Latest Episode
Why Fiction Needs Older Characters: Inside 20 Over 60
Publishers kept saying “great idea, but short story collections are a hard sell.” Then Beth Weinhouse built a pitch showing how much more older readers spend on books, and a press said yes.
Most fiction treats older characters as the wise grandmother or the crotchety sidekick. Beth Weinhouse, co-editor of the short story anthology 20 Over 60, explains why that stereotype was a problem, and what two editors did about it. If you read, write, or want to pitch a book of your own, her story is worth
Recent Episodes
33
Oct. 26, 2026
Why Fiction Needs Older Characters: Inside 20 Over 60
Publishers kept saying “great idea, but short story collections are a hard sell.” Then Beth Weinhouse built a pitch showing how much more older readers spend on books, and a press said yes. Most fiction treats older characters as the wise grandmother or the crotchety sidekick. Beth Weinhouse, co-editor of the short story anthology 20 Over 60, explains why that stereotype was a problem, and what two editors did about it. If you read, write, or want to pitch a book of your own, her story is worth
32
Oct. 19, 2026
Writer’s Block Isn’t One Thing: How to Get Unstuck Fast
Forcing yourself to "just write every day" can make writer's block worse. Author Sylvia Liu shares the sideways fixes that actually get you unstuck. Writer's block isn't one problem. It's too many ideas, no ideas, a muddy middle, a deadline that's choking you, or a world that feels too loud to write in. Use the wrong fix and you stay stuck for months. Sylvia is a former environmental attorney turned middle grade and dystopian sci-fi author, and her toolkit covers all of those. Lisa got unstuc...
30
Oct. 9, 2026
How a Thriller Writer Wrote a Cozy Mystery in Four Weeks
What do you do when the story you can't stop thinking about doesn't fit the genre you're known for? Thriller author Dina Marie (Dina Santorelli) took a ghost, a Salem mansion, and a big risk, and ended up with a paranormal cozy mystery series. She started with zero readers, and her first draft took four weeks. The cost of not knowing how she did it is another year of sitting on an idea that won't leave you alone. Hit play to hear what she learned, and why one very popular ghost is about to ge...
31
Oct. 7, 2026
Podcast to Book to Press: Our Big Napa Announcement
We're back in Napa, where the Writers With Wrinkles podcast was born five years ago, with a new book and a new self-publishing press for writers. Every self-published author we've talked to says the same thing: it was a lot more complicated than they expected. We spent the last year learning why, and we want your manuscript to get out of the drawer with fewer surprises along the way. Hit play, then visit writerswithwrinklespress.com to send your questions or book a call with us. In this episo...
29
Sept. 28, 2026
Want to Write a Graphic Novel? A First Second Editor Explains
Your graphic novel isn't a novel. It's a screenplay, and editors can tell from page one whether you know the difference. First Second Books editor Ivan Taurisano explains how to write and submit a graphic novel script that gets read. Kids ages 8 to 12 head straight for the graphic novel shelf, and prose writers are trying to follow them there. But Ivan says a submission that misses the format doesn't just earn a "not for me." It can earn a "don't send me your next one." Here's what he wants y...
28
Sept. 21, 2026
150+ Episodes of Publishing Advice, Now in One Book
We just turned 150+ episodes of hard-won publishing wisdom into one book — and it's finally here. Write, Revise, Publish: Essential Lessons from the Writers With Wrinkles Podcast is up for pre-order now, and today Beth and Lisa are pulling back the curtain on why they wrote it, what's inside, and how it can save you from making the same missteps they did. If you've ever finished a podcast episode thinking "that's such a good tip" — and then completely forgotten it by the next day — this book ...
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Recent Blog Posts
Oct. 26, 2026
Why Fiction Needs More Older Characters (And What It Took to Publish an Anthology About Them)
Picture the usual leading lady in a new novel. She’s thirty-something and gorgeous, and the worst thing in her life is a latte spilled on white shoes. That was the observation Beth McMullen made when she sat down with Beth Weinhouse for the latest W…
Oct. 19, 2026
Writer's Block Isn't One Thing: How to Get Unstuck Fast
About fourteen minutes into our conversation with author Sylvia Liu, Lisa stopped mid-thought. "Oh my God, I have to write this down," she said. Sylvia had just mentioned two words, stakes and agency, and a plot problem Lisa had been wrestling with …
Oct. 9, 2026
How a Thriller Writer Wrote a Cozy Mystery in Four Weeks
Have you ever had an idea you loved so much you couldn't shake it, but you had no idea what genre it belonged in? That's where author Dina Santorelli (who writes the Salem Spirits series as Dina Marie) found herself. She'd been writing thrillers fo…
About the Hosts
Beth McMullen
Author
Beth McMullen is the author of the Mrs. Smith’s Spy School for Girls series , the Lola Benko, Treasure Hunter series, and The Secret of the Storm series (Aladdin/S&S).
She is also the author of the Spy Mom series (Hyperion).
Beth lives in Northern California with her husband, kids, and very grumpy cats. She's obsessed with podcasts and might give up writing in order to have more time to listen. Could happen.
