Jasper Fforde is the critically acclaimed author of The Last Dragonslayer series: THE LAST DRAGONSLAYER, THE SONG OF THE QUARKBEAST and THE EYE OF ZOLTAR, SHADES OF GREY, the Nursery Crime books: THE BIG OVER EASY and THE FOURTH BEAR and the Thursday Next novels: THE EYRE AFFAIR, LOST IN A GOOD BOOK, THE WELL OF LOST PLOTS, SOMETHING ROTTEN, FIRST AMONG SEQUELS, ONE OF OUR THURSDAYS IS MISSING and THE WOMAN WHO DIED A LOT. His latest book is RED SIDE STORY, a sequel to Shades of Grey. We really enjoyed this chat with Jasper, hearing about how he dealt with initial rejections, and why you must ..read more

Eliza Chan is a Scottish-born speculative fiction author. Her short fiction has been published in The Dark, Podcastle, Fantasy Magazine and The Best of British Fantasy. Her debut novel FATHOMFOLK — inspired by mythology, ESEAN cities and diaspora feels — was published by Orbit in Feb 2024 and hit number 1 on the Sunday Times bestseller list. We had a great chat with Eliza, talking about the differences in writing short- and long-form fiction, as well as the growing acceptance of wider representation in publishing. Plus, we talk about why Twitter isn't all bad (!) and hear about hopping v ..read more

Antony Johnston is one of the most versatile writers of the modern era, with a body of work spanning books, film, graphic novels, videogames, and non-fiction. An award-winning author and New York Times bestseller, his creations include Atomic Blonde, The Dog Sitter Detective, the Brigitte Sharp thrillers, and many more. We loved chatting with Antony and hearing how he got his start as a professional writer through comics and graphic novels, including writing The Coldest City, which was the graphic novel on which the film Atomic Blonde was based. We also chat abou ..read more

James Logan (also known as James Long) has worked for years in the publishing industry, currently as Senior Commissioning Editor for Orbit. But for years, he harboured a secret - he really wanted to write his own fantasy epics instead of just editing them - and he has achieved that dream with his debut novel, THE SILVERBLOOD PROMISE, which is out in April 2024, and has already received rave reviews, including from the likes of Scott Lynch. We really enjoyed chatting with James and hearing about his work on the publishing side of the fence, editing authors such as Richard Swan, as well as his ..read more

This episode is also available as a full video interview on our YouTube channel Felicity Blunt has been a literary agent with Curtis Brown since 2005, and represents authors that span the literary to commercial spectrum, including Booker Prize shortlisted Claire Keegan, Women's Prize shortlisted Meg Mason, Rosamund Lupton, Renée Knight and Gillian McAllister in addition to NYT bestselling debut authors Abi Daré and Bonnie Garmus. Gráinne Fox is a literary agent with UTA and represents award-winning novelists, New York Times bestselling journalists and academics. Her clients have been shortli ..read more

A slightly different - but bumper-length - episode this time as we are joined by authors Nick Binge and Dave Goodman for our review of 2023! Nick is a previous podcast guest and is an internationally bestselling author of speculative fiction, sci-fi, and horror. His novels include Ascension and Professor Everywhere. Dave is a thriller and SFF novelist and short story author with stories in Clarkesworld and Analog. His debut novel is coming from a major publisher in 2024. We loved finishing off the year chatting with Dave and Nick about their writing highlights and hearing about what they ha ..read more

Cassandra Khaw is an award-winning game writer, and USA Today bestseller. Khaw's work can be found in places like Fantasy & Science Fiction, Lightspeed, and Tor.com. Khaw's first original novella, Hammers on Bone, was a British Fantasy award and Locus award finalist. Richard Kadrey is the New York Times bestselling author of the Sandman Slim supernatural noir series. Sandman Slim was included in Amazon’s “100 Science Fiction & Fantasy Books to Read in a Lifetime,” and is in development as a feature film. Some of Kadrey’s other books include King Bullet, The Grand Dark, Butcher Bird, a ..read more

Gareth Rubin writes about social affairs, travel and the arts for British newspapers. In 2013 he directed a documentary about therapeutic art at the Bethlem Royal Hospital in London ('Bedlam'). His books include Liberation Square, set in Soviet-occupied London; The Winter Agent, about British agents in Paris on the eve of D-Day and The Turnglass, two entwined mysteries that take place in Essex in 1881 and Los Angeles in 1939. We loved chatting with Gareth and hearing how he moved into writing fiction from journalism, why he thinks you should never give your book to friends to read, and w ..read more

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