88 Cups of Tea

Warm welcome, Storytellers!

If you’re looking for a super intimate space where you can meet fellow storytellers and experience what it’s like to be a part of our community, come hang out with us in our private Facebook group at facebook.com/groups/88cupsoftea. We check in with each other on the daily, and have weekly threads where you can update each other about your work-in-progress, along with swapping recommendations for books and tv shows, and there’s a whole lot more that happens in there. Join us at https://www.facebook.com/groups/88cupsoftea/!

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We are thrilled to announce we are beginning the process of building out 88 Cups of Tea’s volunteer positions and would love to hear from you if you’re passionate about 88 Cups of Tea and want to be a part of building out our future. Fill out our application here: https://88cupsoftea.com/volunteer/ 

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Tochi Onyebuchi is the author of Beasts Made of Night, its sequel Crown of Thunder, War Girls, Riot Baby, and its sequel and his newest novel Rebel Sisters. In our conversation, we explore Tochi's writing process, the ways it’s evolved over time, and how he continues to find joy in the process. Tochi shares how to cultivate a specific kind of confidence that enables us to bring our story ideas to life, and how to maintain that confidence to pave way for equity in publishing. Join us for a conversation filled with crafting advice from overcoming your writing fears to plotting intricate threads in your stories and much more.

Head over to his shownotes page at : https://88cupsoftea.com/tochi-onyebuchi to download his writing prompt and to find the resources and books mentioned in his episode, tweetable quotes, and the timestamps of highlights throughout the entire conversation. 

Warm welcome to our new listeners, let's continue and build upon the momentum surrounding the active work to create a just and equitable system for the black community. Head over to our page of resources of recommended learning: https://88cupsoftea.com/learn/

If you’re looking for a super intimate space where you can meet fellow storytellers and experience what it’s like to be a part of our community, come hang out with us in our private Facebook group at facebook.com/groups/88cupsoftea. We check in with each other on the daily, and have weekly threads where you can update each other about your work-in-progress, along with swapping recommendations for books and tv shows, and there’s a whole lot more that happens in there. Join us at https://www.facebook.com/groups/88cupsoftea/!

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We are thrilled to announce we are beginning the process of building out 88 Cups of Tea’s volunteer positions and would love to hear from you if you’re passionate about 88 Cups of Tea and want to be a part of building out our future. Fill out our application here: https://88cupsoftea.com/volunteer/ 

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Stacey Lee is an award-winning author of historical and contemporary young adult fiction, including Outrun the Moon, Under a Painted Sky, The Secret of a Heart Note, and her most recent novel, The Downstairs Girl. In our conversation, Stacey reflects on how she cultivated her inner confidence as a storyteller at a young age and how it's continued to grow throughout her writing career. She opens up about the invaluable writing strategies she learned as a lawyer that helps her see the importance of every single word on the page and craft authenticity in her characters. Filled with crafting advice on detailed research processes, using metaphors to write strong protagonists, finding critique partners, and more, our conversation will be sure to spark inspiration and joy.

Head over to her shownotes page at https://88cupsoftea.com/stacey-lee to find the resources and books mentioned in her episode, tweetable quotes, and the timestamps of highlights throughout the entire conversation. 

Warm welcome to our new listeners, let's continue and build upon the momentum surrounding the active work to create a just and equitable system for the black community. Head over to our page of resources of recommended learning: https://88cupsoftea.com/learn/

If you’re looking for a super intimate space where you can meet fellow storytellers and experience what it’s like to be a part of our community, come hang out with us in our private Facebook group at facebook.com/groups/88cupsoftea. We check in with each other on the daily, and have weekly threads where you can update each other about your work-in-progress, along with swapping recommendations for books and tv shows, and there’s a whole lot more that happens in there. Join us at https://www.facebook.com/groups/88cupsoftea/!

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We are thrilled to announce we are beginning the process of building out 88 Cups of Tea’s volunteer positions and would love to hear from you if you’re passionate about 88 Cups of Tea and want to be a part of building out our future. Fill out our application here: https://88cupsoftea.com/volunteer/ 

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Kat Cho is the international bestselling author of Wicked Fox and Vicious Spirits and the co-host of the Write or Die Podcast. In our conversation, we reflect on our experiences navigating the pandemic as a human, a creative, and an author. Kat shines a light on the act of writing as a transformative source of solace and joy in the most challenging of times as we discuss her journey moving through grief, and fleshing out her stories that emerged from the rawest heartbreak that evolved into the most powerful form of hope. In a conversation lined with transparency and vulnerability, Kat shares wisdom on the human experience beyond her years. 

Head over to her shownotes page at https://88cupsoftea.com/kat-cho to find the resources and books mentioned in her episode, tweetable quotes, and the timestamps of highlights throughout the entire conversation. 

Warm welcome to our new listeners, you can follow us on Instagram @88CUPSOFTEA to keep up with our latest posts and Instagram stories where we announce new episodes and essays, feature our favorite quotes, and host Instagram Story takeovers by some of your favorite authors. And join our private Facebook group to experience the warmth and encouragement of our community first-hand! 

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In this special edition 88 Cups of Tea podcast episode, we feature National Book Award Finalist Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam of The Exonerated Five in conversation with 88 Cups of Tea guest-host Lelina Chang, an advocate whose work is focused on the intersection of racial equity and environmental justice.

In 1989, Dr. Yusef Salaam was just fifteen years old when he was tried and convicted in the “Central Park Jogger Case” along with four other Black and Latino boys. The Exonerated Five spent between seven to 13 years behind bars, until their sentences were overturned in 2002. Since then, they received a multi-million-dollar settlement from the City of New York for its injustice and were profiled in award-winning films, including The Central Park Five documentary from Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, and David McMahon and the award-winning Netflix limited series When They See Us, written and directed by Ava DuVernay.

In our podcast episode, Lelina interviews Yusef and Ibi about their newest co-authored novel in verse Punching the Air and how the book came to fruition. Yusef talks about the power of self-purpose and hope and how his spiritual journey was mirrored through the main character Amal while Ibi shares how she embraced and holistically weaved Yusef‘s stories and philosophies to craft a story told from a young Muslim, Black boy’s point of view. Further in, they break down and analyze two influential poems in the novel that speak to Yusef’s experience being boxed in with his thoughts and his own devices in his jail cell, and the power DNA has to tie individuals to the collective injustices of the past. Ibi shares how crafting her poems in different shapes and forms helps bring to life the meaning of the poems on the page. And later, they discuss what it means to bring about diversity with diversity and the crucial work that still needs to be done to create a holistic representation of communities of color in the literary world.

Head over to their shownotes page at https://88cupsoftea.com/yusef-and-ibi/ to find the resources and books mentioned in their episode, tweetable quotes, and the timestamps of highlights throughout the entire conversation. 

Warm welcome to our new listeners, let's continue and build upon the momentum surrounding the active work to create a just and equitable system for the black community. Head over to our page of resources of recommended learning: https://88cupsoftea.com/learn/

You can follow us on Instagram @88CUPSOFTEA to keep up with our latest posts and Instagram stories where we announce new episodes and essays,  feature our favorite quotes, and host Instagram Story takeovers by some of your favorite authors. So make sure to head over to https://www.instagram.com/88cupsoftea/ so you don't miss out on the next takeover! 

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Molly is a literary agent with Root Literary. Books that Molly has worked on have gone on to become #1 New York Times Bestsellers, have been made into major motion pictures, and received countless awards, honors, and accolades. Most recently, her clients’ books have been honored to receive National Book Awards longlist nomination, the William C. Morris YA Debut Award, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Young Adult Literature, the Schneider Family Book Award, and as ALA Odyssey Honors for Audiobooks and Goodreads Choice Awards nominees, among many others. 

In part 2 of our conversation, we discuss how she discovers and pursues new writing talent and matches them with the best editor to help their stories come alive. She shares how an author’s social media presence and writing competition victories can be a path to grabbing a literary agent’s attention but it’s not the only journey an aspiring author has to take and that spending your energy on making your writing the best it can be is the most important aspect.

Further in, Molly talks about the query letters that have stood out to her the most and tips for improving your own query letters. She lists helpful writing and publishing resources you won’t want to miss, how supporting and contributing to the publishing community will help you create connections and opportunities, and smart financial moves to make when you receive your first book advance. And later, we talk about how your relationship with writing can change when your writing hobby turns into your job, the role self-awareness plays as you’re trying to reach your writing goals, and strategies for finding inspiration and uncovering the story you've always been meant to tell.

Head over to her shownotes page at https://88cupsoftea.com/molly-oneill to find the resources and books mentioned in her episode, tweetable quotes, and the timestamps of highlights throughout the entire conversation. 

Warm welcome to our new listeners, let's continue and build upon the momentum surrounding the active work to create a just and equitable system for the black community. Head over to our page of resources of recommended learning: https://88cupsoftea.com/learn/

You can follow us on Instagram @88CUPSOFTEA to keep up with our latest posts and Instagram stories where we announce new episodes and essays,  feature our favorite quotes, and host Instagram Story takeovers by some of your favorite authors. So make sure to head over to https://www.instagram.com/88cupsoftea/ so you don't miss out on the next takeover! 

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Molly is a literary agent with Root Literary. Books that Molly has worked on have gone on to become #1 New York Times Bestsellers, have been made into major motion pictures, and received countless awards, honors, and accolades. Most recently, her clients’ books have been honored to receive National Book Awards longlist nomination, the William C. Morris YA Debut Award, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Young Adult Literature, the Schneider Family Book Award, and as ALA Odyssey Honors for Audiobooks and Goodreads Choice Awards nominees, among many others. 

Molly shared so much wisdom, industry-knowledge, and publishing advice that we had to make her episode a two-parter! 

In the first part of our conversation, Molly talks about the power of story and how it helped created bonds between her and her loved ones. She talks about her love for children’s books, how the publishing industry helps establish relationships between stories and humans, and the steps she took to break into the publishing industry. Further in, she discusses how she became the editor for the Divergent Series and the importance of editing or representing books you love versus books that are on-trend. She gives us an in-depth look at the many roles editors hold like helping authors’ stories come alive on the page, acting as the book’s advocate to sales reps, and being an advocate for the readers so they have a great reading experience. And later, Molly begins to tell us how she moved from editor to literary agent!

Head over to her shownotes page at https://88cupsoftea.com/molly-oneill to find the resources and books mentioned in her episode, tweetable quotes, and the timestamps of highlights throughout the entire conversation. 

Warm welcome to our new listeners, let's continue and build upon the momentum surrounding the active work to create a just and equitable system for the black community. Head over to our page of resources of recommended learning: https://88cupsoftea.com/learn/

You can follow us on Instagram @88CUPSOFTEA to keep up with our latest posts and Instagram stories where we announce new episodes and essays,  feature our favorite quotes, and host Instagram Story takeovers by some of your favorite authors. So make sure to head over to https://www.instagram.com/88cupsoftea/ so you don't miss out on the next takeover! 

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Elizabeth is the New York Times bestselling author of The Poet X, With the Fire on High, and Clap When You Land. Her critically-acclaimed debut novel, The Poet X, won the 2018 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. She is also the recipient of the Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Fiction, the CILIP Carnegie Medal, and the Boston Globe-Hornbook Award. She was also honored with the 2019 Pure Belpré Author Award for celebrating, affirming, and portraying Latinx culture and experience.  

In our conversation, we discuss the important role that routine plays in our writing process and how it can help us connect deeper with our characters. Elizabeth shares her experience rebuilding and relearning her own routine during this pandemic and how forgiveness, kindness, and focusing on what is in her control has helped her throughout this difficult time. We then talk about disrupting our priorities to give ourselves permission to slow down and rest. And later, we discuss strategies to help us confront our writing fears and push past perfectionism to allow us to see the beauty in the entire journey from the first draft to the finished piece.

Head over to her shownotes page at https://88cupsoftea.com/elizabeth-acevedo to find the resources and books mentioned in her episode, tweetable quotes, and the timestamps of highlights throughout the entire conversation. 

Warm welcome to our new listeners, let's continue and build upon the momentum surrounding the active work to create a just and equitable system for the black community. Head over to our page of resources of recommended learning: https://88cupsoftea.com/learn/

You can follow us on Instagram @88CUPSOFTEA to keep up with our latest posts and Instagram stories where we announce new episodes and essays,  feature our favorite quotes, and host Instagram Story takeovers by some of your favorite authors. So make sure to head over to https://www.instagram.com/88cupsoftea/ so you don't miss out on the next takeover! 

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Daniel is the New York Times bestselling author of the Middle-Grade historical fantasy series Dactyl Hill Squad, the Bone Street Rumba urban fantasy series, Star Wars: Last Shot, and the award-winning Young Adult series the Shadowshaper Cypher, which won the International Latino Book Award and was shortlisted for the Kirkus Prize in Young Readers’ Literature, the Andre Norton Award, the Locus, the Mythopoeic Award, and named one of Esquire’s 80 Books Every Person Should Read. 

We begin our conversation discussing how he discovered his creative voice at a young age through drawing, music, and storytelling. We learn about his college days and becoming an EMT to keep him financially stable while working on his craft. We have an honest conversation about the uncertainty of relying on your writing as your main source of income and the moments of instability that it can bring.  

Further in, Daniel talks about his path to becoming a published author, pushing past rejection, and the importance of mentorship and community during this time. He shares plotting and character development tips for writing a series and the important role inspirational research serves when crafting your stories. 

And later, we talk about how writing is about listening to yourself and to those around you, being intentional about knowing when to start and stop your story, and why it’s crucial to understand what’s most important in your story so you can be committed to the things that matter the most and be flexible to change other parts to ultimately get to the heart of your story. 

Head over to his shownotes page at https://88cupsoftea.com/daniel-jose-older to find the resources and books mentioned in his episode, tweetable quotes, and the timestamps of highlights throughout the entire conversation. 

Hi Storytellers, listen in on the latest episode split into two different segments. 

First segment, it's just you and me. Head over to our page of resources as mentioned in this segment: https://88cupsoftea.com/learn/

Second segment, we're pulling our conversation with Jacqueline Woodson out of the archives. 

Head over to her shownotes page at https://88cupsoftea.com/jacqueline-woodson to find books mentioned in her episode, tweetable quotes, and the timestamps of highlights throughout the entire conversation. 

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to follow us on Instagram @88CUPSOFTEA to keep up with our latest posts and Instagram stories where we announce new episodes and essays,  feature our favorite quotes, and host Instagram Story takeovers by some of your favorite authors. So make sure to head over to https://www.instagram.com/88cupsoftea/ so you don't miss out on the next takeover! 

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Kelly’s episode is edited from a livestream we recorded back in March. Please note that the audio quality isn’t as clear as it’s pulled from our livestream, and you’ll hear some popping sounds in the background which were notifications from the live commenting during the livestream, but the content is so important especially during these times so don’t let the audio quality get in the way!  If you’d like to watch our full 2-hour live streamed conversation, head on over to Kelly’s shownotes page at 88cupsoftea.com/kelly-yang!

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Kelly is the award-wining author of Front Desk, the winner of the 2019 Asian Pacific American Award for Children’s Literature, her newly released YA novel Parachutes, and her upcoming book and sequel of Front Desk - Three Keys. 

Kelly and I kick off our conversation diving into Kelly’s experience during Covid-19 as an Asian-American, how she is feeding her creativity during this challenging time, ways she is trying to keep herself and her family emotionally healthy, and how she has redefined her self-care. She also shares ways in which we all can help combat the horrible racism and discrimination in our communities brought about from Covid-19.

Further in, she shares her writing journey and her experience so far publishing Asian-American stories. She gives us a snapshot of her newly released novel Parachutes and a glimpse into her research process drawing from personal experiences and gathering stories from other parachute children. We discuss how to determine when you have compiled enough research to jump into your story, and how drafting the first few chapters of a story idea before committing to writing the whole book can help you figure out if it’s the perfect story for you. And later, Kelly drops some real-talk about making an income as a creative, shares her golden rule in life that’ll inspire you to not give up on your projects, and steps you can take to reach your writing goals, especially during this challenging time.

Head over to her shownotes page at https://88cupsoftea.com/kelly-yang to download Kelly's writing prompt and find the resources and books mentioned in her episode, tweetable quotes, and the timestamps of highlights throughout the entire conversation. 

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to follow us on Instagram @88CUPSOFTEA to keep up with our latest posts and Instagram stories where we announce new episodes and essays,  feature our favorite quotes, and host Instagram Story takeovers by some of your favorite authors. So make sure to head over to https://www.instagram.com/88cupsoftea/ so you don't miss out on the next takeover! 

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Marie Rutkoski is the author of The Shadow Society, the Kronos Chronicles, and the New York Times-bestselling Winner’s Trilogy.

We begin our conversation by discussing her love for storytelling and the role her family played in inspiring her to craft stories. We'll learn how writing her dissertation in college taught her how to structure a novel and inspire the idea behind her first novel. We then move on to discuss her newly published novel The Midnight Lie, her experience crafting a queer romance, and her heartwarming coming out story. She shares how hiring a freelance editor can help strengthen your novel before entering the querying process, how to craft persistent tension in your story, and how to avoid cultural appropriation and underrepresentation when writing about a culture separate from your own. And later, we discuss a writing strategy that can help you craft your novel while working full time and unique ways you can practice the art of storytelling away from the page.

Please say 'Hi' to Marie on Twitter! https://twitter.com/marierutkoski

Head over to her shownotes page at https://88cupsoftea.com/marie-rutkoski to find the resources and books mentioned in her episode, tweetable quotes, and the timestamps of highlights throughout the entire conversation. 

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to follow us on Instagram @88CUPSOFTEA to keep up with our latest posts and Instagram stories where we announce new episodes and essays,  feature our favorite quotes, and host Instagram Story takeovers by some of your favorite authors. So make sure to head over to https://www.instagram.com/88cupsoftea/ so you don't miss out on the next takeover! 

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We Love Our 88 Cups of Tea Sponsors

Did you know we collaborated with VCFA’s MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults to curate a thoughtful series of intimate essays and podcast episodes so you can feel empowered throughout your writing journey? Click here to explore the published pieces.

Vermont College of Fine Arts is a global community of artists continuously redefining what it means to be an arts college. They’re accredited by the New England Commission on Higher Education and offers the Master of Fine Arts degree in a variety of fields, including Writing, Writing for Children & Young Adults, and Writing & Publishing, along with an International MFA in Creative Writing & Literary Translation. With low-residency and fully residential options, VCFA has the graduate program to fit your needs. Be sure to learn more about VCFA by clicking here!

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Linda is a literary agent with a B.S. in Communication from Cornell University and an MFA in creative writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She’s held various positions at Penguin Random House, Dorchester, Simon and Schuster, Writers House, and Prospect Agency. Now at Gallt & Zacker Literary Agency, Linda is looking for MG, YA, and adult fiction across all genres (especially upmarket, women’s fiction/romance, and literary horror); she’s also seeking select graphic novel writer-illustrators.

We kick off the conversation talking about horror movies and how they sparked her love for storytelling inspiring her publishing career. We discuss the publishing world and the different roles she had that lead her to become a literary agent. From this conversation, she shares how crucial it is to uplift your community, not take any opportunities for granted, be relentlessly persistent in your creative pursuits, and to know your worth. Further in, we talk about how to create lasting diversity in publishing.

And later, Linda chats about her experience getting her MFA in creative writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and how her degree helped strengthen her skills as a literary agent and communicate better editorially with her clients. We dive into how to improve your query letter, the common mistakes new authors make navigating the publishing industry, and how to avoid them.

Please say 'Hi' to Linda on Twitter! https://twitter.com/lindarandom

Head over to her shownotes page at https://88cupsoftea.com/linda-camacho to download one of her favorite query letters and to find the resources and books mentioned in her episode, tweetable quotes, and the timestamps of highlights throughout the entire conversation. 

I have this hope of documenting what we're collectively going through in our daily lives and how we're coping during this time as Storytellers at a global-scale. I record my conversation with each storyteller for 15 minutes every single day for 30 days.

Each Sunday evening over the course of these 30 days, I'm releasing a bonus weekend podcast episode that features a raw, uncut compilation of all conversations from that full week in hopes these diary-like audio entries bring you a sense of belonging. I imagine this to be a time capsule of our experiences, our stories, our hopes, fears, dreams, wishes, yearnings, real-time perspectives during a truly unparalleled time-- our concerted voices woven together into a digital tapestry. 

We've been receiving an overwhelming amount of submissions to be a part of this and if you'd love your chance, head over here to submit your info: https://88cupsoftea.typeform.com/to/DB2voV

Xo,

Yin

Warm welcome to our new listeners, and welcome back long-time listeners. 

Here's the link to join our free self-guided accountability group for the month of April: https://www.facebook.com/groups/88cupsofteaselfguidedaccountabilityapril2020/

If you'd love a chance to be one of the voices in the 30-consecutive days of recording for our collective stories throughout this time, head over here to submit: https://88cupsoftea.typeform.com/to/DB2voV 

Head over to https://www.instagram.com/88cupsoftea/ to watch Samira Ahmed's Instagram takeover filled with exciting behind-the-scenes footage of her writing life!

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Samira is the author of Love, Hate & Other Filters, Internment, and her newest novel that just released in early April – Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know. Her poetry, essays, and short stories have appeared in anthologies including: Take the Mic, Color Outside the Lines, Ink Knows No Borders, Who Will Speak for America, This is What a Librarian Looks Like, and the forthcoming Vampires Never Get Old and A Universe of Stories.

In Samira’s episode, we discuss her childhood experience growing up in small-town America, how different groups of people are targeted throughout history, and how to safely confront racism by using our power and privilege for a purpose. We then unpack Samira’s career path from working in education to becoming a full-time writer, how she learned to construct a novel, how she discovered the inner workings of the publishing world, and what the process of finding a literary agent was like for her. 

