Ian Green is a fantasy writer born in Aberdeen, Scotland. He is the author of The Rotstorm epic fantasy series published by the Ad Astra imprint of Head Of Zeus beginning 2021 with The Gauntlet and the Fist Beneath . Its sequel, The Gauntlet and the Burning Blade , came out in 2022, and the final part of the trilogy will be released in August 2023. Ian has a PhD in clinical epigenetics, and his short fiction has been widely broadcast and performed including winning the BBC Radio 4 Opening Lines ...
Feb 17, 2023•1 hr 11 min•Season 16Ep. 6
Ryan Cahill is the hugely successful self-published author of the Bound and the Broken series, starting with Of Blood and Fire and most recently releasing Of War and Ruin, which was so popular that The Broken Binding website was broken because so many people were trying to buy it! We had a really fun and fascinating chat with Ryan about all things self-publishing, including why he chose that route over traditional publishing, how he built his list of readers and hearing how detailed each step in...
Feb 10, 2023•1 hr 15 min•Season 16Ep. 5
Sunday Times bestselling author Louise Candlish is the author of 16 novels, including her brand-new thriller The Only Suspect , set in 1995 and described by the Daily Mail as 'a perfect mix of nostalgia and menace'. It is published in hardback, ebook and audio in February 2023. Louise's #1 bestseller Our House won the British Book Awards 2019 Crime & Thriller Book of the Year and is now a smash-hit 4-part ITV drama starring Martin Compston, Tuppence Middleton and Rupert Penry-Jones (view th...
Feb 03, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Season 16Ep. 4
Jane Harper is the author of bestsellers The Dry , Force of Nature , The Lost Man , The Survivors and now, Exiles . Her books are published in 40 territories worldwide, with more than 3.5 million copies sold to date. Jane has won numerous awards for writing, including the CWA Gold Dagger Award for Best Crime Novel, the British Book Awards Crime and Thriller Book of the Year, the Australian Book Industry Awards Book of the Year and the Australian Indie Awards Book of the Year. The major motion pi...
Jan 27, 2023•51 min•Season 16Ep. 3
Elle Connel is the pseudonym of Lucy Ribchester, whose previous novels, The Hourglass Factory and The Amber Shadows , were historical thrillers. Her previous work has won her a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award, a Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship, and short-listings for the Costa Short Story Award and Manchester Fiction Prize. Down by the Water was her first book as Elle Connel and her latest is You Can Stay . We had a really interesting chat with Lucy all about how she found an agent, only...
Jan 20, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Season 16Ep. 2
Tom Hindle is the exciting new voice on the murder mystery scene, where his debut novel, A Fatal Crossing was a huge hit when it came out in 2022. His new novel, The Murder Game , is out in February 2023. We had great fun chatting to Tom and hearing how he swapped music ambitions for writing ones, hear why he once thought A Fatal Crossing would be easy to stage as a play, and . We also talked about the enduring appeal of murder mysteries, discussed whether red herrings are good or bad things and...
Jan 13, 2023•1 hr•Season 16Ep. 1
Cory Doctorow is a science fiction author, activist and journalist. He is the author of many books, most recently CHOKEPOINT CAPITALISM (with Rebecca Giblin), a nonfiction book about monopoly and creative labor markets. His latest novel is ATTACK SURFACE, a standalone adult sequel to LITTLE BROTHER. In 2020, he was inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. Rebecca Giblin is an ARC Future Fellow and Professor at Melbourne Law School, and the Director of the Intellectual...
Dec 23, 2022•1 hr•Season 15Ep. 6
A former professional cake baker, Jenny Bayliss is the author of The Twelve Dates of Christmas, A Season for Second Chances, and, most recently, Meet Me Under the Mistletoe. Under the name Jenni Jennings she has also written the middle grade Malice in Underland books. We had great fun chatting with Jenny and hearing about how long it took for her to find an agent, only for her first book to go to a bidding auction! We talk about becoming known as a "Christmas" writer, writing scenes out of order...
Dec 14, 2022•47 min•Season 15Ep. 5
Karen Swan is the Sunday Times top three bestselling author of twenty books and her novels sell all over the world. She writes two books each year – one for the summer period and one for the Christmas season. Previous summer titles include The Spanish Promise , The Hidden Beach and The Secret Path and for winter, Christmas at Tiffany’s , The Christmas Secret and Together by Christmas . Her latest Christmas book is The Christmas Postcards . We had a really interesting chat with Karen, hearing how...
Dec 09, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Season 15Ep. 4
Kirsty Eyre is the winner of the inaugural Comedy Women in Print award (2019). Her debut novel, Cow Girl was released in Summer 2020 and was also shortlisted for the Romantic Novel Association's debut novel award. In addition, she has written two books under her pseudonym, Ginger Jones, with the latest being holiday romcom You Had Me At Halloumi. We had great fun chatting with Kirsty and hearing how she began her writing career by writing pantos on the Eurostar. That gave her the bug, and soon s...
