Page One - The Writer's Podcast

Tom Hindle is the exciting new voice on the murder mystery scene, where his debut novel, A Fatal Crossing was a huge hit when it came out in 2022. His new novel, The Murder Game , is out in February 2023. We had great fun chatting to Tom and hearing how he swapped music ambitions for writing ones, hear why he once thought A Fatal Crossing would be easy to stage as a play, and . We also talked abou...

Cory Doctorow is a science fiction author, activist and journalist. He is the author of many books, most recently CHOKEPOINT CAPITALISM (with Rebecca Giblin), a nonfiction book about monopoly and creative labor markets. His latest novel is ATTACK SURFACE, a standalone adult sequel to LITTLE BROTHER. In 2020, he was inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. Rebecca Giblin...

A former professional cake baker,   Jenny Bayliss is the author of  The Twelve Dates of Christmas, A Season for Second Chances,  and, most recently,  Meet Me Under the Mistletoe. Under the name Jenni Jennings she has also written the middle grade Malice in Underland books. We had great fun chatting with Jenny and hearing about how long it took for her to find an agent, only for...

Karen Swan is the  Sunday Times  top three bestselling author of twenty books and her novels sell all over the world. She writes two books each year – one for the summer period and one for the Christmas season. Previous summer titles include  The Spanish Promise ,  The Hidden Beach  and  The Secret Path  and for winter,  Christmas at Tiffany’s ,  The Ch...

Kirsty Eyre is the winner of the inaugural Comedy Women in Print award (2019). Her debut novel, Cow Girl was released in Summer 2020 and was also shortlisted for the Romantic Novel Association's debut novel award. In addition, she has written two books under her pseudonym, Ginger Jones, with the latest being holiday romcom You Had Me At Halloumi. We had great fun chatting with Kirsty and hearing h...

Richard Swan is a former commercial litigator and now a bestselling author. Between 2015 and 2018, Richard self-published The Art of War Trilogy , a sequence of epic space opera novels, as well as a prequel ( Hadan's Reach ) and two spinoff mil-sci-fi novellas ( VIPER One and VIPER One: Countervalue , the latter co-authored with George Lockett). Richard's debut fantasy Empire of the Wolf trilogy s...

Scott Lynch was born in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1978. He sold his first novel,  The Lies of Locke Lamora,  in 2004. In addition to his writing, he also has a background in game design and firefighting. Scott currently lives in Massachusetts with his wife, award-winning SF/F novelist Elizabeth Bear. He is currently hard at work on the next stories in the world of Locke Lamora. Having been...

This episode is also available on our YouTube channel as a full video episode! Watch it here Bob Bookman is a Hollywood manager and literary agent who has worked with some of the biggest authors in the world and helped turn their novels into award-winning movies. He has represented Michael Crichton, Tom Stoppard, Bill Broyles, John Irving, Jojo Moyes, David Nicholls and Peter Moffat along with man...

This episode is also available on our YouTube channel as a full video episode! Watch it here This week, our series of industry insider episodes continues with a talk with David Downing, a freelance developmental editor who has worked with authors such as Mark Edwards and our very own Tariq Ashkanani, helping them polish their manuscripts and turn them into the brilliant books they now are. Since t...

This episode is also available on our YouTube channel as a full video episode! Watch it here Our series of industry episodes continues as we chat with Karen Sullivan, founder and publishing director of Orenda Books. Orenda Books was founded by publisher Karen Sullivan in 2014. In 2016, Karen was a  Bookseller  Rising Star, and Orenda Books was shortlisted for the IPG Nick Robinson Newcom...

This episode is also available on our YouTube channel as a full video episode! Watch it here This week, our series of industry episodes continues as we chat with Miranda Jewess, Publishing Director of Viper Books, the crime and thriller imprint of Serpent's Tail, which I launched in November 2019. Viper Books are the publishers of the award-winning (and previous podcast guests) Janice Hallett...

This episode is also available on our YouTube channel as a full video episode! Watch it here Our series of industry episodes continues as we talk with leading literary agent Jamie Cowen. Jamie   has worked in publishing for 18 years. Before joining Ampersand literary agency in 2013 he was a commissioning editor at HarperCollins, and prior to that he worked in legal and contracts departments a...

