How NY Times Bestselling Author J. Ryan Stradal Writes

The Writer Files: Writing, Productivity, Creativity, and Neuroscience

New York Times bestselling author, J. Ryan Stradal, spoke to me about the unsurpassed passive aggressiveness of Midwesterners, writing about the restaurant industry during the pandemic, and his latest novel SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE LAKESIDE SUPPER CLUB.

J. Ryan Stradal is the award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of Kitchens of the Great Midwest and national bestseller The Lager Queen of Minnesota, named one of the year's best books by NPR, USA Today, Booklist, and many others.

His latest novel is Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club, described as “... a sharp and poignant tale of a couple from two different restaurant families in rural Minnesota – one has inherited her grandparents’ old-fashioned supper club, and the other is heir to a chain of homestyle diners (known for putting those supper clubs out of business).” The book was named An Amazon Best Book of April 2023.

New York Times bestselling author Roxane Gay said of the novel, “This is a perfect book.” And in a starred review, Kirkus called it, “A loving ode to supper clubs, the Midwest, and the people there who try their best to make life worth living.”

J. Ryan Stradal has also worked extensively in TV, story editing and producing shows for VH-1, MTV, ABC, FOX, TLC, A&E, Discovery, and History. Working primarily for Original Productions from 2008 to 2014, he was the senior story producer on “Deadliest Catch” and “Ice Road Truckers” and a supervising producer on "Storage Wars," and “Storage Wars: Texas.”

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In this file, J. Ryan Stradal and I discussed:

• What it was like during the sunset of the halcyon days at MTV and VH1
• Producing a popular reality TV show in the Canadian Arctic
• How he wrote a novel in the margins of editing Storage Wars
• The unique dining experience of a Midwestern supper club
• Why writers need to ditch perfection
• And a lot more!

Show Notes:

• jryanstradal.com
• Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club by J. Ryan Stradal (Amazon)
• J. Ryan Stradal Amazon Author Page
• J. Ryan Stradal on Instagram
• J. Ryan Stradal on Twitter
• Kelton Reid on Twitter

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