October 23, 2025 • 24 mins
In our latest episode, hosts Simone, Tanya and Deb discuss The Offing by Roz Nay. Two best friends, a yacht off the coast of Australia, and a getaway that turns deadly. Get ready for a twisty, high-stakes thriller that’ll keep you guessing till the last page. it’s secrets, suspense, and survival on the open water.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Join us and online with a good book. Welcome to
Relaxing Reads. Hi, it's Devin Halifax. Hi, it's Simone in Vancouver.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Hey, it's Tanya and Edmonton.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
In this episode, we're so excited to welcome Rosney, the
author of the Offing. Hi Roz, Hi, Hi Deb, So
Roz Deb is in Halifax. I'm in Vancouver and now
we've got Tanya here in Edmonton. Roz, where are you
joining us from?
Speaker 4 (00:25):
Hi live in Nelson.
Speaker 5 (00:27):
I've just started a new job and I am in
like a little tiny office on my lunch break.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Thank you for joining us. We're glad we can have
your time.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
I will have Deb lead us off, and we've just
got some questions for you after we all enjoyed the Offing.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
So, yeah, Deb, why don't you lead us in?
Speaker 6 (00:44):
Well, ros we are so happy that you are with us.
Speaker 7 (00:47):
And this is really just a one sitting page turning bingebook,
A great thriller that really surprised all of us when
we had discussed.
Speaker 6 (00:58):
It earlier with Howard. So we need to know where
it all came from. Where was the idea, when did
it come to you? And where was that spark moment
that kicked it all off, were you?
Speaker 5 (01:12):
Yeah, well, I think what I would say with this
book and with a couple of thrillers that I've written,
I spent my twenties prioritizing adventure above all else. And
so what I did was hair brain, super dangerous things
that I would hate for my own daughter to do.
But that now, you know, with the hindsight of twenty
(01:33):
years plus since then, I can look back at all
those adventures I had in these really amazing, perfect setups,
and what I really am doing is retelling a story
that I've lived, but I just turn it so everything that.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
Could have gone wrong really did go wrong.
Speaker 5 (01:50):
So when I was in my twenties, I crew on
the very boat that's in the book.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
I jumped. Oh, I know, it's crazy.
Speaker 5 (01:58):
I jumped on a boat with a dad and a
daughter and a cat and another backpacker I'd never met before,
and I had no phone, no contact with anybody, And
because I think ho Bely does immortal or something, I
just went up and did the exact journey, except that
in my version of it everything was fine.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
I was about to say, I was like, where is
this going? You have experienced this? But wow, I think
you know, and it's probably like.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
You said, you were in your twenties. When we're in
our twenties, we just we don't think we do right,
and as we get older, we get so so anxious.
But you being on that experience and that not actually happening.
So where did all the ideas come from from? From
what we got to read?
Speaker 4 (02:45):
A lot of it's very close.
Speaker 5 (02:46):
Like there's there's a chapter where they're all night swimming.
They're night swimming off the back of the boat. That's
pretty close to and like the things that you know,
I mean, other boats pulling up and you're not quite
sure who's on them and what's in the water, and
all of that's real. And this I probably can say
(03:06):
this because it's probably fairly safety. But the skipper that
I was on the boat with was a little bit odd,
so I basically.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Part of the job.
Speaker 5 (03:16):
Like he had a whole backstory that came out through
the course of being on the boat with him, and
his life was in massive tail spin that none of
us knew about when we got on the boat, but
it just kind.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
Of emerged gradually.
Speaker 5 (03:29):
And you know, in my version of the real story
that was just kind of a sad thing for him,
But obviously I took that, I took bits of it
and just turned it up a notch.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (03:40):
Well, and I think that, you know, some of the
tension that you have or how you've written is, you know,
we think about, you know, when we're in our twenties,
we're all probably around the same age, and it's like,
you didn't have cell phones, Like I think about, you know,
I went backpacking, you know, across Europe, and I didn't
have a phone, and I didn't have like I just
wonder like.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
How how we survived. And of course you've got your characters.
Speaker 8 (04:03):
Where their their phones go missing, and you know, we
can all feel that because if we just misplace our
phones in our daily lives, we're like, oh, you know,
everything's going to help. But you know, back in your twenties,
it's like you didn't even have that. So that was
like a safety net that that these girls fortunately had.
But then it also added to sort of the tension
(04:24):
of like things going missing and what brave young women
those girls were or just crazy, Like you said, they're
like young and you don't think, you know, you don't
think anything's going to happen to you, and you just
sort of go.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
I sometimes feel like I want to live that again.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
Editor.
Speaker 5 (04:44):
My editor said early on when I when I pitched
the book, she was going nobody, no, right, no young
girl in her right mind would ever get on that boat.
That just would never happen. And I had to be like, well,
actually in his story, because that would be me.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (05:01):
And the cell phone thing is as a thriller writer,
you at some point in these books you have to
get rid of the cell phones because you can't have
them communicating too easily. So that's another little thing. And
the other part about this book that was tricky. It's
always fun to write, just as a side note, always
really fun to write early.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
Twenties characters because they are so impetuous.
Speaker 5 (05:20):
And they always do rash things, and their perfin thrillers
I find.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
But yeah, the other thing that I had to try.
