Hello from the business lounge! 💺
18 August 2026
One of my quirks (okay, flaws) is how easily I'm thrilled by luxury.
I love room service. I love really fluffy towels, especially if they're folded into a fun shape. I love seatwarmers in cars, even though they make me feel a bit like I peed my pants. I love it when I'm at a restaurant and someone offers to take my coat. (I have zero chill in these situations, by the way.)
I especially love the business lounge at the airport. I've been wandering around like Kevin in Home Alone 2, gobbling the free chips with one hand and pushing buttons on the pancake machine with the other, while quietly singing "Buh-buh-buh-buh business man" to myself.
But the people around me are discussing CRMs and SEO and ROI, and I'm starting to feel like I need to do some actual business to justify my presence in the business lounge. So here I am, emailing you. LET'S TALK SEO!
Apparently, if I want people who Google "exciting books" to land on my website, it's not enough for me to write exciting books. I have to write lists of other people's exciting books. Looking for suggestions, I typed "the most exciting books of all time" into a search bar. An LLM helpfully jumped in and provided a list. None of the titles were Australian, only one was written by a woman, and almost all of them were published before 1990.
Serves me right for asking a robot. To try to even the score, I smashed out a list of seven unputdownable books, all Australian, all by women. What do you think? Let me know what I'm missing.
Upcoming books:
30 Minutes to Escape: Bullet Train - out September 1! I'm so excited!
Choppy Water - out November 1! I'M EVEN MORE EXCITED. I'm jiggling in my chair. The other lounge guests are staring at me. It's okay, everybody! I'm a businessman!
And I've added a few events to the list below:
Upcoming events:
August 29, ACT/NSW: Interviewing Joanna Jenkins at Queanbeyan Library
August 31, ACT: Interviewing Tamara Moss at Canberra Grammar
September 5, NSW: Interviewing Will Kostakis at Gleebooks
September 9 to 13, NSW/VIC: Write Around the Murray Festival
October 21, SA: Love, Crime and Wine
October 29 to 30, SA: Once Upon a Festival
October 30, Adelaide: Choppy Water launch (TBC)
October 31, Sydney: Choppy Water launch (TBC)
November 7, Canberra: Choppy Water launch (TBC)
November sometimes, Melbourne: Choppy Water launch (TBC)
Argh, gotta go! Stay awesome. Love ya.