November 2025 Q&A with Shaeden Berry on At Cafe 64

Welcome to Kelly's Writerly Q&A, a monthly blog series that is now a podcast!

Listen to my 17th episode where I chat to Shaeden Berry, thriller author of At Cafe 64. This book will appeal to fans of Jodi Picoult.

We discuss:

• Whether Shaeden is a planner or a panster
• Why Shaeden is drawn to highlighting certain characters
• How Shaeden cut this novel down from 120k to 90k
• Why Shaeden forces herself to write every Sat and Sun
• The songs that inspired Shaeden's POV characters
• Timers and how great they are for writers
• Writing rituals

Thank you for listening!

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Music credit to Levgen Poltavskyi from Pixabay

Chapters

• 0:16 Meet Shaeden Berry
• 0:45 Are you a planner or a panster?
• 6:15 How Shaeden uses a specific song to help her write each POV character
• 9:47 On emotional characters
• 17:41 How did you cut it from 120k to 90k?
• 23:38 Shaeden's strict writing routine
• 29:31 Join Write Till Christmas