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This podcast is available on 4 platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more. You can also use the RSS feed directly.

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Yes, this podcast regularly features guests.

Why Authors Write

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by Mary J Cronin

5.0(4 reviews)

24 episodes

Updated Daily

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Podcast Overview

In candid conversations with bestselling authors, Why Authors Write goes behind the covers to get inside creative minds and find out what propels these authors to keep on writing, from inspiration to publication. Join Mary J. Cronin and co-hosts Kristie Dickinson, Sara Standon, and Becca Cronin as we dive into the personal backstories that make a writer’s work unforgettable. Follow along on the path that authors travel, from that irresistible spark of an idea, through overcoming frustration and sometimes tear-your-hair out writer's block, to finding the confidence and flow to get a book over the finish line. We dig deep to ask the questions you are curious about: Where do your best plot ideas come from? Is that villain based on a real-life character? How long does it take you to get from the book’s starting line to publication? And much, much more. If you want to find out what inspires your favorite authors to keep on writing, subscribe now so you won’t miss out on a single episode.Looking for more details on your favorite authors and interviews? Visit Mary’s website: <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.4qcatalyst.com/why-authors-write-podcast" target="_blank">4QCatalyst</a> for Why Authors Write show notes, author clips and quotes, and previews of future episodes.

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Publishing Since

1/29/2026

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Recent Episodes

July 10, 2026

Julie Dalton on Loss & Hope in "The Forest Becomes Her"

Julie Carrick Dalton joins Kristie Dickinson on Why Authors Write to talk about her unforgettable and hopeful climate fiction novel, The Forest Becomes Her. Set in Concord, Massachusetts, this literary eco-thriller reveals the unexpected human costs of destroying an old-growth forest for a so-called “eco-friendly” development. Dalton takes us inside the hearts of three women who take action to reclaim their connection to land, to their bodies, and to their own rage.The book’s unlikely heroines are Polly, Hazel, and Stella—a 13-year-old, a woman in her 30s, and a woman in her 50s. The loss of the forest forces each to confront their inner selves and commit to seismic external change. In the The Forest Becomes Her Julie Dalton asks us all to confront the implications of climate change with an unexpected twist: What if the forest had agency? What if nature could push back—not with fantasy violence, but with a deep, spiritual, and emotional reckoning?In this episode, Dalton shares how her real-life experiences shaped this novel. As a 13-year-old, she adored the woods behind her childhood home—naming trees, treating the forest as a best friend—until it was clear-cut without warning. That devastation imprinted deeply enough that she later handed it to her character Polly, whose story begins with a similar loss. Buying and rewilding threatened land in New Hampshire as an adult helped Dalton work through deep feelings of climate anxiety and hopelessness. She has come to believe that preaching climate doom is a disempowering dead end for concerned citizens. Instead, she is choosing to “love the hell out of what’s left” in the natural world. Julie believes that her novels and other works of climate fiction can act as a “laboratory for climate futures,” giving readers a path to imagine possible worlds and reflect on our shared responsibility for the planet.Dalton also opens up about crafting narratives that honor the constantly transfiguring female body, and our complicated relationship to mortality, from green burials to Emerson’s “Oversoul.” If you care about our shared future on earth, love the calming majesty of a deep forest, or just enjoy a page-turning eco-thriller, put The Forest Becomes Her on your must-read list!

June 26, 2026

Benny B. Peterson on "The Maidenheads"

