In this week's episode, we chat to creepy thriller writer Sally-Anne Martyn.

Sally-Anne didn't grow up wanting to be a writer. She studied performing arts, working in film and TV, before working many different jobs in many different places, even a stint as a carer in one of England's last asylums. In her 40's, she had the epiphany that perhaps writing had always been waiting for her. She took that realisation very seriously, enrolling on writing courses, and life-coaching seminars, all to try and make her dream of being published come true. When it finally happened, she was shocked at how quickly the realities of being a writer set in. You can hear all about that in the chat.

She's published 'The Clinic', 'The Home', and her new novel is 'The Beauty Queen'. It's all about the journalist Zoe Kincade, who arrives in the rundown seaside town of Sunshine Sands to report on the local talent show. Within moments, it brings up memories of her sister, and the last place she was seen alive, when she was also crowned Miss Sunshine Sands.

We discuss dark thrillers, and how she's always improving her routine. You can hear why Sally-Anne is envious of old-school writers, how different jobs have influenced her novel ideas, and why she's a member of the 5am club.

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This week's episode is sponsored by 'Whale Cemetery', the 12th instalment in the 'DCI Finnegan Yorkshire Crime Thriller' series by Ely North. Get a free book here - https://elynorthcrimefiction.com/

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Georgie Codd is a writer of all-sorts. She's dabbled in fiction, written for publications, created the 'BookBound' literary festival, and now focuses on narrative non-fiction.

Her first book, 'We Swim to the Shark', came out in 2020, and followed Georgie’s quest to overcome her deepest fears by crossing the planet, learning to scuba dive, and attempting to swim with the largest fish in the world: an adult whale shark. She's followed it up with 'Never Had a Dad', which sees Georgie advertise for a father figure. It was inspired by a strange meeting with an older man on holiday with her mum. We talk about how she expanded on that idea, and how much she can plan and plot an adventure memoir.

You can hear about the differences in the process of fiction and narrative non-fiction, and how she decides what her next adventure should be. We chat about how she makes a reader care, being trained to write prose fiction, and how she works on the go whilst being easily distracted.

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This week's podcast is sponsored by 'Whale Cemetery: Murder On A Smuggler's Tide', the new book in the 'DCI Finnegan Yorkshire Crime Thriller' series by Ely North. Find out more and get a free book at elynorthcrimefiction.com

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Sam Mills is an innovative and wildly creative writer, who has always wanted to publish books. She's written non-fiction books, 'Uneven', 'The Fragments of my Father', and others, also crossover, genre-bending novels like 'Blackout', and 'The Quiddity of Will Self'. She's written for The Guardian, The Independent, the New Humanist and more, along with running 'Dodo Ink', a small indie press that publishes daring and difficult literary fiction.

Her new novel is 'The Watermark'. Inspired by 'Inception', it tells the story of Rachel and Jaime, who become trapped by Augustus Fate, a once-lauded novelist, in his latest creation. They must find their way back home through a labyrinthine network of novels, flitting from a harsh Russian Winter, to Victorian Oxford, from a utopian metropolis to an AI-dominated future.

We discuss why she likes the romance of being a writer, and that helps her deal with the instability of it. Also, you can hear how she creeps close to the line of burnout, yet knows exactly when to pull back. Sam shares pen opinions, and how she's developed the cafe-writer's sense of when to leave.

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This week's episode is sponsored by the 'Quick Books Reviews Podcast', take a listen wherever you get your shows.

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Dan Houser was the lead writer, creative director and co-founder of Rockstar Games. Rockstar are the studio behind the 'Grand Theft Auto' and 'Red Dead Redemption' series. They're responsible for over half a billion video game sales. 'GTA V' and 'Red Dead Redemption 2' are both in the top 5 bestselling video games ever... and Dan wrote them.

Since leaving Rockstar, he's set up Absurd Ventures, a studio he says will create new universes in video games, podcasts, animation, and now it's spawned his debut novel. 'A Better Paradise - Volume 1: An Aftermath' is the start of a world of stories across different forms of media.

Here's the blurb - Mark Tyburn dreams of building the perfect video game. Kurt Fischer dreams of being a rich and successful executive. Daisy Tyburn dreams of having the ideal father. John Tyburn Smith dreams of fitting in. NigelDave just dreams of becoming human. Set in the near future, A BETTER PARADISE tells the story of the ill-fated development of an ambitious but addictive video game project that goes very wrong. As the software they developed starts to produce unexpected and disturbing results, the project is shut down and abandoned. Until now.

