With the story in her draft manuscript spanning ten years, set across six continents and featuring eight points of view, Deborah Pike knew she needed to get the pacing of her story exactly right. She enrolled in FOCUS ON… Pace at the Australian Writers' Centre and got the insight she needed. “I thought it was crucial to get the pacing right, for it to be plausible, possible, and yet pacy,” Deborah told us. With the knowledge gained from her courses, which also included Fiction Essentials: Scenes and Pitch Your Novel: How to Attract Agents and Publishers, Deborah tightened her manuscript and se ..read more

This week, we’re giving away three copies of Joy Moody is Out of Time by Kerryn Mayne, author of Lenny Marks Gets Away With Murder. We’re so proud of Kerryn’s success as she’s an alumna of Australian Writers' Centre. You can also meet her on episode 527 our podcast. Here’s the blurb: On her twin daughters’ twenty-first birthday, Joy Moody – proprietor of Bonbeach's premier laundromat – is found dead. Yet that is not the strangest thing happening behind the bright pink facade of Joyful Suds. For much of their lives, Joy has been telling Cassie and Andie one big, fat lie: that they are from the ..read more

Each week here at the Australian Writers’ Centre, we dissect and discuss, contort and retort, ask and gasp at the English language and all its rules, regulations and ridiculousness. It’s a celebration of language, masquerading as a passive-aggressive whinge about words and weirdness. This week, name that band… Q: Hey AWC, I thought we might have some fun this week. A: That’s highly unusual. Q: Very funny. Specifically, I’d like to ask about the origin of some famous band names. A: You’re right – that is fun. But there are a lot of bands. Q: Maybe we just look at the older ‘1980s and earlier’ o ..read more

Meet Mary Anastasiou, picture book author and managing editor at Five Mile press, as well as a former creative director at Larrikin House. Mary shares her journey from aspiring writer to influential figure in the children's book industry, highlighting the challenges and rewards of publishing picture books. She discusses the importance of illustrator-author dynamics, how to successfully submit manuscripts, and offers invaluable advice to aspiring authors and illustrators. Additionally, the episode includes insights into the process of creating picture books, from conception to finished product ..read more

This week, we’re giving away three copies of The Murder Inn by James Patterson and Candice Fox, co-authors of the Detective Harriet Blue series. James Patterson is an award-winning author who has also co-authored bestselling novels with Bill Clinton and Dolly Parton. Candice Fox is an accomplished crime fiction author and teaches Anatomy of a Crime: How to Write About Murder at AWC. You can meet her on episodes 471, 398 and 48 of our podcast. Here’s the blurb: It's the perfect getaway. But the past will always find you . . . When ex-cop Bill Robinson takes over The Inn by the Sea, all he ..read more

Greg Baker knows more than most about AI and where it's headed. As an AI futurist and lecturer in Computational Linguistics at Macquarie University, Greg educates students on the intricacies of Artificial Intelligence for Text and Vision, and blends his theoretical insights with practical applications. He helps the C-suite understand the future of labour, how to maximise AI productivity gains and how to gain a deep technical understanding of what is possible. He is a director at the Institute for Open Systems Technologies and has worked at Google and CSIRO and is a leading voice in how to unde ..read more

Each week here at the Australian Writers’ Centre, we dissect and discuss, contort and retort, ask and gasp at the English language and all its rules, regulations and ridiculousness. It’s a celebration of language, masquerading as a passive-aggressive whinge about words and weirdness. This week, the worry of wary and weary is… Q: Hi AWC, what’s the difference between “weary” and “wary”? A: Well, it’s the– Q: Do NOT say the letter E! A: … Q: You WERE going to say it, weren’t you? A: Not at all. Ahem. The…er… difference is that one makes you tired and the other makes you suspicious. Q: I’m always ..read more

Larissa Ferenchuk had had story ideas swirling around her head for some time, but wasn’t sure how to get them into a picture book. So she enrolled in Writing Picture Books at the Australian Writers' Centre to give herself a creative outlet – and hopefully learn to write down some of those stories. “Every week, as the new course units were released, I discovered insights and information that I never knew about picture book writing,” Larissa told us. During the course, Larissa wrote a story and developed it into a picture book manuscript called Two Rabbits. Just a few months after completing her ..read more

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