Kia Abdullah’s latest novel Next of Kin is not just a page-turning thriller, but Kia is using its publication to support the Trussell Trust charity. Kia talks about writing difficult subjects, cultural appropriation, diversity in publishing, and her writing habits. The Two Marks discuss the writer’s commitment to the reader, and are excited to announce that the Bestseller Academy is once again open for applications.
Mick Finlay is the author of the Arrowood series of crime novels set in 1890s London, and in his latest book Arrowood and the Meeting House Murders , he explores the dark side of human psychology, and tells us how teaching psychology has helped him as a writer. And this week’s digression from the Two Marks is on the joys of car boot sales and Beanie Babies.
Matthew Ralph is best-selling children’s author whose books celebrate diversity and inclusivity. Matthew takes us through his extraordinary career that started with an idea in an airport to his latest book Family Means, which evolved from the close connection he has with his readers. Matthew gives us tips on marketing, and shares his dream to create a community for his readers. The Two Marks also digress about the mysteries of books in airports.
Nicola May is the bestselling author of a dozen romantic comedies, all of which have topped the UK Kindle charts, and now she’s back with her new book Welcome To Ferry Lake Market. In a jam-packed interview, Nicola answers listener questions on the essential elements of a romcom, tenacity, blog tours, self-belief, asking for help, and writing in bed!
RJ McBrien’s career as a screenwriter saw him writing for Spooks, Wallander and The Bill, and now he’s delivered his debut novel Reckless, a page-turning thriller of marriage and betrayal. He takes us through the lessons he’s learned in the transition from scripts to novels, why doing something every day is essential, and how to tackle the “then what?” phase of writing.
Adam Simcox is a filmmaker whose debut novel The Dying Squad is published by Gollancz. Adam takes us through his journey to publication — “A leisurely stroll barefoot over broken glass for twenty years” — and we discuss writing for the screen and novels, mood boards, writing to music, commissioning reader reports, self-belief, and writing with your significant other (his partner Kirsty Eyre has already been a guest on the podcast).
Mark Stay is joined by Sara Cox — who helped him launch his novel The Crow Folk earlier this year — to answer listener questions on Book Launches, including… how far should you plan ahead, the different types of launches, the pre-launch essentials, post-launch best practice and much, much more.
Sue Teddern has written for TV and radio and now she’s written her debut novel, Anne Stanley All At Sea. Sue takes us through her extraordinary career, with great insight into writing for TV and radio. We also discuss some great British Institutions, including The Archers, the Shipping Forecast and Birds of a Feather.
Award-winning horror author Adam Nevill answers our listener questions on setting the mood, balancing gore and terror to find the right tone, research into the supernormal, getting into the minds of perpetrators of evil, the biggest lessons he has learned in his extraordinary career, how screenwriting has helped his novel writing, and how he’s conditioned himself to write in any place at any time . This is an essential listen for authors of all genres.
We always love it when one of our listeners is published, but Nicole Kennedy’s debut novel Everything’s Perfect had a rocky road to publication. Nicole takes us through a tumultuous time in her family’s life, and why it was so important for her to carve out time for writing.
With his new novel Brazilian Psycho, author Joe Thomas completes the São Paulo Quartet, a series that evolved from his ten years living in the city. Joe tells us how living in the setting of his books gave him an insight into a tangled web of crime and corruption to create vivid and engaging fiction. He tells us how an unpublished novel with multiple strands and characters helped give him focus for the series. The two Marks also discuss narrative voice and how an author’s voice develops over tim...
A narrative non-fiction treat this week as bestselling historian Damien Lewis tell us about the extraordinary heroes of his new book SAS Great Escapes. We also discuss research methods, using primary and secondary sources, how to earn the trust of interviewees, adapting history for the screen and why history is not static.
Nadine Matheson’s debut thriller The Jigsaw Man has been hailed as one of the event debuts of the year. But this was far from an overnight success. Nadine’s writing journey is one from competition wins, to NanoWriMo, to self-publishing, to a six-publisher auction and the publication of her bestselling debut The Jigsaw Man and a TV option. Nadine tells us the lessons she learned along the way, and how she worked around her career as a Criminal Solicitor.
Do you have a favourite teacher? One who encouraged you to write, maybe? This special episode is for all the teachers and students out there who have inspired one another over the years, and we have two of them on the show. Sarah Moorhead is the author of Witness X and started out as a teacher. One of her students was young Stuart Turton, author of The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and The Devil and the Dark Water. They tell us how they reunited over Twitter and how discussing big ideas in t...
Sex scenes in fiction can be difficult to get right, so much so that there’s even an award for writers who get it horribly wrong. We speak to Jacqueline Silvester and NJ Simmonds, who write together as Caedis Knight, about how they make the sex scenes in their Blood Web Chronicles work effectively. They answer listener questions on language, character, story and sex… and yes, the language in this podcast can get a bit saucy, so be warned if that’s not your thing.