We discuss what he's learned from writing his first novel and how that'll influence future stories. Also you can hear how he dealt with the weight of expectation while working on the biggest video games around, how he's trying to build boundaries, and how he knows where a story idea will live. There's also a good amount of chat about GTA's fantastic radio stations.

Get a copy of the book - uk.bookshop.org/shop/writersroutine

This episode is sponsored by Ulysses. Go to https://ulys.app/writeabook to download Ulysses, and use the code ROUTINE at checkout to get 25% off the first year of your yearly subscription.

Also, this episode is supported by Faber Academy. Make the most of their fantastic writing courses in 2026 at https://faberacademy.com/writing-a-novel/

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Zoe Apostolides is a journalist and columnist, writing for The Guardian, The Telegraph and the Financial Times. Her new novel is 'The Homecoming', born out of conversations with her Grandmother. When she transcribed these, she thought... could I spin a sinister story out of this?

It follows Ellen, a young ghost-writer, who is sent from London all the way to a rural manor house in Northumberland. When she finally arrives at the crumbling Elver Hall, urgently knocking on the door in the midst of a biblical storm, Ellen's never felt more alone. Her phone has no signal and the local taxi-driver refuses to take her further than the bottom of the lane. When Miss Carey suddenly appears on the stairwell in her white dressing gown, it’s enough to make Ellen want to run back to London as fast as she can.

We talk about how her career taught her wide and be interested in everything, which is great grounding for novel writing. Also, hear why as a city girl, much of the story came from her fetishing the countryside.

You can hear how she delicately plays with the traditional tropes of horror, how to get the atmosphere right, and how she makes someone scared in writing.

This episode is sponsored by Ulysses. Go to https://ulys.app/writeabook to download Ulysses, and use the code ROUTINE at checkout to get 25% off the first year of your yearly subscription.

Also, this episode is supported by Faber Academy. Make the most of their fantastic writing courses in 2026 at https://faberacademy.com/writing-a-novel/

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Adam Skolnick earned his writing chops as a travel and adventure sports journalist for the New York Times, ESPN, the BBC and Lonely Planet. It taught him the vital skills of getting the words out immediately, and writing fast.

He was the ghostwriter for David Goggins' memoirs 'Can't Hurt Me' and 'Never Finished'. Also published 'One Breath', about the world of free-diving, which was turned into a Netflix documentary, and 'Forever Swim', about open-water swimming legend Antonio Arguelles. Adam also appears in Rich Roll's fantastic podcast, discussing health and wellbeing.

His new novel is 'American Tiger', about Bell Tern who, when on the school bus, sports a tiger roaming around the streets of suburban Los Angeles. It's rooted in the stunning southern Californian landscape and stacked with vivid characters.

We discusses his attempts to 'de-sacredise' his space and day, also the different passes he does for each individual character, and what an idea needs to be to get him excited. You can hear about his new cue-card process, how the idea came during a free-diving competition, and how he deals with the fine line between creative burnout and being productive.

This episode is sponsored by Ulysses. Go to https://ulys.app/writeabook to download Ulysses, and use the code ROUTINE at checkout to get 25% off the first year of your yearly subscription.

Also, this episode is supported by Faber Academy. Make the most of their fantastic writing courses in 2026 at https://faberacademy.com/writing-a-novel/

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Catherine Mayer is a busy do-er. One of those prolific writers, political party founders, and music producers that fills every moment of the day with something. She's inspirational with it.

Catherine was the Europe Editor for Time Magazine, which has taught her to work at all hours of the day on various time-zones. She's written memoirs, journalism, royal biographies. She runs the estate of her late husband, Andy Gill from the band 'Gang of Four', and even finished and executive-produced his posthumous album, 'The Problem of Leisure'. She co-founded the Women's Equality Party and the Primadonna Festival. In 2020, Catherine was named in GQ Magazine's '50 Most Influential People in Britain'.

Her new novel is 'Time/ Life', a feminist retelling of H.G. Wells' 'The Time Machine', as a story of love and grief.

We cover everything about the writing side of her life, how she juggles the abundance of things that are going on, and how much her view of creativity has changed since her partner passed away.

This episode is sponsored by Ulysses. Go to https://ulys.app/writeabook to download Ulysses, and use the code ROUTINE at checkout to get 25% off the first year of your yearly subscription.

Also, this episode is supported by Faber Academy. Make the most of their fantastic writing courses in 2026 at https://faberacademy.com/writing-a-novel/

Support the show -

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Lucinda Berry is a USA Today bestselling author, who has published 9 incredibly successful novels, which have been optioned for films, and translated into several languages. She worked as a psychologist and leading researcher in childhood trauma - much of that has inspired her thrillers.

