Justina Ireland on Owning Your Voice with Courage

Justina Ireland interviews with podcast 88 Cups of Tea with Yin Chang

[player]

“If you are going to write, why not put out the best writing you can? Why not say something worthwhile?” -Justina Ireland

I’m thrilled to have Justina Ireland on the show today! Justina is the author of Vengeance Bound and Promise of Shadows.

In today’s episode, we discuss why it’s crucial for us to grow and change as people, and why it’s worthwhile to say the things that are most important to us and to share it with others so they know they’re not alone.

I’m really looking forward for you to hear our conversation about handling the overwhelm of the political climate and Justina’s advice on powerful and productive ways of decompressing.

Now, more than ever, we need more diversity in books and the media; Justina walks us through the important steps writers need to take to create diverse characters that break away from institutional stereotypes.

We dive into how to approach difficult scenes that are closest to our own feelings or experiences, and we unpack why it’s difficult to get through them in the first place, and how to conquer those specific scenes. Justina also walks us through manageable steps you can take to accomplish your writing goals, and the important criteria for your literary agent submission.

You don’t want to miss out on Justina’s valuable advice!

love_yinchang

PS. Do you know anyone who would love our conversation? Please share this episode to help spread the word!

PPS. If you enjoyed this episode, I’d really love your support in growing our community by subscribing to us on iTunes, and leaving a rating and review. Those specific steps help to increase our visibility on iTunes which really helps new listeners discover us. A huge heartfelt thank you for your time and support! You can click here to go directly to our iTunes page!

“To be able to love something without any fear of judgement, is what I think people are afraid of.” -Justina Ireland

“It’s worthwhile to say the things that are important to you and put those out there because it gives other people a chance to realize they are not alone.” -Justina Ireland

“Writing and creating stories is an act of ego. You have to think that your words are worth saying and worth people reading to actually write.” -Justina Ireland

“I love how Science Fiction and Fantasy can take a really difficult topic that we have trouble talking about in a real word setting and do it pretty effortlessly.” -Justina Ireland

What You’ll Learn From This Episode:

- Why it’s crucial for us to grow and change as people
- Powerful and productive ways of decompressing from the overwhelm of our political climate
- How to conquer your writing anxiety to avoid ruining the magic of your story ideas
- Why its worthwhile to voice what’s important to you and how it brings solace to other people who realize they are not alone in their thoughts
- How Justina maintains her authentic twitter presence
- Effective ways to avoid writer burnout
- Justina walks us through how to write diverse characters that break away from institutional stereotypes
- Manageable steps you can take to write emotional scenes
- Crucial advice on approaching agents with a query letter

Zephyr Mourning has never been very good at being a Harpy. She’d rather watch reality TV than learn forty-seven ways to kill a man, and she pretty much sucks at wielding magic. Zephyr was ready for a future pretending to be a normal human instead of a half-god assassin. But all that changed when her sister was murdered—and Zephyr used a forbidden dark power to save herself from the same fate.

On the run from a punishment worse than death, an unexpected reunion with a childhood friend upends Zephyr’s world—and not only because her old friend has grown surprisingly, extremely hot. It seems that Zephyr might just be the Nyx, a dark goddess that is prophesied to shift the power balance: for hundreds of years the half-gods have lived in fear, and Zephyr is supposed to change that.

But how is she supposed to save everyone else when she can barely take care of herself?

Learn More About Justina Ireland

Justina Ireland lives with her husband, kid, and dog in Pennsylvania. She is the author of Vengeance Bound and Promise of Shadows, both currently available from Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers. Her forthcoming books Dread Nation and The Never and the Now will be available in 2018 from the HarperCollins imprint Balzer and Bray and Tor/Macmillan, respectively.