Writer's Routine

Ross Sutherland is a jack of all writing trades. He is a poet, a playwright, has written for radio, TV and film, and is now an award-winning podcaster. His experimental storytelling podcast 'Imaginary Advice' won gold at the British Podcast Awards in 2018, and his new series is 'The Golden House'. It's a 6 part puzzle of a podcast, presented as a corporate show for a fictional tech company, in whi...

Sibéal Pounder's debut 'Witch Wars' was shortlisted for the Sainsbury's Children's Book Award and the Waterstones Children's Book Prize. She then wrote 'The Bad Mermaids' series which was a World Book Day 2019 title and a Sunday Times Bestseller and has been optioned by Sony Animation. Her newest novel is 'Tinsel: The Girls Who Invented Christmas', which figures out if Santa might be a bit differe...

CJ Cooke is a poet, a successful horror and suspense author, and a senior lecturer in creative writing at the University of Glasgow. She's been published in 23 countries, and her new novel is 'The Nesting'. It's set in the fjords and forests of Norway, where down on her luck Lexi becomes a nanny in a strange, high-concept house, and peculiar things start happening. We talk about why it's set there...

Sareeta Domingo has an incredibly busy working. She works as an editor for Mills and Boon, helping other writers construct and improve their work. In order to do that and tell her own stories, she wakes up early and goes to bed late, sandwiching writing-time around work and family life. She has published 5 books, a story-story collection, a series of erotic short stories, and her novel, 'If I Don'...

Mark Watson is a hugely successful comedian, known for his marathon shows in which he'll perform for over 24 hours at a time. He's just published his 6th novel, 'Contacts', all about how technology and social media could perhaps save a life. It's almost in direct contrast to a lot of the tech narrative you hear the moment, the story is about the joys and wonder of the possibilities of the internet...

Sally Gardner has sold over 2 MILLION books. She is a Costa Kids Book Award winner, a Carnegie Medal winner, and she's back with her 3rd adult novel, 'The Snow Song'. We talk about why stories are the most important thing to everyone's life, and how she keeps that at the front of her mind always. You can hear about why her visual imagination lets her know when she's off-track with her plotting, an...

Gillian McAllister is a Sunday Times Top 10 bestselling author, who has just published her 5th novel, 'How to Disappear'. It's a romantic psychological thriller set in witness protection. It's about Lauren whose daughter Zara sees a terrible crime, and together they must disappear and leave everything behind... including the man Lauren loves. It comes off the back of phenomenal success for her oth...

Alastair Humphreys is one of the country's greatest adventurers. As well as expeditions like cycling around the world, walking across India and rowing the Atlantic, Alastair was named as a National Geographic Adventurer of the Year for his pioneering work on the concept of 'microadventures', encouraging people to get outside and out of their comfort-zone. He has written ten books about his ad...

Jennie Fields' 5th novel is 'Atomic Love', it's a twisting spy drama with a side of romance set in 1950's Chicago. It tells the story of Rosalind, a worker on the Manhattan Project, who is recruited to the CIA. We chat about how she brought such an evocative era to life, bending the rules of the spy genre. You can hear how the idea came from her family history, and things she discovered about her...

Isabelle Broom has just published her seventh novel. 'Hello, Again' follows mosaic artist Pepper, who accompanies her elderly friend Josephine on the trail of a long-lost love affair through Europe. It has been described as “a dreamy, romantic, irresistible treat”, and promises whisk you off overseas for a fabulous adventure. We talk about how she delivers on that promise with words on a page, how...

This week our guest is the phenomenally successful Matt Haig. Since huge bestseller 'Reasons to Stay Alive', Matt has shot to the nation's consciousness. He's written kids books, christmas books, a follow up called, 'Notes on a Nervous Planet', and six highly acclaimed novels for adults. Three of his books are currently being made into films, he has sold more than a million books in the UK and his...

Trevor Wood's debut novel 'The Man on the Street' tells the story of Jimmy, a homeless veteran with PTSD who sees a murder, but no-one believes him. We talk about writing crime, about getting into the voice of Jimmy, and trying to stop the demonisation of the homeless. Trevor has been a busy man, working as a former naval officer, a journalist, becoming a successful playwright, and then choosing h...

