Who even knows what week of #socialisolation it is, but we check in and see what’s working and what’s not. We chat about all the incredible ways authors have been taking their work online including but definitely not limited to:
- online launches and events including Zoom events with Avid Reader and Facebook launches like that of Shannon Molloy.
- Natasha Lester’s great videos
- Alison Lester reading Kissed by the Moon
- Ben Hobson’s Stuff Writing is Like series on Youtube
- In lieu of a tour Liz Gilbert asked Broadway actors to read excerpts of City of Girls on Instagram.
- Cheryl Strayed (among other things, author of Write Like a Motherfucker) has a new podcast, Sugar Calling, and the first episode with George Saunders is a cracker.
- Oz Authors Online is a space for Australian authors to launch their books. Meet authors, read and purchase books and get involved in bookish events with Together Remotely , Bram Presser & JP Pomare’s book club or First Readings Book Club.
- Read Tasmania is running a Lockdown Reading Group you can tune in to on youtube.
- You can contribute mementos of this time to the National Museum and their Bridging the Distance project.
- Madeline Dore of Extraordinary Routines is running a survey for creatives, asking them how they are coping during this time.
Then Kate speaks to best selling crime writer, Sarah Bailey.
Sarah Bailey is a Melbourne based writer with a background in advertising and communications. She has two young children and currently works as the managing partner at VMLY&R Melbourne. Her first novel, the bestselling The Dark Lake, was published by Allen & Unwin in 2017, followed by Into the Night. Where the Dead Go is her third novel in the Gemma Woodstock series.
- Fast drafts
- Procrastination and how to get around it
- Planning (or not planning) a series
- Amplifying characters in fiction
- The juggle and fitting the writing in
Advice to first time writers:
- Prepare to be frustrated.
- Be strategic about putting yourself in the way of good luck.
- Don’t spend all your time working out how to write the book – just write the book.
Fave novel by a debut author: The Nancys by RWR McDonald (who we spoke to back in S2!)
Find out more about Sarah on her website or follow her on Twitter or Instagram.
