Latest / The Book Deal / Bridie Blake on writing romcoms, writing practice and 20 years of persevering for a book deal

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Bridie Blake on writing romcoms, writing practice and 20 years of persevering for a book deal · The Book Deal

• 0:09
  Tina Strachan: This is the Book Deal podcast
• 0:11
  Madeleine Cleary: where you will discover the inspiring stories behind your favorite books.
• 0:15
  Natasha Rai: We interview seasoned and debut authors, as well as publishing industry professionals to bring you the best tips and advice on how to get that elusive book deal.
• 0:25
  Tina Strachan: So no matter what's.
• 0:26
  Tina Strachan: Stage of writing your at.
• 0:28
  Tina Strachan: We've got you covered.
• 0:29
  Tina Strachan: I'm Tina Strachan
• 0:30
  Madeleine Cleary: I'm Madeleine Cleary.
• 0:32
  Natasha Rai: And I'm Natasha Rai
• 0:34
  Tina Strachan: And join us as we pull back the curtain of published authors
• 0:37
  Madeleine Cleary: one deal at a time.
• 0:43
  Madeleine Cleary: The Book Deal podcast acknowledges the traditional owners, the land and waters, which it's recorded on and pays respect to their elders past, present, and emerging.
• 0:58
  Natasha Rai: Hey Bridie, how's it going?
• 1:00
  Bridie Blake: Hello.
• 1:01
  Bridie Blake: It is good.
• 1:02
  Bridie Blake: Thank you so much for having me on.
• 1:04
  Bridie Blake: I'm very excited to be chatting to you.
• 1:05
  Natasha Rai: My pleasure.
• 1:06
  Natasha Rai: And it's, and you just told me before we started a recording that it's only a few days till The Boyfriend Clause is out.
• 1:13
  Bridie Blake: Yes.
• 1:14
  Bridie Blake: I'm not great at math, but I think it's three days.
• 1:16
  Bridie Blake: I'm trying to count in my head.
• 1:18
  Bridie Blake: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday.
• 1:19
  Bridie Blake: Yes.
• 1:19
  Bridie Blake: So we are recording on Saturday.
• 1:21
  Bridie Blake: Yes.
• 1:21
  Bridie Blake: And then it's down on Tuesday.
• 1:23
  Natasha Rai: Are you gonna, what are you doing on the day itself?
• 1:26
  Bridie Blake: I haven't decided yet.
• 1:27
  Bridie Blake: Um, in speaking to my editor, she was telling me, just wander into bookstores, look at it.
• 1:33
  Bridie Blake: If it's in a position that you don't want it in, move it.
• 1:37
  Bridie Blake: So I might be doing a little bit of that.
• 1:40
  Bridie Blake: Um, and I might say if my parents wanna take me out for lunch.
• 1:44
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 1:45
  Bridie Blake: I feel like it's a very family centric book.
• 1:48
  Natasha Rai: It's,
• 1:49
  Bridie Blake: and you know, I dedicated it to my parents, so I feel like the least they could do is take me out to lunch to celebrate.
• 1:54
  Natasha Rai: Exactly.
• 1:55
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 1:56
  Natasha Rai: Um, do you feel comfortable moving books around shelves?
• 2:00
  Bridie Blake: No.
• 2:02
  Bridie Blake: No.
• 2:02
  Bridie Blake: I might have to take a shot before I walk in, but I'll, I'll just like sneak around.
• 2:07
  Bridie Blake: No, I'm so, I'm such a goody two shoes.
• 2:10
  Bridie Blake: Like I, oh my gosh.
• 2:11
  Bridie Blake: If I pull a book off a shelf to read the back of it, I make sure it goes back in the exact spot and position that it was in.
• 2:18
  Bridie Blake: 'cause I don't wanna get yelled at.
• 2:19
  Bridie Blake: So, yeah.
• 2:20
  Bridie Blake: I actually don't think I'll have the guts to move my book.
• 2:24
  Natasha Rai: Just try it.
• 2:25
  Natasha Rai: Just try it once.
• 2:25
  Bridie Blake: Try it.
• 2:26
  Bridie Blake: Okay.
• 2:26
  Bridie Blake: Just
• 2:26
  Natasha Rai: try it.
• 2:27
  Natasha Rai: Just do face out and then run away.
• 2:28
  Natasha Rai: Yeah,
• 2:29
  Bridie Blake: run away.
• 2:30
  Bridie Blake: It's really fun.
• 2:30
  Bridie Blake: I've been glad.
• 2:31
  Bridie Blake: Okay.
• 2:31
  Bridie Blake: That might be what I do.
• 2:32
  Bridie Blake: So that'll be my day on Tuesday.
• 2:34
  Bridie Blake: And I've been told that it'll be a lot of social media.
• 2:38
  Natasha Rai: Yes.
• 2:39
  Bridie Blake: So just a lot of responding to messages and Yeah, it'll very overwhelming.
• 2:43
  Bridie Blake: I'm overwhelmed by social media on a daily basis, so Well to be like 10 times that
• 2:49
  Natasha Rai: if it helps something.
• 2:50
  Natasha Rai: I did realize that you don't have to respond to everyone on a date.
• 2:54
  Natasha Rai: You can just take your time.
• 2:55
  Bridie Blake: Oh, really?
• 2:56
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 2:56
  Natasha Rai: People aren't gonna get offended because people assume that, you know, especially because once you comment or you congratulate someone's social media, your algorithm shows you all of the posts.
• 3:07
  Natasha Rai: Mm-hmm.
• 3:08
  Bridie Blake: So
• 3:08
  Natasha Rai: people are gonna say that.
• 3:09
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 3:09
  Natasha Rai: And also, you know, especially author friends, they know what it's like.
• 3:12
  Natasha Rai: So
• 3:13
  Bridie Blake: they do, they do.
• 3:14
  Bridie Blake: Again, this is probably just my people pleasing tendencies where like, I must respond day off.
• 3:20
  Bridie Blake: You must do it.
• 3:21
  Bridie Blake: Hence why I won't move my book.
• 3:23
  Natasha Rai: You don't have to, you just, you can just enjoy it.
• 3:25
  Bridie Blake: Okay.
• 3:26
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 3:26
  Bridie Blake: I will attempt to enjoy it.
• 3:27
  Bridie Blake: Yes.
• 3:28
  Natasha Rai: Because it does, it does kind of go a bit in a blur sometimes, like
• 3:32
  Bridie Blake: Right.
• 3:32
  Natasha Rai: Take, take as much time on the day, or just remind yourself every now and then to be like, oh yeah, I can enjoy this because it's a huge achievement.
• 3:39
  Natasha Rai: Congratulations.
• 3:40
  Natasha Rai: I wrote a book.
• 3:40
  Bridie Blake: Yeah, it's,
• 3:42
  Natasha Rai: yeah.
• 3:42
  Natasha Rai: You wrote a book.
• 3:43
  Bridie Blake: Yeah, I wrote a book.
• 3:44
  Natasha Rai: Exactly.
• 3:45
  Natasha Rai: I
• 3:45
  Bridie Blake: wrote a book.
• 3:45
  Bridie Blake: I got a book deal.
• 3:47
  Bridie Blake: It's,
• 3:47
  Natasha Rai: I know.
• 3:48
  Bridie Blake: Small feat.
• 3:49
  Bridie Blake: I mean, you know, you've done it.
• 3:51
  Natasha Rai: Yeah, it's huge.
• 3:52
  Natasha Rai: It's huge.
• 3:52
  Natasha Rai: Congratulations.
• 3:53
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 3:54
  Bridie Blake: Thank you.
• 3:55
  Bridie Blake: Thank you.
• 3:55
  Bridie Blake: I'm trying to enjoy it.
• 3:56
  Bridie Blake: Yes.
• 3:56
  Bridie Blake: People get, tell me to live in the moment.
• 3:59
  Bridie Blake: I'm not very good at that, but I'm trying.
• 4:01
  Natasha Rai: Just do moments of it then.
• 4:02
  Bridie Blake: Yeah,
• 4:02
  Natasha Rai: don't worry about going.
• 4:03
  Natasha Rai: I'll try and do it all day.
• 4:05
  Natasha Rai: Just go as soon when you remember.
• 4:07
  Natasha Rai: Just do it.
• 4:07
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 4:08
  Natasha Rai: So let's start with, um, so, so the novel is called The Boyfriend C Clause.
• 4:13
  Natasha Rai: Yes.
• 4:13
  Natasha Rai: Can you give us your elevator pitch?
• 4:16
  Bridie Blake: I can attempt to.
• 4:17
  Bridie Blake: So let us go.
• 4:20
  Bridie Blake: So the Boyfriend c Clause is a rom-com about a cafe owner with a fake boyfriend, an overly invested mother, and a loan agreement that cares far too much about Sabrina Fogarty love life in order to save her business and her sanity.
• 4:34
  Bridie Blake: Sabrina Ropes in her broody neighbor, bestselling author Adam Whitaker, for a mutually beneficial fake dating deal.
• 4:42
  Bridie Blake: Only to have him invited along on her family holiday to the uk.
• 4:46
  Bridie Blake: So one week of forced proximity, awkward pretending, and inconvenient chemistry later, and this carefully staged romance threatens to become something real.
• 4:57
  Natasha Rai: Wow, that was so good.
• 4:59
  Natasha Rai: Yes.
• 5:00
  Natasha Rai: Yes.
• 5:01
  Bridie Blake: I have been pacing around my house practicing that for I would say about three weeks.
• 5:07
  Natasha Rai: That's amazing.
• 5:08
  Natasha Rai: Like a, a few debut, quite a few debut authors I've spoken to.
• 5:12
  Natasha Rai: Your pictures are so polished.
• 5:14
  Bridie Blake: We practice, we all listen to this podcast, so we know it's the first question you get asked.
• 5:21
  Bridie Blake: Yes.
• 5:21
  Bridie Blake: So we're all practicing.
• 5:24
  Bridie Blake: Well, that's good.
• 5:25
  Bridie Blake: Just so you know.
• 5:25
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 5:27
  Natasha Rai: So tell me, Bridie, are you a romcom reader as well?
• 5:31
  Bridie Blake: I am.
• 5:32
  Bridie Blake: So I, I didn't use to be.
• 5:36
  Bridie Blake: So I was a hardcore like young adult reader and writer.
• 5:40
  Bridie Blake: And then during the pandemic life was just depressing.
• 5:43
  Bridie Blake: Mm-hmm.
• 5:44
  Bridie Blake: And I didn't wanna read about depressing stuff.
• 5:46
  Bridie Blake: So I'd started reading Romcoms and I think Jen Delucca was like my first foray.
• 5:51
  Bridie Blake: I don't know if you've heard of Jen Delucca.
• 5:52
  Bridie Blake: She writes, it's Re Ren Fair series, she's US based.
• 5:57
  Bridie Blake: And I just fell in love and I didn't look back and that was when I was like, oh my God, I'm gonna write romcoms.
• 6:02
  Bridie Blake: I'm gonna stop writing depressing stuff and write fun stuff.
• 6:05
  Bridie Blake: It was okay.
• 6:06
  Bridie Blake: What's
• 6:07
  Natasha Rai: what, what are your favorite elements when you're reading as a reader?
• 6:09
  Natasha Rai: Like what do you love about them?
• 6:11
  Bridie Blake: Oh, honestly, I love that they just make me smile.
• 6:15
  Bridie Blake: I'm like, that is the biggest thing for me, especially over the last few years.
• 6:19
  Bridie Blake: Um, and that they give me an escape.
• 6:22
  Bridie Blake: So I love to just dive into the pages.
• 6:25
  Bridie Blake: They're not, and this is coming from somebody who writes wrong comms.
• 6:28
  Bridie Blake: They're not the most overly realistic storylines, you know, like, they're just, they're not.
• 6:33
  Bridie Blake: So, and there's, I don't think there's anything wrong with that.
• 6:36
  Bridie Blake: And so when you do dive into one, it is pure escapism.
• 6:40
  Bridie Blake: And there's just something so beautiful about that.
• 6:44
  Bridie Blake: And if it, yes, it's, if it makes you smile, if it makes you laugh, if it just makes you feel happy and just makes you forget about something that might be going on in your life at the time, that's all you want.
• 6:54
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 6:55
  Natasha Rai: I have to, I have to say like, I don't read a lot of romcoms, but the few that I do read, there's such an element of joy to them.
• 7:01
  Natasha Rai: Like,
• 7:01
  Bridie Blake: I have much joy.
• 7:02
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 7:03
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 7:03
  Bridie Blake: They just make you happy and there's just nothing wrong with being made to feel happy.
• 7:08
  Natasha Rai: Oh, I agree.
• 7:08
  Natasha Rai: I agree.
• 7:08
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 7:09
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 7:10
  Natasha Rai: Do you like to watch, uh, like shows or movies as well?
• 7:14
  Bridie Blake: You know what, I, I do.
• 7:16
  Bridie Blake: I love a rom-com movie.
• 7:18
  Bridie Blake: Um, yeah, you got all the classics.
• 7:20
  Bridie Blake: Julia Roberts is just the absolute queen.
• 7:22
  Bridie Blake: If she's in a rom-com, I am watching it.
• 7:25
  Bridie Blake: TV shows.
• 7:25
  Bridie Blake: I don't actually watch romcom TV shows.
• 7:27
  Bridie Blake: I am like a thriller
• 7:30
  Natasha Rai: Wow
• 7:31
  Bridie Blake: type girl.
• 7:31
  Bridie Blake: I am.
• 7:32
  Bridie Blake: Like if there's a TV show where somebody is murdered and we're trying to solve what's going on, I'm all over that.
• 7:38
  Bridie Blake: But yeah, movie wise, I love a romcom.
