Best of 2024 - The Hybrid Author - Joanne Morell

Music. In a spirit of reconciliation, I acknowledge the traditional custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community.

I pay my respects to the Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island peoples today. Welcome to Totally Lit, the podcast celebrating reading, writing and creating literature. This episode, I have the hybrid author herself, Joanne Morrow, an author and podcaster based in Perth, Western Australia.

Joanne writes children's and young adult fiction, as well as independently publishing women's fiction and short nonfiction books for authors in her Author Lining series. She loves story in all mediums, film, television and, of course, books. Jo is the social media coordinator and newsletter editor for Squibby West, as well as founding her own local book club.

She is the host and creator of the Hybrid Author podcast, producing weekly episodes, interviewing industry professionals on all aspects which make up a hybrid author career. I hope you enjoy our chat. Joanne Morrill, the hybrid author, is with me today. I'm so excited to chat to you, Jo. I'm so excited to be here, Kai. Thank you so much for having me on. Now, can you tell me what is a hybrid author? Oh, right. Well, yes. Hybrid author.

I started the hybrid author because I was actually just looking to put everything I do in writing and authorship together under one kind of umbrella. So I write nonfiction books, women's fiction, children's fiction. And I found, and none of these I set out in the beginning to do, it was always kind of children's fiction that I was And as I have chased that kind of dream, there's been other ideas that have come to me that I've pursued, like the nonfiction books.

And when I put these books out, self-published these books, but I look for a traditional deal for my children's fiction, I went to, when I was starting to promote and market them, I just... I became very overwhelmed very quickly about having two social media sites for two different, effectively two different brands, you know, thinking about websites and things like that. And I just thought, you know, I'm a mom of two kids. I think I was working part time at the time and I just was time poor.

How was I could hardly do one kind of author brand? How was I going to effectively do two? And so, yeah, I had to think about my work as a whole and what could tie it all together. So when I first started The Hybrid Author, and that was three years ago, it was really about the way that I published those publishing endeavours. So I, as I've just said, I seek traditional representation for my children's

fiction and I self-publish my nonfiction. So to me, that was sort of a hybrid and hybrid author. The way that I spin it is it's not one way of doing things. It's doing lots of different things. But since starting it, you know, I have the Hybrid Author Podcast and from talking to other guests, it's, yeah, not one way of doing things. So not one genre, not writing one genre, not publishing one way, just all different ways, not one way of doing things really.

Well, the business of being an author is such like a mammoth task. It's one thing I didn't really feel prepared for after I'd got my first book published, doing all of the marketing. Afterwards and really knowing what to do in knowing, okay, should I just approach bookshops? Should I be approaching libraries? Should I be approaching schools? Do I do all this myself or do I get someone to do it for me? And yeah, the activity around marketing a book can be such a big job.

It's pretty talented if you're also marketing your own self-published stuff as well. Or how did you go about learning the process? By podcasting. Listening to podcasts is really where I started. And exactly what you were saying, though, I become overwhelmed by all the aspirations and the things I try and do, but all the things that make up the author business. It feels like a lot at times.

But yeah, I started out listening to podcasts. The Creative Pen Podcast is a fantastic resource for self-publishing and was actually the inspiration for me to want to start my own podcast. So shout out Joanna Penn. She's an unbeknown mentor of mine. And I've had her on my podcast a couple of times. And she's prolific in what she does. And also the Alliance of Independent Authors. These are all UK based sort of authors and organizations and things.

And they're fantastic. But it's a global community. So I attended self-publishing conference online last year.

And that was the first time I'd actually attended something like that and it was an amazing community of authors across the world to sharing their tips and expertise on self-publishing and from from all things like you know especially marketing and going after doing doing it yourself basically and tips and tricks and things like that and the lady that I recently interviewed is called Anna Featherstone have you heard of her yes I think she yeah she's on the east coast

and she's fantastic and she's got such good resources as well. So all these individuals kind of paving the way and doing it is how I effectively got the bug to do it and try it and the inspiration off the bat. And yeah, but there's so many different avenues to doing it now. Again, it's another whole overwhelm of what's the best publishing avenue for your book if you're going to do it yourself, because there's so many different options.

So I think it just depends on you and your personality. For me, I like to have the control, I guess. So I chose the cover designer, chose the editor, actually worked with freelancers like a bit of a team, but went through IngramSpark to publish and to actually get the print books. And I think they sort of upload to all the other platforms and also Amazon as well.

So that's the way I've done it, whereas other people can go through what they say hybrid publishing, like these one-stop shops that will do the editing for you and make the book for you, all that sort of stuff. There's just so much out there. And the books that you've self-published are about writing, is that right? That they're books that you can access to learn about the craft? Yeah, well, it's different kind of topics.

So the nonfiction books that I've got out are under my author linings series. So I call that author linings, this sort of silver linings for authors. And there's two books in series at the moment, and I have aspirations to bring out a couple more this year. But the two that's out there, they come from lived experience. So like I said before, I didn't plan on writing nonfiction books.

But when I finished my writing degree and I set up shop as a freelance writer thinking, I'll just do the freelance writing on the side while I effectively work on the book business and I'll make money that way.

But what I didn't realize and again time poor individual here was I was trying to run two businesses not just one so the freelance writing business that I set up I just learned so much from doing that and you could actually transfer the tips that are in this book to an author business because it's really the same sort of setup but yeah the first book is freelance writing quick tips for fast success and it's a very short these books are what are called short non-fiction because seriously it's

like 7000 words it's tiny you can read it in an hour short sweet and simple and they are like 60 plus quick tips about mindset business values rates of pay freelance writing work and things like that that can just flip ahead so that's that one the other one is more on the emotional aspects of authorship. So that one's called Author Fears and How to Overcome Them. And that's kind of... Oh, we won't need that one. Yeah, well, that book, and I had it, I think it was through Writer's Digest.

I can't remember what I put it in for, but it was reviewed by them. And it was so funny. The reviews that came back were very good. But someone had just said, it's a book full of the author's insecurities. And I was like, it absolutely is, though. But these are the things that have come up for me in pursuing this writing career and this authorship career and, you know, how I've kind of coped getting through them.

And I offer up little outcomes as suggestions for anybody kind of going through the things that I've gone through. Because you don't, if you've never done this before, you're never subjected to it. Like when I first wrote my first book in, it was my first year of university and I self-published it. It was what I called a middle grade, but I knew nothing. and I had an artwork commissioned and it was a good product, but I never had it professionally edited.

And I use this as an example because, you know, as a writer, you're working hard, you're in your head and I was pumped and, you know, I'd organized everybody and we'd made the product. And as soon as I put it out, they are, you know, friends and family. They were so supportive and it was really well done. But then I just got hit with the biggest self-doubt of my life.

I'd never experienced anything like that before And I could not get behind the work because I hadn't had it professionally edited. And it wasn't bad, you know, that like there was just parts of it, though. I remember reading over it and something in my gut just didn't feel right. And yeah, I think I just rushed it completely. So I, my response when people were, people were excited for me. Oh, you've written a book. And I would say, yeah, it's crap. Don't buy it.

So that pretty much died to death. from that experience. But things like that, I'd never had that experience before. I've since had it. And I've learned to be patient with my work. And if I read over it and something doesn't sit right in my gut, then I write it till it does. And I always professionally edit.

Well, I think too, we have an idea in our head that creating a book is just the author's role, whereas there's actually a whole team of people that if you, even with traditional publishing, you submit your manuscript and they will come back with edits and changes.

And it's not just a lonely process. Once you've got something picked up, people work with you to make it the best it can be as well. That's right. Yep. Yeah. I mean, the self-publishing is exactly what you're trying to do. You're trying to do all the roles of a traditional publishing house in whichever way that you go about it, whether it is outsourcing freelancers or finding a hybrid publisher that does it all for you. Yeah, it's the same kind of process.

