Page One - The Writer's Podcast

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Screenwriter and editor James Alistair Henry first started writing while working as a bookseller. He joined the writing team for Channel 4’s Smack the Pony and went on to write the BAFTA-award winning Green Wing, ITV comedy Delivery Man and cult hit Campus as well as episodes for smash-hit children’s television shows Bob The Builder and Hey Duggee. His Radio 4 sketch show, Wosson Cornwall, was selected as BBC Radio Comedy of the Week and his newest sitcom, Piglets, has been commissioned for a second series. His debut novel, Pagans, was an instant Times bestseller, and has been optioned for TV.

We had a really fun and interesting chat with James, hearing about how he first got into the world of screenwriting (including some great anecdotes) and why he decided to write Pagans as a novel. We talk about how TV writing and novel writing differs, and have a chat about how structure is so important, and how once it is in place, then you can go wild with your ideas and characters.

Links:
Buy Pagans now
Follow James on Bluesky

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Page One - The Writer's Podcast is brought to you by Write Gear, creators of Page One - the Writer's Notebook. Learn more and order yours now: https://www.writegear.co.uk/page-one

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Page One - The Writer's Podcast is part of STET Podcasts - the one stop shop for all your writing and publishing podcast needs! Follow STET Podcasts on Instagram and Bluesky
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Watch as a full video interview on YouTube

Vaseem Khan is the author of two award-winning crime series set in India and the bestselling Quantum of Menace, the first in a series featuring Q from the James Bond franchise. His debut, The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra, was selected by the Sunday Times as one of the 40 best crime novels published 2015-2020. In 2021, Midnight at Malabar House, the first in the Malabar House novels set in 1950s Bombay, won the CWA Historical Dagger. Vaseem was born in England, but spent a decade working in India. Vaseem is a former Chair of the UK Crime Writers Association. His latest book in the Malabar House series, The Edge of Darkness, is out now.

It was great fun having Vas back on the podcast, hearing about what he has been up to writing-wise in the past few years. He tells us about how he landed the job writing the James Bond Q book, Quantum of Menace, and why he loves going back to his Malabar House books. We also chat about films, and hear about five books that influenced him as an author.

Links:
Buy The Edge of Darkness and Vaseem's other books now
Follow Vaseem on Instagram
Visit Vaseem's website

Support us on Patreon and get great benefits!: https://www.patreon.com/ukpageone

Page One Extra and Page One - The Writer's Podcast are brought to you by Write Gear, creators of Page One - the Writer's Notebook. Learn more and order yours now: https://www.writegear.co.uk/page-one

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Page One Extra is part of STET Podcasts - the one stop shop for all your writing and publishing podcast needs! Follow STET Podcasts on Instagram and Bluesky
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Watch this episode as a full video interview on YouTube

Lyndsey Croal is a Scottish author published in over eighty magazines and anthologies, including Apex, Analog, Weird Tales, and Mslexia’s Best Women’s Short Fiction. She’s a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Awardee, Shirley Jackson Award and British Fantasy Award Finalist, and former Hawthornden Fellow. Her longer works include Have You Decided on Your Question (Shortwave), Limelight and Other Stories (Shortwave) The Girl With Barnacles for Eyes (Split Scream Volume Five, Tenebrous Press), and Dark Crescent (Luna Press).
We had a great chat with Lyndsey in our studio, hearing about how she has written 100 published stories (!), the differences in writing short and long fiction, as well as dealing with the ups and downs of the publishing industry. We talk about dealing with rejection, changing agents and why she always like to have a dark element to her stories.

Links:
Buy Dark Crescent and Lyndsey's other books now
Follow Lyndsey on Instagram
Visit Lyndsey's website

Support us on Patreon and get great benefits!: https://www.patreon.com/ukpageone

Page One - The Writer's Podcast is brought to you by Write Gear, creators of Page One - the Writer's Notebook. Learn more and order yours now: https://www.writegear.co.uk/page-one

Follow us on Facebook
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Follow us on Bluesky
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Page One - The Writer's Podcast is part of STET Podcasts - the one stop shop for all your writing and publishing podcast needs! Follow STET Podcasts on Instagram and Bluesky
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Watch as a full video interview now on YouTube

Abir Mukherjee is the Times bestselling author of the Wyndham & Banerjee series of crime novels set in Raj-era India which have sold over 400,000 copies worldwide and been translated into 15 languages. His books have won numerous awards including the CWA Dagger for best Historical Novel, the Prix du Polar Européen, the Wilbur Smith Award for Adventure Writing and the Amazon Publishing Readers Award for E-book for the Year. Alongside fellow author, Vaseem Khan, he also hosts the popular Murder Junction podcast, where every fortnight, joined by special guests from the media and literature, he takes a wry look at the world of books, writing, and the creative arts, tackling everything from bestsellers to pop culture.

It was great fun having Abir back on the podcast as he catches us up on his writing endeavours since he was last on, including how he called on "the Avengers of crime writing" to help him with his award winning thriller, Hunted. Plus, we talk about the differences in writing series fiction compared to standalones, what he has coming up, and he tells us about five books that influenced him as an author.

Links:
Buy The Burning Grounds and Abir's other books now
Follow Abir on Instagram
Visit Abir's website

Support us on Patreon and get great benefits!: https://www.patreon.com/ukpageone

Page One Extra and Page One - The Writer's Podcast are brought to you by Write Gear, creators of Page One - the Writer's Notebook. Learn more and order yours now: https://www.writegear.co.uk/page-one

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Page One Extra is part of STET Podcasts - the one stop shop for all your writing and publishing podcast needs! Follow STET Podcasts on Instagram and Bluesky
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Watch as a full video on YouTube

We're back! On this week's episode, we discuss the show everyone is talking about - The Traitors! With crime author Harriet Tyce's appearance, we chat about the impact it has had on her book sales, and also wonder which reality show we would choose to go on to boost our publicity (there is also some spoiler discussion about this season of the UK Traitors, so be careful if you are not up-to-date!)

Plus, we talk about big money's interest in Romantasy, and whether that will crowd out the market for other genres, and also discuss the rapid rise of scam marketing emails that are being sent to authors thanks to AI...

00:00 Intro
01:34 Dollars & Dragons - Is Big Money Skewing Fiction?
16:52 The Flattery Trap - Predatory Promo Offers
27:30 Killer Marketing? - The Traitors Effect
44:14 Off Script - Nadine finds another stranger than fiction story for inspiration
49:33 Off Script - Final Chapter: What we've been watching and reading

Links:
Chernin Group invests in Romantasy publisher Entangled
Authors hit with deluge of scam emails from fake marketers
Why crime writers make good Traitors contestants

Adventures in Publishing-land is brought to you by STET Podcasts - the one stop shop for all your writing podcast needs, featuring Page One - The Writer's Podcast, The Conversation with Nadine Matheson and more!

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