Behind The Spine

“Her love is quite possessive, wanting to become the other person, owning the man, or becoming whole and finally complete. But the thing is, she's never going to complete herself because the wound is too deep.”

Between 14 and 40. That’s how many men were killed by Belle Gunness. Yet despite the terrible atrocities of ‘America’s first female serial killer’, there’s a good chance you’ve never heard her name.

In ‘My Men’, a new novel from Victoria Kielland, we learn the tortured and troubled history of this Norwegian-born serial killer, taking a glimpse into her twisted world. And we discover how this is not simply a story of a monster, but of a girl longing for love.

In this episode, you will learn:

• How there is often humanity to be found in even the most terrifying monsters.

Find out more about Victoria here.

Your host is inkjockey founder Mark Heywood.

Behind The Spine is an inkjockey production, and the audio accompaniment to The Writing Salon. Sign up to the newsletter here.

You can buy copies of our anthology series here. 

You can view the full transcript here.

Connect with the show:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/behindthespinepodcast/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BehindTheSpine

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BehindTheSpine

Website: www.behindthespine.co.uk

“I wanted to start with a very unstable, shaky foundation in order to create a world of voltage and heat and fire. Each book in the series is its own little storm.”

The hardboiled genre has received a complete makeover. Holiday is a queer, chain-smoking, heavily tattooed nun, covered completely in her nun’s habit. And her amateur sleuthing skills are taking the literary world by storm.

Scorched Grace is the first of a brand new series of books from Margot Douaihy. In the novel, Holiday attempts to uncover the mystery behind a shocking arson attack at Saint Sebastian's School. This poetic novel deals with religion, humanity, conflict, identity, eroticism and much more.

In this episode, you will learn:

• How messy characters can be very healing and reparative to a reader.

Find out more about Margot here.

Your host is inkjockey founder Mark Heywood.

Behind The Spine is an inkjockey production, and the audio accompaniment to The Writing Salon. Sign up to the newsletter here.

You can buy copies of our anthology series here. 

You can view the full transcript here.

Connect with the show:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/behindthespinepodcast/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BehindTheSpine

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BehindTheSpine

Website: www.behindthespine.co.uk

“What you want from that gothic house is the sense of being overwhelmed by scale, while also having a sense of unease and claustrophobia as well. Those two things, twinned together.”

The Regent Hotel in Birmingham may be grand, but beneath its opulence, cocktail parties and fine dining, lies a gothic nightmare of murder, deception and mystery.

Hokey Pokey, the new book from Kate Mascarenhas, follows Nora Dickinson, who finds herself locked in the Regent with a host of high society guests during a terrible snow storm. And while they’re shut off from the outside world, reality begins to shift as supernatural terrors awake. In this episode we learn about Kate’s choice to blend two genres together, we dig into her hauntingly matter-of-fact writing style, and we explore the religious elements to her depiction of the supernatural.

In this episode, you will learn:

• How do ensure flashbacks don’t sap the energy and tension from your story.

Find out more about Kate here.

Your host is inkjockey founder Mark Heywood.

Behind The Spine is an inkjockey production, and the audio accompaniment to The Writing Salon. Sign up to the newsletter here.

You can buy copies of our anthology series here. 

You can view the full transcript here.

Connect with the show:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/behindthespinepodcast/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BehindTheSpine

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BehindTheSpine

Website: www.behindthespine.co.uk

“One person told me he got to a point where he didn't actually care whether he lived or died. He felt so ill that he had hallucinations. So it's a risk. It's a risk.”

For the people who’ve climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, making it to the summit is more than a battle of fitness or of money. It’s a challenging test of one’s mental fortitude unlike no other. Throw into the mix a little deception, trickery and deceit - and that climb can become deadly.

In Karen Hamilton’s latest book ‘The Contest’, she introduces a new layer of jeopardy into the mix. In this mountaintop locked-room thriller, two teams are pitted against each other in a race to the top. But with traps, tricks and backstabbing abound - trust is nowhere to be found.

In this episode, you will learn:

• How to write about a place you’ve not visited yourself.

Find out more about Karen here.

Your host is inkjockey founder Mark Heywood.

Behind The Spine is an inkjockey production, and the audio accompaniment to The Writing Salon. Sign up to the newsletter here.

You can buy copies of our anthology series here. 

You can view the full transcript here.

Connect with the show:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/behindthespinepodcast/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BehindTheSpine

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BehindTheSpine

Website: www.behindthespine.co.uk

“I don't think anyone could have looked at the Patterson family and said, “oh, what a conventionally successful party”. But I did want to honour them. And I realised I was actually and am proud of them because they did it. They loved, they were good, they were decent, they were kind, they were courageous.”

Though Christina Patterson’s family may not be “conventionally successful”, they are extraordinary. Despite much tragedy, Christina looks back on her family’s story with joy.

In her new memoir, ‘Outside, the Sky is Blue’, she relives the rocky history of her family, exploring issues of mental ill health, cancer and death. As she rummages through boxes of letters, papers, photos and belongings, Christina also discovers new stories she must confront.

In this episode, you will learn:

• That all stories are worth telling - everyone has a memoir in them.

Find out more about Christina here.

Your host is inkjockey founder Mark Heywood.

Behind The Spine is an inkjockey production, and the audio accompaniment to The Writing Salon. Sign up to the newsletter here.

You can buy copies of our anthology series here. 

You can view the full transcript here.