Dean Wesley Smith is one of the most prolific writers working today, with over 200 novels, and countless short stories published. He reveals how he has learned how to stop listening to his critical voice, and to stop thinking of the story as a “product”, and how that has unleashed his creativity.
Josie Lloyd tells us why The Cancer Ladies Running Club is the most important and personal book she’s written, and how she balanced a story that is brutally honest about cancer and is still brimming with hope and positivity. She also takes us through her extraordinary career, including co-writing with her husband Emlyn Rees, and how she’s coped with writing in lockdown.
When Andrew Hunter Murray decided to end the world with his novel The Last Day he had no idea how hard it would be. His research involved astrophysics, climate migration, geopolitics, sleep cycles and much more. Andrew tells us how he achieved a balance of storytelling and worldbuilding to write what became one of the top ten bestsellers of 2020.
The dream for many authors is to see their novel made into a big-budget Hollywood movie. Debut author D. Eric Maikranz decided that he would make his dream a reality. His novel, The Reincarnationist Papers, has been adapted into a Paramount movie starring Mark Wahlberg, and directed by Antoine Fuqua. Taking a tip from his day job in IT, he was able to get the attention of Hollywood in the most extraordinary way...
Ellie Barker had always dreamed of becoming an author, and her debut novel The Pink Coffee Shop was ten years in the making. Ellie talks honestly about rejection, dusting herself off, finding the right editor, rolling with the punches, and discovering that dreams do come true… but might look a little different to how you imagined them.
How do you touch the heart of your readers? We get emotional over tea and cake with bestselling author Erica James. Erica has sold over 5 million copies of her twenty books, is winner of the Romantic Novel of the Year Award, and she never fails to break her readers’ hearts. We discover how she does it…
Adele Geras is one of Britain’s most acclaimed writers, and has written over 100 books for both children and adults. With her latest novel Dangerous Women she’s written her first historical thriller under the pseudonym Hope Adams. We talk about writing under a pseudonym, taking liberties with history, the challenges of writing a thriller for the first time, the benefits of editors, and why she still wants to be Judy Garland.
Mark Edwards is a bestselling author, having sold over two million psychological thrillers including The Magpies. Having been self-published and traditionally-published, Mark is now one of Amazon’s ‘Thomas & Mercer’ imprint’s most successful authors with five number one bestsellers. His extraordinary story will be an inspiration to any writer who’s ever faced rejection, bad publishing, bad agents, and financial ruin!
Catriona Ward’s first two novels Rawblood and Little Eve won awards and critical acclaim, but her new novel The Last House on Needless Street got the kind of pre-publication buzz that comes along very rarely. We spoke to Catriona about the changes she made to her career and her writing that led to her writing what Stephen King called “a true nerve-shredder”.
Anne Cater is the founder of Random Things Tours and has been organising book blog tours for over four years. She answers our listener questions on everything you need to know about blog tours, including when to book them, how to find a reputable organiser, how much they cost, what to expect, how to make the most of them and much more.
We welcome Sarah Pinborough back to the podcast to celebrate the release of the Netflix adaptation of Sarah’s bestselling novel Behind Her Eyes. We first discussed the book with Sarah way back in episode 18, and Sarah spills the beans on the TV show’s production and we discuss plot spoilers throughout, so be warned!
Mitch Benn is a comedian, songwriter, musician, actor and author of the Terra Trilogy, a science fiction adventure series that Neil Gaiman called “Wise, funny and human". Mitch takes us through the extraordinary story of how the first two books were published, how he overcame what could have been a disaster and completed, self-published and re-invented the trilogy. In this episode you will discover: Why it’s important to define what you’re writing as soon as possible Why you don’t need to write ...
John Yorke is one of the world’s leading lights in the art of storytelling. As former head of Channel Four Drama, Controller of BBC Drama Production and head of Company Pictures, he has worked on shows like Shameless, Life On Mars, and the UK’s most popular soap opera EastEnders. He is also the author of Into The Woods, one of our favourite books on the craft of storytelling.
Justine Solomons is founder of Byte the Book, an organisation dedicated to getting authors published, traditionally or self-published. Justine answers our listener questions on networking in publishing with tips for authors, what NOT to do, networking in lockdown, online events, how to prepare for networking and how to follow-up.
Linwood Barclay is the international bestselling author of over twenty novels, and his latest thriller Find You First is a fast-paced, high-concept, page-turner. In this jam-packed chat we discuss head-hopping, point-of-view, flashbacks, fan fiction, deadlines, writer’s block, self-doubt and more!
