EP381: Rachael Blok — Follow Your Character
Rachael Blok is the bestselling author of the DCI Maarten Jansen novels and she tells us how each book works as a standalone, but the character is still developing with each story. Rachael also gives us great tips on plotting, writing the ending, character, finding your voice, and research. And the two Marks discuss how […]
Continue readingEP380: Deep Dive — How to Start a Publisher with Hobeck Books
Rebecca Collins and Adrian Hobart combined their experience in publishing and broadcasting to create Hobeck Books, a publisher dedicated to a family ethos, merging the best of traditional publishing standards and indie marketing techniques. We talk through the steps they took to start a publisher from the ground up and how to keep it running […]
Continue readingEP379: Deon Meyer — It’s a Chemical Reaction.
International bestselling author Deon Meyer returns to the podcast with his latest thriller The Dark Flood. Deon tells us how his journalistic hunger for fascinating stories has never gone away. And how he fuses two seemingly unrelated ideas, creating a chemical reaction, that results in great stories. We also discuss writing for cultures other than […]
Continue readingEP378: Tim Sullivan — Character is more Important than the Crime
Tim Sullivan is a critically-acclaimed screenwriter who turned his back on Hollywood to self-publish thrillers. 250,000 downloads later Tim became a self-publishing phenomenon whose new DS Cross thriller The Patient is published by Head of Zeus. Tim takes us through his extraordinary career, the research he undertook to write a character with autism, and the role that […]
Continue readingEP377: FMA Dixon — Finding Your Voice
FMA Dixon’s debut novel The Little House on Everywhere Street was awarded the inaugural Acheven Book Prize for Young Adult Fiction and is charming readers the world over. He tells us how he developed his craft and voice through short stories, and by creating a special gift for his daughter. . . In this episode […]
Continue readingEP376: Martin Latham — A Bookseller’s Tale
Martin Latham has been a bookseller for over thirty-five years and is proud to be responsible for the biggest petty-cash claim in Waterstones’ history. He’s also an author and his latest book The Bookseller’s Tale is a wonderful celebration of books and bookshops. Martin is an endless source of bookselling anecdotes and, as you’ll hear, he is […]
Continue readingEP375: Deep Dive — Creating Thrutopia with Manda Scott
Bestselling author Manda Scott tells us about Thrutopia, an extraordinary project designed to challenge writers to rethink how they write in order to rebuild the future. It begins with the Thrutopia masterclasses that dive into idea generation, narrative incubation and the power of community. Links: Discover more about Thrutopia here: https://thrutopia.life/ Here’s the coupon code to […]
Continue readingEP374: Nina De Gramont — Searching for Agatha Christie
Nina De Gramont takes on her most ambitious book yet with The Christie Affair, which explores what might have happened to Agatha Christie when she disappeared for 11 days in 1926. Nina takes us through the process of taking a real-life mystery and creating a fiction around it, mixing drama with research, and writing for […]
Continue readingEP373: Erica James — What happens next?
The amazing Erica James returns to the podcast with her latest bestseller Mothers and Daughters. She tells us the key question she asks of her characters, why she wants a dark cloud on the covers of her books, and how events in the real world might affect our writing. Oh, and the two Marks ponder […]
Continue readingEP372: Veronica Henry — It’s not supposed to be easy
Veronica Henry returns to the podcast with her latest bestseller The Impulse Purchase, where a mother, daughter and grandmother run a pub together. Veronica talks about writing across the generations, whether or not to include Covid in her novel, and — after over twenty novels — if she’s getting the hang of writing yet. . […]
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