Speaker 5 (05:27):
And invent in this book that was quite tricky structurally
was this sense for the reader that things are going
wrong on the things are not okay on the boats,
but in a way that isn't so obvious for the
girls because they would just get off the boat. So
that kind of balance was quite tricky in terms of
structure writing this because I needed them to stay on,
but I also needed it to be a thriller that
(05:49):
things are going wrong. So that's why I created this
kind of dual timeline where you've got at least that
happening kind of in real time, and so you, as
a reader, you get to see things that the girls
come see.
Speaker 6 (06:04):
Yet Yeah, and you, the way you wrote it, you
were able to maintain the suspense for us, you know,
without giving too much away, because again, when we had
discussed it, it's like, no, we didn't see that coming,
didn't think that that might happen.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
It's true.
Speaker 5 (06:19):
It's a definitely dance you have to do as a
thriller writer. You have to, you know, build your twists
and your and your des and you're you kind of
I always feel like writing thrillers is like a mirror
game with your reader. So you're trying to predict where
the reader's going, and the reader's trying to predict where
you're going. And it's this It happens all the way through.
(06:41):
You really step, you know, in kind of lockstep. I
think I feel like you're meant to be with your reader,
so I'm always trying to think, hey, what have I
told you so far Where are you?
Speaker 4 (06:51):
What are you thinking?
Speaker 5 (06:52):
As a reader, And then I know that they're doing
that in reverse for me.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
Where am I going? What's happening? Where? You know? Where
the twists, but.
Speaker 5 (07:00):
You have to build them in so that there's good
payoff at the end so you don't feel cheated as
a reader.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (07:05):
Well, you know, when I was reading, I mean, your
red herrings are fantastic. I've got a cat playing in
the background, so if you hear a little pop, I
don't know what she's doing.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
I love that you have a cat in the book.
Speaker 8 (07:17):
But I just loved, you know, there was so many
you know, obviously with thrillers, you're always trying to figure
out like who did it? Like for real, you know,
and you take us down these paths and it's.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Like, it's gotta be that person.
Speaker 8 (07:28):
Then all of a sudden you find out, no, it's
not that person.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
And then you start going through the cast.
Speaker 8 (07:31):
And I actually, like very early on, and I feel
bad saying this.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
I was like, that's your kinge, Like is he because
is he a bad guy? Or is Ivy just.
Speaker 8 (07:42):
So messed up that she's missed, Like she's just you know,
kind of taking on a giving in her words, what
she thought was happening, but it wasn't really happening.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
So I kind of went down that road a little bit.
Speaker 8 (07:54):
And then I felt awful because what an awful, awful
character I couldn't tess. Yeah, so I was just like, oh, yeah,
you should have I got that one. But yeah, I
just love how you just sort of took us on
these rides and we really believed, you know that you
know what was going to happen, like it's definitely this person,
(08:15):
and then you get more information and more information, and
and it.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Just builds and builds and builds. It such such fun
to read. I couldn't put it down.
Speaker 4 (08:24):
Yeah, it's tricky.
Speaker 5 (08:25):
It's a tricky business writing thrillers because the readers are
very clever and and also if you've got a thriller reader,
it's likely that they've already read twenty thrillers this year,
so and they are they are following a formula. So
you have to try and write a good one that
keeps people on their toes and keeps them invested and
tricks them.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
It's difficult, and there was a lot of You did
such a great job with that with the two female
leads then, yeah, the father, the daughter, the chef, thatch
or all of these. Was there a certain character that
you really enjoyed writing for in this book?
Speaker 5 (08:57):
Actually, in this book, really loved Christopher for the skipper character,
because there's so much going on for him, and I
knew all of it, and and it was just such
a slow kind of release of what's really what his
world's really like, so and I felt like, without wanting
to give it all away, I just felt like he
(09:17):
was so there was quite a lot of depth to him,
I felt Christopher. And it's so strange because of all
of this that on the surface he appears one way
and then you know there's so much more below the surface.
Speaker 4 (09:30):
Yeah, I like.
Speaker 6 (09:32):
I guess he's like, you know, the skipper or the
captain of a vessel is like a bartender where they
get all the all these stories. Everybody's always sharing and
dumping whatever is going on in their life. And they
probably do it for the captain of a boat as well,
especially with a smaller vessel, and they just keep piling
it up and adding to whatever is going on in
(09:53):
their life too.
Speaker 5 (09:54):
Yeah, that's right, And I think that you've got to
have characters In a book like this, where it's a
journey narrative, you have to have characters that are on
the run. You have to so when we just are like, oh,
they're on the run from something, but it's important that
they don't know what.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
And that was the key with Christopher.
Speaker 5 (10:11):
I felt like, yeah, he's he's got a few things
that he's escaping, but what exactly are they is a
different was a different thing, and it was really fun
to twist that yeah, because.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
I didn't know with him, and I really liked that
character too.
Speaker 8 (10:23):
I thought he was very complex, and I thought that
there were parts of me that I felt sorry for
him because I felt I felt his world spiraling and
and it was just like, you know, what is he
all about? Like what what did he do? What is
he running from?
Speaker 2 (10:40):
What is you know? And all that? Like I wanted
him to be the good guy, you know.
Speaker 8 (10:45):
I wanted that because I just kind of really liked
that character, and so it was really interesting how you
you weave that, and of course into his interactions with
everybody that's on the boat. When you were on you know,
back many years, do you ever feel unsafe when you
were on the border.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Is that something that twenty year olds, just don't think.
Speaker 5 (11:05):
About I feel unsafe from the people. The real life
Skipper was definitely kind of unraveling and was a little
over intensive. I would say that, which is but not unsafe.
