Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing

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Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing

Mark Leslie Lefebvre

Perspectives and reflections on the writing and publishing life. Mark Leslie Lefebvre, a writer, bookseller, digital publishing advocate and professional speaker and publishing consultant, explores inclusive and collaborate opportunities for writers and book publishing professionals via interviews, discussions and reflections about the industry. (Mark's personal website is www.markleslie.ca)

39 minutes 38 seconds

EP 470 - Building Your Author Brand with Isabelle Knight
Mark interviews former publicist to the stars Isabelle Knight who is the founder of Build Your Author Brand, an online consultancy helping fiction and non-fiction authors to grow your readership, raise your profile and give your books the best chance of success.

Prior to the interview Mark shares that he is on the road at the Writers and Illustrators of the Future annual workshops and gala as one of the writer judges and is using his digital voice clone from ElevenLabs to record the introduction and closing reflection. He also shares a word about this episode's sponsor.

This episode is sponsored by an affiliate link to Manuscript Report. Use code MARK10 at checkout and save 10% off your own personalized report.

During the interview Mark and Isabelle talk about:
- Isabelle's background as a publicist for film, TV, and books
- Recognizing how there's a real knack of knowledge for creating an effective brand/profile
- Teaching authors the basics of that branding without using the terms PR or publicity
- The idea of creating foundations of how an author can be able to pitch their books to an audience
- How talking about marketing can quickly fill authors with a sense of terror
- The importance of wanting to know, before helping an author, what makes them tick
- How the author's story is what tells us who they author is and ultimately "why do we care?" about your book(s)
- Finding the themes that can tie books together rather than what makes them different when an author has written more than one book
- The challenge of wanting, too much, to share the details from a book, the plot, the tropes, etc versus sharing higher level themes and patterns
- The misconception that PR and Publicity is only for celebrities or people who are comfortable being in the spotlight
- A misperception that authors have about how to provide content for social media
- How Isabelle doesn't work like a traditional publicist
- The course that Isabelle runs with a cohort about three times a year
- And more...
After the interview Mark shares a few reflections about the conversation.

Links of Interest:
Former publicist to the stars, including titans of industry JK Rowling and the BBC, Isabelle Knight is the founder of Build Your Author Brand, an online consultancy helping fiction and non-fiction authors to grow your readership, raise your profile and give your books the best chance of success.

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
16 April 2026, 11:17 pm
1 hour 5 minutes

EP 469 - Small-Town Canadian Superheroes with Matthew del Papa and Andy Taylor
Mark interviews Matthew del Papa and Andy Taylor, editors of SUPERCANUCKS: An Anthology of Small Town Canadian Superheroes.

Prior to the interview Mark shares a brief personal update and a word from this episode's sponsor.

This episode is sponsored by an affiliate link to Manuscript Report. Use code MARK10 at checkout and save 10% off your own personalized report.

During the interview Mark, Matthew, and Andy talk about:
- Andy and Mat's writing background and how they got into editing an anthology like Super Canucks
- How editing is a new experience for Andy
- The consist "what if?" that has been a part of Andy's writing for most of his life
- Matthew's background and the various genres he has written
- What the appeal of writing fantasy and non-science-filled fiction is for Mat
- The origin story of the Supercanucks anthology and how it relates to the "brain drain" to larger cities
- How far the call-out for stories for this anthology went
- The submissions and the whittling-down process
- Having six stories set in Northern Ontario, but needing to ensure the stories were from across the country
- The locales across Canada that made the cut for this anthology
- The process of reading and selecting and editing the stories
- Deciding who was going to edit which story and work with which authors
- The uniqueness for some of the contributors with being able to use Canadian pop culture references and spelling
- The sudden need for an aspect of the "Elbows Up!" motif into the anthology
- Mat's learnings when it came to working with a traditional publisher rather than the previous self-publishing experience he'd had before
- Some of the things they experienced editing this anthology that they hadn't expected
- Advice Matthew and Andy would offer to writers who are interested in submitting to an anthology
After the interview Mark shares a few reflections about the value of understanding the process that editors use when selecting stories for an anthology, an admission of a goof-up he made in a recent submission, and his own experience with "brain drain" and "Elbows Up!"

Links of Interest:
Matthew D. Del Papa spent every Tuesday of his youth crisscrossing his hometown of Capreol in search of newly arrived comic books. He wore superhero-themed Underoos to a truly worrying age and still has his Batman (and Robin) lunchbox, backpack, and wrist-watch.

