Since my last newsletter, I have co-edited a whole book, co-written a whole book, revised another book and rewritten sample chapters for a (maybe?) adult novel. I’ve also done a bunch of prep for a Really Big Thing that’s happening later this year that I can’t tell you about yet. Apologies for the vagueposting!

Book Week has snuck up on me again - I’ve got a full week of school visits coming up, and will be hand sanitising and protecting my voice along with every other kid’s author in the country.

I’m also heading up to Sydney on Friday for the CBCA Awards, in which Unhallowed Halls is shortlisted for the Older Reader’s prize. I love an awards ceremony, and it’s a genuinely great shortlist this year.

Our big European adventure was extremely hot, but magnificent - if you want to learn more about where we went and the things I found particularly inspirational, I’ve been posting on Instagram:
Brompton Cemetery, London
Tolkien Country
Ancient Stones
Ancient Woods
Welsh Castles
Water and Stone
La Serenissima
I am a princess now
Italy Underground
The Dying City
The Monster Park
Layers of Rome

Upcoming Events

Fountain of Youth
Readings Kids, 27 August 6pm
Join me, Amie Kaufman, Vanessa Len and Talia from the Readings Teen Advisory Board as we talk all things YA fantasy.

Bravepaw and Otis Ottley joint launch: Brisbane
Where the Wild Things Are, 13 September 2pm
Ask me and Will Kostakis anything at this fun, interactive event for all ages.

Our Dark Unravelling launch
Reading Emporium, 24 September 6pm
I’m thrilled to be launching the wonderful Margot McGovern’s new YA horror novel! Come and hear all about it!

Bravepaw 4 Launch: Melbourne
The Little Bookroom 26 September, 2pm
Join me and Bravepaw illustrator Lavanya Naidu as we celebrate the thrilling final instalment in the Bravepaw series!

Celestial Events Fantasy Book Signing and Merch Day
Scots Church Melbourne, 24 October
Come say hi to me, Lynette Noni, Lauren Jackson, Amie Kaufman, Kate Forsyth, Lily Crozier and Bronte-Marie Wesson, plus an amazing gang of indie authors. There’ll be plenty of fantasy swag, books and more, before the Celestial Ball that evening.

Read
Recently I loved Woodworking by Emily St James, and A Study in Sparkling by Jodie McAllister.

Watch
It’s disappointing that so many shows don’t get the opportunity to find their legs these days. I really loved the first season of Stumble, a documentary-style US cheerleading comedy with echoes of Parks and Rec, and am sad there won’t be more.

Make
Jane Crowfoot’s Persian Tiles blanket appeared on my feed a few weeks ago, and there was no way I wasn’t making one for myself. I haven’t crocheted for years, but I’m enjoying it. Three big tiles down, thirteen to go!

Lili Wilkinson is the award-winning author of more than twenty books for young people, including A Hunger of Thorns, which won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, and was a CBCA Honour Book. Lili has a PhD from the University of Melbourne, and is a passionate advocate for YA and the young people who read it. Her latest books are Unhallowed Halls and the Bravepaw series.

A particular highlight from the last couple of months was Melbourne Writers Festival, where I was on a panel with Tigest Girma and RF Kuang, moderated by Amie Kaufman. The gorgeous Athenaeum Theatre was jam-packed, and our signing line went around the block. We talked about Dark Academia, world-building and the instability of adolescent bodies, and I loved every minute.

On Lady Knights

Last night I chatted to Amie Kaufman at Dymocks Melbourne about her new book (with Meagan Spooner) One Knight Stand, sequel to Lady’s Knight. I’ve been deep in lady knights lately, as there is one in my forthcoming YA fantasy Lavender and Hemlock, and I also just finished reading Alix Harrow’s The Everlasting, which I adored.

As a preteen, I was obsessed with Tamora Pierce’s Alanna series. The way that those books balanced swords, magic, friendship, romance and girlhood was revelatory to me, and hugely influential on my development as a writer.

It’s easy to see the appeal of a lady knight in our current era where women’s bodies (including trans bodies) are treated like political battlegrounds. The idea of encasing ourselves in armour and then whacking our enemies into submission is appealing. But there’s one thing that all lady knights must learn, and that’s knowing when to take off the armour and be vulnerable. To accept help, and to learn to love and be loved. Or else, what are we even fighting for?

Read
As well as One Knight Stand and The Everlasting, as mentioned above, I also read and loved T Kingfisher’s Snake Eater, and Charlotte McConaghy’s Wild Dark Shore.

Watch
Lots of new things! Loved Widow’s Bay, Margo’s Got Money Troubles and The Boroughs. And the finale of Hacks was perfect.

Plan
I love planning the holiday almost as much as (maybe more than?) the holiday itself. I have been immersing myself in my planning spreadsheet, making lists of neolithic monuments, waterfalls, ancient towns and quaint inns to visit. I’ll be posting lots of photos to my stories on Insta!

Lili Wilkinson is the award-winning author of more than twenty books for young people, including A Hunger of Thorns, which won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, and was a CBCA Honour Book. Lili has a PhD from the University of Melbourne, and is a passionate advocate for YA and the young people who read it. Her latest books are Unhallowed Halls and the Bravepaw series.

I listened to some of New Zealand’s best authors and poets talk about their work, visited the incredibly inspiring Te Papa, then took myself off on a nerd pilgrimage to Weta, where I got to hold a sword and dream about being a hobbit.

I also got to meet some young Bravepaw fans, and did an in conversation with Elizabeth Knox, one of my absolute favourite authors (her Dreamhunter duology lives rent free in my brain). Sometimes being an author is pretty good?

Bravepaw 3 hits the shelves

Bravepaw 3: Bravepaw and the Fangstone of Flintfall is out now! This book introduces us to some fun new locations (I really want to write more about the library city of Lexhelm!), and some new characters. One of my favourites is Raia, the lavender wolf. My kid Banjo informed me as I was planning this book that I needed to include a lavender wolf.

‘What’s a lavender wolf?’ I asked.

‘It’s a sort of purplish wolf,’ he replied. ‘With lavender growing from its back.’

I named her Raia, after illustrator/genius Lavanya Naidu’s new puppy.

Lavanya has really outdone herself in this Bravepaw book. It’s hard to explain how incredible it is seeing my story come to life so beautifully, so much more vibrantly than I could ever have imagined it. As an example, I wrote a few lines describing a newt selling sweet potatoes from a cart. Nothing special. But look at this little guy! I’m obsessed! Can I write a whole book about him!??

In other Bravepaw news, Book #1 debuted in the US this week, which is very exciting! Love to see Titch and her companions sharing their adventures with kids all over the world!

Coming up

9 May Melbourne Writers Festival: I’ll be on a panel with Tigest Girma and RF Kuang, talking about dark academia (and chaired by Amie Kaufman). Really looking forward to this one! More info and tickets here.

Watch
Small Prophets was one of the most whimsical, funny and unexpectedly moving things I’ve seen in a very long time. It’s a bit difficult to watch it here in Australia, but if you can find it, it’s well worth the effort.

Read
I’m still making my way through all the Diana Wynne Joneses while listening to the Eight Days of Diana podcast. They’re still all magnificent, although I struggled a bit with A Sudden Wild Magic.

Make
I’m back on the sourdough train again. I know it’s a cliché, but there is just something so satisfying about making a loaf of delicious bread from only flour, water, a little salt, and the wild yeasts floating around my kitchen. Very witchy.

