Final Draft - Great Conversations

Starting with a shout out to Emily who is a publishing industry professional. I have had the chance to work with Emily setting up interviews for authors and I’m very happy to be talking about her first book. Emily won the Glendower Award for an Emerging Queensland Writer at the Queensland Literary Awards and her debut novel, Life Drawing. Charlie’s moved to Brisbane for uni. He feels out of place crashing on his cousin’s couch and barely knows anyone in town. He’s trying to put himself out there with uni mixers and through taking a life drawing class. Maisie’s the heart of the house. People like to think they know her. Maybe too many people think they know her too well. But the parts Maisie keeps hidden are so deep most don’t even suspect they’re there. As Maisie and Charlie circle each other’s worlds they will try to understand whether, hypothetically, they might go well together… Life Drawing is the story of Charlie and Maisie. It’s also the story of Maisie and Maisie. When they find themselves in the same sharehouse Charlie feels awkward; this is the girl he was drawing naked just a few weeks ago. Maisie’s not bothered though. On the surface she’s all cool indifference. To the world she has a great body and is completely comfortable in her own skin. Maybe if she can wear that mask for long enough she might even start to believe in it. Share house life is a recipe for implosion though, so maybe Charlie and Maisie weren’t meant to be. Except that life and the internet insist on drawing them back towards each other’s orbit. Life Drawing is driven by the ebb and flow of Charlie and Maisie as they try to discover their own grand romance. They will continue to stumble though as Charlie struggles to be ‘not all men’, while Maisie works to love herself half as much as she pretends. The heart of the novel is Maisie’s journey through body image and self esteem. As a cis-het male I’d be disingenuous if I pretended I was watching this part of the story as anything other than an outsider. Maisie’s struggles are unique but also part of a world where women are compelled into devil’s bargains for their own sense of worth and achievement. Growing through the years we watch on as Maisie and Charlie try to shape lives together and apart. From the first moment Charlie tries to capture Maisie on paper we can see that who they are and how they see each other are complex entities and prone to illusion and misalignment. Maisie’s own story is similarly fraught with confusion and miscommunication. Knowing yourself is not a foregone conclusion of living a life and Maisie must make herself in her own image, not just through the eyes of others.

One of my favourite parts of Final Draft is discovering debut novels that get me excited for many more books to come. That was my feeling as I devoured George Kemp’s Soft Serve (sorry pun not intended) over the holidays. George Kemp is a writer of fiction, plays and television. After a life as an actor and producing his own scripts on the stage, George was accepted into The Faber Academy, where he wrote his debut novel SOFT SERVE. We are taken to a small town McDonald’s where four reluctant individuals gather to remember Taz. Pat is still mourning the son she lost too young. Fern, Jacob and Ethan miss their best friend. Taz died tragically after moving to Sydney and now the four find themselves adrift and struggle with how their lives have become stuck since his death. As fires bear down on the Maccas, the four must confront how they are trapped not just by natural disaster but by their choices since Taz died. As I read Soft Serve I couldn’t help but wonder about how George Kemp’s dramatic training had been brought to bear in his writing. The narrative of Soft Serve is simultaneously cinematic in its race against time drama amidst the fires, with big set pieces set amidst the flames, whilst also containing the intimacy of the stage as we zoom in on the four figures in the remote fast food restaurant worrying through their all too human problems. The novel is spare, but effective in establishing its central group. Pat grieves in a no-nonsense sort of way as she sets up the fryers and dreads the day ahead. Jacob and Ethan skirt around their truth and try to put on a face for the world. Fern doubts herself even as she shows the most vision of them all. Against the backdrop of an unfolding disaster these all-too-human concerns of love and desire, reconciling the past and exploring the future become overwhelming. Soft Serve shows us the moment when years of avoidance must ultimately be faced. Shown through the eyes of the characters as they face themselves and each other it makes for compelling viewing. And there I go again, talking about Soft Serve as if it were a film I was watching, as much a novel I read. The reader has this highly imaginative and visual experience ahead as they move through a tense and emotional ride of a narrative.

Shailee Thompson is a writer and educator and today we’ve got her debut novel, How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates. Right off the top I’ll let you all know that How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates is a horror/slasher story. It has a lot of fun playing with the genre and that’s why I’m bringing it in for you, but if that’s not your thing right now just mute the next few minutes. Jamie needs a break from her PhD thesis on the intersection of rom coms and horror movies. Academia can be murder! So Jamie and her best friend Laurie decide to go to a speed dating event at a local nightclub. Dating is hell and the apps are cooked but this should be a laugh. At least each ‘date’ is only ten minutes. It’s all going so-so, with a few sparks from aesthetically pleasing partners when the lights go out. Not exactly romantic but when they come back on Jamie finds her current date slashed ear to ear as she is thrown into a fight for her life! It only gets bolder and bloodier from here in How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates but this is a narrative that knows its genre. Jamie quickly draws on her academic experience to teach the survivors the ‘Rules’; ten vital tricks to staying alive in a slasher film. These are the group's lifeline as they search for an exit and a way to return to the real world. But their villain has their own plan and besides people never follow rules. Like so many of us Shailee Thompson has come of age in a post Scream world where it’s not enough to simply fill the screen with vicarious gore. The horror films of the seventies and eighties gave a whole generation some freudian insight into human nature and now the post modern slashers of the nineties are spawning their own progeny that know they’re in a story and really want to flip the script. Thus How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates is part slasher, part rom com, with a protagonist who doesn’t know whether she’s a leading lady or a final girl, and really prefers not to make the choice. The novel is filled with jump scares, meet-cutes, blood spatter, and sexual tension (not necessarily in that order. From the outset, Jamie’s thesis introduces us to the notion that both genres share a lot in common and the rest of the story goes to extreme lengths to test that theory. This is a lot of fun… Genre heads will enjoy the way the tropes are both respected and inverted. Literary nerds can geek out at the high concept meta narrative. Armchair sleuths can try to solve it. Film nerds will love the myriad nods and easter eggs. And we can all enjoy the vicarious pleasure of not being stuck in the story ourselves. How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates is a knowing, pacy, well written look at the type of story we usually take for granted as entertainment. It reassures us it’s ok to have fun, but also the fun is part of a much more clever and dangerous world. Being a book nerd has never been so much fun.