A graduate of Laurentian University, Matthew is a writer, editor, and self-publisher, and has released ten titles to some modest local acclaim.

He joined the Sudbury Writers' Guild in 2009 and his writing has appeared in Spooky Sudbury, Nothing Without Us Too, Mighty, and Sudbury Superstack: A Changing Skyline. His collection of humorous essays titled Jerry Lewis Told Me I Was Going to Die, was released in 2023 through Latitude 46 Publishing.

Andy W. Taylor has been a reader and writer of speculative fiction from an early age thanks in no small part to his mother's frequent trips to the public library with her kids.

Andy is a member of The Writers' Union of Canada, past president and member of the Sudbury Writers' Guild, a graduate of the Viable Paradise writing workshop and Playwright's Junction workshop, and a member of CODEX. Originally from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario Andy currently resides in Sudbury, Ontario with his family. His fiction has appeared in Nature: Futures, Polar Borealis, On Spec, FictionVale and on the streets of Sudbury. Visit him at www.SooGuy.com or on BlueSky at @sooguy68.bsky.social

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
9 April 2026, 11:00 pm
1 hour 7 minutes

EP 468 - Identity and Not Being Who You Thought You Were with Marie Lynne Desrochers
Mark interviews Marie Lynne Desrochers about her new memoir SHAKEN AWAKE: A Memoir on Identity and Connection.

Prior to the interview, Mark shares a personal update, and a word about this episode's sponsor.

This episode is sponsored by Toronto Indie Author Conference, taking place in Toronto, ON in April 2026.

In the interview, Mark and Marie Lynne talk about:
- Marie's background in the corporate world marketing and how that ties in to storytelling
- The startling event of receiving a message via Facebook from a man who introduced himself as Marie's father and how that lead to this memoir
- The moment when you start wondering who you thought you've been your whole life
- Marie's book SHAKEN AWAKE: A MEMOIR ON IDENTITY AND CONNECTION which is being released in English first in March 2026, and then will be released in French in June (both written by Marie who is bilingual)
- How the table of contents for the book seemed to emerge dynamically near the beginning of the project
- The exploration of identity and the various different identities that each individual wears
- The value of sitting in different seats during the experience of writing a memoir like this
- How the cover and the title for this book came to be
- The way when you first become aware of something you see it everywhere
- The ritual and importance of the kintsugi bowl from Japanese culture
- The fear that still sits with Marie in the process of releasing this story to the world
- When editors have conflicting views/perspectives on a book and how that can mean it's going to be a really good book - and the importance that not everyone is going to like it, or even believe it
- Supernatural guidance that Marie received that helped answer the question of why she was writing this book
- Deciding not to try to go to a publisher, but going to Author Nation instead to connect with people and learn how to get the book out there herself
- The triple crown of being a successful author that includes needing to have mentors, to know what you're doing, and to have an accountability buddy
- Advice Marie would offer to a writer beginning on their journey
- The confidence about trusting emergence
- Doing a book launch at a local gallery and the power of that collaboration
- The distinctly different title for the French version of the book
- And more...
After the interview Mark reflects on a number of things that came up during the interview.

Links of Interest:
Marie Lynne Desrochers is a Montreal-based author, speaker, director and former banking executive whose 30-year career spanned marketing, entrepreneurship, and advising global leaders. She now explores truth, identity, and connection through narrative nonfiction. Her memoir, Shaken Awake: A Memoir on Identity and Connection (March 19, 2026), weaves a powerful family discovery with a deeper reflection on how unexpected truths reshape who we are—and how we love.

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
2 April 2026, 11:00 pm
1 hour 41 seconds

EP 467 - Strategies for ADHD Writers with Nicole Bross
In this episode Mark interviews author, editor, and certified book coach Nicole Bross about her co-authored book A NOVEL APPROACH: STRATEGIES FOR ADHD WRITERS.

Prior to the interview, Mark shares comments from recent episodes, a personal update, and a word about this episode's sponsor.

This episode is sponsored by Toronto Indie Author Conference, taking place in Toronto, ON in April 2026.

