Not Too Busy To Write

Grace Timothy is a journalist and author of Is It My ADHD? On the podcast today Grace talks about getting a late diagnosis of ADHD and how wading through the misinformation online drove her to write a book in order to understand her own brain better. Is It My ADHD? is out 27th February This series of the podcast is sponsored by award winning audio book app xigxagListeners of Not Too Busy To Write can receive their second book FREE To redeem, download the xigxag app from the App Store or Google Play. Go to My xigxag/Settings, then click on Account. Under Vouchers, click on the ‘Enter code’ button and add your voucher code NTBTW to your account. After your first purchase, your second title will be free!You can purchase Is It My ADHD? on xigxag hereLinksIs It My ADHD? by Grace TimothyLost in Motherhood by Grace TimothyEarthed by Rebecca Schiller

Tessa Hadley is an award winning author of eight novels, many short story collections and one of my personal favourite writers. In this conversation Tessa talks with me about the pleasures and irresponsibility of the short story, her first novella The Party, writing as a performance and the benefits of publishing for the first time in mid life. This series of the podcast is sponsored by award winning audio book app xigxagListeners of Not Too Busy To Write can receive their second book FREE To redeem, download the xigxag app from the App Store or Google Play. Go to My xigxag/Settings, then click on Account. Under Vouchers, click on the ‘Enter code’ button and add your voucher code NTBTW to your account. After your first purchase, your second title will be free!You can purchase The Party on xigxag here.LinksThe Party - Tessa HadleyFree Love - Tessa HadleyBad Dreams - Tessa HadleyThe Best Intentions - Ingmar BergmanGoing Home - Tom LamontLong Island - Colm ToibinParades End - Ford Maddox FordWriting Literary Fiction with Tessa Hadley - Curtis Brown Creative Not Too Busy To Write on Substack

Daisy Buchanan is a bestselling author, journalist and broadcaster. Today we're talking about her latest book Read Yourself Happy and the unique power of books to make us feel better, as well as how reading makes us better writers.Read Yourself Happy is out nowThis series of the podcast is sponsored by award winning audio book app xigxagListeners of Not Too Busy To Write can receive their second book FREE To redeem, download the xigxag app from the App Store or Google Play. Go to My xigxag/Settings, then click on Account. Under Vouchers, click on the ‘Enter code’ button and add your voucher code NTBTW to your account. After your first purchase, your second title will be free!You can purchase Read Yourself Happy on xigxag hereLinksYou're Booked with Daisy BuchananCreative Confidence Clinic with Daisy BuchananBrigit Jones Diary - Helen FieldingExit Interview - Kristi CoulterCan You Ever Forgive Her? - Anthony TrollopeSo Thrilled For You - Holly BourneMad Woman - Bryony GordonThis Is Not A Pity Memoir - Abi MorganThe Come Up - Jonathan AbramsThe Lost Art of Keeping Secrets - Eva RiceHappy All The Time - Laurie ColwinMiddlemarch - George ElliotAlison - Lizzy StewartA Little Life - Hanya Yanagihara The Great Believers - Rebecca MakkaiDon't Look At Me Like That - Diana AthillRachel's Holiday - Marian KeyesI Capture the Castle - Dodi SmithProbably Nothing - Lauren BravoWhen Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit - Judith KerrCazelet Chronicles - Elizabeth Jane HowardInto the Woods - John Yorke

A little taster of what's to come in series 10 featuring Tessa Hadley, Daisy Buchanan and Grace Timothy.The new series begins 5th FebruaryYou can subscribe to Not Too Busy To Write on Substackpennywincer.substack.compennywincerwrites.comPenny on Instagram @pennywincer4bf661332a54c42dda99f791c1378d9407200820

Join me for a special episode digging deep into the Women's Prize Discoveries 2025, a prize and program for unpublished women fiction writers in the UK and Ireland, with two of this years judges Dreda Say Mitchell, an award winning and bestselling crime and mystery author and Chloe Timms, journalist, author and podcast host. We are joined by the winner of the inaugural Discoveries Prize 2021, Emma van Straaten, whose debut novel This Immaculate Body will be published in February. This episode is packed full of advice and will get you itching to pull out your Work in Progress and enter the prize.LinksWomen's Prize Discoveries 2025Girl, Missing - Dreda Say MitchellThe Seawomen - Chloe TimmsThis Immaculate Body - Emma van StraatenDreda Say Mitchell - dredamitchell.comChloe Timms - chloetimms.co.ukConfessions of A Debut Novelist with Chloe TimmsEmma van Straaten on Instagram @evswritesBook Proposal Group Program - pennywincerwrites.com/bookproposalgroupNot Too Busy To Write on Substack

