No Write Way with V. E. Schwab

Some books remind you that fantasy can be brutal, funny, and painfully human all at once.

This week, I’m joined by Joe Abercrombie, author of the First Law series and his latest, The Devils, for a conversation about the strange dance between fantasy and the expectations that come with it. We talk about drifting around the edges of genre labels (including the ever persistent “grimdark”) and what it means to write stories that refuse to behave exactly the way readers expect.
Joe shares how his background as a film editor shaped the way he builds a story, from pacing to perspective to the careful balancing act of an ensemble cast. We also commiserate over a familiar writerly condition: the convenient amnesia that allows us to forget the horrors of drafting just long enough to start the next book. Joe compares the process to laying bricks. You keep placing them, one after another, even when some are crooked and others will need replacing later. Eventually you look up and realize a wall has begun to take shape.

Links:
Follow No Write Way on Instagram
V.E. Schwab’s Website
Joe Abercrombie’s Website

Credits:
Host: V.E. Schwab
Producer/Editor/Mixer: Jenna Maurice

Some books feel like a rom com written in a minor key.
This week, I’m talking with Ashley Winstead, author of In My Dreams I Hold a Knife and her latest, Future Saints. We chat about the idea that first drafts are just secret monsters, something you have to let out just to learn their shape. Ashley tells me about the sticky note she kept on her laptop that read, “no one will ever see this,” a small, stubborn permission that made it possible for her to keep going.
She walks me through her rigorous and deeply self-aware writing process, including how she lets her brain decide what it can realistically handle each day instead of having word count goals or a time frame. And somewhere along the way, I realize I’ve found a kindred spirit, especially when it comes to our shared tendency toward slightly psychotic outlining. What a joy. 

Check out the playlist for Ashley’s book Future Saints (mentioned in this podcast) in the links below.

Links:
Follow No Write Way on Instagram
V.E. Schwab’s Website
Ashley Winstead’s WebsiteOfficial Future Saints Playlist

Credits:
Host: V.E. Schwab
Producer/Editor/Mixer: Jenna Maurice

Some stories are portals. Some storytellers are too. 
This week, I’m joined by T. L. Huchu, author of The Edinburgh Nights series, for a conversation that feels a little like falling down a rabbit hole together. T. L. often interviews me when my tours bring me through Edinburgh, so this time we flipped the script, and as always, time behaved strangely around us.
We talk about bookstores as cathedrals, the idea that a writer is less an architect and more a conduit for the stories that seize them, and what it means to be an atheist who still has religious experiences on the page, moments of possession, of surrender, of something bigger moving through you.
T. L. believes you are what you eat, creatively speaking, and we dig into the stories he devoured, loved, and metabolized into his own work. We wander into the magical practice space of short stories, the long and persistent road to publication, and the origin story that proves success is often built on a refusal to quit.

Links:
Follow No Write Way on Instagram
V.E. Schwab’s Website

Credits:
Host: V.E. Schwab
Producer/Editor/Mixer: Jenna Maurice

Some books tilt the world just slightly off its axis and dare you to find your footing.
This week, I’m joined by Mona Awad, author of Bunny and Rouge, whose stories feel at once unsettling and luminous. We talk about the poem she once wrote for a class, one her teacher loved so much it terrified her into dropping the course, and how that early moment shaped her relationship with risk and praise.
We wander into our shared desire to invite fantasy and magic into the real world, and the way our minds can feel like haunted houses crowded with every character we’ve ever written. We talk about long walks as part of her drafting process, the strange alchemy of revision, and the quiet power of clothing in her books. 
PS. If you need us we will be under a cozy blanket watching Ru Paul’s Drag Race.
Follow No Write Way on Instagram
V.E. Schwab’s Website
Mona Awad's Website

Credits:
Host: V.E. Schwab
Producer/Editor/Mixer: Jenna Maurice

Some books arrive as love stories and leave you thinking about much more.
This week, I’m joined by Kennedy Ryan, bestselling author of Can’t Get Enough and Before I Let Go, for a conversation that feels less like an interview and more like gabbing with a very wise bestie. We talk about the fragility of success, the realities of moving between traditional and self-publishing (and why she’s done both—more than once), and the way her novels operate as Trojan horses: sweeping romances that carry big, necessary conversations about justice, equity, and identity.
Kennedy also shares how her background in journalism shapes her work, from the deep research phase that anchors each book to the responsibility she feels when writing stories meant to spark discourse. It’s thoughtful, honest, and deeply human—and a reminder that love stories can do much more than “that thing.”

Links:
Follow No Write Way on Instagram
V.E. Schwab’s Website
Kennedy Ryan’s Website

Credits:
Host: V.E. Schwab
Producer/Editor/Mixer: Jenna Maurice