On this episode of Totally Lit, host KyGarvey speaks with author Edwina Shaw about her new book Dear Madman, which investigates a century-old family tragedy in the Lockyer Valley and the murder that has haunted generations.

They discuss Shaw's years of research, the book's dual narrative voices, access to archives and mental health files, and the surprising discoveries about the perpetrator and his past. The conversation also explores grief, healing practices, empathizing with perpetrators without excusing actions, and practical writing advice and retreats for emerging authors.

Edwina Shaw is a writer of memoir, fiction and screenplays. She is also an editor, a mentor, a yoga teacher, a workshop and retreat facilitator and now an independent publisher with her imprint Red Backed Wren Publishing.

Edwina Shaw | WRITER / EDITOR / MENTOR / THE HEALING POWER OF STORY

Buy the book: Dear Madman: A Notorious Crime, A Family Curse — AndAlso Books

Host: Ky Garvey

Theme Song: Claire Houghton

Logo: Tondo Creative - https://www.tondo.com.au/

Production: Aud Pitch - https://www.virtualcreatrix.com/

Totally Lit is an independent podcast. You can help support us to continue to chat with wonderful Australian creatives by leaving a review on Itunes or sharing our socials with your friends. You can also make a contribution at:

www.buymeacoffee.com/Totallylit

For those of you who know me I am kind of a caffeine addict! So you can keep me fueled with caffeine and this will also help with equipment & podcasting platform fees etc.

I love to interact with our listeners so feel free to say hello either by email or social media:

Totallylitpodcast@gmail.com

https://www.facebook.com/totallylitpodcast

Join Ky Garvey as she chats with Sophie Stern, whose debut novel 'What Is Left for Us' traces two estranged sisters returning to their grandmother's crumbling Bondi clifftop house. The episode explores family secrets, alternating timelines, a vivid sense of place and the environmental threat of coastal erosion that frames the story.

Sophie shares her path to becoming a writer — taking permission to write, being shortlisted for the 2024 Penguin Literary Prize, the editing and publishing process, balancing a day job and family, creative techniques (playlists, Scrivener, residencies) and practical advice for aspiring authors: make time for your work and write what you love. The episode also previews her upcoming launch and events.

About Sophie:

Sophie Stern is from Sydney, Australia, where she lives with her husband and son. Her short fiction has been published in magazines and literary zines including Yen Magazine and Ellipsis Zine, and shortlisted for the Bridport Prize. The manuscript of her first novel, What Is Left For Us, was shortlisted for the Penguin Literary Prize in 2024.

Home - Sophie Stern

About the book:

A devastatingly beautiful debut about sisters, secrets, and the weight of the past. In What Is Left For Us, debut novelist Sophie Stern delivers a deeply emotional portrait of two sisters bound by family, betrayal and the haunting pull of home. Set between London’s corporate glass towers and the weather-beaten cliffs of Bondi, Stern’s novel explores the question that lies beneath every family story: how much of the past can ever be left behind? When high-powered London lawyer Rebecca Gill receives word that her late grandmother’s house has been left jointly to her and her estranged sister Hannah, she reluctantly returns to Australia — and the life she thought she’d escaped. For Hannah, a mother and wife living in Sydney’s affluent east, Rebecca’s return threatens to unravel the fragile order of her carefully controlled world. As the sisters begin to pack up their grandmother’s seaside home, long-buried memories of their mother’s death and an unforgivable betrayal begin to surface. Through the intertwined perspectives of both women — and the ghosts that linger between them — What Is Left For Us intricately captures the cracks in sisterhood, the weight of inheritance, and the slow erosion of truth.

What Is Left For Us by Sophie Stern - Penguin Books Australia

Buy the book: What Is Left For Us by Sophie Stern - 9781761354441

(this is an affiliate link)

Host: Ky Garvey

Theme Song: Claire Houghton

Logo: Tondo Creative - https://www.tondo.com.au/

Production: Aud Pitch - https://www.virtualcreatrix.com/

Totally Lit is an independent podcast. You can help support us to continue to chat with wonderful Australian creatives by leaving a review on Itunes or sharing our socials with your friends. You can also make a contribution at:

www.buymeacoffee.com/Totallylit

For those of you who know me I am kind of a caffeine addict! So you can keep me fueled with caffeine and this will also help with equipment & podcasting platform fees etc.

I love to interact with our listeners so feel free to say hello either by email or social media:

Totallylitpodcast@gmail.com

https://www.facebook.com/totallylitpodcast

Host Ky Garvey interviews Lawrey Goodrick about his illustrated middle‑grade book Half‑Life, a lively AA battery adventure following Half and his friend Hope as they explore science, history and identity.

The episode covers the book's STEM themes, neurodiversity and mental‑wellbeing, Laurie’s creative and publishing journey, his illustration process, and practical tips for aspiring authors.

Lawrey Goodrick– Hawkeye Publishing

Host: Ky Garvey

Theme Song: Claire Houghton

Logo: Tondo Creative - https://www.tondo.com.au/

Production: Aud Pitch - https://www.virtualcreatrix.com/

Totally Lit is an independent podcast. You can help support us to continue to chat with wonderful Australian creatives by leaving a review on Itunes or sharing our socials with your friends. You can also make a contribution at:

www.buymeacoffee.com/Totallylit

For those of you who know me I am kind of a caffeine addict! So you can keep me fueled with caffeine and this will also help with equipment & podcasting platform fees etc.

I love to interact with our listeners so feel free to say hello either by email or social media:

Totallylitpodcast@gmail.com

https://www.facebook.com/totallylitpodcast