How much research is too much when writing historical fiction? This is just one of the topics that bestselling author Emilia Hart discusses in this episode as she shares details of her latest novel, The Sirens – a blend of nautical history and fantasy across two stories separated by time and distance.
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
04:23 Writing tip: ‘The Most Dangerous Writing App’
07:25 WIN!: The Retirement Plan by Sue Hincenbergs
08:51 Word of the week: ‘Luthier’
11:01 Writer in residence: Emilia Hart
12:48 Inspirations for the books two timelines
19:45 Writing about Australia during the pandemic
20:24 Exploring the themes of distance and journey
22:17 Researching convict history
25:00 Note taking methods
25:59 The importance of her day job in her writing
28:11 Deleting 300,000 words
30:00 There’s no such thing as a perfect draft
30:32 Learning to sail for the book
31:20 The book deal and publishing process
32:50 Balancing writing with public engagement
35:10 Emilia’s writing tips
37:29 Final thoughts
Links mentioned in this episode
- The Most Dangerous Writing App
- WIN The Retirement Plan by Sue Hincenbergs
- Buy So You Want to be a Writer – the book!
- Facebook group for So You Want to be a Writer
Writer in residence: Emilia Hart

Emilia Hart is a British-Australian writer. She was born in Sydney and studied English Literature and Law at the University of New South Wales before working as a lawyer in Sydney and London. Emilia is a graduate of Curtis Brown Creative's Three Month Online Novel Writing Course and was Highly Commended in the 2021 Caledonia Novel Award. Her short fiction has been published in Australia and the UK. She lives in London.
Follow Emilia on Instagram.
Follow HarperCollins Publishers Australia on Twitter and Instagram.
This podcast is brought to you by the Australian Writers' Centre and our course Creative Writing Stage 1.
Find out more about your host, Valerie Khoo (@valeriekhoo on Twitter and @valeriekhoo on Instagram).




