Episode Transcript
Speaker 2 00:00:23 Hello and welcome to Small Publishing in a Big Universe. I am your host L.A. Jacob. This month's interview is with author Vanessa Richie Thode. Coming from our sponsors this month: from Water Dragon Publishing, Smash the World's Shell by Daniel Fleiderbaum, The Gauntlet Runner by J. Scott Cosworth, Rebirth on Xarbo by Diane Deza; and in Dragon Gems, the summer 2023 anthology. Paper Angel Press is presenting Dodging Prayers and Bullets by Karen Beatty.
Speaker 2 00:01:23 When a mysterious ring suddenly appears on reclusive teenager Ellen's bookshelf, she's granted the power to travel miles away from everything she's ever known. There she meets Shard, a friendly dragon who offers to help Ellen grow her stunted-since-birth magic. Although it seems too good to be true, Ellen accepts that she can conquer her self-hatred by becoming an accomplished magician. Little does she know her magical voyages have raised the suspicions of those who would destroy her. Smash The World's Shell by Daniel Fleiderbaum is available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Smashwords and other online booksellers or support your local independent bookstores by ordering it through bookshop.org. For more information, visit their website at waterdragonpublishing.com.
Speaker 0 00:02:49 Hello and welcome to Small Publishing in a Big Universe. I am your host La Jacob, and we have with us today Vanessa Richie Thode, who is an author out of Canada. Welcome to the podcast Vanessa.
Speaker 3 00:03:04 Hi. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 0 00:03:06 The first question is, what is your most recent book about?
Speaker 3 00:03:10 The book is called Fireborn and it's coming of age fantasy story about a queer young woman who loses literally everything except her dog and an ax and she must take refuge under the dragon city, uh, to learn to rebuild her life and thrive in her new situation.
Speaker 0 00:03:25 What inspired you to write this book?
Speaker 3 00:03:27 So I wasn't planning on writing it. I wasn't planning on writing a series, but after my debut novel Dragon Whisper came out, fans kept asking me, so when's the next book? So I had to figure out that there would be a next book and what it would be and when it would come out. The next book is actually a book two in the series. This one's book three, but it just fan demand, I guess. I had fun writing the Dragons in the first, well, I had fun writing the first book, but especially the Dragons, so I wanted to find a reason to keep writing those dragons.
Speaker 0 00:03:54 Is there a particular dragon that you like specifically that you may continue as an offshoot?
Speaker 3 00:04:00 I don't know that I would have the Dragon as a main character, but there is certainly a dragon. Her name is Abyss. She doesn't have a name before this particular book. This mc gives her a human name. The Dragons don't have human names and she's in the entire series. The series is generational. So each book is a different woman and a generation of this family and all three of them make friends with the same dragon.
Speaker 0 00:04:21 So you probably wouldn't do one from the point of view of of Abyss.
Speaker 3 00:04:26 I have a short story from her point of view, yes. I don't think I would do an entire novel from her point of view, but if people sign up for my newsletter, they get a free short story and it's from the Dragon's point of view.
Speaker 0 00:04:36 What is your work schedule like when you're writing? I'm assuming you have a day job.
Speaker 3 00:04:42 I did. I was an editor until the pandemic started and since the pandemic I have been actually full-time writing. I'm a mom, so technically I'm a full-time mom, but my writing schedule since the pandemic actually has been awful. Pandemic broke my brain, so I'm just getting back into a schedule and it's a chaotic mess. Pre pandemic, usually I was writing when my daughter was at school or in the evening depending on workload and other things. Evenings are my my best bet and like honestly, usually I write during NaNoWriMo, so I just spend the year editing and planning the next book and then the month of November writing. And that's intense. It's a lot because I do write the full book in a month.
Speaker 0 00:05:21 Do you find that nobody understands NaNoWriMo except you?
Speaker 3 00:05:26 Most of my friends are writers, so they've all heard of it if they haven't already tried it. At this point, my family and friends all know what it is, but whenever I meet new people, no, they have, they're like, what? Then I have to explain to them that Nana Rmo stands for National Novel Writing Month and what it is, and they're like, you just get that look of what is wrong with you. It's fun. I enjoy doing it.
Speaker 0 00:05:45 Did you write your first book during NaNoWriMo?
Speaker 3 00:05:48 Yeah, dragon was written during NaNoWriMo. There's a few things that I wrote, uh, I've been writing since I was a kid and I'd only discovered NaNoWriMo in the early aughts. So I did a lot of writing before Nana Rmo, but now I just tend to do all of it during Nano and Dragon Whisper was a NaNoWriMo book. All of the books in the series I'm releasing have been NaNoWriMo books. Most of my writing now gets done during NaNoWriMo.