We talk about creative ways to fit in time for your writing even with a busy schedule, the importance of saying “yes” to yourself and your dreams, and why it’s crucial to be gentle with the language you use towards your writing, especially with your first draft. Further in, we chat about her newly released novel Mad, Bad, & Dangerous to Know, the inspiration behind the story, and her writing process for crafting dual POVs. And Samira wraps up our conversation with a creative assignment for our listeners that will help you make progress towards your writing goals!

Please say 'Hi' to Samira on Instagram! https://www.instagram.com/sam_aye_ahm/

Head over to Samira's shownotes page at https://88cupsoftea.com/samira-ahmed/‎ to download her writing prompt and to find the resources and books mentioned in her episode, tweetable quotes, and the timestamps of highlights throughout the entire conversation. 

I have this hope of documenting what we're collectively going through in our daily lives and how we're coping during this time as Storytellers at a global-scale. I record my conversation with each storyteller for 15 minutes every single day for 30 days.

Each Sunday evening over the course of these 30 days, I'm releasing a bonus weekend podcast episode that features a raw, uncut compilation of all conversations from that full week in hopes these diary-like audio entries bring you a sense of belonging. I imagine this to be a time capsule of our experiences, our stories, our hopes, fears, dreams, wishes, yearnings, real-time perspectives during a truly unparalleled time-- our concerted voices woven together into a digital tapestry. 

We've been receiving an overwhelming amount of submissions to be a part of this and if you'd love your chance, head over here to submit your info: https://88cupsoftea.typeform.com/to/DB2voV

Xo,

Yin

Hey, we received an overwhelming amount of submissions to be a part of this. If you'd also love a chance to be a voice, head over here to submit your info: https://88cupsoftea.typeform.com/to/DB2voV

Warm welcome to our new listeners, and welcome back long-time listeners. 

Here's the link to join our free self-guided accountability group for the month of April: https://www.facebook.com/groups/88cupsofteaselfguidedaccountabilityapril2020/

If you'd love a chance to be one of the voices in the 30-consecutive days of recording for our collective stories throughout this time, head over here to submit: https://88cupsoftea.typeform.com/to/DB2voV 

Head over to https://www.instagram.com/88cupsoftea/ to watch Sara Zarr's Instagram takeover filled with exciting behind-the-scenes footage of her writing life!

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Sarah is the acclaimed young adult author of Gem & Dixie, The Lucy Variations, Story of a Girl, and her upcoming novel Goodbye from Nowhere. She’s a National Book Award finalist and two-time Utah Book Award winner. Her novels have been variously named to annual best books lists of the American Library Association, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, the Guardian, the New York Public Library, and the Los Angeles Public Library and have been translated into many languages. She is a MacDowell Colony Fellow and has served as a judge for the National Book Awards.

Sara and I kick off our conversation discussing her emotional and courageous journey to becoming a full-time author and the importance of creating a life that supports your writing. She drops some real-talk on how to financially support yourself and your writing career and how to sustain it long-term. We then dive into the importance of community and a support system to lean on as your career evolves.

Further in, we chat about publishing deadlines and how to best make use of the low times during the publishing process to grow other projects or work other jobs to bring in more income. She shares her experience shifting publishers and editors for her book Gem & Dixie and how she stopped herself from going down the bitterness and resentfulness path and chose a gratitude mindset instead. We talk about how important it is to not compare yourself to others on social media and ration your social media use.

And later, we chat about her upcoming YA novel Goodbye from Nowhere and her first nonfiction novel Courageous Creativity. She shares the invaluable tip of removing expiration dates you’ve put on your writing goals. And we wrap up our conversation discussing her writing process and the steps that help get her writing flowing. 

Please say 'Hi' to Sara on Instagram! https://www.instagram.com/sarazarrbooks/

Head over to Sara's shownotes page at  https://88cupsoftea.com/sara-zarr to download her writing prompt and to find the resources and books mentioned in her episode, tweetable quotes, and the timestamps of highlights throughout the entire conversation. 

Warm welcome to our new listeners!

Head over to https://www.instagram.com/88cupsoftea/ to watch Libba Bray's Instagram takeover filled with exciting behind-the-scenes footage of her writing life! 

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Akemi is the award-winning author of "Starfish", "Summer Bird Blue", and her newly released novel "Harley in the Sky" which just released on March 10th. It’s been particularly hard on our writing and book community, so please show support however you can, and if you are able, order a copy! 

She is also a Ravenclaw and Star Wars enthusiast, who served in the US Navy for five years and has a BA in social sciences from UNLV.

We kick off our conversation discussing her career path from joining the navy to falling back in love with writing, and ultimately pursuing storytelling full-time as a published author. We discuss how she developed the perseverance to grapple with all the rejections that come along with the querying process and continue on to have a very honest conversation about her mental health, finding the right support system, and how to be a great ally for others. We then dive into how she juggles being the best mom she can to her children, showing up as a partner to her significant other, and a writer while maintaining a healthy mental state by prioritizing what’s most important to her, giving herself permission to slow down and take breaks, and cutting out toxic relationships both in-person and online. She shares how leaning into her emotions helps her craft such beautiful and immersive stories, how her writing voice and character development has changed throughout her career, and her experience being an author with multiple published novels. And later, we get into some real-talk about book sales, contracts, and self-marketing. We wrap up the conversation with a small but powerful step you can take to reach your writing goals. 

Please say 'Hi' to Akemi on Instagram! instagram.com/akemidawnbowman/

Head over to Akemi's shownotes page at  https://88cupsoftea.com/akemi-dawn-bowman/ to download her writing prompt and to find the resources and books mentioned in her episode, tweetable quotes, and the timestamps of highlights throughout the entire conversation. 

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to follow us on Instagram @88CUPSOFTEA to keep up with our latest posts and Instagram stories where we announce new episodes and essays,  feature our favorite quotes, and host Instagram Story takeovers by some of your favorite authors. So make sure to head over to https://www.instagram.com/88cupsoftea/ so you don't miss out on the next takeover! 

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We Love Our 88 Cups of Tea Sponsors

Did you know we collaborated with VCFA’s MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults to curate a thoughtful series of intimate essays and podcast episodes so you can feel empowered throughout your writing journey? Click here to explore the published pieces.

Vermont College of Fine Arts is a global community of artists continuously redefining what it means to be an arts college. They’re accredited by the New England Commission on Higher Education and offers the Master of Fine Arts degree in a variety of fields, including Writing, Writing for Children & Young Adults, and Writing & Publishing, along with an International MFA in Creative Writing & Literary Translation. With low-residency and fully residential options, VCFA has the graduate program to fit your needs. Be sure to learn more about VCFA by clicking here!

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Kekla is an award-winning author who has published over a dozen novels for children and young adults, including The Season of Styx Malone, The Rock and the River, How It Went Down, Light It Up, and X: A Novel. She received an NAACP Image Award, three Coretta Scott King Honors, the Walter Dean Myers Award Honor, has been long listed for the National Book Award, and more. Kekla holds an M.F.A. in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts where she now serves on faculty.

In our conversation, Kekla and I jump right in and talk about her love for stories and how being absorbed into a narrative can help you make better sense of the world around you and bring you comfort in times of uncertainty. We dive into her career path to becoming an author and how she discovered Vermont College of Fine Arts where she got her MFA. She shares her childhood experience and discovering her identity which influenced her passion for acknowledging the grey areas, the reality of racial bias, and cognitive dissonance in her writing. Later we dive deeper into her experience at VCFA and how the MFA program helped evolve her writing, grew her reading and critiquing skills, and provided her with a supportive writing community. We wrap up our conversation by discussing how to be compassionate towards yourself during writing setbacks, along with tips to help you move past moments of frustration, and advice for crafting your characters in the first person.

Please say 'Hi' to Kekla on Twitter! https://twitter.com/keklamagoon

Head over to her shownotes page at https://88cupsoftea.com/kekla-magoon/‎ to download the writing prompt she made special for our community and to find the resources and books mentioned in her episode, tweetable quotes, and the timestamps of highlights throughout the entire conversation. 

Warm welcome to our new listeners!

Head over to https://www.instagram.com/88cupsoftea/ to watch Libba Bray's Instagram takeover filled with exciting behind-the-scenes footage of her writing life! 

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Curious to discover how to productively take feedback to help you reach your writing goals? Or how to know when it's time to let go of a project? Or strategies to help push yourself out of your comfort zone? How about ways to balance finances as an artist? We talk about it all and more with Libba Bray.

Libba is the New York Times bestselling author of The Gemma Doyle trilogy, the Michael L. Printz Award-winning Going Bovine, the L.A. Times Book Prize finalist Beauty Queens, and The Diviners series which includes the fourth and final book in the series, The King of Crows, out now!

In our conversation, Libba and I talk about what it was like living and surviving in NYC when she first moved from Texas and dive into her first love of playwriting and the realities of producing a play. We then get into some real talk about money planning in creative fields and how to make an income while still making time for your craft. We discuss how she began writing YA novels, the steps she took to learn the structure of a novel and discover her writing process, and how learning to receive and give feedback can help shape your writing style. 

And later in the episode, we go into detail about knowing when it's time to move on from a project, I know there's a lot of listeners in our Facebook group who've been wondering about this, so pay special attention to Libba's experiences and advice and hopefully, it'll help guide you with your decision-making. We wrap up our conversation by discussing how to best work with your writing partners so it's a win-win relationship, and how writing has helped Libba to make sense of her place in the world. 

Please say 'Hi' to Libba on Twitter! https://twitter.com/libbabray

Head over to Libbas's shownotes page at https://88cupsoftea.com/libba-bray to find the resources and books mentioned in her episode, tweetable quotes, and the timestamps of highlights throughout the entire conversation. 

Warm welcome to our new listeners!

Head over to https://www.instagram.com/88cupsoftea/ to watch Adalyn Grace's Instagram takeover filled with exciting behind-the-scenes footage of the launch day for her debut novel "All the Stars and Teeth"!

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Adalyn graduated from Arizona State University when she was nineteen years old. She spent four years working in live theater and acted as the managing editor of a nonprofit newspaper before studying storytelling as an intern for Nickelodeon animation’s popular series The Legend of Korra. All the Stars and Teeth is her debut novel.

We kick off our conversation talking about her experience as a debut author, giving us a behind-the-scenes look into a day in her life prepping for her book’s release while still meeting deadlines for her second novel. She shares her journey from working at Nickelodeon to discovering her career as a novelist, and how she found beta-readers and critique partners who’ve become an intrinsic part of her writing journey. We then dive into her debut novel All the Stars and Teeth where she gives us a snapshot of the story, the empowering inspiration behind it, and a look into her world-building and research process. We talk about the importance of keeping your characters’ motivations clear, how your debut novel can set the tone for your writing career, and important questions to think about when picking the right literary agent for you and your story. And later, we chat about her revision process and the revision technique that helped her weave plots and subplots together in a large world, how she tackles significant revisions with her editor, and tips for creating your writing schedule.

Please say 'Hi' to Adalyn on Twitter! https://twitter.com/adalyngrace_

Head over to Adalyn's shownotes page to download the exclusive writing prompt she created for our listeners over at https://88cupsoftea.com/adalyn-grace . You'll also find the resources and books mentioned in her episode, tweetable quotes, and the timestamps of highlights throughout the entire conversation. 

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to follow us on Instagram @88CUPSOFTEA to keep up with our latest posts and Instagram stories where we announce new episodes and essays,  feature our favorite quotes, and host Instagram Story takeovers by some of your favorite authors. So make sure to head over to https://www.instagram.com/88cupsoftea/ so you don't miss out on the next takeover!

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Diggin the books you're discovering from our podcast episodes? You'll love learning about Lamar Giles and his debut novel Epic Reads at the top of this episode and be inspired by his advice on reaching your writing goals!

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Grace is a NY Times bestselling author and illustrator who won the Newbery Honor for her book Where the Mountain Meets the Moon. Her other award-winning books include When the Sea Turned to Silver, Starry River of the Sky, The Year of the Dog, and her upcoming novel Mulan: Before the Sword!

Grace and I kick off the conversation with how she found her passion for writing and illustrating children’s books and the steps she took to turn her dream into a thriving career. She gives us a behind-the-scenes look into her TEDx talk where she highlights the significance of multicultural literature on personal identity and development. She shares an exciting snapshot of her upcoming novel Mulan: Before the Sword that sets the stage for Disney’s upcoming live-action movie Mulan. We then dive into her research process and how she managed the book’s tight deadline, all while giving us crucial advice on how to juggle deadlines all while staying true to your story. We then discuss plotting strong character arcs, why writing retreats are crucial to Grace’s livelihood as a writer, and you’ll be happy to hear that we also touch on finances in this conversation. 

Please say 'Hi' to Grace on Instagram! https://www.instagram.com/pacylin

Head over to Grace's shownotes page at https://88cupsoftea.com/grace-lin ‎to find the resources and books mentioned in her episode, tweetable quotes, and the timestamps of highlights throughout the entire conversation. And be sure to catch her Instagram story takeover by heading over to Instagram.com/88cupsoftea! 

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to follow us on Instagram @88CUPSOFTEA to keep up with our latest posts and Instagram stories where we announce new episodes and essays,  feature our favorite quotes, and host Instagram Story takeovers by some of your favorite authors. So make sure to head over to https://www.instagram.com/88cupsoftea/ so you don't miss out on the next takeover! 

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Abigail is the author of her debut novel Loveboat, Taipei which just released this week! 

Abigail and I kick off the conversation talking about how she discovered her love for storytelling at such a young age and how it inspired her career path working in law, business, and being an author. She shares her experience showing her family her writing for the first time and how her vulnerability strengthened her craft. We then dive into her debut novel, Loveboat, Taipei and chat about the inspiration behind the story and how she crafted her characters by drawing from personal experience. She reflects on getting her MFA at Vermont College of Fine Arts and spills her top three takeaways from the program that helped boost confidence in her writing. And later, we talk about her adventurous research process, how to pick the best editor for your story, and tips on finding time to write with an insanely busy schedule. 

Storytellers, be sure to download the writing prompt that Abigail created just for our community by heading over to her shownotes page at 88cupsoftea.com/abigail-hing-wen. You’ll also find bonus content over in her shownotes page with things that tie in with our conversation. And be sure to catch Abigail’s Instagram story takeover by heading over to Instagram.com/88cupsoftea! If you’d love a chance at winning a copy of “Loveboat, Taipei”, be sure to check out our Instagram stories for directions!  

Please say 'Hi' to Abigail on Twitter! https://twitter.com/abigailhingwen

Head over to her shownotes page at https://88cupsoftea.com/abigail-hing-wen/‎ ‎to download her writing prompt and find the resources and books mentioned in her episode, tweetable quotes, and the timestamps of highlights throughout the entire conversation. 

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to follow us on Instagram @88CUPSOFTEA to keep up with our latest posts and Instagram stories where we announce new episodes and essays,  feature our favorite quotes, and host Instagram Story takeovers by some of your favorite authors. So make sure to head over to https://www.instagram.com/88cupsoftea/ so you don't miss out on the next takeover! 

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Cassandra is the award-winning author of City of Bones – the first book of her Mortal Instruments series – The Infernal Devices series, The Dark Artifices series, The Magisterium Series and many more novels.

Cassandra and I kick off our conversation chatting about her recent travels around Southeast Asia, and this will be a very fun part of the conversation for those of you who love to travel or would love to travel one day in the near future. We continue to talk about her storytelling journey and touch on ways to bring in income while writing your novel. We dive into the inspiration behind her first novel City of Bones and discuss the emotional side of writing. Towards the end, we talk about querying, the importance of reading through your contracts and being aware of your legal rights, and how to best manage stressful deadlines while still taking care of yourself. Later, she shares how to prevent yourself from giving up on your career when you’re feeling down, and she shares her favorite writing technique that’ll help you reach your writing goals. 

Please say 'Hi' to Cassandra on Twitter! https://twitter.com/cassieclare

Head over to her shownotes page at https://88cupsoftea.com/cassandra-clare/‎. ‎to find the resources and books mentioned in her episode, tweetable quotes, and the timestamps of highlights throughout the entire conversation. 

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to follow us on Instagram @88CUPSOFTEA to keep up with our latest posts and Instagram stories where we announce new episodes and essays,  feature our favorite quotes, and host Instagram Story takeovers by some of your favorite authors. So make sure to head over to https://www.instagram.com/88cupsoftea/ so you don't miss out on the next takeover! 

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Laura is a personal finance expert, an author of many books including her book Debt-Free Blueprint, and the founder and host of Money Girl podcast where Laura shares personal finance, real estate, and investing tips to help listeners live a richer life.

In our conversation, Laura shares how she discovered her passion for personal finance that kick-started her blogging, podcasting, self-publishing, and PR career. She chats about how she created her own opportunities to grow her podcast and gain representation from Quick and Dirty Tips Network. We then dive into Laura’s experience self-publishing where she shares invaluable marketing tips like how to take charge of your marketing plan, creative ways to utilize your social media platforms, and how to establish a marketing budget. And later, she dishes some real-talk on side hustles, taxes, and becoming debt-free.

Please say 'Hi' to Laura on Twitter! https://twitter.com/LauraAdams

Head over to her shownotes page at https://88cupsoftea.com/podcast/laura-adams/. ‎to find the resources and books mentioned in her episode, tweetable quotes, and the timestamps of highlights throughout the entire conversation. 

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to follow us on Instagram @88CUPSOFTEA to keep up with our latest posts and Instagram stories where we announce new episodes and essays,  feature our favorite quotes, and host Instagram Story takeovers by some of your favorite authors. So make sure to head over to https://www.instagram.com/88cupsoftea/ so you don't miss out on the next takeover! 

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Marissa is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Renegades, Archenemies, Heartless, The Lunar Chronicles, and her newly released novel, Supernova, the final book of her Renegades series. 

In our conversation, Marissa shares how she intuitively navigates the business side of the publishing world while also giving us a snapshot of her inspiring writing and querying process for her novel Cinder. If you’re about to jump into the querying trenches - you definitely don’t want to miss this part of our conversation. We then chat about support systems and their important role in our creative pursuits, why it’s so crucial to carve out time for fun in our writing process, and how diverse representation in children’s literacy is helping to change negative stigmas. Further into our conversation, we chat about The Lunar Chronicles series, how she transitions from one popular series to another, and how to balance crafting rich worlds and character development.

Please say 'Hi' to Marissa on Twitter! https://twitter.com/marissa_meyer

Head over to her shownotes page at https://88cupsoftea.com/podcast/marissa-meyer/. ‎to download her writing prompt and find the resources and books mentioned in her episode, tweetable quotes, and the timestamps of highlights throughout the entire conversation. 

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to follow us on Instagram @88CUPSOFTEA to keep up with our latest posts and Instagram stories where we announce new episodes and essays,  feature our favorite quotes, and host Instagram Story takeovers by some of your favorite authors. So make sure to head over to https://www.instagram.com/88cupsoftea/ so you don't miss out on the next takeover! 

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Kelly is the award-winning author of The Girl Who Drank The Moon, The Witch's Boy, Iron Hearted Violet, and The Mostly True Story of Jack, as well as the novella, The Unlicensed Magician. She has been on the New York Times bestseller list for a bunch of weeks now, as well as the Indie Besteller list. She was also a McKnight Artist's Fellowship recipient in Children's Literature.

In our conversation, we talk about Kelly’s love for telling stories out loud and how this shaped her writing process. We walk down memory lane of her life adventures that impacted her creative career path to becoming a best selling author and the lessons that helped her write with love and affection. Further in, we discuss how to instill a creative headspace, the importance of giving yourself a break during your drafting process, and powerful revision tools to help you overcome self-doubt. And later on, she pulls back the curtain and gives us a peek into how she forms her stories, crafts her dynamic character settings, and creates a community that helps her through tough days. 

Storytellers, be sure to check out the incredible writing prompt that Kelly crafted just for our community. The prompt will help you write without fear and spark some new ideas for your stories. To download it, head over to her shownotes page at https://88cupsoftea.com/podcast/kelly-barnhill.

Please say 'Hi' to Kelly on Twitter! https://twitter.com/kellybarnhill

Head over to her shownotes page athttps://88cupsoftea.com/podcast/kelly-barnhill ‎to download her writing prompt and find the resources and books mentioned in her episode, tweetable quotes, and the timestamps of highlights throughout the entire conversation. 

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to follow us on Instagram @88CUPSOFTEA to keep up with our latest posts and Instagram stories where we announce new episodes and essays,  feature our favorite quotes, and host Instagram Story takeovers by some of your favorite authors. So make sure to head over to https://www.instagram.com/88cupsoftea/ so you don't miss out on the next takeover! 

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Maggie is the #1 NYT Bestselling author of The Raven Cycle series, the Shiver trilogy, The Scorpio Races, and other novels for young people and adults.

In our conversation, Maggie shares her love for storytelling and gives us a snapshot of her self-taught journey to becoming a best selling author. She chats about her love of music and how she weaves that in with her love of writing. We talk about the most difficult challenge Maggie’s had in her life and from that, we were inspired to discuss how to overcome brain fog and emotional fatigue to reach your writing goals. Further into our conversation, we chat about breaking down societal norms in her writing, how to craft vivid descriptions in your stories for emotional resonance, and how she plotted out her series that still gave her freedom to explore other storylines. She also shares the biggest piece of advice for debut writers that you don’t want to miss.  

Be sure to check out the writing prompt that Maggie took the time to exclusive create for our community at the bottom of the page. Her writing prompt will help you if you’re stuck on the very first chapter of a new project.

Please say 'Hi' to Maggie on Twitter! https://twitter.com/mstiefvater

Head over to her shownotes page at https://88cupsoftea.com/podcast/maggie-stiefvater/ ‎to download her writing prompt and find the resources and books mentioned in her episode, tweetable quotes, and the timestamps of highlights throughout the entire conversation. 

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to follow us on Instagram @88CUPSOFTEA to keep up with our latest posts and Instagram stories where we announce new episodes and essays,  feature our favorite quotes, and host Instagram Story takeovers by some of your favorite authors. We even have an Instagram story takeover by today’s guest Christine Riccio so make sure to head over to https://www.instagram.com/88cupsoftea/. 

