Sam Mills is an innovative and wildly creative writer, who has always wanted to publish books. She's written non-fiction books, 'Uneven', 'The Fragments of my Father', and others, also crossover, genre-bending novels like 'Blackout', and 'The Quiddity of Will Self'. She's written for The Guardian, The Independent, the New Humanist and more, along with running 'Dodo Ink', a small indie press that publishes daring and difficult literary fiction.

Her new novel is 'The Watermark'. Inspired by 'Inception', it tells the story of Rachel and Jaime, who become trapped by Augustus Fate, a once-lauded novelist, in his latest creation. They must find their way back home through a labyrinthine network of novels, flitting from a harsh Russian Winter, to Victorian Oxford, from a utopian metropolis to an AI-dominated future.

We discuss why she likes the romance of being a writer, and that helps her deal with the instability of it. Also, you can hear how she creeps close to the line of burnout, yet knows exactly when to pull back. Sam shares pen opinions, and how she's developed the cafe-writer's sense of when to leave.

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Dan Houser was the lead writer, creative director and co-founder of Rockstar Games. Rockstar are the studio behind the 'Grand Theft Auto' and 'Red Dead Redemption' series. They're responsible for over half a billion video game sales. 'GTA V' and 'Red Dead Redemption 2' are both in the top 5 bestselling video games ever... and Dan wrote them.

Since leaving Rockstar, he's set up Absurd Ventures, a studio he says will create new universes in video games, podcasts, animation, and now it's spawned his debut novel. 'A Better Paradise - Volume 1: An Aftermath' is the start of a world of stories across different forms of media.

Here's the blurb - Mark Tyburn dreams of building the perfect video game. Kurt Fischer dreams of being a rich and successful executive. Daisy Tyburn dreams of having the ideal father. John Tyburn Smith dreams of fitting in. NigelDave just dreams of becoming human. Set in the near future, A BETTER PARADISE tells the story of the ill-fated development of an ambitious but addictive video game project that goes very wrong. As the software they developed starts to produce unexpected and disturbing results, the project is shut down and abandoned. Until now.

We discuss what he's learned from writing his first novel and how that'll influence future stories. Also you can hear how he dealt with the weight of expectation while working on the biggest video games around, how he's trying to build boundaries, and how he knows where a story idea will live. There's also a good amount of chat about GTA's fantastic radio stations.

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This episode is sponsored by Ulysses. Go to https://ulys.app/writeabook to download Ulysses, and use the code ROUTINE at checkout to get 25% off the first year of your yearly subscription.

Also, this episode is supported by Faber Academy. Make the most of their fantastic writing courses in 2026 at https://faberacademy.com/writing-a-novel/

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Zoe Apostolides is a journalist and columnist, writing for The Guardian, The Telegraph and the Financial Times. Her new novel is 'The Homecoming', born out of conversations with her Grandmother. When she transcribed these, she thought... could I spin a sinister story out of this?

It follows Ellen, a young ghost-writer, who is sent from London all the way to a rural manor house in Northumberland. When she finally arrives at the crumbling Elver Hall, urgently knocking on the door in the midst of a biblical storm, Ellen's never felt more alone. Her phone has no signal and the local taxi-driver refuses to take her further than the bottom of the lane. When Miss Carey suddenly appears on the stairwell in her white dressing gown, it’s enough to make Ellen want to run back to London as fast as she can.

We talk about how her career taught her wide and be interested in everything, which is great grounding for novel writing. Also, hear why as a city girl, much of the story came from her fetishing the countryside.

You can hear how she delicately plays with the traditional tropes of horror, how to get the atmosphere right, and how she makes someone scared in writing.

This episode is sponsored by Ulysses. Go to https://ulys.app/writeabook to download Ulysses, and use the code ROUTINE at checkout to get 25% off the first year of your yearly subscription.

Also, this episode is supported by Faber Academy. Make the most of their fantastic writing courses in 2026 at https://faberacademy.com/writing-a-novel/

Support the show -

patreon.com/writersroutine

ko-fi.com/writersroutine

Get a copy of the book - uk.bookshop.com/shop/writersroutine

@writerspod

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