What if the worst thing you ever did to someone you loved could transform into a long journey toward repair and self-forgiveness? That’s one of the questions that Why Authors Write host Kristie Dickinson explores with Benny B. Peterson, author of The Maidenheads. Their candid conversation in this episode covers the themes in Benny’s breakthrough first novel of queer coming of age, and the journey that writing it required for the both author and characters.Set between the late-’90s and 2012 Washington, DC, The Maidenheads follows Jamie, a young musician whose intense high school romance and musical partnership with Mari explodes into a catastrophic breakup, leaving Jaimie haunted by guilt and longing. A decade later, drifting and newly pregnant, Jamie decides that seeing Mari play live again may be the answer to everything. That decision sparks new emotional chaos, conflicting feelings, and Jaimie’s slow, painfully honest reckoning with the harm she’s caused and the person she wants to become. In discussing the challenges of completing this novel Benny shares how the core of the book evolved from early short stories written during their MFA program and a dead-end draft of a futuristic dystopian version into a deeply character-driven, body-centered story. They unpack the meaning of Jamie’s disorienting “Franken feeling” the electric charge of DC’s DIY punk scene, and why writing from the body—pregnancy, sex, heartbreak, and dysphoria—is central to their fiction. Benny shares the debut novelist’s reality behind today's success -- years of doubt, including two earlier, unsold novels, and the fear that they might simply be someone compelled to write whose novels are never published. What motivated them to keep writing through those doubts and early rejections? Benny’s advice to other writers includes:<ul><li>Let yourself write the “failed” books. Those drafts teach you what you care about and what doesn’t work.</li><li>Stop writing in hopes of winning broad market approval. Not every book is for everyone; your job is to be honest on the page.</li><li>Protect your body while writing about hard things. Work in time-limited “containers,” then step away, move, eat, rest.</li><li>Accept the long game. Benny’s “overnight” success was based on a decade of drafts, an MFA, and deep personal change.</li></ul>

June 19, 2026

Ellery Adams on "Invasive Species"

Prepare for a thrill; Invasive Species is the first ever horror novel from mystery author tEllery Adams. It turns out that she story on her own life! In this episode of Why Authors Write, host Mary J. Cronin sits down with Ellery Adams to dive deep into her chilling, genre-bending novel Invasive Species—a Long Island sea-monster story that explores mothers, daughters, power, and what happens when sisterhood fractures.Set in a rural, water-bound Long Island community in the early 1980s, Invasive Species blends Desperate Housewives, Stranger Things, and mythic folklore into a terrifying tale featuring a reclusive neighbor, Mrs. Smith, a hungry sea creature, and teenagers who see the truth long before the adults do. Ellery shares how this “pink-tentacled horror story” is also one of her most autobiographical books, rooted in a real Mrs. Smith from her childhood and a neighborhood ruled by gossip, isolation, and the sea.Mary and Ellery explore:<ul><li>Author inspiration & themes – how a mysterious neighbor, coastal life, and 1980s gender expectations shaped the story.</li><li>Sisterhood vs. monsters – why the scariest characters might not be the creature, but the women who turn on each other.</li><li>Teen heroes & libraries – how Stephen King, coming-of-age stories, and 80s library culture inspired the book’s young protagonists and the Icelandic housekeeper, Una.</li><li>Ellery’s writing process – from 1,000-words-a-day discipline and coffee-shop drafting to using massages and walks to break through the “muddy middle.”</li><li>Surviving rejection and failed series – how Ellery rebuilt her career multiple times and became a full-time working author.</li><li>Real-talk advice for writers – querying in the slush pile era, building armor against criticism, and pursuing passion projects that don’t fit the market.</li><li></li></ul>If you love horror with heart, character-driven mysteries, or candid writing advice from the bestselling author of over 40 mystery novels, this episode is the thrill you’ve been looking for!

24 total episodes available

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What is Why Authors Write?: In candid conversations with bestselling authors, Why Authors Write goes behind the covers to get inside creative minds and find out what propels these authors to keep on writing, from inspiration to publication. Join Mary J. Cronin and co-hosts Kristie Dickinson, Sara Standon, and Becca Cronin as we dive into the personal backstories that make a writer’s work unforgettable. Follow along on the path that authors travel, from that irresistible spark of an idea, through overcoming frustration and sometimes tear-your-hair out writer's block, to finding the confidence and flow to get a book over the finish line. We dig deep to ask the questions you are curious about: Where do your best plot ideas come from? Is that villain based on a real-life character? How long does it take you to get from the book’s starting line to publication? And much, much more. If you want to find out what inspires your favorite authors to keep on writing, subscribe now so you won’t miss out on a single episode.Looking for more details on your favorite authors and interviews? Visit Mary’s website: <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.4qcatalyst.com/why-authors-write-podcast" target="_blank">4QCatalyst</a> for Why Authors Write show notes, author clips and quotes, and previews of future episodes.
How often does this podcast release new episodes?: This podcast updates daily.
Where can I listen to this podcast?: This podcast is available on 4 platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more. You can also use the RSS feed directly.
Does this podcast accept guests?: Yes, this podcast regularly features guests.

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