Covid-19 and the ensuing lockdown has changed our lives in a way that none of us expected. It can also be a time for reflection. And perhaps new starts?

In a recent Facebook Live interview with Valerie Khoo from the Australian Writers Centre, I talked a bit about why I started writing thrillers and mysteries. It was one of those moments when I sat back and asked myself this question:

If I don’t try now to write a book, will I always regret it?

For me, the answer was, Yes. So I took the first steps and joined a creative writing class, just to see if I had any talent at all. I expected to fail. I was with other people who, like me, were riddled with self-doubt about our creative writing abilities. The class was fun. And informative. An idea for a thriller came to me over the following weeks and I knew I just had to write it. The only problem was that at the time there were very few genre-specific writing classes available and none that specialised in thriller writing. In the end, I found my own way by reading the great thriller authors and working out what they did to make their stories so enthralling.

Soon after my first novel, The Genesis Flaw, was published, I was approached by the Australian Writers Center and asked if I’d like to run their crime fiction and thriller writing class . I immediately agreed because I wanted to encourage new crime fiction authors and help them navigate around the pitfalls of writing their first book. Nine years later, I have run numerous workshops with the Australian Writers Centre and helped wonderful writers like Sarah Bailey, author of Where The Dead Go, and Shankari Chandran, author of The Barrier, develop their thriller writing skills.

If you have always thought about writing a crime-thriller novel, now is the time!

I’m running a 5-week online course on Zoom that starts Tuesday 26 May at 6:30pm AEST , and the following four classes are at the same time each Tuesday until the course ends. No matter what time zone you are in, I hope you will be able to join me. Even if you are based in the UK or Europe! If you are in the UK, you would diarise this course for Tuesday 26 May at 9:30am.

Oh and don’t forget my new thriller, Prey, is available in paperback and e-book from all major online bookstores including:

Amazon Australia

Booktopia

Amazon UK 

Fishpond NZ

Stay home, stay safe!