My eighth 2024 writing highlight was my very first livestreamed interview. I joined Mark Stay for his monthly Creative Differences podcast livestream, where we chatted about writing and “the little things that can make all the difference to the creative process.” On top of that, we had live audience members firing plenty of questions our way which were great fun to discuss – we had a whale of a time!
It may have been livestreamed, but it was also recorded so everyone could listen to the podcast episode or watch the video recording later at their leisure. All the links and details for that are included below if you want to check it out.
What did we chat about?
It was a jam-packed recording, but just a few key things we discussed:
- Christmas in summer
- The Milverton Mysteries (my cosy mystery series)
- Combining pacy mysteries with a slow-burn romance
- Writing in scenes vs chapters (with graphs!)
- Book launch lessons learnt
- The Rise and Shine series (my gay romcom novellas)
- Switching to the cosy mystery genre
- A small thing that made a big difference to my creative process
- What makes me think I’m ready to start writing a project
- How I know when I’m done
- How I remember that idea at three in the morning
- The best happy accident of my writing career
- That thing I want to write but am not yet ready for
- A whole bunch of wonderful listener questions
- Some things that are bringing me joy at the moment
- And finally, what’s coming up next!
Listen to the podcast episode
Head to the Buzzsprout website where you can listen to this specific episode directly and/or find links to Mark Stay’s Creative Differences on your usual podcast app (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, etc):
Watch the video recording
Or, if you’d prefer to see us in our Santa hats, you can watch the video recording on YouTube:
Note this video is a slightly tidied up version of the full, unedited video recording from the livestream which I shared in an earlier post.
Watch a few brief snippets
Mark and his team prepared a few brief snippets from key points in the interview where we talked about deadlines and pre-orders; bursting at the seams; social media for books; and what was bringing us joy at the time of recording.
You can find the links to all these on my brand-new YouTube channel, and you can subscribe too if you like!
The Milverton Mysteries
- Find out more about the series in general: The Milverton Mysteries
- Check out the first book: Murder on Milverton Square
- Pre-order the latest, due for 2025 release: Fright on Stage Right
- Or click through to whichever cover takes your fancy:
If you want to be sure not to miss any future interviews, jump on my mailing list – it’s free and absolutely the best way to keep up to date! As a thank you from me, you’ll get a bunch of exclusive short stories sent to you right away, then regular updates once or twice a month.
G. B. Ralph 