Episodes
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Casey Rae is the author of James and Elle: Part-memoir, Part-fiction which came out in February this year.
She lives on the mid north coast of NSW with her husband and two wildflower children. She is passionate about good food, wellbeing and creating a better future for our young people. With fifteen years of experience working in education, she knows how important it is for people to have access to engaging literature that promotes deep thinking around mental health and relationships.Casey talks to Hembury Books about the genres of hybrid memoir and autofiction, and why she made the decision to write a hybrid memoir rather than a work of either fiction or memoir.
For more information, visit https://www.caseyraeauthor.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/casey-rae-thompson-b0246262/
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Blake Atwood is a book coach, developmental editor, and ghostwriter based in Texas. He has partnered with nonfiction authors like James Clear of Atomic Habits, who thanked Blake in the acknowledgements section of his bestselling book "for transforming my ugly and insanely long first drafts into a tight, readable manuscript."
More recently, Blake worked with the attorney and communications expert whose videos have gone viral, Jefferson Fisher. Together they crafted The Next Conversation, which is coming out in March through the Penguin imprint Tarcherperigee.
Learn more about Blake Atwood here:
https://blakeatwood.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/blakeatwood/ -
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Adam Courtenay is an author and business journalist who has written five non-fiction books including Amazon Men, published in the UK by Endeavour Press (2015), as well as The Ship that Never Was (2018) The Ghost and the Bounty Hunter (2020) and Three Sheets in the Wind (2022) for Harper Collins imprint, ABC Books.
Adam had extensive experience working on manuscripts for private clients, which involve all facets of book writing, structuring and positioning. He believes history has been badly taught and is often poorly written. His style involves a reinterpretation and reworking of space, time and character in history and in non-fiction books in general. Many of the techniques more often used in fiction can be deployed in the non-fiction arena to bring true stories both back to life and back to relevance. At the heart of it is the depiction of ‘character’ and the judicious use of ‘show and tell’ techniques, which guide and control all the story-telling. Courtenay specialises in all forms of non-fiction writing.
He is currently writing a memoir of his father, acclaimed author Bryce Courtenay, which will be published by Hachette Australia in August 2025.
For more information, visit: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-courtenay-39464838/?originalSubdomain=au -
Jessica Friedmann is the author of a new book about tarot in contemporary culture called 22 Impressions: Notes from the Major Arcana. It was published by Scribe in October. Her first book was published in 2017 and it is called Things That Helped and it is a memoir of essays describing her recovery from postpartum depression.
Jessica is based in Melbourne and she is also a freelance editor for Hembury Books. Her other editing roles have included top publications like Lonely Planet, Dumbo Feather and Farrago. She was formerly the publications manager at peak body, Australian Poetry.
Her writing has appeared in Australian Financial Review, The Guardian, LitHub, The Lifted Brow and The Age, among others.
Learn more here:https://www.jessicafriedmann.com/ -
Will Yeoman is CEO of Writing WA, Western Australia's peak body for the writing sector. An experienced journalist, Will has been a contributor to The West Australian for nearly 20 years, as well as a music critic for Gramophone and Limelight magazines.
His short memoir Holy Family was recently published as part of Night Parrot Press' anthology Our Selves: 100 Micro Memoirs.
Will is also Artistic Director of Perth Festival Writers Weekend and York Regional Writers Festival.
Learn more here:
https://www.writingwa.org/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/will-yeoman-6b3894317/?originalSubdomain=au
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Our guest is Anna Loethman-Wilkes, the founder of Australia's first indie-only online bookstore, House of Prose. Anna is also an experienced business professional and have spent her time launching, growing and scaling organisations. She owns and runs several businesses herself and is now helping other business owners through times of transformation.
She talks to Hembury Books about her passion for stocking indie books and exciting future plans for building a community of indie writers in Australia.
https://www.houseofprose.com.au/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-loethman-wilkes-963996a/ -
Nicholas Coppel is the author of a new book called Myanmar’s Digital Coup: how the World Responded, which came out in July through Palgrave Macmillan.
Nicholas was Australia’s ambassador to Myanmar from 2015 to 2018 and he is currently the President of the Australian Myanmar Institute.
Nicholas shares his insights on the current situation in Myanmar and his experiences of academic publishing.
More information can be found here:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholas-coppel-csi-57b0653a/
https://aummi.edu.au/
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Mark Berridge is a keynote speaker and the author of the award-winning memoir, A Fraction Stronger, which was published by Major Street Publishing in 2022.
His book begins with how his life-changed in an instant when a biking accident left him with severe spinal cord damage and it explores inspiring stories of resilience.
A Fraction Stronger has won an incredible number of awards – 16 in total.
Mark breaks down his approach to entering book awards, which includes:
- How to find the best competitions for your book
- How winning an award impacts sales and creates opportunities
- Certain things authors should watch out for.
You can learn more about Mark Berridge on his website: https://www.markberridge.com.au/
Or connect with him on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-berridge/
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Brendan Shine is the author of ‘High in the Himalaya: Conquering mountains in the mind, journeying in the Himalaya and returning from oblivion.’
His 2023 memoir follows his exploits as he rock 'n' rolls with hedonistic excess through the drug fuelled 90's, journeying through India, the Middle east, Northern Africa and the Mediterranean, in and out of psychiatric hospitals and living to tell the tale.
