In episode 3 I talk to John McKinstry.

John is a writer of non-fiction and also published his first novel, Life and Other Contact Sports, in 2016.

We talk about what he learned in writing his business self-help books – about what he calls the “bad stuff” like redundancy, bullying and dealing with anger – and how that that helped him when he set out to write fiction.

John tells us about his approach to planning and how that compares when writing fiction and non-fiction.

John’s novel is set in the world of ice hockey, so we look at the challenges of writing about sport; about making the action come alive and the reaction of passionate sports fans to fictional depictions of their sport.

We also talk about how John has got his books out there and available for readers. He’s taken both the self-publishing route and has worked with a publisher too, so he has a good insight into the benefits and challenges of each approach.

John is very good company and one of life’s enthusiasts; with so much experience he is definitely someone aspiring writers can learn from.

If you want to find out more about John, you can access John’s Amazon author page here

I hope you enjoy this episode. If so: please leave a comment below or – even better – a review on iTunes.

These are the things that make a podcaster happy and it tells me I’m creating episodes you want to hear.

Happy listening – and happy writing.

Steve