• 7:41
  Bridie Blake: Give me them all.
• 7:42
  Natasha Rai: But you know, gi given that like you have that very taste between like TV and movies, like it feels like you would, like you would be noticing like the differences in storytelling and Yeah.
• 7:56
  Natasha Rai: How that kind of plot works and how characterization works.
• 7:59
  Natasha Rai: Is that something that you kind of have become aware of or you just kind of enjoy it for what it is?
• 8:06
  Bridie Blake: I wish it was something I'd become aware of, but I honestly, I just enjoy it.
• 8:12
  Bridie Blake: It's just, I love that I can watch a rom-com and it can just be so out there and ridiculous.
• 8:17
  Bridie Blake: And then I love like grittiness that you find in watching a thriller where it's just.
• 8:23
  Bridie Blake: Dark and they've got the weight of the world on their shoulders.
• 8:26
  Bridie Blake: There is such a massive difference in them, and I just love that.
• 8:30
  Bridie Blake: It's kind of like me, the light and dark in me.
• 8:32
  Natasha Rai: Yeah, it's definitely
• 8:33
  Bridie Blake: is like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 8:34
  Bridie Blake: So maybe one day I'll be like, oh my God, I'm gonna try my hand at Right.
• 8:37
  Bridie Blake: In a thriller.
• 8:38
  Bridie Blake: But I'm so bad at like trying to come up with red herrings and things like that.
• 8:44
  Natasha Rai: Yeah, yeah.
• 8:45
  Bridie Blake: I can't come up with them.
• 8:45
  Bridie Blake: I can pick'em out, but I can't come up with them.
• 8:48
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 8:48
  Natasha Rai: I think I'm the same.
• 8:49
  Natasha Rai: I dunno how.
• 8:50
  Natasha Rai: Mm-hmm.
• 8:50
  Natasha Rai: I'm, I mean, I have so much admiration for crime and thriller writers.
• 8:53
  Natasha Rai: It's like, I don't know how you do that.
• 8:55
  Bridie Blake: How did their brains work that way?
• 8:57
  Bridie Blake: Mine just doesn't at all.
• 8:59
  Natasha Rai: But you mentioned when we first, like when we started, you know, 10 minutes ago that you used to write dark stuff.
• 9:05
  Natasha Rai: Tell me about that.
• 9:05
  Natasha Rai: Did, yeah.
• 9:06
  Bridie Blake: Very depressing stuff.
• 9:08
  Bridie Blake: So I was just hardcore, I'm a young adult author.
• 9:12
  Bridie Blake: I'm never gonna change.
• 9:13
  Bridie Blake: I was so adamant.
• 9:15
  Bridie Blake: And that's what I love to write all the, like the melodrama.
• 9:17
  Bridie Blake: I was a that kid that was always watching like the soap operas and so very melodramatic, my characters were so over the top with their emotions.
• 9:26
  Bridie Blake: And then I sort of started weaving in a little bit of murder, a little bit of this, a little bit of that.
• 9:32
  Bridie Blake: And yeah, it just got, it got really, really dark there at, at certain points in the books that I was writing.
• 9:39
  Bridie Blake: Um, I accidentally wrote a suspense.
• 9:42
  Bridie Blake: Oh my.
• 9:42
  Bridie Blake: Then agent told me that I'd written a suspense and I was like, oh, pat myself on the back.
• 9:46
  Bridie Blake: Dunno how I did that.
• 9:48
  Bridie Blake: Probably can't back that up.
• 9:49
  Bridie Blake: And she'd signed me as a suspense author, so we were in a little bit of trouble there.
• 9:54
  Bridie Blake: Um, and I think when I was like struggling to write follow-ups to that one that she signed me on, that was when I was just like, oh, I'm not enjoying this anymore.
• 10:04
  Bridie Blake: Like, so that joy.
• 10:06
  Natasha Rai: Mm.
• 10:06
  Natasha Rai: I wanna come back to that.
• 10:08
  Natasha Rai: Mm.
• 10:08
  Natasha Rai: But I'm curious about when you got the writing bug.
• 10:11
  Natasha Rai: Like, have you been writing since you were a child or My
• 10:14
  Bridie Blake: life?
• 10:15
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 10:15
  Bridie Blake: So I was writing stories when I was a kid.
• 10:17
  Bridie Blake: Mm-hmm.
• 10:18
  Bridie Blake: Um, my very first story was, it was a co-write with my best friend at the time, and it was about a jar of Vegemite and a jar of peanut butter who had a fun day out together.
• 10:28
  Bridie Blake: We thought it was brilliant, but like we did all the illustrations, it was an absolute
• 10:32
  Natasha Rai: crowd.
• 10:32
  Natasha Rai: Please.
• 10:32
  Natasha Rai: Oh
• 10:32
  Bridie Blake: yeah, we, we shared it.
• 10:34
  Bridie Blake: We took it turn like he took it in turns to take it home with us and I think we did a show and tell on it about 20 times.
• 10:41
  Bridie Blake: Um, but yeah, we were
• 10:42
  Natasha Rai: very proud of
• 10:42
  Bridie Blake: ourselves.
• 10:43
  Bridie Blake: And then ever since then, I have always been writing.
• 10:47
  Bridie Blake: So when I was supposed to be studying in like year 11 and year 12, I was on my computer writing stories instead.
• 10:55
  Bridie Blake: Um, my.
• 10:56
  Bridie Blake: VCE score will probably tell that tale, but that's what I was doing.
• 11:01
  Bridie Blake: Um, and yeah, I kind of, I, so I listened to, to people when they've being interviewed and they always say, you know, always wanted to be a writer, but I decided to, you know, take the sensible path.
• 11:12
  Bridie Blake: And I went to uni and I studied something and I followed a career.
• 11:16
  Bridie Blake: I did the opposite.
• 11:17
  Bridie Blake: I was like, yeah, we're not gonna be sensible.
• 11:19
  Bridie Blake: Let's do one semester of uni quit because we, it's just not for us and let's just try and write.
• 11:25
  Bridie Blake: Um, it then took me a good 20 years to get to the point that I am at, but yeah, it is what,
• 11:31
  Natasha Rai: but you know, Brad, that, that, that's incredible.
• 11:33
  Natasha Rai: And that's, um, wonderful that you did that because it just, I mean, I was the same, like it feels to me that a lot of writers didn't have the self-belief or sheer stubbornness, whatever you wanna call it, or the kind of, yeah.
• 11:48
  Natasha Rai: So like what, um, what supported you to kind of stick with it?
• 11:52
  Natasha Rai: Given that, you know, you just said it took so long to get a, I assume you mean publish and right?
• 11:57
  Natasha Rai: Yeah,
• 11:57
  Bridie Blake: publish and deal, yeah.
• 11:58
  Bridie Blake: So I mean, you know what, I will say stubbornness, I was just so determined that this is what I wanted to do.
• 12:07
  Bridie Blake: Um, and I just kept writing and like writing made me happy.
• 12:11
  Bridie Blake: It was like my therapy, it was my emotional support.
• 12:15
  Bridie Blake: It was, if I wasn't doing it, I noticed, I was like my mood would drop.
• 12:21
  Natasha Rai: Mm.
• 12:21
  Bridie Blake: And it literally just escaping into these worlds and these characters, it was, it was an escape and that is why I write.
• 12:28
  Bridie Blake: And I just honestly just kept at it.
• 12:31
  Bridie Blake: There was one point, I think in my early twenties and I sent a book off for a manuscript assessment and like, basically that came back with, yeah, this isn't great.
• 12:42
  Bridie Blake: Like you're writing is not great.
• 12:44
  Bridie Blake: And I could have walked away then.
• 12:47
  Bridie Blake: I feel like quite a few people may have.
• 12:50
  Natasha Rai: Mm.
• 12:50
  Natasha Rai: But
• 12:50
  Bridie Blake: I was just like, no, this is what we are gonna do.
• 12:52
  Bridie Blake: And so I just kept at it, kept at it, kept at it, and I just kept writing.
• 12:56
  Bridie Blake: And then with each book that I worked on, I became better.
• 13:01
  Natasha Rai: Did you notice that getting better?
• 13:03
  Bridie Blake: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 13:04
  Bridie Blake: So I am my own harshest critic.
• 13:06
  Bridie Blake: So over those like 20 plus years, I've written 17 books.
• 13:11
  Natasha Rai: Wow.
• 13:11
  Bridie Blake: And of those 17 books, they have all had multiple drafts.
• 13:14
  Bridie Blake: It wasn't just a one draft, one in data pop in draw.
• 13:18
  Bridie Blake: Like I would work on them that much, but then I would look at it and be like, you know what?
• 13:24
  Bridie Blake: That's actually not great.
• 13:26
  Bridie Blake: We are gonna pop that in a drawer.
• 13:28
  Bridie Blake: You are not even gonna attempt to send that out to anyone because you can do better.
• 13:33
  Bridie Blake: So.
• 13:34
  Bridie Blake: I, I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.
• 13:36
  Bridie Blake: Well,
• 13:36
  Natasha Rai: I
• 13:36
  Bridie Blake: mean, it's, it's, it's been so long.
• 13:38
  Natasha Rai: Well, there's a lot of wisdom in that because, you know, to recognize that something isn't working, but then to go, actually what I, what it might benefit from is a break or some time.
• 13:47
  Bridie Blake: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
• 13:50
  Bridie Blake: And so, yeah, I just kept at it, but I mean, there's just no other way of saying it.
• 13:56
  Bridie Blake: I just kept going, like, you could have 20 million people telling me you suck.
• 14:00
  Bridie Blake: And I'd be like, yeah, but this is what I wanna do.
• 14:02
  Bridie Blake: So I'll just keep practicing until I get there.
• 14:04
  Natasha Rai: Which is a, which is a really, really good resource.
• 14:07
  Natasha Rai: Um, that resilience and that kind of, okay, well this is what makes me happy, so I'm gonna stick with it.
• 14:12
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 14:13
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 14:13
  Natasha Rai: So did you always want to be kind of traditionally published?
• 14:17
  Bridie Blake: Yes.
• 14:18
  Natasha Rai: Mm-hmm.
• 14:18
  Bridie Blake: I, yes, I did that.
• 14:21
  Bridie Blake: I mean, walking into a bookstore to see my book on the shelf, that is the absolute dream, and that is what I was working towards.
• 14:28
  Bridie Blake: I.
• 14:30
  Bridie Blake: Probably my late twenties got super, super impatient and put things out in the world that I we're not ready to be sent out to be published.
• 14:40
  Bridie Blake: Um, and so I have a few little regrets around that, but I was always working towards that goal of getting that tradition publishing deal.
• 14:47
  Bridie Blake: To me, that was the top of the mountain.
• 14:49
  Bridie Blake: That was what I wanted.
• 14:50
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 14:51
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 14:51
  Natasha Rai: So then how did it work for you?
• 14:52
  Natasha Rai: Right, like along the way, obviously there were rejections mm-hmm.
• 14:56
  Natasha Rai: And there were people who turned things down
• 14:58
  Bridie Blake: Yep.
• 14:59
  Natasha Rai: In these early days, like what were you doing?
• 15:01
  Natasha Rai: Were you submitting to agents?
• 15:03
  Natasha Rai: Were you submitting to competitions?
• 15:04
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 15:04
  Natasha Rai: How did you start?
• 15:06
  Bridie Blake: Um, so I wasn't submitting to competitions and I kick myself a little bit for that because I should have, but I just had no idea what I was doing.
• 15:13
  Bridie Blake: And, you know, back then they weren't the resources that we have.
• 15:16
  Bridie Blake: I know.
• 15:16
  Bridie Blake: I'm saying back then, I'm like making myself sound ancient.
• 15:20
  Bridie Blake: Back in old days, we didn't have the resources that we have now, but you know, I, we didn't know all that much.
• 15:26
  Bridie Blake: You know, scrolling Reddit for answers just wasn't a thing that you did.
• 15:30
  Bridie Blake: Um, and like the, you know, IRA Instagram community didn't exist, so I would've had no idea about these competitions.
• 15:36
  Bridie Blake: So I was submitting to, yeah, to publishers, to agents, um, and just really trying to get a foot in the door that way.
• 15:44
  Natasha Rai: Mm-hmm.
• 15:45
  Bridie Blake: Um, and it was just, it was a lot of nos.
• 15:47
  Bridie Blake: It was a lot of, yeah, no, this is not for us.
• 15:51
  Bridie Blake: Um, I got close with a few books early on, um, where I was getting like the full requests and there was some thinking about it, and then it just didn't pan out.
• 16:00
  Bridie Blake: And then in 2019, yeah, 2019, end of 2019, I signed with an agent over in the us.
• 16:10
  Bridie Blake: For the accidental young adults.
• 16:12
  Bridie Blake: Disp.
• 16:12
  Bridie Blake: Yes.
• 16:14
  Bridie Blake: Um, and so that was just, God, that was a moment that was just like, oh my God, I've done it.
• 16:19
  Bridie Blake: And I auto, I just thought, oh, I'm gonna get a book deal now.
• 16:22
  Natasha Rai: Mm-hmm.
• 16:23
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 16:23
  Natasha Rai: It's, it's so the hope, right?
• 16:26
  Natasha Rai: And then that kind of, it was it just sores with that?
• 16:29
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 16:29
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 16:30
  Bridie Blake: It was the most, oh gosh, it was awful.
• 16:32
  Bridie Blake: It, it was rough.
• 16:35
  Natasha Rai: So I'll, I definitely wanna come back to that.
• 16:36
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 16:36
  Natasha Rai: But before you, this agent took you on, um, the feedback that you were getting after people requesting the full
• 16:43
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 16:43
  Natasha Rai: Was any of that feedback, do you remember, was it useful?