He travelled extensively around India, walking in the Himalaya, frequenting tropical beaches on the Arabian Sea and travelling over 6,000 kilometres on public transport there, always with his pipe and hashish.
He spoke to Jessica Mudditt about why the Himalayas so captivates our imagination, as well as a shared passion for travelling in India.
You can buy his book here - https://www.amazon.com/High-Himalaya-Conquering-mountains-journeying/dp/B0CFCZHBJV
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Kirsty Nancarrow is the author of Himalayan Dreams: The Story of Som Tamang, which was published in February. She wrote the book after a life-changing visit to Nepal following the 2015 earthquakes.
She shares how she undertook the many intertviews for the book, obtained permissions and checked through her chapters with the subject.
This is essential listening if you are planning a biography about a public figure.
ABOUT KIRSTY NANCARROWKirsty is an award-winning journalist who spent 15 years with the ABC and founded Women in Media Far North Queensland. She is now a media trainer and the Co-Director of eMotion Video Training & Production.More information about Kirsty can be found here: https://www.kirstynancarrow.com/
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Our guest this week is Commodore Peter Scott, who is the author of Running Deep: an Australian Submarine Life. Over a decorated 34-year career, Commodore Scott served in 10 submarines, passed the most demanding military command course in the world and served as the Head of Profession of the Submarine Arm of the Royal Australian Navy. During that time his character was forged by the challenges of naval service, success and failure as a leader, catastrophic onboard disasters while dived, and life-threatening traumas. His memoir describes how he also endured personal battles with self-doubt, addiction, depression and anxiety.Today Peter is a business coach as well as an author. More information can be found here: https://peterscott.au/bookhttps://fremantlepress.com.au/books/running-deep-an-australian-submarine-life/
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Anne Gately is the author of 'Sunburnt: A memoir of sun, surf and skin cancer,' which was published in April.As a Stage IV melanoma survivor who was given a prognosis of 12 to 24 months, Anne has real-life experience of the devastating effects that sun exposure can have and is passionate about reducing the incidence of skin cancer in Australia.She wrote her book to increase her reach as an advocate for safe sun practices.I asked her about how to maximise the impact of a book with a public health message.
https://www.annegately.com.au/
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A book is just a collection of chapters. Once you get your head around how to write a chapter, writing a book becomes so much easier. Here's a collection of tips and tricks that work for me.
These include:
* The person you are at the start of your book is not the same as the person at the end - each chapters layers in growth
* Begin each chapter with a problem or challenge
* Vary the pace and mood of each chapter - contrasts are enjoyable for the reader.
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Holly Deane-Johns is the author of Holly's Hell - Seven Years in a Thai Prison. She talks to Hembury Books founder Jessica Mudditt about her years of incarceration in Australia and Thailand, how she overcame her addiction to heroin, and her journey to becoming an author.
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Anna Featherstone is the author of 'Look - It's Your Book!' which is a self-publishing guide for nononfiction Australian authors. She is also a judge of the Australian Business Book Awards and Non-Fiction Advisor and Australian Ambassador for the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi).
She weighs up the pros and cons of going indie over traditional, including the comparative royalties, creative freedoms, support teams and opportunities at writers' festivals.
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Andrew Griffiths is the author of 14 bestselling business books, which have been published by the likes of Allen and Unwin and othors he has self-published. His most recent book is called Someone Has to be the Most Expensive – Why Not Make It You? Andrew has coached hundreds of authors and he also runs Author Academy retreats, with the next one coming up in Hobart in July 2024.
Andrew answers all of our questions, including -
* How do you know when your idea is big enough for a whole book?
* Why should a busy business owner spend time writing a book?
* Is it expensive to self publish a book?
* What’s the return on investment like?
Links for Andrew Griffiths are below
https://www.andrewgriffiths.com.au/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/griffithsandrew/
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After being offered a book deal by a publisher in 2011, Eagranie Yuh flew to San Francisco for a marketing meeting.
The publishing director pulled her aside and said, “We think it’s going to be one of our big hits this season.”
Eight thousand copies were printed, but only a quarter of those sold. Eagranie describes how the experience affected her confidence as an author and what she learned about the publishing industry.
Eagranie Yuh on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eagranieyuh/
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Podcast host Jessica Mudditt reflects on whether writing her second book was easier than her first, and anything she did differently a second time around.
She also breaks down her costs for creating and promoting her new book, Once Around the Sun.
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Kelly Irving is a best-selling book coach, editor, and creator of the Expert Author Community – a global coaching platform and community that has launched hundreds of award-winning authors into the world.
Kelly’s unique Write Book Method helps connect dots and solve complex business messaging problems by empowering original, creative and renaissance spirits to produce work that enriches their lives as well as others.
Kelly has helped hundreds of authors to plan and write their books – she shares four of the most common obstacles her clients face and how to overcome them.
More info about Kelly Irving is belowhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-irving/
https://www.kellyirving.com/
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Danielle Colley is the author of The Chocolate Bar Life: Creating a Delicious Balance Between Work, Rest and Play.
Danielle's book is a hybrid of memoir and self-help, which a growing number of books are nowadays. We naturally build on our own experiences to help others. Danielle is no stranger to Burnout Town, but she's developed ways to avoid going back there.
https://daniellecolley.com.au/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-colley-4b344926/
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