We're thrilled to be speaking to author Alison Stockham again on The Hobcast Book Show. Alison joins us for a third time, to celebrate the recent release of her latest psychological thriller, The Man She Married published by Boldwood Books. Regular listeners will know that Alison has a background in TV and film production, worked with the Cambridge Literary Festival, and is now a full-time author. In this great interview, Alison discusses the challenges she faced ensuring that her latest protagonist, an Australian woman, was authentic and believable. So sit back and enjoy our in depth discussion about accents, Neighbours and coffee!

Also this week, Adrian and Rebecca discuss the potential implications of yet another huge change in the way that audiobook distributor Findaway Voices will operate from August as rights-holders are forced to use two platforms for their productions rather than one.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Man-She-Married-Alison-Stockham-ebook/dp/B0CW1PV9HD

Spotify Transitions Select Audiobook Distribution Services to INaudio

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Can crime fiction rebuild a national identity? Our guest this week, award-winning author Teresa Solana, believes it can certainly help. Teresa has won admirers world-wide for her crime fiction centered on her native Catalonia and Barcelona, which has been translated into eight languages. But she's most proud of her contribution to rekindling the Catalan language, so long repressed under the regime of General Franco following the Spanish Civil War. Teresa tells us that crime fiction is the perfect vehicle to celebrate the language, the culture and unique humour of the people of the city and wider region. Now living in Bristol, Teresa is also a translator, and was director of the translation center in Tarassona between 1998 and 2004. Her most recent novel, Black Storms, was published in translation by Corylus Books last October. This is a joyous interview celebrating the power of language.

Also this week, Amazon and KDP announce a cut in royalties for paperbacks priced below a certain threshold. Does this spell the end of indie and self-publishing? And can Rebecca master a new random accent?

Teresa Solana – Corylus Books

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Black-Storms-Teresa-Solana/dp/1739298977

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Our guest this week, Scottish crime author Douglas Skelton probably won't mind us saying that he's had an eclectic career, so juggling writing several book series in parallel might be easier for him than it would be for other authors. As we discuss in this wide-ranging interview, Douglas wrote several true crime non-fiction books before switching to crime fiction in 2013. Nominated multiple times for the prestigious McIlvanney prize, Douglas has established himself as one of Scotland's leading crime authors, and last year published three novels: his sixth Rebecca Connolly contemporary thriller The Hollow Mountain, and two books in his historical crime and adventure Company of Rogues series set in the early 18th century. So how does he manage to juggle the demands of two series and be so prolific?

Also this week, we discuss how last week's release of an AI enabled writing course from Agatha Christie has gone down on social media, and we celebrate releasing our latest Hobeck title, the brilliant Year Zero by Rob Gittins.

Douglas Skelton - Crime Writer

The Hollow Mountain: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hollow-Mountain-Rebecca-Connolly-Thriller-ebook/dp/B0CM4N8SDD

A Thief's Blood: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thiefs-Blood-gripping-historical-thriller-ebook/dp/B0D52DXP38

Year Zero: https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=year+zero+rob+gittins&crid=3L1RZ56WH8XHU

https://www.hobeck.net

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We love speaking to true storytellers on The Hobcast Book Show. Our guest this week, Jayne Chard, fits that description perfectly, even though she published her debut novel, More Than Murder this week. It's the first in a series of cosy crime novels Jayne plans to publish. But Jayne is no stranger to telling crime stories. She is a hugely successful and award-winning TV and film drama producer, with the hugely popular BBC cold-case drama Silent Witness prominent in her list of credits. She's also been a documentary maker, playwright and theatre director. But Jayne will be the first to admit that she's found the process of publishing her first book at times challenging and frustrating, with many hurdles thrown up by the publishing platforms and industry systems. So can you plan your way to publishing success, applying the lessons learned from a career at the top of TV and film production? This is a fascinating and wide-ranging interview.