• 16:45
  Natasha Rai: Like, was it stuff you could use or was it just No,
• 16:48
  Bridie Blake: not for us.
• 16:49
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 16:50
  Bridie Blake: Which is.
• 16:51
  Bridie Blake: Honestly one of the worst things that you can hear.
• 16:53
  Bridie Blake: 'cause I'm somebody, I crave feedback.
• 16:55
  Bridie Blake: Like give me feedback.
• 16:56
  Bridie Blake: If it's awful, tell me why.
• 16:58
  Natasha Rai: Mm-hmm.
• 16:59
  Bridie Blake: Like give me a list.
• 17:00
  Bridie Blake: I will literally walk away.
• 17:01
  Bridie Blake: If you gimme a 30 page list of reasons as to why you don't like this, I will pour over that list and I work on that list.
• 17:09
  Bridie Blake: So yeah, I think that's really hard when all you get is a, yeah.
• 17:13
  Bridie Blake: Not for us, sorry.
• 17:15
  Bridie Blake: Or just no response in the end.
• 17:17
  Natasha Rai: Oh God, that's, yeah.
• 17:17
  Natasha Rai: Those are the worst.
• 17:19
  Bridie Blake: They, they, because you're kind of holding onto that last bit of hope that they're gonna respond.
• 17:25
  Natasha Rai: You
• 17:25
  Bridie Blake: are like been about 12 months.
• 17:27
  Bridie Blake: They probably aren't.
• 17:28
  Bridie Blake: You just can't let it go.
• 17:29
  Natasha Rai: I know, I know.
• 17:30
  Natasha Rai: Because it's like the kind of.
• 17:32
  Natasha Rai: You know, but at the same time there's a little hope, like maybe kernel.
• 17:36
  Natasha Rai: Yeah, exactly.
• 17:37
  Bridie Blake: Please.
• 17:37
  Bridie Blake: I'll be that one.
• 17:38
  Natasha Rai: So had you been, um, submitting to us a, when you were submitting to agents, was it only in the US and what was your thinking behind that?
• 17:46
  Bridie Blake: Yep.
• 17:46
  Bridie Blake: So because I was writing young adult, young adult just wasn't really, it just wasn't as big in Australia.
• 17:55
  Bridie Blake: Mm.
• 17:55
  Bridie Blake: Um, so the US was the market there.
• 17:58
  Bridie Blake: And this was back when, like, Twitter was Twitter and the writing community on Twitter was just massive.
• 18:04
  Natasha Rai: Mm.
• 18:04
  Natasha Rai: And
• 18:04
  Bridie Blake: I made a lot of connections on there, and they were all US based authors.
• 18:09
  Bridie Blake: And so that was really all I knew.
• 18:10
  Bridie Blake: So I just thought, oh, I'm just gonna, I'll send it off over there.
• 18:13
  Bridie Blake: That's, you know, that's my, where my focus is gonna be.
• 18:16
  Bridie Blake: I wrote my books with US characters in a US setting.
• 18:20
  Bridie Blake: So it just felt like that was my option.
• 18:23
  Bridie Blake: Um, and yeah, my agent, then agent was, yeah, US based.
• 18:28
  Natasha Rai: And so what happened after you signed?
• 18:31
  Natasha Rai: Um,
• 18:32
  Bridie Blake: yeah.
• 18:32
  Natasha Rai: I assume they were submitting to publishers.
• 18:34
  Bridie Blake: They were.
• 18:35
  Bridie Blake: So we signed and then the pandemic hit.
• 18:39
  Bridie Blake: Yep.
• 18:40
  Bridie Blake: And there was all the political unrest in the US and editors were leaving the business in droves.
• 18:45
  Bridie Blake: Like it was crazy how quickly they were leaving the business.
• 18:49
  Bridie Blake: And we were on submission for, it was about two years and it was brutal.
• 18:57
  Bridie Blake: It was just, she'd had this like live spreadsheet and she would update that anytime she got a response.
• 19:02
  Bridie Blake: And I was obsessively checking that if it was like nine to five in the US I was on that spreadsheet.
• 19:10
  Bridie Blake: Mm.
• 19:10
  Bridie Blake: I was so determined I couldn't write anything else.
• 19:12
  Bridie Blake: I was so fixated on, this is my big break.
• 19:17
  Bridie Blake: I loved that book.
• 19:18
  Bridie Blake: That book was like the young adult book of my soul, and I still to this day.
• 19:21
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 19:22
  Bridie Blake: So much.
• 19:24
  Bridie Blake: And I would just watch these rejections come in, and we got so close with one publisher.
• 19:29
  Bridie Blake: There was an editor who loved it, but she couldn't get the rest of the team on board.
• 19:34
  Natasha Rai: Oh,
• 19:34
  Bridie Blake: that was soul crushing.
• 19:35
  Natasha Rai: Heartbreaking.
• 19:36
  Bridie Blake: I was just like, you are kidding me.
• 19:38
  Bridie Blake: So this thing that I thought was my big break, it was just no, no, no, no.
• 19:44
  Bridie Blake: At every corner.
• 19:45
  Bridie Blake: So that was rough.
• 19:47
  Bridie Blake: That was a really hard, and
• 19:48
  Natasha Rai: so at which point did your agent say, okay, I think we have to let this one go.
• 19:53
  Bridie Blake: So she never actually said it.
• 19:56
  Natasha Rai: Oh, okay.
• 19:57
  Natasha Rai: Mm.
• 19:58
  Bridie Blake: Yes.
• 19:59
  Bridie Blake: So I was sitting there kind of like watching the spreadsheet and I'm like, I feel like it's done.
• 20:05
  Bridie Blake: Mm.
• 20:05
  Bridie Blake: So we just never had that discussion where we were like, okay, let's call time on it.
• 20:09
  Natasha Rai: Mm.
• 20:10
  Bridie Blake: Which kind of.
• 20:13
  Natasha Rai: Yeah, yeah, yeah,
• 20:14
  Bridie Blake: yeah.
• 20:14
  Bridie Blake: And sort of moved onto something else, and that's when I was trying to come up with other suspense ideas and I just couldn't latch onto one.
• 20:24
  Bridie Blake: Mm-hmm.
• 20:24
  Bridie Blake: I kept trying, and I would start, I'd get like 40,000 words in.
• 20:27
  Bridie Blake: I'm just like, I'm not feeling it.
• 20:28
  Bridie Blake: Like I've just lost my passion for it.
• 20:32
  Bridie Blake: And that was when I was like, you know what?
• 20:34
  Bridie Blake: I wanna write a romcom.
• 20:35
  Bridie Blake: So I just emailed her and I was like, yeah, I'm gonna switch to adult romcoms.
• 20:37
  Bridie Blake: And she was like, okay, let's do it.
• 20:39
  Bridie Blake: Let's give it a shot.
• 20:40
  Natasha Rai: Oh, okay.
• 20:41
  Bridie Blake: Yeah, she was on board.
• 20:42
  Bridie Blake: Mm-hmm.
• 20:43
  Bridie Blake: Which, yeah, was surprising, but
• 20:44
  Natasha Rai: yeah.
• 20:45
  Bridie Blake: Yeah, yeah.
• 20:46
  Bridie Blake: She was pretty keen to move into the adult space.
• 20:49
  Natasha Rai: So how did you start the boyfriend clause?
• 20:52
  Natasha Rai: What was the kind of first seed for that?
• 20:54
  Bridie Blake: Hmm.
• 20:55
  Bridie Blake: So I wish I had a really cute story.
• 20:58
  Bridie Blake: I wish it was a, oh my God, I walked past a cafe one day and there was a broody rock, like all in the window and there was a cafe owner hassling him about buying baked goods.
• 21:08
  Bridie Blake: But um, no, it all started with, um, with a little white lie.
• 21:14
  Bridie Blake: So I had written a rom-com and I sent the pitch off to my then agent and just before I hit send, I, at the very bottom of it was like, if you don't like this idea, no dramas.
• 21:26
  Bridie Blake: I have others.
• 21:27
  Bridie Blake: Because again, people pleaser wanted to impress her, wanted her to love me, didn't think anything of it.
• 21:33
  Bridie Blake: 'cause she was totally gonna love this idea that I was sending her.
• 21:37
  Bridie Blake: Yeah, no she didn't.
• 21:38
  Bridie Blake: Oh no.
• 21:40
  Bridie Blake: And she was like, um, okay, so can you send me these other ideas you've got?
• 21:43
  Bridie Blake: And I was like, shit, I don't have an idea.
• 21:47
  Bridie Blake: I have
• 21:47
  Natasha Rai: nothing.
• 21:49
  Bridie Blake: So I panicked and I went for a walk and it was over a weekend, so I went for a whole lot of walks because walking is where we do our best thinking.
• 21:58
  Bridie Blake: Mm-hmm.
• 21:58
  Natasha Rai: Mm-hmm.
• 21:59
  Bridie Blake: I chopped some music on and off I went.
• 22:01
  Bridie Blake: And so I'd had this like initial, like scene in my head.
• 22:07
  Bridie Blake: And that's the opening scene of the boyfriend clause.
• 22:09
  Natasha Rai: Ah, yes.
• 22:10
  Natasha Rai: Okay.
• 22:10
  Bridie Blake: Sabrina running for her life.
• 22:12
  Bridie Blake: And you know, that is inspired by a few people in my life who have sort of experienced that desperate need to get themselves to a toilet quick.
• 22:20
  Bridie Blake: Smart.
• 22:20
  Bridie Blake: Um, so I had that, but I didn't know how to get beyond that.
• 22:25
  Bridie Blake: I'm like, how do you turn this into a rom-com?
• 22:28
  Bridie Blake: Mm.
• 22:28
  Bridie Blake: Like literally, how do you get these two people to forgive and forget about what happens in the elevator?
• 22:34
  Bridie Blake: Um, and so yeah, I was like, okay, let's have a think about that.
• 22:37
  Bridie Blake: And we'd just come out of like a hundred lockdowns here in Melbourne.
• 22:41
  Natasha Rai: Yes.
• 22:42
  Natasha Rai: Yes.
• 22:43
  Bridie Blake: And we hadn't been able to travel.
• 22:45
  Bridie Blake: And I was like, you know what?
• 22:46
  Bridie Blake: Let's live vicariously through these characters.
• 22:49
  Bridie Blake: Let's send them off on a holiday.
• 22:50
  Bridie Blake: Force them to spend every waking minute together, because that is the only way they're gonna talk to each other.
• 22:56
  Bridie Blake: That's the only way they're actually gonna start to develop, start to develop some feelings.
• 23:01
  Natasha Rai: Mm.
• 23:02
  Bridie Blake: So, okay, I've got that.
• 23:04
  Bridie Blake: That was all I had.
• 23:06
  Bridie Blake: I was like, great.
• 23:07
  Bridie Blake: Gosh.
• 23:08
  Bridie Blake: I know.
• 23:08
  Bridie Blake: And then I thought, okay, let's fall back on the age old, write in advice of write what you know.
• 23:14
  Bridie Blake: So I thought, okay, what do I know?
• 23:16
  Bridie Blake: I know tv.
• 23:17
  Bridie Blake: I love tv.
• 23:18
  Bridie Blake: I watch a whole lot of tv.
• 23:21
  Bridie Blake: So I've decided to create a TV show and send these characters off to two of the filming locations of it.
• 23:27
  Natasha Rai: Oh,
• 23:28
  Bridie Blake: now I,
• 23:29
  Natasha Rai: I mean, having read the book, like I'm now making all the connections cool.
• 23:32
  Natasha Rai: These
• 23:33
  Bridie Blake: little things that sort of come together and it's like I know grumpy introverted authors who sometimes suffer from writer's block because I am one, I know big, loud families because I belong to one.
• 23:45
  Bridie Blake: So why don't I send Sabrina's family off to cause some drama?
• 23:50
  Bridie Blake: And I know baking because, not to brag or anything but
• 23:54
  Natasha Rai: brag.
• 23:55
  Natasha Rai: Brag.
• 23:56
  Bridie Blake: I will brag because I have watched the great British Bake off more times than you can count.
• 24:01
  Bridie Blake: And I can literally talk for hours about soy bottoms, the joy that is Mary Berry.
• 24:07
  Bridie Blake: I just,
• 24:08
  Natasha Rai: I miss her.
• 24:09
  Natasha Rai: Yeah, I do.
• 24:10
  Natasha Rai: I do miss her.
• 24:10
  Natasha Rai: Oh my God, she
• 24:11
  Bridie Blake: was a gem.
• 24:12
  Bridie Blake: I, it was the
• 24:12
  Natasha Rai: best.
• 24:14
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 24:14
  Bridie Blake: I feel like it didn't quite recover after she left.
• 24:16
  Natasha Rai: I agree.
• 24:16
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 24:17
  Bridie Blake: Right.
• 24:18
  Bridie Blake: Says that they love pr and I'm like, yeah, P'S good, but Mary, but ni,
• 24:21
  Natasha Rai: yeah.
• 24:21
  Natasha Rai: Nigel's taking over just as a quick aside.
• 24:23
  Bridie Blake: Yeah, I know, right.
• 24:25
  Bridie Blake: I dunno how I feel about that.
• 24:26
  Natasha Rai: I think she'll make it quite sexy with her.
• 24:28
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 24:29
  Bridie Blake: It'll be different.
• 24:30
  Bridie Blake: But yeah.
• 24:30
  Bridie Blake: I miss the what,
• 24:31
  Natasha Rai: buns or whatever.
• 24:31
  Natasha Rai: She says
• 24:32
  Bridie Blake: buns, but I do miss the old days of it, so I was just like, yeah, let's channel some Mary Berry and.
