#044: Eimear Ryan — Learning to Write a Novel, Creative Resilience & Behind The Scenes of a Literary Press

New York Times bestselling author Learning to Love Midlife on why life gets better with age, midlife as a chrysalis & awakening and how we can create the ideal condition for a Creative Life.

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ABOUT CHIP CONLEY

Chip Conley is on a mission. After disrupting the hospitality industry twice, first as the founder of Joie de Vivre Hospitality, the second-largest operator of boutique hotels in the world, and then as Airbnb’s Head of Global Hospitality and Strategy, leading a worldwide revolution in travel, Conley co-founded Modern Elder Academy, the first-ever ‘midlife wisdom school,’ in January 2018.

Conley is also the award-winning author of New York Times bestseller Emotional Equations, alongside Peak: Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow, The Rebel Rules, Marketing That Matters: 10 Practices to Profit Your Business and Change the World, and Wisdom at Work: The Making of a Modern Elder, which forms the core of the Modern Elder Academy's curriculum. Conley's book A Year of Wisdom is based on daily inspiration and insight from his Wisdom Well blog. His latest book is Learning to Love Midlife, a book about rebranding midlife to help people understand a life stage that is misunderstood.

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RESOURCES & LINKS

• Learning to Love Midlife by Chip Conley
• Modern Elder Academy
• Joie de Vivre hospitality
• The Practice by Seth Godin
• Chip’s daily blog Wisdom Well
• Carol Dwecks’ Growth Mindset
• Peak by Chip Conley
• Collective Effervescence concept
• Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life by Dacher Keltner

For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com

For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com

Leo Vardiashvili on disciplined writing, completing his literary novel and writing about home. 

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ABOUT LEO VARDIASHVILI

Leo Vardiashvili moved to London with his family as a refugee from Georgia when he was twelve years old. He studied English literature at Queen Mary University of London.

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RESOURCES & LINKS

• Hard by a Great Forest by Leo Vardiashvili
• One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
• Stephen King’s On Writing
• Leo’s Spotify playlist for Hard By a Great Forest

For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com

For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com

New York Literary Agent Lucinda Halpern on positioning your book, finding the big idea for your pitch and finding and getting signed with a literary agent. Also, query letter essentials and how to get feedback from beta readers.

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ABOUT LUCINDA HALPERN

Lucinda Halpern is a New York literary agent with over 15 years' experience securing book deals with Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Hachette, Macmillan, and the author of Get Signed: Find an Agent, Land a Book Deal, and Become a Published Author. She represents a range of New York Times and internationally bestselling authors in the categories of business, health, lifestyle, popular science, narrative nonfiction, memoir, and upmarket fiction. Her classes and coaching programs have been taught to hundreds of writers worldwide. Learn more at lucindaliterary.com or download Lucinda’s free author training. Follow Lucinda Halpern on Instagram and Twitter.

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RESOURCES & LINKS

• Get Signed: Find an Agent, Land a Book Deal, and Become a Published Author by Lucinda Halpern
• Lucinda Literary
• Get Signed Bonuses
• Publishers Marketplace
• Follow up question? Get in touch with Lucinda here.

For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com

For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com

Hester Musson (The Beholders) on her writing and querying process for her gothic historical thriller. She also talks to us about how she overcame rejection and got published.

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ABOUT HESTER MUSSON

Hester Musson studied at Bristol University and the RCS in Glasgow. She worked as an actress and autocue operator in London before writing full time, and now lives in Scotland.The Beholders is her debut novel.

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RESOURCES & LINKS

• The Beholders by Hester Musson
• Working Days: The Journals of The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
• National Trust Propoerties

For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com

For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com

Farrah Storr, former Editor-In-Chief (ELLE/ Cosmopolitan) and Head of Writer Partnerships for Substack on what it takes to grab the attention of a reader, overcoming the fear of publishing work and leaning into discomfort. We also discuss how we might think like an editor with our own writing, and how we might use feedback constructively. We also chat about why it's important to experiment and talk to your readers.

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ABOUT FARRAH STORR

Farrah Storr was the Editor-in-Chief of ELLE and Cosmopolitan where she grew the brand to become the No.1 UK women’s glossy. She was also the launch Editor of Women’s Health magazine. Farrah was included in the GG2 Power List, profiling Britain’s 101 most influential Asians. Farrah was also awarded Editor of the Year at the PPA Awards, for the second year running and was included in the Evening Standard’s Progress 1000 list of London’s most influential people of 2019.

She is the author of The Discomfort Zone (Piatkus) and is the Head of Writer Partnerships for Substack.

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RESOURCES & LINKS

• The Discomfort Zone
• Things Worth Knowing.

For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com

For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com

The New York Times bestselling author Jami Attenberg talks about her latest non-fiction book 1000 Words: A Writer’s Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All Year Round, her journey from being a broke writer to creating a successful creative career, creating the #1000wordsofsummer movement and how she fights for a life of writing. We also discuss the financial struggles and risks of a writing career, finding inspiration even when you’re feeling disconnected, how she stays focused, and how we can commit to creativity every day. 

