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Podcast Note

One of the many things Karen and I do, is to produce an audio podcast for our readers, writers, and publishing business (YarnSwoggle.com).

Leaf by Leaf

Leaf by Leaf is a craft-focused podcast for writers of fiction and nonfiction. Each episode, digs into a celebrated book to uncover the techniques behind great storytelling , character development, voice, structure, dialogue, and more. No jargon. No gatekeeping. Just an honest, accessible conversation about what it takes to write well.

Episode 05 – We Need to Talk About Kevin

byRobert Benson

In this episode of Leaf by Leaf, Sophie takes us inside one of the most unsettling narrators in contemporary fiction — Eva Khatchadourian, the mother at the center of Lionel Shriver's We Need to Talk About Kevin. Writing letters to her estranged husband in the aftermath of her son's school shooting, Eva controls everything we know — and that control is exactly the problem. Sophie explores four craft techniques Shriver uses to make Eva's unreliability so devastating: the strategic gaps in her account, the rationalizations that confess more than they conceal, the way the novel positions the reader as juror, and how the letter form itself gives Eva cover to withhold the truth she can't face. For any writer working in first person, this is essential listening.

Search Episodes

Episode 05 – We Need to Talk About Kevin

May 4, 2026

Robert Benson

Episode 04 – First lines and Opening Chapters

April 17, 2026

Robert Benson

Episode 03 – Non-Linear Storytelling

April 3, 2026

Robert Benson

Episode 02 – Voice and First-person Intimacy

March 29, 2026