TAMARA RODGERS: Hi. I'm Tamara Rodgers. From the Premier's Reading Challenge. We're here at Riverside Theatre Parramatta for the Sydney Writers Festival All Day YA, a celebration of everything that's amazing about YA literature. We've been joined by some fantastic Australian and overseas authors. We're really excited to bring you these chats. We'd really like to thank the Sydney Writers Festival for having us along and also thank our programme sponsors, our media partner NewsLocal, and our supporting partner Dymocks Children's Charities. Thank you so much for your support.

Hi. We're backstage at Sydney Writers Festival All Day YA, and we're joined in the green room by the fantastic Erin Gough. Hi. How are you?

ERIN GOUGH: Hi there. Lovely to be here.

TAMARA RODGERS: So is this your first Sydney Writers Festival, or have you done a few?

ERIN GOUGH: No, I've done-- I think it might be my fourth. Yeah. So I love coming to the Sydney Writers Festival.

TAMARA RODGERS: Yeah, it's always really great to get here and hang out with your people--

ERIN GOUGH: Totally.

TAMARA RODGERS: --where the most people are writers, or other people who just really love stories.

ERIN GOUGH: Exactly.

TAMARA RODGERS: So the theme for this year's Sydney Writer's Festival is Lie to Me. And It's almost like they crafted that theme around Amelia Westlake.

ERIN GOUGH: It is, actually.

TAMARA RODGERS: I know! That's really nice of them.

ERIN GOUGH: That's a really good point.

TAMARA RODGERS: Thank you. I worked really hard on that one.

ERIN GOUGH: I should have been the opening address at the festival.

TAMARA RODGERS: You should have been. So could you tell us a little bit about the award-winning 'Amelia Westlake' won the Ethel Turner Prize at the Premier's Literary Awards--

ERIN GOUGH: It did.

TAMARA RODGERS: --earlier in the week, which is kind of a big deal.

ERIN GOUGH: Very exciting. Yeah. Yeah, it's really exciting.

TAMARA RODGERS: Yeah, and so it's a really fantastic YA novel.

ERIN GOUGH: Thank you.

TAMARA RODGERS: You're allowed to agree with that. Can you tell us a little bit about why you decided that this was a story that needed to be on the page?

ERIN GOUGH: Absolutely. Well, look, I guess the inspiration for the story came from the fact that I did a hoax with a couple of my friends when I was in year 12 at high school. So we decided just one afternoon sitting around having a chat that we wanted to invent an imaginary student and see whether we could prank our entire year group, all of our classmates, and basically just kind of infiltrate stuff at school with this imaginary student and see how long it took for people to notice.

So we started doing things like, if there was a list up that you can put your name down for-- social basketball, for example-- we'd just add her name. And the name that we came up with was Amelia Westlake. So that was actually the original name of the hoax, and that's the name that I wanted to keep for the book.

TAMARA RODGERS: Did that name come from anywhere?

ERIN GOUGH: It came-- there was a process. And there's a process that the characters go through in the book that is a similar process to the one that we went through. We decided we wanted a first name that sounded like a real person, somebody who might go to the school. But that wasn't the name of anybody within our group, so Amelia fit the bill in that respect.

Westlake, we actually came up with that because there was a famous hoax that have been conducted at a nearby school, which was a boys school, and that imaginary student, I think, was Billy Westlake. Or it could have been Billy Eastlake. But his name got graffitied on desks at the boys school, and we thought we'll take the lead from that and have Westlake as the name for our imaginary student.

TAMARA RODGERS: And so, for those people who haven't read Amelia Westlake, can you tell us a little bit about-- obviously, no spoilers, because we want people to read it themselves.

ERIN GOUGH: Yeah, sure.

TAMARA RODGERS: But tell us a little bit about what your two main protagonists go through as they create this character and what kind of situations they put Amelia in throughout the book.

ERIN GOUGH: All right. So the story focuses on two main characters who tell the story through alternating chapters. You kind of get their voice in alternating chapters. Will Everhart is one of them, and she's kind of a bit of a social justice warrior. She hates her classmates who are kind of your typical rich private school girls.

And she particularly hates a girl called Harriet Price. And Harriet Price is the other main character, and she's your perfect private school girl. She's a prefect. She's a tennis star. She does really well at school. She plays by the rules, which is exactly the opposite to Will.

But something happens, and it's to do with the sexual harassment that involves one of the school coaches, I think the swim coach. And so they kind of take it upon themselves to try and bring him to justice through this hoax. And then they go further and try to get all sorts of injustices righted throughout the book.

TAMARA RODGERS: Nice. So your most recent publication was launched this morning at the festival--

ERIN GOUGH: It was, yes.