And I don't think there's anything wrong with if you're self-publishing or writing a manuscript that you outsource to get the help that you need from a professional because that's what a traditional publisher does. They have hired professionals within their organisation that do it for them and that's just what you do on the outside when you're self-publishing is you reach out to people. It just means you have to fund your paying for the bill.

Yes that's that's that's a big thing and yeah it can get really costly as well i mean you could cut corners and there's things you can do but you know i just if you're going to do it do it right that's that's the whole point you want to we're in a great age where these self-publishing platforms are getting to a point where the books are the quality of the stuff coming out is it's pretty good top-notch someone said the other day they can't the stuff that's getting printed is it's on

par with some of the traditional publishing houses and yeah I think if you aspire to match your book as good as them then yeah it's definitely a good avenue but it can can get expensive the cost up front there is have you heard of Kickstarter before yes yeah this is a this is quite a good platform and one that I'm in the process of sort of researching and seeing if I want to go down that avenue but it's more like a crowdfunding

model and and again people can back your project If someone's going to buy the book off you anyway, it's just a way of sort of securing books, you know, sales. So the money comes through immediately. So you've got that there rather than sort of forking out first, then relying on book sales for earning an income. And even I was speaking to Isabel Carmody earlier in the year,

and that was when she was first starting out. She did a crowdfunding campaign before Kickstarter or anything was around to get her riding off the ground. So there's nothing wrong with reaching out for support because you are delivering a product in the end as well. Yeah, that's it. And yeah, it's not a new thing. I think crowdfunding has been around for a while. All these models, I think, have. It's maybe just taking off now with the way that the industry is.

And tell me, now, you've also got the hybrid author podcast where you're interviewing industry professionals. How have you found that has helped with your marketing?

Yes yeah greatly so especially on a global scale so as i said i self-published my non-fiction books through ingram and you can track your sales through them to see you know which country countries that the sales have been made from and things like that and i i feel like the podcast is sort of aiding to that i don't think it's come through ingram spark okay it might have it might have come through the categories but I definitely I mean as I used the creative pen podcast as

my example for starting to get into self-publishing and things but through through Joanna Penn's podcast I never went on her website but through her podcast I have bought pretty much all her books oh wow okay yeah podcasts definitely sell books you know you're following that author's journey I guess online and sorry via the podcast and things and you know I'm talking about my process all the time or the work that I'm doing.

And people sort of tune in for the interviews, but they also tune in to hear what I've been doing and stuff like that. And I definitely feel that it's such a good marketing tool to be able to reach people directly, readers and obviously writers and like-minded people, anybody that's interested. So I definitely think podcasting is a fantastic marketing tool, like a fast, effective one, definitely.

And do you have any advice to any writers that are listening that might be interested in starting a podcast as part of their writing career? Yeah, absolutely. Choose a subject that it's not going to dry up pretty quickly, like one that's quite broad.

There was a podcast in again i think in the uk i think it was called the the anxious writer or something like that and it went for a good few years but the podcast hosts said themselves that they were stopping to pivot to see where they could go because they felt like they had pretty much drained the topic to done it to death kind of thing so maybe maybe find a topic that's kind of, not timely, but one that's going to go the distance. There's so many popping

up now. It's such a big... It's everywhere. Yeah, as anything, isn't it? It's such a crowded market.

So you could maybe look at what other people are doing, but look at what you could do differently as well. Yeah, and just structure it how you want it to be kind of structured as well. I think the thing I love about podcasting, well especially. With my podcast is I get to speak to people.

Like I'm chatting on the phone with them like amazing authors and I get to hear all their tips and ideas and it gives me access to people I wouldn't usually get to chat to and it's made me some wonderful friendships as well but also I'm sitting here in my tracksuit pants and you're over in WA sitting in your car and it's so flexible in that you have so much control over it in terms of like my day-to-day job I'm sometimes trapped at my desk and I've got meetings and

I can't can't do the things I want to do because of the constraints of just everybody's job you have to do what you're told at your jobs whereas with my podcast I just interview who I want and talk about what I want it builds calls as well though doesn't it like i feel since i've been doing the podcasting like i i've not gone out and done a lot of in-person speaking it's something that i've gotten more into this this year and i i feel like this is my medium because i'm i'm quite comfortable

hiding behind the mic and chatting and that's all good but i i feel like your audio reflexes are so worked that i wouldn't you know one of the things that you can worry about standing at presenting and stuff is oh I'm not going to know what to say or anything like that but I recently did a well recently I think it was back in March literary festival workshop on Roblox in writing and.

