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. 

This week Anna and Sam chat with Nicola Gill about her writing process, her road to getting published and how it felt to get published during the pandemic. Plus a reading from her latest novel Swimming For Beginners. Nicola lives in London with her husband and two sons. At the age of five, when all the other little girls wanted to be ballet dancers, she decided she wanted to be an author. Her ballet teacher was very relieved. Nicola is the author of The Neighbours, We Are Family and Swimming for Beginners.

Anna and Sam chat to Women's Prize 2022 short-listed author Jacqueline Crooks about her creative process, keeping her writing free and we hear a reading from her novel Fire Rush. Jacqueline was born in Jamaica and grew up in 70s and 80s Southall, part of London's migrant community, carving out a space through music, where she raved at dub reggae dances. She has carved out a career for herself in the community sector working with Black and minoritised charities. Her stories have been longlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, the Wasafiri New Writing Prize and the BBC National Short Story Award. Named as a 2023 top ten debut author by the Guardian/The Observer. Her book, Fire Rush, is set in 1970s and 1980's London, Bristol, and Jamaica and is about the role of women in the underground world of dub reggae.  

This week Anna and Sam chat creative writing with wonderful author Rosanna Amaka. Tune in for our conversation about writing to a deadline (or not), finding inspiration in unexpected places and writing your way out of a creative block.

Follow Rosanna @rosannaamaka

Rosanna Amaka is a writer from London, and is of African and Caribbean heritage. Her debut novel ‘The Book of Echoes’, was shortlisted for The Authors’s Club First Novel Award, The RSL Christopher Bland Prize and The HWA Debut Crown Award. Her second novel ‘Rose and the Burma Sky’ was inspired by a conversation with her grandmother and follows the journey of an African soldier fighting in WW2. 

This week we chat to fabulous Philippa East, about balancing her writing and psychology practices, creating great characters and we hear a reading from I'll Never Tell. Philippa grew up in Scotland and originally studied Psychology and Philosophy at the University of Oxford. After graduating, she moved to London to train as a Clinical Psychologist and worked in NHS mental health services for over ten years. Philippa now lives in the Lincolnshire countryside with her spouse and cat, and alongside her writing she continues to work as a psychologist and therapist. Her debut novel Little White Lies was longlisted for the Guardian's "Not-The-Booker" prize and shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey New Blood Dagger. She has since published two further psychological suspense novels, Safe and Sound and I'll Never Tell, and her fourth, A Guilty Secret, will be out in January 2024. 

On our episode this week we chat with wonderful Elizabeth Haynes. Our chat takes in NaNoWriMo, writing across genres and the freedom that can be found writing without a plan. Plus a reading from her latest novel You Me And The Sea.

Elizabeth is a former police intelligence analyst who lives in Norfolk with her husband and son. Her first novel, Into the Darkest Corner, was Amazon’s Best Book of the Year 2011 and a New York Times bestseller. Now published in 37 countries, it was originally written as part of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), an online challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November.

She has written a further three psychological thrillers—Revenge of the Tide, Human Remains and Never Alone—and two novels in the DCI Louisa Smith series, Under a Silent Moon and Behind Closed Doors.

Next came her highly praised historical novel The Murder of Harriet Monckton (a Sunday Times Summer Read) which is based on the 1843 unsolved murder of a young school teacher in Bromley, Kent.

Elizabeth’s latest novel, You, Me and the Sea is a contemporary story of love and redemption set on a remote, windswept Scottish island.

In this episode Anna and Sam chat to the brilliant Nicola Williams about writing in a busy schedule and serendipity, plus a reading from her novel Until Proven Innocent. Nicola is a part-time Crown Court Judge, author, and sits on numerous boards as a non executive director. She has been listed as one of the 100 most influential Black people in the UK.   After a successful career at the Bar (including as a legal commentator on the OJ Simpson verdict) she served as an Ombudsman both in the UK and internationally, including as a Commissioner at the Independent Police Complaints Commission and as the Complaints Commissioner of the Cayman Islands. She was the first Service Complaints Ombudsman for the UK Armed Forces, one of the most senior women and the most senior Black person in UK Defence.  She is the author of the legal thriller, Without Prejudice, describing the experiences of being a black female lawyer in Britain and is also an indictment of the legal system and privilege; screen rights have been optioned. Her second thriller, Until Proven Innocent, was published by Penguin on 16 March 2023.

