Katie Lee's Top Secret Project Podcast

About Katie Lee's Top Secret Project Podcast

I figured the best way to handle my feelings of utter horror about being open about this project was to write about my feelings of utter horror about being open about this project shinykatie.substack.com (https://shinykatie.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast)

Publisher

Katie Lee

Category

arts · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

18 Mar 2024

Latest episode

2 Oct 2025

Latest episodes

16 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   2 Oct 2025

   The Roman Empire made me do it

   Katie Lee discusses how the Roman Empire and her Shropshire upbringing inspired her latest story, Maz Star: A Massive Inconvenience, imagining a person relocated lightyears away to a Telford-like place.

2. 

   14 Jul 2025

   Exciting unboxing video

   Katie Lee shares an unboxing of her first two KJ Lyttleton crime novels, *The Man In The Wall* and *A Star Is Dead*.

3. 

   25 Mar 2025

   Breaking news: A Star Is Dead

   How the mysterious story of the Sligo Man kickstarted my first ever crime novel. A STAR IS DEAD (https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DQQ3QYLM?tag=uklinktagbk-21&th=1&psc=1&geniuslink=true) is out now! “The Man Who Deleted His Past Before He Was Found Dead (https://www.vice.com/en/article/peter-bergmann-case-crime-sligo/)" by Francisco Garcia that has haunted me for nearly six years. the poor man who inspired THE MAN IN THE WALL (https://shinykatie.substack.com/i/156393006/i-heard-a-really-grisly-story-about-a-man-in-a-wall)). They’re knocking down the REAL Roosevelt Court (https://kjlyttleton.com/blog/) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit shinykatie.substack.com (https://shinykatie.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

4. 

