this-living-hand-now-warm-and-capable )

1:15:21–Next week, closing & outro music

In this episode, we check in with each other in terms of our reading and writing this week and then we get into a writing exercise! We have a lot of fun with this one and both ending up reading what we wrote during the exercise!

Here’s the prompt:

Describe your character’s favorite place (that you haven’t yet described).

If you’re a writer, give this one a try! If you do, let us know how it went!

Intro and Outro Music is by Chasing West

https://www.instagram.com/chvsingwest/

http://www.youtube.com/@chasingwest

Chapters:

00:00–Cold open, intro song, and episode intro

00:42–Reading check-ins!

Sam read a couple chapters of Forged by Malice

Allie read two chapters of Outlander

4:31–Writing check-ins!

Sam hasn’t written but has is mentally writing, as you do

Allie wrote 2k words and a poem!

16:12–Writing exercise! We originally were going to do 2-3 but ended up just doing one of them since we actually took like 40 mins to do it instead of just 10 mins.

Here’s that prompt: Describe your character’s favorite place (that you haven’t yet described).

18:47–Initial reactions after the exercise

20:05–Allie reads what she wrote

26:35–Sam reads what she wrote

39:55–Next week, closing & outro music

In this episode, we discuss what got us started writing our main novels and how we think about the process! We also talk for quite a while about Sam’s new reading experience with the Beast of the Briar series! Check it out and let us know–if you’re a writer, what got you started writing???

Intro and Outro Music is by Chasing West

https://www.instagram.com/chvsingwest/

http://www.youtube.com/@chasingwest

Chapters:

00:00–Cold open, intro song, and episode intro

00:54–Reading & Writing Check Ins

Allie wrote 1500 words and read nothing!

Sam also didn’t write but finished Slaying the Vampire Conqueror by Carissa Broadbent and Bonded by Thorns by Elizabeth Helen!

**Spoilers for Bonded by Thorns**

30:12–Main Discussion: Why did we start writing novels??

1:07:08–Next week, closing & outro music

**Keep in mind this episode will have SPOILERS for The Fallen & The Kiss of Dusk!!**

Thumbnail art is by naarielart on Instagram!

https://www.instagram.com/p/DCPETgVRXLP/

In this episode, we discuss our thoughts on The Fallen & The Kiss of Dusk! We didn’t read or write too much this week so we just jump right in discussing some of our favorite aspects of the book and theories for the next book!

What did you think of this book??

Intro and Outro Music is by Chasing West

https://www.instagram.com/chvsingwest/

http://www.youtube.com/@chasingwest

In this episode, we discuss our reading and writing goals for 2026! We are both looking to amp up our reading and writing this year and we hope you’ll join us!!

What are your goals for the New Year??

Intro and Outro Music is by Chasing West

https://www.instagram.com/chvsingwest/

http://www.youtube.com/@chasingwest

In this episode, we get into the different marketing trends we see on booktok and how authors present their books to audiences! We’re always interested and puzzled by the different strategies and we had a lot of fun here talking about how this works when a big part of the fun of reading is not knowing what comes next. As always, we both see this a little differently so it’s an interesting discussion.

What about you?? Do you like knowing tropes? Do you read the backs of books before you buy them?

Intro and Outro Music is by Chasing West

https://www.instagram.com/chvsingwest/

http://www.youtube.com/@chasingwest

Chapters:

00:00–Cold open, intro song, and episode intro

00:55–Reading check-ins!

Allie read basically nothing (except Horizon Zero Dawn–a game lol). Spoiler alert for Bioshock lol!

10:55–Writing check-ins!

Allie doubled the new story word count (with only 1400 words lol–still not hitting the 2k weekly goal)

Sam wrote 3.5k words writing an important early battle scene!

19:31–Main Discussion: Social media marketing ploys and what is too far!

Crowns of Nyaxia (Fallen and the Kiss of Dusk) spoiler discussion at 27:34-30:54

Light spoilers for Plated Prisoner series at 33:29-36:23

1:00:41–Next week, (plus long tangent about plans for writing next week), closing & outro music

In this episode, we discuss our fav lore! We actually didn’t fully talk through everything and ended up discussing a lot about exposition (but I’m sure we’ll return to lore discussions in general–but exposition is a huge part of that convo!). We do our reading check ins (spoiler alert for When the Moon Hatched and Fallen and the Kiss of Dusk!) where we heavily discuss Allie’s experience finishing When the Moon Hatched and the things she liked and also had some issues with for that book! We also end with a fantastic poem called “Another Elegy ["This is what our dying looks like"]” by Jericho Brown. Read it here:

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/57693/another-elegy-this-is-what-our-dying-looks-like

What about you?? What do you look for in terms of lore? What breaks your immersion quickest??

Intro and Outro Music is by Chasing West

https://www.instagram.com/chvsingwest/

http://www.youtube.com/@chasingwest

Chapters:

00:00–Cold open, intro song, and episode intro

00:41–Reading check ins!

Allie finished When the Moon Hatched and had some THOUGHTS (SPOILER ALERT for When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A Parker!!), plus exposition tangent

Sam finished Mother of Death & Dying and started the Fallen & the Kiss of Dusk (both by Carissa Broadbent)

33:42–Writing check ins!

48:43–Main Discussion: Lore Discussion

1:09:07–(TW–implied SI) Poem of the Week! “Another Elegy [“This is what our dying looks like”]” by Jericho Brown

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/57693/another-elegy-this-is-what-our-dying-looks-like

1:16:18–Next week, closing & outro music

In this episode, we check in with our reading and writing as always and we spend our main discussion doing a writing exercise! The exercise prompt is given at 21:45 (also written below) and we read what we came up with at XX:XX. This one was super fun to do as two people at different stages and experience with our writing (Sam has never done this style of writing exercise, Allie has done hundreds of them; Sam’s a plotter, Allie’s a pantser; etc!).

We also get into a tangent about writing kid dialogue and end with a fantastic poem called “The Glass” by Sharon Olds. Read it here: https://www.deepcenter.org/deepcenter/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/the-glass_sharon-olds1.pdf

Prompt for the writing exercise: Write a scene where a parental figure is telling a story to a child in your world. Does not have to be a core myth, doesn’t have to mean anything or ever be included.

Intro and Outro Music is by Chasing West

https://www.instagram.com/chvsingwest/

http://www.youtube.com/@chasingwest

Chapters:

00:00–Cold open, intro song, and episode intro

00:33–Reading check ins!

9:38–Writing check ins!

21:14–Main Discussion: Writing Exercise!

Prompt for the writing exercise: Write a scene where a parental figure is telling a story to a child in your world. Does not have to be a core myth, doesn’t have to mean anything or ever be included.

22:32–Reading our drafts

31:50–Kid dialogue tangent (discussing two of Allie’s characters)

38:53–(CW–Yucky? lol) Poem of the Week! “The Glass” by Sharon Olds

https://www.deepcenter.org/deepcenter/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/the-glass_sharon-olds1.pdf

44:07–Next week, closing & outro music