CATEGORIES

Kim Lock, author of Peace, Love and Khaki Socks Tell us about your latest creation… One sultry October morning in Darwin, hemp-wearing army wife Amy Silva grips a trembling fist around two pink lines on a plastic stick. Struggling to come to terms with her rampant fertility,  disillusioned with a haughty obstetrician, and infuriated by an inordinate amount [...]

Jenny Spence, author of No Safe Place Tell us about your latest creation… ‘No Safe Place’. It’s a thriller set in Melbourne and Sydney. The central character is not a detective – just a woman who is unexpectedly thrown into a crisis and has to use all her wits to solve the problem and stay alive. Where are [...]

Jessica Shirvington, author of Between the Lives Tell us about your latest creation… For as long as she can remember, Sabine has lived two lives. Every 24 hours she Shifts to her ‘other’ life – a life where she is exactly the same, but absolutely everything else is different: different family, different friends, different social expectations. In one [...]

Hannah Kent, author of Burial Rites Tell us about your latest creation… My debut novel is called Burial Rites, and takes place in Iceland, in the early nineteenth century. It tells the story of Agnes, a servant woman who has been sentenced to death for her role in the brutal murder of two men. In the absence of [...]

April 23 is Talk Like Shakespeare Day! How to Talk Like Shakespeare: Instead of you, say thou or thee (and instead of y’all, say ye). Rhymed couplets are all the rage. Men are Sirrah, ladies are Mistress, and your friends are all called Cousin. Instead of cursing, try calling your tormenters jackanapes or canker-blossoms or poisonous [...]

The shortlists for this year’s Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Book of the Year Awards have been announced. The shortlisted titles in each of the categories are: Older Readers: The Ink Bridge (Neil Grant, A&U) Sea Hearts (Margo Lanagan, A&U) The Shiny Guys (Doug MacLeod, Penguin) Creepy & Maud (Dianne Touchell, Fremantle Press) Friday Brown (Vikki Wakefield, Text) The [...]

New novel by Tim Winton to be published by Hamish Hamilton in 2013 Ben Ball, Publishing Director, Penguin Books Australia has revealed a new novel by Tim Winton will be published on 14 October 2013. “I’m delighted to be able to announce that on October 14 this year we will be publishing a new novel [...]

Lisa Forrest, author of Inheritance Tell us about your latest creation… My latest creation is a YA fantasy novel set in the circus called, INHERITANCE. I started my career as an author of YA fiction but my last book, BOYCOTT (a non-fiction account of the controversial months before the 1980 Moscow Games when PM Malcolm Fraser tried to stop [...]

Kelly Doust, author of The Crafty Minx at Home Tell us about your latest creation… The Crafty Minx at Home: 50+ handmade and recycled objects for beautiful living is about the things closest to my heart: living the handmade life and appreciating the beauty of vintage objects. It also shares the joy in making things yourself and sharing [...]

Mary-Lou Stephens, author of Sex, Drugs and Meditation Tell us about your latest creation… Sex, Drugs & Meditation is my meditation memoir. It’s the true story of a woman with a talent for self-sabotage who learns to sit still, shut up and start living – and loving. Where are you from / where do you call home? I [...]

Allison Rushby, author of The Heiresses Tell us about your latest creation… The Heiresses sees triplets Thalia, Erato and Clio—estranged since birth—thrust together in glittering 1926 London to fight for their inheritance, only to learn they can’t trust anyone—least of all each other. Where are you from / where do you call home? I’m from Brisbane, but lived in [...]

Janeen Brian, author of Meet Ned Kelly Tell us about your latest creation… ‘Meet Ned Kelly’ is a look at the Australian bushranger who lived in the early days. His story is told in rhyme and tracks Ned’s life from boyhood to his death at age twenty-five. Was Ned Kelly a Robin Hood type hero or was he, [...]

Diane Hester, author of Run To Me Tell us about your latest creation… RUN TO ME is a chase thriller with a twist. Shyler O’Neil is still struggling to come to terms with the death of her son two years earlier. Believing she did not do enough to protect him, she retreats to her family’s old cabin in the [...]

