Kirstie Bedford has signed a two-book deal with Bloodhound Books. Her debut psychological suspense novel, White Lies, will be published in June 2027, followed later that year by her second crime novel, Murder She Heard. Kirstie is a graduate of our Creative Writing Stage 1 and Write Your Novel courses, and she has gone on to do several more with us, including Cut, Shape, Polish, Make Time to Write and the Creative Writing 30-day Bootcamp.
She’s clear about what those courses did for her. “I see courses as a way to propel you forward. If you know the rules, you can play with them. Before I did a course I didn’t even know what genre I was writing in, I knew nothing about structure or character development. There is a lot to be said for just writing too, but courses are like pressing the fast-forward button and it can be the difference, in many cases, whether you get published or not.”
What the courses changed
When Kirstie first enrolled with us, she was in one of her first magazine editing roles, freelance travel writing on the side and raising two boys in the early years of primary school. “Life was a juggle, and I would write whenever I could. I bought an iPad mini and a clip-on keyboard and I’d carry it everywhere and write whenever I could – kids’ swimming lessons, doctor’s waiting rooms, trains and planes.”
The pull towards creative writing was getting harder to ignore. “I wanted to immerse myself in that world, and importantly, I wanted to educate myself about the industry. Creative writing for me is so fulfilling; it’s like there was a puzzle piece missing inside of me, and when I started doing it, taking it more seriously, there it was – that satisfaction of laying the last piece of the puzzle.”
She started with Creative Writing Stage 1, and it gave her something that has lasted well beyond the course. “It was there I met my first writing friend, Meagan Bertram, who is still one of my dearest friends to this day. Meagan and I continue to support and encourage each other and that has been invaluable to my writing life.”
From there she moved on to Write Your Novel, where her tutor’s feedback made an immediate difference. “She would tell you what you were doing right, and importantly what you needed to improve. Her feedback instantly lifted my writing.”
Reading and reviewing her fellow Write Your Novel students’ work turned out to be just as valuable, even in genres she’d never write herself. “This is time-consuming, but whether you like the work or not, it educates you in the best way about what works and what doesn’t and you can then apply that to your own work.”
What she remembers most, though, is being taken seriously as a novelist. “I also love being surrounded by people who believed in my characters as much as I did. The people in my fiction are as real to me as someone I might pass in the street; to have someone else comment on them and say, ‘I don’t think she’d do that’, is the kind of support you rarely experience in life. I felt so heard.”
The road to a two-book deal
For a long time, Kirstie held herself back from the genre she loved. “I didn’t give myself permission to write crime as I felt in some way I wasn’t allowed in that ‘room’. When I did finally let that go, White Lies was the result.”
She took the manuscript to the Australian Society of Authors’ literary speed dating event, and was picked up by Catherine Wallace from High Spot Literary. Not long after, the email about the two-book deal arrived.
“I love seeing people succeed. I don’t watch a lot of TV, but I do watch the golden buzzer moments on Britain’s Got Talent, and while I’m not someone who cries very much, these get me every time. I have a wonderful agent in Catherine Wallace from High Spot Literary and when she sent me that email to say I had a two-book deal, it was like that moment when the golden buzzer is pressed, and you are showered in gold confetti.”
A white lie on an isolated island
White Lies is about Melbourne travel editor Lily Castillo, who has lived her life trying to please people and keep the peace. “It was ingrained in her from a very young age that crying is for the weak, and the only way to be truly happy is to keep those around her happy, and to do that she felt the need to tell white lies – to others, and herself.
“For years it works. Then Lily and her husband Christian are offered a work trip of a lifetime and are kidnapped on an isolated island in Indonesia, and she’s suddenly faced with the reality of how dangerous it can be when one person won’t let that little white lie go…”
Kirstie describes it as a book about something all of us do. “This psychological suspense explores how we all tell white lies, and the impact those can have, but at its heart is the story of a woman who has lived her entire life pleasing other people, and discovering that true happiness lies in being true to yourself.”
The premise came directly from her day job. “I came up with the idea when I was invited on a trip to Japan as editor of a travel magazine. I was being hosted by a representative from a regional government, but because of the language barrier and how keen I was to go to Japan, I didn’t really look into it too thoroughly. It wasn’t until I was at the airport that I thought, ‘gosh, things could so easily go so wrong here,’ and my creative mind kicked in, and I thought what a great premise.”
Her second novel started the same way, with an ordinary work moment turning sinister in her head. “The idea for this one came when I left my phone in a room recording after an interview (twice!), and I thought, ‘imagine if you heard something really sinister from someone who came into the room’. What would you do?”
A third idea is already waiting its turn. “That’s going to have to wait until I have worked through edits on the first two. This is just the start for me. I love coming up with new ideas and seeing them unfold.”
Finding her voice, eventually
Kirstie grew up in New Zealand and has always loved to write. On a recent trip home she found some old school reports noting how she excelled in storytelling (and talking). She wrote poetry as a teenager, about feelings, self-acceptance, love and loss, and then stopped. “The last poem I wrote was when I was 21 years old about my sister turning 23. She died two years later. I never wrote another poem.
“I had the courage to be emotive through words back then, and I somehow lost that along the way. Decades later, I started writing again and had a writers’ group and two members of the group were published, and while I was writing, I didn’t think I could ever be like them. I saw it as something to aspire to, but the pedestal was so high, I wasn’t sure I’d reach it.”
Luxury travel by day, crime by night
Kirstie lives in the Bayside area of Melbourne and works part-time as the luxury editor for Karryon, writing about luxury travel and editing the publication’s luxury vertical, with a luxury travel magazine on the way. She does some freelance writing when time allows, and the rest of her time goes to fiction.
“I write (well, edit at the moment!) whenever I can. Always on weekends, on Wednesdays and Fridays. A lot of my writing is also done at night when the lights are dim and the house is quiet, but my favourite time to write is when I travel. Planes particularly because you can put on noise-cancelling headphones and there’s no one to interrupt you – well, with the exception of for food, but those blissful hours have been some of my most productive writing sessions.”
Would she recommend an AWC course to a friend? She already does, often. “I encourage anyone to do it because it’ll propel you so far forward in your writing; you’ll wish you did it earlier. Not only are you giving yourself invaluable education, but you might also find your people, much like I did. Look at it this way: the time will pass anyway; you’ll be two, three or five years older, but you’ll either be older and much wiser and closer to publication in your writing, or in the same position you are now. What do you have to lose?”
You can follow Kirstie on Instagram and Facebook, or visit her website at kirstiebedford.com.
Courses taken at AWC:
