Cassie McCullough

You're in Darwin right now.

Well, if that's not a great beginning for a novel, I don't know what is.

So maybe in some of your spare time, perhaps, you could get pen to paper.

I'll look into it.

Yeah, great to talk to you again, Tegan.

Tegan and I and two other writers were part of the only event that was the Blue Mountains Writers Festival this year.

And it was brilliant.

We did it in sort of quarantine, social distance, but it was a wonderful conversation.

But hopefully the festival... It was gorgeous.

It was good, wasn't it?

But hopefully the festival will be in its full glory again one day soon.

It's interesting.

isn't it?

When I think of what detail has meant to me in the last few years of reading, I think of Melissa Harrison's All Among the Barley, which describes rural England in the 30s and just this incredible sense of

season and nature and animals and insects and crops and just this incredibly beautiful detail.

Also, Richard Flanagan's latest book, which I can't even remember the name of it just off the top of my head.

I only read it about two weeks ago, but he has some beautiful detail.

But there can sometimes just be too much detail.

Like sometimes I'm like, come on, get on with this damn story.

I'm sick of hearing all this sort of accretion of atmosphere or...