Cathy Kelly, author of The Honey Queen Tell us about your latest creation… It’s my fifteenth novel and it’s called The Honey Queen. They say that to make the perfect pitch, you have to be able to describe your story in twenty-two words and I can’t…so let’s start: I’ve got about five main characters and the first to [...]

Rachael Herron, author of Cora’s Heart Tell us about your latest creation… Cora’s Heart is the story of Cora, a farm-girl who’s been hurt too much in the past, who safeguards everything–except her heart. Mac is a large-animal veterinarian who has already risked it all and lost everything that mattered. When a secret is revealed, Cora has to decide [...]

Jackie French, author of Dinosaurs Love Cheese & The Girl from Snowy River Tell us about your latest creation… Dinosaurs Love Cheese: for every child who loves dinosaurs — and cheese. The Girl From Snowy River: World War I is over, but it still haunts the mountains. Flinty McAlpine lost a brother when the Snowy River men [...]

Hugh Lunn, author of The Big Book of Lunn Tell us about your latest creation… The Big Book of Lunn contains the biggest selling book ever about an Australian childhood: “Over the Top with Jim” — plus the sequel about young love in the 1960s: “Head Over Heels”. Where are you from / where do you call [...]

Jennifer Skiff, author of The Divinity of Dogs: True Stories of Miracles Inspired by Man’s Best Friend Tell us about your latest creation… The Divinity of Dogs is a book of stories where people describe the moment they learned something profound about life from an experience with a dog. It is also part memoir, including stories where [...]

The longlist for the 2013 ALS Gold Medal has been announced. The longlisted titles are: Lola Bensky (Lily Brett, Hamish Hamilton) Darkness on the Edge of Town (Jessie Cole, Fourth Estate) Questions of Travel (Michelle de Kretser, A&U) Montebello (Robert Drewe, Hamish Hamilton) The Engagement (Chloe Hooper, Hamish Hamilton) Cumulus: Collected Poems (Robert Gray, John Leonard Press) Like a House on [...]

Tara Eglington, author of How to Keep a Boy From Kissing You Tell us about your latest creation… How to Keep a Boy From Kissing You is the story of 16 year old Aurora Skye, who is a little like a modern day version of Jane Austen’s Emma – she thinks she knows everything about love and dating, when [...]

Felicity Young, author of Antidote to Murder Tell us about your latest creation… Antidote to Murder is book 2 of my Dody McCleland historical mystery series. The series is set in Edwardian London and features Dody McCleland, Britain’s first female autopsy surgeon. In this book Dody is accused of conducting a criminal abortion, for which the penalty is death. [...]

Derek Pedley, author of Dead by Friday Tell us about your latest creation… Dead By Friday – how lust and greed led to murder in the suburbs - It’s the true story of two lovers who hire a hitman to kill their partners, but one of the lovers, Michelle Burgess, starts an affair with the hitman. It focuses on [...]

Felicity Pulman, author of A Ring Through Time Tell us about your latest creation… A Ring Through Time is a ghostly romance set on Norfolk Island with a timeslip back to the brutal Second Penal Colony. Alice and Cormac are two star-crossed lovers whose ill-fated romance will haunt the future unless Allie can solve a family mystery and lay [...]

Noel Mealey, author of The Icon Murders Tell us about your latest creation… The Icon Murders is a crime thriller, a tale of murder and of why people commit murder, and of the people who occupy our world, but are invisible to us, the ordinaery law abiding citizens. The story is about Syd Fielding, now  very senior in [...]

Margareta Osborn, author of Hope’s Road Tell us about your latest creation… My latest book is called HOPE’S ROAD (Bantam, Random House). This novel is a  captivating rural romance set in the rugged, beautiful high country of East Gippsland. Montmorency Downs has been in Tammy McCauley’s family for five generations. The land, and all it has to [...]

Lisa Walker, author of Sex, Lies and Bonsai Tell us about your latest creation… ‘Sex, Lies and Bonsai’ is the story of Edie, a shy, awkward redhead who has returned to her childhood home on the north coast of New South Wales after her ‘perfect’ boyfriend dumps her by text message. It’s been called ‘a quirky love story’, [...]

