This is one of a special series of short episodes speaking to some of the best comedians appearing at this year's Edinburgh Fringe! These episodes will be released daily during the week of 8 August 2022.

Schalk Bezuidenhout was born in Kempton Park or as he calls it - 'The New York of the East Rand'. His family and friends stood back as they watched Schalk evolve from an Afrikaans conservative caterpillar into a beautiful dramaqueen butterfly, complete with a moustache and furry afro. It was obvious to Schalk's parents that he would study drama, and to help numb the pain they sent him away to study at the University of Cape Town. While studying in Cape Town Schalk slowly began to realise that there was so much more to life than boerewors and rugby, and started doing stand-up in April 2011.

We had great fun chatting to Schalk and learning how he got into stand-up, including hearing about his... interesting venue for his first paid gig, the differences between South African and UK stand ups, and much more!

Links:

Buy tickets for Schalk's show, I’ll Make Laugh To You (Like You Want Me To), on at Gilded Balloon at the Edinburgh Fringe 2022

Follow Schalk on Twitter

Visit Schalk's website

Page One - The Writer's Podcast is brought to you by Write Gear, creators of Page One - the Writer's Notebook. Learn more and order yours now: https://www.writegear.co.uk/page-one

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This is one of a special series of short episodes speaking to some of the best comedians appearing at this year's Edinburgh Fringe! These episodes will be released daily during the week of 8 August 2022.

Tessa Coates is a writer, performer, journalist, comedian and one third of critically acclaimed sketch group Massive Dad. Her debut solo show Primates sold out the entire run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and ran at the Soho Theatre to more sell out audiences. She also performed her show in LA at the Lyric Theatre and Improv Lab following which there was a competitive situation to develop her first comedy series for TV in the US. The project landed at ABC Studios with Greg Daniels (The Office) and Howard Klein (3 Arts) attached to exec produce alongside her.

We loved chatting with Tessa about her comedy writing career, hearing about how she plans her stand-up, how she found herself writing a TV show with Greg Daniels, and much more!

Links:

Buy tickets for Tessa's show, Get Your Tessa Coates, You've Pulled, on at the Pleasance Courtyard at Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2022

Follow Tessa on Twitter

Visit Tessa's website

Page One - The Writer's Podcast is brought to you by Write Gear, creators of Page One - the Writer's Notebook. Learn more and order yours now: https://www.writegear.co.uk/page-one

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This is one of a special series of short episodes speaking to some of the best comedians appearing at this year's Edinburgh Fringe! These episodes will be released daily during the week of 8 August 2022.

Jessica Fostekew is a comedian, actor and writer. Star of Motherland BBC and Cuckoo BBC/ Netflix, host of The Hoovering Podcast and regular co-host of the behemoth The Guilty Feminist. The Guardian say she “wears her smarts on her sleeve, great stuff” and Fest called her “consistently hilarious.”

We had great fun chatting with Jessica about how she got into comedy, hear about how she prepares her shows and chat about writing for comedy panel shows on TV.

Links:

Buy tickets for Jessica's show, Wench, on at the Monkey Barrell at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival

Follow Jessica on Twitter

Visit Jessica's website

Page One - The Writer's Podcast is brought to you by Write Gear, creators of Page One - the Writer's Notebook. Learn more and order yours now: https://www.writegear.co.uk/page-one

Follow us on Twitter: @ukPageOne

Follow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ukPageOne

Follow us on Instagram: @ukPageOne

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This is the first of a special series of short episodes speaking to some of the best comedians appearing at this year's Edinburgh Fringe! These episodes will be released daily during the week of 8 August 2022.

Jacob Hawley is a stand-up comedian, podcaster and the presenter and creator of BBC Sounds’s Jacob Hawley: On Drugs and Jacob Hawley On Love. Jacob has rapidly generated interest as one of the boldest new voices on the circuit with his astute observations and political passion. His live shows have sold out at both The Edinburgh Fringe and at London’s Soho Theatre.

We had great fun chatting with Jacob about how he got into stand-up, hearing about how he hones his shows and he also tells us about the best heckle he has received...

Links:

Buy tickets for Jacob's show, Bump, at the Monkey Barrell at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival

Follow Jacob on Twitter

Visit Jacob's website

Page One - The Writer's Podcast is brought to you by Write Gear, creators of Page One - the Writer's Notebook. Learn more and order yours now: https://www.writegear.co.uk/page-one

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Adrian Tchaikovsky is the multi-award winning bestselling author of sci-fi and fantasy books such as the Children of Time series, Shadows of the Apt series and much more. He primarily explores deep themes, such as artificial intelligence and alien awareness within epic galactic and fantastical settings. He has a deep interest in the animal world specifically insects from his studies in Zoology and has a particular penchant for spiders. 

We loved chatting with Adrian for our first ever live episode in front of an audience at the Cymera Festival back in June. We talked about how persistence helped him break into his dream job of writing, why he is such a detailed planner (normally!) and deep dive into his worldbuilding and writing techniques.

Links:

Buy Adrian's books now!

