Forthwrite – Details, episodes & analysis

Listen to this bonus festive episode with Jo Middleton author of Happy Bloody Christmas! We talk about her incredibly speedy novel writing process, challenges going from blog to book, and her brilliant advice to just get cracking!

Follow Jo @jomiddletonauthor

Jo Middleton is a writer, bookshop manager, creative writing teacher and mum of two daughters. She lives in Somerset with her three cats, all named after fictional detectives, and a goofy golden retriever. Happy Bloody Christmas is her second novel.

This week we are in conversation with brilliant Lizzie Damilola Blackburn, on all aspects of her creative writing process, watching reality TV as research and fitting the writing in around everything else.

Follow Lizzie @lizziedamiblackburn

Lizzie Damilola Blackburn is a British-Nigerian charity worker turned author who grew up in south London and now lives with her husband and young son in Milton Keynes. Her bestselling debut novel, Yinka, Where is your Huzband? was selected by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai as a Literati book club pick and was one of Oscar-nominated actress Taraji P. Henson's top five books that made a difference – she still pinches herself to this day. Lizzie was a runner-up for a Diverse Book Award in 2023. The Re-Write is her second novel.

This week Anna and Sam chat to Lola Jaye about her writing process, from finding inspiration in the National Portrait Gallery, to interviewing family members and making time to write.

Follow Lola @lola.jaye

Lola Jaye is a critically acclaimed author, registered psychotherapist and speaker who has penned six novels and a self-help book.

She was born and raised in London, England and has lived in Nigeria and the United States. She has written for CNN, Essence, HuffPost and the BBC. She is passionate about mental health and has appeared on national television, where she has spoken about depression and trauma.

 

The Attic Child is her first epic historical novel and was published in 2022. It has since been nominated for The Jhalak Prize and the Diverse Book Awards.

Lola has a keen interest in history and bringing untold stories to life.

In this episode Anna and Sam chat to Ella Foote, about all things writing. Dive in to hear how Ella turned her passion for open water swimming into a career writing about it, how she juggles writing around her busy life and the importance of a deadline.

Follow Ella @ellachloeswims

Ella Foote is an author, editor and outdoor swimming expert. She is Editor at Outdoor Swimmer magazine, the world’s only monthly magazine dedicated to outdoor swimming. Ella’s first book, How to Wild Swim: What to Know Before Taking the Plunge was published last year.

 

A renowned swimming journalist Ella writes for all sorts of national media, often about swimming, environment, mental health or body image. She has had by-lines in The Guardian, The Times, Stylist Magazine, The Simple Things, Country File magazine and various other titles. She has appeared on several podcasts and has featured in a variety of television programmes.

 

Ella graduated from Bath Spa university with a Creative Writing and Media Communications degree and an ambition to write books, she is currently working on a narrative non-fiction book about a decade in her swimsuit. The book explores parenting, not giving birth, body image, failing as a feminist, being a 90s romantic and making her passion for the water her career.

Welcome to a brand new series of Forthwrite, the podcast formerly known as Writing Around The Kids. In this episode Anna and Sam talk with Women's Prize long-listed authour Pam Williams, about finding the right way to tell her family's story, the value of feedback and how she squeezes writing into her busy schedule.

Find Pam ⁠@pamwilliamsauthor⁠

Pam is a Grenadian heritage writer born in London. She studied fashion at prestigious St. Martin’s School of Art, graduating in 1984. For two decades Pam worked as a fashion journalist, magazine Fashion Editor (She, PS, Shape, Now) and freelance stylist.

 

After leaving the fashion world to be a foster carer for three years, Pam retrained and gained a Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE). Since 2018 she has taught at a special school in Westminster where she now leads the Post 16+ class and recently progressed to Middle Leader for Careers and Transitions.

 

Maya Angelou inspired Pam’s teenage dream of becoming an author; and it was her heroine’s death in 2014 that renewed a determination to ‘dare to try’ and make that fantasy a reality. Pam joined the group Afrikan Heritage Writers (AHW) and attended writing workshops to hone and share her craft.

 

Pam’s short story, ’Soul Talking’ was highly commended and published in the City of Stories anthology (2017, Spread the Word); and she contributed to AHW’s poetry and prose collection, 100 Years Unheard - WWI and the Afrikan Diasporan Woman (2018).

 

In 2019, Pam applied for the London Writers Award, a mentoring programme run by writers’ development agency, Spread the Word. The extract she submitted from a novel that she’d started (and put aside many times) thirty years before, secured her a place.

 

By the end of the programme, the manuscript had been transformed into the first draft of A Trace of Sun and Northbank Talent Management offered Pam representation. Legend Press then acquired the rights to publish the book.

 

While waiting for the big day of publication, Pam won the Black Ink Magazine New Writing 2022 Prize with short story, Hibiscus; and completed the first draft of her second  book.