   28 Feb 2025

   Where do you get your ideas from? Part 2

   Last week I talked about where I get my ideas from (https://shinykatie.substack.com/p/where-do-you-get-your-ideas-from), speaking as someone who really doesn't find it easy to have ideas. If you haven’t read the piece, I can summarise it for you as follows. I get ideas by: 1. By forcing myself to sit and have ideas, often with a brief attached, and 2. By smooshing together things I’ve read about or seen into a new creation. Very rarely (ie twice), an idea will actually appear fully formed. But that’s not what happened with my first novel. When it came to writing The Man In The Wall (https://mybook.to/The-man-in-the-wall), I had to sit and do ::handclap emoji:: the :handclap emoji:: work :handclap emoji::. (Now that I’ve written all that out, I realise I’ve used this phrase in the wrong context, since it was about doing the literal work and not some metaphorical “work” on myself.) Anyway, where was I? Oh yes. The book. I started with a simple brief: come up with a crime novel. From there, I did a lot of smooshing. Luckily, I have years of reading way too many articles, as well as an early career spent doing some very weird temp jobs. I had plenty to work with. To recycle the “how the sausage is made” analogy from last week (which absolutely no one reading this wants or deserves), here are some of the bits of pig gristle that made this particular banger. The making of The Man in The Wall One of the main protagonists of The Man In the Wall (https://mybook.to/The-man-in-the-wall) is Philippa “Phil” McGinty a young journalist who goes undercover at a company called Virtua Services to establish who killed her lovely father, Clive. Which brings me to my first bit of pig extract: 1. I listened to the Private Eye podcast Virtua Services is a business process outsourcing firm. Yes, snore, snore. Sounds thrilling, right? Well, stick with me. I’m convinced these companies purposely make their description dull so that everyone is asleep before you’ve finished saying the sentence. This means that despite the MANY pieces written by outlets like Private Eye exposing outsourcing inefficiencies and scandals, most of those companies are still going strong. One particular episode of the Private Eye podcast stayed with me. In PF-Eye back in 2016 (https://www.private-eye.co.uk/podcast/18), Solomon Hughes and Jayne Mackenzie detailed the many failings of an outsource firm that ran schools, including putting in fire doors that didn’t close properly and throwing up buildings that fell down. At one eye-popping point, Jayne talked about a school in Liverpool that was closed due to low pupil numbers. But because the council had a PFI contract with an outsourcing firm, they still had to pay for the maintenance of an empty school for YEARS. I wanted to try to write about a scandal that isn’t at all sexy and, somehow, still make it interesting. The positive reviews I’ve had so far suggest I either succeeded, or I managed to make the outsourcing bits short enough that no one noticed they’d fallen asleep for a few paragraphs. 2. I read a story about a school wall that fell down in Edinburgh Part of the detail of this story was that the wrong wall ties were used in 17 schools in Scotland under a PPP contact (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-38907714) and the wall fell down in a storm. This happens in my book too. I thought, wouldn’t it be really grim if there was a body in there? But the true tale is a story of such ineptitude that I worried this would seem a bit unbelievable, especially as it didn’t really grab the nation’s consciousness. Luckily, another cock up wasn’t far behind, because soon enough along came the RAAC scandal and the whole country learned that the UK is lousy with unsafe school buildings (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-66681227). It’s kind of mad that we’re not all more furious about this. 3. I heard a really grisly story about a man in a wall Avert your eyes now, sensitive people. This is where I talk about the dead people. The central story in The Man In The Wall revolves around two bodies being found in these badly built school walls. Even worse, Clive McGinty, Phil’s dad, was alive when he fell (or was he pushed?) down into a wall cavity. It’s a grisly part of the story, and it feels a bit grim to admit it was inspired by a true story. I hope you won’t think me totally callous. Here’s what happened. My builder (also called Phil just to confuse things), works as a Health & Safety Officer (HSO) on building sites. Phil likes to tell me really horrible stories about accidents he’s seen. He told me one story about a colleague who was discovered in a cavity wall on a building site around 17 years ago. At the inquest, no one could establish why this man was there – since builders are meant to work with at least one labourer on a site, and it was a weekend when the site was closed. How he fitted in the tiny space was a mystery. Did he fall? Did he kill himself? No one knows. I looked for this story in old news reports so I could give you an original source, but couldn’t find it. I did, however, find some pretty (https://evoke.ie/2018/03/02/news/world/woman-found-in-wall) unpleasant (https://www.kentonline.co.uk/maidstone/news/cavity-death-9903/) similar (https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/body-found-old-bank-identified-21194815) stories (https://web.archive.org/web/20180913004705/https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/foul-play-not-likely-in-mans-death-police-say/article18439596/). Phil the builder is full of tales, so who knows what the truth is. He would say things like this happen all the time and are hushed up pretty quickly. Phil the builder, by the way, is also the inspiration for the ever-moving, ever-grumpy Doug Graves (originally called Phil Graves before I realised it was the same name as my protagonist, duh). Doug Graves is the HSO who knows more about Phil the protagonist’s dad’s death than he’s saying. Phil the builder likes to say that all HSOs are grumpy, but when he’s round our house he’s a cheeky Welsh rogue, which is lucky because he might as well live with us at this point. 