Live Interview

I first met Amanda Cranston (ABC breakfast radio) at the Tropical Writers’ Festival in March 2023, where she expressed an interest in interviewing me for her morning show. We stayed in contact reconnected in person at the Yungaburra Book Festival.

The invitation for a live interview was short notice, but impossible to refuse.

I’d like to thank Amanda and the ABC Radio crew once more for the opportunity.

This is a transcript of our chat.

The audio link is attached for those who prefer to listen.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/3jeed00pmnxaq78hxor57/On-air-clip-Author-Sam-Woodgarth-Oct-2024.mp3?rlkey=etzzyhnzkr2f0i53qf19kknqu&st=pin7u757&dl=0

Amanda: My next guest has written an epic series. Quite literally, each book is an epic, and it delves into the world of dragons and make believe. Sam loves reading fantasy novels and when she realised reality wasn’t really living up to the fictional worlds that she read about, she decided to create her own worlds, where the good guys always win and the bad guys get what’s coming to them. That’s how her DragonSkin series was born. She’s holding an author event today at Earlville library and she joins me now. Good morning Sam.

Sam: Good morning. Amanda. Thank you so much having me. I’m delighted to be here.

Amanda: Well, you are part of the writing community, here. I caught up with you at the Yungaburra Book fair, also at the Cairns Tropical Writers’ festival this year, where you launched a book. You headed down to Townsville, to the Mediaeval festival that they had and I understand you sold out there. You have such a following.

Sam: It was absolutely an amazing experience. It was an amazing experience and I was a festival virgin. Can you believe that? Fifty-nine and a festival virgin. And … I took more books than I thought I would need and was little bit … “oh yeah, what’s gonna happen. It’s nothing here,” and I was met at 6: 30 by a guy in full Roman regalia. I mean, and he said “Morning,” like it’s the most normal thing in the world to greet someone in full Roman regalia in the morning gloaming. It was just awesome, everyone was so supportive and so lovely, the costumes were out of this world, and I sold about 100 books which was just mind boggling. I loved it, I loved every minute. I will have to do better costume next year.

(Laughter)

Amanda: Well, that sounds incredible. I know, I think I’m gonna have to head down for it because it sounds so good. For those that.haven’t yet discovered your books, because you’ve got a series of DragonSkin books … Tell us about your books. What are they about?

Sam: DragonSkin is a bit of a clue. They do have dragons in. I’ve always fiddled with writing and I started writing with intent about seven or eight years ago, but DragonSkin was my first one that I really wanted to publish and it was partly inspired by the reversal of Roe versus Wade, and the rollback of women and children’s rights worldwide; the rise of hate crime, climate catastrophe, the whole … you sort of sit there and go what on earth is going on … and Neil Gaiman has this bit of advice for authors: you just let all ideas sit at the back of your head and just swim around and, y’know, make strange babies, which they did and I came up with Annie who is a fairly ordinary person … who actually isn’t. She is the goddess, doesn’t know it, she is the incarnation, she doesn’t believe in the goddess, she doesn’t believe in dragons, but when she hears things going on, says,“Why isn’t the king doing anything about this? Why is he lolling around with all his sycophants?” and then she’s rescued from slave traders by a telepathic dragon, who can’t possibly exist, then she kinda has to reassess what believes in and she … it’s basically … the tapestry of creation is unravelling. Are you going to step up? Well, how could you not? So, yes, she stepped up and then it just grew from that and, you know they say no good deed goes and punished? She does something very altruistic towards the end of the first book and you think that’s gotta be a good thing. It turns out she was kind of opening the gates of hell, so to speak, and that’s how the second book turns out so the first … her good deed turns out to be something quite traumatic in the end. That was the second book and of course the third one, living in the tropics, and realising the most epic fantasy is set in the mediaeval middle earth kind— I thought why are we doing middle earth, I live in the tropics, so my third DragonSkin is set in the tropics, it’s on a boat. It’s not a boat, it’s a ship, and it’s made from extinct sea dragon bones, which when they’re baptised with seawater, become sentient. Now, imagine you are a sea dragon. You are the most powerful creature in the ocean. Of course, you’re now extinct. You’ve been hunted and you kinda wake up dead, and you’re infested with these horrible little creatures called humans who are obviously far inferior. You have no autonomy so I now have a homicidal boat.

Amanda: Wow! And then you just launched your fourth book, didn’t you, in September.

(Laughter)

Sam: I launched my fourth book in September, which was the The Curse of Argendarria, and again, it explores the rights of women and children and their self autonomy, how they are treated as possessions by a lot of people. So, she’s been tricked. She’s a psychic she is … she’s got all three but even though she has the skills she has been trained into thinking that she is basically the property of the guardian (whispers: He isn’t a guardian. He’s stolen her.) But, she has awakening, and she goes off on a huge quest, through swamps and icy deserts, and under mountains and finds deserted cities, and she is befriended by someone who is a very reluctant companion who has a monkey, a simian companion.

Amanda: We don’t want to give too much away of the new one.

(Laughter)

Amanda: So, that was the one that just came out last month,

Sam: Yes.