You know I was a lot of I was excited and a little bit nervous and I just I just talked my box off and I thought that has come from the podcast and you know the skills that the the chatting the interview skills all of it it's definitely honed the way that I'm able to share and speak and provide value for people. It's also an inspiration for myself. It's actually being able to connect with like-minded people like you.

And you get to ask the questions that you want. And when I listen back, when I edit, you just learn so much. And I get really inspired by my own podcast. I guess that's why I keep doing it as well. And you get back to the writing community too. You're adding value for other people. It is a wonderful opportunity, especially Because I started the podcast before I was published, and so I didn't – before then, I didn't really have ways to give back.

And then as the podcast has grown and spread, I'm like, oh, I can actually –. I've got ways now to give back to the writing community in ways that I didn't have before. And now that I've got a book out as well, like you just feel your confidence grows and your knowledge grows and then you are able to then start to do some amazing things.

Like I love going to like books and homes events and bookshops and interacting with the kids and feeling like you're actually making a difference in the world, even though it's just a little tiny. I absolutely agree. And I think you've done it right in the sense that, you know, a lot of, I keep hearing a lot of authors, you know, they write the book and then they think about how to market it.

And someone saying even if you're new, you can never start, you know, start marketing yourself immediately. And yeah, and I think building your own community and yeah, definitely is a good way to do it too. Even I'm part of a program called Author Pen Pals. I don't know if you've heard of that.

I'm writing to a school in Townsville, which is where I grew up. I went to primary school up there. And just being able to connect with the kids on that extra level of, yes, I am an author, but I'm also an author from your town. I know, like, they're going to the Billabong Sanctuary and I'm like, yes, I've been there. And just being able to have that extra connection with the kids, I'm really loving that, which I didn't expect to be a byproduct of writing. But I'm like, oh, this is great.

So I just need to keep writing and keep publishing now.

That is. No, absolutely. Now, tell me about your children's books. Yeah, so I, from the beginning, I have set out writing children's fiction. I started with YA, Young Adult Fiction, and I've kind of, I think slowly, I'm a member of Squibby, the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, Australia West. I'm the newsletter editor and the social media coordinator as well, and I've been part of that body for, I think, about seven years.

So started out there and I do have the first manuscript I ever wrote I think it took about it took a long time and I will never see the light of day I'm not going to be sharing that with anybody that that book revisit it and revamp it no it was like I I describe it as a verbal.

Diarrhea or verbal vomit of my own adolescence so apart from a few name changes everything in the book happened like from my childhood and I feel like I had to get that out of me as some sort of catharsis because that that genre and that especially young adult as a teenager there were some of the most turbulent years of my life but some of the best as well best times I've ever had free spirit I was quite a wild child

as well so I feel like I've got quite a voice there but I think having a sort of my writing seriously and did that book when I had had my first child. She's now 12. So I think as my children grew and the types of stories that I was reading to them, picture books, and that soon went up to junior fiction and now kind of middle grade, I started to have ideas that brought me down in age level. So I ended up, as I said, self-publishing.

I said it was a middle grade, but it seemed more like a junior fiction in my first year of uni. But that's how confused I was between those two genres. The junior fiction, I've got, it's a smaller, because I always, when I write, I never have enough. I have to always go back and flesh it out. So I don't have enough word count, but my actual voice, my writing voice is for an older audience.

So I think I got lost in the whole middle grade, junior fiction for many years and then ended up in picture books and and i'm friends are so i'm part of a group that's they're squibby as well but i'm part of like a group of like nearly 20 picture book authors but i feel like i'm in ya so i feel like i'm in all these different areas but i have recently in the last year realized i have an older voice ya is where i need to be so i'm back writing young adult fiction.

