Writer’s Book Club Podcast

EPISODE SHOW NOTES

In this episode, Kate Forsyth takes us through the writing process for a selection of her works including The Crimson Thread, Bitter Greens, The Wild Girl, The Blue Rose and more.

Kate shared a veritable wealth of information about her writing process and philosophies; you’ll definitely want to take notes during this episode! She talked about:

- helping people find their own faith in themselves and their stories

- the constellation of ideas that combine to inspire a novel

- the two categories aspiring writers fall into

- how she overcomes the ‘paralysis of perfectionism’

- the importance of both thematic and narrative structure

- the elements of surprise and suspense

- using description to quicken pace instead of slowing things down

- the critical role of ‘emotional resonance’

- why she always writes in deep point of view

- how she writes a scene

- how she uses the phases of the moon to structure her writing schedule

Blog posts and articles referred to in the episode:

Kate’s Crimson Thread Diary, including image of Cretan women holding guns during WW2

Kate’s Writing Journal

Kate’s article about Marilyn Monroe ‘The m-m-m-m girl: Marilyn Monroe and I shared a secret struggle’ Sydney Morning Herald

Kate’s one-page plan from her notebook for her novel-in-progress Psykhe.

You’ll find links to buy both paperback and ebook versions of Kate’s books here.

ABOUT KATE FORSYTH

Dr Kate Forsyth is an award -winning author, poet, and storyteller. She has a Doctorate of Creative Arts in fairy tale studies which has led to an amazing body of novels inspired by fairy tales and myths. But definitely NOT as you know them. 

Her most recent novel is The Crimson Thread, a reimagining of ‘The Minotaur in the Labyrinth’ myth. It’s set in Crete during the Nazi invasion and occupation of World War II.

Her other historical novels include Beauty in Thorns, a reimagining of ‘Sleeping Beauty’ told in the voices of four women of the Pre-Raphaelite circle of artists and poets;  Then we have The Wild Girl, the story of the forbidden romance behind the Grimm brothers’ fairy tales which was named Most Memorable Love Story of 2013; and Bitter Greens, a reinvention of ‘Rapunzel’ which won the 2015 American Library Association award for Best Historical Fiction.

Kate has also written non-fiction books, books for middle-grade children and picture books, many of which have garnered awards. husband, three mostly-gorgeous heroes-in-training, two ravenous cats, a cantankerous bird and a very badly-behaved dog.

Website: https://kateforsyth.com.au/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kate_forsyth_

Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/kateforsythauthor

Twitter: https://twitter.com/KateForsyth

This podcast was recorded on the beautiful, unceded lands of both the Garigal people of the Eora nation and the lands of the Bundjalung people.

Full show notes available at writersbookclubpodcast.com

THIS EPISODE CONTAINS SPOILERS.

In this episode, Rachael Johns takes us through the process behind writing her novel The Work Wives. 

Rachael very generously decided she was more than happy to discuss the twists and turns of the novel so that all you writers out there could learn from this novel. She also takes us through her physical notebook for the novel - the original character outlines and plot points - so we can really see how this novel took shape from its inception. Rachael also read through the detailed developmental and structural notes from her editors which was such a terrific insight, not only into how a novel is edited, but how the publication process works.

This episode is a real masterclass in crafting a piece of contemporary, commercial fiction. 

You’ll find links to buy both paperback and ebook versions of The Work Wives here.

ABOUT RACHAEL JOHNS

Rachael Johns is an English teacher by trade, a mum 24/7, a Diet Coke addict, a cat lover and chronic arachnophobe. She rarely sleeps and never irons. She is also the bestselling, ABIA-winning author of The Patterson Girls and a number of other romance and women’s fiction books, including her recent bestseller, Something to Talk About. Rachael is currently Australia’s leading writer of contemporary relationship stories around women’s issues, a genre she has coined ‘life-lit’.

Rachael has finaled in a number of competitions, including the Australian Romance Readers Awards. Jilted (her first rural romance) won Favourite Australian Contemporary Romance in 2012, and The Patterson Girls won the 2016 Romance Writers of Australia RUBY Award and also the 2015 Australian Book Industry Award for General Fiction. She continually places in Booktopia’s Top 50 Aussie Authors poll.

Rachael lives in the Swan Valley with her hyperactive husband, three mostly-gorgeous heroes-in-training, two ravenous cats, a cantankerous bird and a very badly-behaved dog.

Website: https://www.rachaeljohns.com/ 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rachaeljohnsauthor/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RachaelJohnsRomance 

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@rachaeljohnsauthor

Questions this month were from:

Deb Jordan - https://www.instagram.com/deb_jordan_writer/ 

Renae Black - https://www.instagram.com/renae_black_writes/

Links to writing craft books mentioned by Rachael:

The Bestseller Code by Jodie Archer, Matthew Jockers

The Complete Writer's Guide to Heroes and Heroines: Sixteen Master Archetypes

by Caro Lafever, Tami D Cowden and Sue Viders

Rachael Johns’ Book Club Retreat

Writes4Women Podcast: Rachael Johns & Sally Hepworth in conversation

To enter this month’s competition, head to Instagram or Facebook and look for the giveaway post.