But he did do this really strange thing. I'm sure
he's not.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
Going to listen every day.
Speaker 5 (11:28):
And I had this as a scene, but my editor
was like, that's so strange. I really don't think you
can put that in there. But he used to shave
up on which way would that be upwind of me?
Like every day he shaved. You get next to me
and shave and all the flex of his chin hair
(11:49):
get it off because it was so hot and I
was sweaty and you know, suncream so odd and he
I say, can you not?
Speaker 4 (11:58):
Can you not do that?
Speaker 5 (11:59):
But he thought it was funny and that kind of thing.
I really didn't obviously enjoy that.
Speaker 4 (12:05):
But there was also the fact that he was out.
Speaker 5 (12:09):
He was charted this owned this boat and as it
as we journeyed up this coast and across the Gulf
of Camfeteriat that's real at the very top of Australia,
it's very dangerous, like it's a shipping channel, so big
vessels are coming through in the night, and it kind
of emerged for me that he wasn't He didn't know
very much about what he was doing.
Speaker 4 (12:29):
So there was a.
Speaker 5 (12:30):
Time where we nearly we came various to colliding, and
I was woken by this massive wave that that tit
lurched our boat and lots of running steps, and I
woke up and I was like, what there was a
huge liner going by.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
You would just be a spec to an Oh my god.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
I never told my mom that that actually happened.
Speaker 5 (12:58):
That was really dangerou and I got off the boat
within a couple of days after that. But yeah, I
mean things like that. I didn't put that in the
boat in the book.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
I mean because well, there was enough else going on.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
But yeah, yeah, they have a lot going Yeah, yeah,
they have a lot going on.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
What a perfect place to escape to. Like you look
at why Ivy escaped to the boat. She was afraid
that she was going to get caught. The skipper, you know,
he's got his whole story with the daughter, and even
the chef had the backstory about the accident.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Back home.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
They've all kind of just left Land in hopes of
like all of that going away and just being on
this boat for pure escapism, right, and you think about
are there people in the world who do that or
just living somewhere where they can't be found sailing around.
Speaker 5 (13:47):
I think it's a classic you're on the run from
somebody and you jump onto whatever was available and then
find out it's a worse situation than the one you're Well,
I think that's a classic thriller setup.
Speaker 8 (13:59):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've never been to Australia, but I
definitely want to go.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (14:09):
Yeah, we sort of like, you know, the you know,
when you're writing, like how much of the area that
you wrote about, like where you placed this novel, this
this thriller, how much was the character was was there
a character in sort of the sea and the boat
and just where you were because obviously it's very hot,
(14:31):
you know, and and being in kind of remote like
that island that they docked at that was sketch. Oh
my gosh, I could just oh please don't please, don't
get off the boat, please don't get off.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
But like you know, those things play characters as well.
Speaker 8 (14:46):
And then like how important was that for you as
you were writing to sort of kind of build this
world to add to the edginess definitely.
Speaker 4 (14:56):
I mean everything you said, I think that you have.
Speaker 5 (14:59):
The boat itself has to be the world, the kind
of the arrival of other worlds in the characters will
bring other worlds onto the boat. But that setting was
really important, and I wanted to be a little bit
of ramshackle and not glitzy in any way. It's not
that kind of boat, and it has to be tight
and difficult to.
Speaker 4 (15:20):
Live on really.
Speaker 5 (15:22):
But then, and I do remember from crewing, because I
crewed on this boat for a.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
Month and we traveled up the exact path and it.
Speaker 5 (15:29):
Was such a tiny Your world really shrinks to the boat.
And then you can't see land. It's really weird and
nothing else. Just I remember being up on the deck.
There's nothing for as far as you can see, just
a circle of water. The little town that a dock
at that you're talking about. That I made that one up. Okay,
all places that were more and more and more remote,
(15:51):
but that one.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
But Flint Beach, I think it's called Flint Beach.
Speaker 5 (15:53):
It's fictional, but that's been what a lot of them
look like, this kind of quite But I loved my
time in Australia and that the journey I went on
was obviously really forms it for me because I wanted
to write a book about it and to revisit it.
It was really fun because it was an amazing journey
that I went on, and obviously mine went well, with
(16:14):
a few exceptions of almost dying with that.
Speaker 4 (16:16):
You know the liner in the about.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
One moment, about the one moment?
Speaker 7 (16:23):
Do you like while you.
Speaker 6 (16:26):
Were writing and maybe thinking back to that time again
in your twenties, there's a crazy adrenaline rush, exhilarating And
is that what was happening as you were writing?
Speaker 4 (16:38):
Like did you have this high?
Speaker 6 (16:40):
Or were you like, oh my god, I need to
take a break because this is too much like the emotions.
Are they as as as vibrant as they were at
the time, or like, because you're writing it as characters,
is it a little different your emotions?
Speaker 4 (16:57):
I think it's really for me. I've written two travel.
Speaker 5 (17:00):
Through based on the adventures I had in my twenties,
and so with the Hunted was the one before, and
then now with the Offing, both of them actually were
really nostalgics, right and really enjoyable to go back to
that time in my life felt free, actually to be
back twenty five year old body and mind a little bit,
(17:23):
and it wasn't And because its characters and because I'm
creating the plot, none of this is real. I take
det reel and then just kind of switch them a
bit or kind of developed them into uncomfortable a bit.
But none of that is worrying for me. It doesn't
make me think. I don't feel like I need a
breather from it. If anything, I love being back in
(17:44):
that and I loved writing Your Thing, and I loved
dristing the hunting as well.
