Bottle of Red

Indulgent, navel-gazing, incoherent: It must be Ross Garner's final appearance as host of the Bottle of Red podcast. In this final episode of Series 2, Ross reflects on his time with the show before passing the torch to Justin Lee Anderson and Ross Dickie. Series 3 will (probably) launch next year. Thanks for all the memories. Ross x

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe draws comedians from around the world, but has its corporate structure turned artists into the middlemen between venues and punters? In this week's Bottle of Red, funny man Jason John Whitehead explains what drew him to the Free Fringe, as well as details of his writing process.

Sure, you could publish your book and make it rain - but what if that doesn't work? What if you want to try a more nuanced marketing strategy to hook readers, and then make them pay? This week on Bottle of Red, author and writing coach R.E. Vance (Ramy Habib) is back to join Ross and Justin at G&V in Edinburgh. He'll be speaking marketing, freebies and episodic release schedules. A few notes on this show... The first 'episode' of Ramy's debut novel, Gone God World, is available now for free on Amazon. If you'd like to get in touch with us on Twitter, tweet at @AuthorJLA, @RossAGarner or @BottleOfRedNet. Ramy can be reached at @GoneGodWorld. If you'd like to support this show, please leave a review on iTunes or Like our Facebook page. Next week, we'll be discussing planning and structure. See you then!

Want to turn your passion into a book? Or have a story you're desperate to tell? Then author and writing coach R.E. Vance (Ramy Habib) is your man. This week on Bottle of Red, Justin and Ross have taken the show to G&V in Edinburgh to record on location. We speak to Ramy about the biggest mistakes that new writers make, the misconceptions they bring to their first book, and his tips for getting started. A few notes on this show... The first 'episode' of Ramy's debut novel, Gone God World, is available now for free on Amazon. If you'd like to get in touch with us on Twitter, tweet at @AuthorJLA, @RossAGarner or @BottleOfRedNet. Ramy can be reached at @GoneGodWorld. If you'd like to support this show, please leave a review on iTunes or Like our Facebook page. We'll be back with Ramy next week to discuss his top tips for marketing your writing. See you then!

No sex please, we're Scottish. This week on Bottle of Red, author Jonathan Whitelaw joins Ross Dickie and Ross Garner to discuss sex in fiction. Does a graphic sex scene have to be erotic? Or do stories suffer because writers shy away from being honest in the bedroom? We'll be talking sexposition in Game of Thrones, feeble foreplay in Wuthering Heights, and darkly comic masturbation in Jonathan's debut novel Morbid Relations.

What makes one piece of writing better than another? How can repeating a single swear word be as effective as an emotional appeal to the heart? In this week's Bottle of Red, Ross G, Ross D and Justin discuss.

Bottle of Red has relaunched with a new format! Each week, Ross Garner, Justin Anderson and Ross Dickie will be discussing writing from all angles. Always acute, occasionally obtuse, they're kicking off this second series by answering the question: 'What is the value of writing?' - personally, professionally, and globally.