A garden shop owner goes out for her morning run and discovers the body of a woman who looks just like her. As more murders shake the city, she fears her past is catching up with her. 

A riveting psychological thriller drawn from true events, Ashley's debut novel 'Dark Mode' delves into the terrifying reality of the dark web, and the price we pay for surrendering our privacy one click at a time.

Ashley discusses how and why she wrote the novel, what authors inspired her, and the major mistake she made when sharing the manuscript with James. Plus, she reads an excerpt to get you in a 'Dark Mode' mood. 

This is the last of four weekly mini-episodes in celebration of the March 1st Australian release day!

You can pre-order Dark Mode in Australia and in the UK, from these links or your favourite bookshop. 

Join Ashley and Anna Downes at the Sydney launch of Dark Mode! (James will be there too!) Friday 3 March, 6.30-7.30pm, Better Read Than Dead, Newtown – free, bookings essential.

Join Ashley and JP Pomare at the Melbourne launch of Dark Mode! Thursday 9 March, 6.30-7.30pm, Readings Carlton, 309 Lygon St – free, bookings essential.

Books and authors discussed in this episode

• Tana French;
• Candice Fox;
• JP Pomare;
• John Sandford;
• The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris

James' novel 'Denizen' is out now! Learn more about it and get your copy here. 

Get in touch!

• ashleykalagianblunt.com
• jamesmckenziewatson.com
• Twitter: @AKalagianBlunt + @JamesMcWatson
• Instagram: @akalagianblunt + @jamesmcwatson

Keen for insights into how to get an agent and a book publisher? This is the ep for you! 

This is one of four weekly mini-episodes in celebration of the March 1st Australian release day!

A riveting psychological thriller drawn from true events, Ashley's debut novel Dark Mode delves into the terrifying reality of the dark web, and the price we pay for surrendering our privacy one click at a time.

You can pre-order Dark Mode in Australia and in the UK, from these links or your favourite bookshop. 

Join Ashley and Anna Downes at the Sydney launch of Dark Mode! (James will be there too!) Friday 3 March, 6.30-7.30pm, Better Read Than Dead, Newtown – free, bookings essential.

Join Ashley and JP Pomare at the Melbourne launch of Dark Mode! Thursday 9 March, 6.30-7.30pm, Readings Carlton, 309 Lygon St – free, bookings essential.

James' novel 'Denizen' is out now! Learn more about it and get your copy here. 

Get in touch!

• ashleykalagianblunt.com
• jamesmckenziewatson.com
• Twitter: @AKalagianBlunt + @JamesMcWatson
• Instagram: @akalagianblunt + @jamesmcwatson

Ashley wrote 40,000 words into the first draft of Dark Mode before scrapping most of it and restarting. Then she ploughed through to the end of a clunky draft in order to create a scene-by-scene outline of the plot mechanics. The outline became the blueprint for the next major revision – the one that landed her an agent. In this ep, Ashley also talks about how she draws on her writers' group (or as James calls it, emotional focus group) throughout her writing process in order to craft her scenes and story.   Plus, she shares why she's glad she waited until she'd been writing for 20 years to try a crime manuscript.

This is one of four weekly mini-episodes in celebration of the March 1st Australian release day!

A riveting psychological thriller drawn from true events, Ashley's debut novel Dark Mode delves into the terrifying reality of the dark web, and the price we pay for surrendering our privacy one click at a time.

You can pre-order Dark Mode in Australia and in the UK, from these links or your favourite bookshop. 

Join Ashley and Anna Downes at the Sydney launch of Dark Mode! (James will be there too!) Friday 3 March, 6.30-7.30pm, Better Read Than Dead, Newtown – free, bookings essential.

Join Ashley and JP Pomare at the Melbourne launch of Dark Mode! Thursday 9 March, 6.30-7.30pm, Readings Carlton, 309 Lygon St – free, bookings essential.

James' novel 'Denizen' is out now! Learn more about it and get your copy here. 

Get in touch!

• ashleykalagianblunt.com
• jamesmckenziewatson.com
• Twitter: @AKalagianBlunt + @JamesMcWatson
• Instagram: @akalagianblunt + @jamesmcwatson

A riveting psychological thriller drawn from true events, Ashley's debut novel Dark Mode delves into the terrifying reality of the dark web, and the price we pay for surrendering our privacy one click at a time.

But it didn't start there! Ashley began the manuscript while recovering from a major rejection, and envisioned it as Black Mirror inspired spec fic. Hear how the manuscript developed into the thriller it became, and the inspiration Ashley discovered while coping with chronic illness.  

