ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Justin was a professional writer and editor for 15 years before his debut novel, Carpet Diem, was published, going on to win the 2018 Audie award for Humor. His second novel, The Lost War, won the 2020 SPFBO award, leading to a four-book deal with Orbit for The Eidyn Saga.

Two short animations Justin scripted and produced were shortlisted for Scottish Creative awards, and he also writes TV and film scripts with his wife, Juliet. Their children’s audio story, The Great Bumpkin King, was produced by BBC Scotland in 2019. Justin and Juliet live with their family in East Lothian, near Justin’s hometown of Edinburgh.

Honestly, I thought Carpet Diem had a better chance when I entered that into SPFBO 4. It already had a good track record of sales and reviews and I was quietly hopeful it might put in a good showing. I almost didn’t put in The Lost War after Carpet Diem went out in one of the first rounds of cuts, but it was such a different book that I thought it was worth a punt, just to see if it would pick up some attention. I was delighted just to make the semi-finals, but I don’t think I ever really thought I might win until pretty late in the final stage. I was constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop and Fletch or Patrick to soar past me. It was a pleasant surprise when they didn’t!

Whole career change! SPFBO got me my agent (thanks to Mark!) and my agent got me a four-book deal with Orbit, which has been amazing. SPFBO (and Mark) have literally been life-changing for me. No paparazzi yet, but that’s probably a good thing…

Yeah, I definitely did. And with the way The Lost War goes, and ends, I really made a noose for my own neck. But I was already writing The Bitter Crown before the result, so I don’t know if winning made it better or worse. I think maybe it gave me more confidence. And The Bitter Crown is a different kind of book – you can’t just do the same thing again, especially when you do something wild like I did with The Lost War – so I was following up an award-winning twisty conspiracy book with a very character-driven story. I was nervous, but delighted when it landed well. The first early reviews are always scary, but they were really strong, some of them saying it was a better book, which was really satisfying.

Well, the ending probably had a lot to do with it! I mean, that was my starting point – the whole reason I wrote that book was as a metaphor for modern society and to show how things could be under a certain circumstance. What I did not allow for was how hard it is to talk about a book without spoiling a twist! It was important to me to pull that off well, and readers seem to feel that it worked. I also wanted to write characters that felt real and have real emotions and relationships, and that also seems to have resonated with readers. I dunno. I wrote a book (and series) full of stuff that interests me about people and the world and existence, and I guess it interests other people too!

Aranok? Would be utterly unbothered. In fact, would probably consider it a stupid distraction when there are important things to be doing. Allandria would boot him in the arse and tell him to cheer up and enjoy it.

Just one? Ha ha ha ha ha! Every. Single. Book. To the point where when I tell my wife everything is shit and the book is a disaster she now says “Ah, we’re at this point, are we?” And there’s the answer. My wife is incredible. She supports me passionately and reminds me I’m not a terrible writer when I’m convinced otherwise. She now reads my first drafts chapter by chapter as I write them. It’s good motivation for me to write more and helps when she tells me it’s not awful.

I loved Patrick’s book, Shadow of a Dead God, from my year. Just my kind of snarky humour and disaster mage mystery action. But there were loads of good ones in that year, which makes me even happier to have won. It was a strong field.

I’m currently just finishing the recording of the audiobook for The Damned King, the third of four books in the Eidyn Saga, which is out on August 19th. It’s been a long time coming and I can’t wait for it to be out! And when that’s finished I’ll be able to get back to writing book 4, the finale, which will be out next year, all being well. It’s been tricky, but that’s been more to do with life and my health getting in the way of writing than the writing itself. I’m about 45k words into it, with the plan to hand it in by the end of the year.

I was just thinking about this! How funny. The bit I ignore is “get in late and get out early”. Bugger that. If everything has to drive the plot forward, you miss the chance to properly develop your characters and their relationships. I tell mentoring clients to never be afraid to linger in a scene and show us their characters and world – as long as you’re serving at least one of plot, character or worldbuilding, you’re golden. Which leads me to the bit of advice I always repeat: readers will come for the plot, but they come back for the characters. Get your characters right and readers will itch to come back and hang out with them.

I think I want to see my work on screen at some point. A good adaptation of my novels or a screenplay – I’ve been writing those on and off for years too. To see something I wrote on TV or film would be the moment I really felt like I’d done it. That would be my proudest moment, I think.