Ep. 272 - The Queen of Grimdark Anna Smith Spark on Autism, Writing, & Epic Fantasy
Page One - The Writer's PodcastShow Notes
Watch as a full video episode on YouTube
Anna Smith Spark loves grimdark and epic fantasy and historical military fiction. She has a BA in Classics, an MA in history and a PhD in English Literature. She has previously been published in the Fortean Times and the poetry website www.greatworks.org.uk. Anna's favourite authors and key influences are R. Scott Bakker, Steve Erikson, M. John Harrison, Ursula Le Guin, Mary Stewart and Mary Renault. She spent several years as an obsessive D&D player. She can often be spotted at SFF conventions wearing very unusual shoes. Her latest books, A Sword of Gold & Ruin and Anderson versus Death, are out now.
We had a great time chatting with Anna live at Cymera Festival in Edinburgh, hearing about how neurodivergence shapes her unique writing style, her lightning-fast journey to landing an agent, and writing epic trilogies without a plan. We also talk about tackling 2000 AD IP with Judge Anderson, and we get into an interesting chat about theoverlap between ancient mythology and comic book continuity!
Links: Buy Anna's books now Follow Anna on Instagram
Support us on Patreon and get the podcast early and ad-free, along with other great benefits, including a bonus episodes: https://www.patreon.com/ukpageone
Page One - The Writer's Podcast is brought to you by Write Gear, creators of Page One - the Writer's Notebook. Learn more and order yours now: https://www.writegear.co.uk/page-one
Follow us on Facebook Follow us on Instagram Follow us on Bluesky Follow us on Threads
Page One - The Writer's Podcast is part of STET Podcasts - the one stop shop for all your writing and publishing podcast needs! Follow STET Podcasts on Instagram and Bluesky Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from Page One - The Writer's Podcast
We're on a short break from Page One, but enjoy this episode from our sister show, Narrative Damage.
Watch as a full video interview on YouTube
Watch as a full video interview on YouTube
On this episode of AIPL, there isn't even a mention of AI! Instead, we talk about how a recent change to Agent ethics guidelines in the US are questionable at best, discuss how publisher's PR promises are often empty (and whether anything could be done to stop that), and dive into a debate about whether memoirs should be fact-checked or should be left to be almost fictional in some cases...
Watch this as a full video interview on YouTube