Lucy Gough has come to writing via her career as a stylist and art director. From working in house at magazines, to freelance art direction with John Lewis and Marks and Spencer, Lucy took a leap of faith in lockdown, when all her work disappeared, and wrote a course on Interiors Styling. That creative risk changed everything fo her. In this episode we talk about what the journey looked like and the practical and creative challenges of writing an illustrated book.LinksThe Home Style Handbook - Lucy GoughLucy Gough's Online Interior Styling Courses - course.lucygoughstylist.comLucy Gough on Instagram @style_by_lucyHome Matters - Penny WincerPenny's Book Proposal Group Program - pennywincerwrites.comNot Too Busy To Write on Substack - pennywincer.substack.com

Alice Vincent is a writer and broadcaster, and the author of Rootbound: Rewilding a life and Why Women Grow: Stories of Soil, Sisterhood and Survival, both of which were longlisted for the Wainwright Prize. In this conversation we talk about how books begin and evolve for Alice, how she structures her time between columns, book writing and her newsletter and finding home in a balcony garden.LinksWhy Women Grow - Alice VincentRootbound - Alice VincentHark - Alice Vincent (pre-order)Savour Newsletter - savour.substack.comHome Matters - Penny WincerNot Too Busy To Write on Substack - pennywincer.substack.comThe next Book Proposal Group Program begins Oct 1st. You can book your place at pennywincerwrites.comYou can find all the books from Series 9 of Not To Busy To Write at Bookshop.org

Sunday Times bestselling author Clover Stroud's latest book The Giant in the Skyline begins with a difficult decision about whether to uproot her family from their home in Oxfordshire in order to keep the family together, and leads to a pilgrimage of discovery about what it means to feel at home and belong. We talk about grief's affect on our feelings of belonging, how our experience of mothering is affected by our immediate environment and how her life has changed (and not changed) since her family's move from rural Oxfordshire to the suburbs of Washington DC. The next Non-Fiction Book Proposal Group Program begins Oct 1st. Visit pennywincerwrites.com/bookproposalgroup to grab your place. You'll also find information there for the Grant Place for writers on a low income.LinksThe Giant in the Skyline - Clover StroudThe Wild Other - Clover StroudHome Matters - Penny WincerClover Stroud on Substack - cloverstroud.substack.comNot Too Busy To Write on Substack - pennywincer.substack.comNon-Fiction Book Proposal Program - pennywincerwrites.com/bookproposalgroup

Kerri ni Dochartaigh is the award winning author of Thin Places and Cacophany of Bone. Kerri's work delves deep into home and belonging, from her childhood in Derry during the troubles, where her family were forced to leave their home, to an adulthood of wrestlessness, unable to find a feeling of home, until she returned to the Irish landscape of her early years. We talk about intergenerational trauma, what it means to our sense of safety and belonging to have a home forcibly removed, as so many are facing in the world today, and finding home in the Irish landscape, in community, in our bodies and ritual. We also talk about creativity and caregiving, and the joys of teaching and mentoring other writers. LinksThin Places - Kerri ni DochartaighCacophony of Bone - Kerri ni DochartaighIn The Garden: Essays on Nature and Growing (Daunt Books)The Garden Against Time - Olivia LaingUnearthed - Claire RatinonUprooting - Marchelle FarrellHome Matters - Penny WincerKerri on Substack kerrindochartaigh.substack.comPenny on Substack pennywincer.substack.com

The tables are turned for the first episode of series 9 - host Penny Wincer is being interviewed by author Caro Giles about her new book Home Matters. We talk about what draws Penny to write about home, digging beneath the surface of homes to find meaning behind the choices we make and how objects become portraits and tell stories about our lives and identities. We also talk about weaving memoir and non-fiction together, making choices about the personal and political aspects of the book and the challenges of writing and publishing a book that doesn't fit neatly into categories.LinksHome Matters - Penny WincerTwelve Moons - Caro GilesAll The Houses I've Ever Lived In - Kieran YatesThe Lonely City - Olivia LaingMonkey Grip - Helen GarnerPenny on Substack pennywincer.substack.comCaro on Substack carogiles.substack.com