4. I worked in HR Not content with expecting the reader to care about wall ties, outsourcing firms and health and safety certificates, I have also put in an awful lot of human resources. Having spent many years working with senior leaders in human resources, I should say that they're all delightful and did not inspire any of the characters. Just in case any of them are reading this. Actually the inspiration for Andrew, the ex-head of HR at Virtua Services, came from the kinds of people who write pieces on LinkedIn about the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion, but who really only like making the right noises for the ‘celebrate’ emoji reaction. In this current climate those same people are probably all over there right now doing a swift one-eighty and talking about ‘masculine energy’. Brr. 5. I had some really dodgy jobs When Phil foolishly goes undercover at Virtua Services, she finds herself doing some pretty mundane jobs. The first is sorting through customer complaint letters ahead of an external audit, and the second is working with the investigations team looking into damage done by rival contractors. (I’m really selling this book, aren’t I? It’s funny, honest.) I once spent a summer sorting through letters for a utility company ahead of their audit (with the boss coming in regularly to extract the piles that hadn’t been responded to and, presumably, rehousing them in a skip). Six of us sat in a tiny room for six weeks, reading spidery handwriting and going slowly insane. I keep meaning to get my diary out and see if I kept an account of those endless days. After that, I moved to a windowless room at a different utility firm and worked with the pipe investigations department. In the book, Mick from investigations is inspired by the only man on our team, who was actually very nice, but who was an older gentleman who had been in the army and struggled with the technology. He was also one of those tall, fit older men who could definitely take most people in a fight. Incidentally, when I was offered my first job in publishing, I felt so guilty. The pipe lot had been so effusive in praising my work and asking me if I wanted to work there forever. I apologised profusely when I handed in my notice and my boss, who was lovely (and ate only chicken slices because she was on the Atkins), stopped me and said, “Katie, in this life, you’ll learn that everyone is replaceable.” Which checked my ego pretty swiftly and has stayed with me ever since. Lol. 6. I watched Veronica Mars and Beverly Hills Cop I don’t know about you, but I’m losing steam now. I worry that I’ve started with far too much information about pipes and handwriting and left out the fun things that inspired the book. So let’s wind things up before I start negatively impacting sales and finish on this high note. Or three high notes actually: detectives Veronica Mars and Axel Foley, and Jo from Pembrokeshire. Both Veronica and Axel are hugely important to this story, but Jo was where Phil the protagonist first began. Jo is an (at the time very young) woman I met at a comedy festival who worked as a local junior journalist and photographer and got all her stories just by knowing absolutely everyone in her town. She is cheerful, personable and easy to chat to. She’s the polar opposite of me. I wanted Phil to be a character who could easily be a confidence trickster if she ever decided to use her powers for evil – ie Axel Foley or Veronica Mars (and maybe Jo too, if she fancied it). But when I wrote the first draft, I sort of forgot that. I got bogged down in the stuff about polystyrene ceiling tiles and HR and HSO reports (as I have in this email, I suppose). So I went back through the book and asked myself, ‘What would Axel Foley do here?’ Because the answer was nearly always more interesting than what Phil McGinty was doing in that first version. Hopefully, that’s why people seem to have enjoyed the book – I cut out the boring bits. Unfortunately, I need to get this email sent out because I’m late for a local Substack writers meet up (Sorry @nikatalbot (https://substack.com/@nikatalbot?) I’m on my way), so I’m going to have to hit send on it warts and all. No time to do the audio, either, but check back and I’ll try to do it later today or over the weekend if you’d prefer to listen to me talking about brick ties rather than read about them. I hope you all have a lovely weekend. I’ll be in touch again soon, and it’ll probably be a story about my family, so stay tuned! Katie PS. Book Two, A Star is Dead (https://mybook.to/A-Star-Is-Dead), is available for pre-order now. It’s a bit delayed, but it will be with you 25th March! Recent pieces This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit shinykatie.substack.com (https://shinykatie.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

5. 

   21 Feb 2025

   Where do you get your ideas from?

   Writers hate being asked where they get their ideas from, don’t they? Not me, though. If you ask me, I will tell you in precise and possibly quite dull detail where I get each of my ideas from. So, at the very strong risk no one gives even a slight hoot, I’m going to take this moment to give you the full recipe for the sausage. The Man In The Wall (https://mybook.to/The-man-in-the-wall) My mate Elham Ehsas (https://elhame.co/) His new film, There Will Come Soft Rains (https://elhame.co/SoftRains) Our film: Your Hand Found Mine (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_JJv3Xcncg) The Social Media Escape Club (https://socialmediaescapeclub.substack.com/) from Seth Werkheiser who is brilliant on this subject. KJ Lyttleton (https://kjlyttleton.com/) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit shinykatie.substack.com (https://shinykatie.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

6. 

