Emily Paull

I may be doing a few of these spotlights this year... it seems a lot of people I know and love are having their books published.  Today, I am shining my spotlight on Dustfall , a beautiful literary novel by Michelle Johnston, who I will also be interviewing next week at the Writers Festival here in Perth.  Dustfall  is the story of two doctors, Lou and Raymond, one in the 'present' day (although I think her story actually takes place in the late 90s) and one in the 60s, at the very tail end of the life of the town of Wittenoom.  We know now that the asbestos mining operation in Wittenoom had an incredibly high, devastating cost for the workers and their families, many of whom would suffer from mesothelioma for the rest of their lives, however long those lives would be. The town has now been degazetted, and does not appear on any maps.  But in Dustfall, Dr Lou Fitzgerald, fleeing a medical error that haunts her, finds herself in Wittenoom on route to a rural ...

Why is it that thinking up a title for your book is so hard? This is something I have been thinking about this week, as I get ready to start sending out my work to agents and publishers. It seems to me from talking to people on Twitter this week that there are a few ways of thinking about it.  There are those who say that titles are vitally important, even at this pre-published stage, and that putting the best possible title on your work will give it a great first impression.  But there are also others who say that titles, like covers, matter very little at this stage of the book progress, as they will be changed as part of the publication process anyway.  The trouble is that you have to get a publisher first. Perhaps the truth of the matter lies somewhere in between these two, or perhaps it even depends, with factors such as the genre of your work, the publishing house you are working with, and what's already on the market all coming in to play. At the moment, my...

The Secrets at Ocean's Edge by Kali Napier Hachette, 2018 (My copy courtesy the publisher) When Ernie Hass moves his wife Lily and their daugher Girlie to the coastal town of Dongarra (historical spelling of Dongara from the time the book was set) in 1932, it's not in the happiest of circumstances.  Ernie is bankrupt-- his farm was mortgaged up to the hilt and he was counting on subsidies that never came in. He moves them out to a run down property by the beach front, hoping for a fresh start. His plan?  To open a guest house with a little shop.  Yet the reality of the situation seems dire to his wife Lily, who is already feeling the strain on their marriage.  Forced to give up her position in society and all her nice things-- including a beloved sewing machine, which allowed her to design and alter her own dresses, Lily feels more trapped than ever, and her frustration is beginning to seep out and colour her interactions with her family.  When her brother...