Page One - The Writer's Podcast

Daniel Abraham is a bestselling science fiction and fantasy author who has written books including the bestselling The Expanse series of books (along with Ty Franck, under the joint name of James SA Corey), which is now a smash hit series on Amazon Prime. He has also written screenplays for The Expanse, written graphic novel adaptations of George R R Martin's Game of Thrones books.We had great fun chatting with Daniel, hearing about how he moved into the writing world, how The Expanse came about from playing a role playing game and chat about the differences between writing for TV, novels and comics. We also get some great advice on how to deal with confrontational social media users, chat about why there is a snobbery against some genre fiction and hear whether or not there will be any more Expanse after next year's novel, Leviathan Falls...Links:Buy Daniel's books (and James SA Corey's books)Visit Daniel's websiteFollow Daniel on TwitterFollow James SA Corey on TwitterWatch our video panel Page One Sessions as we discuss writing with great authors: https://youtu.be/gmE6iCDYn-sThe Page One Podcast is brought to you by Write Gear, creators of Page One - the Writer's Notebook. Learn more and order yours now: https://www.writegear.co.uk/page-oneFollow us on Twitter: @write_gearFollow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/WriteGearUK/Follow us on Instagram: write_gear_uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Joe Abercrombie's debut fantasy novel, The Blade Itself, was a huge hit when it was published in 2006, and was swiftly followed by the other books in what became The First Law Trilogy. Since then, he's never really stopped writing, with a series of acclaimed standalone and young adult novels. Most recently, he has returned the the world of the First Law with the first two books of the Age of Madness trilogy, A Little Hatred and The Trouble with Peace. The final book in the trilogy, The Wisdom of Crowds, is out in 2021.We had great fun chatting with Joe as he told us how he transitioned from working as TV editor to writing novels, and how he reworked a far-too-pompous fantasy novel into the darkly humourous The Blade Itself. We also hear how he manages to keep completing these epic fantasy stories when others in the same genre seem to struggle, find out how he crafts these imaginary worlds, and talk about whether The First Law will ever come to TV or film...Links:Buy Joe's books now!Visit Joe's websiteFollow Joe on TwitterWatch our video panel Page One Sessions as we discuss writing with great authors: https://youtu.be/gmE6iCDYn-sThe Page One Podcast is brought to you by Write Gear, creators of Page One - the Writer's Notebook. Learn more and order yours now: https://www.writegear.co.uk/page-oneFollow us on Twitter: @write_gearFollow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/WriteGearUK/Follow us on Instagram: write_gear_uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Peng Shepherd was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, where she rode horses and trained in classical ballet, and has lived in Beijing, Kuala Lumpur, London, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, New York, and Las Vegas. Her first novel, The Book of M, won the 2019 Neukom Institute for Literary Arts Award for Debut Speculative Fiction, and was chosen as a best book of the year by Amazon, Elle, Refinery29, and The Verge, as well as a best book of the summer by the Today Show and NPR On Point. A graduate of the NYU MFA program, Peng is the recipient of a 2020 fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as the Elizabeth George Foundation’s emerging writers 2016 grant. Her next novel, The Cartographers, comes out in 2021.We had a great chat with Peng about her route to publication, and hear about her amazingly quick path to picking up an agent and a publisher. We also hear about her writing process (no planning!) and find out that she may be the only person in the world who doesn't know the ending to Game of Thrones...Links:Buy The Book of M nowFollow Peng on TwitterVisit Peng's websiteWatch our video panel Page One Sessions as we discuss writing with great authors: https://youtu.be/gmE6iCDYn-sThe Page One Podcast is brought to you by Write Gear, creators of Page One - the Writer's Notebook. Learn more and order yours now: https://www.writegear.co.uk/page-oneFollow us on Twitter: @write_gearFollow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/WriteGearUK/Follow us on Instagram: write_gear_uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Benjamin Dreyer is vice president, executive managing editor and copy chief of Random House US. He has overseen books by writers including Michael