   7 Feb 2025

   Did I mention my debut novel is out now??

   Greetings! I thought I should start this one by just coming out and saying exactly what I wanted to at the beginning. Because, looking back at my past emails, it appears I haven't actually sent out a clear marketing email with a bald heading to let you know that The Man in the Wall (https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/author/B0DQVLPRQ2/allbooks?) is out now! (https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/author/B0DQVLPRQ2/allbooks?ingress=0&visitId=bc942361-fff6-43c7-bcdf-7d742bfca49d&ref_=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1) My debut crime novel is the first book in the Aldhill Mystery series and comes to you under the pen name of KJ Lyttleton. It is available in digital or print format from Amazon. If you want a free Advanced Reader/Review Copy of the second book, please fill in your info here (https://forms.gle/8RyS9v5c9tqPq1RLA). (But bear in mind it’s a review copy, so please only sign up if you have time to read it quite quickly and get a review written). This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit shinykatie.substack.com (https://shinykatie.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

7. 

   23 Jan 2025

   What's my favourite food and other vital questions

   Hello lovely humans! I can feel a bit of email paralysis coming on again. Last time this happened (https://shinykatie.substack.com/p/what-its-like-to-be-extremely-boring), many of you were kind enough to get in touch to tell me that you were happy to hear about any old dull guff I had rattling around in my brain that week. But the existential crisis is looming once again. Why? Well, maybe it’s just part of some existential crisis loop I’m on. Maybe it has its own orbit, like Haley’s Comet, and will reappear every few months. Perhaps I should consider tracking it in a Bullet Journal to see if there’s a pattern. OR maybe it’s just that now there are people who are here for different reasons: some because they know I’ve written a crime fiction book; others because I said was publishing a comedy book (https://shinykatie.substack.com/p/do-you-want-to-read-this-book-ive) and promised to keep them in the loop for a freebie. Some really liked my post about my dad making a palaver about dying. Others foolishly joined me because I did a Note about typos that made people feel seen (https://substack.com/@shinykatie/note/c-79840856). And let’s not forget the friends I strong-armed into signing up… Actually, no, wait. We CAN forget them because they have to subscribe. The rest of you are free to come and go as you please because I don’t have your phone numbers and can’t call you to ask you to explain yourselves. More’s the pity. Anyway, how do I plan on dealing with this little crisis in confidence? Simple. I’m just going to ignore it and carry on as usual and hope that you’ll all come along for the ride. With that in mind, here is some dull guff from my brain… Since there are some people who really just landed here by accident and may soon regret the choices that led them to this moment, I thought I would take a leaf out of Amber’s book (https://foreveramber.substack.com/p/allow-me-to-reintroduce-myself) and reintroduce myself. Luckily, I have just the thing for this. I was recently asked to do a “Meet the Author” interview for the UK Crime Book Club group on Facebook (where lovely people dwell). So, in the spirit of utter laziness, I’ve pasted it in here. The questions were set by Kath Middleton, one of the admins. Her words are in bold. I’ve added footnotes, which you can read easily by either hovering over them or clicking the number (depending on where you’re reading this). Disclaimer. This is nowhere near as interesting as Amber’s post (https://foreveramber.substack.com/p/allow-me-to-reintroduce-myself), which I urge you to read, and not just because I come out of it looking quite good, (even if I did employ someone simply because she wrote a blog from her dog’s point of view and it was hilarious). Amber has shared a lot of herself and it’s a pretty incredible story. Maybe one day I’ll do something similarly soul-baring, but in the meantime, here is some information about what food I like. In my spotlight today is Katie Lee. I've read her crime book, due for pre-order soon, and I loved it. Katie, tell us about yourself, where you live etc. I’m the youngest of six children (five girls) and I’m the mother of two girls. My husband is the children’s author and illustrator Alex Milway (https://www.alexmilway.com). We’ve got a very friendly, very loving, very barky miniature schnauzer called Aggy. I’ve lived all over the place, but I moved to St Leonards-on-Sea near Hastings (which inspired the location for my new series), in 2020 during the Christmas lockdown. It was the best decision ever! It’s a fantastic place to live. Would you tell us about your writing journey to date? In my twenties I was a consumer technology journalist, starting on What Laptop magazine and then going on to write for most major newspapers and lots of magazines. With the confidence of youth, I co-founded the UK’s first commercial blog publishing company back in 2004, including the world’s first gadgets website for women (Shiny Shiny). We raised proper VC funding and everything. I was seen as a bit of a novelty thanks to my age and sex, which meant whenever I did an interview as a tech entrepreneur/writer I nearly always got a wink-wink-nudge-nudge question about “gadgets for girls.” Despite that, it was a very fun time to be a tech journalist: lots of press trips abroad and new tech to play with. Once, I was invited to the launch of the Queen’s website at Buckingham Palace. It was only when the footman sent us through a door and said, “It’s ma’am to rhyme with ham,” that I realised I was actually going to meet the woman in charge! I was the first one through the door and I was so shocked, I just said “Hi,” as I shook her hand. The Queen’s face lit up and she giggled, and despite thinking I was totally ambivalent to royalty, I fell in love with her on the spot. Then she had to click a mouse to open