Connect with the show:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/behindthespinepodcast/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BehindTheSpine

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BehindTheSpine

Website: www.behindthespine.co.uk

“Kala is the Sinatra of the book. You have all these different perspectives on her. My hope was that having these panoramic perspectives would create spaces for the reader to create their own relationship to Kala.”

A town with a series of dark secrets, upended by the reopening of a decades old-wound. When the horrors of the past have scarred and warped their victims over time, how does despair manifest when it all comes back to haunt them?

Kala is the debut novel from Colin Walsh. The book takes us to the Irish village of Kinlough, introducing us to three friends, Helen, Joe and Mush. In the past we see the events of a terrifying summer unfold, and in the present a body is unearthed in the woods and two girls have gone missing. In this episode we explore Colin’s many feats of literary genius that have brought this incredible thriller to life.

In this episode, you will learn:

• Why you can’t always plan your most crucial writing decisions.

Find out more about Colin here.

Your host is inkjockey founder Mark Heywood.

Behind The Spine is an inkjockey production, and the audio accompaniment to The Writing Salon. Sign up to the newsletter here.

You can buy copies of our anthology series here. 

You can view the full transcript here.

Connect with the show:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/behindthespinepodcast/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BehindTheSpine

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BehindTheSpine

Website: www.behindthespine.co.uk

“It's so welcoming. The people are wonderful. It's beautiful. It was really where I thought I could see myself living and building a life. And then when I found out about that murder, it did raise the hairs on the back of my neck.”

How does a place you love transform into a place of fear? Can the beauty of an island paradise ever outshine the darkness that lies beneath the surface?

The Dive is the debut novel from Sara Ochs. The thriller takes place on the fictional island of Koh Sang in Thailand, where backpackers are being picked off one by one. In this episode we discover how The Dive was inspired by Sara’s real-life experience in Koh Tao - a paradise plagued by murder.

In this episode, you will learn:

• Why you don’t have to be trained in writing, to write.

Find out more about Sara here.

Your host is inkjockey founder Mark Heywood.

Behind The Spine is an inkjockey production, and the audio accompaniment to The Writing Salon. Sign up to the newsletter here.

You can buy copies of our anthology series here. 

You can view the full transcript here.

Connect with the show:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/behindthespinepodcast/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BehindTheSpine

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BehindTheSpine

Website: www.behindthespine.co.uk

“Having that realisation of looking back on a memory that they really prized and valued, and realising that it was something a little bit darker and that they were perhaps taken advantage of. It is something that's really troubling for people.”

Is there a moment in your life that you look back on with nothing but fondness? A golden moment where life was perfect? How closely do you think that memory holds up to reality?

We’re all guilty of looking back with rose-tinted glasses from time-to-time - but just how fallible can our memory really be? In her debut novel The Girls of Summer, Katie Bishop plays with the concept of a memory becoming dark and twisted on reflection. The novel sees protagonist Rachel go through a number of gruelling realisations about the ‘best summer of her life’.

In this episode, you will learn:

• Why you should carefully consider your use of tense.

Find out more about Katie here.

Your host is inkjockey founder Mark Heywood.

Behind The Spine is an inkjockey production, and the audio accompaniment to The Writing Salon. Sign up to the newsletter here.

You can buy copies of our anthology series here. 

You can view the full transcript here.

Connect with the show:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/behindthespinepodcast/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BehindTheSpine

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BehindTheSpine

Website: www.behindthespine.co.uk

“Her story in my mind is sort of a two steps forward, one step back kind of journey. It's not that we face one major challenge in our life and suddenly we are these wise and capable people.”

In life, there isn’t one straight road out of adversity and grief. And so, when charting your characters’ journeys through hardship, authenticity means lingering in the messiness.

Shelley Read’s new book ‘Go As A River’ is a wonderful coming-of-age story, which opens in 1940s rural Colorado. It follows the story of teenager Victoria Nash, and her struggle to survive after fleeing her home to the harsh wilderness of nearby mountains. We also meet young drifter Wilson Moon, who changes Victoria’s life forever. In this episode we discuss the choice of setting and location, we explore Wilson's portrayal - a masterclass in representation, and we dig into Shelley’s writing process.

In this episode, you will learn:

• The power of setting your stories in locations that are close to your heart.

Find out more about Shelley here.

Your host is inkjockey founder Mark Heywood.

Behind The Spine is an inkjockey production, and the audio accompaniment to The Writing Salon. Sign up to the newsletter here.

You can buy copies of our anthology series here. 

You can view the full transcript here.

Connect with the show:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/behindthespinepodcast/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BehindTheSpine

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BehindTheSpine

Website: www.behindthespine.co.uk

“It’s that question ‘What if?’ ‘What if I had done this differently?’ And it's something I'm really obsessed with in my own life.”

The death of a main character is often a controversial and difficult moment in any work of literature - but what if it happens in the first few pages?

Stirred by her own experiences of losing a close friend far too soon, Becky Hunter’s debut novel One Moment sees death not as the end, but as the beginning. After a tragic opening, Scarlett watches down on her best friend Evie, as she wrestles with and comes to terms with her death.

In this episode, you will learn:

• How writing can help us process grief, and gain strength from it.

Find out more about Becky here.

Your host is inkjockey founder Mark Heywood.

Behind The Spine is an inkjockey production, and the audio accompaniment to The Writing Salon. Sign up to the newsletter here.

You can buy copies of our anthology series here. 

You can view the full transcript here.

Connect with the show:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/behindthespinepodcast/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BehindTheSpine

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BehindTheSpine

Website: www.behindthespine.co.uk