In the interview, Mark and Nicole talk about:
- Nicole's background always being interested in writing, along with a love of mysteries such as Nancy Drew and others
- Taking journalism in high school and also at Mount Royal
- Her first novel being published in 2019 and how it was near the same time she was first diagnosed with ADHD
- Published a few articles that lead to her co-author reaching out and suggesting the idea of collaborating on that book
- The collaboration being done mostly online (Nicole in Alberta, and Kirsten in Vienna) and how they divided the work up while writing into the same Google Doc simultaneously
- The "every Friday" accountability connections they did along the way
- The three year period between coming up with the idea to the book being released (in the fall of 2025)
- The most important message of the book to writers
- How the combination of being a bright kid with undiagnosed ADHD meant it mostly went un-noticed
- The book A NOVEL APPROACH: STRATEGIES FOR ADHD WRITERS by Nicole Bross and Kristen Donaghey
- The manual typewriter collection that Nicole has (which includes about 20 of them)
- Advice Nicole would offer to writers with ADHD
- Where an outline can actually prove to be helpful by offering a goal they're reaching toward as well as manageable chunks of achievement
- Nicole's novel PAST PRESENCE which is a supernatural mystery novel
- The different timelines Nicole has experienced with traditional publishing and self-publishing
- And more...
After the interview Mark reflects on the importance of asking and the commitment to move forward however slowly.

Links of Interest:
- Nicole Bross's Website
- Nicole's Website for Authors: Manuscript Alchemy
- Manuscript Report (Mark's affiliate link - use MARK10 to save 10%)
- Buy Mark a Coffee
- Patreon for Stark Reflections
- Mark's YouTube channel
- ElevenLabs (AI Voice Generation - Affiliate link)
- Mark's Stark Reflections on Writing & Publishing Newsletter (Signup)
- An Author's Guide to Working With Bookstores and Libraries
- The Relaxed Author
  - Buy eBook Direct
  - Buy Audiobook Direct
- Publishing Pitfalls for Authors
- An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores
- Wide for the Win
- Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books
- The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles
- Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard
- Merry Christmas! Shitter Was Full!: A Trivia Guide to National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
- I Think It's A Sign That The Pun Also Rises
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
26 March 2026, 11:43 pm
31 minutes 37 seconds

EP 466 - Publishing Wide But Shallow
In this solo episode, Mark shares an article he posted on Substack earlier in March called "Publishing Wide But Shallow."

Prior to the main content (the article), Mark shares a word about this episode's sponsor.

This episode is sponsored by Toronto Indie Author Conference, taking place in Toronto, ON in April 2026.

Links of Interest:
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
19 March 2026, 11:12 pm
39 minutes 47 seconds

EP 465 - Rambling Reflections From Before The Road
In this solo episode, Mark reflects on Ireland, the importance/value of repeating information and sharing, and the Public Lending Rights program.

Prior to the interview Mark shares a word from this episode's sponsors.

This episode is partially sponsored by Toronto Indie Author Conference, taking place in Toronto, ON in April 2026.

This episode is partially sponsored by an affiliate link to Manuscript Report. Use code MARK10 at checkout and save 10% off your own personalized report.

Links of Interest:
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
12 March 2026, 9:51 pm
1 hour 10 minutes

EP 464 - The Big Stories of a Memorable Memoir with Roz Morris
Mark interviews novelist, memoirist, and professional story whisperer Roz Morris about her writing life and her pivot into writing memoirs alongside her fiction.

Prior to the interview Mark shares a brief personal update a word from this episode's sponsor.

This episode is sponsored by an affiliate link to Manuscript Report. Use code MARK10 at checkout and save 10% off your own personalized report.

In the interview Mark and Roz talk about:
- How Roz and Mark first met at the London Book Fair in 2012
- What Roz writes and the types of stories that she loves and is fascinated with
- Roz's journey which includes experience working in a publishing company and meeting and marrying another writer
- The red leather-bound VISITORS book that Roz was given and she used for notes when she went on holiday, and how her husband convinced her to put those into a book
- Roz's new book TURN RIGHT AT THE RAINBOW: A Diary of Househunting, Happenstance, Home
- The concept of a house that holds within its structure and walls all the people and stories that took place within it and how that ties in to the story of Roz and her husband's search for a new home
- How it's very hard to remember how you saw something for the first time
- The way Roz decides what stories are going to make it into a particular memoir
- How museums out of season can be great because of the passion that you can witness in the employees
- The next memoir that Roz is currently "collecting" in the background
- How in a novel Roz can inhabit a lot of people in different ways
- Advice Roz would have moving from memoir to fiction and vice versa
After the interview Mark reflects on a few things Roz mentioned as well as something her advice reminded him of. He also rambles a bit longer than normal.