Speaker 4 (17:47):
So it was fun. It was like it was almost
like getting out.
Speaker 5 (17:50):
An archived section of photographs that you've stored because it
was so aferent and colorful and.
Speaker 4 (17:58):
The prime of your life.
Speaker 5 (18:00):
And spending eight months back there again it was really
it's really fun. But the next thriller I'm working on
isn't a trouble thriller. And I'm actually working on a
boat that's not even a thriller. I don't know if
I'm allowed to talk about it, but anyway, that's kind
of between us.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
Well, wouldn't you, if given the opportunity now to just
jump on a random boat and go with people you
don't know, would you do it? No, not even us.
Speaker 5 (18:29):
We've had a chat all right, water is now I
have a sixteen year old daughter, and if she's come on,
you know, I'm going traveling next year once I've graduated,
and I'm I'm off to Australia, going to crown a
boat and I'm not taking a phone and you won't
hear from me for a month.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
I definitely wouldn't it.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
Yeah, I feel like that's just it. You know, like
we were so not heavily monitored by our parents, just
that generation that now it's like almost a bit of
that helicopter parenting, tracking our children where are they way?
I think back to all the places that I was
and my parents had no idea where I was.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
I'm thinking, right, you're just going to have to come
with you with my daughter.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Yeah, you seem like a pretty cool mom.
Speaker 8 (19:15):
I don't think she'd be you know, i'd have you along.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Well, we look forward to your next project. So is
there a release date that we can kind of keep
our eyes out for you still in the rating process?
Speaker 4 (19:31):
I mean I don't, I haven't.
Speaker 5 (19:33):
There has been no official announcement of the deal I
have signed, so I'm waiting to be able to mention
that properly.
Speaker 4 (19:41):
I'm not sure I'm allowed to, but I have.
Speaker 5 (19:43):
I can tell you I have signed a deal for
a series, and it's not a thriller.
Speaker 4 (19:50):
I can tell you that. And the first.
Speaker 5 (19:53):
Book in the series is due to be out in
about in kind of spring of next year, so it's
quite soon. So it's all written and I'm kind of
late in the editing stages, so we're getting Yeah. I mean,
it's moving along, and I don't know when the announcement
will be, but I'm writing under my name, so you're
I mean it will be announced shortly.
Speaker 4 (20:14):
I think, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Exciting.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
I just have to follow you on social Yes, wait for.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
That before you go.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
If this was going to be turned into a movie
or a series, who are you casting in these roles?
Speaker 4 (20:27):
Funny you'd ask, because that's I'm not allowed to make.
Speaker 5 (20:31):
But there have been discussions around optioning. But I don't Again,
I don't really think I'm allowed to talk about it,
but however, I'll ask that question.
Speaker 4 (20:41):
I think her name is Daisy Edgar Jones.
Speaker 5 (20:44):
I would cast her as Ivy and I also said
Zendaia for reading.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Asked.
Speaker 5 (20:50):
I don't know if you watched season one of White
Loasis the Concierge.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
His name's Murray Bart.
Speaker 5 (20:55):
The actor play Australian as well, and I cast him
as Christopher.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Oh interesting, Oh yeah, you'd be good. That's good casting
right there.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Oh yeah, so much.
Speaker 6 (21:07):
Talking about wondering if we'd be able to see these
characters again. But I guess with your next series, it's
it's not the same characters that will be part of it.
Speaker 5 (21:18):
No, no, And I've written another thriller which has nothing
to do with this one, so yeah, they will see.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
And the next one is not.
Speaker 5 (21:27):
We're not I haven't quite got to the end of
it yet, but it's not a yeah, definitely, it's not
travel thriller particularly, So yeah, no, they all they just
exist for one book and then and then I kind
of send them away into the into the stratosphere and
again again.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Out in the water.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
Right, Well, we're going to have to go back and
read The Hunted. I'm eager to read that.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
You have a lot going on. Do you find it?
Speaker 8 (21:56):
Do you find the ideas for these new projects just
come to you and you can just write or is
it difficult? Is it or just depending on what you're
writing about.
Speaker 5 (22:05):
If I look back at the books I've written, and
I've written four published thrillers, and then I've signed series
for two books so far, but it's all all of
them are about in some way, either things I'm doing
currently or things I have done as kind of adventures.
And it's just it's true again, of the series I've signed,
it's pretty much a cog of my last year of
(22:29):
my life in a kind of not a scary way,
in that kind of funny way. So, yeah, so I
think what happens to me is I am living a
certain situation or have a certain stored memory, and then
I'll think it's.
Speaker 4 (22:43):
Such a that would be really interesting and thriller form.
Speaker 5 (22:46):
And I am always thinking like that, how could you
turn them? Yeah, so I think that's take things that
are real to me and I and I switched them.
Speaker 4 (22:57):
I switched them a bit, make them worse or funnier.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Well, we thoroughly enjoyed the book.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
Yeah, it was a it was a it was a
fast read read for us because we were just flipping through,
flipping through, and all of us we just you didn't
know what was going to happen. And obviously like yeah,
like you said that makes for a good thriller when
you can just hold on to the edge of your
seat till the end. And yeah, I never knew that
line in the ocean was called the offing, so it
was interesting to learn that as well.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
Pleasure. I didn't know that either until I was writing
the book.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
I thought at first it was like the offing because
one by one they were going to get off in
this book, and I was like, this is what's going
to happen.
