SARA FOSTER
Sara Foster is an internationally published, bestselling author living in Western Australia. She has written seven novels: The Hush, You Don’t Know Me, The Hidden Hours, All That is Lost Between Us, Shallow Breath, Beneath the Shadows and Come Back to Me. Her latest published work is a novella, The Deceit, first released as an Audible Original in July 2022 and published by Blackstone (US/Can) in February 2023. She is currently working on a new psychological suspense When She Was Gone, due for release in 2025.
 
Sara is passionate about writing strong female characters and incorporates contemporary themes into her books, which often traverse the genre areas of psychological suspense, family noir and crime thrillers. She recently graduated from Curtin University with a Vice Chancellor’s Commendation for her PhD work on maternal relationships in dystopian fiction with young adult heroines. Her work has been optioned for television and You Don’t Know Me was turned into a chart-topping crime podcast dramatisation by Listnr. 
 
Sara writes regularly for her readers on her Substack Novel Thoughts and Wild Ideas

Find Sara’s books

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  • BLURB REVEAL! 

So excited to bring you the blurb for my new book WHEN SHE WAS GONE!!!! We’re all going to have to wait a little longer than anticipated as it’s been pushed back and won’t be coming out until April 2025, but we’re hard at work finalising and finessing text and cover right now, and you’ll see all the build-up to this one as we go through the year. I hope you all love the sound of it... 

Rose once walked away from her daughter
Now, is she the only one who can save her?

Former London police officer Rose Campbell has been estranged from her daughter, Lou, for almost a decade. But when Lou disappears from a remote Western Australian beach, and the police suspect her of kidnapping the two young children in her care, Rose is asked to help bring Lou home. The police think Rose’s insights will lead them to Lou, but they don’t realise that Rose hardly knows her daughter any more. 

This is the final case in DSS Mal Blackwood’s illustrious career, and there’s a lot riding on it. The missing children are heirs to the Fisher property empire, and while their multimillionaire grandfather is breathing down Blackwood’s neck for results, the media storm is intensifying. Faced with a deluge of evidence and accusations, Blackwood doesn’t know who he can trust. 

Rose arrives in Australia intent on proving her daughter’s innocence, but how can she be sure of that when she’s no longer part of Lou’s life? Meanwhile, as Blackwood begins to expose the Fishers’ secrets, the investigation takes a much darker turn. Shadows of the past gather around the Fishers and Rose, and soon it’s clear that every hour is critical. What has happened to Lou and the children? And can Rose and Blackwood find them in time?

😱🎉😱🎉😱🎉
  • Every week I check in with one of Australia’s favourite authors to bring you their latest news, and this week I’m delighted to welcome crime writer @dinukamckenzie ! 

ABOUT DINUKA: Dinuka McKenzie is an Australian writer and the author of the Detective Kate Miles crime series, The Torrent, Taken and Tipping Point, published in Australia and the UK. She is the winner of the 2020 HarperCollins Australia Banjo Prize. Her writing has been shortlisted for the Sisters in Crime Davitt Awards, the Bad Sydney Crime Danger Awards, longlisted for the Richell Prize, and highly commended in the Australian Crime Writers Association, Louie Award. Her short fiction has appeared in the 2022 Dark Deeds Down Under crime and thriller anthology. Dinuka lives in Southern Sydney on Dharawal country with her husband, two kids, and their pet chicken.

So, Dinuka, tell us what you are…

READING: A Hitwoman’s Guide to Reducing Household Debt by Mark Mupotsa-Russell (@markwillrussell). I was lucky enough to read an early copy, and it’s an absolute gem. A funny, heart-breaking and completely gripping crime thriller about an ex-hitwoman trying make a life for herself and her family in suburban Melbourne. Keep an eye out for this one. Out later this year through Affirm Press.

WATCHING: Nailed It on Netflix. This is one of my kids’ favourite shows and it’s very difficult to stop watching once you start. All about ordinary cooks trying to recreate extraordinary baking feats, and usually not quite getting there. I love how the hosts and competitors have fun with the whole concept and don’t take themselves too seriously. The show is all about celebrating imperfection and cheering on the competitors as they try something outside of their comfort zone, which I love.

LISTENING TO: Resurrection Walk by Michael Connelly. I am in awe of Connelly’s detailed knowledge of the American legal system and law enforcement and how much research underpins all of his books. It’s such a treat to get into a novel where the author knows his stuff inside out. You know you’re in safe hands.
  • My author notes for March are fresh off the press on Substack - lots of juicy food for thought this month around writing, publishing and creativity. Link in my bio!
  • Doing-my-best-to-be-Motivated Monday! 

