Author Josh Pomare making waves in the literary world and at Clunes Booktown Festival 2023

Which is ironic given many at the annual literary festival will be there to meet him.

Mr Pomare is one of the most popular Australian authors currently, with his stocks only set to rise in the coming months when a screen adaptation of his best-seller In The Clearing, which was mostly written in Clunes, is released on Disney +.

When the eight-part psychological thriller airs in May he's expecting renewed interest in the book, which was inspired by the Australian cult The Family and its founder Anne Hamilton-Byrne.

Although the mini-series The Clearing is based on his book, Mr Pomare has had little to do with the production apart from some workshops with script-writers early on and he's looking forward to seeing the final product.

"I chose not to read the script. I've kind of almost distanced myself from it. I want to experience it in the same way everyone else would," he said.

"I couldn't be more excited about it to be honest. It's a rare privilege for an author to experience.

"The story by necessity will be pretty different, a screen adaptation is always a bit different and there's always more to glean from a novel. I hope lots of people return to the book before they watch the show, or vice versa, as both offer a vastly different experience."

It is the unanswered questions surrounding the case that caught Mr Pomare's attention, and which have given him ideas for many of his other books.

The next book he is writing, due out in August next year, is set in New Zealand and is similar to In the Clearing in that it is loosely inspired by some criminal cases in the country.

But more immediately, his pandemic-inspired novel Home Before Dark will be released next month.

Mr Pomare will appear on a Crime: Thriller v Literary panel during Clunes Booktown Festival this weekend with fellow crime authors Janice Simpson, Candice Fox, Tania Chandler, Jacqui Bubltz and Aoife Clifford.

"I'm really excited. We are in the Town Hall which is such a great venue. I'm lucky because I've got a front row seat to see some of my favourite crime writers as well. This is not just about me being able to sell some books, it's about me being able to meet some of my peers."

Mr Pomare splits his time between Melbourne and Clunes and has been involved in the Clunes Booktown Festival for many years, even before he made writing his full-time profession about five years ago.

"We try to spend as much time in Clunes as we can," he said.

He's been to Clunes Booktown Festival as an author, speaker and volunteer as well as interested patron.

"I'm always happy to help in any way I can ... but increasingly it's as an author on guest panels," he said.

And he welcomes the change of date from May to March to take advantage of warmer weather and daylight savings.

"It's always been really weather dependent. You sense a much more carnival type of atmosphere when it's warm and sunny and nice as opposed to when it's horrid, wet and cold so I do think it's a really good move to bring it forward," he said.

"By the time it gets to May, when there's already been one or two other major festivals, we like when its cold to be rugged up at home reading in front of the fire, so it's completely unsurprising the change of date is working."

The final weekend of March also allows some breathing space between other literary festivals, allowing authors to come to the region to take part instead of choosing which one they attend.

With the 2022 festival marking a return to its two-day format following COVID cancellation, an online event and being held over three separate weekend, Mr Pomare believes the 2023 festival in its new timeslot will show even more strength.

"During the COVID years the feeling in town was really gone. Everyone wsa pretty flat through those years because Booktown is such a boom for the town, not just economically but it's also entwined with its identity.

"Over a few years the town kind of lost things, someone stole the ATM, destroyed a shop front, a few things happened that were hard on the town then COVID hit which hits a community like Clunes a lot harder than the city.

"Arts in the city are always going to bounce back because of population, and I noticed how hard town was hit in the absence of the big Booktown Festival."

The pandemic and the snap lockdowns experienced in Melbourne provided the setting for Mr Pomare's next release, his sixth novel Home Before Night which will be released through his publisher Hachette next month.

"As the third wave of the virus hits, all inhabitants of Melbourne are given until 8pm to get to their homes. Wherever they are when the curfew begins, they must live for four weeks and stay within five kilometres of. When Lou's son, Samuel, doesn't arrive home by nightfall, she begins to panic," is the blurb for this next thriller.

Unlike many authors who meticulously plan their stories, Mr Pomare instead likes to see where his writing takes him.

"Usually I have the idea and setting and plot it out a little bit but I tend to dive in before I have it all planned out. I like to be driven and see where it takes me."

Writing the first draft of a novel often takes place quite quickly, before he slows the pace for redrafting and editing.

"It does come and go but I tend to have quite a manic period where I'm just endlessly productive for three weeks to a month and there was a point where I could get 10,000 words in a day and if you do that over a week you've got a novel," he said.

Although he admits the writing during those periods isn't always his best, he fears if he takes too much of a break he might lose that train of his original artistic vision.

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"I'm maniacally productive to the first draft, then I try to slow down." Having a toddler daughter now means sometimes the pace has to slow slightly regardless.

Mr Pomare still can't quite believe the position he's carved for himself as a multiple best-selling author.

He quit his day job, as office manager for his brother's marketing company, when his debut novel Call Me Evie was published in 2019.

"I was quite naive at the time but it all sort of worked out for me. I was working for my brother ... but even he knew I wasn't doing a hell of a lot of work. I was writing at night, and even if I was at the office I'd try to write now and then but I wasn't getting a lot done.

"I never anticipated five or six years ago I'd be doing this full time, at home, able to travel, able to go to festivals and meet other writers."

Clunes Booktown Festival is on Saturday and Sunday. For the full program visit clunesbooktown.com.au

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