Squibby Australia West has a Rottnest Writers Retreat. I don't know if you've ever heard of Rottnest Island. Yes, I have. I was Googling and I was like, oh, They have a retreat at Rodness, don't they? How amazing would that be to go to that? It is amazing. So when I first started, I went to, it was like the mainland event and everyone kept saying, oh, you're going to the retreat, you're going to the retreat. And I had missed out. And I said, oh, no. So I went the following year.

And it's like a weekend over there. And they have interstate publishers come and guest speakers. And it's such an inspiring, obviously, sort of retreat and you're with everybody.

And you can get you get to pitch your work to publishers and things like that and went for about five years and then they kind of put it on hold I guess with COVID there was lots of other things that was quite difficult but now it's back this year so I'm writing this YA and I'm going to be pitching it too I've managed to get a critique with Samantha Ford from Allen and Unwin she's the inter-public person. Amazing that's exciting.

Yeah I'm really excited so I handed in my my pages 10 pages the other day so I'm looking forward to doing that as well so yeah I've got a lot of backlist with the children's fiction but I have not been able to secure a traditional publishing deal I have submitted to lots of not lots but a few publishing houses for sure but been rejected so still going with that dream and I feel like oh it absolutely is like feel like with each manuscript.

I have, as I said, the first one I ever wrote, Verbal Vomit Diarrhea of Modern Adult Lessons. That taught me self-discipline to sit down and see I can actually finish a 50,000 page work, sorry, words, you know, and I've never been disciplined in my life. So I laugh that I've ended up in this profession where I need to be disciplined and I need to have patience and I've got none of those. I do know.

That was how Totally Lit came about for me was because I had no patience with submitting, I was like, oh, nothing's happening. And sometimes it can be like 12 months later and a little email will pop up saying, sorry. And I'm like, I can't, I'm not going to survive this process. So this gives me something to create where I've got immediate response, you know. So that's kept me sane in the whole submitting world, really.

Come on leaps and bounds, because in the beginning, I took it so personally, like against myself, and I really would self bash quite negatively. You know, but I, I obviously it's, it's, it's such a passion of mine, such a calling that I would never let it stop me. I'm very determined, very persevered, like persistent that I'm going to do this. And as much as I'm venturing into all these different other publishing avenues,

I still have that goal because I'm, I'm friends with it. that's how I've started. I'm friends. I'm in a group with a lot of traditionally published authors. I see the work that comes out of, we're lucky we've got Fremantle Press over here and the way that they, their community, they nurture their authors. It's just fantastic. I would just love to be sort of getting in there somehow.

But the podcast, again, is another way of me connecting, you know, Fremantle Press are aware of me and I promote their authors and things like that. I have received a rejection from Fremantle Press, so I am very familiar with them. But they really champion Western Australian authors, so I'm trying to submit to them when I'm not a WA author. So I'm like, I forgive you, Fremantle Press. I think they do for Western Australian, but if your book's connected somehow.

Yeah, I have a little picture book about quokkas that I'm trying to get published, which is why I know about Rodnest Island because I'm like, that's where my book is based. The retreat, Carrie. I would love to meet some quokkas in the wild. That would be amazing. But, yeah, in terms of the submitting and the rejections, as I said, was so harsh on myself throughout the process. And I did not get put through for my women's fiction was in the ASA,

the Australian Society of Authors, Harlequin Fiction Prize. which got drawn the other day. And I didn't get through on that. And I actually had no feelings about that whatsoever. Let's just move on. You know, you end up, you get a thick skin, that's what I guess people say. And you start to realise, especially when you've been around for a long time, that it's not always you. It doesn't come back to you personally or your work. You don't have to feel attacked.

It could just be that, you know, it's just not for them. It's not what they're looking for, or they've published something else like that before or there's all these other things that come into play. Well, you've just got to remember it's about making money. Um, and you are like really when you're submitting a piece of work to a publisher, you are asking them to invest in you.