• 24:40
  Bridie Blake: Let's turn Sabrina into a baker
• 24:42
  Natasha Rai: and, and you know, given your love of the show, I assume as well that you're gonna brag that you are a baker too.
• 24:48
  Bridie Blake: Oh no.
• 24:49
  Bridie Blake: Can't bake the crap.
• 24:50
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 24:52
  Bridie Blake: Again, living vicariously through my characters.
• 24:54
  Bridie Blake: I'm the grumpy author.
• 24:56
  Bridie Blake: I'm not like the fun loving baker.
• 24:58
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 24:59
  Natasha Rai: Because I have to say, I did get a bit annoyed with you.
• 25:02
  Natasha Rai: 'cause every time I read a description of one of her baked goods, I was like, oh my God, I really want that now.
• 25:07
  Natasha Rai: And I got quite obsessed with thinking about, I was like, my God, I really want that.
• 25:12
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 25:13
  Bridie Blake: So I was writing that while eating Woolies brand like biscuits and stuff.
• 25:17
  Bridie Blake: And this is not the same.
• 25:19
  Bridie Blake: This isn't right.
• 25:20
  Bridie Blake: So, no, I should start baking just so that Yeah,
• 25:24
  Natasha Rai: no, maybe, maybe you could do like a complimentary recipe book for all the recipes at Sabrina Baked.
• 25:30
  Natasha Rai: Oh my
• 25:30
  Bridie Blake: God.
• 25:30
  Bridie Blake: That means actually have to come up with the recipes.
• 25:32
  Bridie Blake: Well,
• 25:32
  Natasha Rai: that's true.
• 25:34
  Bridie Blake: We may not do too well with that.
• 25:38
  Natasha Rai: So then, okay, so you had these flashes of these ideas and you're like, these elements I wanna work them in.
• 25:43
  Bridie Blake: Yep.
• 25:43
  Natasha Rai: Then how did you start?
• 25:46
  Bridie Blake: I wrote a pitch.
• 25:47
  Natasha Rai: Okay.
• 25:47
  Bridie Blake: I literally pulled all of those elements together and before I write any book, I write a pitch for it.
• 25:55
  Natasha Rai: Oh my God.
• 25:55
  Natasha Rai: You're one of those people.
• 25:57
  Bridie Blake: I'm one of those people.
• 25:58
  Bridie Blake: I just think it tells you if a book's got legs.
• 26:01
  Bridie Blake: 'cause you gotta write in your pitch.
• 26:02
  Bridie Blake: You gotta have that beginning, the middle, the end.
• 26:05
  Bridie Blake: You gotta know what the conflict is.
• 26:07
  Natasha Rai: That's true.
• 26:07
  Natasha Rai: Good advice.
• 26:09
  Bridie Blake: And if I can't write a pitch, I cannot write the book.
• 26:14
  Natasha Rai: Sorry.
• 26:14
  Natasha Rai: I listeners can't see me.
• 26:15
  Natasha Rai: In my eyes Just went, if you can't write the pitch, you can't write the book.
• 26:20
  Bridie Blake: It might for me.
• 26:22
  Natasha Rai: Yeah, yeah.
• 26:22
  Natasha Rai: No, I'm just thinking of that because
• 26:24
  Bridie Blake: yeah,
• 26:24
  Natasha Rai: I'm just, that's such an, that's such an interesting concept to me.
• 26:27
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 26:27
  Natasha Rai: I'm just like.
• 26:28
  Natasha Rai: I can never write the pitch before, even after writing the book.
• 26:31
  Natasha Rai: Oh my gosh.
• 26:31
  Natasha Rai: I struggle with pitches so badly.
• 26:33
  Bridie Blake: Really?
• 26:33
  Natasha Rai: Okay.
• 26:34
  Natasha Rai: Yeah,
• 26:34
  Bridie Blake: no
• 26:34
  Natasha Rai: much.
• 26:34
  Natasha Rai: Maybe I should talk to you offline about this.
• 26:36
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 26:37
  Bridie Blake: I'm not saying I'm good at them.
• 26:38
  Bridie Blake: I'm just saying that that's what I do.
• 26:40
  Natasha Rai: Well, your pitch earlier was spot on.
• 26:42
  Natasha Rai: It was great.
• 26:43
  Bridie Blake: Nailed it.
• 26:44
  Bridie Blake: Um, but yeah, no, I have to write the pitch and then once I've written that pitch, I just sort of, that sounds so lame, but it's like I kind of know where to go then.
• 26:53
  Natasha Rai: Yeah, yeah.
• 26:53
  Natasha Rai: No, it's not
• 26:54
  Bridie Blake: lame.
• 26:54
  Natasha Rai: Yeah, yeah,
• 26:54
  Bridie Blake: yeah.
• 26:55
  Bridie Blake: And so I sit and I write, I'm also an outline, so I will write a solid, like 10 to 11,000 word outline.
• 27:03
  Natasha Rai: Oh yeah.
• 27:04
  Natasha Rai: Okay.
• 27:05
  Natasha Rai: Okay.
• 27:05
  Natasha Rai: So, so in your outline, are you like li literally going, like seeing, seen like what each scene might be?
• 27:11
  Natasha Rai: Or how does your outline work?
• 27:12
  Bridie Blake: I, no, I know, I don't plan out by seeing, I literally just write down absolutely everything in chronological order that I think is gonna happen.
• 27:20
  Bridie Blake: Ah.
• 27:20
  Bridie Blake: So of, it'll be dialogue that I've got in my head and I'm like, okay, get the conversation down.
• 27:24
  Bridie Blake: Mm-hmm.
• 27:25
  Bridie Blake: And it'll be super, super detailed and I'll be like, okay.
• 27:28
  Bridie Blake: A to Z, this is what needs to happen in this part.
• 27:31
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 27:31
  Bridie Blake: Other times it'll be so vague where it'll be like, character A needs to talk to character B, and that'll be it in the outline.
• 27:38
  Bridie Blake: I'm like, what do they need to talk to him about?
• 27:40
  Bridie Blake: Mm-hmm.
• 27:41
  Bridie Blake: It'll come to me.
• 27:42
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 27:42
  Bridie Blake: Um, but yeah, so it, it varies throughout the outline, but in saying that my outline, it changes.
• 27:50
  Bridie Blake: Like I go off script and I just kind of then keep it there as a guide to be like, this is what you are wanting to achieve.
• 27:57
  Natasha Rai: Yes.
• 27:58
  Bridie Blake: Okay.
• 27:58
  Bridie Blake: Looking absolutely nothing like what your draft is, but this is what you are originally wanting to achieve.
• 28:03
  Natasha Rai: But but also, even if it kind of goes off the outline
• 28:07
  Bridie Blake: Mm.
• 28:07
  Natasha Rai: Presumably you still know that you're heading the same place that you need to end.
• 28:11
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 28:12
  Natasha Rai: Yeah,
• 28:12
  Bridie Blake: very much so.
• 28:13
  Bridie Blake: Very much so.
• 28:14
  Bridie Blake: My endings will sometimes change.
• 28:15
  Natasha Rai: Oh, okay.
• 28:16
  Natasha Rai: I
• 28:16
  Bridie Blake: don't always know my ending except obviously with rom-coms, you know that there's a happily ever after.
• 28:20
  Natasha Rai: Mm-hmm.
• 28:20
  Natasha Rai: So
• 28:21
  Bridie Blake: I can't really go wrong there.
• 28:22
  Bridie Blake: But yeah, there might be a certain element of it that I got fixated in my head.
• 28:26
  Bridie Blake: I'm like, this is what we going, I'm gonna do, and then it'll just completely change and yeah, you just run with it.
• 28:32
  Natasha Rai: So.
• 28:32
  Natasha Rai: So then, um, you sent a pitch to your agent?
• 28:36
  Bridie Blake: I did.
• 28:37
  Bridie Blake: And she loved it and she said, great.
• 28:40
  Bridie Blake: Can you write this?
• 28:42
  Bridie Blake: I was like, yeah, absolutely.
• 28:45
  Bridie Blake: Sure can.
• 28:45
  Natasha Rai: And was there and was there a deadline that you agreed?
• 28:47
  Natasha Rai: No.
• 28:48
  Natasha Rai: No.
• 28:48
  Natasha Rai: Okay.
• 28:48
  Natasha Rai: Alright.
• 28:49
  Bridie Blake: No, no.
• 28:50
  Bridie Blake: So she agreed to that at the beginning of 2022.
• 28:54
  Natasha Rai: Okay.
• 28:55
  Natasha Rai: And
• 28:55
  Bridie Blake: at that time I was still kind of like trying to write a young adult, but it, yeah.
• 29:01
  Bridie Blake: So I kind of like toyed with that.
• 29:03
  Bridie Blake: And then was sort of playing around with the first 20,000 words of the boyfriend claw.
• 29:08
  Bridie Blake: Um, because for me, that's how I get to know my characters.
• 29:11
  Bridie Blake: I'm not someone that creates, like character sheets or mm-hmm.
• 29:14
  Bridie Blake: Does like big dive interviews with my characters.
• 29:17
  Bridie Blake: I get to know them by writing them.
• 29:20
  Bridie Blake: Mm-hmm.
• 29:21
  Bridie Blake: So my first 20,000 words, I'll kind of get that out.
• 29:24
  Bridie Blake: Mm-hmm.
• 29:24
  Bridie Blake: And then see, and so that's what I did with this
• 29:27
  Natasha Rai: and, and was, and was, was were those 20,000 words, um, what is in the opening now?
• 29:35
  Natasha Rai: But did they make that in
• 29:37
  Bridie Blake: Yeah, for the most part.
• 29:39
  Bridie Blake: So the first chapter has really not changed.
• 29:41
  Bridie Blake: Oh, um, I love my first chapter.
• 29:44
  Natasha Rai: It's great first chapter.
• 29:45
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 29:45
  Natasha Rai: Very proud
• 29:46
  Bridie Blake: of that first chapter.
• 29:46
  Bridie Blake: Um, so that really hasn't changed.
• 29:48
  Bridie Blake: Maybe a couple of words.
• 29:50
  Bridie Blake: Couple of sentences.
• 29:51
  Bridie Blake: Mm-hmm.
• 29:51
  Natasha Rai: Mm-hmm.
• 29:51
  Bridie Blake: Um, but yet that, that sort of stayed the same, and yet basically that first 20,000, there was maybe some elements that kind of changed, but nothing major.
• 30:02
  Natasha Rai: Okay.
• 30:03
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 30:03
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 30:04
  Natasha Rai: And so you started at the beginning of 2022.
• 30:07
  Natasha Rai: At which point did you finish a draft that you felt happy with?
• 30:12
  Bridie Blake: Yep.
• 30:12
  Bridie Blake: So in December I decided to commit to it.
• 30:15
  Bridie Blake: So December, 2022.
• 30:16
  Bridie Blake: Mm-hmm.
• 30:17
  Bridie Blake: And then by April it was done.
• 30:20
  Natasha Rai: Okay.
• 30:21
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 30:21
  Natasha Rai: That's really fast.
• 30:23
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 30:23
  Bridie Blake: Which at the time it didn't feel fast.
• 30:26
  Bridie Blake: Mm.
• 30:26
  Bridie Blake: Um, I was So Holly Auer?
• 30:29
  Bridie Blake: Yes.
• 30:29
  Bridie Blake: A debut crew member of 2025.
• 30:31
  Bridie Blake: Yes.
• 30:31
  Bridie Blake: We were swapping chapters on a weekly basis, so she was getting my.
• 30:37
  Bridie Blake: Mess of a first draft, and she was sending me a masterpiece, and through her feedback I was kind of able to apply that as I was going.
• 30:45
  Bridie Blake: Um, and so by April I was like, oh, I'm feeling pretty good about this draft.
• 30:50
  Bridie Blake: Mm-hmm.
• 30:51
  Bridie Blake: Um, so after that I kind of did like a sweep and I mean a sweep of edits.
• 30:56
  Bridie Blake: Like I really didn't go too in depth with them.
• 30:59
  Natasha Rai: Mm.
• 31:00
  Bridie Blake: Um, before I sent it off to my agent.
• 31:02
  Natasha Rai: Mm-hmm.
• 31:03
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 31:03
  Natasha Rai: And what was the response?
• 31:04
  Natasha Rai: What happened after that?
• 31:06
  Bridie Blake: She loved it.
• 31:06
  Natasha Rai: Great.
• 31:07
  Bridie Blake: Okay.
• 31:07
  Bridie Blake: And, yep.
• 31:08
  Bridie Blake: No, she loved it.
• 31:09
  Bridie Blake: She, yeah, she thought it was great.
• 31:12
  Bridie Blake: We did a really light.
• 31:14
  Bridie Blake: Edit on it.
• 31:15
  Bridie Blake: Mm-hmm.
• 31:16
  Bridie Blake: Um, and then we did some line editing, but yeah, there wasn't anything extensive.
• 31:21
  Bridie Blake: Like it was all, there was nothing structural.
• 31:23
  Bridie Blake: I didn't have to change too much.
• 31:24
  Natasha Rai: Mm-hmm.
• 31:25
  Bridie Blake: Um, which was actually really nice because with the YA suspense that I did with her, we had a major structural.
• 31:31
  Natasha Rai: Right.
• 31:32
  Bridie Blake: I was like bracing myself for that.
• 31:33
  Bridie Blake: But yeah, this was so light.
• 31:35
  Bridie Blake: It was bliss.
• 31:37
  Natasha Rai: And, and what about the setting, given that your agent is in the US and this is an Australian book?
• 31:42
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 31:42
  Bridie Blake: How
• 31:42
  Natasha Rai: did that Yeah.