This episode is also available on our YouTube channel as a full video episode! Watch it here Our special series of episodes chatting with leading figures in the publishing industry to find out how to get your book published continues this week with the amazing Eric Smith. Eric is a Young Adult author and literary agent with P.S. Literary living in Philadelphia. As an agent represents brilliant aut...

This episode is also available on our YouTube channel as a full video episode! Watch it here In the first of a special series of industry episodes following a books journey from being picked up by an agent all the way to Hollywood, we chat with superstar literary agent, Juliet Mushens! Juliet started her publishing career in 2008 at HarperCollins, and became an agent in 2011. She has been shortlis...

Adam Hamdy is a Sunday Times  and international bestselling author and screenwriter who writes topical, thought-provoking novels, often inspired by real events. His latest novel, The Other Side of Night is out now. We had great fun chatting with Adam, hearing about how he moved from being a strategy consultant to writer - thanks in part to an idea he had for a screenplay involving 80s actor,...

Diana Reid is a Sydney-based writer. Her debut novel,  Love & Virtue , was an Australian bestseller and winner of the ABIA Book of the Year Award, the ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year Award, the ABA Booksellers' Choice Fiction Book of the Year Award, and the MUD Literary Prize.  Love & Virtue  was also shortlisted for the Indie Debut Fiction Award, the ABIA Matt Richel...

Gordon J. Brown (AKA Morgan Cry) is the author of nine crime thriller novels set in Spain, Scotland and the US. He is also a founding board director of crime writing festival, Bloody Scotland. His latest book, Any Day Now, is out now. We had great fun chatting with Gordon and hearing about how he got into writing and how real life situations have inspired his fiction writing. We also talk about th...

Shauna Lawless is a debut author whose gripping new historical fantasy novel, The Children of Gods and Fighting Men, intertwines Irish mythology with real-life history. Released on 1 September 2022, it is already creating huge buzz. We loved chatting with Shauna and hearing how she turned a love of Irish mythology and folklore into such a thrilling novel. We hear how she began her writing career b...

Kasim Ali works at Penguin Random House. He was longlisted for the B4ME Short Story Prize (hosted by his now UK publisher Fourth Estate), and GOOD INTENTIONS was shortlisted for the Mo Siewcherran Prize. He's also had a short story published in  The Good Journal . We had great fun chatting with Kasim, whilst also hating him (not really!) as he told us about his ridiculously prolific rate of w...

Adam Simcox is a London-based filmmaker who has shot commercials for brands such as McLaren, Primark and Unilever, and music videos for Britpop veterans as well as fresh on the scene alt-country stars. He began his film career by writing and directing three features: the first sold to Netflix before Netflix was Netflix; the second and third won awards and critical acclaim at festivals worldwide, a...

This is one of a special series of short episodes speaking to some of the best comedians appearing at this year's Edinburgh Fringe! These episodes will be released daily during the week of 8 August 2022. Michael Spicer literally became an overnight sensation when he posted his first-ever Man in the Room Next Door sketch on Twitter. Since then, he has become one of the biggest comedians on Twitter...

This is one of a special series of short episodes speaking to some of the best comedians appearing at this year's Edinburgh Fringe! These episodes will be released daily during the week of 8 August 2022. Starting at just 16 Tom Lucy quickly rose through the comedy club circuit to became one of the youngest professional stand-up comedians in the world. As well as performing all over the UK, Tom has...

This is one of a special series of short episodes speaking to some of the best comedians appearing at this year's Edinburgh Fringe! These episodes will be released daily during the week of 8 August 2022. Amy Gledhill is a comedian, actor, writer and winner of The BBC Caroline Aherne Bursary. As well as being one half of surreal comedy double act, The Delightful Sausage (nominated for an Edinb...

This is one of a special series of short episodes speaking to some of the best comedians appearing at this year's Edinburgh Fringe! These episodes will be released daily during the week of 8 August 2022. Sunil Patel is a comedian who found early success as a finalist in the BBC New Comedy Award and as a Chortle Best Newcomer nominee. He is best known for his starring role in Channel Five’s mockume...

This is one of a special series of short episodes speaking to some of the best comedians appearing at this year's Edinburgh Fringe! These episodes will be released daily during the week of 8 August 2022. Jack Barry is a comedy actor, writer and stand-up who can most recently be seen as series regular in Mae Martin’s sitcom  Feel Good  series 1&2 (Netflix) and Rose Matafeo’s  Sta...