January Gilchrist in the spotlight - Part One

In this episode we speak to the wonderful January Gilchrist, whose latest book, The Final Chapter is essential reading. 

Join us as we explore her creative process, writing routines, and January's inspiring journey. Discover how she balances multiple genres, her experiences at Varuna, and insights into her upcoming novel 'Slake House' in this engaging interview.

January's books

The Final Chapter

My Sister's Shadow

Things we talked about

The Rise and Fall of Choose Your Own Adventure (YouTube documentary)

Key Topics

• Writing routines and process
• Experiences at Varuna residency
• Development of 'The Final Chapter'
• Themes of women and relationships in her books
• Upcoming novel 'Slake House' and its themes

Chapters

• Introduction and Guest Welcome
• January Gilchrist's Writing Routine and Daily Life
• The Inspiration Behind 'The Final Chapter'
• Character Development and Themes in 'The Final Chapter'
• Reader Reactions and Feedback on Her Books
• Building a Novel: Character or Scene First?
• Research and Historical Accuracy in Writing
• Writing Tools and Software Preferences
• Experience at Varuna Residency and Creative Inspiration
• The Ghost at Varuna and Its Significance
• 'My Sister's Shadow' and Gothic Inspiration
• Writing Sister Relationships and Character Dynamics
• Balancing Transient Life and Genre Switching
• Upcoming Novel 'Slake House' and Its Themes
• Publishing Timeline and Future Projects

Booktopia Affiliate Program

The Kill City Podcast is a part of the Booktopia Affiliate Program, meaning that when you purchase a book from Booktopia using one of the above the links, we get a small commission. Or as they'd say in the crime world, a kick back! 

At the Kill City Podcast we love celebrating and promoting the work of Australian writers, publishers and bookstores, and we hope you do too.

Disclaimer

The episode transcripts are auto-generated, and while all efforts are made to ensure their accuracy, there may be some instance of incorrect spelling and/or errors in the accuracy.

www.killcitypodcast.com.au

Transcript

Helen 0:00

The Kill City Podcast acknowledges the traditional custodians of the lands we're on. Here in Melbourne, that's the Wurundjeri Wurorong people of the Kulin Nation. We honour their deep connection to storytelling, a tradition carried across more than 2,000 generations. Pay our respects to elders past, present, and emerging, and we extend that acknowledgement to First Nations people listening today. I'm very well, thank you. And I'm super excited because today we are joined by January Gilcrest.

Leigh 0:57

We are indeed.

Helen 0:59

Now January is. Hello. January is. Interject. Oh no, no, we're excited. You're excited to be here. You should interject as much as you like because we're here for you. So January is a Brisbane writer who somehow manages to juggle multiple genres, including crime, gothic historical, and romance. You might know her from her debut contemporary mystery novel, The Final Chapter, or her beautifully dark gothic novel, My Sister's Shadow, which I also want to talk about. And if you've picked up an Ava January historical romance like The Lady Detective or The Mayfair Digger, that's her too. Now January's also gathered a fair few accolades along the way. She's presented at the Brisbane Writers Festival. She was long listed for the 2019 Ritual Prize, and she won the Kerry Greenwood Malice Domestic Award at the 2025 Starlet Sileto Awards for her short story, The Art of Letting Go, which we actually talked about in episode three when we did our full rundown of the winners. So she also presents writing workshops, she runs a Pilates studio, she's raising two young boys, and she still finds time to write stories full of secrets, revenge, and locked room mysteries. And we're so happy that she's carved out some of her busy time to come and talk to us.

January 2:18

Thank you. What an intro you've made me sound so busy and productive.

Helen 2:24

Well, welcome and thank you very much for joining us. Um yeah, we love having you here on Kill City.

January 2:30

Thank you. Thank you so much for having me.

Helen 2:33

Now, before we get into your books, you've got kids, a Pilates studio, and about three genres on the go at any time. What did um what did today actually look like for you? And did you manage to do any writing?

