Join @willkostakis and @elliemarney in ten minutes for a sneak peek into their soon-to-be-released books! You can pre-order both from @ReadingsBooks! #mwfdigital @AllenAndUnwin @HachetteAus https://twitter.com/MelbWritersFest/status/1292267056788697088

‘I read Ellie before I met her. Her books were so good, I didn’t want to meet her because she couldn’t have possibly lived up to my expectations. And then I did meet her, and she was every bit as awesome as I hoped.’ - @willkostakis gushing over @elliemarney #mwfdigital

‘He’s wowed everybody in the writing community with his books, and I’m very lucky to have had the opportunity to read his new book, Rebel Gods, which was mind-blowing.’ - @elliemarney gushing over @willkostakis #mwfdigital

‘Rebel Gods picks up a month after my last book, Monuments, finishes, as the characters struggle and contend with what it means to be gods, and what they’ve been asked to do – murder two other gods.’ - @willkostakis on his new book #mwfdigital

‘It’s set in 1982, it’s about two teenagers, one of them the only surviving victim of a serial killer and one the son of someone killed by a serial killer. Both are recruited by the FBI and pulled into the hunt for a new killer.’ - @elliemarney on her new book #mwfdigital

‘I’ve always wanted to write a really intense serial killer story, but I’ve always wanted it to be family friendly. And then I decided to throw care to the wind and write something really gritty and edge of your seat and scary.’ - @elliemarney #mwfdigital

‘Monuments unfolds over only three days and I wasn’t able to do the stuff I usually do, like give characters room to breathe and develop who they are and their identity, so I wanted to write a follow up.’ - @willkostakis #mwfdigital

‘We rarely ever check in with heroes after they’ve saved the world, and I wanted to write about the tasks that are placed on their shoulders. We rarely get insight into how they wrestle with what that means.’ - @willkostakis #mwfdigital

‘I think of Ellen Ripley in Aliens and the way she just doesn’t give a crap about chain of command or authority, she’s just there to get the job done. And that’s what Emma Lewis is like, too.’ @elliemarney describing one of the main characters in None Shall Sleep #mwfdigital

‘She doesn’t trust the FBI, but she trusts the boy she’s working with, and he comes from a law enforcement background and knows the system. So he facilitates her ability to work in that environment.’ - @elliemarney describing None Shall Sleep's other main character #mwfdigital

‘I’ve been asked if there’s one defining characteristic I put into all my characters, and I was like: well all my female characters are incredibly stubborn. And that’s me.’ - @elliemarney #mwfdigital

‘Even though the book deals with some heavy stuff, I never felt I was bogged down or wading through it. And I just thought reading it: how on earth has Ellie done this!’ – more gushing from @willkostakis over @elliemarney #mwfdigital

‘I was encouraged to put more details of Emma’s traumatic past in the book, but I fought really hard against that. I feel like we see enough of that everywhere else already. It's an ongoing war.’ - @elliemarney #mwfdigital

‘Pulling back the curtain is not always the best and most effective scare tactic when writing. It’s just as scary and emotive to suggest and then allow the reader to fill in the gaps from their own dark imaginations.’ - @elliemarney #mwfdigital

‘I wanted to write a book where the queer person didn’t have to struggle with their identity. Bad things still happen to my characters, but they don’t happen to them because their gay.’ - @willkostakis #mwfdigital

‘I was basically on Google Maps for three hours a day for three months, and I also needed to make sure the landmarks were era appropriate because some of them hadn’t been built’ - @elliemarney on researching for None Shall Sleep, set in America in 1982 #mwfdigital

‘A lot of my book was looking at ordinary places in Sydney and thinking: where can I sneak in something extraordinary.’ - @willkostakis on setting in Monuments and The Rebel Gods #mwfdigital

‘We have to ask some Vegemite questions before we go.’ - @willkostakis ensuring all our international viewers know this is an Australian festival #mwfdigital

'I'm becoming a plotter in my "old age".' - @willkostakis on strategies for writing a novel #mwfdigital

'You are going to change in your life, along with your relationships to the people in your life. But what really matters is making the most of the life you are given and using it to do as much good as possible.' - @willkostakis #mwfdigital

'You can overcome and go through absolute hell, but you'll get through it. You shouldn't give up, power through. But mainly I wanted to scare the pants off everyone.' - @elliemarney on what she wants readers to take away from her work #mwfdigital

'I used to think I had to dig my own way out of a hole. But I now have a group of people I can ring up and say "I don't know how to dig myself out of this. Help!" Collaboration is incredible.' - @elliemarney #mwfdigital

'My mum would tell me that she doesn't get secretary's block, so I should harden up and just do the work whenever I get writer's block.' - @willkostakis #mwfdigital

'I've just finished Red, White and Royal Blue by @casey_mcquiston, which was really fun, really queer, and it just took me away from all that's happening in the world.' - @willkostakis (psst, he's interviewing Casey for the festival, check out next weekend's program!) #mwfdigital