"Spending time with your work and giving it to other people that you trust is invaluable." Luke Deckard talks the importance of finding inspiration from your peers, his route to publication through his masters and a shared love of Avril Lavigne (sort of) with Ben Bruce on Criminally Inspired for the UK Crime Book Club.

"Get him to read anything and everything. It doesn't matter if it's the Beano or the back of a sugar packet." Jonathan Whitelaw recalls the advice of his teacher to his parents, and talks about the need to always remain flexible as a writer and that it is never too late to start anything.

“The thing that’s been an influence on me all my life is that I am an only child. We’d adopted my sister for six months and then one day I was told she was going back, and I could not understand…” Bryan Mason talks about a very different kind of inspiration, imposter syndrome and how you write a humorous crime novel set in Belfast during The Troubles.

“I think the first question was why on earth was this blokes head in a cardboard box?” Brian Price talks about turning a competition entry into a fully fledged book, how a love of science took him to working with Friends of The Earth, and keeping MW Craven out of jail.

“I wrote all the fun bits – the torture – first.” Donna Morfett joins Ben Bruce to talk about her new novel, blogging, and finding inspiration in the writing community.

“If you read something you really identify with, that’s a big clue of the mystery of what you want to write.” Guy Gardner and Ben Bruce talk about writing music, working on oil rigs, and being brave enough to delete a whole novel.

“Off and on I researched for 20 years before I started writing the Cesare Aldo novels.” D.V. Bishop talks to Ben Bruce about writing historical fiction, creating enemies for the Daleks and his characters unexpectedly finding love over a dismembered goat.

“To me it was just my old primary school, but apparently… it’s known as one of the most haunted buildings in Northern Ireland. James Murphy talks to Ben Bruce about the inspiration behind his books, serving his apprenticeship as a writer and how Jason Donovan gave him COVID.

“You can read my books, then you can go for a walk where it happens.” Ken Ward chats to Ben Bruce about setting his work in Norfolk and drawing inspiration from what’s around him, as well as writing classes, and how ballroom dancing helps with multitasking.

“In Avenue Cars there are a lot of characters from different foreign countries because basically I don’t know if fiction and literature and media have included them in such a way as I think they deserve to be included, because they are part of our society.”

Chris Speck talks to Ben Bruce about the people who inspire his characters, the depths he goes to for research and playing the washboard in a skiffle band.