THE GREAT PRETENDER

We now have a podcast channel and we are filling it up with new shows. Mark your diary for February, when we bring you Let's Get Lit: The Interviews, and download the new show, Nothing Important Happened Today with Will Carver. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the last show of the year, Will and Steve talk about Christmas trees, edging and the sticky subject of plagiarism. They also learn some new 'young-people' words to put into their next novels.Pantomimes, WhatsApp groups, Christmas traditions and a little bit about books. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The world's most sporadic podcast returns with an episode about money. Will and Steve discuss how much money is and is not earned by writers and how they can bump up their often pitiful salaries in other ways – often by doing nothing at all. A drink is shared, secrets are spilled and Steve calls some AI vanity publishers a bunch of c***s. Settle in for the latest instalment of Let's Get Lit. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Research. How much should you do? How do you do it? Should you just write what you already know? These questions and more will be answered in this week's show. Will and Steve will also be sampling some vanilla rum while discussing The Booker Prize, TikTok, fitting kitchens, Spanish curtain choices, and the effects of placing a dead body in a bath of bleach. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Will and Steve are back in the studio after trying an online recording of the show, last time. (Thanks to 21 Soho for hosting.) This week, discussion turns to when one is allowed to officially refer to themselves as A WRITER. There is also talk of the boom in influencer book deals, conjoined twins, Bloody Scotland, Oasis tickets, and the favoured tipple of the homeless.So grab yourself a drink and settle in for more bookish rants. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this short comeback episode, Will and Steve discuss where they have been all this time, the lost episode and the all-important impact of AI on publishing. There is also a clue about the new podcast series coming soon and future episodes of Let's Get Lit. It's good to be back. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Another live recording of the LET'S GET LIT podcast, this time from the Progress Theatre in Reading for FOURBEARS FEST. This week, Will and Steve are trying to keep things positive as they work through a list of all the wonderful parts of being a writer. They talk about the National Book Awards, festival FOMO and working class people in the arts, as well as the death of dogs and film producers. There is audience interaction and Debbie has a very important question for Will. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week it's all about REJECTION. Rejection from agents. Rejection from publishers. And rejection from readers. And how writers just have to move on and get over it. There's a short history of some famous writer rejections and Will and Steve share some of their best one-star reviews, before talking about this year's longlist for the Theakston's Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year. Oh, and Diane from Dudley gets a little saucy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

They're BACK!!After a sporadic but entertaining first season, Will Carver and SJ Watson return for more talk about books and the literary world, while sampling a few drinks along the way. In this first episode of the new season, they discuss VOICE. What is a writing voice? Who are the most distinctive writers? What does it mean to have a voice? And does it affect success?Current reads include, Ring, The Puppet Master and Christ on a Bike, and in the news they discuss AI again – this time with regard to apps that condense novels into a more 'manageable' size – and the fact that Will Dean has a new jacket...There's also a new guest spot for Debbie from Dudley as Sandra, sadly, makes way for a new super-fan. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this special publication-day episode, Will and Steve are recording live at Fourbears Books for the launch of Will's latest book, UPSTAIRS AT THE BERESFORD, where they will be talking about what should be the most exciting part of the process and how it has changed from when they started.There are questions from the live audience as well as the usual probing insights from Kidderminster's very own Sandra. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.