You're not like, it's not a competition where you're winning a prize. It's a, you're saying, I think this book would sell on the market. Could you please pour your money into it and print it for me? And so realistically, you have to look at it as, is this something that a publisher would be able to sell? Because that's the angle they're coming from. So it can be the sweetest story in the world, but if nobody wants to buy it, nobody's going to print it.

So it sounds harsh and it's a lesson I've learned how long I've been trying this five years. And I'm like, oh, but I love my little story. I don't want to change it. But yeah, what's the point in submitting if it's not going to sell in the end, really? That's the business, isn't it? That's the business of it. And I quite, yeah, that makes sense to me.

And uh yeah absolutely agree with that i think it's hard as well with the the way the publishing landscape is i guess especially after covid and i've heard picture books have taken a hit as well in terms of not a lot of people are looking for them i think and there's not a lot of doors open for picture books i think and it got set back didn't it like a lot of publishing schedules and to try and crack in as a debut is extremely difficult at this

point and even if you look at the way the world is at the moment, people are worrying about how to put food on their tables and keep the roof over their heads. Us asking someone to drop 25 bucks on a book when they need to consider that for their grocery budget, it's difficult. Although I'm always like, well, let's go borrow it from the library or let's find other ways. Like there's more than one way to support an author.

But yeah, like buying a book at the moment is a luxury for some families. Absolutely. But that's, yeah, lucky we're blessed with such a good library system and I utilize my libraries completely. And we're very, very lucky in Australia to get the, I guess it's not royalties, would you call it that? The perks that we... ELR and PLR. Yeah, and they're also bringing in the digital lending rights that we get compensated, whereas a lot of countries don't do it for their authors.

So, yeah, that's another way. Okay, so I've got a few questions for you just so that our listeners can get to know you a little bit better. Can you tell me what was your favourite book growing up? Yeah, oh gosh, I always feel a bit embarrassed saying this, but it's the truth because I just feel like, you know, with books and things, you're supposed to have some sort of really good literary answer here or something.

But so I grew up, I was born here, but brought up in Scotland and I was absolutely obsessed with Sweet Valley High. So Francine Pascal, you know, and they actually the other day, which is hilarious, because I don't know if Sweet Valley came, I think Sweet Valley High came after Babysitter's Club. So these books and these stories are all getting revamped again. And I actually, my kids' Scholastic book catalogue, there was a Sweet Valley book. And I was like, oh my gosh, why is that back?

But I had bookshelves full of these books and she really utilised. So there was Sweet Valley High, there was Sweet Valley Middle School, there was Sweet Valley Kids, there was even Sweet Valley University. I read them all. I absolutely loved those. I don't know if she wrote them all herself or whether she had an army of ghostwriters. I'd say she'd done it all herself. She's well into her 80s. I actually considered having her on the podcast because she's in her 80s, so I'm not sure.

But they actually released a book where they were adults, which I read and I was a little bit disappointed. But I felt like they kind of copied and pasted the descriptions. It was always the same descriptions. They always had the California sun-kissed hair, the two twins, and they had the same lockets. But I was mad for them and that kept me reading as a child. And I was a quiet child. And yeah, that's what I was kind of known for.

I did read those books, but I stopped because I could not handle how mean Jessica was to Elizabeth all the time. Horrible, wasn't she? Well, the adult book, not to spoil it for anyone who's listening, because obviously Elizabeth had the long-term boyfriend, Todd, and I actually even watched the television series. I think I'll still put it on DVD. How embarrassing. In the adult one, Jessica and Todd had ended up together. No. Yeah, I was like, that didn't sit right with me.

No, yeah, I just remember one day putting the books down, and this may just be an indication of how good a writer was. Francine Paschal is, I was so upset at how mean Jessica was to Elizabeth. I was like, I cannot read any more of these books. I protest. Jessica actually preferred her over Elizabeth. Well, she was more interesting. Yeah, she was a badass, wasn't she? I was like, she's just too mean for me. I can't handle it.

But, yeah, after that, I took a hard turn into classic literature from there.