• 31:42
  Natasha Rai: So
• 31:43
  Bridie Blake: initially I wrote them as US characters.
• 31:49
  Natasha Rai: That's so interesting.
• 31:50
  Natasha Rai: Okay.
• 31:51
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 31:51
  Bridie Blake: I did with a US setting, and it just didn't feel right to me.
• 31:54
  Natasha Rai: Mm.
• 31:55
  Bridie Blake: And I was like, oh, I, I sent it to her, but I wasn't.
• 31:59
  Bridie Blake: In love with the story, if that makes sense.
• 32:02
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 32:02
  Bridie Blake: It was kind of like, oh, here we go.
• 32:04
  Bridie Blake: This is the book that I told you I was gonna write.
• 32:05
  Bridie Blake: Oh, here it is.
• 32:07
  Bridie Blake: And then in the, the first edit that I did with her, I was like, oh my God, I think I've worked out why it's not sitting right with me.
• 32:15
  Bridie Blake: And it's like, these characters are Australian.
• 32:17
  Natasha Rai: Mm-hmm.
• 32:17
  Bridie Blake: That I wrote.
• 32:18
  Natasha Rai: I was gonna say, the humor is very Australian.
• 32:21
  Natasha Rai: Yes.
• 32:21
  Bridie Blake: That's my humor.
• 32:23
  Bridie Blake: So I was like, that's what's missing.
• 32:26
  Bridie Blake: And so I changed it and there really wasn't that much that had to change, like literally a scene with Vegemite Toast, like the spelling of mum.
• 32:34
  Bridie Blake: Like that was it.
• 32:35
  Bridie Blake: And the Melbourne setting, instead of, I think I had it as No Boston or New York, I can't remember.
• 32:42
  Bridie Blake: Um, and then I sent it back to her and I was like, oh, hey, just FYI, I've changed it all to Australian.
• 32:49
  Bridie Blake: Um, and there we go.
• 32:52
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 32:53
  Bridie Blake: No, she didn't like that.
• 32:54
  Natasha Rai: No.
• 32:55
  Natasha Rai: Okay.
• 32:55
  Natasha Rai: I didn't think so.
• 32:56
  Natasha Rai: Yeah,
• 32:57
  Bridie Blake: so she came back and she said, oh look, can we put it back to us based US characters?
• 33:04
  Bridie Blake: She's like, if you're concerned about it, she's like, you can just be super vague about where they're from.
• 33:10
  Bridie Blake: And so I took out all mention of any like US city or anything like that because it just, it didn't feel right.
• 33:17
  Bridie Blake: Mm-hmm.
• 33:17
  Natasha Rai: Mm-hmm.
• 33:18
  Natasha Rai: Mm-hmm.
• 33:18
  Bridie Blake: And so we ended up going out on submission with it
• 33:22
  Natasha Rai: just to us publishers,
• 33:23
  Bridie Blake: US publishers.
• 33:24
  Bridie Blake: Mm-hmm.
• 33:25
  Bridie Blake: And again, it, it was just a, it was a weird experience.
• 33:28
  Bridie Blake: I felt this disconnect with it.
• 33:31
  Bridie Blake: I wasn't obsessively checking the spreadsheet that we had.
• 33:35
  Bridie Blake: And then when I would get feedback from it, it was all glowing.
• 33:39
  Bridie Blake: It would literally reading like five star reviews and then there'd be a, but, oh, and it would be a super fixable, but
• 33:46
  Natasha Rai: like what?
• 33:47
  Bridie Blake: Do you remember
• 33:47
  Natasha Rai: any
• 33:48
  Bridie Blake: of them?
• 33:48
  Bridie Blake: Like there was something that they wanted in put in the beginning.
• 33:52
  Bridie Blake: Something to do with Adam.
• 33:53
  Bridie Blake: Oh, we need to see a slightly softer side of Adam in the beginning.
• 33:57
  Natasha Rai: Ah,
• 33:58
  Bridie Blake: okay.
• 33:58
  Bridie Blake: Super easy fix.
• 33:59
  Natasha Rai: Yeah, yeah.
• 34:00
  Bridie Blake: But still it was a rejection and I remember just reading that.
• 34:03
  Natasha Rai: Oh, hang on.
• 34:04
  Natasha Rai: So, so it wasn't like, oh, you know, like for example that, that example that you just gave, it wasn't a, we need to see a softer side.
• 34:09
  Natasha Rai: Can you write that and resubmit?
• 34:11
  Natasha Rai: No.
• 34:11
  Natasha Rai: Oh no.
• 34:13
  Bridie Blake: That, yeah.
• 34:13
  Bridie Blake: So at that time in us publishing, the feedback that I was getting from other authors was the editors wanted something basically perfect in their inbox.
• 34:23
  Bridie Blake: Oh yeah.
• 34:25
  Bridie Blake: I don't know if they, gosh, recovered from the COVID era where people were leaving, um, in droves.
• 34:31
  Bridie Blake: And I dunno if they ever caught back up to that.
• 34:33
  Bridie Blake: So it was just, that was like, yeah, that was rough.
• 34:37
  Natasha Rai: Mm-hmm.
• 34:37
  Natasha Rai: That really rough.
• 34:38
  Natasha Rai: Especially.
• 34:39
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 34:39
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 34:39
  Natasha Rai: Because we were just saying earlier with your suspense, um, ya, the feedback wasn't useful.
• 34:44
  Natasha Rai: Whereas now it sounds like it was, it was,
• 34:46
  Bridie Blake: tell me what needed to go in.
• 34:49
  Bridie Blake: Okay.
• 34:49
  Bridie Blake: But do we.
• 34:51
  Bridie Blake: Let me put that in and then offer something.
• 34:53
  Bridie Blake: But yeah, I mean, it all worked out.
• 34:55
  Bridie Blake: So I actually think it all worked out for the best because I then, I think the longer that it was out on submission that I just felt really, it was just like an unease there.
• 35:05
  Bridie Blake: Mm.
• 35:06
  Bridie Blake: And I was just thinking, you know what?
• 35:09
  Bridie Blake: I want this book to be published in Australia.
• 35:12
  Bridie Blake: Like my, so while whilst I was writing this book, my dad had three strokes.
• 35:17
  Natasha Rai: Oh.
• 35:18
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 35:19
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 35:20
  Bridie Blake: Sorry.
• 35:20
  Bridie Blake: No, that's okay.
• 35:21
  Bridie Blake: He's, he's okay.
• 35:22
  Bridie Blake: Like he's, he's good now.
• 35:23
  Bridie Blake: Um, but it was like, this book was like my lifeline during that.
• 35:28
  Bridie Blake: It was so important to me when I was working on it.
• 35:31
  Bridie Blake: It's why the family in it is so prominent.
• 35:33
  Bridie Blake: Mm.
• 35:33
  Bridie Blake: And I just thought, I want my dad to be able to walk into a bookstore and see it.
• 35:37
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 35:38
  Bridie Blake: And if it sells in the US there's no guarantee that that's gonna happen here.
• 35:41
  Bridie Blake: There's no guarantee that it'll end up in a bookstore in Australia.
• 35:45
  Natasha Rai: True.
• 35:45
  Bridie Blake: And the more I thought about it, I was like, that's my end goal.
• 35:49
  Bridie Blake: My end goal is to be an Australian published author.
• 35:54
  Bridie Blake: Mm.
• 35:54
  Bridie Blake: And I was reading so many Australian authors at the time, and I was just like, we have so much talent here
• 35:59
  Natasha Rai: we
• 36:00
  Bridie Blake: do.
• 36:00
  Bridie Blake: Like, I
• 36:00
  Natasha Rai: wanna be
• 36:01
  Bridie Blake: part of that.
• 36:02
  Bridie Blake: Mm-hmm.
• 36:02
  Bridie Blake: I was like, that would just bring me so much joy.
• 36:05
  Bridie Blake: So I, you know, spoke to my agent and I was like, Hey, you can't submit to Australia.
• 36:11
  Bridie Blake: I'm going to, and I switched it all back to Australian character, Australian setting in, and it just felt so Right.
• 36:19
  Natasha Rai: Wow.
• 36:20
  Natasha Rai: That's a big decision.
• 36:21
  Natasha Rai: Right.
• 36:21
  Natasha Rai: Especially because I've had this conversation with quite a few writers and you know, as a debut, like when you have an agent or you have an in, it just feels so terrifying to say, no, this isn't right.
• 36:33
  Natasha Rai: So again, right.
• 36:35
  Natasha Rai: Good on you.
• 36:35
  Natasha Rai: That's amazing that you followed your instinct.
• 36:38
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 36:39
  Bridie Blake: My big thing in life is you follow your gut instinct.
• 36:41
  Natasha Rai: Mm.
• 36:42
  Bridie Blake: It never steers you wrong.
• 36:44
  Bridie Blake: The only time you get steered wrong is if you ignore your gut.
• 36:47
  Natasha Rai: Oh, totally.
• 36:48
  Bridie Blake: And my gut was screaming at me.
• 36:51
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 36:51
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 36:51
  Bridie Blake: Like, you need to send this out in Australia.
• 36:53
  Bridie Blake: And so I did.
• 36:54
  Natasha Rai: So, so then before you did that, those, that bits of feedback that you were getting in terms of, you know, if, if you could do this.
• 37:01
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 37:02
  Natasha Rai: Were you making those changes or did you think Let's just see.
• 37:04
  Natasha Rai: Okay.
• 37:05
  Natasha Rai: All right.
• 37:05
  Bridie Blake: Yeah, I know I
• 37:06
  Natasha Rai: should.
• 37:07
  Natasha Rai: No, no, no.
• 37:07
  Natasha Rai: I was just, no, I
• 37:08
  Bridie Blake: think like that.
• 37:09
  Bridie Blake: No, because I.
• 37:11
  Bridie Blake: I just had a very specific idea in my mind about who Adam was as a character.
• 37:15
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 37:15
  Natasha Rai: No, that's great.
• 37:15
  Natasha Rai: That's again amazing that you have that vision.
• 37:19
  Natasha Rai: And again, sticking to,
• 37:20
  Bridie Blake: is it stubbornness or is it, I don't
• 37:22
  Natasha Rai: know.
• 37:22
  Natasha Rai: No, it's amazing, honestly, like, um, someone, well, it wasn't just someone, Emily McGuire asked me once when I was in a, not in the same situation as you, but I'd had some really big feedback and which meant inherently just changing everything about onslaught and I was gonna do it'cause I was crazy.
• 37:40
  Natasha Rai: I was crazy at the time.
• 37:41
  Natasha Rai: 'cause I just thought this was my only chance.
• 37:43
  Natasha Rai: And she just said to me, will you be happy seeing that version on a bookshelf in a shop?
• 37:48
  Natasha Rai: And I went, no.
• 37:49
  Bridie Blake: Yeah, right.
• 37:50
  Natasha Rai: But it took that kind of
• 37:52
  Bridie Blake: Yep.
• 37:52
  Natasha Rai: Reminder.
• 37:53
  Natasha Rai: Whereas it sounds like you've really honed that instinct and you trust it, which is so, so amazing.
• 38:00
  Bridie Blake: My god.
• 38:00
  Bridie Blake: 20 years.
• 38:01
  Bridie Blake: 20 years.
• 38:02
  Bridie Blake: Yes.
• 38:03
  Bridie Blake: Learn that.
• 38:04
  Natasha Rai: Yes.
• 38:04
  Natasha Rai: At
• 38:04
  Bridie Blake: the end of the day, it's your story.
• 38:06
  Natasha Rai: Well, yes,
• 38:07
  Bridie Blake: it has to be something that you love and that you are proud of.
• 38:10
  Bridie Blake: Because imagine walking into a bookstore and being like, oh, I wrote that, but I don't like it.
• 38:14
  Natasha Rai: Exactly.
• 38:15
  Natasha Rai: Oh my God, that's heartbreaking to go.
• 38:16
  Natasha Rai: I spent all this time and effort and, and you know, as you said, soul crushing disappointment crush and now it's a thing on the shelf that I'm not 100% proud of.
• 38:26
  Natasha Rai: Yeah, yeah.
• 38:27
  Bridie Blake: Like that would just kill me.
• 38:29
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 38:29
  Bridie Blake: Like, yeah, no, that would be absolutely gut wrenching.
• 38:33
  Bridie Blake: So I was like, you know what?
• 38:35
  Bridie Blake: I know what I want from this book.
• 38:37
  Bridie Blake: I'm gonna do that.
• 38:39
  Natasha Rai: Okay.
• 38:39
  Natasha Rai: So then you started submitting to Australian publishers or agents as well?
• 38:43
  Bridie Blake: No, I went straight to publishers.
• 38:45
  Bridie Blake: Um, so I did a little spreadsheet'cause um, yeah.
• 38:50
  Natasha Rai: Of course you
• 38:50
  Bridie Blake: have to.
• 38:50
  Bridie Blake: Yes.
• 38:51
  Bridie Blake: My day job, little Miss organization, as an author, not so much, but I was like, we are gonna channel the day job energy and we are gonna create a spreadsheet.
• 38:58
  Bridie Blake: So I put in all the, all the publishers, um, and there were two, two that were like my dream mm-hmm.
• 39:06
  Bridie Blake: Publishers.
• 39:06
  Bridie Blake: Mm-hmm.
• 39:06
  Bridie Blake: Mm-hmm.
• 39:08
  Bridie Blake: One was closed and didn't look like they were gonna be opening anytime soon.
• 39:12
  Bridie Blake: Um, so I was like, okay, we won't submit to them.
• 39:16
  Bridie Blake: And then I sent off every other submission by the one to text publishing because sending it off to text publishing felt so do or die for me.
