Podcast interviews with authors
At the Sydney Writers' Centre, we hope to inspire you to grab your pen - or your laptop - and start writing.
While our courses will equip you with the skills to achieve your writing goals, our podcasts will share insights from successful writers on how they've done it.
In our podcast series, Valerie Khoo interviews authors so you can find out why they write, what they write about and what keeps their creative juices flowing.
So take a seat, grab a coffee (or a glass of wine) and let these authors inspire you to get creative - and get published.
Every week, we'll add more interviews to our podcast series.
Here are the ones that are available now:
Podcast with Amanda Falconer
Amanda Falconer is author of The Renovator’s Survival Guide. Since the book’s launch, she has been featured on Sunrise, 9am with David and Kim, A Current Affair, as well as numerous radio interviews. She is a brand and marketing expert with over 20 years experience.
Click here listen to the podcast or read the transcriptPodcast with Richard Harland
Richard Harland left his job 12 years ago as a Senior Lecturer at the University of Wollongong to write full-time. Since then he has published 15 novels and has just scored a big US publishing deal for his latest book, Worldshaker.
Click here listen to the podcast or read the transcriptPodcast with Louise Bagshawe
Louise Bagshawe is the author 12 international bestsellers including Tuesday’s Child, Glamour, Glitz and her most recent Passion. She is also a parliamentary candidate for the Conservative Party and an advocate for many charities supporting victims of HIV/AIDS, the homeless and children.
Click here listen to the podcast or read the transcriptPodcast with Sydney Bauer
Sydney Bauer is the author of the crime series featuring Boston based criminal attorney David Cavanagh. Her debut novel Undertow, also the first novel in the series, was published in 2006 and won the Sisters in Crime Davitt Award for the best crime novel by an Australian Woman.
Click here listen to the podcast or read the transcriptPodcast with Maree Giles
Maree Giles' debut novel, Invisible Thread, is a semi-autobiographical account of life for a young girl in the Gunyah Training School for Girls in 1970. Despite it's sometimes harrowing story, it received rave reviews. Maree is in Australia in June and will be teaching one writing course this year at the Sydney Writers' Centre - Hook Your Reader.
Click here listen to the podcast or read the transcriptPodcast with Janeen Brian
Janeen Brian is an award-winning author of more than 65 books - some of her more well-know children's books are Where does Thursday go?, Hoosh! Camels in Australia and Pilawuk: When I was Young. Janeen has been a teacher, actress, artist and writer and has even written scripts for Humphrey Bear, the iconic Australian children's program.
Click here listen to the podcast or read the transcriptPodcast with Patti Miller
Patti Miller is an author and writing teacher. She has written five books including two on the process of life writing, Writing Your Life and The Memoir Book. She has been teaching life writing throughout Australia and overseas for over 15 years and teaches regularly at the Sydney Writers' Centre.
Click here listen to the podcast or read the transcriptPodcast with Michelle Bridges
Michelle Bridges has been a trainer on Channel 10’s The Biggest Loser since 2006. She has been writing regular columns on health, nutrition and fitness for a number of national newspapers and magazines since 2001 and has recently released Crunch Time through Penguin books, a guide to healthy eating and exercise.
Click here listen to the podcast or read the transcriptPodcast with Annette Hughes
Annette Hughes wanted to be an artist, but married an art dealer and the art world instead. After the marriage failed, she went into book publishing with an independent small publisher. Annette's first book is called Art Life Chooks.
Click here listen to the podcast or read the transcriptPodcast with Dr Karl Kruszelnicki
Dr Karl Kruszelnicki has written 26 books. His first book Great Moments In Science was published in 1984 and his latest book Please Explain was released in November 2007. According to New Scientist Magazine Karl's last five books have all become best-selling popular science books in Australia.
Click here listen to the podcast or read the transcriptPodcast with John Birmingham
John Birmingham freelanced as a journalist for ten years taking feature commissions from a wide variety of magazines such as Playboy and Rolling Stone. His first book, He Died with a Felafel in His Hand, was a cult comedy success which went on to be filmed by indie amateur Richard Lownstein and was adapted for the stage.
