500 episodes listed below
Practical publishing talk with a reflective pulse.
Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing mixes reflective solo notes with author interviews about craft, publishing choices, branding, memoir, and creative work. It suits writers who want industry context delivered in plain language, with room for personal stories and useful detours.
PRESS PLAY
Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing is a writer’s companion built around interviews, solo reflections, and practical publishing conversations. The center of gravity is the working life of authors. One episode may spend time on the quiet problem of author branding, asking how writers explain who they are, what their books offer, and why readers should care. Another may move into anthology editing, where taste, publisher expectations, story selection, and the economics of a collection all have to meet in the same room. The show is patient with process. It gives ideas time to circle. Recent guests talk about memoir as something shaped around a meaningful thread rather than a full life report, about identity as something layered and unstable, and about ADHD as a real writing challenge that calls for self-understanding rather than shame. The publishing advice is rarely separated from ordinary life. Travel stories, listener feedback, sponsor reads, personal tangents, and reflective closing notes all remain part of the texture. That looseness can be part of the appeal. It makes the show feel less like a seminar and more like a working writer comparing notes with other people who have made books, designed covers, edited stories, built brands, and tried to keep making art while life keeps changing. The range is broader than a strict craft podcast. There are conversations about small-town Canadian superheroes, everyday kindness, photography, music, artisan work, publicity, book titles, and what readers take away from personal stories. Still, the show keeps returning to a basic question: how does a writer make informed choices without losing the human reason for writing in the first place? It best serves listeners who like publishing guidance with context, anecdotes, and a warm editorial pace.
Made for: For authors, indie writers, memoirists, and publishing-curious creatives who want grounded advice alongside candid stories from writers and book people.
What sets it apart: The show’s value is its patient, conversational framing: publishing strategy, craft, branding, and creative identity are treated as connected parts of a writer’s real life.
Perspectives and reflections on the writing and publishing life. Mark Leslie Lefebvre, a writer, bookseller, digital publishing advocate, professional speaker, and publishing consultant explores inclusive and collaborative opportunities for writers and book publishing professionals via interviews, discussions, and reflections about the industry. (Mark's personal website is www.markleslie.ca)
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Mark Leslie Lefebvre makes the business behind books legible through candid interviews about publishing choices, promotion, events, and creative work.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre treats writing as creative work conducted inside a real publishing business. Guest interviews alternate with his own reflections, moving from memoir structure and strategies for ADHD writers to anthology selection, book packaging, and the economics of author…
A book launch gets a metal band; Mark Leslie Lefebvre makes your launch plan feel timid.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A grounded look at how authors can connect identity, books and readers into a clearer brand.
Author branding is treated here less as polish than as a practical way to build an audience: how writers talk about themselves, how they frame their books, and how that language helps the right readers find them.
A superhero anthology opens into a grounded look at how editors choose, shape, and size a book.
Small-town Canada gives this episode its hook and its tension, as Superconnects asks whether superheroes would remain in places where ambitious young people often head for Toronto.
A thoughtful episode on identity, upheaval, and shaping lived experience into a book for the reader who needs it.
This episode treats identity as useful but never final, following a guest whose sense of self is unsettled by the possibility of a different family history and a different culture.
Nicole reframes ADHD-related writing struggles with understanding, accountability, and a gentler view of the self.
Nicole's conversation on ADHD and writing opens by loosening the moral judgment often attached to focus, motivation, and organization. Drawing on The Novel Approach: Strategies for ADHD Writers, she frames the move from self-labels like lazy, disorganized, or unreliable toward a…
Roz Morris discovers a memoir inside holiday notes, a stuck car window, and ordinary stories beginning to take shape.
Roz Morris frames memoir here as a deliberately focused project, not a whole-life account. She traces its beginnings to notes kept during holidays with her husband, where small mishaps and observations began to gather their own charge.
A thoughtful episode on how well-made design can keep gathering meaning long after it first appears.
The episode centers on a sturdy idea about creative work: a carefully made object can hold its meaning even after its first purpose has passed.
A book launch gets a practical business frame when advance packages help organize attendance and cover some costs early.
Stark Reflections turns an author event into a clear operating question: how to plan when attendance is uncertain but costs arrive early. The episode follows a practical answer in advance website packages, with VIP seating and prepared extras used to secure seats, organize the…
Inside the headset of 911 dispatch.
Local stories with a human pulse.
A brother and sister, talking like nobody is listening.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre interviews his best friend Steve Gaydos, an artist and graphic designer, in a hotel room in Riviere de Loup after a road trip to New Brunswick.
A podcast episode discussing a manuscript report that provides authors with 15 marketing assets and a four-phase marketing plan.
Janice Landry discusses her book of positive stories and the importance of small acts of kindness in a discouraging world.
Cognitive neuroscientist Ka-Yee Essoe discusses the concept of deliberate rest and how engaging in mentally challenging non-work activities can enhance productivity and well-being.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre interviews Robert J.
Artist, author, and musician Meaghan Smith discusses how she captures the magic of snow in her work and the importance of multiple creative outlets.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre interviews author Julie Hiner about her unique approach to book launches.
Author branding starts with working out what you can honestly say.
Matthew Del Papa traces Super Canucks to the 'brain drain' he saw in Northern Ontario during the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, when friends left for Toronto and superheroes were everywhere except in small towns.
On Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing, Mark talks with Marie-Lyne Desrochers about Shaken Awake, a memoir that begins with a Facebook message from a man saying, 'I am your father.' Desrochers says that message led to a new family, a new culture, a different religion, and the loss of a corporate identity that had mattered for years.
Episode 476 of Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing centers on Nicole Bross, a Calgary writer, editor, and certified book coach discussing Strategies for ADHD Writers.
Mark Leslie Lefebvre discusses the mistake of publishing wide but shallow and how it can cost readers and revenue.
Roz Morris tells Mark Leslie Lefebvre that memoirs are "not I was born all the way through to now" but usually "one particular subject" or episode.