Chabon, Edmund Morris, Suzan-Lori Parks, Michael Pollan, Peter Straub, and Calvin Trillin. He has copyedited books by authors including EL Doctorow, David Ebershoff, Frank Rich and Elizabeth Strout. He has also recently written Dreyer's English, a brilliant and highly amusing grammar and style guide. He has also created the related card game Stet! in which players test their copyediting skills.We had great fun chatting to Benjamin as we find out how he stumbled into the publishing world, learn about the differences between a copy editor and "editor editor" (as he calls them) and hear about what happens when authors don't take kindly to copy editing suggestions! We also get a sneak preview of his next book, and, of course, find out whether he prefers real books or ebooks (hint: Tariq wasn't happy...!)Links:Buy Dreyer's English and Stet!Follow Benjamin on TwitterWatch our video panel Page One Sessions as we discuss writing with great authors: https://youtu.be/gmE6iCDYn-sThe Page One Podcast is brought to you by Write Gear, creators of Page One - the Writer's Notebook. Learn more and order yours now: https://www.writegear.co.uk/page-oneFollow us on Twitter: @write_gearFollow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/WriteGearUK/Follow us on Instagram: write_gear_uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Cathy Bramley is the Sunday Times Top Ten best-selling author of THE LEMON TREE CAFE. Her other romantic comedies include Ivy Lane, Appleby Farm, Wickham Hall, Conditional Love, The Plumberry School of Comfort Food and White Lies and Wishes. Cathy turned to writing after spending eighteen years running her own marketing agency. Her latest book is My Kind of Happy.We had a great chat with Cathy, hearing about why she decided to start writing books, and how she planned (and made a huge success of) self-publishing her first book - a story which includes The Guinness Book of World Records! We also talk about her unusual but successful approach of serialising her novels, and also get lots of great hints and tips on writing. And, of course, she tells us whether she prefers ebooks or real books...Links:Buy My Kind of Happy and Cathy's other booksVisit Cathy's websiteWatch our video panel Page One Sessions as we discuss writing with great authors: https://youtu.be/gmE6iCDYn-sThe Page One Podcast is brought to you by Write Gear, creators of Page One - the Writer's Notebook. Learn more and order yours now: https://www.writegear.co.uk/page-oneFollow us on Twitter: @write_gearFollow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/WriteGearUK/Follow us on Instagram: write_gear_uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Owen Nicholls is a screenwriter with a Masters in Scriptwriting from the University of East Anglia. His first screenplay -- a biopic of the filmmakers Powell and Pressburger -- was optioned to Bedlam Productions, the BAFTA and Academy Award-winning producers of The King's Speech. His work has appeared in Empire and NME, and in 2018 he was selected for the Escalator Scheme run by the National Centre For Writing. Love, Unscripted is his first novel.We had a great time talking with Owen about the differences between screenwriting and novel writing, and hear why he decided to make Love, Unscripted his first novel. He also gives some great advice about writing in both formats, and we hear why he think Fight Club is really a rom com...Links:Buy Love, Unscripted now!Follow Owen on TwitterWatch our video panel Page One Sessions as we discuss writing with great authors: https://youtu.be/gmE6iCDYn-sThe Page One Podcast is brought to you by Write Gear, creators of Page One - the Writer's Notebook. Learn more and order yours now: https://www.writegear.co.uk/page-oneFollow us on Twitter: @write_gearFollow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/WriteGearUK/Follow us on Instagram: write_gear_uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dirk Maggs is the genius behind the audio adaptations of stories such as The Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy, The X Files, the William Gibson Alien 3 adaptation - and of course, Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman, which has been a huge (and well deserved) hit on Audible.We talk to Dirk to find out how he forged this career, and learn that he in effect created the idea of these “audio movies” (as he calls them) from scratch. From starting out at the BBC to working with Douglas Adams on the Hitchhiker’s Guide adaptation, right up to hearing about how he adapted the supposedly “impossible to adapt” The Sandman into such a brilliant production. Along the way, he gives us great hints and tips on writing for audio, and also drops in some great anecdotes about the likes of Adam West and James McAvoy!