This week Anna and Sam chat to wonderful Annie Garthwaite, about her long journey to writing, her process and whether she thinks its ok to make things up in historical fiction. Episode also includes reading from her book Cecily. Annie Garthwaite grew up in a working-class community in the north east of England. She studied English at the University of Wales before embarking on a thirty-year international business career working with multi-national companies and eventually establishing her own communications consultancy. In 2017 she studied for an MA in Creative Writing at Warwick University and, during two years of study, wrote her debut novel Cecily which was published by Penguin in 2021. Cecily was named a ‘top pick’ by The Times and Sunday Times and a ‘Best Book of 2021’ by independent bookshops and Waterstones. Her second novel, The King’s Mother, will publish in July 2024.

Join us for this brand new series of Writing Around The Kids Podcast, to kick us off we chat with the ever so wonderful Kit de Waal. Listen for her reading from My Name Is Leon and a valuable insight into what makes her tick as a writer. Kit de Waal, born to an Irish mother and Caribbean father, was brought up among the Irish community of Birmingham in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Her debut novel My Name Is Leon was an international bestseller, shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize and won the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award for 2017. In 2022 it was adapted for television by the BBC. Her second novel, The Trick to Time, was longlisted for the Women's Prize and her young adult novel Becoming Dinah was shortlisted for the Carnegie CLIP Award 2020. A collection of short stories, Supporting Cast was published in 2020. An anthology of working-class memoir, Common People was crowdfunded and edited by Kit in 2019. Kit founded her own TV production company, Portopia Productions and the Big Book Weekend, a free digital literary festival in 2020 and was named the FutureBook Person of the Year 2019. Kit is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Professor and Writer in Residence at Leicester University. Her memoir Without Warning and Only Sometimes was published in August 2022.

This week Anna and Sam chat to Sharon Duggal. Sharon writes novels and short stories. Her second novel, Should We Fall Behind (2020, Bluemoose Books) was shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature’s 2021 Encore Award, selected for Between the Covers, BBC television’s flagship book show and chosen as a Prima Magazine Book of the Year. Her debut, The Handsworth Times was The Morning Star’s Fiction Book of the Year 2016 and selected as the Brighton City Reads in 2017. Her short fiction appears in various anthologies including The Book of Birmingham and Love Bites: Fiction Inspired by Pete Shelley and Buzzcocks.

Anna and Sam talk to Josie Lloyd about writing, sea swimming and landing a huge book deal for her debut novel. Josie Lloyd is the best selling author of over 20 novels and several parodies which she co-wrote with her husband, Emlyn Rees including 'We're Going On A Bar Hunt' and 'The Very Hungover Caterpillar'.  Also with Emlyn she wrote the nineties rom-hit Come Together which was published in 26 languages and made into a Working Title Film. In 2018, after going through breast cancer, she wrote the novel 'The Cancer Ladies' Running Club'  which is currently in development as a film with Lionsgate.  Hoping to inspire others with her positivity, she's the patron of the charity Lobular Breast Cancer UK  During the pandemic she discovered the joys of cold water swimming and wrote 'Lifesaving For Beginners', a novel about community and friendship. She lives in Brighton with Emlyn and their three daughters and sprollie, Ziggy.

