https://www.andyhowden.com/blog daily 0.75 2024-09-24 https://www.andyhowden.com/blog/interview-for-the-troubador-highlights-magazine monthly 0.5 2024-09-24 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f7dd400c670863ee8c6ab7e/ea3ffe73-9587-44f2-b799-f9a30bf61833/IMG-20240912-WA0005.jpg Blog - Interview for the Troubador Highlights magazine - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.andyhowden.com/blog/cleaning-up-politics-the-background-to-my-new-novel monthly 0.5 2024-09-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f7dd400c670863ee8c6ab7e/bbe6558e-bbf9-48b9-aeda-48d06a7f32ec/Coming+Clean+cover.jpg Blog - Cleaning Up Politics – The background to my new novel - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.andyhowden.com/blog/once-upon-a-time-in-a-world-before-zoom monthly 0.5 2020-11-19 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f7dd400c670863ee8c6ab7e/1605635100216-RQC8Q9BHFU2Q8SC9XYWQ/istockphoto-1156332854-612x612.jpg Blog - Once upon a time, in a world before Zoom… https://www.andyhowden.com/blog/2020/3/11/how-to-liberate-your-novel monthly 0.5 2020-11-18 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f7dd400c670863ee8c6ab7e/1605634383982-QG4DV6ST6IRRIMMHTR6M/istockphoto-681640288-612x612.jpg Blog - How to liberate your novel https://www.andyhowden.com/home daily 1.0 2024-09-23 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f7dd400c670863ee8c6ab7e/1603470384864-84KS4V1PRWWWZZ6MFJV4/Melting+in+the+Middle+cover.jpg Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f7dd400c670863ee8c6ab7e/bbe6558e-bbf9-48b9-aeda-48d06a7f32ec/Coming+Clean+cover.jpg Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f7dd400c670863ee8c6ab7e/bbe6558e-bbf9-48b9-aeda-48d06a7f32ec/Coming+Clean+cover.jpg Home - Coming Clean A political thriller in which a Bulgarian maid discovers career-destroying secrets about the likely next British Prime Minister. Can she reveal the truth about him, without coming clean about her own life? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f7dd400c670863ee8c6ab7e/1603470384864-84KS4V1PRWWWZZ6MFJV4/Melting+in+the+Middle+cover.jpg Home - Melting in the Middle Long-listed for the Exeter Novel Prize, Melting in the Middle is a literary comedy about redemption, second chances – and chocolate - played out amid the madness of modern life. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f7dd400c670863ee8c6ab7e/1603471132613-8AP77MMY995YO9W276ZF/Andy%2BHowden%2B3.jpg Home - The Author Andy Howden grew up in Yorkshire and read English Literature at the University of Sheffield, before a career in market research took him to London. Coming Clean is his second novel, released in October 2024. His first, Melting in the Middle, emerged from an MA in Creative Writing at St Mary’s University and was long-listed for the Exeter Novel Prize. https://www.andyhowden.com/about daily 0.75 2024-09-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f7dd400c670863ee8c6ab7e/1603470867668-YC7IAWXKL99Z71NQM8U5/Andy+Howden+3.jpg My writing - About the author I’ve always enjoyed writing stories since I was a little lad growing up in Wensleydale, in the Yorkshire Dales, but after a degree in English Literature at Sheffield University (reading other people’s stories), something called ‘work’ got in the way for about the next thirty years. A career in market research brought me to London, and then for a while to Paris, and gave me many interesting insights into human nature and behaviour, but the creative writing definitely went on the back burner. If I had one piece of advice now to younger people embarking on a career, I’d encourage them to somehow still find time outside their work to express their creativity, in whatever form it takes. About ten years ago, my wife called my bluff. Spotting an ad for the inaugural year of a Creative Writing MA at St Mary’s University, South West London, close to where we live, she more or less told me to ‘put up or shut up’. Harsh but fair. I worked there on an embryonic novel, Melting in the Middle, which I then launched during lockdown in 2020. And now I’m just launching my second novel, Coming Clean, in October 2024. On the surface, the two novels are very different. If I’m asked what they’re about, I say something like ‘Melting is a rom-com about the Marketing Director of Britain’s most dysfunctional chocolate company going through a mid-life crisis’, while Coming Clean is about ‘A Bulgarian cleaner working for a British MP who discovers secrets that could ruin his career.’ But what I’ve discovered about my own writing is that I seem to keep returning to some themes which interest me – complex family relationships, flawed human beings, failure, forgiveness and redemption. And humour in adversity. What will I write next? Not sure, but there’s a book about being a lifelong Hull City fan that I’ve been musing on for some time – what was that I was saying about complex relationships? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f7dd400c670863ee8c6ab7e/1603470384864-84KS4V1PRWWWZZ6MFJV4/Melting+in+the+Middle+cover.jpg My writing https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f7dd400c670863ee8c6ab7e/bbe6558e-bbf9-48b9-aeda-48d06a7f32ec/Coming+Clean+cover.jpg My writing https://www.andyhowden.com/melting-in-the-middle daily 0.75 2024-09-23 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f7dd400c670863ee8c6ab7e/1603463004865-8XOMZSTCN4P2QXWJ1JU5/Melting+in+the+Middle+cover.jpg Melting in the Middle - For Stephen Carreras, life is in turmoil. His career with Britain’s worst chocolate company is heading for the rocks when it’s taken over by US confectionery giant Schmaltz. He’s just turned forty, he’s messed up on marriage and is struggling to keep a toehold in the lives of his monosyllabic teenage children. Then he meets Rachel, who dances to a very different beat. She challenges him to do good among the carnage that surrounds him. But to do so, he must confront his past and work out all over again what really matters… https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f7dd400c670863ee8c6ab7e/bbe6558e-bbf9-48b9-aeda-48d06a7f32ec/Coming+Clean+cover.jpg Melting in the Middle - Coming Clean A political thriller in which a Bulgarian maid discovers career-destroying secrets about the likely next British Prime Minister. Can she reveal the truth about him, without coming clean about her own life? https://www.andyhowden.com/contact daily 0.75 2024-09-20 https://www.andyhowden.com/coming-clean daily 0.75 2024-09-23 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f7dd400c670863ee8c6ab7e/bbe6558e-bbf9-48b9-aeda-48d06a7f32ec/Coming+Clean+cover.jpg Coming Clean - A powerful politician – and his seemingly powerless maid. Can she uncover his secrets? Can she confront her own? 2015. Veselina has left behind tragedy in Bulgaria for a new life in England, against the wishes of her family. Too proud to admit her misjudgement when her dream turns sour, she takes work as a maid for politician Gerard Fosh, tipped to be the next Prime Minister, and his wife Alison, also an MP with secret desires of her own. Soon Veselina suspects Gerard of a relationship with his ambitious political aide that could ruin his reputation and his career. As she comes under pressure to uncover the truth, can Veselina confront the deception in her own life? And will others be able to do the same? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f7dd400c670863ee8c6ab7e/1603470384864-84KS4V1PRWWWZZ6MFJV4/Melting+in+the+Middle+cover.jpg Coming Clean - Melting in the Middle Long-listed for the Exeter Novel Prize, Melting in the Middle is a literary comedy about redemption, second chances – and chocolate - played out amid the madness of modern life. https://www.andyhowden.com/privacy-notice daily 0.75 2024-09-20