Just over two years ago, I was sitting in Pyshechnaya, a donut shop in Saint Petersburg with my wife-to-be, Alison. I was explaining my idea for a novel set in the city, inspired by its status as ‘hero-city.’ The Siege of Leningrad was arguably history’s most horrific military operation. For 872 days, the city was cut off from the world, with more than a million of its citizens losing their lives, primarily through starvation, disease and hypothermia, but also the heavy bombing that was inflicted in the early stages. Amongst the dead was a young child named Viktor Putin. Viktor died of diphtheria in the early stages of the siege,…

Events that shape history not only dominate the news cycle, they eventually shape fiction across all genres. COVID-19 is yet to be at the heart of too many of the stories being released, but it is inevitable we will start to see the impact grow. This might not be stories based around the pandemic, but the little changes that impact our day to day life will start being presented more in books, film and television. Every genre may start seeing this, even if perhaps not quite as facetiously as the below examples indicate: Romance: ‘She was dressed to impress, a skimpy face mask revealing just a subtle glimpse of nose.’…

Writing a novel and running a marathon. These two feats have nothing in common, right? Wrong. At different times of life I have looked at both of these as aspirational goals. I didn’t get too close to achieving one of them, but in the process of completing the other, I developed an understanding of their similarities. Both of these tests of human endeavour and stamina require training, planning and discipline. There are times when all of this is easy; when inspiration first strikes, it is easy to start those training sessions on the road, or to start planning out your plot and characters. As time passes, getting out of bed…