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Christine is a Youtuber and New York Times Best Selling author, Her Youtube channel PolandbananasBOOKS has nearly half a million book-loving subscribers. She makes comedic book reviews, vlogs, sketches, and writing videos chronicling the creation of her own novel, Again, But Better. She’s also one of the three YouTubers behind BOOKSPLOSION- Youtube’s longest-running book club!

In our conversation, we talk about Christine’s journey to becoming a best selling author and one of the most influential booktubers. She gives us a behind-the-scenes look into how she started her YouTube career, her writing and filming process, and how she works around her busy schedule. Further into our conversation, we talk about tangible actions you can take to shift into a writing mindset and the importance of self-care. She shares advice on growing your platform and reaching your writing goals, and we discuss her novel Again, but Better.

Please say 'Hi' to Christine on Twitter! https://twitter.com/xtineMAY

Head over to her shownotes page at https://88cupsoftea.com/podcast/christine-riccio/to find the resources and books mentioned in her episode, tweetable quotes, and the timestamps of highlights throughout the entire conversation. 

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to follow us on Instagram @88CUPSOFTEA to keep up with our latest posts and Instagram stories where we announce new episodes and essays,  feature our favorite quotes, and host Instagram Story takeovers by some of your favorite authors! 

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Juliette is a creative director based in South Korea. She graduated from Rhode Island School of Design and in 2017 she established her own creative agency Studio Juli-ette, which specializes in identity design and packaging. Juliette is the artist who designed 88 Cups of Tea's lovely new logo and brand identity.

In our conversation, we talk about how she discovered her love for storytelling through design and art that inspired her to attend Rhode Island School of Design working. She shares the steps she took to open her own design studio and how important it was to lean on her support system throughout the entire process. Further in, we dive into what brought us together to design 88 Cups of Tea’s new logo and brand identity. She shares a behind-the-scenes look into the design process and how we worked together to create a logo that perfectly highlights 88 Cups of Tea’s uplifting values of community, fun, creativity, and love. She shares all the hidden nuances within the logo you might not catch at a first glance. And later, she shares what she hopes people feel when they see our new logo. 

Please say 'Hi' to Juliette on Instagram! https://www.instagram.com/studio.juliette/

Head over to her shownotes page at https://88cupsoftea.com/podcast/juliette-kim/to find the resources and books mentioned in her episode, tweetable quotes, and the timestamps of highlights throughout the entire conversation. 

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to follow us on Instagram @88CUPSOFTEA to keep up with our latest posts and Instagram stories where we announce new episodes and essays,  feature our favorite quotes, and host Instagram Story takeovers by some of your favorite authors! 

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Jasmin is a writer, illustrator, and spoken word artist exploring themes of feminism, womanhood, social justice and love, acts as a means of healing and reclaiming identity. She was named The Tempests' 40 Women to Watch in 2019 and has been celebrated at the American Music Awards. Her debut poetry and prose collection, "When You Ask Me Where I’m Going" releases October 1st. 

In our conversation brought to you by Epic Reads, we talk about Jasmin’s love for story and her passion for highlighting her identity and creating representation in her art. We also talk about how she uncovered her inner authentic voice, ways to recognize when you're holding back and self-censoring your writing voice, and how to amplify your vulnerability so it flows naturally in your writing. We discuss her highly-anticipated debut "When You Ask Me Where I’m Going" and why she chose to format the book’s structure the way she did. Be sure to keep your ears out for Jasmin's powerful poetry reading in the later half of this episode. Afterwards, head over to our Instagram @88CupsOfTea ‘cause Jasmin will be taking over our Instagram Stories on Monday, September 30th!

Say 'Hi' to Jasmin on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jusmunkaur

Head over to her shownotes page at 88cupsoftea.com/podcast/jasmin-kaur/ to find the resources and books mentioned in her episode, tweetable quotes, and the timestamps of highlights throughout the entire conversation. 

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to check out our archive of episodes by clicking here!

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Jason is an award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of his many books including When I Was the Greatest, Boy in the Black Suit, All American Boys (co-written with Brendan Kiely), As Brave as You, For Every One, the Track series, Long Way Down, which received both a Newbery Honor and a Printz Honor, and his upcoming novel Look Both Ways.

In our conversation, we dive into the power of story and its ability to help work through hardships and trauma. We discuss writing from instincts when describing feelings and emotions, defining the sweet spot between science and soul in stories and the role this sweet spot plays in his editing process. Further into our conversation, we talk about survivor’s remorse as successful artists, how creating a lane for marginalized voices through access creates opportunities, and he unveils the financial side of the publishing industry. 

Say 'Hi' to Jason Reynolds on Twitter: https://twitter.com/JasonReynolds83

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If you enjoyed this episode and would love to support our show, Patreon is the best way! Patrons at certain tiers get early access to full, uncut interviews and fantastic extended interviews from previous podcast episodes! If you’re not yet a Patron and you’d love early access to these interviews in addition to other cool benefits (snailmail, Storyteller Welcome Box, livestream hangouts with bookhaul and mystery box giveaways, etc.) head on over to patreon.com/88cupsoftea to sign up! 

Hey Storytellers! 

Here's a bonus episode to fill you in on all the details about Pitch Wars. 

This episode features Brenda Drake (founder), Sarah Nicolas (managing director), Kellye Garrett (board member), Adalyn Grace, Graci Kim, and Susan Lee. 

The shownotes page for this episode will be available in a few hours, please check back for quotables, highlights throughout the episode with time markers, the guests' biographies, and the list of resources mentioned throughout! 88CUPSOFTEA.COM/PODCAST/PITCH-WARS

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to check out our archive of episodes by clicking here!

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Ally is the author of The Last Voyage of Poe Blythe, Summerlost, Atlantia, and the critically acclaimed Matched trilogy, a  #1 New York Times and international bestseller.  

In our conversation, Ally shares the heartfelt story of how she fell in love with storytelling and her journey to becoming a best-selling author. We discuss working with smaller publishing companies, how to embrace rejection to reach your writing goals, and we get into the nitty-gritty of Ally’s writing and editing process. We continue on to talk about how she finds time to write with such a busy schedule and the tools she uses to get into the writing mindset. She dives into the details of her newest novel The Last Voyage of Poe Blythe and the fascinating behind-the-scenes story of what sparked that idea. And towards the end, Ally talks about her experience getting her master's degree she always wanted, what exciting projects she’s currently working on - including a co-authored novel, and ways you can use writing to make a change in the world.

Say 'Hi' to Ally Condie on Twitter: https://twitter.com/allycondie

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If you enjoyed this episode and would love to support our show, Patreon is the best way! Patrons at certain tiers get early access to full, uncut interviews and fantastic extended interviews from previous podcast episodes! If you’re not yet a Patron and you’d love early access to these interviews in addition to other cool benefits (snailmail, Storyteller Welcome Box, livestream hangouts with bookhaul and mystery box giveaways, etc.) head on over to patreon.com/88cupsoftea to sign up! 

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to check out our archive of episodes by clicking here!

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Madeline is the New York Times bestselling author of The Song of Achilles and her most recent, critically-acclaimed novel, Circe, which is currently being adapted for an 8-episode series for HBO Max. 

In our conversation, we dive deep into how Madeline fell in love with Greek mythology and found her passion to craft strong female characters in classical settings. We discuss how crucial it is to change the narrative by creating the core of strong female characters, what to do when facing setbacks in your writing process, and strategies to lure out new ideas for your stories. Madeline also shares advice on crafting a seamless narrative when the plot has gaps, and how leaning on your characters can help you create smooth transitions. Further into our conversation, we discuss the importance of finding your support system and creating a research process that works best for your voice. 

Say 'Hi' to Madeline Miller on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/madeline.e.miller

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If you enjoyed this episode and would love to support our show, Patreon is the best way! Patrons at certain tiers get early access to our full, uncut interview with Rachel Hawkins and early access to author Madeline Miller's episode this month along with a collection of fantastic extended interviews from previous podcast episodes! If you’re not yet a Patron and you’d love early access to these interviews in addition to other cool benefits (snailmail, Storyteller Welcome Box, livestream hangouts with bookhaul and mystery box giveaways, etc.) head on over to patreon.com/88cupsoftea to sign up! 

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to check out our archive of episodes by clicking here!

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Ever wondered how to create a successful querying process? Or ways to cope with rejection as a writer? How about tips for nurturing a strong relationship with a literary agent? We talk about it all and so much more with Rachel Hawkins.

Rachel is the author of Rebel Belle, the New York Times bestselling series Hex Hall, Prince Charming, and its sequel and Rachel’s newest book, Her Royal Highness. 

In our conversation, Rachel shares how she fell in love with storytelling and her journey to becoming an author. She dives into her querying process and discusses key advice on how to cope with rejection. We talk about finding the right agent for you and your story and how to maintain a great agent to author relationship, how to work with your editor to strengthen your plot, and the game-changing writing advice to help you achieve your writing goals. She also gives us a snapshot of her newest book Her Royal Highness and shares the inspiration behind it.

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If you enjoyed this episode and would love to support our show, Patreon is the best way! Patrons at certain tiers get early access to our full, uncut interview with Rachel Hawkins and early access to author Madeline Miller's episode this month along with a collection of fantastic extended interviews from previous podcast episodes! If you’re not yet a Patron and you’d love early access to these interviews in addition to other cool benefits (snailmail, Storyteller Welcome Box, livestream hangouts with bookhaul and mystery box giveaways, etc.) head on over to patreon.com/88cupsoftea to sign up! 

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to check out our archive of episodes by clicking here!

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Gotham Writers teaches creative writing classes online and in NYC where they’ve built an incredible reputation for nearly 30 years and guess what? Their first-ever Gotham Writers conference is dedicated to arming you with all the knowledge and actionable feedback to best help you land a literary agent. This is a one-of-a-kind experience that puts like-minded people who are at the stage of finding an agent in an intimate and productive setting. And to top it off, there’s free happy hour!  The conference takes place at the Ace Hotel in NYC on Friday, October 25th and Saturday, October 26th. On Day 1, you get to learn from eye-opening and entertaining panels and presentations. And Day 2, get ready to roll up your sleeves at their pitching roundtables. We especially love this because the writers attending Day 2 all have to apply and be pre-selected to attend. Click here to learn more and be sure to grab your spot!

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JL is a literary agent at New Leaf Literary & Media, Inc. A born and bred New Yorker, JL has lived in Manhattan her whole life and is a lover of all things art & culture, people watching, and Donut Pub doughnuts. She is looking for voices that reflect the world as it changes, stories that share the human experience of life, love, growth, and achievement. And they don’t have to all be serious–having fun is important to her! She is adding to her non-fiction list in both YA and adult categories with smart pop-culture, comedy/satire, fashion, health & wellness, self-help, and memoir. She’s also growing her fiction list (a bit more selectively) and is looking for adult and some YA coming-of-age, humor, dark and edgy stories, and new and original voices in commercial and upmarket. She also thinks graphic novels are really cool.

In our conversation, we dive into how JL fell in love with storytelling and the journey she took to making her literary agent career at New Leaf Literary & Media, Inc. come to fruition. We talk about being open to new opportunities and being vulnerable when asking for advice and help to break into your career. She then gives us an honest look into the finances of being an agent at all levels, how she knows which clients she wants to work with, and the importance of marketing yourself and making connections. She explains what “backlist” and “earning out the check” means in the publishing world and discusses the culture at New Leaf Literary & Media, Inc. And later, we talk about the classes she teaches at Gotham Writers and all about the upcoming Gotham Writers Conference.

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If you enjoyed this episode and would love to support our show, Patreon is the best way! Patrons at certain tiers get early access to extended interviews with Rachel Hawkins and New Leaf literary agent JL Stermer this month along with a collection of fantastic extended interviews from previous podcast episodes! If you’re not yet a Patron and you’d love early access to these interviews in addition to other cool benefits (snailmail, Storyteller Welcome Box, livestream hangouts with bookhaul and mystery box giveaways, etc.) head on over to patreon.com/88cupsoftea to sign up! 

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to check out our archive of episodes by clicking here!

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Vermont College of Fine Arts is a global community of artists continuously redefining what it means to be an arts college. They're accredited by the New England Commission on Higher Education and offers the Master of Fine Arts degree in a variety of fields, including Writing, Writing for Children & Young Adults, and Writing & Publishing, along with an International MFA in Creative Writing & Literary Translation. With low-residency and fully residential options, VCFA has the graduate program to fit your needs. Be sure to learn more about VCFA by clicking here!

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Amy is the award-winning YA fantasy, sci-fi, and mystery author of The Lost Coast, Echo After Echo, The Brilliant Death, bestselling novel Once & Future co-written with her partner Cori McCarthy, her highly anticipated novel The Storm of Life (her sequel to The Brilliant Death), and more. She's also the co-founder of the Rainbow Writers Workshop, the first-ever workshop for YA and middle-grade LGBTQIAP writers.

In our conversation, Amy shares how she fell in love with storytelling and turned that passion into her writing career. She spills plot structure exercises that will help you see the bigger picture to move past roadblocks in your story. We dive into how a writing MFA helped Amy discover confidence in recognizing and trusting her writing voice, strengthen her revision process, and find a supportive writing community that’s very similar to the arts communities that she loves. Further into our conversation, we discuss the inspiration behind Amy's past novels and her writing process. She shares crafting advice on how to begin a story when you have too many ideas in your head. She gets into the nitty-gritty about writing a large cast of supportive characters and how to not distract the readers from the main story, shares incredible tips for aspiring queer writers, and explains her world-building method for developing complicated plots. 

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If you enjoyed this episode and would love to support our show, Patreon is the best way! Patrons at certain tiers get early access to extended interviews with Rachel Hawkins and New Leaf literary agent JL Stermer this month along with a collection of fantastic extended interviews from previous podcast episodes! If you’re not yet a Patron and you’d love early access to these interviews in addition to other cool benefits (snailmail, Storyteller Welcome Box, livestream hangouts with bookhaul and mystery box giveaways, etc.) head on over to patreon.com/88cupsoftea to sign up! 

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to check out our archive of episodes by clicking here!

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Vermont College of Fine Arts is a global community of artists continuously redefining what it means to be an arts college. They’re accredited by the New England Commission on Higher Education and offers the Master of Fine Arts degree in a variety of fields, including Writing, Writing for Children & Young Adults, and Writing & Publishing, along with an International MFA in Creative Writing & Literary Translation. With low-residency and fully residential options, VCFA has the graduate program to fit your needs. Be sure to learn more about VCFA by clicking here!

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This episode contains content and discussion about suicide. If this topic is triggering or upsetting for you, please skip this episode. Thank you.

Na is the author of "The Place Between Breaths", "The Fold", "Wait for Me", and "A Step from Heaven", which was a National Book Award Finalist and won the Michael L. Printz Award. Her honors include the International Reading Association Award and the Parents Choice Gold Award. Her books have been named as ALA Best Books for Young Adults and a New York Times Notable Book. And she also teaches at Vermont College of Fine Arts in the Writing for Children and Young Adults MFA.

In her episode, Na shares how she fell in love with storytelling, giving us a peek into her childhood, and the heartwarming impact that representation has in the world. We dive into her writing process for vignettes and how she builds upon emotions and feelings to craft her scenes. She shares her experience serving on the National Book Awards committee and what the selection process looks like behind the curtain. She tells her story of grief and heartbreak that inspired her novel "The Place Between Breaths", we discuss the harmful narratives created around mental illness, and she stresses the importance of mental health resources. We then continue to dig into her experience writing for TV, the steps you can take to break into TV writing, and the important role that community serves in your creative pursuits and how you can find that through an MFA experience.

Head over to Na's shownotes page at https://88cupsoftea.com/podcast/an-na/ to find all the resources and books mentioned in her episode, tweetable quotes, and the timestamps of highlights throughout the entire conversation. 

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If you enjoyed this episode and would love to support our show, Patreon is the best way! Patrons at certain tiers get early access to extended interviews with Rachel Hawkins and New Leaf literary agent JL Stermer this month along with a collection of fantastic extended interviews from previous podcast episodes! If you’re not yet a Patron and you’d love early access to these interviews in addition to other cool benefits (snailmail, Storyteller Welcome Box, livestream hangouts with bookhaul and mystery box giveaways, etc.) head on over to patreon.com/88cupsoftea to sign up! 

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to check out our archive of episodes by clicking here!

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Did you know we have a Patreon page!? Right now all Super Storytellers signed up at our “Silkie Chickens with Balloons” or “Snails with Mail” tier over in our Patreon get early access to interviews with Rachel Hawkins and literary agent JL Stermer this month! So, if you’re not yet a Super Storyteller and you’d love early access to these interviews in addition to other cool benefits, head on over to patreon.com/88cupsoftea and become a Patron at the “Silkie Chickens with Balloons” tier or our “Snails with Mail” tier.  

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Head over to foursigmatic.com/88cupsoftea to learn more and get 15% off your order. Thank you to our listeners for supporting a brand we love and a brand that believes in the work that we do here at 88 Cups of Tea. A special thank you to our sponsors and collaborators who help keep our show running!

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Sarah is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of over a dozen novels for teens, which have received numerous awards and rave reviews. Her books have been published in over thirty countries and have sold millions of copies worldwide. She’s the recipient of the 2017 Margaret A. Edwards Award from the American Library Association for outstanding contribution to young adult literature for her novels like Keeping the Moon, Dreamland, This Lullaby, The Truth about Forever, Just Listen, Along for the Ride, What Happened to Goodbye, and more.

In our conversation, we dive into how Sarah fell in love with storytelling and how her writing has evolved throughout her career. We discuss what it’s like to write for yourself versus writing to please others, and how her mother-daughter relationships in her books are inspired by her relationship with her own mother and daughter. She shares how embracing both the good and bad parts of ourselves in our writing can help us begin to heal, and the importance of seeking help when we need it. She then talks all about her most recent novel, The Rest Of The Story, and shares a behind the scenes look into the writing and publishing process. And later in our conversation, she walks us through her experience of changing publishers, shares tips on crafting romantic arcs, talks balancing finances and your craft, and how to overcome writer’s block.

Say 'Hi' to Sarah Dessen on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sarahdessen.

Head over to Sarah's shownotes page at https://88cupsoftea.com/podcast/sarah-dessen/ to find all the resources and books mentioned in her episode, tweetable quotes, and the timestamps of highlights throughout the entire conversation. 

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If you enjoyed this episode, I’d really love your support in growing our community by subscribing to us on iTunes, and leaving a rating and review. These specific steps help to increase our visibility on iTunes, which really helps new listeners discover us. A huge heartfelt thank you for your time and support!

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to check out our archive of episodes by clicking here!

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Meet fellow members in our community and check in about your WIP, share your wins and join in on 88 Cups of Tea related discussions! You can really feel the love and support in our Facebook community. You also get the opportunity to submit your questions for upcoming guests on the show. Click here to join our private Facebook group!

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Head over to foursigmatic.com/88cupsoftea to learn more and get 15% off your order. Thank you to our listeners for supporting a brand we love and a brand that believes in the work that we do here at 88 Cups of Tea. A special thank you to our sponsors and collaborators who help keep our show running!

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Sona is the author of her upcoming solo debut, Symptoms of a Heartbreak, and the co-author of Tiny Pretty Things and Shiny Broken Pieces. In addition to writing novels, Sona also worked as a celebrity reporter and editor at People and TeenPeople magazine and contributed to publications like the New York Times and TeenVogue. She’s also the co-founder of CAKE Literary, a boutique book packaging company.

In our conversation, she shares how she came to be a storyteller through screenwriting and fiction writing. We dive into how she adapts novels for film and TV along with a peek into her screenwriting process. She shares her thoughts on how our streaming culture creates space for YA and diverse content to thrive and reach wider audiences. We unpack CAKE Literary, from discussing what book packaging is and where it fits into the publishing process, to digging deep into CAKE’s mission on creating organic diversity through high-concept reads. Further into our conversation, we talk about best practices for listeners interested in co-authoring and seeking writing partners. Sona also gives us a snapshot of her highly anticipated novel Symptoms of a Heartbreak, and shares her best tips on overcoming writer’s block!

Say 'Hi' to Sona Charaipotra on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sona_c

Head over to Sona's shownotes page at https://88cupsoftea.com/podcast/sona-charaipotra/ to download a writing prompt she created just for 88 Cups of Tea listeners! You’ll also find all the resources and books mentioned in her episode, tweetable quotes, and the timestamps of highlights throughout the entire conversation. 

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If you enjoyed this episode, I’d really love your support in growing our community by subscribing to us on iTunes, and leaving a rating and review. These specific steps help to increase our visibility on iTunes which really helps new listeners discover us. A huge heartfelt thank you for your time and support!

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to check out our archive of episodes by clicking here!

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Meet fellow members in our community and check in about your WIP, share your wins and join in on 88 Cups of Tea related discussions! You can really feel the love and support in our Facebook community. You also get the opportunity to submit your questions for upcoming guests on the show. Click here to join our private Facebook group!

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Head over to foursigmatic.com/88cupsoftea to learn more and get 15% off your order. Thank you to our listeners for supporting a brand we love and a brand that believes in the work that we do here at 88 Cups of Tea. A special thank you to our sponsors and collaborators who help keep our show running!

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Thao is a literary agent at the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency. She represents Children’s books and Young Adult across many genres, and in the adult realm represents romantic leaning Fantasy and Light Science Fiction. Thao’s clients include NYT bestselling fantasy author Roshani Chokshi, NYT bestselling contemporary Young Adult author Sandhya Menon, Indie bestselling picture book author-illustrator Jessie Sima, and many more.

