What happens when you finally stop saying “one day” and start writing your story?
In this episode of Plot Twist Radio, host Erin Egnatz sits down with UK-based thriller author Gemma Denham to talk about her journey from children’s book illustrator to suspense novelist—and how a “before 40” bucket list changed everything.
Gemma shares the inspiration behind her debut novel The Storm, a chilling locked-room mystery set in England’s Lake District, where a remote retreat turns deadly after guests are trapped by a storm. She also gives an inside look at her upcoming psychological thriller The Inheritance, a haunting story that blurs the line between reality and paranoia.
They dive into:
- Writing suspense and crafting plot twists that keep readers guessing
- The difference between visual storytelling and novel writing
- How to build tension in atmospheric settings
- Balancing writing with family life and a full-time job
- Why it’s never too late to start writing your first novel
Whether you’re a thriller fan, an aspiring author, or someone sitting on a dream you’ve been putting off—this episode is your sign to go for it.
🎧 Listen now and discover your next plot twist.
Where to find Gemma:
TAGS
thriller author interview, Gemma Denham interview, The Storm book, The Inheritance novel, psychological thriller books, locked room mystery, writing suspense tips, how to write a thriller, debut author journey, writing after 40, late bloomer success stories, Plot Twist Radio podcast, Erin Egnatz podcast, author interview podcast, mystery book lovers
00:00:00
Welcome to Plot Twist Radio, the show where creativity,
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storytelling, and the unpredictable path of the
00:00:05
creative life all collide. I'm your host, Aaron Eggnetz.
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Every story has a breaking point, the moment where
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everything shifts, everything unravels, and you're left
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questioning what's real, who to trust and what comes next.
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Today's guest knows exactly how to build that kind of tension.
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I'm joined by author Gemma Dunham.
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Whose debut novel? The storm pulls readers into an
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isolated retreat in England's Lake District, where a.
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Peaceful escape quickly. Turns into something far more
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sinister. Cut off from the outside, world
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secrets begin to surface and not everyone makes it out alive.
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But Gemma's journey to becoming a novelist is just as
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compelling, from illustrating children's books to challenging
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herself with a bold before 40 bucket.
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List goal she. Proves that sometimes the
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biggest plot twist is finally going after the story you've
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been holding inside. And with her upcoming release
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the inheritance, she's diving even deeper into psychological
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suspense where the scariest question might not be what's in
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the house, but what's happening inside the mind.
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This is a conversation about creativity, reinvention, and the
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courage to write your own next chapter.
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Hello, before we get started, can you tell the audience a
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little bit about yourself? So my name is Gemma Dunham.
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I just released my debut novel last year in June and I have my
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next novel coming out in this June.
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I live in the UK, in England, and I just want to thank you
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very much for having me on the show today.
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Absolutely. It's great to have you.
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I'd love to start with your origin story, before the novels,
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before the storm. Who are you growing up?
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Were you always a creative or is that something that's developed
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recently? I've always been very creative,
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but my creativity comes from art.
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Initially, I was always very artistic and leaving college to
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get a job, I took a job as an illustrator.
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So I started my work illustrating children's picture
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books, which is what kind of got me into the book market.
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And from there, it wasn't until I had my son that I started
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writing and I started with picture books.
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That's what it's familiar with, what I had in my day-to-day
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life. So I wrote a series of picture
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books which I self published. Then I went till quite a few
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years later and it was actually my approaching 40th that gave me
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the kick into writing a novel. Always kind of in the back of my
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mind, like could I write something a bit longer?
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Could I write for adults? It was that, you know, the
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impending big birthday giving you a little kick.
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And I wrote a list of four things to vote for my 40th
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birthday, gave myself a year to do them.
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Popped write a novel on there and thought, this is it.
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If I'm going to do it. Enough excuses.
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And that's got got me got me into writing in in the novels.
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Very cool. And you know, that is something
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that I hear a lot and myself included, I'm turning 40 next
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month and I didn't start until last year actually really
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putting the books out there because it took a while to get
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there. But I've noticed that's a common
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theme for a lot of us right around that 40th mark.
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I don't know what it is about that birthday.
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It's an interesting, it's an interesting phenomena.
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I wish I was like good at statistics because I would
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really like to look into that a little bit.
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But like you said, you've lived both visual and written
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storytelling lives. How do those two creative worlds
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feel different to you? It's a tricky question because I
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suppose there's like a lot of similarities because it is both
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creative and, you know, one's visual, but you're sort of like
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painting that story with your mind, aren't you?
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Having to use the words instead of the images?
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I suppose you kind of need that creative background in a way
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just to draw on or I don't know, maybe other people are better at
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visualizing than me. No, I mean, I you do the best of
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both worlds. I could not illustrate to save
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my life. I tried my hand at it just, you
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know, it's like a hobby. And I realized I was really bad
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at it. Like really, really bad at it.
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It's cool when I meet someone that can do that because that
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that's one of the things that intrigues me and I just can't
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figure out the science behind it or I guess the talent behind it.
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Do you do other kinds of illustrations too, or do you
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stick to kind of like the children's books type?
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It was mainly the children's books.
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I did work. My illustration work was through
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a studio and that was primarily what they did.
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We did get a few other little bits, stationary things,
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calendars, that kind of thing, but it was mainly, mainly the
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books. Gotcha.
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So let's talk about the storm. Can you tell us a little bit
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about it without kind of giving away the spoilers?
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Yes. So the store focuses around the
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main character, Lizzie. She's going through a bit of a
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tough time at the minute. She's got quite a clingy
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boyfriend, she's got a lot of work pressures, and she's
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struggling to figure out what she needs to do in life.
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And she decides to take herself away on a little retreat and
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stop her boyfriend pestering her while she's away.
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She purposely picks the most remote location she can, which
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happens to be the Lake District in England, which is beautiful
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area, lots of mountains, lots of lakes obviously.
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But this hotel has no Wi-Fi, no phone signal so that she she
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can't be bothered. He can't contact her.
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She arrives and everything is ideal.
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It all looks beautiful. However, the next morning one of
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the guests is found dead. At first they think it's natural
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causes, but after a storm descends and the only Rd.
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In or out, hotel is cut off, more deaths emerge and
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suspicions rise in the guests. Very interesting.
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I love, I love those kinds of stories.
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Those are my favorite to read. I thought I'm going to have to
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jump into yours a little bit. So that's such a vibe.
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I love the Lake District. Where did the idea come from for
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that? So I always knew that I wanted
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to do a murder mystery. I'm a huge murder mystery Agatha
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Christie fan, so I knew I wanted to go, that I needed to write
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one of these, and I wanted to make it in a modern setting.
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And the Lake District is somewhere we holiday regularly
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each autumn. We go up, we take the kids.
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It's an area I know well and an area that I know does genuinely
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have reduced signal. And there are these different
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pockets where you just can't get any Wi-Fi, any phone coverage.
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So it was. It lent itself so perfectly to
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cutting off everybody. So.
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The locked room mysteries are such a specific challenge, I
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would say. What was the hardest part about
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constructing that? Plot.
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I am I am a plotter. I do like to plot it all out.
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So it was, I suppose, trying to get enough backstories into
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everyone to throw suspicion. You have to suspect all the
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guests. And I found in order to do it
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convincingly, I, I didn't know murderer until I wrote it.
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So right. And up until the end, even for
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me writing it, it could have been any one of the guests.
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I knew what twist I was going to put in, but I didn't know who
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the actual murderer was. And I think that helped because
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I thought, well, if I don't know, how can the reader know?
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Yes. That's, that's a brilliant way
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of doing it too, because I, that was my actually my next
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question. Did you know ahead of time?
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Because I wonder how people keep the secret throughout.
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And that makes sense. You know, make the make the
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killer at the end. As you said, you're a plotter.
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I, I'm a pancer. I need to be a plotter, but I'm
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a pancer. It's horrible.
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Did you feel like some of the stuff that you had plotted let
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it out changed as you went along with the writing?
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Absolutely, yes. So I do plot, but I don't plot
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forensically so so I don't break it down per chapter.
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I'll have I'll know my ending, I know where I start and I know
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certain plot points I want to hit, but then I kind of let the
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characters lead in between there.
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One thing I did change, initially it was just going to
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be told from Lizzie's point of view, but I quickly realized the
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reader needed more information that I could give through
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Lizzie's eyes. And so I brought in Ellie, one
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of the guests. She is a teenage guest of a
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couple that are staying there and when I started writing her I
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started her as diary entries but quickly found that didn't work
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so I had to rewrite as as normal text.
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Yeah, gotcha. So your book sounds incredibly
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atmospheric. That's another word that's easy
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for me to say this morning. How do you build tension in a
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setting like that? Slowly, just let it, let it
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creep in, let the reader fill gaps.
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I didn't want to put too much, too much visual in there.
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I wanted the with the reader foot in the gaps, it almost
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becomes a little bit area and the tension builds because but
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from what people can imagine and what they build up inside is
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worth more suspenseful than what you can put on the page.
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If you write it down in black and white, it's too it's too
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bold. It's also it's almost like the
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little hidden bits that they're actually more effective.
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Makes sense. So I had a conversation recently
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with a suspense writer and they were talking about how, you
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know, a lot of times they would go late into the night and they
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would end up kind of scaring your themselves.
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Have you ever done that? No, I'm not scared myself, but I
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also don't write at night. It's probably good.
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I was. I was intrigued by that because,
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you know, as authors, a lot of times we get into the character,
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into the world, we kind of get sucked into it.
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So I was intrigued. I've never actually scared
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myself of what I was writing, which I guess is a good thing,
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but I was curious about that. Yeah, I think maybe, yeah.
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If you're kind of locked away in a room by yourself and it's dark
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and it's late at night. I'm no good writing at night.
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I get too tired. I just want to go to bed.
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I'm more and I'm more of an afternoon writer, so hopefully
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the sun is shining and it's all fine and cheery.
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So no, I've never scared myself. That's a good thing.
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So what does your writing life actually look like?
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Because you know you're balancing family, creativity and
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DIY renovations. I saw.
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Yeah, yeah. So I'm still working a day job
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but quite luckily I work 9 till 3 so I have my afternoons
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completely free to write and I also have Fridays as day after
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Friday is my full writing day. I can really get into it because
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apart from that I don't like to write weekends if I can help it.
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I like to keep that family time but I find I get enough done in
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the week with for free time so it it works.
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So what's 1? Part of the writing process that
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you love, and to add on to that one that you don't love so much.
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When the words are flowing, that's amazing.
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When you're just staring at, you're just hitting it out.
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It's just brilliant. And I do like the editing
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process. I know it's not for everyone,
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but it's just that final Polish that it makes it what it's
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supposed to be. So I do really enjoy that.
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I don't like, I think it's hard to realise and accept that just
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because you have time doesn't mean you can write in it, which
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is a tough. It is a tough lesson to learn,
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especially when you know you've got this whole block of time and
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like, right, I can really get into it and you know, you get
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100 words down and you're like, I'm done.
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You know, the well is dry. I think that's the worst thing.
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And it feels like such a waste. But you know, you just, you have
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to accept it. You have to go off and do
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something else. Go for a walk like your head and
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it'll come back. But it that's definitely the
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hardest part for me. Yes.
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And that is a good piece of advice to just, you know, walk
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away, kind of refresh yourself because writer's block is real
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and it is frustrating, but it always comes back.
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It does. And sometimes you just have to
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draw that line and say, right, go and do the break.
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And actually a walk or a really mundane task does help because
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you're doing something, keeping busy, but it's enough that your
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mind's still free to think and it just, it will pop back in
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there out of nowhere. Yes, yes it will.
00:13:07
So your next book is coming out this summer, correct?
00:13:11
Yes. Can you tell us a little bit
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about that one? I can, yes.
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It's called the inheritance. It's a psychological suspense.
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And this one follows a young family, Kate and Patrick and
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their four year old son Riley. So they are going through a
00:13:30
financial crisis, Patrick has been fired from his job and Kate
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is a stay at home mum and they are giving a lifeline.
00:13:39
But they get the very sad news that Kate's aunt has died but
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she has left them her house. So they really Kate, they move
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up north and they have this wonderful house which just it
00:13:51
fixes everything. They can sell their old house,
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they have some money just to find their feet.
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But not long after moving in, Kate starts noticing some
00:13:59
strange things with the house. Things go missing, things are
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moved, and at night she thinks she can hear someone moving
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around. So the question is, is somebody
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getting into the house without them knowing?
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Do they have a spirit present? Or, as Kate is the only one
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experiencing this issue, losing her mind.
00:14:19
Love that that sounds really good.
00:14:22
That's right up my alley. You know I I write fantasy, but
00:14:25
I love to read suspense. Those are my favorite to read so
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that I'm ready for that that comes out this.
00:14:30
Summer, you said? This summer, yes, it's out on
00:14:33
the 12th of June I believe. And yeah, it's quite a, quite a
00:14:36
creepy, quite a psychological. It was a fun one.