Speaker 0 00:06:11 Do you have a passion project that has nothing to do with the genre that you're writing?
Speaker 3 00:06:15 No, I tend to stick to fantasy for the genres that I write in passion projects outside of writing, but none outside of my typical genre.
Speaker 0 00:06:24 Do you self-publish, you use a small publisher or are you traditionally published <laugh>? I
Speaker 3 00:06:30 Wish I was traditionally published <laugh>. I do have a book that is on Query and I am hoping gets picked up by a traditional publisher. My first two books were published by a small press. I got the rights back to the first one and I'm self-publishing now. So a little bit of indie and a little bit of self-publishing.
Speaker 0 00:06:48 The Dragon Whisperer, is that indie published or self-published?
Speaker 3 00:06:52 It's a bit of both. So it started out being published by a small press iguana Books in Toronto and now I've re-released it in March, and so I've self-published it as a re-release. Yes, so self-published now, but that one did start out and one of my other books is still with the Indie press.
Speaker 0 00:07:09 What are some of your favorite book that you have either written or that you find to be some go-tos?
Speaker 3 00:07:17 The favorite of my books that I've written is probably book 4.5 in the series that I'm writing. It's called The Dragon Next Door and the like one line pitch is Sic Mandalorian with a Baby dragon, and it was so much fun to write. I had so much fun. That's the one that's out on Query for Trad Pub and I really hope it gets picked up by them, but if it doesn't I will definitely self-publish it because it was just so much fun and I hope people have fun reading it once it's out. My favorite books that I reread, definitely the Murder Bot Diaries, just the whole series. I couldn't pick a favorite out of those books I don't think. I don't reread a lot because I read very slowly, but I have reread Murder Bot many times since it came out, especially during the Pandemic.
Speaker 3 00:07:59 It was one of the few things I could read. One of my favorite new books recently, I read World Running Down by Al Hess. Oh, it's so good. Um, that one's more sci-fi. Actually. A lot of my favorite books are sci-fi now that I think about it, which is interesting. I think those are the two big ones. There's also a book by Patricia C Reedy called The Raven Ring. Nobody's ever heard of it when I talk about it, they're like, what? They know who she is, but they've never heard of this book. It was one of the first fantasy novels I read as a kid and I just love it and it really set the bar high for me for female main characters in fantasy and just characters in fantasy in general. So that's another one that I have reread a lot.
Speaker 0 00:08:37 I'll have a bigger To Be Read Pile now. Thank you very much. Where can people contact you if you want them to and how can they sign up for your newsletter?
Speaker 3 00:08:46 My newsletter is on my website, which isto.ca. That's a good place to find out what's going on with me. I have a blog that I update fairly regularly and I keep track of all the places I'm gonna be. I am also on social media. Don't ask me which one 'cause I'm kind of trying them all right now. As Twitter dies and Twitter was my main one, I'm trying to find a new place to exist online, all the platforms I'm on and N I'll on in the future, I use the same handle and that's v Reachy though I'm the only reachy third in the world, so I'm easy to find. If you just hit the Googles.
Thank you for your time.
Sure, thanks. This is fun. Thanks.
Speaker 2 00:09:33 In an Appalachian Town during the early 1950s, guns and domestic abuse are as prevalent as prayer meetings and dubiously ordained preachers. Young Skylar Faye Jenkins is often forced to choose between what is righteous and what she knows to be right. When her family moves up north, she struggles to overcome the social and gender limitations of the late 1950s and sixties. Dodging Prayers and Bullets by Karen Beatty is available this month by Paper Angel Press from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Smashwords and other online booksellers or support your local independent bookstores by ordering it through bookshop.org. For more information, visit their website at paperangelpress.com.
Speaker 2 00:10:33 Thanks again to our guest author Vanessa Richie Thode. We plan on publishing new episodes every second Wednesday of the month. Watch for new episodes around that time. Theme music is provided by Melody Loops. Other music is found for free on the web. If you want to know more about Small Publishing in a Big Universe, visit our website at SPBUpodcast.com. Tweet or X US at SP podcast and like us on Facebook at SP podcast. This podcast was recorded and edited by yours truly, LA Jacob. Executive producer is Steven Radecki. Transcription services provided by Sleepy Fox Studio. This month's episode was sponsored by Paper Angel Press and it's imprint Water Dragon Publishing and Unruly Voices. You can hear our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and most of your other favorite podcast services. Thanks again and talk to you soon.
