When Book Week meets Book Tour

August 2024 was hands down one of the busiest times of my life. When I think back to events from the start of the month, they feel like years ago.

The obvious reason for this would be the release of The Hitchhiker and all the accompanying events, but Andromache Between Worlds is a bit to blame here as well. To explain: book week is always a busy time, but in the wake of releasing a middle grade novel, said busyness essentially doubled. While I’ve done plenty of school talks in my time I’ve never done that many at primary schools because, well, what was I supposed to talk to primary kids about? The scalping scene in The Hunted?

Now, with Andromache, that has changed.

So in between events and interviews to promote Hitchhiker I was visiting school after school, sometimes several in a day. Book Week itself saw me up before dawn most days to get out to schools, on one day heading out to Wangaratta for a brief whirlwind of a trip that included talking to 400 high schoolers, visiting a primary school class that has been reading Andromache, and stopping by the local bookstores for some signings. Then it was back to Melbourne for more stacked talks.

Book Week also marked a bit of a personal point of pride. For the last five years I’ve essentially been doing the same talk at every school I visit, telling the story of the decade I spent trying and failing to get one book published, only for the gory horror novel I wrote in two months to be the one that made my career. It always goes down well and hence I’ve relied on it, but I got in some hot water back at Somerset Storyfest when I did this talk to several crowds of kids and consequently a bunch of Year Fives ended up buying The Hunted instead of Andromache.

So I had to come up with something new. I wrote out a talk that focused on another part of my creative journey, namely the bumpy ride of the Boone Shepard books and how they led directly to Andromache. I tested it for the first time up at the MidCoast Festival of Stories but it didn’t really work. You can tell when an audience is engaged and this presentation just didn’t have the same drive and clear contention as the older talk. So I mostly fell back on that.

But with Book Week comprised of mostly primary schools, I had to make the Andromache speech work. So I tried again. And again. And then, one magical day at Serpell Primary, it came together. I found the beats. I found the point. The kids laughed lots and when I revealed the ‘twist’ connection between Boone and Andromache, the whole audience gasped. One girl cried. That day I did the same talk four times and given the reaction, I could have easily done it four more.

Add to this the photos I was sent of kids – and teachers! – dressed as Andromache characters, and the Year Nine class at the fantastic Rossbourne School who studied and adored True Colour, and this Book Week was easily my best ever.

But even saying Book Week seems almost inaccurate now, given I had plenty of talks both before and after the week itself. My last full day of presentations at St Bernard’s College was the day before I flew out to Sydney for back-to-back events and signings and interviews.

And now I find myself recapping this month out of order because as I get into the Hitchhiker promo stuff I can’t not talk about the Mansfield event way back at the start of August, one of the best nights of my professional life. I always love bringing book launches to my hometown, but this one was really special as it included a one-off preview of The Retirement Plan as well. Director John Erasmus came along to help introduce, and the Mansfield Armchair Cinema where we held the event was absolutely packed out. I signed books, had great chats with people I’ve known almost all of my life, and then had the experience of watching my film for the second time on the big screen. It was such a fantastic night on every level. I hadn’t been sure the hybrid launch/screening would work but it really did and my head was still spinning days later.

Then to fast forward to the end of the month, I had an insane three days in Sydney. First up was my event with Anna Downes and Josh Hortinela at Berkelouw Leichhardt, a relaxed, intimate event with lots of laughs.

But if the first night was relatively chilled, the next day was not. First up was a live interview for Radio 3MDR, then it was off to six bookstores to sign stock before a second interview in studio at Radio 2SER then across the bridge to the Gordon Library for my event with Nicola Moriarty.

I was already a little dazed but I had to get my head in the game because this one was packed. A huge crowd, great questions, lots of laughs. I was barely standing by the time I got back to the hotel, but I was stoked all the same.

And now I’m back in Melbourne, trying to get edits on both High-Rise AND Andromache in the Dark done before I move into my next Audible Original, which I’ll talk more about in a later newsletter but suffice to say it’s a total left turn from everything I’ve done so far.

But while August being over feels a bit like I can breathe again, the year isn’t over yet and there’s more to discuss. Starting with…

The Caretaker made the Ngaio Marsh shortlist!

Last newsletter I spoke about the surprise longlisting of The Caretaker for the Ngaio Marsh Awards. Well, hot on the heels of that I got the week-making news that it had cracked the shortlist as well.

In the end Ritual of Fire by D.V. Bishop took home the prize (gigantic congratulations!) but I was beyond honoured to be nominated. Check out my mini interview for the awards night below.

September Events

I have four back-to-back events in mid-September, three rural and one back in the city.

First up, I’ll be at the Wangaratta Library on Tuesday 17 at 5:30. The next afternoon, I’ll be down in Benalla, then that night in Albury.

With this mini rural tour done, the next evening (the 19^th), I’ll be joining the Bad Writer’s Club for a Q&A at the Chestnut Tree Bookshop in Footscray, so if you’re local do come along to that.

Then the next night I’m seeing Belinda Carlisle. This is not relevant to book stuff, I’m just excited to see Belinda Carlisle.

The Hitchhiker reviewed in The Age

Usually I don’t share reviews. Not because I don’t care about them (I’m a chronic Goodreads-checker) but because it doesn’t seem entirely fair to pick and choose which ones you want people to see (the positives).

But when a major newspaper writes something as glowing as the above, well, I’m going to break my own rules. Reading this made my day and I don’t care if sharing it is tacky.

QBD Crime Club Interview

After a fantastic conversation last year about The Caretaker, Victoria Carthew and I sat down again to delve into all things Hitchhiker. It was another great chat, touching on shared universes, why I’ve given the Bee Gees such a rough run in my last two thrillers, and how I tried to find a different way to use an outback setting after The Hunted. Check out the video here, or the podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

The Lodger is almost here

If August/September weren’t so wild, this would be the big headline of the newsletter. We are now just a couple weeks away from the release of The Lodger. My next Audible Original, this is also every bit my next novel and serves as a conclusion to the story arc of The Hitchhiker and The Caretaker. It releases October 1.

Yeah I know, it’s confusing. Those books are technically standalones, but if you’ve read them both you’ll know one key character dominates, and that character (the Driver/John/Paul) is gearing up for his final showdown with Maggie.

For now The Lodger will be an audio exclusive, like The Hitchhiker was to begin with. But I’m really hoping sales support this getting a print release as well, so that at some point my semi-unofficial ‘Driver Trilogy’ can sit complete on a self.

The Lodger is the grand finale, although it wasn’t necessarily supposed to be. But the more I wrote the more it felt like a natural ending to the story I’ve spent the last couple of years telling.

That said; I’m a bit nervous about some aspects of it. I didn’t want the book to just be a ‘Maggie vs the Driver’ grudge match with no new story to tell of its own. So while it absolutely resolves loose ends from Hitchhiker and Caretaker, don’t expect encores for characters like Charlotte or Jesse. There are new villains and victims to introduce, and new thematic concerns that differentiate it from the others.

I can’t wait to hear what you think.