Words Away met up with novelist Evie Wyld online a few weeks back for an enjoyable chat about her work and process. The conversation touched on her love of haunted landscapes and spooky writing, the power of the subconscious and her approach to redrafting and structuring a novel. I loved Evie’s ideas to counter feeling stuck and for getting through the soupy middle. If you missed the evening and would like to hear more you can catch up on demand here.

This month we met with the novelist Diana Evans for an inspired conversation about her work and process. She had lots of advice about revisiting characters, working with a large cast and juggling multiple story strands. Diana, a self-proclaimed poet at heart, spoke beautifully about style and prose, the importance of trusting your instincts as a writer and finding the language to write about culturally sensitive subjects…

Our June Zalon featured the poet and author Meryl Pugh unpacking what it’s like to think like a poet and sharing ways for prose writers to tap into that thinking. Meryl also spoke about her latest book, Feral Borough, “part herbarium, part bestiary and part memoir,” which lead to a fascinating discussion on form and how a book can take shape by, (in the words of anthropologist Tim Ingold,) “thinking through making.”…

During this month’s zalon we discovered three things about our guest Claire Fuller; she has a big thing for cephalopods (true fact) and she’s prone to catastrophising, (glad it’s not just me). She’s also lifelong fan of dystopian fiction which all makes sense when you read her most recent and fifth novel, The Memory of Animals. It was fun to meet up with Claire for a conversation about writing Speculative Fiction, to hear about her process and how the book came to be.

Last month’s Zalon was an engaging encounter with publisher and editor Federico Andornino. Fede is Executive Publisher at Sceptre, the literary imprint of Hodder & Stoughton. He’s published many bestselling and prize-listed books including Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers, Murder Before Evensong by the Reverend Richard Coles and Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason amongst others.

February’s zalon celebrated the brilliance of the short story. We were joined by guest, Tom Conaghan, publisher of Scratch Books, a new publishing house dedicated to championing short fiction. “There’s something powerful, magical and unknowable about the best short stories,’ said Tom while admitting it’s a challenge to define what makes a good short story. It’s not easy to make generalisations about such an elastic and vibrant form but it was an interesting discussion, raising as many questions and ideas as it had answers.

January’s zalon featured guest author and lecturer Lily Dunn whose recent book, Sins of My Father: A Daughter, A Cult, A Wild Unravelling was included in the Guardian’s list of best memoirs of 2022. “Memoir is characterised by the reflective voice,” said Lily, “and bound up in this stance is the need in the writer to better understand themselves somehow.” Lily spoke about what’s at the heart of a good memoir as well as her process, particularly how fictional technique and the imagination can be applied to non-fiction to create a compelling story.

Happy New Year! First, a quick look back to early December and our zalon with guest author Zoe Gilbert discussing Unconventional Storytelling. Zoe talked about “fiction that poses questions and where the reader plays a part, the sorts of stories that surprise us in structure and form, like a puzzle box to unpack or apply your own meaning.” We looked at how particular stories might take an unconventional form or shape and the opportunities such an approach might afford a writer.

We had a fabulous conversation recently with Leone Ross discussing her creative process, magic realism and her latest novel, This One Sky Day, fifteen years in the making and shortlisted for the 2021 Goldsmiths Prize. Leone defined magic realism as, “that sense of juxtaposition of oddness or delight in coming across strange things… and where the response to magic is acceptance…” It’s not about mere whimsy but rather an opportunity for social commentary to amplify the ridiculous. “The more we consider what is odd or strange, the more we realize what we call normal is strange or odd.”

Words Away is back! It was a delight to host the first of a series of monthly online zalons, beginning with the brilliant Anna Mazzola to discuss writing Gothic fiction. For Anna, Gothic fiction, is characterised by an environment of fear and unease, including the possibility of the supernatural and the intrusion of the past on the present. That might be through setting, and/or through the psychology of the characters, (as in Rebecca, by Daphne Du Maurier). Anna’s fascinated by history and how people lived their day to day lives, “you often don’t get that from history books, but you do get it from novels”.