In our conversation, we dive deep into how Thao found her passion for stories and the steps she took to become a literary agent. We discuss how she learned to sell manuscripts, we walk through different kinds of book deals, get into details like what sub rights are in contracts, and shine some light on the financial side of being a literary agent. We talk about commercial hooks in query letters and her experience as a marginalized literary agent and a champion for representation. And Thao unpacks some of her favorite query letters and why they stood out to her. (P.S. You can download these query letters on her shownotes page!) 

Say 'Hi' to Thao Le on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ThaoLe8

Head over to Thao’s shownotes page at 88cupsoftea.com/podcast/thao-le to download three of Thao’s favorite query letters that caught her eye! You’ll also find all the resources and books mentioned in her episode, tweetable quotes, and the timestamps of highlights throughout the entire conversation!

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If you enjoyed this episode, I’d really love your support in growing our community by subscribing to us on iTunes, and leaving a rating and review. These specific steps help to increase our visibility on iTunes which really helps new listeners discover us. A huge heartfelt thank you for your time and support! You can click here to go directly to our iTunes page!

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to check out our archive of episodes by clicking here!

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Meet fellow members in our community and check in about your WIP, share your wins and join in on 88 Cups of Tea related discussions! You can really feel the love and support in our Facebook community. You also get the opportunity to submit your questions for upcoming guests on the show. Click here to join our private Facebook group!

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Head over to foursigmatic.com/88cupsoftea to learn more and get 15% off your order!

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Naomi is the Nebula-award winning author known for her novels Uprooted and Spinning Silver and her Temeraire Series. She is also a founder of the Organization for Transformative Works and the Archive of Our Own website. 

In our conversation, she shares her love for the Fandom Community and how it helped her discover her passion for technology and writing. We dive deep into how she weaves together computer programing and storytelling to create her art, how she tackles her writing process to help her worlds come alive, and she gives us an inside look into her research process for historical fiction. She also shares her invaluable 3 cardinal rules for writing to help you improve your craft. And at the very end of our conversation, she chats about the exciting project she’s currently working on!

To access Naomi's shownotes page to find all the resources and books mentioned in her episode, shareable quotes, and the timestamps of highlights throughout the entire conversation go to  https://88cupsoftea.com/podcast/naomi-novik/ 

---

If you enjoyed this episode, I’d really love your support in growing our community by subscribing to us on iTunes, and leaving a rating and review. These specific steps help to increase our visibility on iTunes which really helps new listeners discover us. A huge heartfelt thank you for your time and support! You can click here to go directly to our iTunes page!

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to check out our archive of episodes by clicking here!

---------------------------------------

Meet fellow members in our community and check in about your WIP, share your wins and join in on 88 Cups of Tea related discussions! You can really feel the love and support in our Facebook community. You also get the opportunity to submit your questions for upcoming guests on the show. Click here to join our private Facebook group!

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Head over to foursigmatic.com/88cupsoftea to learn more and get 15% off your order!

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Laurie is an award-winning young adult author widely known for her novels Speak and Chains, both of which are National Book Award finalists. In her newly released poetry memoir, Shout, she shares deeply personal stories to advocate for survivors of sexual assault and highlight how little our society has changed to help combat sexual assault and support victims.

In our conversation, we discuss the importance of community and creating a safer culture, how we can work towards healing from the damages from sexual violence, and the ways sharing your pain and emotional truths can give you strength. Further into the episode, we talk about writing and the difference between inspiration and craft and how she uses kindness in her revision process. We dive into censorship and why it’s crucial for stories like Shout to be available to younger audiences, ways to approach sensitive research topics, and strategies on grappling with rejection.

To access Laurie’s shownotes page to find all the resources and books mentioned in her episode, shareable quotes, and the timestamps of highlights throughout the entire conversation go to www.88cupsoftea.com/podcast/laurie-halse-anderson

---

If you enjoyed this episode, I’d really love your support in growing our community by subscribing to us on iTunes, and leaving a rating and review. These specific steps help to increase our visibility on iTunes which really helps new listeners discover us. A huge heartfelt thank you for your time and support! You can click here to go directly to our iTunes page!

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to check out our archive of episodes by clicking here!

---------------------------------------

Meet fellow members in our community and check in about your WIP, share your wins and join in on 88 Cups of Tea related discussions! You can really feel the love and support in our Facebook community. You also get the opportunity to submit your questions for upcoming guests on the show. Click here to join our private Facebook group!

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Head over to foursigmatic.com/88cupsoftea to learn more and get 15% off your order!

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Alfred and Miles are screenwriters and showrunners who’ve worked extensively in film and television. This iconic duo is known for creating the TV series Smallville and their latest show, Into the Badlands, on AMC Network and The Shannara Chronicles. They’ve also worked on films like Spider-Man 2, I Am Number Four, Lethal Weapon 4, and many more. More recently, Alfred and Miles have paired up to co-write their first novel, Double Exposure, which was released last month.

In our conversation, we talk about how Alfred and Miles came together as a writing pair and sold their first screenplay. They share what they’ve learned about navigating the film and screenwriting world and how they landed their agent. We dive deep into the importance of learning how to take criticism and surrounding yourself with a network of honest people you trust. We get a sneak peek into their co-authoring writing process and learn character building tips that will help you elevate your genre.

Be sure to head over to their shownotes page for all the resources and time stamps of highlights mentioned throughout the episode: https://88cupsoftea.com/podcast/alfred-gough-miles-millar/

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If you enjoyed this episode, I’d really love your support in growing our community by subscribing to us on iTunes, and leaving a rating and review. These specific steps help to increase our visibility on iTunes which really helps new listeners discover us. A huge heartfelt thank you for your time and support! You can click here to go directly to our iTunes page!

If you’d love to keep 88 Cups of Tea going strong, please consider supporting us through our Patreon membership. We added EARLY ACCESS TO INTERVIEWS for our Super Storyteller patrons in the $8.88 tier. Your kind support at any level of our tiers is so helpful. A heartfelt thank you in advance.

https://www.patreon.com/88cupsoftea

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Amy, also known as A.S. King, is the critically acclaimed and award-winning author of Please Ignore Vera Dietz, Ask the Passengers, Still Life With Tornado, I Crawl Through It, and her newest, and very anticipated, novel Dig which will be released on March 26th, 2019.

In our conversation, we talk about balancing humility and ego, defining success, and finding confidence as a writer. She dives deep into what it means to be privileged and how we can be an ally to those whose experiences are different from our own. She shares powerful crafting advice on building out strong characters and trusting your gut during your revision process. And she gives us a sneak peek into her newest novel Dig and the history that sparked its inspiration.

To access A.S. King's writing prompt, the list of all the books and resources mentioned in her episode, along with the timestamps for each highlight, head over to the shownotes page: https://88cupsoftea.com/podcast/as-king/ 

If you’d love to keep 88 Cups of Tea going strong, please consider supporting us through our Patreon membership. We added EARLY ACCESS TO INTERVIEWS for our Super Storyteller patrons in the $8.88 tier. Your kind support at any level of our tiers is so helpful. A heartfelt thank you in advance.

https://www.patreon.com/88cupsoftea

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Head over to TrustArts.org/bookish to learn more!

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Kelsey is the creator of Bookish in the ‘Burgh,’ Pittsburgh’s first teen book festival, a production of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. She is also a contemporary fantasy author represented by Jessica Mileo at InkWell Management and one of our very own Storytellers and listener of 88 Cups of Tes for over three years.

During our conversation, Kelsey shares her journey as a writer, her experience querying and getting a literary agent, and how she balances her full-time job with her writing all while sharing amazing crafting advice. She also talks about Bookish in the ‘Burgh” and gives us a behind-the-scenes look into what inspired her to create the festival, the planning and research behind it, and what events will take place during the festival.

Be sure to head over to her shownotes page for all the resources and time stamps of highlights mentioned throughout the episode: https://88cupsoftea.com/podcast/kelsey-ford

If you’d love to keep 88 Cups of Tea going strong, please consider supporting us through our Patreon membership. We added EARLY ACCESS TO INTERVIEWS for our Super Storyteller patrons in the $8.88 tier. Your kind support at any level of our tiers is so helpful. A heartfelt thank you in advance.

https://www.patreon.com/88cupsoftea

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Head over to TrustArts.org/bookish to learn more!

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Sarah is the author of TELL ME EVERYTHING and her short story THE BLESSING OF LITTLE WANTS featured in the New York Times bestselling anthology, BECAUSE YOU LOVE TO HATE ME. Sarah is also the host of the podcast FIRST DRAFT where she shares meaningful conversations with other storytellers about their unique perspectives on the creative process, and to provide more transparency about the professional side of artistic endeavors.

In our conversation, we talk about vulnerability and finding comfort and strength through stories. We dig deep into Sarah’s writing process, where she draws inspiration from, the importance of humility as a writer, and tips on managing your time. And we discuss the development process of her debut novel TELL ME EVERYTHING.

Check out her podcast 'First Draft Podcast' on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/FirstDraftPod

To access Sarah's writing prompt, the list of all the books and resources mentioned in her episode, along with the timestamps for each highlight, head over to the shownotes page: https://88cupsoftea.com/podcast/sarah-enni

Heard about our upcoming beta challenge and would love a spot? The deadline to join is on Monday, February 25th by 9pm EST (6pm PST). Send us an email at HELLO[AT]88CUPSOFTEA[DOT]COM and in the subject line, write “I’m in!” and we’ll follow up with the next steps.

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Samantha is the New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author of The Bone Season series. Film and TV rights have been acquired by Imaginarium Studios and her work has been translated into twenty-six languages. Her upcoming novel, The Priory of the Orange Tree, is her fourth novel and her first outside of The Bone Season series and will be released on February 26th.

In our conversation, we discuss her commitment to writing at a young age and overcoming fears through writing. She shares her research process, how she approaches world building, and how to best manage writing goals. She also shares a snapshot of her upcoming novel, The Priory of the Orange Tree and answers some great listener questions. 

Say 'Hi' to Samantha Shannon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/say_shannon

For a list of all the books and resources mentioned in this episode along with the timestamps for each highlight, head over to the shownotes page: https://88cupsoftea.com/podcast/samantha-shannon

If you’d love to keep 88 Cups of Tea going strong, please consider supporting us through our Patreon membership. We added EARLY ACCESS TO INTERVIEWS for our Super Storyteller patrons in the $8.88 tier. Your kind support at any level of our tiers is so helpful. A heartfelt thank you in advance.

https://www.patreon.com/88cupsoftea

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Julie Dao is a Vietnamese-American fantasy author who is best known for her Rise of the Empress series, an Asian retelling of the fairy tale Snow White. In her series is Forest of a Thousand Lanterns and her newly released sequel, Kingdom of the Blazing Phoenix. 

In our conversation, Julie gives us an inside peek into the world of her Rise of the Empress duology. She walks us through the ups and downs of her querying and publishing journey all while sharing invaluable advice on picking yourself back up after facing rejection. She also talks about the importance of bringing forth Asian-American representation in her stories, shares her writing process, and gives great tips for writers on reaching their writings goals.

Say 'Hi' to Julie Dao on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jules_writes 

If you’d love to keep 88 Cups of Tea going strong, please consider supporting us through our Patreon membership. We added EARLY ACCESS TO INTERVIEWS for our Super Storyteller patrons in the $8.88 tier. Your kind support at any level of our tiers is so helpful. A heartfelt thank you in advance.

https://www.patreon.com/88cupsoftea

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S.A. is a speculative fiction writer and history buff. She is most recognized for her debut novel, The City of Brass, and her newly released sequel, The Kingdom of Copper.

In our conversation, Shannon tells the story of how she fell in love with writing and how she became a full-time author. She gives us a snapshot of the vivid world she’s crafted in her novels The City of Brass and The Kingdom of Copper and the inspiration behind it. We talk about her querying process, character-building in fantasy worlds, and giving yourself permission to take time for your creative pursuits. She also dives into her own research process, shares incredible tips on finding your writing style, and the importance of self-care as an author.

Say 'Hi' to S.A. Chakraborty on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SAChakrabooks 

Natasha is a young adult fiction author known for her novels The Elites, The Memory Keepers, and her most recent novel, Girls of Paper and Fire, that was published in the Fall of 2018 by Jimmy Patterson/Little Brown in the US. and Hodder & Stoughton in the UK. She was also the co-owner of the fashion, travel, and lifestyle blog Girl in the Lens.

In our conversation with Natasha, we discuss Malaysian culture and how it influences her writing style, the inspiration behind her new novel Girls of Paper and Fire, how she explores self-healing through storytelling, and her expansive and organic world-building process. She also answers listener questions about her research and querying process, crafting strong secondary characters, and interjecting humor around serious topics in her stories. 

Say 'Hi' to Natasha on Twitter @girlinthelens

If you love the books mentioned in our podcast, you’ll love our sponsor Epic Reads where you can learn more about Ben Philippe and his debut novel THE FIELD GUIDE TO THE NORTH AMERICAN TEENAGER

patreon.com/88cupsoftea

Or head to our shop to proudly rock our swag! 

88cupsoftea.com/shop/

If you’d love to keep 88 Cups of Tea going strong, please consider supporting us through our Patreon membership. We added EARLY ACCESS TO INTERVIEWS for our Super Storyteller patrons in the $8.88 tier. Your kind support at any level of our tiers is so helpful. A heartfelt thank you in advance.

https://www.patreon.com/88cupsoftea

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Maureen is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of several YA novels, including 13 Little Blue Envelopes, Truly Devious, and her upcoming sequel in the Truly Devious Series, The Vanishing Stair.

In our conversation with Maureen, we discover how she fell in love with storytelling through writing and acting. We discuss why creators struggle to ask for support from their audiences and what steps they can take to push past this problem. She talks about her life-long obsession for murder mysteries and how that inspired the plot for her new mystery series, Truly Devious. And she gives incredible technical advice on how to go about crafting a mystery novel and a series. 

Say 'Hi' to Maureen on Twitter: https://twitter.com/maureenjohnson

If you’d love to keep 88 Cups of Tea going strong, please consider supporting us through our Patreon membership. We added EARLY ACCESS TO INTERVIEWS for our Super Storyteller patrons in the $8.88 tier. Your kind support at any of our tiers is so helpful. A heartfelt thank you in advance.

https://www.patreon.com/88cupsoftea

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Suzie is a literary agent over at New Leaf Literary and Media who represents all brands of children's and adult fiction. She loves women’s fiction and all subgenres of romance, fantasy, and crime fiction. She also represents children’s fiction and particularly loves YA and Middle-Grade novels. Some of Suzie’s best- known projects include #1 NYT Bestseller "Red Queen" by Victoria Aveyard (a previous guest on 88 Cups of Tea), and many more. 

In our conversation, Suzie takes us on a journey of how her love for storytelling and fantasy books lead her to the path of a literary agent. We get into the nail-biting story of when she sold her first manuscript, how she pitches books to editors, and how to form a great agent to author relationship. She also shares eye-opening query letter tips that will help you catch the attention of literary agents.

Say 'Hi' to Suzie on Twitter @SZTOWNSEND81!

Say 'Hi' to your fellow Storyteller, Katlyn Duncan, on Twitter @KATLYN_DUNCAN!

If you’d love to keep 88 Cups of Tea going strong, please consider supporting us through our Patreon membership. We added EARLY ACCESS TO INTERVIEWS for our Super Storyteller patrons in the $8.88 tier. Your kind support at any of our tiers is so helpful. A heartfelt thank you in advance.

https://www.patreon.com/88cupsoftea

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Livia is a New York Times best-selling, young adult and fantasy author. Her works include "Midnight Thief", "Daughter of Dusk", and "Rosemarked" which was an Amazon best book of the month and a YALSA Teens Top Ten Nominee. Her newly released book, "Umbertouched", is the second book in her "Rosemarked" series and takes readers on an epic fantasy adventure with complex ethical dilemmas and romance thrills. 

In our conversation, Livia tells the story of how she first fell in love with writing and her journey to becoming a full-time writer after getting her PhD in cognitive neuroscience. She gives a snapshot of what readers will discover in her new novel "Umbertouched". Further into the conversation she shares her editorial process and the importance of beta readers, critique partners, and sensitivity readers. We talk about the exciting and difficult moments in her life she pulls inspiration from to build her fantasy worlds and strong characters, why it’s crucial to keep strong social ties to your community, and how she balances life with a two-year-old and her career.

Say 'Hi' to Livia on Twitter @LKBLACKBURNE!

If you’d love to keep 88 Cups of Tea going strong, please consider supporting us through our Patreon membership. We added EARLY ACCESS TO INTERVIEWS for our Super Storyteller patrons in the $8.88 tier. Your kind support at any of our tiers is so helpful. A heartfelt thank you in advance.

https://www.patreon.com/88cupsoftea

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Jay is a Japanese-English translator and novelist. Some of his most well-known translations are of the works of famous Japanese novelist, Haruki Murakami. These translations of Haruki's works include 1Q84, Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, and Absolutely on Music. He wrote his own novel titled Making Sense of Japanese back in 2013 that reflects on the complexity of the Japanese language. Recently, Jay curated and published an anthology of famous Japanese short stories titled, The Penguin Book Of Japanese Short Stories.

In our conversation, Jay takes us on a journey of how he discovered his love for the Japanese language and literature which led him to his passion of translating those works for others to enjoy. Further into the conversation, we talk about his process and how he overcomes the difficulty of translating two languages that are almost impossible to translate literally. We also go into detail about his new anthology of Japanese short stories, The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories, and discuss the format of the book and how he chose the incredible stories to include.

If you’d love to keep 88 Cups of Tea going strong, please consider supporting us through our Patreon membership. We added EARLY ACCESS TO INTERVIEWS for our Super Storyteller patrons in the $8.88 tier. Your kind support at any of our tiers is so helpful. A heartfelt thank you in advance.

https://www.patreon.com/88cupsoftea

Tamora, a #1 New York Times bestseller and recipient of the 2013 Margaret A. Edwards Award, is the author of Alanna: The First Adventure, Lady Knight, Wild Magic, and many, many more. Her most recent novel, Tempests and Slaughter, begins the journey into her new series called The Numair Chronicles and is out on the shelves now.

In our conversation, Tamora takes us on a journey throughout her life and describes the moments she first fell in love with writing, found her passion for crafting female heroes, what she’s learned from rejection, and much more. We talk about creative block and how we can encourage ourselves to believe in our craft. Her wisdom shines through as she discusses her research process into the world of magic, how she builds dynamic characters, and how she approaches writing more serious topics for young adults. 

To access her shownotes page, head over to: 88CUPSOFTEA.COM/PODCAST/TAMORA-PIERCE

If you’d love to keep 88 Cups of Tea going strong, please consider supporting us through our Patreon membership. We added EARLY ACCESS TO INTERVIEWS for our Super Storyteller patrons in the $8.88 tier. Your kind support at any of our tiers is so helpful. A heartfelt thank you in advance.

https://www.patreon.com/88cupsoftea

Kwame is a poet, educator, and the New York Times Bestselling author of 28 books, including "Swing", "Solo", and "Rebound", the follow-up to his Newbery medal-winning middle-grade novel, "The Crossover". Some of his other works include "Booked", a National Book Award Nominee.

This conversation is full of wisdom and transparency as we discuss Kwame’s “26-year overnight success” and the challenges of writing-related rejections, being laid-off from a job, the daily personal woes of being a human being, in particular, being an African American man and how it challenges the view of humanity and of the world. Further into the conversation, we dive into Kwame’s journey writing “Rebound” and how it reflected his own journey writing that story and at the same time, learning to rebound in life while his mother was in the hospital. We talk about the inspiration that we need to keep us going through the challenging times of a writer’s journey, managing writing around day-time jobs, and writing groups. We go into detail about his newest novel “Swing” and what it’s like to work with a co-author. 

To access his shownotes page, head over to 88CUPSOFTEA.COM/PODCAST/KWAME-ALEXANDER!

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Click here to read our 3-year anniversary event summary by Olivia Liu weaved in with photos by Melora Chang!

Make sure you don't miss out on our feature article "Letting the Ghosts In" by J.C. Cervantes, click here to read it!

Woohoo! We added EARLY ACCESS TO INTERVIEWS over in our Patreon membership! Support us on Patreon at the $8.88 tier to enjoy the interviews BEFORE the official air-date and you'll also receive all the additional fun perks in that tier! 

https://www.patreon.com/88cupsoftea

Adrien is a photographer, writer, and producer of television. In today’s episode, we dive into the origin story of My Naked Truth, a visual catalog of quotes, personal confessions, and advice shared with Adrien by friends and strangers. She shares an intimate story of one of her photo subjects that deeply resonated with her during the process of making her book. We also discuss Adrien’s career as a producer for Funny or Die and what her day-to-day looks like. We also touch on pitch meetings and how to best prepare, along with the common qualities that make writers stand out during meetings and pitches. This is an absolute must-listen for Storytellers who are curious about human stories and the television world.

Say 'Hi' to Adrien on Instagram @mynakedtruthproject

Check out Adrien's STUNNING and delicious baked good on Instagram @IamSweetAF

To access her shownotes page, head over to 88CUPSOFTEA.COM/PODCAST/ADRIEN-FINKEL!

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Click here to read our 3-year anniversary event summary by Olivia Liu weaved in with photos by Melora Chang!

Make sure you don't miss out on our feature article "Letting the Ghosts In" by J.C. Cervantes, click here to read it!

If you’d love to keep 88 Cups of Tea going strong, please consider supporting us through our Patreon membership. We added EARLY ACCESS TO INTERVIEWS for our Super Storyteller patrons in the $8.88 tier. Your kind support at any of our tiers is so helpful. A heartfelt thank you in advance.

https://www.patreon.com/88cupsoftea

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Holly has launched over two dozen New York Times bestsellers before founding Root Literary in 2017 where she represents authors of fiction for adults, teens, and children, along with select nonfiction.

In today’s episode, Holly walks us through how she first fell in love with the world of storytelling, what she studied in school, and how her path led her to become one of the most successful literary agents today. We deep-dive into the origin story of how she first started Root Literary agency. We touch on what Root Literary does for their clients and how they embrace and encourage the business side of their author clients. This is an absolute must-listen for Storytellers looking out for their own careers and looking into agent representation. 

