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Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing


Jan 24, 2025

Mark interviews Denise Baden about the novel/book version of Murder in the Climate Assembly as well as the various incarnations and adaptions she had created for the stage and television.

Prior to the interview, Mark reads comments from recent episodes, shares a personal update, and a word about this episode’s sponsor.

This episode is sponsored by ScribeCount (affiliate link). Spend less time logging in to multiple platforms and crunching numbers, and more time writing and marketing your books thanks to ScribeCount’s handy all-in-one interface.

During the interview Mark and Denise talk about:

  • Denise's varied educational, professional, and personal background which has given her a finger in "every pie"
  • How Denise turned to fiction because it's her joy
  • The different formats that a story can take for a creative person
  • Denise's memoir "Confessions of a Climate Activist in a Business School" and how she adapted it into a novel by fictionalizing some elements
  • Also creating a re-adaptation of the story into a stage play "Murder in the Citizens' Jury"
  • The additional dramatic monolog version of the play that Denise created
  • The TV-script version that Denise also wrote based on this
  • The videos that Denise has that share these highlights
  • How the different mediums inform Denise's approach to each version of the story
  • Not feeling good about the traditional publishing offer Denise rec'd for the book
  • A Kickstarter project that Denise is launching related to this same IP
  • The struggle with what to do as a reward, and what to do as an add-on
  • How too much of existing climate fiction is so dystopian in nature
  • The white-washing that some companies tried to do in partnering Denise's Green Stories project
  • The idea of thrutopian fiction
  • And more . . .

After the interview Mark reflects on the choice Denise made to turn down a publishing contract and launch the book leveraging Kickstarter, as well as the genius way she's taken a single IP and adapted into numerous formats and platforms.

 

Links of Interest:

 

Denise Baden is a Professor of Sustainability at the University of Southampton and a writer. Her eco-themed rom-com ‘Habitat Man’ was published in 2021, followed by ‘The Assassin’ and ‘No More Fairy Tales: Stories to Save the Planet’ in 2022. Denise is listed on the Forbes list of Climate Leaders Changing the Film and TV industry and has worked with Bafta on #ClimateCharacters exploring cultural aspects of sustainability. A TV adaptation of her play ‘Murder in the Citizens’ Jury’ was a winner of the 2024 Writing Climate Pitchfest and is under consideration by Hollywood producers. She is currently launching the novel version ‘Murder in the Climate Assembly’ on Kickstarter.

 


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