JUSTINE LARBALESTIER

I'm one of those sad cases who've never wanted to be anything but a writer. I started writing my first novel when I was five years old. I have no idea what it was about, but I do remember spending considerable time trying to get the title right, though this had more to do with crayon colour than scansion.

Eating good food is my favourite thing in the whole world. Nothing is more blissful.

When I was little, I made up my own fairy tales, and the ghostly echo of 'Once upon a time' shapes all the fiction I've ever written.

I remember that feeling when I was a young reader: finding books that were set in Sydney with Australian characters was incredibly exciting.

I give people 'If You Came Softly' when they demand proof that novels for teens can be as good as the best novels for adults.

My favourite vampires are all very scary indeed. So the idea of falling in love with one is just weird to me.

I travel way too much to have any pets. But if I could have one, I'd want a quokka. They're basically small kangaroos native to Western Australia.

I enjoyed Ready For This, which was created by the people behind Dance Academy and Redfern Now, and really it's what you'd get if you crossed Redfern Now with Dance Academy

I was wowed by Margo Jefferson's memoir, Negroland, which is about growing up black and privileged in Chicago in the fifties and sixties. It was a window into an alien world. Obviously, I'm not black, but what was really alien to me was her family's focus on respectability. I was never taught when to wear white gloves, what length skirt is appropriate.

If you're ever invited, fellow YA authors, go. It's the first YA con I've been to that was overwhelming populated by teens. Wonderful!

I decided to read something I normally hate: a cosy mystery. You know one of those mysteries where everything is tidily wrapped up at the end and everyone lives happily ever after? An Agatha Christie kind of mystery. They are so not my thing. But then someone was raving about Barbara Neely's Blanche White books and they sounded interesting.

I'm sure other writers have no difficulties writing nice.

I'm almost back to being able to write as much as six hours a day .

My Sister Rosa was bumped from the schedule. None of my books has ever been bumped before. It freaked me out.

I've known white Australian girls from wealthy families who were sent to posh private schools, who knew all of that stuff, and I think would recognise much in Jefferson's book. What I related to most strongly was the sexism and misogyny Margo Jefferson had to battle.

The acclaim for Razorhurst means even more to me than usual because, let's be honest, Razorhurst is weird.

Sure, Malcolm Turnbull is less anti-science and anti-culture than [Tony] Abbott, but low bar, and there's not a lot to show for it beyond rhetoric.

I discovered the writing of Kirsty Eagar and was blown away. Everyone needs to read her now.

My experience with My Sister Rosa showed me, once again, that I have a much easier time of it if I sell my novels after I finish them, not before. I'm lucky that I'm in a position where I'm able to do that.

The new prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, while a vast improvement on his predecessor is not doing much, if anything, to slow that process done.

I started writing a novel from the monster's point of view. It has its own difficulties but, I'm ashamed to say, it's much easier writing from a psychopath's point of view than from that of their empathetic opposite.

A difference in self loathing? Please. The only difference between a gun and a rope is the time it takes to tie the knot.

The job of every generation is to discover the flaws of the one that came before it. That's part of growing up, figuring out all the ways your parents and their friends are broken.

Lungs, they do not like to be messed with. I give pneumonia one star and that's for the silent p.