Say 'Hi' to Holly on Twitter @HROOT!

Keep tabs on Root Literary on Twitter @ROOTLITERARY!

To access her shownotes page, head over to 88CUPSOFTEA.COM/PODCAST/HOLLY-ROOT!

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Click here to read our 3-year anniversary event summary by Olivia Liu weaved in with photos by Melora Chang!

Make sure you don't miss out on our feature article "Letting the Ghosts In" by J.C. Cervantes, click here to read it!

If you’d love to keep 88 Cups of Tea going strong, please consider supporting us through our Patreon membership. We added EARLY ACCESS TO INTERVIEWS for our Super Storyteller patrons in the $8.88 tier. Your kind support at any of our tiers is so helpful. A heartfelt thank you in advance.

https://www.patreon.com/88cupsoftea

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In today’s episode, we dive right into the importance of focusing on one genre at a time instead of jumping genres, developing your writing voice by practicing and being authentic in telling the truth, and refining your voice by modeling your writing after “the greats”. We learn how their podcast came to fruition and get a close look at their partnership and the things they’ve had to learn together to get to where they are today. We discuss even more so be sure to listen in on this episode! 

Say 'Hi' to Writing Class Radio on Twitter!

To access their shownotes page, click here!

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Click here to read our 3-year anniversary event summary by Olivia Liu weaved in with photos by Melora Chang!

Make sure you don't miss out on our feature article "Letting the Ghosts In" by J.C. Cervantes, click here to read it!

Shannon Gibney is the author of "See No Color", drawn from her life as a transracial adoptee, which won the Minnesota Book Award and was hailed by Kirkus as “an exceptionally accomplished debut” and by Publishers Weekly as “an unflinching look at the complexities of racial identity.” In her latest novel, "Dream Country", she writes of the nightmarish spiral of death and exile connecting America and Africa, and of how one determined young dreamer tries to break free and gain control of her destiny.

Shannon’s episode is deeply eye-opening and informative as we go into the details about writing her newest novel, from research to the challenges she faced, and we discuss transracial adoption along with her previous novel. We also touch on the editor and author relationship and how Shannon’s dynamic with her editor flourishes her own writing. A must-listen for every storyteller. 

Say 'Hi' to Shannon on Twitter!

To access Shannon's shownotes page, click here!

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Click here to read our 3-year anniversary event summary by Olivia Liu weaved in with photos by Melora Chang!

Make sure you don't miss out on our feature article "Letting the Ghosts In" by J.C. Cervantes, click here to read it!

If you’d love to keep 88 Cups of Tea going strong, please consider supporting us through our Patreon membership. We added EARLY ACCESS TO INTERVIEWS for our Super Storyteller patrons in the $8.88 tier. Your kind support at any of our tiers is so helpful. A heartfelt thank you in advance.

https://www.patreon.com/88cupsoftea

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Today's new episode is proudly brought to you by Scrivener, a writing software that is regularly used by new writers and New York Times bestselling authors alike. Many of our own podcast guests and listeners are loyal fans of Scrivener. If you haven’t tried them out yet, they’re giving our Storytellers a special 20% discount by using the code '88CUPSOFTEA' at checkout, WOOHOO! You're supporting our show by grabbing yourself a copy to try Scrivener for yourself. Click here to grab it now and be sure to let me know what you think!  

Nova is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling The Walls Around Us, which was an Edgar Award finalist. She also wrote Imaginary Girls and 17 & Gone and is co-creator of FORESHADOW: A Serial YA Anthology. Her newest novel, “A Room Away from the Wolves” releases September 4th.

Nova’s episode is motivating to the core, we discuss anything and everything from finances as an artist, relationships, writing through creative blocks, advice about applying for MFA programs, artist residencies, literary agents, and so much more. 

Say 'Hi' to Nova on Twitter!

To access Nova's shownotes page, click here!

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Click here to read our 3-year anniversary event summary by Olivia Liu weaved in with photos by Melora Chang!

Make sure you don't miss out on our brand new feature article "Letting the Ghosts In" by J.C. Cervantes, click here to read it!

If you’d love to keep 88 Cups of Tea going strong, please consider supporting us through our Patreon membership. We added EARLY ACCESS TO INTERVIEWS for our Super Storyteller patrons in the $8.88 tier. Your kind support at any of our tiers is so helpful. A heartfelt thank you in advance.

https://www.patreon.com/88cupsoftea

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Are you struggling with the timeline of the publishing process? Are you curious about staying organized as a writer? How do you keep track of each character’s storyline and remain consistent? Get ready for this motivating conversation featuring today’s special guest Aisha Saeed.

Aisha is a New York Times bestselling author. She wrote WRITTEN IN THE STARS which was listed as a best book of 2015 by Bank Street Books and a 2016 YALSA Quick Pick For Reluctant Readers. She is also the author of the middle-grade novel AMAL UNBOUND a Summer 2018 Indie Next Pick, An Amazon Best Book of the Month, has received starred reviews from Publisher’s Weekly and Kirkus and is a Global Read Aloud for 2018.

Aisha’s experiences are hands-down motivating, from finding which literary agents to contact through a local bookshop, to switching her mindset to approach literary agents confidently, to finally hearing a “yes” after the 30th submission for publication, and so much more.

Say 'Hi' to Aisha on Twitter!

To access Aisha Saeed's shownotes page, click here!

If you’d love to keep 88 Cups of Tea going strong, please consider supporting us through our Patreon membership. We added EARLY ACCESS TO INTERVIEWS for our Super Storyteller patrons in the $8.88 tier. Your kind support at any of our tiers is so helpful. A heartfelt thank you in advance.

https://www.patreon.com/88cupsoftea

Gretchen is the author of the YA horror/suspense novels POSSESS, 3:59, RELIC, GET EVEN, GET DIRTY, and TEN and her latest novel #MURDERTRENDING.

Gretchen shares all the advice and tips she’s learned from her own experiences transitioning from a performing background into a writing career. Along with her technique of applying Stanislavski’s acting tehcniques towards analyzing a writer’s manuscript, she walks us through the details of finding the right literary agent and shares querying tips. 

Please be sure to listen through ALL three announcements. Here are quick links from the announcements:  

ANNOUNCEMENT 1: Click here to RSVP! Only RSVP if you are 100% able to make it! 

ANNOUNCEMENT 2: For the email subject line, please write “Writer for 3-Year Anniversary Event”

ANNOUNCEMENT 3: If you'd love for your photo to be displayed at the event, send me an email with the subject line “88 Cups of Tea birthday polaroid” and send $2 to www.paypal.me/88cupsoftea to help with the cost of printing.

If you'd love for your message/note to be featured in the display, send me an email with the subject line “88 Cups of Tea birthday message”. 

What do you do after getting rejected over 300 times? Need all the advice on MFA writing programs? How do you stand out in the querying process? Get ready for this motivating conversation featuring today’s special guest Rachel Heng.

Rachel is a Singaporean novelist and short story writer. Her debut novel, Suicide Club: A Novel About Living, will be published next Tuesday, July 10th! An early congratulations and happy book birthday to Rachel!

Her fiction has received a Pushcart Prize Special Mention, Prairie Schooner's Jane Geske Award, and has been recommended by The Huffington Post, NYLON, Book Riot and The Independent recently featured Rachel in the article titled 'The Emerging Authors To Look Out For in 2018'.

Rachel does not hold back on all the advice and tips she’s learned from her own experiences with rejection and getting into an MFA, and she’s so generous to pass on all her wisdom including some seriously incredible querying advice. Do. Not. Miss. This.

Say 'Hi' to Rachel on Twitter!

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I have a small favor to ask. I would love it if you would help our show with a financial gift. When you contribute a financial gift, this also helps our whole community of storytellers. If you’d love to make a special donation to keep 88 Cups of Tea going strong, please consider any of the following: 

We dedicate a ton of heart and soul into fostering a space that encourages learning, creativity, growth, and community.  You’ll also get a birthday shoutout in the episode that releases during your birthday week, so be sure to let me know your birth date!  The most sincerest thank you in advance for listening and contributing!

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Have you checked out our archive of episodes by yet?

If you’d love to keep 88 Cups of Tea going strong, please consider supporting us through our Patreon membership. We added EARLY ACCESS TO INTERVIEWS for our Super Storyteller patrons in the $8.88 tier. Your kind support at any of our tiers is so helpful. A heartfelt thank you in advance.

https://www.patreon.com/88cupsoftea

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Finally, we're releasing the full, non-edited 3 hour long conversation with V.E. Schwab. This bonus episode is proudly brought to you by Fab Fit Fun! (Be sure to use the promo code 'TEA' for $10 off your first box) 

Say 'Hi' to V.E. Schwab on Twitter!

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Have you checked out our archive of episodes by yet?

How do you approach agents during the querying stage? How do you the one who will champion your work? How important is the pacing of your manuscript in order to keep your readers intrigued? Do you struggle with writing and editing difficult and emotional scenes? We get into all of it with today’s special guest: R.F. Kuang.

Her debut novel, “The Poppy War” was recently released and is the first installment in a trilogy that grapples with drugs, shamanism, and China’s bloody twentieth century. R.F. immigrated to the U.S. as a child and just graduated from Georgetown University where she studied Chinese history with a focus on Chinese military strategy, collective trauma, and war memorials. In addition to working on the rest of her installments of “The Poppy War” trilogy, she’s a 2018 Marshall Scholar and will be heading to the University of Cambridge to do her graduate studies.

Today's episode is proudly brought to you by Fab Fit Fun! (Be sure to use the promo code 'TEA' for $10 off your first box) Sabaa and I pick up where we left off from the first time around and we discuss things that will hit you right in the gut and empower you to make a difference. I'm thrilled to finally share this episode with

Say 'Hi' to R.F. Kuang on Twitter and be sure to head over to her shownotes page. It features highlights covered from her episode along with our favorite quotes. Click here!

Xo,

Yin

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If you got some awesome takeaways from this episode and would love to show your appreciation, the best way would be through any of the following: 

• Help sustain 88 Cups of Tea by making a monthly gift in any amount through our ‘tokens of love’ page 

• Pick up our carefully crafted writing prompts with your gift of $10 or more

• Sign up to receive email updates about 88 Cups of Tea

• Subscribe to us on iTunes and leave a rating and a review

• Hang out with us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or in our private Facebook group

• Tell your friends about our podcast and why you believe it would benefit them

We dedicate a ton of heart and soul into fostering a space that encourages learning, creativity, growth, and community. The most sincerest thank you for your love and support! 

---

Have you checked out our archive of episodes by yet?

If you’d love to keep 88 Cups of Tea going strong, please consider supporting us through our Patreon membership. We added EARLY ACCESS TO INTERVIEWS for our Super Storyteller patrons in the $8.88 tier. Your kind support at any of our tiers is so helpful. A heartfelt thank you in advance.

https://www.patreon.com/88cupsoftea

 -----------------

Sabaa is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of "An Ember in the Ashes" and its sequel, "A Torch Against the Night". Her highly anticipated third book "A Reaper at the Gates" just released this week!

And guess what else? This is Sabaa's second time on the show, our first-ever repeat guest! Click here to listen to her first episode. 

Today's episode is proudly brought to you by Fab Fit Fun! (Be sure to use the promo code 'TEA' for $10 off your first box) Sabaa and I pick up where we left off from the first time around and we discuss things that will hit you right in the gut and empower you to make a difference. I'm thrilled to finally share this episode with

Say 'Hi' to Sabaa on Instagram and be sure to head over to her shownotes page. It features highlights covered from her episode along with our favorite quotes. Click here!

Xo,

Yin

---

If you got some awesome takeaways from this episode and would love to show your appreciation, the best way would be through any of the following: 

• Help sustain 88 Cups of Tea by making a monthly gift in any amount through our ‘tokens of love’ page 

• Pick up our carefully crafted writing prompts with your gift of $10 or more

• Sign up to receive email updates about 88 Cups of Tea

• Subscribe to us on iTunes and leave a rating and a review

• Hang out with us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or in our private Facebook group

• Tell your friends about our podcast and why you believe it would benefit them

We dedicate a ton of heart and soul into fostering a space that encourages learning, creativity, growth, and community. The most sincerest thank you for your love and support! 

---

Have you checked out our archive of episodes by yet?

Have you always wanted a close relationship with your grandparent? Do you dream of writing a children’s book and have no idea where to start? Do you struggle with juggling your professional and personal responsibilities while writing? We get into all of that (and way more) with today’s special guest: Minh Le.

Minh is a national early childhood policy expert, author of “Let Me Finish!”, and has written for the New York Times, the Horn Book, and the Huffington Post. A first-generation Vietnamese American, he went to Dartmouth College and has a master’s in education from Harvard University.

Today's episode is proudly brought to you by Fab Fit Fun! (Be sure to use the promo code 'TEA' for $10 off your first box) The conversation with Minh is so full of heart. I can’t even begin to explain how much this discussion filled my soul and I’m thrilled to finally share this episode with you!

Say 'Hi' to Minh on Twitter and be sure to head over to his shownotes page. It's PACKED with highlights of the topics that are covered from his episode along with our favorite quotes and a list of all the helpful books and resources that he mentions throughout our conversation. We also included the WRITING PROMPT he created just for our community over in the shownotes page. Click here!

Xo,

Yin

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If you got some awesome takeaways from this episode and would love to show your appreciation, the best way would be through any of the following: 

• Help sustain 88 Cups of Tea by making a monthly gift in any amount through our ‘tokens of love’ page 

• Pick up our carefully crafted writing prompts with your gift of $10 or more

• Sign up to receive email updates about 88 Cups of Tea

• Subscribe to us on iTunes and leave a rating and a review

• Hang out with us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or in our private Facebook group

• Tell your friends about our podcast and why you believe it would benefit them

We dedicate a ton of heart and soul into fostering a space that encourages learning, creativity, growth, and community. The most sincerest thank you for your love and support! 

---

Have you checked out our archive of episodes by yet?

If you’d love to keep 88 Cups of Tea going strong, please consider supporting us through our Patreon membership. We added EARLY ACCESS TO INTERVIEWS for our Super Storyteller patrons in the $8.88 tier. Your kind support at any of our tiers is so helpful. A heartfelt thank you in advance.

https://www.patreon.com/88cupsoftea

 -----------------

Stephanie is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of "Caraval" and "Legendary" that just released this week! Her debut novel, Caraval, has been translated into over 30 languages, and the film rights for it have been optioned by 20th Century Fox.

I can’t get enough of soul-filling conversations and this chat with Stephanie fulfilled that need to a tee (or shall I say, tea?)

This episode is longer than most and I promise you it’s worth every minute.

Say 'Hi' to Stephanie on Twitter and be sure to head over to her shownotes page. It's PACKED with highlights of the topics that are covered from her episode along with time stamps. We also put up our favorite quotes and a list of all the helpful books and resources that she mentions throughout our conversation. Click here!

Xo,

Yin

---

If you got some awesome takeaways from this episode and would love to show your appreciation, the best way would be through any of the following: 

• Help sustain 88 Cups of Tea by making a monthly gift in any amount through our ‘tokens of love’ page 

• Pick up our carefully crafted writing prompts with your gift of $10 or more

• Sign up to receive email updates about 88 Cups of Tea

• Subscribe to us on iTunes and leave a rating and a review

• Hang out with us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or in our private Facebook group

• Tell your friends about our podcast and why you believe it would benefit them

We dedicate a ton of heart and soul into fostering a space that encourages learning, creativity, growth, and community. The most sincerest thank you for your love and support! 

---

Have you checked out our archive of episodes by yet?

If you’d love to keep 88 Cups of Tea going strong, please consider supporting us through our Patreon membership. We added EARLY ACCESS TO INTERVIEWS for our Super Storyteller patrons in the $8.88 tier. Your kind support at any of our tiers is so helpful. A heartfelt thank you in advance.

https://www.patreon.com/88cupsoftea

 -----------------

He’s an author, blogger, podcaster, and literary agent for P.S. Literary. As an author, his first humor book, The Geek's Guide to Dating, was an Amazon 2013 Best Book of the Year selection in Humor, as well as a Best of the Year pick by PopSugar and Wired's GeekDad. He’s also the author of the young adult novels “Inked” and its sequel “Branded”. Eric’s newest Young Adult novel “The Girl and the Grove” was just released this month.

You know I love picking our guests' brains, and I give Eric a million and one brownie points for being so transparent, genuine, and generous during our conversation.

Say 'Hi' to Eric on Twitter and be sure to head over to his shownotes page. There's a downloadable PDF featuring a query letter guide where I compiled notes, transcriptions of examples, and quotes to help ease your querying process. Be sure to download the guide by heading over to his shownotes page and scrolling to the bottom of the page. Click here!

Get ready to dive into the nitty-gritty and happy listening!

Xo,

Yin

PS. Do you know anyone who would love our conversation? Please share this episode to help spread the word!

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If you got some awesome takeaways from this episode and would love to show your appreciation, the best way would be through any of the following: 

• Grab our story idea prompts 

• Contribute tokens of love

• Sign up to receive email updates about 88 Cups of Tea

• Subscribe to us on iTunes and leave a rating and a review

• Tell your friends about our podcast and why you believe it would benefit them

We dedicate a ton of heart and soul into fostering a space that encourages learning, creativity, growth, and community. The most sincerest thank you for your love and support! 

---

Meet fellow members in our community and check in about your work-in-progress, and join in on other bookish talks and 88 Cups of Tea related things, join our private Facebook group! You can really feel the love and support in our community. You also get the opportunity to submit your questions for upcoming guests on the show. Click here to join our private Facebook group!

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Have you checked out our archive of episodes by yet?

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“The way you promote yourself is the way you promote other people.” 

-Eric Smith 

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WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN TODAY'S EPISODE: 

If you’d love to keep 88 Cups of Tea going strong, please consider supporting us through our Patreon membership. We added EARLY ACCESS TO INTERVIEWS for our Super Storyteller patrons in the $8.88 tier. Your kind support at any of our tiers is so helpful. A heartfelt thank you in advance.

https://www.patreon.com/88cupsoftea

---

Jenny founded The Bent Agency nearly 10 years ago and it has now grown into having nine agents with a strong focus on international rights and has offices in New York City and London. Her agency works with each author to map the publishing career of their dreams and make it a reality. They pay careful attention to details, from the terms of a first contract, editorial work and cover design, to the publisher’s marketing and publicity plan, royalties and sales figures. The Bent Agency prides themselves on nurturing and discovering authors who they can help propel to the top of their category. They’ve even earned a reputation where they’re known for their work ethic, their responsiveness, the quality of their client list and the results they achieve.

In this episode, we discuss the early days of Jenny’s career and the path that unfolded to become a founder of her own company. She walks us through her role as a literary agent and touch briefly on film/tv and foreign rights deals and how understanding your co-agent’s tastes in what they’re seeking plays an important role.

Further into the conversation, we have a very inspiring discussion about how Jenny faced moments of paralysis during the lowest points in her life and how she moved past it by gritting her way through. We get into a lot of really insightful and helpful listener questions and you’ll discover what tends to spark Jenny’s interest and what she’d love to see more of from submissions, the voices that are most under-represented in the YA community and the key changes that need to be made. Towards the end of the episode, we flesh out Jenny’s thoughts about authors’ social media presence, and she shares when she will be re-opening to queries and what she is hoping to see more of.

Say 'Hi' to Jenny on Twitter! Head over to her shownotes page by clicking here.

Happy listening!

Xo,

Yin

PS. Do you know anyone who would love our conversation? Please share this episode to help spread the word!

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If you enjoyed this episode, I’d really love your support in growing our community by subscribing to us on iTunes, and leaving a rating and review. These specific steps help to increase our visibility on iTunes which really helps new listeners discover us. A huge heartfelt thank you for your time and support! You can click here to go directly to our iTunes page!

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Meet fellow members in our community and check in about your work-in-progress, and join in on other bookish talks and 88 Cups of Tea related things, join our private Facebook group! You can really feel the love and support in our community. You also get the opportunity to submit your questions for upcoming guests on the show. Click here to join our private Facebook group!

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Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to check out our archive of episodes by clicking here!

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“Sometimes it’s just as important to say no to an opportunity as it is to say yes.” 

-Jenny Bent (Click to tweet!)

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WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN TODAY'S EPISODE: 

If you’d love to keep 88 Cups of Tea going strong, please consider supporting us through our Patreon membership. We added EARLY ACCESS TO INTERVIEWS for our Super Storyteller patrons in the $8.88 tier. Your kind support at any of our tiers is so helpful. A heartfelt thank you in advance.

https://www.patreon.com/88cupsoftea

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In today’s episode, we’re featuring our conversation with Victoria Aveyard from the archives! During the time of the original release back in January 2016, Victoria just celebrated her 21st week on the New York Times list for “Red Queen”, the first book in her series. Movie rights for the series were also sold to Universal Pictures with Gennifer Hutchison (from "Breaking Bad") penning the film adaptation and Elizabeth Banks in talks to direct. According to The Hollywood Reporter, RED QUEEN is similar to HUNGER GAMES, GAME OF THRONES, X-MEN, and CINDERELLA.

Since the time of her episode release back in 2016, Victoria has now published three #1 New York Times bestselling and USA Today bestselling books, and two New York Times bestselling novellas. The Red Queen series is currently being translated into 37 languages and counting, and the fourth and final book to conclude her beloved series, “War Storm”, is releasing next week on May 15!

In the archived episode, we discuss story ideas and character development, how Victoria got her foot in the door with her literary agency, the ups and downs throughout her writing career, the publishing community, the importance of family, and a lot more incredibly inspiring stories and advice.

I specifically pulled this conversation from the archives because a lot of our listeners have shared that they’ve been struggling with getting through their first draft and are held back by the idea of "perfection". If you’re struggling with this too, be sure to pay special attention to Victoria’s episode. You’ll learn so much and my hope is for you to feel just as refreshed, inspired, and motivated as I did after our interview!

