July 24, 2025 • 11 mins
We’ve got a treat for you in this episode from the Harrogate Crime Writers Festival.Chris Hooley sat down with the award-winning author and screenwriter, Attica Locke — and what followed was a masterclass in storytelling, culture, and creative boldness.From discussing the nuances of American society and writing across different perspectives, to sharing book recommendations, hard truths, and golden advice for aspiring writers — this is an interview not to be missed.🎥 Watch it now on YouTube:🎧 Prefer audio? Listen on any podcast platform — just search The Writing Community Chat Show.👇 Or do both, right here on Substack. You can hit play, leave a comment, and help us grow by liking and sharing this episode.We’re proud to bring conversations like this to your screen and speakers. Whether you’re deep into your own novel, dabbling in screenwriting, or just love hearing from some of the best voices in storytelling — this one’s for you.Let us know what hit home for you in this one.What would you ask Attica Locke if you had five minutes with her? Drop it in the comments!👉 Like, share, and support indie podcasting by hitting the heart. It really helps.#AtticaLocke #CrimeFiction #HarrogateCrimeWritersFestival #TheWCCS #TheWritingCommunityChatShow #WritingAdvice #AuthorInterview #Screenwriting #Podcast #WritersOfSubstack
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi everyone, this is Christian Writing Community chat show. I'm
here with Attica Locke. Fantastic to be able to speak
to a her in person and at Haragert Crime Writs
Festival twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
So that's okay.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
How are you finding it?
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Fantastic?
Speaker 3 (00:14):
What a fun festival. The favorite thing for me is
the sense of community.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Yeah, being from America and coming over and obviously experiencing
a festival in the UK. What sort of differences are
you see in between the two sort of scenes.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
I was just speaking with somebody about this.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
In my opinion, the quality of conversation that people are
having about the books here feels deeper that it is
about genre, but it's also about culture, it's also about history,
it's just about politics, whereas I feel like there are
some crime writing festivals that say kind of shallow and
it's just about you know, the craft of crime writing,
(00:55):
rather than what does this genre?
Speaker 2 (00:57):
How does this genre speak to the world culturally?
Speaker 4 (01:00):
Right?
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Yeah, and your books are obviously known for going into
those spaces in terms of like looking at race and
family and culture and things like that that you've just mentioned,
So how do you approach that when you're crafting a
new novel or a new idea.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Well, I think so many of the things that you
talked about comes so naturally to me that some of
it isn't even pointed. It's not even something that I
have to reach forward to do. I just see the
world through the lens of politics, and usually even what
I mean by that is not just you know, labor Tory, Democrat, Republican.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
I always think about distribution of power. So in a way,
it comes to me just very very naturally.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
I will say that I find it very very important
to be telling a good story. So in my opinion,
nothing can get in the way of the story.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
And if something is getting the way, it has to go.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Like you just really have to make sure that you're
writing something that is pleasing for a reader, and that is,
you know, following a story logic above ideology.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
We have a lot of American viewers of the show.
Does the shift in the political landstate of America, especially
in recent times, does that have a big impact on
your writing? And like you said, story comes first, but
obviously with a lot of emotions and feelings in and
around different things, does that find itself creeping into your
(02:25):
work a little bit more?
Speaker 3 (02:26):
I think so, And I also think that we're probably
it'll be three years from now before we're going to
see a wealth of literature that addresses the moment that
we're in now, because it's hard to address it as
you're living it, because you don't have any kind of
perspective of having been away from it for but you're
also inside of it.
Speaker 4 (02:46):
So you're scared, you're confused, you can't you're.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
In disbelief about what I am in disbelief about what
is happening to my country. I say this in the
way that I feel about the pandemic. I'm now seeing
books that are really able to make sense of pandemic
in a way that you know, in something you're writing
in twenty twenty twenty twenty one, you don't even know
how to address it because you're still trying to process it.