Jane Fallon's 10th novel, 'Queen Bee', is out now. It's all about Stella who is the ruler of a posh, snobbish street, and how her life is thrown upside down when a new girl moves into the neighbourhood. We talk about her research for the novel, and why she didn't have to look to far away to be inspired. You can hear how she finds it tough to inhabit the heads and find the voices for her characters...

Mara Timon's new novel is 'City of Spies', it's set in Lisbon during World War Two. It's a part and place of the war that warrants a story being told, as it's endlessly fascinating, but not many people know of it. We follow agent Elizabeth, whose cover is blown while discovering a huge wartime secret, and she must evade capture by the Gestapo while discovering more of the truth. Raised in New York...

This week we're chatting to YouTuber, radio presenter, film maker and now writer, Calum McSwiggan. His debut is a memoir, 'Eat, Gay, Love', which tells the story of his journey around the world, meeting different members of the LGBTQ+ community. He hosted a popular radio show for FUBAR Radio and has also created several short films, including the award-winning Love Happens Here , which was named '...

Erin Kinsley's second book 'Innocent' tells of a close-knit community devastated when a local celebrity is found dead. It follows on from her immensely successful debut 'Found, published last year to great acclaim. You can hear why that book was a story she needed to tell, and to get it down she completely changed her writing routine and process. We talk about the diagrams and charts she works thr...

Menna van Praag is the author of 6 magical realism novels, her new one is 'The Sisters Grimm'. It's a story of four girls born on the same day with their fate twisted together, they must find each other to save their lives, but one is destined to die. It's a twist on classic fairytales, and we discuss the first moment the idea for the story came into her mind. We talk about the deal that she made...

Amanda Jennings has just published her 5th novel, 'The Storm', which is set in a lonely, isolated Cornish fishing village. It's about Hannah who seems to have the perfect marriage, but is desperately controlled by her husband, Nathan, behind closed doors, and how its linked to a tragic storm of years before. Since her debut, 'Sworn Secret', she regularly tops the Kindle bestselling chart. Her nove...

Jo Thomas has carved out a fantastic niche in fiction. She writes escapist romance set in idyllic locations across the world. To accurately tell these stories, she takes amazing research trips all over the globe, diving straight into it, getting a feel of the food and drink, before dreaming up a love story that fits everything. She's told stories about Galway, Puglia, Sicily, and her new book is s...

Christopher Fowler writes everything - novels, screenplays, video games, graphic novels, and he's back with his 19th 'Bryant and May' book. It's called 'Oranges and Lemons' and sees the Peculiar Crimes Unit investigate a bizarre accident involving the Speaker of the House of Commons, and a truck full of citrus fruit. We talk about how he got the idea from a strangely gruesome nursery rhyme. He is...

Sophia Money-Coutts is a journalist and author who writes for ' The Sunday Telegraph' and the 'Evening Standard'. Her 3rd novel is 'The Wish List', about Florence who writes down her ideal man, and is then shocked when he wanders into her bookshop. You can hear how she got the idea at an...adult party, and how her family then influenced how she wrote the story. We talk about genre, about the conve...

Sabine Durrant has just published a brand new psychological thriller, it's called 'Finders, Keepers' and it tells the story of Verity who becomes obsessed with her new neighbour. You can find out how the story was inspired by a mission Sabine and her kids undertook to rescue a lost rabbit. We talk about the convention of genre and how much Sabine plays with it, how much she needs to know before sh...

Welcome to the second Writer's Routine Roundtable! We're back with 4 of the best uplit/ rom-com authors around to talk us through how they do it. Laura Jane Williams - She took us through her writer's routine last year, ahead of 'Our Stop'. She talks about how writing that book made her a believer, as her second 'The Love Square' has just been published - https://amzn.to/39bd4M6 Nicola Gill - Join...

Melanie Blake is one of the UK's most successful entrepreneurs, running a global talent agency, she's been a music manager, worked behind the scenes in TV, and has published a new book! 'The Thunder Girls' is the story of an 80s girl group reunion show, mixed with a hint of murder. We talk about what drives her as a creative and in business, and why she feels the need to tell stories in between al...

Jasper Fforde is a sublime storyteller, who has the rare gift of using words in a sequence many people would never think of. He's known for the 'Thursday Next' series, 'The Last Dragonslayer' YA books, and many other unique looks at the world. His new novel is 'The Constant Rabbit' which sees a group of anthropomorphised rabbits being kicked out of Britain by the United Kingdom Anti-Rabbit Party....