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Speaker 1: Whenever Leon Moriarty puts out a new book, I always

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Speaker 1: promise myself I am going to make it last. I'm

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Speaker 1: going to savor it a bit. I'm not going to

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Speaker 1: scoff it down in a day. I started here one

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Speaker 1: moment on Saturday, and I am proud to say that

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Speaker 1: I've still got just under one hundred pages to go,

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Speaker 1: so I'm making.

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Speaker 2: Progress, pretty good going.

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Speaker 3: Leon Moriarty is joining us now.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, I'm welcome.

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Speaker 3: Good morning. Thank you so much.

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Speaker 1: It's so lovely to have you with us about the

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Speaker 1: release of the new book here one moment, and I say,

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Speaker 1: I might be overthinking it, leone, but I always think

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Speaker 1: that when I get, you know, one of your books,

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Speaker 1: I am I'm a big fan. Let's just get that

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Speaker 1: out there. And I read it so quickly that somehow

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Speaker 1: I'm not doing justice to you. You've toiled and you've worked,

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Speaker 1: and you've blood, sweat and tearsed over this book for ages,

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Speaker 1: and I can just do it in a night, do

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Speaker 1: you know what I mean?

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Speaker 4: I know, I know, but I'm a reader like that.

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Speaker 4: My if I'm a very greedy reader, I would prefer

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Speaker 4: my readers to the because.

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Speaker 3: It's strange when they say it's all done.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, Well I am a bit this time. I

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Speaker 1: feel like I have made some progress. So the new

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Speaker 1: book here one moment, it raises questions about mortality. Would

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Speaker 1: you want to know when and how you're going to die?

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Speaker 1: And if you do know, would you try to change

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Speaker 1: the outcome?

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Speaker 3: Yes, that's right. So it's about a lady on a plane,

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Speaker 3: a normal domestic flight from Hobart to Sydney, and a

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Speaker 3: woman stands up and she starts pointing at each of

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Speaker 3: the passengers and telling each of them exactly how and

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Speaker 3: when they're going to die, and a lot of passengers

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Speaker 3: don't take too much notice, and then everybody gets off

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Speaker 3: the plane. My American publisher wanted to make that clear

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Speaker 3: it's not about a plane accident. And then most people

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Speaker 3: sort of put it out of their minds. But then

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Speaker 3: the first.

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Speaker 2: Prediction comes true, leam, Where do you get these ideas from?

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Speaker 2: Where's the inspiration for that?

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Speaker 3: One?

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Speaker 2: Just plucked from somewhere?

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Speaker 3: So I was actually on a flight myself, on the

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Speaker 3: exact same flight out of Robert, and the youful thought

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Speaker 3: came into my head. Every persenger on the pave I

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Speaker 3: would one day die, and so I was sure it

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Speaker 3: is true, and I think we tried to pretend it's

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Speaker 3: not happening. And I was looking at all the passengers,

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Speaker 3: and I was thinking, will you be the person who

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Speaker 3: makes it to one hundred and dies peacefully in the sleep,

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Speaker 3: or will you be the person whose life is unexpectedly

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Speaker 3: cut short? And then I thought, imagine if that information

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Speaker 3: was available right now, right and what would we do?

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Speaker 1: Because a few people do get you know, they think

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Speaker 1: they win the Lady the Death Lady jackpot because they

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Speaker 1: get told they're going to live to ninety two or something.

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Speaker 1: But for a few of them, it's not too far

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Speaker 1: in the immediate future. So a few characters do die

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Speaker 1: in here one moment. Have you ever named a character

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Speaker 1: you've killed off in a book after someone you didn't

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Speaker 1: like in real life?

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Speaker 3: No, I hadn't. I think that would be too obvious.

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Speaker 3: I might take a little attribute of theirs and then

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Speaker 3: happily two of them off.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, fair enough, Helen. And I've always been fascinated with

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Speaker 2: someone like yourself, like Lisa, You're reader a hell of

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Speaker 2: a lot, and I don't know where you find the time.

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Speaker 2: But we talked to a lot of musicians who do

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Speaker 2: fear that they've been influenced by other people's use of

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Speaker 2: the chords. Do you sometimes write it about a character

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Speaker 2: or a paragraph or a chapter and ago, well, that's

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Speaker 2: a bit too familiar. I'll change that a bit.

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Speaker 3: Yes. I always worry if it comes too easily. Right, So,

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Speaker 3: if I think, especially if I think of a plot

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Speaker 3: and it all falls into place too perfectly, then I

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Speaker 3: him that I took it from an episode of Law

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Speaker 3: and Order, I have to throw it away. And I've

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Speaker 3: heard it, as you said, musicians and also comedians, I

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Speaker 3: think if they think of a joke too easily, they think,

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Speaker 3: maybe I'm taking that from somewhere, Lauren.

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Speaker 1: To get most of their inspiration from, you know, TV

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Speaker 1: news and so on, it's all got to come from somewhere.

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Speaker 3: You're right exactly.

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Speaker 1: I know you've been on a grueling promotional tour and

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Speaker 1: so you might not get too much time to read

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Speaker 1: things yourself. But have you read anything lately that you

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Speaker 1: would recommend. I'm reading the latest Kate Atkinson. I can't

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Speaker 1: I can't never remember the title, but it's a funny

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Speaker 1: detective series and I'm loving that.

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Speaker 2: Okay, right oerfact.

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Speaker 3: I should be promoting my sister, my sister Nicola Murria. Oh, yes,

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Speaker 3: book just in case Nicholas.

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Speaker 2: Listening to the podcast after not happy.

