My Memories of a Future Life

Imagine a novel could guest on Desert Island Discs. For those of you receiving outside the UK, Desert Island Discs is an immensely popular and long-running show on BBC Radio 4, where guests are asked to choose pieces of music that form a soundtrack to their lives.

After my recent co-post with Porter Anderson here about undercover soundtracks to our novels, I am excited to announce a series… hosting writers who use music in the creation of their novels. They’ll be talking about special pieces that have guided them to a deeper understanding of a character, or have helped to populate a mysterious place, or clarified a particular, pivotal moment. Or anything else music has given their writing – I’m all ears.

First up is Dan Holloway, founder member of the literary fiction collective Year Zero Writers and the literary project eight cuts gallery. His novel The Company of Fellows was voted favourite Oxford novel by readers at Blackwell’s. He’s talking about Songs From The Other Side of the Wall, and the music that helped him develop his rather individual characters. Find it here 

And in case you didn’t see it, Guys Can Read invited me to talk about My Memories of a Future Life this week. I’ve been a fan of their podcast from the early days so it was an honour to be asked – and we also had a stab at understanding the future of publishing, with serialising, social media and professional writers turning indie. Catch it here. And hop over here for The Undercover Soundtrack.