Not Too Busy To Write

Lizzie Damilola Blackburn's debut novel Yinka, Where is Your Huzband? tells the story of 31 yr old British-Nigerian Yinka, who is feeling the pressure to settle down. When she finds out her ex-boyfriend is bringing his new fiance to her cousins wedding, she decides to go on a mission to find herself a plus one for the big day. Lizzie and Penny chat about how Yinka started life in a short story and how Lizzie felt characters like Yinka were missing from mainstream women's fiction. After the story won a prize, Lizzie decided to write her into a novel. Lizzie is passionate about representation in fiction and about writing religion in a way that feels true to her. She also discusses the importance of writing about colourism and body image for dark skinned black women and creating nuance and humour these complex issues. LinksYinka, Where is Your Huzband? - Lizzie Damilola BlackburnHope and Glory - Jendella Benson The Christie Affair - Nina De GramontYou can find Lizzie on twitter @DamilolaLizzie

Clover Stroud is a Sunday Times best selling author of a number of books including The Wild Other and My Wild and Sleepless Nights. Her latest book, The Red of My Blood, is the story of her sister Nell's death and the immediate aftermath. Clover talks about how her writing benefits from the immediacy of writing in real time and how it felt natural for her to write about the extremities of grief when she was deep in its throws. We also talk about taking yourself to the edge creatively and how it makes life more vivid and putting a magnifying glass up to human experience as well as some of the positive aspects of social media. Clover also has some excellent reading advice for writers.LinksThe Red of My Blood - Clover StroudMy Wild and Sleepless Nights - Clover StroudThe Stone Mason - Andrew ZeminskiDevil in a Coma - Mark LaneganAtlas of the Heart - Brene BrownYou can find Clover on instagram @clover.stroud

Doreen Cunningham began her a career as a climate science researcher and has spent the last 20 years as a journalist. Her memoir, Soundings: Journeys in the company of whales, is the story of her experiences follow the grey whale migration from Mexico to Alaska as a newly single parent with her very young son in tow. Woven into the book is the story of her time spent with an Inupiaq family in Northern Alaska, where she joined a traditional whale hunt and learnt about how climate change was already affecting artic communities. It's a memoir about love, wrestlessness, colonialism, motherhood and climate change. Doreen talks about the challenges and responsibility of writing about her experiences as a white person within an indigenous community, the urgent drive to write about climate change in a way that would resonate with readers and writing about science in an accessible, story driven way. LinksSoundings: Journeys in the company of whalesLiterary KitchenSociety of Authors - Grants for work in progressBig Magic - Elizabeth GilbertWe Need New Names - Noviolet BulawayoDevotion - Hannah Kent

In this week's episode Ali talks to Lily Dunn, the author of Sins of my Father (W&N, 17th March) about the craft of memoir. Together they discuss how narrative techniques can be used to move the form past expected norms, taking the personal into the realms of the universal, how the 'I' on the page differs from the 'I' in every day life, and how at the heart of memoir lies a love of storytelling. They also consider where the writer sits - does the writer operate as observer or partaker, are they inside or outside, and how does the act of writing alter this position.

Abigail Bergstrom is a literary agent and consultant, former editor, and now debut novelist. What A Shame is a darkly funny novel about grief, friendship and dabbling in the occult. Abigail talks about the challenges of having a lot of knowledge of the industry whilst writing and having to take her agent hat off in order to write, removing the constraints that made writing feel like 'work' and being conscious of the exchange that happens when we give up other things in order to write on the side of a demanding full time job. Bergstrom Studio is a 360 degree literary consultancy, offering editorial consultancy and representation. As an agent Abigail represents multiple best selling authors and has some excellent advice for those who are going out on submission.LinksBergstrom StudioWhat A Shame - Abigail BergstromWet Paint - Chloe Ashby Beautiful Country - Xian Julie WangYou can find Abigail on Instagram @abigailbergstrom and @bergstrom.studioAnd Penny on instagram @pennywincer

Our writing lives don't always look the same. Depending on which phase you're in, drafting, editing, submitting, publishing or promoting - our rhythms and routines change according to what phase we are in. Ali and Penny are currently in different phases to each other and to where they each were a year ago. Today's episode is about where they are at and how that changes how they sit down and get the work done. They are both now juggling multiple projects at different stages and how that has necessarily changed their writing routines, in ways that are both good and a challenge.

Caribbean-American writer Charmaine Wilkerson's incredible fiction debut, Black Cake is a sweeping family tale about inheritance, memories and secrets. Charmaine discusses the layering of multiple timelines, much like the layering of a cake or the layering of conversation. She also talks about channeling the characters, allowing herself to follow them and see where they take her and having a quarter of the book written in various files before she was certain it was a story. Black Cake is out in the UK on 3rd February 2022 and in the US on 1st FebruaryLinksBlack Cake - Charmaine WilkersonAnother Life - Jodie ChapmanBeautiful Country - Qian Julie WangOlga Dies Dreaming - Xochitl GonzalezThe Final Revival of Opal and Neve - Dawnie WaltonWho They Was - Gabriel Krauze

Cathy Rentzenbrink is a Sunday Times best selling author of The Last Act of Love, A Manual for Heartache, Dear Reader and Everyone is Still Alive. Her latest book, Write It All Down, is all about writing from life. Cathy talks about how her first memoir started because she need to write it out of her, how she's learned to trust the process of writing, even though she's still filled with self doubt and learning that external validation of our writing doesn't magically fix that doubt. A wonderful episode filled with advice from the most generous of writers.LinksWrite It All Down - Cathy RentzenbrinkThe Last Act of Love - Cathy RentzenbrinkEveryone Is Still Alive - Cathy RentzenbrinkThe Virgin Suicides - Jeffery EugenidesWithout Warning And Only Sometimes - Kit De WaalYou can follow Cathy on Instagram @catrentzenbrink and twitter @catrentzenbrinkYou can follow Penny on Instagram @pennywincer and twitter @pennywincer

It's that time of the year and Ali and Penny have a chat about where they are at with their writing projects and if they are where they hoped they would be. They talk about some big successes and failures, places where the path diverged and where writing projects went off in a new direction. They talk about letting go of projects as well as taking on new projects you didn't imagine you would do. They also look ahead to some 2022 writing goals.LinksLife Writing Group Coaching with Penny WincerStill Life - Sarah WinmanGhost Stories - M R James

A bit of a tongue in cheek question this week... Where do ideas come from? Ali and Penny talk all about ideas, sniffing them out like a blood hound, scratching away at them to see if they are interesting and following our curiosity. For us both, it's all about interacting with the external world and creating a habit of looking for and developing ideas. We also talk about having fallow times and abundant times and how they are both important in a writers life. And of course, we talk an awful lot about reading......LinksMy Body - Emily Ratajkowski