Words and Nerds: Authors, books and literature.

Amanda Hampson chats to Dani Vee about her lovely book Sixty Summers, a novel about friendship, recapturing the past and love.

When Maggie, Fran and Rose met in their youth, they had dreams and ambitions. Forty years later, the three friends are turning sixty, each of them restless and disenchanted with their lives.

In an attempt to recapture the sense of freedom and purpose they once possessed, they decide to retrace the steps of their 1978 backpacking trip through Europe and set off on an odyssey that will test their friendship, challenge their beliefs and redefine the third age of their lives. What could possibly go wrong?

Destiny doesn’t happen by accident…

When Justine Carmichael (Sagittarius, aspiring journalist and sceptic) bumps into her old friend Nick Jordan (Aquarius, struggling actor and true believer) it could be by chance. Or it could be written in the stars.

Justine works at the Alexandria Park Star - and Nick, she now learns, relies on the magazine’s astrology column to guide him in life.

Looking for a way to get Nick’s attention, Justine has the idea of making a few small alterations to ‘Aquarius’ before it goes to print. But ‘small alterations’ can lead to big ripple effects…

Minnie Darke – Gemini with Virgo Rising, Scrabble cutthroat and knitter, lover of books, freshly sharpened pencils and Russian Caravan tea – wrote Star-crossed to amuse herself and to entertain you.

Mark Smith lives and works on Victoria’s Surf Coast. His debut novel The Road To Winter (2016) was shortlisted for the Australian Indie Book Awards, the Aurealis Awards and the WA Young Readers’ Book Awards. The sequel, Wilder Country, will be released in August, 2017. Mark is also an award winning writer of short fiction, with credits including the 2015 Josephine Ulrick Literature Prize and the 2013 Alan Marshall Short Story Prize, and his work has appeared in Best Australian Stories 2014 & 2015, Review of Australian Fiction, The Big Issue and The Australian.

Paige joins Dani for a second time to chat about her new novel If You Could Go Anywhere.

Angie has always wanted to travel. But at 27, she has still never left her small mining town in the Australian outback. When her grandmother passes away, Angie finally feels free to see the world – until she discovers a letter addressed to the father she never knew and is forced to question everything.

As Angie sets off on her journey to find the truth – about her family, her past and who she really is – will enigmatic stranger Alessandro help guide the way?

Tony Cavanaugh chats about his crime novel Blood River in this very frank and entertaining chat. *LANGUAGE WARNING*

Tony Cavanaugh is an Australian novelist, screenwriter and film and television producer. He has over thirty years' experience in the film industry, has lectured at several prestigious universities, has been on panels both nationally and internationally, and has been a regular guest on radio commenting on the film and television industry. He is co-partner and creator of Armana films.

Tony's Darian Richards novels, which include Promise, Dead Girl Sing, The Train Rider and Kingdom of the Strong, published by Hachette, have been highly praised and have been translated to both German and French. He is now working on his fifth novel, 1999: Life is Not Life, due for release mid 2019.

Hades, Candice Fox’s first novel, won the Ned Kelly Award for best debut in 2014 from the Australian Crime Writers Association. The sequel, Eden, won the Ned Kelly Award for best crime novel in 2015, making Candice only the second author to win these accolades back-to-back. She is also the author of the bestselling Fall, Crimson Lake and Redemption Point, all shortlisted for Ned Kelly and Davitt Awards.

In 2015 Candice began collaborating with James Patterson. Their first novel together, Never Never, set in the vast Australian outback, was a huge bestseller in Australia and went straight to number 1 on the New York Times bestseller list in the US and also to the top of the charts in the UK. Since then they have written Black & Blue, Fifty Fifty, Liar Liar, Hush Hush in the Harriet Blue series. Her books are printed in fifteen languages.

Born in 1985, Candice is the middle child of a large, eccentric family from Sydney’s western suburbs composed of half-, adopted and pseudo siblings. The daughter of an enthusiastic foster-carer, Candice spent her childhood listening around corners to tales of violence, madness and evil from the cops and childcare authorities who frequented her home.

Bankstown born and bred, she failed to conform to military life in a brief stint as an officer in the Royal Australian Navy at age eighteen. At twenty, she turned her hand to academia, and taught high school through two undergraduate and two postgraduate degrees. She is a crafter, animal-lover and wine drinker living in Sydney.

A searing page-turner of family secrets and the legacy of war by the Top 10 bestselling Australian author of BEFORE I LET YOU GO

2019

Life changed beyond recognition for Alice when her son, Eddie, was born with autism spectrum disorder. She must do everything to support him, but at what cost to her family? When her cherished grandmother is hospitalised, a hidden box of mementoes reveals a tattered photo of a young man, a tiny leather shoe and a letter. Her grandmother begs Alice to return to Poland to see what became of those she held dearest.

WWII

Alina and Tomasz are childhood sweethearts. The night before he leaves for college, Tomasz proposes marriage. But when their village falls to the Nazis, Alina doesn’t know if Tomasz is alive or dead.

2019

In Poland, separated from her family, Alice begins to uncover the story her grandmother is so desperate to tell, and discovers a love that bloomed in the winter of 1942. As a painful family history comes to light, will the struggles of the past and present finally reach a heartbreaking resolution?

Inspired by the author’s own family history, The Things We Cannot Say unearths a tragic love story and a family secret whose far-reaching effects will alter lives forever.

'This is a memoir of an Aboriginal woman, Tjanara Goreng Goreng, who began life without any of the advantages of her fellow non-Indigenous Australians except for grit, humour and diverse talent in spades.Life was tough and poor as an Aboriginal kid in No Go, in remote Queensland. Tjanara navigates the treacherous waters of her childhood, immersed in the legacy of 200 years of brutal treatment of her mother's people that has left its suppurating scars deep in their psyche.' Google Books

Ahmed Yussuf chats about the book Growing Up African In Australia, a collection of stories about people fitting in, displacement and finding themselves.

Compiled by award-winning author Maxine Beneba Clarke, with curatorial assistance from writers Ahmed Yussuf and Magan Magan, this anthology brings together voices from the regions of Africa and the African diaspora.

Ahmed Yussuf will appear the Williamstown Literary Festival this June,

Lili Wilkinson chats about her dystopian thriller After The Lights Go Out, a wonderful exploration of character, morals and who you become once the lights go out.

Lili will also be appearing at the Williamstown Literary Festival in Melbourne this June. Tickets available now!