Alice Kinsella is a poet based in the west of Ireland. She's the author of the poetry pamphlet Sexy Fruit, the prose poem memoir Milk: On motherhood and madness and the genre blending Wake of the Whale, co-authored with Daniel Wade, which was a Sunday Independent Book of the Year in 2024.

This conversation covers so much - from unpaid work in publishing, to blending genres, to the creative energy and frustrations of early motherhood. We also talk about why Alice and Daniel chose their local independent publisher Mayo Books Press to publish their latest book.

You can order Wake of the Whale directly from Mayo Books and use the code Whale25 to get free shipping.

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This series of the podcast is sponsored by award winning audio book app xigxag

Listeners of Not Too Busy To Write can receive their second book FREE

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Go to My xigxag/Settings, then click on Account. 

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After your first purchase, your second title will be free!

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Links

Wake of the Whale by Alice Kinsella and Daniel Wade

Milk by Alice Kinsella

Sexy Fruit by Alice Kinsella

Alice Kinsella on Substack

Poet Mark Grist

Not Too Busy To Write on Substack

Sarra Manning is the author of 8 adult novels, over 15 YA novels. She began her career on teen magazines and has been writing about love and sex ever since. Sarra talks about being a 'word count slut', writing books fast, how what she learned on magazines helps her pitch novels and the secret to writing about sex successfully.

Sarra is also the literary editor of Red magazine and is my go to person for book reccos - this episode is chock full of amazing books!!

The Last Days of Summer is out March 27th

This series of the podcast is sponsored by award winning audio book app xigxag

Listeners of Not Too Busy To Write can receive their second book FREE

To redeem, download the xigxag app from the App Store or Google Play. 

Go to My xigxag/Settings, then click on Account. 

Under Vouchers, click on the ‘Enter code’ button and add your voucher code NTBTW to your account. 

After your first purchase, your second title will be free!

You can listen to The Last Days of Summer on xigxag :)

Links

The Last Days of Summer - Sarra Manning

London, With Love - Sarra Manning

Rachel's Holiday - Marian Keyes

A Sky Painted Gold - Laura Wood

Romantic Comedy - Curtis Sittenfeld

The Wedding People - Alison Espach

Maeve Kerrigan Series - Jane Casey

Deep Cuts - Holly Brickley

The Eights - Joanna Miller

Want to know how to get funding to write?

Today I'm speaking to Robyn Law, head of Fundraising, Grants and Prizes at The Society of Authors, a UK trade union for writers, illustrators and literary translators. As well as looking at everything the SoA can do for all of us, we do a deep dive into how to apply for grants to help support you while you write, including my own experience as an SoA grant recipient.

This series of the podcast is sponsored by award winning audio book app xigxag

Listeners of Not Too Busy To Write can receive their second book FREE

To redeem, download the xigxag app from the App Store or Google Play. 

Go to My xigxag/Settings, then click on Account. 

Under Vouchers, click on the ‘Enter code’ button and add your voucher code NTBTW to your account. 

After your first purchase, your second title will be free!

Links

The Society of Authors - How to join

The Society of Authors - Grants

The Society of Authors - Advice and Resources

Aime McNee is a writer and creativity coach and author of We Need Your Art - a look at the power and essential nature of creativity and how to kick start and maintain your own creative habits.

From perfectionism to permission and the difficulty in finishing work, Aime talks about some of the big challenges and joys we experience as artists, and why it's worth spending our precious time on the process of creating.

We Need Your Art is out 13th March

This series of the podcast is sponsored by award winning audio book app xigxag

Listeners of Not Too Busy To Write can receive their second book FREE

To redeem, download the xigxag app from the App Store or Google Play. 

Go to My xigxag/Settings, then click on Account. 

Under Vouchers, click on the ‘Enter code’ button and add your voucher code NTBTW to your account. 

After your first purchase, your second title will be free!

Links

We Need Your Art - Aime McNee

The Rules Upheld By No One - Aime McNee

Regrettably, I Am About To Cause Trouble - Amie McNee

Range - David Epstein

Alice Wilkinson is an award winning journalist and the author of How To Stay Sane in A House Share, her debut book about the joys and challenges of cohabiting. In this conversation we discuss some of the challenges of writing personal non-fiction, finding a gap in the current discourse and some of the differences she found in book writing and publishing, from her day to day life as a journalist and editor. We also talk a bit about her experience working with a book coach on the proposal - me!

How To Stay Sane in A House Share is out March 6th

This series of the podcast is sponsored by award winning audio book app xigxag

Listeners of Not Too Busy To Write can receive their second book FREE

To redeem, download the xigxag app from the App Store or Google Play. 

Go to My xigxag/Settings, then click on Account. 

Under Vouchers, click on the ‘Enter code’ button and add your voucher code NTBTW to your account. 

After your first purchase, your second title will be free!