Readers are huge fans of 'The Perfect Child', also the heart-pounding 'The Best of Friends', and the unsettling truths in 'The Secrets of Us'. Her new release is an audio thriller. 'This is a Safe Space', tells the story of the therapist Jenna who, after discovering a strange text exchange on her husband's phone, comes to wonder if he might be connected to one of her clients... who has disappeared.

We discuss the gestation of an audio-only idea, how the approach was different, and whether it changed the planning, plotting and style. You can hear how she deals with the trickier writing days, also her tight working schedule, the hefty word counts, and how she handled the switch to full time.

Get a copy of her books at uk.bookshop.com/shop/writersroutine

This episode is sponsored by Ulysses. Go to https://ulys.app/writeabook to download Ulysses, and use the code ROUTINE at checkout to get 25% off the first year of your yearly subscription.

Support the show at -

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Caroline Corcoran is a thriller author who burst to success with her debut, 'Through the Wall' in 2019. She's been a Sunday Times bestseller ever since, translated into many languages across the world, and compared to Adele Parks and Liane Moriarty.

Caroline followed it up with 'The Baby Group', 'Five Days Missing', 'What Happened on Floor 34', and this year published, 'Tiny Daggers'. It's all about the expat Holly Jones, who is loving her new life in Miami. That is, until another Holly, from her old life in London, reconnects with her and brings up memories that have been buried for decades.

Following a career in journalism where Caroline wrote and edited for The Guardian, The Telegraph, Marie Claire, The Mirror, and many more, she's now a huge name in the world of psychological and crime thrillers.

You can get a copy of the show at uk.bookshop.org/shop/writersroutine

This episode is sponsored by Ulysses. Go to https://ulys.app/writeabook to download Ulysses, and use the code ROUTINE at checkout to get 25% off the first year of your yearly subscription.

Also, this week we're supported by the 'Quick Book Reviews' podcast. Search for brilliant bite-sized book chatter, wherever you get your shows.

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Patrick Syms started work trying to be a screenwriter, and he got ever so close, before life got in the way. He took a job in advertising, which became a 25 year long career in communications. In 2020, he gave it up to write again. This time, he took it seriously. Being accepted in to the Curtis Brown 'Writing Your Novel' course, he's just finished 'Am I The Asshole?', which is out to query as I type.

It's all about entrepreneur Richard Whitecross, who invents what he thinks is a piece of world-changing technology. But when it malfunctions and he becomes the target of a social media pile-on, he must learn to face all the facts of his situation, not just the convenient ones, before he loses his family, his livelihood and his sanity. It was inspired by an interview Patrick saw with a celebrity on TV, and being dumbfounded by the terrible way they were presenting themselves.

As the manuscript goes out to agents, Patrick has taken some unique steps of his own... and is releasing a limited batch of books, in order to spread the word and make some noise. He's printed a select set of white label books, inspired by independent record companies. He runs through the process of making that work - what's gone well and what's been trickier than imagined.

You can hear what he felt when he was trying too hard to make a point with his prose, also why he's always playing catch up, and the 5 questions that he asks in every scene.

You can find out more at patricksyms.com, and find his instagram in the show notes.

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Tom Cox has had a long and varied writing career. Over the last 25 years he has been The Guardian's youngest ever music critic, a record dealer, a golf and nature memoirist, and a unique creative writer. He's said to have 'one of the most fabulous and anarchic imaginations in literature'.

Tom finds finds magic in the everyday, from country ramblings and folklore to melancholic cats and oddball corners of the country. He's published the golf memoir, 'Bring Me The Head of Sergio Garcia', also nature books, '21st Century Yokel', and many books about cats. He's a Sunday Times Bestseller, won a Shirley Jackson Horror Writing Award, and was longlisted for the Wainwright Prize. He also banned himself from writing journalism again.

He chose to post all his writings online, and then crowd-funded a book, which did very well, very quickly. It's been a sticky year or so, as 'Unbounded' went out of business, and it's forced Tom to go back to traditional publishing.

Tom has just released the novel, 'Everything Will Swallow You', which tells the story of Eric and his confidante Carl. Their friendship is the only constant in an ever-changing world, but there's something about Carl that you'd never believe.

We discuss how he tries to keep it fun, why so much of his inspiration comes from walking, and why parts of his career have brought out the worst in social media.

You can hear why he's in a genre of one, what caused him to give up journalism, and the rule he keeps in mind when editing.

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