So I actually think the great literature about the time
(03:11):
in America that we're living in.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Is coming, And how do you, as a writer, then
capture that emotion and put it onto the page.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
For me, I give myself permission to be honest with myself.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
I approach it the way I would.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Want to even write about family or write about grief.
Music is a access point for me, and by that
I mean music kind of opens my emotions, and so
music helps me feel like something like it's like a
faucet has been opened, and now I can really talk
about any pain or fear that I have about what
(03:49):
we're going through right now.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
And the course of your writing career, then what's been
the focus in terms of what you're trying to achieve
when you sit down to write a new novel?
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Number One, I'm always trying to move people. I really
want to.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Make people feel emotion, make people a sense of compassion
about characters that may be different from them, and the
other things I want to tell a yarn. I wanted
to feel like I'm sitting down in a bar and
you sit down next to me, and I'm like, hey,
you're never gonna.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Believe the story I have to tell you.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
Like I kind of wanted to feel like that along
the way.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
I try to find in these bigger or we even
these bigger themes about history and politics, but for me
everything is is this a pleasurable experience to read this book?
Speaker 1 (04:38):
And we have a lot of people who watch this
show for write and advice, and we try and where
we can to apart that knowledge and give them some wisdom.
So what, let's say, three things would you say if
somebody was just starting out to try and write a
crime novel.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
The absolute number one thing I would say is be
kind to yourself. Be kind, I would say, similar to
that Chase Joy. I'm gonna say something that sounds kind
of mean, but it's there's freedom. And what I'm about
to say, no one actually really cares what you're doing.
They don't really care, like not everybody's.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
Waiting around, even me, and I published six books.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
People I go, I would like to read anto their
at Okologue novel, and then they'll forget about it and
they're not.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Thinking about it.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
But it's your life you're experiencing. And if nobody's paying
attention and waiting for something specific, go have fun.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
Free yourself to do something out the box different.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
Because it's not gonna work if you're not having joy,
and the enemy of joy is judgment.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
So try that circles back to being very very kind
to yourself.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
And then I don't even know how many numbers that was.
But I will also say read everything.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Read as much as you can, because if I'm reading
a lot that you begin to see patterns and you see, oh,
that turn or phrase I want to use. I've read
that in about six other books. Maybe there's a deeper,
fresher way of saying something. So I think reading keeps
us on our toes in order to make sure that
we're saying something new and different and challenging ourselves to
(06:08):
go deeper.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Do you find that the success that you've had has
put additional pressure on your writing process.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
I don't know, because I'm a neurotic mess and I
think I would be that way no matter what.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
My husband can attest to this, my therapist can attest
to this.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Every book, I'm always like, I can't do it again,
and we got it on how I did it. This
is the time where I'm going to fail. I think
I would be like this no matter what. So I
can't answer that and whether or not it's a success
or not, I just feel fear, and I think that's natural.
The only good thing is having done it for a while,
is you begin to realize that it's a pattern. You
(06:45):
always feel this way, Attika, you always get.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Very very scared.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
And also to remind myself that fear is a feeling
you're having.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
It's not necessarily the truth.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
So just because I'm afraid that a tornado could come
through here right now doesn't mean when it is coming.
So you learn how to say that's a feeling, acknowledge
the feeling, and then get to work.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Yeah, we have a question that we ask a lot
of writers. When you've written a series of books, do
you ever step away and think, oh, that's what I
was actually writing about. After a couple of years of
reflection and if so, have you had any sort of
insights and when you've looked back at a book and gone,
it's not actually about this, It's about this thing that
(07:26):
was personal to me that I didn't realize at the time.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
It's pretty much happened with every book.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
I I usually have the realization before the book is
in the bookstores, but there's always a gap between the
experience of writing it and then as you get closer
to going out in the world. Sometimes there's like a
lightning bolt moment where I'm like, oh, that's what that
was all about.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Yeah, So I have had those experiences for sure.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
So with the obviously you've given tips as well. One
of the things that we like to try and do
is when we've talked about writing different characters before. Obviously
myself and Chris above male, so when we try and
write female characters it can be quite difficult. But also
when you're trying to represent different races and different cultures.
