Not Too Busy To Write

Ali and Penny are back together for a final episode before their summer break. This week they discuss why there are many positives of professional writing being a second or third career for most people. This week is all about mining your previous work for skills that really come in handy for both writing and publishing. From being able to treat your book as a product, to being able to work ahead in "seasons" - whatever your background, there are skills that you will be bringing to the table.

Links

We Need To Talk About Money - Otegha Uwagba

How Much Of These Hills Is Gold? - C. Pam Zhang

Things Are Against Us - Lucy Ellmann

Don't forget you can check out Not Too Busy To Write on Bookshop.Org to see a full list (and purchase!) all books mentioned in the current series.

We'll be back in the Autumn but in the mean time you can find Ali on Instagram @ali_millar_writes and Penny @pennywincer

Claire Fuller is the author of four novels, the latest of which Unsettled Ground is shortlisted for the Women's Prize. Claire started her career as a sculptor with a day job in marketing and we talk about her decision to start writing fiction, which began with short stories, how she uses music to short cut her way into writing mode, leaving the day job behind and novels as an object of creation.

Unsettled Ground is the story of 51 yr old twins Jeanie and Julius living in poverty in rural Wiltshire. When their mother suddenly dies, the outside world starts to force it's way in to their isolated existence. It's a stunning portrait of love, resilience and survival.

Links

Polly Vaughn performed by Tia Blake

Unsettled Ground - Claire Fuller

Bitter Orange - Claire Fuller

Fugitive Pieces - Anne Michaels

Malibu Rising - Taylor Jenkins Reid

You can find Claire Fuller on Instagram - @writerclairefuller

For a list of Claire's events and workshops visit www.clairefuller.co.uk

Clemmie Telford is a former creative director, a content creator and podcast host of "But Why?" and her first book also called But Why? is about the big tricky questions and having honest conversations with yourself. We dive into structuring a book with a lot of big topics, writing honestly and vulnerably and embracing dyslexia. Clemmie started a blog many years ago called the "Mother of All Lists" which has grown into a platform for others to share their stories in list form - a way of writing which is accessible to so many, even those who never thought of themselves as 'able to write'.

*Apologies we had some technical issues while recording and there are a few dodgy sound moments - but please stick with it - it's such a great episode!*

Links

But Why? - Clemmie Telford

Mother of All Lists

Conversations on Love - Natasha Lunn

The Joy Luck Club - Amy Tan

You can find Clemmie on Instagram @clemmie_telford

All the book spoken about on Not Too Busy To Write can be found at our bookshop.org shop - https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/not-too-busy-to-write-recommends

Kate Mosse is the international bestselling historical fiction author and the co-founder and chair of the Women's Prize for Fiction. Kate's latest book, An Extra Pair of Hands, is about her experience as an unpaid carer to both of her parents and now her mother in law. We talk about Kate's decision to write about such a personal topic, respecting other peoples stories and contributing to a conversation to shed light on a hidden group. Kate talks about her writing routine and how caring has influence it in recent years.

We also take a dive into the Women's Prize, why it was set up and the incredible work it has done to put wonderful books into the hands of readers. From it's inception the prize was designed to look outwards, to include the reader and to support, invest in and value the work of women writers. We also talk about the snobbery around women's fiction and certain genres of fiction. Kate tells us about her standout winners from the past 25 years.

Women's Prize Shortlist 2021

Links

An Extra Pair of Hands - Kate Mosse

The City of Tears - Kate Mosse

Fugitive Pieces - Anne Michaels

Small Island - Andrea Levy

We Need To Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver

The Book About Getting Older - Dr Lucy Pollock

To The Ends of The Earth - William Golding

A Line To Kill - Anthony Horowitz

Outline - Rachel Cusk

You can find Kate Mosse on Twitter and Instagram

https://www.katemosse.co.uk/

Ali talks to Tanya Shadrick about her forthcoming book, The Cure for Sleep: A Late Waking Life. Described as an electrifying voice, The Cure for Sleep details Tanya's transformative near death encounter after the birth of her first child, and how this became the catalyst to transforming her life.

In this intriguing conversation Ali and Tanya talk about the need to be selfish as mothers, how class has impacted on their writing and the importance of not always reading to see their own reflections but instead to broaden the world, while simultaneously understanding that as writers with unusual backgrounds, they have stories that deserve to be told.

