Taryn Bashford is the author of The Harper Effect, a young adult novel published by Pan Macmillan in Australia and Skyhorse Publishing in the USA (2018), as well as a second novel, The Astrid Notes (2019), also published by Pan Macmillan. Taryn speaks at numerous literary conferences and regularly works as an Author-in-Residence conducting writing workshops with high schools. In addition, she is a writing mentor for unpublished writers with Queensland Writers Centre and the instigator of the new Friends of Libraries Book Feasts – a community event for booklovers. Taryn is currently a sessional tutor teaching creative writing at the University of Queensland where she’s also writing her PhD in Creative Writing.
WHAT CYA CONFERENCE DID FOR ME
I’ve attended the CYA Conference every year since I decided to become more serious about my writing. For three years I gained advice, I met editors and agents and writers, and I improved my writing. The Conference was a date that was in the diary before I started each year. Finally, thanks to the CYA Conference, I met my literary agent, Tara Wynne of Curtis Brown.
At the time, I had a lot of fingers in a lot of pies: my first novel The Harper Effect then won a couple of writing competitions (Varuna House’s Publishing Pathways and Pitch Wars USA). Tara quickly turned my achievements into an actual two book deal with Pan Macmillan. She also found me a literary agent in New York who subsequently signed me up with a US publisher for the same novel.
The Harper Effect, my first Young Adult novel, was published in 2018 and my second novel, The Astrid Notes, came out the following year in June 2019. I'm aiming for book three to be out in 2023.
