Behind The Spine

If you learnt of darkness within your family tree - if you discovered an ancestor caused unimaginable pain - would you feel shame? Would you feel guilt? 

Bearing the guilt of our forebears may seem counterintuitive, after all, we’re not to blame for their actions. And yet it’s more common than you’d imagine. In her debut book ‘In My Grandfather’s Shadow’, Angela Findlay comes face-to-face with her own inherited trauma, uncovering the life of her dead grandfather, who was a decorated German General during the Second World War.

In this episode we learn how meaningful and life-changing it can be to learn about and uncover your family heritage, we explore the notion of places holding information and memories of the past, and we wrestle with the concepts of ‘good’ and ‘bad’.

Find out more about Angela 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 view the full transcript here.

When we go on holiday, travel, or relocate, we’re often looking to ‘get away from it all’. What we rarely consider is how difficult that is, especially when it’s our own personal shortcomings that we’re trying to escape. That’s certainly true for the character of Daphne Ferber, who arrives in Berlin for a fresh start, not expecting to run into more drama than she left behind. 

Berlin, the debut novel from author Bea Setton, presents us with the most fascinating and incredibly authentic character. Daphne is in her 20s, in a new city, coming face-to-face with her own demons, desperately trying to figure out who she is.

In this episode we learn how characters can evolve even in our own minds, we unpack the juxtaposition of hype vs reality when it comes to new experiences, and we revisit the importance of writing for all the senses.

Find out more about Bea 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 view the full transcript here.

In this fast-paced world, it’s easy to get caught up in the everyday - to have your mind dominated by short-term goals. But how often do you stop and consider the future? Whether it’s for our own personal development, or for the sake of the planet, short-term thinking can severely hold us back.

That’s why Ella Saltmarshe co-founded the Long Time Project, whose goal is to find new ways to help us care about the long-term future. She also presents a podcast called The Long Time Academy, which aims to change the way we choose to engage with time.

In this episode we learn about art and culture’s superpower of inciting change, we find out why you don’t need to be a specialist to be a success, and what it means to be a better ancestor to the generations that will inherit the Earth.

Find out more about Ella 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 view the full transcript here.

Yip is a 4ft nothing hairless mute. Born in 1815 and unable to talk, he’s presented with various challenges in his early life. And though he later learns to write, his hardships never cease. In the midst of the Georgia Gold Rush, he gets caught up in a brawl, meeting an unlikely companion while on the run from the law.

My Name is Yip is the debut novel from Paddy Crewe, and it’s an astonishingly brilliant read. Paddy has expertly taken on the challenge of telling the story of a man with no voice. Told as a first-hand reflection of Yip’s life, the story is written in a distinctly unique way, authentic to the character.  

In this episode we find out how to turn a sidekick into a main protagonist, we learn why you shouldn’t over-research every element of your book, and we find out whether you really need to be on social media.

Find out more about Paddy 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 view the full transcript here.

When Thomas Hardy’s wife died, his world was forever changed. Though his marriage to Emma Gifford was tumultuous, his grief was still paralysing. After Emma’s death Hardy discovered and read her diaries, and later burnt them. But why did he burn them? What words were written inside? Why did they evoke such a reaction?

We will never know the answers to these questions, but author Elizabeth Lowry has done an incredible job of filling in the gaps. Through extensive research and some very good best guess-work, she’s raised the diary from the ashes, bringing Emma’s story back to life in her novel The Chosen.

In this episode we learn how to create compelling fictionalised portrayals of real stories, we explore the role of buildings as emotional anchors for your characters, and we find out how to make stories from the past feel relevant.

Find out more about Elizabeth Lowry 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 view the full transcript here.

Would you give up your life and put everything on the line for your country? If you were plucked off the street and asked to serve as a secret agent overseas during wartime, would you say yes? These are the decisions that The Special Operations Executive agents had to come to terms with.

SOE was formed in 1940, and the organisation’s F section sent more than four hundred agents into France. But while some are widely known – others have had their stories largely overlooked. In her new book ‘Mission France’ Dr Kate Vigurs uncovers the stories of the 39 female agents of SOE.

In this episode we discover the importance of shedding light on the overlooked heroes of our stories, we find out how the threat of that ‘next knock on the door’ can build suspense and anxiety in your writing, and we examine the topic of motivation - how a character’s personality might fundamentally change when left with no choice.

Find out more about Dr Kate Vigurs 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 view the full transcript here.

Most of us are in the writing game because we love the creative journey. The business of writing however? Well, we’re not always great at that. But if you want to make money and turn your passion into a career, the business is just as important as the writing, and needs to be thought about early in the process. And that’s where many of us could use a little help.

Kerri Layton is a performing arts business coach and founder of Backstage Badasses. Through various courses and resources she empowers writers, actors, performers and dancers to take control of their finances.

In this episode learn to deliver on the needs of your audience by viewing art as a service, find out how to gain creative freedom by monetising your passion, and discover how to pivot and succeed time and time again.

Find out more about Kerri on her website.

For a direct link to Kerri’s free training, click here.

Join the Backstage Badasses group 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 view the full transcript here.

We’ve brought you all the build to Cazz Lander’s Great British Row, and now the adventure athlete and her partner Andre have finally set sail. Catching Cazz just a few days before launch, Mark gets up close and personal with the mighty boat she’ll be calling home, and finds out how she’s feeling. Enjoy this bonus episode, and stay tuned for regular updates from the boat.

Find out more about and donate to the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity 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 view the full transcript here.

Social media influencers live the lives we wish we lived - perfect and flawless… Or so we think. IDOL is the story of online health and wellness guru Samantha Miller, whose spiral downwards shows that life behind the camera lens is not always so rosy - that we don’t always know who we’re idolising.

Louise O’Neill is a prolific Irish author with multiple titles to her name. Through IDOL she draws on some of her own, testing experiences with social media, digging into its darker side. And through a tumultuous relationship she also plays with the concepts of memory, self perception and truth.

In this episode we find out how the fallibility of memory can be used to create dynamic and interesting characters, we learn about the lasting impacts of addictive relationships, and we explore the concept of abstract characters.

IDOL is out now. Find a copy 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 view the full transcript here.

The abstract narratives offered through dance performances allow each audience member to experience a story unique to them - to draw their own conclusions of the events that are unfolding. It’s no surprise then that dance has become the perfect playground for experiments with immersive technologies, like virtual reality.

Alexander Whitley is a London-based choreographer working at the cutting edge of British contemporary dance. Through a number of mesmerising projects he’s reinventing the landscape of dance.

In this episode we discuss the powerful possibilities of storytelling through the human body, we find out how immersion is offering audiences a deeper sense of connection to dance, and how technology is augmenting and enhancing the artform.

Find out about Alexander’s most recent production ‘Overflow’, which tackles what it means to be human in an era of Big Data. You can watch the trailer HERE. 

And hear about his collaborative and immersive dance experience ‘Future Rites’, a unique interpretation of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. Watch a short film 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 view the full transcript here.