E. H. Lupton

#writersCoffeeClub 18 May: With whom do you wish you could share your work but can't?

My father died some time ago. Before my first novella was accepted for publication, actually. I don't know that he'd like what I'm writing now, but sometimes I wish he'd lived to see it.

(My mom likes the stuff I'm writing, so it's definitely possible my dad would have. I think he would at least have appreciated the more literary aspects of it. We would almost certainly not have discussed any of it.)

#writersCoffeeClub May 17: If you work exclusively digitally, could you work by hand? (Or vice-versa!)

I love writing by hand. I love fancy paper and expensive fountain pens and different types of ink. And I do sometimes jot down lines or scenes by hand and transcribe them later.

The reason I don't generally write by hand is that I am left handed, and when I write fast, as I do sometimes when I'm excited, I find my handwriting a chore to decipher later, so the transcription process becomes quite laborious. I also have a typewriter, but it's quite an old, heavy model (from the '50s, I think) and I type very slowly.

I did have a period where I wrote almost exclusively by hand. It worked all right for short stores and poems (although I move words around a lot when I write poems); I don't know if I ever wrote a novel that way. Feels like it would take a lot of paper.

#writersCoffeeClub 20 May: If not your current genre, what genre would you write?

Space opera, probably. I love the genre.

#writersCoffeeClub 19 May: How would changing genre change your current WIP's plot?

Hmm. I think I could do it without magic--it would be kind of a mystery/thriller. Without romance it would be...shorter. Some kind of family drama, I guess.

I guess I could change it further, like make it a western, but that starts to change who the characters are. (Actually I kind of like that? Laz could be a former Union soldier who has settled down to a quiet life as the twitchy weirdo on the edge of town who can repair anything; Eli is the town doctor...it might be fun!)

#writersCoffeeClub 4/29: Share the best sentence you wrote this month.

I realize this is more than a single sentence, but it's my favorite. From the "not supposed to be working on it" project.

#writersCoffeeClub 14 May: For characters, plots, ideas, settings, etc: how much is too much?

I met with the fellow who's going to narrate the audiobook of Dionysus in Wisconsin and he mentioned that there are 23 characters who are more than walk-on roles in the first 3/5 of the book. (In fact I think I average a new character every four pages.) I never considered this much until we came to the problem of having to create distinct voices for all of them.

I'm not saying it's too much, and I've definitely read books with more (space opera especially can have huge casts). But it has given me something to think about. Like obviously you need the characters you need and no more, but also you can make things difficult down the line for yourself.

#writersCoffeeClub 4 May: Is there a scene or a character or even a plot you regret adding to a finished work?

The positive of being a self publisher is that I don't answer to anyone but me, meaning the books are entirely my choices and I regret nothing.

I do think there are ways I would have written things differently in retrospect---mostly on a sentence or word level, because I have grown as an author since I published my first book.

#writersCoffeeClub 25 May: Share a late-stage change you made to your work.

I make a lot of them. The easiest to mention without spoilers is the first scene of Dionysus in Wisconsin with Ulysses in the bar was entirely rewritten from scratch between getting the book back from my editor and publication (around the beginning of May, as I remember, and the book came out 5/26). My writing group and some friends had seen it, but it was never formally edited.

#writersCoffeeClub 23 May: C&R: Share a current creative frustration. Everyone: Prescribe a 'creative antidote', not as a solution, but as a disruptive exercise.

My current creative frustration is that my 5yo won't sleep until 7am. Most of the time he won't even sleep until 6am, so a lot of my writing time is done with someone leaning on my arm.

#writersCoffeeClub 30 Apr: How was this month for you, in terms of writing?

I published a book, so April included a lot of really intense last-minute scrabbling and was very stressful. A lot of the rest of the month has been recovery. Work on the new project has been slow, but also I've been trying to respect my body's need for sleep and stuff like that.

#writersCoffeeClub May 6: Talk about something you've written which you expected would (or expect will) divide readers.

I write somewhat between the genres of urban fantasy and romance most of the time. Romance has a lot of---let's say tropes, although maybe situations or themes are better words---that are divisive within that community. Of course there are tedious people who "don't read gay stuff" (why). (There are also people who don't want any whiff of perceived heterosexuality.) There are people who don't like nonbinary characters (so I've started adding them in, because fuck you). There are people who don't like kids. There are people who don't like large age gaps.

Anyway, the only thing anyone has ever said to my face was that that line about gay stuff above. I worry about responses to introducing any of these things to some extent, but also my job is to tell a good story, which includes not flinching away from where it leads. Even if that includes kids.

#writersCoffeeClub 5/12 and 5/13: If not in your current format (novel, play, music, etc.), in what format would you write? If writing was not your 'thing,' what would your 'thing' be?

If I wasn't writing novels (and it feels like cheating to say poems, because I do sometimes write those), I'd probably write plays. I've been on the periphery of the local community theater scene for a long time, and I know people I'd love to write things for.

If writing were off the table, I'd probably be a painter. I spend a lot of time already painting, and do absolutely nothing with the art. It would be cool to have enough paintings on a theme to hang them in a coffee shop or something. Or maybe fiber art? I've made some neat quilts, and I knit and crochet a lot. I've met some really cool fiber artists around town, too.