January 2:46

I actually was committed to spending the morning in the garden because it has finally stopped raining here in Brisbane. We have had really torrential rain for weeks, and um I pulled about two weeds and a snake slithered by. So that was that. No more gardening for me. Um, but that was great because then I sat around and read a book. I had um social plans and then I was committed to writing at one o'clock, and then two o'clock came, and then I was committed to writing at three o'clock, and now I'm here doing the podcast, and I'll I I'll think I'll write after the podcast.

Leigh 3:34

That's what I just want to go back for a quick second. So I think you're entirely it's entirely fair enough that you haven't written after a close encounter with a snake. That would be if anybody wants to know why I won't be moving to Brisbane. January, you've answered that for us right there. Um what kind of snake was it?

January 3:52

Only v mildly venomous, the internet tells me. Yeah, so that is and it it was very polite. It slithered across my hand as I was reaching to pull the grass and kept going, but that was too much for me. Yeah.

Leigh 4:12

Well, my next question was and is that a typical day for you, or is today one of the more chaotic ones? No, but I think we're probably I'm not sure I need to ask that one now.

January 4:21

Look, the writing or the non-writing, I have said before at an event, writing chases me throughout the day. It is like this crowd of uh swarm of angry bees, and I've disturbed their nest and I'm running from it as fast as I can, and it keeps chasing me. And eventually, when I've done all the washing and vacuuming and even vacuumed that drape and you know, emptied that cupboard, then I sit down and I write.

Helen 4:51

Thank you so much for giving us that that kind of mental picture now of how how you approach that with everything else you do. I think that makes it really easy for us to kind of understand um how you how you do the juggle, which is awesome. So I'm really keen if we can now move into talking about um your book, The Final Chapter, which of course is a contemporary murder mystery novel. Um, now look, I tore through this, I reckon, in just over a day. I just loved it. I thought it was such a really tight, juicy kind of mystery. And I think when it came out in August, um I kind of looked when we were sort of talking about doing this podcast about what else you'd done, and I felt like this was obviously your opportunity to really sort of nail this genre, and I kind of wanted to understand what was the moment that you knew that this was kind of that next story you wanted to write.

January 5:44

I was actually at Varuna. So, for those who don't know, Varuna is the National Writers House, it's set in the Blue Mountains, and it is a house that was donated by the Dark family to the writers of Australia, and it's set right against the national park, it's really the last house on the end of a cul-de-sac, it's beautifully atmospheric, and it's old and there's lots of um noises, and there is a ghost. That's one of the first things they tell you when you arrive is don't mind Eleanor, she just likes to check on the writers. And yeah, it was winter and it was cold, and I was there writing my sister's shadow, actually, which is also quite dark, so that was perfect. And I just kept walking around this house going, you know, this would make a perfect setting for a murder mystery. Why not?

Helen 6:43

So that's so really for you. I guess the the setting was what um got you there in the first place, but for me, I'm very character-driven as a reader, and what I thoroughly enjoyed was your characters because they just left off the page at me, and I think the fact that they were all writers was really cool. I didn't feel that they were kind of caricatures or gimmicky in any way, or maybe Laurie the poet, but I think he was meant to be like that, wasn't he? And I think that idea that you had them kind of all sort of different personalities in their own different genres, they had those different levels of sort of confidence and ambition, the kind of backstories got revealed to us. Did you um and I I don't want to give away any spoilers, but I mean, and I think from hearing your interviews with other people, some characters I think resonate more than others, and you won't be surprised to say that Desley, of course, spoke to me. But did you see yourself in one of them more than others, or did you kind of carry little bits of all of them?

January 7:45

Desley is me on a bad day. I mean, Desley needs therapy big time, but I think she I've had so much feedback. I've had people DM me who've read it and say, Oh no, this is really weird, I've never done this, but I just loved that character, which touched me so much because she is, I think, so relatable. If we let ourselves spiral, that negative self-talk that we constantly looking at other people going, well, they're better than me. You know, she just takes it to another level. Um, but she was fun to lean into, and like, what if you never what if you just didn't stop spiraling? What if you just let yourself really lean in? I'd love to be like Maya. Yes, she has never spiraled a day in her life. No, knows what she wants, yeah, and she's very confident. So, in a way, maybe she was um aspirational for me to to kind of lean into that personality who never let herself spiral.