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. Christian White is an Australian author and screenwriter. He is the bestselling author of titles including The Nowhere Child (2018), The Wife and the Widow (2019), and Wild Place (2021). Christian’s joining us today with his latest The Long Night On a quiet night in the sleepy little village of Talowin, Em sits in the Royal Oak pub waiting for her date. Em’s convinced she’s going to die alone, but who knows maybe this date will be different. It’s getting late and Em’s about to give up when a figure enters the pub, and what happens next will change Em’s life forever… Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople⁠ Want more great conversations with Australian authors? ⁠Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week⁠.

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. George Kemp is an award winning writer of fiction, plays and television. In 2024, George was accepted into The Faber Academy, during which he wrote his first novel SOFT SERVE. In a small town McDonald’s four reluctant individuals gather to remember Taz. Pat is still mourning the son she lost too young. Fern, Jacob and Ethan miss their friend and struggle with how their lives have become stuck since his death. This is no simple anniversary though. As fires circle the town, bearing down on the Maccas, the four must confront how they are trapped not just by natural disaster but by their choices since Taz died. Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople⁠ Want more great conversations with Australian authors? ⁠Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week⁠.

The Final Draft podcast is all about books, writing and literary culture. We're dedicated to exploring Australian writing, looking into the issues that drive our storytelling to discover more from the books you love. These are the stories that make us who we are. William J Byrne’s debut novel is The Warrumbar. Robbie’s not so different from the other boys in his class. He loves cricket, school not so much. His Mum is Aboriginal and his Dad is white. They live on the outskirts of town and don’t have much. When Robbie meets Moses his world is opened up. He learns about The Mission where his Mum grew up, about the world that Moses has seen after enlisting in the army. Moses tells him about life; the mistakes he’s made and how he’s worked to overcome them. Robbie’s Dad thinks Moses is trouble. They have history and Robbie’s Dad warns him off seeing him. Of course Robbie doesn’t listen, which draws him down to the Dam one fateful day. Final Draft is produced and presented by Andrew Pople⁠ Want more great conversations with Australian authors? ⁠Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week⁠.

Xmas time is here and as sure we’ll be reaching for mince pies, gravy and white wine in the sun, we’ll also be turning our attention to festive tales that make us feel warm and full of cheer. Because festive cheer is what makes a Xmas story Xmassy right? I saw the other day that this year marks the 35th anniversary of Home Alone. Feeling old yet? This iconic Xmas movie is full of all the festive staples like child neglect, break and enter, and attempted murder (are we going to need a content warning Andrew?). And Macaulay Culkin has a job for life, trotting out every five years or so and acknowledging his place alongside Mariah Carey in the modern Xmas pantheon. On the occasion of Home Alone’s 35th Culkin decided to indulge another great Xmas tradition; weighing in on whether or not Die Hard is a Xmas movie. About now you’re probably wondering what this has to do with books. This is book club after all. Well Die Hard was a book; Nothing Lasts Forever, a 1979 action thriller novel by American author Roderick Thorp. Home Alone was novelised after the fact, so do with that what you will. What I’m interested in though is the fascination with danger and in particular our predilection for mayhem and murder alongside our carefully hung stockings. Agatha Christie knew all about this. The phrase ‘A Christie for Xmas’ was synonymous with the reading public's love of a cosy crime around the holiday season. The Golden Age great wrote several books and short stories with Xmas at the centre of the narrative. The larger motif of festive murder was celebrated more through the release of a new novel around Xmas time each year. The tradition continues long after the author’s death through the release of adaptations of the novels around the festive season. Cynics may wonder if this is simply a commercial imperative. Cashing in on a public with time on their hands, but of all the types of diversion I wonder why murder is so popular a choice. It’s not just Agatha Christie. I’m waiting to read Benjamin Stevenson’s 2024 installment of his Ernest Cunningham series, Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret. I gifted it to my wife, so I guess I have to wait for her to finish it first. Horror is also a big part of the Xmas cannon. From the thorough exploitation of Krampus, through to Gremlins and with many straight up slashers in between, we love some violent Xmas storytelling. It’s beginning to look a lot like whether it’s Kevin McCalister, John McClaine, or just Joe from How to Make Gravy, everyone is looking to survive their Xmas and praying that there’s no one in her who wants to fight. So if you’re hanging out for a tightly plotted, or wildly bloody Xmas story this year, don’t fight it. You’re in good company, whether we acknowledge it or not. The why may be harder to decipher, but I’ve got my elves working on it and I think I may have something for you for our next (and last) book club for the year!