Through discussions and interviews with writers, artists and health professionals, author friends James McKenzie Watson and Ashley Kalagian Blunt explore the big questions: how do books get written? How do people navigate life with chronic illness? And just what are you reading?
Ashley Kalagian Blunt is the author of Dark Mode, an internationally published psychological thriller. Her earlier books are How to Be Australian, a memoir, and My Name Is Revenge, collected fiction and essays. Her writing appears in the Sydney Morning Herald, Overland, Griffith Review, Sydney Review of Books, and more. Ashley is an enthusiastic teacher of writing and creativity. Originally from Canada, she has lived and worked in South Korea, Peru and Mexico. Find her on Twitter and Instagram or visit her website.
James McKenzie Watson is the author of Denizen, which won the 2021 Penguin Literary Prize and was shortlisted in 2023 Ned Kelly Awards for Best Debut. His writing has appeared in The Guardian, Meanjin, Kill Your Darlings and the Newtown Review of Books. He has appeared at events including the Sydney Writers Festival, Newcastle Writers Festival and BAD Crime Sydney. He works as a nurse. Find him on Twitter and Instagram or visit his website.
Aug 26, 2025
When bestselling author Sulari Gentill was diagnosed with stage four cancer, she decided to write the ending she wanted. In episode 121, she joins James and Ashley to discuss her seventeenth novel, Five Found Dead, which features a main character riding the Orient Express to celebrate his recent cancer recovery – and who ends up solving several murders along the way.
Sulari shares her own experience of riding the Orient Express and describes how her creativity and writing reminded her who she was at a time when her illness was reducing her sense of self to 'patient'.
Plus she shares an excellent story involving red carpets, international awards and to-die-for chocolate cake.
Published in English in Australia, the UK and the US, and in translation in more than a dozen territories, Sulari Gentill is the author of The Hero Trilogy and the multi-award-winning Rowland Sinclair Mysteries. The first book in this ten-book series was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and the second won the Davitt Award. Her novel After She Wrote Him won the Ned Kelly Award. The Woman in the Library was a USA Today Bestseller, and The Mystery Writer won the 2025 Mary Higgins Clark Award. Her latest novel, Five Found Dead is out now in the US, UK and Australia.
Books & authors discussed in this episode:
- Agatha Christie;
- Death of the Reader podcast;
- Kylie Ladd (from ep 92);
- The Unquiet Grave by Dervla McTiernan;
- Congo, Sphere, Jurassic Park and State of Fear by Michael Crichton;
- Stephen King;
- Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
Upcoming events:
- James is teaching Writing Setting and Landscape at Writing NSW on Saturday 20 September
- Ashley is teaching Online: Crafting Memoir for Queensland Writers Centre on Sunday 28 September
- James is speaking to Siang Lu, winner of the Miles Franklin Award and previous podcast guest at the State Library for SWF on October 2
- Join Ashley and podcast fav Hayley Scrivenor for the Mystery and Mayhem Readers Retreat at the 5-star Tamborine Mountain Glades, 3-5 October
- Ashley is at the Mount Beauty Writers Festival on Saturday 18 October
Learn more about Ashley's thrillers, Dark Mode and Cold Truth, and get your copies from your local bookshop or your library. Plus check out Like, Follow, Die from Audible.
Learn more about James's award-winning novel Denizen and get your copy from your local bookshop or your library.
Get in touch!