Happy New Year! Let's start 2024 with a bumper episode from a fantastic historical fiction author. D.V Bishop has published 3 'Cesare Aldo' novels, and the 4th is on the way. He's won the CWA Historical Dagger Award, and his novels are highly commended across the board.

His newest novel is 'Ritual of Fire'. It takes you to 1538 Florence, where a rich merchant is found hanged and set ablaze in the centre of the city, as a warning to put the fear of God into Florence... only Cesare Aldo can discover what's happening.

We talk through the process of planning historical fiction, how much he's strict on sticking to the facts of the day, and what happens when he's got something wrong. You can hear how he overcomes the challenges of using language approriate for the 1500s, why word-count isn't the end of the world, and what writing tie-in fiction is really like... how does it feel to be responsible for some of the most famous characters in the world.

This week's episode is sponsored by 'Who is the Cheese Wire Killer?', a true-crime podcast about Scotland's most gruesome unsolved murder... which is being solved at this moment. Take a listen wherever you get your shows.

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