This week Anna and Sam chat to Louise Fein about writing historical fiction and where she finds her inspiration. Find her Tik Tok series on writing tips here https://www.tiktok.com/@louise.fein.author Louise writes twentieth century historical fiction, based around unheard voices, or from unusual perspectives. Her debut novel, People Like Us  (entitled Daughter of the Reich in the US/Canada edition) was first published in 2020 into 13 territories and is set in 1930’s Leipzig. The book was shortlisted for the RSL Christopher Bland Prize 2021 and the RNA Historical Novel of the Year Award, 2021. Louise's second novel, The Hidden Child, was first published in the UK in September 2021 and the US and Canada in October 2021 as well as other territories. This book is centred around the eugenics movement in 1920’s England and America. It is a Globe & Mail bestseller in Canada. Louise, previously a lawyer and banker, holds an MA in Creative Writing from St Mary’s University and now writes full time. Equally passionate about historical research and writing, she loves to look for themes which have resonance with today’s world. Louise lives in the Surrey countryside with her family, and is a slave to the daily demands of her pets. Her third novel will be published in early 2024.

Jacqueline Roy was born and raised in London. Her father was Jamaican and her mother was English and she comes from a family of writers. She hated the pressure to conform at school and left early, so she did her degrees as a mature student and moved to Manchester to take up a full-time teaching post at Manchester Metropolitan University. She lectured in English for many years, specialising in postcolonial literatures. She also taught creative writing at MMU’s Writing School.   She is particularly interested in exploring racial identities and the ways in which those who are marginalised find strategies for fighting back. She is now a full-time writer of fiction. She has written six books for children, published mainly by Penguin Children’s books, and Walker Books, and two novels for adults, The Fat Lady Sings (republished by Penguin, 2021) and The Gosling Girl (published by Simon & Schuster, 2022). A third novel for adults will be published by Simon & Schuster in January 2024. Follow Jacqueline on Twitter @jacquel27815478

On this week's episode Anna and Sam chat to fabulous Lisa Jewell, about her amazing career, her creepy characters and writing by the seat of her pants. As well as a reading from her novel The Family Remains. Lisa Jewell is a New York Times and Sunday Times No 1 bestselling author who has been published worldwide in over twenty-five languages. Lisa has written a number of dark psychological thrillers, beginning with Then She Was Gone, The Family Upstairs, The Night She Disappeared and The Family Remains - all of which were No 1 Sunday Times bestsellers. She has been likened to Agatha Christie and Ruth Rendell and has been described as the British Liane Moriarty.   She has sold 10 million copies worldwide. She lives in north London with her husband, two teenage daughters and the best dog in the world.     Lisa has written a total of 21 novels with the latest, None of This is True, due to be published in July 2023.

In this episode Anna and Sam chat with fabulour author Reshma Ruia. We talk about her writing from poetry, to short stories to novels and not forgetting her PhD. Reshma shares her wisdom on the writing process.

 

Follow Reshma @reshma_ruia_writer

Dr. Reshma Ruia is a Manchester based British writer of Indian origin.  She has a PhD and Master’s in Creative Writing from Manchester University. Her first novel, Something Black in the Lentil Soup, was described in the Sunday Times as ‘a gem of straight-faced comedy’. She has published a poetry collection, A Dinner Party in the Home Counties, winner of the 2019 Word Masala Award and a short story collection, Mrs Pinto Drives to Happiness, shortlisted for the 2022 Eastern Eye ACTA Awards. Her new novel, Still Lives won the 2023 Diverse Book Readers’ Choice Award. 

Reshma’s work has appeared in anthologies and journals, and commissioned by the BBC, University of Cumbria and Manchester Literature Festival. She is the co-founder of The Whole Kahani – a writers’ collective of British South Asian writers. Her writing explores the preoccupations of those who possess a multiple sense of belonging.

www.reshmaruia.com

www.thewholekahani.com

Writing chat with this week’s guest Andreina Cordani, about writing for young adults and her dubious browser history. Before writing her first novel, Andreina Cordani was a senior editor and writer for women’s magazines including Good Housekeeping and Cosmopolitan, where her assignments included interviewing gun-toting moms on the school run, ordering illegal DIY Botox online and learning to do the splits in eight weeks. She lives on the Dorset coast with her family where she reads voraciously, occasionally makes TikTok videos and swims in the sea. She is the author of two dark thrillers for young adults, The Girl Who… and Dead Lucky and is currently working on an adult crime story.

We talk to Gillian Harvey about how she writes around her five children.

