Would YOU do anything to protect your 18-year-old child? That’s core to the premise behind AWC graduate Alex Dook’s outback thriller novel, Gunpowder Creek – and in this episode, he shares the milestones and research that led to this latest successful book.
You can listen to the episode below, on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or add the podcast RSS feed manually to your favourite podcast app.
00:00 Welcome
07:12 Writing tip: Turn jealousy into inspiration
13:11 WIN!: The Occupation by Chloe Adams
14:56 Word of the week: ‘Cynosure’
18:34 The world of words: ‘Bated vs baited’
19:59 Writer in residence: Alex Dook
20:38 Describing his debut book, Gunpowder Creek
22:15 Alex’s writing history
25:30 The reason to keep persisting
27:10 The pitching process
29:33 The invisible threshold of becoming published
31:00 Editing and polishing tip
32:08 Advice for aspiring writers
33:54 Using AWC’s‘Anatomy of a Crime course
36:44 Research road tripping
38:00 Discovering the titular Gunpowder Creek town
42:40 Alex’s writing process
46:20 The second book experience
48:30 Alex’s book recommendation
49:34 Thoughts on persistence and passion
51:06 Final thoughts
Links mentioned in this episode
- WIN The Occupation by Chloe Adams
- Buy So You Want to be a Writer – the book!
- Facebook group for So You Want to be a Writer
Writer in residence: Alex Dook
Alex Dook is a writer based in Perth, Western Australia. His previous writing has been longlisted for the 2019 Fogarty Literary Award and Highly Commended in the 2021 Fogarty Literary Award. Gunpowder Creek is his first novel.
Follow Alex on Twitter and Instagram.
Follow Echo Publishing on Twitter and Instagram.
This podcast is brought to you by the Australian Writers' Centre and our course Anatomy of a Crime: How to Write About Murder.
Find out more about your host, Valerie Khoo (@valeriekhoo on Twitter and @valeriekhoo on Instagram).