Links of Interest:
- Roz Morris Website
  - Roz's latest book: TURN RIGHT AT THE RAINBOW
- Mark's Books in the Smashwords READ AN EBOOK WEEK sale
- Article: Publishing Wide But Shallow
- Article: Stretching Before The Writing Run
- Manuscript Report (Mark's affiliate link - use MARK10 to save 10%)
- Buy Mark a Coffee
- Patreon for Stark Reflections
- Mark's YouTube channel
- ElevenLabs (AI Voice Generation - Affiliate link)
- Mark's Stark Reflections on Writing & Publishing Newsletter (Signup)
- An Author's Guide to Working With Bookstores and Libraries
- The Relaxed Author
  - Buy eBook Direct
  - Buy Audiobook Direct
- Publishing Pitfalls for Authors
- An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores
- Wide for the Win
- Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books
  - This Time Around (Short Story)
  - A Canadian Werewolf in New York
  - Stowe Away (Novella)
  - Fear and Longing in Los Angeles
  - Fright Nights, Big City
  - Lover's Moon
  - Hex and the City
  - Only Monsters in the Building
  - Once Bitten (Novella)
- The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles
- Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard
- Merry Christmas! Shitter Was Full!: A Trivia Guide to National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
- I Think It's A Sign That The Pun Also Rises
Roz Morris is a novelist, memoirist, and professional story whisperer. She's the author of acclaimed literary novels with BIG emotional canvases, and memoirs that find meaning in unadventures. She's also a developmental editor and writing coach and has helped shape books that have sold more than four million copies—some of those from behind the scenes as a ghostwriter. She's also the creator of the Nail Your Novel series for writers and the blog of the same name. She's judged literary prizes including the Amazon Kindle Storyteller Award and Vine Leaves Press New Voices competition, and has taught masterclasses for The Guardian in London and Jane Friedman's online academy.

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
6 March 2026, 6:27 pm
43 minutes 13 seconds

EP 463 - How to Bring Your Book Alive at an Author Event with Julie Hiner
Mark interviews author Julie Hiner about creating an unforgettable book event for a book launch.

Prior to the interview Mark shares a brief personal update a word from this episode's sponsor.

This episode is sponsored by an affiliate link to Manuscript Report. Use code MARK10 at checkout and save 10% off your own personalized report.

In the interview Mark and Julie talk about:
- Julie's branding as being strongly tied to the 80s and music even though she fought it at first
- The first book Julie published about road biking (JUST A GIRL ON A BIKE) which was the story of how she overcame a lot of fears and anxiety and the donations she makes with sales of that book
- The 21 switch-backs on the road biking in France that became the 21 steps in Julie's book
- The value of learning so much about self-publishing when Julie attender her first When Words Collide conference
- Julie's ongoing obsession with true crime, serial killers, and 80s metal
- Interacting with and interviewing Homicide Detective Dave Sweet
- Julie's books in the Detective Mahoney series that started with the book FINAL TRACK
- The original venue Julie used for her first book and the newer one she has partnered with
- The special VIP pre-order packages Julie makes available
- The way the collaboration with the musicians work, including Julie creating lyrics for the bands to adapt into songs
- How horror is a really safe place to explore extremely dark things
- Studies that show that aggressive music can help calm the brain
- The creepiest serial killer that came up in the research Julie did
- Some of the things authors should consider when looking at their branding
After the interview Mark shares about an event Julie has coming up in April 2026, and then talks about the importance of pulling out atmospheric elements from the book/story/characters/setting as well as the idea of writing with authenticity and passion.

Links of Interest:
Julie Hiner spent her childhood lost in the pages of books. The only thing that took precedence was her Walkman. She is still an 80s rocker.

On a break from her career as a computer scientist, she published an inspirational book about facing fears by cycling up mountains.

Julie now writes horror/suspense infused with heavy metal. She has published a serial killer series, three horror novellas, co-curated an anthology, and had short stories published. She recently had a deep-sea horror novella published by Torrid Waters of Crystal Lake Publishing.

You can find her at KillersAndDemons.com serving up metal and murder.