So once I hit uni it was all 18th century literature so wow yeah yeah I wish I had a more literary response for you but that was really it the truth is best I say it makes you who you are as well so never regret the thing you've read so this next question you might be able to answer it truthfully because we've already chatted about Sweet Valley High is if you could be any book character who would it be back then yes it would have been jessica but now thinking about

it you know i sort of thought it's probably something from alice in wonderland because probably the mad hatter i reckon definitely still an interesting choice yeah yeah well i just love that saying i think that's always associated with alice in wonderland you know because all the best people are weird or something like that and i truly do feel that way and who doesn't want to explore that world why would you not want to be a character in that land yes but you might be,

experimenting to get there though jessica whitefield in alice in wonderland. Now, what are you reading right now? Have you got anything on your bedside table at the moment? I do. I always have lots of books and they're always, you know, half read or and they're all across the board and different things. So recently I've discovered this event that take place every month in Perth. That's where I am.

And it's at this studio. It's called the Backlot Studio. it's in a place called Mount Lawley and they do a screening of a film but the they have it's the event it's called like it's a books to film so I'm quite interested in adapting my work from books to screenplays or something like that very interested in that so I went along to this this book event book to film event last month and so the book that's on my bedside table is, John Wyndham's The Midwich Cuckoos so that

book John Wyndham's an English science fiction writer from the early 1900s i don't know if you've heard of him i and it's until then but that book the midwitch cuckoos was adapted to film the 1960s it's a black and white film the village of the damned sorry i think okay village of the dam i'd actually hadn't seen the black and white 1960s adaptation but i had seen the american version which was called children of the damned and that was in color

and i had christopher reeves and kirsty alley and i loved it and it's uh you You know, it's about a town that just blacks out for about 24 hours. And when they wake up, all the females are pregnant and at the same time and they have the babies and they're all pregnant.

Similar looking these white white hair and they go about being quite evil and i think i never twigged that they're actually aliens i don't know what i thought from that but so yeah i'm reading that at the moment and then the goal is to read the script and so after we did watch that movie there was a couple i forget their names that presented and talked about obviously the differences between the book and the script and the film and things like that so yeah i'm interested

just to see what things are taken from the book to the adaptation to the film. Yeah, in that regard. So I'm reading that. It's quite a small thing. And so far, it's pretty on par with what the movie was at this point. And yeah, other ones was, what else was there? Jojo Moyes and a really old book, Peyton Place. Have you heard of that before? Yes.

But waiting for this book-to-film event that started, I went around some bookshops in town and I found this mainly books and oh my gosh the shop was fantastic you just walked out a secondhand bookshop and this is where I got the John Wyndham book and I found Peyton Place and my eldest daughter's called Peyton and anytime everybody asked me what her name was they more the older generation would say oh Peyton Place and I would say well no it was actually One Tree Hill that I from which

is a YA teens you know 90s growing up I'm actually watching it again now sadly but yeah so all these different sort of older books children's fiction women's fiction dawn fiction it's all by the bedside okay so if you were having a dinner party which five literary people would you invite to dinner. Oh, gosh, five. That's a lot of conversation. Is it like living or dead? It can be either, living or dead.

Living, probably J.K. Rowling, you know, fellow, I think she's Scottish, is she? Is she English? And obviously from her success and her actual story inspires me completely about how she was in just probably the worst mindset of her life.

And yeah I would say that writing absolutely 100% saved her you know escapism so we'd love to have her around and talk her talk about her millions and she also writes scripts for you know theater things and like things and stuff so Nora Roberts as well I've actually just read my first Nora Roberts book and each time I got the library I just she's everywhere and she writes so prolifically And I love her writing as well. So I'd have her. Who's the old writer who put a gun in his mouth?

Was it Hemingway? I think it was Hemingway. Yeah, probably him. Is that something he would do? And is he the famous quote? Is it write drunk, edit sober? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I feel like we probably have a lot in common. Not obviously how he ended.

But yeah probably one of one of those literary people and oh gosh i i i'm not sure about the others who's yours um who would i have to dinner i would have nobody's asked me this question agatha christie who sylvia plath who else would i have, I love a lot of historical stuff, so I'd probably get a few. I'm going to Google some people now. Matthew Riley as well. Yeah, he would be good. Only because he, to me, is a hybrid author.

