Join me live with bestselling crime author Nadine Matheson!
THURSDAY 27TH MARCH, 8PM GMT.
Nadine’s debut crime fiction novel, The Jigsaw Man, was won by HQ (HarperCollins) in a six-publisher auction. The best-selling ‘The Jigsaw Man’ was published in 2021, has been translated into fifteen languages and has been optioned for television. Nadine is also the presenter of The Conversation podcast, which for my money is one of the best British podcasts for author interviews. Nadine is a brilliant writer and really insightful on the craft and business of writing. You are not going to want to miss this one! Join us live and be part of the podcast.
This month’s special guest Gareth L Powell reveals the biggest mistake of his writing career, but how this particular disaster was a blessing in disguise…
MARK: What’s the biggest mistake you’ve ever made in your writing career?
GARETH: Oh, Lord. The worst thing — I don’t know if it’s a mistake, It could have been an Act of God — But was when the first half of the first draft of Descendant Machine vanished.
MARK: Oh, God, I remember this.Yeah, yeah, yeah.
GARETH: I’d been working on it for three months, I think. And then one day, it just wasn’t on my computer. It wasn’t in the recycle bin. It wasn’t, you know, anywhere. I used various kind of, programs to claw through the hard drive to try and find it. And… nothing. It just completely vanished. So if unless I just did something ridiculously stupid in my sleep or, you know… I don’t know what, I’ve no idea what happened to it. But this entire three months work just absolutely vanished. That was a big setback because, you know, that was when I, you know, you go in that feeling where you just go cold.
MARK: Yeah.
GARETH: You know in the, sort of Agatha Christie films from the 70s when there’s, like, a pistol blast or a scream, and then you’d get a shot of a load of crows flapping up from a tree. It’s kind of like that. I just uttered a curse. Venomous. It turned the air to glass and… And I lay on the sofa and thought, I’m never gonna write again. It’s all over.
MARK: And I remember talking to this, about this at the time, and it was just one of those complete mysteries. It wasn’t like you weren’t backing stuff up. It just absolutely vanished. Is it… because this happened to a friend of mine the other day, and I said, Oh, this happens to all sorts of writers, but every one of them tells me that when they go back and rewrite it, it’s so much better. Would you say that’s true, or am I just trying to make my friend feel good?
GARETH: No, that’s true, but the book I wrote was, substantially different from the first draft I had done, and much better for. So it was a blessing in a very, very heavy disguise.
This month’s special guest Gareth L Powell reveals how he keeps track of story ideas when they come late at night… and then we’re interrupted by a digital overlord.
MARK: How do you remember that idea that you have it, say three in the morning?
GARETH: I always have my phone next to the bed. And I can say, “Hey, Siri,” take a note, and just dictate it to the phone.
SIRI: (Interrupting) And then what do you want it to say?
(LAUGHTER)
MARK: I was waiting for that!
SIRI: I created you a note. It’s called BRA.
MARK: Oh. That’s priceless. Thanks for that, Gareth.
GARETH: I thought, my phone is off. I’ll be safe saying this, and I forgot it’s on the damn computer as well… I will go through that process — that I just demonstrated — and then in the morning, because it’s synched up with my desktop, the I just open my notes file and the notes are there waiting for me.
MARK: A comment from Usman here: “22:32. Siri gained sentence.” It’s the end times, people. Oh, fantastic.
MARK :What small thing has made a big difference to your creative process?
GARETH: (thinks) Tea…
MARK: Do you have a particular brand? Because I’ve seen your pictures on social media. You’ve got that wonderful little cast iron kettle, haven’t you?
GARETH: It was my lockdown coping mechanism. I got really into tea. Loose leaf teas and different types of teas and, so now it’s like… no tea bags. It’s proper bags of loose leaf teas. I’ve got a… I made an app for my phone, which is a picture of a teapot it, and I press it and it ultimately times five minutes, which is just right for the tea to stew.
MARK: Properly brewed. Fantastic. And do you have a favourite brand of tea What should we be looking out for?
GARETH: I’m kind of in between favourite brands at the moment. I was very fond of Whittard’s English Breakfast Loose Leaf. I’m kind of looking around for a slightly less expensive version, but I’ve tried lots of different ones. So at the moment I’m on the, Sainsbury’s Red Label, which is quite good.
MARK: You’ve got me some Yorkshire gold for Christmas, didn’t you, Emily? That is first class stuff. That is really good.
Mark Stay Writes 