Behind the Scenes with Hazel Gaynor & Heather Webb

Bonus Green Room Footage + Q&A with This Week's Guest

A Conversation with Hazel Gaynor & Heather Webb

A writing tip, book recommendation, and other great insights from Hazel & Heather that were not covered in our on-air interview, which you can WATCH or LISTEN to now!

Also! Scroll down for bonus green room footage of Hazel & Heather talking about which royals throughout history they’d love the chance to meet in person.

For any aspiring writers out there, would you please share a short bit of writing advice?

Hazel: Give yourself permission to write something imperfect at the start. You are not expected to get it right in the first draft (or the second or third draft)! Tell yourself a scruffy version of the story first, then you can dig in to really find its shape and structure and heart.

Heather: Don’t compare your work-in-progress to a finished work that you admire. It sets you up to feel like a failure when in fact, the finished novel has likely been through more drafts than you can count and years of hard work with a lot of incorporated feedback. Focus, instead, on studying and dissecting what makes that novel that you love so much work. The language, emotional quality, pacing, dialogue, etc.

What is the last book you raved about and what did you love about it?

Hazel: Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton. It is a beautiful and tender memoir based on the author’s experience of raising a wild hare during lockdown. I found it incredibly touching, and a refreshing change of genre when I was in a reading slump.

Heather: I have so many, but I will settle for three! The Wedding People by Alison Espach is hilarious yet poignant, and a great trope-buster with terrific dialogue. I couldn’t stop chuckling. I also adored Starling House by Alix E. Harrow (author of The Ten Thousand Doors of January- loved!), a fantastical but contemporary sort of Wuthering Heights story with an unlikely heroine. I was swept away by the author’s lush writing and the anti-hero/love interest. And finally, a completely underestimated writer, Gwendolyn Womack, and her novel The Memory Painter. It’s a love story and a mystery for the ages — across eras and continents — as well as a reincarnation story with some philosophical and even spiritual elements, too. I devoured it. The audiobook is great. I’ve loved all of her books.

What can you tell us about your work-in-progress?