Podcast
Welcome to Let’s Talk Books, the official podcast of Robin Van Auken. It’s my mission to learn new things and share what works, and I chat with interesting people about topics such as inspiration, motivation, book publication and promotion. My guests have wonderful success stories to share, as well as stories of how they’ve struggled with their writing.
The History of Writing with Robin Van Auken
My husband, Lance, enjoys giving gifts. He finds amazing gifts, imaginative presents with meaning and symbolism. For example, when we purchased our lovely house on the river, he knew we had traded in our dream to live on a boat and sail far away. Okay, my dream. He mounted [...]
Horse Talk with Robin Van Auken
Today, I'm talking horses. Our son invited us to visit for the weekend, and join him and his sweetheart at the Charles Town Races in West Virginia. I'm a huge fan of horses, and the racetrack is attached to a casino, of which I'm not a huge fan. I [...]
Honoring the Story with Janice Ogurcak
Janice Ogurcak is the Director of Public Programming and Outreach at the World of Little League Museum. This museum is to Little League what the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown is to Major League Baseball. It's filled with significant artifacts that range from serious to frivolous. There [...]
Retreat to Write with Robin Van Auken
Spring is supposed to be here, but I live in northcentral Pennsylvania, and it's slow coming. We've had several snowstorms in the past few weeks, but the ground is too warm for it to stick around. Then we endured rain and high winds. I believe the temperatures are rising [...]
Reading the News with Publisher Kathy Kolb
Kathy Kolb is the publisher of NorthcentralPA.com, a news outlet that’s been online since 2009, and she’s been steadily growing since then by personally connecting with her readers. I know, this sounds impossible — how do you connect with thousands of people? She’s accomplished this by building an amazingly [...]
Let’s Play Ball with Lance Van Auken
Lance Van Auken is probably the world’s foremost expert on the history of Little League Baseball. There’s only a handful of people who may know more, or as much, as Lance. He earned this honor by being a Little League volunteer, and then an employee, for most of his life. [...]
Building Community, One Heart at a Time with Wendy Dean
Wendy Butler Dean is the owner of The Omnibus Publishing, a boutique publishing company that specializes in children’s books, Young Adult novels, and some non-fiction. The Omnibus is a hybrid company, combining a unique blend of older, traditional book publishing and new, digital publishing. She produces ebooks and print [...]
A Guide to Being Alone
Today I try out a new software platform for recording podcasts, Anchor, and experiment with recording smaller audio clips, transitions, and putting together a show on the fly. I've done this to test the system and to see if I want to use it in an upcoming communications class [...]
Digging up the Past with Tank Baird
Today I chatted with my good friend Tom “Tank” Baird about his passion for archaeology, and how he's become a local expert on the topic of prehistory and Native American cultures. I met Tank in 2005 when he rolled up to my dig site in Muncy on his Harley [...]
Be Larger than Life with Steve Altier
Steve Altier is the author of the books for young people, and is best known for his children’s books, the Gabby and Maddox adventure series. Not content with lessons for little ones, he’s written a Young Adult novel, “Lizardville, the Ghost Story,” and he’ll soon release a sequel. Steve [...]
A Poem Every Morning with Marjorie Maddox
I tried to imagine an early morning drive with poet Marjorie Maddox, whose creative suitcase is crammed with metaphors. I was enveloped in fog, which occluded my vision, on this particular day. My surroundings became the murky sea, and my auto a submarine. The tall, stark silver maples along [...]
One Page Per Day with Melody Johnson
Melody Johnson has completed yet another marathon, and her reward is the publication of her upcoming novel, "Day Reaper," the exciting conclusion to her "Night Blood" paranormal romance series. The books feature heroine Cassidy DiRocco, a crime reporter living in New York who discovers vampires living beneath the city. Writing [...]
Mary Woods’ Change of Heart
Mary Woods is an artist, a poet, and the author of "The Heart of the Matter,” which guides the reader to becoming wholeheartedly happy. I know Mary through her service work with Beloved Community Council and Heart of Williamsport. We've worked on the HoW project for three years, and it's [...]
