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Mommy’s Pen Podcast – Episode 6: Full Story Analysis of Ivy & Bean

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Trumpets blaring: We are now available on Apple podcasts! Pretty please, leave us a review. Reviews are VERY important to help us grow.

This week we take every story element we’ve learned in the five previous episodes and put them together to analyze Ivy & Bean by Annie Barrows.

You can also listen using any number of podcast platforms and apps including Spotify, Breaker, Pocket Casts, Radio Public, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts.

Show Notes:

Ivy and Bean - Book 1

Season 1, Episode 6: Full Story Analysis of Ivy & Bean

This week we build on the five previous episodes by analyzing the story structure of one whole book, Ivy & Bean by Annie Barrows. We also get excited for the eleventh book in the series, Ivy & Bean: One Big Happy Family, due out later this month. Nora is on a roll in this one — thankfully, most of the screaming has been edited out.

Read the transcript.

Things we mention that you should check out:

  • Our mailing list! Sign up today and you’ll get cool subscriber only perks like bonus material and artwork from my forthcoming novel, The Cat, the Cash, the Leap and the List.
  • All the other Ivy & Bean books and more about Annie Barrows.
  • If you want to learn more about the second plot point and the four-act structure for stories, I highly recommend the work of Larry Brooks. You can see a list of his books at the Story Fix website.

This post was lovingly sponsored by our Patreon supporters (you can become one, too!). 

The Mommy’s Pen Podcast – Episode 5: Second Plot Point (on Gardam Street!)

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This week on the podcast we discuss The Penderwicks on Gardam Street by Jeanne Birdsall and the story structure concept of the second plot point.

We are now available on Apple podcasts! Pretty please, leave us a review. Reviews are VERY important to help us grow.

You can also listen using any number of podcast platforms and apps including Spotify, Breaker, Pocket Casts, Radio Public, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts.

Show Notes:

Season 1, Episode 5: Second Plot Point (on Gardam Street!)

We review The Penderwicks on Gardam Street, the second book in the beloved Penderwicks series by Jeanne Birdsall. Nora and I reminisce about meeting Birdsall at Wordstock a few years back. Not only does she write excellent books, she has the good sense to wear Haflinger slippers to a book signing. My admiration for her knows no bounds.

This episode’s art is a doctored up picture I took at Wordstock in 2013 where we saw Birdsall read and she signed a copy of The Penderwicks at Point Mouette for Nora.

I also explain the concept of a second plot point using Gardam Street as an example.

Read the transcript.

Things we mention that you should check out:

  • Our mailing list! Sign up today and you’ll get cool subscriber only perks like bonus material and artwork from my forthcoming novel, The Cat, the Cash, the Leap and the List.
  • Wordstock is an annual book festival in Portland, but I guess it’s now called the Portland Book Festival, which is lame, if you ask me. But still, it’s a good festival and worth the trip if you’re anywhere in the Pacific Northwest.
  • If you want to learn more about the second plot point and the four-act structure for stories, I highly recommend the work of Larry Brooks. You can see a list of his books at the Story Fix website.

This post was lovingly sponsored by our Patreon supporters (you can become one, too!). 

The Mommy’s Pen Podcast – Episode 4: The Midpoint Shift (English Magic Edition)

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This week on the podcast we discuss Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanne Clarke and the story structure concept of the midpoint shift.

We are now available on Apple podcasts! As a new show, reviews are VERY important to help us grow. Please consider leaving a review. xo

You can also listen using any number of podcast platforms and apps including Spotify, Breaker, Pocket Casts, Radio Public, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts.

Show Notes:

Season 1, Episode 4: Midpoint Shift

We review Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke and geek out discussing our favorite characters. This episode’s art features Nora as Lady Pole for Halloween 2014 (all seven-year-olds choose to costume themselves as obscure literary characters, right?).

Sue explains what the midpoint shift is and why it’s her favorite piece of story structure. Nora creates brilliant sound effects to illustrate the character’s mindset change at the midpoint.

Read the full transcript.

Things we mention that you should check out:

  • Our mailing list! Sign up today and you’ll get cool subscriber only perks like bonus material and artwork from my forthcoming novel, The Cat, the Cash, the Leap and the List.
  • The audiobook version of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell gets played on repeat at our house.
  • If you want to hear Neil Gaiman interviewing Susanna Clarke about the book, go here or here.
  • If you want to learn more about the midpoint shift and a four-act structure for stories, I highly recommend the work of Larry Brooks. You can see a list of his books at the Story Fix website.