Lili Wilkinson is the award-winning author of more than twenty books for young people, including A Hunger of Thorns, which won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, and was a CBCA Honour Book. Lili has a PhD from the University of Melbourne, and is a passionate advocate for YA and the young people who read it. Her latest books are Unhallowed Halls and the Bravepaw series.

I had a lovely summer break, spending lots of time with friends and family, and immersing myself in the ocean as often as possible. But now I’m back to it, and I have a big year coming up. Three book releases this year - two Bravepaws, plus Lavender and Hemlock. Bravepaw is also going to make its US debut, which is very exciting.

But just between you and me? I’m itching to write something new. I’ve got an idea for a fantasy novel that…might?…maybe?…be for grownups? That feels a bit scary to admit, honestly, so maybe don’t tell anyone. My whole career I’ve been writing for young people. But this is an idea that’s been percolating for a few years, and I think it deserves a chance. So January has been clearing the decks so I can give it my full attention in February and March.

I’ve just finished a rewrite of Bravepaw 4, which will be the series finale. I’ve never had to do this before - wrap up a series. It’s been trickier than I imagined, but I’m super excited about seeing it come to life with Lavanya’s brilliant illustrations. And I don’t think I’m done with the Bravepaw world yet… stay tuned.

Upcoming events

5 February: Red Rebels launch, Dymocks Melbourne
I’m helping Amie Kaufman to launch her new sci fi YA novel Red Rebels - Amie first described this book to me as “Home Alone meets Die Hard on Mars” which, you have to admit, is a pretty irresistible pitch. The book is so fun, and I can’t wait to chat with her about it. Book here.

21-22 Feb: Book Fair Melbourne
Come see me at the book fair! I’ll have hardcovers and paperbacks for sale, along with some special giveaways. Bring your books for me to sign, buy new ones, or I’ll sign a bookplate! There are heaps of authors attending this year, it’ll be a blast! More info here.

8 March: Verb Wellington
New Zealand, I’m coming for you! I’ll be appearing at Verb Wellington with one of my absolute favourite authors Elizabeth Knox, talking about dark academia. I can’t wait! Book here.

Play
I played Unpacking on the plane to Perth and absolutely loved it. In my head I was imagining something stressful, more like Overcooked. Instead it was quiet, meditative, unexpectedly moving, and a fascinating insight into how to tell a story. Strong recommend, and if you’ve played anything with a similar vibe, I’m open to recommendations!

Read
I don’t know about you, but after a long and busy year, followed by a lovely but very social Christmas period, all I want to do is to lie down in a bog and slowly decompose into the moss. I recommend Bog Queen by Anna North, the story of a bog body told in alternating chapters by a forensic biologist, a prehistoric British druid, and occasionally, the bog itself.

Watch
Finally bullied convinced my partner into watching The Pitt with me. Pottery Throwdown continues to be the most wholesome show on telly. I’m working my way through Heated Rivalry but honestly I think I waited too long and it got a bit diluted by all the hype? Don’t come for me, please.

Lili Wilkinson is the award-winning author of more than twenty books for young people, including A Hunger of Thorns, which won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, and was a CBCA Honour Book. Lili has a PhD from the University of Melbourne, and is a passionate advocate for YA and the young people who read it. Her latest books are Unhallowed Halls and the Bravepaw series.

I love the rituals of it - both the ones that have ancient roots (decorating a tree, sharing food and gifts), and the more unique ones that come from celebrating Christmas in the Southern Hemisphere (summer holidays, going to the beach). I’m not a spiritual person, but I love rituals. Some of my favourite ones this time of year are:

• making the pudding and mince pies with my mum

• putting up the tree (we are a fake tree household as I am profoundly allergic to the real kind)

• getting out my Christmas teapot

• my kid’s school does a mango fundraiser

• visiting our local outdoor pool for the first time on a hot day and seeing our whole community splashing in the cold water, or lounging under the shade of gum trees

• immersing myself in the sea

• singing carols (the closest to religious I ever feel - I get quite emotional about the idea of kings travelling great distances to celebrate the birth of a baby, not because he’s the son of god, but because all babies are special)

• the Christmas Mice who create daily chaos in our household (this morning they drew rude faces on all the mangos)

• gathering with friends and family, pulling crackers, eating delicious things

What are your seasonal rituals?

Book recommendations

Over on Instagram and TikTok I’ve been recommending some great 2025 reads from Australian and NZ authors. It’s always a good time to support local authors and local bookshops!

YA contemp

YA fantasy

New Zealand

Middle grade/junior

Grownup books

Some Books I Loved This Year
The Pairing, Paladin’s Strength, The Axeman’s Carnival, Lady’s Knight, An Academic Affair, The Incandescents

Some Shows I Loved This Year
The Pitt, Adolescence, Andor, Severance, Murderbot, Taskmaster, The Last of Us, The Studio, Wayward, Celebrity Traitors UK

Make
Pretty sure I do this every year, but here is the recipe for my mince pies that convert people who think they don’t like mince pies.

MINCE PIES
(makes 24)

For the mince
100g currants
100g raisins
100g sultanas
100g dates (chopped)
50g candied peel
50g glacé cherries (halved)
50g flaked almonds
1 ripe banana, mashed (the riper the better)
4 tbsp brandy (whisky or rum also fine)
1 tsp each of ground ginger, grated nutmeg, mixed spice

Mix it all together. Don’t skip the banana, even if you hate banana. Trust me.

For the pastry
250g butter, softened
150g caster sugar
1 egg yolk
400g plain flour
pinch of salt
icing sugar for dusting

Brush two mini muffin trays (mine are silicone) with a thin layer of melted butter. Preheat your oven to 200C.
Cream the butter and sugar until pale (2-3 mins in a stand mixer). Add the egg yolk and mix for another minute. Add flour and salt and mix until just combined. Wrap the dough in cling-wrap and stick in the fridge for an hour.

Keep a quarter of the pastry for the tops, and divide the rest into 24 balls. Use your fingers to squish each ball into the tray like it’s play dough to form the bottom case.

Fill each case with mince.

Roll out the remaining pastry dough and cut out your tops. I usually do a little star.

Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until golden brown on top.

Cool on a wire rack, then dust lightly with icing sugar.

Lili Wilkinson is the award-winning author of more than twenty books for young people, including A Hunger of Thorns, which won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, and was a CBCA Honour Book. Lili has a PhD from the University of Melbourne, and is a passionate advocate for YA and the young people who read it. Her latest books are Unhallowed Halls and the Bravepaw series.

Three of those books have already been written (Lavender and Hemlock, Bravepaw 3 and 4) and are most of the way through the editorial process. And three of them are in the earliest stages of development - just vague ideas and notes. One is a collaboration that is outlined and ready to be drafted. One is a collaboration with a different author, and is currently being redrafted.

And then last week I had an idea for a picture book that wouldn’t leave me alone, and I couldn’t help myself.

This is probably a bit much, but in general I think it’s good to have a few projects on the boil. So then if you get stuck or bored or burnt out with one, or if you’ve handed it off to a beta reader or editor, you can switch to something else. Of course this depends on how much time you have to devote to writing - it’s my only job, so having lots of options for the future helps to lessen the anxiety of financial instability!

Atmosphere

I have been asked a few times lately about how I crafted the gloomy, gothic atmosphere of Unhallowed Halls. A lot of it comes in later drafts - first draft is all about plot, for me. Voice and vibes and theme come later. I like to layer atmosphere in, mostly through voice and setting. A simple one is weather - so easy to forget, but so useful for heightening the mood.