(We highly recommend listening to the whole episode, but The Sandman stuff starts at about 66 minutes!)Links:Listen to The Sandman on AudibleAnd all his other amazing Audio Movies!Visit Dirk’s websiteFollow Dirk on TwitterWatch our video panel Page One Sessions as we discuss writing with great authors: https://youtu.be/gmE6iCDYn-sThe Page One Podcast is brought to you by Write Gear, creators of Page One - the Writer's Notebook. Learn more and order yours now: https://www.writegear.co.uk/page-oneFollow us on Twitter: @write_gearFollow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/WriteGearUK/Follow us on Instagram: write_gear_uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ian Dunt is a political commentator and journalist. He is editor of politics.co.uk, an energetic presence on Twitter, and appears as a pundit on BBC TV, Sky News and Al-Jazeera. He is also the author of two books - Brexit: What the Hell Happens Now? and the just released How To Be A Liberal, which is an important, interesting and entertaining guide to the principles and practices of liberalism and shows why it remains our most powerful weapon to shatter the shiny lies of populists.We had great fun chatting with Ian as he told us about how he got started in journalism and hear about how he manages to distill complicated issues into easy-to-understand and entertaining pieces (clue - it's all thanks to Batman!). We also found out about the hell he went through writing How To Be a Liberal (it was worth it, Ian!) and learn about his unique but definitely soon-to-be popular "drunken drafting" technique.Oh, and of course we find out whether he prefers real books or e-books...(Warning - this episode is quite sweary!)Links:Buy How to Be a Liberal and Brexit: What the Hell HappenedVisit politics.co.ukFollow Ian on TwitterWatch our video panel Page One Sessions as we discuss writing with great authors: https://youtu.be/gmE6iCDYn-sThe Page One Podcast is brought to you by Write Gear, creators of Page One - the Writer's Notebook. Learn more and order yours now: https://www.writegear.co.uk/page-oneFollow us on Twitter: @write_gearFollow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/WriteGearUK/Follow us on Instagram: write_gear_uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lauren Beukes is the award-winning author of novels such as Zoo City, Broken Monsters, and, of course, the international bestseller, The Shining Girls. Her latest novel, Afterland, is a noir road-trip set in a post-pandemic America where 99.9% of the men have all been wiped out.We had a lot of fun chatting to Lauren about her writing career, hearing about how she managed to get her first publishing deal, and also how The Shining Girls catapulted her to international fame. We also talked about her love of collaboration, and what it is like to release a post-pandemic novel during a pandemic…Links:Buy Afterland and Lauren’s other booksVisit Lauren’s websiteWatch our video panel Page One Sessions as we discuss writing with great authors: https://youtu.be/gmE6iCDYn-sThe Page One Podcast is brought to you by Write Gear, creators of Page One - the Writer's Notebook. Learn more and order yours now: https://www.writegear.co.uk/page-oneFollow us on Twitter: @write_gearFollow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/WriteGearUK/Follow us on Instagram: write_gear_uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Alastair Campbell is best known for his role as Tony Blair’s chief spokesman and strategist. He has written several bestselling non-fiction and fiction books, including The Blair Years and Winners. A former 'Mind Champion of the Year', he is an ambassador for several mental health charities. His latest book, Living Better, is his honest, moving and life affirming account of his lifelong struggle with depression. We had a fascinating and fun chat with Alastair about how he moved from journalism into politics, and how important writing has been to him throughout his life. We chat about why he felt it was important to write Living Better now, and also get to hear whether he would rather have Burnley win the Premier League or Scotland win the World Cup…Links:Buy Living Better and Alastair’s other booksVisit Alastair’s websiteWatch our video panel Page One Sessions as we discuss writing with great authors: https://youtu.be/gmE6iCDYn-sThe Page One Podcast is brought to you by Write Gear, creators of Page One - the Writer's Notebook. Learn more and order yours now: https://www.writegear.co.uk/page-oneFollow us on Twitter: @write_gearFollow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/WriteGearUK/Follow us on Instagram: write_gear_uk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.