This is one of four weekly mini-episodes in celebration of the March 1st Australian release day!

A riveting psychological thriller drawn from true events, Ashley's debut novel Dark Mode delves into the terrifying reality of the dark web, and the price we pay for surrendering our privacy one click at a time.

You can pre-order Dark Mode in Australia and in the UK, from these links or your favourite bookshop. 

Join Ashley and Anna Downes at the Sydney launch of Dark Mode! (James will be there too!) Friday 3 March, 6.30-7.30pm, Better Read Than Dead, Newtown – free, bookings essential.

Join Ashley and JP Pomare at the Melbourne launch of Dark Mode! Thursday 9 March, 6.30-7.30pm, Readings Carlton, 309 Lygon St – free, bookings essential.

James' novel 'Denizen' is out now! Learn more about it and get your copy here. 

Get in touch!

• • ashleykalagianblunt.com
  • jamesmckenziewatson.com
  • Twitter: @AKalagianBlunt + @JamesMcWatson
  • Instagram: @akalagianblunt + @jamesmcwatson

What happens when your job results in PTSD, forcing you into unexpected retirement? You write a memoir, of course! At least, that's what Dr Hilton Koppe did when he suddenly had to leave his practice as a rural GP. 

Hilton speaks to James and Ashley about his PTSD diagnosis, the secret of work/life, how he turned to creative writing as a form of therapeutic intervention, and seeking permission to share his patients' stories in his memoir. 

Hilton Koppe is a writer, workshop facilitator, podcaster and doctor living on Bundjalung land on the east coast of Australia. He co-hosts the podcast Dementia In Practice, and is the author of One Curious Doctor: A Memoir of Medicine, Migration and Mortality. 

Visit Hilton's website to learn more and get your copy of One Curious Doctor. 

Books and authors discussed in this episode:

• The House of God by Samuel Shem;
• Any Ordinary Day by Leigh Sales;
• Dear Memory: Letters on Writing, Silence, and Grief by Victoria Chang;
• The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill 

You can pre-order Dark Mode in Australia and in the UK, from these links or your favourite bookshop.

James' novel Denizen is out now! Learn more about it and get your copy here. 

Upcoming events:

• Make 2023 the Year You Write Your Book with Ashley: Monday 30 January, 7:45-9pm AEDT, online via Zoom
• Launch of Taken with Dinuka McKenzie in conversation with Ashley: Sunday 5 February, 4pm, Better Read Than Dead, Newtown; free, RSVP
• Dark Mode launch – Melbourne: Ashley in conversation with author JP Pomare, Thursday 9 March, 6.30 to 7.30 pm, Readings Carlton, 309 Lygon St. Free, bookings essential

Get in touch!

• ashleykalagianblunt.com
• jamesmckenziewatson.com
• Twitter: @AKalagianBlunt + @JamesMcWatson
• Instagram: @akalagianblunt + @jamesmcwatson

This special episode gathers the best 'What Are You Reading?' segments from 2022 into a comprehensive summary of book recommendations from Australian and international authors. These well-informed highlights will give you plenty of last-minute gift solutions and ideas for how to spend your Christmas gift cards!

Plus, James and Ashley each declare their book of the year for 2022. 

Books discussed in this episode:

From episode 48, with Shankari Chandran:

• Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell;
• Song of the Crocodile by Nardi Simpson (from ep 18);
• Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie;
• They All Fall Down by Rachel Howzell Hall;
• Soul Mountain by Gao Xingjian translated by Mabel Lee

From episode 49, with Jacinta Dietrich:

• Certain Prey by John Sandford;
• Mortal Prey by John Sandford

From episode 50, with Sarah Sentilles:

• Bewilderment by Richard Powers;
• A Children's Bible by Lydia Millet
• The Rabbits by Sophie Overett;
• This Accident of Being Lost by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson

From episode 51, with Dinuka McKenzie:

• Her Pretty Face by Robyn Harding;
• How to End a Story: Diaries 1995-1998 by Helen Garner;
• Theft by Finding by David Sedaris;
• A Carnival of Snackery by David Sedaris

From episode 55, with Katherine Collette:

• Found, Wanting by Natasha Sholl;
• Love Stories by Trent Dalton;
• After Story by Larissa Behrendt

From episode 56, with Ellis Gunn:

• The Writing Life by Annie Dillard;
• The Luminous Solution by Charlotte Wood;
• How to Be Australian by Ashley Kalagian Blunt;
• Outline by Rachel Cusk;
• The Break by Katherena Vermette

From episode 57, with Yumna Kassab:

• Blindness by Jose Saramago;
• The Autumn of the Patriarch by Gabriel Garcia Marquez;
• Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann;
• The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enríquez
• Divorce Is in the Air by Gonzalo Torne;
• Cold Enough for Snow by Jessica Au

From episode 56, with Rae Cairns:

• Autumn by Ali Smith;
• The Children's Bible by Lydia Millet;
• Negative Space by BR Yeager;
• Goat Mountain by David Vann;
• Black and Blue by Veronica Gorrie

From episode 63, with Bronwyn Birdsall

• Indelible City by Louisa Lim;
• The Writer Laid Bare by Lee Kofman;
• A Kind of Magic by Anna Spargo-Ryan

From episode 65, with Al Campbell

• The Signal Line by Brendan Colley;
• Denizen by James McKenzie Watson;
• The Writer Laid Bare by Lee Kofman (who we spoke to back in ep 4);
• Curlews on Vulture Street by Darryl Jones

From episode 67, with Darryl Jones:

• The Writer Laid Bare by Lee Kofman (featured in ep 3);
• One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez;
• Auē by Becky Manawatu

James' novel 'Denizen' is out now! Learn more about it and buy your copy here. 

Make 2023 the Year You Write Your Book! Monday 30 January 2023, 7:45-9pm AEDT. Online via Zoom. Tix $9-14.

Launch of Taken with Dinuka McKenzie in conversation with Ashley Sunday 5 February, 4pm. Better Read Than Dead, Newtown (in person). Free, RSVP required.

Get in touch!

• Ashley's website: ashleykalagianblunt.com
• Ashley's Twitter: @AKalagianBlunt
• Ashley's Instagram: @akalagianblunt
• James' website: jamesmckenziewatson.com
• James' Twitter: @JamesMcWatson
• James' Instagram: @jamesmcwatson

'When I sat down to write, it felt like I had killed someone.' Hayley Scrivenor opens up about managing creative anxiety, what it means to write through our feelings, and the experience of having her novel 'Dirt Town' debut as a number one Australian bestseller. Plus James turns the interview into a therapy session.

Hayley Scrivenor is the author of 'Dirt Town', published as 'Dirt Creek' in North America. An earlier version was shortlisted for the Penguin Literary Prize and won the Kill Your Darlings Unpublished Manuscript Award. Hayley has a PhD in Creative Writing and is a former Director of Wollongong Writers Festival.

Books and authors discussed in this episode:

• George Saunders; 
• Sulari Gentill; 
• Anna Downes (from ep 5);
• Garry Disher;
• Dinuka McKenzie;
• Jane Harper;
• Kirli Saunders;
• Madukka the River Serpent by Julie Janson;
• The Morning Star by Karl Ove Knausgård;
• Song of the Sun God by Shankari Chandran (from ep 48);
• My Name Is Revenge by Ashley Kalagian Blunt;
• Rattled by Ellis Gunn (from ep 56);
• Curlews on Vulture Street by Darryl Jones (from ep 67)
• Taken by Dinuka McKenzie (from ep 51)

Get your copy of 'Dirt Town' from your local bookshop, Booktopia or wherever good books are sold. 

James' novel 'Denizen' is out now! Learn more about it and buy your copy here. 

Get in touch!

• Ashley's website: ashleykalagianblunt.com
• Ashley's Twitter: @AKalagianBlunt
• Ashley's Instagram: @akalagianblunt
• James' website: jamesmckenziewatson.com
• James' Twitter: @JamesMcWatson
• James' Instagram: @jamesmcwatson

'I regard my seventh book, Curlews on Vulture Street ... as my first real writing. You know, this is the one I'm most proud of. It was the biggest challenge and the one I enjoyed the most.' Urban ecologist and noted bird guy Darryl Jones joins us to share his transition from popular science to narrative nonfiction writer.   

Darryl discusses the importance of having a beginner's mindset, what life is like now that he's a full-time writer, buried treasure, and his experience of living with Parkinson's. And of course we talk birds! Should you feed the birds in Australia? Do rainbow lorikeets eat mince? Plus, our special bonus guest – the eastern koel that lives outside Ashley's window and has been shrieking her awake at 5 am every morning!   

Darryl Jones is a Professor of Ecology at Griffith University in Brisbane, where for over 30 years he has been investigating the many ways people and wildlife interact. He is particularly interested in why some species are extremely successful in urban landscapes, and how best to deal with the ensuing conflicts. More recently, he has been trying to understand more about the humans that also live in cities in large numbers, and how they engage with nature. This has led him into the strange and fascinating world of wild bird feeding. He is the author of several books, including 'The Birds at My Table', 'Feeding the Birds at Your Table', and his latest, 'Curlews on Vulture Street'.

