Patricia Gibney has sold over 2 million copies of her Detective Lottie Parker books, and readers worldwide love her stories, but her career started at a very tough time in her life. Patricia left her job of thirty years and was able to work through grief and reignite her love of writing through journaling and drawing. And, post-interview, the Two Marks discuss being brave enough to ask stupid questions. Which they’re both very good at.
Jun 20, 2022•1 hr 14 min•Season 5Ep. 390
Joanne Harris returns to the podcast with her gripping page-turning thriller A Narrow Door. Joanne answers our listener questions, tells us the importance of human interaction to her writing, why she doesn’t see a distinction between plotting and pantsing, and why ideas are like planets in a solar system. And the Two Marks discuss a chicken-writer analogy that has to be heard to be believed...
Jun 13, 2022•1 hr 14 min•Season 5Ep. 389
Ian Skewis’s debut novel A Murder of Crows became a no.1 bestseller and was long listed for the Guardian’s Not the Booker Prize. Ian tells us how it all began with a traumatic incident from his childhood, how he developed the story in different media for many years before writing the novel. Please note that suicide is discussed in our interview with Ian. If you don’t to hear about that, please skip the first seven minutes of our conversation.
Jun 06, 2022•1 hr 10 min
We welcome the wonderful Angela Marsons back to the podcast. Angela is the multi-million bestselling author of the DI Kim Stone series. And she’s back with Six Graves, the 16th book in the series. Despite her mega sales (five million and counting) and a 12-book contract, Angela tells us why she doesn’t take a single book for granted, and why every one she starts feels like the first. She also answers our listener questions and the two Marks discuss the pros and cons of being prolific.
May 30, 2022•1 hr 11 min•Season 5Ep. 387
Ian W Sainsbury is the award-winning author of the Jimmy Blue series of thrillers. Ian has just started editing the fourth book in the series and he was kind enough to let us get a sneak peek at his editing process. He fires up ProWriting Aid and shares his screen with us as he gets forensic with his edit.
May 27, 2022•28 min•Season 5Ep. 386
Louise Hare’s debut This Lovely City was shortlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize and Louise was selected for the Observer’s top 10 best debut novelists. She returns with Miss Aldridge Regrets, a murder mystery set aboard the Queen Mary in 1936. Louise discusses how she built the novel up from a short story, and how creating her own routine has helped her hit targets, deadlines and finish her books. “It’s hard to find the discipline when you’ve got all the time in the world…” And the two Marks dis...
May 23, 2022•1 hr 17 min•Season 5Ep. 384
In a special mid-week episode, we speak to Andrew Chapman. Andrew is the author of horror novels like Jack’s Game, and he’s been a long-time supporter of the podcast on Patreon. A few weeks ago, he declared that he was going to write a novel in a day. His target was 50,000 words in 24 hours. He chose to do it on his birthday, 12th May 2022. And he was going to take a screenplay called THE MASK COLLECTOR that he’d written a few years ago and adapt that into a novel. Andrew takes us through the hi...
May 20, 2022•35 min•Season 5Ep. 384
Simon McCleave’s first indie novel The Snowdonia Killings sold over 200,000 copies after its release in 2020. He is astonishingly prolific and all his novels since have been Amazon bestsellers. His new novel, The Dark Tide, kicks off a new series, and now he’s being published by HarperCollins. He reveals the things he learned in TV and film that helped him become so prolific, and why he always starts with the twist. And the two Marks discuss productivity tips and the pros and cons of physical bo...
May 16, 2022•1 hr 17 min•Season 5Ep. 383
Eva Leigh is a USA Today bestselling historical romance author who combines female empowerment, whip-smart heroines, dashing rakes and sex positive stories. Eva takes us through her influences and writing process, including Han Solo, Duran Duran and baking… and she tells us why sometimes the best motivation for writing is spite.
May 09, 2022•1 hr•Season 5Ep. 382
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 writing can help with mental health issues.
May 02, 2022•1 hr 8 min•Season 5Ep. 381
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 through a pandemic, and a time of rising costs,
Apr 29, 2022•11 min•Season 5Ep. 380
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 our own, and how the Two Marks used a glossary in Back to Reality to define some of the British colloquialisms used in their book.
Apr 25, 2022•1 hr 19 min•Season 5Ep. 379
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 both Derek Jarman and My Little Pony played in his career.
Apr 18, 2022•1 hr 10 min•Season 5Ep. 378
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.
Apr 11, 2022•1 hr 14 min•Season 5Ep. 377
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 deeply passionate about bookselling.