In Unhallowed Halls it is often foggy or windy. The buildings are bleak and crumbling and Page can never quite get warm. Throw some pathetic fallacy in there - the clouds are sullen, the stones are indifferent. I reread the Brontës (even though I am not a fan), some Poe, Austen’s Northanger Abbey and my favourite, the gothic satire Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons, and made a lot of notes on the way they described landscapes and characters. Look at this wonderful and absolutely ridiculous passage from Cold Comfort Farm:

Dawn crept over the Downs like a sinister white animal, followed by the snarling cries of a wind eating its way between the black boughs of the thorns. The wind was the furious voice of this sluggish animal light that was baring the dormers and mullions and scullions of Cold Comfort Farm

Magnificent. Obviously this is a pastiche of gothic writing, but it’s so jam-packed full of gothic vocab that I found it super useful. Also the book is very funny.

Coming Up

I’m heading to the ACT tomorrow (23 October) for the Canberra Writers Festival! You can catch me at the following sessions:

12:35 The Power of Fantasy (with Lisa Fuller)
1:25 Help! How to Face the Blank Page (with Lisa Fuller, Jack Heath and Tegan Bennet Daylight)
3pm Your Story Starts Here (workshop)
For bookings, click here

I’ll also be a Mystery Shopper at the 65th birthday and grand reopening of The Little Bookroom this Saturday 25 October! There are heaps of events and authors appearing throughout the day, find out more here.

I’m also going to be hosting the Great YA Debate at Readings’s A Day Out In Carlton, on Saturday 5 November. The debate will ponder the age-old question - Fantasy, or Contemporary Romance? Team Fantasy is Mikayla Bridge, Keshe Chow and Vanessa Len, and Team CoRo is Ann Liang, Miranda Luby and Jodi McAlister. Book here.

Read
Still working my way through Diana Wynne Jones - I just finished Magicians of Caprona which was much darker than I realised as a kid (the Punch and Judy scene!), and Archer’s Goon, which is very funny and clever.

Watch
Absolutely loved Wayward, Mae Martin’s drama about a very culty boarding school for troubled teens. I mean, of course I loved it.

Make
Finished the quilt - isn’t it pretty? What should I make next? Maybe it’s time to knit a jumper. Or I recently admired Kate Armstrong’s loom… maybe I need a loom?

Lili Wilkinson is the award-winning author of more than twenty books for young people, including A Hunger of Thorns, which won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, and was a CBCA Honour Book. Lili has a PhD from the University of Melbourne, and is a passionate advocate for YA and the young people who read it. Her latest books are Unhallowed Halls and the Bravepaw series.

Or so I thought.

The title was Oubliette, which, as fellow lovers of the movie Labyrinth will know, is a place you put people to forget about them. It’s evocative! It’s a cool word! It has historical depth and is somehow dangerous and whimsical at the same time!

And so I wrote a book, about a strange house by the sea, where every day is the same and nothing ever changes, until it does, and our story begins. Whimsical, dark, dangerous. I loved it.

My publisher did not.

(The title, I mean. They loved the book. Well, they loved most of the book. They had notes. I digress.)

The problem with Oubliette, is it’s a writer’s title. Every writer I have mentioned it to loves it. But not all readers are writers (thank goodness!). And this is a YA novel, and YA is, after all, supposed to be primarily for teenagers. All my publishers agreed that for many if not most readers, the word “oubliette” doesn’t mean anything, and therefore isn’t a very good title.

Back to the drawing board. We agreed we wanted something botanical, because the book is herbaceous, and a botanical title would evoke the right kind of cosy/witchy vibes. Hemlock plays a big part in the story (see below on me being influenced by Diana Wynne Jones), and it feels appropriately witchy. Everyone liked Hemlock and Sage until we discovered that T Kingfisher’s next book is Hemlock and Silver (once again we are in sync - I really do think we must be either best friends who haven’t met yet, or mortal enemies), so that was out. We toyed with The Hemlock Maid, and then I ran polls here and on Instagram, and everyone agreed (including the publishers, phew), that the favourite is:

Lavender and Hemlock

I like the tension between the two herbs - cosy/cottagecore/grandma and dangerous/witchy/poison. Both are important in the story. And though most people don’t know what hemlock smells like (and in fact there are many different plants known as hemlock), everyone knows the scent of lavender.

On Diana Wynne Jones

I’m not sure what my first Diana Wynne Jones book was. Her work was a constant, comforting presence in my childhood, and I feel like her stories are as deeply embedded in me as my DNA. Deeper, perhaps. I adore the way she melds the everyday lives of children with deep myth that is simultaneously familiar and unknowable. Fire and Hemlock is a particular favourite - I must have read it at least a dozen times, and every reread reveals more layers.

So naturally I was thrilled to learn that Emily Tesh and Rebecca Fraimow have released Eight Days of Diana Wynne Jones, a podcast delving into each book, one by one. I started listening, and then of course realised that I would have to reread all the books in order to appreciate it fully. Which is where you find me, having just finished Dogsbody1 and diving into The Power of Three.

I’m also reading Diana Wynne Jones’s book of essays, Reflections. She’s an absolute master when it comes to narrative and mythology - she studied at Oxford under JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis, but the thing that stands her apart from those two learned gentlemen is her humour and clear-eyed understanding of children. I loved this passage from her essay about writing for adult readers:

I found myself thinking as I wrote, ‘These poor adults are never going to understand this; I must explain it to them twice more and then remind them again later in different terms.’ Now this is something I never have to think when I write for younger readers. Children are used to making an effort to understand. They are asked for this effort every hour of every school day and, though they may not make the effort willingly, they at least expect it. In addition, nearly everyone between the ages of nine and fifteen is amazingly good at solving puzzles and following complicated plots - this being the happy result of many hours spent at computer games and watching television.

My own fantasy writing is deeply influenced by DWJ’s work, and I often return to her for inspiration, enchantment and comfort. And, obviously, book titles.

Upcoming Events

Tuesday 16 September. After a week in St George, I’m heading back to Outback Queensland on Sunday for more Storyfest, this time in Emerald. I’m doing mostly schools sessions, but I’ll be on a panel for adults with Adrian Beck, RA Spratt and Louise Park, divulging all our green room secrets. Book here.

Friday 19 September 2pm: I’ll be in conversation at RMIT, talking about Unhallowed Halls as well as other things. This is part of a free conversation series with heaps of amazing writers like Kate Mildenhall, Nam Le, Helena Fox, Marion Taffe, Kelly Gardiner & Sharmini Kumar and Katerina Gibson. Bookings not required but you can find out more here.

I’m thrilled to be returning to Brisbane Writers Festival! I’m doing three events:
Thursday 9 October, 9:30am: Bravepaw
Friday 10 October, 10am: The Power of Fantasy
Friday 10 October, 2pm: What Lurks in the Dark (with Garth Nix, Vanessa Len and Wen-yi Lee)

Equally thrilled to be appearing at the Canberra Writers Festival for the first time!
Thursday 23 October, 12:35 The Power of Fantasy (with Lisa Fuller)
Thursday 23 October, 1:25 Help! How to Face the Blank Page (with Lisa Fuller, Jack Heath and Tegan Bennet Daylight)
Thursday 23 October, 3pm Your Story Starts Here (workshop)
For bookings, click here

Reading
Other than Diana Wynne Jones, of course. My book club just read and discussed ML Wang’s Blood Over Bright Haven, which provided for a lively discussion.

Make
I’m working on another quilt, which is very satisfying. I do love to make things that use more of my hands, and less of my brain.

