Hi, I’m Penny
And I am not too busy to write.
Except of course, sometimes I really am too busy to write as much as I’d like.
I’m an author, a book coach and podcaster. I’m also a single parent with a disabled child and live across the world from my family, so I know quite a lot about being too busy to write. Join me as I am constantly trying to sit down and get the work done.
This is a substack about writing amongst life’s many (many) other demands. Weekly posts about creating time to write, publishing, creativity and the craft of writing.
As a freelance writer, I has written for Red Magazine, iPaper, BBC Radio 4 and The Telegraph. I have spoken at a number of events and organisations including Cheltenham Literary Festival, Matrescense Festival, Budleigh Salterton Literary Festival, Scottish Power, Omnicom Media and Carers UK.
My first book Tender was published by Coronet Books in 2020. My short story Missing Things was runner up in the Harper’s Bazaar Short Story Prize 2022. My next non-fiction book Home Matters will be published in August 2024. I have a MA in Creative and Life Writing with Distinction from Goldsmiths and I’m a qualified Author Accelerator Non-Fiction Book Coach.
You can find out more about working with me here.
Books by Penny
Home Matters: How our homes shape us, and we shape them
August 2024
A deeply personal book about how our homes shape us. Penny takes us through her own home, and her childhood home on the outskirts of suburban Melbourne, along with the homes of 13 designers, artists and writers and looks at why thinking deeply about our homes matters.
Penny Wincer shows us how good houses really work, and why they matter so much. An essential read in an age of gloss of styling
Katherine May
A beautiful study of searching for home
Huma Qureshi
Tender: The imperfect art of caring
Penny Wincer has twice been a carer: first to her mother, and now as a single parent to her autistic son. Tender shows how looking after oneself is a fundamental part of caring for another, and describes the qualities that we can look to cultivate in ourselves through what may otherwise feel to be an exhausting task.
Weaving her lived experience with research into resilience, perfectionism and self-compassion, Penny combines the stories of other carers alongside those who receive support - offering an often surprising and hopeful perspective.
Profoundly important...full of wisdom and bright insights on what it really means to love someone, by a fearless and generous writer
Clover Stroud
Not Too Busy To Write podcast has had 8 series so far and features interviews with a diverse range of authors - from literary fiction, romance and crime, to memoir and non-fiction of all kinds. We talk about everything from the challenges of the publishing process, the joys and horrors of actually sitting down to write, honing writing craft and what we are reading. This is the perfect place to find a writing community, to keep you going when you feel pulled in a million directions.
You can listen on all major podcast feeds including Apple and Spotify
Here are a few of our most popular episodes