Helen 8:55

Yeah. And Colette as a counterbalance? What what kind of piqued her?

January 9:00

Colette for me, I've met a lot of people. Um, I think women, what I really wanted to do was explore the relationship between the women as in that kind of in the container of the crime. Colette is disliked instantly by both of these other women, just purely based on the fact that she looks really well put together and she has a wealthy husband, and therefore she must be not very nice, or she is quite hateable, or she doesn't deserve our sympathy. And so I wanted to explore that a little too. Um, my feelings about people with glossy hair is in there. My hair doesn't behave very well, but Colette's was always perfect.

Helen 9:43

You live in Queensland, you have to deal with humidity, exactly. It's not your fault.

January 9:50

But you know, uh a lot of scenes with Colette involve a lot of her products, so there's a lot of staring in the mirror for Colette. There's a lot of, you know, she's got half a bag full of hair products and face products, and that was kind of me trying to explore. I don't, I think we think when we're being negative, oh look, that person's so put together and that just happens naturally, and I must be. But these people are trying really hard, they're getting up an hour early and doing that hair and that makeup, and that's what I wanted to explore for Collect.

Helen 10:19

Yeah, no, I think I really like the way you've described it because one of the things I was thinking about is I think um you actually s explore, I think, some really important themes around women and how they see themselves and how they think all the world sees them, and I think all of the characters, you know, they they carried that really clearly on the page, and um, and I think that is really important for readers to be able to explore in themselves about how they feel. So I was wondering, you mentioned about you you said you know someone DM'd you saying about Desley, but were there any other reactions from readers that surprised you?

January 10:57

Um, I have a one-star review on Goodreads. I don't read yeah, you know exactly what I'm talking about, don't you? So I don't read the reviews, I don't I genuinely keep away from Goodreads, and somebody texted me, and not even somebody I'm close with. She got my number from someone and she was like, babe, I don't know if you want to have this one removed. And I got my friend to log in as me, and I said, reply and say, Yeah, she is. Imagine being on a writer's retreat with her, and because it's TG, I can't tell you what the review is, says, but it obviously they didn't love that character, and it's a one-liner, and it's just Maya is a bad word.

Helen 11:43

It just says so much more about them than it does about you, though, doesn't it?

January 11:47

Yeah, and one-star reviews are interesting, right? Because I have to admit, when I'm going to a new restaurant, I go straight to the negative reviews. I go straight to one star reviews because they do tell me more about the person leaving the review than the restaurant. And if you're saying, oh, um, one star because the drive took too long, well, one star, I'm allergic to carrots and they wouldn't remove the carrots from the carrot cake. Okay. So yeah, you he had a lot too much time on his hands, I guess.

Helen 12:23

I think we should move along. I I don't think we should give him any more airtime than he deserves. Leigh, I know you've got lots more questions.

Leigh 12:32

Anyway, back to more positive things. The deeper I got into reading the book, the bigger the chunks I was trying to read at once, and just it it just grabbed me, um, and I was just unable to put it down. Um, and I think at one point I had them all pegged as being the killer. Like I just like I was just like thinking I'm gonna, I'm, I'm, I'm smarting my way through here. My history is about zero and a hundred of guessing, but I'm I'm onto something here, and I totally got it wrong. Um, but can we zoom out a little bit and just talk about how you go about sort of building your novels? Um, when you're starting something new, what usually lands for you first? Is it um is it character or or scene?

January 13:12

That's a great question. I think I start so that the idea of the writing chasing me throughout my day is my first draft. So I do a lot of thinking. The jump tends to be a scene, and then I start thinking, well, what kind of character would find themselves in that scene, and how could you make that a little more interesting? And then I kind of build from there thinking, what's the worst kind of person that could find themselves in that situation? And then how do I just keep making it even worse for them?

Leigh 13:48

Um so when that spark catches, um, how do you get moving? Are you someone that needs a plan, or do you just start writing and see where it goes?