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
27 February 2026, 12:59 am
52 minutes 15 seconds

EP 462 - Daryn Brito on Showing Up With Love, Compassion, and Empathy
Mark interviews Daryn Brito, an advocate, writer, and researcher dedicated to supporting those who have faced trauma and adversity about her work and her new book THE BECOMING: UNREPEATABLE MIRACLE, WHO ARE YOU?

Prior to the interview Mark shares a brief personal update a word from this episode's sponsor, and a trigger warning for listeners.

This episode is sponsored by Toronto Indie Author Conference, taking place in Toronto, ON in April 2026.

In the interview, Mark and Daryn about:
- Mark first meeting Daryn in a class at the Waterloo Regional Police Citizen's Academy
- How Daryn's main goal when doing speaking engagements is to start in a way to humilify herself first to help demonstrate her humanity and put the audience at ease
- The importance of taking her academic study and leveraging it in a way that the average person can understand it
- How Daryn is currently doing two simultaneous Masters programs in preparation for her Phd
- The specific therapy models that Daryn is focusing on in her study
- The undergrad study Daryn did showing that only 3% of people who were in foster care attempt post-secondary education - this is usually due to lack of support
- How, growing up, school was the one area where Daryn had a sense of control, and how she focused hard in that realm
- Regularly being told that her heart is too big for her own good
- Daryn's early childhood experiences, starting with her mother's experience while pregnant with Daryn
- The first time of having to go to court and testify as a victim of sexual assault at the age of twelve
- Being a primary caregiver to younger siblings and struggling with a strong/high empathy
- Deciding she had finally had enough of living in a situation filled with IPV (Intimate Partner Violence)
- Getting involved in helping to train police officers in better understanding trauma related to IPV
- Initially mistrusting the police, particularly due to the environment she grew up in
- How the investigating detective in Daryn's case was one of the most compassionate human being Daryn had ever met in her life
- The deciding factor in making the police report not being about Daryn getting hurt again, but her feeling responsible for the possibility of other people getting hurt
- How if it weren't for Daryn's heart for others, she wouldn't be here today
- Doing a lot of speaking for police at the academy for those being trained in IPV (Intimate Partner Violence)
- The journals Daryn had always kept which helped provide the fruit for the creation of her book THE BECOMING
- The importance of breaking down the walls we put up, knowing that it's safe to open your heart to the world again
- The various groups who have purchased Daryn's group in order to help other people
- Choosing a release date for her book as her ex-abuser's parole hearing day as a way to make that day brighter
- What Daryn would say to someone who is or has faced adversity or trauma
- The incredible "basic needs" special housing program/project that Daryn is looking at
- The value of showing up with love and compassion
After the interview Mark reflects on the concepts of compassion and empathy and the importance of recognizing multiple viewpoints and environments unique to different people.

Links of Interest:
- Daryn Brito Website
- Waterloo Regional Police
- Flashpoint TV Series
- Superstars Writing Seminars
- Stark Reflections on Pushing for Better (Team Landing Page)
- CMHA (Canadian Mental Health Association)
  - Mental Health Meter
  - What's Your Stress Index?
- Manuscript Report (Mark's affiliate link - use MARK10 to save 10%)
- Buy Mark a Coffee
- Patreon for Stark Reflections
- Mark's YouTube channel
- ElevenLabs (AI Voice Generation - Affiliate link)
- Mark's Stark Reflections on Writing & Publishing Newsletter (Signup)
- An Author's Guide to Working With Bookstores and Libraries
- The Relaxed Author
  - Buy eBook Direct
  - Buy Audiobook Direct
- Publishing Pitfalls for Authors
- An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores
- Wide for the Win
- Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books
  - This Time Around (Short Story)
  - A Canadian Werewolf in New York
  - Stowe Away (Novella)
  - Fear and Longing in Los Angeles
  - Fright Nights, Big City
  - Lover's Moon
  - Hex and the City
  - Only Monsters in the Building
  - Once Bitten (Novella)
- The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles
- Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard
- Merry Christmas! Shitter Was Full!: A Trivia Guide to National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
- I Think It's A Sign That The Pun Also Rises
Daryn Brito is an advocate, writer, and researcher dedicated to supporting those who have faced trauma and adversity. Through her work, she empowers individuals and strives for systemic change.

