This week we chat to Lucy Hooft. She's had an incredible, interesting career travelling the world. She worked in the UK's Foreign Office and for the Department of International Development, going to work for HRH Queen Rania of Jordan.

Lucy has taken her experience in geopolitics and written her first spy thriller. It's called 'The King's Pawn' and is the first of the Sarah Black series, that looks at a young, female spy. Lucy has planned 5. We talk about planning so much before you even have a contract - did she feel guilty for devoting time to unpaid work?

It's inspired by a real life event no-one has heard of, and takes place around the South Caucus region, which few people know about.

We chat about why her genre demands concision, how it started with writing games to fend off baby brain, and why writing flash fiction helps with full-blown novels.

You can also hear why she has started to structure her books like a Netflix mini-series, and how that's really helped with the plotting.

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Mark Pawlosky worked as a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, was an editor for CNBC.com, and is now using that experience of sourcing scoops to write the Nik Byron Investigation series.

The first is 'Hack', it looks at Nik Byron getting the story of how top secret US surveillance technology was stolen. He needs to expose the plot and get the story before he, and it, is silenced.

We talk about brevity, why it's important to keep things tight and not waste everyone's time. Also you can hear why his process is mostly re-reading and re-writing, and why he thinks good writing is re-writing.

And be jealous of Mark's very own, purpose-built, writing room.

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Melvin Burgess had critical acclaim with his novel, 'Junk'. It looks at heroin use among teens in Bristol. It's a hard-hitting novel for teenagers, and won the Carnegie Medal, a prestigious award for Children's and YA writing.

We talk about why he chose such a divisive subject, and what he thinks is the secret to writing for teens.

His new novel is 'Loki', it tells the story of the politics of ancient Asgard, and is a heartfelt plea to overthrow the gods of authority. We discuss the idea for the book, and why it was partly inspired by recent political events. You can hear why he's interested in the process of powers lying. Also about the strange badge of honour he prides himself.

Melvin wrote furiously for about 20 years while supporting a family, but has since been enjoying himself more. We discuss why he's returned to writing, his first novel for adults, and what to do when you've worked extremely hard on something that turns out to be naff.

There is swearing in this episode.

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This week, we're chatting to S.K. Tremayne. He's a travel writer and novelist, whose new novel is 'The Drowning Hour'.

Sean has written many books, under many different names. He had success during the Da Vinci Code book of the mid 2000's, under the name Tom Knox, with his book, 'The Genesis Secret' and its sequels.

His new novel follows Hannah, a publicist for The Stanhope, a once grand hotel in Essex. On it's re-opening, some drunken guests disappear into the ocean, and Hannah has to figure out what happened, and handle the scandal.

We talk about why, when he's writing, it doesn't matter where he is, the only thing that needs to be good is the idea. Also, why he likes to escape to write, and we get to the big question... how DO you become a travel writer?

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Philip Wilding is a fantastic storyteller, and a brilliant talker of storytelling. He's worked as a radio producer for many national stations, written as a journalist following bands across the world, and has ghostwritten memoirs, including Carl Barat of The Libertines.

His newest novel is 'The Death and Life of Red Henley'. It's a noir novel about 1980's New York, a religious commune in Tennessee, and the myriad characters entwined in the death of Red Henley.

We talk about how it was written because of old ambitions and checklists he about writing a novel, also how working for him is a bit feast or famine, and how that infects the attitude of how his work is going.

You can hear why he leaves time between writing books, and how he switches on different parts of hid brain depending on the work he's doing.

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This week, we chat to Cristina Bendek. Her novel 'Salt Crystals' was published in 2018, and won the Elisa Mujica National Novel Prize. It's about the island of San Andres, and Victoria trying to make sense of everything. It's just been translated and published in the UK.

We talk about how it's a slightly autobiographical novel, reflecting on Cristina's own time in an island trying to figure out its place in the world. We talk about the geopolitical situation of it, and how that influenced why she wanted to write the book. You can hear why rain is the best thing for her writing, why setting a word count doesn't work, and how much she thinks about words and language in her prosaic writing.

You can hear why chatting to yourself is key, why she needed to plan this one out more before she started, and what it was like working with a translator.

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This week, we chat to Felix Francis. His new book is the next in the 'Dick Francis Series', it's called 'Hands Down' and features Sid Halley looking into a conspiracy that threatens the heart of horse-racing.

Felix is carrying on the prolific work of his dad, Dick Francis. Dick was an RAF pilot, a champion race jockey, and then a phenomenally bestselling author. Between them they've publish 50 books and sold over 80 million copies. We talk about the transition of him taking the reins (!) of the writing, how he learned from his father and many other authors, and how he's developed his own style.

You can hear how he challenges himself with different styles and viewpoints to keep things fresh, also why writing easy reading isn't a challenge, and how much he thinks about getting new readers.

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Pascal Engman is the bestselling Swedish novelist of his generation, called 'the next Steig Larsson'. He has sold plenty of books around the world, and they're now being published in the UK. His new one is 'Femicide, it looks at 'incel' culture. Involuntary celebates who hate women, and what happens when they switch off their laptops and do something about it in real life.

We chat about completely different parts of the world he writes in, and how much pressure he puts on 9 months of his year to try and write a book in the last 3. Also, you can hear why he tries to make his first draft as perfect as possible, because he hates editing so much. We chat about why he wants to entertain and teach in his novels, and how much he thinks about the international audience when he's writing... particularly the jokes.

You can hear about the original blueprint for the novel and how much it changes, how he deals with time away from writing, and what his favourite font is.

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Marthe Jocelyn is about to publish her 50th book. It's called 'The Seaside Corpse', and is the 4th in the Aggie Morton Mystery Queen series. It's based on a young Agatha Christie, who solves crimes with her best friend Hector Poirot. The new one takes place in 1903 Lyme Regis, when searching for dinosaurs, Aggie comes across a dead body.

We talk about how much she plots mysteries, and why this story has made her mix that up a bit. Also, you can hear how accurate she wants to get her story to real-life 1903 Lyme Regis, and how she researches it. You can hear how much she thinks about how her books look, how a form of peer pressure helps her write, and how using writing exercises, like only using one-syllable words, can really help you think about the story.

You can find out more about Marthe's work at marthejocelyn.com!

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This week, we chat to author and lecturer David Bell. He's just published his 12th book, 'The Finalists'. It looks at a group of prospective college students, and the lengths they might go to gain a prestigious fellowship. Think 'The Breakfast Club' with murder.

His novel, 'Kill All Your Darlings', was nominated for an Edgar Award, and he's written his books whilst lecturing English and writing at University. We talk about how he balances his time teaching writing, and actually writing. You can also hear how he makes a locked room story consistently engaging, when your characters can't really go very far... how do you make it gripping for a reader?

We talk about making stock characters unique, whether deadlines change, how knowing you've done it once can really help you believe you can do it again, and why he absolutely loves a routine.

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