January 14:01

I wish I had a plan. Um, no, I've gotten better at planning, actually. It does make you more efficient. I wait until, and me and Jodie Bacult, by the way, I just want to say she does this as well, so I'm in good company. Um, I wait until I have thought so much about the book that I've got the last scene as well, so I know how the book ends, and then I start writing. So I don't start writing until I know where I'm going, but invariably throughout the writing session, some things, you know, somebody turns up and you're like, oh, okay, that's a surprise. And so my plan is very broad, but there is one there. I'm on the road, I'm on the highway to Cannes. I don't know if I'm gonna stop at that road stop or stop off at that one, but I know I'm getting there.

Leigh 14:50

Um are you a big researcher?

January 14:53

Uh for the historical stories, yes. And I've had to get a lot stricter, more disciplined, should I say, with myself, because I would sometimes, like Lady Detective took me two years to write because I I would have her walking down the hallway, and of course, any good writer is not going to say she's walking down the hallway, and I would think, okay, she's tap tapping. Well, hold on, what were the heels of shoes made like in 1893? Oh, and then next minute I'm on the VA website and I've spent an hour looking at shoes. So um, I've gotten much more disciplined at leaving a little place card, and then on those days where I'm maybe short on time or not feeling super motivated to write, then I use okay, that research counts, and I'll go and just do a research session rather than trying to force myself into that writing mode.

Leigh 15:50

Um, I might just sort of segue off for a second. From a writing tech point of view, uh are you a word? Are you using one of the funky uh novel writer scrivener?

January 16:02

Scrivenor, and then I write the entire novel or manuscript in scriven art, and then I export it to Word, and then I do my final edits in Word. And I've spoken to a couple of people who do that too. There's just something about reading it on Word that feels really better. Scriven is quite hard. You can't read it as if it's seen and you have to open the next one, and you have to open the next one, whereas Word it just rolls on and it's easier. Yeah, but I love I'm a I love Scrivener, I'm not using anywhere near as many of the things that it has, but I love it.

Leigh 16:35

Okay. I listen to I spend a lot of time listening to English podcasts called Writers Routine, and uh they always talk about fonts and software, and it's it's always quite fascinating to hear what people uh um what people do from a from a writing process point of view.

January 16:53

And as writers aren't we always looking for the hack. Like, what's the way to get yourself to write those thousand words without cleaning out that cupboard? Tell me. Well, it's using calibre instead of aerial, obviously. That's obviously is Garamond.

Leigh 17:11

So just on speaking of process, so on the the final chapter set at Varuna, um well sorry, a fictional Varuna.

January 17:20

Sorry, Remnusia is a final chapter is by the way, Remnusia is sorry, say that again. Remnusia is the goddess of revenge. Nice, very nice.

Leigh 17:35

Um sorry, I've jumped all over the place here. So you've done a lot of writing at Varuna. Um what was that experience like? Was it enjoyable to be there? Did you feel the pressure of being there? Did you feel relaxed? What was that? Um what was that experience like?

January 17:54

It was really intense, and I just um met up with some writers on the Gold Coast this weekend, and one had been to a writer's retreat, and she said, I feel like it was a waste of time because I didn't actually write anything. And somebody else there said, Oh yeah, I never write on writers' retreats ever. And then I said, I felt the same at Varuna. I felt so blocked, I was convinced that everybody else was in their room smashing out, you know, the entire manuscript, and I was the only person staring out the window. Um, but I think because it's so intense, there's a lot of pressure. Because you have nothing else between you and the writing, you'd better write. And you go with these lofty goals. Oh, I'm gonna finish my manuscript, I'm gonna write 20,000 words, nothing can stop me except myself. And it turns out I'm really good at stopping myself. So I did find it horrifically intense, and um, there's actually a really funny story. I was just this one day, I was like, I've got to get out of here, and so I put all my clothes on because I hadn't, I was dazzling, I hadn't packed warm enough, it was so cold. And I walked down out of the you walk through the garden to get out, and so I walked out the garden, and I was walking up the road, and it's a dead end, and then I could hear this car from behind me driving. I thought, oh, I'm I'm I'm not allowed to leave the writer's retreat, and I felt like oh, I'm in trouble, I wasn't allowed to leave. And this car started to speed up, and the car was coming, and then it pulled over the side of the road in front of me, and somebody leaned over the um driver's side door, and they opened the passenger door and they pushed it open. And I was like, Oh my god, I'm being kidnapped and being taken back to the writer's retreat. I can't believe I wasn't allowed to leave. And it was one of the other writers, and God love her, she said, Get in. I saw you out the window because I was just so I was just staring out the window, and I saw you, you must be going for a walk. Let's go somewhere together. So she drove to one of these beautiful walks, and we just spent the afternoon walking and clearing our head and getting creative, and it was the best thing, and it was nice to know that other people were just staring out the window too.

