Episodes

  • Episode 266: Is Writing Fiction Like A Theme Park?

    Episode 266: Is Writing Fiction Like A Theme Park?
    Sep 1 2025

    In this week's episode, I look at what goes into a successful theme park, and compare it to the process of creating a compelling story.

    This coupon code will get you 25% off the ebooks in the Dragontiarna series at my Payhip store:

    FALLDRAGON25

    The coupon code is valid through September 8, 2025 (please note the shorter expiration date). So if you need a new ebook this fall, we’ve got you covered!
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    14 mins
  • Episode 265: When Should Writers Change Course?

    Episode 265: When Should Writers Change Course?
    Aug 25 2025
    In the much-delayed final episode of our series on mindset for writers, we take a look at when writers should change course, and talk about the importance of mental flexibility. This coupon code will get you 25% off the ebooks in the Frostborn series at my Payhip store: AUGUSTFROST The coupon code is valid through September 8, 2025. So if you need a new ebook this summer, we’ve got you covered! TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 265 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is August 22nd, 2025, and today we are considering when a writer should change course. This is a new episode. It's the third and final one in the mindset series that I had hoped to finish in June, but it was a very busy summer, and so I ran quite a few reruns of old episodes over the summer, but today I have time to record a full length episode, so we're going to do that and wrap up this series on mindset that we've been doing this summer. We will also do Coupon of the Week and an update on my current writing and audiobook projects. First up is Coupon of the Week and this week's coupon will get you 25% off ebooks in the Frostborn series at my Payhip store, and that code is AUGUSTFROST. As always, the coupon code and the store links will be available in the show notes for this episode, and this coupon code will be valid through September 8th, 2025. So if you need a new ebook to read as we wrap up summer and head into fall, we have got you covered. Now let's do an update on my current writing projects. I'm pleased to report to that Ghost in the Siege, the sixth and final book of the Ghost Armor series, is out. You can get it at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, Google Play, Smashwords, and my Payhip store. And with that, my Super Summer of Finishing Things is finally complete because I have finished the Shield War series, the Stealth and Spells trilogy, and now the Ghost Armor series. So now that those three series are done, what is next? Right now my main project is Blade of Flames, the first book in a new epic fantasy series that will be set in the Kingdom of Owyllain from my Sevenfold Sword series and I am 29,000 words into that. My secondary project right now is Cloak of Worlds, the 13th book in the Cloak Mage series, and I am 1,000 words into that. So hopefully we will have Blade of Flames come out towards the end of September and Cloak of Worlds come out towards the end of October, if all goes well. So my plan now that I have only three unfinished series is that the Blades of Ruin series (of which Blade Flames is the first one) will be my flagship series, and I'll do one of those every other month and then the month in between I will alternate between writing a Cloak Mage book and a Half-Elven Thief book. I will continue that schedule until one of those series is completed and then I will start a new one because what I learned through 2024 and the first two thirds here of 2025 is that having five unfinished series at the same time is too many. It's hard to keep up in my head and it makes for a really long wait for the readers between the individual entries in the series. So I'm going to stick to just three from now on and as I said, I'll have a flagship series and then two that I will alternate back and forth between in the months between the releases for the flagship series. So that is probably what I'll be doing for the rest of 2025 and hopefully most of 2026, if all goes well. In audiobook news, recording is underway for Shield of Power, which will be excellently narrated by Brad Wills. I've been listening to some chapters from that. Work has just started by Hollis McCarthy on recording Ghost in the Siege, so that will hopefully be an audiobook before too much longer. So that's where I'm at with my current writing and publishing and audiobook projects. 00:03:29 Main Topic: Mindset Series: Changing Course And now to our main topic, the final episode in our mindset series and we talk about changing course. In previous episodes on this topic, I've talked about some of the practical ways to help with distractions, procrastinating, and managing time wasters. In this episode, I'm going to focus on things that derail writers from a mindset perspective. Today we're going to wrap up this series by talking about mental flexibility, knowing when to change course, and how to make those types of decisions without spiraling out. First, we'll discuss a few reasons why mental flexibility is an important attribute to possess and then provide you with five examples of times it has been important for me in my writing career. First, why is having mental flexibility and the ability to change course important? With how fast things change in publishing, you have to be willing to change strategies or discard a strategy that's not working for you. An example is that many people who are familiar with Amazon ads swear by using Amazon keyword ads. After much ...
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    19 mins
  • Episode 264: Finishing the SILENT ORDER Series Q&A Redux

    Episode 264: Finishing the SILENT ORDER Series Q&A Redux
    Aug 18 2025

    In this week's episode, we take a look back at Episode 205, where I talk about finishing my SILENT ORDER science fiction series. I also provide an update on current writing and audiobook projects.

