Liz Moore: Inside The God of the Woods, From Novel to Netflix

This month’s Jen Hatmaker Book Club pick is The God of the Woods, and Liz Moore joins Jen straight off the set of the Netflix series she is co-showrunning in the Adirondacks. Liz talks about the family cabin with no TV and no internet where she read every old book in the house, her early years singing in New York clubs while working weekends at a guitar store, and the practical family that taught her to keep a day job. She explains the difference between a TV writer and a showrunner, why she loves casting local square dancers and first-time actors, and how the cast is deepening the characters she wrote. Plus how she starts a four-year novel knowing only the people, the place, and the first problem, her worries about what AI will do to developing brains, the title her publisher vetoed, the hand-drawn map at the front of the book, and what she is reading right now.

Thought-provoking Quotes:

• You have to know people, you have to know place, and you have to know problem.
• You just sort of whittle down what feels right emotionally until you get to a place that feels right emotionally, and then that’s the end of the book.
• You have to experience frustration in learning and then get past it in order for the brain to grow.
• I want the title to have multiple meanings, and for those multiple meanings to become apparent as the reader moves on.
• I have too many jobs that I love, which is a huge blessing in life.

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

• The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
• Long Bright River by Liz Moore (and the Peacock series)
• The Words of Every Song by Liz Moore
• Raven Black by Ann Cleeves
• London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe
• Get Down by Asali Solomon
• Sing Sing (film)
• Louis L’Amour westerns
• Temple University MFA in Creative Writing

Guest’s Links:

Website - https://www.lizmoore.net/

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/lizmoorebooks/

Twitter - https://x.com/LizMooreBooks

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/lizmoorewriter/

Connect with Jen!
Jen’s Website - https://jenhatmaker.com/

Jen’s Instagram - https://instagram.com/jenhatmaker
Jen’s Twitter - https://twitter.com/jenHatmaker/

Jen’s Facebook - https://facebook.com/jenhatmaker
Jen’s YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/user/JenHatmaker

The For the Love Podcast is presented by Audacy.&nbs ...