Leigh 20:11

Yeah, wow. Um, what what length of time were you there?

January 20:15

I was there for a week, so I got a two-week residency, but I only did one week because my children were very young.

Leigh 20:20

Yeah, okay.

January 20:21

I don't know how I probably would have left in the middle of the night if I had to do two weeks. I think I maybe you'd settle into it a little better, or maybe you'd just go crazy and kill somebody.

Helen 20:37

Or Eleanor would get you. I want to know what the story of the ghost is. Yeah. Why is she haunting the retreat? I think she's really into the writing. I don't know. But was she a failed writer?

January 20:50

What she wasn't a failed writer, she was a successful writer. Okay. She has her own books, yeah. And somebody who was there at at the same time as me said that they had experienced her. And while we were there, I didn't experience anything, but she said fascinating.

Leigh 21:12

Um, on the other side of it coming out, has it did it change the way you thought about writing? Did it change the way you wrote after that?

January 21:21

It didn't. I think it's made my made me a little bit easier, a bit kinder. And that was the advice when this person was saying, Oh, it was a waste of time. I didn't write. I think coming out of it, so I didn't write this while I was there, but then when I came home, it just poured out. I was like, I just had so much. Uh I ended up doing the word count that I thought that I would do it for Runa when I was back at home, even though I had all the responsibilities, and it was like it unlocked something in me. So I do think now I look at writers' retreats as not necessarily the writing that you do while you're There, it's that creative inspiration, it's the conversations that maybe take you in a different direction or unlock something for you. So, yeah, I do think they're really valid and important, but maybe not in the way that's clear to you at the time.

Leigh 22:17

Yeah, right. That makes sense. Um, how many writers, how many other writers were there at that on a given week?

January 22:24

I think they do five. I think they do four inside and one outside in a studio. Yeah, and then you all come together and have that joint dinner thing. That is true. You do have the dinner, and they when I was there, um they had an amazing cook, and it was really nice to be served food, good food by somebody else and not have to do anything for it. I felt like a husband.

Helen 22:51

Oh, I love it. I think um, but I mean, one of the great things about Varuna was my sister's shadow, which is what I'm keen to talk about next. Yes. Again, this is another book I raced through. So um I think for me it kind of was um maybe inspired slightly by the resurgence of Gothic, with you know, the recent um Frankenstein and Buthering Heights and anything else with Jacob Alaudi in it without his shirt on, but you know what I mean. But yes, you know, this whole dark kind of you know, mysteries got that sort of old style writing, which I just loved. So this one um piqued my interest and sort of got under my skin really quickly. Um, I think just really briefly for everyone listening, um, it is a gorgeously kind of dark gothic tale sort of set in the early 1900s. So, you know, you obviously had to do all that historical research because you do send your characters from England to New York. Um, it tells the story of two identical twins, um, Victoria and Adelaide, who um we know from that time period, you know, must secure a husband to um get ahead in life. So, but what happens next you will never predict and completely messes with their relationship. So look, I just raced through it because I needed to know what was going to happen to both of them. Um, and then of course, there's these other characters that kind of just become very enmeshed and integral, but really interesting perspective and viewpoints. Um, and just for me, I think the tension between Victoria and Adelaide was just so real. I have a sister who I love dearly, so I promise, because she does listen to the podcast, that I had no plans to do anything dastardly towards her, but just that emotional pull push that you had that you were able to sort of share around their relationship, goodness gracious, that was so so good to read. So I'm really keen to know how you went about writing that complexity of a relationship, but specifically that sister relationship. I don't have a sister.