Click here listen to the podcast or read the transcriptPodcast with Sean Williams
Sean Williams has written over 27 science fiction and fantasy books. He has won over 11 awards for his books. His latest award was the 2007 Ditmar Award for Best Novel for his book Saturn Returns. His latest book is book two of the Broken Land called The Dust Devils
Click here listen to the podcast or read the transcriptPodcast with Jenine Beekhuyzen
Jenine Beekhuyzen has just released her book Tech girls are chic, not just geek. It is a not-for-profit book free for Australian schoolgirls, to encourage them into an IT career. It is based on seven years of research, finding role models, and helping others understand the diversity of IT careers.
Click here listen to the podcast or read the transcriptPodcast with Holly Hill
Holly Hill is an author who gained notoriety after writing her controversial book, Sugarbabe. A book about her experience finding a sugar daddy. Following on the controversial path blazed by Sugarbabe, Holly holds nothing back in her new book, Toyboy.
Click here listen to the podcast or read the transcriptPodcast with Duncan Ball
Duncan Ball is the best-selling author of seventy-five books of children's fiction including the Selby and Emily Eyefinger series. He moved to Australia in 1974. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, USA and lived for some years in Anchorage, Alaska, and later in Madrid and Paris.
Click here listen to the podcast or read the transcriptPodcast with Michael MacConnell
Michael MacConnell has been writing crime stories in the second grade. His father loved Sherlock Holmes and watched old remakes so crime fiction has always been an influence for him. He wrote his first novel Maelstrom which was released in October 2007.
Click here listen to the podcast or read the transcriptPodcast with Christine Harris
Christine Harris has written over 50 books. She has written all sorts of books for children and young adults she has written historical fiction, fantasy, joke books, spy books and series books. Christine’s first book in the series Audrey of the Outback is set in Northern South Australia in 1930.
Click here listen to the podcast or read the transcriptPodcast with Hugh Mackay
Hugh Mackay is the founder of the Australian quarterly research series The Ipsos Mackay Report (previously The Mackay Report). He is a psychologist, social researcher, a regular columnist in The Age and a regular commentator appearing on radio and television. Hugh has just launched his latest book Advance Australia Where?
Click here listen to the podcast or read the transcriptPodcast with Lawrence Hill
Lawrence Hill's book Someone Knows My Name won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize 2008 award. It is called The Book of Negroes in Canada and it is about the history of slavery. It follows African slaves from Africa to America and delves into the struggles for the character Aminato Diallo.
Click here listen to the podcast or read the transcriptPodcast with Jackie French
Jackie French has been writing for over 17 years and has had 132 of her books published. She wrote her first children's book called Rainstones in 1991 while she was living in a shed. She said it was probably the messiest manuscript that Angus and Robertson has ever received (and accepted).
Click here listen to the podcast or read the transcriptPodcast with Bronwyn Parry
Bronwyn Parry was awarded the prestigious Golden Heart Award in July 2007 for her romantic suspense manuscript which has now been published as the book My Darkness Falls just out in Australian bookshops.
Click here listen to the podcast or read the transcriptPodcast with Alan Sunderland
Alan Sunderland is a television journalist and a children's author. He has written three books about a rat called Inspector Octavius O'Malley. His third book in the series has just been released called Octavius O'Malley and the Mystery of the Criminal Cats.
Click here listen to the podcast or read the transcriptPodcast with Kate Mosse
Kate Mosse is the author of the bestselling book Labyrinth - a book about archaeology, love and mystery set in contemporary and medieval France. Her books are described as well researched absorbing historical mysteries with wonderful interlinking female characters.
Click here listen to the podcast or read the transcriptPodcast with Fiona McIntosh
Fiona McIntosh was born in Sussex, England. Her latest book is Royal Exile, the first book in the Valisar series. Fiona is a prolific writer who also writes crime fiction under the name of Lauren Crow. All of Fiona’s books have received great acclaim and reviews.
Click here listen to the podcast or read the transcriptPodcast with Hannah Tinti
Hannah Tinti is the author of The Good Thief which is a novel about Ren, an orphan who is 12. The story is set in New England and it was inspired by ressurection men - grave robbers in the 1800s. The rights to The Good Thief have been sold to 11 countries and Hannah is considered the new voice of American literature.
