Interview with Jo Cunningham, author of debut novel Death By Numbers

Today sees the launch of debut cosy crime novel, Death By Numbers, written by friend of the Book Edit Jo Cunningham. We couldn’t be happier for Jo’s publication news. She’s not only hilariously funny - in person and in print - she’s also a thoroughly lovely human being, and we can’t wait to read her book.  

1. When did you first realise you wanted to be a writer?

   Glossing over my dubious childhood poetry and notebooks full of random jottings, I didn’t start writing ‘seriously’ until my early thirties. I went on a beginners Arvon course for a week, with no expectations, and by the end of the course I was hooked. One of the tutors on the course recommended the courses at City University for novice writers and…

2.  Who are you currently reading?

   I have just finished reading The Misadventures of Margaret Finch by Claire McGlasson which is a beautifully written novel about a young woman in 1930s Blackpool who questions how she observes others, and herself. Next up, is Kala by Colin Walsh – I’m going to hear him speak about the book soon, so that’s exciting. And after that on my TBR pile is Monumenta by Lara Haworth – after hearing Lara’s amazing talk at the recent City Writes event, I had to get her book! 

3. You’ve studied creative writing and also worked hard at the craft of writing on your own. What’s been the most useful thing you’ve learned about writing a novel?

   Yikes – just one thing? At the moment, I’m in an editing phase, and as I re-read each scene, I ask myself ‘Does this scene earn its keep?’ – is there enough happening to keep it – does it push the story and the characters forward? If the answer is ‘No’ then I either need to rework the scene or ditch it. 

4. What kind of qualities does a writer need?

   Persistence and resilience.  It took me many years from starting to write novels to reach the publication stage. The main thing you must do is finish the novel. I know that sounds glib, but not everyone does. The next thing is dealing with rejection. I wish had some words of wisdom on that. Rejection hurts, but you somehow have to get over it and keep going. Even now I’m at the publication stage, I know there will be more of that to face in the future but… you only need that one person to say ‘yes’! 

5. What made you write a cosy crime novel? What is it about the genre that appeals to you?

   Back in 2017, I’d just put another novel in the ‘bottom drawer’ and wanted to start something new. I’d been reading Douglas Adam’s Dirk Gently detective novels and was inspired to start on a humorous detective book. I read and watch a lot of cosy crime – there’s something oddly comforting about knowing everything will be resolved and usually there’s a good dose of humour included.

6. Can you tell us about your path to publication?

   I’d describe it more as an obstacle course where I created some of the obstacles. For my first three novels, I didn’t bother with looking for an agent or publisher – I didn’t think they were of a good enough standard and perhaps I was trying to put off being rejected… they went straight in the bottom drawer. But the fourth novel I did send round to five or six agents. I got a couple of personal replies in amongst standard rejections and tumbleweed. I think I should have been a bit more persistent at this stage – please see my own advice about writer qualities above. Anyhow… when it came to the fifth novel, Death by Numbers, I decided I would really go for it. I sent the novel out in small batches to agents. I started to get full-read requests which boosted my confidence – this is when the agent has enjoyed the excerpt that you’ve sent and now wants to read the whole manuscript. Eventually I got an offer from my amazing agent Marina de Pass at The Soho Agency – from sending in a submission to the ‘slushpile’ – so yes, it can happen.

7. What advice would you have for someone starting out writing a novel?

   I’ve benefitted enormously from taking courses, getting feedback at workshops, and reading books to help improve different writing skills – structure, character, productivity. But there were times when I had step back and work out what was going to work for me. I guess my advice is that you have figure it out so that you create your own advice for yourself. 

8. What are you working on now?

   I’m currently finishing off a batch of edits on the second book in the cosy crime series featuring Una, an actuary and a detective. It’s called Pet Hates and is due to come out in August 2025. Writing the next book in series has been a learning curve, as it has to be standalone but still have some touches that make it feel there’s some continuity for anyone who’s read the first one.

Thanks so much, Jo! We can’t wait to read the novel!

Death by Numbers is published today and you can order a copy here.

Author Jo Cunningham

Interview with Lara Haworth, author of debut novel, Monumenta

Lara Haworth is a writer, visual artist and filmmaker. In 2018 she was accepted onto The Novel Studio, and was a subsequent winner of their Literary Agent Competition. She went on to win a Bridport Prize in 2022 and then to sell her novel, Monumenta, to Canongate. Ahead of publication next month, we were delighted to catch up with Lara to find out more.

