Writers Read by LiTracey - getting THAT book in children's hands.

On this episode Tracey chats with Nean McKenzie.  Nean reads aloud from her debut novel 'Cryptosight' and our student reviewer Liv gives us her rating of this book.  Plus, our regular recommender Rebecca provides her insights on Naan's new novel.

In Tracey's tip, Tracey discusses practices that impact reading motivation.

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Season 1 finale. As Tyrone tries to escape his Bordertown prison he is tortured by the memories of Flick, his now famous dead ex-girlfriend. Meanwhile, Randy seeks out some diabolical publicity opportunities.

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This week we're probing (with consent) Sean's sometime-collaborator Garth Nix. A man who has penned many bestsellers, Garth gives us the lowdown on writing: where he does it (The beach! Alex is astounded. How does he keep the seagulls at bay?), how he does it (By hand! Alex is further astounded. How does he keep his hand from cramping?), and why writing full time was a trap. We get the dish on what it's like drinking in LA with Sean (there's imaginary nudity involved), on how to collaborate (Amy's taking notes and trying not to get hand-cramp), on moonlighting as a publisher and as an agent (clever), and (most importantly) on how to not to get cross. 

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After an emotionally charged evening of drugs, booze and betrayal, Flick is tipped over the edge and Tyrone is faced with a mammoth moral dilemma.

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Sean, Alex and Amy take almost a third of the episode to get to the point. Which is kind of the point. This week they're discussing the fine art of procrastination: procrastishopping, procrastibaking, Wikisurfing, how not to follow a recipe, stealing other people's nostalgia, and how great Frank Langella's eye performance is in the 80s classic Masters of the Universe. Sean is outraged by Alex's determination to put vanilla in everything, and disappointed by his own inability to find a goose neck phone clamp on the internet; Alex has a Save the Foxes t-shirt he can't remember buying, and a shameful secret about Back to the Future and the Pentagon; and Amy is stuck in the Matrix with this whole Frank Langella thing. Will they ever get to the point? Probably not.

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This week Alex, Amy and Sean interview their colleague Dr Lisa Bennett/Lisa L Hannett about her eerily beautiful dark fantasy fiction, her first draft agonies and second draft ecstasies, and her obsession with writing on trains. Turtles and tableaux, fine art and flying flips, Canadians, Scandinavians, and hillbillies from the Deep South - what more can you ask for? Writing talk? Oh yeah, we've got that too.

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Will Sean ever achieve his life's ambition of getting his work on the banned book list? Will Amy give in and write a book without rude bits? Will Alex stop slandering salamanders already! Or will they just ignore all the critics and push on, puritans, prudes and salamanders be damned! This week, the Word Docs discuss criticism: the good, the bad, and the medium. We'll be exposing all our scars and showing you which slings and arrows were fatal and which were merely flesh wounds (spoiler: none of us are dead yet). We'll ask the questions: Can criticism be helpful? And how can you find the emotional resilience to weather reviews, hate mail, fan mail, stalkers, trolls, and your own inability to accept praise? 

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They always say you should kill your darlings...but have Amy, Alex and Sean taken this too literally? Tune in as the Word Docs discuss all the (fictional) people they've murdered. From mythological creatures to wagon trains, hellish high schools to doppelgängers, it's an intergalactic bloodbath.

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Randy tries to steal RnB superstar Chantelle from rival agent Kevin Speil as Tyrone reveals his philandering ways to a heartbroken Flick.

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Amy, Alex and Sean confess to all the jobs they had before becoming writers. From the eternal happy hour of a Sydney call centre, long nights at service stations, and weddings where the guests eat gold, the word docs have been making mischief across a range of industries. We're not afraid to ask the big questions: Has Amy got any free salad? Will Sean realise he's been shanghaied? And when is a blue chair ever white enough?

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