This podcast is recorded on the beautiful, unceded lands of the Garigal people of the Eora nation.

Full show notes available at writersbookclubpodcast.com

In this episode, Caroline Overington takes us through the process behind writing her novel The Cuckoo’s Cry. Caroline talks about how the novel began its life as an audiobook commissioned by Audible, the process of turning it into a paperback novel, and the wonderful knock-on effect on her backlist of novels. We also discussed character development, the power of the opening first page, Caroline’s writing process and the two things that motivate her to get words down on the page fast.

You’ll find links to buy both paperback and ebook versions of The Cuckoo’s Cry here.

ABOUT CAROLINE OVERINGTON

Caroline Overington is one of Australia's most successful writers and journalists.  She has twice won the Walkley Award for Investigative Journalism; she has also won  the Sir Keith Murdoch award for Journalistic Excellence; Australia's richest prize for business writing, the Blake Dawson Prize; and the Davitt Award for crime writing. 

She has written fourteen books, including the runaway bestseller, The One Who Got Away.  

 Caroline has worked as a journalist for The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, and The Australian Women's Weekly, where she has profiled many of the world's most famous women, including Oprah Winfrey and Hillary Clinton.

Her books have earned critical and commercial success: two of Caroline's novels - I Came To Say Goodbye and The One Who Got Away -  were short-listed for Book of the Year at the Australian Book Industry Awards; her book about the UN oil for food scandal, Kickback has been optioned for film. Her most recent works include a thriller, The Cuckoo's Cry; and the true crime story, Missing William Tyrrell , an investigation into the disappearance of a three-year old foster child from the village of Kendall in NSW.

Website: https://www.carolineoverington.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/overingtonc/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carolineoverington

Questions this month were from:

Maya Linnell - https://www.instagram.com/maya.linnell.writes/

A’Mhara McKey - https://www.instagram.com/amhara_mckey_writer/

To enter this month’s competition, head to Instagram or Facebook and look for the giveaway post.

This podcast is recorded on the beautiful, unceded lands of the Garigal people of the Eora nation.

Full show notes available at writersbookclubpodcast.com

In this episode, Mark Smith takes us through the process behind writing his novel The Road to Winter.  Mark talked about finding his writing voice in short stories, why and how he packs backstory into the first chapter, why he wrote the novel in first person present tense, the importance of pacing, dialogue, setting and keeping the writing process simple, and the writing mantras he lives by, including ‘What do I know and care about?’

You’ll find links to buy both paperback and ebook versions of The Road to Winter here.

ABOUT MARK SMITH

Mark Smith is the author of four young adult novels, including his critically acclaimed Winter Trilogy.. The Road to Winter was shortlisted for multiple awards and is taught in schools around Australia. The sequel, Wilder Country won the 2018 Australian Indie Book Award for YA. 

An award-winning writer of short fiction, Mark’s work has appeared in Best Australian Stories, Review of Australian Fiction, The Big Issue, The Victorian Writer, Island and The Australian.

Mark is also an in-demand speaker at schools and an experienced facilitator at festivals and book launches.

Website: https://www.marksmithwriter.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmithauthor/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmith0257

For information about the Your Author Website course, go to https://www.writerscentre.com.au/store/courses/your-author-website/

To enter this month’s competition, head to Instagram or Facebook and look for the giveaway post.

This podcast is recorded on the beautiful, unceded lands of the Garigal people of the Eora nation.

Full show notes available at writersbookclubpodcast.com

In this episode, John Purcell takes us through the process behind writing his novel The Lessons.  We had one of those wonderful long meandering chats, not just about John’s novel, but about lots of other books. We discovered a mutual love for EM Forster’s A Room with a View and why it’s such a perfect novel. And John shared the fascinating method he used to learn from the classics. And of course we talked about the creation of his novel The Lessons - how he wrote the 4 first person narratives, how he overcame a lifelong aversion to spreadsheets to help structure the novel and the importance of talking to yourself, preferably while wandering over the Kent downs or your locale of choice. John also shared the thrills and spills of the editing process for this novel - in a word, brutal - as well as differentiating between the character voices and how to end a chapter.

You’ll find links to buy both paperback and ebook versions of The Lessons here.

ABOUT JOHN PURCELL

While still in his twenties, he opened a second-hand bookshop in Sydney – imaginatively called 'John's Bookshop' – in which he sat for ten years reading, ranting and writing. Since then he has written (under a pseudonym) a series of successful novels and, as part of his previous role as Director of Books at Booktopia, interviewed hundreds of writers about their work. John’s 2018 novel, The Girl on the Page was a bestseller, and a film adaptation is in the works. He now lives in the English countryside with his wife, three dogs, four cats and his overlarge book collection.