Links

How to Stay Sane in a House Share by Alice Wilkinson

Grace Timothy is a journalist and author of Is It My ADHD? On the podcast today Grace talks about getting a late diagnosis of ADHD and how wading through the misinformation online drove her to write a book in order to understand her own brain better.

Is It My ADHD? is out 27th February

This series of the podcast is sponsored by award winning audio book app xigxag

Listeners of Not Too Busy To Write can receive their second book FREE

To redeem, download the xigxag app from the App Store or Google Play. 

Go to My xigxag/Settings, then click on Account. 

Under Vouchers, click on the ‘Enter code’ button and add your voucher code NTBTW to your account. 

After your first purchase, your second title will be free!

You can purchase Is It My ADHD? on xigxag here

Links

Is It My ADHD? by Grace Timothy

Lost in Motherhood by Grace Timothy

Earthed by Rebecca Schiller

Tessa Hadley is an award winning author of eight novels, many short story collections and one of my personal favourite writers. In this conversation Tessa talks with me about the pleasures and irresponsibility of the short story, her first novella The Party, writing as a performance and the benefits of publishing for the first time in mid life.

This series of the podcast is sponsored by award winning audio book app xigxag

Listeners of Not Too Busy To Write can receive their second book FREE

To redeem, download the xigxag app from the App Store or Google Play. 

Go to My xigxag/Settings, then click on Account. 

Under Vouchers, click on the ‘Enter code’ button and add your voucher code NTBTW to your account. 

After your first purchase, your second title will be free!

You can purchase The Party on xigxag here.

Links

The Party - Tessa Hadley

Free Love - Tessa Hadley

Bad Dreams - Tessa Hadley

The Best Intentions - Ingmar Bergman

Going Home - Tom Lamont

Long Island - Colm Toibin

Parades End - Ford Maddox Ford

Writing Literary Fiction with Tessa Hadley - Curtis Brown Creative

Not Too Busy To Write on Substack

Daisy Buchanan is a bestselling author, journalist and broadcaster. Today we're talking about her latest book Read Yourself Happy and the unique power of books to make us feel better, as well as how reading makes us better writers.

Read Yourself Happy is out now

This series of the podcast is sponsored by award winning audio book app xigxag

Listeners of Not Too Busy To Write can receive their second book FREE

To redeem, download the xigxag app from the App Store or Google Play. 

Go to My xigxag/Settings, then click on Account. 

Under Vouchers, click on the ‘Enter code’ button and add your voucher code NTBTW to your account. 

After your first purchase, your second title will be free!

You can purchase Read Yourself Happy on xigxag here

Links

You're Booked with Daisy Buchanan

Creative Confidence Clinic with Daisy Buchanan

Brigit Jones Diary - Helen Fielding

Exit Interview - Kristi Coulter

Can You Ever Forgive Her? - Anthony Trollope

So Thrilled For You - Holly Bourne

Mad Woman - Bryony Gordon

This Is Not A Pity Memoir - Abi Morgan

The Come Up - Jonathan Abrams

The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets - Eva Rice

Happy All The Time - Laurie Colwin

Middlemarch - George Elliot

Alison - Lizzy Stewart

A Little Life - Hanya Yanagihara 

The Great Believers - Rebecca Makkai

Don't Look At Me Like That - Diana Athill

Rachel's Holiday - Marian Keyes

I Capture the Castle - Dodi Smith

Probably Nothing - Lauren Bravo

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit - Judith Kerr

Cazelet Chronicles - Elizabeth Jane Howard

Into the Woods - John Yorke

A little taster of what's to come in series 10 featuring Tessa Hadley, Daisy Buchanan and Grace Timothy.

The new series begins 5th February

You can subscribe to Not Too Busy To Write on Substack

pennywincer.substack.com

pennywincerwrites.com

Penny on Instagram @pennywincer

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Join me for a special episode digging deep into the Women's Prize Discoveries 2025, a prize and program for unpublished women fiction writers in the UK and Ireland, with two of this years judges Dreda Say Mitchell, an award winning and bestselling crime and mystery author and Chloe Timms, journalist, author and podcast host. We are joined by the winner of the inaugural Discoveries Prize 2021, Emma van Straaten, whose debut novel This Immaculate Body will be published in February. This episode is packed full of advice and will get you itching to pull out your Work in Progress and enter the prize.

Links

Women's Prize Discoveries 2025

Girl, Missing - Dreda Say Mitchell

The Seawomen - Chloe Timms

This Immaculate Body - Emma van Straaten

Dreda Say Mitchell - dredamitchell.com

Chloe Timms - chloetimms.co.uk

Confessions of A Debut Novelist with Chloe Timms

Emma van Straaten on Instagram @evswrites

Book Proposal Group Program - pennywincerwrites.com/bookproposalgroup

Not Too Busy To Write on Substack