Visit Adrian's website

Follow Adrian on Twitter

Page One - The Writer's Podcast is brought to you by Write Gear, creators of Page One - the Writer's Notebook. Learn more and order yours now: https://www.writegear.co.uk/page-one

Follow us on Twitter: @ukPageOne

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Lorraine Wilson is the author of the BFS and Kavya-nominated speculative fantasy novel, This is Our Undoing. She has also written short fiction (also award-shortlisted!) and her latest novel, The Way The Light Bends is just out.

We had a fascinating chat with Lorraine, hearing about her previous life as a field scientist (including catching the bubonic plague!) and why she turned to writing when she had to give that previous career up. We talked about the importance of setting, and had a good moan about the old “literary v commercial” distinction that is made in some quarters!

Links:

Buy Lorraine’s books here!

Follow Lorraine on Twitter

Read Lorraine’s blog here

Rewriting the margins mentorship scheme

Page One - The Writer's Podcast is brought to you by Write Gear, creators of Page One - the Writer's Notebook. Learn more and order yours now: https://www.writegear.co.uk/page-one

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Victoria Selman is the bestselling author of four crime novels and co-host of the crime writers’ podcast, CrimeTime.fm. Her latest book, Truly Darkly Deeply, has only been out for a couple of weeks and is already a bestseller and has had the film rights optioned.

We had a great time chatting with Victoria, hearing about how she rediscovered writing after a near 30-year hiatus, chatting about changing agents (and why that can sometimes be what an author needs) and hearing all about her planning process. We also talk about why she thinks Truly Darkly Deeply has hit so well with so many readers, and talk about the opportunities that some crime-writing festivals can give to new and aspiring authors.

*Victoria had a problem with her mic during the recording and near the end she switched to just using her laptop microphone, just in case you wondered why the audio changes!

Links:

Buy Truly Darkly Deeply and Victoria's other books now!

Follow Victoria on Twitter

Visit Victoria's website

Listen to Victoria on CrimeTime.FM

Page One - The Writer's Podcast is brought to you by Write Gear, creators of Page One - the Writer's Notebook. Learn more and order yours now: https://www.writegear.co.uk/page-one

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A former magazine editor and award-winning journalist, Janice Hallett has written screenplays and novels. Janice's first feature film Retreat was released by Sony Pictures (co-written and directed by Carl Tibbetts) which starred Cillian Murphy, Thandiwe Newton and Jamie Bell, and was selected for the Triforce Creative Network year-long mentoring scheme and featured on the BBC New Talent Hotlist. She won Best New Screenplay in the 2014 British Independent Film Festival. Her debut novel, The Appeal, was a smash-hit and won the CWA Debut Dagger award. 

We had a great chat with Janice, hearing about how she made the move from screenwriting to novel writing, and hearing about the unusual style of her novels (The Appeal is written in the form of emails and text messages, while her latest book, The Twyford Code, is told via a series of audio transcripts). We also find out if she is a planner or a pantser, and hear about how she deals with notes in the two different writing disciplines.

Links:

Buy Janice's books now!

Follow Janice on Twitter

Page One - The Writer's Podcast is brought to you by Write Gear, creators of Page One - the Writer's Notebook. Learn more and order yours now: https://www.writegear.co.uk/page-one

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Chris Whitaker is a bestselling crime writer whose debut, Tall Oaks, won the CWA debut dagger award. His latest crime novel, We Begin At The End, has been an international bestseller and has been optioned to Disney. Most recently, he wrote the brilliant YA novel, The Forevers.

We had great fun chatting with Chris, hearing about how he found writing after a very traumatic period in his life and how it helped him deal with that trauma. We also talked about planning, why he starts in the middle of his novels, how he gets such authentic US settings even though he is based in the UK and more! Plus, we hear the latest on the upcoming TV adaptation of We Begin At The End and get some info on his next book!

Links:

Buy Chris's books now!

Visit Chris's website

Follow Chris on Twitter

Page One - The Writer's Podcast is brought to you by Write Gear, creators of Page One - the Writer's Notebook. Learn more and order yours now: https://www.writegear.co.uk/page-one

Follow us on Twitter: @ukPageOne

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Martha Wells has been an SF/F writer since her first fantasy novel was published in 1993, and her work includes The Books of the Raksura series, The Death of the Necromancer, the Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy, The Murderbot Diaries series, media tie-in fiction for Star Wars, Stargate: Atlantis, and Magic: the Gathering, as well as short fiction, YA novels, and non-fiction. She has won Nebula Awards, Hugo Awards, and Locus Awards, and her work has appeared on the Philip K. Dick Award ballot, the BSFA Award ballot, the USA Today Bestseller List, and the New York Times Bestseller List. Her books have been published in twenty-two languages.

We loved chatting with Martha about her writing career, hearing how she first broke in, and how she coped when she suddenly found it difficult to get published. We hear how The Murderbot Diaries helped her come back from that, chat to her about writing novellas, hear how she wrote for Magic: The Gathering, Star Wars, Stargate and more! Plus - we get an update on the Murderbot TV series!

Links:

Buy Martha's books now!

Visit Martha's website

Follow Martha on Twitter

Page One - The Writer's Podcast is brought to you by Write Gear, creators of Page One - the Writer's Notebook. Learn more and order yours now: https://www.writegear.co.uk/page-one

Follow us on Twitter: @ukPageOne

Follow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ukPageOne

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