Say 'Hi' to Victoria on Twitter! Head over to her shownotes page by clicking here.

Happy listening!

Xo,

Yin

PS. Do you know anyone who would love our conversation? Please share this episode to help spread the word!

---

If you enjoyed this episode, I’d really love your support in growing our community by subscribing to us on iTunes, and leaving a rating and review. These specific steps help to increase our visibility on iTunes which really helps new listeners discover us. A huge heartfelt thank you for your time and support! You can click here to go directly to our iTunes page!

---

Meet fellow members in our community and check in about your work-in-progress, and join in on other bookish talks and 88 Cups of Tea related things, join our private Facebook group! You can really feel the love and support in our community. You also get the opportunity to submit your questions for upcoming guests on the show. Click here to join our private Facebook group!

---

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to check out our archive of episodes by clicking here!

--- 

“Finish. Finishing is the most important thing no matter what you have to do.”

-Victoria Aveyard (Click to tweet) 

“I must be writing, in some way, shape, or form, to be happy.”

-Victoria Aveyard (Click to tweet) 

 ---

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN TODAY'S EPISODE: 

Nikki Grimes is the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of dozens of children’s and young adult books as well as a poet and journalist. Throughout her prolific career, Nikki has highlighted stories and characters from communities that have been largely underrepresented in young people’s literature. Her latest novel, "Between The Lines", is the thought-provoking follow-up to her critically acclaimed "Bronx Masquerade", where readers follow the lives of a group of classmates that School Library Journal calls “a perfect blend of the many facets of American teens’ lives.” It also shows the capacity poetry has to express ideas and feelings, and connect us with ourselves and others.

Nikki received the Coretta Scott King Award for "Bronx Masquerade", and has also received four Coretta Scott King Honors. In 2017, she was awarded the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award for her substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children. She has written more than fifty books, including "The Road to Paris", "Jazmin’s Notebook", the "Dyamonde Daniel" series, and the New York Times bestseller "Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope".

In Nikki’s episode, we discuss how writing first became Nikki’s survival tool and coping strategy as a way to express herself during her younger years in and out of foster homes and we get a glimpse into her younger years.

Further into the conversation, Nikki brings us behind the scenes into the inspiration behind “Bronx Masquerade” and “Between The Lines”, and how she is a very character-driven writer. Storytellers, this episode is such a special treat especially for our craft-focused writers who could use some inspiration and advice for creating compelling characters. We dive deep into Nikki’s writing process and even deeper into the way she creates characters. From how she organizes the differences between all of her characters to why it’s important to instill hope in them.

We also kick off the conversation talking all about traveling as y’all know I love my travels, and we wrap up the episode with advice from Nikki about coping with cutting large chunks out of our drafts during the revision process.

Say 'Hi' to Nikki on Twitter! Head over to her shownotes page by clicking here.

Happy listening!

Xo,

Yin

PS. Do you know anyone who would love our conversation? Please share this episode to help spread the word!

---

If you enjoyed this episode, I’d really love your support in growing our community by subscribing to us on iTunes, and leaving a rating and review. These specific steps help to increase our visibility on iTunes which really helps new listeners discover us. A huge heartfelt thank you for your time and support! You can click here to go directly to our iTunes page!

---

Meet fellow members in our community and check in about your work-in-progress, and join in on other bookish talks and 88 Cups of Tea related things, join our private Facebook group! You can really feel the love and support in our community. You also get the opportunity to submit your questions for upcoming guests on the show. Click here to join our private Facebook group!

---

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to check out our archive of episodes by clicking here!

--- 

“When I had things on my heart or on my mind that I needed to get out, the way I got them out was to write.” 

-Nikki Grimes (Click to tweet!)

“There’s always a deep, emotional connection for me with each of my books because, for me, the most important thing about writing is making an emotional connection with my reader and in order for them to go there, I have to go there first.”

-Nikki Grimes (Click to tweet!)

"I had fun pairing various characters to explore one another’s stories because I think you really can’t come in as an adult and tell kids what to think. Really, the stories and the truths have to be revealed from their perspective.”

-Nikki Grimes (Click to tweet!)

“Everything has a place. Nothing is ever, ever, ever really wasted. Even if you don’t use a character or storyline again, you learn so much from the process of doing it that you then are able to apply to the next thing you write. So it’s never wasted.”

-Nikki Grimes (Click to tweet!)

 ---

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN TODAY'S EPISODE: 

Rachel Caine is the New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of more than fifty novels in a diverse range of genres and categories. She has been honored with multiple awards from RT Booklovers Association and the Texas Library Association, and was honored with two spots on the 2012 “Most Favorite Books of UK Schoolchildren” list. More recently in 2017, she began writing thrillers with the huge bestsellers "Stillhouse Lake" and "Killman Creek". In early July of this year, she’ll also be releasing “Smoke and Iron”, her 4th book in the Great Library Series where she continues the adventures of her unforgettable characters from "Ink and Bone", "Paper and Fire", and "Ash and Quill".

In Rachel’s episode, we discuss how she first fell into storytelling, how her musical background taught her to be in the moment with her writing, and how she met her first editor and then sold her first book. Be sure to pay special attention to the helpful advice on carving out time for your writing around a full-time job from the time management queen herself. We also dive into the details about the inspiration behind her stories that helped establish the urban fantasy genre, how she proactively gets the word out about her novels, advice on navigating the world of conventions, conferences, and school visits to promote your work, and how Rachel and her team packages her different genres to make her series distinct from one another.

Further into our conversation, we discuss how to go about the writing business by taking control of your expectations, the different ways to overcome writing difficult scenes in your story, crafting a plot that interacts naturally with your characters, and advice on how to decide which point of view works best for your story. We also discuss why it’s important to keep the passion with your story alive throughout the entire process.

Say 'Hi' to Rachel on Twitter! Head over to her shownotes page for a list of resources mentioned in the episode by clicking here.

Happy listening!

Xo,

Yin

PS. Do you know anyone who would love our conversation? Please share this episode to help spread the word!

---

If you enjoyed this episode, I’d really love your support in growing our community by subscribing to us on iTunes, and leaving a rating and review. These specific steps help to increase our visibility on iTunes which really helps new listeners discover us. A huge heartfelt thank you for your time and support! You can click here to go directly to our iTunes page!

---

Meet fellow members in our community and check in about your work-in-progress, and join in on other bookish talks and 88 Cups of Tea related things, join our private Facebook group! You can really feel the love and support in our community. You also get the opportunity to submit your questions for upcoming guests on the show. Click here to join our private Facebook group!

---

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to check out our archive of episodes by clicking here!

--- 

“Writing is unique business in that there is so much of it that you can’t control. You can only control what you do and nothing else.” 

-Rachel Caine (Click to tweet!)

“You have to figure out what your expectations are and how you can best apply yourself to the process.”

-Rachel Caine (Click to tweet!)

"You have to learn to balance just like you balance your work and your family life and all that. You’ve got to learn how to balance writing and everything else. If it’s a matter of your health, then I think you have to choose your health.”

-Rachel Caine (Click to tweet!)

“As far as points of view, you pick the person to whom the story matters the most. That’s my general rule.”

-Rachel Caine (Click to tweet!)

 ---

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN TODAY'S EPISODE: 

Emily X.R. Pan is the New York Times bestselling author of her debut novel “The Astonishing Color of After”. She is the founding editor-in-chief of Bodega Magazine, and a 2017 Artist-in-Residence at Djerassi, and she received her MFA in fiction from the NYU Creative Writing Program where she was a Goldwater Fellow.  

“The Astonishing Color of After” received five starred reviews and is a Wall Street Journal’s top 12 picks of the season. Entertainment Weekly described her first novel as “accessible and compelling.” and was also recommended by other popular media outlets like Buzzfeed, Book Riot, PopSugar and more.

In today’s episode, we get deep into discussion about Emily’s career paths and why and how she made the shift from business to writing. We dive into the details about “The Astonishing Color of After”, from the family story that inspired her to write the novel, to discovering the voice in her story, and to her editing process. Emily also shares what it was like to re-discover Taiwan as an adult for the research phase of her book.

Further into our conversation, we talk about the importance of trusting your instincts when sharing your work with your peers, the role that negative space serves in crafting short stories, and tips on organically marketing your novel.

Say 'Hi' to Emily on Twitter! Head over to her shownotes page for a list of resources mentioned in the episode by clicking here.

Happy listening!

Xo,

Yin

PS. Do you know anyone who would love our conversation? Please share this episode to help spread the word!

---

If you enjoyed this episode, I’d really love your support in growing our community by subscribing to us on iTunes, and leaving a rating and review. These specific steps help to increase our visibility on iTunes which really helps new listeners discover us. A huge heartfelt thank you for your time and support! You can click here to go directly to our iTunes page!

---

Meet fellow members in our community and check in about your work-in-progress, and join in on other bookish talks and 88 Cups of Tea related things, join our private Facebook group! You can really feel the love and support in our community. You also get the opportunity to submit your questions for upcoming guests on the show. Click here to join our private Facebook group!

---

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to check out our archive of episodes by clicking here!

--- 

“I want to have that community. I want to be immersed and surrounded by people who are reading novels and who are talking creatively and talking about the things that they’re creating and the characters they’re making and the stories they’re trying to tell.” 

-Emily X.R. Pan (Click to tweet!)

“It’s really crucial to be able to take away and let the negative space speak for itself.”

-Emily X.R. Pan (Click to tweet!)

"I kind of just wanted to create in this cave with just myself which at times is very lonely but I also feel like I sort of needed it for this book. I needed to develop the confidence to trust in my own words and in my own voice again.”

-Emily X.R. Pan (Click to tweet!)

 ---

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN TODAY'S EPISODE: 

Rhoda Belleza is a children’s editor at a publishing house and is the author of “Empress of a Thousand Skies” and “Blood of a Thousand Stars”.  The New York Times Book Review wrote, “Intergalactic political intrigue, family betrayal and coveted thrones feature in this space opera story…real-world analogues and social commentary make Empress of a Thousand Skies an important and relevant novel.”

In Rhoda’s episode, we chat all about her love for action movies and how that led her to novel writing. We dive into her experiences as an editor at a publishing house and how that helped her explore the other sides of the publishing world, and how being an editor helped to improve Rhoda’s own writing. We dive into the details about her novels “Empress of a Thousand Skies” and “Blood of a Thousand Stars”, from the inspiration behind the characters, to the world building, and to closing out your characters and ending your story.

Further into our conversation, we break down how joining a writing community you trust can help you receive constructive feedback on your writing, why it’s important to separate yourself and your self-worth from the revision process of a first draft, and why we should seek professional opinions during our research process. We chat realistic word counts per week, why we should be writing consistently throughout the week and how that helps us stay intimate with our characters and strengthens our character building. We also cover why it’s crucial to put aside an editing day each week to prevent yourself from editing along the way.

Say 'Hi' to Rhoda on Twitter! She will be taking over our Instagram stories for the release of her episode, be sure to catch her takeover by clicking here. 

Head over to her shownotes page for a list of resources mentioned in the episode by clicking here.

Happy listening!

Xo,

Yin

PS. Do you know anyone who would love our conversation? Please share this episode to help spread the word!

---

If you enjoyed this episode, I’d really love your support in growing our community by subscribing to us on iTunes, and leaving a rating and review. These specific steps help to increase our visibility on iTunes which really helps new listeners discover us. A huge heartfelt thank you for your time and support! You can click here to go directly to our iTunes page!

---

Meet fellow members in our community and check in about your work-in-progress, and join in on other bookish talks and 88 Cups of Tea related things, join our private Facebook group! You can really feel the love and support in our community. You also get the opportunity to submit your questions for upcoming guests on the show. Click here to join our private Facebook group!

---

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to check out our archive of episodes by clicking here!

--- 

“You’re not on anyone else’s schedule but your own.” 

-Rhoda Belleza (Click to tweet!)

“There’s nothing to revise unless you write that first bad draft.”

-Rhoda Belleza (Click to tweet!)

“At the end of the journey...you want it to be crystallized and engaging. There’s all these ambitions you have for the draft, but right now it’s just a draft and it needs to get better. The only way that it will get better is for you to be vulnerable.”

-Rhoda Belleza (Click to tweet!)

 ---

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN TODAY'S EPISODE: 

Kelly Loy Gilbert is the author of "Conviction", a William C. Morris Award finalist, and her newest novel, “Picture Us in the Light”.

In today’s episode, Kelly brings us behind-the-scenes of “Picture Us in the Light” from discussing the inspiration and catalyst for her new novel to a detailed look at Kelly’s hands-on research process for the story. She walks us through the importance of strong character building when crafting conflict scenes, how to craft authentic characters whose experiences are different from our own, and how to weave empathy into the story by reflecting on personal experiences.  

Further into our conversation, Kelly shares advice on coping with and overcoming writer’s block to move forward with your work, how you can work with your support network to strengthen your story’s plotlines, and she also shares why it’s crucial to give yourself permission to step away from your story.

Say 'Hi' to Kelly on Twitter! She will also be taking over our Instagram stories for the release of her episode, be sure to catch her takeover on Instagram by clicking here.  We're also teaming up with Kelly and her team to giveaway a copy of "Picture Us in the Light" to TWO lucky winners, so look out for the directions in our Instagram stories.

For our writers, Kelly created a very helpful writing prompt exclusive for our community, head over to her shownotes page by clicking here to download your copy.

Happy listening!

Xo,

Yin

PS. Do you know anyone who would love our conversation? Please share this episode to help spread the word!

---

If you enjoyed this episode, I’d really love your support in growing our community by subscribing to us on iTunes, and leaving a rating and review. These specific steps help to increase our visibility on iTunes which really helps new listeners discover us. A huge heartfelt thank you for your time and support! You can click here to go directly to our iTunes page!

---

Meet fellow members in our community and check in about your work-in-progress, and join in on other bookish talks and 88 Cups of Tea related things, join our private Facebook group! You can really feel the love and support in our community. You also get the opportunity to submit your questions for upcoming guests on the show. Click here to join our private Facebook group!

---

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to check out our archive of episodes by clicking here!

--- 

“I think I always tend to forget how much you just have to end up deleting and how much you have to write and write and write to sort of get to the heart of the story and figure out the characters.” 

-Kelly Loy Gilbert (Click to tweet!)

“If you feel like you’re in this rut, nothing is happening, I promise when you step back you will start missing it and I think that is always a good place to be in.”

-Kelly Loy Gilbert (Click to tweet!)

“Thinking about how everything is interconnected and how every action leads to a reaction has been, I think, really useful for me.”

-Kelly Loy Gilbert (Click to tweet!)

 ---

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN TODAY'S EPISODE: 

Roshani Chokshi is the author of the instant New York Times bestselling novel, “The Star-Touched Queen”, and “A Crown of Wishes”, and her recently released middle grade debut "Aru Shah and the End of Time".

In today’s episode, we discuss ALL things "Aru Shah and the End of Time", from the story inspiration to the research process and Roshani’s world building.  We touch on adapting mythology and folklore into your story and how to craft lush and vivid descriptions.

Further into our conversation, we talk about the importance of sharing your work and being open to critical feedback as a writer, and Roshani shares advice on maintaining your author brand while writing across different age groups.

Say 'Hi' to Roshani on Twitter! She will also be taking over our Instagram stories for the release of her episode and it’s going to be so much fun! Be sure to catch her takeover on Instagram by clicking here.  We're teaming up with Roshani and her team to giveaway a copy of "Aru Shah and the End of Time" to TWO lucky winners, so look out for the directions in our Instagram stories.

Roshani also created a wonderful writing prompt exclusive for our community, scroll down to the bottom of this page to download your copy.

Happy listening!

Xo,

Yin

PS. Do you know anyone who would love our conversation? Please share this episode to help spread the word!

---

If you enjoyed this episode, I’d really love your support in growing our community by subscribing to us on iTunes, and leaving a rating and review. These specific steps help to increase our visibility on iTunes which really helps new listeners discover us. A huge heartfelt thank you for your time and support! You can click here to go directly to our iTunes page!

---

Meet fellow members in our community and check in about your work-in-progress, and join in on other bookish talks and 88 Cups of Tea related things, join our private Facebook group! You can really feel the love and support in our community. You also get the opportunity to submit your questions for upcoming guests on the show. Click here to join our private Facebook group!

---

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to check out our archive of episodes by clicking here!

--- 

“I realized I was writing around my own stories trying to write what I saw in the world when what I needed to be doing was write what I didn’t see and what I wanted to see.” 

-Roshani Chokshi (Click to tweet!)

“What is the thing that I really want to read and how would I want it presented to me?”

-Roshani Chokshi (Click to tweet!)

“The minute that I waver on the voice, I’ve lost the whole thread of the story. It doesn’t matter if the plot is there. If the voice isn’t there, the soul of it’s gone.”

-Roshani Chokshi (Click to tweet!)

“Find time just to refresh your soul with someone else’s words.”

-Roshani Chokshi (Click to tweet!)

 ---

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN TODAY'S EPISODE: 

Roshani’s journey to becoming a bestselling author

The importance of sharing your work and being open to critical feedback as a writer

A discussion on all things “Aru Shah and The End of Time”

How to respectfully adapt mythology and folklore into your story

Advice on maintaining your author brand while writing across different age groups

Tips on crafting lush and vivid descriptions in your stories

Roshani walk us through the research process for her world building

Ashleigh Gardner is the Deputy General Manager, Wattpad Studios, Publishing. She works with Wattpad writers and publishers around the world to turn Wattpad stories into books. Ashleigh creates meaningful promotional and editorial partnerships with the publishing industry by leveraging the data and insights from the more than 400 million story uploads on Wattpad. This also helps publishers everywhere find exciting new voices and transform their business with data-driven decision-making.

In today’s episode proudly brought to you by Wattpad, we get into the nitty gritty about all things Wattpad and how it benefits the writers and readers in our community. We dig deep into Ashleigh’s role at Wattpad and her personal journey that led her there and she shares advice on how to begin a career in the publishing world.

We continue to discuss how Wattpad builds readerships and audiences for their writers, how it’s a space for authors to instantly interact with your audience and receive feedback, how to use Wattpad to help the research and editing process as an author, and how its features can help our community virtually connect with writing groups to share ideas and encourage one another.

Ashleigh unpacks the relationships Wattpad has with publishers to connect users with the publishing world and we discuss the most popular current trends that she sees at the company and how they’re able to discover these trends. She also walks us through the steps you can take to increase your story’s popularity on Wattpad and we discuss the kinds of questions you should ask a publisher when they approach you and your story.

Happy Listening!

Xo,

Yin

PS. Do you know anyone who would love our conversation? Please share this episode to help spread the word!

---

If you enjoyed this episode, I’d really love your support in growing our community by subscribing to us on iTunes, and leaving a rating and review. These specific steps help to increase our visibility on iTunes which really helps new listeners discover us. A huge heartfelt thank you for your time and support! You can click here to go directly to our iTunes page!

---

Meet fellow members in our community and check in about your work-in-progress, and join in on other bookish talks and 88 Cups of Tea related things, join our private Facebook group! You can really feel the love and support in our community. You also get the opportunity to submit your questions for upcoming guests on the show. Click here to join our private Facebook group!

---

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to check out our archive of episodes by clicking here!

--- 

“You don’t need to wait for anyone to do this with you, you can go out and do it on your own.” 

-Ashleigh Gardner (Click to tweet)

“As soon as you get it out and post it, you can go back and change it. Just plowing through that first draft, not spending a lot of time re-editing things you’ve written already, that would be my biggest piece of advice.”

-Ashleigh Gardner (Click to tweet)

 ---

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN TODAY'S EPISODE: 

Arvin Ahmadi is the author of “Down and Across”. From Buzzfeed, “Ahmadi writes with head and heart, captivating readers with passages that leap beautifully from the pages.” Publishers Weekly describes his debut as “witty, smart, and inspiring” and The Washington Post says it’s a “humorous” and “deeply human coming-of-age story.”

In today’s episode, Arvin walks us through the inspiration behind “Down and Across”. We unpack how to manage writing difficult and emotional scenes with your characters, how to maintain authenticity in your story throughout your editing process, and how to improve your craft through reading within your genre.

We also discuss why it’s crucial to seek feedback from your writing community, and Arvin shares tips on writing in a first-person point of view that’s different from your own.

Please say 'Hi' to Arvin on Twitter and he'll be taking over our Instagram stories for the release of his episode and it’s going to be SO much fun! Be sure to catch his takeover on Instagram by clicking here. 

We also announce some H-U-G-E 88 Cups of Tea news in the intro of Arvin's episode. Don't forget to respond to the announcement by hitting us up on Twitter by clicking here! And help us spread the word about our announcement by sharing about it on social media!

Happy Listening!

Xo,

Yin

PS. Do you know anyone who would love our conversation? Please share this episode to help spread the word!

---

We recently restocked our limited edition 88 Cups of Tea mugs with only ONE box of mugs. We are creating a different line of 88 Cups of Tea mugs each year and they'll be available for a limited amount of time! We first announced this in our private FB group and I can’t believe our last box of mugs are already halfway gone. If you'd love a mug for yourself before they are completely sold out for GOOD, head over here. Our mugs are AWESOME at giving you a boost in morale throughout your day!

---

If you enjoyed this episode, I’d really love your support in growing our community by subscribing to us on iTunes, and leaving a rating and review. These specific steps help to increase our visibility on iTunes which really helps new listeners discover us. A huge heartfelt thank you for your time and support! You can click here to go directly to our iTunes page!

---

Meet fellow members in our community and check in about your work-in-progress, and join in on other bookish talks and 88 Cups of Tea related things, join our private Facebook group! You can really feel the love and support in our community. You also get the opportunity to submit your questions for upcoming guests on the show. Click here to join our private Facebook group!

---

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to check out our archive of episodes by clicking here!

--- 

“This is the book where I learned to write a book.” 

