Let's make WorldCon truly WORLDCon and bring it back to the southern hemisphere. It hasn't been in Australia since Melbourne in 2010. It was *supposed* to be in Wellington, NZ in 2020. So let's get behind Brisbane for 2028. Brissie is a fantastic city. I'll be there. Will you? www.brisbane28.org

I also reviewed the cool 2025 Australian crime fiction novel, Vanish by @shelleyburr.bsky.social. An exciting and compelling continuation of the author's excellent series, Vanish was an outstanding novel I had an amazing time with. unseenlibrary.com/2026/03/09/v...

I also recently published a review column I had in the @canberra_daily featuring 3 outstanding novels from great Australian authors including @shelleyburr.bsky.social, #JoanSauers and @longlukearnold.bsky.social. unseenlibrary.com/2026/03/09/c...

I find editing and rewriting a hard stage because it's easy to feel like I'm not getting much done. I could have sworn I barely wrote anything in the last two days, then I made an extract of just the substantially rewritten sections to send to my husband and it was 16 pages long

repost this if an editor has ever saved you from yourself

For this week's Top Ten Tuesday, I highlight my favourite Australian books from the first half of 2025, including novels from @longlukearnold.bsky.social @ronnisalt.bsky.social @shelleyburr.bsky.social and more. unseenlibrary.com/2025/07/29/t...

My publisher: Could you promote your book that's out at the end of April a little bit? A smidge? Me: No, I'm very busy organising the Rotary firewood raffle and helping at the ag expo Anyway we raised nearly $5000 for community projects and now I can focus on minor things like (checks notes) my job

I'm recording voice notes today for the audiobook narrator on the pronunciation of character names, a process that frequently involves me finding out for the first time too

“Just as parents may struggle to prioritise their children’s privacy and wellbeing when household income is at stake, platforms can’t be relied on to exclude their most profitable creators.” Isabel Prior on the gap in our child labour laws.

Hey fam, We are on the hunt for some narrators! We need a mature female australian-chinese/australian for a 3k word story & a West coast US young male or NB voice for a 4k LGBTQ+ story - its paid - if interested please send a short audio clip of you narrating something to [email protected]

My final corrected version of VANISH is due today, but there's a brown snake under my writing pod. I can't get to my laptop.

Bundyi Publishing announced today the Bundyi Writing Prize that will be awarded to an outstanding unpublished manuscript of adult fiction by an emerging Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander writer. www.simonandschuster.com.au/p/BundyiAUPr... @austlit.bsky.social @simonschusteranz.bsky.social

Someone posted some second hand books on our local buy sell swap, including mine. I left a comment complimenting one of the other books. She deleted the post. Trying to be funny and making people uncomfortable is like my superpower

We acquired five extra goats last year, and we can now distinguish them enough for names. The doe has been Latte for a while, and Miss 9 has dubbed a smaller but otherwise identical goat Cawfee* *In our house we pronounce coffee like Edie Falco in the Sopranos

Assumedly due to some clerical error, DESIRE PATHS does not feature on this list. But it can be pre-ordered right here: www.readings.com.au/product/9781...

I seem to have packed for our move like I was trying to stage the house for an inspect em up mystery game. I just opened a drawstring bag that contained an Instax picture of my daughter and her friend in a Noh mask, a velour hood to help you sleep on planes, and a key to a house we sold 4 years ago

c/o @australia.theguardian.com : "Australian books to look forward to in 2025." #TheThrillofIt March 2025. #thethrillofit #mandybeaumontwriting #newbook #newbookstagrammer #books #2025 #writer #writerscommunity #book #books #booksbooksbooks #bookstagrammer #australianbooks #crime #crimebook

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"Auckland is not just the place where these things happen to have occurred: this is _a story about Auckland_." We interrupt our summer break to bring you this important piece by Emmy Rakete on Neil Gaiman and the political economy of rape.

