Bestselling and award-winning author Rowan Coleman joined me to discuss her new book Never Tear Us Apart, revealing how a family photo inspired her to research in Malta, why she wrote her next book, The Good Boy, under a pen name, then there was something about quantum physics, and ultimately she asks the question we all want an answer to in any situation: What would Charlotte Brontë do? This was a really fun chat with tons of great advice for writers.
I’ve got a (sort of) short story in this excellent new collection of short stories from the listeners of the Bestseller Experiment podcast (click on the image to get your hands on a copy)…
Why only sort of? Here’s my authors’ note from the collection…
Author’s Note (and excuse)
What you’re about to read is not exactly a short story. I did start one — honest, guv! — and it was a belter, all set in the world of my Witches of Woodville series. It started in the 1920s and ended in the 1970s*… which is where the problems started. As I began jotting down ideas for the story it soon became clear that I wasn’t about to squeeze it all into the allotted five thousand words. No, it soon became clear that this was going to be a whopper, perhaps even a novel all of its own. And things happen in the story that, at first, I thought I didn’t want to rush. Then it occurred to me that the real reason that I didn’t want to rush it was that, actually, I might not be ready to write them yet, as it meant saying a final farewell to certain characters. So I’ve popped that story back into a drawer at the back of my mind and will wait till the time is right to go back and see if I’m ready to finally [REDACTED] to poor old [REDACTED].
And if that wasn’t enough of a tease, then what you’re about to read is the first chapter of a thing that might never happen. It’s a new story, set in the world of the Witches of Woodville, and I’m still wondering where it might go, if anywhere. But I had great fun writing this opening chapter and I think it almost works as its own little standalone moment. So, in the spirit of mischief, I offer you The Canary Girls…
Happy reading, and please send all complaints to Miss Araminta Cranberry at the Woodville Village Library,
Mark Stay
*If you’ve ever wondered why the Woodville Village motto is ‘Witch-free since 1973’ this story was going to reveal all
So there you have it… and don’t forget, the anthology is packed with terrific stories from amazing authors, including (deep breath) W. J. Grupe, Jr, Rosie Stirling, Phil Oddy, Jeevani Charika, Jan Carr, Eva St. John, Dylan Blake, Anne Woodward, Angela C Nurse, Andrea Corzatt, BR Dexter, ZA Gowland, WA Leggatt, Trey Montague, Tommy Wills, Morgan Delaney, Kate Baker, Karen Storey, Julian Barr, Jocelyn Sordoni, GM White, GB Ralph, Gareth Lewis, Emmanuella Dekonor, Andrew Guile, Andrew Chapman, Alex Weight, SC Gowland.
There are some fun questions (and answers!) in this Q&A that I did for that most-excellent thriller writer Max Elwood on his blog. To find out what book I think should be adapted as a movie, how I organise my bookshelves, and why I think Amazon is both the best and worst thing to happen to publishing, click on the image below…
Let’s try again, shall we? After the Starlink failure this week, we’re going to have another go at a livestream with the magnificent ROWAN COLEMAN on MONDAY 28th JULY, 8pm BST!
Rowan Coleman is the internationally bestselling and award winning author and screenwriter of many novels including THE MEMORY BOOK, THE SUMMER OF IMPOSSIBLE THINGS and THE GIRL AT THE WINDOW. Her latest novel NEVER TEAR US APART is out now, and under the name Stella Hayward she’ll be publishing THE GOOD BOY in September (about a dog who turns into a man)… Rowan and I have also been working together on a few collaborations, so we might chat about that too. Who knows? You will if you show up! Do please join us live as you’ll have the opportunity to ask Rowan questions on the night. It’s going to be so much fun. Monday 28th July 8pm BST.
Rowan Coleman is the internationally bestselling and award winning author and screenwriter of many novels including THE MEMORY BOOK, THE SUMMER OF IMPOSSIBLE THINGS and THE GIRL AT THE WINDOW.
Her latest novel NEVER TEAR US APART is out now, and under the name Stella Hayward she’ll be publishing THE GOOD BOY in September (about a dog who turns into a man)…
Do please join us live as you’ll have the opportunity to ask Rowan questions on the night (we’ve also written on a number of projects together, and we’ll definitely be chatting about that!). It’s going to be so much fun. Thursday 24th July 8pm BST.
