Countdown to Publication!

It’s (almost) exactly a year until my second memoir, Bounty, will be released by Vine Leaves Press. This might seem like a strange date to mark, but all of a sudden it feels real. Save the date for May 26, 2026!

Since signing the book contract with Vine Leaves and being admitted to their author group, I’ve learned so much from other authors about what goes into launching a book into the world these days. They (we) have to be creative, energetic and unafraid of self-promotion. Ugh! A year sounds like plenty of time to get match-fit but the clock is now ticking. Any advice is welcome!

I’m very much looking forward to working with my developmental editor from this August, and in forthcoming newsletters I’ll publish an extract or two or even three to give you a sense of what’s to come.

I haven’t had a moment to write a new story, so this month, I’m sharing an interview I did with UK novelist and fellow Vine Leaves Press author Annalisa Crawford about my first memoir, Marzipan and Magnolias. Annalisa writes “dark contemporary fiction with a hint of paranormal”. I’m so pleased to have been included in this series. I hope you enjoy it.

The Sydney Writers Festival has begun! Last night I attended an event at Ku-ring-gai Library in Gordon for an interview with Australian author and actor Ailsa Piper about her memoir For Life about the sudden death of her husband and how she finds a way back to hope. I haven’t read it yet, but one aspect that sounds intriguing to me is her interrogation of words that she discovers her husband had underlined in his dictionary. Why those words? I’m always on the lookout for creative approaches to memoir writing.

The Carriage Works venue is always fun and I’ll be there on the weekend. Hopefully, the weather gods might give us a reprieve from the rain. Hope to bump into some of you there!