Australian Writers' Centre graduate Shelley Dark has completed several courses with us. After completing our Write Your Novel program, Shelley formed friendships that evolved into a writers’ group – THE ALLWRiTE CLUB. We were delighted to hear that the group is still going strong. Many members of the writing group have gone on to secure agents, be shortlisted and long listed for awards and featured in anthologies.
However, now it’s Shelley’s turn to shine thanks to her debut travel memoir about her solo journey to the Greek island of Hydra. Here’s our chat with Shelley.
What is your book about?
Hydra in Winter: An Island Escape in Search of a Greek Pirate is a humorous travel memoir in diary form about my two-week trip to the Greek island of Hydra. I went there to research a historical novel inspired by my husband’s ancestor, Ghikas Voulgaris, Australia’s first Greek convict and a pirate who narrowly escaped the gallows.
Between dodging chilly winds and rain and trying to charm the archivists with zero Greek language skills, my search morphed into a joyful lesson in slow travel. In the end, I discovered more about myself (and the local seafood) than I did about piracy.
What inspired you to write it?
When my husband and I retired from raising cattle and moved to the beach, I began marketing subscriptions to my daily online diaries of our overseas travels. This book grew naturally from the diary I kept during my solo trip to Hydra to learn more about the pirate – revisiting it recently reminded me that the joy of exploring Hydra during the wintry, tourist off-season was a story worth telling on its own.
How has your writing group benefited your writing journey?
The ALL WRiTE CLUB has been invaluable – receiving thoughtful and encouraging reviews of my writing has sharpened my storytelling skills and kept me motivated during periods of self-doubt. It’s been a revelation that reviewing others’ work is the best way to identify faults in your own. And there’s a kind of magic chemistry that happens when a group of passionate writers comes together.
How did your writing group form?
The sixteen-member group, based in every state of Australia, grew out of the 2021 AWC Six Month Novel Writing Course with our wonderful tutor Bernadette Foley. This was during Covid, so staying sane was as important as bonding over our love of storytelling. What started as a casual writers’ group has become a close-knit family with a shared commitment to each other’s success.
How frequently does your writing group meet, and what is the structure of your meeting?
We have an online chatroom open 24/7 and generally a few people are writing at any time and available to chat. But it’s all about writing – we celebrate champagne news and commiserate over rejections, share progress towards goals, ask each other questions about mundane subjects like grammar or discuss deeper structural issues, share useful links and podcasts, and offer each other constructive feedback and encouragement. And we laugh – a lot.
We also have a monthly Zoom meeting often featuring guest speakers. Recently, we imitated the Lost Generation at our first face-to-face retreat at a gorgeous holiday house in Daylesford, Victoria – it was such a success that we’re already planning the next one.
You did several courses at AWC. What benefit did you get from the courses?
I wanted to write a novel about the pirate but needed more knowledge and the confidence to see it through. I searched online for courses and AWC had everything: practical tools to hone my writing skills, a course on story structure, another to master Scrivener and advice on building my author profile.
Best of all, I found a community of like-minded writers who have become my collaborators and friends – a brilliant outcome.
What are some of the achievements of the group members?
Our writing group members have achieved remarkable successes since completing the course.
A’Mhara McKey won the NT Literary Award in 2023, was shortlisted for the ASA/HQ Commercial Fiction Prize 2024, and has secured representation with Abigail Nathan of Alex Adsett Literary Agency for her novel, The Shores Between. She has also been awarded a Varuna residency for 2025.
Both A’Mhara and Natasha Neary were shortlisted for the prestigious HarperCollins Australia Banjo Prize in 2023, with Natasha’s novel, The Sister Tree, also earning a Commended place in the Affirm Press Mentorship, 2023, and a Highly Commended in the ASA/Copyright Agency Mentorship, 2024.
Brigita Ozolins won a Hachette Mentorship and is currently undertaking a writing residency in Latvia. Amy Barnett has self-published two romantic suspense novels, Dangerous Secrets and Intent to Kill.
Most of us have novels in progress. Short fiction has been an essential part of our group’s creative growth. We have entered competitions together, and most of us have received awards and been featured in anthologies, both locally and overseas. We have plans for an anthology of our own.
What has been the most rewarding aspect of writing your book?
When you love writing, just settling in at your desk – armed with coffee and a cream bun – is the best reward of all. For this book, though, the real joy has been hearing from readers who said it made them laugh; that they learned something new about Hydra and its history and felt as if they’d travelled to this magical island alongside me.
I’ve also found learning about self-publishing quite challenging (understatement!), so seeing the book reach #1 in its categories on Amazon has been incredibly rewarding as well.
What are your plans for future writing?
I have to live long enough to get it all done! I really enjoy writing my Instagram posts and find the pressure of the quick production of (hopefully!) humorous content stimulating. In 2025, I plan to publish Son of Hydra, the historical fiction novel about the pirate. I’ll write more travel memoirs and another historical novel, Daughter of Cork, which will explore the life of the convict’s Irish wife. And one day I may write the Cream Bun Lover’s Guide to Australia.