    This coupon code will get you 50% off the audiobooks in the Dragonskull series (as excellently narrated by Brad Wills) at my Payhip store:

    SUMMERAUDIO50

    The coupon code is valid through September 1, 2025. So if you need a new audiobook this summer, we’ve got you covered!
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    25 mins
  • Episode 263: Reader Reactions To My LitRPG Trilogy

    Episode 263: Reader Reactions To My LitRPG Trilogy
    Aug 11 2025
    Last week's episode talked about finishing my STEALTH & SPELLS ONLINE LitRPG trilogy, and in this week's episode we respond to some of the insightful reader comments the prevoius episode generated. We also discuss the mechanics of putting series numbers on book covers. Once again it is time for Coupon of the Week! This coupon code will get you 25% off the ebooks in the Dragonskull series at my Payhip store: DRAGONSUMMER25 The coupon code is valid through August 25, 2025. So if you need a new ebook this summer, we’ve got you covered! TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 262 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is August 8, 2025, and today we are looking at reader comments on my LitRPG trilogy. We will also take a look at why sometimes books do not have the series order number on their front cover. Before we get into that, we'll have Coupon of the Week and then an update on my current writing progress. First up, Coupon of the Week. This week's coupon code will get you 25% off the ebooks in the Dragonskull series at my Payhip store. That coupon code is DRAGONSUMMER25. And as always, the coupon code and the links to my store will be available in the show notes. This coupon code is valid through August 25th, 2025. So if you need a new ebook to read this summer, we have got you covered. And now for a progress update on my current writing projects. I am 83,000 words into the rough draft of Ghost in the Siege, which is the sixth and final book in the Ghost Armor series. I think maybe one or two more good sessions and I will have the rough draft done and then I'll write a bonus short story that newsletter subscribers will get for free when the book comes out and then start editing. I'm also 9,000 words into Blade of Flames, which will be the first book in my new epic fantasy series after I finish Ghost in the Siege and my Super Summer of Finishing Things. In audiobook news, Brad Wills is currently recording Shield of Power, so we should have some updates on that soon. In addition, the distribution problems I was having with Shield of Battle and Ghost in the Corruption should be cleared up. So all those books should be turning up on all the usual audiobook stores before too much longer. Before, they should have all been available on Audible, Amazon, Apple, Google Play, and Kobo, but they should be showing up on all the other available stores before too much longer now. And of course I should mention that those audiobooks are available on my Payhip store and you can get them anytime (regardless of distribution troubles). So that is where I'm at with my current writing projects. 00:02:07 Question about Series Numbering And now let's take a look at a question about series numbering. A librarian acquaintance recently asked (with no small exasperation), why can't the series number be in the book title, on the spine, and on the cover? Well, as with so many things, the answer boils down to “it depends”, specifically, it depends on the publisher and the author (but only if the author is indie). For my books, they always have the series number on the cover. A random example- Orc Hoard, the fourth book in my Half-Elven Thief series, has plainly at the top of the cover “Half-Elven Thief Number Four”. Whether or not the series number will be on the cover depends on the publisher (or the writer, if the writer is indie). For myself, since I make my own covers, it is a trivial amount of extra work to make sure the series number is also on the cover. A small publisher or an indie author hiring a cover designer has to specifically ask for the series number on the cover, and they don't always think to do that. In terms of the spine of the print edition, it depends whether or not it is included with cover design. Typically for a print book, you need to make a wraparound PDF cover or you can use the automated tools with a platform like KDP Print to create it. The trouble is that space can be at a premium on a book spine and after you have the book title and the author name, there might not be adequate room left for the series number. For example, a title like Stealth and Spells Online: Final Quest takes up a lot of real estate on the spine and combine that with the author name of Jonathan Moeller, and we really don't exactly have much space left to work with. However, for ebooks, there's really no good reason for them not to be arranged in series order on the store because all the online platforms now have good series management tools, which is admittedly a relatively new development. For a long time Amazon and the other self-publishing platforms didn't have any series metadata management tools, so we had to take things into our own hands. That's why for a long time you'd see books with titles like Frostborn: The Iron Tower (Frostborn #5), because there was no other way in the metadata to indicate that the book was part of a series. Obviously this ...
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    20 mins
  • Episode 262: How To Finish A LitRPG Trilogy