Website: https://www.johnpurcellauthor.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/johnpurcellauthor

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bookeboy/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Bookeboy

For information about the Your Author Website course, go to https://www.writerscentre.com.au/store/courses/your-author-website/

To enter this month’s competition, head to Instagram or Facebook and look for the giveaway post.

This podcast is recorded on the beautiful, unceded lands of the Garigal people of the Eora nation.

Full show notes available at writersbookclubpodcast.com

* THERE ARE SPOILERS IN THIS EPISODE*

In this episode, Michael Robotham takes us through the process behind writing his novel Lying Beside You. Lying Beside You is Michael’s 17th novel, the third in his Cyrus Haven and Evie Cormac series and it’s honestly a masterclass in how to write a psychological crime thriller.  We talked about the difference between creating surprise and suspense, a couple of Michael’s favourite mantras he applies to his writing, finding new ways to describe the same characters after 9 novels in a series and how to balance how much information you give away in each book in a series. Other topics include writing believable dialogue, creating memorable characters that we care about, the importance of adding a little humour in a psychological thriller and subverting the reader’s expectations.

*SPOILERS* There are spoilers in this episode so if you haven’t yet read the novel and you hate spoilers, make sure you read the book before listening.

You’ll find links to buy both paperback and ebook versions of Lying Beside You here.

ABOUT MICHAEL ROBOTHAM

Before becoming a novelist, Michael Robotham was a former feature writer and investigative reporter working in Britain, Australia and America, and with clinical and forensic psychologists as they helped police investigate complex, psychologically driven crimes. His debut thriller, The Suspect, introduced clinical psychologist Joe O'Loughlin and sold more than a million copies around the world. The first of a nine-book series, The Suspect is being adapted for the screen by World Productions (makers of Line of Duty and Bodyguard), starring Aidan Turner. Michael's standalone thriller The Secrets She Keeps was adapted for TV by Network 10 and the BBC. The second series is out now.

Michael is the only Australian to twice win the UK's prestigious Gold Dagger Award for best crime novel, for Life or Death and Good Girl, Bad Girl as well as the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for When She Was Good. His latest Book, Lying Beside You, is the third book in his bestselling Cyrus Haven and Evie Cormac series.

Michael lives in Sydney.

Website: https://www.michaelrobotham.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MichaelRobothamAU

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michaelrobotham/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/michaelrobotham

For information about the Writers Unleashed festival in Sydney on 3 September 2022, click here. 

To enter this month’s competition, head to Instagram or Facebook and look for the giveaway post.

This podcast is recorded on the beautiful, unceded lands of the Garigal people of the Eora nation.

Full show notes available at writersbookclubpodcast.com

In this episode, Pamela Cook takes us through the process behind writing her novel All We Dream. We talked about the differences between traditional and independent publishing and Pam gave some fabulous tips on things like cover design and advertising and marketing. Pam also, very generously, ran through some of the before and after changes to the novel between its two editions and how those changes improved the novel. I was also really keen to talk to Pam about two writing craft aspects she is really knowledgeable about and actually teaches to other writers - how to write in deep point of view and how to, as she calls it, turn up the tension in your writing to keep your readers turning the page. We also discussed the importance of visiting the place you’re writing about if possible and how she works with her agent.

You’ll find links to buy both paperback and ebook versions of All We Dream here.

ABOUT PAMELA COOK

Pamela Cook is an author, podcaster, writing teacher and mentor. Her best-selling debut novel Blackwattle Lake (2012) was published by Hachette Australia in 2012 followed by three rural fiction titles. Her latest releases Cross My Heart (2019) and All We Dream (2020) have taken her writing in an exciting new direction.

Pamela writes page-turning contemporary women’s fiction, delving deep into the psychology of her characters and the complexity of relationships in all their forms. She explores the impact of trauma, grief and generational conflict, drawing on the resilience and courage she finds in inspirational women. Her writing is imbued with a deep love of the natural world and its power to heal. 

Producing and hosting Writes4Women, a weekly podcast that supports women writers and celebrates women’s writing, is one of Pamela’s not-so-guilty pleasures. She is also a Writer Ambassador for Room To Read, a not-for-profit organisation promoting literacy and gender equality in developing countries.

An experienced teacher, Pamela tutors at Writing NSW and the Australian Writers’ Centre and loves to mentor emerging authors. When she’s not writing or reading, she wastes as much time as possible riding her handsome quarter horse Rio, hanging out with her three adult daughters and menagerie of animals on her dream-come-true rural property in the beautiful Illawarra region of NSW, and dreaming of a road trip in Virginia, her vintage caravan.

Website: https://pamelacook.com.au/

https://www.writes4women.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PamelaCookAuthor

Instagram: @pamelacookwrites

Twitter: @PamelaCookAU

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com.au/pamelacookwrites/

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE

Donald Maass - The Emotional Craft of Fiction

Lisa Hall-Wilson - Deep Point of View

Watch Pam talk with Lisa Hall-Wilson on Writes4Women podcast

Margie Lawson - Editing System (colour coded)

Turn Up the Tension - Course at Writing NSW (released soon)

This podcast is recorded on the beautiful, unceded lands of the Garigal people of the Eora nation.