(08:12):
What advice would you give to somebody who was doing
that and trying to do it respectfully and to get
the character right.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
You said the word respect So that's really kind of it.
And what that looks like is paying very close attention.
If I were going to write a book about Sri
Lankan culture, it would be.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Incumbent on me to consume.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
As much as I could about the culture from every angle.
Are there people doing tiktoks about Sri Lanka? Are there
Sri Lankan hip hop I can listen to? Are there
other books about Sri Lanka that are both both poetry.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Novels but also what historical.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
Context can I do? You have to give yourself everything, and.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Then to the degree that you're able to immerse yourself
in a culture either by watching their television shows, just
pay really, really really close attention and assume assume that
you are this outsider that has to be let in,
that has to kind of show respect, don't assume that
you know kind of everything.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
And obviously being from America and having that experience, she
talks about reading a lot before. Would you be able
to recommend three authors from America or anywhere else in
the world that we may not have heard of yet
in Britain. And then if somebody was looking at picking
up one of your books, which one would you recommend
(09:34):
for them to start with?
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Okay, well, I know you know of this Showman because
he was here before.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
S A.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
Cosby is just a fabulous writer.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Megan Abbott is not as well known here in the UK.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
I adore her.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
There is a late author he's passed away, was from
Mississippi called Larry Brown. I just simply adore and love Love,
Love is war. And all of these different people are
giving you a window into something. Megan is doing stuff
with gender that is transgressive and interesting. SA Cosby is
doing this lens on being black in the South. Larry
(10:11):
Brown wrote about poor people in Mississippi. Like, all of
these are like really incredible authors to read. And in
terms of my books, where to start, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (10:22):
I mean.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Probably Bluebird, Blue Bird. I think it's a great access
point for a lot of readers.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
Brilliant.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Yeah, well that's been our interview today Harrogt Writer's Festival.
Thank you very much for joining us.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Thank you guys, it's been an.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
Absolute pleasure to chat to you. And if you're here
watching this over this weekend, because this content will go out,
please obviously say.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Hello to Atticat.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
I'm sure she'd be more than welcome to have a
little chat with you. And obviously by books, by lots
of books if you're here at Aragt Crimer Festival this weekend,
so thank you very much for watching. It's been a pleasure.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Thank you guys.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Yeah,
Hi everyone, this is Christian Writing Community chat show. I'm
here with Attica Locke. Fantastic to be able to speak
to a her in person and at Haragert Crime Writs
Festival twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
So that's okay.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
How are you finding it?
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Fantastic?
Speaker 3 (00:14):
What a fun festival. The favorite thing for me is
the sense of community.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Yeah, being from America and coming over and obviously experiencing
a festival in the UK. What sort of differences are
you see in between the two sort of scenes.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
I was just speaking with somebody about this.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
In my opinion, the quality of conversation that people are
having about the books here feels deeper that it is
about genre, but it's also about culture, it's also about history,
it's just about politics, whereas I feel like there are
some crime writing festivals that say kind of shallow and
it's just about you know, the craft of crime writing,
(00:55):
rather than what does this genre?
Speaker 2 (00:57):
How does this genre speak to the world culturally?
Speaker 4 (01:00):
Right?
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Yeah, and your books are obviously known for going into
those spaces in terms of like looking at race and
family and culture and things like that that you've just mentioned,
So how do you approach that when you're crafting a
new novel or a new idea.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Well, I think so many of the things that you
talked about comes so naturally to me that some of
it isn't even pointed. It's not even something that I
have to reach forward to do. I just see the
world through the lens of politics, and usually even what
I mean by that is not just you know, labor Tory, Democrat, Republican.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
I always think about distribution of power. So in a way,
it comes to me just very very naturally.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
I will say that I find it very very important
to be telling a good story. So in my opinion,
nothing can get in the way of the story.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
And if something is getting the way, it has to go.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Like you just really have to make sure that you're
writing something that is pleasing for a reader, and that is,
you know, following a story logic above ideology.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
We have a lot of American viewers of the show.
