writing

On this episode of Behind the Bestseller Sam Blake chats to Alex Barclay. Research is one of the keys to Alex Barclay’s incredible success, with ideas developing from chance conversations with experts. Sam Blake quizzes her on her unique…

Being taken on by a high profile literary agency should have been the start of Hazel Gaynor's career, but unfortunately they couldn’t place her Titanic novel The Girl Who Came Home. With the Titanic anniversary rapidly approaching, Hazel…

From piling up the rejection slips Sinéad Moriarty joined a writers group and wrote the book that was closest to her heart. Drawing on her personal experience The Baby Trail immediately hit the bestseller list and kickstarted a career that…

Romance is the biggest selling genre worldwide and award winning author Ruth Long, in all her various incarnations as RF Long, Ruth Francis Long and Jessica Thorne, writes romance combined with fantasy - from parallel worlds to sci-fi space…

From critically acclaimed non fiction that has spawned a movie in production, to beselling fiction, and now an exciting audio adventure, Shane Dunphy's career started with a book he needed to write. In this episode of Behind the…

Behind the Bestseller: what makes a book a success? Bestselling author Sam Blake talks to authors, editors, publicists and agents to find out exactly what that magic ingredient is. You can check out Sam's other podcast Murder One:…

Some of the most powerful books for and about teenagers take the form of a diary: Adrian Mole, I Capture The Castle, Go Ask Alice and even The Color Purple (although that spreads beyond the teenage years). So begins Máire Zepf's…

When it comes to food, television or books, there are no tougher critics than small children. They won’t spare your feelings the way adults have been trained to, but they are loyal to what they love. However, small children’s access to food…

The debut novel from Anne Griffin, When All is Said is rightly getting praise from authors, reviewers and the public for its depiction of Maurice Hannigan, a fictional character that you come to deeply know and relate to through reading the…

Many people have a misconception about introverts. Introverts are not just shy, quiet people who stay out of the limelight. In actuality, introverts are people who become drained and tired after social interaction. Being alone, however,…