 

Pam’s debut novel A Trace of Sun was published on 1st  March 2024 and was longlisted  for the Women’s Prize for Fiction.

 

 

Sam and Anna chat to Mira Shah about writing her debut novel during the pandemic and working around a full time job. Mira V Shah is a #1 bestselling author and legal writer who lives in North London with her husband, three good dogs and a mediocre cat. She studied History at the University of Warwick before practising as a City lawyer. During the pandemic, Mira wrote her first ever novel, HER, a psychological drama, which explores themes of flawed perception, trauma, race and class.  HER is a #1 ebook bestseller and was published by Hodder & Stoughton in March 2023, with the paperback to follow on 23 November. Her second novel, THE HOUSESITTER will be published in 2024. 

This week Anna and Sam dive into a brilliant chat with graphic novelist Hannah Eaton. We find out her process of drawing and writing stories, including making time to write and the importance of reality TV! Plus an exclusive reading from Hannah’s short story Senior Boys.

Hannah Eaton has written and illustrated two acclaimed graphic novels: Naming Monsters (MyriadEditions, 2013) was shortlisted for the First Graphic Novel Prize and the Ninth Art Award, andBlackwood (Myriad 2020), a folk horror murder mystery of middle England, was featured in theGuardian’s Books of the Year 2020. She is currently working on a graphic memoir and an anthology of contemporary ghost stories. Her work has been published in Studies in Gender and Sexuality, Asylum, Doll Hospital and The InkingWoman, and she has worked with children and adults - including street sex workers, neurodivergent parents and children experiencing difficulties in the school system - for more than 20 years as an(autistic) autism specialist support worker, teacher, learning mentor and creative workshop facilitator.

Anna and Sam talk to Luce Brett about writing from personal experience and becoming an advocate for women's health. Luce is the author of PMSL the first incontinence memoir. It was published by Green Tree an imprint of Bloomsbury in 2020. PMSL was her first book and has been influential with healthcare professionals as well as patients and many women and men have contacted her to say it made them feel seen and heard for the first time. As well as being an author and journalist Luce international advocate for women's health. She has a strong history of saying the unsayable and challenging stigma around common but taboo conditions with kindness, insight and (sometimes bold) humour. This episode comes with a trigger warning of depictions of birth and birth injury.

In this episode Sam and Anna speak with the wonderful Uju Asika, about her love of 'wild' writing, how much of yourself to put into your work and the joy of bringing a picture book into the world, plus Uju reads from her brilliant book Raising Boys Who Do Better. Uju is a multi-award nominated blogger, writer, speaker and creative consultant. She is the creator of the popular family blog Babes About Town and the author of three books including her acclaimed debut Bringing Up Race: How To Raise a Kind Child in a Prejudiced World. Hailed as 'timely and important' and one of the Best Books of September 2020 in the Evening Standard, Bringing Up Race earned a Starred Review in Publishers Weekly and was featured widely including Good Housekeeping, Woman's Hour, Marie Claire, Good Morning Sunday and The Observer. Uju's picture book A World For Me And You (Where Everyone Is Welcome) was published in 2022 and her latest book Raising Boys Who Do Better: A Hopeful Guide for A New Generation came out in June 2023.  A former journalist, Uju has also been a screenwriter and script editor for some of Nigeria's spiciest TV dramas including the long-running soap Tinsel. Born in Nigeria, Uju grew up in the UK and has lived in London, New York and Lagos. She's based in north London with her husband Abiye and two teenage sons. In her down time, she enjoys bingeing Netflix, piling up more books than she can read and dancing in her kitchen. You can keep up with Uju via her website ujuasika.com or her parenting blog babesabouttown.com and @babesabouttown across social media.

Anna and Sam speak to Cathy Hayward about her writing process, getting up early and running an independent bookshop. Plus enjoy a reading from her novel The Girl in the Maze. Cathy trained as a journalist and edited a variety of trade publications, several of which were so niche they were featured on Have I Got News for You. She then moved into the world of PR and set up an award-winning communications agency before ten years later, giving up the world of PR to become a bookseller. She took over Kemptown Bookshop in May 2022 with the aim of developing the shop into a community hub with events to engage new and established readers, celebrate local authors and support underrepresented writers. Devastated and inspired in equal measure by the death of her parents in quick succession, Cathy completed The Creative Writing Programme out of which emerged her debut novel The Girl in the Maze about the experience of mothering and being mothered. It won Agora Books' Lost the Plot Work in Progress Prize 2020 and was longlisted for the Grindstone Literary Prize 2020 and Flash500 2020. It was published by Agora Books in November 2021. She has since written two further novels and is working on a fourth. Cathy lives in Brighton – sandwiched between the Downs and the sea –  with her husband, three children, two rescue cats and one very lively Hungarian Vizsla puppy.