What makes Daryn's journey so remarkable, is how she turns her lived experiences into transformative wisdom. So through her compelling public talks, her insightful research and her book The Becoming: unrepeatable miracle, who are you? Daryn challenges us to question who we are beneath all the labels, and invites us to step into our most authentic, fullest selves

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
20 February 2026, 2:42 pm
46 minutes 46 seconds

EP 461 - The Power of Stories to Instill Empathy, Resilience, Joy, and Hope with Ka-Yee Essoe
In this episode Mark interviews Ka-Yee Essoe about the power of stories to instil empathy, resilience, joy, and hope, based on her experiences in the academic world, in research, in teaching, and in writing an epic fantasy novel.

Prior to the interview Mark shares a brief personal update and word from this episode's sponsor.

This episode is sponsored by Toronto Indie Author Conference, taking place in Toronto, ON in April 2026.

In the interview, Mark and Ka-Yee talk about:
- Mark and Ka-Yee's connection to Joshua EssoeKa-Yee's background with two different careers in academia
- Studying how to help people learn therapeutic techniques better
- Starting her creative writing journey in 2021
- How this story (that became the first of a trilogy she is writing) started to unfold in her head as dialogue
- 128,000 words of the first draft coming out in about 2 months of writing
- Ka-Yee's move into an academic teaching role, which is something she's always wanted to do
- One of the classes that Ka-Yee co-teaches for writers
- HEXACO - the six-dimension personality test
- Some of the opposite-character writing exercises that derive from this test
- Debunking Myers-Briggs because it's not as science-based
- Ka-Yee's desire to help writers to write who has some sort of disability
- Helping students understand what therapy looks like and how to depict that relationship
- Techniques on how to learn memory enhancement
- How to evaluate routines and your process as a writer
- The problem with getting into a habit of doing things a certain way and missing out on how to make it better
- Ka-Yee not realizing she had ADHD until she was an adult
- The side-effect of suffering from long Covid
- The concept of deliberate rest
- Applying the scientific principle to writing an epic fantasy novel
- How people tend to have two different careers in their life
- The Kickstarter that Ka-Yee is running for her new book SHAZZWICK OF LAND VOL1: Time Becomes Relevant
- Aaron Fors as the talented narrator for the audiobook version
- What Ka-Yee's book is about
- How she sees the world differently now that she has written this novel
After the interview Mark shares a few reflections inspired by the interview.

Notes from Ka-Yee as mentioned in the interview:
Guidance I provided students to create their own weekly evaluation on their writing process
- Before you begin, I encourage you to take stalk of your current process. What's your goal, what's your why, what works/doesn't, how often do you write, what resources do you need -- not what you WANT it to be, but what it is now.
- Then create a survey using the guideline below. Answer the questions now as your baseline, then check in every week (ideally on the same day), revise the questions as you go.
- There is no wrong way to do this. These can be any format as you see fit, or a combination of. You can make the questions open-ended, some form of rating scales (e.g., rate from 0 to 10, or 1 = Completely Disagree to 5 = Complete Agree), multiple choice, or fill in the blanks.
- Just don't get too attached, you should be adjusting these as your process evolves or as life encroaches.
Ask yourself 6-10 (ish) questions
- 1-3 questions on what you did in the past week: e.g., did you change/stick with your process? did try something new? how did it go? were you able to stick to it?
- 2-3 questions on how "productive" or "successful" you are--but remember, every one's measure of success is different. E.g., how much did you write? how good were the writing? how brave were you in sharing your work with others? how zen you were about taking feedback.
- 2-3 questions on how you are flourishing vs languishing: e.g., do I have mental space to do OTHER things I love? Did I spend time with people who matter to me? Did I feel my life has purpose, joy, satisfaction, and meaning?
- Last question: ask yourself something that gets to the "why" of your creative endeavour. WHY did you write this week? Did you remember to keep your eyes on that which drives you and keeps you up at night when you forget it. That which makes your writing something that you must do.
- (okay, then the last last question: do I need to revise these questions for next week?)
The most important thing is: again, update these questions as you go. This needs to be a living document, otherwise you aren't giving yourself room to grow and learn.