her website, which she thought was a hoot. It was all very silly. Later, I went down the client route and I’ve spent the past decade doing a lot of ghostwriting for senior executives. They don’t write anything themselves, you know! It’s been a really quiet year for that, however, and I consciously took the opportunity to finish all these books I’d half-started. It’s been scary taking the plunge, but also liberating. Back in 2016 I also had a go at screenwriting and managed to get a screen agent (https://davidhigham.co.uk/filmclients/katie-lee-alex-milway/). I’ve been shortlisted for BAFTA Rocliffe three times (screenwriting award) and Funny Women once. I’ve developed a few TV adaptations with producers in the UK and Germany and sold an option for a very creepy horror story. I switched to books more recently as it’s very hard to get things away as a new screenwriter – especially if you’re a middle-class woman of a certain age. You’d be amazed by the things producers and agents will actually say to your face about your age and gender! I’ve been pretty lucky in that regard, but some of my friends have heard some outrageous stuff. Do you have a writing routine? My routine is to fail to write for most of the day and then berate myself for all my inadequacies before bashing out a load of words. Some days, I’ll hit peak productivity and absolutely blast through my word count, but tomorrow comes and I’ll just fritter it away reading too many articles and get behind again. Then I get eye strain and have to dictate for bit, which is brilliant and something I’m trying to get better at. I know you all know JD Kirk, who was once the children’s author Barry Hutchison. Well, I had a post-it note on my computer for a long time that said, “Be More Barry,” in a bid to channel his insane productivity levels, but eventually I had to conclude that being a flakey daydreamer is congenital and I’ve actually been more productive since I accepted that. Any favourite or go-to authors whose work you admire? I’m a sucker for crime writers who give a lot of interior lives stuff. People like Belinda Bauer and Kate Atkinson and Lisa Jewell. Outside the world of crime, I worship Hilary Mantel, Susanna Clark and Elizabeth Strout. As a teen, all I read was fantasy, so Tolkien and Mervyn Peake were huge for me. And recently I’ve been reading everything I can by Adrian Tchaichovsky. Oh, and I think Janice Hallet is so clever. Hallet and Bauer both switched from screenwriting to crime (and I’m sure I could guess why), so they’re big inspirations. I’d pay to be even half as good as them. And I couldn’t not mention the ex-kids’/YA author gang, including JD Kirk, David Gatward, Alex Smith, TG Reid, William Hussey and the whole crew. Watching their meteoric rises has been a proper thrill and privilege. They all know how to tell a good story. Why crime? If you’d asked me five years ago, I’d have said I wasn’t interested in crime. But I saw so many of my husband’s peers exploring it and I started reading their work. And it was all great! Then I realised that of course I’d already read crime – Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie and Kate Atkinson etc. Even something like the Gormenghast trilogy is crime in some ways. I think people are often really resistant to trying different genres, but it’s a mistake! I know that mentioning sci-fi immediately puts people off, for example, but a good story is a good story. I’ll try anything now. Plotter or Pantser? I’m a reformed pantster. I started writing the first chapter of my first crime novel and just carried on from there. Terrible idea! It took me far too long. Then, for reasons of sheer insanity, I decided to write the prequel, and that turned into another plotting nightmare since I created continuity errors that I had to go back to the other book to fix. After that chaos, I took a break and wrote a comedy sci-fi that I forced myself to sit and plot first. Thanks to that, it only took me a couple of months to write. It helped when I realised plotting doesn’t actually have to be a strict structural thing: it can be as simple as just writing down everything you know so far. I just splurge it all out and it’s amazing how much more starts appearing and how the pathways open up. I’m not an organised person, so I don’t hold myself to any of it. I can change as I go, but getting down everything I know first is surprisingly similar to putting together a good basic plot. Let’s hope the third crime book goes more smoothly now I’ve reformed my ways. Any hobbies apart from writing? Oh god, too many. I sometimes get stressed about how many hobbies I have! I have a home veg plot AND recently took on an allotment. I have a very neglected YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC01q_uWiLIFIyKlAbawwodw) about it. I sew, crochet and knit. I read a lot – not enough books and too many articles. Substack is an addiction (reading them and writing my own). I like cryptic crosswords. I do visible mending on clothes. I really need to stop doing things that use my eyes. Thank god for audiobooks. Favourite food and drink? My dad was an Anglo-Indian (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Indian_people) from Pakistan. Curry is a vital component of my life. My husband’s been making this amazing sweet and sour Sri Lankan fried paneer curry recently that is out of this world. The boiling water tap we got recently means I just mainline different teas. My friend got me a Pukka tea advent calendar, which was the perfect gift. Thanks, Katie. That really makes you a three-dimensional person for me. I'll let everyone know when that book is up for pre-order. Katie writes under a number pseudonyms - Katie J Lee, KJ Lyttleton. So there you go! That’s a bit about me. I hope you’re all well and safe and aren’t reading too much news (because it really won’t help, you know). I’ll be back again soon. In the meantime, please feel free to explore the archives if you feel you have the strength. Katie This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit shinykatie.substack.com (https://shinykatie.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

8. 