00:14:40
Very funny, very. Exciting.
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Do you feel like your writing style evolved from your first
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book to your second at all? I think maybe a little bit and
00:14:48
hearing comments from my beta readers, they've, I think all of
00:14:53
them said reading The Inheritance, wow, you've stepped
00:14:55
this up. The suspense is, yeah, you've
00:14:58
stepped this up. Yeah, that's awesome.
00:15:01
I'm looking forward to it. So if you could describe your
00:15:04
storytelling style, what would you say it is?
00:15:07
Oh gosh, that's tricky. Like for me, you know, I, I say
00:15:10
it's, I'm a quirky writer, you know what I mean?
00:15:13
So like my, my stories are found family, but I'm a quirky writer.
00:15:19
I like a little bit of humor. I know yours tend to take the
00:15:23
more suspenseful route. Yeah, mine.
00:15:26
Mine are definitely more suspenseful and they, they all,
00:15:30
they all focus on the average person.
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I don't like to pull too many specialists in or professional,
00:15:36
you know, they're not, they're not police procedures that it's
00:15:40
just your average person. This could happen to anyone.
00:15:43
That's where I like to go with mine.
00:15:46
Yeah, for sure. And that's what makes them all
00:15:49
the more creepy that it could happen to anyone.
00:15:52
So when you're not writing, what do you what do you like to do?
00:15:56
I love to hike. We're we're big hikers.
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We like getting out in countryside, getting a bit of
00:16:01
fresh air, challenging ourselves to whatever mountain we can
00:16:06
find. And obviously big reader love my
00:16:12
books. Definitely a thriller fan.
00:16:16
That is, that is the genre for me.
00:16:18
Do you have a favorite or just pretty much the whole genre?
00:16:22
I will read any any thriller. A big fan of Douglas and these
00:16:27
Jewel. I would definitely go out and
00:16:30
buy any of their books. Absolutely, they are good ones.
00:16:33
So if someone picks up. The.
00:16:35
Storm or the inheritance? What do you hope they feel when
00:16:39
they turn to the final page? I hope, I hope it's a good
00:16:43
surprise. Hope it's a good twist.
00:16:45
I'm kind of hoping that I've caught them out.
00:16:48
If I've not that there should be enough bread crumbs that that it
00:16:51
is a realistic conclusion. But I hope they're satisfied
00:16:57
with them with with how it ends. And I bet they will be.
00:17:02
So what advice would you give to someone sitting on their own
00:17:07
bucket list stream like you once?
00:17:09
Were do it. 100% do it. So I gave myself a year to
00:17:15
complete my list. It was honestly the most fun,
00:17:19
the best year I've ever had. Just pushing myself slightly out
00:17:23
my comfort zone and taking off those things that I've always
00:17:29
wanted to do that I've always been one day, but I've not got
00:17:32
time make time because it is so much fun.
00:17:35
It's so rewarding and I would recommend it for anyone.
00:17:39
Great advice. So where can the listeners find
00:17:42
you? I have a website,
00:17:44
gemmadunham.com. I'm also active on X and
00:17:49
Instagram, a little bit on Facebook, but not so much.
00:17:52
So yeah, definitely X and Instagram if you want the most
00:17:54
up to date. Perfect.
00:17:57
I will make sure that's in the show notes for everyone.
00:18:00
And thank you so much for joining me.
00:18:02
I've enjoyed talking to you. Thank you for having me on.
00:18:06
Gemma proves that it's never too late.
00:18:08
To rewrite your. Story and sometimes the scariest
00:18:11
risks lead to the most rewarding outcomes, from atmospheric slow
00:18:15
burning tension to twist that keep you guessing until the very
00:18:19
end. Her work reminds us why we love
00:18:21
a good mystery and why the unknown can be so irresistible.
00:18:25
Be sure to. Check out The Storm and keep an
00:18:27
eye out for her upcoming novel, The Inheritance, releasing this
00:18:31
June. You can find Gemma on Instagram
00:18:33
and X, and we'll have all of our links waiting for you in the
00:18:35
show notes. And if today's episode sparked
00:18:38
something in you, an idea, a goal, or maybe that thing you've
00:18:42
been putting on, consider this your sign to go for it.
00:18:45
Because sometimes the biggest plot twist is the one you chose
00:18:48
to create.