Around Town

Here are some of the places you can catch up with Abby online.

Listen to Abby and Jeff on the StoryCraft Cafe Podcast

Amplifying Creativity with a Co-Writer with Abby Mathews and Jeff Bradley

Abby Mathews has an undergraduate degree in art and a master's in education. Before setting her sights on writing, she spent a decade pretending to be the adult in a 9th-grade classroom where she taught drawing and fine art. Now, she's the community manager for Dabble Writer's community, DabbleU Campus. She also teaches a class on memoir and creative writing specifically geared toward veterans. Once upon a time, she co-hosted her own podcast called Mom Writes with book coach Jennie Nash of Author Accelerator. She lives on a hobby farm full of rescue animals, who occasionally make their way into her middle-grade stories.

Jeff Bradley is a software engineer at an animation studio, where he’s inspired by incredible creativity and stories every day. A “Recovering Middle Grader,” he is occasionally funny, usually nice, and always suspicious of a compliment. He writes family-friendly tales about time, ghosts, magic, and space. Jeff lives in the Los Angeles area with his wife, two sons, and dog, all of whom have big plans when they learn how to time travel.

Watch Abby’s Plot Twist Workshop for Dabble Writer

Plot twists aren't just for mystery novels!

In this workshop, Abby will explore iconic examples of plot twists in fantasy, romance, coming-of-age, and thrillers.

-Two-sided truths, what are they, and how can they work for you?
-Planting clues that feel invisible on the first read—and inevitable on the second!
-Controlling reader assumptions through character bias, gossip, and misdirection
-How to time your reveal for maximum emotional and narrative payoff
-How to avoid common twist pitfalls that bore a reader!
-A Dabble Plot Grid demo to show you how to keep track of your clues and pull off the perfect plot twist!

Agent Deep Dive: How to Research Literary Agents

Where do you find agents? How do you know if the agent is a good fit for your book? How do you keep track of agents? And how do you strategize who to pitch and when?

Join author Abby Mathews in the trenches as she demystifies the process of researching agents!

Abby Mathews is the community manager for Dabble's free online community for writers, the Story Craft Cafe. She's worked one-on-one with book coaches and developmental editors to learn the skill of crafting (and editing!) query letters. She publically pitched her first book "live" on her podcast, Mom Writes. Then, she promptly stopped querying after a rejection from a full request left her feeling like she "could do better." Six books later, she's at it again, this time with a better book, a better query, and a better agent list!