Also this week, should we dismayed that Agatha Christie has been brought back to life by the BBC and AI to teach aspiring writers the secrets of her craft? And should a book published by an imprint owned by Penguin Random House feature in the Independent Publishing Bestseller lists?

Jayne Chard – Author Of More Than Murder

https://www.amazon.co.uk/More-Than-Murder-unputdownable-intriguing-ebook/dp/B0F381RKHS

Agatha Christie AI BBC Maestro behind-the-scenes: https://youtu.be/26Tn5OjMcAM?si=0n6HwXpX1oL7D_ZW6Tn5OjMcAM?si=0n6HwXpX1oL7D_ZW

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It's fair to say that 2025 has been an unusual and surprising year so, driven largely by events in the United States. Almost as soon as we record our news section for The Hobcast Book Show, it fast becomes out of date as President Trump signs a new executive order or publishes his latest social media post. Upheaval in America is nothing new of course, but for our guest this week, author and film maker Denise Ohio, current challenges hold strong echoes with an event she has spent many years researching and publicising, the 1916 Everett Massacre. It's the subject of Ohio's documentary Verona: The Story of the Everett Massacre which took twenty years to make. It tells the story of the events of Sunday 5th November, 1916, when members of a union, the I.W.W arrived on the dock at Everett to support the striking shingle weavers who'd been on strike for five months. When violence broke out, several men lay dead or dying. It's become a celebrated event in the struggle for free speech in the United States, but as Ohio tells us, events were far more complex than that - so much so - she has now embarked on writing eight novels telling the stories of some of the people involved. This is a fascinating and thought-provoking interview that draws parallels between today's events and the struggles of the past.

Also this week, we discuss how the closure of crowd-sourced publishing pioneers Unbound will leave some contributors out of pocket, and is it ever write to microwave a mug of coffee?

Verona: The Story of the Everett Massacre

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We're really excited to be bringing you something different in this week's show. We're joined by six students from Toorop Mavo in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, all of whom are taking the Cambridge English course as an additional option to their usual studies. All our guests are around 15 years old, and each read one of our Hobeck books before we interviewed them - choosing between Echo Rock by Robert Daws, and a prequel novella by Lin Le Versha. So what did they make of their first taste of crime fiction? And what do they normally read? This is a fascinating interview that highlights the challenges younger reader face in finding time to read, and even access to books.

Also this week, we ask if the UK government are exploiting the country's creative sector to secure a trade deal with the United States, and we discuss a new development for Kindle users - "Recap" - which uses AI to give readers a reminder of key events from book series they love before they read their next instalment.

De Toorop Mavo De TooropMavo

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A few weeks ago we had the pleasure of speaking to veteran entertainment and celebrity public relations expert and author, Peter Berry. He gave us an insight into how difficult it is to mediate between his celebrity clients and the demands of journalists. It's time to hear from the other side of things. Debut author Caroline Westbrook is an entertainment journalist who has faced the challenge of encouraging her celebrity interviewees to say something fresh and interesting, even if it's the hundredth interview of their promotional tour. Drawing extensively on her career in newspapers, magazines and the BBC, her novel Troublemaker delves into the high-pressure world of entertainment journalism and gives it a murderous twist. As Caroline, writing as C.R Westbrook explains, many of her colleagues believe they've been the inspiration behind her characters.

Also this week, Adrian and Rebecca discuss the potential impact of Donald Trump's trade tariffs on the publishing industry. Will books be harder to sell in uncertain economic times?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/TROUBLEMAKER-C-R-Westbrook-ebook/dp/B0DQ16S84J

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In the second part of our interview with award-winning historical author Chris Lloyd, we discover how unexpected historical research details impact his storytelling and novels. Chris spends three months digging into the minutiae of life in wartime Paris for each of his Occupation Series novels, and is often surprised by what he finds. As he explains, his plans can change dramatically as a result.

Also this week, we discuss this year's author line-up for the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Festival in Harrogate. Is it the same old faces, or can we look forward to something a bit different from this year's chair, Mick Herron?

The Occupation Series — Chris Lloyd

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