• 39:27
  Natasha Rai: Oh.
• 39:27
  Bridie Blake: They were, I wanted
• 39:29
  Natasha Rai: Mm.
• 39:29
  Bridie Blake: If they said no, that I think that is what would've broken me, I would've just been like, that's the end.
• 39:34
  Bridie Blake: I can't, like, they would just, I, I've wanted to be published by them for so many years.
• 39:40
  Natasha Rai: Mm.
• 39:40
  Bridie Blake: I just, they, I just respect them.
• 39:43
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 39:43
  Bridie Blake: So highly.
• 39:44
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 39:45
  Bridie Blake: Um.
• 39:45
  Bridie Blake: And so I sat on my submission to them and I was just like, oh my God, I dunno if I can send it.
• 39:50
  Bridie Blake: And I was like, I think like the, I think I got a rejection from wine, Australian wine.
• 39:55
  Bridie Blake: And I was just like, oh, I mean that's sucks, but you know, pick myself up'cause that's what I do.
• 40:02
  Bridie Blake: And I thought, okay, it's now, or never send it to text.
• 40:06
  Bridie Blake: Like you just gotta do it.
• 40:07
  Bridie Blake: Bite the bullet.
• 40:08
  Natasha Rai: Oh God, I know that
• 40:08
  feeling.
• 40:09
  Bridie Blake: Yes.
• 40:09
  Bridie Blake: Yeah, I felt sick.
• 40:10
  Bridie Blake: I felt so sick.
• 40:13
  Bridie Blake: It was one of those moments was like, you hit send, but you then close your eyes.
• 40:16
  Bridie Blake: Yes.
• 40:16
  Bridie Blake: Did I?
• 40:18
  Bridie Blake: Oh my God, yes.
• 40:18
  Bridie Blake: Oh my God.
• 40:19
  Bridie Blake: I actually did.
• 40:19
  Bridie Blake: It was awful.
• 40:21
  Bridie Blake: And I did it and I thought, oh God, I'm never gonna hear from them.
• 40:24
  Bridie Blake: Or if I do, it's gonna take forever and it'll be a, we're so not interested.
• 40:29
  Bridie Blake: But yeah, a couple of weeks later there was a, Hey, do you mind sending the full manuscript.
• 40:34
  Bridie Blake: And I remember.
• 40:35
  Natasha Rai: Wow.
• 40:35
  Natasha Rai: So do you remember then at the time, what their publishing or submission guidelines was?
• 40:40
  Natasha Rai: How much of the manuscript did you have to submit in that first code?
• 40:43
  Natasha Rai: Oh,
• 40:43
  Bridie Blake: I feel like it was the first three chapters.
• 40:45
  Natasha Rai: Okay.
• 40:46
  Natasha Rai: Yep.
• 40:46
  Natasha Rai: And a synopsis, presumably.
• 40:48
  Bridie Blake: I think it was a synopsis as well, which I hate doing a synopsis.
• 40:52
  Bridie Blake: I'll write a million pictures, but if you make me do a synopsis, I will throw it.
• 40:56
  Bridie Blake: I was like, I hate it.
• 40:58
  Bridie Blake: I hate it.
• 40:58
  Bridie Blake: I like I sounds bad, but I zero effort into my synopsis.
• 41:03
  Bridie Blake: I'm like, we don't need to make the synopsis fancy.
• 41:05
  Bridie Blake: It's literally A means B, we get to Z.
• 41:08
  Bridie Blake: Like we're done.
• 41:08
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 41:10
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 41:10
  Bridie Blake: Again.
• 41:11
  Bridie Blake: I dunno if it's stubborn.
• 41:12
  Bridie Blake: I'm just like, no,
• 41:13
  Natasha Rai: no, I'm me.
• 41:15
  Bridie Blake: Um, so yeah, I sent off my first three chapters.
• 41:18
  Bridie Blake: That
• 41:18
  Natasha Rai: must have been such a thrill when they asked for the fall.
• 41:20
  Bridie Blake: Oh my god.
• 41:20
  Bridie Blake: I, yeah.
• 41:22
  Bridie Blake: So I was sitting at my desk here, it was a Tuesday afternoon.
• 41:25
  Bridie Blake: I was about to log off from the day job and I saw the email from Zoe, their assistant in the office and oh my god, I full leap out and then I spiraled.
• 41:34
  Bridie Blake: 'cause I was like, my God, how do I send a full, I don't know how to send a full, I've forgotten how to send a full.
• 41:39
  Bridie Blake: And I was on in the dms of one of my writing buddies and I was like, what do I do?
• 41:43
  Bridie Blake: How do I do this?
• 41:43
  Bridie Blake: How do I format it?
• 41:44
  Bridie Blake: What am I do?
• 41:45
  Bridie Blake: I put my name at the top.
• 41:46
  Bridie Blake: I put my name at the top.
• 41:47
  Bridie Blake: I just spiraled.
• 41:48
  Bridie Blake: I was so just shocked, like so, so, so shocked and sent it off and it was, yeah, I got an acknowledgement the next day and I was like, okay, we're in October now.
• 42:01
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 42:02
  Bridie Blake: Not going to hear anything before Christmas,
• 42:04
  Natasha Rai: October, 2024.
• 42:05
  Bridie Blake: Yes, I had to
• 42:06
  Natasha Rai: think
• 42:06
  Bridie Blake: about that.
• 42:07
  Bridie Blake: I was like, oh, what year are we in now?
• 42:08
  Bridie Blake: Um, yeah, October, 2024 literally was like, we are not hearing anything this year.
• 42:13
  Bridie Blake: Like zero, zero chance of that.
• 42:15
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 42:15
  Bridie Blake: And then exactly one week later.
• 42:18
  Natasha Rai: One week.
• 42:18
  Natasha Rai: That
• 42:19
  Bridie Blake: is so amazing.
• 42:20
  Natasha Rai: Yes.
• 42:20
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 42:21
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 42:21
  Bridie Blake: So I sent it the Tuesday night, got my acknowledgement the Wednesday and then the following Wednesday.
• 42:27
  Bridie Blake: So yeah, sitting in my office at work and I was all by myself'cause no one in my team was in that day.
• 42:32
  Bridie Blake: So I was in the corner sitting by on my lonesome.
• 42:35
  Bridie Blake: And then the email from my editor, Jane Pearson popped up.
• 42:38
  Bridie Blake: And you know when you, you click it and you're expecting to see the, but
• 42:43
  Natasha Rai: yeah, the unfortunately, like you just quickly scanned
• 42:45
  Bridie Blake: to
• 42:45
  Natasha Rai: look for that
• 42:46
  Bridie Blake: one.
• 42:46
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 42:46
  Bridie Blake: It's like, oh, we really enjoyed it.
• 42:48
  Bridie Blake: But, but
• 42:48
  Natasha Rai: yeah.
• 42:49
  Bridie Blake: And so I was like sort of half reading the opening where she was saying that she loved it.
• 42:53
  Bridie Blake: 'cause I said it's gonna be a butt.
• 42:55
  Bridie Blake: So I was just like looking for the, but I'm like, there is the, but where's the, but I had to go back and read it again.
• 43:02
  Bridie Blake: I'm like, there's definitely no, but she wants to meet me in person.
• 43:06
  Bridie Blake: Like what the hell?
• 43:08
  Bridie Blake: Wow.
• 43:10
  Bridie Blake: It was insane.
• 43:12
  Bridie Blake: Insane.
• 43:12
  Bridie Blake: Oh
• 43:13
  Natasha Rai: my God.
• 43:14
  Natasha Rai: That's the best moment.
• 43:15
  Bridie Blake: It was.
• 43:16
  Bridie Blake: Oh my God.
• 43:17
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 43:17
  Bridie Blake: I still think about it and I'm just like, go back to that day and I'm like, oh my God.
• 43:22
  Bridie Blake: That was like, that was the moment dream coming through.
• 43:26
  Bridie Blake: Yes.
• 43:26
  Bridie Blake: So
• 43:26
  Natasha Rai: what, what did you do?
• 43:27
  Natasha Rai: Like, did you scream?
• 43:28
  Natasha Rai: Did you like
• 43:29
  Bridie Blake: No, I was professional.
• 43:30
  Bridie Blake: I was in the office.
• 43:33
  Bridie Blake: I was pretending to work.
• 43:35
  Bridie Blake: I literally sat in the corner and I was in people's dms freaking out.
• 43:42
  Bridie Blake: Like,'cause in my mind I'm like, oh my God, she's gonna offer me something.
• 43:46
  Bridie Blake: But also being like, okay, be cool.
• 43:48
  Bridie Blake: She may not offer, you may be bringing you in in person to tell you the, but so she might, she might be dragging you in there to be like, oh, we love it.
• 43:55
  Bridie Blake: But I was like, she might be, she might do that.
• 43:58
  Bridie Blake: She might do that.
• 43:58
  Bridie Blake: And everyone's telling me she's not gonna do that.
• 44:00
  Bridie Blake: Like she's inviting you to meet with her.
• 44:02
  Bridie Blake: Like that's
• 44:03
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 44:03
  Natasha Rai: An yeah.
• 44:04
  Natasha Rai: Publishers don't have time to meet people in person to say no.
• 44:06
  Bridie Blake: I know.
• 44:07
  Natasha Rai: Yes, but you, but, but you don't, but you don't know that because you have to like temper your excitement.
• 44:11
  Bridie Blake: Right?
• 44:12
  Bridie Blake: You can't get too excited because then what if it doesn't end up being Exactly,
• 44:16
  Natasha Rai: exactly.
• 44:17
  Bridie Blake: So I was like, all right, it's, it's probably gonna be a deal, but let's just prepare for the but, and so I went into the office on the Monday and she just sat me down.
• 44:26
  Bridie Blake: I it that day, that was just a dream to like just sit across from like Jane Pearson and have her tell me that she loved it and to list what she loved about it and to be like, we wanna publish this.
• 44:43
  Bridie Blake: I was like, are serious, because I was surrounded by all the textbooks.
• 44:48
  Bridie Blake: We're in the boardroom and I'm like wall to wall text publishing books.
• 44:52
  Bridie Blake: I'm like, I gonna be one of them.
• 44:54
  Natasha Rai: I know
• 44:55
  Bridie Blake: that's gonna be me.
• 44:56
  Natasha Rai: God.
• 44:57
  Bridie Blake: Like, oh my God.
• 44:58
  Bridie Blake: Absolute.
• 44:59
  Bridie Blake: Just, yeah.
• 45:00
  Bridie Blake: Moment.
• 45:02
  Natasha Rai: So in that meeting, did she talk to you about a pub, the kind of timeframe when it might be published?
• 45:09
  Natasha Rai: Or was it just we would like to make an offer?
• 45:11
  Natasha Rai: No.
• 45:11
  Natasha Rai: Yeah,
• 45:11
  Bridie Blake: we talked about it all.
• 45:12
  Natasha Rai: So she'd already gone to acquisitions for the sounds?
• 45:15
  Bridie Blake: Yes.
• 45:15
  Bridie Blake: They operate differently.
• 45:16
  Bridie Blake: So this is, okay, this is what I have discovered about the publishing industry in Australia.
• 45:21
  Bridie Blake: Yes.
• 45:22
  Bridie Blake: Everybody does it differently.
• 45:23
  Natasha Rai: Mm-hmm.
• 45:24
  Bridie Blake: So text.
• 45:25
  Bridie Blake: From my understanding seems to follow the US method.
• 45:30
  Bridie Blake: So my contact there was Jane.
• 45:32
  Natasha Rai: Mm-hmm.
• 45:32
  Natasha Rai: From
• 45:33
  Bridie Blake: Day Dot.
• 45:34
  Bridie Blake: Mm-hmm.
• 45:34
  Bridie Blake: She acquired it.
• 45:35
  Bridie Blake: She worked with me on every stage of the editing process.
• 45:39
  Bridie Blake: She's my go-to in the text team.
• 45:41
  Natasha Rai: Mm-hmm.
• 45:42
  Bridie Blake: And so yet they had, I think she had said that like they s she was getting emails in from everybody that were all just saying yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
• 45:50
  Natasha Rai: Okay.
• 45:50
  Natasha Rai: So she had sent your manuscript to
• 45:51
  Bridie Blake: everyone.
• 45:52
  Bridie Blake: Yes.
• 45:52
  Bridie Blake: And they
• 45:53
  Natasha Rai: read, okay.
• 45:54
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 45:54
  Bridie Blake: I don't really understand how it works, but it had already gone to acquisitions and they said Yes.
• 45:59
  Bridie Blake: We said,
• 46:00
  Natasha Rai: that's very fast in one week.
• 46:02
  Bridie Blake: Right, right.
• 46:03
  Natasha Rai: Oh my lord.
• 46:04
  Natasha Rai: They must have loved it.
• 46:05
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 46:06
  Bridie Blake: Which, yeah, made me sweat a little bit because I'm like, oh my God, can I live up to that?
• 46:10
  Bridie Blake: Like, what if it all falls apart?
• 46:12
  Bridie Blake: Did they actually mean me?
• 46:14
  Bridie Blake: Did they not think that they were bringing in like Bridget Black, who wrote like the husband contract, like.
• 46:21
  Bridie Blake: I don't understand it like this, this doesn't happen to me.
• 46:25
  Bridie Blake: I get known it's real.
• 46:26
  Natasha Rai: Yes.
• 46:26
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 46:27
  Bridie Blake: So it was just, it was incredible.
• 46:30
  Natasha Rai: And but you heard like 2026 as the potential publication,
• 46:34
  Bridie Blake: was that Yeah, when we first talked I, she was kind of saying maybe the end of 2025 or early 2026.