Does the shift in the political landstate of America, especially
in recent times, does that have a big impact on
your writing? And like you said, story comes first, but
obviously with a lot of emotions and feelings in and
around different things, does that find itself creeping into your
(02:25):
work a little bit more?
Speaker 3 (02:26):
I think so, And I also think that we're probably
it'll be three years from now before we're going to
see a wealth of literature that addresses the moment that
we're in now, because it's hard to address it as
you're living it, because you don't have any kind of
perspective of having been away from it for but you're
also inside of it.
Speaker 4 (02:46):
So you're scared, you're confused, you can't you're.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
In disbelief about what I am in disbelief about what
is happening to my country. I say this in the
way that I feel about the pandemic. I'm now seeing
books that are really able to make sense of pandemic
in a way that you know, in something you're writing
in twenty twenty twenty twenty one, you don't even know
how to address it because you're still trying to process it.
So I actually think the great literature about the time
(03:11):
in America that we're living in.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Is coming, And how do you, as a writer, then
capture that emotion and put it onto the page.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
For me, I give myself permission to be honest with myself.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
I approach it the way I would.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Want to even write about family or write about grief.
Music is a access point for me, and by that
I mean music kind of opens my emotions, and so
music helps me feel like something like it's like a
faucet has been opened, and now I can really talk
about any pain or fear that I have about what
(03:49):
we're going through right now.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
And the course of your writing career, then what's been
the focus in terms of what you're trying to achieve
when you sit down to write a new novel?
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Number One, I'm always trying to move people. I really
want to.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Make people feel emotion, make people a sense of compassion
about characters that may be different from them, and the
other things I want to tell a yarn. I wanted
to feel like I'm sitting down in a bar and
you sit down next to me, and I'm like, hey,
you're never gonna.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Believe the story I have to tell you.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
Like I kind of wanted to feel like that along
the way.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
I try to find in these bigger or we even
these bigger themes about history and politics, but for me
everything is is this a pleasurable experience to read this book?
Speaker 1 (04:38):
And we have a lot of people who watch this
show for write and advice, and we try and where
we can to apart that knowledge and give them some wisdom.
So what, let's say, three things would you say if
somebody was just starting out to try and write a
crime novel.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
The absolute number one thing I would say is be
kind to yourself. Be kind, I would say, similar to
that Chase Joy. I'm gonna say something that sounds kind
of mean, but it's there's freedom. And what I'm about
to say, no one actually really cares what you're doing.
They don't really care, like not everybody's.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
Waiting around, even me, and I published six books.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
People I go, I would like to read anto their
at Okologue novel, and then they'll forget about it and
they're not.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Thinking about it.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
But it's your life you're experiencing. And if nobody's paying
attention and waiting for something specific, go have fun.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
Free yourself to do something out the box different.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
Because it's not gonna work if you're not having joy,
and the enemy of joy is judgment.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
So try that circles back to being very very kind
to yourself.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
And then I don't even know how many numbers that was.
But I will also say read everything.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Read as much as you can, because if I'm reading
a lot that you begin to see patterns and you see, oh,
that turn or phrase I want to use. I've read
that in about six other books. Maybe there's a deeper,
fresher way of saying something. So I think reading keeps
us on our toes in order to make sure that
we're saying something new and different and challenging ourselves to
(06:08):
go deeper.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Do you find that the success that you've had has
put additional pressure on your writing process.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
I don't know, because I'm a neurotic mess and I
think I would be that way no matter what.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
My husband can attest to this, my therapist can attest
to this.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Every book, I'm always like, I can't do it again,
and we got it on how I did it. This
is the time where I'm going to fail. I think
I would be like this no matter what. So I
can't answer that and whether or not it's a success
or not, I just feel fear, and I think that's natural.