Watch
Have children, so on family movie night they can say “can we watch Lord of the Rings again?”. Extended editions, of course. This experience was much enhanced by having recently read both Tolkien’s essay On Fairy Tales and Diana Wynne Jones’s The Shape of the Narrative in The Lord of the Rings, and I recommend both.

Lili Wilkinson is the award-winning author of more than twenty books for young people, including A Hunger of Thorns, which won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, and was a CBCA Honour Book. Lili has a PhD from the University of Melbourne, and is a passionate advocate for YA and the young people who read it. Her latest books are Unhallowed Halls and the Bravepaw series.

1. Judging a Book Week costume parade.
   90s/00s nostalgia is real. I saw teens dressed up as Mulder and Scully, Hannibal Lecter and Clarice Starling, Juno and Dr House (and yes, I know that most of these aren’t books, but what can you do?). Over the week, I saw a lot of kids dressed as crayons, very hungry caterpillars, pirates, D&D characters and Dalmatians.

2. Smudge
   Smudge is a school therapy dog. He is mostly a Very Good Boy. But he couldn’t resist a stray slice of pizza at the Cosplay Lunch.

3. This message from a teacher

A year 9 student who returned A Hunger of Thorns to the library today said she felt like she was reading her own life. It blew her away.

4. Kids dressing up as characters from my books
   I got a whole bunch of DMs this year from parents whose kids had dressed up as Titch from Bravepaw. My heart! I wish I could share them here, but obviously those kids deserve their privacy!

5. Author hangs
   Yestereday I attended the launch of Vanessa Len’s Once a Villain and got to hang with so many author besties. Plus I finally met Stuart Wilson, author of the incredible The 113th Assistant Librarian, and we had a great time prowling around Dymocks Melbourne for charity. And on Monday I got to meet absolute icon Alison Lester, and tried my best to not fall at her feet and sob about how much I love Magic Beach.

   

Help me choose a name for my next book!

I love naming things. Flowers. Characters. Babies. Chickens. Monsters. But I hate coming up with book titles. It’s the absolute worst. I’m currently struggling with a title for my next YA fantasy - but maybe you can help? Knowing nothing else about it, which book would you be most likely to pick up?

Read
Absolutely loved Alix Harrow’s Starling House. And everyone should pick up a copy of Moonlight and Dust by Jasmin McGaughey, which I read a while ago and endorsed enthusiastically - it’s an amazing contemporary YA fantasy about family, magic and secrets.

Watch
We finally watched Andor (great) and Season 2 of The Last of Us (also great). I noped out of the new Alien show, and we are making our way through Foundation even though I struggle with the core premise of the book. We need a new show, though! What have you been watching and loving?

Grieve
A fox got our chickens. They were all tucked up in their coop at night, but it managed to bust in, leaving only feathers behind. We are very sad, and very angry at the Englishman who thought introducing foxes into this country was a good idea.

Lili Wilkinson is the award-winning author of more than twenty books for young people, including A Hunger of Thorns, which won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, and was a CBCA Honour Book. Lili has a PhD from the University of Melbourne, and is a passionate advocate for YA and the young people who read it. Her latest books are Unhallowed Halls and the Bravepaw series.

Why the good mood, Lili?

Because I’m working on something new.

Something very new. It doesn’t have a contract. I haven’t talked to a publisher about it. There’s no deadline.

Right now, it’s just for me.

One of the things I find really hard to talk about (especially to emerging writers), is how the way you feel about writing changes when you become a professional author. It’s hard to express without sounding ungrateful or patronising. But there is a joy that you feel when you write something that’s just for you. When it’s not all tangled up in contracts and marketing and paying your bills and all the tedium of running a small business. I am so lucky to be able to make a living from my writing, and I am deeply grateful. But it can be hard to disentangle the joy of writing from all the other stuff.

I’m feeling the joy today, though. I have three manuscripts on other people’s desks. I have no freelancing work to do. I could do my taxes, but I’m not going to.

I’m going to play with this new thing, that’s (for now) just for me.

On POV and head-hopping

I went to hear my friend and colleague Kelly Gardiner talk the other night about Miss Caroline Bingley, Private Detective (co-authored with Sharmini Kumar), which I cannot wait to read. Kelly is wonderfully clever and thoughtful about language, and talked a bit about her love of head-hopping in fiction, especially when deployed for humour.

My next YA book has dual perspectives, which is a first for me. I enjoyed it very much, crafting the voices of two very different characters. The transitions are achieved structurally, with chapter breaks in between to make it very clear whose head we are in.

But swapping back and forth between characters on the fly—head hopping—is currently very out of fashion. However it used to be pretty common.

I’m currently reading Tamora Pierce’s Alanna with Banjo1, and have been surprised to see how often it is deployed. For example:

Alanna was quivering all over—like a nervous horse, she chided herself. She linked her hands behind her back before answering, “I believe so, your Grace.”

“Oh, please!” he protested. “Just ‘Lord Roger’ is fine, and I’d do away with that, if I didn’t think it would shock Duke Gareth. ‘Your Grace’ makes me feel old.’

Jonathan expected one of Alan’s pert answers and looked expectantly at his friend. To his surprise Alan looked thoughtful rather than charmed.

It feels genuinely jarring to read, now. If I came across this in a manuscript assessment, I’d recommend changing it. But when this book was published 32 years ago, it was perfectly acceptable. I’m not really sure what my point is here, except to say that writing has fashions and phases. Adverbs were verboten a decade or so ago, but they’re creeping back (in moderation). Probably head-hopping will come back, too.

Read
If you love a magical boarding school but hate TERFs, may I recommend The Incandescent by Emily Tesh. It’s told from the POV of a teacher, so there are risk assessment reports and complaints about the demon who has possessed the photocopier.

Raise
Elphaba crowed this morning. Sigh. Does anyone want a very beautiful rooster?

Play
For some reason I was craving Animal Crossing (I don’t know why, I associate it so strongly with the 2020 lockdowns), so I restarted my island and it turns out it’s just as addictive as ever.

Lili Wilkinson is the award-winning author of more than twenty books for young people, including A Hunger of Thorns, which won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, and was a CBCA Honour Book. Lili has a PhD from the University of Melbourne, and is a passionate advocate for YA and the young people who read it. Her latest books are Unhallowed Halls and the Bravepaw series.

Okay, dogs make the best pets. And cats are wonderful if you’re not allergic to them. But chickens are great too. They eat all your food scraps. They lay eggs (a valuable commodity these days!). They eat all the earwigs in your backyard. And they are very funny.

Twelve weeks ago, I picked up four new chicks that had hatched that very morning. Four little balls of fluff to join our one remaining adult chicken. We have a pretty small suburban backyard, so four chickens is pretty much our limit, and I was betting on at least one being a boy (gender is a construct, but our local council has some strong feelings about roosters). Following our tradition of naming all our chickens after fictional witches, we called them Nanny Ogg, Serafina Pekkala, Elphaba and Agatha.

Our dog, Mags, was obsessed with the baby chicks. Like, vibrating with tension whenever she was around them. It looked like a real internal struggle - she clearly felt maternal towards them. But also she wanted to play with them. And maybe eat them just a little bit. But she knew she couldn’t eat them because she is a very good dog. Now they are much bigger and she is less intense, but she does enjoy following them around the garden, trying to gently push her nose under their wings.

Agatha, who Mags has renamed Rich (full name: Eat the Rich), will be leaving us soon because he is definitely a rooster. I thought that Elphaba might be a roo as well (Mags pre-emptively renamed her Cake—Let Them Eat Cake), but seems to be a pullet. She is very aptly named, as she is all black with the most beautiful beetle-green shimmer.

I don’t think they’ll lay until Spring, but I am pretty sure Serafina Pekkala is going to give us blue eggs, which I am tremendously excited about. It goes without saying that I have made a character in my WIP low-key into chickens.

Unhallowed Halls, four months in

I’m so thrilled at the response to UNHALLOWED HALLS. Thank you to everyone who has read it, bought it, borrowed it and reviewed it! I especially loved this review from Jodie Sloan, who wrote

Lili Wilkinson’s Unhallowed Halls is a simply delicious piece of YA dark academia, infused with fantasy, magical realism and horror, both otherworldly and all too bloody. It’s tightly plotted, and wildly atmospheric; a home run from the Aussie author.

Perfect.

If you haven’t read Unhallowed Halls yet, allow me to suggest that it makes an excellent Pride Month read, and will suit the gloomy winter weather for Aussie readers.

Upcoming events

I’ll be appearing at the Q-Lit Festival Opening Gala on Friday 20 June. Explore the whole program here.

I’ll be chatting with Demet Divaroren about romantasy at Willy Litfest on Sunday 22 June. Book here.

Come see me on a panel with Will Kostakis and Lucy Christopher at the AATE/ALEA Conference in Hobart on Saturday 5 July (I’m also leading a workshop on how to teach creative writing). More info here.

And I’ll be talking about fantasy with Lisa Fuller at the Riverina Readers Festival in Wagga on Saturday 12 July. Bookings here.

Read
I’ve been lucky enough to read two books recently that a) were excellent, b) I devoured in a single day and c) were written by my clever friends. Please go and get yourself a copy of Lady’s Knight by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner (think A Knight’s Tale but sapphic), and An Academic Affair by Jodi McAllister (romance set in the nerdy and cutthroat world of academia).

Watch
Loving Murderbot. And the second season of Poker Face is absolutely ridiculous and I could not be more here for it.

Play
I’m sad to say I have bailed on Assassin’s Creed: Shadows. I had such high hopes for it! It looks stunning, but I found the story rather boring. There are waaaay too many cutscenes that can’t be sped through, and the gameplay feels bland (remember when Assassin’s Creed had puzzles?). And most importantly (for me), it doesn’t have that layer of mythology that made Odyssey and Valhalla so great. Maybe they’re saving it for the DLC, but it seems like such a missed opportunity in a Japanese setting.

Lili Wilkinson is the award-winning author of twenty books for young people, including A Hunger of Thorns, which won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, and was a CBCA Honour Book. Lili has a PhD from the University of Melbourne, and is a passionate advocate for YA and the young people who read it. Her latest books are Unhallowed Halls and the Bravepaw series.

This book started out as a quite fun romp - a high fantasy romance skipping through different worlds. It was whimsical, with some deeper, darker themes about the nature of good and evil.

Then my editor came back to me and basically said make it creepier and sexier. And usually I am pretty good at taking on feedback, but I confess I prickled a bit at this one. Because it had been so much fun writing the whimsical romp. And I do feel like YA is pushing darker and older at the moment, in a way that makes me wonder if we are even really writing for teenagers at all any more.

So I bristled, and I grumbled.

But then I had a really cool, creepy idea, and a different version of the story unfurled in my mind. One that connected more deeply with the themes. One that would be quite fun to write.

Unfortunately it means basically unpicking the entire story and stitching it back together differently. I had hoped I could just shuffle bits around, but it’s turning out to be a complete rewrite, which is something I haven’t done for a while.

The book will be better, though. Eventually.

Awards I didn’t win this week

Deep is the Fen and Bravepaw were both shortlisted for Aurealis Awards, and Bravepaw was also shortlisted for the ABIAs (Australian Book Industry Awards). I love an awards ceremony, even when I don’t win. It’s lovely to see so many friends and colleagues celebrated, and in the case of the ABIAs, it was a very swanky shindig with a Bridgerton-style string quartet and plenty of industry gossip.

The three highlights of the ABIAs were

1. Allen & Unwin won the inaugural Best Children’s Publisher award!

2. Getting to meet the brilliant Bravepaw illustrator Lavanya in person!

3. Seeing QBD Bookseller Dion’s Bravepaw tattoo in person!

Congratulations to the winners - all very deserved!

Read
I’ve been absolutely mainlining the complete works of T Kingfisher - we have so many narrative touchstones in common! Grandmothers who grow roses that turn into monsters! Chickens! People turning into bears!

I also loved The Axeman’s Carnival by Catherine Chidgey, a NZ book narrated entirely by a magpie. It’s darkly funny and at times chilling (CW for domestic violence). Strong rec for the audiobook, narrated by Nic Sampson.

Watch
I continue to mainline medical dramas in my spare time. The Pitt, of course. I’ve done all of Grey’s Anatomy, including the most recent ones which were not great (I think they overestimate how engaging audiences find grant funding as a narrative thread). And The Resident which is in some ways Temu Greys, but is still super watchable thanks to the excellent cast (including Logan Huntzberger who is aging very well). I was wondering recently why I love a medical procedural but dislike a police procedural. My working theory is that the central tension in police procedurals tends to be fascism vs freedom, and in medical procedurals it’s capitalism vs socialism. And I find the latter more intriguing. Maybe?

Play
I finally finished Baldur’s Gate III. Minsc and Boo 4 eva.

There are authors. And books. And snacks.

And swag! I have exclusive Unhallowed Halls tarot cards, and Lisa has all sorts of goodies.

Our book launch will be extra fun because we are launching three books. Unhallowed Halls, Bravepaw 2: Bravepaw and the Clawstone of Rotwood Mire and Prince of Fortune by Lisa Tirreno. Lisa is a debut Melbourne author, her queer romantasy is great and we should all be supporting her.

If you’ve never been to a book launch before and you’re a bit nervous - don’t be. The great thing about them is that if you feel shy, you can always just hide among the books. Also book people are the nicest people.

The launch is at Dymocks in Melbourne (234 Elizabeth Street), next Tuesday 18 February. 6:30pm.

You can book here, or just show up.

Lisa and I would love to see you!

It’s challenging to be an artist in times of crisis. Our work can seem frivolous, and devoting time to it can feel indulgent. And promoting new books feels even worse. I felt this meme real hard:

But art is more important than ever during dark times. Whether it’s a call to arms, a light in the darkness, a challenge to be accepted… or just something that brings comfort or even distraction. And there is never a time where making something beautiful isn’t a valid thing to do.

I’m currently working on Bravepaw #3, as well as a Secret Project that I can’t tell you anything about. But I’m not working on it by myself…

UNHALLOWED HALLS releases Feb 18

If you like

• gloomy dark academia

• bleak Scottish moors

• magical boarding schools where trans kids exist

• diverse squads of eccentric, loveable weirdos

• demonic energy

• ancient Celtic magic

• banter

• fey genderqueer boys in kilts who knit and do plant magic

• mysterious pig mascots

• standing stones

• just a touch of cosmic horror…

…then boy do I have a book for you!

There’ll be a free launch event on Tuesday February 18 at Dymocks Melbourne, alongside the fabulous Lisa Tirreno who is launching her incredible swoony romantasy debut, Prince of Fortune. And as an added bonus, there’ll be super early copies of Bravepaw 2: Bravepaw and the Clawstone of Rotwood Mire available for purchase!

Book here!

