ABOUT THIS PODCAST 🔗
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: 4QCatalyst for Why Authors Write show notes, author clips and quotes, and previews of future episodes.
Update frequency:
every 10 days
Average audio length:
28 minutes
Guest interviews
English
United States
29 episodes
since Jan. 29, 2026
episodic
IN THIS PODCAST 🔗
LATEST EPISODE 🔗
In this moving episode of Why Authors Write, host Mary Cronin sits down with debut novelist Sam Wachman to discuss his Boston Authors Club Award–winning novel, The Sunflower Boys (HarperCollins).
What began as a pre-med student’s love letter to his ancestral homeland and a queer coming-of-age story…
SEARCH PAST EPISODES
Search past episodes of Why Authors Write.
PREVIOUS EPISODES 🔗
In this episode of Why Authors Write, host Mary J Cronin sits down with award‑winning author Tara Lynn Masih to explore the long research and writing journey behind her new historical novel, The Silent Women.
Tara shares how this book began not with Oak Ridge, but in the archives of the Andover Hi…
What if the survival of helpless, shipwrecked Americans depended on warring tribes of Pacific islanders? Who would live and what sailors would be sacrificed? If this sound like a reality show pitch, think again. In Eric Jay Dolin’s hands, the real-life survivors of this 19th century shipwreck in…
What if famous heroes of the past suddenly transformed into unstable, unsettling, and endlessly surprising characters? In this mind-bending Why Authors Write episode, host Sara Stanton speaks with Senaa Ahmad about her debut short story collection, The Age of Calamities. Senaa unpacks the personal …
In this episode of Why Authors Write, host Mary J. Cronin talks with Yu-Mei Balasingamchow about the inspiration for her dazzling debut novel Names Have Been Changed, a gripping, propulsive story about identity, exile, and reinvention, told by an anonymous runaway criminal on her underground podcas…
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-calle…
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 …
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…
Anthony Tardiff spent over ten years writing The Final System, a thriller in which AI is on the brink of either saving humanity from chaos or dooming us to servitude. Has today’s AI tech turned his powerful fiction into a real life dilemma?
In this mind-expanding episode of Why Authors Write, hos…
In this episode of Why Authors Write Emily Franklin, the best-selling author of "Love and Other Monsters," discusses her compelling reimagining of the summer when Shelley Byron, Mary Shelley, and forgotten stepsister Claire Clairmont were together. The conversation delves into the mystery of Franke…
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Mary J Cronin, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
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