1. Have you always written?

Yes. As soon as I was able. I wrote my first story aged four in a small notebook on my mother’s desk. Its protagonist was a knight who comes across three forking paths, and cannot decide which one to take. Goodness gracious, I wanted to him to say, as he realises the choice lying ahead. I spelt it goodness gracars.

2. Which book was the first to have a real impact on you as a reader, and which as a writer?

The first book I read that made me realise there was something other than just a story going on was The Great Gatsby. I was eleven. Much of it went over my head, the unrequited love, the critique of wealth, the disillusion. But I remember Fitzgerald describing the ‘silver pepper of the stars’ and looking up at the sky and actually gasping. So that’s what you can do, I realised. And maybe this, too, and this…

Fast forward twenty-three years, and my life is in some disarray. (This is an understatement.) I was visiting friends in Spain and started reading Deborah Levy’s Things I Don’t Want to Know. About three chapters in I felt an overwhelming pressure, as if a dam was breaking somewhere in my heart, or my throat, or my knees. I started to pace up and down and up and down this beach, gripping the book like it was a hand, pulling me up from a deep well. It gave me a kind of ferocious, blistering instruction to write, properly, seriously, now. It said, There is nothing else for you. When I got back from Spain, I applied to the Novel Studio. I still have the book. It has these white-knuckled dents in the cover.

3. If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?

Don’t expect anyone to find you, and your writing, without telling them where you are or what you’re doing. Don’t imagine that this is something you can do on your own. Don’t be frightened. (You will also be frightened.)

4. Why do you write and what makes it so vital for you?

When I’m in the excavating, mining stage, it rolls on a scale between because I have to and because I want to. Sometimes, when the I want to is struggling, because I am tired, or frightened, or stuck, or distracted, the I have to engages more fiercely, as more of a grim-faced imperative, shaking its head and pulling me back to my desk, to my thoughts, my subconscious, until the I want to returns in equal measure, to provide a lift. At its best, they both work together, and that is when you’re flying.

When I’m redrafting and editing, things get bigger, wider. I picture the reader: their joy, their woe, their precious time. If I can illuminate something – a feeling, a place, the way a potato slices open in a ‘90s deli – that impresses on a reader a sense of recognition, and a slightly different way of seeing and thinking about the world, then that is also why I write. There’s politics there too. I write to smuggle in difficult histories, strange emotional realities, and I try to centre queer lives, so long obscured in the literary canon.

5. Can you tell us a bit about your experience of getting a publishing deal? Has anything been surprising, in a good or bad way?!

During the Novel Studio, one of my tutors revealed that her first novel did not get picked up for publication. I remember so vividly the shock I felt, as if she’d reported her own death. I glimpsed how painful that must have been for her. Perhaps because it had been such hard work to even get to that point, it was something I hadn’t considered –– even though the evidence, should I need it, was all around me, told again and again by many of my favourite writers (Hilary Mantel!).

A year and a half later, I was telling the same story. I wasn’t so naive that I thought I would definitely get a publishing deal for my first novel, but it did seem like finishing the final draft and working through more rounds of rolling rejections to get an agent might mean I was finally there. I was, of course, wrong. My first novel was not picked up. It was an extremely painful experience. Loss. A kind of grief. By that point I had gone from extreme secrecy about my writing to extreme exposure – and, in the way of all worst nightmares, my failure was also happening on a very public scale. Everyone knew.

Full credit to my partner, who after watching me mooch around in my depression for a while, said, The only thing that’s going to help now is getting back to work. She was right. I had started writing Monumenta in the summer of 2020. I went back to it in autumn 2021, and within two months it was finished. The rejection had actually sharpened my writing, made me care less about failure. I was able to take more risks. I carved a chunk out of it and submitted it as a short story to the Bridport Prize, and actually won. Very unexpected. This was the catalyst for my agent to submit it to publishers.

I’m still surprised Monumenta got picked up. It doesn’t really conform to any of the silent rules of the industry. It’s short. It’s about monuments, and difficult European history. I couldn’t think of any other books to compare it to. In the end, we had two offers and went with Canongate, who have always been my dream publisher. Securing the deal took two extremely nerve-wracking weeks. Sometimes I still can’t believe it’s real. I think what I’m trying to say with this very long-winded answer is that risk and failure are not just part of the process, they are the process, they influence and change the work in rich and strange ways.