    Episode 262: How To Finish A LitRPG Trilogy
    Aug 4 2025
    In this week's episode, I take a look back at the challenges of finishing my STEALTH & SPELLS ONLINE LitRPG trilogy. This coupon code will get you 50% off the audiobooks in the Malison series (as excellently narrated by Brad Wills) at my Payhip store: MALISONSUMMER50 The coupon code is valid through August 18, 2025. So if you need a new audiobook this summer, we’ve got you covered! TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 262 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is August 1, 2025, and today we are looking at how I finished my LitRPG trilogy at long last. Before we get into that, we will have Coupon of the Week, a progress update on my current writing and audiobook projects, and Question of the Week. First up is Coupon of the Week. This coupon code will get you 50% off the audiobooks in the Malison series (as excellently narrated by Brad Wills) at my Payhip store: MALISONSUMMER50. And as always, we will include the coupon code and the link to my Payhip store in the show notes. And this coupon code is valid through August 18th, 2025. So if you need a new audiobook this summer, we have got you covered. Now let's take a look at where I'm at with my current writing projects. As I mentioned in previous episodes, Stealth and Spells Online: Final Quest, the final book in the Stealth and Spells Online trilogy, is finished. You can get that at Amazon and Kindle Unlimited. It is doing slightly better than the previous two in the trilogy, which makes it the bestselling book in the trilogy so far. So thank you all for that. My next main project is Ghost in the Siege, which will be the sixth and final book in the Ghost Armor series. I am 53,000 words into that as of this recording, which puts me about halfway through, give or take. I'm also 6,000 words into Blade of Flames, which will be the first book in my new epic fantasy series that I will begin once Ghost in the Siege is out. In audiobook news, Shield of Power--recording for it is underway. That will be excellently narrated by Brad Wills and hopefully that will be out in probably towards the end of September sometime, if all goes well. 00:01:49 Question of the Week Now let's move on to Question of the Week, which is designed to inspire enjoyable discussions of interesting topics. This week's question: what is your favorite book you've read in 2025 so far? No wrong answers, obviously. The inspiration for this question was that June 30th was the halfway point of the year, which naturally inspires both reflection and some mandatory bookkeeping. Mary says: Witch Hat Atelier Volume 13 by Kamome Shirahama (which I probably mispronounced). After having read the rest of the series, of course. Juana says: Hidden Nature by Nora Roberts. Jonathan T. says: The Genesis Enigma: Why the Bible is Scientifically Accurate. This book is like my favorite nonfiction book so far of the year, while my favorite in the fiction category is likely Hardy Boys Casefiles: Dead On Target. Roger says: Just finished the latest in the Magelands Series, The Lost Ascendant. Really good, but a long series-even longer than yours, Jonathan. Gary says: It wasn't published in 2025 (I'm tragically behind the times) but Murtaugh by Christopher Paolini. Lynda says: Sunset by Sharon Sala. Denny says: Not sure if Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archives: Wind and Truth counts. It was released in December of 2024, but it's the newest book I've read. John K. says: My favorite book so far is by new indie author, J.L. Odom, By Blood By Salt. It's in line with apparently my favorite genre of MC called (I can’t tell if this is disparaging or not) “competency porn” where the main character is well, uber competent. For myself, I think my favorite book of the year so far for 2025 would be The Icarus Coda by Timothy Zahn, which wraps up his excellent Icarus sci-fi mystery series after 25 years. So I definitely recommend you check out the Icarus series if you get a chance and if you're looking for other interesting things to read, apparently we have a few recommendations for you as well. 00:03:29 Main Topic: How I Finally Finished the Stealth and Spells Online Trilogy Now let's move on to our main topic this week. How I finally finished the Stealth and Spells Online trilogy with the last book, Stealth and Spells Online: Final Quest. I'm very grateful to everyone who read the trilogy and enjoyed it. All told, it took about 10 months to write Stealth and Spells Online: Final Quest, from September of 2024 to July 2025, when I finally published it. So that's a lot longer than it takes for me to usually write a book. So what took so long? Well, a lot of things went wrong. Let's look back. Towards the end of 2022, I decided I wanted to try something a little different, so I settled on LitRPG, which seemed promising because it's pretty popular. For the story, I had an idea of a software developer who was fired from a virtual reality MMORPG once ...
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    14 mins
  • Episode 261: Audiobook Sampler Platter, the Fourth Course!

