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Today, Fable and the Verbivore are thrilled to share our conversation with author, podcaster, and content marketing professional MJ McGriff.

MJ has authored and self-published two YA Sci-Fi books (The Fall, The Takeover) and one novella (The Mission) in her New Earth Series. Over the last two years, she’s written and released two YA Fantasy novels (Macario’s Scepter, The Secret Library) in her ongoing adventure series - The Magian. Steeped with journeys on the high seas, treks through the jungle, and snappy dialogue, these stories are centered on the experience of a former pirate named Samara and her twin sister Seraphina - who’s a nun. MJ’s currently working on book three of this seven book series - with the next installment due out next year.

In this episode, MJ talks about her experiences and lessons learned through releasing Macario’s Scepter during the pandemic. She gives great advice about planning a book release schedule well - notifying any professionals or arc/beta readers that you hope to work with well in advance and also adding in time to the book preparation process so that when the unexpected happens you’re able to pivot and still be on track.  

MJ also discusses finding and leaning in to the writing community, as well as how she discovered the professionals she works with (for instance her cover designer and editor) through referrals. She advises that it’s never too early in the process to start building your community, as well as creating relationships where you are supportive and helpful for those writers in their work - in addition to seeking it for your own.

For adventure stories, MJ shares how important knowing the characters on a deep level is to her writing process - as their fears and weaknesses play such a key role in the situations and challenges they need to face in the story. It’s an adventure story where many fun and exciting things happen, but the characters drive the story.

MJ was such a delight to speak with and had so many fantastic pieces of advice. We hope you enjoy this episode, we certainly enjoyed having this conversation!

Keep reading, writing, and putting your voice out there!

Into the woods,

Fable & The Verbivore

Notes:

Margaret “MJ” McGriff is an author, podcaster, and content marketing professional. She’s authored and self-published two YA Sci-Fi books (The Fall, The Takeover) and one novella (The Mission) in her New Earth Series. Over the last two years, she’s written and released two YA Fantasy novels (Macario’s Scepter, The Secret Library) in her ongoing adventure series - The Magian. Information on The Magian series can be found on her website at: http://www.mmcgriff.com/macarios-scepter/

MJ posts regularly on Instagram often with stunning Adventure images as well as great writing and content marketing advice. You can connect with her and her work on Instagram @mj_mcgriff, on Twitter at @mj_mcgriff, and on her website at http://www.mmcgriff.com/.

We’d also recommend checking out “The Content Creative Podcast” series that she created and hosted centering on creatives who are looking to market their work. Episodes can be found here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-content-creative-podcast/id1493974542

Fable mentioned the Newsletter Course that MJ offers as part of her Content Marketing services. More information on that course can be found here: https://margaret-s-school-dc77.thinkific.com/collections.

MJ talks about writing in deep third POV. Here’s some articles on what that looks like:

• Now Novel - https://www.nownovel.com/blog/how-to-write-deep-pov/

• MasterClass - https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-write-deep-pov

Books Mentioned:

• Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell

• Macario’s Scepter: The Magian Series Book One by MJ McGriff

• The Secret Library: The Magian Series Book Two by MJ McGriff

• The Fall: The New Earth Series Book One by MJ McGriff

• The Takeover: The New Earth Series Book Two by MJ McGriff

Music from: https://filmmusic.io
‘Friendly day’ by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)