Ever wondered what really happens between a writer's first flash of inspiration and the moment a book lands in your hands? In this episode, Matthew Harffy and Justin Hill pull back the curtain on the entire journey of getting a book published, and they don't hold back.
With nearly 40 published books between them, across traditional publishing, self-publishing, and everything in between, Matthew and Justin walk through every stage of the process: the creative spark (and what happens when inspiration doesn't show up on schedule), the research rabbit holes, the difference between pantsers and plotters, pitching to agents and editors, navigating advances and royalties, structural edits vs. copy edits, cover design battles (stirrups in the wrong century!), title negotiations, publication day anticlimax, translation deals, and the bittersweet moment your book ends up remaindered — or spotted in a second-hand shop.
They also dig into the financial realities of publishing that most authors don't talk about openly: what advances actually mean, why earning out matters more than a big payday, what the Society of Authors can do for you, and how PLR and ALCS quietly supplement an author's income year after year.
Whether you're an aspiring writer, a published author, or simply a passionate reader curious about how the books you love are made, this is a conversation packed with insight, honesty, and the occasional laugh.
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What does it take to spend 50 years championing history's most maligned king and turn that passion into six published novels?

This week on Rock, Paper, Swords, hosts Justin Hill and Matthew Harffy are joined by Anne Easter Smith, author of a celebrated series of novels spanning the entire York dynasty. Born near Winchester, raised partly in Egypt watching Suez Canal convoys from her window, and a resident of the United States since 1968, Anne has one of the most extraordinary life stories we've heard on the show, and it's all filtered into the rich, meticulous historical fiction she writes.

Anne tells us how Josephine Tey's The Daughter of Time converted her into a lifelong Ricardian at the age of 21, how a chance meeting at a New York City party led to a publishing deal with Simon & Schuster, and how she built her six-novel York dynasty series from the ground up, always insisting on visiting every location her characters walk through.

We also dig into the realities of the publishing industry: the golden age of author tours and dedicated publicists, the impact of the 2008 recession on advances and promotion, and the surprisingly personal dynamics of the agent-author relationship.

Anne also previews her upcoming panel at the Historical Novel Society Conference in Maynooth, where she'll join Margaret George and Leslie Carroll to make the case for history's supposed villains: Richard III, Nero, and Marie Antoinette.

Before Anne joins us, Justin and Matthew check in on their own writing: Matthew is filling in the historical detail on his first Roman novel (a possible new series set in ancient Rome), while Justin is on deadline for his latest Warhammer novel and thinking ahead to a contemporary shipping story.A brilliant conversation about history, storytelling, the craft of writing, and the power of fiction to make us feel the past.

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This week Matthew Harffy and Justin Hill are joined by Sunday Times bestselling author Elodie Harper — journalist, classicist, and one of the most exciting voices writing historical fiction today.Elodie's Wolf Den trilogy brought the women of Pompeii's infamous brothel roaring back to life, and her stunning new standalone Boudicca's Daughter follows Solina — the unnamed, overlooked daughter of Britain's most iconic warrior queen — from the chaos of the Boudiccan rebellion to the glittering, treacherous court of Nero's Rome.

We talk about what it means to write from the perspective of history's silenced women, the surprisingly complex historical record behind the Iceni rebellion, and the fascinating question of what we can and can't know about Celtic Britain. Elodie also reveals why she chose Tacitus's single phrase — that the ancient Britons "made no distinction between the sexes when choosing commanders" — as a window into an entirely different world, and why she included human sacrifice despite her sympathies lying firmly with the Iceni.

Plus: the spark for The Wolf Den (courtesy of historian Dan Jones), the emotional experience of visiting Pompeii's only surviving purpose-built brothel at dusk, the craft decision to write Solina's sections in first person present tense, and why even the villain of the piece — Roman general Paulinus — ended up being surprisingly sympathetic.Boudicca's Daughter is out in paperback on 23rd April.

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