Stacy Willingham has just published her debut novel, 'A Flicker in the Dark'. The novel follows Chloe Davis, whose world was torn apart at 12 years old when her father confessed to the murder of six teenage girls in their small Louisiana town. 20 years later, Chloe is a successful psychologist in Baton Rouge. But when a local girl disappears, she starts to unravel. The rights have been optioned by the actress Emma Stone, and it's currently being developed for HBO Max. We talk about how it feels to have so many writers dreams seem to be coming true. Stacy worked full-time in marketing and copywriting before publishing novels and we discuss how writing snappy slogans has affected the way she tells stories. You can hear about her specifically designed writing space, also why she moves around for the second draft, and how other authors inspire what she writes.You can support the show at patreon.com/writersroutine@writerspodwritersroutine.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nadine Matheson is busy. Busy, busy, busy. She works as a criminal lawyer, has found time to go back to school, and publish her debut novel, 'The Jigsaw Man'.The book is a police procedural about Inspector Henley, tasked with finding the killer of bodies found along the River Thames in London. It's set in the area she grew up and we talk about why she wanted, and how she managed, to accurately portray her ends of the City.We talk about how she gets inspiration from her work as a criminal lawyer, how comic books help her plot, and why she ended up back to school accidentally.You can support the show at patreon.com/writersroutine.@writerspodwritersroutine.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we chat to Rudy Ruiz, about his new novel, 'The Resurrection of Fulgencio Ramirez'. Rudy has been a finalist for the International Latino Book Awards, and has written extensively about the Mexican/ US border. The new book weaves that social activism into a novel, telling the story of a man seeking redemption and the American Dream in the face of a mystical family curse. We talk about where the idea came from, how Mexican songs helped shaped the story, and why culture and heritage plays such a big role in his writing.You can support the show at patreon.com/writersroutine@writerspodwritersroutine.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ellen Alpsten has worked in TV, as a producer and presenter, she's won short story competitions, teaches creative writing, and has just published her second book, 'The Tsarina's Daughter'. It's based on Catherine the 1st of Russia's daughter, Elizabeth.We talk about research, how she knows want to look into next, and how she blends historical fact with fiction. Also you can hear how getting published completely changed the way she writes, and get inspired by her publication story.You can support the show at patreon.com/writersroutine.@writerspodwritersroutine.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Harriet Kline is an award-winning short story writer. 'Ghost' won the Hissac short story competition, 'Chest of Drawers', the London Magazine short story competition. Her work has been published online, in magazines and played out on BBC Radio.Her debut novel is 'This Shining Life'. It's all about Ruth, who loses her husband Rich, and sets out on a mission with her son Ollie to solve puzzles he left for them, in a bid to discover the meaning of life. It's funny, beautiful and about love and loss. It was inspired by the sad death of a friend, which oddly made her feel more alive than ever, and also her work as a registrar, where she is surrounded by life and death all day. We talk about how she tried to find the meaning of life while writing the story, also why it started out as many short stories, and about the monster that gets her to work in the morning.You can support the show at patreon.com/writersroutine@writerspodwritersroutine.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Paul Bradley Carr has spent his career as a journalist uncovering the dark side of Silicon Valley. He's reported on it for The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, Private Eye, and many more. He founded NSFWCorp in Las Vegas, and hosted the nightly NSFWLive radio show. Now he's taken that experience to pen his first work of fiction, '1414 Degrees'.It's not Paul's first published book. He's written memoirs 'The Upgrade', 'Bringing Nothing to the Party', Sober is my New Drunk', and 'We'll Always Have the Flamingo', which document his life travelling around the world, living in hotels and getting sober.'1414 Degrees' is a murder mystery set in Silicon Valley, with Lou McCarthy investigating someone murdering billionaires. We talk about why he leaves everything late, how he became a memoirist, what writing columns taught him about telling stories, and how much he knows about where the story is heading.You can support the show at patreon.com/writersroutine@writerspodwritersroutine.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, we're joined by Anna Kent, with her sort-of-debut novel, 'The House of Whispers'.See Anna Kent, is also Annabel Kantaria, who has already published 4 books. This is her first as Anna Kent. It's domestic noir, so treads the line between eerie psychological thriller, and chilling whodunnits at home. We talk about how she learned to write genre, and what she pays attention to when structuring the novel, also how she knows when to carry on writing.'The House of Whispers' tells the story of Grace and Abi, friends who parted ways at Uni. Then Grace returns into Abi's life... and they slip back into the comforts of each other's lethal charm and company.You can hear how she got published, about the contest she entered, and the meeting with a publisher that changed her life.You can support the show at patreon.com/writersroutine@writerspodwritersroutine.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sarah Alderson is busy. Busy, busy, busy. So busy, she takes a break from her writing job to write the novels she loves. Sarah works as a screenwriter in LA for S.W.A.T on CBS, and finds tiny slithers of time to get books down. In the past, this has led her to getting a draft done in 10 days. She's written YA, psychological thrillers, her novel 'The Weekend Away' has been adapted for Netflix, published romance stories under a pseudonym, and her new novel 'The Stalker', is out now. It's about newlyweds Liam and Laura, honeymooning on a secluded island, who realise quickly... they aren't as alone as they thought.We talk about the quotes that help her carry on, also why she escaped the world to start her writing career, and why she's become strategic in her plotting in order to get stuff done quickly. You can hear about life in a bustling, competitive L.A writer's room, why she started planning after 10 novels of pantsing, and why she's begun saying no.You can support the show at patreon.com/writersroutine@writerspodwritersroutine.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our first guest of 2022 is Rosanna Amaka. Her debut novel is 'The Book of Echoes', which tells the story of 16 year old Michael, always in trouble, who falls in love with Ngozi, a young Nigerian immigrant. It was shortlisted for The Author's Club First Novel award, also the RSL Christopher Bland Prize, and the HWA Debut Crown Award. It's a story Rosanna has tried to get published for 20 years, and she reveals the secrets to how it finally happened.We talk about the creative buzz of the area she wrote the novel in, and how that affected things, also how the story drove her to write on, and why it's told through the eyes of the spirit of an African Slave.You can support the show on patreon.com/writersroutine.@writerspodwritersroutine.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For our last episode of the year, we chat to psychological thriller debutant Alice Hunter. Her book is 'The Serial Killer's Wife', and tells the story of Beth Hardcastle, whose perfect marriage is obliterated when the police show up and report her husband Tom is missing.Alice worked in prisons, part of a team offering rehabilitation courses to in-mates, often those who'd committed violent crimes. That, and her psychology degree, offered her vast experience to write the book. We talk about how conversations with in-mates wives prompted the idea for the book, and then how she streamlined the idea and worked on character.You can hear about Alice's working day, her chaotic work-space, and how lockdown affected her enthusiasm to write.You can support the show at patreon.com/writersroutine.@writerspodwritersroutine.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.