6. Which fiction writers inspire you currently?

Mariana Enriquez. Wendy Erskine. Olga Tokarczuk. Jenny Erpenbeck. Colson Whitehead. Deborah Levy. Kevin Barry. Christina Sharpe. Lan Samantha Chang. Anne Enright. Sebastian Barry.

7. Do you have a particular writing process? Favourite place or time of day to write? Any rituals?

I work best when I have dedicated chunks of time. I’m not, sadly, one of those writers that can write for fifteen minutes in the morning and then get on with their day. It’s a whole day / night thing. It’s all or nothing. I have chosen a more unsettling, unstable line of freelance money earning, so that I can work manically for periods and save up, and take time off to write. This functions in some senses, but during dark nights of the soul it can feel fundamentally unsensible and wrong. When I am writing, I have a target word count every day, and that can take anywhere between two hours and a whole day to achieve. I’m lucky to have my own little writing space in our house, which overlooks the street. So I still see a little bit of life, going by.

8. Are you someone who plans and plots before you write or do you write to discover the story? Or both?!

I start with at least one person (who’s already been talking to me in my head for a while), a place, a primary situation, and a sense of its undertows. But I write to discover. I feel quite strongly that that’s my job – to go to that weird place of half dream and subconscious. A dark, dark forest. It’s a constant tussle between being in control of my material and also letting my material have some control. To let it go. I think that plotting it all out at the start would essentially mean executing a plan, and that’s not really the point, for me. It’s not a report. It’s got to be deeper than that. About a third of the way through I start to see what’s happening, where the loops and patterns and connections are, what the characters are wanting to do, and not do, say, and not say.

9. What are you working on now?

I’m halfway through my third novel, which is called Julie Needs Things. All my novels are different, but this one feels harder than the others. It takes place over a long period of time, it’s told in the first person, it’s set in the UK, it contains some autobiographical elements. Yet it is a work of fiction. I wrestle with telling stories from my own life. I feel, instinctively, that it might not be interesting.

Lara’s debut novel, Monumenta

Thank you so much, Lara! We can’t wait to read the book. To pre-order Lara's novel, visit HERE. And for more about Lara and her work, visit HERE.

Writers' Prize Long listed author Iqbal Hussain to publish debut novel, Northern Boy

We were delighted to hear Book Edit Writers’ Prize longlisted writer Iqbal Hussain’s recent publication news. His debut novel, Northern Boy, will be published with Unbound in June 2024. Described as ‘Billy Elliot meets Bend It Like Beckham’, the novel is about aiming high and defying expectation.

We caught up with Iqbal to find out more about his path to publication.

The Book Edit (TBE): Have you always written?

Iqbal Hussain (IH): I have, ever since I can remember. As a child, I spent many happy weekends writing my own books “in the style of” The Famous Five, The Three Investigators, The Crimefighters (a great series of now-forgotten children’s books with Roger Moore at the helm!). I’d start with gusto, but then peter out after a few pages. I kept writing, doing a stint on the student newspaper at uni, then as a journalist for several years, specialising in young women’s and children’s magazines. And, in the last few years, I turned my hand to fiction – starting off with short stories, and then longer prose. With age comes persistence, and I can now gladly say I can finish writing a whole book, not just the first chapter!

TBE: Which book was the first to have a real impact on you as a reader, and which as a writer?

IH: The first book that really spoke to me as a reader was Charlotte’s Web. I was mesmerised by the world of the farmyard, and I cried buckets at the end, and then had my heart mended by the hope given in the final chapter. And the book that impacted me most as a writer was Harriet the Spy, by Louise Fitzhugh. I’ve read and re-read this book, and its sequel, The Long Secret, many times, and I’m still in awe of the writing, the humour, and the insights. I’d never come across a character like Harriet before – she spies on her neighbours, jots down things in a notebook (often mean things!), gets found out but ultimately stays true to herself. Harriet’s adventures made me want to become a writer myself, and I did.

TBE: If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?

IH: To keep writing and to keep believing. And to not feel bad for not finishing those early drafts of cod-Blyton tales, as all writing experience is valid and even those pastiche pages would go into making me the writer I’ve become.

TBE: Why do you write and what makes it so vital for you?