Apr 04, 2022•1 hr 24 min•Season 5Ep. 376
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.
Apr 03, 2022•11 min•Season 5Ep. 375
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 a fanbase that has very exacting expectations.
Mar 28, 2022•1 hr 7 min•Season 5Ep. 374
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.
Mar 21, 2022•1 hr 14 min•Season 5Ep. 373
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.
Mar 14, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Season 5Ep. 372
Cathy Bramley is a bestselling author of romantic comedies and her new novel The Summer That Changed Us is delighting readers all over the world. Cathy started by self-publishing her first novel with a launch party in a phone box, and she used her expertise in marketing and PR to carve out a career as one of our most innovative and best-loved authors. Oh, and Mr D has a lovely rant about 99p eBooks.
Mar 07, 2022•1 hr 18 min•Season 5Ep. 371
Lizzie Pook is a long-time listener of the podcast and Patreon supporter whose debut novel Moonlight and the Pearler’s Daughter was inspired by her time in north-western Australia researching the pearl-diving industry. The novel is being published by three major publishers on three continents with three very different covers, but the road to publication was a long slog, with Lizzie facing life-changing events with her health and career. Also, the Two Marks get distracted by their memories of the...
Feb 28, 2022•1 hr 20 min•Season 5Ep. 370
Bethany Clift and Peter Handford take us through the making of their 2012 independent horror movie HERETIC, from the first spark of the idea, to financing, pre-production, filming, post-production and how they got the DVD in the supermarket bestsellers and the lessons they’ve learned. This is fascinating and honest breakdown of just how challenging it is to make an independent movie.
Feb 21, 2022•7 min•Season 5Ep. 369
Bethany Clift’s debut novel The Last One at the Party is hilarious, moving, cathartic and set in an utterly terrifying pandemic. She tells us how writing and reading horror is great for mental health, how seeing E.T. at an impressionable age inspired her, and how writing a novel with only one living character allowed her to dig deeper than ever before. This episode has an accompanying Deep Dive episode with Bethany and her husband Peter Handford where they tell us about the making of their indie...
Feb 21, 2022•1 hr 18 min•Season 5Ep. 368
Jeevani Charika (aka Rhoda Baxter) is an award-nominated author of women’s fiction with heroines of colour. Her latest novel, Playing for Love, is set in the world of online gaming, giving the classic mistaken identity romcom story a fresh makeover. We discuss how to write a convincing rom com, and why 2022 could be her year! And the Two Marks get into the pros and cons of Wordle, the joys of cosplay, and how one young lad got his book into a local library.
Feb 14, 2022•1 hr 12 min•Season 5Ep. 367
Beth Miller is the bestselling author of six novels, one of which took 12 years to write, another just 8 months. Beth tells us why the most important part of the process of her is finding the spine of the story: the thing that moves both her and the reader. We also talk about titles, publishing when young, and when to stand your ground as a writer.
Feb 07, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Season 5Ep. 366
Samantha King returns to the podcast to reveal how her latest novel The Secret Keepers’ Daughter was inspired by a “worry box” and how our darkest and most terrifying fears are found in our own homes and in everyday life. We also discuss the career of an author beyond the debut and how she’s learned to endure the peaks and troughs and enjoy the view.
Jan 31, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Season 5Ep. 365
British Fantasy Award nominee Shona Kinsella tells us about her new book Outlander and the real Jacobites, which digs into the real history behind Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series. Shona’s career has been an extraordinary rollercoaster, and she talks openly about the highs and lows of crowdfunding, flash fiction, writing and editing a novella in 30 days, and how helping others has helped her writing.
Jan 24, 2022•1 hr 10 min•Season 5Ep. 364
Have you ever wanted to tell a story, but been too scared to write it? Lori Ann Stephens’ near-future thriller Blue Running covers a whole range of contentious topics, but Lori tells us how she overcame such a fear to tell her story, how she had dealt with the reactions of readers and her own family, and why she thinks the best writing comes from fear.
Jan 17, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Season 5Ep. 363
International bestselling author Simon Beckett returns to the podcast to tell us about his new novel The Lost, in which he starts a whole new series. He offers tips on character, tension, and how to develop a great thriller. And the two Marks discuss how theme and endings can help you when you’re stuck, and the importance of a great opening.
Jan 10, 2022•52 min•Season 5Ep. 362
BAFTA-award winning actor Daniel Rigby tells us about his Audible original debut Isaac Steele and the Forever Man and how his background in comedy and improvisation helped create his protagonist and his extraordinary world.
Jan 03, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Season 5Ep. 361
