Write Angles: Unfiltered Voices, Episode 19 - Pam Swanborough

What happens when your writing doesn’t ‘fit’ the market but readers can’t stop thinking about it?

In this episode of Write Angles: Unfiltered Voices, I’m joined by rural Victorian author Pam Swanborough, whose debut novel Red Gifts in the Garden of Stones was named in the Kirkus Reviews Best 100 Indie Novels of 2025. Pam shares the story behind her magic-tinged literary novel set in Wales in 1969: a family of women, a tight community, and the unravelling that follows over three weeks.

We talk about self-publishing versus traditional publishing, the reality of ‘brilliant but not commercial’ and why the stigma around indie work does a disservice to readers. Pam also opens up about late-start creativity, finding inspiration half-asleep or stuck in traffic, staying focused while living rurally, and her goal to get the four books in her head into the world, ideally with at least one traditional deal.

Pam Swanborough is the kind of writer who makes you feel like the world is slightly stranger than you thought, in the best possible way.

Pam started writing fiction in 2019 and immediately won Best Regional Writer in the Writers Victoria Emerging Writers Competition. Since then, her work has been published widely, and her 2024 debut novel, Red Gifts in the Garden of Stones, landed a spot in the Kirkus Reviews Best 100 Indie Novels of 2025 — a genuinely huge achievement in a review pool of tens of thousands of titles.

In our conversation, Pam shared the premise of Red Gifts: set in rural Wales in 1969, it opens on a matriarch’s 100th birthday, with three generations of women under one roof. Over three weeks, sparked by the psychological instability of the local vicar, a tight community turns and the story spirals into something both intimate and unsettling. Pam describes the book as literary fiction with magical realism, including a Greek-chorus-like cast of ghosts … plus a dog (and even a grey cat for those who need a feline selling point).

We also talked honestly about launches, marketing, and the awkward reality of being brilliant at selling other people’s books while freezing at the idea of saying “buy mine”. Pam’s reflections on focus — balancing writing with house renovations, a garden, and rural life — will hit home for a lot of us.
One of the biggest threads we pulled on was publishing itself: the doors traditional publishing can open, the exhaustion of marketing either way, and the frustration of being told “brilliant, but not commercial”. Pam makes a strong case for why indie work deserves to be judged on the story and not the pathway, and why readers may be more open to ‘different’ books than the industry gives them credit for.

And then there’s Pam’s line that stayed with me: “Some kind of non-standard.” Not quite fitting into neat boxes. Not writing like what’s currently trending. Still writing anyway.

If you’re tired of the sameness, curious about indie literary fiction, or quietly working on something that doesn’t have an obvious shelf, you’ll feel very seen in this episode.

✨ Key Moments to Listen For
• Pam’s Red Gifts in the Garden of Stones and the Kirkus Best 100 Indie Novels recognition
• “Brilliant, but not commercial” and what that reveals about publishing
• Why traditional publishing still opens doors (and what indie authors miss out on)
• Focus, deadlines, and building momentum while living rurally
• “Some kind of non-standard”: writing that doesn’t fit neat comparisons

📚 Resources & Links
• Red Gifts in the Garden of Stones — Pam Swanborough
• Pam’s website (includes the original short story inspiration): https://pamswanborough.com/
• Pam’s publishing imprint: https://twofeathers.press/
• You can also follow Pam (PA Swanborough – author) on FB and Bluesky.

▶️ Your Next Steps
• Follow Pam on her socials
• Like and subscribe to my YouTube and Spotify Unfiltered Voices channels
• If you love indie books that take risks, share this episode with a reader friend
• Keep questioning the myth that self-published is second rate