Dec 02, 2022•55 min•Season 15Ep. 3
Richard Swan is a former commercial litigator and now a bestselling author. Between 2015 and 2018, Richard self-published The Art of War Trilogy , a sequence of epic space opera novels, as well as a prequel ( Hadan's Reach ) and two spinoff mil-sci-fi novellas ( VIPER One and VIPER One: Countervalue , the latter co-authored with George Lockett). Richard's debut fantasy Empire of the Wolf trilogy sold to Orbit Books, with the first instalment, The Justice of Kings , coming out in February 2022 an...
Nov 25, 2022•1 hr 27 min•Season 15Ep. 2
Scott Lynch was born in St.Paul, Minnesota in 1978. He sold his first novel, The Lies of Locke Lamora, in 2004. In addition to his writing, he also has a background in game design and firefighting. Scott currently lives in Massachusetts with his wife, award-winning SF/F novelist Elizabeth Bear. He is currently hard at work on the next stories in the world of Locke Lamora. Having been huge fans of Locke Lamora for years, we loved having the opportunity to chat with Scott and to hear about how he ...
Nov 18, 2022•1 hr 30 min•Season 15Ep. 1
This episode is also available on our YouTube channel as a full video episode! Watch it here Bob Bookman is a Hollywood manager and literary agent who has worked with some of the biggest authors in the world and helped turn their novels into award-winning movies. He has represented Michael Crichton, Tom Stoppard, Bill Broyles, John Irving, Jojo Moyes, David Nicholls and Peter Moffat along with many others and has been responsible for bringing movies such as Jurassic Park and Hannibal to the big ...
Nov 11, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Season 14Ep. 7
This episode is also available on our YouTube channel as a full video episode! Watch it here This week, our series of industry insider episodes continues with a talk with David Downing, a freelance developmental editor who has worked with authors such as Mark Edwards and our very own Tariq Ashkanani, helping them polish their manuscripts and turn them into the brilliant books they now are. Since turning to it full-time in 2012, David has edited more than 300 books—lots of mysteries/thrillers and...
Nov 04, 2022•52 min•Season 14Ep. 6
This episode is also available on our YouTube channel as a full video episode! Watch it here Our series of industry episodes continues as we chat with Karen Sullivan, founder and publishing director of Orenda Books. Orenda Books was founded by publisher Karen Sullivan in 2014. In 2016, Karen was a Bookseller Rising Star, and Orenda Books was shortlisted for the IPG Nick Robinson Newcomer Award in 2015 and 2016. They won the CWA Crime & Mystery Publisher of the Year Dagger in 2020 and were a ...
Oct 28, 2022•49 min•Season 14Ep. 5
This episode is also available on our YouTube channel as a full video episode! Watch it here This week, our series of industry episodes continues as we chat with Miranda Jewess, Publishing Director of Viper Books, the crime and thriller imprint of Serpent's Tail, which I launched in November 2019. Viper Books are the publishers of the award-winning (and previous podcast guests) Janice Hallett and Catriona Ward, alongside acclaimed books such as Five Minds from Guy Morpuss. We loved chatting with...
Oct 21, 2022•50 min•Season 14Ep. 4
This episode is also available on our YouTube channel as a full video episode! Watch it here Our series of industry episodes continues as we talk with leading literary agent Jamie Cowen. Jamie has worked in publishing for 18 years. Before joining Ampersand literary agency in 2013 he was a commissioning editor at HarperCollins, and prior to that he worked in legal and contracts departments at HC and the Hachette Group. Jamie’s clients at Ampersand include Tendai Huchu ( The Library of the Dead , ...
Oct 14, 2022•52 min•Season 14Ep. 3
This episode is also available on our YouTube channel as a full video episode! Watch it here Our special series of episodes chatting with leading figures in the publishing industry to find out how to get your book published continues this week with the amazing Eric Smith. Eric is a Young Adult author and literary agent with P.S. Literary living in Philadelphia. As an agent represents brilliant authors such as Alison Stine and Mike Chen. On the writing front, his latest book, Jagged Little Pill: ...
Oct 07, 2022•42 min•Season 14Ep. 2
This episode is also available on our YouTube channel as a full video episode! Watch it here In the first of a special series of industry episodes following a books journey from being picked up by an agent all the way to Hollywood, we chat with superstar literary agent, Juliet Mushens! Juliet started her publishing career in 2008 at HarperCollins, and became an agent in 2011. She has been shortlisted for Literary Agent of the Year four times and is currently the number 1 ranked UK fiction dealma...
Sep 30, 2022•45 min•Season 14Ep. 1
Adam Hamdy is a Sunday Times and international bestselling author and screenwriter who writes topical, thought-provoking novels, often inspired by real events. His latest novel, The Other Side of Night is out now. We had great fun chatting with Adam, hearing about how he moved from being a strategy consultant to writer - thanks in part to an idea he had for a screenplay involving 80s actor, Judge Reinhold! We also hear about his process, why he needs to frontload his planning, and why The Other ...
