SHAEDEN BERRY “Write what you’re passionate about.”
Kelly’s Writerly Q&A November 2025 Author Interview is with Shaeden Berry, a writer with a Bachelor's Degree in Creative Writing and a Master's in Writing. Her short stories have featured in anthologies such as Kill Your Darlings' New Australian Fiction 2023, An Unexpected Party and Strangely Enough. She lives in Boorloo with her partner and their two cats, Frumpkin and George.
Shaeden's debut novel, Down the Rabbit Hole, was published by Echo Publishing in 2024. Today we are celebrating, At Cafe 64, her second novel, a thought-provoking thriller and timely read, perfect for book clubs!
Kelly: Hi Shaeden, thanks for taking the time to answer some writerly questions. Congratulations on the publication of your second novel, At Cafe 64. I’ve had the pleasure of reading an advance copy, and it really got me thinking. For those who haven’t heard of it yet, how would you describe it?
Shaeden: I would describe it as not quite a “who-dunnit”, but more of a “why-dunnit.” I would also describe it as an exploration of grief, guilt and the aftershocks of a crime. It’s set a year and a half after a man commits a violent act in public, killing himself and others in the process, with seemingly no real motive, and follows three women, Maddie, Emily and Flo, who are trying to cope with what they saw or lost that day.
Kelly: It’s such a thought-provoking read! What inspired you to write this story?
Shaeden: I grew up in a household that constantly had some UK crime drama playing on the TV, from Midsomer Murders to Taggart to New Tricks. My Dad got me into Ian Rankin novels in my early twenties, and since then, I’ve read crime and thriller books voraciously. And there’s the age-old advice: write what you read. But I knew I didn’t want to write a straight crime book (for one thing, my brain isn’t organised enough to pull all those intricate threads together!). I wanted to write my version of a crime novel, and I was going to pull in my other great literary love: characters. I love characters. I love character-driven novels. When I write, I lose myself in my characters. Much of it stems from the fact that I’m endlessly intrigued by how people think and feel, by their motivations and by how they navigate complex emotions. I knew when I wrote my novels that they were going to be “crime”, but they were always going to be more about the people. At Café 64 began as a short story for a university assignment. The short story was centred around what would become the character of Flo in the novel. I was so drawn in by writing this character that once the short story ended, I couldn’t stop thinking about her; what she’d been through and how she was trying to cope with it. I wanted to explore her further, so I sat down and started to brainstorm and eventually mapped out the novel that would become At Café 64.
Kelly: I loved Flo’s character ARC! How long did it take you to write At Cafe 64?
Shaeden: It took me a year to write At Café 64, and that’s because at the six-month mark, when I was about halfway through the first draft, I actually had to stop writing and take a break for about two months. Switching between writing the three alternating perspectives was getting exhausting, particularly as two of the perspectives – the characters of Maddie and Emily – were quite emotionally draining to write. I also used my break to spend some time doing research: watching, reading and listening to podcasts from the perspectives of survivors and victims to help inform my characters going forward. Editing afterwards was also quite lengthy, and probably added another five months to the process, because the initial first draft was close to 120,000 words, so I had to cut a lot to get it down to around the 90,000 mark. Luckily, I’d started writing At Café 64 before Down the Rabbit Hole even got accepted by a publisher, so I had plenty of time to work on it!
Kelly: Editing is the hardest part, in my opinion. What does your typical day of writing look like?
Shaeden: So, my writing is confined to weekends and days off because I work full-time, and I’ve yet to become one of those people who can do anything after work except collapse on the couch. But in terms of how I typically approach writing, I’ve learnt to be very strict with myself – I have to write something on Saturday and Sunday and days off, no excuses. Generally, I’ll do it early morning – my cats have made me a six am riser even on weekends, so I can usually be in front of the computer before 8am. It works well because it leaves the rest of the day free for the general life tasks that pop up on weekends. I’ll get my coffee and breakfast and sit down and set the goal, every time, to just write 1000 words. If I want to write more – say, if I’ve gotten into the groove of things and it’s really flowing, then I’ll write as much as I want. But if I can only manage that 1000 words, then that’s fine as well, because at least I’ve gotten something down. I am lucky, though, because when I do have a story idea, it generally consumes me, and I have to write as much as I can to get it out of my head. I’ll go into hyperfocus when I sit down and start writing, which means I’ll generally write non-stop until I realise I haven’t drunk water or moved for an hour. Not all of that writing is good, of course, but my process is to write it all, no editing, and get that first draft done. Then I’ll go back once I’ve finished and try to craft something semi-coherent.
Kelly: I love how you are strict with yourself. It’s the only way to be if you’re serious about ticking off your writing goals. Let’s go back to when being an author was still a dream. Can you tell me about your first yes?
Shaeden: Well, my very first yes was winning the Mary Durack award for a short story when I was a teenager, which was pretty cool, and definitely made me think, “hey, I think I’m kind of good at this.” And it’s no small feat to make a teenage girl feel confident in anything! But as an adult, my first yes was an article published about quitting drinking with MamaMia. This might sound ridiculous, but before that, I didn’t realise that freelance article writing was a thing. It wasn’t touched on in my Bachelor's Degree, I think, because I predominantly studied English Literature, and I hadn’t started my Master's at that stage. So that first yes helped me realise there was an accessible way to get my writing seen.