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Speaker 1: With the sister next Sunday lunch, she's gonna have an

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Speaker 1: angry look on her face.

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Speaker 3: And you show up, No, Nicholas to get ye.

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Speaker 2: With your incredible success and of course being picked up

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Speaker 2: and made into productions, do you sometimes have that in

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Speaker 2: mind whilst you're writing or did you just put that

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Speaker 2: way out and stick with the old formula.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I honestly don't. I'm really not thinking. So. The

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Speaker 3: main character in this books called Cherry, and she's my

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Speaker 3: Cherry at the moment. She's not anybody else.

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Speaker 2: This is your baby.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, but if we may, we must talk for a

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Speaker 1: moment about Big Little Eyes. It came out ten years ago.

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Speaker 1: Did you when you put that book out ten years ago,

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Speaker 1: in your wildest dreams, did you think that we would

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Speaker 1: now be two series in with a cast that includes

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Speaker 1: Meryl Streets, and with the audience baying for a third season?

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Speaker 3: Baying for not in my wildest dreams. No, even when

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Speaker 3: Nice when I first met her and I said, I

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Speaker 3: know not to get too excited until the day they

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Speaker 3: start shooting. That's what authors always say, and she said, no, no,

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Speaker 3: if we optionate get excited, but I still didn't until

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Speaker 3: they started shooting. But I don't think any of them

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Speaker 3: would have imagined the success either. So it's been fantastic.

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Speaker 1: It has been fantastic, And do you know it? Can

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Speaker 1: you confirm that there is a third series?

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Speaker 3: All I can confirm is that I am definitely writing

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Speaker 3: a sequel to my own book, Little Life, because I

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Speaker 3: would tend to go when the children were little in

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Speaker 3: the book, and also in real life, my children were little,

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Speaker 3: and so now my teenagers. So I'm writing a book

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Speaker 3: with the dealing with all the teen issues.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: You do act as an executive producer on the series,

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Speaker 1: don't you.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, but it's an honorary. There's something that they say

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Speaker 3: to you to be nice. I'm not sure. I'm not

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Speaker 3: sure what it actually means. The credit. I'm certainly not

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Speaker 3: out there.

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Speaker 2: And I know Lisa very well, and I could tell

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Speaker 2: that she was really looking forward to She was tough

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Speaker 2: that we were going to be talking to you. I was,

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Speaker 2: as well, being a huge fan. She was excited and

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Speaker 2: a little bit nervous. When was the last time you

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Speaker 2: felt nervous about meeting someone that was working on your

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Speaker 2: work at an actress or an.

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Speaker 3: Actor, it would have to be Meryl Streep. Sure, yeah,

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Speaker 3: which I feel like was was a big star struck moment.

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Speaker 2: What do you say? That's the thing that Meryl Streep.

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Speaker 3: Hello, Well, I got in my head I'd heard that

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Speaker 3: she had had her first grandchild. Yeah, so I was

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Speaker 3: asking about her grandchild, and she actually showed me some photos.

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Speaker 3: But obviously I was so intense in my interest about

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Speaker 3: it that finally she said to me, do you have

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Speaker 3: a first grandchild yourself? Obviously acting a little bizarrely, but

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Speaker 3: she I suspects she's used to it. So what did

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Speaker 3: you do today?

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Speaker 1: I just hung out with Merrill Grandmother's Stories. I mean,

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Speaker 1: it's a stella cast all around, really, you know, apart

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Speaker 1: from Nicole and Reese, Laura Dern.

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Speaker 2: It's just incredible.

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Speaker 1: And by the way, it has the best two soundtracks

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Speaker 1: that I've ever heard. Well, here one Moment might be

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Speaker 1: the next one to get because the Big, Big Little Lives.

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Speaker 1: Also Nine Perfect Strangers and Apples Never Fall have all

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Speaker 1: been made, so this one might be in the future.

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Speaker 3: And the last anniversary my second novel has been the

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Speaker 3: finished filming, and that one's an all Australian car beautiful.

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Speaker 3: I am filmed in Australia.

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Speaker 1: I heard that you were insisting at be filmed in

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Speaker 1: Australia because it is, you know, quite off. The setting

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Speaker 1: is quite often another character in a story.

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Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, and I don't think settings normally my strength,

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Speaker 3: but that one was set on the Hawksbury River and

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Speaker 3: it just felt too Australia anywhere.

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Speaker 2: I had to be there.

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Speaker 3: I'm glad you put your own.

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Speaker 1: Yeah here, one moment is out now. Everyone just simply

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Speaker 1: must do themselves a favor. Even if this is your

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Speaker 1: first one, you will go back and start at the beginning.

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Speaker 1: Let me guarantee you. It's been absolutely lovely talking to you, wonderful,

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Speaker 1: Thank you so.

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Speaker 3: Much, truly lovely talking to you too, Thank you.

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Speaker 2: Bye them. Yeah, okay, you can brieve. Isn't it awesome

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Speaker 2: when you talk to someone that you've so you know,

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Speaker 2: so you admire them so much. We've had it over

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Speaker 2: the years. Yes, I'd love to say your reaction.

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Speaker 1: I mean, everyone knows I love to read and she

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Speaker 1: is just so gorgeous.

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Speaker 2: Talk about a hot spell that in a career right now,

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Speaker 2: and that's awesome.

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Speaker 3: Going for a while.

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Speaker 2: As I've just heard for the last six minutes so

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Speaker 2: humble as well.

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Speaker 1: Everyone wants to make her stuff to TV shows.

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Speaker 2: How can you not be thinking about that when you're

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Speaker 2: writing