Katie Lee's Top Secret Project Podcast

If we’re looking for someone to blame for my latest story, we can blame the Roman Empire. I haven’t fact checked this, because so often when I fact check things the truth comes in to have a piddle on my chips, so I’m just going with what I remember learning at school which is this: none of the Roman leaders wanted the Britain gig. Being sent across the Narrow Sea to squat in a damp field with noth...

Very highly produced video of me opening my first two KJ Lyttleton crime novels! The Man In The Wall is available in ebook and paperback here . A Star Is Dead is available in ebook and paperback here . If you’d like to come and see me at the Hastings Crime Writer Day, head here for full info. Please share with everyone you’ve ever met! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this wi...

How the mysterious story of the Sligo Man kickstarted my first ever crime novel. A STAR IS DEAD is out now! “ The Man Who Deleted His Past Before He Was Found Dead " by Francisco Garcia that has haunted me for nearly six years. the poor man who inspired THE MAN IN THE WALL ). They’re knocking down the REAL Roosevelt Court This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subsc...

Last week I talked about where I get my ideas from , speaking as someone who really doesn't find it easy to have ideas. If you haven’t read the piece, I can summarise it for you as follows. I get ideas by: 1. By forcing myself to sit and have ideas, often with a brief attached, and 2. By smooshing together things I’ve read about or seen into a new creation. Very rarely (ie twice), an idea will act...

Writers hate being asked where they get their ideas from, don’t they? Not me, though. If you ask me, I will tell you in precise and possibly quite dull detail where I get each of my ideas from. So, at the very strong risk no one gives even a slight hoot, I’m going to take this moment to give you the full recipe for the sausage. The Man In The Wall My mate Elham Ehsas His new film, There Will Come...

Greetings! I thought I should start this one by just coming out and saying exactly what I wanted to at the beginning. Because, looking back at my past emails, it appears I haven't actually sent out a clear marketing email with a bald heading to let you know that The Man in the Wall is out now! My debut crime novel is the first book in the Aldhill Mystery series and comes to you under the pen name...

Hello lovely humans! I can feel a bit of email paralysis coming on again. Last time this happened , many of you were kind enough to get in touch to tell me that you were happy to hear about any old dull guff I had rattling around in my brain that week. But the existential crisis is looming once again. Why? Well, maybe it’s just part of some existential crisis loop I’m on. Maybe it has its own orbi...

Happy New Year one and all! I had such big plans. All Christmas I’ve been mentally composing a list of the most implausible moments in the festive fantasy that was Black Doves (number one obviously being the idea that Keira Knightley and Ben Whishaw – delightful though they are – could take ANYONE AT ALL in a fight), but I never quite got the chance to write it, and now it feels like the moment ha...

This is the audio version of Katie Lee/KJ Lyttleton's newsletter . You can go here to read this newsletter in full . You can go here and enjoy the photos of Alex being Lady Button . And if you want to hear about how the UK is still obsessed with WWII and it’s probably not healthy, you can go here. The headstone This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or g...

Hello lovely people! This week I’m revisiting my teenage years and helping to make memories for my own teenager. Here’s Zapata rocking it up to “Second Skin” , T he earlier draft about how Mia died for anyone who wants to read it . To subscribe to my newsletter, please head here This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visi...

Hello gang! A different sort of newsletter from me this week because I am trying to get all these books finished and ready to sell! This is an edited extract from a piece I wrote during Karen McLeod’ s excellent creative writing course. If you like this sort of thing, let me know. I have more like it. If you enjoyed this please do share it! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss th...

I’m struggling to decide what direction to take this newsletter in. This is because I am actually a very boring person. I don’t mean I have had a boring life. I have some fairly good stories – like the one about the time I made the Queen laugh – and I have suffered enough childhood trauma to write one of those depressing memoirs that were so popular for a minute in the noughties, but in myself, I...

It's really hard to talk about things that make you feel vulnerable. But, turns out, it's super easy to talk about how hard it is to talk about things that make you feel vulnerable. In this newsletter I talk about how secretive I am for someone who has shared so much of herself. You can find more of this kind of chat over on Katie Lee's Top Secret Project . This is a public episode. If you would l...

I have been why I'm not trying to go the trad route with my crime books quite a few times already, so I thought I would address it here with the usual levels of painful honesty, because – as we’ve established – writing stuff to a mailing list doesn’t count. Join me over on Substack for more . This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus...

I have spent enough time in the various self-publishing groups and gently cyberstalking phenomenally successful indie authors to know that the key to success is not rocket science. Here is the surefire template for success. The Surefire Template for Success: * Write crime fiction * Make them police procedurals * Write in the third person, past tense * Have a male lead (probably a DCI, middle aged,...

I wanted to do just do this quietly without any fuss, but I'm forcing myself to talk about it in the hope it will get easier just to SHOUT IT FROM THE ROOFTOPS. To find out more about my Top Secret Project, head to my Substack , where you can truffle about in the archives. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit shin...