Speaker 5 (23:36):
But it's perfect. And also something in the offing. I
think that that phrase to have something be in the offing,
it probably comes from it is a nautical term. I think,
like something's in the exwards you from the far distance. Yeah,
so it worked as a as a kind of bit
of menace in the Totle.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Yeah, m hmm, fantastic, fantastic.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
Well, thank you so much for joining us and spending
your lunch break with us. We really enjoyed it and
we look forward to your next project.
Speaker 5 (24:11):
Oh, thank you. It's really really fun chatting with you.
And I will go on a boat with you anytime.
Speaker 8 (24:16):
Oh yeah, sounds good, as long as when we anchor
we can see land. Yes, I don't know about like
being on a boat and seeing nothing but water.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
Epic.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
Oh boy I did that.
Speaker 5 (24:31):
But yeah, yeah, thanks, good story.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Yeah did it ever?
Speaker 1 (24:39):
Thanks so much?
Speaker 6 (24:40):
All right, thank you, bye bye bye.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
Thank you for kicking back and relaxing with us. We
hope you'll join us again on relaxing reads.
Join us and online with a good book. Welcome to
Relaxing Reads. Hi, it's Devin Halifax. Hi, it's Simone in Vancouver.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Hey, it's Tanya and Edmonton.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
In this episode, we're so excited to welcome Rosney, the
author of the Offing. Hi Roz, Hi, Hi Deb, So
Roz Deb is in Halifax. I'm in Vancouver and now
we've got Tanya here in Edmonton. Roz, where are you
joining us from?
Speaker 4 (00:25):
Hi live in Nelson.
Speaker 5 (00:27):
I've just started a new job and I am in
like a little tiny office on my lunch break.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Thank you for joining us. We're glad we can have
your time.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
I will have Deb lead us off, and we've just
got some questions for you after we all enjoyed the Offing.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
So, yeah, Deb, why don't you lead us in?
Speaker 6 (00:44):
Well, ros we are so happy that you are with us.
Speaker 7 (00:47):
And this is really just a one sitting page turning bingebook,
A great thriller that really surprised all of us when
we had discussed.
Speaker 6 (00:58):
It earlier with Howard. So we need to know where
it all came from. Where was the idea, when did
it come to you? And where was that spark moment
that kicked it all off, were you?
Speaker 5 (01:12):
Yeah, well, I think what I would say with this
book and with a couple of thrillers that I've written,
I spent my twenties prioritizing adventure above all else. And
so what I did was hair brain, super dangerous things
that I would hate for my own daughter to do.
But that now, you know, with the hindsight of twenty
(01:33):
years plus since then, I can look back at all
those adventures I had in these really amazing, perfect setups,
and what I really am doing is retelling a story
that I've lived, but I just turn it so everything that.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
Could have gone wrong really did go wrong.
Speaker 5 (01:50):
So when I was in my twenties, I crew on
the very boat that's in the book.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
I jumped. Oh, I know, it's crazy.
Speaker 5 (01:58):
I jumped on a boat with a dad and a
daughter and a cat and another backpacker I'd never met before,
and I had no phone, no contact with anybody, And
because I think ho Bely does immortal or something, I
just went up and did the exact journey, except that
in my version of it everything was fine.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
I was about to say, I was like, where is
this going? You have experienced this? But wow, I think
you know, and it's probably like.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
You said, you were in your twenties. When we're in
our twenties, we just we don't think we do right,
and as we get older, we get so so anxious.
But you being on that experience and that not actually happening.
So where did all the ideas come from from? From
what we got to read?
Speaker 4 (02:45):
A lot of it's very close.
Speaker 5 (02:46):
Like there's there's a chapter where they're all night swimming.
They're night swimming off the back of the boat. That's
pretty close to and like the things that you know,
I mean, other boats pulling up and you're not quite
sure who's on them and what's in the water, and
all of that's real. And this I probably can say
(03:06):
this because it's probably fairly safety. But the skipper that
I was on the boat with was a little bit odd,
so I basically.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Part of the job.
Speaker 5 (03:16):
Like he had a whole backstory that came out through
the course of being on the boat with him, and
his life was in massive tail spin that none of
us knew about when we got on the boat, but
it just kind.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
Of emerged gradually.
Speaker 5 (03:29):
And you know, in my version of the real story
that was just kind of a sad thing for him,
But obviously I took that, I took bits of it
and just turned it up a notch.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (03:40):
Well, and I think that, you know, some of the
tension that you have or how you've written is, you know,
we think about, you know, when we're in our twenties,
we're all probably around the same age, and it's like,
you didn't have cell phones, Like I think about, you know,
I went backpacking, you know, across Europe, and I didn't
have a phone, and I didn't have like I just
wonder like.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
How how we survived. And of course you've got your characters.
Speaker 8 (04:03):
Where their their phones go missing, and you know, we
can all feel that because if we just misplace our
phones in our daily lives, we're like, oh, you know,
everything's going to help. But you know, back in your twenties,
it's like you didn't even have that. So that was
like a safety net that that these girls fortunately had.
But then it also added to sort of the tension
(04:24):
of like things going missing and what brave young women
those girls were or just crazy, Like you said, they're
like young and you don't think, you know, you don't
think anything's going to happen to you, and you just
sort of go.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
I sometimes feel like I want to live that again.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
Editor.
Speaker 5 (04:44):
My editor said early on when I when I pitched
the book, she was going nobody, no, right, no young
girl in her right mind would ever get on that boat.