I often write about my childhood, or about my parents, or their friends. I was born in a Northern mill town, and so much of that history has been erased – literally, as the mills were nearly all demolished, and even the neighbourhood I grew up in was razed to the ground after being bought up on a compulsory purchase order by the council. If I don’t document those things, no-one else will, and those histories, those people, those streets, will all be forgotten. And I can’t let that happen.

TBE: How do you sustain yourself as a writer with all the highs and lows of a writer’s life?

IH: It’s a constant battle against wanting to write full-time and having to be realistic and know I need the day job in order to pay the bills. It’s truly wonderful when you get an acceptance, whether it be for a short story, or a competition placing, or getting a book deal – nothing will ever beat that sense of elation, and of seeing your name in print, or hearing from a reader who connected with something you’ve written. Those highs make the lows – the uncertainty, the rejections, the endless waiting – worth it.

TBE: Can you tell us a bit about your experience of getting published? Has anything been surprising, in a good or bad way?!

IH: I was surprised how long it took for my debut novel, Northern Boy, to be published. This was despite having an amazing agent (Robert Caskie) and having had lots of people in the publishing world help me shape the book into the form it is now. We got no takers when we submitted it to publishers, and in the end it took winning a competition to get the book out there. Having said that, I can think of no better publisher than Unbound with which to launch my novel. The team have shown so much love, care and championing for the book – I feel truly blessed.

Iqbal’s debut novel, Northern Boy, due out next month

TBE: Which fiction writers inspire you currently?

IH: I tend to read far and wide, taking in everything from children’s books to classics to contemporary to non-fiction. I’ve recently enjoyed The List of Suspicious Things by Jennie Godfrey, which is set in a time and space very similar to that of Northern Boy. Jennie writes with a light touch, and does that nearly impossible job of combining humour with pathos, light-heartedness with seriousness. I’ve also just read The Other Side of Mrs Wood, by Lucy Barker, set in the world of Victorian seances. What a treat that was! Sheep’s Clothing by Celia Dale is a masterclass in observation, dialogue and setting. I’m eking it out so it lasts longer.

TBE: Do you have a particular writing process? Favourite place or time of day to write? Any rituals?

IH: I usually write at the weekends, starting at 9 a.m. and finishing around 5 p.m. – so I treat it very much like a working day. I have a dedicated study, so I’m free to tap away and not bother my partner. No rituals, but I normally listen to music while I write – I never used to, but it’s become easier these days to have music from the period that I’m writing about to help inspire me. Much of Northern Boy is set in the early 1980s, so I listened to a lot of ABBA and Bollywood music while writing it, which my young protagonist, Rafi, also enjoys. I write in Word, which is perfect for my needs. I’ve tried Scrivener and other writing programs, but the learning curve is so steep that I can’t justify spending that much time on them when I could be spending it on writing.

TBE: Are you someone who plans and plots before you write or do you write to discover the story? Or both?!

IH: I’d love to be a planner, and I’m getting better at it, but at heart I’m still someone who jumps in with only a vague idea of where the story’s going. I find the plotting stage at the beginning the most challenging – not the actual writing. But as I’ve written more, I’ve realised the benefits of getting a solid structure down at the outset – that’s not to say it can’t be changed and tweaked as the story develops, but it’s reassuring having a basic skeleton on which to hang the flesh of the story.

TBE: And to finish, what are you working on now?

IH: I’m currently finishing off edits to my debut children’s middle grade novel, The Time Travelling Misadventures of the 7th Son, which my agents (Lucy Irvine and Silvia Molteni from PFD) are hoping to get out on to submission in the next few weeks. So, that’s very exciting. And then there are always short stories in the background. Plus, I need to think about what my next adult book might be – I have some ideas but now I need to do the dreaded plotting to see if they hold water!

Thank you so much, Iqbal. We can’t wait for your novel to come out. To read more about Iqbal’s writing, visit his website here. Or to pre-order your copy of Northern Boy, visit here.

And watch this space for announcements about 2024’s Writers’ Prize later this year.

Katharine Light shortlisted for the Selfies 2024

Delighted to discover that Katharine Light has been shortlisted for the 2024 Selfies Book Awards for her debut novel, Like Me.

Launched by BookBrunch in 2018 to recognise excellence in the self-publishing market, the awards are sponsored by Ingram's self-publishing platform, IngramSpark®, and are run in association with the London Book Fair and Nielsen BookData.