January 24:54

I was wondering lovers, yeah. And I have always been desperate for a sister and always been very intrigued by how um a sister knows the best place to lay her head or plunge her knife, right? Like that they will cut you down, but also cut anybody else down who tries to cut you down. Like that job is solely reserved for them. And I've always found that really interesting because if my brothers have a problem with anything I said or did, they'd punch me hard in the arm and say, Don't do that, I don't like it. And I'd say, Okay, and then the air would be clear and we would move on. And there's a thing, Leigh. You your wife maybe will have mentioned this to you, and you'll say, Oh wow. Sometimes if you've ever been complimented by a woman and feel you have just received the sharpest insult, and there's no way to respond to it. And I would say to my husband, Oh, that person is so rude to me. Well, she said she liked your shoes, she was giving you a compliment. Oh, it was the way she said it, it was the look on her face as she said it, and the men are all saying, Oh, she seemed nice. So I just really wanted to explore how it seems that sisters really do love each other the most, but also can really hurt each other the most, too.

Helen 26:28

No, I think I think, yeah, I think that's exactly right. I I feel that you must have women in your life who are your sisters if they're not by blood, though, that you know, so you could take it.

January 26:38

No, no, and you know, when I am desperate for like I love women, I'm I'm such a girl's girl, but I grew up in New Zealand and then I spent a lot of time traveling. Um, I backpacked around the world, and then I moved to Melbourne, and then I moved up here. So I've always been quite transient, and I would say to anybody who would listen, I just know the universe is gonna give me daughters. I know when it comes to my time, the universe is gonna give me daughters. And then I got two boys.

Helen 27:09

I think the universe was trying to tell you something that you'll be an amazing mum to boys.

January 27:14

Yeah, but they would like sisters and daughters.

Helen 27:18

Yes. That makes it tough. You have to find them, you have to gather them from other other sources.

January 27:25

Yes, exactly.

Helen 27:28

I think um it's really interesting what you say about having a a transient life because I think uh reading your um sort of resume per se, writing resume and how we've sort of talked a bit already about all the different genres that you explore, um does that history and your experience kind of help you really switch gears between those worlds so quickly? Because I think your time between writing My Sister's Shadow and uh the final chapter felt quite short. From did you try to go from one straight to the other?

January 28:00

Or yep, it was straight on. In fact, I might have been, I think I was writing so the Mayfair Dagger I wrote at Varuna as well. I actually wrote my sister's shadow and Mayfair Dagger at the same time because Sister's Shadow was so dark, and I was just in this room at Varuna writing, I was like, I have to do something silly and fun, and I didn't expect to publish it, it was just something fun for me. Um, and then I was speaking to another writer who said, You should never waste any manuscript, like finish every manuscript you write just for that sense of completion, and you never know where it's going to take you. And I have that person to thank because I also wrote um a gothic historical after the final chapter that I just really wanted to explore my weird, like you know, I wrote a list of things that I really love in books, and then I just chucked it all in like a beautiful big cauldron, and that um ended up getting me an agent, and it has just been sold in America, and yeah, so um I have that person to thank because that manuscript sat around for a while, and I thought, oh well, it's never gonna do anything, I'll just leave it. Yeah, so I just wanted to finish these manuscripts, and yeah, I just finished the final chapter because that came out so quickly because Varuna was still so fresh in my mind. I think it was the quickest book I've ever written, it was only six months.

Helen 29:26

Wow, that's great, and um, oh, my ears picked up, so you have the new novel. Um, can you tell us more? I can.

January 29:34

It's called Slake House, and it will be released in October 2027, which feels like a really long time away, doesn't it? But it'll be published by Ellen Unwin in Australia, so I'm very excited, yes, and because it's me, um and Berkeley in America and Harper Collins in the UK and Penguin in Canada, um, but because it's me, there's lots of murder and lots of um it. I wanted to play around with an unreliable narrator, which I adore reading. I just always felt that it was maybe a little bit out of my skill reach, so I just wanted to play around with um somebody who, if we let them spiral, hey, we've got a theme here. If we let them spiral, also um, I was quite inspired by Lisa Jewell, None of This Is True. She has an incredible unreliable narrator who I ended up feeling quite sorry for, even though she was enormously unpleasant. She was really, and that it gave me empathy for her because she was so angry at this other woman for having you know her birthday and you know all this weird stuff. But then you kind of like, oh, but I've gotten to know you and I like you. So yeah, and this um mermaids.