Links of Interest:
- Snow Quill Press
- The Novel: Shazzwick of Land, Vol. 1: Time Becomes Relevant
- Kickstarter for Shazzwick of Land Vol 1
- HEXACO Personality Inventory-Revised (by Drs. Lee and Ashton (2009, 2018))
  - HEXACO is a 6-factor personality test that measures personality across six dimensions: Honesty-humility, Emotionality, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Openness. There's also a bonus trait, Altruism, that pools from subscales within the 6 larger traits.
- The Big Five Personality Inventory (by Goldberg (1992))
  - The Big Five is probably the most widely used personality test in psychology. It measures personality across five dimensions, often forming the acronym of OCEAN or CANEO: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism.
- Episode 137 - Action Sequences and Sex Scenes with Joshua Essoe
- Episode 260 - Mood, Atmosphere, and Worldbuilding with Joshua Essoe
- Superstars Writing Seminars
- Stark Reflections on Pushing for Better (Team Landing Page)
- CMHA (Canadian Mental Health Association)
  - Mental Health Meter
  - What's Your Stress Index?
- Manuscript Report (Mark's affiliate link - use MARK10 to save 10%)
- Buy Mark a Coffee
- Patreon for Stark Reflections
- Mark's YouTube channel
- ElevenLabs (AI Voice Generation - Affiliate link)
- Mark's Stark Reflections on Writing & Publishing Newsletter (Signup)
- An Author's Guide to Working With Bookstores and Libraries
- The Relaxed Author
  - Buy eBook Direct
  - Buy Audiobook Direct
- Publishing Pitfalls for Authors
- An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores
- Wide for the Win
- Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books
  - This Time Around (Short Story)
  - A Canadian Werewolf in New York
  - Stowe Away (Novella)
  - Fear and Longing in Los Angeles
  - Fright Nights, Big City
  - Lover's Moon
  - Hex and the City
  - Only Monsters in the Building
  - Once Bitten (Novella)
- The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles
- Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard
- Merry Christmas! Shitter Was Full!: A Trivia Guide to National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
- I Think It's A Sign That The Pun Also Rises
Ka-Yee Essoe, Ph.D. (Psychology, UCLA; Psychiatry Postdoc, Johns Hopkins Medicine) is an assistant professor at a small, public university at rural Maine. As a cognitive neuroscientist specialising in learning enhancement, she understands the power of stories to instil empathy, resilience, joy, and hope. She began writing novels to do just that.

As an East Asian immigrant who enjoys many intercultural friendships, rich cultural diversity permeates the worlds and conflicts she crafts in her epic fantasy novels with integral love-story threads. Drawing on her personal experience and 10+ years mentoring others to navigate anxiety, disabilities, abuse, discrimination, trauma, and grief, her stories follow characters facing these struggles to encourage readers through their journeys and growth.

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
13 February 2026, 3:34 pm
14 minutes 48 seconds

EP 460 - Rambling Reflections From The Road: You Are Loved
In this short solo episode Mark shares a "Rambling Reflection From The Road" while at Superstars Writing Seminars talking about the important signals that seemed to come at the right time:
- Your feelings are valid
- Your opinions matter
- You are irreplaceable
- Your best is enough
- It's okay to take a break
- You are loved
Links of Interest:
- EP 459 - Creating Experiences in Art and Story with Tanya Hales
- Superstars Writing Seminars
- James A. - Everything is Signal
- Stark Reflections on Pushing for Better (Team Landing Page)
- CMHA (Canadian Mental Health Association)
  - Mental Health Meter
  - What's Your Stress Index?
- Manuscript Report (Mark's affiliate link - use MARK10 to save 10%)
- Buy Mark a Coffee
- Patreon for Stark Reflections
- Mark's YouTube channel
- ElevenLabs (AI Voice Generation - Affiliate link)
- Mark's Stark Reflections on Writing & Publishing Newsletter (Signup)
- An Author's Guide to Working With Bookstores and Libraries
- The Relaxed Author
  - Buy eBook Direct
  - Buy Audiobook Direct
- Publishing Pitfalls for Authors
- An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores
- Wide for the Win
- Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books
  - This Time Around (Short Story)
  - A Canadian Werewolf in New York
  - Stowe Away (Novella)
  - Fear and Longing in Los Angeles
  - Fright Nights, Big City
  - Lover's Moon
  - Hex and the City
  - Only Monsters in the Building
  - Once Bitten (Novella)
- The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles
- Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard
- Merry Christmas! Shitter Was Full!: A Trivia Guide to National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
- I Think It's A Sign That The Pun Also Rises
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
7 February 2026, 1:47 pm
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