-Arvin Ahmadi (Click to tweet)

“You build out this world in your head. As a writer, why would you crush that for your reader, this world that they’ve imagined and characters that have become so real to them?”

-Arvin Ahmadi (Click to tweet)

“My first draft was very raw and very authentic and kind of poorly written too. Of course I went through ten, eleven, twelve drafts before I even sold to Penguin and a lot of that was trying to maintain that authenticity while fiddling with the structure to make it a better book.”

-Arvin Ahmadi (Click to tweet)

 ---

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN TODAY'S EPISODE: 

If you’d love to keep 88 Cups of Tea going strong, please consider supporting us through our Patreon membership. We added EARLY ACCESS TO INTERVIEWS for our Super Storyteller patrons in the $8.88 tier. Your kind support at any of our tiers is so helpful. A heartfelt thank you in advance.

https://www.patreon.com/88cupsoftea

---

John Boyne is the author of over 15 books and short stories. His New York Times bestselling novel, "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas", was an international bestseller, selling more than nine million copies worldwide. In today’s episode, we discuss his newest novel, “The Heart’s Invisible Furies”, a New York Times Readers’ Favorite Books of 2017. 

We kick off the conversation by having John take us back to the earliest memory of how he first fell in love with storytelling. John shares the inspiration behind “The Heart’s Invisible Furies” and walks us through his unique structure of the novel. We go into detail about the history of human rights activism in Ireland, what his creative research process is like, and how he discovers fresh ideas for his stories.

We also discuss how the important role humor can play in historical novels, how to create emotional distance when writing about darker topics, and advice on finding your own voice and style of writing.

Say 'Hi' to John on Twitter and be sure to download his wriitng prompt exclusive for our 88 Cups of Tea community by heading over to his shownotes and clicking here!

Happy Listening!

Xo,

Yin

PS. Do you know anyone who would love our conversation? Please share this episode to help spread the word!

---

If you enjoyed this episode, I’d really love your support in growing our community by subscribing to us on iTunes, and leaving a rating and review. These specific steps help to increase our visibility on iTunes which really helps new listeners discover us. A huge heartfelt thank you for your time and support! You can click here to go directly to our iTunes page!

---

Meet fellow members in our community and check in about your work-in-progress, and join in on other bookish talks and 88 Cups of Tea related things, join our private Facebook group! You can really feel the love and support in our community. You also get the opportunity to submit your questions for upcoming guests on the show. Click here to join our private Facebook group!

---

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to check out our archive of episodes by clicking here!

---

“Even as a child, the acts of reading and writing were always completely connected to me.” -John Boyne (Click to tweet)

“I don’t remember a time where I actively decided to be a writer, it was just always a part of who I was.” -John Boyne (Click to tweet)

“You can be a good mimic, but eventually you have to have your own voice and your own style of writing.” -John Boyne (Click to tweet)

“Good writing will find its audience.” -John Boyne (Click to tweet)

“If you are reading and writing all the time, if your brain is engaged with fiction constantly, then you become more attuned to ideas.” -John Boyne (Click to tweet)

“As hard work as writing novels is, I think we should always enjoy the process of writing them.” -John Boyne (Click to tweet)

---

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN TODAY'S EPISODE: 

If you’d love to keep 88 Cups of Tea going strong, please consider supporting us through our Patreon membership. We added EARLY ACCESS TO INTERVIEWS for our Super Storyteller patrons in the $8.88 tier. Your kind support at any of our tiers is so helpful. A heartfelt thank you in advance.

https://www.patreon.com/88cupsoftea

---

You have no idea how excited I am to have Tomi Adeyemi on our show! Tomi is the author of Children of Blood and Bone, a West African-inspired fantasy debut and the first novel in her trilogy that conjures a world of magic and danger, perfect for any of you fans of Leigh Bardugo and Sabaa Tahir. It’s been described as “powerful” and “captivating” and Tomi has been hailed as one of the most promising voices in young adult fiction. Entertainment Weekly describes “Children of Blood and Bone” as “a phenomenon” and it landed one of the biggest YA debut novel publishing deals ever. Way before her novel was even released, her entire fantasy trilogy landed a deal to be made into movies produced by the team at Fox 2000 and Temple Hill Productions, the same team who produced the movies “The Fault in Our Stars,” and “Twilight”. “Children of Blood and Bone” releases on March 6th so be sure to grab yourselves a copy to see what everyone’s talking about!

In today’s episode, we discuss ALL things “Children of Blood and Bone”, from the story behind the title, to her research, and writing process. Tomi even shares her resources that helped her world building process in the novel.

We discuss how Tomi’s awareness of poor representation in her earlier stories inspired her to craft strong representation for her readers, why it’s crucial to recognize our responsibility to give younger generations true representation that creates self-love, and the power a story has to create empathy in humanity and to open our eyes to possibility.

For those of you who are currently writing your own manuscripts, you’ll really appreciate all of the helpful and detailed advice Tomi shares for our storyteller community. She walks us through how to craft character descriptions, all about first drafts, how to use rejections to further your story’s success, advice on finding mentors and editors who can help get your story to where you want it to be, and so much more.

Say 'Hi' to Tomi on Twitter and she'll be taking over our Instagram stories for the release of her episode and it’s going to be AWESOME. Be sure to catch her takeover by clicking here!

Happy Listening!

Xo,

Yin

PS. Do you know anyone who would love our conversation? Please share this episode to help spread the word!

---

If you enjoyed this episode, I’d really love your support in growing our community by subscribing to us on iTunes, and leaving a rating and review. These specific steps help to increase our visibility on iTunes which really helps new listeners discover us. A huge heartfelt thank you for your time and support! You can click here to go directly to our iTunes page!

---

Meet fellow members in our community and check in about your work-in-progress, and join in on other bookish talks and 88 Cups of Tea related things, join our private Facebook group! You can really feel the love and support in our community. You also get the opportunity to submit your questions for upcoming guests on the show. Click here to join our private Facebook group!

---

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to check out our archive of episodes by clicking here!

--- 

“Storytelling became this way to get everything I wanted, so I just kept doing it.” 

-Tomi Adeyemi (Click to tweet)

“Books are amazing. You explain something so internal, but in such a universal way, that everybody can understand it.”

-Tomi Adeyemi (Click to tweet)

“The best editors help you write the story you thought you wrote the first time.”

-Tomi Adeyemi (Click to tweet)

“It has been a dream, but it has also been a crazy amount of work, as it should be.”

-Tomi Adeyemi (Click to tweet)

“The more you write and the more you revise, the more you discover exactly what you need.”

-Tomi Adeyemi (Click to tweet)

“When you arm yourself with knowledge, everything feels possible.”

-Tomi Adeyemi (Click to tweet)

 ---

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN TODAY'S EPISODE: 

Atia Abawi is an author, foreign correspondent, and award-winning journalist. Born a refugee to Afghan parents in West Germany and raised in the United States, Atia has reported on war, conflicts and international crises in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Myanmar, Egypt, Kenya and Israel. Her first book for teens, The Secret Sky, is a critically acclaimed love story set during the current war in Afghanistan and won an Amelia Bloomer Award. She was also named a Publisher’s Weekly Flying Start, honoring debut novelists whose first book shows success and promise.  

In today’s episode, Atia shares the story of her parents’ terrifying journey to find refuge in Germany and why it’s crucial for her to humanize the refugee crisis we see today through her latest novel, “A Land of Permanent Goodbyes”. We discuss the pain she felt day-after-day researching this novel, and why she made the specific choice of narrating the novel through the voice of Destiny.

Further into our discussion, we also learn how Atia transitioned from a journalism background of reporting facts to writing a novel where writers normally rely on creativity and imagination.

Atia is also taking over our Instagram stories from her visit to Bangkok so be sure to follow us on Instagram by clicking here!

Say 'Hi' to Atia on Twitter and check out an exclusive excerpt from "American Panda" along with an adorable cartoon that ties in with the excerpt over at her shownotes page by clicking here! For writers, be sure to scroll down to the bottom of Katherine's shownotes page to download her writing prompt for our storytellers!

Happy Listening!

Xo,

Yin

PS. Do you know anyone who would love our conversation? Please share this episode to help spread the word!

---

If you enjoyed this episode, I’d really love your support in growing our community by subscribing to us on iTunes, and leaving a rating and review. These specific steps help to increase our visibility on iTunes which really helps new listeners discover us. A huge heartfelt thank you for your time and support! You can click here to go directly to our iTunes page!

---

Meet fellow members in our community and check in about your work-in-progress, and join in on other bookish talks and 88 Cups of Tea related things, join our private Facebook group! You can really feel the love and support in our community. You also get the opportunity to submit your questions for upcoming guests on the show. Click here to join our private Facebook group!

---

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to check out our archive of episodes by clicking here!

--- 

“I’m glad that I’m nervous when I ask because I feel like that means I still care about the people that I’m talking to.” 

-Atia Abawi (Click to tweet!)

“My imagination was gone because of my journalism. What I did do was put in reality as deep and as best as I could. The sparkles on the water that shimmered like diamonds, that’s real.”

-Atia Abawi (Click to tweet!)

“It got to the point where your dreams no longer just belong to you.”

-Atia Abawi (Click to tweet!)

 ---

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN TODAY'S EPISODE: 

If you’d love to keep 88 Cups of Tea going strong, please consider supporting us through our Patreon membership. We added EARLY ACCESS TO INTERVIEWS for our Super Storyteller patrons in the $8.88 tier. Your kind support at any of our tiers is so helpful. A heartfelt thank you in advance.

https://www.patreon.com/88cupsoftea

---

Katherine Locke is the author of the Sydney Taylor Honor Award winning debut young adult novel "The Girl with the Red Balloon."

In today’s episode, we dive into how “The Girl with the Red Balloon” was influenced by her Grandfather. She shares advice for writers new to the historical fantasy genre, how technology plays a crucial role when writing historical fiction, how to tell a story that requires emotionally heavy research and overcoming the emotional exhaustion.

Katherine walks us through incredibly helpful tips on drafting, from the first draft to the second draft, and how to work through the dreaded middle of the manuscript. You’ll learn why Katherine always tosses out the first draft and how she accepted this as part of her process. We also touch on different ways to brainstorm, how to simultaneously balance writing for different genres and age groups, and why it’s necessary to have a writing community.

For writers, to download the exclusive writing prompt she created for our community, scroll down till you see a box that says “writing prompt”. Katherine is also taking over our Instagram account and will be showing us behind-the-scenes glimpses of her writing life, from her local coffee shop where she gets her writing done and how she gets through writer’s block, to special footage from her research trip in Budapest, and so much more. We’re also hosting an exciting giveaway of Katherine’s book so be sure to follow us on Instagram by clicking here!

Say 'Hi' to Katherine on Twitter and check out an exclusive excerpt from "American Panda" along with an adorable cartoon that ties in with the excerpt over at her shownotes page by clicking here! For writers, be sure to scroll down to the bottom of Katherine's shownotes page to download her writing prompt for our storytellers!

Happy Listening!

Xo,

Yin

PS. Do you know anyone who would love our conversation? Please share this episode to help spread the word!

---

If you enjoyed this episode, I’d really love your support in growing our community by subscribing to us on iTunes, and leaving a rating and review. These specific steps help to increase our visibility on iTunes which really helps new listeners discover us. A huge heartfelt thank you for your time and support! You can click here to go directly to our iTunes page!

---

Meet fellow members in our community and check in about your work-in-progress, and join in on other bookish talks and 88 Cups of Tea related things, join our private Facebook group! You can really feel the love and support in our community. You also get the opportunity to submit your questions for upcoming guests on the show. Click here to join our private Facebook group!

---

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to check out our archive of episodes by clicking here!

--- 

“It’s very important to have a writing community that cheerleads and then also challenges you.” 

-Katherine Locke (Click to tweet!)

“It took me 3 years of writing it to realize it was ok to not find answers in my own book, its ok to come up with more questions. A tough emotional place to be but a really important personal place to be.”

-Katherine Locke (Click to tweet!)

“I have always considered myself a YA writer, I really do think that’s part of my identity as a writer. I just happen to also write books for adults.”

-Katherine Locke (Click to tweet!)

 ---

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN TODAY'S EPISODE: 

Advice on drafting, from the first draft to the second draft

How to work through the dreaded middle of your manuscript

How to tell a story that requires emotionally heavy research and overcome the emotional drainage

Detailed advice for writers new to the historical fantasy genre

How to simultaneously balance writing for different genres and age groups

Learn why Katherine always tosses out the first draft and how she accepted this as part of her process to help move her forward

Why it’s crucial to have a writing community and support

 Different ways to brainstorm and utilizing how your brain works

The importance of writing consistently

How Katherine’s story for The Girl with the Red Balloon was influenced by her Grandfather

How technology plays a crucial role when writing historical fiction

If you’d love to keep 88 Cups of Tea going strong, please consider supporting us through our Patreon membership. We added EARLY ACCESS TO INTERVIEWS for our Super Storyteller patrons in the $8.88 tier. Your kind support at any of our tiers is so helpful. A heartfelt thank you in advance.

https://www.patreon.com/88cupsoftea

---

We have co-authors Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner on our show today!

Meagan is the author of "Hunted" and the "Skylark" trilogy, and Amie is the co-author of "The Illuminae Files". Amie and Meagan are longtime friends and they’ve traveled quite a lot together and have even lived with each other. They’re the epitome of friendship goals.

In today’s episode, we discuss how traveling has directly impacted their writings both individually and together as they co-authored their newest book "Unearthed". In our conversation, we dive into all the details of “Unearthed”, how the idea came to fruition from their travels, and what it was like writing the book together. “Unearthed” is the first in a duology and the film rights have been optioned by the production company “Cross Creek Pictures”, the same company that produced “Black Swan”, and has Doug Liman from “The Bourne Identity” attached to direct.

For our listeners who are especially interested in co-authoring, you’ll want to pay special attention to Meagan and Amie when they walk us through why mutual respect is the key foundation to their successful and healthy partnership as co-authors, how they stay aligned with their book’s main goal by assigning primary responsibilities, and how to productively and efficiently work through disagreements as co-authors. They also share really helpful advice on finding writing partners for yourself and what to look out for.

We also talk about how Meagan landed a literary agent and how Amie became represented by the same literary agency. We deep dive into some real talk about finding your fit when it comes to literary representation, and what to be aware of when you’re figuring out which literary agent to work with.

In case you missed our announcement last week, we added Instagram story takeovers for many of our upcoming episodes! Be sure to follow us on Instagram to catch Amie and Meagan’s story takeover where you’ll get a fun behind-the-scenes glimpse at their writing life.

Say 'Hi' to Amie on Twitter and Meagan on Twitter! Click here to check out their shownotes page. 

Happy listening!

Xo,

Yin

PS. Do you know anyone who would love our conversation? Please share this episode to help spread the word!

---

If you enjoyed this episode, I’d really love your support in growing our community by subscribing to us on iTunes, and leaving a rating and review. These specific steps help to increase our visibility on iTunes which really helps new listeners discover us. A huge heartfelt thank you for your time and support! You can click here to go directly to our iTunes page!

---

Meet fellow members in our community and check in about your work-in-progress, and join in on other bookish talks and 88 Cups of Tea related things, join our private Facebook group! You can really feel the love and support in our community. You also get the opportunity to submit your questions for upcoming guests on the show. Click here to join our private Facebook group!

---

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to check out our archive of episodes by clicking here!

--- 

“You want to make sure that you have somebody with you who’s there for the whole journey, who wants to see you succeed, rather than just sell one book.” 

-Meagan Spooner (Click to tweet!)

“You have to be prepared to stand by your work the whole way through.”

-Amie Kaufman (Click to tweet!)

“Traveling, for me, is the one surefire way to get over writer’s block.”

-Meagan Spooner (Click to tweet!)

 ---

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN TODAY'S EPISODE: 

In today’s episode, we discuss the traditional roles of women and the family values ingrained in the Taiwanese culture. Gloria walks us through the details of her revision process and the most important thing she learned about revisions. We also talk about crafting the main character’s voice, the most exciting thing that’s happened during her debut year, and the difficulties she faced trying to market a YA book set in college. We touch on the inspiration for American Panda’s cover design, how much input Gloria had with the design process, and how one of the details inspired Gloria to tweak a part of her story.

We’ve got some exciting things for you below, like an exclusive excerpt from "American Panda" just for our 88 Cups of Tea community and an adorable cartoon to go along with the excerpt. For our writers, look out for Gloria’s writing prompt at the bottom of this page– Also exclusive for our listeners! If you’re particularly stuck with writer’s block, you’ll want to grab your copy of the prompt.

Gloria is also launching our very first Instagram story takeover today, on February 1st. You’ll get a sneak peek of her life as a writer and one lucky winner will receive a signed copy of “American Panda”. To enter for a chance to win, be sure to look out for Gloria’s announcement of her giveaway on her Instagram story takeover and reply to that story by tapping the heart button. You have exactly 24 hours to enter from the time that story is first posted so you’ll want to act fast. 

Say 'Hi' to Gloria on Twitter and check out an exclusive excerpt from "American Panda" along with an adorable cartoon that ties in with the excerpt over at her shownotes page by clicking here! For writers, be sure to scroll down to the bottom of Gloria's shownotes page to download her writing prompt for our storytellers!

I couldn’t be more ecstatic to kick off 2018 with Gloria’s episode, happy listening!

Xo,

Yin

PS. Do you know anyone who would love our conversation? Please share this episode to help spread the word!

---

If you enjoyed this episode, I’d really love your support in growing our community by subscribing to us on iTunes, and leaving a rating and review. These specific steps help to increase our visibility on iTunes which really helps new listeners discover us. A huge heartfelt thank you for your time and support! You can click here to go directly to our iTunes page!

---

Meet fellow members in our community and check in about your work-in-progress, and join in on other bookish talks and 88 Cups of Tea related things, join our private Facebook group! You can really feel the love and support in our community. You also get the opportunity to submit your questions for upcoming guests on the show. Click here to join our private Facebook group!

---

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to check out our archive of episodes by clicking here!

--- 

“I knew that this would take a lot longer to get an agent and a book deal if it ever did and I was still ok with going for it because I felt it was important enough to the story to give it a shot.” 

-Gloria Chao (Click to tweet!)

“With plotting and drafting, every book is different. You have to re-learn how the process is going to work for that specific book.”

-Gloria Chao (Click to tweet!)

“A lot of revision went into making sure that it [American Panda] was readable for everyone but at the same time it was very honest and it portrayed everything accurately.”

-Gloria Chao (Click to tweet!)

 ---

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN TODAY'S EPISODE: 

If you’d love to keep 88 Cups of Tea going strong, please consider supporting us through our Patreon membership. We added EARLY ACCESS TO INTERVIEWS for our Super Storyteller patrons in the $8.88 tier. Your kind support at any of our tiers is so helpful. A heartfelt thank you in advance.

https://www.patreon.com/88cupsoftea

---

Nnedi Okorafor is an international award-winning novelist of African-based science fiction, fantasy and magical realism for both children and adults. She’s most recognized for weaving African culture into creative evocative settings and memorable characters. Some of the titles she has authored are "Who Fears Death", the "Akata" series, the "Binti" novella trilogy, "Zahrah the Windseeker", and many more. Her novel “Who Fears Death” has been optioned by HBO and is in early development as a TV series with George RR Martin from the "Game of Thrones" series as executive producer. As if all these accolades and achievements weren’t enough, Nnedi is also currently writing a Black Panther series for Marvel.

In describing Nnedi and her work, The New York Times wrote, “Nnedi Okorafor has made a name for herself with novels that combine politically complex science fiction and lyrical fantasy.“

In this episode, Nnedi walks us through her research process for the “Akata” series, and she also shares what her writing process was like for the books. We discuss the power of listening and how it helps you with your writing, how to find an ideal editor for your story, and why she encourages writers to have a messy first draft. We also touch on her thoughts about expanding one’s worldview, and how science fiction helps authors craft stories about cultures and politics. Nnedi also shares helpful advice on managing a storytelling career and motherhood.

Say 'Hi' to Nnedi on Twitter and check out the book mentioned in her episode by clicking here!

I’ve been so excited to wrap up 2017 with Nnedi’s episode, happy listening!

Xo,

Yin

PS. Do you know anyone who would love our conversation? Please share this episode to help spread the word!

---

If you enjoyed this episode, I’d really love your support in growing our community by subscribing to us on iTunes, and leaving a rating and review. These specific steps help to increase our visibility on iTunes which really helps new listeners discover us. A huge heartfelt thank you for your time and support! You can click here to go directly to our iTunes page!

---

For EXCLUSIVE EARLY ACCESS to our shop, meet fellow members in our community and check in about your work-in-progress, and join in on other bookish talks and 88 Cups of Tea related things, join our private Facebook group! You can really feel the love and support in our community. You also get the opportunity to submit your questions for upcoming guests on the show. Click here to join our private Facebook group!

---

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to check out our archive of episodes by clicking here!

--- 

“Science fiction is one of the most effective forms of political writing and it’s because it takes from science and it also takes from the art of storytelling.” 

-Nnedi Okorafor (Click to tweet!)

“Even if you only have time to write a paragraph a day, write a paragraph a day.”

-Nnedi Okorafor (Click to tweet!)

“If you are going to write from those points of view that are not natural to you, that are outside of yourself, sitting back and listening is one of the best ways to grab it.”

-Nnedi Okorafor (Click to tweet!)

 ---

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN TODAY'S EPISODE: 

Carmen Maria Machado is a fiction writer, critic, and essayist whose work has appeared in the New Yorker, Granta, Tin House, Guernica, Gulf Coast, NPR, and more. Carmen’s debut short story collection, Her Body and Other Parties, was a finalist for the National Book Award, the Kirkus Prize, the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize, and the winner of the Bard Fiction Prize. NPR describes “Her Body and Other Parties” as an abrupt, original, and wild collection of stories, full of outlandish myths that somehow catch at familiar, unspoken truths about being women in the world that more straightforward or realist writing wouldn’t.”

