Ep 17: The Art of Fiction: How to unlock your creativity, work through writers block and craft compelling stories with Ben Sanders

Today on the show we have critically acclaimed author Ben Sanders. Ben is a bestselling crime writer from Auckland, New Zealand. His work has received critical acclaim, been shortlisted for the Ngaio Marsh Award, and his fourth novel, American Blood, has been optioned for film adaptation by Warner Bros, with four-time Oscar nominee Bradley Cooper slated to play the lead role. 

In this conversation, Ben and I sit down and chat about his career, his writing style and his inspiration as an author. I pick his brains about his process and we talk about all things in the realm of creativity and being. 

I truly loved this conversation and I learnt so much about what the daily life of an author looks like. Before we hit record we spent ages bonding over our love of Cormack Mccarthys brilliant literary work, meditation, consciousness and basically everything that this podcast was created for. 

Before we start today’s episode I would like to acknowledge the time between episodes. It’s been awhile now since we’ve released an episode and it’s not because the show is rapping up but purely life has been super busy. I work as a music producer full time and I moved into a new recording studio on the terrace in Wellington and getting the studio up and running took up all my time and energy that once it was under way; I was really trying to focus on the studio. Then I started my own album of songs and a novel I’ve been wanting to write for years. So since this podcast is all about art and being; that’s precisely what I’ve been doing and why there haven’t been any episodes for awhile. 

We will be taking another break over summer so this episode will be the final episode of season 1. We will kick off season 2 next year once I have got life under control and a bunch of amazing episodes recorded and ready to go. 

Also thanks to the amazing @rabbitislandcoffee from Mapua in Nelson. Their coffee is all hand roasted by a couple of amazing and inspiring human beings and im sure you’ll agree if you try it; thats it’s probably the best coffee in the country. 

Also thanks again to @taylahmusicnz for letting us use the song Okay that we Produced as the shows theme song.