Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing Podcast Por Mark Leslie Lefebvre arte de portada

Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing

Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing

De: Mark Leslie Lefebvre
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Perspectives and reflections on the writing and publishing life. Mark Leslie Lefebvre, a writer, bookseller, digital publishing advocate, professional speaker, and publishing consultant explores inclusive and collaborative opportunities for writers and book publishing professionals via interviews, discussions, and reflections about the industry. (Mark's personal website is www.markleslie.ca)Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Public License Arte Historia y Crítica Literaria
Episodios
  • EP 433 - Affordable Multi-Voice Audiobook Narration from Spoken with Phil Marshall

    EP 433 - Affordable Multi-Voice Audiobook Narration from Spoken with Phil Marshall
    Sep 12 2025
    In this episode Mark interviews Phil Marshall, the author of the recently released science fiction novel Taming the Perilous Skies and the founder of Spoken, a platform that removes numerous audiobook production barriers for indie authors and small publishers. Prior to the interview, Mark shares comments, a personal update, and a word about this episode's sponsor. This episode is sponsored by ScribeCount (affiliate link). Spend less time logging in to multiple platforms and crunching numbers, and more time writing and marketing your books thanks to ScribeCount’s handy all-in-one interface. In the interview, Mark and Phil talk about: Phil's background with ConversaBeing trained as a surgeon and then switching to product development and technologyThe novel (TAMING THE PERILOUS SKIES) that was baking in his head since 2021Distributing 130 copies of his novel to early readers at a recent WorldConThe market info of "Dan Brown meets Andy Weir"How the novel and Spoken itself were both inspired by the same thingAn explanation of what Spoken is and how it addresses Phil's desire for multi-cast narrationMulti-voice narration being a speciality of SpokenWhy Phil is releasing the novel in multi-cast narration via Spoken for free in chapter by chapter installmentsSpoken having just completed a full year of beta release and is now available as a fully available productA bit of a walk-thru of how Spoken breaks out different character voices in an automated mannerHow ElevenLabs and Hume are the two partners Spoken uses for their character and narrator voicesThe costs involved in producing these audio booksHow there is no cost for listeners who want to check out how things sound on SpokenPhil's message to authors who are nervous/anxious about A.I.And more... After the interview Mark reflects on a couple of things related to the conversation. Links of Interest: SpokenPhil Marshall's WebsitePhil's Book: Taming the Perilous SkiesEP 432 - Creativity, Connection, and Community with Police Officer and Author A.L. WahdelEP 056 - Balance and Counterbalance with Katie CrossKobo Writing Life Podcast EP 78 (March 2017) - Katie Cross: From Full-Time Author to Full-Time MomSPA Girls Podcast Episode 517 (with Mark) YouTubeMain Podcast Link Manuscript Report (Mark's affiliate link)Buy Mark a CoffeePatreon for Stark ReflectionsMark's YouTube channelMark's Stark Reflections on Writing & Publishing Newsletter (Signup)An Author's Guide to Working With Bookstores and LibrariesThe Relaxed Author Buy eBook DirectBuy Audiobook Direct Publishing Pitfalls for AuthorsAn Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & BookstoresWide for the WinMark's Canadian Werewolf Books This Time Around (Short Story)A Canadian Werewolf in New YorkStowe Away (Novella)Fear and Longing in Los AngelesFright Nights, Big CityLover's MoonHex and the CityOnly Monsters in the Building The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and AutomobilesYippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die HardMerry Christmas! Shitter Was Full!: A Trivia Guide to National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation Phil Marshall Bio: I build technologies, organizations, and stories that imagine a fantastic future. From my theory of persistence, which sits at the heart of my sci-fi writing, to pioneering conversational AI that transformed the relationships between doctors and patients, to creating groundbreaking tools that are transforming the relationship between authors and their readers, I thrive at the intersection of imagination and execution. My current project is Spoken, bringing authors and readers together around great audio stories that are made possible by technology. Before Spoken, I co-founded Conversa, a platform that connected patients and care teams using conversational AI. Along the way, I’ve built technologies that span personalization (WebMD), collaborative movie-making (JumperCut), ontology-driven knowledge graphs (OntoLogic.ai), and concept-based health record threading (WellMed). The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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    1 h y 9 m
  • EP 432 - Creativity, Connection, and Community with Police Officer and Author A.L. Wahdel