This post was lovingly sponsored by our Patreon supporters (you can become one, too!). 

The Mommy’s Pen Podcast – Episode 3: First Pinch Point

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This week on the podcast we discuss The Blackthorn Key by Kevin Sands and the story structure concept of pinch points.

We are now available on Apple podcasts! As a new show, reviews are VERY important to help us grow. Please consider leaving a review. xo

You can also listen using any number of podcast platforms and apps including Spotify, Breaker, Pocket Casts, Radio Public, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts.

Show Notes:

Season 1, Episode 3: First Pinch Point

We review The Blackthorn Key, the first book is a fabulous Blackthorn Key Adventure series by Kevin Sands. For this week’s story structure lesson, Sue explains what a pinch point is.

You also get an entertaining rundown of Britain’s Restoration era from amateur historian, Nora. Incidentally, the art featured above for this episode is a Nora original in watercolor pencil. The gentleman William III (a nephew of Charles II).

Read the full transcript.

Things we mention that you should check out:

  • Our mailing list! Sign up today and you’ll get cool subscriber only perks like bonus material and artwork from my forthcoming novel, The Cat, the Cash, the Leap and the List.
  • The audiobook version of The Blackthorn Key is excellent.
  • If you want to learn more about pinch points and a four-act structure for stories, I highly recommend the work of Larry Brooks. You can see a list of his books at the Story Fix website.

This post was lovingly sponsored by my Patreon supporters (you can become one, too!). 

[Read more…] about The Mommy’s Pen Podcast — Episode 3: First Pinch Point

The Mommy’s Pen Podcast – Episode 2: Cleopatra & the First Plot Point

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This week on the podcast we discuss ancient Egyptian body odor and the story structure concept of the first plot point.

It’s twelve minutes of fun! Listen now…

We are now available on Apple podcasts! As a new show, reviews are VERY important to help us grow. Please consider leaving a review.

You can also listen using any number of podcast platforms and apps including Spotify, Breaker, Pocket Casts, Radio Public, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts.

Show Notes:

Season 1, Episode 2: First Plot Point

Nora reviews Cleopatra VII: Daughter of the Nile from the Royals Diaries series. Sue explains the function of a first plot point (FPP) and Nora takes a stab at identifying the FPP in Cleopatra and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.

Nora also clues us in on how ancient Egyptians handled body odor (hint: it involves snakes) and points to some great places to learn more about history.

Read the full transcript.

Things we mention that you should check out:

  • Our mailing list! Sign up today and you’ll get cool subscriber only perks like bonus material and artwork from my forthcoming novel, The Cat, the Cash, the Leap and the List.
  • You can follow Mary Beard on Twitter and read her column “A Don’s Life” in the Times Literary Supplement. But please do yourself a big favor and head over to YouTube, search for her name, and start binge watching documentaries on ancient Rome. This woman is one of my heroes — a brilliant presenter AND totally unwilling to wear make-up or a bra while fronting programs for the BBC.
  • Horrible Histories started as book series and is now a television series in the UK. It’s bloody good fun and you can watch all the episodes on Hulu.com.
  • If you want to learn more about first plot points and a four-act structure for stories, I highly recommend the work of Larry Brooks. You can see a list of his books at the Story Fix website.

This post was lovingly sponsored by my Patreon supporters (you can become one, too!). 

[Read more…] about The Mommy’s Pen Podcast — Episode 2: Cleopatra & the First Plot Point

Some Thoughts on Tikki Tikki Tembo

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So, when Chang falls in the well, there’s a bucket in there, why doesn’t Tikki tikki tempo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo just pull him up? Or have the parents taught them nothing except to avoid the well? If that’s the case, I’m not confident of their ability to discuss the importance of contraception when it’s time to have the birds and the bees conversation.

And shouldn’t they have done a little family style lessons learned session after Chang was fished out? “Listen, kids, if this ever happens again, just run right to the old guy with the ladder cuz that’s all I’m gonna be able to tell you to do.”

My favorite part is when Chang is trying to tell his mother that Tikki tikki tempo has fallen in the well for the third time, and he’s so distraught and out of breath that he says it like this: “Honorable Mother! Chari bari rembo tikki tikki — pip pip has fallen into the well!” When I read it aloud, I practically spit the “pip pip” out.

What gives with this moral?  The ONLY lesson all of China took from these near tragic mishaps is to give the first son — the one they actually care about — a short name, just like the second son? That seems of limited value, given their current one child policy, I must say. Sheesh.