In this episode, we kick it off by discussing Carmen’s earliest memories of a story she wrote as a kid called “The Biggest Turkey Can’t Find The Farm” and you’ll understand why it’s become her famous family story shared at gatherings. We then discuss Carmen’s thoughts about MFA programs and if she thinks they’re necessary for a successful or a stable writing career. We talk about maximizing a productive writing schedule by figuring out a system that works for you, how Carmen organizes her thoughts during her writing process, and why it’s so important to not get fixated on being published to the point where you lose yourself and are unable to provide your best work possible.

Later, we touch on abuse in same sex relationships and how that ties in with her memoir “House in Indiana” releasing in 2019. Carmen also shares how to recognize some warning signs of an abusive relationship. We then wrap up our conversation by talking more about “Her Body and Other Parties” and how her editor played a crucial role in the process. She also shares how to recognize signs of a good editor and how to make yourself visible as a short story writer.

Say 'Hi' to Carmen on Twitter and check out the book mentioned in her episode by clicking here!

Happy listening!

Xo,

Yin

PS. Do you know anyone who would love our conversation? Please share this episode to help spread the word!

---

If you enjoyed this episode, I’d really love your support in growing our community by subscribing to us on iTunes, and leaving a rating and review. These specific steps help to increase our visibility on iTunes which really helps new listeners discover us. A huge heartfelt thank you for your time and support! You can click here to go directly to our iTunes page!

---

For EXCLUSIVE EARLY ACCESS to our shop, meet fellow members in our community and check in about your work-in-progress, and join in on other bookish talks and 88 Cups of Tea related things, join our private Facebook group! You can really feel the love and support in our community. You also get the opportunity to submit your questions for upcoming guests on the show. Click here to join our private Facebook group!

IMPORTANT NOTE: Be sure to have a clear profile picture of yourself. If not, send over links to either your Twitter or Instagram. Fill out the 3 questions that pop up as soon as you request to join. To protect our group's safe space, these steps help us weed out any spam/fake profiles/creepers. Can't wait to meet you!

---

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to check out our archive of episodes by clicking here!

--- 

"Publication is not the end all be all in making good art.” 

-Carmen Maria Machado (Click to tweet!)

“I think a part of becoming an artist of any kind, writer in particularly, is figuring what kind of obsessions you have.”

-Carmen Maria Machado (Click to tweet!)

“A good editor is worth their weight in gold.”

-Carmen Maria Machado (Click to tweet!)

 ---

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN TODAY'S EPISODE: 

Poet, novelist, and essayist, Erika L. Sanchez was a Fulbright Scholar, CantoMundo Fellowship recipient, and Bread Loaf Scholar. Her debut young adult novel, “I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter”, is a New York Times Bestseller and was named a finalist for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature.  

In this episode, Erika walks us through how she pushed through the difficulty of finding a job during the recession. We discuss why it’s crucial to live for yourself and to live truthfully, and for writers, we talk about how to alleviate writer’s block.

Say 'Hi' to Erika on Twitter and check out the book mentioned in her episode by clicking here!

Happy listening!

Xo,

Yin

PS. Do you know anyone who would love our conversation? Please share this episode to help spread the word!

---

If you enjoyed this episode, I’d really love your support in growing our community by subscribing to us on iTunes, and leaving a rating and review. These specific steps help to increase our visibility on iTunes which really helps new listeners discover us. A huge heartfelt thank you for your time and support! You can click here to go directly to our iTunes page!

---

For EXCLUSIVE EARLY ACCESS to our shop, meet fellow members in our community and check in about your work-in-progress, and join in on other bookish talks and 88 Cups of Tea related things, join our private Facebook group! You can really feel the love and support in our community. You also get the opportunity to submit your questions for upcoming guests on the show. Click here to join our private Facebook group!

IMPORTANT NOTE: Be sure to have a clear profile picture of yourself. If not, send over links to either your Twitter or Instagram. Fill out the 3 questions that pop up as soon as you request to join. To protect our group's safe space, these steps help us weed out any spam/fake profiles/creepers. Can't wait to meet you!

---

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to check out our archive of episodes by clicking here!

--- 

"Writing is an ongoing conversation with writers of the past and writers of the future.” 

-Erika L. Sánchez (Click to tweet!)

“If you’re not surprising yourself, you’re not surprising the reader.”

-Erika L. Sánchez (Click to tweet!)

 ---

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN TODAY'S EPISODE: 

Ryan T. Higgins is the bestselling author and illustrator of the picture book “Mother Bruce” which received the E.B. White Read-Aloud Award and the Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator Honor.

In this episode, Ryan walks us through the storyboarding and editing process of illustrating his children’s books and he delves into the importance of looking at your story in small chunks to avoid overthinking about your book as a whole. Ryan shares tips on breaking into the publishing world and landing representation, and how to self-publish and promote your work. We also discuss ways to prevent writer’s block and why it’s so important to have a critique partner to help grow story ideas.

Say 'Hi' to Ryan on Twitter and follow him on Instagram to check out his awesome sketches! Check out the books and resources mentioned in his episode by clicking here!

Happy listening!

Xo,

Yin

PS. Do you know anyone who would love our conversation? Please share this episode to help spread the word!

---

If you enjoyed this episode, I’d really love your support in growing our community by subscribing to us on iTunes, and leaving a rating and review. These specific steps help to increase our visibility on iTunes which really helps new listeners discover us. A huge heartfelt thank you for your time and support! You can click here to go directly to our iTunes page!

---

For EXCLUSIVE EARLY ACCESS to our shop, meet fellow members in our community and check in about your work-in-progress, and join in on other bookish talks and 88 Cups of Tea related things, join our private Facebook group! You can really feel the love and support in our community. You also get the opportunity to submit your questions for upcoming guests on the show. Click here to join our private Facebook group!

IMPORTANT NOTE: Be sure to have a clear profile picture of yourself. If not, send over links to either your Twitter or Instagram. Fill out the 3 questions that pop up as soon as you request to join. To protect our group's safe space, these steps help us weed out any spam/fake profiles/creepers. Can't wait to meet you!

---

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to check out our archive of episodes by clicking here!

--- 

"Every day is Friday for authors and illustrators.” 

-Ryan T. Higgins (Click to tweet) 

“At the end of the day it’s what makes the story better.”

-Ryan T. Higgins (Click to tweet)

 ---

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN TODAY'S EPISODE: 

If you’d love to keep 88 Cups of Tea going strong, please consider supporting us through our Patreon membership. We added EARLY ACCESS TO INTERVIEWS for our Super Storyteller patrons in the $8.88 tier. Your kind support at any of our tiers is so helpful. A heartfelt thank you in advance.

https://www.patreon.com/88cupsoftea

---

Rebecca Green is an incredibly talented illustrator and painter, and is the picture book author of "How to Make Friends with a Ghost". In this episode, Rebecca walks us through what a dummy book is and how it fits into the picture book creation process, how an agent can help manage and protect your creative time, and why it’s crucial to surround yourself with a strong and creative publishing team.

Rebecca also shares the different mediums she uses to create her illustrations, why it’s so important to be realistic about your workload and learning how to say no, and we discuss ways to stay inspired as an artist, writer, and a creative.

Say 'Hi' to Rebecca on Instagram! Check out the books and resources mentioned in her episode by clicking here!

Happy listening!

Xo,

Yin

PS. Do you know anyone who would love our conversation? Please share this episode to help spread the word!

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If you enjoyed this episode, I’d really love your support in growing our community by subscribing to us on iTunes, and leaving a rating and review. These specific steps help to increase our visibility on iTunes which really helps new listeners discover us. A huge heartfelt thank you for your time and support! You can click here to go directly to our iTunes page!

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For EXCLUSIVE EARLY ACCESS to our shop, meet fellow members in our community and check in about your work-in-progress, and join in on other bookish talks and 88 Cups of Tea related things, join our private Facebook group! You can really feel the love and support in our community. You also get the opportunity to submit your questions for upcoming guests on the show. Click here to join our private Facebook group!

IMPORTANT NOTE: Be sure to have a clear profile picture of yourself. If not, send over links to either your Twitter or Instagram. Fill out the 3 questions that pop up as soon as you join. To protect our group's safe space, these steps help us weed out any spam/fake profiles/creepers. Can't wait to meet you!

---

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to check out our archive of episodes by clicking here!

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“I definitely try to make things a little funnier and play with your expectations a little bit.” 

-Rebecca Green

“You’re just sort of filling a pantry with skills and with these skills you’ll be able to pull them out at certain times throughout your life and make use of them.”

-Rebecca Green

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WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN TODAY'S EPISODE: 

Greg Pizzoli is an author, illustrator and screenprinter.He is the author of "Good Night Owl", a Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor book, "Templeton Gets His Wish", "Number One Sam", and "The Watermelon Seed", which received the Theodor Seuss Geisel Award.

In this episode, Greg walks us through his writing process, how his method can help you develop your story ideas, and shares advice on creating brevity in your picture books. We discuss the importance of standing out in the publishing market by highlighting your personality and getting your artwork noticed in the industry by sending out postcards of your illustrations to editors and art directors.

We also get into the nitty gritty about preparing your portfolio to be successful at writing conferences, what a picture book dummy is and how it can help you showcase your work to editors and publishers, and how to approach query letters in the picture book world.

Further into the episode, we discuss why diversification is the key to earning money while supporting your storytelling dreams and how Greg creates silkscreen style illustrations.

Say 'Hi' to Greg on Twitter! Check out the books and resources mentioned in her episode by clicking here!

Happy listening!

Xo,

Yin

PS. Do you know anyone who would love our conversation? Please share this episode to help spread the word!

---

If you enjoyed this episode, I’d really love your support in growing our community by subscribing to us on iTunes, and leaving a rating and review. These specific steps help to increase our visibility on iTunes which really helps new listeners discover us. A huge heartfelt thank you for your time and support! You can click here to go directly to our iTunes page!

---

Meet fellow members in our community and check in about your WIP, and join in on other bookish talks and 88 Cups of Tea related things! You can really feel the love and support in our Facebook community. You also get the opportunity to submit your questions for upcoming guests on the show. Click here to join our private Facebook group!

IMPORTANT NOTE: Be sure to have a clear profile picture of yourself. If not, send over links to either your Twitter or Instagram. Fill out the 3 questions that pop up as soon as you join. To protect our group's safe space, these steps help us weed out any spam/fake profiles/creepers. Can't wait to meet you!

---

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to check out our archive of episodes by clicking here!

--- 

“I definitely try to make things a little funnier and play with your expectations a little bit.” 

-Greg Pizzoli (Click to tweet)

“You’re just sort of filling a pantry with skills and with these skills you’ll be able to pull them out at certain times throughout your life and make use of them.”

-Greg Pizzoli (Click to tweet)

---

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN TODAY'S EPISODE: 

If you’d love to keep 88 Cups of Tea going strong, please consider supporting us through our Patreon membership. We added EARLY ACCESS TO INTERVIEWS for our Super Storyteller patrons in the $8.88 tier. Your kind support at any of our tiers is so helpful. A heartfelt thank you in advance.

https://www.patreon.com/88cupsoftea

---

Susan Dennard is the author of the Something Strange and Deadly series as well as the New York Times bestselling books Truthwitch and Windwitch. Susan is one our community’s most requested authors for the show and is known for her really helpful and eye-opening resources for writers. And not to mention, she also has a solid reputation of being known as an author who really cares about the writing community.

This episode is a must for listeners who love conversations about the craft of writing. We cover how to create a successful “plan of attack” for your novel’s revision process, how to develop a strong magic system, advice on crafting a believable male point of view who isn’t a stereotype or a personification of female idealism, and Susan shares the three phases of writing that helps her turn ideas into concrete stories.

We discuss ways for writers to overcome perfectionist tendencies and use it to your advantage, how to discover and fine-tune your writing process to help you reach your writing goals, how a beta-reader or a critique partner can help you avoid info-dumping in your world building, and why it’s crucial to distance yourself from your story idea in order to help it grow.

We also talk about how Susan learned to be self-motivated, how to cope with the loneliness that usually comes along with a writing career, and the importance of sharing your experiences with a writing community who truly understands what you are going through.

Say 'Hi' to Susan on Twitter! Check out the books and resources mentioned in her episode by clicking here!

For NaNoWriMo participants, join Susan's 'The Mighty Pens" fundraiser by clicking here!

Happy listening!

Xo,

Yin

PS. Do you know anyone who would love our conversation? Please share this episode to help spread the word!

---

If you enjoyed this episode, I’d really love your support in growing our community by subscribing to us on iTunes, and leaving a rating and review. These specific steps help to increase our visibility on iTunes which really helps new listeners discover us. A huge heartfelt thank you for your time and support! You can click here to go directly to our iTunes page!

---

Meet fellow members in our community and check in about your WIP, and join in on other bookish talks and 88 Cups of Tea related things! You can really feel the love and support in our Facebook community. You also get the opportunity to submit your questions for upcoming guests on the show. Click here to join our private Facebook group!

IMPORTANT NOTE: Be sure to have a clear profile picture of yourself. If not, send over links to either your Twitter or Instagram. Fill out the 3 questions that pop up as soon as you join. To protect our group's safe space, these steps help us weed out any spam/fake profiles/creepers. Can't wait to meet you!

---

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to check out our archive of episodes by clicking here!

--- 

“What one person likes, is not what someone else is going to like.” 

-Susan Dennard (Click to tweet)

“If it doesn’t feel right, if the cookie is not there, I can’t write it.”

-Susan Dennard (Click to tweet)

“Be kind to yourself. It’s okay if you don’t write everyday.” 

-Susan Dennard (Click to tweet)

---

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN TODAY'S EPISODE: 

Sara Shepard is the author of the popular NYT bestselling series "Pretty Little Liars" and "The Lying Game". She takes us behind the scenes of her newest book, "Follow Me", the second book in "The Amateurs" series.

We unpack how ghostwriting can help hone your craft and develop your own novel, and how ghostwriting created opportunities for Sara to develop the “Pretty Little Liars” book series with Alloy Entertainment. For “Pretty Little Liars” fans, we dive into detail about the book series and Sara’s thoughts on the TV series adaptation.

Further into our conversation, we talk about coping with imposter syndrome as a writer,  ways to overcome writer’s block and unlock new plot lines, how outlining can help you keep track of complicated plot lines during your writing process, and how to manage the pressure of strict deadlines.

We also talk about how to protect your emotions when writing about dark and intense scenes or characters, how to create a villain readers won’t forget, and how to write action scenes that will captivate your readers.

We discuss the importance of community and support when you are going through a hardship and the importance of giving back and showing gratitude to your fans and support.

Say 'Hi' to Sara on Twitter! Check out the books and resources mentioned in her episode by clicking here!

Happy listening!

Xo,

Yin

PS. Do you know anyone who would love our conversation? Please share this episode to help spread the word!

---

If you enjoyed this episode, I’d really love your support in growing our community by subscribing to us on iTunes, and leaving a rating and review. These specific steps help to increase our visibility on iTunes which really helps new listeners discover us. A huge heartfelt thank you for your time and support! You can click here to go directly to our iTunes page!

---

Meet fellow members in our community and check in about your WIP, and join in on other bookish talks and 88 Cups of Tea related things! You can really feel the love and support in our Facebook community. You also get the opportunity to submit your questions for upcoming guests on the show. Click here to join our private Facebook group!

IMPORTANT NOTE: Be sure to have a clear profile picture of yourself. If not, send over links to either your Twitter or Instagram. Fill out the 3 questions that pop up as soon as you join. To protect our group's safe space, these steps help us weed out any spam/fake profiles/creepers. Can't wait to meet you!

---

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to check out our archive of episodes by clicking here!

--- 

“Don’t worry about getting it perfect.” 

-Sara Shepard (Click to tweet)

“As a writer, you have to put yourself in your character’s shoes and understand what they are feeling and the temptations that go with that.”

-Sara Shepard (Click to tweet)

“There are ups and downs and sometimes what you are doing is really popular and sometimes it’s not. It’s ok when it’s not. You still write what you love and still do what you love to do.” 

-Sara Shepard (Click to tweet)

---

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN TODAY'S EPISODE: 

In today’s new episode, we have Maggie Shen King, author of "An Excess Male". In her novel,she explores the marriage plot in a dystopian future and follows in the footsteps of Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale”. It’s the story of one excess male, the less-than-perfect family he seeks to join, and the fight for their version of home, for the freedom to be their true selves, and for the country they have lost to a totalitarian regime that aims to control sex and define the boundaries of marriage in the name of the public good.

I’ve been really looking forward to this conversation with Maggie as her story is inspired by actual statistics. China’s One Child Policy was originally implemented to control overpopulation and according to stats, by the year 2030, China will have unintentionally created a society which more than 25% of men in their late thirties will never have married.

In our discussion, Maggie shares more insight into China’s One Child Policy, one of the most radical social experiments in history.  She walks us through the research process for writing “An Excess Male” and the importance of targeted research to prevent the loss of writing time.

Maggie belongs to two different writing groups and we dive into the benefits of joining one, and how they’ve helped her tremendously in her writing career. We also discuss the importance of having an editor to help move your story forward. For craft-focused writers, we cover how to improve your world building as a linear writer, and what a style sheet is, and how it can help you create dynamic characters.

Say 'Hi' to Maggie on Twitter! Check out the books and resources mentioned in her episode by clicking here!

Happy listening!

Xo,

Yin

PS. Do you know anyone who would love our conversation? Please share this episode to help spread the word!

---

If you enjoyed this episode, I’d really love your support in growing our community by subscribing to us on iTunes, and leaving a rating and review. These specific steps help to increase our visibility on iTunes which really helps new listeners discover us. A huge heartfelt thank you for your time and support! You can click here to go directly to our iTunes page!

---

Would you love to support our show with some 88 Cups of Tea swag? Grab our limited edition mug (signed by yours truly) here!

---

Meet fellow members in our community and check in about your WIP, and join in on other bookish talks and 88 Cups of Tea related things! You can really feel the love and support in our Facebook community. You also get the opportunity to submit your questions for upcoming guests on the show. Click here to join our private Facebook group!

IMPORTANT NOTE: Be sure to have a clear profile picture of yourself. If not, send over links to either your Twitter or Instagram. Fill out the 3 questions that pop up as soon as you join. To protect our group's safe space, these steps help us weed out any spam/fake profiles/creepers. Can't wait to meet you!

---

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to check out our archive of episodes by clicking here!

---

“It’s adding a piece of the puzzle at a time and once you create it, then there’s a place to add more.” 

-Maggie Shen King

“Learning to listen to the criticism and encouragement and suggestions is a really good thing to develop.”

-Maggie Shen King

“Once you have something on the page, you can work on it.” 

-Maggie Shen King

---

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN TODAY'S EPISODE: 

If you’d love to keep 88 Cups of Tea going strong, please consider supporting us through our Patreon membership. We added EARLY ACCESS TO INTERVIEWS for our Super Storyteller patrons in the $8.88 tier. Your kind support at any of our tiers is so helpful. A heartfelt thank you in advance.

https://www.patreon.com/88cupsoftea

---

In today’s new episode, we have Holly Black, the author of bestselling contemporary fantasy books for kids and teens. Some of the popular books that many of you recognize her from are the “The Spiderwick Chronicles” and The Modern Faerie Tale series. She’s also hugely popular for “The Coldest Girl in Coldtown” and the Magisterium series. Holly’s been a finalist for an Eisner Award, and the recipient of the Andre Norton Award, the Mythopoeic Award and a Newbery Honor.

In the episode, we talk about the importance of understanding your character’s oppositions to move your plot forward, how to make the most out of critique groups and get the best constructive feedback for your story, the importance of being a part of a community that understands the ups and downs of the industry and ways you can find that community for yourself, and the characteristics you want to ideally find in your critique partner.

We also discuss how to overcome self-doubt as a writer and Holly shares a bunch of writing tools that help set writing goals. We dive into what it means to fast draft and how it pushes you past your critical eye to finish your first draft. For listeners especially focused on the craft of writing, you are going to freaking love today’s episode because Holly also shares how she starts a story with a character and a feeling, and how that navigates her to write the rest of the novel with an image in mind that evokes that specific feeling. Holly unpacks why it’s crucial to describe the fantastical elements at the same level of reality when writing contemporary fantasy, and how to craft narrative voices that resonate with your intended audience by thinking about what you cared about during that age.

Heads up: This episode is so good.

Say 'Hi' to Holly on Twitter! Check out the books and resources mentioned in her episode by clicking here!

Happy listening!

Xo,

Yin

PS. Do you know anyone who would love our conversation? Please share this episode to help spread the word!

---

If you enjoyed this episode, I’d really love your support in growing our community by subscribing to us on iTunes, and leaving a rating and review. These specific steps help to increase our visibility on iTunes which really helps new listeners discover us. A huge heartfelt thank you for your time and support! You can click here to go directly to our iTunes page!

---

Would you love to support our show with some 88 Cups of Tea swag? Grab our limited edition mug (signed by yours truly) here!

---

Meet fellow members in our community and check in about your WIP, and join in on other bookish talks and 88 Cups of Tea related things! You can really feel the love and support in our Facebook community. You also get the opportunity to submit your questions for upcoming guests on the show. Click here to join our private Facebook group!

IMPORTANT NOTE: Be sure to have a clear profile picture of yourself. If not, send over links to either your Twitter or Instagram. Fill out the 3 questions that pop up as soon as you join. To protect our group's safe space, these steps help us weed out any spam/fake profiles/creepers. Can't wait to meet you!

---

Warm welcome to our new listeners, be sure to check out our archive of episodes by clicking here!

---

“A lot of times we are doing things that have nothing to do with our writing until someday it does.” -Holly Black (Click to tweet!)

“Write for your reader-self, not your writer-self.” -Holly Black (Click to tweet!)

“The more real that you can make the real world, the more real the fantasy is going to feel.” -Holly Black (Click to tweet!)

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WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN TODAY'S EPISODE: