Meet Eugene O'Toole, winner of our summer short story competition (2024) who wrote Church of Rage, which can now be read on our winner's blog page. As part of the prize, we want to promote new authors, and as such we chat to Eugene about his writing journey, aspirations, next steps, love for literacy, and what a good short story needs.

Learn the importance of honing your craft in competitions, and the joy it gives you, how you are never too old to begin a journey towards an ambition, and how to overcome bad habits developed over a career in journalism.

Get to know Eugene better with our New2theScene presenter and hear his experience with trying to find publishers and agents to take a chance on new writers, and the importance of marketing yourself - as well as the mistakes he's made along the way.

New2theScene is a platform dedicated to the discovery of new or not yet familiar talent. Follow us on Instagram (new2thescene.official) for the latest offers, news, and upcoming podcast guests, and visit our bookstore at new2thescene.co.uk to order books mentioned in this or other podcasts, and unearth new talent.