He started out self-publishing, and I would be really interested to hear his story. And now, obviously, he's a big, big traditionally published author. And probably one of the TV chefs who's got a book. I guess they're probably ghostwriters, though. So they could come and cook the delicious meal.

We could all enjoy it. I've been listening to a historical podcast that's been about five episodes on Byron, and I'm like, oh, I think he could be interesting to come to dinner, but it may get out of control really quickly. But he is so talented. I would love to, like, converse with someone that can just rattle off a poem the way he can, you know, because some of his work is, like, so just, he's just gifted. And I'm like, oh, yeah, I need to have someone like that in my presence once in my life.

Probably Holly Black as well. I just love all her stuff.

Yeah, she's a little bit older with the, I think it's fantasy that she's in, or supernatural.

Her and Maeve Benchy who's an Irish writer any of the Irish writers I love my absolute passion and it doesn't matter whether it's children's fiction women's fiction anything is small times and and the I love that tv the drama the way the characters all converse like I just I'm a massive Gilmore Girls fan as well and I just yeah I love that so I love all Maeve Benchy's books she's a big inspiration I think she passed away now and I

could read her book in one sitting and all the characters are just amazing so yeah her okay so now which Hogwarts house are you oh my goodness Slytherin that's why you like Jessica she'd definitely be a Slytherin oh I think um I identify with more the naughtier side because I I was very very quiet and reserved growing up and my nickname was Mouse when I was younger and obviously it was a reader and quite and then something

just something just shot me when I went to high school and I just lost the plot for a bit so yeah and then yeah definite three spirits so I can identify with the with the children that are probably a little bit out there more. I think when you're quiet and reserved and, people misjudge you. And just because you don't walk into a room and like shout the room down doesn't mean that you're not fun or interesting.

And I think the one thing I find about being a bit shy and reserved at times is that people sometimes miss out on the best of me because of that, because it takes a little bit more to get to know me sometimes that I'm like, I'm heaps of fun once I'm relaxed and you get to know me. I think that goes for anyone though, isn't it? Okay, last question. What advice would you give yourself if you could go back to the beginning of your writing journey? Oh, it would be probably just to take your time.

As I said, I just feel like I was in such a hurry, such a rush from the beginning. Although, as I said, it took me like a year longer than that to write the first kind of YA. Just that impatience that I had to push that self-published middle grade slash junior fiction book out. And I just feel like, you know, take the time to do things right, properly to a standard that you're happy with. But then that's all come with, you know, experience and age and whatnot.

But definitely that's what I'd tell myself from the beginning.

Just take your time. and now if people want to find your books they can go to your website that's the the high is it the hybrid author.com.au or just hybrid author.com.au yeah the website's just hybrid author.com.au and the podcast there the books are there and oh all of me is there and for any traditional publishers that may be interested in reading your manuscripts i know that's not how that works though No one ever emails and says, I'd love to read your manuscripts.

Well, if it happens, we don't know about it. But yes, of course, I welcome all traditional publishers to touch base and offer me a fantastic life-changing deal for my children's fiction. Yeah, they can email me there, joanne at hybridauthor.com. And do you accept pitches for guests on The Hybrid Author? I do. So the podcast in the beginning was me reaching out to people that I wanted to interview initially and ask questions.

And now I am pitched a lot by mainly booking agents and people like that. But I've had a lot more authors reach out to me this year. And yeah, I kind of do batching every three months, like three days with back to back kind of episodes. But yes, I take pitches direct, so happy to take anybody who wants to pitch me. I like to, if you obviously tips are, listen to the podcast first and see that I am a topic-based podcast, mainly obviously around writing, publishing.

That all links back to the author's books as well at the same time. Amazing. Well, thank you so much for spending some time with me. I've enjoyed our chat and I will let you go back inside to your family now. No, I'd rather just stay and talk to you, Kai. Thank you so much for having me on. It's been absolutely wonderful. No problem. Thank you, Jo. Bye.

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