#201: Writing Bestselling Fantasy — Holly Black (The Cruel Prince) & Samantha Shannon (The Priory of the Orange Tree) on Magic Systems, Building Worlds From Research, and Writing Through Self-Doubt | Compilation
London Writers' SalonShow Notes
Bestselling fantasy authors Holly Black and Samantha Shannon on building believable magic systems, researching and constructing immersive worlds, and why the right book often only emerges once you’ve written the wrong one.
More from London Writers' Salon
Lulu PR Manager Sarah Gilbert on building a reader-first publicity plan, pitching the media as an indie author, and turning small grassroots wins into lasting momentum.
Indie authors Joanna Penn, Orna Ross, and Eleanor Anstruther on going direct to readers and protecting your rights, the business and money side of self-publishing, and building an audience by serialising on Substack.
Sunday Times bestselling author Emma Gannon on healing burnout through play and joy, trusting your creative intuition over people-pleasing, and what she's learned from self-publishing alongside traditional publishing.
Poet, publisher, and educator Anthony Anaxagorou on treating rejection as part of the job, pushing an idea to its edge without losing the reader, and ending a poem where it can keep travelling — a re-release of episode #012.
Bestselling novelist Marti Leimbach on the art of writing a novel, surviving early success and the long career that follows, and turning lived experience into fiction — a remastered version of episode #016.