That just would never happen. And I had to be like, well,
actually in his story, because that would be me.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (05:01):
And the cell phone thing is as a thriller writer,
you at some point in these books you have to
get rid of the cell phones because you can't have
them communicating too easily. So that's another little thing. And
the other part about this book that was tricky. It's
always fun to write, just as a side note, always
really fun to write early.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
Twenties characters because they are so impetuous.
Speaker 5 (05:20):
And they always do rash things, and their perfin thrillers
I find.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
But yeah, the other thing that I had to try.
Speaker 5 (05:27):
And invent in this book that was quite tricky structurally
was this sense for the reader that things are going
wrong on the things are not okay on the boats,
but in a way that isn't so obvious for the
girls because they would just get off the boat. So
that kind of balance was quite tricky in terms of
structure writing this because I needed them to stay on,
but I also needed it to be a thriller that
(05:49):
things are going wrong. So that's why I created this
kind of dual timeline where you've got at least that
happening kind of in real time, and so you, as
a reader, you get to see things that the girls
come see.
Speaker 6 (06:04):
Yet Yeah, and you, the way you wrote it, you
were able to maintain the suspense for us, you know,
without giving too much away, because again, when we had
discussed it, it's like, no, we didn't see that coming,
didn't think that that might happen.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
It's true.
Speaker 5 (06:19):
It's a definitely dance you have to do as a
thriller writer. You have to, you know, build your twists
and your and your des and you're you kind of
I always feel like writing thrillers is like a mirror
game with your reader. So you're trying to predict where
the reader's going, and the reader's trying to predict where
you're going. And it's this It happens all the way through.
(06:41):
You really step, you know, in kind of lockstep. I
think I feel like you're meant to be with your reader,
so I'm always trying to think, hey, what have I
told you so far Where are you?
Speaker 4 (06:51):
What are you thinking?
Speaker 5 (06:52):
As a reader, And then I know that they're doing
that in reverse for me.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
Where am I going? What's happening? Where? You know? Where
the twists, but.
Speaker 5 (07:00):
You have to build them in so that there's good
payoff at the end so you don't feel cheated as
a reader.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (07:05):
Well, you know, when I was reading, I mean, your
red herrings are fantastic. I've got a cat playing in
the background, so if you hear a little pop, I
don't know what she's doing.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
I love that you have a cat in the book.
Speaker 8 (07:17):
But I just loved, you know, there was so many
you know, obviously with thrillers, you're always trying to figure
out like who did it? Like for real, you know,
and you take us down these paths and it's.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Like, it's gotta be that person.
Speaker 8 (07:28):
Then all of a sudden you find out, no, it's
not that person.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
And then you start going through the cast.
Speaker 8 (07:31):
And I actually, like very early on, and I feel
bad saying this.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
I was like, that's your kinge, Like is he because
is he a bad guy? Or is Ivy just.
Speaker 8 (07:42):
So messed up that she's missed, Like she's just you know,
kind of taking on a giving in her words, what
she thought was happening, but it wasn't really happening.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
So I kind of went down that road a little bit.
Speaker 8 (07:54):
And then I felt awful because what an awful, awful
character I couldn't tess. Yeah, so I was just like, oh, yeah,
you should have I got that one. But yeah, I
just love how you just sort of took us on
these rides and we really believed, you know that you
know what was going to happen, like it's definitely this person,
(08:15):
and then you get more information and more information, and
and it.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Just builds and builds and builds. It such such fun
to read. I couldn't put it down.
Speaker 4 (08:24):
Yeah, it's tricky.
Speaker 5 (08:25):
It's a tricky business writing thrillers because the readers are
very clever and and also if you've got a thriller reader,
it's likely that they've already read twenty thrillers this year,
so and they are they are following a formula. So
you have to try and write a good one that
keeps people on their toes and keeps them invested and
tricks them.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
It's difficult, and there was a lot of You did
such a great job with that with the two female
leads then, yeah, the father, the daughter, the chef, thatch
or all of these. Was there a certain character that
you really enjoyed writing for in this book?
Speaker 5 (08:57):
Actually, in this book, really loved Christopher for the skipper character,
because there's so much going on for him, and I
knew all of it, and and it was just such
a slow kind of release of what's really what his
world's really like, so and I felt like, without wanting
to give it all away, I just felt like he
(09:17):
was so there was quite a lot of depth to him,
I felt Christopher. And it's so strange because of all
of this that on the surface he appears one way
and then you know there's so much more below the surface.
Speaker 4 (09:30):
Yeah, I like.
Speaker 6 (09:32):
I guess he's like, you know, the skipper or the
captain of a vessel is like a bartender where they
get all the all these stories. Everybody's always sharing and
dumping whatever is going on in their life. And they
probably do it for the captain of a boat as well,
especially with a smaller vessel, and they just keep piling
it up and adding to whatever is going on in
(09:53):
their life too.
Speaker 5 (09:54):
Yeah, that's right, And I think that you've got to
have characters In a book like this, where it's a
journey narrative, you have to have characters that are on
the run. You have to so when we just are like, oh,
they're on the run from something, but it's important that
they don't know what.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
And that was the key with Christopher.
Speaker 5 (10:11):
I felt like, yeah, he's he's got a few things
that he's escaping, but what exactly are they is a
different was a different thing, and it was really fun
to twist that yeah, because.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
I didn't know with him, and I really liked that
character too.