Susanna Freymark, author of Losing February Tell us about your latest creation… Losing February – my first book. It is a story about love and loss and lots of bad sex. Where are you from / where do you call home? I was born in Melbourne but grew up in the dusty steelworks town of [...]

From the author of the acclaimed Grassdogs comes a breathtaking story set in the Blue Mountains during the late 1800s When I was a babe in rags my father had three wives … Half-brothers Byron and Clancy Wilson are inseparable during their childhood. They run wild in the dark valleys of the Blue Mountains, run riot during [...]

 A stunning Australian novel based on the true story of the first woman to set foot on Antarctica It’s the early 1930s. Antarctic open-sea whaling is booming and a territorial race for the mysterious continent between Norwegian and British–Australian interests is in full swing. This was the era when Antarctica was closed to women, in [...]

Graeme Simsion, author of The Rosie Project Tell us about your latest creation… The Rosie Project: A socially-challenged genetics professor sets out to find a wife scientifically. A laugh-out-loud romantic comedy that both men and women will enjoy. Winner of the Vic Premier’s Award for an unpublished manuscript and rights sold in 32 countries. Where are you from / [...]

This is a remarkable true story about how America’s best pianist was immortalised by an Australian lipstick salesman. A Lasting Record is a haunting story about two men who never met but whose paths crossed in a surprising way. With a mix of detective work and imagination, Stephen Downes tells the spellbinding tale of the greatest pianist [...]

What’s Your Dog Teaching You? by Martin McKenna The follow-up to the bestselling What’s Your Dog Telling You? Martin McKenna, aka the Dog Man, has learned plenty from the dogs he grew up with and from the dogs he now owns. He firmly believes that dogs hold the key to human happiness and wellbeing and that they can help us [...]

The feel-good novel of 2013, The Rosie Project is a classic screwball romance. Rights sold into more than thirty countries. Don Tillman is getting married. He just doesn’t know who to yet. But he has designed the Wife Project, using a sixteen-page questionnaire to help him find the perfect partner. She will most definitely not [...]

Random House Australia has acquired the rights to an ebook and print book version of Dandelion, a popular anti-bullying app for children that was created by Sydney writer and creative director Galvin Scott Davis. Random House will publish the Dandelion ebook on 15 March, followed by a hardcover picture book on 1 April. Davis created the Dandelion app in 2012 in [...]

Random Romance is the new Random House Australia digital-first romance list and is launching next month – just in time for Valentine’s Day – with five indulgent titles, including two romcoms, two erotic novellas and a scintillating outback romance. Another five titles will be published throughout the year.   One Little White Lie by Loretta HillThis [...]

THE SKY IS NOT THE LIMIT The action-packed true story of Australia’s own top gun pilot Matt Hall Growing up in Newcastle, NSW, Matt Hall didn’t give much thought to his future. All he knew was when his Dad would take him flying, the world suddenly made sense to him. The stories he loved best [...]

Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown has penned a new thriller, Inferno, which will publish globally on May 14. In his eagerly awaited follow-up to The Lost Symbol renowned Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon returns. Set in the heart of Europe Langdon is drawn into a harrowing world centred on one of history’s most enduring and mysterious literary masterpieces. From [...]

Penguin Books has announced that it will publish a limited edition set of 12 of its ‘Popular Penguins’ books with pink covers in March to help raise money for the McGrath Foundation. $1 from the sale of each of the ‘Pink Popular Penguins’ will be donated to the McGrath Foundation, which aims to increase breast health [...]

The Gourmand World Cookbook Awards finalists have been announced. The finalists from Australia and New Zealand are as follows: Authors category Chef: Origin: The Food of Ben Shewry by Ben Shewry (Murdoch Books). Cuisines category Foreign: Cooking from the Heart: A Jewish Journey Through Food by Gaye Weeden & Hayley Smorgon (Hardie Grant) Italian: Limoncello and Linen Water by Tessa Kiros [...]

The winners of the 2012 UK Costa Book Awards have been announced. The Costa Book Awards are presented annually for titles published in the previous year by writers based in the UK and Ireland. The winners are: Novel - Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel First novel - The Innocents by Francesca Segal Biography - Dotter of her [...]