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Hello and good morning. No awles, how are you doing today? I

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am good. How are you?
Absolutely fantastic. I know we're not supposed

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to talk about book covers and things
like this, but your book covers should

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be posters. They should be posters
that are planted on people's walls. The

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simplicity, and yet there's so much
energy in your book covers. Oh,

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thank you so much, especially when
it comes to Solitaire, because you've chosen

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colors here that embrace empowerment. You
invite readers to step into these pages.

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Because we see the cover, we
go, well, this is interesting.

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Let me step into this and find
out. Oh my god, it's Nick

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and Charlie. We've been here before. That's really nice. Thank you.

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Now, I know that the first
book was volume one? Would Solitaire continue

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on as volume two? Or how
is it that you're planting this seed?

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So Solitaire was actually the book that
I wrote before Hotsper, So yes,

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So Solitaire came first, and then
I started writing Heartstopper, but pronologically Heartstopper

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comes first, So a little cad
hopefully mastering the voice of Tory. What

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was that like? Because I mean, you can't just put a voice inside

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of a paragraph. And not you
and not physically hear her inside your imagination.

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What was it that that that Tory
said to you while you were creating

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a character. I think it kind
of began with just wanting a character who

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was so pessimistic and just had so
much kind of irritation and frustration about the

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world around her, and it kind
of just grew from there. It's a

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really really fun voice to write because
she is so moody and grumpy, and

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it's kind of funny to read and
funny to write to be honest, It's

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yeah, it's a very distinctive voice. So yeah, well, I mean,

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Alice, come on, I mean, I mean the way that Tori

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is is she's she may be a
pessimist, but the thing about it is,

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aren't we all. I Mean,
I always say that I'm an optimistic

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pessimist and because because I like going
into those deep dark places and yeah,

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the glass sometimes is half empty and
not half full. Yeah. Absolutely,

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I think that's why a lot of
people like relate to Tori, because everyone's

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got a little bit of that voice
in them. Everyone can kind of feel

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that kind of anger and annoyance at
one point. Tori just is that kind

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of all the time. Yeah,
Michael Holden, Oh man, this this

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really puts a spin on this story. Yes, yeah, he is.

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He's kind of the polar opposite to
Tori. He's so bodily and chirpy and

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timistic and worky and everything that Tory
isn't really so him taking an interest in

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her and wanting to be friends with
her really shakes up her world and makes

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her kind of reconsider everything she knew
about the world around her. Is this

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one of those moments of opposites attract
or Is it that that Michael feels that,

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Okay, I see her her dark
side or her grumpiness, but I

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think I can fix her. I
mean, definitely a bit of opposites attracts

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is going on there. Maybe yeah, I think maybe Michael does kind of

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feel like, you know, not
that he can fix her. I think

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it's more that he sees that there
is some warmth in her, kind of

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underneath all of this sort of shield
that she has around her. He knows

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that there is a hearing person underneath
all of that, and he tries to

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encourage that out of her. You
know what's really interesting about your writing,

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Alice, is that when you do
bring in Nick and Charlie and Tory and

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Michael. It really is a true
representation of where we are with the generation,

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because I mean, I can I
can read this, and then when

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I go to a Starbucks or I
go to a store, I can go,

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oh my god, Alice has this
right, I can see everything that's

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going on here. Yeah. Yeah, I mean I'm really glad you think

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that, because I try really hard
to make my teenage characters feel as authentic

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and realistic as they possibly can.
And for me, I mean that gets

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harder every year as I get older
and I get less connected to what it's

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like being a teenager. But you
know, I wrote Solitaire when I was

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myself a teenager, so I do
like to think that the sort of teen

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age voices in that book are quite
realistic. How did you do as that

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teenage writer? Because I've been writing
all my life. I'll never forget my

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second grade teacher giving me a pencil
and saying, if you're going to talk

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in class all day long, please
put it on paper. I don't even

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want to hear your voice. Put
it on the page. What did you

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go through during those growing years?
I mean, it was just a fun

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hobby Throughout my childhood, I loved
writing stories and I fill up notebooks,

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you know, just writing anything.
And as I got older, you know,

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I didn't even think I could really
make a career out of it until

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I was maybe sixteen or seventeen.
It always felt like a job that was

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so unattainable. I just had no
idea how people became authors. But all

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I knew was this is what I
love to do the most out of everything.

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So yeah, it's just been my
passion. I guess do you feel

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like an outsider as a writer.
And the reason why I bring that up

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is is because nothing happens in my
day until I've written first. I've got

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to write first, and then I
can take the first step. Definitely.

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I mean, everyone who knows me
knows that I'm a workaholic. I am

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obsessed with my work, which has
its positives and its negatives. You know.

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It's I think many creative people can
probably relate to that, that when

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the thing you're creating is your passion
and it makes you want to get up

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in the morning. So yeah,
yeah, because it's it's amazing to see

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the words, the emotions, the
excitement, everything wrapped up inside those words.

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Do you long form your writing or
are you sitting there at that computer?

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I am a computer. Yeah,
I am very much a digital person.

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How do you keep the perfectionist at
bay? Then? Because you know,

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the one thing I've always learned about
the computer, it's too easy to

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go back any race. Well,
I mean I just embraced being a perfectionist.

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Really, I'm a very big planner. I always plan my stories very

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carefully, and you know, I
do go back and edit as I'm going

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along. I think that's just the
kind of writer who I am. I

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know there are lots of writers out
there who just go for it and kind

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of make it up as they're going
along and don't worry about editing and so

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they've got a full draft. But
I love to edit as I go along.

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I love to have a plan.
That's just who I am. Yeah.

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Being part of that web comic world, didn't that just kind of give

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you an up close and personal relationship
with readers, Because I mean those people

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that are surfing the web and they
want their web comics, I mean they

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want it now. Yeah. Absolutely, I think that's one of my favorite

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things about having a web comment honestly, is seeing those comments every time you

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upload some pages and you get an
instant reaction. You get to read what

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they think about the story, about
their theories, you know what characters they

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love, what relationships they're loving.
It's really fun just you know, it's

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so different to publishing a novel,
where you have to write the whole thing

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and then you don't know what anyone's
going to think until the book is out.

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With a web comment, you're getting
so much feedback as you're going along.

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It's really fun. Well, it's
fun to live vicariously through your imagination.

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That that's what's really fun. And
the fact that you give yourself permission

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to be creative because so many people
are in their bedrooms they're hiding what they're

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creating. But and it's it's through
people like yourself that they will say,

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hey, if if Alice is doing
it, I'm going to take a chance

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on it as well. Yes,
absolutely, And I completely relate to those

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people because that literally was me as
a teenager. You know, I was

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asking stories all through my teenage years
and I didn't tell anyone. I didn't

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tell my parents, I didn't tell
any of my friends because I thought it

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was kind of a weird hobby.
To have. I didn't really want to

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share it with anyone, but you
know, I've found the courage to kind

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of put myself out there and send
out my work, and yeah, I

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really hope that I can encourage other
people to do the same. Where can

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people go to find out more about
you and to get their hands on your

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writing. You can go to my
website Alice Osman dot com, or you

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can find me Alice Osman on Twitter
or Instagram. Excellent. Please come back

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to this show anytime in the future, Alice. The door is always going

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to be open for you. Thank
you so much. Will you be brilliant

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today? Okay, thank you.
I'll try