Final Draft - Great Conversations

Great Conversations features interviews with authors and writers, exploring books, writing and literary culture from Australia and the world.

Today's episode features Vivian Pham discussing her debut novel The Coconut Children.

Vince has returned to the streets of his youth, not yet old, but legendary after a two year stint in juvenile detention. It’s Cabramatta in the late 90’s and as the suburb and the schools struggle to contain Vince’s vitality, Sonny can only watch on from afar.

Sonny and Vince were childhood friends. But now Sonny is grappling with her own growing maturity and cannot fathom that the almost mythological figure of Vince might even notice her as she watches from the window next door...

M.J. Tjia is the nom de plume of Mirandi Riwoe.

We featured Mirandi's latest novel Stone Sky Gold Mountain on this week's show and as a special bonus we've dipped back into the archive for a conversation from 2017 between Andrew and Mirandi about her first novel featuring Victorian detective Heloise Chancey, She Be Damned.

She Be Damned opens on Victorian London in its heyday; as the city expands and the population booms London is a city divided. Society doyens need never bother themselves that women are being brutally killed and mutilated across the river in Waterloo. Heloise Chancey lives with a foot in both worlds. Styling herself a courtesan, she works for her intellectual pleasure as a private detective and is drawn into the gruesome murders when the daughter of a gentleman goes missing.

Great Conversations features interviews with authors and writers, exploring books, writing and literary culture from Australia and the world.

Today's episode features Mirandi Riwoe discussing her latest novel Stone Sky Gold Mountain.

Stone Sky Gold Mountain transports the reader to the Queensland gold fields of the mid nineteenth century. Siblings Ying and Lai Yue have left their homes in China and travelled to Australia to seek enough money to restore their family.

Ying must disguise herself, passing as a boy, lest her gender see her taken advantage of and brutalised. As a male she discovers freedoms denied her as a woman but also sees the restrictions she lives under. When Ying & Lai Yue realise they cannot survive on mere gold dust they move to Maytown; the settlement established to furnish the goldfields.

In Maytown, Meriam and Sophie live on the outskirts. Meriam longs for her old life and bristles at the town’s treatment of her as the maid of a sex worker.

Great Conversations features interviews with authors and writers, exploring books, writing and literary culture from Australia and the world.

Today's episode features Tara Moss discussing her latest novel The Cobra Queen.

The Cobra Queen transports us to New York city where Pandora English is establishing herself in the world of fashion and trying to come to terms with her role as a supernatural saviour in the upcoming apocalypse.

Whilst on a fashion shoot at New York’s Metropolitan museum of Art, Pandora notices strange goings on around an upcoming exhibition on the Pharaoh Hatshepsut. The female pharaoh was nearly erased from the historical record following her death, so why might she be turning up in New York city?

Join me as we discover Tara Moss’s The Cobra Queen

Great Conversations features interviews with authors and writers, exploring books, writing and literary culture from Australia and the world.

Today's episode features Karina Kilmore discussing her debut novel Where the Truth Lies.

Chrissy O’Brian is an investigative journalist who’s had to escape her home town after becoming the center of her own story. She’s come to Melbourne to heal, to escape, perhaps to forget. She’s landed a job at the Argus in a time of layoffs and is no one's best friend for the fact. When a puff piece profile interview turns dark and a young woman dies, Chrissy decides to investigate whether her boss gives her the go ahead or not...

Join me as we discover Karina Kilmore ’s Where the Truth Lies

Great Conversations features interviews with authors and writers, exploring books, writing and literary culture from Australia and the world.

Today's episode features Terence J Quinn discussing his new book Deadline.

Johnno Bligh’s living a peaceful life in Sydney having survived pirates and prison. Contemplating his next project is headhunted by a Russian Oligarch to head up the British Tabloid UK Today as its editor.

Uprooting his young family and peaceful existence, Johnno heads to London and headlong into conspiracy, terror and treason.

Great Conversations features interviews with authors and writers, exploring books, writing and literary culture from Australia and the world.

Today's episode features Jeremy Lachlan discussing his new book Jane Doe and The Key of all Souls.

The Jane Doe chronicles began in the far away somewhere land of Bluehaven. Jane lives a thankless life caring for her father and avoiding the entire township who believe that she is cursed.

When Jane narrowly escapes ritual sacrifice to appease the mythical manor, she must plunge headlong into the Manor to rescue her father. There she discovers she is not alone. The villainous Roth and his army of Leatherheads are scouring the Manor for the Cradle key; a mythical object that will give its possessor control of all the worlds.

In the Key of all Souls Jane has narrowly escaped Roth but finds herself trapped in Arakaan. This desert world has been decimated by Roth’s armies and Jane finds herself at the mercy of Elsa; herself a refugee from the Manor.

Not knowing who to trust; Jane must unite the keys and return to the Manor before Roth opens the cradle and destroys not just Jane’s loved ones but all the united worlds!

Great Conversations features interviews with authors and writers, exploring books, writing and literary culture from Australia and the world.

Today's episode features Louise Park discussing her new book 7 Steps to Get Your Child Reading

7 Steps to Get Your Child Reading takes on the challenge of helping engage Gen Alpha; the first generation born with devices in their hands with the skills of reading. The book shares insights, research and strategies for helping maximise children’s developing literacy as they grow. With increased screen time a growing challenge and declining literacy levels across the country it’s especially directed at the current generation of children and the unique challenges of developing literacy in a digital world.

Great Conversations features interviews with authors and writers, exploring books, writing and literary culture from Australia and the world.

Today's episode features J.P. Pomare discussing his new novel In the Clearing.

On a hot, humid, Australian summer day a van waits by an isolated road as an eight year girl disembarks from her school bus. As the bus disappears the van accelerates, its occupants dragging the girl inside and drugging her into unconsciousness. The young girl is being taken to the clearing and she is to be the eleventh of the twelve; children of the mother.

Freya lives in seclusion defiant in her freedom and independence but also captive to her secrets. When the news reports a kidnapped child her mind immediately races to her son and she fears for his safety.

The Australian Classics Book Club is a monthly exploration of Australian writing; looking back over the forgotten, the classic, the much discussed and underappreciated in Australian Letters.

On Acland St, in Melbourne’s beach side suburb of St Kilda sits a Cafe named Scheherazade. Martin is a journalist there to write a story on the cafe’s founders Avram and Masha Zeleznikow. No sooner has he begun than Martin knows that this will be no ordinary column. As voices fill the air of Scheherazade on a nightly basis, Martin comes to bear witness to the history that had seen so many flee their homes in Europe and converge on Melbourne for a new beginning and a chance to heal.