I sold out of The Crow Folk at a Ren Faire last weekend, but now it’s back in stock in my store. If you want signed copies of any of my books, pop along to the Woodville Village Bookshop…
Author: MarkStayWrites
Author, screenwriter, and award-winning podcaster.
I Love Editing… Am I Weird?
I’m in the depths of edits of THE END OF GODS and I’m loving it… Does that make me a weirdo?
Support a little DREAD, DECAY & DOOM
A new Witches of Woodville-related short story “Elderflower Cordial” will be featured in this splendid anthology from the wonderful people at Stars and Sabers. It’s a crowdfunded project and you can get all kinds of excellent “swag” (it says here) in return for your support.
And to whet your appetite, I can reveal that the story features a character from The Corn Bride, so if one is hankering for more Woodville thrills, then this is where you will find it. Click on the image below to support the project…
The End of Gods: An Update and a Cover Reveal…
To begin with, can we all be upstanding to applaud the splendid work of Alejandro Colucci for the cover of The End of Gods…
And here’s the latest on the edit and a possible publication date-ish…
This weekend’s Comic Cons: Bournemouth & Peterborough
I’ll be selling and signing m’books this weekend. You can find me on Saturday 6th in Bournemouth, and on Sunday 7th I’ll be in Peterborough. Click on the images below for more details…
And for future dates, pop over to my diary and events page here.
Creative Differences is One Today
Creative Differences, the monthly podcast where I talk to writers about the little things that make a big difference to their writing process, is a year old today! It’s been such a treat to chat to authors, and to have writers and readers like your good selves joining us on the livestreams and asking such excellent questions of the guests.
If you’ve not dipped in, then there’s never a better time to start. I’ve interviewed bestselling and award-winning authors like Sarah Pinborough, Nadine Matheson, Gareth L Powell, Tracy Buchanan, Rowan Coleman and Nicola May, and debut authors and writers that I just really like. You can find them all on Youtube or on your favourite podcast provider…
Or you can watch them all on this Youtube playlist…
And there are bite-size clips here…
And if you’re a writer looking for guidance in this crazy world of publishing, then you can join me in the Green Room…
Twice a month, I run live sessions on Zoom where you can ask me questions about the craft of writing, your WIP, or the business of publishing. The sessions are fun and informal and chatty. You can send me questions in advance. They’ll be recorded live and saved on Kofi for exclusive access to Green Room supporters.
I’m running this via Kofi, where you can join by clicking on the Green Room membership tier for £20 a month. There’s no long term commitment. With Kofi, you can support for just a month, or for as long as you like.
My goal is to be able to give supporters advice that will make a real difference to their writing and career, because the way I see it: having worked in this industry as a salesperson, bookseller and author for over 30 years, I’ve made every mistake, so you don’t have to.
Thanks again to everyone who has supported the podcast by listening, sharing or leaving a rating/review with their podcast provider. It makes a huge difference!
Passive Aggressive or Punctuation?
A learned debate on the use of punctuation in messaging apps from the Creative Differences podcast, featuring contributions from professors Rowan Coleman and George Stay …
Or watch it on Youube…
GD Wright LIVE tonight, 28th August 2025
Join me LIVE tonight 8PM BST with GD Wright, bestselling author of Into the Fire, on the Creative Differences podcast where we discuss the little things that make a big difference to the creative process…
OR ON YOUTUBE…
The Corn Bride by Mark Stay
Waterstones link thingy Dear reader, you are cordially invited to the strangest wedding of the year . . . It’s May 1941, and the war is in full swing…
The Corn Bride by Mark Stay
Rowan Coleman: “I Was a Bit Grumpy…”
Special guest Rowan Coleman, bestselling author of Never Tear Us Apart, reveals how a research trip to Malta started with her being ‘a bit grumpy’ but resulted with her making a magical connection with the island…
TRANSCRIPT
MARK: You went to Malta to research this. So what’s your process when you go to a place to research? Do you have like a shopping list of things to do, or do you just step out the hotel and go, right, where do I go now?
ROWAN: I was a bit grumpy about it, actually. Because, believe it or not, because the island itself is… but it’s sort of tied up with my own feelings about my relationship with my father. And so I was like, well, I expect I’m just gonna hate it and it’s going to be rubbish and I won’t like it. But when I turned up, it was the opposite. I did actually feel weirdly, immediately connected to it. And my shopping list is… I don’t really have a specific set of things for this book, because I first visited before I started writing it, really. If I’ve written a book already, like with The Summer of Impossible Things, I knew that I wanted to get to various locations in Brooklyn. But for this book, I was just getting a sense of the island for the first time, and so I just let it lead me. And it’s very small. It’s about the size of the Isle of Wight. And so the first thing that drew me were the ancient temples, and there are many Mesolithic temples on the island that are absolutely magical and fascinating. And that kind of was like my my first step on a very organic journey into putting all the components of the book together.
Or watch it on Youtube…
Mark Stay Writes 