Read more about Tanya's work and the book here:

www.thecureforsleep.com

You can follow Tanya here:

Twitter: @tanyashadrick

Instagram: @tanyashadrickwriter

Rebecca Schiller is the author of four non-fiction books, a freelance journalist and the co-founder of the human rights charity Birth Rights. We take a dive into Rebecca's latest book Earthed - a memoir about returning to the land and how it refuses to follow the usual "good life" tropes and instead documents an unravelling of a woman whose problems follow her.

Rebecca is also the founder of Mothers Who Write, which began life as in-person retreats for mothers who need to escape the everyday pressures of the domestic and get some clear headspace for writing. Rebecca talks a little about the future of Mothers Who Write which is now expanding into an online community that she hopes will not only support writers but help them earn an income too. We also go on quite important tangent on the difficulties writers face earning an income and how that can really impact on diversity in publishing.

links

Earthed - Rebecca Schiller

Mothers Who Write

You can sign up for Mothers Who Write Mailing List here

Born Between Crosses - Natasha Carthew

We Should All Be Millionaires - Rachel Rodgers

You can find Rebecca Schiller on Instagram @rebecca.schiller

Penny @pennywincer

Ali @ali_millar_writes

Jessica Hatcher-Moore is an award winning foreign correspondent specialising in women's health in conflict zones. After moving back from East Africa to North Wales with her husband to have their first child, she was shocked to find a deep problem within her home country around silence after birth and a lack of care and support for women in the post natal period. After Birth is a pregnancy book all about the period after giving birth and how to recover your body and mind. As an investigative journalist Jessica challenges the given wisdom and found many apposing views and presents a wider view that women are rarely given.

Jessica talks about the specific challenges of writing about pregnancy while being pregnant (she handed in her manuscript just before giving birth to her second child) and what she learned from her own research about seeking out help.

Links

After Birth - Jessica Hatcher-Moore

Young Adam - Alexander Trocchi

Earthed - Rebecca Schiller

Everyone is Still Alive - Cathy Rentzenbrink

You can find Jessica on Instagram @jessicajanehatcher

Olivia Sudjic is the author or two novels and a non-fiction long form essay. Her latest novel, Asylum Road, is a darkly unsettling story of a newly engaged couple unraveling.

In this episode Olivia talks about the lure of control that drove her to novel writing as well as the risks involved when shouldering creative responsibility largely alone. The advantages of choosing a young, up and coming agent who is also your ideal reader as well as the the challenges of writing versus publishing and making the reader do a bit of work. And what happens when the siren song of writing becomes a day job?

Links

Asylum Road - Olivia Sudjic

Sympathy - Olivia Sudjic

Exposure - Olivia Sudjic

Ill Feelings - Alice Hattrick

This is the Ritual - Rob Doyle

In The Garden: Essays on Nature and Growing - Daunt Books

The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym - Paula Byrne

You can find Olivia Sudjic on instagram @olivia.sudjic

We usually talk about getting the work done and being productive. Today is a counter episode - rest.

Ali thinks she's bad at it, Penny feels she's pretty good at it. We talk about how it's easy to always measure your productivity but rest is needed is we are to keep going. When we're on deadlines or are afraid of losing momentum on a project, it can feel scary to slow down and take breaks. But taking a step back to rest can really pay off.

We talk about the importance of self awareness and doing what works best for you.

One way of really understanding where your time goes is time logging, an exercise which Ali and Penny both did for this episode. They talk about the interesting results of putting a magnifying glass to how they spend their time.

Sign up to Penny's newsletter for updates on her upcoming course on creating time

Links

My Phantoms - Gwendoline Riley

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue - V E Schwab

Effortless - Greg McKeown

On the podcast today, Christina Sweeney-Baird, talks about her debut, The End of Men; a prescient debut about the effects of a virus that only kills males.

Not only did Sweeney-Baird write her debut before the pandemic hit, she also balances writing life with the demands of being a full time Corporate Litigation Lawyer. Christina tells us how she manages her time, and how an earlier manuscripts can act as training for subsequent drafts.

We also discuss the benefits of writing within a genre - how the specific rules of plot help as building blocks to a novel.

It's a jam-packed episode and The End of Men looks set to be the runaway hit of the summer - enjoy!

Due to wifi troubles, Christina's sound cuts out a couple of times, but it's so informative that it's 100% worth sticking with it.

Links

Letters To Camondo by Edmund De Waal

Nothing But Blue Sky - Kathleen MacMahon

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue - V E Schwab

The Handmaids Tale - Margaret Atwood

You can find Christina Sweeney-Baird on Instagram @christinasweeneybaird

Not Too Busy To Write at Bookshop.org