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Recorded 2026-09-08

We start talking about beverages while recording, and the cliché of the alcohol-fuelled writers labouring over their manuscript.

Then we move to updates. I feel like screaming this: I have finally finished the never-ending edit round! Michael goes over the chronology of his work on his novel. He's taking another pass at his last few chapters and is close to finishing his edit. His website is also almost ready.

There's a little digression into reviewing the endings of our stories, and then about our beginnings and how they've changed as the work evolved.

Michael has three goals: finish the edit, send it to his editor, and read Harlan Coben's book Plot Twist. My goal is to get my missing scenes done.

On to our hook: scam messages that come in. Where they come from, how to spot them, and what to do about them. We talk about how their pitches try to suck you in with glowing praise, even for books that don't exist yet. I give my number one tip for detecting a scammer: if it's from a free-mail account (Gmail, Hotmail, etc.) then it's a scam. Period. We talk about how these organizations get your information.

I rant (gently) about being controlled by our devices and then set up for next episode's hook: Where do we get inspiration for our characters?