Word Docs
by Auscast NetworkAlex, Amy and Sean (aka Dr Alex Vickery-Howe, Dr Amy T Matthews and Dr Sean Williams) are professional writers who also lecture full-time at Flinders University, South Australia. They’ve joined forces to cover topics of interest to new writers in a lively, conversational style that frequently segues to areas far from where they started. If you’ve ever wondered what writers talk about beyond the lecture theatre or festival circuit, here’s your chance to find out. Bios Dr Alex Vickery-Howe is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter. In 2008 he made his writing debut with a bilingual, bicultural horror rock musical in Okinawa, Japan, where it opened the Kijimuna Festival (now Ricca Ricca Festival) and played to rave reviews and full houses, before selling out again at the Adelaide OzAsia Festival. He has subsequently written and published works for a number of Australian theatre companies. On screen, Alex has written and directed short films which have played to a variety of international festivals. He holds a PhD from Flinders University, where he specialises in writing internationally for younger audiences. Links: https://www.flinders.edu.au/people/alex.vickeryhowe Dr Amy Matthews is an award-winning novelist who publishes literary fiction under the name Amy T Matthews and historical fiction under the name Tess LeSue. She's published short stories in collections including Best Australian Stories and co-edited three anthologies of short fiction and poetry. Amy is a past chair and current board member of Writers SA and teaches creative writing at Flinders University. Her current research focusses on writing colonial historical fiction and the intersections of gender, race and power in romance. This makes it all sound very serious. It's actually ridiculously fun. Links: https://amytmatthews.com https://www.flinders.edu.au/people/amy.t.matthews https://tesslesue.com Dr Sean Williams is an award-winning, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of forty-nine novels and over one hundred and twenty short stories for adults, young adults and children. As well as his original fiction, he has contributed to shared universes such as Star Wars and Doctor Who, collaborated with authors like Garth Nix, and lived on an Antarctica base in the name of research. His latest novel is Impossible Music, about a young heavy metal guitarist who loses his hearing. He teaches creative writing at Flinders University and writes music under the monicker “theadelaidean”. Links: www.seanwilliams.com https://www.flinders.edu.au/people/sean.williams
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Episodes
‘Shades of Great’ (Interculturalism)
30m · PublishedAlex is in the Mastermind hot seat! Many years after writing Japanese/Australian rock musical Once Upon a Midnight, Alex is trying to remember what he was on about and why it was interesting. Luckily the Word Docs are on hand to tease all the shades of grey out of the process. Join us as we travel the world from our studio and explore the cultural conundrums that arise when mythology, nationality and generational identity intersect.
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‘Happily Never After’ (Tropes)
33m · PublishedThe Word Docs are slowly catching up with this mysterious invention called BookTok where all the young people are. Together, the intrepid geriatrics will sort through the virtual shelves and explore their favourite tropes with the usual blend of light-hearted humour, emotional pain and existential despair. If you’re a morally grey villain, a soul in search of a mate or a grump with a heart of gold, this episode is all about you.
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‘Beware the Broccoli’ (Someone Else’s Advice)
32m · PublishedWe’re off the rails again! Amy is trying her best to keep the troops under control, but the troops are idiots. The sage advice of Anne Lamott is pearls before bewildered swine as Sean’s eerie chanting and Alex’s fear of naked cults turns a perfectly reasonable vegetable metaphor into something chilling. In this episode we will wonder... why did Sean give up meditation? Why the hell can’t Alex remember going to France? And what’s up with Amy and purple sharkskin suits?
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‘All the Feels’ (Popular Romance Studies)
34m · PublishedThis week it's Amy's turn to sit in the Mastermind hot seat and the topic is Popular Romance Studies. Join us for love, sex, happy endings, trauma porn, happy for nows, and all the feels. Does Amy have the answers? Has Alex done his homework? Will Sean write a romance novel? And who is killing all the butterflies? If you ever wanted to know the not-so-secret intellectual life of a romance author, now's your chance!
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‘Of Course It's a Sex Romp’ (Dead Tomes)
34m · PublishedGot any dead books lying around? Manuscripts that didn't work, or didn't sell, or are just dead in the water for reasons you can't quite put your finger on? The Word Docs sure do. Alex is curious to pry into Sean and Amy's literary closets, looking for dusty old relics of the past. There must be something to be learned from books that didn't work? Was it all a waste? Or are dead tomes valuable things? In response to Alex shining a light into their closets, Amy and Sean drag out Alex's juvenilia, discovering the glory that is Jimmy and the Wizard and King Mean Man. By the end of this episode, you'll be grateful for the books that never made it, and you may also be wishing that you were at the Proscenium in the 90s, pretending to be a Goth.
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‘Let's Stress Heat’ (Cli Fi)
31m · PublishedWhat do you do when the end of the world is nigh? Give into despair? Eat chocolate? Read books? Or, maybe now's a good time to join Alex on a pirate ship outta here? This week the Word Docs discuss climate-change fiction and the challenges of writing about our climate changed world. As an unseasonable hail-storm rages outside, Amy, Alex and Sean travel through deep time, searching the literary landscape for ways to think about the future. What is the role of fiction in all this? Can you be positive and optimistic when things seem so ****ed? And who ate all the chocolate?
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‘Rise of the Word Docs’ (Balancing Commitments)
41m · PublishedUnthawed from the ice, the Word Docs have returned to the airwaves to explain where the hell they've been, what the hell they've been doing, and who the hell they might be creating next. As lockdowns ease and the world reawakens, tune in to hear the gang discuss the perils of balancing professional commitments as writers, teachers and researchers.Just when you thought it was safe to open your ears, Sean is back to conjure honourable ghosts, Alex is back to bleed teens dry...and both Amy T. Mathews and Amy Barry are back with secrets to tease.
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‘Deadwood Doughnuts’ (The Word Docs Challenge)
37m · PublishedThe Word Docs are going back to school. Marian Keyes is the guide this week as the dynamic trio attempt, for once, to do what they’re told. Weighing Marian’s advice against their core criteria of Wank Factor, DNF and Repeatability, the Word Docs try to adopt a writing prompt from the bestselling author. When the exercise produces mixed results, there’s only one way to settle the ensuing debate... The Docs have to seek Jeanette Vickery-Howe’s approval.
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‘Scrambled Legs’ (Nerding Out With Sean)
32m · PublishedWe know you've been waiting for this. The day Sean is finally allowed to talk matter transmitters to his heart's content. Be transported into speculative story worlds, where sex romping may happen on a young man's fictional spaceship, murderers get creative with transmitters, and where Alex and Amy are increasingly scared of ever setting foot into a car again... In this episode Sean leads Amy and Alex through the horrifying, mesmerising, inspiring, mind-bending possibilities of the matter transmitter in fiction. Beam me up, Scotty! And I better not be looking at my ass when I get there...
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‘That Sense of Magic’ (Dirty Craft)
34m · PublishedHow are writers portrayed in fiction? The Word Docs (or, as they’re inexplicably calling themselves, the Warlock, the Wizard and the Witch) are investigating the magic of storytelling as depicted in popular culture. From Fforde to Ginsberg, and Ginsberg to King, there is a tradition of romanticising authors and their work. Amy is into it... Sean really, really isn’t. Join us as we separate the myth from the grind.
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Word Docs has 66 episodes in total of non- explicit content. Total playtime is 35:30:33. The language of the podcast is English. This podcast has been added on August 24th 2022. It might contain more episodes than the ones shown here. It was last updated on January 1st, 2024 17:40.