Click here listen to the podcast or read the transcriptPodcast with Nick Earls
Nick Earls has written 5 adult novels and 5 young adult novels and 2 collections of short stories. His books ZigZag Street, Bachelor Kisses, World of Chickens, and Perfect Skin, are about men - men who can't commit - men who are bachelors. Then the men get older, fall in and out of love and finally settle down.
Click here listen to the podcast or read the transcriptPodcast with Gabrielle Lord
Gabrielle Lord has written 15 books as well as a 12 volume thriller series for young adults. She started writing seriously at the age of 30 and resigned from her position as Employment Officer in the Public service after her third book Fortress. It was picked up internationally and made into a feature film starring Rachel Ward.
Click here listen to the podcast or read the transcriptPodcast with Sandra Hall
Sandra Hall is an author and journalist who is well known for her film reviews for The Sydney Morning Herald. In 2006 Sandra’s novel, Beyond the Break was published. It was longlisted for the 2007 Miles Franklin Literary Award.
Click here listen to the podcast or read the transcriptPodcast with Rachael Bermingham
Rachael Bermingham and Kim McCosker are the co authors of 4 Ingredients. 4 Ingredients was self published by the duo. At the time, they were unknown and couldn’t get a publisher. The book has taken off and sold over 720,000 copies in Australia.
Click here listen to the podcast or read the transcriptPodcast with David Rollins
David Rollins is an Australian author whose books mix crime, politics, terrorism, action adventure, flying and war. His books have been reviewed as incredibly dramatic blockbusters and David has been hailed as the next Tom Clancy.
Click here listen to the podcast or read the transcriptPodcast with Ber Carroll
Ber Carroll is the author of three books, Just Business, Executive Affair and her latest novel High Potential. All three books are considered chick lit for the working girl and they all focus on aspects of work, balancing work life and falling in/out of love at work.
Click here listen to the podcast or read the transcriptPodcast with Kate Forsyth
Kate Forsyth is the award-winning author of more than twenty books for both children and adults, which have been sold in more than ten countries round the world, including Russia, Germany, Italy, Spain and Japan.
Click here listen to the podcast or read the transcriptPodcast with Michael Whelan
Michael Whelan is the author of The Other Country, a book about his son's autism. He gave up his job to care for his son and made a discovery not only about his son, but about his family and himself along the way.
Click here listen to the podcast or read the transcriptPodcast with Tim Ferriss
Tim Ferriss is author of The Four Hour Work Week - a book that debuted on the New York Times and Wall Street Journal best seller lists, has so far been published in 31 countries and made headlines around the world.
Click here listen to the podcast or read the transcriptPodcast with Pamela Freeman
Pamela Freeman is an award-winning author and one of our creative writing teachers here at the Sydney Writers' Centre. She is author of 19 books and her most recent, Blood Ties, is an epic fantasy. It's the first in a trilogy, with the second and third books Deep Water and Full Circle coming soon.
Click here listen to the podcast or read the transcriptPodcast with Libby Gleeson
Libby Gleeson has published over 30 books for children and teenagers. She has been shortlisted for the CBCA Awards twelve times and has won the Book of the Year for Younger Readers Award in 1997 with Hannah and the Tomorrow Room, and the Picture Book of the Year Award in 2002 for An Ordinary Day.
Click here listen to the podcast or read the transcriptPodcast with Tristan Bancks
Tristan Bancks' latest book The Rules of Cool was launched at the Byron Bay Writers' Festival. He is a former actor on the iconic Australian series Home and Away and has also written two series of books called Dreamracers and Hollywood or Bust.
Click here listen to the podcast or read the transcriptPodcast with Anna Fienberg
Anna Fienberg has written many award-winning books, short stories and junior novels including the Tashi series. The latest title is the fifteenth Tashi book Tashi and the Phoenix. Anna's most recent book for older readers is called Number Eight.
Click here listen to the podcast or read the transcriptPodcast with Garth Nix's
Garth Nix's fantasy books have sold over 4.5 million copies around the world and been translated into 36 languages. His books include the award-winning fantasy novels Sabriel, Lirael and Abhorsen and the young adult science fiction novel Shade’s Children.
Click here listen to the podcast or read the transcript
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