Helen 30:59

Oh my goodness, can we can we just book in now when you publish it and you come back and explain it all to us?

January 31:07

Yeah, definitely. You'll strep in because this one is a ride.

Helen 31:10

Like I just really yeah, um, and congratulations, that's amazing. That's fantastic.

January 31:17

Yes. Oh my gosh, yes, it was so great. Um dreams come true. So I'm very, very excited about that.

Helen 31:25

Wow. I'm just so happy for you. That's just absolutely awesome to just go from yeah, so exciting. Goodness now.

Leigh 31:35

So, what was the timeline again with the final chapter?

January 31:39

The offer I received the offer in January 2024 and it was published in August 2025.

Leigh 31:47

So I and then in that period you were writing, you just kept writing, and now we're looking at it.

January 31:56

Hoping that because the submission process is so long, too. So if I got the offer in January, I suspect I would have to check my data, but I think I probably got interest or a response in August or September. They asked me for a revise and resubmit. Um, the publisher didn't like the original murderer. I'll tell you off the recording who it was. And so um, yeah, I revised with her um suggestions and then resubmitted it. And we probably all had a break over Christmas and then they offered in January.

Leigh 32:36

And how long was that rewrite process when they've come in and and dropped that on you?

January 32:41

Six weeks. It wasn't yeah, it wasn't super big, but also like quite motivating if a publisher, you know, they're interested, you just do what you're told, and yeah, okay, let's go. When did you start writing? And when did you know you wanted to be a writer? Oh, I knew I wanted to be a writer from like I am obsessed with books, and I think all writers, I'm I'm you know, I'm yet to meet a writer that isn't a book lover first and foremost. Um having only brothers who quite let's be kind and call them rambunctious, I was always looking for escape, and I loved Trixie Belden, and at my showing my age, there were these books called Choose Your Own Adventures. Yes, and they were I just adored them, and I loved how I could just keep going back, and you could read these things forever and ever and ever, and you could get to at the end and go back, and I just I loved all um, and then I I kind of grew up to um Christopher Pike, so that kind of mystery crime horror light stuff has always been in my reading in my bookcase, and then on to Agatha Christie, as all good crime writers go, and then yeah, that's just always been what I've loved and read and always wanted to be a writer, but I grew up on a dairy farm in New Zealand, and nobody was becoming a writer, so I just thought that it wasn't something that people did, so I just put it to the back of my head. And then when my oldest was two, I went to uni and I got uh one of my electives was creative writing, and I just loved it, and I had the best time, and I had the most amazing professor, um, Dr. Laura Alvery, who is also an author, who's uh her latest release is Nightingale, and she is the most amazing writer, and I just can't believe I was so lucky she was covering for somebody. I just can't believe that she was who I ended up having. And she said, Oh, so you're a writer. Oh gosh, no, not me. She was like, I just read your work, you're a writer. And I'm like, Oh no, I'm not. And she said, if you were going to write a story, what would you write about? And I think I just gave her like 10, 15, okay, so I've got this idea about this, and then I also have this idea about this. She was like, Girl, you're a writer. And she said, Okay, changing the assignment for you, you're just going to start writing your novel. Just choose one of those ideas and just get started. And that became the lady detective.

Helen 35:23

Wow, that's incredible. So it really just takes one person, doesn't it? To believe in you and set you on the path.

January 35:31

Yeah. It's fantastic. And we all get there differently, but I think if I just needed somebody to say to me, you can, right? Like you're allowed. Um, so yeah. Gave you permission. Yeah. Gave me permission. Yeah. And then I realized how hard it's actually quite hard to write well, unfortunately.

Leigh 35:52

So that's the end of part one of our chat with January Gilchrist. Be sure to tune in next week for part two. And don't forget, you can find us on Facebook and Instagram.

January 36:01

I think that every character is an extension of me in the way that it's me putting it on the page, it's me deciding what this person's going to do or respond, and just um trying to make it from a lived experience. So I'm, you know, I've never been a murderer, I'm not saying it's off the cards in the future, who knows?