    EP 432 - Creativity, Connection, and Community with Police Officer and Author A.L. Wahdel
    Sep 5 2025
    Mark interviews A.L. Wahdel, a crime thriller writer brings Toronto’s soul to life in his fiction. They talk about his new book TOO DARK FOR THE LIGHT, about his writing, about police work, and about the importance of community, connection, and creativity.\ Prior to the interview, Mark shares a personal update and a word about this episode's sponsor. This episode's sponsor: This episode is sponsored by an affiliate link to Manuscript Report. Use code MARK5 at checkout and save $5.00 off your own personalized report. In the interview, Mark and Lance talk about: Lance's 20 years of experience in the police force and how he had planned on a completely different career path by studying media arts and graphic designHow people usually ask police officers if they're seen any crazy stuff, but rarely ask if they've seen amazing thingsThe power of community and connecting and communicating with people"Always be in a constant state of create." A philosophy that drives Lance in his life and writingHow any time a person creates something it's a gift to the world and the universeLance's earliest experience writing lyrics and musicBeing a huge comic fan, Batman in particularThe revelation of "write what you know" in creating his first novel TO DARK FOR THE LIGHTFinding his writing community via numerous podcasts, YouTube, and other online resourcesEstablishing a virtual "mastermind" from the shared writing resourcesDeciding to set his novel in Toronto, Ontario, Canada instead of choosing a "more popular" major US cityUsing Toronto's iconic skyline on the cover to ensure the setting for the book was clearDebating over whether or not to begin with Water Kascade's origin storyThe tricky balance of writing an authentic police procedural novel (ie, ignoring those tedious long boring periods of time in the day to day life of law enforcement)The training of always being alert and aware as a police officer and how that benefits Lance as a writerSome of the things that authors get wrong related to police workThe integrity involved in releasing the book under the pseudonym A.L. Wahdel so as not to take advantage of his role and employerAdvice Lance would offer to other authorsAnd more . . . After the interview Mark shares a few reflections about the desire to help others and the value of creativity in giving to the world. Links of Interest: A.L. Wahdel's WebsiteA.L. Wahdel on Substack: A Constant State of CreateCatching up with Dale L. Roberts (Draft2Digital Self-Publishing Insiders)Manuscript Report (Mark's affiliate link)Buy Mark a CoffeePatreon for Stark ReflectionsEP 430 - Rambling Reflections from a Lemons to Lemonade Road TripMark's YouTube channelMark's Stark Reflections on Writing & Publishing Newsletter (Signup)An Author's Guide to Working With Bookstores and LibrariesThe Relaxed Author Buy eBook DirectBuy Audiobook Direct Publishing Pitfalls for AuthorsAn Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & BookstoresWide for the WinMark's Canadian Werewolf Books This Time Around (Short Story)A Canadian Werewolf in New YorkStowe Away (Novella)Fear and Longing in Los AngelesFright Nights, Big CityLover's MoonHex and the CityOnly Monsters in the Building The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and AutomobilesYippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die HardMerry Christmas! Shitter Was Full!: A Trivia Guide to National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation A.L. Wahdel is an exciting new storyteller in the crime thriller genre, blending gripping suspense with a powerful narrative. A.L. Wahdel writes with energy about the city that shaped his identity. With an unwavering love for its style and complexity, he brings Toronto’s soul to life in every story. Choosing his birthplace as the canvas for his crime series was an intentional act—to honour its essence, celebrate its dynamism, and share the stories that only a true Torontonian writer could tell The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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    1 h y 8 m
  • EP 431 - An Interview with Writer, Producer, and Celebrity Publicist William J Bruce III

    EP 431 - An Interview with Writer, Producer, and Celebrity Publicist William J Bruce III
    Aug 28 2025
    Mark interviews writer, producer, and celebrity publicist William J Bruce III. Prior to the interview, Mark shares a personal update, comments, and a word about this episode's sponsor. This episode's sponsor: This episode is sponsored by an affiliate link to Manuscript Report. Use code MARK5 at checkout and save $5.00 off your own personalized report. In the interview, Mark and William talk about: The weird series of events that led William into his current careerMeeting a film producer on the day of a school evacuationHow a lot of William's work is done online and behind the scenesThe importance of doing due diligence as a publicist to make sure the interviewee doesn't get "trapped" by the host/interviewerThe memoir that William wrote and why he wrote it because of a really low point in his lifeLooking at your life and your faith when in a dark place after having made a grave mistakeThe novel that William is currently working onHow people can be heartless when it comes to talking about celebritiesThe story behind how William is publishing his novelThat negative voice whenever you're trying something newAnd more... After the interview Mark reflects on that feeling of self-doubt as well as the perspective of heroes and villians and good and evil. Links of Interest: William J BruceSelf-Publish Like a Pro (Sunday August 31, 2025) - Reedsy Virtual EventManuscript Report (Mark's affiliate link)Buy Mark a CoffeePatreon for Stark ReflectionsEP 430 - Rambling Reflections from a Lemons to Lemonade Road TripMark's YouTube channelMark's Stark Reflections on Writing & Publishing Newsletter (Signup)An Author's Guide to Working With Bookstores and LibrariesThe Relaxed Author Buy eBook DirectBuy Audiobook Direct Publishing Pitfalls for AuthorsAn Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & BookstoresWide for the WinMark's Canadian Werewolf Books This Time Around (Short Story)A Canadian Werewolf in New YorkStowe Away (Novella)Fear and Longing in Los AngelesFright Nights, Big CityLover's MoonHex and the CityOnly Monsters in the Building The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and AutomobilesYippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die HardMerry Christmas! Shitter Was Full!: A Trivia Guide to National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation William J Bruce III is a writer, producer and celebrity publicist. As a publicist he has worked with Shawn Harper of the NFL and the "Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase of the WWE during Ted’s peak in Google Trends. As executive producer to the compilation album Bridge Wars, he brought together artists such as F.E.R.N (Capitol Records artist produced by DukeDaGod of The Diplomats), and Mahogany Jones (four-time Champion of BET’s “Freestyle Friday’s”). Later in 2016 William became the executive producer and host of the Aussie Osbourne Show. The show featured in-depth interviews with celebrities such as Mike Mullane (former NASA astronaut), Alveda King (niece of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the daughter of civil rights activist A.D. King), and Charlene Li (Harvard magna cum laude graduate and NY Times bestselling author). His writing has landed him cover stories with former Victoria Secret model Kylie Bisutti, P.O.D front man Sonny Sandoval and the "Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase of WWE. William's work in film and his ability to hone the craft of writing assisted him in his role of script revisionist for the Eric Roberts film In the Blink of an Eye. The author of the memoir Penholder, William has also written the introduction to the 150th Anniversary Edition of Demons by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Currently William is completing a novel called "Hate"(working title). The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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    1 h y 1 m
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