The Failing Writers Podcast

Come and see us LIVE!
We'll be at Alton Arts Festival on July the 6th, at Goldfinch Books, doing our thing in full colour, 4K, Ultra HD, real life.
There will be laughter. There will be genuine writing tips and insight from Costa Novel Prize Winner Claire Fuller. There will be a ditty or two. There will be give-aways, impromptu poetry and even Tom’s very-very-serious-wordy-writery-quiz-thing!
Get yer tickets here

Little warning, by the way. There are a couple of sweary-type words in this episode. So get ready to clap your hands around your children's ears! (unless you're driving… then maybe just listen on your headphones, eh?)

Our guest writer this week is the brilliant, funny and whip-smart writer & actor Ashley Storrie. We talk about performing stand up at the age of 11, writing fan fiction, her Mum - Janey Godley, autism, writing sitcoms & guest writing on projects, serendipity in art, and giving your characters a tough time. And I don't know if you can tell... but we really blummin enjoyed it.
And when you've heard Ashley, you'll also want to see her sitcom.
Because it's excellent.
Watch 'Dinosaur' here

And just when you thought all the glorious chatterage was over, Geoffrey G.N. Harrison goes and sends us a lovely little sci-fi story about DUST, for our Hypewriter feature.
Check out more of Geoff's stuff here

And if you've got some work you think should be celebrated in HYPEWRITER don't be shy! Send it to [email protected] and we'll bring it to glorious audio life and tell you why WE like it too!
Go on do it.
Do it now.
Well that's no excuse.
OK, but don't leave it too long, OK?
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We're doing a live podcast at Goldfinch Books in Alton on Monday the 6th of July, with the brilliant Claire Fuller.
Come and join us!
CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR TICKETS TO SEE US LIVE AT ALTON ARTS FESTIVAL!!!

So what do we have in today's episode?
An absolute treat, that's what.
Philippa Perry, agony aunt, psychotherapist, artist, self-help-book writer and now cosy crime author.
How the heck does she do it all? She must be either:
A) Some sort of magic fairy-person.
or B) An amazing human being.
Have a listen and I'll let you decide.

We talk about:
Failing and rejection.
How to develop meaningful relationships with your family and friends.
Writing for fun.
Cats.
Making your main character a sorta-kinda-loosely-based-but-actually-quite-similar version of yourself.
and of course Philippa's excellent new cosy crime novel, Shrink Solves Murder.
You can buy that here:
Buy Shrink Solves Murder
But also don't forget to buy the book that has changed Jon's life the most (in a good way!) :)
The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read
Hell... buy 'em all... they're all great!
All the books!

OK. Is that it?
No!
It's HYPEWRITER, Silly. And this week we've got the opening of a hardboiled detective novel called No Saints Only Killers by Luke Deckard. (Released on the 10th of June)
Details below!
Luke's podcast Cinema Sleuths
Website: lukedeckard.com & Facebook

Photo of Philippa by Pal Hansen
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OK, so you've written something.
Well done. *light applause*
That's nice.
But the next stage - getting it out into the world... that's a really tricky bit.
However... one sure fire way of doing that, if you can't persuade some other mug to do it for you, is to blummin'-well slap on some grease paint, don some tights and perform it yourself, on what we call...
... the stage.

Well that's what Jon and his wife Katie did with their play How to be The Perfect Couple.
A project you may remember from earlier episodes (Such as S1 Ep10 - 30mins in - where Jon first reveals the logline of the show.)
And now....
Will you look at that!
Years later, the play has finally come to fruition and a tour is in progress.

If you like the sound of it, you can catch Jon & Katie at:

Alton Arts festival 10th July:
https://wegottickets.com/event/696218

Also at Buxton Fringe on the 14th 15th & 16th of July:
https://www.buxtonfringe.org.uk/descriptions2026.html

And at Seven Arts in Leeds on the 12th of September:
https://www.sevenleeds.co.uk/event/how-to-be-the-perfect-couple-2/

Have a listen to the episode and learn how it all went down, including the rather meta reveal of how Jon & Katie managed to stay a couple during the process.

And while we're on the subject of relationships..... we should mention Relate. If anyone's struggling with a relationship… and a massive amount of people do… there are amazing resources available.
Relate offer relationship counselling at a reduced rates depending on household income. As well as other things like… sex therapy, family counseling, online courses and toolkits… all sorts. Life’s hard enough! Don't just muddle on - Relate might be able to help.
https://www.relate.org.uk

And here are the books Jon & Katie recommend: (We promise you won't regret reading these!)

Getting the Love you Want

The 7 Principles for Making Marriage Work

Philippa Perry's The Book You Want Everyone You Love to Read:

Also a massive THANK YOU! to Aaron Courts! Steve Salisbury & May King! David Lucas! and of course Kristof Mikes-Liu. We love you all.
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Oh, you've listened to this episode already and you'd like to cross our palm with gold?
Well, you're in luck.... Simply click HERE to show your appreciation in a pecuniary fashion
And speaking of fashion - take a look at our merch HERE
and THANK YOU!

Now... onto the less grubby business of writing...
and this week we're lucky enough to be joined by the excellent Gareth Rubin, a writer whose career caught our eye recently from, of all things, an article about pensions!
What do writers do about pensions when your income is so unpredictable?
Well... that introduced us to Gareth... who it turns out isn't just interesting about pensions!
No, seriously. I know that seems crazy, but it's true.
He's written some books that are right up our street. Books within books within books within books, tête-bêches, an officially estate-sanctioned Sherlock Holmes book, a choose your own adventure-type murder mystery! OK... now you can see why we had to talk to him.

Check out Gareth's website:
https://www.garethrubin.com/

Buy Gareth's books here:
https://www.simonandschuster.co.uk/authors/Gareth-Rubin/188678671

But that's not bloody all. Of course not!
Because our HYPEWRITER feature is BACK.
and this week we're celebrating the rather splendid Simon John Parkin.
Support a fellow writer by buying his excellent book of short stories (all 999 words!)

HERE’S Simon’s info - and he’s @sparkin.lit on instagram - That's a follow!

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Heeeey!
You’re back.
Well, that’s bloody joyful isn’t it?
Nice of you to join us again.
Now, let me ask you an impertinent question.
How seriously are you taking your writing this year?
The reason I ask is we’re looking at writing goals. Last year’s first of all… see how we got on… and then… we’re all making new ones. Yeah. You too.
Come join us in stating your targets and let’s keep each other accountable.
Send your writing goals to [email protected] and we’ll send you a little reminder of what they were at the end of the year, (plus an email of encouragement about halfway to keep you on track!)
Also don’t forget, if you’ve written something you’re proud of, share it with us!
Send roughly 1000 words to us, (either in a doc, or as a sound file) and we’ll celebrate your beautiful wordage on our regular feature HYPEWRITER.
Could be the start of your latest brilliant novel. Could be some flash you smashed. Could be a poem you wrote. Maybe some lyrics for the greatest song noone’s ever heard of, or could be a letter you wrote your ex-partner explaining why they need to stop calling you when they get drunk.

And a big shout out to www.paragraphplanet.com - you really should think about send them your finest 75 word flash fiction musings!!

Right. That’s the important stuff dealt with. Now sit back and as Tom and Jon reveal how they got on with their targets last year!...
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