After graduating from university in 2000 with a degree in English literature, Gillian Harvey trained as a secondary school teacher. She worked in the profession until 2009, when she decided (on the spur of the moment) to move to France with husband Ray.

It was there she began working as a freelance writer and has since built a career writing features, opinion pieces and short stories for national titles including Woman’s Weekly, People’s Friend, the Independent, Guardian and Metro.

Gillian also works as a columnist for popular Writing Magazine, a role she has held since 2020. She was also a columnist for Prima Baby magazine (2015-16) and Living France magazine (2017-2019).

Gillian’s first novel ‘Everything is Fine’ was published in May 2020. Her second, ‘Perfect on Paper’ was published in May 2021 (both with Orion).

Her latest novel ‘A Year at the French Farmhouse’ is due for publication with Boldwood on 29 September 2022.

Gillian lives in Limousin, France, with her husband and their five children.

Anna and Sam talk to Kate Lee about what it is to write for different age ranges and how she finds inspiration for her novels.  Kate is the author of six books for children including the best-selling Santa's Suit which sold 291,000 copies in 7 languages and the popular Snappy pop-up series. Her short stories and poetry have won awards at Shoreham Litfest, the WRITE Festival and the Bath Flash Award and have been published in anthologies including Restore to Factory Settings. Kate enjoys supporting other writers through her work as a freelance editor and mentor. As a carer, she understands how can writing be therapeutic, but also the thing that may be squeezed out when life gets crazy. Kate, who lives in Horsham, West Sussex, has recently finished writing two picture books, one about expressing emotions entitled Big Bears Don't Cry and one about what home means to a very small ghost, entitled The Haunted Hat. This winter Kate is putting the finishing touches to a Middle Grade novel for ages 8-12. This story is an eco mystery involving a curse, a shady scientist and lots of bees. As well as words, Kate is a lover of images and maps, and you'll always find her drawing ideas (and encouraging others to do so, too). So long as Rupert, her beloved but naughty puppy, doesn't get to the paper first...

We chat to Lorraine about writing in lockdown and using your neighbours for inspiration. Lorraine lives in London with her partner and their 10-year-old son. She previously trained as an actress and has recently completed a postgraduate diploma in psychodynamic counselling. THE PARIS CONNECTION is her debut novel and was published in the UK by Orion Fiction in February 2021 and in the US by G.P. Putnam's Sons in August 2021. Her second novel, SORRY I MISSED YOU, was published by Orion Fiction on 1st September 2022.

Anna and Sam talk to novelist Laura Wilkinson about her process as well as hearing her read from her novel, Crossing the Line. 

Laura Wilkinson is a feminist and lover of ginger hair. A resident of a shabby quarter of Brighton, she likes to write stories which entertain and provide food for thought. Her novels are Crossing the Line, The Family Line, Redemption Song and Skin Deep. Crossing the Line was a Welsh Books Council book of the month and her latest, Skin Deep, has been widely praised, including a longlisting for Not the Booker Prize. Alongside writing, she works as an editor and mentor, and speaks at events nationwide. She has a passion for fashion and anything which glitters. In another life, she’d make a good magpie.

For more information find her here: www.laura-wilkinson.co.uk   Twitter @ScorpioScribble Facebook: Laura Wilkinson Author Instagram: laura_wilkinsonwriter Pinterest: laura1765 Goodreads: Laura_ Wilkinson

Catherine Cooper chats to Sam and Anna about her process and setting her books in glamorous places. Catherine Cooper is Sunday Times Bestseller of thrillers The Chalet and The Chateau, her new book The Cruise was published by Harper Collins this autumn and she is currently working on a fourth thriller set in the Maldives. Her children are aged 20 and 18 and they all live in the South of France.

Join Anna and Sam for this chat with Victoria Dowd, journey with us into Victoria's brilliant/bonkers writing process.