My first fiction-writing-based yes was getting accepted into three anthologies almost simultaneously – The Unexpected Party, Strangely Enough and Kill Your Darlings New Australian Fiction 2023. Funnily enough, though it came after my articles had been published, these were the “yeses” that made me feel like a writer. The acknowledgement of my creative fiction, which was always more of my passion than non-fiction, essay or article writing, really meant a lot to me. Shortly after these “yeses”, I started writing my debut, Down the Rabbit Hole, because getting into those anthologies gave me a boost of confidence and felt like confirmation to me that I was maybe, sort of good at this fiction writing thing.
Kelly: Wow! You got your first yes so early! How cool and wonderful that you’ve been serious about writing for so long.
Kelly: There’s nothing like celebrating publication, but I believe it’s even more important to talk about what came before. Can you share a rejection story?
Shaeden: I, like many other authors and writers, have so many rejection stories. I’ve lost count of my rejections, particularly when I first tried to get published in my early twenties. I was very naïve back then and had not done my research when it came to writing. I’d written a YA fantasy novel and was, for some reason, focused on getting an American agent. It didn’t even occur to me to explore the Australian market. Needless to say, that manuscript has well and truly been shelved and will never see the light of day. I learnt a lesson then – do your research when it comes to publishing!
But, in terms of the rejection story that taught me my biggest lesson, that was probably when I got a manuscript request for Down the Rabbit Hole. It was the first manuscript request that I’d ever received, and I was over the moon. But after they’d read it, they asked me to change certain elements of the novel. As someone who desperately wanted to be an author at the time, I thought I would do anything to get published. However, it turns out I liked my book, and I didn’t want to change it. I made the decision to leave the book as it was and abandon the opportunity. Probably a month or so later, Echo Publishing asked for a manuscript as well. I almost didn’t respond because I was convinced that the novel, as it was, wasn’t what publishers were looking for. But my partner encouraged me to send it anyway, and, of course, Echo said yes, and, more than that, though, the things that I had been asked to change previously were the things that Echo loved. That’s when I learnt my biggest lesson: publishing really, truly is subjective. So be sure to know what you love about your story and what you aren’t willing to compromise on. Because, hopefully, what you love will be what someone else loves.
Kelly: This is so true. It’s amazing advice because publishing is such a subjective business, and it’s very important not to get confused or disheartened by nos or silence. We have to trust that we (the artist) know more than anyone else when our stories are perfect. Alongside your novel and short story writing, you are an active freelance writer with work appearing in many online publications, including Mamamia, Refinery29, Kill Your Darlings and Westerly Magazine; what’s your top tip for writers who’ve never had anything published?
Shaeden: Write what you’re passionate about, and write what you really want people to know about. For example, the first article I got published was about my sobriety journey, because at the time I was really passionate about discussing the nuances of alcohol addiction, and how problem-drinking can look different to how we might stereotypically perceive it.
That being said, I’ll add a caveat: it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of getting work accepted, but I admit I now somewhat regret oversharing for the sake of being published. I didn’t sit and think about the parts of me that I wanted to keep for myself, or even the parts of me that might evolve into something different.
Kelly: Passion is such an important ingredient in writing. At Cafe 64 explores the people left behind in the aftermath of a tragedy or crime. What draws you to writing about darker-themed situations?
Shaeden: A lot of it goes back to what I said about being intrigued by people, and how they think and feel. I have this drive to understand people’s motivations, and I constantly find myself trying to work out how, “why”, and “how”, and I think my writing is my own way of trying to find answers. I also think that fiction is often a vehicle through which authors will examine the more awful aspects of human nature and society, and there’s an importance to discussing these hard topics, as long as we’re approaching them in a respectful way without glorifying things.
Kelly: Fiction is so great for exploring all the perspectives in tricky situations. What are you currently reading and loving?
Shaeden: I just finished the crime thriller Our Last Wild Days by Anna Bailey, which I devoured in a single sitting – I couldn’t put it down! I loved Anna Bailey’s first book – Tall Bones – so she’s definitely one of my “immediate buy” authors. I always have multiple books on the go at once, so the other book I’m reading and loving is I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue, which is an “office comedy” book, and, as someone who has worked in many different offices over my working career, it is so very, very relatable.
Kelly: It’s hard just to have one book on the go at any one time. What can we expect from you next?
Shaeden: At the moment, I’m working on my third manuscript, and I’m at the stage where I’m doing the nitpicking editing, really polishing it up before I hand it over to my publisher. At the same time, I’ve mostly just been writing for the sake of writing, playing around with an idea for a fourth novel, but not putting any pressure on it, just seeing where the words take me. It’s been nice to write in a meandering sort of way rather than to a deadline, self-imposed or otherwise. I’ve had fun finding the plot as I was writing, rather than going in with everything really mapped out. It does mean there’ll eventually be a lot of editing when I finish, but in the meantime, it’s been nice to write just to flex the muscle of writing.
Kelly: It sounds like you’re enjoying the process. Thanks so much for your time.
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Purchase At Cafe 64 here