   4 Jan 2025

   I reckon I could take Paddington in a fight

   Happy New Year one and all! I had such big plans. All Christmas I’ve been mentally composing a list of the most implausible moments in the festive fantasy that was Black Doves (number one obviously being the idea that Keira Knightley and Ben Whishaw – delightful though they are – could take ANYONE AT ALL in a fight), but I never quite got the chance to write it, and now it feels like the moment has passed. After all, it’s a show about how a stay-at-home mother goes AWOL during the entire run up to Christmas, spends all her time wandering the famously empty streets of London brandishing weapons, waltzes into the American embassy like it’s a Waitrose, presses her fingerprints into every surface she meets and tosses DNA about like it’s tinsel – and yet somehow still gets all the presents wrapped before Christmas Eve. I don’t know about you, but as soon as Christmas is over, anything Christmassy immediately feels too rich for my blood. I will drink Advocaat like a brandy-custard-loving fiend all Advent long, but after New Year’s Eve the idea of an alcoholic eggy drink leaves me faintly bilious. Luckily, I’ve always finished the entire bottle by then so it’s not a problem. So, I didn’t get round to writing the Black Doves piece and now, like the sherry, it must be put in a dark cupboard and left to gather dust, but I DID play an awful lot of Stardew Valley, and we also – Christmas miracle! – managed to turn our building site of a house into a respectable space in time for the festivities. Eat that, Knightley. You’re not the only one who didn’t wrinkle a brow getting the decorations up. But wait, there’s more! Even more miraculous was the fact that I GOT MY BOOK OUT! The Man In The Wall (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Man-Wall-Killer-Aldhill-Mystery-ebook/dp/B0DPXNPN5B/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_pdt_img_top?ie=UTF8) (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Man-Wall-Killer-Aldhill-Mystery-ebook/dp/B0DPXNPN5B/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_pdt_img_top?ie=UTF8)by KJ Lyttleton (me) is OUT NOW!! (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Man-Wall-Killer-Aldhill-Mystery-ebook/dp/B0DPXNPN5B/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_pdt_img_top?ie=UTF8) Book one in the Aldhill Mysteries series is available via Amazon for the low, low price of £1.99 on Kindle (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Man-Wall-Killer-Aldhill-Mystery-ebook/dp/B0DPXNPN5B/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_pdt_img_top?ie=UTF8). Here’s the blurbage: Journalist Phil McGinty knows her stepdad Clive didn’t kill himself on a school building site seven years ago. Now she’s got five days working undercover to prove it. Meanwhile, DS Jen Collet has her own mystery to solve. A body has fallen out of another school wall, but Jen’s superiors seem strangely unwilling to connect this murder to the death of Clive McGinty. With Jen’s bosses closing ranks and Phil’s time running out, two investigators from different worlds must navigate political scheming and corporate cover-ups to get to the truth The Man In The Wall already has two five-star reviews by genuine readers who aren’t related to me or under any kind of friendship obligation. Can you believe that?! Here’s some more feedback from the lovely Beta readers: ‘I absolutely LOVED IT. I found it gripping but relatable. All in all, you're on my list of favourite crime authors!’ ‘Deep into it. Loving it.’ ‘I enjoyed the book! Most of all I liked your interior monologue pieces which really brought the characters to life.’ ‘Absolutely loved it, I really wasn't expecting how it turned out. Like a book that keeps me guessing and has plenty of twists.’ So there you go! Proper crime readers liked it, which I will NEVER get tired of reminding myself. You can buy your copy here (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Man-Wall-Killer-Aldhill-Mystery-ebook/dp/B0DPXNPN5B/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_pdt_img_top?ie=UTF8). Not a subscriber? Rectify this terrible error by supplying your favourite email address: Just time for one more Christmas miracle Aggy the dog, not content with trying to kill herself once already this year, tried again just as we were leaving my sister’s house before Christmas. After a morning of puking and dooking, we took a risk that the worst was over and headed off down the M6. More fool us. God bless the girls, who caught the first load of vomit in a plastic bag with the cool dexterity of children who have been through this before (and still tell visitors about the time the dog vomited up a cat poo in the car and the youngest caught it in a tupperware). Shortly after that, the dog was good enough to give us fair warning about the emergency evacuation about to take place at the other end, so we pulled over for the third time and I started googling for vets along the M6. All I can say is that vets in Cheshire are lovely and Aggy ended up being very well looked after. As usual, we have no idea what caused the outbreak, but it was almost certainly something she’d hoovered up off the floor at some point. Here she is in the car a few hours after the anti-vom medication, still looking a little disappointed in herself. This period of introspection was short-lived. This is the fourth time she has tried to see herself off, but apparently no lessons have been learned. Just yesterday she ate something unidentified at the bus stop. If Aggy had a motto it would certainly be #NoRegrets. Right then, that’s enough talk of unpleasant things. Have a lovely rest of the weekend. Please do buy my book, I’ll love you forever. Bye! Katie “KJ Lyttleton” Lee PS. If you’re subscribed because you’re keen on reading the comedy sci-fi, stay tuned for more news on that soon. PPS. There was a WHALE in the sea at St Leonards yesterday (https://www.instagram.com/reel/DEYApd7NJ4S/?igsh=MXF0ZTRyaWt6OHRiaA==). Can you believe it? I saw the huge splash, but not the creature itself, sadly. And then, thinking I must have imagined it, we went home, only to discover loads of people had seen it larking about like a big attention-seeker. Oh, how I wish I’d been there to give it all my attention. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit shinykatie.substack.com (https://shinykatie.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

9. 

   15 Nov 2024

   An extremely cold case and some problematic pets

   This is the audio version of Katie Lee/KJ Lyttleton's newsletter (https://shinykatie.substack.com/). You can go here to read this newsletter in full (https://shinykatie.substack.com/p/an-extremely-cold-case-and-some-problematic). You can go here and enjoy the photos of Alex being Lady Button (https://substack.com/home/post/p-151031808). And if you want to hear about how the UK is still obsessed with WWII and it’s probably not healthy, you can go here. (https://substack.com/home/post/p-151031808) The headstone (https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0bf67445-d766-4328-b597-85b54f6b5927_2821x3430.jpeg) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit shinykatie.substack.com (https://shinykatie.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

10. 