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ABOUT JAMI ATTENBERG

Jami Attenberg is a New York Times bestselling author of seven books of fiction, including The Middlesteins and All Grown Up, and, most recently, a memoir, I Came All This Way to Meet You: Writing Myself Home. Her work has been published in sixteen languages. She is also the creator of the annual online group writing accountability project #1000wordsofsummer. In 2024 she will publish a new novel, and also a creativity book, 1000 Words:A Writer’s Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All Year Round. 

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RESOURCES & LINKS

• 1000 Words:A Writer’s Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All Year Round by Jami Attenberg
• Jami’s newsletters, Craft Talk and The 52 Project
• Jami’s interview on NPR’s 1A

For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com

For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com

Filmmaker, author, presenter Alex Bescoby (The Last Overland) takes us behind the scenes of his Channel 4 documentary. We discuss brand partnerships, finding the right team, dealing with setbacks and the editorial process.

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ABOUT ALEX BESCOBY

Alex Bescoby is an award-winning filmmaker, best-selling author, and an experienced broadcaster. His films have been broadcast in more than 80 countries on Channel 4, History, BBC, Discovery and Canal+ International. His films include ‘The Last Overland’ (accompanied by his book), The Story of Burma’s Lost Royal Family and Searching for Burma’s Forgotten World War Two Heroes.

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RESOURCES & LINKS

• Gramma Productions
• The Whicker Awards  
• The Whicker Awards Podcast Pitch
• We Were Kings: The Story of Burma’s Lost Royals
• The Last Overland (Series)
• The Last Overland (Book) 
• Forgotten Allies
• The Idle Traveller: The Art of Slow Travel by Dan Kieran 
• The Science of Storytelling by Will Storr 

For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com

For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com

Accelerator Physicist and author Dr. Suzie Sheehy (The Matter OF Everything: Twelve Experiments That Changed Our World) on simple storytelling techniques to make science and other complex subjects engaging. Plus, Suzie's early impressions as a first-time author, her process for writing and researching The Matter of Everything, and overcoming her 'valley of death' moment with the book to complete it. 

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ABOUT SUZIE SHEEHY

Suzie Sheehy is an accelerator physicist and academic who divides her time between her research groups at the University of Oxford and the University of Melbourne. She is currently focused on developing new particle accelerators for applications in medicine. An award-winning public speaker, presenter and science communicator, Suzie is dedicated to sharing science beyond the academic community. Her 2018 TED talk has been viewed over 1.8M times, and she has been an expert TV presenter for several Discovery Channel shows, including four seasons of Impossible Engineering.  'The Matter of Everything' is her first book.

For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com

For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com

New York Times bestselling author David Arnold on his journey from professional musician to writer, choosing POV, using vignettes and writing characters that YA readers can’t resist in his latest book, 'I Loved You In Another Life.'

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ABOUT DAVID ARNOLD 

David Arnold is the New York Times bestselling author of Mosquitoland, I Loved You in Another Life, The Electric Kingdom, Kids of Appetite, and The Strange Fascinations of Noah Hypnotik. He has won the Southern Book Prize and the Great Lakes Book Award, and was named a Publishers Weekly Flying Start for his debut. 

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RESOURCES & LINKS

Follow David

• Davidarnoldbooks.com
• @IAmDavidArnold

Other links mentionedL

• I Loved You In Another Life by David Arnold
• David’s album, I Loved You In Another Life, by neon imposter
• Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators

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For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com

For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com

For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com

For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com

Emma Ganon on The Success Myth, our obsession with achievement and how to let go of the idea of having it all. We dive into her creative journey as an entrepreneur and writer of both nonfiction and fiction and the world of Substack. We also talk about Emma’s different income streams, reflections on her Self-Publishing Era, and we look at how she distributes her time and energy. This was a heartfelt discussion about the pressure of wanting success and wanting happiness, navigating those both and how we might ultimately craft a creative life on our own terms.

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ABOUT EMMA GANNON 

Emma Gannon is a Sunday Times bestselling author, broadcaster, speaker, novelist and creator of the no.1 careers podcast in the UK, Ctrl Alt Delete. She has been a columnist for The Times, Telegraph and Courier magazine. Emma has published multiple bestselling books, including The Multi-Hyphen Method; Sabotage and Disconnected. She writes a popular weekly newsletter called The Hyphen that is an exploration of ideas that have got her thinking in new ways.

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RESOURCES & LINKS

• The Success Myth by Emma Gannon 
• Emma’s Substack, The Hyphen
• Emma's latest post, The Hyphen 2023 Round Up
• Writing a Novel: Bring Your Ideas to Life the Faber Academy Way by Richard Skinner
• It’ll Be Fun, They Said by Jess Pan on Substack 
• The Pound Project
• Elizabeth Gilbert on Distinguishing Between Hobbies, Jobs, Careers, & Vocation
• Bill Plotkin on Mythopoetic Identity 
• London Writers’ Salon Interview with Seth Godin 

For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com

For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com