Kelly Mullen, author of 'This Is Not a Game' - Hollywood Producer and Writer discusses tricking yourself to write, reinventing the wheel, and getting characters to your end
Writer's Routine
Dan Simpson
4.9 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 2 October 2025
⏱️ 49 minutes
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Summary
Kelly Mullen is a creative powerhouse who has just released her debut novel, 'This Is Not a Game'. Previously, Kelly has produced in Hollywood, working on the movie 'Trumbo', and the series 'Dads' for Apple TV+. She works as a marketing consultant, helping brands achieve their creative potential, and now she's trying to realise her own.
She's been named by Cosmopolitan, The Bookseller, and the Daily Mail as 'One to Watch', and the rights to her new novel have already been snapped up in the USA and Germany.
'This Is Not a Game' is about the hard-drinking, crossword solving Mimi, who enlists her stranged granddaughter Addie to help solve a murder. It was inspired by a summer taking care of her own grandma, and dreaming of the strange scrapes they could get into.
We talk about why she wasn't trying to reinvent the wheel, what she learned from working in Hollywood, and how she made sure her characters got to her ending.
You can hear Kelly's path to publication, what she's taken from her writing career so far, and whether she's taking on too much.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This week's episode of writer's routine is brought to you by Ingram Spark, who let you publish like a pro. |
| 0:06.9 | You have a story, so share it with the world. And you don't need to wait for anyone else to get read now. |
| 0:12.9 | It's 2025. You can take control. There are no barriers. And you've got all the help you need with Ingram Spark. |
| 0:19.7 | It lets you explore all the publishing options available to you from hardcover, paperback and ebook. |
| 0:27.3 | It can help you self-publish like a pro. |
| 0:29.8 | Ingram Spark offers global e-book and print distribution, connecting your stuff to over 45,000 readers, helping you reach libraries, retailers and online stores too. |
| 0:43.0 | Now, self-publishing, although accessible, it can be a little bit intimidating if you do it yourself. |
| 0:48.9 | There are so much to think about. And that's after you've put in all the effort and all the time of actually |
| 0:54.5 | writing the book. And that's why Ingram Spark has a huge stash of self-publishing guides, |
| 1:01.0 | courses and so much more. So you can self-publish like a pro. With Ingram Spark, you can |
| 1:08.2 | reach millions of readers worldwide with powerful tools for independent |
| 1:13.6 | writers. You can find out more with the self-publishing book company, Ingram Spark. Get started for free |
| 1:20.6 | at ingramspark.com slash learn more. Welcome along to writeers routine. My name is Dan Simpson. It's the show where we take a |
| 1:37.0 | look inside an author's working day. This week we are chatting to Kelly Mullen, part-time |
| 1:42.9 | Hollywood producer, part-time author. Kelly's |
| 1:45.7 | newest book is This Is Not a Game. It's all about a grandmother, granddaughter, sleuthing |
| 1:51.3 | duo, inspired by a time when she stayed with her own grandma. And we mostly had a great time, |
| 1:57.3 | but there was some conflict. And there were a few kind of other crazy things that |
| 2:02.5 | happened. The power went out and, you know, obviously it was the pandemic and she was injured. |
| 2:07.9 | And just some things happened where I started kind of imagining what if some kind of crazy |
| 2:14.4 | high-stakes scenario happened here and we'd have to survive something |
| 2:18.0 | together? |
... |
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