    Episode 261: Audiobook Sampler Platter, the Fourth Course!
    Jul 28 2025

    In this week's episode, we have a preview of four of my audiobooks, each of which is the fourth in its respective series.

    1.) Ghost in the Razor, narrated by Hollis McCarthy.

    2.) Shield of Deception, narrated by Brad Wills.

    3.) Orc-Hoard, narrated by Leanne Woodward.

    4.) Ghost in the Storm, narrated by Hollis McCarthy.

    This coupon code will get you 50% off the audiobook of Cloak of Ashes, Book #3 in the Cloak Mage series, (as excellently narrated by Hollis McCarthy) at my Payhip store:

    ASHES50

    The coupon code is valid through August 19, 2025. So if you need a new audiobook this summer, we’ve got you covered!
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    18 mins
  • Episode 260: Knighthood & Chivalry

    Episode 260: Knighthood & Chivalry
    Jul 21 2025
    In this week's episode, we take a look at how the meaning of words can shift and evolve over time, and the challenges and opportunities that can create for writers. This coupon code will get you 25% off the ebooks in the Malison series at my Payhip store: MALISONJULY25 The coupon code is valid through August 12, 2025. So if you need a new ebook this summer, we’ve got you covered! TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 260 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is July 19, 2025, and today we are reflecting on how the meaning of words changes over time. We will also have Coupon of the Week, an update on my current writing and audiobook projects, and Question of the Week. So let's start off with Coupon of the Week. This week's coupon code will get you 25% off the ebooks in the Malison series at my Payhip store, and that is MALISONJULY25. And as always, both the coupon code and the links to my Payhip store will be available in the show notes. This coupon code is valid through August the 12th, 2025. So if you need a new series of ebooks to read for this summer, we have got you covered. Now for an update on my current writing projects. I'm pleased to report that Stealth and Spells Online: The Final Quest, the final book in the Stealth and Spells trilogy, is now out and you get it at Amazon and Kindle Unlimited. People have read it, have liked it, so I'm pleased that people are enjoying the ending to the trilogy. Now that that is out, my next major project will be Ghost in the Siege, the sixth and final book of the Ghost Armor series. I am 32,000 words into the rough draft, and I think it's going to be about 100,000 words, give or take. I am also 2,000 words into Blade of Flames, which will be the first book in my new epic fantasy Blades of Ruin series, which will be set in the realm of Owyllain about a hundred years after the end of The Shield War. So listen for more updates on that coming later as I work on it. In audiobook news, both Ghost in the Corruption (as excellently narrated by Hollis McCarthy) and Shield of Battle (as excellently narrated by Brad Wills) actually came out on the same day, so as of right now, you can get them at Audible, Apple, Amazon, Google Play, Kobo, and my Payhip store. There's usually a few more stores in the mix, but I've been having trouble with Findaway Audio and I'm looking into different audiobook distributors. So hopefully we will have some progress on that soon. So that's where I'm at with my current writing and audiobook projects. 00:02:07 Question of the Week Now it's time for Question of the Week, which is intended to inspire interesting discussions of enjoyable topics. This week's question, do you get food delivery? Do you ever have pizzas delivered or perhaps a sandwich from a place that does delivery, or do you use some of the various delivery services that have sprung up in the last 10 years like DoorDash, Grubhub, or Uber Eats? No wrong answers obviously, since everyone's circumstances are different. The inspiration for this question was a massive online discussion I saw about the etiquette of tipping DoorDash drivers, and since I had never used DoorDash or a similar service, I realized it was yet another massive technological and cultural shift that I had that happened to miss me out. So I was curious about what people thought about it, and as you expect, we had a range of answers. Perry says: No, and we haven't for years. We live too far away to make it worthwhile, even if we wanted to. Sarah says: I do very rarely get cooked food delivery, and then almost always pizza for the kids when I feel really sick. However, as a Walmart Plus member, I routinely get grocery delivery. I'm pregnant and homeschool three of my four kids (the littlest is too young for formal schooling). It saves me so much time to only have to bring it in the house. The time savings is about 90 minutes on an average week. I sometimes do grocery pickup, which my husband grabs on the way home for an hour time savings, since it is on his way home, but since he works awful hours, it's simpler for me to get the groceries than for him to grab them after a twelve hour day. Of course, feeding six mouths (and usually my dad too for a seventh), we have multiple short runs to Walmart throughout the week for stuff we run out of or general merchandise needs for home maintenance, so we managed to hit lots of in-store time and sales that we would otherwise miss too. Mary says: No, even for Chinese takeout, we would call in the order and pick it up, and I haven't done that for years. Justin says: No food delivery for me, thanks. It's not available where I am, but even living in a college town, I always picked it up. Norma says: I do have Italian food delivered because they have delivery in-house. Have never used a delivery company, but I just heard from my grandson that he's working for one while at university. David says: Maybe once or...
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    13 mins
  • Episode 259: Comparison Is The Thief Of Joy