Victoria is the award-winning author of the No.1 bestselling Smart Woman’s Mystery series. Her debut novel, The Smart Woman’s Guide to Murder, won The People’s Book Prize for fiction 2021 and was named In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel’s Book of the Year 2020. Victoria was awarded the Gothic Fiction prize for her short fiction and her work has been published in many literary journals. She is also the author of the Adapting Agatha series which has seen her speak at many literary festivals, including The International Agatha Christie Festival and this year’s Crimefest. Originally from Yorkshire, she was a criminal defence barrister for many years and is now a board member of the Crime Writers’ Association and head of the London Chapter.

In the first episode of season two, Anna and Sam chat to Judith Bryan. 

Judith Bryan’s short fiction, non-fiction and poetry appear in various magazines and anthologies including publications by Penguin, Bloomsbury and Peepal Tree. Her debut novel, Bernard and the Cloth Monkey, won the 1998 Saga Prize – republished in 2021 for Penguin’s inaugural Black Britain: Writing Back series, curated by Booker-prize winner Bernardine Evaristo. Judith’s play, ‘A Cold Snap’, was shortlisted for the Alfred Fagon Award. She has over twenty years experience teaching creative writing including running an MA programme. She has two historical novels in progress and is working towards a first collection of short stories.

Anna and Sam chat to Lou Tondeur about her process and inspiration, Lou shares some brilliant tips for writing including how traffic lights can help you manage your time. Lou reads from her book of short stories Unusual Places, the reading includes references to sex. After doing a Creative Writing MA at The University of East Anglia in the noughties, Lou Tondeur published The Water’s Edge and The Haven Home for Delinquent Girls with Headline Review, did a PhD, travelled around the world, started a family, and became a Creative Writing lecturer. Since then she has supported countless numbers of writers through mentoring and editorial feedback. Unusual Places, her first short story collection, came out in 2018 and she is currently working on her next novel. Lou lives near Brighton on the sunny south coast of England, teaches for the Open University, and blogs at: www.louisetondeur.co.uk

In this episode Anna and Sam talk to Susan Allott about writing a thriller and how Australia has influenced her writing. 

Susan Allott grew up on the south coast of England, then moved north to study English at Leeds University. In her late twenties she travelled to Australia, where she found work and settled for a while, despite her overwhelming homesickness. When she eventually returned to the UK, by strange coincidence, she met an Australian man who she went on to marry.

Susan’s debut novel, The Silence, is a literary thriller set in Australia, in which she tackles some of the issues around migration and colonialism that had been nagging at her since her time living in Sydney. The Silence was longlisted for the CWA New Blood Dagger award 2021 and was described by the Wall Street Journal as ‘emotionally wrenching.’

Her second novel will be published in summer 2023. She lives in south London with her children and her very Australian husband.

In this episode Anna and Sam chat with the lovely Kate Morrison about researching her novel it before and after the dawn of the internet, having a slow process and the different experience of writing historical vs 1990s fiction.

Follow Kate @katecmorri

Kate Morrison's debut historical novel A Book of Secrets was published in 2019 by Jacaranda Books and longlisted for the Historical Writers Association Debut Crown Awards and the Diverse Book Awards 2020. She has taught historical fiction writing courses & workshops for the British Library and Writing Around the Kids and has also run kids creative writing workshops for Little Green Pig. She is currently writing two novels at once, very slowly.

This week Anna & Sam chat to the lovely Victoria Scott

Victoria has been a journalist for two decades, working for outlets including the BBC, Al Jazeera, Time Out and the Telegraph. She lives on a Thames island with her husband, two children and a cat called Alice, and when she's not writing she works as a university lecturer and copywriter. She has a degree in English from King's College London and a Postgraduate Diploma in Broadcast Journalism from City University, London. Victoria's debut novel, Patience, was a Booksellers' Association Book of the Month. Her new book Grace came out in July.

In this episode Anna and Sam talk to Holly Race. Holly reads from the first of her trilogy, Midnight's Twins. 

Holly is an author and script editor, and has worked for companies including Working Title Films, Aardman Animations and Red Planet Pictures. She is a Faber Academy graduate, and her Young Adult trilogy, Midnight’s Twins, A Gathering Midnight and A Midnight Dark and Golden, is published by Hot Key Books. Having studied English at Oxford University, she now lives in her hometown of Cambridge, where she enjoys baking, trying not to kill plants, and travelling at short notice to far off places.