So, goodbye to June and hello July - how did that happen? The last few weeks have raced by and I’ve been sidetracked by lots of summer shenanigans, so it’s been a little while since my last blog. Here’s a catchup on our most recent salon, Tips From a Publisher, with book industry expert, the delightfully entertaining and well-informed, Scott Pack.

Earlier this month I swapped my sweatshirt and trackies for somethings a bit smarter and made my way to the Teahouse Theatre for the first live Words Away salon in over two years! It was a wonderful feeling to step inside the cafe after so long. And what a great turn-out, with faces familiar and new, for our discussion on Revising and Editing with book doctor and creative writing teacher, Andrew Wille.

We met with Nikesh Shukla last month for an excellent discussion on the art of writing memoir. Nikesh is a novelist, screenwriter and editor (and stand-up comedy fan.) His latest book, Brown Baby, A Memoir of Race, Family and Home, published earlier in the year, centres around the question of, “how on earth to bring up kids with joy and wonder in sad, bleak and difficult times?” He also added,“it’s a book about all the stuff that keeps me up at night.” It was fab zalon, a masterclass actually and here’s a couple of the highlights.

It was such a pleasure to welcome novelist Claire Fuller for a return visit to Words Away last month. Claire shared lots of helpful techniques to keep us motivated and engaged with our writing. The conversation covered how to generate new ideas and broached ways to tackle writerly demons, from facing the fear and doing it anyway, to tips on keeping the writing fresh and seeing a novel through to completion.

April’s zalon with Irish author Helen Cullen transported us to the Mother Land to explore the complexities of ‘writing the mother’ in literary fiction.“ The most important relationship, romantic relationships aside, we’ll ever have with anyone is with our own mothers,” said Helen. “Their voice is inside our head forever and has so much impact on what comes later in life.” From ‘good’ to ‘bad’ mothers to the missing or absent mother, the topic opened up many interesting points of discussion, including ways a writer might move beyond the symbols and stereotypes to develop a dynamic character-in-action with agency and drive…

Courttia Newland’s process is to go with what feels natural, “…you don’t hurry a novel”! We loved hearing about the nuts and bolts of creating a big imaginative project like A River Called Time. Everyone wanted to know about the practical details of how he managed his material - from the initial spark and fusion of early ideas, to wrangling research and keeping the faith to finish the book without a guarantee of publication.

We had a dynamic zalon recently with Ronke Lawal, PR Specialist and founder of Ariatu PR, discussing how to get the most out of networking online in literary and publishing spaces. While some writers are happy to be in the limelight others balk at the idea of making themselves or their books visible. Ronke offered a wealth of practical suggestions on how we can use social media effectively to enhance our own personal brands, make meaningful connections and extend our reach online.

Andrew defined mindfulness as “being present and paying attention.” It’s about finding a quiet space where you can open up this awareness. He emphasised that it isn’t “just about meditation but how we live our lives. It’s about engaging with the world and well as retreating from it from time to time.”

For our zalon, The Fragment Is… Bhanu Kapil invited the audience beforehand “to think about a scene or place in on-going work (be it prose or any genre) that needs revision but somehow when you try to write it…it deflects the gaze or enquiry.” We began with a discussion about the far-ranging influences that frame Bhanu’s thinking - from attending lectures at the Kavli Institute for Cosmology, Cambridge, to thoughts on outsider art, and the funeral practices of Tibetan culture, and so much more…

Finding an agent who can see the potential in your book is the stuff aspiring writers dream of. To find out more about the intricacies of the agent/writer relationship Words Away zoomed with the dynamic literary agent Nelle Andrew of RML. With a background in publishing and a track record as a successful agent, Nelle is also a published author in her own right and wowed this month’s crowd with her passion and drive.