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.
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…
Special guest Nicola Whyte, debut writer of 10 Marchfield Square, reveals how writing for herself led to a breakthrough…
TRANSCRIPT:
MARK: What’s the best happy accident of your writing career?
NICOLA: Well, it might have been that Times Chicken House one. Subbing that in at the last minute… But actually, it kind of turned me off writing for children for a bit because the subbing after that was brutal. And so I thought, I’m just, you know what: I’m done. I’m done trying to please people and do whatever… So I’m just going to write whatever makes me happy. And of course, that was Marchfield, so…
MARK: You said earlier about writing for yourself and writing super long books or whatever, but I think that’s the key to it, though, isn’t it? You’ve got to write… You can’t chase the market. You’ve got to write what you love, and what you’re passionate about. And when those stars aligned in terms of; the market’s ready for it, then great things will happen. So, I think that’s the lesson to be learned from that. And writing for kids… I’ve tried it. It’s the hardest thing ever. It really is such a such a difficult market.
I was honoured to be asked to be a judge on this wonderful short story competition. There’s no entry fee and there’s a generous and warm spirit behind all this. Discover more here…
Special guest Nicola Whyte, debut writer of 10 Marchfield Square, reveals how to look up murdering people online without drawing the attention of the authorities (and Mark has a book recommendation)…
TRANSCRIPT
MARK: As a crime writer, do you get why people will see your internet search history and incriminate yourself? Well, this I mean, I think any writer will, will worry about this. So what was the strangest thing you’ve had to look up?
NICOLA: I mean, every now and again, I will suffix it with ‘for a crime novel’ on the end, just in case. Like that gets me out of jail free. I don’t know what is the most incriminating…? I think, probably, undetectable poisons these days. I think it’s quite hard now to come up with an undetectable poison.
MARK: I bought a book called Deadly Doses, which is a really good book on poisons, so I don’t have to look it up anymore. You remember books, don’t you?
NICOLA: Yeah, offline; innocence is what you’re saying.
MARK: Yeah. Absolutely.
NICOLA: Yeah. Yeah, I think so. I found some interesting stuff….
MARK: (Holds book up) Yes. A Writer’s guide to Poisons.
NICOLA: Yeah. Okay. I’m going to get that.
MARK: Essential reading.
NICOLA: I had to do some very dodgy case study reading on antifreeze poisoning.
MARK: Right?
NICOLA: The Americans, they poison each other countries a lot. You know, I think they have a lot of, like, deserts and things that are very brightly coloured and sweet. And, yeah, there’s a lot of people trying it almost — almost ! — not quite getting away with antifreeze poisoning.
My special guest on the Creative Differences podcast, Nicola Whyte, debut writer of 10 Marchfield Square, reveals that her biggest mistake may have been querying too much…
TRANSCRIPT
MARK: What’s the biggest mistake you’ve ever made in your writing career?
NICOLA: Probably querying too much… like, querying a book too much. When I knew the market wasn’t ready. But I kept querying because I was so sure that somebody would see the potential. And then, of course, what happens is the market shifts and everybody’s already seen it, and you can’t send it out again. So I think that definitely that happened to me with a cosy crime novel I wrote in 2019, and everybody was going ‘Cosy? No, we don’t… nobody publishes this. It’s got to be really dark. That’s what we like dark, dark, dark, dark. And I’d sent it to everybody and got the same (response): I really enjoyed this. I love the pitch. I love the title. But, no, we don’t publish this at all. Ooh, Richard Osman? Hello! And I had literally sent it to everyone, so it’s currently in a drawer awaiting its time.
MARK: Maybe it will have its time at some point. I still think your biggest mistake was not finishing the robot silent witness book, you know?
NICOLA: Oh, you’re gonna love it, Mark.
MARK: I am first in line. First in line for that one.
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.
Mark Stay Writes 