• 46:41
  Bridie Blake: Um, and I initially it was like, oh, 2025 would be really cool'cause Holly au and I, we at the same time, wouldn't it be awesome if we, um, debuted in the same year and then 2025 hit?
• 46:54
  Bridie Blake: And I was like, yeah, I feel like 2026 would be a really good year.
• 46:59
  Bridie Blake: So let's look at that.
• 47:00
  Bridie Blake: 'cause I just feel like 2025.
• 47:03
  Bridie Blake: I, I started 2025 with a little bit of like a health issue that meant I couldn't write for three months the first time of the year because I was just so much pain.
• 47:13
  Bridie Blake: And so then I was like panicking that entire time being like, oh my God, if I have to release this year, I'm screwed.
• 47:19
  Bridie Blake: Mm-hmm.
• 47:20
  Bridie Blake: I'm actually screwed.
• 47:20
  Bridie Blake: So then when they came back and they were like, March, 2026, I was like, oh, thank God.
• 47:24
  Natasha Rai: Great.
• 47:24
  Natasha Rai: Yes.
• 47:25
  Bridie Blake: Brilliant love 2026 sounds great.
• 47:27
  Bridie Blake: Let's do it.
• 47:29
  Natasha Rai: And was there a lot of, uh, like a structural edit or, you know, reworking that you had to do?
• 47:36
  Bridie Blake: No.
• 47:36
  Bridie Blake: No.
• 47:36
  Bridie Blake: So there was a structural edit, obviously.
• 47:38
  Natasha Rai: Yes, yes.
• 47:39
  Bridie Blake: Um, but yeah, it wasn't intensive so well for me from what I'd been used
• 47:45
  Natasha Rai: to.
• 47:46
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 47:46
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 47:46
  Bridie Blake: Go back to that.
• 47:47
  Bridie Blake: Why a suspense?
• 47:48
  Bridie Blake: It's like I had to completely change the characters.
• 47:50
  Bridie Blake: There were four characters and I had to change one of their storylines, like,
• 47:53
  Natasha Rai: oh wow, that is
• 47:54
  Bridie Blake: big.
• 47:54
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 47:54
  Bridie Blake: I've done intensive like edits and so yeah, this.
• 47:58
  Bridie Blake: It wasn't like, there was a few extra chapters I had to add at the beginning.
• 48:02
  Bridie Blake: Mm-hmm.
• 48:02
  Bridie Blake: Just to give it more of like a base in Melbourne.
• 48:05
  Bridie Blake: Mm-hmm.
• 48:05
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 48:06
  Bridie Blake: Before we left.
• 48:07
  Bridie Blake: Um, but yeah, that was really it.
• 48:10
  Bridie Blake: There was a few little things throughout, but there wasn't anything that was major
• 48:14
  Natasha Rai: major.
• 48:15
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 48:15
  Natasha Rai: And, and were you writing something else or did kind of even the, the kind of not intensive work on it, was that just consuming all your attention and effort?
• 48:26
  Bridie Blake: Um, yeah.
• 48:28
  Bridie Blake: No, I was also working on something else.
• 48:30
  Bridie Blake: Mm-hmm.
• 48:30
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 48:31
  Bridie Blake: I, yeah, it'd been sort of like drilled into me that just make sure another book ready to go because yeah, like the publishing industry, it moves slow, but it also does actually move quite quick.
• 48:45
  Natasha Rai: Mm-hmm.
• 48:45
  Bridie Blake: Um, and I didn't want it to get to like, oh, my book is coming out.
• 48:49
  Bridie Blake: I don't have anything else.
• 48:51
  Bridie Blake: Ready to go.
• 48:52
  Natasha Rai: Yes.
• 48:52
  Bridie Blake: Um, that stressed me more, stressed me out more than actually working on two books at the same time.
• 48:58
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 48:58
  Natasha Rai: Okay.
• 48:58
  Natasha Rai: And is and the other one that you are working on, is that a romcom too?
• 49:02
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 49:02
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 49:02
  Bridie Blake: So I'm very happy in the romcom space and I don't see myself leaving it anytime soon.
• 49:09
  Bridie Blake: They just make me happy.
• 49:11
  Bridie Blake: I'm so happy writing them, and yet that's where I'm gonna stay,
• 49:15
  Natasha Rai: so.
• 49:15
  Natasha Rai: Okay.
• 49:15
  Natasha Rai: So romcom readers mm-hmm.
• 49:17
  Natasha Rai: Expect certain kind of beats.
• 49:19
  Bridie Blake: They do.
• 49:20
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 49:20
  Natasha Rai: So how do you hit them and keep it, I guess, fresh?
• 49:24
  Bridie Blake: So, yeah.
• 49:26
  Natasha Rai: Or in some way?
• 49:27
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 49:28
  Bridie Blake: I mean, they're obviously those certain beats that we do need to hit, like the meet cute, the, the feelings that kind of hit around the midpoint, the third act breakup, then you throw in all the tropes that we all just love, which I adore a trope.
• 49:42
  Bridie Blake: Um, and I think in order to keep it fresh, for me, honestly, it comes down to the characters.
• 49:47
  Bridie Blake: Ah,
• 49:48
  Natasha Rai: okay.
• 49:49
  Bridie Blake: Yeah, I mean every character is different.
• 49:52
  Bridie Blake: A character that I write will react to one way, to a situation compared to say like a character that you would write and pop to my story,
• 50:00
  Natasha Rai: for sure.
• 50:00
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 50:01
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 50:01
  Bridie Blake: And so for me, it all comes down to characters.
• 50:05
  Bridie Blake: Okay.
• 50:05
  Bridie Blake: And my main focus when I'm writing is characters.
• 50:08
  Bridie Blake: Like that's what my attention goes into.
• 50:11
  Bridie Blake: And I've,
• 50:12
  Natasha Rai: so, so, so then just going into, when you started writing a second one mm-hmm.
• 50:15
  Natasha Rai: Like, did you already have a sense of what the main kind of, I, i dunno what the right word.
• 50:23
  Natasha Rai: It's not thing, but the main type of interaction.
• 50:25
  Natasha Rai: 'cause you know, the boyfriend clause is fake dating.
• 50:29
  Bridie Blake: Mm-hmm.
• 50:29
  Natasha Rai: Um, did you already know or get a sense of like, will it be any Mr.
• 50:33
  Natasha Rai: Lovers or best friends to lovers or like, did you have a sense?
• 50:38
  Bridie Blake: Absolutely.
• 50:40
  Bridie Blake: So.
• 50:41
  Bridie Blake: The second one that I worked on is actually the very first romcom that I ever wrote.
• 50:47
  Bridie Blake: My then agent said she wasn't interested in I,'cause I shelved it, and I was like, yep, absolutely no dramas.
• 50:54
  Bridie Blake: And when I pulled it back out and I read it, I was like, oh my God, this is trash.
• 50:57
  Bridie Blake: This is so bad.
• 51:00
  Bridie Blake: Thank God.
• 51:01
  Bridie Blake: She said no, because if I had sent her that manuscript, she would've laughed in my face and been like, you suck.
• 51:08
  Bridie Blake: Um, but I couldn't let those characters go.
• 51:10
  Bridie Blake: And this is what I mean when like characters are so, yes, yes.
• 51:13
  Bridie Blake: I could not let them go.
• 51:15
  Bridie Blake: And so I pulled it back out and I put it on one screen and then I completely rewrote it.
• 51:22
  Bridie Blake: Like not a single word from the previous one except their names stayed.
• 51:27
  Bridie Blake: So I completely wrote it completely changed, like back their backstory and the story itself, and I poured so much energy into it because these characters were so deeply, deeply important to me.
• 51:41
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 51:41
  Natasha Rai: Nice.
• 51:42
  Natasha Rai: And is that one finished now?
• 51:44
  Bridie Blake: It is finished,
• 51:45
  Natasha Rai: yes.
• 51:45
  Bridie Blake: Mm-hmm.
• 51:45
  Natasha Rai: Yes.
• 51:46
  Natasha Rai: Okay.
• 51:46
  Bridie Blake: Yes.
• 51:47
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 51:48
  Natasha Rai: And so your deal with text, is it a one or two book deal?
• 51:51
  Bridie Blake: So it's a one book deal.
• 51:52
  Bridie Blake: Mm-hmm.
• 51:53
  Bridie Blake: With an option on book two.
• 51:54
  Natasha Rai: Okay.
• 51:55
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 51:55
  Natasha Rai: Have you already submitted book two to them?
• 51:56
  Natasha Rai: Yeah, of course.
• 51:59
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 52:00
  Bridie Blake: I have sent them book two and now my brain is moving to write what's gonna be book three.
• 52:05
  Natasha Rai: Excellent.
• 52:06
  Bridie Blake: Excellent.
• 52:07
  Bridie Blake: Yeah, in my mind, I really want to try and be consistent.
• 52:12
  Bridie Blake: Um, at least for those first, however many books, until people are like, oh, hold on.
• 52:18
  Bridie Blake: I know that name.
• 52:19
  Bridie Blake: Yes.
• 52:19
  Bridie Blake: I know what type of book she's gonna produce.
• 52:21
  Bridie Blake: And then yeah.
• 52:22
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 52:22
  Natasha Rai: You build, you develop and build and
• 52:24
  Bridie Blake: Yeah, exactly.
• 52:25
  Bridie Blake: The
• 52:25
  Natasha Rai: leadership and look after
• 52:26
  Bridie Blake: leadership.
• 52:27
  Bridie Blake: Exactly.
• 52:27
  Bridie Blake: Exactly.
• 52:28
  Bridie Blake: So that's kind of my focus.
• 52:29
  Bridie Blake: And so my brain is always thinking through the long list of ideas that I've got.
• 52:34
  Bridie Blake: Nice.
• 52:34
  Bridie Blake: And it's like, okay, which one can be our next
• 52:36
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 52:37
  Bridie Blake: One.
• 52:37
  Bridie Blake: But I can, I can't start a book until I have a character's voice in my head.
• 52:41
  Natasha Rai: Yeah, I hear you.
• 52:42
  Natasha Rai: I'm the same.
• 52:42
  Natasha Rai: Yeah, yeah,
• 52:42
  Bridie Blake: yeah, yeah.
• 52:43
  Bridie Blake: So I'll write my pitch, but I just still can't start it until the character.
• 52:47
  Bridie Blake: Is there,
• 52:48
  Natasha Rai: so I know that, you know, you were, you had tried in the US for a bit, but are there kind of any major differences or even similarities that you've noticed or that you came across between say, US publishing and Australian Publishing?
• 53:00
  Bridie Blake: Australian publishing moves a lot quicker.
• 53:02
  Natasha Rai: Really?
• 53:03
  Bridie Blake: Yes.
• 53:04
  Natasha Rai: Oh
• 53:05
  Bridie Blake: yes.
• 53:05
  That's
• 53:06
  Natasha Rai: interesting.
• 53:06
  Bridie Blake: Yeah, so I would say that like in the US it feels like it's two years until your book will come out, which I know does happen occasionally here.
• 53:16
  Bridie Blake: Mm-hmm.
• 53:16
  Bridie Blake: Um, but I feel like it just moves a lot, lot quicker here.
• 53:22
  Bridie Blake: And I think, I mean, obviously our industry is.
• 53:25
  Bridie Blake: You know, it's slightly smaller.
• 53:27
  Natasha Rai: Much smaller.
• 53:28
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 53:28
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 53:28
  Bridie Blake: Much smaller.
• 53:29
  Bridie Blake: And it does feel, I dunno, I just, I love our industry here.
• 53:32
  Bridie Blake: I just think it's so nice.
• 53:35
  Bridie Blake: It's just, it's the only way to describe it.
• 53:37
  Bridie Blake: It's just nice.
• 53:38
  Natasha Rai: Mm.
• 53:39
  Bridie Blake: And I love that it's a small industry.
• 53:40
  Bridie Blake: Everybody knows everybody.
• 53:43
  Bridie Blake: It's just, yeah.
• 53:44
  Bridie Blake: It's lovely.
• 53:44
  Bridie Blake: But yeah, it definitely does move quicker.
• 53:46
  Bridie Blake: Um, and I do, just in conversations that I've had with other authors, things are done differently here as opposed to the US.
• 53:55
  Bridie Blake: So when I say like the text sort of follows the US publishing model, I know that some others don't.
• 54:01
  Bridie Blake: Like I was having a conversation with someone and they're like, oh, who's your publisher?
• 54:05
  Bridie Blake: Text and she's like, no, no, no, but who's your publisher?
• 54:09
  Bridie Blake: Mm.
• 54:09
  Bridie Blake: Text It's like, I dunno what you're asking me.
• 54:12
  Bridie Blake: Text is my publisher.
• 54:13
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 54:14
  Bridie Blake: But I think you some publishing houses here, you get acquired by a publisher and then you get Yeah.
• 54:19
  Natasha Rai: So,
• 54:19
  Bridie Blake: yeah, that's right.
• 54:20
  Bridie Blake: That's right.
• 54:21
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 54:21
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 54:22
  Bridie Blake: And so, yeah, that, that, that was a difference that I noticed between Australia and Yeah.
• 54:26
  Bridie Blake: The us And I felt very stupid in that conversation.
• 54:29
  Bridie Blake: 'cause I just kept repeating text.
• 54:31
  Bridie Blake: Text is my publisher.
• 54:33
  Bridie Blake: I dunno what you're asking me.
• 54:35
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 54:36
  Natasha Rai: So then Roddy, what does your writing routine look like now?
• 54:39
  Natasha Rai: You mentioned a day job.
• 54:40
  Natasha Rai: Oh,
• 54:41
  Bridie Blake: I do.
• 54:41
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 54:42
  Natasha Rai: How do you, how do you, yeah.
