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This podcast is for anyone who loves a good story. Board now for interviews and writing samples from talented authors!
If you would like to be featured, email your work to storystation@riverbendmediagroup.com
Submission guidelines:
There is no word count, but please select a piece that can be read in ten minutes or less.
Pieces with extreme violence, language, or other explicit content will not be considered.
Thank you for your interest!
Every story is a ticket to somewhere extraordinary. No need to pack a bag, just settle in and let the words transport you. Now boarding: an insight to an author's mind. This is The Story Station.
Caleb: My name is Caleb Georgeson. I've been writing off and on since I was a freshman in high school, so a little over twelve, thirteen years. And I finally have finished a book and published it last year.
Emma: That must be a good feeling.
Caleb: Yeah. Yeah. It was pretty good feeling. Yeah.
Emma: So how did it feel to actually finish your book? Because I know... I've also written off and on since high school, but I've never... okay, I finished a book in middle school. Actually, no. I had two chapters left, and I never finished writing those last two chapters. So I've almost finished a book in middle school. So I don't know quite how that feels when you've actually managed to finish writing it and publishing it. What's that been like?
Caleb: Well, it's on the one hand, it's kind of a relief. Like, oh, it's done. I can focus on something else now.
But I'm an independent publisher, so I self-publish my books. I didn't go with any publishing house or anything, so I had to do everything myself. So now I've gotten to the hard part. I have to try to actually find people to read the book. I'm not the most... I'm an introvert, so I have a hard time sharing. I've tried Instagram. I don't know, social media isn't really something I'm good at, so I'm just trying to just focus on the next book and trying to get myself out there that way.
Emma: That's exciting. And I agree, it can be really difficult, especially because writing is something that's so personal. And so just sharing it with others is really hard sometimes.
Caleb: Yeah. Yeah. It took some getting used to, trying to find beta readers to kind of look it over and that was kind of a little nerve-racking. Like, oh, I'm gonna share it with you and nobody else has ever read this and then I hope it's good, I guess.
Emma: Yeah. And then everyone's always asking when they find out you're writing a book, they're like, oh, what's it about? And even that is really hard to answer sometimes.
Caleb: Yeah. Yeah. They ask you that and then you think, oh, what book? What?
Emma: Yeah. So tell me a little bit about your book. It's called Shadow in the Night?
Caleb: Yes. It's kind of a fantasy-mystery story. The world it takes place in is something that I've been building, well, since I was a freshman in high school.
When I was a freshman, my English teacher invited the whole class to participate in NaNoWriMo, the National Novel Writing Month. And so for November, I was able to sit down and write 50,000 words, and all of that I have set it aside into a folder and hid it somewhere deep and dark where I'll never look at it again. But it did kind of serve as a foundation for this world that I've been trying to build for over a decade now. And finally, I was able to finish this book.
It started off as a short story. As I was world building, I wanted to flesh out some more details, but also actually get some writing done, too. So I picked a city in the world and just started writing a short story. It was supposed to be about a monk who finds this corrupted magic necklace and what happens after that. I made it about a thousand words, and I got stuck. I didn't know how to continue. And then I started looking at the other characters, and I looked at this detective who was going to be investigating some of the crimes or the murders that were gonna be committed. And all of a sudden, looking at this detective, I all of a sudden just saw his backstory, and I saw from his perspective how the whole thing would go. And it went from a short story to an entire novel. Eventually, I took that first short story, and I put that in, and now that's the second half of the prologue.
Emma: No writing is wasted. Even if it never gets published, it all helps. So what is your favorite thing about writing?
Caleb: Honestly, probably that feeling when you sit down and it just flows. And you sit and you get a couple thousand words done in an hour or two, and then you sit back and... it's hard to describe that feeling.
Emma: It's kind of like a writing high instead of a running high.
Caleb: Yeah. Yeah. Where, you know, you're like, oh, I created something and it just worked. Chasing that feeling is kind of the best.
Emma: That's true. That's why I love writing short stories because you kind of have that sense of completion as well as, wow, look at what I just did, you know?
Caleb: Yeah.
Emma: So what is your least favorite part about writing?
Caleb: Probably when I get stuck and I don't know how to go forward. That's led to a lot of projects that have kind of fallen by the wayside. Just because I get somewhere and I get stuck, and then I lose the momentum and end up forgetting about it for a while.
Emma: That is always really tricky.
Caleb: Yeah.
