Read And Write With Natasha

In this episode, I sat down with John DeDakis, a journalist with 45 years in the newsroom and 25 years at CNN, to get honest about the upsides and downsides of artificial intelligence in writing, publishing, and education, and where he draws the line. John walked me through his pivot from journalism to mystery and suspense fiction, including what reporters have to unlearn when they move from “just the facts” to character emotion, interiority, and voice. We talked about persistenc...

In this episode, W G Williams takes us inside the moment he stopped chasing agents, embraced a hybrid publisher, and brought 20 Years of Internet Humor and Other Interesting Things to life without losing the warmth that kept readers coming back for decades. We explore the nuts and bolts: sourcing stories from readers, editing for clarity and broad appeal, and verifying originality rather than recycling copyrighted material from the web. Bill walks through why he organizes nearly 200 en...

Christopher Lee Maher is the author of Free for Life, a book born not from theory but from a personal reckoning. After years as a Navy SEAL, Christopher looked physically elite yet struggled with insomnia, chronic pain, and nervous system overload. His book documents the system he built to understand why strong bodies break down—and how to restore them. In this episode, Christopher unpacks the core ideas behind Free for Life and the method he calls True Body Intelligence, which addresses...

What happens when Hollywood decides smart, fearless women don’t sell? We sit down with Kay A. Oliver, award-winning author and former industry insider, to explore how she turned that “no” into twelve page-turning novels, a loyal readership, and growing momentum toward the screen. Kay shares a writing process built for consistency and flow: visualizing the opening and ending, stopping mid-scene to avoid writer’s block, and using novellas to test ideas, master KDP formatting, and later ex...

Romance fiction is dominating the chart. It's also redefining how stories are told and sold. In this episode, I sit down with author and industry veteran Noel Stark to talk about why happy endings aren’t clichés. They’re promises. We dig into how a genre once brushed off as “women’s fiction” built one of publishing’s most loyal and profitable audiences. Noelle takes us from the secret paperbacks she once hid in her backpack to the binge that launched her writing career.&nbsp...

Dr. Nicole Janz, author of The Write Habit planner, brings an honest perspective to the psychological barriers that prevent writers from establishing consistent creative practices. Drawing from her own journey from burnt-out academic to thriving authorpreneur, she reveals how the most common writing struggles—procrastination, avoidance, and inconsistency- often mask deeper fears about worthiness and vulnerability. This conversation goes beyond surface-level productivity advice to expl...