Author Emma Pignatiello wondered why romance novels didn’t have more murders in them – so she wrote her own! In this episode, she discusses her book Last Shot, the inspiration behind it and the Australian Writers' Centre course that helped her get there.

00:00 Introduction
02:57 Writing tip: Follow the guidelines
10:33 WIN! Headcases by John McMahon
12:30 Word of the week: ‘Redolent’
15:43 Writer in Residence: Emma Pignatiello
17:20 Emma’s inspiration for the story
24:20 Mapping out the plot points and character arcs
25:49 The writing process
29:42 Balancing her day job and parenting with writing
32:11 The publishing journey
40:51 Two amazing things happen in one day
41:40 Receiving the “yes” from her agent
44:53 Pitching two books to publishers
50:25 Future projects
52:32 How the Australian Writers' Centre Romance Writing course helped her
55:41 Top tips on finding publishing success
1:00:51 Final thoughts

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