Award-winning YA author Mark Rosendorf joined us to discuss thoughtful worldbuilding, unique magic systems, and how to do time travel the right way. We also discuss his rules for keeping your stories timeless, and how to ensure that audiences 10, 20, and 50 years from now will still find your work relevant.

Mark's award-winning series, The Witches of Vegas, has a new installment coming out January 4th 2023, Witch Way To Vegas, and is available for pre-order today. You can check out this and all of Mark's works at MarkRosendorf.com or find him on twitter at @markrosendorf.

https://www.amazon.com/Witch-Way-Vegas-Witches/dp/1509246797/ref=sr_1_1?crid=23ZJVVPJWUMLR&keywords=Witch+Way+to+vegas&qid=1666922196&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIwLjY5IiwicXNhIjoiMC4wMCIsInFzcCI6IjAuMDAifQ%3D%3D&sprefix=witch+way+to+vegas%2Caps%2C143&sr=8-1

It shouldn't be a surprise that man who asks "You talkin' to me?" to his mirror might be an unreliable narrator. How do you turn a character as strange and unlikeable as Travis Bickle into a narrator worth rooting for? When does showing harmful viewpoints turn into glorifying them? Join us this week as we dive into the complex character piece that is Taxi Driver.

Apple +'s most talked about show, "Severance", is a creepy and thoughtful look into our relationship with work, corporate loyalty, and worker's rights. Executive Producer Ben Stiller has created a story that is both highly accessible to wide audiences, yet is artfully crafted with deep themes. We all gave this show a high 9 out of 10, so why did we love this show so much? On this week's episode, we dive into the technical elements of what makes this story click.

Martin Scorsese's 2006 Oscar juggernaut "The Departed" has everything you'd want in a crime thriller: An outstanding cast, a phenomenal script, and a story that will keep you on the edge of your seat. So how did the Mob thriller manage to keep us guessing until the final minutes? We discuss that and more on this week's episode.

The Novel D team is out this week, and as much as it pains us, we've had to unearth one of our older episodes to serve as this week's conversation. After a unanimous vote, we decided to bring you our discussion on Nightcrawler - one of the best and most disturbing character-driven stories of the 21st century.

Nightcrawler was nominated for the 2014 Oscar for best original screenplay, yet is still one of the most overlooked and underdiscussed movies of the 2010’s. We discuss how its dynamic main character explores the winners and losers of capitalism. We also revisit one of the most riveting music documentaries of recent memory, Woodstock ‘99.

The 1988 Film "Akira" was groundbreaking in many ways, from its storytelling to its animation, and what it said about Japanese society in such a transitional generation. In this week's episode, we discuss why makes Akira one of the most influential stories of all time, and how it still remains a standard bearer for modern Anime.

Amazon Prime's billion-dollar attempt to battle Game of Thrones launched this week, when the first two episodes of the Lord of the Rings prequel, The Rings of Power, dropped. Was the anticipation worth the wait? Were the early reports of messy & pandering writing accurate? What does the future of this massive Tolkien undertaking look like? We discuss all this and more.

Ernest Hemingway's 1926 classic "The Sun Also Rises" has remained at the forefront of classic literature for its sparse, tight prose and its glimpse into the life of the Lost Generation. In this week's episode, we discuss the Lost Generation, life after World War !, and how these events shaped Hemmingway into the writer he would become. We also discuss why this bull fighting classic is still influencing writers and writing styles, even to this day.

We don't have a story or an analysis to share with you this week. Instead of re-packaging an old episode, Sam walks through one of the most fun and strange hypotheticals he's seen in recent memory, and asks: Where would you be willing to live for one billion dollars?

Nobody will blame you if you don't like Amazon Prime's "The Boys". It's not for everyone. But for those who enjoy it, there's a reason that this uber dark and twisted look on "what if superheroes were real?" actually works. This week, we discuss what we like about "The Boys" so far, where we think they've missed the mark, and where the show could go from here.

#1 Bestselling author Avanti Centrae stopped by this week to discuss how travel shaped her writing, and how propaganda has shaped our world. Her latest novel, Cleopatra's Vendetta, is an international thriller that deals with a host of modern and longstanding issues, including who really gets to write history.

Cleopatra's Vendetta goes on sale this November 15th and is available for pre-order on Amazon. You can find this and more of Avanti's works on vanops.net.

"Zero Dark Thirty" received five Oscar nominations, a heap of praise, and several scathing critiques about its accuracy. So what did the screenplay get right, and where did facts turn to fiction? We discuss that and more on this week's episode.

There's a difference in nostalgia and just citing facts. There's also a difference in anti-heroes who play to the story's theme and heroes with unflushed issues that the author failed to notice. "Ready Player One" is the first work of fiction covered on Novel Discourse that we all ranked below a 5/10, but what didn't work? This week, we discuss the flaws and missed opportunities in this story.

Crime Fiction novelist James Michels stopped by this week to talk about his latest work, "The Ballad of Johnny Carlo", what makes the Mafia unique from other criminal organizations, and how a popular anime peaked his curiosity for anti-heroes. If you're a fan of history or of crime fiction, you won't want to miss this conversation.

You can find " The Ballad of Johnny Carlo" as well as "Ice Rising" on Amazon and you can find James on Twitter @jamesrealmike. Make sure to reach out to him for a signed copy of either of his latest adventures!

Oliver Stone has made a career out of highly stylized films that speak to serious issues within society, and Any Given Sunday is no different. It's a gritty look at how difficult and wild life inside the NFL actually is. But just how accurate is this fictional tale of the NFL? And how well did Oliver Stone write and direct this story? We discuss and debate on this week's episode.

Integrating themes and messages into stories is a stumbling block for many novels and screenplays, but not Norman McClean's "A River Runs Through It". Through poetic narration and a dynamic, character-driven plot, we aren't told the lessons of grace and living an artistic life, but rather, we're shown. In this week's episode, we discuss how both the film and the novella work well to let the audience learn at their own pace.

Romantic comedies are often some of the most formulaic stories told, which is why the 2011 film "Crazy, Stupid, Love" stands out as both an original screenplay and a unique film. In this week's episode, we dissect how screenwriter Dan Fogelman used rom-com tropes and expectations to his advantage and created a story nearly everyone can relate to.

Stephen King's close-to-home novella "The Body" touches on several coming-of-age topics in a format rarely enjoyed by his normal audience. Its film adaptation, "Stand By Me" takes liberties to make the story even more family friendly. This week, we discuss what makes both stories work, and why they both became American classics in their own regard.

This is the second and final part of our two-part series, where we draft the best villains in all of fiction.

Villains make the story, as they provide the angst, horror, and hurdles for our heroes to overcome. In this week's episode, we draft the fictional villains that are the most iconic, the most vile, and the most fitting for their story world.

Villains make the story, as they provide the angst, horror, and hurdles for our heroes to overcome. In this week's episode, we draft the fictional villains that are the most iconic, the most vile, and the most fitting for their story world.