The only good thing is having done it for a while,
is you begin to realize that it's a pattern. You
(06:45):
always feel this way, Attika, you always get.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Very very scared.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
And also to remind myself that fear is a feeling
you're having.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
It's not necessarily the truth.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
So just because I'm afraid that a tornado could come
through here right now doesn't mean when it is coming.
So you learn how to say that's a feeling, acknowledge
the feeling, and then get to work.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Yeah, we have a question that we ask a lot
of writers. When you've written a series of books, do
you ever step away and think, oh, that's what I
was actually writing about. After a couple of years of
reflection and if so, have you had any sort of
insights and when you've looked back at a book and gone,
it's not actually about this, It's about this thing that
(07:26):
was personal to me that I didn't realize at the time.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
It's pretty much happened with every book.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
I I usually have the realization before the book is
in the bookstores, but there's always a gap between the
experience of writing it and then as you get closer
to going out in the world. Sometimes there's like a
lightning bolt moment where I'm like, oh, that's what that
was all about.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Yeah, So I have had those experiences for sure.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
So with the obviously you've given tips as well. One
of the things that we like to try and do
is when we've talked about writing different characters before. Obviously
myself and Chris above male, so when we try and
write female characters it can be quite difficult. But also
when you're trying to represent different races and different cultures.
(08:12):
What advice would you give to somebody who was doing
that and trying to do it respectfully and to get
the character right.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
You said the word respect So that's really kind of it.
And what that looks like is paying very close attention.
If I were going to write a book about Sri
Lankan culture, it would be.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Incumbent on me to consume.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
As much as I could about the culture from every angle.
Are there people doing tiktoks about Sri Lanka? Are there
Sri Lankan hip hop I can listen to? Are there
other books about Sri Lanka that are both both poetry.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Novels but also what historical.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
Context can I do? You have to give yourself everything, and.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Then to the degree that you're able to immerse yourself
in a culture either by watching their television shows, just
pay really, really really close attention and assume assume that
you are this outsider that has to be let in,
that has to kind of show respect, don't assume that
you know kind of everything.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
And obviously being from America and having that experience, she
talks about reading a lot before. Would you be able
to recommend three authors from America or anywhere else in
the world that we may not have heard of yet
in Britain. And then if somebody was looking at picking
up one of your books, which one would you recommend
(09:34):
for them to start with?
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Okay, well, I know you know of this Showman because
he was here before.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
S A.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
Cosby is just a fabulous writer.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Megan Abbott is not as well known here in the UK.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
I adore her.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
There is a late author he's passed away, was from
Mississippi called Larry Brown. I just simply adore and love Love,
Love is war. And all of these different people are
giving you a window into something. Megan is doing stuff
with gender that is transgressive and interesting. SA Cosby is
doing this lens on being black in the South. Larry
(10:11):
Brown wrote about poor people in Mississippi. Like, all of
these are like really incredible authors to read. And in
terms of my books, where to start, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (10:22):
I mean.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Probably Bluebird, Blue Bird. I think it's a great access
point for a lot of readers.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
Brilliant.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Yeah, well that's been our interview today Harrogt Writer's Festival.
Thank you very much for joining us.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Thank you guys, it's been an.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
Absolute pleasure to chat to you. And if you're here
watching this over this weekend, because this content will go out,
please obviously say.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Hello to Atticat.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
I'm sure she'd be more than welcome to have a
little chat with you. And obviously by books, by lots
of books if you're here at Aragt Crimer Festival this weekend,
so thank you very much for watching. It's been a pleasure.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Thank you guys.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Yeah,
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CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.
Dateline NBC
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