Emma: What do you do to overcome that?
Caleb: Well, at least with this book, I looked at it from a different perspective.
And one really good piece of advice that I read at some point was when you get stuck writing, it's because you don't know enough about your story. So you need to take a few steps back and look at your plot, look at your characters. What more do you need to know about your protagonist or the setting that can drive the story forward?
Emma: That is excellent advice. Do you have any other advice that you would give to beginning writers, like our high school friends who are just starting out?
Caleb: Yeah. Probably the most important thing that I've learned is that writing is all about momentum. I've heard it in a lot of different ways, but it really just comes down to don't stop. The only thing that the first draft needs is to exist. So just get it out there, get your words down, and then when you get to the end of the first draft, that's when you can go back and actually start editing and making it look good.
Emma: Yeah. If you get frustrated because it's not perfect, you can't make it perfect or even better if you don't have it in the first place.
Caleb: Yeah. Yeah. If you can't move forward until it's perfect, then you're never really gonna get anywhere because it's not gonna be perfect. Even, you know, this book that I published isn't perfect, because as I was going through it this morning to go through the prologue and pull out some pieces so I could make it a little shorter to read later, I noticed a mistake. And
Emma: Oh, no.
Caleb: Like, oh, man. This book's been out for six months, and here's this blaring mistake right here.
Emma: But that's what shows it's real, right?
Caleb: Yes. Yeah.
Emma: If you had to describe A Shadow in the Night in five words, which five words would you choose?
Caleb: Honestly, the five words that I'd probably use is "The start of something great" because this is just my first book, and it's far from perfect. It's not a masterpiece, but there is more. I have other stories planned in the same world, and I have other stories in other worlds that I've been building and working on. And so this is just the beginning of what I have to offer.
Emma: Is this going to be a series, or is this one a standalone?
Caleb: I'm still trying to decide. I left it off where it could function as a standalone, but I may go and write more.
Emma: What can you tell us about the world?
Caleb: I've called it Mandar. The name I came up with when I was in high school was Mandarinette because for some reason I was thinking of Mandarin oranges at the time. So, later as I was as I was working on it, I decided to shorten it down to Mandar.
When this book takes place, it's six hundred years after something called the Sundering—this huge war that reset civilization. There were kind of two sides... well, kind of three sides to the war. There's the Eastern side of the continent, which is now the Empire of Vernia. And then there's the Western side of the continent, who that's their own empire, which I mentioned in this book a little bit, but I haven't gone too far into... I'm gonna go more into them later in other books.
And then there's the Mandardra, which are the kind of the natives of this continent. And at the end of the war, the Mandardra disappeared, leaving just the humans behind. And so over the course of the next six hundred years, they've kind of built out... Yeah. Yeah.
Emma: On that note, with names, do you have any tips for creating names for either places or characters or anything in your world?
Caleb: In the first draft, it's okay if you just put a placeholder and then come back to it. I kind of just start with just the first thing that comes to mind, and then later I can change it if I want to. Like, my protagonist in this book, his name is Derrim. That name just kind of showed up as I was writing the short story, and I wasn't thinking of him as a character at that point. Like, the name just... it was just kind of an offhand comment. And then later, I needed a name for this detective. And I thought, oh, well, what if he's the one that they were mentioning earlier? So then it just kinda showed up. I feel like the best names that I've come up with are the ones that just I don't put a lot of thought into. They just kinda roll off.
Emma: What you were talking about earlier about putting a placeholder in, my sister, what she does is she if she has a name, but she doesn't quite know what to do yet, she, like, chooses two letters that you never really see next to each other in a word. And then that way, it's really easy for her to just find and replace and then find all those instances. Well, I guess you don't even need two letters, though. You could just find and replace whatever that word is, as long as you remember what it is to come back to.
Caleb: Yeah. A lot of people will, like, highlight it. So then as you're scrolling, you can kinda see where you need to go back and change stuff.
Emma: It's easier.
Caleb: Yeah.
Emma: So with independent publishing, like you said, it's huge because you have to do mostly everything yourself.
Caleb: Yep.
Emma: So what was that process like with formatting your book and everything?