    22 Aug 2024

    I spent the day in a teenage girl paradise and it was incredible

    Hello lovely people! This week I’m revisiting my teenage years and helping to make memories for my own teenager. Here’s Zapata rocking it up to “Second Skin” (https://youtu.be/_V_6yIvmzgw), The earlier draft about how Mia died for anyone who wants to read it (https://shinykatie.substack.com/p/stop-calling-it-violence-against). To subscribe to my newsletter, please head here (https://shinykatie.substack.com/) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit shinykatie.substack.com (https://shinykatie.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

11. 

    11 Jul 2024

    I went to this really weird school

    Hello gang! A different sort of newsletter from me this week because I am trying to get all these books finished and ready to sell! This is an edited extract from a piece I wrote during Karen McLeod’ (https://karenmcleod.substack.com)s excellent creative writing course. If you like this sort of thing, let me know. I have more like it. If you enjoyed this please do share it! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit shinykatie.substack.com (https://shinykatie.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

12. 

    17 May 2024

    What it’s like to be extremely boring

    I’m struggling to decide what direction to take this newsletter in. This is because I am actually a very boring person. I don’t mean I have had a boring life. I have some fairly good stories – like the one about the time I made the Queen laugh – and I have suffered enough childhood trauma to write one of those depressing memoirs that were so popular for a minute in the noughties, but in myself, I am mostly interested in things that many (normal?) people find incredibly dull. Here’s a for instance. The other day, I was at a quiz at my daughter’s school to raise money for their play (because apparently state schools can’t afford to put on plays any more and god help us). There was a question about which junction of the M25 had been closed, and my friend, an extremely Cool Woman (new album out now in all good record shops (https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/oct/22/emma-anderson-pearlies-review-intriguing-and-subtle-reinvention-lush)), said, “What a BORING question.” But here’s what she didn’t know: I had just that day read a whole Twitter thread about the M25 (https://x.com/MichaelDnes1/status/1768566977721688142?). That is the kind of person you’re dealing with here. The kind of person who, yes please, will very much click on a link in a newsletter about why the M25 is a victim of its own success. I’m the sort of person who will accidentally commandeer a perfectly innocent comment thread to talk about the con of non-bio laundry cleaner (https://open.substack.com/pub/helenlewis/p/the-bluestocking-vol-318-clarkson?r=7tgx4&utm_campaign=comment-list-share-cta&utm_medium=web&comments=true&commentId=56594717). I will discuss the myth of rising damp (https://www.heritage-house.org/news/rising-damp-is-a-myth-says-former-rics-chief.html#google_vignette)at length with anyone foolish enough to own an old house. I think Roman concrete is fascinating (https://www.history.com/news/the-secrets-of-ancient-roman-concrete). Meanwhile, as if that were not enough of a barrier, I have read some pretty catty remarks in the Substack Notes section about how dreary it is to write about writing or the industry. And so we come to my problem. I am still not sure what direction to take my Substack in, but I’m fairly confident that my niche obsessions aren’t going to help me sell more novels, and apparently people are bored of reading about writing. So, I guess what am saying is: stay tuned for my newsletter about my childhood traumas! That is a joke (although I reserve the right to occasionally mine my pain for content, like any self-respecting creator). What I am really saying is, please feel free to email me or leave a comment and let me know what you would be interested to read. In the meantime, here are some links and things I’ve been watching and reading. I’ll leave you to decide if any of them are boring. Links etc Was I in A Cult? By pure coincidence I’ve been going deep on Mormonism recently. I am a big fan of the Was I In A Cult podcast (https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/was-i-in-a-cult/id1582863762), partly because I am pretty sure I spent my twenties and early thirties in what was a borderline yoga cult, which I then REJOINED in my forties like a total loser. This week listened to host (and filmmaker), Tyler Measom tell his story. After, I tracked down his documentaries about Mormonism. The first is Sons of Perdition (https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/sons-of-perdition) (free on Roku), which is about the young boys kicked out of fundamental Mormon households, abandoned to live without money, possessions, education or basic human decency. The second is Murder Among the Mormons (https://www.netflix.com/im/title/81226889) (Netflix) is an eye-popping tale that it’s better to know as little about as possible going in (I spoiled it for myself after episode two so I urge you not to do the same). By coincidence, I had already watched Tyler’s brilliant documentary about The Great Randi (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/oct/25/haunted-future-without-james-randi-to-see-off-the-charlatans), who spent his life debunking psychics. I also listened to Tal Bachman discuss his exit from Mormonism. This episode is amazing for music fans, since it features a reminder of one of the biggest One Hit Wonder songs of the 90s (which I had totally forgotten) and Tal’s dad Randy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Bachman)(another Randy!) who wrote some massive hits in the sixties and seventies that you will definitely have heard. And finally, we are watching Under the Banner Of Heaven (Netflix and ITV X), starring Andrew Garfield, which is so far brilliant. Andrew does some lovely acting with his tie and makes a perfect Mormon, and there’s a Culkin in there who frequently looks so much like Kieran it’s confusing, especially as he has a much deeper voice. As you can imagine, I’m feeling very Heavenly Fathered out right now. PS. Still on the theme of cults, did you know that Jessica Sutta from the Pussycat Dolls claims to have been in a cult run by Phil Silvers’s daughter (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lifestyle/lifestyle-news/the-guru-of-toluca-lake-acolytes-allege-a-hollywood-acting-coach-became-a-brainwashing-false-prophet-4126160/)? She did an episode of Was I In A Cult about it. On Pain Sarno identified a disorder called Tension Myositis Syndrome (TMS) that describes how the brain orders a reduction of blood flow to a part of the body, resulting in mild oxygen deprivation, which causes pain and other symptoms. Essentially, Sarno revived the Freudian idea of hysteria, pointing out that disorders spread in epidemic fashion, and that the mind prefers physical pain to confronting unconscious emotional pain. Still on the theme of Yoga, here is a fascinating piece by Neil Scott (https://open.substack.com/pub/neilscott/p/on-pain?r=7tgx4&utm_medium=ios) about yoga injuries, pain and a man called Dr Sarno, an early proponent of chronic pain being in the mind, often caused by trauma. Perhaps this is why I suffer chronic pain from an injury that MUST have healed by now but which I got from my very cult-adjacent yoga class while I was also struggling with the stress of a troubled business partnership. Being bendy is not the blessing you think it is “No other condition in the history of modern medicine has been neglected in such a way as Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.” Grahame, a now-retired NHS rheumatologist, specialised in hypermobility and connective tissue disorders. He was pivotal in advocating the view that EDS is likely to be far more common than we realise, and that it is significantly under- and misdiagnosed because its signs are missed. Still on the theme of chronic pain and being a very bendy person. This piece about hypermobility (https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/may/12/daisy-lafarge-ehlers-danlos-syndrome-lovebug) – specifically EDS – made me feel quite angry. I don’t have EDS and I only rank 7/9 on the Beighton Score (a test I absolutely HATE doing and would like to argue about with someone because I think it’s bs), but I have suffered CONSTANT problems with hypermobility all my life. Daisy Lafarge’s account echoes so many of my own experiences it’s crazy. I was 25 when I first got the sense that my head might not be securely attached to my body. I got home from teaching my undergraduate students one day, sat down, turned my head to one side, and screamed: an indescribable, apoplectic pain shot through the base of my skull. It left me flat on my back, unable to move or hold my head up for four or five days. What I thought was a freak episode soon became regular, recurring three or four times a year, usually if I had been sitting for extended periods or walking with a laptop in my bag. I learned to normalise it. I was about 10 or 11 the first time I “cricked” my neck. I turned and felt a burning agony down the whole side of my neck. I remember I had to jump 180 to check there weren’t any rapists behind me as I walked alone down a path near my sister’s house. It has happened regularly ever since – during lacrosse matches, right as I wake up, sitting in a chair minding my own business. My daughter had her first experience of it a few months ago too, so that’s nice. When I told him I was hypermobile, he almost cartwheeled. “Wonderful!” He exclaimed. “It just means you are beautifully flexible.” He was even, I recall, “envious” of all the tricks I could undoubtedly do. Did Daisy and I see the same doctor? The GP I saw after my yoga-induced whiplash injury told me I should be grateful I can put my leg behind my head since it’s a wonderful trick to be able to do. At this point I couldn’t move my neck at all without agony all the way down to my chest and back. Honestly, everything about this article spoke to me. So much so that I have taken about five goes to read the whole thing. I should add that Daisy makes a point of saying her illness is often disregarded as “hysteria,” but I don’t think her experience is mutually exclusive with Dr Sarno’s theories on “hysteria” in that context. I am perfectly able to believe my hypermobility is causing me grief, but my brain is hanging on to that grief in ways that aren’t helpful. Chronic pain is a weird thing. The next one won’t be this long, I promise (maybe) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit shinykatie.substack.com (https://shinykatie.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

