Season Finale Bonus: First Pages Cozy Fantasy

In this bonus season-finale episode of Writers With Wrinkles, Beth McMullen and Lisa Schmid reflect on the end of the season, share a behind-the-scenes podcasting mishap, and dive into a First Pages critique of a cozy fantasy submission, The Village Mage. Along the way, they discuss why first pages are so hard to get right, how too much backstory can stall momentum, and what cozy fantasy readers expect from the very first paragraph.

What We Cover in This Episode

A Season Wrap-Up

• Why this season felt especially long (emotionally and creatively)
• The surprising reach of the podcast, including international listeners
• Why listener messages matter more than download numbers

Behind the Scenes of Podcasting

• A funny (and harmless) upload glitch
• Why multitasking and podcast production don’t always mix
• A reminder that mistakes happen—and they’re fixable

First Pages Critique: The Village Mage

• Why the tea shop setting immediately signals “cozy”
• What works well in the opening voice and atmosphere
• Where the opening leans too heavily on setting and backstory
• Why character emotion needs to come before worldbuilding
• How early signals of magic shape reader expectations
• The importance of “showing” magic instead of naming it outright

First Page Takeaways for Writers

• Less is more on page one
• Avoid stacking backstory and description in large blocks
• Establish genre expectations immediately
• Use specific, character-centered details instead of generic atmosphere
• Trust the reader—don’t explain everything up front
• Consider whether your story actually starts later than you think

A Common Revision Reality

• Why first chapters are often written as “thinking-through” pages
• How hard it is to cut beloved early material
• Why cutting doesn’t mean deleting—just relocating

Key Writing Advice from Beth & Lisa

• Your first page should hook, not explain
• Genre cues matter—especially in fantasy
• Pacing is created through balance: dialogue, action, and selective detail
• If readers don’t know why they should care about the character yet, they won’t care about the world

What’s Coming Next

• A brand-new season with exciting guest interviews
• More First Pages bonus episodes
• Kicking off the new season with literary agent Erin Casey Westin

Have first pages you’d like feedback on?
 

Visit the Writers With Wrinkles website and submit your opening pages for a chance to be featured in a future episode.

Thank you for listening, sharing, and sticking with us this season. We’ll see you in the new year—until then, happy reading, writing, and listening.

Transcript

Beth McMullen: Hi friends, I'm Beth McMullen.
Lisa Schmid: And I'm Lisa Schmidt!
Beth McMullen: And this is Writers with Wrinkles. Today, we're doing a bonus episode—the last fresh content of Season [X], if you can believe that. I'm already zooming ahead to [next season].
Beth McMullen: This is the last new episode for [this season]. I'm in shock.

Lisa Schmid: You know what? This has been the longest year of my life.
Beth McMullen: Oh my god, I think most people would agree with you. Every week feels like a year.
Lisa Schmid: Every week!
Beth McMullen: We're aging in dog years.
Lisa Schmid: God, dog years.
Beth McMullen: That’s being kind.
Lisa Schmid: If I wasn't already gray, I would be gray right now. The stress of this year has been insane, and I'm sure we're all feeling it. I always hope when we do these podcasts that we can be a tiny little—
Beth McMullen: Ray of light.
Lisa Schmid: Yeah, something. Except when we talk about stuff that's a bummer.
Beth McMullen: Part of publishing is managing the bummer stuff. We can’t make it go away, but being educated helps you manage it.
Lisa Schmid: Exactly.

Lisa Schmid: One of the things that makes me so happy is when we get messages. I just realized I’ve been talking with someone in Ireland. She listened to the podcast, something resonated, she changed her course of action, and had a successful outcome.
Lisa Schmid: It blew my mind—someone in Ireland is listening to us. Podcasts have these far-reaching tentacles you don’t even think about.
Beth McMullen: We’re listened to in many countries. I can see it in the download stats—it’s not 100% accurate, but it’s a good ballpark.
Beth McMullen: I’m just glad people have stuck around long enough for us to hit Season [X].
Lisa Schmid: She mentioned her UK writers group, which immediately made me jealous.
Beth McMullen: Podcasting is funny—you’re just at your desk or in your car. There’s no glamour to it.
Lisa Schmid: But it’s exciting.
Beth McMullen: It really is. And we’ve got a great Season [next] lined up. We’re keeping First Pages, which is what we’re doing today.
Beth McMullen: Visit our website, send in your first pages.
Lisa Schmid: Choo-choo!

Lisa Schmid: Okay, we have to talk about something amusing that most people don’t know about. I recorded an intro once—which I never do—and had to rerecord it a few times. Totally normal podcast stuff.
Lisa Schmid: It uploaded, I listened back, and suddenly I hear myself singing “fa-la-la-la-la-la,” and I absolutely did not remember that happening.
Beth McMullen: I have nothing to say on this topic.
Lisa Schmid: I shot out of bed and unpublished it immediately. It was just a tiny glitch, but hilarious.
Beth McMullen: Back when I could multitask, I was doing two episodes at once. Not ideal.
Lisa Schmid: Thankfully, no F-bombs.
Beth McMullen: That happens offline, not on the podcast.
Lisa Schmid: It was just funny.
Beth McMullen: Lisa warms up with vocal exercises.
Lisa Schmid: La-la-la!
Beth McMullen: You guys would keel over if you heard the whole routine.

Beth McMullen: Okay, before we descend into more chaos, we’re doing First Pages.
Lisa Schmid: Yay!
Beth McMullen: This is a cozy fantasy called The Village Mage.
Beth McMullen: Maya sipped her favorite ginger cardamom tea and exhaled a long, hopeless sigh that reverberated through every inch of her body…
[reading continues as submitted]

Lisa Schmid: I already like the voice. A tea shop setting immediately feels cozy.
Beth McMullen: The author is very skilled at atmosphere and setting.
Beth McMullen: But I want less setting and more character emotion up front.
Lisa Schmid: I agree—too many details on the first page. Less is more.
Beth McMullen: I’d also love an earlier hint of magic so it doesn’t read as contemporary fiction.
Lisa Schmid: Show the magic instead of telling us about it.
Beth McMullen: We want details that are uniquely Maya.
Lisa Schmid: This may not even be the right place to start the story.
Beth McMullen: That happens all the time. It takes fresh eyes to see it.
Lisa Schmid: You don’t have to delete—cut and paste into a working document.
Beth McMullen: Exactly. Meter out description instead of front-loading it.
Beth McMullen: And think about the page-turn—what unresolved thing pulls us forward?
Lisa Schmid: Avoid stacking backstory and description in big blocks.
Beth McMullen: It’s pacing. Dialogue helps speed things up.
Beth McMullen: All good stuff.

Lisa Schmid: I’m excited to see what she does with it.
Beth McMullen: I always want to ask for the rest.
Lisa Schmid: Same!
Beth McMullen: Thank you to our anonymous author—we’ll forward our notes.

Beth McMullen: And here we are at the end of the end of Season [X].
Lisa Schmid: That’s it!
Beth McMullen: We hope this season was helpful and motivating.
Beth McMullen: We’ll be back in [year] with exciting new guests, starting with agent Erin Casey Westin on January [date].
Beth McMullen: Until then—happy reading, writing, and listening.
Lisa Schmid: Bye, Beth. Bye, everyone.