Read
My 2025 reads so far:
Orbital (stunning writing and vibes, don’t expect a story)
Klara and the Sun (I adore sentient dolls and lonely girls, but the ending didn’t quite satisfy me. I think maybe I want this to be Season 1 of a prestige drama?)
Not Here to Make Friends (absolutely inhaled this Bachelor-style romance from Aussie legend Jodie McAlister)

Watch
Severance. Somebody Somewhere. The Pitt. We’re also rewatching Outnumbered with our kid. It’s a UK show from the 2000s about parents struggling to manage life with three kids. The adults were scripted, but the kid actors worked more loosely with a lot of improvisation. I remember originally seeing that show and thinking it was a hilarious comedy. Watching it now as a parent, it is more like a highly realistic documentary.

Play
Some fool got me Baldur’s Gate 3 for Christmas and I am obsessed. My rescue dog and my rescue owl bear are best friends! Is this the point of the game? No! Do I care? Also no!

Lili Wilkinson is the award-winning author of twenty books for young people, including A Hunger of Thorns, which won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, and was a CBCA Honour Book. Lili has a PhD from the University of Melbourne, and is a passionate advocate for YA and the young people who read it. Her latest books are Deep is the Fen and Bravepaw 1: The Heartstone of Alluria.

We have many Christmas traditions in our home - the tree, the decorations, the food. But my favourite tradition is the Christmas Mice. I bought them years ago, when Banjo was little, and decided they would do cheeky things in the lead up to Christmas. A bit like Elf on the Shelf, but without all the creepy surveillance and behavioural expectations. Pure Christmas whimsy!

It backfired spectacularly. Little Banjo had nightmares about the mice, even when I told him they weren’t really doing all the cheeky things. I put them away. So much for whimsy.

But the next year, he asked for them. And the year after that. They hid in our glove box when we went on our road trip to Perth and back.

Now Banjo is ten, and far too grown up for Christmas whimsy. Or so I thought. The mice wrote him a note apologising for their terrible behaviour in the past, and promised to be good from now on. Banjo promptly replied and encouraged them to be a bit cheeky.

On the first of December he woke up to find that his note had been torn to shreds, and the first day of his advent calendar missing. He followed the trail of paper to our letterbox…

Since then, it’s been pure chaos.

2024 in review

Gosh, it’s been an intense year! A great one, though.

• edited Bravepaw 1

• edited Unhallowed Halls

• wrote Bravepaw 2

• wrote Oubliette

• released Deep is the Fen

• released Bravepaw 1

• went to Japan for a glorious three weeks

• A Hunger of Thorns shortlisted for three awards

• and won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards

• public appearances: 65

• books read: 51

Safe to say that I am exhausted and am looking forward to my beach holiday.

I know this time of year can be stressful, so I hope that you get a break, and get to refill your well ready for next year.

Read: Christmas Edition

December is for Christmas romance novels. So far my favourite has been Lovelight Farms. Last year I enjoyed A Merry Little Meet Cute and Wreck the Halls. I’m about to start The Twelve Dates of Christmas. Let me know if there are any you recommend!

Watch: Christmas Edition

Dear Santa had such a great premise! A kid misspells his letter to Santa and it ends up with Satan, played by Jack Black. Unfortunately, this movie not only fails to deliver on its premise, it has an ending that is so egregious it borders on unethical. Details in this spoilery footnote1. We did, however, enjoy Richard Curtis’s That Christmas. And I thought the new Lindsay Lohan one wasn’t bad. I haven’t gotten to Hot Frosty yet.

Make: Christmas Edition

MINCE PIES
(makes 24)

For the mince
100g currants
100g raisins
100g sultanas
100g dates (chopped)
50g candied peel
50g glacé cherries (halved)
50g flaked almonds
1 ripe banana, mashed (the riper the better)
4 tbsp brandy (whisky or rum also fine)
1 tsp each of ground ginger, grated nutmeg, mixed spice

Mix it all together. Don’t skip the banana, even if you hate banana. Trust me.

For the pastry
250g butter, softened
150g caster sugar
1 egg yolk
400g plain flour
pinch of salt
icing sugar for dusting

Brush two mini muffin trays (mine are silicone) with a thin layer of melted butter. Preheat your oven to 200C.
Cream the butter and sugar until pale (2-3 mins in a stand mixer). Add the egg yolk and mix for another minute. Add flour and salt and mix until just combined. Wrap the dough in cling-wrap and stick in the fridge for an hour.

Keep a quarter of the pastry for the tops, and divide the rest into 24 balls. Use your fingers to squish each ball into the tray like it’s play dough to form the bottom case.

Fill each case with mince.

Roll out the remaining pastry dough and cut out your tops. I usually do a little star.

Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until golden brown on top.

Cool on a wire rack, then dust lightly with icing sugar.

Lili Wilkinson is the award-winning author of twenty books for young people, including A Hunger of Thorns, which won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, and was a CBCA Honour Book. Lili has a PhD from the University of Melbourne, and is a passionate advocate for YA and the young people who read it. Her latest books are Deep is the Fen and Bravepaw 1: The Heartstone of Alluria.

I’ve handed in a draft of my 2026 release. I’ve finished my backlog of manuscript assessments and books to read for endorsement. I’ve given my last author talk of the year. My 2025 releases are ready to go - Unhallowed Halls and Bravepaw 2 will be out in March.

I have (this week, at least) nothing to do?

This isn’t true, of course. I have an enormous pile of life admin. I’m going to the dentist. I’m calling the electrician. I’m making piles of things to donate to the school fete.

My instinct is to find more work to do. To start thinking about a pitch for a 2027 YA, to plan out Bravepaws #3 and #4, or to finally write that middle grade book. I could do NaNoWriMo!

But I won’t do any of that stuff, because I need a break. It’s been a massive year, and I’m exhausted. Folding a basket of laundry while rewatching The Good Place is what I need right now.

Write the next thing

So you got rejected by an agent. Or your book didn’t sell to a publisher. Or it did, but it flopped. Or maybe it did… fine, but didn’t achieve your dreams of stardom. What do you do now?

Write the next thing.

This is one of those pieces of writing advice that gets much easier with practice. It’s hard when you’re at the beginning. When it’s the first book you’ve ever written. When it’s the book of your heart. But your heart is big, and can produce many books.

I promise it gets easier. You just have to keep going, and remember that every word you write makes you a better writer. If that book didn’t make it, it doesn’t mean you wasted your time. You learnt so much! And that never stops, no matter how successful you become. You can always learn more, be a better writer. Always.

(but you’re allowed to have a little break first)

Win an ARC of Unhallowed Halls

Unhallowed Halls has received starred reviews in both Kirkus and Publisher’s Weekly. The latter said:

Covert clubs, dangerous tests of wits, and a mystery shrouded in dark magic and strange and ancient secrets unfurl in this stunning foray whose skillful plotting is reminiscent of Donna Tart’s The Secret History. Painterly descriptions of a rainy gothic atmosphere punctuated by suspense, horror, and humor as experienced by a dynamic and intersectionally diverse found-family cast feel at once as classic as its inspirations, and as an invigorating reinvention of the genre.

Which I’m pretty chuffed about.

I’ve got two Unhallowed Halls ARCs next to me on my desk. To win one, comment below and tell me about a great book you read this year!

Listen
I know I’ve evangelised about the Normal Gossip podcast on here before, but book people should definitely listen to the episode titled Forbidden Feline Fanfiction with Ashley Reese. It’s about a Warriors fandom community, and it’s a banger.

Craft
I’ve just finished one of these slow stitching kits and found it a very calming experience, with such a pretty outcome!