Sep 23, 2022•57 min•Season 13Ep. 6
Diana Reid is a Sydney-based writer. Her debut novel, Love & Virtue , was an Australian bestseller and winner of the ABIA Book of the Year Award, the ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year Award, the ABA Booksellers' Choice Fiction Book of the Year Award, and the MUD Literary Prize. Love & Virtue was also shortlisted for the Indie Debut Fiction Award, the ABIA Matt Richell New Writer Award, and Highly Commended at the NSW Premier's Literary Awards. Diana was also named a Sydney Morning H...
Sep 16, 2022•41 min•Season 13Ep. 5
Gordon J. Brown (AKA Morgan Cry) is the author of nine crime thriller novels set in Spain, Scotland and the US. He is also a founding board director of crime writing festival, Bloody Scotland. His latest book, Any Day Now, is out now. We had great fun chatting with Gordon and hearing about how he got into writing and how real life situations have inspired his fiction writing. We also talk about the pros and cons of pseudonyms, and he tells us about where the idea for Bloody Scotland (Scotland's ...
Sep 09, 2022•59 min•Season 13Ep. 4
Shauna Lawless is a debut author whose gripping new historical fantasy novel, The Children of Gods and Fighting Men, intertwines Irish mythology with real-life history. Released on 1 September 2022, it is already creating huge buzz. We loved chatting with Shauna and hearing how she turned a love of Irish mythology and folklore into such a thrilling novel. We hear how she began her writing career by carving out one hour at a time until she had a full length novel. She also talked to us about the ...
Sep 02, 2022•59 min•Season 13Ep. 3
Kasim Ali works at Penguin Random House. He was longlisted for the B4ME Short Story Prize (hosted by his now UK publisher Fourth Estate), and GOOD INTENTIONS was shortlisted for the Mo Siewcherran Prize. He's also had a short story published in The Good Journal . We had great fun chatting with Kasim, whilst also hating him (not really!) as he told us about his ridiculously prolific rate of writing and how he is able to write his novels without ANY planning... We also had a great discussion about...
Aug 26, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Season 13Ep. 2
Adam Simcox is a London-based filmmaker who has shot commercials for brands such as McLaren, Primark and Unilever, and music videos for Britpop veterans as well as fresh on the scene alt-country stars. He began his film career by writing and directing three features: the first sold to Netflix before Netflix was Netflix; the second and third won awards and critical acclaim at festivals worldwide, and so didn’t sell at all. He moved into the world of novel-writing with his hit debut, The Dying Squ...
Aug 19, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Season 13Ep. 1
This is one of a special series of short episodes speaking to some of the best comedians appearing at this year's Edinburgh Fringe! These episodes will be released daily during the week of 8 August 2022. Michael Spicer literally became an overnight sensation when he posted his first-ever Man in the Room Next Door sketch on Twitter. Since then, he has become one of the biggest comedians on Twitter and appeared on The Late Late Show with James Corden, as well as acting in programmes such as Bridge...
Aug 13, 2022•39 min•Season 12Ep. 9
This is one of a special series of short episodes speaking to some of the best comedians appearing at this year's Edinburgh Fringe! These episodes will be released daily during the week of 8 August 2022. Starting at just 16 Tom Lucy quickly rose through the comedy club circuit to became one of the youngest professional stand-up comedians in the world. As well as performing all over the UK, Tom has toured internationally in the Middle East, across Europe and a few select US shows in New York and ...
Aug 12, 2022•26 min•Season 12Ep. 8
This is one of a special series of short episodes speaking to some of the best comedians appearing at this year's Edinburgh Fringe! These episodes will be released daily during the week of 8 August 2022. Amy Gledhill is a comedian, actor, writer and winner of The BBC Caroline Aherne Bursary. As well as being one half of surreal comedy double act, The Delightful Sausage (nominated for an Edinburgh Fringe award), she also has also written for and appeared on numerous TV shows, and is back at the F...
Aug 12, 2022•24 min•Season 12Ep. 7
This is one of a special series of short episodes speaking to some of the best comedians appearing at this year's Edinburgh Fringe! These episodes will be released daily during the week of 8 August 2022. Sunil Patel is a comedian who found early success as a finalist in the BBC New Comedy Award and as a Chortle Best Newcomer nominee. He is best known for his starring role in Channel Five’s mockumentary series Borderline (Channel 5) and as John Robbins’ sidekick in Beat the Internet (Dave). He al...
Aug 11, 2022•23 min•Season 12Ep. 6
This is one of a special series of short episodes speaking to some of the best comedians appearing at this year's Edinburgh Fringe! These episodes will be released daily during the week of 8 August 2022. Jack Barry is a comedy actor, writer and stand-up who can most recently be seen as series regular in Mae Martin’s sitcom Feel Good series 1&2 (Netflix) and Rose Matafeo’s Starstruck (BBC/HBO). Jack stars in the new series of ITV2's The Stand Up Sketch Show. Other recent TV credits include Th...
Aug 11, 2022•26 min•Season 12Ep. 5
