Two questions: Where do new mothers meet new people? And ‘What Rhymes with Murder?’ – the latter being the title of author Penny Tangey’s cosy crime novel, inspired by her own experiences as a new mother at her local library’s story time! In this episode, Penny shares insights on making the switch from YA to adult stories, her writing routine and whether you need to know who did it before writing the end of the book!
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Links mentioned in this episode
- WIN The Ending Writes Itself by Evelyn Clarke
- Buy So You Want to be a Writer – the book!
- Facebook group for So You Want to be a Writer
Writer in residence: Penny Tangey
Penny Tangey is an Australian author, librarian, and stand-up comedian with a double degree in Arts/Science (Chemistry and Indonesian Honours) from the University of Melbourne. She has also worked as a researcher for television quiz shows and at Museum Victoria.
Tangey began her comedy career by winning the Victorian final of Triple J's Raw Comedy Competition, and in 2006 received a Brian McCarthy Memorial Award (Moosehead) for her show Kathy Smith Goes to Maths Camp.
Her writing career took off during a stint in Washington DC, where an afternoon in a museum dedicated to revolutionary musketry convinced her to finally write the young adult novel she'd always planned. The result was Loving Richard Feynman (UQP, 2009). Her picture book Granbad (UQP, 2023), illustrated by Peter Baldwin, follows a family working to save greater gliders. Her middle-grade novel Music Camp (UQP, 2025) centres on two determined girls navigating a rain-soaked camp experience.
She also wrote a biography of clinical scientist Creswell Eastman for Wild Dingo Press's Aussie STEM Stars series, chronicling his pioneering work on iodine deficiency and his extraordinary life as doctor, researcher and pilot.
Her first adult novel, What Rhymes with Murder? (Simon & Schuster, 2026), is a cosy mystery about a woman on maternity leave who turns amateur detective — an idea Tangey says came to her during her own early days of motherhood.
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This podcast is brought to you by the Australian Writers' Centre and our course Crime and Thriller Writing.
Find out more about your host, Valerie Khoo (@valeriekhoo on Twitter and @valeriekhoo on Instagram).
