Tag: books

Pernille Hughes: Lock Yourself in a Room | Mark Stay’s Creative Differences Episode 15

Pernille Hughes is the author of TEN YEARS, PROBABLY THE BEST KISS IN THE WORLD and PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE; novels brimming with warmth, wit and unforgettable characters. And now she’s back with her new novel A COPENHAGEN SNOWMANCE, which is here to herald in Christmas. Yes, I said the C-word! What of it??

WE DISCUSS:

Discovering your voice

Hygge

Hero drafts

Finding your tribe

Writing on HRT and why you should lock yourself in a room with a glass of wine when writing… and much more!

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST

Or watch it on Youtube…

LINKS

Pernille’s website: http://www.pernillehughes.com 

Writing Regency England by Jayne Davis: https://www.jaynedavisromance.co.uk/writing-regency-england/

What’s Giving us Joy…

Celebrity Traitors: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Celebrity_Traitors 

Slow Horses: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_Horses

The Great Pottery Throw Down: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Pottery_Throw_Down

Ludovico Einaudi: https://ludovicoeinaudi.com/ 

Vitamin String Quartet: https://www.vitaminstringquartet.com/

Mr MC Grammar: https://www.mrmcgrammar.com/ 

Christmas on Fifth Avenue by Julie Caplin: (I earn commission if you click on this link) https://amzn.to/4paxDP1

Christmas at the Scottish Lodge by Donna Ashcroft: (I earn commission if you click on this link) https://amzn.to/48zsM3V

Cressida McLaughlin, The Secret Mistletoe Promise: (I earn commission if you click on this link) https://amzn.to/49Af4yT

Human Croquet by Kate Atkinson: (I earn commission if you click on this link) https://amzn.to/4og65Gy

Alan Partridge: How Are You?: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m002hcb7/how-are-you-its-alan-partridge 

Katherine Priddy: Matches: https://www.katherinepriddy.co.uk/home/ 

A huge thanks to Emily for production assistance, to Kai Newton for the edit, and Dominic Currie for the jingle. 

Support the show

Visit https://markstaycreativedifferences.com/
Join The Green Room: https://ko-fi.com/markstaywriter/tiers
Buy my books here: https://witchesofwoodville.com/#bookshop
And there’s more about me at: https://markstaywrites.com/

Jeevani Charika on the Creative Differences Livestream

Jeevani Charika (‘Jeev’) writes award nominated romantic women’s fiction and romcoms. She also writes under the name Rhoda Baxter.
She is a ‘resting’ microbiologist – she used to study Rhodabacter species, which is why her other pen name is Rhoda Baxter. She lives in Yorkshire in the UK, where she enjoys eating cake, playing with Lego and, when she’s run out of excuses, writing.
She has a YouTube channel teaching authors how to use Canva to make marketing graphics and her latest book How Can I Resist You is out now!

Join us on TUESDAY 18th NOVEMBER, 8PM GMT

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Cabin at the Movies Saturday 1 November 2025

Local novelist and screenwriter Mark Stay joins me for this latest edition of Cabin at the Movies to choose his favourite horror movies. They include…

Cabin at the Movies Saturday 1 November 2025

DATE CHANGE: Pernille Hughes on the Creative Differences Livestream

Sorry folks, but the next livestream is now on Monday 3rd November, 8pm GMT. My apologies for any inconvenience!

Pernille Hughes is the author of TEN YEARS, PROBABLY THE BEST KISS IN THE WORLD and PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE; novels brimming with warmth, wit and unforgettable characters. And now she’s back with her new novel A COPENHAGEN SNOWMANCE, which is here to herald in Christmas. Yes, I said the C-word! What of it??
Join the conversation LIVE on Monday 3rd November at 8PM GMT for what promises to be another cracking episode of the podcast that dares to shop early for Christmas.

JOIN US ON FACEBOOK

Or join on Youtube…

Pernille Hughes on the Creative Differences Livestream

Pernille Hughes is the author of TEN YEARS, PROBABLY THE BEST KISS IN THE WORLD and PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE; novels brimming with warmth, wit and unforgettable characters. And now she’s back with her new novel A COPENHAGEN SNOWMANCE, which is here to herald in Christmas. Yes, I said the C-word! What of it??
Join the conversation LIVE on Thursday 9th October at 8PM BST for what promises to be another cracking episode of the podcast that dares to shop early for Christmas.

JOIN US ON FACEBOOK

Or on Youtube…

GD Wright: A Weird Way of Getting Published | Mark Stay’s Creative Differences Episode 13

GD Wright is the author of the bestselling AFTER THE STORM and INTO THE FIRE, and he’s genuinely one of the nicest guys in the business with an extraordinary tale to tell: he was a copper, then due to health issues had to retire aged 30, and if you know Gary at all you’ll know that he’s had a few challenges this year… but he’s come through and was an amazing guest on the livestream. He talks frankly his strange route to publication, creating a writing habit, how his work was optioned when he was self-published and much, much more…

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST

Or watch it on Youtube…

LINKS

GD Wright’s website

Love Never Dies

Alien: Earth 

Fisk

Ring the Bells 

Brett McKenzie

A huge thanks to Emily Stay for production assistance, to Kai Newton for the edit, and Dominic Currie for the jingle. 

Lucy Strange on the Creative Differences Livestream

Lucy Strange is an award-winning children’s author whose books feel like classic children’s literature, but are written in a style that is engaging and accessible for today’s younger readers. Most recently she’s collaborated with artist Pam Smy on their spooky, funny new series Lockett & Wilde’s Dreadfully Haunting Mysteries!

Often inspired by folklore and fairy tales, Lucy combines historical settings with touches of magic and fantasy to create utterly convincing worlds in which anything might happen…

And before becoming a professional writer, Lucy worked as an English teacher for fifteen years. Having also trained and worked as an actor, Lucy narrates her own audiobooks, winning the 2019 Audie Award for The Secret of Nightingale Wood.

I hope you can join us live on TUESDAY 23RD SEPTEMBER 8pm BST.

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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?

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…

LISTEN TO THE PODCASTS

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.

DISCOVER MORE ABOUT THE GREEN ROOM

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!

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.

LISTEN TO THE WHOLE PODCAST

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