    Episode 259: Comparison Is The Thief Of Joy
    Jul 14 2025
    In this week's episode, we look at five ways writers can avoid the self-destructive mindset trap of "comparisonitis", and five ways that comparing oneself to other writers can be useful. Once again it is time for Coupon of the Week! This coupon code will get you 50% off the audiobook of Cloak of Wolves, Book #2 in the Cloak Mage series, (as excellently narrated by Hollis McCarthy) at my Payhip store: WOLVES50 The coupon code is valid through August 5th, 2025. So if you need a new audiobook this summer, we’ve got you covered! TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 259 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is July 11th, 2025, and today we are looking at why comparing yourself to other writers is a bad idea. Before that, we will do Coupon of the Week and have an update on my current writing progress. This week's coupon code will get you 50% off the audiobook of Cloak of Wolves, Book #2 in the Cloak Mage series (as excellently narrated by Hollis McCarthy) at my Payhip store, and that is WOLVES50. This coupon code is valid through August 5th, 2025. So if you need a new audiobook to listen to during your travels this summer, we have got you covered. Now let's have an update on my current writing projects. I'm pleased to report that Shield of Power is 100% done, completing the Shield War series. You can get Shield of Power at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play, Apple Books, Smashwords and my own Payhip store. It's been selling briskly and it's gotten good reviews so far, so thank you very much to everyone who has bought and enjoyed the book. Now that Shield of Power is done, the first third of my Super Summer of Finishing Things is complete. So what's next? My next main project is Stealth and Spells Online: Final Quest. It was originally going to be named Reactant, but I changed the title to Final Quest to emphasize really and truly and definitively that this is the final book in the trilogy. In fact, I'm already done with the rough draft and I am done with the first phase of editing it as of this recording. If you've been listening to the podcast for a long time, you know how I frequently say that if you keep chipping away the novel over a long enough time, sooner or later you'll finish it. That is exactly what happened here. Since October of 2024, I've been writing 500 words a day on Final Quest, and this piled up over time enough so that after Shield of Power came out, I only had 3,000 more words to write to finish Final Quest, and I did that in an afternoon. One more phase of editing on that and then I would like to have Stealth and Spells Online: Final Quest out before July 22nd, if all goes well. I'm also 21,000 words into Ghost in the Siege, which will be my main project once Final Quest is finished. Ghost in the Siege will be the sixth and final book in the Ghost Armor series and will hopefully cap off my Super Summer of Finishing Things. In audiobook news, Shield of Battle (as excellently narrated by Brad Wills) is now out. You can get it at Audible, Amazon, Apple, and Google Play as of this recording. Because of some difficulties with Findaway Voices, it’s going to take a little bit longer to get into the other stores, but I'm working on a way to do that and as I mentioned before, Ghost in the Corruption (as excellently narrated by Hollis McCarthy ) is done and just has to finish processing on the various stores, and so hopefully that should be out before too much longer. So that's where I'm at with my current writing and audiobook projects. 00:02:52 Main Topic: Comparison Now let's move right on to our main topic, The Dangers of Comparison. In Episode 257, we started a series on mindset for writers. In some of the previous series I've talked about some of the practical ways to help with distractions, procrastination, and managing time wasters. In this series, we're going to focus on things that derail writers from a mindset perspective because as we know with any endeavor in life, mindset is something like three quarters of the battle where if you convince yourself that you're going to fail before you start, you're probably going to fail. So that's why it's important to have an appropriate mindset to the task at hand. Today we're going to focus on comparing yourself to others, and I will share five reasons it's not a great idea to compare yourself to others aimlessly and how to shift your focus to five more constructive ways to compare your work to other authors. Comparisons are a constant of the reading world. Librarians and Goodreads reviewers talk constantly about “readalikes” or finding books that have similar themes or settings. Book displays and shops and libraries love to group similar books or authors together. People look at the bestseller lists like they're sports scores. Dollar amounts in publishing deals are a constant source of gossip and jealousy. Sometimes comparison is useful, especially when ...
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    16 mins