Books and authors discussed in this episode:

• Auē by Becky Manawatu;
• The Tilt by Chris Hammer;
• The Writer Laid Bare by Lee Kofman (featured in ep 3);
• One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez;
• Tracker by Alexis Wright;
• Feeding the Birds at Your Table by Darryl Jones

Get your copy of 'Curlews on Vulture Street' from your local bookshop, Booktopia or wherever good books are sold. And if you want your own bush stone curlew t-shirt, you can find it here. 

James' novel 'Denizen' is out now! Learn more about it and buy your copy here. 

Get in touch!

• Ashley's website: ashleykalagianblunt.com
• Ashley's Twitter: @AKalagianBlunt
• Ashley's Instagram: @akalagianblunt
• James' website: jamesmckenziewatson.com
• James' Twitter: @JamesMcWatson
• James' Instagram: @jamesmcwatson

How do you work through a major edit on your book when you have a traumatic brain injury? And how do you write about the death of a loved one while you're grieving? Jackie Bailey, author of debut novel 'The Eulogy' and professional deathwalker, joins us to discuss her experience with both.

Jackie Bailey is a professional writer and researcher and a recognised international expert on cultural diversity in the arts. She has a Creative Writing PhD from UNSW and is on the Board of Merrigong Theatre Company. Jackie is also an ordained interfaith minister, trained deathwalker and practising funeral director. 'The Eulogy' is her debut novel.

Get your copy of 'The Eulogy' from your local bookshop, Booktopia or wherever good books are sold.

Plus, check out the online courses from Writing NSW, including the six-week Online: Creative Non-fiction with Ashley, starting 31 October. 

Books and authors discussed in this episode:

• 'In life, my sister taught me how to love. In death, she made me want to fix the funeral industry' by Jackie Bailey for the Guardian;
• Dirt Town by Hayley Scrivenor;
• Found, Wanting by Natasha Sholl;
• The Smell of Fresh Rain: The Unexpected Pleasures of Our Most Elusive Sense by Barney Shaw;
• Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck;
• Denizen by James McKenzie Watson (featured in ep 60);
• Virginia Woolf;
• Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller;
• How to Be Australian by Ashley Kalagian Blunt

James' novel 'Denizen' is out now! Learn more about it and buy your copy here. 

Get in touch!

• Ashley's website: ashleykalagianblunt.com
• Ashley's Twitter: @AKalagianBlunt
• Ashley's Instagram: @akalagianblunt
• James' website: jamesmckenziewatson.com
• James' Twitter: @JamesMcWatson
• James' Instagram: @jamesmcwatson

Author Al Campbell joins us to discuss her debut book 'The Keepers,' a fictionalised account of her own life both as the mother of two autistic boys and the survivor of an abusive parent. 

Al shares the reasons behind her choice to write fiction instead of memoir, what people don't realise about the life of a full-time carer, and the struggle for disability advocacy. 

'The Keepers' is a contemporary Australian novel infused with deep love and wild torment, 'about the damage done by parents who can’t love, the failures of a community that only claims to care, and the resilience of those whose stories mostly go untold'.

Born in Brisbane, Al Campbell is a mother and full-time carer. Long ago she studied a bit, acted a bit, and pulled a lot of beers. Her first publication was in 'Overland' in 2020, followed by a story in 'Signs of Life.' 'The Keepers' is about issues – and people – that matter to her more than anything.

Get your copy of 'The Keepers' from your local bookshop, Booktopia or wherever good books are sold.

Plus, check out the online courses from Writing NSW, including the six-week Online: Creative Non-fiction with Ashley, starting 31 October. 

Books and authors discussed in this episode:

• Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte;
• David Vann;
• Far from the Tree by Andrew Solomon;
• We Need to Talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver;
• The Signal Line by Brendan Colley;
• Denizen by James McKenzie Watson;
• The Writer Laid Bare by Lee Kofman (who we spoke to back in ep 4);
• The Suspect by Michael Robotham;
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy;
• All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy;
• Curlews on Vulture Street by Darryl Jones;
• The Whispering by Veronica Lando;
• Vikki Petraitis

James' novel 'Denizen' is out now! Learn more about it and buy your copy here. 

Get in touch!

• Ashley's website: ashleykalagianblunt.com
• Ashley's Twitter: @AKalagianBlunt
• Ashley's Instagram: @akalagianblunt
• James' website: jamesmckenziewatson.com
• James' Twitter: @JamesMcWatson
• James' Instagram: @jamesmcwatson