What I learnt during my Lyneham Lodge residency

Writing residences are so wonderfully transformative

In July, I spent three nights in the Dandenongs because I realised that I needed blocks of dedicated time to work on writing my murder mystery book where I was away from the distractions of daily life. Afterwards, I was talking to my friend Hannah about my revelation when she said to me, ‘Next time you want to do that, why don’t you spend the money on a flight to Canberra and come write out of my spare room?’

Hence my ‘Lyneham Lodge writing residency’ was born! In late November/early December, I spent a week writing out of Hannah’s spare room in her house in Lyneham.

Hannah and I in the Lyneham Lodge front garden.

The book

My current work in progress manuscript is a young adult murder mystery called Murder at St Thérèse College (for now, I’m hoping to give it a new title). It follows an eighteen-year-old student journalist who investigates the mysterious death of another student at a prestigious residential college in Canberra.

It’s the fifth manuscript I’ve written and I’m planning for it to be the second book I send out on submission for publishers to consider.