James and Ashley Stay at Home

How does having a stalker change your life? We talk with bestselling novelist Pip Drysdale about her latest novel 'The Close-Up,' its real-life inspirations, and how surviving a stalker shifted her worldview.

We also discuss how to navigate public image and the role anxiety has to play in creative pursuits.

Plus, this ep's What Are You Reading? inspires a debate about what's derivative and what's inspired, and if those can be the same thing.

Join Ashley & Pip in conversation at Five Dock Library speaking about Cold Truth, Five Dock Library, Wednesday 30 April 5.30 for 6pm start. Free, book online.

Pip Drysdale is an author, musician and actor. She grew up in Africa, Canada, and Australia, became an adult in New York and London, and lives on a steady diet of coffee, dreams, and literature. Her first four books The Sunday Girl, The Strangers We Know, The Paris Affair and The Next Girl have been bestsellers in Australia. Her latest book, The Close-Up is out now in Australia/NZ and North America. She lives in Sydney.

Books & authors discussed in this episode:

• 'My Stalker, My Novel'by Pip Drysdale for Crime Reads;
• I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman;
• We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer;
• Anna Downes;
• House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski

Upcoming events:

Learn more about Ashley's thrillers, Dark Mode and Cold Truth, and get yourcopiesfromyour local bookshop or your library.

What considerations come into choosing to have a baby for creatives? And once baby enters the picture, how do you balance parenting with your creative practice? 

We ask Dinuka McKenzie and Lee Kofman, two beloved past guests who happen to be both authors and parents, about their decision to have children and how they manage their writing lives as parents. 

Plus, James has a big announcement – you'll never guess what it is. 

Lee Kofman is a Russian-born, Israeli-Australian memoirist, novelist, editor and writing coach. She’s the author of three fiction books and two memoirs, including Imperfect, which was shortlisted for the prestigious Nib Literary Award in 2019. Her short works have been widely published in Australia, US, UK, Israel and Canada. Lee’s most recent book is The Writer Laid Bare (Ventura Press).

Dinuka is the author of the Detective Kate Miles crime series, The Torrent, Taken and Tipping Point, published in Australia and the UK. She was the winner of the 2020 HarperCollins Australia Banjo Prize and has been shortlisted for numerous major Australian crime writing awards. Dinuka lives with her family in Southern Sydney on Dharawal country.

Mascara Literary Review is looking for essays, flash fiction and poetry from disabled and chronically ill writers – closes 31 March. 

Books & authors discussed in this episode:

• Cyril Connolly 
• The Lady's Handbook to Her Mysterious Illness by Sarah Ramey 
• Edenglassie by Melissa Lucashenko 
• At the Strangers' Gate by Adam Gopnik 
• Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart
• Your Baby Doesn't Come with a Book by Daniel Golshevsky
• The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus 

Cold Truth, Ashley's new thriller, is out now. James and Ashley discuss just how difficult writing this book was, plus why she chose to set in a city that makes headlines for being colder than the surface of Mars. They also chat about real-life research, including the time Ashley learned how to pick a lock with a credit card. Plus, James horrifies Ashley with a true story about digital privacy. 

Cold Truth is available now from Booktopia, your local bookshop and your library.