Jane Corry is author of the new psychological suspense everyone’s talking about – My Husband’s Wife. Here she tells us how her experience working in a high-security prison provided inspiration for her debut novel, and she also provides some invaluable pearls of wisdom for aspiring authors… read on! What led you to write your debut thriller My Husband’s Wife? …
Today we’re joined by the brilliant Livi Michael who explains how her upbringing influenced her first novel, the difficulties of combining motherhood with writing, and how overwhelming it was to get published for the first time. Her new novel Accession, the final in her critically acclaimed War of the Roses trilogy, will be published on August 4th. Over to …
Jackie Burke explains why she turned down a traditional publisher and decided to self-publish her debut novel instead What led you to write your first novel The Secrets of Grindlewood? I’ve always loved reading and writing and used to “dabble” in writing short stories and poems from an early age. Most of my stories …
Gilly Macmillan explains how her debut novel Burnt Paper Sky became Piatkus’ ‘superlead’ title for summer 2015 What led you to write your debut novel Burnt Paper Sky? I began to write Burnt Paper Sky because I found myself at a point in my life where I had a bit of time on my hands for the …
Dinah Jefferies, whose latest novel The Tea Planter’s Wife has been selected for the Richard & Judy Book Club, talks agents, book deals, and falling in love with writing Did you always want to be a writer, or did you come to writing later in life? I definitely came to writing much later in life, but I’ve …
SJ Watson on his childhood dream coming true when his agent secured a book deal for Before I Go to Sleep, the psychological thriller that went on to become a phenomenal international success Is it true you started roughly 20 novels while working as an audiologist before writing Before I Go to Sleep? Not exactly! I’d started a few …
Former RTÉ journalist Kathleen MacMahon found herself in the limelight in 2011 when she landed a €684,000 advance as part of a two-book deal with Little, Brown. Here she talks about coping with the attention, quitting the day job, and overcoming ‘difficult second novel syndrome’. How did you go about getting your agent, Marianne Gunn …
Eimear McBride on getting her critically-acclaimed novel A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing published after five years of rejection How long did it take you to complete A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing and how many drafts did you write? I wrote it very quickly. I did three drafts in six months, which was all the time I could …
Award-winning writer Mary Costello on overcoming self-doubt to complete her debut novel Academy Street. I started writing in my very early twenties… I had a couple of short stories published, but I was teaching full-time so after a while the writing slipped into the margins. I never gave it up but I didn’t send work …
Shane Hegarty, the former arts editor of The Irish Times, made headlines in 2013 when he signed a substantial six-figure four-book deal with HarperCollins for his Darkmouth series of children’s fantasy books. In January 2015, the film rights for the Darkmouth series were sold in a high six-figure deal. I really wanted Marianne Gunn O’Connor …
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