Dave Bellomo’s Passion for Kettlebells
Dave Bellomo is a fitness expert, personal trainer, and author of two fitness manuals on Kettlebells. I met Dave when he worked as a personal trainer and worked with Dave after he opened his own gym, Maximum Fitness, and his manufacturing company, Cardiobells Incorporated, which he owned and operated for eight years.
Nancy Panko’s Guiding Missal
Nancy Panko has achieved amazing success with her book, “Guiding Missal,” an unusual story about a prayer book that is carried in the pocket of three generations of men as they navigate war. As she held the Military Missal in her hands, Nancy thought, “If only this little book [...]
Lou Hunsinger’s Legacy of Local History
Louis E. Hunsinger, Jr. labors for posterity. He does this as a historian, preserving Lycoming County's heritage as a writer for newspapers, magazines, programs, and books, working as the co-author of eight books on local history. His publishing career began with his good friend, Dr. James P. Quigel, and in [...]
Joseph Smith’s Cure for Hipocrisy
Joseph W. Smith is a teacher, speaker, film critic, journalist and author living in Northcentral Pennsylvania, with his wife. The son of a professional journalist, Joe wrote his first book when he was 12, "... an ambitious and profusely illustrated sci-fi opus called Project Jupiter." Then, 37 years later, he wrote "The Psycho File.”
Lost Coal with Lorena Beniquez
Lorena Beniquez, a writer, photographer and a filmmaker, and the author of a new book, Lost Coal Country of Northeastern Pennsylvania. Published by Arcadia, the book is part of the Images of Modern America series, so it’s part history, part photographic art, and part travel guide.
Writing for Sanity with Mike Reuther
Mike Reuther is a journalist by profession, but he never stops writing. Most mornings, before he heads to work at the daily newspaper, where he reports on government, politics, health care, crime, sports and general news, Mike works on his novels and self-help books. A non-nonsense and prolific writer, he's written 18 books.
Beyond the Wall with Alivia Tagliaferri
Alivia Tagliaferri is an author, publisher, producer and documentary filmmaker, discussing her book, Beyond the Wall: The Journey Home. Alivia operates Ironcutter Creative, a multimedia company that creates story-centric videos that are compelling, engaging and visually outstanding. She specializes in high-quality docu-style videos for television and theater broadcast, social media.
One More Day with Tonya Anderson
Tonya Anderson is a mindfulness counselor, inspirational speaker and the founder of An Exquisite Life. She helps people using mindfulness and sacred therapies to resolve stress/trauma in their lives, and frees them to live a life with renewed joy, love and passion for life. Tonya’s expertise is drawn from her life experience, clinical mental health counseling education and spiritual teachings.
Life Changes with Diane Langley
Diane Langley is the author of "Life Changes..." a small book with enormous wisdom. Diane has been the principal of Langley Communications Corporation since 1995. She educates individuals, groups and companies on communication and transition challenges through reflective, interactive engagement. This includes more sensitive work with those experiencing loss and trauma.
Calling All Writers
Interested in Being Interviewed?
If you’re a writer, I know you’ll find some solid advice. If you’re a fan, you’ll enjoy insight into some of your favorite author’s works. But we’re not stopping there, because we’re bibliophiles: “a person who loves or collects books, especially as examples of fine or unusual printing, binding, or the like.”
So we’re also talking with all people who love books. This includes librarians, book sellers, book makers, printers, book collectors and reviewers. If someone has a career, or a hobby that should be a career, and it involves books, we want to know.
Join us as we tell a story.
My generous guests are willing to share important information about their journey to becoming a successful, or soon-to-be-successful published author. That means they’re sharing what works, what doesn’t work, their inspiration and their creative process.
They’re also willing to talk about their failures. This is one of the most important aspects of our interview: failure. We’re also going to discuss taboo topics such as shame, worry, guilt, fear and distress. That’s right, we’re going there, and we’re going to discuss how each and every author handled these negative emotions, overcoming these obstacles, and strived until they were able to reach their goal: becoming published.