“What I love about writing fiction is this freedom to make the story work the way I want it to work instead of just reporting the way the story did work.” —Claire Boyles, author of Appraisals
Claire Boyles didn’t study to be a writer. In fact, she was a farmer. But through blogging, reading books at the library, and co-writing screenplays with her brother, and then eventually getting a degree as a non-traditional college student, she came to write award-winning short stories and get her first novel picked up by a major publisher. In this episode, we talk with Claire about:
how fiction allows us to explore “political and thorny” themes,
the importance of revision in forming more fully-developed characters,
how all opinions in a work of fiction must “run through the character,”
how to develop interiority in characters,
how being a farmer prepares you for being a writer.
Claire Boyles (she/her) is a writer and former farmer. Her debut novel, Appraisals, is forthcoming in August 2026. A 2022 Whiting Award winner in fiction, she is the author of Site Fidelity, which won the High Plains Book Award and was longlisted for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Award, the Colorado Book Award, and the Reading the West Award. Her nonfiction has appeared in Sierra Magazine and Virginia Quarterly Review, among other journals, and she is a screenwriter with multiple credits on the Hallmark Channel. She splits time between Loveland, Colorado and Ames, Iowa, where she is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing and the Environment at Iowa State University.
Rosemerry:
This video … my friend Barb shared it with me and it feels like such a potent message for our planet right now—especially in keeping with the message in Claire Boyles’ novel. These blues feel totally on target.
How can poets help build bridges between different factions? I read with interest this article about Nund Rishi, whose poetry draws on a poetic tradition that incorporates both Hindu and Islamic symbols.
Christie:
Alfred Jung Lee’s essay in the Believer “On Description” begins as an exploration of the uses of description and ends with a moment that will punch you in the gut. “Time is too short, to notice a thing or to describe it. One relies on shorthand and assumptions, and so in the end nothing worth describing gets described.”
“I Spent $44,000 Launching My Book. Three of Those Dollars Worked.” Amy Amy Chan on “What actually sells books in 2026, what doesn’t, and the expensive lessons I learned so you don’t have to.”
I absolutely loved Patrick Redden Keefe’s new book, London Falling, which tells the tale of Zac Brettler, a 19-year-old who dies after falling into the Thames from the balcony of a posh London apartment. After his death, Zac’s parents learn that their son was leading a double life and had gotten into trouble with some notorious criminals after posing as the son of a Russian oligarch. As Keefe seeks to untangle what happened to Zac, he also delves into some fascinating London history, Britain’s colonial past, the expulsion of British subjects of South Asian ancestry from Uganda in the early 1970s, and how and why London became a haven for people who have become very wealthy through illicit means. Keefe also uncovers family secrets and lies across multiple characters in the book, and he explores the ways that family stories can protect and harm its members. Ultimately, the book is about shifting identities, family secrets and two parents trying to understand a son they loved but did not fully know.
to serve you tree-ripened apricots,
a bold stream of golden juice
trailing from my fingers to your lips,
from your lips to my neck, from my neck
to your thigh. I want to serve you
the sunshine that blushes red in the cheek
of apricot skin and begin the meal again,
and again I want to serve you
the walls of the stone, cast them open
to reveal soft-skinned seeds
where roots amuse themselves
wondering where they might be planted
if they ever reach soil at all. I want
to serve you white memory of blossom
betrayed by frost, memory of limb
castrated by saw, memory of soil
that battled beetles, memory of rain
that would not fall. And I want to banish
all memory and serve you apricots,
rouse you, suggest you devour
this flesh, the only present there is.
—Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, from Holding Three Things at Once (Turkey Buzzard Press, 2008)
First, we want to thank ALL our subscribers! We are so grateful you join us in this conversation about what it is to engage with yourself, the world and others in a creative way. And a BIG thank you to our paid subscribers. You make this podcast possible. Only our paid subscribers receive our bonus episodes as a thank you for their financial support. This week, we talk with Claire about the sex lives of tarantulas, writing Christmas movies for Hallmark, co-writing with a family member, writing in the characters we most want to see represented in the world, how a formula can help write even literary fiction, and what it means to live a good life.
What does it mean to live a good life?
How have earlier careers helped shape your creative habits?
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