Karen Storey's name has become synonymous with success in short story writing. With an impressive one-in-three win rate out of over 40 competitions last year, Karen exemplifies what it means to blend passion with strategy in writing. In this episode, Karen shares the secrets of her success, including the importance of great endings. In a final twist, we surprise Karen with the Bestseller Academy All-Star Award for her outstanding achievements.
Ben Aaronovitch started writing for Doctor Who and became the author of the bestselling Peter Grant series that started with Rivers Of London in 2011 and has been hugely successful, regularly hitting the Sunday Times bestsellers top ten. We were delighted to get Ben for a conversation full of fireworks.
Jacqueline O’Mahony was named Young Irish Writer of the Year by the Irish Examiner when she was fourteen. After a BA, MA and PhD she worked at Condé Nast, Vogue and Associated Newspapers as an arts editor. Her debut novel, A River in the Trees, was nominated for the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award and the Not the Booker Prize in 2020. Her latest book Sing, Wild Bird, Sing is set during the Irish Famine, and is a story about the indomitable will to survive—and to flourish—against nearly impossible odds. It sold over 40,000 copies in its first 5 days and has over 17,000 reviews on Amazon.
Joe burst onto the fantasy scene in 2003 with his debut The Blade Itself. His books have climbed high up the Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller, and he had some unusual advice for writers when we spoke to him at GollanczFest.
Joe is best known for the First Law Trilogy – The Blade Itself, Before They Are Hanged and Last Argument of Kings – and the stand-alone novels in the same world – Best Served Cold, The Heroes, and Red Country.
He has also written the Shattered Sea trilogy for young (and old) adults – Half a King, Half the World, and Half a War.
The world of the First Law collides with the industrial age in a new trilogy – The Age of Madness – which began in September 2019 with A Little Hatred, continued a year later with The Trouble With Peace and concludes in September 2021 with The Wisdom of Crowds.