THE LADY, THE TIGER AND THE GIRL WHO LOVED DEATH (June 2025). Award-winning Writer, Associate Professor. Three collections, two novels. Repped by Max Edwards.

Brisbane, Australia
Joined May 2011
Christmas is coming and I'm officially on leave! Taking a break from socials to enjoy the season. But one last book post before I go: if you're looking for some dark fantasy reading over the holidays, try a story with teeth!
101
Just finished "When There Are Wolves Again" by E. J. Swift and I'm still thinking about it. Fierce, gorgeous climate fiction that somehow manages to be genuinely hopeful—not in a naive way, but in a way that feels earned and necessary. This is the kind of story we need right now.
1
71
📢 Call for Papers: Creative Futures We want to reimagine futures thinking with creative methodologies as rigorous frameworks for anticipating change! Papers due September 2026! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/page… #FuturesStudies #Foresight
2
3
117
In honour of getting the chance to attend World Fantasy in Brighton, I’ve been reading up on my fellow authors. There are some brilliant resonances between the work of Amal El-Mohtar (@tithenai)'s latest book and my own!
1
3
82
Just received Monsters in the Archives: My Year of Fear with Stephen King by Caroline Bicks in the mail! Really looking forward to diving into this one. I had my own experience researching King's archive, which I wrote about here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/… @StephenKing
3
87
Spotted at the Brisbane Writers Festival.
1
53
Like Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita? The Lady, The Tiger, and the Girl Who Loved Death weaves together magic, political spectacle, and the power of storytelling in a world where reality and illusion blur dangerously together. Out from @TitanBooks now!
1
93
Helen Marshall retweeted
I'm running this somewhat non-traditional workshop on the 18th, on conceptualising and putting together pitches, from the one-pager to a full pitch deck (structure, beats, characters). It's not what you usually get in creative writing classes! reachyourapex.com/product/fr…
2
4
311
Helen Marshall retweeted
One Old High German charm, to be used against the power of the Devil, taunts him that he is (for some reason) incapable of saying the word "chnospinci". We have no idea what this word means (it probably meant nothing, like abracadabra), but it must have really annoyed Satan!
21
102
12
845
27,019
Catch me Thursday at the Brisbane Writers Festival for “Dark Imaginings”! Fairytales and historical myths are often readers’ first encounter with the darkness of human nature. In these stunning novels, fable and archetype are reworked in dazzling ways. brisbanepowerhouse.org/event…
2
50
Helen Marshall retweeted
A riddle for @GuardianBooks p.s. My new book 'Physics for Cats' is out this week in bookshops and online. Details at tomgauld.com
4
61
2
281
8,962
ICYMI: We're hiring a Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in #CreativeWriting at UQ! -looking for literary fiction, poetry, graphic novels, comics, digital storytelling, new media, or games! -international applications welcome Apply: uq.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/uqc… #HigherEd #AcademicJobs
56
Fire as cleansing, fire as transformation. The Bulgarian fire festivals—where dancers walk barefoot across burning coals—shaped how I imagined ritual and renewal in THE LADY, THE TIGER, AND THE GIRL WHO LOVED DEATH. #Fantasy #Folklore #Inspiration #AmWriting
61
This is unironically my favorite poem
88
1,808
140
35,569
667,248
Life is just one tiny fright after another, isn't it?
2
1
80
This was the day Meredith decided to give up fishing in the lake near Radiaton - 15th century, BnF Français, 242, f. 154r
10
83
2
447
7,026
"Why can't AI just do my research?" Because creative research isn't information retrieval. I'm working on a new article showing how research methods produce the distinctive textures of literary prose, looking at Octavia Butler, William Gibson, Kim Stanley Robinson and Andy Weir.
1
2
96
Thinking about Octavia Butler's #writingadvice in Furor Scribendi today: "Forget talent. If you have it, fine. Use it. If you don't have it, it doesn't matter. As habit is more dependable than inspiration, continued learning is more dependable than talent."
1
3
73
While writing The Lady, the Tiger and the Girl Who Loved Death, I found myself captivated by haunting photographs of abandoned circuses across Eastern Europe. #WritingInspiration #DarkFantasy #EasternEurope #Circus #AuthorLife #FantasyFiction #WritingProcess
115
“ Bless you my son. Fear not, for one day the Swiss army will require a tool that can do everything and you’ll find out just how useful you really are. ” - 15th century, BnF, Français 829, f. 89r
3
71
4
329
7,762