Full show notes available at writersbookclubpodcast.com

This month my guest is Nigel Featherstone, chatting about the writing of his latest novel My Heart is a Little Wild Thing.

Even though he’s already such an accomplished writer across different genres and formats, Nigel learned some new things writing this novel including the importance of leaning into setting, being more ambitious with the writing and about harnessing the concept of duende - the trickster muse that encouraged him to be less cautious, less polite and to go to places with his writing that he’d normally shy away from.

We talked about structure and his approach to backstory, how he harnessed the voice of memoir to capture character and we also discussed sex scenes - the who, the what and most importantly, the why.

So much great stuff in this interview. Enjoy!

You’ll find links to buy My Heart is a Little Wild Thing below.

ABOUT THE BOOK

My Heart is a Little Wild Thing tells the story of Patrick who has always considered himself a good son. Willing to live his life to please his parents, his sense of duty paramount to his own desires and dreams. But as his mother’s health continues to deteriorate and his siblings remain absent, he finds the ties that bind him to his mother begin to chafe.

After an argument leads to a violent act he travels to a familiar country retreat to reflect on what his life could be – and through a chance encounter with a rare animal and an intriguing stranger Patrick starts to wonder if perhaps it is not too late to let his heart run wild.

ABOUT NIGEL

Nigel Featherstone is an Australian writer who has been published widely.

His latest novel, My Heart is a Little Wild Thing, is out now from Ultimo Press (Hardie Grant).

Nigel’s war novel, Bodies of Men, was published by Hachette Australia in 2019. It was longlisted for the 2020 ARA Historical Novel Prize, shortlisted for the 2020 ACT Book of the Year, shortlisted in the 2019 Queensland Literary Awards, and received a 2019 Canberra Critics Circle Award.

Visit Nigel Featherstone’s website - https://www.nigelfeatherstone.com.au/

Buy My Heart is a Little Wild Thing by Nigel Featherstone paperback or ebook.

A big thank you and shout out to Joanna Nell and Laura Boon for your lovely reviews of the podcast. Check out both authors here:
Joanna Nell - https://www.joannanell.com/
Laura Boon - https://www.lauraboon.com/

This podcast is recorded on the beautiful, unceded lands of the Garigal people of the Eora nation.

Full show notes available at writersbookclubpodcast.com

In this episode, Toni Jordan takes us through the process behind writing her novel Dinner with the Schnabels. We talked about point of view and why she decided to write the book from a male perspective, how she sits down to write a scene, her daily writing practice, how she dealt with setting a novel in pandemic times and the way she balances pathos with humour. Toni also has a fantastic exercise for writers at the end of the chat so listen out for that.

You’ll find links to buy both paperback and ebook versions of Dinner with the Schnabels here.

ABOUT TONI

Toni Jordan has worked as a molecular biologist, quality control chemist, TAB operator and door-to-door aluminium siding salesperson, and is the author of five novels. Her debut, the international best-seller Addition was longlisted for the Miles Franklin award and won the Indie Award for best first book. Nine Days was awarded Best Fiction at the 2012 Indie Awards and was named in Kirkus Review’s top 10 Historical Novels of 2013. Our Tiny, Useless Hearts (2016) was longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award. Toni has been published widely in newspapers and magazines. She holds a bachelor of science in physiology and a PhD in creative arts. Her most recent novel is Dinner with the Schnabels (2022). Toni lives in Melbourne.

Find Toni online at her website or on Facebook

This podcast is recorded on the beautiful, unceded lands of the Garigal people of the Eora nation.

Full show notes available at writersbookclubpodcast.com

In this episode, Hannah Kents takes us through the process behind writing her novel Devotion. We talked about how she writes her way into the voice of her characters, her love of writing landscape, her first draft process, the editing process and her writing practice. 

You’ll find links to buy both paperback and ebook versions of Devotion here.

ABOUT HANNAH

Hannah Kent’s first novel, the international bestseller, Burial Rites (2013), was translated into over 30 languages and won the ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year, the Indie Awards Debut Fiction Book of the Year, and the Victorian Premier's People's Choice Award. It was shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction and the Guardian First Book Award, the Stella Prize and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, amongst others. It is currently being adapted for film by Sony TriStar. 

Hannah’s second novel, The Good People was published in 2016 (ANZ) and 2017 (UK and North America). It has been translated into 10 languages and was shortlisted for the Walter Scott Award for Historical Fiction, the Indie Books Award for Literary Fiction, the ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year and the Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction. It is currently being adapted for film by Aquarius Productions. 

Hannah’s latest novel, Devotion, has recently been published in Australia, the UK and Ireland.

Hannah’s original feature film, Run Rabbit Run, will be directed by Daina Reid (The Handmaid’s Tale) and produced by Carver and XYZ Films. It was launched at the Cannes 2020 virtual market where STX Entertainment took world rights. 

Hannah co-founded the Australian literary publication Kill Your Darlings, and is a Patron for World Vision Australia. She has written for The New York Times, The Saturday Paper, The Guardian, the Age, the Sydney Morning Herald, Meanjin, Qantas Magazine and LitHub.

Hannah lives and works on Peramangk country near Adelaide, Australia.

Find Hannah online at her website or on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

This podcast is recorded on the beautiful, unceded lands of the Garigal people of the Eora nation.

Full show notes available at writersbookclubpodcast.com

In this episode, Penelope Janu takes us through the process behind writing her novel Clouds on the Horizon. We talked about finding the voice of the characters, the importance of hitting certain beats when writing romance, the literary characters that inspire her, the editing process, her writing routine and the role of a writer’s group in a writer’s life.

You’ll find links to buy both paperback and ebook versions of Clouds on the Horizon here.

ABOUT PENELOPE JANU
Penelope Janu lives in Sydney with a distracting husband and, now they're fully grown, six delightful children who come and go. Penelope has a passion for creating stories that explore social and environmental issues, but her novels are fundamentally a celebration of Australian characters and communities. Her first novel, In at the Deep End, came out in 2017 and she has released a book a year since then including today’s book Clouds on the Horizon. Nothing makes her happier as a writer than readers falling in love with her clever, complex and adventurous heroines and heroes. 

Find Penelope online at her Website or on Instagram and Facebook.

Writing teachers mentioned by Penelope in the interview included:

George Saunders - A Swim in a Pond in the Rain

Anne Lamott - Bird by Bird

Christine Wells

Michael Hauge

Special thanks to Natasha Hurren and Vani G for your questions this week.

You can sign up for my newsletter here.

This podcast is recorded on the beautiful, unceded lands of the Garigal people of the Eora nation.

collected essays. My Name is Revenge was longlisted for 2020 Davitt Awards, shortlisted for the 2019 Woollahra Digital Literary Awards, and a finalist in the 2018 Carmel Bird Digital Literary Award.

Ashley’s writing appears in Griffith Review, Sydney Review of Books, Overland, Australian Book Review, the Sydney Morning Herald, the Australian, the Big Issue, Openbook, Westerly, Kill Your Darlings, the Canberra Times, and more.

She is the co-host of James and Ashley Stay at Home, a podcast about writing, creativity and health, and was a judge in the 2020 Writing NSW Varuna Fellowship.

Her Armenian travel memoir was shortlisted for the 2018 Impress Prize for New Writers and the 2017 Kill Your Darlings Unpublished Manuscript Award, and received a 2015 Varuna PIP residency.

Ashley is an award-winning speaker. She’s appeared at Sydney Writers’ Festival, Story Club and the National Young Writers’ Festival, and is a Moth StorySLAM winner.

She also teaches a range of creative writing courses and mentors emerging writers. She has a decade of experience in teaching and curriculum design, working with children and adults, and has a Master of Research in creative writing.

Before moving to Australia, Ashley lived and worked in Canada, South Korea, Peru and Mexico.

Find Ashley online at her Website or on Instagram and Twitter.

Find Ashley’s upcoming writing classes here.

StoryGrid article

Special thanks to Petronella McGovern and Jen Pritchard for your questions this week.

You can sign up for my newsletter at michellebarraclough.com

This podcast is recorded on the beautiful, unceded lands of the Garigal people of the Eora nation.

Full show notes available at writersbookclubpodcast.com

In this episode, Markus Zusak and I talk about the writing process behind his novels Bridge of Clay, The Book Thief and The Messenger. Markus talks about how he finds the voice of his characters and how he differentiates between them, the importance of rhythm, pace, word choice and punctuation in his writing in order to bring the work to life, and how he uses foreshadowing, action and specificity in his writing.

You’ll find links to buy both paperback and ebook versions of Markus’s books here.

ABOUT MARKUS

Markus Zusak is the international bestselling author of six novels, including The Book Thief and most recently, Bridge of Clay. His work is translated into more than forty languages, and has spent more than a decade on the New York Times bestseller list, establishing Markus as one of the most successful authors to come out of Australia.

All of Markus’s books - including earlier titles, The Underdog, Fighting Ruben Wolfe, When Dogs Cry (also titled Getting the Girl), The Messenger (or I am the Messenger) - have been awarded numerous honours around the world, ranging from literary prizes to readers choice awards to prizes voted on by booksellers.

In 2013, The Book Thief was made into a major motion picture, and in 2018 was voted one of America's all-time favourite books, achieving 14th position on the PBS Great American Read. Also in 2018, Bridge of Clay was selected as a best book of the year in publications ranging from Entertainment Weekly to the Wall Street Journal.

Markus Zusak grew up in Sydney, Australia, and still lives there with his wife and two children.

Find Markus online at his Website or on Instagram and Facebook.

Special thanks to Pamela Cook and Terri Green for your questions this week.

The Good Life Podcast with Andrew Leigh & Markus Zusak

StoryFest Podcast: Markus Zusak - The Books That Change Us

This podcast is recorded on the beautiful, unceded lands of the Garigal people of the Eora nation.

Full show notes available at writersbookclubpodcast.com

In this episode, Jessica Dettmann and I talked about the writing process behind her novel This Has Been Absolutely Lovely. Jessica talks about what inspired her characters and how she uses voice to differentiate between them, how she writes a scene, her editorial process and the importance of reading your manuscript out loud, the importance of setting and how she ditched a prologue and wove the backstory into the main narrative.

You’ll find links to buy both paperback and ebook versions of This Has Been Absolutely Lovely here.

ABOUT JESSICA

Jessica Dettmann is the author of two novels, How To Be Second Best and This Has Been Absolutely Lovely. She also writes at her blog Life With Gusto. Jessica was born and raised in Sydney, Australia, and there she remains, disappointing her fourteen-year-old self who thought she would be living in the pensione in Florence from A Room With A View by now.

She is married and has two children and two cats. She does not enjoy walking on the beach with her dog because parking is very expensive at the beach and she does not have a dog. 

Before she became a writer, she worked for a long time as a book editor. 

Find Jessica online at her Website or on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

Special thanks to Pamela Cook, Jodie Coullar and Cassie Hamer for your questions this week.

This podcast is recorded on the beautiful, unceded lands of the Garigal people of the Eora nation.

Full show notes available at writersbookclubpodcast.com

Lynette Noni is currently Australia’s number one YA fiction author of ten novels including The Medoran Chronicles, the Whisper Duology and now The Prison Healer series.

Not only did we talk about writing YA and fantasy, Lynette also spoke about the process of planning and writing a series, what inspired the world of The Prison Healer, and how she goes about creating distinctive, layered characters.

ABOUT LYNETTE

Lynette Noni is currently Australia’s #1 YA fiction author. After studying journalism, academic writing and human behaviour at university, she finally ventured into the world of fiction. She is now a full-time writer and the bestselling author of the six-book young adult fantasy series, The Medoran Chronicles, as well as a second bestselling and award-winning series called Whisper.

Lynette won the 2019 ABIA Award for Small Publishers’ Children’s Book of the Year, along with the 2019 Gold Inky Award (Australia’s only teen choice book award). She is currently collaborating on a project with #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Throne of Glass series, Sarah J. Maas.

The first book in Lynette’s newest series, The Prison Healer, was released globally in April 2021, with the sequel The Gilded Cage coming in October 2021.

You can find Lynette online here: Website, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

This month I had a brilliant chat with Tasmanian author Kyle Perry about his novel The Deep.

I’d heard Kyle talk about his writing process before and he was so articulate and generous with his own experiences of writing, I knew he’d be perfect for the podcast. In this chat with Kyle about his latest novel The Deep, we talked about the importance of the opening image of a novel, Kyle’s trick to creating a good plot twist, how to make characters distinctive from one another and Kyle gives us a great example of what he did to make a couple of his characters more likeable. He also shares some of the editorial notes he received from his publisher on the Deep and how he applied them, so there are some greats insights there.

There ARE spoilers in this episode. If you prefer not to know anything about The Deep or any of it’s fantastic twists and turns, come back and listen after you’ve read it. And I highly recommend you do because this is a really great, in-depth chat about the ins and outs of writing this particular book.

ABOUT KYLE PERRY

Kyle Perry is a drug and alcohol counsellor based in Hobart, Tasmania. He has grown up around the Tasmanian bush and seas, with the landscape a key feature of his writing and his spare time. He loves the sea, and his entire leg is covered in ocean tattoos.

His debut novel, The Bluffs, has been translated into five languages. It was shortlisted for the Dymocks Book of the Year and the Indie’s Debut Fiction Book of the Year, and was longlisted for the Australian Book Industry Awards’ General Fiction Book of the Year.

Kyle Perry Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/kyle.perry.author/

Kyle Perry Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Kyleperryauthor 

Writer’s Book Club Podcast Website & Show Notes - http://writersbookclubpodcast.com/

This month I had a lovely long chat with Meredith Jaffe about her latest novel The Dressmakers of Yarrandarrah Prison.

In this episode, Meredith takes us on the journey from first draft, through to structural and copy edits and finally to finished novel. She talked about writing multiple points of view with an ensemble cast of characters, the concept of head hopping, the unusual drafting process she used for her next novel and how she seeds backstory throughout the narrative.

Remember there can be spoilers in this podcast, so if you prefer not to know anything about a book before you've read it, off you go and have a read, then come back and have a listen after you’ve read it.

ABOUT MEREDITH JAFFE

Meredith Jaffé is the author of three novels for adults - The Dressmakers of Yarrandarrah Prison (May 2021), The Making of Christina (2017) and The Fence (2016.) Horse Warrior, the first in a children’s series, was published in 2019. She also contributed a short story, Emergency Undies, to the 2019 Funny Bones anthology.

She is the Festival Director of StoryFest, held on the NSW South Coast, and regularly facilitates at other writers’ festivals and author events. Previously, she wrote the weekly literary column for the online women’s magazine The Hoopla. Her feature articles, reviews, and opinion pieces have also appeared in The Guardian Australia, The Huffington Post, and Mamamia.

