In late 2015, Allison Tait caught up with picture book author Danny Parker for a chat as part of our So you want to be a writer podcast. Danny and his family have been in Australia since 2004 – arriving from the UK on something of an adventure and never
“Eighteen months ago, if someone had said to me you’re going to be doing freelance writing, I probably would have brushed it off and said ‘no way’…”
And yet today Josefa Pete, busy mum to two boys, proudly calls herself a freelance writer, without a moment’s hesitation. So what changed?
Nicole Hayes is an author, speaker and writing teacher based in Melbourne. She has an MA in Creative Writing and runs writing workshops at different locations in and around Melbourne. Nicole’s first novel, The Whole of My World, was shortlisted in the 2014 Young Australian Best Book Awards (YABBA) and
Lindy Alexander was working as a social worker two days a week when she decided to take the course in Magazine and Newspaper Writing at the Australian Writers’ Centre. She says it’s the single most important thing she’s done in her life to turn her dream of becoming a writer into reality.
After becoming a first time mum, Megan Blandford, then 34, surprised herself. She didn’t feel compelled to return to her human resources role in the corporate world.
Her company wanted her to return to work full time. “I remember sitting in front of my computer one day and thinking: ‘what do I do?'” she says. “I always wanted to try writing since I was a little girl and I got caught up in this sort of sensible path of the mainstream thing people do. So I sat there and thought, right it’s now or never.”
Andy Griffiths is one of Australia’s most popular children’s authors, best known for the Treehouse series, the JUST! books, and the delightfully titled The Day My Bum Went Psycho. The 65-Storey Treehouse hit shelves in August 2015, to the great excitement of children everywhere. And amid this furious launching frenzy,
In episode 58 of our popular So you want to be a writer podcast, Valerie Khoo interviewed Pamela Hart – the name behind the book The Soldier’s Wife, released this year. She also goes by the name Pamela Freeman – author of nearly 30 books and director of the creative writing faculty
Earlier this year, Allison Tait spoke with the delightful Lindsey Kelk – author of contemporary women’s fiction novels. She has sold more than 1.5 million books thank you very much. (You can hear the full interview here on episode 63 of our So you want to be a writer top rating
Brandon VanOver began his career in New York at the literary agency Curtis Brown on the switchboard before becoming an assistant to the legendary children’s book agent Marilyn E. Marlow. He then moved to Sydney and an opening eventually came up as an editorial assistant at Random House. He progressed through the ranks
Nicky Pellegrino was born in Liverpool but spent her childhood summers staying with family in southern Italy. So when Nicky started writing fiction, her memories of those summers came flooding back and flavoured her stories: the passions, the feuds but most of all the food. Nicky now lives in Auckland,
In a recent episode of our weekly writing inspiration and information podcast, So you want to be a writer, Allison Tait spoke with Suzanne O’Sullivan – associate publisher of children’s books at Hachette Australia. With the book world exploding with children’s and young adult fiction over the past decade, Suzanne
Recent winner of the 2015 Ned Kelly Award for her second crime novel, Eden (following up her 2014 win for first book Hades!), author Candice Fox sat down for a chat with Valerie Khoo earlier this year for our So you want to be a writer podcast. Candice is the
In a recent episode of our weekly podcast So you want to be a writer, Valerie chatted with author Nicole Hayes. Among the various questions were three we thought we’d share with you. (To listen to the interview in full, go here.) Why she chooses to write about teenagers in her books:
We interview some great thriller authors on our So you want to be a writer podcast – and they graciously let us into their world (and mind!). Luckily, Michael Robotham is far more pleasant than some of the scenarios he paints on his pages. Here’s one from the vault –
If you’ve ever heard the term “someone who wears many hats” to describe a multi-skilled person, then you may need to be an expert milliner to fathom Matt Nable. Notably he has played top level rugby league for Manly and earned his keep as an actor in a number of high
We love this quote from a 2014 interview we did with author Kim Wilkins (who also writes as Kimberley Freeman). It’s such an important thing to remember in this ‘busy’ world we live in. Thanks Kim! “If you’ve ever found yourself waiting for five minutes somewhere, just five minutes, just
Author Sylvia Day has sold more than 16 million copies of her romance novels in just over a decade. But the story of how she first got published goes all the way back to her childhood… “I knew I wanted to be a romance novelist when I was 12. It
Sylvia Day is the #1 New York Times and #1 international bestselling author of over 20 award-winning romance novels sold in more than 40 countries. Her books have topped lists in 23 countries, with 16 million of copies in print. (That was a lot of numbers, wasn’t it?) Her Crossfire series
The Miles Franklin Award for literature has been handed out in Australia almost every year since 1957. Stella Miles Franklin herself stipulated that the prize was “to be awarded for the Novel for the year which is of the highest literary merit and which must present Australian Life in any of
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