EP 237 - Building and Destroying Worlds with Angeline Trevena

In this episode Mark interviews Angeline Trevena, an author of dystopian urban fantasy and post-apocalyptic fiction, a podcaster, an events manager, and the author of a number of phenomenal books about world-building.

Prior to the main content, Mark shares a short personal update, including the fact one of his patrons will win a copy of Angeline's latest edition of 30 Days of Worldbuilding, a coupon code to get $100 off registration for Superstars Writing Seminars 2023 (STARKSSWS2023) and a word about this episode's sponsor.

You can learn more about how you can get your work distributed to retailers and library systems around the world at starkreflections.ca/Findaway.

During their conversation, Mark and Angeline talk about:

• The release of the 2nd edition of her book 30 Days of World-Building
• How Angeline has always loved fantasy, and choose-your-own-adventure books
• The way reading The Chronicles of Narnia was one of the factors that led to her love and passion for world-building
• The original 30 Days of World-Building starting as an 30 day Instagram challenge, that became a worksheet, that eventually became a book
• How to Destroy the World, the 2nd world-building book in the same series that Angeline released
• The original 30 days of world-building prompts that takes you from scratch, all the way up to creating a world ready to drop your characters into
• Angeline's three rules for world-building: Revealing character, pushing the plot forward, and exploring the themes of your novel
• Being a panster and an avid world-builder at the same time
• Destroying a world or creating a dystopian or post-apocalyptic setting
• How dystopian stories can often be filled with a lot of hope
• Food within world-building, including all the rituals and festivals that have been created around food
• How food can be a massive part of religion and magic
• Some of the other writing that Angeline has done
• Involving her 9 year old in the writing/early critique process of her middle grade books
• And more...

After the interview, Mark reflects on the use of food in culture, religion, society, in rituals, as well as a way to help demonstrate or establish character and conflict in a scene.

Links of Interest:

• Angeline Trevena's Website
  • TikTok
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
• Superstars Writing Seminars
• Buy Mark a Coffee
• Patreon for Stark Reflections
• The Relaxed Author
  • Buy eBook Direct
  • Buy Audiobook Direct
• Publishing Pitfalls for Authors
• An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores
• Wide for the Win
• Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books
  • This Time Around (Short Story)
  • A Canadian Werewolf in New York
  • Stowe Away (Novella)
  • Fear and Longing in Los Angeles
  • Fright Nights, Big City
  • Lover's Moon

Angeline Trevena was born and bred in a rural corner of Devon, but now lives among the breweries and canals of central England with her husband, their two sons, and a rather neurotic cat. She is a dystopian urban fantasy and post-apocalyptic author, a podcaster, and events manager.

In 2003 she graduated from Edge Hill University, Lancashire, with a BA Hons Degree in Drama and Writing. During this time she decided that her future lay in writing words rather than performing them.

Some years ago she worked at an antique auction house and religiously checked every wardrobe that came in to see if Narnia was in the back of it. She's still not given up looking for it.

The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0