Writing Podcast Episode 719: Allison Tait talks ‘The Last Word’ and YKNR series

She’s baaaaack! Any chance to chat with my former podcast co-host Allison Tait (who writes as A.L Tait) is a good day, and she’s back with yet another book hitting shelves – tween romance, The Last Word. Allison also discusses some of the other exciting projects including curating a new series of books through her Your Kids Next Read community.

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
06:05 Writers in the wild
09:23 Writing tip: Do NOT self-censor in a memoir draft
11:28 WIN!: Simply Beside Herself by Judith Katherine
13:06 Word of the week: ’Recondite’
13:48 Writer in residence: A.L. Tait
14:52 Allison discusses new book, The Last Word
17:52 What makes tween romance?
21:55 Allison’s ‘romance’ origins
25:33 Character-driven romance
27:31 Books coming up
28:00 Your Next Read fiction series
30:20 Writing small word counts
30:45 Finding new lanes
33:36 Writing for different age levels
37:24 One project at a time!
39:48 From CLEO magazine to writing
41:35 Writing around kids
43:30 Allison’s YKNR podcast role
46:30 Just show up and write!
49:52 Final thoughts

Links mentioned in this episode

Writer in residence: Allison Tait

Allison Tait (A. L. Tait) is the internationally published bestselling author of 12 middle-grade novels, including fantasy adventure series The Mapmaker Chronicles the Ateban Cipher novels, and the Maven & Reeve Mysteries.

Her first contemporary middle-grade novel The First Summer of Callie McGee was published in 2023 and was longlisted for the 2024 Margaret and Colin Roderick Literary Award.

Willow Bright’s Secret Plot and Danger Road followed in 2025, and The Last Word was published in April 2026.

A multi-genre writer, journalist, creative writing teacher and speaker, Allison is co-founder of the Your Kid’s Next Read community and co-host of the top-rating Your Kid’s Next Read podcast as well as former co-host of the So You Want To Be A Writer podcast.

She lives on the south coast of NSW (Australia) with her family.

You can also meet Allison on our blog.

Follow Allison on Twitter and Instagram.

Follow Scholastic Australia on Instagram.

This podcast is brought to you by the Australian Writers' Centre and our course Writing Middle Grade Fiction.

 

Find out more about your host, Valerie Khoo (@valeriekhoo on Twitter and @valeriekhoo on Instagram).

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