Speaker 8 (10:23):
I thought he was very complex, and I thought that
there were parts of me that I felt sorry for
him because I felt I felt his world spiraling and
and it was just like, you know, what is he
all about? Like what what did he do? What is
he running from?
Speaker 2 (10:40):
What is you know? And all that? Like I wanted
him to be the good guy, you know.
Speaker 8 (10:45):
I wanted that because I just kind of really liked
that character, and so it was really interesting how you
you weave that, and of course into his interactions with
everybody that's on the boat. When you were on you know,
back many years, do you ever feel unsafe when you
were on the border.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Is that something that twenty year olds, just don't think.
Speaker 5 (11:05):
About I feel unsafe from the people. The real life
Skipper was definitely kind of unraveling and was a little
over intensive. I would say that, which is but not unsafe.
But he did do this really strange thing. I'm sure
he's not.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
Going to listen every day.
Speaker 5 (11:28):
And I had this as a scene, but my editor
was like, that's so strange. I really don't think you
can put that in there. But he used to shave
up on which way would that be upwind of me?
Like every day he shaved. You get next to me
and shave and all the flex of his chin hair
(11:49):
get it off because it was so hot and I
was sweaty and you know, suncream so odd and he
I say, can you not?
Speaker 4 (11:58):
Can you not do that?
Speaker 5 (11:59):
But he thought it was funny and that kind of thing.
I really didn't obviously enjoy that.
Speaker 4 (12:05):
But there was also the fact that he was out.
Speaker 5 (12:09):
He was charted this owned this boat and as it
as we journeyed up this coast and across the Gulf
of Camfeteriat that's real at the very top of Australia,
it's very dangerous, like it's a shipping channel, so big
vessels are coming through in the night, and it kind
of emerged for me that he wasn't He didn't know
very much about what he was doing.
Speaker 4 (12:29):
So there was a.
Speaker 5 (12:30):
Time where we nearly we came various to colliding, and
I was woken by this massive wave that that tit
lurched our boat and lots of running steps, and I
woke up and I was like, what there was a
huge liner going by.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
You would just be a spec to an Oh my god.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
I never told my mom that that actually happened.
Speaker 5 (12:58):
That was really dangerou and I got off the boat
within a couple of days after that. But yeah, I
mean things like that. I didn't put that in the
boat in the book.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
I mean because well, there was enough else going on.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
But yeah, yeah, they have a lot going Yeah, yeah,
they have a lot going on.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
What a perfect place to escape to. Like you look
at why Ivy escaped to the boat. She was afraid
that she was going to get caught. The skipper, you know,
he's got his whole story with the daughter, and even
the chef had the backstory about the accident.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Back home.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
They've all kind of just left Land in hopes of
like all of that going away and just being on
this boat for pure escapism, right, and you think about
are there people in the world who do that or
just living somewhere where they can't be found sailing around.
Speaker 5 (13:47):
I think it's a classic you're on the run from
somebody and you jump onto whatever was available and then
find out it's a worse situation than the one you're Well,
I think that's a classic thriller setup.
Speaker 8 (13:59):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've never been to Australia, but I
definitely want to go.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (14:09):
Yeah, we sort of like, you know, the you know,
when you're writing, like how much of the area that
you wrote about, like where you placed this novel, this
this thriller, how much was the character was was there
a character in sort of the sea and the boat
and just where you were because obviously it's very hot,
(14:31):
you know, and and being in kind of remote like
that island that they docked at that was sketch. Oh
my gosh, I could just oh please don't please, don't
get off the boat, please don't get off.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
But like you know, those things play characters as well.
Speaker 8 (14:46):
And then like how important was that for you as
you were writing to sort of kind of build this
world to add to the edginess definitely.
Speaker 4 (14:56):
I mean everything you said, I think that you have.
Speaker 5 (14:59):
The boat itself has to be the world, the kind
of the arrival of other worlds in the characters will
bring other worlds onto the boat. But that setting was
really important, and I wanted to be a little bit
of ramshackle and not glitzy in any way. It's not
that kind of boat, and it has to be tight
and difficult to.
Speaker 4 (15:20):
Live on really.
Speaker 5 (15:22):
But then, and I do remember from crewing, because I
crewed on this boat for a.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
Month and we traveled up the exact path and it.
Speaker 5 (15:29):
Was such a tiny Your world really shrinks to the boat.
And then you can't see land. It's really weird and
nothing else. Just I remember being up on the deck.
There's nothing for as far as you can see, just
a circle of water. The little town that a dock
at that you're talking about. That I made that one up. Okay,
all places that were more and more and more remote,
(15:51):
but that one.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
But Flint Beach, I think it's called Flint Beach.
Speaker 5 (15:53):
It's fictional, but that's been what a lot of them
look like, this kind of quite But I loved my
time in Australia and that the journey I went on
was obviously really forms it for me because I wanted
to write a book about it and to revisit it.
It was really fun because it was an amazing journey
that I went on, and obviously mine went well, with
(16:14):
a few exceptions of almost dying with that.
Speaker 4 (16:16):
You know the liner in the about.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
One moment, about the one moment?
Speaker 7 (16:23):
Do you like while you.
Speaker 6 (16:26):
Were writing and maybe thinking back to that time again
in your twenties, there's a crazy adrenaline rush, exhilarating And
is that what was happening as you were writing?
Speaker 4 (16:38):
Like did you have this high?
Speaker 6 (16:40):
Or were you like, oh my god, I need to
take a break because this is too much like the emotions.