This week Anna and Sam are chatting with Nikki Smith. Nikki studied English Literature at Birmingham University, before pursuing a career in finance where she worked for companies including an investment bank and a trampoline park. Following a ‘now or never’ moment, she applied for a Curtis Brown Creative course where she started writing her debut novel All In Her Head which was pre-empted by Orion in a two book deal. It went on to be an Amazon bestseller, was nominated for the Guardian ‘Not The Booker Prize’ and has been optioned for TV. Her second novel, Look What You Made Me Do was published on 1 April 2021. She is represented by Sophie Lambert at the C&W agency and lives near Guildford with her husband and two teenage daughters and a cat who thinks she’s a dog.

in this episode Anna and Sam talk to Rosie Walker about her process, writing with a young baby and what's on her bookshelf, as well as hear her read from her novel, The House Fire. 

In this episode Anna and Sam have all the writing chat with Zoë Sommerville, including a reading from her novel The Marsh House and some gentle advice about not being too hard on yourself when you've lost writing mojo. Zoë Somerville is a writer and English teacher. Her debut novel, The Night of the Flood, was published in September 2020 by Head of Zeus. It is inspired by her home county, Norfolk and the devastating flood of the 1950s. Her second novel, The Marsh House: set in the same austere seascape of the Norfolk coast, was published in November -  it is about mothers, daughters and ghosts. Zoë has worked as an English teacher all over the world. She completed a creative writing MA at Bath Spa University in 2016, she now combines writing and tutoring, and is settled in Bath with her family.

In this episode Anna and Sam talk to Kiley Dunbar. Kiley reads from her novel, The Borrow a Bookshop Holiday and we discuss her writing and the power of romantic fiction. 

Kiley Dunbar had published 6 contemporary romantic comedies with her publisher Hera Canelo. She is Scottish and lives in the North of England with her partner and two children. Her debut, One Summer’s Night, was nominated for the Joan Hessayon Award for New Writing, and its sequel, One Winter’s Night, was shortlisted for the RNA’s Romantic Comedy Novel Award 2021. Kiley is a senior lecturer at the Manchester Writing School where she uses her real name Dr Kirsty Bunting and teachers courses on genre fiction and writing about relationships.

This week Anna and Sam are chatting all things writing with Jo Clegg. Listen to hear Jo read an extract from her brand new book, as well as how writing is like decorating the kitchen and for a wonderful tip for getting yourself unstuck.

Jo’s brief stint as a stand-up comic ended when a promoter told her she was really funny until she got on stage. After ten years as a producer in TV and radio comedy, Jo became a scriptwriter. She writes for children’s TV shows including BAFTA and Emmy-award winning Hey Duggee.

Her first novel The Summer Holiday features difficult-to-remove wetsuits, a weaponised macaroni cheese, adequacy issues, comparison, over-packing and regrettable impulsive acts. Her brand new novel Here Comes the Sun is out beginning of August. She lives in London with her family.

This week Anna and Sam chat to Rebecca Ley and she reads from her new novel The Trip, which is out now as an Ebook. 

Rebecca has been a journalist for twenty years after starting her career at The Times Magazine and then moving to staff roles at other newspapers. Since going freelance in 2009 she’s written for a wide variety of outlets, including a column in The Guardian’s now-defunct Family section about her father’s vascular dementia, obituaries for The Times and regular scripts for the animation company Scriberia. She also recently ghosted Hope Not Fear, a memoir by the Syrian activist and filmmaker Hassan Akkad which was just published by Pan Macmillan. Her first novel For When I’m Gone  was published by Orion in September 2020. She’s got three kids and lives in Hackney, east London with them and her partner, also a journalist.

In this episode Beth Miller reads an extract from 'The Woman Who Came Back to Life' and chats to Anna and Sam about the nuts and bolts of her writing process. 

