Writer's Book Club Podcast

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,...

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 cou...

* 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 cou...

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 chang...

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...

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...

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 int...

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...

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 , &nbsp...

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 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 ba...

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...

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 cre...

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 s...

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...

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 h...

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 so...

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...

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...

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...