A reminder: the live show is just that, live and raw and things can go wrong including stuff that gets edited out of the final podcast, but… it’s also your opportunity to ask questions of the guests. So if you have a question for Rowan, join us and get involved.
I was delighted to be featured on the Author Interviews site for an all-new batch of questions. I reveal my favourite writing tools, the most non-writery thing I do, and my favourite scene from The Corn Bride and more. Click on my grinning mug below for the whole interview…
I had a great time at last year’s Steampunk Day and I’m delighted to be returning this year! Although my books aren’t overtly steampunk (though the End of Magic trilogy gets more steampunky in books 2 and 3: airships, steam power, industry etc) I find that the steampunk community is polite, cheerful, immaculately-dressed and wonderfully open to trying new fiction.
There’s plenty to do on the day — lots of stalls, good food and music — and you get to hop on a steam train and blast through the English countryside! Treat yourself…
MARK: What small thing has made a big difference to your creative process?
NICOLA: I think planning the middle, really. Because I used to plan the end and then, you know, your characters do their decisions, and then it would be like, hey, guess what? This 90,000 word novel is 130,000 words. And now I’m like; if I know the middle, it is much easier to stay on track. I think that’s probably the biggest change for me. I think in terms of, yeah, stopping me from going absolutely bananas. But also like a piece of information like… we talk about the German market: I was in a, a workshop with Imogen Cooper, and she said that if you translate a book into German, it adds almost a third onto the length of the book. When you consider translation costs, and paper costs, and ink costs and all the rest of it, it was like, whoa. Because up to that point I was like, it’s not that big a deal to cut some words, but actually, you realise in terms of making it appealing… So those two things together really focus me on not overwriting, not just enjoying myself forever and meandering off down wherever, and just keep me focused.
MARK: So yeah, yeah, I see that’s a very good point. The German editions of my books are quite chunky, but I just thought it was because they were a slightly smaller format. But that makes complete sense now. And when you when you talk about planning the middle… because for many people this is one of the most difficult parts, because the opening is all fun and games, the middle act is where you need to escalate and things have lots of consequences and sooner or later you have to tie these things up. How are you planning that middle?
NICOLA: So it’s that big shift. What’s the big change that is going to happen? That gear change. So when I’ve decided like what’s the big turning point, where everything sort of goes up a gear, once I know what that is, then it keeps me on track. And it means that my characters are never… You know, it’s like keeping the target in sight so they can’t veer off too much. You know, if you do what the characters want you to do, you will end up so far away from where you need to be. And editing for word count is probably one of the most painful versions of editing. When you’re trying to shave off 40,000 words and you’re going, ‘I can’t possibly!’ but you have to. Learning the hard way is also a very big motivator.
Nicola Whyte’s debut whodunnit 10 MARCHFIELD SQUARE has been getting rave reviews and I’m delighted that she’ll be joining me on the next livestream.
Nicola’s work has been listed for the Comedy Women in Print Prize, the Cheshire Novel Prize, the Daily Mail First Novel Competition, the BPA First Novel Award, and the Times Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition.
Join us live to join the conversation about writing whodunnits, being a debut novelist, and all those little things that make a big difference to the creative process.
As always, it promises to be a fun evening, so pop that date in your diary…
Before you watch this clip, take a moment to describe a house (maybe even write it down), then watch this clip with bestselling author Sarah Pinborough whose novel WE LIVE HERE NOW is out now (and is set in a very spooky house!) and was partly inspired by this exercise — Credit to author Mark Chadbourn for the exercise!
TRANSCRIPT
SARAH: You know the author Mark Chadbourn?
MARK: Yes. Yes, yeah I do. Yeah.
SARAH: We were at an event somewhere, and he was doing this thing where you have to describe a house. So he was like, describe this house, da-da-da-da… And so, he goes, ‘Is there a path?’ ‘Yeah, it’s kind of a stone house.’ ‘Where is it?’ ‘It’s on its own, in the middle of nowhere. It’s quite a cold place. It’s quite forbidding. It’s kind of oppressive, doesn’t want you to come in and blah, blah, blah.’ But then when I got to the end of this, he said, when you get people to describe a house, it describes their emotional… How they view relationships and their emotional thing. And this idea of no one’s coming in my house. And actually when I look back, I’m like, well, here I am, single at 53 (laughs), and I maybe there was something in it, but it’s kind of that house in my head that I pictured then, you know, like this kind of in the middle of nowhere on its own, doing its own thing house.
Mark Stay Writes 