Gayle Lynds is an award winning author of 8 international espionage novels including The Coil, Masquerade, and Mesmerized. Her latest The Last Spymaster was just released in paperback ($6.99). Library  Journal named it one of the top 5 thrillers of the year, and the Chicago Tribune listed it as one of the year's finest crime novels. 

Her books have won such awards as "Novel of the Year" (THE LAST SPYMASTER) given by the Military Writers Society of America, and have been People magazine's "Page-Turner of the Week" and "Beach Read of the Week."

Publishers Weekly lists her work among the top ten spy novels of all time. With Robert Ludlum (Bourne Identity), she created the Covert-One series and wrote three of the novels. One of them, The Hades Factor, was a CBS miniseries in April 2006.

A member of the Association for Intelligence Operatives, she is co-founder and co-president (with David Morrell) of International Thriller Writers, Inc. You can visit her at www.GayleLynds.com.

Listen to the Interview with Gayle:

Download MP3 File

Interview with Wow Creator:
Grammar Girl, Mignon Fogarty

Mignon Fogarty, aka the Grammar Girl, took her podcast to #1 on iTunes in January 2007! Giving the world on-target grammar advice, she's become quite a celebrity in the world of podcasts. As such, I'm thrilled to have had the opportunity to interview Mignon about her success. Anyone interested in podcasting has much to learn from this savvy young woman.

Here's an excerpt from that interview:

CreateAWow: Can anyone start their own podcast? What advice or resources would you recommend for someone who wants to learn how to create podcasts?

Grammar Girl: I do think that anyone can start their own podcast as long as they have the time and desire to read up on all the tools that are avaiable.

When I started my initial podcast, Absolute Science, I knew a lot about web technology and new media, but I didn't know anything about audio technology. I just started Googling around about podcasting and hanging out in podcasting forums like the Podcast Pickle where I picked up a lot of great tips and found people who could answer my questions when I got stuck. I started with free software programs and inexpensive microphones and headphones that I already owned and then upgraded my equipment as I became more serious about podcasting. So by the time I started Grammar Girl, I knew what I was doing and hit the ground running. After it became clear there were a lot of people listening, I felt more of a responsibility to make the sound quality as good as I possibly could, so I've upgraded more of my equipment and continue to tweak my set up.

CreateAWow: What were some of the milestones along the way? Pivotal points where you saw impressive growth in your listener base?

Grammar Girl: Getting featured at iTunes the first time created a big traffic spike. After that, the growth was solid and steady until the show was featured on CNN.com -- that caused traffic to grow about 50% overnight.

For the complete interview, go here.