Meredith Jaffe Website - https://www.meredithjaffe.com/

Writer’s Book Club Podcast Website & Show Notes - http://writersbookclubpodcast.com/

This month I was lucky enough to chat with Nikki Gemmell about her latest novel The Ripping Tree. 

I am a long-term fan of Nikki’s beginning when I first read The Bride Stripped Bare almost 20 years ago. I love the way she experiments with style and structure. I love her prose. I love the fact she’s not afraid of an adverb but I’m also inspired by Nikki‘s work ethic. She’s produced adult and children’s novels and a memoir and other works of non-fiction across 22 languages and still turns out a weekly column for the Australian magazine that manages to be fresh and engaging in her signature style which is like a warm conversation with a friend. All of that, as well as raising four children.

In our chat, Nikki spoke about her work process in detail and how she works her writing around family life. We also talked about how she developed the characters in The Ripping Tree, how she structured the novel for pacing and how important pacing it, why she doesn’t read fiction while she’s writing and what inspired her to write what she calls a love letter to Australia, a hymn to the land.

Remember there can be spoilers in this podcast, although we don't reveal the huge awful secret at the centre of this novel. But as always if you prefer not to know anything about a book before you've read it, you can buy a copy of The Ripping Tree in all the usual places and come back and have a listen after you’ve read it.

About Nikki Gemmell…

Nikki is the best-selling author of fourteen novels and four works of non-fiction. She’s originally a Wollongong girl, lately of Sydney with a long stretch in London in between. Her distinctive writing has gained her critical acclaim in France, where she’s been described as a “female Jack Kerouac“. The French literary magazine Lire has included her in a list of what it called the fifty most important writers in the world – those it believes will have a significant influence on the literature of the 21st century. Her best-known work is the 2003 novel The Bride Stripped Bare, and in fact she’s written another two novels that form something of a trilogy - her sexy books as she calls them in the podcast. She also writes novels for children –  the Kensington Reptilarium series and the Coco Banjo series. After, her memoir about her mother was one of the most moving stories I’ve read in a long time. Basically, she can turn her hand to anything. Four of her books  Shiver, Cleave, The Bride Stripped Bare and The Book of Rapture, made the longlist of “Favourite Australian Novels” as chosen by readers of the Australian Book Review. Nikki also pens a weekly column for The Australian newspaper which is the first thing I read every Saturday morning with my coffee. You can see why I’m such a fan.

I hope you enjoy this interview with Nikki Gemmell.

Nikki Gemmell Website - http://www.nikkigemmell.com/

Writer’s Book Club Podcast Website - http://writersbookclubpodcast.com/

This month I spent a delightful hour chatting with Australian novelist Jaclyn Moriarty about her book for adults Gravity Is The Thing.

We talked about her inspiration for the novel, the unusual structure including what she calls fragmented storytelling, and the idea of the reader trusting you to deliver on the promise of the novel. Jaclyn also talked about some of the techniques she uses to fire her creativity, the unique partnership she embarked on with her editor and backstory.

Gravity is the Thing is the story of Abigail Sorensen. She lives in Sydney, is a former lawyer, now owner of the Happiness Cafe and single mother to four year old Oscar. When she was 16, Abi’s brother, who she was extremely close to, went missing and his disappearance has never been solved. On the same day her brother went missing, she began receiving random chapters from a self-help book called The Guidebook in the post.

She believes the absurdity of The Guidebook and the mystery of her brother's disappearance must be connected so she agrees to keep receiving these chapter for the next 20 years.

Now, at the age of 36, Abi has been invited to an all expenses paid retreat to learn the secret behind The Guidebook. What unfolds is a beautiful, heartwarming exploration of opening yourself up to new people and ideas, the unresolved grief of having a missing family member, single parenthood and friendship. All the characters in this book felt like friends by the end. I just loved it so much and have urged so many friends to read it. 

Remember there can be spoilers in this podcast, although we don't reveal the big resolution to the main mystery of the novel, but as always if you hate knowing anything about a book before you've read it, you can buy a copy of Gravity is the Thing in all the usual places.

ABOUT JACLYN MORIARTY

She grew up and still lives in Sydney. She studied Law and English at Sydney University in Australia, Yale in the US and Cambridge in England. She was working as a media and entertainment lawyer when she published her first novel Feeling Sorry for Celia. She now writes full time and is the author of 13 books for children, young adults and grown ups. She has been the recipient of the NSW Premier’s Literary Award, the Queensland Literary Award, and the Aurealis Award for Fantasy.

