The Month I Tried to Untangle a Plot… and Got Wrapped in It

Author events, plot knots, podcast laughs, and a giveaway you won’t want to miss.

Happy April!

It’s rare that I’m home for April – usually I’m travelling at this time. There’s still a lot on, though. This newsletter is due to come out around my birthday, which is right after the Easter break. Two days later is ANZAC Day. And I’m going to see Michelle Brasier, who’s the author of the book My Brother’s Ashes Are in a Sandwich Bag, which I recommended in my very first newsletter. I can’t wait!

🗞️ In this newsletter

• Winner of last month’s giveaway

• What I’ve been up to

• Event

• What I’m working on now

• Recommendations

• Epiphany

• Puzzle

• Giveaway!

Winner of last month’s giveaway

The lucky winner has been contacted by email! Make sure you check your junk mail and reply back to me so I can organise postage.

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What I’ve been up to

Kalamunda Library is doing amazing author events, especially recently. I got to attend a writing workshop run by Fleur McDonald, author of twenty-something rural crime books. Her latest novel, The Prospect comes highly recommended and I’m looking forward to digging in.

The City of Joondalup and Joondalup Libraries are also superstars when it comes to author events. I went to the launch of Sara Foster’s latest book When She Was Gone, with Dervla McTiernan as the interviewer. It was heaps of fun – I’ve already started reading the book and I’m worried it’s going to wreck me.

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Events

I’ll be hosting a writing workshop for children just after this newsletter comes out. If you’ve got kids aged between 8-12, check out Manning Library’s events page.

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What I’m working on now

We’re about a year away from the release of The Escape Game. Copyedits are done and we’re waiting on the typeset pages, with all the fancy designs inside. I may have been privy to some visuals that I’m not allowed to talk about just yet…

Marissa and I are also working on edits for book 2. Now that we’ve finished the first draft, it’s about streamlining, adding description, wrangling stray subplots, and going back and forth on the WHO and WHAT and WHY. Let’s just say, I suspect this book is going to be even trickier to pin down than the first one – and the first one was a doozy.

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Recommendations

Do Go On Podcast

This is a weekly podcast where three Australian comedians research a topic – biography, event, whatever – and talk about it like a report. It’s a bit like The Dollop, but with waaay more tangents and riffs. Because it’s Australian comedy, there’s a lot of foul language, so consider yourself warned. It might take a few episodes to really get into it, but I promise it’s worth it. I’ve had so many story ideas from these reports, including a new solo project I’m currently outlining.

The Happy Writer: Get More Ideas, Write More Words, and Find More Joy from First Draft to Publication and Beyond – Marissa Meyer

This non-fiction book by Marissa Meyer is a pleasure to read (and I’m not just saying that because she’s my co-author). Her optimism shines off the page and reminds you to find joy in each step of the writing process. I recommend you peruse it with a cup of tea and a piece of chocolate (or a glass of wine and a cheese board, whatever makes you happy!).

Invisible Boys (the TV show)

Based on the book by Holden Sheppard, this beautiful, raw mini-series will change you for the better. I loved it so much. I’m incredibly proud of the shows Australia are bringing out at the moment – if you can get Stan, that’s where it’s available. Just a heads up: there are a lot of sex scenes, as well as some disturbing events at the end.

Epiphany

A snippet of wisdom that’s helped me become a better writer.

Marissa and I have been collaborating a little bit differently for book 2 of The Escape Game. Rather than focus on a particular point of view to share the storytelling, we’ve each taken a specific, important plot thread to focus on. There are other plot threads too, but we’ve been working on those ones together. Basically, we have four (five? I’m losing count) important plot threads in this book. Which is a lot. Too much, maybe? I sent Marissa an email suggesting we drop one of the threads, to which she rightfully pointed out wouldn’t work (for various secret reasons). Instead, she suggested we spent more time integrating the threads. While I’ve read writing advice in the past about subplots, I’ve never read an explicit explanation on how to weave in a subplot. One plot thread needs to influence the other, mostly negatively. How can we make Thread A impact Thread B on more levels? On deeper levels? How can the turning point in Thread C adversely affect Thread A? How can a character trying to achieve something for Thread D ruin something that was happening in Thread A? All the threads in this book are only loosely connected, so now we’re working on intertwining them further to bind the people and events from each thread so tightly together that the plot would unravel if we lost one.

Writing is hard, friends.

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Puzzle

Answer to last month’s puzzle:

Initially, we acquired very eagerly something found in the ocean. (4 letters)

The trigger word in this cryptic clue is initially. That means you need to look at the first letters of the words in this sentence. The actual clue is “something found in the ocean”, so take the words We Acquired Very Eagerly, and you get WAVE.

Did you get it? Are you ready for another one? I’ve got a riddle for you this time.

Cryptic clue:

I march, I drag, I do not sleep,

I heal, I kill, I race, I creep.

What am I?

(Answer next month. Or in the comments section if someone gets it before then.)

Giveaway

I’m giving away a copy of The Other Olivia, my adult techno-thriller set in Western Australia, written under my pen name Tamara M Bailey. All you have to do is be a subscriber of this newsletter by May 15th 2025. Open internationally.

About The Other Olivia

Pitched as Orphan Black x The Matrix, The Other Olivia follows Olivia Alexander (nee Sharp), who thinks her biggest problem is discovering her husband’s affair.

Then a stranger accosts her on the street warning, “Don’t sign anything.” When Olivia reluctantly follows his advice, everything starts to fall apart. Suddenly assassins, safe houses, and ruthless global corporations are her new reality, and she’s running for her life.

In a shadow world unknown to Olivia, Livvie Sharp’s partner goes missing, someone tries to kidnap her little girl, and now she too is on the run as someone hunts her. Someone who knows everything about her. Someone using her loved ones as weapons to bring her down.

Then Livvie meets the other Olivia.