Cook
November means that Christmas is approaching, and I don’t know about you, but all I want to do is put up my tree and fill my house with whimsy. We made our Christmas puddings last week - a beloved family tradition.

Lili Wilkinson is the award-winning author of twenty books for young people, including A Hunger of Thorns, which won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, and was a CBCA Honour Book. Lili has a PhD from the University of Melbourne, and is a passionate advocate for YA and the young people who read it. Her latest books are Deep is the Fen and Bravepaw 1: The Heartstone of Alluria.

(it makes a great Christmas present for 5-10 year olds, I’m just saying)

Bravepaw 2: Bravepaw and the Clawstone of Rotwood Mire is almost finished (coming in March 2025), and I’m starting to think about 3 and 4. We’re putting the final touches on my dark academia YA fantasy Unhallowed Halls, which will be out in Feb 2025 in the US, the UK and Australia - which cover do you like best?

Never throw anything away

I bought a sewing machine in 2009, and got into quilting. One of my earliest projects was ambitious - a queen bed sized string quilt, that would, when finished, have more than four thousand individually pieced strips of fabric.

I made it to about a third of the way in, and then got distracted by other, shinier projects. And my unfinished quilt sat in a box until a few months ago, when I pulled it out and realised that a) it was being wasted in a box, and b) I was never going to finish it. I think it’s very beautiful, but I wouldn’t choose this design or these colours if I were making it now, because my tastes have changed. I wasn’t going to devote the amount of time required for something that I wasn’t passionate about.

But I could probably devote enough time to make it into something… less ambitious.

I spent a Sunday ripping it up and reassembling it. I pieced together another twelve blocks to fill in the gaps. I bought some backing fabric and sewed together the binding. And I took it to a quilter, because I do not enjoy wrestling a quilt through a regular domestic sewing machine.

And now I have a new snuggly quilt to watch TV under, but more importantly, I remembered how much I loved sewing, so dove straight into another project:

I’m very proud of this one! It has so many little details that I love. Mushrooms! Moths! Bunnies! Frogs!

Which is all to say - nothing is wasted. If you get halfway through a story and then abandon it, keep it. If you write a whole novel that never finds a publisher, keep it. You might be able to rip it up later and use some of it in a future project. And even if you don’t, then just the act of writing it made you a better writer. Your time wasn’t wasted. You’re building new skills with every time you write.

Read
It took me weeks to get through Natasha Pulley’s The Mars House, but I loved it. Then I read Rainbow Rowell’s Slow Dance in a single day and loved it, too. Reading is weird.

Watch
Loved Nobody Wants This. Two unbelievably charismatic leads with a stellar supporting cast. Too often in romance the thing keeping our lovers apart is a misunderstanding that could be easily solved with an honest conversation. I loved that in NWT, the problem is a real, messy, insurmountable problem with no easy fix. Great storytelling! And as publishing superstar Kate Cuthbert said to me over dinner, “Adam Brody really looks like he knows how to kiss a girl”.

Overthink
It’s time for a new Christmas tree. We are a fake tree household, for a few reasons, the biggest one being that I am violently allergic to the real kind (and I like to put my tree up at the beginning of December, and the real ones are always a bit crispy in Australia by the time you get to Christmas Day). The old one lasted more than 20 years, and I’m ready to upgrade. Am I overthinking this purchase? Yes. Did I order a “branch kit” from Balsam Hill? Of course. It’s a toss-up between the Fraser Fir and the European Fir.

Lili Wilkinson is the award-winning author of twenty books for young people, including A Hunger of Thorns, which won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, and was a CBCA Honour Book. Lili has a PhD from the University of Melbourne, and is a passionate advocate for YA and the young people who read it. Her latest books are Deep is the Fen and Bravepaw 1: The Heartstone of Alluria.

And I’m not done…

BRAVEPAW #1: The Heartstone of Alluria

Bravepaw is out today! I love this series so much. It was an absolute delight to work on - I’ve never enjoyed writing anything as much as I enjoyed this. The idea first came about over breakfast with my brilliant publisher Susannah Chambers. We both have kids the same age, who are big into imaginative play and having adventures. They’re also big readers, especially of graphic novels. I wanted to create a series that felt like classic children’s fantasy - quests, heroes, magic, monsters etc - but for younger readers. Over that breakfast, we agreed that our number one choice for an illustrator would be Lavanya Naidu, whose work I have admired for so long. And luckily she said yes!

One of the great things about having young people in your life is indoctrinating them into loving the things you love. So if you love classic high fantasy - Tolkien, Tamora Pierce, Redwall, Narnia - then Bravepaw is the perfect onramp. It’s accessible, adorable and full of all the tropes we know and love.

It’s Book of the Month at QBD, you get an exclusive embroidered patch! I’ll be visiting bookshops in Sydney and Melbourne over the next week, signing books and distributing some very cool vinyl stickers. And it’ll be in the Scholastic Book Club catalogue next month, also with an exclusive gift!

Upcoming appearances

I’ll be in conversation with Amie Kaufman tomorrow evening (that’s the 5th of September) at 6:30pm at Kinokuniya in Sydney, to launch The Heart of the World, the spectacular conclusion to her fantasy duology. Book here.

This coming Saturday (the 7th) I’ll be at Doncaster Library’s YA Litfest, along with Lauren Draper and Katya de Becerra! It’s free and you don’t have to book - more info here.

I’ll be at Wangaratta Geek Con on Saturday 14 September - book here.

Unhallowed Halls

And in case you missed it, I revealed the cover for my 2025 YA dark academia fantasy! It’s about found families, ancient magics, eccentric boarding schools and dark secrets. It’ll be out next February in Australia, the US and the UK.

Read
I inhaled Amie’s The Heart of the World while I had covid and it was everything I wanted it to be and more. Also I read Kate J Armstrong’s Fyrebirds a while ago but now it is officially out I can confirm that it, too, is a perfect conclusion to a stunning duology. I’m currently reading Sarah Rees Brennan’s Long Live Evil which is so much fun!

Watch
Our kid asked to watch Lord of the Rings for Family Movie Night. We sat him down and very carefully explained that it was fine if he didn’t like them, but they are our favourite movies and he might have to find somewhere else to live. Luckily, he loved them (extended editions, of course). I don’t know how many times I’ve watched that trilogy, but every time it gives me all the feels. All of them.

Play
I played a lot of Stardew Valley when I had covid. Like, a lot.

Lili Wilkinson is the award-winning author of twenty books for young people, including A Hunger of Thorns, which won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, and was a CBCA Honour Book. Lili has a PhD from the University of Melbourne, and is a passionate advocate for YA and the young people who read it. Her latest books are Deep is the Fen and Bravepaw 1: The Heartstone of Alluria.

But I’m keeping on top of it, you know?

Then this morning, the first pass pages of my 2025 YA dark academia fantasy arrived in my inbox, due back in a week.

And I’m not complaining. I am so lucky to get to do this! I love my job, and I am grateful for it.

Okay, I am complaining a little bit.

Achievable goals

I was given six months to draft this new YA novel (working title Oubliette, although knowing my track record, it will change before publication). I usually aim for 80,000 words, so that’s around 615 words a day, if I wrote every day (excluding weekends). 3000 words per week.

On a good day, I can write 2000 words (more if I’m on retreat). But not every day is a good day, so I never aim for that much. Some days require more thinking or planning or brainstorming. Some days I have to focus on other projects (like those first pass pages). Failing to meet ambitious goals is deflating. Achieving small goals is energising. Modest, achievable goals will get you there.

