Where authors talk directly about their life, their books and many more things.
Christine Balint began working on this novel in 2018 after finding a summary of the story in a book by American historian, Joanne Ferraro. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse had just taken place. She could not believe that in 1757, a child had had the courage to speak out and she had been believed and her abuser convicted.
On the sands of Shellybanks, where tides can quickly turn treacherous, journalist Kate Delaney once nearly drowned. Years later, reeling from a violent crime that has upended her life in Melbourne, she returns to Dublin to comfort her beloved aunt Dolores—only to discover Dolores has her own buried trauma. Shellybanks, the novel, is a haunting tale of secrecy and survival, charting how two women find strength in each other as they reckon with Ireland’s hidden histories and the scars that endure across generations.
Childhood writing games, shelves of books, and a sister who became a librarian and introduced Bronwyn Rodden to the Blue Mountains helped in the creation of her book series set there. As a child, her family stayed at the old art deco hotels. They seemed so luxurious, after growing up in a fibro house on the fringes of the city. The breathtaking natural scenery also made an impact.
Laraine Stephens first novel, The Death Mask Murders, was inspired by her work as a volunteer guide at the Old Melbourne Gaol. In the cells are displayed death masks of executed felons. This gave her the impetus for a story line: What if the psychopath in The Death Mask Murders had developed a fixation with death masks and created them as ‘trophies’ of his victims?
A ‘confession’ by a friend about being an unmarried mother in the sixties implanted the idea behind Lyn Yeowart’s latest thriller, The Hollow Girl.
Nicole grew up ‘in the arse end of nowhere’ – Magnetic Island – and crime fiction has been her salavation. Also, she might not know what a world-class flat white tastes like, but she does know how to spot a cone shell at ten paces
Most writers return from retreats with renewed enthusiasm rather than finished manuscripts. But enthusiasm is underrated. After months of struggling with that Gothic novel, I’d forgotten that writing could feel urgent and exciting. Sometimes the most valuable thing about a retreat is how much it changes your perspective on the writing life itself.
Does anyone think they’re bad? That’s the question Joanne Jenkins asks. Read here how she researched this (most unusual!) and how it informed her development of complex characters.
Not sure how old to make the protagonist in her Southern Highlands Mysteries series Joan Sauers took inspiration from the Baby Animals… ‘too young to know, too old to listen’. She explains why ….
When you write novels set in the past, what is historical research? Jacquie Pham says ‘it’s a kind of haunting’. She explains more….