Welcome to the official start of autumn. We’re two episodes into our Fall into Poetry series—this is the third—with a focus this season on poets who also write fiction.

Our primary question is How Writing Poetry Made our Guest a Better Fiction Writer, but I guarantee we will delve into a lot of other corners of writing as well.

Today’s guest is Michael Cody, a songwriter-poet who has added fiction to his repertoire, with short stories and novels. He finds poetry does more than enrich his words, deepening the work in a wealth of ways.

Here’s the Interview.

Bio: Michael Amos Cody is author of the novel Gabriel’s Songbook (Pisgah Press, 2017) and the story collection A Twilight Reel (Pisgah Press, 2021), winner of the Short Story category in the Feathered Quill Book Awards 2022.

His literary suspense novel Streets of Nashville appeared in April 2025 from Madville Publishing. He lives in Jonesborough, TN, with his wife Leesa and teaches in the Department of Literature and Language at East Tennessee State University.

TIMINGS

• 00:40 Welcome and Introduction
• 01:35 Interview with Michael Cody
• 30:15 Last Words and Closing

Total Run Time = 31:36

LINKS michaelamoscody@gmail.com

https://michaelamoscody.com/

https://michaelamoscody.com/michael-amos-cody/macblog/

https://www.amazon.com/stores/Michael-Cody/author/B001KHHWW6

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17352683.Michael_Amos_Cody

https://soundcloud.com/michael-cody-9

The Write Focus website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/10/639-fall-into-poetry-michael-cody.html

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools.

Our current focus is Fall into Poetry, 12 episodes of writers sharing how poetry improves their fiction. These 12 episodes will broadcast this autumn, September to December. Here is a link to the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg Select the most recent episode through the URL after the TIMINGS.

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

• You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
• Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

Welcome to our second episode for Fall into Poetry with a Poet.

Our poet this time is Pam Ebel, and this makes her third appearance on the podcast. Pam is a pure writer, which in my opinion means she writes many different styles and she shares her knowledge freely with us, with other writers at local seminars, and with other writers at national conferences. This year she’s one of the keynote speakers at the Killer Nashville awards banquet.

In our wide-ranging conversation, Pam talks specifically about poetry as performance and immediate audience interconnection which guides writers as they place words on the page. While some poems are not suitable for performance, other poems lend themselves naturally to that combination art form, poetry performance. Pam covers many topics in our scant time. Here’s the interview.

Bio: Ebel has been published in Shotgun Honey, YELLOW MAMA EZINE, Kings River Life Magazine, The BOULD AWARDS 2020 and 2021 Anthology, Tomorrow and Tomorrow 2021 Anthology, and other venues. Her poetry has appeared in the Delta Poetry Review. A native of California, she now concentrates on tales from her original home state and tales from the highways of the South. She also knows, like the Ancient Greeks and the Irish, that as a Southern writer you can’t outrun your blood.

She has turned to writing full time as of 2020, obviously either perfect or bizarre timing, and this will be her fifth career. She lives in Metairie, Louisiana, with her husband and two cats.

TIMINGS

00:40 Welcome and Introduction

2:00 Interview with Pam Ebel

Topics: Killer Nashville, Bouchercon in NOLA, sharing with writers, poetry as performance, audience reaction, influence of “Howl” by A. Ginsberg, Aristotle, poems not suitable for performance, One Rule when performing, how poems live on after the presentation, poems inserted into fiction

34:00 Last Words and Closing

Total Run Time = 35:29

LINKS

Pamela Ebel https://pamebel.com/

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2025/09/638-fall-into-poetry-with-poets-pam-ebel.html

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.

Our current focus is Fall into Poetry, 12 episodes of writers sharing how poetry improves their fiction. These 12 episodes will broadcast this autumn, September to December. Here is a link to the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg Select the most recent episode through the URL after the TIMINGS.

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

• You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
• Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

Welcome to our autumn series Fall into Poetry.

Here where I live, it’s not quite Fall, but I’m desperate for it, and this series is one way I can feed that devouring desperation.

This season, we have poets who also write fiction, and that informs the direction of our episodes. While we writers may weave multiple strands into these episodes, the tapestry created depicts creative writing at its best ~ formed of many, many threads in a variety of writing styles, black-and-white nonfiction, the red-hot colors of the mystery genre, the blues and purples of speculative fiction, the glorious greens that run through all of our writing.

Our very first interview is with Joan Leotta, whose first publication occurred at 14 with a poem. Life offered many opportunities for writing, and she’s woven the diverse threads into a glorious tapestry melding desire and passion with duty and obligation.

Let’s begin our interview with Joan Leotta.

Bio: Joan Leotta plays with words on page and stage. She’s a multiple nominee for Pushcart and Best of the Net. Her poetry, essays, and stories have appeared in many journals in the US and abroad. She performs folktale programs on stage, radio, television, and zoom, often highlighting heritage, food, family, and strong women, and offers the one-woman show, “Meet Louisa May Alcott, Civil War Nurse, and Writer”.

TIMINGS

00:40 Welcome and Introduction

02:20 Interview

• Topics: Poetry helping Fiction, Value of Each Word / Conciseness / Form, Haiku / Tanka / Haibun poetic forms, her novels and children’s books & rights reversion, backburner items, performance of writing, ideas & more ideas, her poetry background and her various types of writing

31:19 Closing

Total Run Time: = 32:21

Links

Joan's Facebook https://www.facebook.com/joanleotta

Two Mini-Chapbooks are available free to download from Origami Press:

https://www.origamipoems.com/poets/257-joan-leotta

Morning by Morning and Dancing Under the Moon

Feathers on Stone" poetry chapbook available from me and at

https://mainstreetragbookstore.com/product/feathers-on-stone-joan-leotta/

Languid Lusciousness with Lemon from Finishing Line Press

https://www.amazon.com/Languid-Lusciousness-Lemon-Joan-Leotta/dp/1635341450/

Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.

Our current focus is Summer Writing Challenge, 13 episodes every Wednesday in June, July, and August, to achieve 65,000 words or 5K a week. We’ll have a quick tip on writing, interviews from writers on challenges, and check-ins. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KE2gUjunhC7MgkXmsLiQap

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

• You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
• Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)