Caleb: I—it took me a while to format my book. I didn't wanna pay for any of the, you know, fancy professional stuff. I wanted to kind of just do it myself as cheap as I could. The majority of the money that I spent on this book to get it out there was on my editor and my cover artist. And so that didn't leave a lot left over for paying somebody to format it or whatever. So I spent about two weeks sitting down and figuring out how to format it to make it look the way I wanted. So I used LibreOffice, basically just the free version of Microsoft Word, and I learned how to use it. I ordered a few proof copies. It took me three different rounds of proof copies before I finally got it to where I wanted it. It was a difficult process, but I'm glad that I learned how to do it because now as I'm working on my next book, I can kinda get things started now so that it's easier at the end.
Emma: What a valuable skill to learn. And then you really know your book inside and out.
Caleb: Yeah.
Emma: Would you like to read a snippet of your book?
Caleb: Yeah. So this is an excerpt from the prologue.
It was a warm summer morning; the perfect day to escape. The perfect day to die. A woman climbed the winding path up the hill. She stopped periodically to look back at Sar'Tuleri, the city that had taken her in, given her life, given her purpose, love, and loss.
The eastern side of the hill was fairly steep, so it had not been settled as heavily as the western side. Several roads led to the top, but few braved the steep, overgrown switchbacks of the eastern side of the hill.
Ful'Jeruli, the hill was called. Hill of Memories. Millennia ago, the citadel at the top had served as a tomb far from civilization. Over the centuries, the city had grown around the hill, swallowing it up as it passed. She peered out at the sprawling city, basking in the chaotic beauty of the scattered streets.
Her eyes stopped, staring at the four dark monoliths peeking over the looming city wall in the distance. A tear appeared in the corner of her eye, then slid down her pale cheek.
"I will join you soon," she whispered, then turned away. When had she last heard her voice? It had been a long time. She did her best to ignore the voice screaming in her mind.
As she climbed, so did the bright yellow sun. The brisk morning air made way for the roasting afternoon. Memories floated by as she walked, invading her thoughts.
She remembered summers that died long ago. She saw the flicker of an image in her mind's eye, a little girl in a white dress, speckled with blue flowers. She remembered buying that dress.
She wished she could have been there to bury it.
Her thoughts shifted, remembering more from her past. She thought of the day she left her home far in the North to study in Sar'Tuleri. She remembered the day she graduated and began her career working for the university. She remembered being kidnapped, tortured, and murdered by...
No, she thought, that's not right. She leaned against a tree, clutching her head.
That memory wasn't hers. Dark images flooded her mind. Hooded figures bathed in red light, chanting unfamiliar words. She blinked, returning to the present and pushing the thoughts away. She reached up to pull off the medallion from around her neck, but her arms stopped in their place. She wasn't strong enough. Not yet.
She couldn't let it win; she had to keep going.
The painful switchbacks led her to a fork in the road. She had taken this path so many times before, but couldn't remember the way to go. She decided to go left. It didn't look as steep. It probably didn't matter. All roads led to the top. Eventually.
She used every ounce of will to finish the climb. She had to see it one more time. She had to remember. It was the only way to find the strength to do what needed to be done. Soon, the familiar walls of the Citadel loomed above her. The gates, as usual, hung open.
As she drew closer to the citadel's entrance, her legs grew heavy, as if she were walking through thick mud. The chain of the necklace around her neck resisted, as if it knew what she was about to do. It pulled her down, growing heavier with each step. She pushed harder, refusing to let it win.
Eventually, she arrived at the base of the central spire. Stone steps led to a set of giant wooden doors. One step at a time, she carried herself to the top.
To freedom.
Phim always did as he was commanded.
As a Rendorian monk, a follower of the sacred path, he had devoted his life to the Return. He patiently awaited the time when the ancient Mandardra, the Hidden Ones, would leave their exile and take their rightful place as rulers of the land. Phim followed the Path, doing what the Riyak, the Great High Priest, commanded.
Today, that meant mopping floors.
It was the morning after the Night of Sorrows, the first of the sixteen Feast Days that ended on the night of the False Moon, the Night of Shadows, which began a new Cycle of Remembrance. The False Moon Festival—spanning two entire weeks—was the most anticipated time of the year. The Night of Sorrows, which opened the festival, was special, as it was the only night of the year the monks were allowed to temporarily return to the lavish sins of their former lives, which, among other things, included drinking alcohol. This led to some... extravagance.
Phim, equipped with a fresh mop, was cleaning up a pile of said extravagance. Plates of unfinished food lined the hallways, scattered trash bins sat overflowing, mimicking the drunk patrons from that previous night as their contents spilled to the floor. There was, unfortunately, a hierarchy to the Path, and Phim was at the bottom, as he hadn't yet completed his pilgrimage. Given his station, cleaning up after the other monks was the obvious job to give him.
The polished stone floors of the Grand Atrium reflected the light of the wall lanterns perfectly. Of course they did; Phim had polished those floors himself last week. He stared at the perfect rows of lights reflected on the dark stone floor, interrupted only by the occasional pile of vomit from the previous night's festivities. He would get to those soon.
A bell chime echoed through the large stone room. Normally, Griv took care of aid requests. He was, unfortunately, still recovering. Phim was the only one coherent enough to answer the door. He paused his work and left the Grand Atrium, following the hallway down to the main door at the bottom of the Citadel's central spire. The door opened effortlessly on silent, well-oiled hinges.
A woman with short blonde hair stood next to a little girl who energetically pulled the rope up and down to ring the bell. Phim smiled at them.
“Ana ishna jha da-Rendor,” he said with a bow. May Rendor bless your path. "How are you this fine morning?" He asked, stooping down to speak to the little girl.
The little girl let go of the rope and hid behind the woman, who Phim assumed was her mother.
Phim handed them each a package of food: salted jerky with stale rice cakes. He also grabbed a stuffed bear from the pile of donations and handed it to the little girl. She cautiously accepted it, then hugged it energetically. The woman thanked him and left.
He had only just reached the mop when, once again, the bell chimed. Phim huffed. How was he going to get this mess cleaned up if he had to keep checking the door?
All morning, the cycle continued. He cleaned some, then returned to the door to hand food to the poor. By the time morning faded into afternoon, he had barely met a dent in the awful mess. As he prepared to sit down and rest, the chime of the bell echoed across the hall once more. He slowly walked to the door and reluctantly opened it.
On the doorstep stood a woman with long scarlet hair. She wore dark brown robes and a long white scarf around her neck. Her eyes, darkened by drooping purple bags, pleaded with him. She gave Phim a soft smile.
"Being here... I remember now. My name is... Vera." She looked down as if she wasn't sure. Then she looked at Phim with eyes full of determination. "My name is Vera."
Vera shoved him out of the way and ran inside. Phim ran after her, but she was much faster than him. She darted up the stairwell that led to the top of the spire. By the time Phim caught up, the mystery woman was on the upper balcony beneath the old iron bell.
She stood on the edge of the balustrade peering out over the city.
"I used to come here with my husband," she said without turning back. "Derrim. Yes. That was his name. That's why I came here." She turned around to face Phim. "I came here to remember. To be released from this burden." She reached towards her neck, placing her hands around a black chain. "To finally be free."
Her face contorted, and her eyes turned black. She screamed. "No! You will never be free!" Her raspy voice scratched at Phim's ears. Her fingers, like the claws of a vulture, tore at the chain around her neck. She ripped off a necklace with a black amulet and tossed it to the side, then placed one foot off the edge as if to jump. Phim rushed over to grab her before she fell, but only managed to grab her scarf.
The scarf tightened against the stone balustrade as she fell, but Phim held on. Unfortunately, his split second decision had a fatal flaw; when the scarf went tight, her neck snapped. Her face relaxed into a smile of relief. Her eyes hung open and the blackness faded away, revealing bright blue irises. Phim, surprised, let go of the scarf, and the woman's lifeless body plummeted to the ground. A soft thump echoed through the courtyard.
Phim wasn't sure, but he thought he heard her say one final word as she fell.
Freedom.
Emma: Woah. Intriguing. There's a lot going on there. And I must say, I love all your names. You can tell there's so much thought into the world with the city itself and then just the order of the monks... There's a lot of world building there.
Caleb: Yeah.
Emma: What's your favorite thing about your world?
Caleb: Probably the magic system. There's different types of magic in this world. The one that's really showcased in here is kind of more of an elemental magic system. Derrim, the detective, has a necklace that is imbued with an ancient spirit. One of the Mandardra has been bound to this amulet, and he's able to use the Mandardra's magic.
Emma: No relation to the cursed evil necklace?
Caleb: Well...
Emma: Or is that a spoiler?
Caleb: You'll have to read to find out.
Emma: Oh, interesting.
Thank you for traveling with us. Next stop: your work of art. Poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, you name it. Email us at storystation@riverbendmediagroup.com. Submission guidelines are not shy; they can be found in the podcast description. The Story Station, hosted by Emma, is a production of Riverbend Media Group.