TAMARA RODGERS: --as part of 'Kindred: 12 Queer #LoveOzYa Stories.' And it's very different just in terms of length. How do you find writing short story-- like 18, 19 pages-- compared to a whole novel? What's the process like?

ERIN GOUGH: Well, I love the fact that it doesn't take us long to write. That's really great. I also like the idea with short stories, because I've been writing short stories for many years now. And I love the fact that you can kind of just experiment with different things because it doesn't take as long, and you don't have to carry the idea through for as long. But it's a really fun process.

And one thing that I had a lot of fun with in this short story was kind of experimenting with magic realism, which was something that I haven't done in my novels before. But that was really fun to do in a short story form.

TAMARA RODGERS: Yeah. And so, 'In Case of Emergency, Break Glass' is a great, great story. It's probably-- I know you're not supposed to have favourites, but I'm a reader. I'm allowed to have favourites. So it's probably one of my favourites, at least in, like, the top 12, I reckon. Can you give us just a little rundown on what happens in this pretty cool little world?

ERIN GOUGH: All right. Well, what I can say about it is that it is about two people who meet in a hall cupboard. And that is such a significant meeting that the world floods, the dead rise up, and people turn into birds. That's basically what happens.

TAMARA RODGERS: Yeah, and that's a lot to squeeze into 18 or 19 pages.

ERIN GOUGH: Yep.

TAMARA RODGERS: So what's coming next from you? What are you currently working on?

ERIN GOUGH: I'm working on another young adult novel, which I'm very excited about, although I'm at very early stages of it. But one thing that is exciting me about it is that, unlike my first two YA novels, which were very squarely in the contemporary realist space, this one has some speculative fiction elements. That might change depending on how we go.

TAMARA RODGERS: But at the moment--

ERIN GOUGH: At the moment, yeah, that's what's going on.

TAMARA RODGERS: So was the decision to write for young adults a very firm one for you? That's what you knew you wanted to write? Or, is that just how your writing has evolved?

ERIN GOUGH: It's kind of evolved that way. I think I had this story with 'The Flywheel,' with my first book, I had started writing it when I was effectively a young adult myself, when I was 24. And I spent about 10 years writing other types of stories, kind of, I guess, ostensibly for an adult audience.

And yet this idea kept, whenever I looked at what I'd done with it on my computer in the files that I'd kept, it just kept appealing to me as a story. And I thought, this is such a strong voice. I want to take it further. And when I read it, I guess after that amount of time having passed, I thought, this is actually something that would work really well for a young adult audience.

And I think it particularly excited me, the idea of writing a queer story for young adults, because there didn't seem to be that many around. And I thought to myself that that's when I needed to write queer stories the most, was when I was a young adult and I was trying to work out who I was. And so the idea of writing queer stories for young adults kind of sprung from there.

And I'm hooked now. I love it. And I love my readership, and I love meeting readers. Yeah, it's all good.

TAMARA RODGERS: Nice. What kind of stuff did you read when you were a teenager? What were the books that kind of grabbed you and didn't let go.

ERIN GOUGH: Yeah, so when I was a teenager and a little bit beforehand, I'd say-- oh, I've got to mention Robin Klein, because Robin Klein has been a huge influence on me. 'Hating Alison Ashley' was a huge influence on 'The Flywheel.' And then, of course, Melina Marchetta. I was fortunate enough to be just the right age for 'Alibrandi' when it came out. And I couldn't believe how much I related to that book. It just felt like it was written for me.

TAMARA RODGERS: Still the most stolen book in libraries in Australia, 'Looking for Alibrandi.'

ERIN GOUGH: Is that right?

TAMARA RODGERS: So that kind of connection is obviously fairly strong for lots of people.

ERIN GOUGH: For lots. And I have heard a lot of people say that as well. And also Judy Blume-- you know everyone was reading Judy Blume when I was a kid. And that was hardcore, edgy stuff back in the day.

TAMARA RODGERS: It absolutely-- it still feels a little edgy. I've just recently reread 'Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret'--

ERIN GOUGH: Oh, really?

TAMARA RODGERS: --which was my favourite of hers when I was back in high school. And it's still-- it's aged really well.

ERIN GOUGH: That's interesting, because it's been a while since I've read Judy Blume.

TAMARA RODGERS: They've just re released them with some fantastic, really cool new covers.

ERIN GOUGH: Awesome.

TAMARA RODGERS: Yeah. Well, thank you so much for coming and having a chat with us.

ERIN GOUGH: My pleasure.

TAMARA RODGERS: It's been really great. I hope you enjoy the rest of your festival.

ERIN GOUGH: Thank you very much. You too.

TAMARA RODGERS: Thanks, everyone.