Kate Forsyth

Instead of throwing it out, I just dropped it into my box, and I use it when I'm telling the story of the singing, springing lark, another grim story about a young woman who has to follow her, her beloved beast husband, who's been transformed into a bird.

And as he flies over the land, every seven steps, he lets fall one white feather and one drop of blood.

So I use my old broken earring as the drop of blood and I tell that story.

I am an avid reader.

I read probably four or five books every single week.

And life is too short for a bad book.

So if I'm not enjoying the book, I put it away and pull out something else.

I read very widely.

I read everything from poetry to essays, you know, creative nonfiction, a great deal of fiction, every single genre of fiction.

What I've been loving in the past year have been...

Australian crime has had a massive flowering and I've been loving it.

So I've read the work of Jane Harper and Sarah Bailey, you know, so many wonderful writers that I've really been enjoying.

And it's brought me back to contemporary crime after not reading it for a while.

Got a little bit too bloody for me, a little bit too dark.

Now it's focused on character, it's focused on the puzzle and the mystery, and it's focused on a really strong sense of landscape.

Love it.

Reading it again.

I've also been reading a lot of historical fantasy.

So I've read writers like Naomi Novik and Catherine Arden.

I'm reading a book at the moment called The Familiars, which is set in England.