Beth  has published eight books with four different publishers: one of the Big Five, an indie, a digital first publisher, and a commercial non-fiction pile ’em high press. She has bumped across genres, from women’s commercial and reading group to psychological thriller to comedy. She had an agent, then managed to lose the agent. But she has brokered three book deals on her own since then. Beth has taught creative writing for many years, including for Arvon and for the universities of Brighton and Surrey, and for New Writing South. She also works as a book coach for writers at all stages – 135 of them since 2015. She specialises in helping writers with their query letters and pitches. 

In this episode Anna and Sam chat to Eve Ainsworth. Eve reads chapter 1 of her latest book Duckling and we talk all things writing. 

Eve Ainsworth is an award-winning and Carnegie nominated children’s author, for both middle grade and teen readers. She has vast experience working as a public speaker and creative workshop coordinator for schools, libraries and other events both nationally and internationally. Eve was born and raised in Crawley, West Sussex and is one of seven children. After her degree, she had a varied background working within HR and Recruitment roles, before landing a job she loved – mentoring and supporting challenging and vulnerable students in a large secondary school. This inspired her first teen book 7 DAYS. Eve is fiercely proud of her working class roots and her large, loud family. She still lives in Crawley with her husband, two young children and crazy dog. Her first novel for adults, Duckling, was published by Penguin Random House in Spring 2022

This week Anna and Sam speak with fabulous author Disha Bose. We talk about writing with a young baby, finding inspiration in parenting forums and when to follow the shiny new idea.

Follow Disha @dishabossy

Disha Bose was born and raised in India. She worked in the tech industry for a few years before deciding to pursue her dream of writing a novel. She lives in Ireland now, her first novel Dirty Laundry was published in 2023 and her second I Will Blossom Anyway is due May 2025.

Welcome to the very first episode of our podcast. In this episode we chat to Women's Prize for Fiction 2022 shortlisted author the very fabulous Lisa Allen Agostini.  

Lisa Allen-Agostini is a writer, editor and stand-up comedian. Her books include The Bread the Devil Knead (Myriad Editions UK), Home Home (Delacorte Press), Swallowing the Sky (Cane Arrow Press) and Trinidad Noir (Akashic Books). She is the mother of two daughters and two dogs. She lives in Trinidad and Tobago. Her most recent novel The Bread the Devil Knead was shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction, and Lisa narrated the audiobook. 

This week we talk to brilliant author Kate Sawyer, about killing your darlings, doing character development work by watching reality TV and breaking your novel down into manageable chunks.

Follow Kate @mskatesawyer

Kate Sawyer worked as an actor and theatre and events producer, before writing several short films and then turning her hand to fiction. Her debut novel, The Stranding, was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, won the East Anglian fiction prize, was adapted for BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime and is being developed for TV by Fremantle and Afua Hirsch's production company Born In Me. Her second novel This Family is a Waterstones Book Of The Month.

 

When Kate isn't writing, or talking to other authors about their writing practices for her podcast Novel Experience, she is busy producing the annual Bury St Edmunds Literature Festival. 

 

After twenty years living in London, she recently returned to her native East Anglia, where she lives with her young daughter.

This week we chat with ever so lovely Rebecca Ryan about prioritising her writing, her way into being published and the cost of a tin of beans.

Follow Rebecca @becsryanauthor

Rebecca Ryan is the author of two uplifting fiction novels. My (extra) Ordinary Life was out last year and The Philosophy of Love is her more recent work. She left a career in teaching to write full time and lives in Bradford. She's a single mum to her three children and mostly, she spends her days fetching them snacks and trying to get on top of the washing. Her main hobby is eating takeaways. 

In this episode Anna and Sam talk to Women's Prize longlisted author Effie Black about how it felt for her debut In Defense of the Act to be nominated and her route to writing it. Plus she helps Sam out with her book group homework.

Follow Effie @effie_black_

Effie Black is a London-based writer with a background in science. She enjoys writing from a queer perspective and she likes bringing a spot of science into her fiction too. Effie's short stories have appeared in Litro and the époque press é-zine. Effie's debut novel, In Defence Of The Act , was published in July 2023 by époque press, and was longlisted for the 2024 Women's Prize for Fiction.