Just a short episode this month and there is no author interview – apologies!
I am buried under a deadline and some life stuff and, as alluded to in the title, I also managed to faint and bang my head a couple of weeks ago which knocked out a week of productivity/messed up my schedule.
In this episode I give an update on my writing and talk a little bit about how to cope when life (or, in this case, slight concussion) gets in the way.
I also chat about the process of making my debut novel The Language of Spells into an audiobook with ACX.
If you’re curious to see (and hear!) the result, the book is available from Audible, Amazon UK, Amazon US, or iTunes.
Plus, if you don’t already have an Audible subscription, you can sign up for a FREE one month trial and get The Language of Spells completely free!
I thank the wonderful Joanna Penn for alerting me to ACX in the first place – listen to my interview with Joanna here.
I also recommend a podcast which I am currently enjoying: The Self-Publishing Formula by bestselling thriller author (and FB advertising guru) Mark Dawson and novice author James Blatch.
I will be back next month with a full-length episode… Happy writing, everyone!
If you’ve got a question you’d like answered, please email me or find me on Twitter.
I’ll answer it on the show and credit you (unless, of course, you ask to remain anonymous).
Mark Edwards is the bestselling author of psychological thrillers such as Follow You Home, Because She Loves Me and The Magpies. Before going solo, Mark published a number of police procedurals written with Louise Voss including Killing Cupid and Forward Slash. He and Voss also have a series featuring DI Patrick Lennon, starting with From The Cradle and followed by The Blissfully Dead which came out last year.
Mark’s latest thriller, The Devil’s Work, is out on 13th September. You can pre-order it here.
In the introduction I reference this wonderful podcast episode from Joanna Penn and talk about my own journey over the last eight years.
Joanna talks about the value of measuring your progress in ‘Olympics’ and seeing how much you have got done or how your life as changed in four-year cycles.
It’s important to look up from the day-to-day grind and take stock of what you have achieved and to set goals for the future, and I think this ‘big picture’ overview is a great addition to the monthly and yearly goal-setting I already do!
I also mention the audio book for The Language of Spells, which I have commissioned. It should be available to buy in a couple of weeks time and you can read more/see the cover reveal by heading to my author site.
In the interview:
Mark talks us through his long – and difficult – journey to overnight success!
On writing:
‘I think that being a writer is so hard, the process of writing itself and all the stuff that goes around it, that you have to have it in you, you have to have that drive.’
For people who want to write:
‘Just get started, just do it. And if you aren’t a writer you won’t keep going and if you are a writer, you will.’
On the writing process:
‘I don’t think you can rush yourself, you have to have time to reflect and let the story settle in your head.’
‘I don’t plot it out, I don’t use any kind of act structure…. Somehow from reading so much, the template is there in my head and I’m writing to that without being aware of it.’
On writing dark or shocking material and self-censorship:
‘To me, books really have to divide opinion. So if I think I’m writing something that some people are going to hate or are going to be offended by, then I think it’s probably good idea to keep it in there’
‘There’s nothing worse than being bland and safe… Take risks!’
If you have a writing (or publishing) question that you’d like me to tackle in a future episode, please get in touch via email or Twitter.
I’ll answer it on the show and credit you (unless, of course, you ask to remain anonymous).
In this episode I chat with Cally Taylor about hopping genre, developing craft through short stories, getting the writing bug, and typing while walking on a treadmill.
Cally Taylor wrote two sparkling romantic comedies, Heaven Can Wait and Home For Christmas, before turning to dark psychological suspense under the name C.L. Taylor. The first of these, The Accident, was hugely successful, shooting up the Kindle charts and selling over 150,000 copies in the UK alone. Last year, Home For Christmas was made into a film by JumpStart Productions and, since this interview was recorded, Cally’s second thriller, The Lie, has shot up the bestseller charts.
Also, I mention that my debut novel, The Language of Spells is now available in paperback (meep!)
and I recommend a book I’ve been enjoying this week: The Art of Asking by Amanda Palmer
Listener question:
This episode’s listener question comes from Maggie Jones – thanks, Maggie!
‘How ‘sucky’ can a book be when you send it in?!’
‘This question is definitely something I struggle with as I have very little confidence in my own work and never feel that something is good enough or even safely passed the ‘it sucks’ stage.
And therein lies the problem. We are probably not the best people to judge the suckiness or otherwise of our work.
Also, it’s worth remembering that ‘sucky’ is a subjective term. I think it might have been Jenny Crusie who said ‘your book is not a $100 bill, not everyone is going to like it’ and that is so true.
There may be published books that you don’t like, that other people love.
So, a book’s merit is a subjective thing. There is no opposite to ‘sucky’ which is ‘perfect’, only opinion on what is good or bad or fun to read or boring.
Once you’ve accepted that there isn’t an ideal you can achieve before sending your work out, you only have to ensure that it’s as good as you can make it.
Whether you’re sending your book to an agent, an editor or hitting ‘publish’ yourself to put it into the Amazon store, there are steps you can take to make sure that it’s ready.
Things like finishing it first, and rewriting it as much as you can stand to get it into the best possible shape. You can also get perspective through feedback from critique partners or by letting it rest before you edit for a final time. Four to six weeks is a good amount of time to leave it, so that when you come back to it you can see it anew. When I do this, I find I can detach my writer self from the reader, and I often find there are plenty of things I like – and have forgotten writing. It’s like magic. It also makes the dull or awkward or confusing parts glaringly obvious.
I hope that helps, Maggie. Thanks again for the great question.’
Got a question about writing or creativity?
If you’ve got a writing-related question that you’d like featured on the show, please don’t hesitate to ask.
I’ll answer it on the show and credit you (unless, of course, you ask to remain anonymous).
Just a short episode this month and there is no author interview – apologies!