The winners will be announced at this year’s London Book Fair on Tuesday 12 March.

Also on the adult fiction shortlist with Katharine are Shooters by Julia Boggio, Ostler by Susan Grossey, Hidden Depths by Jason Mann, Darcy: A Pride and Prejudice Variation by Alice McVeigh, The Eagle and The Cockerel by Alan Rhode and
Artificial Wisdom by Thomas R Weaver.

To find out more about Katharine’s path to publication, read her story here.

Congratulations to Katharine and all the shortlisted writers. We look forward to hearing more next week!

Spotlight on 2023 Book Edit Writers' Prize Shortlist

In our final blog on the 2023 shortlisted writers, we shine the spotlight on three female authors: Xyra Speed, Pip Penman and Anu Pohani.

Xyra Speed, photo courtesy of Carl Allen, Big Wave PR

Xyra has wanted to be an author ever since she can remember. She was three when she read stories aloud to other children at nursery and seven when she wrote a story and saved it to her dad’s floppy disk (that he needed for work!). She took that passion throughout her life and studied Creative Writing at university, and now hones her skills at a PR company. Xyra lives in South East London with her husband, Lee, and puppy, Skye.

Advice with Addy 

When influencer Addy realises she has live streamed her boyfriend, Chris, breaking up with her, she decides she needs to take a break. To reset, she visits her hometown, Fringham, a quaint village where nobody uses social media. There, she bumps into her childhood best friend, Zayan, who wants to boost his own socials to raise money for the local school. Addy agrees to help him, and Zayan shows Addy there’s more to life than followers and likes.

Contact Xyra:

Email - xndavieswriting@gmail.com

Instagram - @xndavies

Twitter/X - @xndavies

Pip Penman

Pip Penman is a Scottish writer living in New York City. She is co-founder of Women in Soccer, a professional network that advocates for women and underrepresented individuals in the soccer industry. As head of content, Pip writes Women in Soccer’s weekly newsletter with a readership of over 5.5k. A Fulbright scholar, Pip completed a master’s degree at New York University. She also has a first class degree in English Literature and History from the University of Edinburgh.

BBC Documentary about Writing Ah Couldney Tell
A BBC documentary about how, as a dyslexic writer, Pip Penman used Scots dialect, skateboarding, and audiobooks to support the writing process of her novel Ah Couldney Tell. The film gained over half a million views, trended on BBC iPlayer, and was shown in schools throughout the UK.

Contact Email (Pip Penman) catherinepenman95@gmail.com   
LinkedIn - Pip (Catherine) Penman 

Ah Couldney Tell 

After escaping a traumatic past, identical twins Scarlet and Lizzie McLeod navigate young adulthood in Edinburgh. Through alternating narration, Ah Couldney Tell exposes how technology affects their lives, which, like our own, are under constant digital surveillance. Scarlet's tumultuous past fuels a spiral into social media scandals while Lizzie grapples with her sister’s self-destruction. Loyalties waver when Scarlet's actions lead to a devastating crime and evidence cannot determine who is the responsible twin, blurring the lines between reality and perception.

Anu Pohani

Anu Pohani is an Asian-American expat living in London. Her essays and short stories have appeared in Caustic Frolic, Mechanics’ Institute Review, and Everyday Magazine, among others.  In addition to the Book Edit 2023 short list, The Enigmas of Amy Wang was long listed for the 2021 Mo Siewcharran Prize.  She can be found on the Common walking her Tibetan terror and on X and Instagram at @AnuPohani.

The Enigmas of Amy Wang

Amy's job at the museum is the answer, far from the Before, and silences Mom’s nagging. But attempts to rebuild her life are constantly derailed. Witness her poor taste in men: choose the most inappropriate one, then self-sabotage before feelings deepen. Then, the mysterious break-in during her big moment at the Temple of Dendur Fundraiser. Plus, they blame Amy, the lowly Fundraising Assistant. Her new life feels cursed. Unless, things turn out better than imagined, perhaps engineered by Isis, herself?

Thanks Xyra, Pip and Anu for this week’s fabulous readings. And congratulations to all the shortlisted writers we’ve been spotlighting these past few weeks. We hope you’ve enjoyed them as much as we have.

If you’d like to find out more about how we help writers, do get in touch at info@thebookedit.co.uk. Or browse our website for more information on our services. And hit the button below if you want to be informed about the 2024 Writers’ Prize.