• 54:43
  Natasha Rai: How do you balance life, work, all of those other commitments.
• 54:46
  Oh,
• 54:47
  Bridie Blake: I don't, um, I work seven days a week.
• 54:51
  Bridie Blake: I, I try not to, I try, so I'm very lucky in my day job in that I get to work from home three days a week.
• 54:57
  Natasha Rai: Mm-hmm.
• 54:58
  Bridie Blake: And so on those days.
• 55:00
  Bridie Blake: I get up early.
• 55:01
  Natasha Rai: Mm-hmm.
• 55:02
  Bridie Blake: And I write before work.
• 55:03
  Bridie Blake: I'm a morning person.
• 55:04
  Bridie Blake: You get me after lunchtime, I'm useless.
• 55:07
  Natasha Rai: Mm-hmm.
• 55:07
  Natasha Rai: I
• 55:07
  Bridie Blake: cannot form a sentence, so I'm like, you've gotta write before work.
• 55:12
  Bridie Blake: Um, and then I also belong to a group of Melbourne based authors, and we meet up on a Saturday morning.
• 55:18
  Bridie Blake: We have coffees and pastries, um, with our laptops, and we try and write then.
• 55:24
  Bridie Blake: Sounds
• 55:24
  Natasha Rai: wonderful.
• 55:25
  Bridie Blake: We don't, because I talk the entire time and sometimes I'm always like, sorry guys, I ruined it for you today.
• 55:33
  Bridie Blake: But yeah, it it's a good group and so we kind of try to keep each other on track there.
• 55:38
  Bridie Blake: But yeah, if we fail to get words in, then I commit my Sunday to writing.
• 55:42
  Bridie Blake: So yeah.
• 55:44
  Bridie Blake: I'm trying to make the most out of the pre-work mornings so that I can get my weekends back a little bit.
• 55:52
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 55:53
  Bridie Blake: But yeah, it's hard.
• 55:54
  Natasha Rai: It's, it is hard.
• 55:55
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 55:55
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 55:57
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 55:58
  Natasha Rai: And have you along the way, now that you've kind of written so much and so many manuscripts, have you done courses and things or do you feel like your craft has kind of improved due to feedback and other writers and your own like knowledge through reading?
• 56:14
  Bridie Blake: Yeah, so I did some courses with the Australian Writer Center.
• 56:17
  Natasha Rai: Mm-hmm.
• 56:18
  Bridie Blake: Um, so back in my early twenties, that's when I sort of started doing courses.
• 56:23
  Bridie Blake: Um, and then when I switched to writing rom-coms, I did one of their romance courses.
• 56:27
  Bridie Blake: Um, so yeah, I've done some of those courses and then honestly my learning has come from feedback.
• 56:33
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 56:33
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 56:33
  Bridie Blake: And this is why I just think it's so crucial to an author's career to put yourself out there, to get feedback, um, make friends with other authors, swap scripts.
• 56:46
  Bridie Blake: It's terrifying.
• 56:47
  Bridie Blake: It still terrifies me to this day.
• 56:50
  Bridie Blake: Mm.
• 56:50
  Bridie Blake: Send my work to somebody.
• 56:51
  Bridie Blake: But
• 56:52
  Natasha Rai: what do you do when you get feedback from somebody and you can see.
• 56:57
  Natasha Rai: What they are, what, like, what they mean by their feedback.
• 57:01
  Natasha Rai: Mm-hmm.
• 57:01
  Natasha Rai: But you also can see, I don't know if this has happened to you, but I'm really interested, but you can also see that it doesn't work for your story or for your characters.
• 57:08
  Natasha Rai: Have you been in that position?
• 57:09
  Bridie Blake: Oh, absolutely.
• 57:10
  Natasha Rai: So how, how do you like, I mean, you don't have to tell the person whether they're gonna use it or not.
• 57:14
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 57:14
  Natasha Rai: But how do you come to that realization of, this feedback is good, or this feedback I can see, but it doesn't work For my book.
• 57:21
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 57:21
  Natasha Rai: For my story?
• 57:22
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 57:23
  Natasha Rai: How, how do you make that decision?
• 57:26
  Natasha Rai: Do you know gut or is it instinct?
• 57:27
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 57:27
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 57:27
  Bridie Blake: My gut.
• 57:28
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 57:28
  Bridie Blake: You do know.
• 57:29
  Bridie Blake: So I think in the early days I would take on every single piece of feedback and I would try to apply it and it would get to a point where the story just wasn't yours anymore.
• 57:37
  Natasha Rai: Mm-hmm.
• 57:38
  Bridie Blake: Like this isn't what I wrote.
• 57:40
  Bridie Blake: Like this doesn't make sense.
• 57:41
  Bridie Blake: This is awful now, I mean, it may not have been great to begin with, but it's worse now.
• 57:46
  Bridie Blake: And so I think you do, you do learn how.
• 57:50
  Bridie Blake: To pick the feedback that's gonna work for you.
• 57:52
  Bridie Blake: Mm-hmm.
• 57:53
  Bridie Blake: Because you're not gonna apply everybody's
• 57:55
  Natasha Rai: stuff.
• 57:55
  Natasha Rai: No, exactly.
• 57:56
  Natasha Rai: Exactly.
• 57:56
  Bridie Blake: It's so subjective.
• 57:57
  Bridie Blake: Reading is so, so subjective, and you know what's gonna work for you and you know what's gonna work for your story.
• 58:04
  Bridie Blake: That does come with time and practice.
• 58:06
  Bridie Blake: That's not something that somebody's just gonna wake up and know.
• 58:09
  Natasha Rai: Yes.
• 58:09
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 58:10
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 58:10
  Bridie Blake: But go the gut.
• 58:11
  Bridie Blake: Go with your gut.
• 58:13
  Natasha Rai: Mm.
• 58:13
  Natasha Rai: And I, and I suppose for people who are not sure in terms of instinct, because mm-hmm.
• 58:18
  Natasha Rai: They might be, you know, writing something and they don't know what they're doing.
• 58:21
  Natasha Rai: 'cause a lot of first time writers start out, or like first when you're actually writing your first novel or whatever, you may not know what you're doing.
• 58:28
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 58:28
  Natasha Rai: So I guess maybe a good way to approach it, if you're not sure is does it change the story or change its meaning or change characters in a way that doesn't fit your idea?
• 58:37
  Natasha Rai: Right.
• 58:38
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 58:38
  Natasha Rai: That could be a way to say,
• 58:40
  Bridie Blake: yeah,
• 58:40
  Natasha Rai: yeah, exactly.
• 58:41
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 58:41
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 58:42
  Bridie Blake: Go back to thinking about how you wanted the story to come out, what you were wanting to say, and if it.
• 58:50
  Bridie Blake: That doesn't serve it.
• 58:50
  Bridie Blake: Yes,
• 58:51
  Natasha Rai: exactly.
• 58:51
  Natasha Rai: Don't do it.
• 58:52
  Natasha Rai: Don't do it.
• 58:52
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 58:52
  Natasha Rai: You
• 58:52
  Bridie Blake: don't have to apply every single piece of feedback.
• 58:56
  Bridie Blake: Even in like my discussions with my editor, she was like, you don't have to apply everything I say.
• 59:02
  Bridie Blake: I mean, I did because I agreed with her and she knows what she's talking about.
• 59:06
  Bridie Blake: If I didn't agree with her, I wouldn't have done it.
• 59:09
  Natasha Rai: But that's also a mark of a really respectful and collaborative editor that
• 59:13
  Bridie Blake: she's brilliant.
• 59:14
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 59:14
  Natasha Rai: That an editor should always be able to empower you to say, I, I don't, I reject that suggestion, or I can't use that suggestion because of X, Y, Z.
• 59:21
  Natasha Rai: You know?
• 59:21
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 59:21
  Natasha Rai: That should be that collaborative nature as well.
• 59:23
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 59:23
  Natasha Rai: So brilliant.
• 59:24
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 59:24
  Natasha Rai: Yeah.
• 59:25
  Bridie Blake: No, she's brilliant.
• 59:26
  Bridie Blake: I, yeah.
• 59:27
  Bridie Blake: I'm so happy that I got to work with Jane.
• 59:30
  Bridie Blake: She's fantastic.
• 59:31
  Bridie Blake: So
• 59:31
  Natasha Rai: yeah, I can see that.
• 59:32
  Natasha Rai: Yay.
• 59:33
  Natasha Rai: So, Bri, you've already actually given me lots and lots of excellent tips, but,
• 59:37
  Bridie Blake: but I'm glad
• 59:38
  Natasha Rai: if you could.
• 59:39
  Natasha Rai: Think of another one, or if you have specific ones that you thought about before coming in.
• 59:44
  Natasha Rai: Mm-hmm.
• 59:44
  Natasha Rai: What are some tips that you would give aspiring or emerging or even established writers?
• 59:48
  Natasha Rai: Oh,
• 59:49
  Bridie Blake: I mean, the number
• 59:50
  Natasha Rai: one or a tip.
• 59:51
  Natasha Rai: Yes.
• 59:52
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 59:52
  Bridie Blake: The number one tip, honestly, is just don't give up.
• 59:57
  Bridie Blake: No matter how many times you get rejected, how impossible it feels just to not give up.
• 1:00:04
  Bridie Blake: Mm-hmm.
• 1:00:05
  Bridie Blake: Like if I'd given up in my twenties when, you know, I got told that my writing wasn't great, I wouldn't be here now.
• 1:00:11
  Bridie Blake: Exactly.
• 1:00:11
  Natasha Rai: And
• 1:00:12
  Bridie Blake: you know what?
• 1:00:12
  Bridie Blake: It, it has taken 20 years.
• 1:00:14
  Bridie Blake: It's taken a lot longer than I had wanted it to, but I'm actually kind of grateful for that.
• 1:00:20
  Bridie Blake: I think I'm in a good spot in my life where I'm actually ready for this.
• 1:00:25
  Bridie Blake: If this had happened in my twenties, no, I probably would've just done been a one hit wonder, put one book out, and then just been like, oh my God, I can't do it.
• 1:00:33
  Bridie Blake: So I think, yeah, I'm, I'm really happy with the path.
• 1:00:38
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 1:00:38
  Bridie Blake: I.
• 1:00:40
  Natasha Rai: And you know, while I definitely agree with you the 20 years, it's a long time, but also what's really struck me during our conversation today is this beautiful, quiet confidence that you have in yourself.
• 1:00:50
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 1:00:51
  Natasha Rai: And I think that comes from that perseverance and that kind of, you call it a stubbornness, but it is resilience and it's,
• 1:00:57
  Bridie Blake: yeah.
• 1:00:57
  Bridie Blake: Oh, that's actually very nice to hear.
• 1:00:59
  Bridie Blake: I'm actually not a confident person at all, but for some reason when it comes to my books, I,
• 1:01:03
  Natasha Rai: that's what I meant.
• 1:01:03
  Natasha Rai: And that's important thing, not
• 1:01:05
  Bridie Blake: just like, yeah.
• 1:01:07
  Natasha Rai: You know that whatever's happened, whatever the feedback is, you've just gone, no, I'm just gonna keep going.
• 1:01:11
  Natasha Rai: Yeah, just
• 1:01:12
  Bridie Blake: keep going.
• 1:01:12
  Natasha Rai: And that's really, really important, so,
• 1:01:15
  Bridie Blake: yeah.
• 1:01:15
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 1:01:16
  Bridie Blake: Well, yeah.
• 1:01:17
  Bridie Blake: I mean, I quit uni to do it.
• 1:01:20
  Bridie Blake: It's like I better actually make it happen.
• 1:01:22
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 1:01:22
  Natasha Rai: You back to yourself, you back to yourself,
• 1:01:23
  Bridie Blake: back to myself, because I did not go and get a career.
• 1:01:26
  Bridie Blake: It's like I'm back to myself.
• 1:01:29
  Bridie Blake: This was gonna happen and I took a job, but I actually do like my day job.
• 1:01:32
  Bridie Blake: I should say that I actually really enjoy my day job, but it pays my bills.
• 1:01:36
  Natasha Rai: Yes.
• 1:01:36
  Bridie Blake: Riding is where my passion is.
• 1:01:38
  Bridie Blake: That's what my energy goes into.
• 1:01:41
  Bridie Blake: Yeah, just keep at it.
• 1:01:43
  Bridie Blake: That's all I can say is just keep going.
• 1:01:46
  Natasha Rai: I like it.
• 1:01:47
  Natasha Rai: Well, Bridy Blake, thank you so much for being on the book.
• 1:01:50
  Natasha Rai: Deal with me.
• 1:01:50
  Natasha Rai: Thank you.
• 1:01:51
  Natasha Rai: And by the time this episode airs, the boyfriend clause will be out.
• 1:01:56
  Natasha Rai: It's a great read.
• 1:01:57
  Natasha Rai: It's funny, it's easy, and it's very joyful, so, oh,
• 1:02:02
  Bridie Blake: thank you.
• 1:02:03
  Bridie Blake: That means the world and it is
• 1:02:04
  Natasha Rai: everyone.
• 1:02:05
  Natasha Rai: Everyone, all the listeners.
• 1:02:06
  Natasha Rai: Get out there, buy it.
• 1:02:08
  Bridie Blake: Go and read it if you wanna laugh.
• 1:02:10
  Natasha Rai: Exactly.
• 1:02:11
  Bridie Blake: Yeah.
• 1:02:16
  Tina Strachan: Thank you for listening to the book Deal podcast.
• 1:02:19
  Tina Strachan: We're able to bring you these weekly writerly chats because of our amazing patrons.
• 1:02:24
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• 1:02:32
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• 1:02:36
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