Author chat: Summer reading & writing with Camille Booker

In January I had the pleasure of (virtually) chatting with a few Aussie writers about their summer reading and writing plans. Somehow the weeks have whizzed past without me sharing more than my first chat with lovely Laura Irvine, which you can see here. As we move into March and wave goodbye to the last of the warm weather (soon, I hope – we’re expecting mid-30s on the weekend!) I’m keen to hang on to the summer reading vibes and share more of these chats, starting tonight with Camille Booker who has a brand new novel, The Woman in the Waves out today! Check out our Q&A below and then read on to find out more about The Woman in the Waves.

Hi Camille! Thanks for joining me on BookishBron.com!
First of all, big congratulations on your new novel, The Woman in the Waves, which is out on 11 March from Hawkeye Publishing! Can you share a bit about the book and what it has been like to know it will be hitting the shelves and in readers’ hands in 2025? 

Thank you so much! Here’s my elevator pitch:

The Woman in the Waves is a gothic historical fiction novel, set in 1921 in a fictional town called Widow’s Peak on the south coast of NSW. Missy Green is the lonely fisherman’s daughter who encounters a mermaid claiming to be her mother – a woman who mysteriously died in the waves when Missy was a child – before realising that she is hallucinating, and that the mermaid is actually a dead woman washed up on shore. 

A second POV is introduced with Detective Shore, an Irish immigrant and WWI veteran with his own scars and trauma. As Missy gets pulled into the investigation with Detective Shore, they must grapple with the town’s criminal underbelly – a grimy bootlegging syndicate that may be linked to her beloved grandfather, the reclusive lighthouse keeper.

 While Missy descends deeper into the murky waters of the case to find the killer, and what really happened to her mother all those years ago, she begins to question everything she’s ever known…even her own sanity.

Inspiration for the story came during Covid, when I was living in Wollongong (the only town in Australia with two lighthouses). It was a way to cope with the isolation and loneliness (especially with a young child). During lockdown we often spent our dedicated one hour of ‘exercise’ time at the lighthouse, along the shore, exploring rock pools. It allowed me to dream up Missy’s world, and the town of Widow’s Peak. My husband and I also discovered and binged Peaky Blinders during Covid, so I think that’s how the gritty post-WWI setting and the underbelly crime influenced the story.

In order to write the first draft, I enrolled in the Curtis Brown Creative 6 Month Course (in 2021), and it was the best decision. I was lucky to have a great group of writers in my group, and we still chat, read each other’s work, and swap feedback today. 

This book has been very different to my experience with my debut novel because not only have I learnt so much about the publishing industry that I didn’t know before, but I have made so many connections – readers, other writers, industry professionals – and I have a little bit more awareness of expectations and what’s involved. There’s still a lot to learn though.

What’s your favourite thing about summer?

Lazy mornings with no frantic packing of lunch boxes and school drop offs, beach days, and swims in the ocean.

Do you like to plan a summer reading list? Do you have a particular genre or type of book you especially like to pick up over summer? 

I’m more of a mood reader and when it comes to genre, I like to dabble in everything from historical fiction to horror, crime and rom coms. 

What’s on your tbr for this summer?

I’m currently judging the 2025 Hawkeye Manuscript Development Prize, so I’ve been busy reading the first 30 pages of entrants’ submissions, plus their synopses. The quality of writing this year is mind-blowing! All the judges are very impressed. It’s so inspiring!

Other than that, I’ve been able to sneak in a few highly anticipated summer reads. They are:

That Island Feeling by Karina May
This is such a swoon-worthy book! The witty banter is divine, and the depth of theme that May has been able to layer into this light-hearted, summer rom com is amazing. This book is pure sunshine, and I read it with a huge smile plastered to my face. 

The Last Illusion of Paige White by Vanessa McCausland
This book is a little bit darker, and I love the way McCausland delivers such an immersive sense of place. As always, her beautiful descriptions and prose made me want to savour each sentence. 

Venetian Lessons in Love by Jenna LoBianco
If you’re like me and unfortunately not jetting off to any European destinations these holidays, this book is the next best thing. It’s a love letter to Italy, the culture, the food. The best way to escape is through Jenna’s books.

Upon A Starlit Tide by Kell Woods
Of course summer means it’s mermaid season, and 2025 is the year of the mermaid! So I’m impatiently waiting for the release of Kell Woods’s new fantasy book, Upon a Starlit Tide. 

What’s your perfect summer reading situation?

I’ve been taking my kids to our local pool and am able to sneak in some reading while I supervise – although I’ve come home several times with pages of books soaked in chlorinated water. Otherwise I prefer to be inside lying on my bed under the ceiling fan (with snacks of course!).

Can you tell us a bit about your writing plans for the next little while?  

Six weeks of school holidays means I’ll have my kids with me most days, so I’m not planning to get many words down – otherwise it just leads to frustration! I like to use this time to daydream and note down any ideas or snippets of dialogue or descriptions that I think of (usually just in my Notes App). So I’ll wait until the school term starts again to pick up where I left off last year. 

I’m currently working on my PhD in creative writing. It’s a witchy novel, another gothic historical fiction set in Bulli in 1887. It’s Hannah Kent’s Devotion meets The Craft (1996) with a Robert Eggers’s The Witch (2015) vibe. 

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Massive thanks to Camille for taking the time to chat with me – and doesn’t that PhD novel sound incredible?! The Woman in the Waves is out NOW – congratulations Camille!!! – make sure you check out the synopsis below and keep an eye out for my review here soon. You can keep up with Camille If you enjoyed this little peek behind the scenes of an author’s writing & reading life, make sure you keep an eye out for more author chats – you can see previous posts.

xo Bron

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The Woman in the Waves – out now from Hawkeye Publishing

Even the heaviest secrets can float to the surface…

There’s something sinister lurking in the waves…

​It’s 1921 in Widow’s Peak, a gloomy fishing village on the south coast of New South Wales. Nineteen-year-old Missy Green fills her days helping her fisherman father on his trawler, and spending time with her grandfather, the town’s reclusive lighthouse keeper. It’s a dreary existence. Everything in her sea salt-soaked life is upended, though, when she glimpses something in the water – a mermaid ominously staring at her.​

When Missy discovers the dead body of a woman washed up on shore, her disturbing hallucinations of the mermaid gather steam.

Missy must navigate the treacherous waters of her secret-filled town while attempting not to drown in the recesses of her mind, and the eyes of a handsome detective…

Camille Booker – author bio

Camille is an award-winning author and creative writing teacher at the University of Wollongong.

Her debut novel, What If You Fly?, a WWII historical fiction, was published by Hawkeye Publishing in 2021, it was longlisted for the 2019 Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize and was runner up in the 2020 Hawkeye Publishing Manuscript Development Prize (under the working title Coffee and Peaches).

In 2022 she completed the Curtis Brown Creative 6 Month Novel Writing Course, during which she wrote her second historical fiction novel, The Woman in the Waves. It was shortlisted for the 2023 Varuna/Affirm Press Mentorship Award, runner up in the 2022 CYA Conference Competition, won the 2022 Book Pipeline Unpublished Contest, won the 2023 Hawkeye Publishing Manuscript Development Prize and is to be published with Hawkeye Publishing in 2025.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Linguistics and French Language; and a Bachelor of Creative Arts degree in Creative Writing, both of which she completed at the University of Wollongong. She is now undertaking a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Wollongong.​ In 2024 Camille joined the judging panel of the Hawkeye Manuscript Development Prize.

You can keep up with the latest from Camille on her website here, as well as following along with her latest news on Instagram