This episode I chat to Peter Newman, author of Fantasy trilogy THE VAGRANT, THE MALICE and THE SEVEN, and - released in the UK *this week* (!) - his latest, THE DEATHLESS. I grill him for precious, precious info on how he builds worlds, his philosophy on creating characters, and what makes Fantasy so compelling. We end up chatting about everything from roleplaying on school buses, to why goats make the perfect jesters to critique humankind. Whatever genre you write in, there are bucketloads of down-to-earth advice from an experienced author on how to keep writing and find the good stuff. This is a great episode to listen to if you want to know: - what makes a good protagonist? - how do I write stories set in a dystopia? - how do I make my readers care about my characters? - what's Grimdark Fantasy and should I write it? - what are good ways to think about world-building? - how can I convey my world while keeping the story going? - what things do readers need to know, and when? Peter Newman's latest novel (out this week!) is THE DEATHLESS, and you can grab yourself a copy here: https://wordery.com/the-deathless-peter-newman-9780008228989#oid=1908_1 But you should read all Pete's novels! (I enjoyed them) A good place to start is THE VAGRANT, which we discuss on the podcast: https://wordery.com/the-vagrant-peter-newman-9780007593132#oid=1908_1 2nd in the trilogy is THE MALICE: https://wordery.com/the-malice-peter-newman-9780007593194#oid=1908_1 And it closes with THE SEVEN: https://wordery.com/the-seven-peter-newman-9780008180164#oid=1908_1 You can grab my novel, THE HONOURS, here: https://wordery.com/the-honours-tim-clare-9781782114765#oid=1908_1 You can also drop me a couple of bucks directly to help with the show's overheads, via my ko-fi page: ko-fi.com/timclare Thank you!