It’s been a tricky week - you know how it goes. One minute you’re chugging along in your routine, and the next a basketball wallops you on the back of the head and you’ve got whiplash, daily visits to the physio, little sleep and debilitating head and neck pain! 🙄
But I am soldering on! Doing work in short bursts and being visited/distracted by my neighbour’s pet rainbow lorikeet who is peering in through my study window watching me! And my hubby and I got out into the Chittering Valley for a few hours over the weekend which was lovely. 
I was hoping to do the blurb reveal for new book last week but we’re still tinkering - however it will be coming asap and I can’t wait to share that with you! My monthly Author Notes (insider news and views for writers) will be on Substack tomorrow - these are always a lot of fun to write. And a lovely crime writer is coming onto the check-in later in the week too. So good things afoot! 
Hope you all have a great week 😃
  • Every week I check in with one of Australia’s favourite authors to bring you their latest news, and this week I’m delighted to welcome Myfanwy Jones! 

ABOUT MYFANWY: Myfanwy Jones is the author of Leap, shortlisted for the 2016 Miles Franklin Literary Award, and The Rainy Season, finalist for the 2009 Melbourne Prize for Literature’s Best Writing Award. She also co-wrote the bestselling Parlour Games for Modern Families, awarded the 2010 ABIA Book of the Year for Older Children. Her short stories and essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including most recently Split: true stories of leaving, loss, and new beginnings. Myfanwy works as an editor and writing mentor, and lives beside a creek in Melbourne/Naarm.

So Myfanwy, tell us what you are…

READING: Preston graffiti; Ellen van Neerven’s verse; rereading Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler
WATCHING: Blue Lights on SBS
LISTENING TO: Angel Olsen and Hildegaard Von Bingen
THINKING ABOUT: Fathers. Weather patterns. Food chains. (And their intersections.)
WORKING ON: A campground mystery ... (I think??) I’m right at the beginning, but the difficulty of interpreting sounds in the dark seems important. And there is an observant bowerbird, and glow worms.

MYFANWY’S LATEST BOOK:  Tracking three generations of butchers beside Tinaroo Dam, on the Atherton Tablelands of Far North Queensland, Cool Water is a story about how men make men: how fathers produce sons, and sons turn into fathers. As the narrative moves between a present-day wedding beside the dam, and the explosive year in the 1950s that set the Herbert men’s course, the novel explores the joys and risks of human attachment, the layering of family myth through landscape, and the fluid nature of our stories, our selves and of time itself.

FIND OUT MORE AND FOLLOW MYFANWY: 
Website: https://myfanwyajones.com/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/myfanwyjonesauthor
Instagram: @myfanwy_jones 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/myfanwy-jones-9561725b/

Thanks for checking in, Myfanwy!
  • Are there any takeaways for storytellers and creatives in the recent news stories around the Princess of Wales’s digitally manipulated photo? That’s the topic of my Substack today (link in my bio).
  • TRYING TO BE MOTIVATED MONDAY! 😜 Struggling a bit today as I took a knock on the head at a basketball game on Friday and it has triggered a fairly painful neck-joint issue from whiplash! So I feel like I’m being stabbed in the head every few seconds, but soldering on! I have a fun substack tomorrow looking at how a certain photoshop debacle can help us think about what makes a good story. And I’m going to be chatting more about my new book later in the week too so can’t wait to share that one. Hope you’re all off to a good start to the week!
  • Every week I check in with one of Australia’s favourite authors to bring you their latest news, and this week I’m delighted to welcome brilliant crime-writer @sarah_bailey_author !

ABOUT SARAH: Sarah Bailey is a Melbourne-based writer with a background in advertising and communications. She has three sons and is currently the Managing Director of the Melbourne and Sydney offices of advertising agency VML. Her internationally award-winning Gemma Woodstock series includes The Dark Lake, published in 2017 and winner of the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Fiction and the Davitt Award for Best Debut, followed by Into the Night in 2018, and Where the Dead Go in 2019. Her new release Body of Lies is the fourth book in the series. Sarah has also published the bestselling The Housemate and Audible Original Final Act in 2021.

So, Sarah, tell us what you are…

READING: I’ve just finished an advance copy of The Last Trace by Petronella McGovern. She’s written another clever twisty read!
WATCHING: I just finished the latest season of True Detective. I enjoyed it but didn’t love it. I’ve struggled to get into a show lately so open to any recommendations!
LISTENING TO: I listen to approximately one million podcasts every week. A few favourites are The Drop, Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps, Armchair Expert, Big Small Talk, Can We Be Real and Vanity Fair’s podcast Little Gold Men. I’m also listening to Megan Rogers’ The Heart is a Star as an audiobook.
THINKING ABOUT: The unthinkable horror the people in Gaza are facing and what it says about us and the way our world works that something like this can happen in 2024.
WORKING ON: I am back at work after ten months of parental leave so am working on a few projects and easing myself back into the cut and thrust of advertising agency life. I’m also (slowly) working on a new book, a sequel to my previous novel, The Housemate.
  • New Substack post today! This one is for writers and all creatives, particularly those in struggle at the moment. It’s such a relief to realise that the different ways we get lost during the process of creativity can actually be essential to our eventual success! Link to read in my bio.

Follow Sara Foster’s author account on Instagram

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