Texting friends to see if they're safe from the fires in California, they text back asking if we're safe from the fires in Victoria. Absolutely surreal

The English dialects that don't commonly use the word 'porch' need to come up with their own term for package thieves. I would like to formally propose 'verandah vikings' for Australia

The last fortnight rolling coverage on AustCrimeFiction: tinyl.io/BoNl Highlights were reviewing Present Tense, Cutler & The Chilling. Plus some of the new books that arrived - feels like Christmas has arrived early. The list is mouthwatering :) #CrimeFiction #Books #AustCrime #BookSky 💙📚

Scrolling back through my texts with my publisher and its mostly me providing increasingly bizarre explanations for why I forgot to respond to emails I wish they were lies, I am just that much of a disaster

I was just told that my horror writing class's enrollment is low enough that it might get canceled 💀 If you or anyone you know is interested in getting to know the genre in a fun and accessible way, please check it out! www.atlasobscura.com/experiences/...

Yes yes yes! Submit your poetry manuscripts!

Me: When we build the house, I want a Zoom Cupboard. Like a soundproof booth with the background already staged and a camera mount always in the right position and great lighting Husband: I don't want to be contrarian, but that's an office. You're saying you want your own office

New writing buddy. This one likes to climb on top of the hotplate brooder then complain because it's cold up there. 🌱

Successful visit to the monthly food swap today 🌱

I've started reading The Hobbit with my daughter, a long held dream. She's loving it, with just one problem. She's on Smaug's side. The text makes it clear that destroying kingdoms and taking all their cool stuff is just doing what dragons do. Calling that evil is unfair. This will be interesting.

Remember: a signed, personalised book is an excellent Christmas present. Get in touch with an author today!

Loath as I am to acknowledge the passage of time in this manner: here's an award eligibility post! I'm proud of this whole short list, but especially proud to look back and realise that I've now brought out a WHOLE-ASS TRILOGY.

Substack users, this option is OFF by default. If you do NOT want your publication to be used to train AI, open your publication, go to Settings > Publication details and switch it on.

If as an author you're not talking up other authors, what even are you doing. Readership is not a zero-sum game. And aside from being the correct thing to do, a writer who lifts up other writers often experiences a halo effect from it. Conversely, the writer who shits on other writers is avoided.

This boat was definitely not used in a murder

I'm gonna need to find some artichoke recipes 🌱

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Sad and thirsty Australian detective erasure

Number 3 also applies to the UK and Australia! Plus, what we really need is readers and if our books are in libraries we stand a chance of being discovered by a whole new bunch of readers. Everything else comes after that.

Another carefully crafted crime novel from Shelley Burr, the author of Wake whisperinggums.com/2023/09/16/s... #ruralnoir #shelleyburr #aussiecrime

The worst part of the decline of Twitter is that I didn't see Maxine Beneba Clarke's lunchbox warning and found a bioweapon in my daughter's schoolbag this morning

Relieved but also weirdly offended to not find either of my books in that AI copyright theft database

It's spring and the perennial/biennial greens are going off. Spinach, sorrel and beetroot for dinner

Introduce yourself with some jobs you’ve done apart from what you do now: Server in an Australian themed steakhouse, in Australia* Swim teacher Public service accountant Biosecurity cost recovery Waste exports cost recovery E-waste taskforce *All of them were, but this one needs to be specified

I made this joke at Write Around the Murray yesterday and someone in the audience yelled "I'm the judge for that!", so I guess I can retire this ambition

I ran out of time in my mid-semester exam and it ended up submitting with my placeholder text 'the atoms do a switcheroo' still in there as the definition of isomorphous substitution, which I'm sure is fine

Mulch! 🌱

TIL the Victorian branch of the CWA awards an annual literary prize, the Emilie Wilson Perpetual Trophy. My new life ambition is to win one, so I can whip it out whenever anyone makes a scones joke after I mention my CWA Dagger.

I'm doing a soil science intensive, and it's hilarious how many of the students have complained about getting muddy. Sirs. Ma'ams. Esteemed colleagues. You're in Touch Dirt Class.