Hello everyone – sorry it’s been such a long time since I last touched base. Life, eh? Mine has been very busy and very filled with a certain sweet baby (and also with finishing my latest novel, which – oof – was a real marathon) but I’ve cleared a little space and done a bit of planning ahead and here we are:

Hope you like it. It’s unscripted – I just made some notes then talked through what I think about the topic of getting ready to write – essentially making yourself match-fit. I’m experimenting doing some slightly looser episodes as well as scripted word-for-word – partly because I think talking without a script feels a bit more natural, and partly because my time is always squeezed at the moment and doing it this way is how I can actually put episodes out. Hopefully I’ll get more skilled and concise as time goes on but do let me know what you think. If it’s making you lose the will to live I shall correct course accordingly.

Do continue to send in your first pages for the show. Email link in right column. I’ve got a two-hander episode with me chatting to novelist Alexander Gordon Smith which I’ll put up soon, and I think I might drop a line to a few authors and see if they fancy recording something. I like chatting about the craft with no bullshit but a bit of kindness and getting technical when the situation demands it – way too many authors out there giving nice-sounding but vague/actively wrong advice. Either listening to the show makes your writing perceptibly better or it’s failing in its primary goal.

Right. If you listen to the podcast you’ll hear me talking about the Couch to 80k programme I’m going to start. That’ll involve a lot of recording so I’m off to finish planning out the exercises. Happy writing, friends!