JACLYN’S WEBSITE - https://jaclynmoriarty.com/
FOLLOW JACLYN ON FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM & TWITTER

Shownotes are available at https://www.writersbookclubpodcast.com

I first met Candice at a writer's festival in 2019 and was struck by how generous she was with her experiences as a writer which, of course, is exactly the kind of writer I want to bring to your ears on this podcast. Candice is knowledgeable on the craft of writing, yes, but she also has the best stories. We chatted more about the craft behind her writing but after this, go and have a listen to some of the stories of her very unusual childhood and her experiences, as a writer, interviewing serial killers. If you go to the About page on her website candicefox.org and scroll to the bottom, you'll find a link to her conversation with Richard Fidler which is absolutely fascinating.

In this interview, Candice took me behind the scenes of The Chase. We talked about her drafting and editing processes, how she pitched the idea to her publisher, how she structured the novel with an A and B plot and multiple vignettes, the techniques she uses to make the reader care about the characters, how she goes about creating and maintaining tension, and so much more

This is another hour-long interview. I think we just need to accept that this podcast has hour-long episodes and I'm okay with that. Hope you are too. That's the beauty of podcasts isn't it - you can break it up if you like or just binge the whole thing on a really long walk.

Remember there can be spoilers in this podcast, although we don't reveal any of the big ones in this episode, but if you hate knowing anything about a book before you've read it, you can buy a copy of The Chase in all the usual places.

ABOUT CANDICE FOX

Candice Fox’s first novel, Hades, won the Ned Kelly Award for best debut in 2014 from the Australian Crime Writers Association. The sequel, Eden, won the Ned Kelly Award for best crime novel in 2015, making Candice only the second author to win these accolades back to back. Her subsequent novels – Fall, Crimson Lake, Redemption Point and Gone by Midnight – were all shortlisted for the Ned Kelly Award.

In 2015 Candice began collaborating with James Patterson. Their first novel together, Never Never, set in the Australian outback, was a huge bestseller in Australia and went straight to number one on the New York Times bestseller list in the US, and also to the top of the charts in the UK. Their later novels – Fifty Fifty, Liar Liar, Hush Hush and The Inn – have all been massive bestsellers across the world. Not bad for a chick from Bankstown, where Candice was born and bred. To top it all off, Candice has two undergraduate and two postgraduate degrees.

In other words she's the perfect person to teach us one or two things about writing.

Website - https://www.candicefox.org/

Follow Candice on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Shownotes are available at https://www.writersbookclubpodcast.com

Kylie and I first met on Twitter quite a few years ago (as you do) and I remember being struck by her honesty about her writing and her experience with being published.

On top of that, she’s smart and funny and all the things you could want in a Twitter buddy. She’s definitely somebody I’d recommend following. She writes the kinds of books I love, full of family drama, complicated characters, and psychological or social or moral dilemmas that put her characters into all sorts of sticky situations.

Kylie is a really accomplished writer and that’s why I invited her on the podcast. She’s incredibly insightful when it comes to the process of writing and also brings her psychology training to the table which adds an extra layer of complexity to her stories, something we talk about in today’s podcast.

In this episode Kylie and I took a deep dive into her novel The Way Back. We discussed her process, how she structures scenes, dialogue, pacing and the importance of reading your novel out loud and walking the dog for thinking time. I could’ve easily kept talking for at least another hour!

About Kylie

Kylie Ladd is a novelist, psychologist and freelance writer.

Kylie’s novels have been published in Australia, New Zealand, the US, the UK and Europe. Her second novel, Last Summer, was highly commended in the 2011 Federation of Australian Writers Christina Stead Award for fiction, while her third, Into My Arms, was selected as one of Get Reading’s ‘Fifty Books You Can’t Put Down’ for 2013. She has also co-edited and co-authored two non-fiction books, Naked: Confessions of Adultery and Infidelity and Living with Alzheimer’s and Other Dementias.

Kylie’s essays and articles have appeared in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald, Griffith Review, O Magazine, Good Medicine, Kill Your Darlings, Reader’s Digest and Wellbeing, amongst others.

She holds a PhD in neuropsychology and lives in Melbourne, Australia, with her husband and two children.

Website - http://kylieladd.com.au/
Follow Kylie on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Shownotes are available at https://www.writersbookclubpodcast.com

NOTE: There is one mention of sexual assault in this episode.

Natasha Lester was our very first guest on the podcast. We took a deep dive with Natasha into the writing process and craft behind her novel The Paris Secret. We covered so many elements of writing the novel including first lines, prologue, plot twists, dual narratives, her research process and so much more.
(NOTE: This episode contains spoilers about the novel so if you don’t like spoilers, read the book before listening to the episode.)

Show notes and transcript are available at http://writersbookclubpodcast.com/

Writer’s Book Club is just like a regular book club but each month we’ll take a deep dive into a specific novel from a writing craft perspective. 

It's a podcast for people who read books with a writer’s eye and find themselves wishing they could ask the author questions like . . .

“Why did you use flashbacks instead of a dual timeline?”

“What was the most challenging scene to write and why?”

“How did you develop the voice for that character?”

“Did you outline this novel and what was your process?”

Essentially, it’s a no-holds-barred insight into an author’s writing craft and process, applied to a real-life novel.

Head to www.writersbookclubpodcast.com to find out how to take part.