Episode 031 – Aaron Farrell | MAKE // BREAK

Aaron Farrell is a Welsh-born writer and editor whose work spans travel-lit grit and sharp cultural criticism. He’s the author of The Lost and Found: A Contemporary Travelling Thriller of Good, Bad and Bohemian All Pursuing Their Passions – However Pure or Perverse and the poetry collection ArtBeat: The Ekphrastic Spastic, alongside essays that thread music, class, and mental health. A former co-founder/editor at Cape Magazine, Aaron is now restarting his work with V13, where his “Violent Expression” columns distill lived experience into clear, hard-hitting prose. In this episode of MAKE // BREAK, we talk turning miles into pages, building durable writing habits, and navigating independent publishing with honesty, resilience, and a bias toward action.

👀 What you’ll hear

• Trace the Welsh roots and working-class grit that shaped Aaron’s voice and worldview as a writer

• Follow the leap from youth work to Camp America and how that unlocked a decade of travelling and ages

• Steal simple, repeatable writing habits Aaron used to draft and redraft his first novel over four years

• Learn the low-budget systems he used in Australia to write a book from a van and library desks

• Hear why martial arts discipline and film scores became his engines for consistency and atmosphere

🕰️ Chapters

00:00 Intro, names, why this conversation on MAKE // BREAK

01:52 Welsh identity, Swansea upbringing, Dylan Thomas influence

05:11 Welsh language history, the Blue Books, finding a voice

11:34 Youth work, teaching, and the first sparks of writing

15:21 Camp America, New York summers, horizons opening

24:31 Returning to craft, reading more, building habits

33:45 Blogging in 2013, film reviews, keeping momentum

48:41 Deciding to travel long-term, Thailand to South Africa

53:32 Australia farm work, the van, Byron Bay library pages

56:47 Drafting the novel that became The Lost and Found

58:55 Self-publishing in 2020 and what he learned

1:08:37 Writing at V13, “Violent Expression,” next book in development

🔗 Guest Links (site first, then socials)

https://v13.net/author/aaron_farrell/

🔗 MAKE // BREAK & Host Links

https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/makebreak

https://instagram.com/lowkeyhellish

https://tiktok.com/@lowkeyhellish

🔗 V13 Media Links

https://v13.net

If this helped, subscribe and tell us in the comments which part of Aaron’s indie publishing journey you want us to dig into next.

(explicit language)

#MakeBreak #AaronFarrell #IndependentPublishing