Secrets from the Green Room

Karen and Irma chat about AI dangers for writers, including scam emails and why publishers hate writers  using AI proofreading software to 'polish' their work.
Then Irma chats to Melanie Cheng about how a nosey friend resulted in an early pivotal moment, why she wrote in a secret for many years, and how winning a manuscript prize changed everything overnight, why her second book was so hard to write, the balance of having a public profile as an author and working as a GP, why she still has imposter syndrome as a writer, why she thought she would never write anything ever again after her second book, and why saying yes to every publicity opp led to a nightmare experience.
 
Show notes
Melanie Cheng: https://melaniechengwriter.com/

About Melanie
Melanie Cheng is a writer and general practitioner. She was born in Adelaide, grew up in Hong Kong and now lives in Melbourne. Her debut collection of short stories, Australia Day, won the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript in 2016 and the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Fiction in 2018. She has published two novels, Room for a Stranger and The Burrow, both of which were longlisted for the Miles Franklin award. The Burrow was also shortlisted for the Stella prize and nominated for the Dublin Literary Award. 

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Irma and Karen talk about the importance of the major dramatic question in writing fiction, and what they’ve been reading lately in Book Chat.
Then Karen talks to Alice Pung about Alice’s unusual process of writing her first book in close contact with a publisher, how writing as a young person with no filters contributed to her early success, how she writes non-fiction with fiction techniques and vice versa, why she finds writing non-fiction harder than fiction, how giving talks to bored 14-year old boys enhanced her public speaking skills, why she has never wanted to be a fulltime writer, how she became penfriends with John Marsden, and how she thought she’d received spam when an email came through saying she’d been awarded an OAM.
About Alice
Alice Pung is the bestselling author of two memoirs, two novels, an essay collection, several children’s books, and the editor of two anthologies. Her books have been published both in Australia and overseas and have won or been short listed for many awards. In 2022 she was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for her services to literature. She is a qualified practicing lawyer and lives in Naarm Melbourne.
 Find out more about Irma and Karen
Visit Irma Gold’s website, or follow her on Instagram and Facebook
Visit Karen Viggers’ website, or follow her on Instagram and Facebook
Follow Secrets From the Green Room on Instagram and Facebook

Irma and Karen make an exciting announcement about the future of the podcast, then discuss a cautionary tale involving a freelance editor and AI.
 Then Karen talks to journalist and feminist author Virginia Haussegger about how she became a TV journalist and was sent to Darwin to make all her mistakes, how working on TV has both changed and not changed for women since the 1980s, the ways that deadlines help her to write, how book ideas strike her like meteorites, why counting her writing hours on an app helps, and the outrage of discovering her latest book, Feminist Fightback, shelved under military history!
About Virginia
Virginia Haussegger AM is an award-winning television journalist, writer and commentator. She has worked in the TV and newsprint media for over 30 years both in Australia and overseas. She’s reported for current affairs programs and anchored the primetime national news in five capital cities, including 15 years in Canberra. She’s a public speaker, a podcaster, an ACT Australian of the Year, and a strong advocate for women.
Show notes
Ubud Writers and Readers Festival 
Freelance Editors’ Network
IPEd
 Find out more about Irma and Karen
Visit Irma Gold’s website, or follow her on Instagram and Facebook
Visit Karen Viggers’ website, or follow her on Instagram and Facebook
Follow Secrets From the Green Room on Instagram and Facebook

Irma and Karen talk about starting your novel with a bang to get readers’ attention.
Then in our new occasional series, Karen talks to debut novelists Sarah Walker and Sam Elliott about the process of getting their first books published, how Sam bounced back from workplace bullying to write fiction, how Sarah got an overseas agent, the ways having an agent or winning an award helps with getting published, what Sam learned through podcasting that helped with publishing, and the news that made Sarah scream at her workplace.
About Sarah and Sam
Sarah Walker is a Naarm (Melbourne-based) writer, artist and photographer. Her first book, The First Time I Thought I Was Dying, a collection of non-fiction essays, won the Quentin Bryce Award. Her debut novel is The Water Takes.
Sam Elliott is an author and interviewer. He is the founder and host of The Write Way podcast on which he has interviewed many authors, including both Irma and me. Haze is his debut novel. He lives in Sydney.
Find out more about Irma and Karen
Visit Irma Gold’s website, or follow her on Instagram and Facebook
Visit Karen Viggers’ website, or follow her on Instagram and Facebook
Follow Secrets From the Green Room on Instagram and Facebook

Karen and Irma chat about how to decide on the POV(s) for a novel, and how to listen to what the book itself wants to be.
Then Irma talks to Melbourne Writers Festival Director Veronica Sullivan and Sorrento Writers Festival Director Corrie Perkin about their pathways to becoming directors of two of Australia’s biggest festivals, the way they plan their programs, practical advice on what writers and their publishers can do to break into the festival circuit, what writers do wrong when pitching to festivals and how to get it right, the controversy around the Sydney Writers Festival exclusivity clause and the Bendigo and Adelaide festival boycotts, what makes both a good panellist and a good panel, how Corrie’s devastating experience of closing her bookshop led to creating a new festival, and why an event with Behrouz Boochani had a profound impact on Veronica.
About Corrie and Veronica
Corrie Perkin began her career as a cadet reporter at the Age and over the next three decades, worked in a variety of editing and writing roles. In 2009, she opened an independent bookstore in Hawksburn that ran that for 12 years. Then in 2023, she founded the Sorrento Writers Festival, which has quickly grown to become Australia’s second-biggest literary festival.
Veronica Sullivan began as a volunteer at Melbourne Writers Festival, then went on to intern at the Emerging Writers’ Festival. She was a founding board member and then program manager of the Feminist Writers Festival, and then became head of programming at The Wheeler Centre, before assuming her current role as Director of Melbourne Writers Festival.
Show Notes
Melbourne Writers Festival
Sorrento Writers Festival
Find out more about Irma and Karen
Visit Irma Gold’s website, or follow her on Instagram and Facebook
Visit Karen Viggers’ website, or follow her on Instagram and Facebook
Follow Secrets From the Green Room on Instagram and Facebook