Come see me at BAD Festival! Plus new interviews, reviews, events and recommendations

In terms of “moments that made me feel like a real crime writer”, being invited to share the stage with Candice Fox, Michelle Prak and Tim Ayliffe is right up there.

On Sunday November 5 I’ll be in Sydney for the BAD crime writing festival, something I’ve been itching to do since I was invited in 2020 for The Hunted before Covid killed any chance of a traditional book tour for that one. Anyway, three years later this is a hell of a way to make up for lost time. I’m honoured to be included in the above company and can’t wait to have a laugh and a chat.

I’ll be around for a lot of the festival, watching whatever panels I can, so if you see me there come say hi! Tickets are available here.

Project Updates

This is one of those months without any major announcements, as I’ve mainly been working through the copyedit of The Lodger and the plot breakdown of High Rise. Both are coming along pretty well – I delivered The Lodger a couple of weeks back, with some expanded material that I believe gives some touching new insights into Maggie, and meanwhile I’ve come up with some MAJOR twists and turns for High Rise. I’m not quite at the stage of putting fingers to keys yet, but it’s getting close.

Elsewhere, The Lecter Variations remains out of my hair and looking like a mid-2024 release, although I’ll confirm or refute that when I get either. The Retirement Plan is getting closer and closer to locked – not there yet, a few moments still in need of finessing, but almost there and looking great.

Magic Hour Interview

A couple of months back I sat down with Ben Michael, who heads up the Masters of Screenwriting at the Victorian College of the Arts, to have a chat for the Magic Hour podcast. Ben taught me back when I was at VCA and it was an absolute blast to dive deep into all the knotty little realities of this vocation we’ve both landed in. Listening back I was a little surprised by how candid we got at times, especially when it comes to the inevitable low moments of pursuing a writing career, but I’m glad we did. Check it out here!

First Andromache Between Worlds Review

Early reactions are starting to creep in for Andromache Between Worlds, ahead of its January 31 release date, and I was absolutely blown away by this first extensive review. Look, obviously opinions are subjective and if you believe all your good reviews you have to believe all the bad ones, but I’m still vulnerable to the anxiety that leads up to the first evaluations of a work coming out and when your first review is this good it goes a long way to letting you breathe a little.

A deep dive into The Caretaker’s biggest twists

Recently it occurred to me how frustrated I am upon finishing a newly released book but finding nowhere to read about its major twists, turns, reveals and spoilers. Reviews, rightfully, tend to steer clear of that stuff, as do most author interviews, but the more engaged you are in something as a reader the more insight you want into the why of its most shocking choices.

So I thought I’d write this blog, going through the biggest moments in The Caretaker, exploring every spoiler I thought readers might want to know more about. It was partly a way for me to articulate my own feelings about the book, partly a chance for anyone who’s interested to get a little bonus behind the scenes glimpse, but either way I enjoyed writing it and will absolutely do the same for Andromache Between Worlds and The Lodger when they drop early next year. Both, I can coyly hint, have some pretty major shocks in store.

How Saw X succeeded where The Exorcist: Believer failed

And that’s not my only blog this month! Anyone who knows me even vaguely knows I’m a gigantic horror buff (I mean, I wrote The Hunted after all) and this last month two of my favourite franchises made big comebacks. But unexpectedly, the tenth instalment in a shlocky torture porn franchise became a critical darling, while the legacy sequel to the horror's most respected title was torn to shreds.

I wrote some very nerdy words about why.

In Conversation in Ballarat

On November 16 I’ll be doing an In Conversation event at the Ballarat Mechanic’s Institute Library, chatting The Caretaker and whatever else comes up. If you’re in the area drop by! Tickets available here.

Books in Bars: Christmas Special

I’m really looking forward to this; getting together with a bunch of author friends for Dymocks’ Books in Bars Christmas Special. This is a great chance to mingle, have a drink, and celebrate a massive year for books in Australia. Don’t miss out!

Kill Your Husbands – Melbourne Book Launch

I’m a huge fan of Jack Heath’s books, and I’m lucky enough to call him a friend as well. As such I’m honoured to be launching his fantastic newest book Kill Your Husbands on November 30 at the Purple Emerald Lounge in Northcote. You can bet I’ll be saying a lot of excitable things about the book, but for more of a sense of why I enjoyed it so much and why you should grab a copy, check out my recommendation in last months newsletter. And definitely grab yourself a ticket for the launch and join us for a drink!

Recommendations

Back in early October I was lucky enough to catch an advance screening of Martin Scorsese’s new film, Killers of the Flower Moon. Full disclosure, I’m not a passionate Scorsese fan and the three-and-a-half hour runtime without the opportunity to pause certainly made me less than overwhelmed with excitement for the film.

But I’ve gotta say, I was riveted from start to finish. The film is gripping, fast paced, impeccably performed and rage-inducing. For a lot of the runtime I found myself in abject disbelief, assuming the film had to have been significantly exaggerated from the real events it’s based on. Not so. It’s a horrifying story impeccably told, and makes its hefty runtime feel like a third of that.

I also finally caught up on the second season of The Wheel of Time. Anyone who’s known me a long time knows I have a complicated relationship with this series, having worked my way through the fourteen lengthy books and struggled mightily with some of their more, shall we say, eccentric choices about what to spend time on. The first season of the TV adaptation I mostly enjoyed, but felt it became a little messy and scattered as it went on, and never really carved out an identity of its own.

So I wasn’t initially overwhelmed with excitement for the second season and indeed, I watched it sporadically when I had nothing else. But around the halfway point something shifted for me and I began to suspect I was seeing a show absolutely click into place and find its feet.

If the first season couldn’t decide whether it wanted to be Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones, the second season understands it’s neither. It goes brighter, more vibrant, more elaborate and exotic and colourful. The twangy, choral score and bright colour palate make it visually and stylistically distinct from just about any other fantasy show, and its imperfect but judicious adaptation choices, looser and more creative here than last season, capture the essence of the source material while being a little less concerned about adhering to the letter of it. By the last few episodes I was genuinely looking forward to seeing what happened and I found the finale gripping, rousing, satisfying and a reminder of what I loved so much about the best parts of the books. If you fell off after season one, give it another go.