#writersCoffeeClub 4/28: How magical is your work?

If magic is a scale rather than a binary, the Wisconsin Gothic series is set in a universe where magic exists but isn't extremely useful for big things, so most people don't use it much.

#writersCoffeeClub 15 May: How little [in terms of story elements] is not enough?

Hmm... it's often a matter of personal preference. For example, I really want at least a little description of a character to hang my hat on. I think it's kinda trendy to forego this sometimes.

I like a strong sense of the setting; I like hearing about how the people relate to the places they live.

I'm 50/50 on plot.

(I wrote this this morning and forgot to hit post.)

#writersCoffeeClub May 24: What do you need in order to finish your current WIP?

I'm about halfway through the second draft, so...some feedback from friends/beta readers, probably one more draft, maybe a dev edit, definitely a line/copy edit, and a cover.

(Also time, sleep, and coffee.)

#writersCoffeeClub 22 May: How well would your current WIP work as a play?

Not too well. It has a lot of different places where things take place, and with the magic it would require a lot of special effects. Also it's somewhat a sequel to a different book I wrote, so I'm not sure the relationship would make sense to theater-goers without that context.

#writersCoffeeClub 21 May: What targets do you set for yourself? To what frequency?

I don't set wordcount goals anymore. I try to remind myself that this is not my full-time gig, and trying to hit large numbers is only going to make me feel sad. At best, I have time goals (in the sense of "be up by 6 and spend an hour sitting in front of the manuscript") and deadlines. Right now, I'm working on a second draft that I think I'd like to release sometime between November and February, so I don't have anything too concrete. Maybe when I finish this pass I will ask my editor if they could take a look at it around the end of the summer. (Although I don't know---depends a lot on how well it's working.)

I'd like to say something sweeping, like "I finish the first draft of a book in 8 weeks," but it has really depended on the book and what else I'm doing. I've written books very quickly and books that took a year. It just depends.

#writersCoffeeClub 6 April: Do the plots or characters in your work converge towards a single point?

Not always. For example, if one of the characters is worried about defending his dissertation, that cannot be solved by fighting zombies. But in general, the stuff that needs to converge converges.

#writersCoffeeClub 4/1: What arrangement of plots do you have? no plot? only one? a main and a side plot? something else?

It's a lot like an MC Escher painting...

Okay, not really. There's a romance plot (character interpersonal relationship), there's an external plot (essentially an investigation of some sort), there's some overarching plot from the previous books in the series (can be both interpersonal or non), and there's often side stuff with the other characters.

That sounds like a lot, but largely I just wander back and forth between romance and not-romance.

#writersCoffeeClub 30 March: What got in the way of your writing this month?

Kids. Travel. Life being stressy stressy lemon depressy. Wanting to be writing something else. Just normal stuff, I guess.

#writersCoffeeClub 5 Apr: How can the physical form of the writing become part of the storytelling?

I mean, we have all read House of Leaves, right? Or else Pale Fire?

Seems harder with ebooks, to be honest. I'm sure there's a way to handle really complex typesetting, but I do not know how to do it.

#writersCoffeeClub 3 May: Do you write your works localized to the setting or to your background? How do you decide?

Right now I think it's both, since I have been writing about the place where I live. But I have also written about places I haven't visited (e.g. France), and I try to orient them to their setting. I actually don't know how I would write works that were solely oriented to my particular background.

Me, making a schedule: and of course it will take zero minutes to transition from activity to activity and then nothing will run over, even though I am prone to both distraction and hyperfocus...

#writersCoffeeClub 4 Apr: Do you switch between present and past tense? How do you make it work?

I generally write in past tense. Present tense can be fun for short pieces, but it always feels fan fiction-y to me. (Fanfic is great, but it isn't what I'm writing.) Present tense also kind of infects everything once you get into it, and it creates an energy that can be difficult to sustain.

The newsletter is here: https://ehlupton.com/2026/04/03/april-2026-april-come-she-will/

Thanks to everyone who told me they enjoyed the "somewhat distressing facts about sharks" essay.

#newsletter #indieAuthor

If you are coming to the Madison Night Market tonight and want to say hey or buy a book (from me OR the awesome Louise Mayberry!), our booth is in front of the old Tutto Pasta, at the corner of State and Johnson. We'll also have tarot cards and readings and little felt guys!

New realistic race goals:

1/ Finish half marathon in under 3 hours
2/ Look like a schlub in other people's selfies.

And a stretch goal:
3/ Eat at least four Oreos on the course.

RE: https://wandering.shop/@rubyjones/116488073464726561

This is such an awesome endorsement. I'm so glad you're enjoying the book! 🧡

New podcast episode is up!

http://askamedievalist.com/2026/04/30/episode-100-what-im-tolkien-about/

#askAMedievalist #histodon #medievaldon

Come see me in conversation with Katie at Tropes and Trifles in Minneapolis! June 30th at 7pm! I will draw hedgehogs in your books afterwards!

https://tropesandtrifles.com/events/5473320260630

#Bookstodon #minneapolisminnesota #romancelandia