13. 

    9 May 2024

    On being a little sneak

    It's really hard to talk about things that make you feel vulnerable. But, turns out, it's super easy to talk about how hard it is to talk about things that make you feel vulnerable. In this newsletter I talk about how secretive I am for someone who has shared so much of herself. You can find more of this kind of chat over on Katie Lee's Top Secret Project (https://shinykatie.substack.com/). This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit shinykatie.substack.com (https://shinykatie.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

14. 

    23 Apr 2024

    Why don’t you find a proper publisher?

    I have been why I'm not trying to go the trad route with my crime books quite a few times already, so I thought I would address it here with the usual levels of painful honesty, because – as we’ve established – writing stuff to a mailing list doesn’t count. Join me over on Substack for more (https://shinykatie.substack.com/). This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit shinykatie.substack.com (https://shinykatie.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

15. 

    26 Mar 2024

    How to succeed at Indie Publishing

    I have spent enough time in the various self-publishing groups and gently cyberstalking phenomenally successful indie authors to know that the key to success is not rocket science. Here is the surefire template for success. The Surefire Template for Success: * Write crime fiction * Make them police procedurals * Write in the third person, past tense * Have a male lead (probably a DCI, middle aged, white) * Give him a drinking habit/weight issue/messy divorce/anger management problem * Be funny if you can, but at least make the team a kind of family * Probably best to use a male or gender-neutral pen name * Write fast * Write a series. The more the better * Make them good. Now let’s mark my work * Write crime fiction. Tick (phew!) * Make them police procedurals. Big cross. See below. * Write in the third person, past tense. Easy win! * Have a male lead (probably a DCI, middle aged, white). X Fail. Insert the Family Fortunes noise. The main character is a young female journalist. The main police officer is a middle-aged female DS of mixed heritage. * Give him a drinking habit/weight issue/messy divorce/anger management problem. Hmm. Half a tick? A quarter? More on my struggles with being mean to my own characters another time. * Be funny if you can, but at the least make the team a kind of family. Well *I* think they’re funny. * Probably best to be a man or use a male/gender-neutral pen name. ?? TBC * Write fast. Bah. * Write a series. The more the better. Does two count as a lot? It felt like a lot when I was writing them. * Make them good. Please god. I will write more about the rest of the list in another newsletter, but in the meantime let us dwell on my first few failures. Write Police Procedurals When I started on this project, I didn’t read much crime fiction. Yes, I had read a few Agatha Christies, most of the Sherlock Holmes books, and I studied a Wilkie Collins at university, but apart from that I couldn’t really think of a crime novel I’d read. This was a bad start. It already felt like a mercenary endeavour (more on writing for money in future), but to write a genre I didn’t read added an element of snobbery. Did I think I was too good for crime fiction? Surely not. Given I will read anything that contains either 1. dragons or 2. mice who talk, I don’t think I can be charged with snootiness about any genre. It just wasn’t for me. However, I think we can all agree that, in life, it’s best to try not to be Gerald Ratner (https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-9505003/Gerald-Ratner-reeling-30-years-gaffe.html). I wanted to like my own products, you know? Template Schmemplate Luckily, salvation was right around the corner. I realised that of course I read crime fiction! Were Kate Atkinson’s Jackson Brodie novels not crime fiction?! And then I discovered other authors. Authors like Belinda Bauer, Janice Hallett, Lisa Jewell, Elly Griffiths. All brilliant. There was just one problem: none follow the Surefire Template for Success. (Apart, possibly, for Elly Griffiths, but not in the books I have read by her). Now you may say that this is evidence that the Template is more a set of suggestions. See how brilliantly these people have done, you might cry! Lisa Jewell is at pains to let you know she doesn’t bathe in £50 notes (https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/lisa-jewell-i-sold-2-million-books-thanks-to-one-of-the-real-housewives-of-beverly-hills-nnr7f6x88), but she also sold 2m copies of one book in the US alone. Belinda Bauer was the first crime writer to be long-listed for the Booker (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/aug/10/belinda-bauer-interview-man-booker-prize-longlist-snap). These people are rocking it. But they aren’t self-publishing to appeal to a very specific audience, that is to say, Whale Readers (https://www.calendar-uk.co.uk/frequently-asked-questions/what-is-a-whale-reader). These are people who reliably read at least one book a week. (I am in an incredibly book-hungry crime fiction group and I can tell you that one book a day is more the norm.) So yes, these writers break the rules, and yes these writers may be living in £3m homes, but they are traditionally published with proper marketing people. Their books can jump out of the crime fiction readership pool and into the literary fiction and popular fiction reader pools. For my plan to work, I was meant to stick to the Template For Success. But then I started writing, and what came out on the page was a journalist trying to blag her way into a hotel. You see? This is what happens when you let your subconscious do the talking. After all, it’s easier for me to write a journalist (something I used to be) than it is to try to work out if police are calling it SOCO or CSI these days (the jury is still out). So there we have it. I have failed to write to the Indie template and, for reasons I will share another time, I have opted not to try to find a publisher who can shoehorn my books into the right eyeballs. Pray for me, people. So where are these books anyway? Good question, I’m glad I typed it for myself. Due to yet another egregious error, and for reasons too dull to get into (but I’m sure that won’t stop me getting into them eventually), I wrote book two first. This means I cannot publish the first book until I have finished editing the second book (that is to say, book one). Since I am very much enjoying pretending to have a career as an author, this is not as distressing as you might imagine. Currently, I can live in a beautiful land of what ifs, where I imagine my books will magically buck the trend and succeed despite the fact I have failed to follow the Surefire Template for Success. But to actually answer the question, I am about half way through editing the first book and then it will need to go to a proper editor. I have to get the covers designed and then I’ve got to lay it all out and get the print and digital files made. Write the blurb, work out how to do all the various Amazon settings, think of a title and a pen name, find ARC and/or Beta readers and learn how to do Facebook ads that don’t suck. Just thinking about all this makes me want to scrap the whole idea and go to my allotment instead. Coming up: Why am I indie publishing? Why I believe writing fast doesn't mean writing badly. How I tried to become a plotter not a pantser. Why speaking to experts for research is awful. Subscribe for all this and more! Links that will now justify the time I spend online: 'POOR THINGS' MADE ME SICK: I'M REDESIGNING IT. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tffKz65YhhE) Art YouTuber LavenderTowne perfectly summarises everything I hated about this film whilst doing mesmerising “fan” art. (h/t my daughter.) Herds of Moss Balls mysteriously roam the Arctic together. (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/herds-moss-balls-mysteriously-roam-arctic-together-180975019/) Little moss balls called Glacier Mice wander about and no one knows how or why. It’s too much! I heard them discussing these on No Such Thing As A Fish and now I just want Miyazaki to swear off retirement for one more film. ‘“I don't like no whips no chains and you can't tie me down.” I mean this is where we've fallen since 1968.’ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQoWUtsVFV0) Rick Beato is on very amusing form here ripping apart the song lyrics in the Top 10, while also digressing to point out that the banjo part in Beyonce’s Texas Hold ‘Em is wrong (‘Someone should have said, that note doesn’t really sound that good, it’s kind of lame.’) LISTEN! PJ Harvey’s I Inside the Old Year Dying (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZDfM6bhKMc) pairs brilliantly with Wall of Eyes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsqqjOxEuAg) by The Smile. I am obsessed. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit shinykatie.substack.com (https://shinykatie.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

16. 

    18 Mar 2024

    Let me tell you about my top secret pseudonymous book project

    I wanted to do just do this quietly without any fuss, but I'm forcing myself to talk about it in the hope it will get easier just to SHOUT IT FROM THE ROOFTOPS. To find out more about my Top Secret Project, head to my Substack (https://shinykatie.substack.com/p/let-me-tell-you-about-my-top-secret), where you can truffle about in the archives. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit shinykatie.substack.com (https://shinykatie.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)

Podcast Authority Score: 1 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

2

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

0

Contact Katie Lee's Top Secret Project Podcast

Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.