I’ve set myself a goal of 4000 words per week, to create a bit of a buffer (remember those 25 days of public speaking coming up). And some weeks I do less (last week was 3195, the week before was 2277). Most weeks I do more (my best week so far was 7122). Currently I’m a cool 18,000 words ahead of schedule, which is great because of those aforementioned public speaking days. I try never to write on weekends, or days when I have a gig. This is a marathon, not a sprint.

First pass pages

I have just received the first pass pages for my 2025 release, Unhallowed Halls. It’s a dark academia YA fantasy featuring tarot cards, a crumbling boarding school on the Scottish moors, an eccentric squad of besties, standing stones, and demons. I will be sharing the cover soon. It is DIVINE.

First pass pages is the first round of proofreading. We’ve done structural edits and copyedits, and the book has now been typeset. And a proofreader (or two) has been through it with a fine tooth comb.

Some issues are revealed in typesetting, like the repetition of the word long here:

Sometimes it’s missing words, or extra words, or tense issues accidentally created during the editing process.

There are a million little comments and things to check. Spelling and punctuation must be consistent with the house style. Quotes must be checked.

The proofreaders are very good. Their work is invaluable. Is it a tedious process? Yes. But so important. Once I’ve been through it all and made the necessary changes, it will go back to my publisher, then return with second pass pages. Then we do it all again. It’s impossible to catch every last error, but we do our best!

Where I’ll be next month

I’ve just come back from the Whitsunday Voices Literature Festival, which was an absolute blast (and a wonderful break from this brutal Melbourne winter).

In a couple of weeks, I’ll be heading to the Byron Bay Writers Festival, appearing on their Schools Program, and doing a panel on the general program with Lynette Noni and Rhiannon Patrick. More info here.

Then the chaos of Book Week descends! This year I’ll be touring schools in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne.

Read
I loved Kaliane Bradley’s Ministry of Time - a great mix of time travel, thriller and public service bureaucracy. Also Lauren Draper’s Return to Sender, which is a gorgeous contemporary Australian YA about small towns, family secrets and dead letters. Recommend!

Watch
I was expecting My Lady Jane to be somewhere between Bridgerton and The Great, but it actually feels like it has more kinship with Horrible Histories. Either way, it’s very enjoyable. I have also managed to get through (checks notes) eighteen seasons of Greys Anatomy since February, mostly in the background while doing housework or craft projects.

Make
I’ve been taken over by a craft bug! I finished knitting a gorgeous top, completed two quilts that have been sitting dormant in a tub for years, and knocked off another one as well. More on this in a future newsletter!

Lili Wilkinson is the award-winning author of nineteen books for young people, including After the Lights Go Out and A Hunger of Thorns. Lili has a PhD from the University of Melbourne, and is a passionate advocate for YA and the young people who read it, establishing the Inky Awards at the Centre for Youth Literature, State Library of Victoria. Her latest book is Deep is the Fen.

I’m currently writing a book with dual protagonists (a first for me!), and two names came to me very quickly - Tansy and Alec. The book is high fantasy, and they felt familiar, but could fit into my world. However, I realised yesterday that I had to change Alec, because I another main character’s name starts with an A, and I hate it when characters names are too similar in books (looking at you, Sauron and Saruman).

So Alec had to change, but there was a bigger problem. Alec has been raised in a kind of military academy with his brothers and sisters, where individualism is discouraged. So I wanted some kind of naming tradition for them. I didn’t want to go as dehumanising as FN-2187, so I considered other options:

• numbers in Latin (Primus, Secundo, Tertius)

• named after carnivorous animals (Crow, Fox, Viper, Worm)

• named after carnivorous plants (Nepenthe, Drosera, Dionaea, Sarracenia)

• violent sounding names (Ash, Bone, Flint, Blade, Beast)

• monster names? (Chimera, Griffin, Cetus, Eidolon?)

And then I started thinking about virtue names. This military academy is not known for its virtues, so there is an appealing kind of irony there. So I made a list of potential names. (Naming is all about lists.)

• Bright

• Deft

• Alacrity

• Vigil

• Beacon

• Caliber

• Merit

• Silence

• Temperance

• Hale

• Hallow

• Candor

• Valor

I love Silence as a name, but it needs to work with “Sir” in front of it, and Sir Silence doesn’t flow. Sir Caliber has the right sound and a built-in nickname of Cal, but makes me think of guns. I love Sir Hallow for a name, but I’m publishing a book next year called Unhallowed Halls. I like Sir Vigil, but I think the winner is Sir Merit.

It’s entirely possible I’ll change it again, but for now, my protagonists are Tansy and Merit.

Eltham Bookshop event

Come and see me on May 30 which is this Thursday at Eltham Bookshop. I’ll be in conversation with the lovely Hayley Gabrielle, talking all things fantasy. It’s $35 and you get refreshments and a signed copy of one of my books (or a book voucher for something else). I’d love to see you there!

Book here

Read
I loved Julia Armfield’s Our Wives Under the Sea, about a deep sea explorer who returns from a voyage, and her wife is worried that she has come back… wrong. I also really liked The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden. I am not usually a War Book person, but this one really got me.

Watch
Remember how I watched all of ER a couple of years ago, because I just couldn’t stop? Well now I’m doing that with Greys Anatomy. Why do I like a medical procedural and not one based on cops or lawyers? I think because I think of doctors as being (mostly) unequivocally good, whereas I’m a bit less enthusiastic about the general concept of police and lawyers. There are less baddies, and the stories are more about relationships between characters, which is my jam. Obviously I am also up to date on Bridgerton (swoon).

Make
I’ve picked up a knitting project that I abandoned three years ago, and am hoping it’ll be done in a couple of weeks. Maybe next newsletter I’ll be able to post a picture! I like to knit - it’s a creative activity that doesn’t require a great deal of brain, and I can do it in front of the telly.

Lili Wilkinson is the award-winning author of nineteen books for young people, including After the Lights Go Out and A Hunger of Thorns. Lili has a PhD from the University of Melbourne, and is a passionate advocate for YA and the young people who read it, establishing the Inky Awards at the Centre for Youth Literature, State Library of Victoria. Her latest book is Deep is the Fen.

We had a lovely launch event at Dymocks in Melbourne, with champagne and chocolate frogs toads. Thanks to CS Pacat for doing the honours, to Dymocks, and everyone who showed up!

The audiobook is also out now - Imogen Wilde does an amazing job of the narration, strong recommend.

There are a bunch of signed copies at Dymocks, and I’ll be heading to other Melbourne bookshops next week to sign more stock. If you desperately long for a signed copy or a book plate, get in touch.

Writing workshop

I’m leading a writing workshop this Saturday, 20 April, at Sandringham Library, 1-3:30pm. Come along and I’ll tell you all my secrets!

I’m also bringing books for sale if you want to get your paws on a signed copy of Deep is the Fen (or any others).

Book here.

What’s next?

I see a lot of writers talk about the let-down after a book launches, the deflation of all that buildup and waiting. It definitely happens, but I mostly combat it by keeping busy. I’ve got a bunch of promo stuff to do over the next few weeks, plus I have copyedits for UNHALLOWED HALLS in my inbox, and a new YA to outline. Onward!

Lili Wilkinson is the award-winning author of nineteen books for young people, including After the Lights Go Out and A Hunger of Thorns. Lili has a PhD from the University of Melbourne, and is a passionate advocate for YA and the young people who read it, establishing the Inky Awards at the Centre for Youth Literature, State Library of Victoria. Her latest book is Deep is the Fen, which you can buy here,(Australia) or here (US).