Amanda: And you will be talking about it today at Earlville library but one thing that you know I know when you and I’ve had discussions in the past that I found quite interesting is, while you write these fantasy books, and they’re very intricately connected stories all the way through and you’ve got these followers now, that can’t wait for the next book to come out. You didn’t actually start writing fantasy. That’s not where you started.

Sam: No. I started writing what would probably be called chick-lit, or.commercial women’s fiction. And, it was okay. I wasn’t … it wasn’t my passion and I thought well … it’s now living in the bottom of the drawer, so to speak. It will never see the light of day.

Amanda: But you also have a bit of a friendship, well, many friends within the writing community, but one other writer that—

Sam: Mila?

Amanda: Yeah, that you are kind of writing companions, and you read each other’s work, and you give each other very honest feedback and I know that you both write completely different genres now…

Sam: Yes, yes we do.

Amanda: But she said you upfront, I’m not feeling it with that one.

(Laughter)

Amanda: Didn’t she? That kinda made you reassess, as well.

Sam: Mila Douglas is my critique companion and I confess, I am absolutely blessed to have someone who I can trust, absolutely, and she was the first person I dared give the commercial women’s fiction to, and I just gave her a section and she read it and she just looked at me and went “oh, you’ve got the wrong character there,” and I thought cheeky so-and-so. How dare she! It’s my story, I know, and I sat on it, well I festered for 24 hours, and she was absolutely right, so I chopped it. I chopped about 20,000 words away and rewrote it. It was so much stronger afterwards and we now trade our work every day. She writes completely differently. We do markets together, and we help sell each other’s books, and promote them, and we support each other and it’s so important for women especially, to support each other‘s work and what we do, and just boost each other confidence. It’s fabulous. I’m so lucky to have someone in my life who does that.

Amanda: The other really nice thing is, we have so many writers up here in the far north, but it’s a really great community. I know, even heading up to the Yungaburra Book fair, we were just saying that everybody really supports each other.

Sam: There’s no secret squirrel stuff like there is lots of industries, and everybody is happy to share what they know, what they’ve learned, new trends, new technology, different apps or … there’s a whole host of things that you just don’t think about, and people are more than happy to share what they know, and I joined the Tropical Writers Inc, which is not Tropical Writers’ Festival, that’s a different organisation, and again, they are such a tremendously supportive group, and people who write all kinds of things, there’s not that many fantasy writers there, but there is such a range of writers with their different experiences, and everybody shares, everyone’s more than happy to tell what they know and suggest things … it’s just such a lovely place to be, it really is so supportive.

Amanda: Tell us about the event that you’re holding today.

Sam: Okay, I will be at Earlville library from 10:30 onwards. I will be talking about The Curse of Argendarria and my new heroine, Edelia. Currently, it is a standalone. It’s set in a different world to DragonSkin, but of course, I do tend fall in love with my minor characters and then write novels purely for those minor characters. Like I said, at the moment, it’s a standalone, but who knows? Edelia is a triple-blessed Claire, so she’s clairaudient, clairsentient, and clairvoyant, so she has all three, but she hasn’t fully explored them because she has been tricked into thinking that she has limited powers, and when she is forced, I suppose, into taking control of her life, she realises that actually, together, with the other Clairs ….wow …. stand back … She can do some awesome stuff, and she gets other women and children involved and it is a hell of rollercoaster.

Amanda: It’s epic. Have you started the fifth book? Is there a fifth in this series?

Sam: Oh my goodness. I’ve got about eight.

Amanda: Oh!

(Laughter)

Amanda: Okay

Sam: I’ve got several on the go. I have one set in … if you went back 10,000 years, that [level of] technology. I’ve got one set there in a matriarchal society where they don’t even know that men have a role to play in procreation. That’s an interesting one. And just trying to not use patriarchal language. There is no word for father in this particular novel, but it’s a conflict between different societies and how they treat women and children.

Amanda: So are you a planner rather than a plotter? I mean, do you—

Sam: I prefer to think of myself discovery writer.

Amanda: Okay.

Sam: I tried planning, I really have.

Amanda: So you just see where it takes you?

Sam: I know where I want to be, you’ve got to have a direction.

Amanda: You know the ending..?

Sam: You’ve got to have a direction, and I discover it as I go along. It works, and because I have such a great critique partner, who keeps me on track, it works. So yeah, I’m definitely not a planner.

Amanda: Well, my guest has been Sam Woodgarth, author. Sam, anyone listening thinking: oh, they sound really intriguing. I’d like to read those books. How did they find out more about you? Do you have a website?

Sam: My website? You can find me on my website, if you google Sam Woodgarth Author, you can find me on my website: pagancatpublishing.com. You can get my books anywhere online, obviously Amazon, and everywhere else. You can buy them in person from me at pretty much all of the markets, and you can get them from Mark and Val and Caitlin at Cairns Bookstores in Cairns Central.

Amanda: Well, it’s been lovely to have you today. Good luck for your event today.

Sam: Thank you for having me.

Amanda: So that’s 10:30 at the Earlville library.

Sam: Yes, and I’ll still be giddy.

Amanda: Sam Woodgarth there, and as she said, you can find all of her details on her website.

Where to find me:

https://www.facebook.com/SamWoodgarth