Are they as as as vibrant as they were at
the time, or like, because you're writing it as characters,
is it a little different your emotions?
Speaker 4 (16:57):
I think it's really for me. I've written two travel.
Speaker 5 (17:00):
Through based on the adventures I had in my twenties,
and so with the Hunted was the one before, and
then now with the Offing, both of them actually were
really nostalgics, right and really enjoyable to go back to
that time in my life felt free, actually to be
back twenty five year old body and mind a little bit,
(17:23):
and it wasn't And because its characters and because I'm
creating the plot, none of this is real. I take
det reel and then just kind of switch them a
bit or kind of developed them into uncomfortable a bit.
But none of that is worrying for me. It doesn't
make me think. I don't feel like I need a
breather from it. If anything, I love being back in
(17:44):
that and I loved writing Your Thing, and I loved
dristing the hunting as well.
Speaker 4 (17:47):
So it was fun. It was like it was almost
like getting out.
Speaker 5 (17:50):
An archived section of photographs that you've stored because it
was so aferent and colorful and.
Speaker 4 (17:58):
The prime of your life.
Speaker 5 (18:00):
And spending eight months back there again it was really
it's really fun. But the next thriller I'm working on
isn't a trouble thriller. And I'm actually working on a
boat that's not even a thriller. I don't know if
I'm allowed to talk about it, but anyway, that's kind
of between us.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
Well, wouldn't you, if given the opportunity now to just
jump on a random boat and go with people you
don't know, would you do it? No, not even us.
Speaker 5 (18:29):
We've had a chat all right, water is now I
have a sixteen year old daughter, and if she's come on,
you know, I'm going traveling next year once I've graduated,
and I'm I'm off to Australia, going to crown a
boat and I'm not taking a phone and you won't
hear from me for a month.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
I definitely wouldn't it.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
Yeah, I feel like that's just it. You know, like
we were so not heavily monitored by our parents, just
that generation that now it's like almost a bit of
that helicopter parenting, tracking our children where are they way?
I think back to all the places that I was
and my parents had no idea where I was.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
I'm thinking, right, you're just going to have to come
with you with my daughter.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Yeah, you seem like a pretty cool mom.
Speaker 8 (19:15):
I don't think she'd be you know, i'd have you along.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Well, we look forward to your next project. So is
there a release date that we can kind of keep
our eyes out for you still in the rating process?
Speaker 4 (19:31):
I mean I don't, I haven't.
Speaker 5 (19:33):
There has been no official announcement of the deal I
have signed, so I'm waiting to be able to mention
that properly.
Speaker 4 (19:41):
I'm not sure I'm allowed to, but I have.
Speaker 5 (19:43):
I can tell you I have signed a deal for
a series, and it's not a thriller.
Speaker 4 (19:50):
I can tell you that. And the first.
Speaker 5 (19:53):
Book in the series is due to be out in
about in kind of spring of next year, so it's
quite soon. So it's all written and I'm kind of
late in the editing stages, so we're getting Yeah. I mean,
it's moving along, and I don't know when the announcement
will be, but I'm writing under my name, so you're
I mean it will be announced shortly.
Speaker 4 (20:14):
I think, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Exciting.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
I just have to follow you on social Yes, wait for.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
That before you go.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
If this was going to be turned into a movie
or a series, who are you casting in these roles?
Speaker 4 (20:27):
Funny you'd ask, because that's I'm not allowed to make.
Speaker 5 (20:31):
But there have been discussions around optioning. But I don't Again,
I don't really think I'm allowed to talk about it,
but however, I'll ask that question.
Speaker 4 (20:41):
I think her name is Daisy Edgar Jones.
Speaker 5 (20:44):
I would cast her as Ivy and I also said
Zendaia for reading.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
Asked.
Speaker 5 (20:50):
I don't know if you watched season one of White
Loasis the Concierge.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
His name's Murray Bart.
Speaker 5 (20:55):
The actor play Australian as well, and I cast him
as Christopher.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Oh interesting, Oh yeah, you'd be good. That's good casting
right there.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Oh yeah, so much.
Speaker 6 (21:07):
Talking about wondering if we'd be able to see these
characters again. But I guess with your next series, it's
it's not the same characters that will be part of it.
Speaker 5 (21:18):
No, no, And I've written another thriller which has nothing
to do with this one, so yeah, they will see.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
And the next one is not.
Speaker 5 (21:27):
We're not I haven't quite got to the end of
it yet, but it's not a yeah, definitely, it's not
travel thriller particularly, So yeah, no, they all they just
exist for one book and then and then I kind
of send them away into the into the stratosphere and
again again.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Out in the water.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
Right, Well, we're going to have to go back and
read The Hunted. I'm eager to read that.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
You have a lot going on. Do you find it?
Speaker 8 (21:56):
Do you find the ideas for these new projects just
come to you and you can just write or is
it difficult? Is it or just depending on what you're
writing about.
Speaker 5 (22:05):
If I look back at the books I've written, and
I've written four published thrillers, and then I've signed series
for two books so far, but it's all all of
them are about in some way, either things I'm doing
currently or things I have done as kind of adventures.
And it's just it's true again, of the series I've signed,
it's pretty much a cog of my last year of
(22:29):
my life in a kind of not a scary way,
in that kind of funny way. So, yeah, so I
think what happens to me is I am living a
certain situation or have a certain stored memory, and then
I'll think it's.
Speaker 4 (22:43):
Such a that would be really interesting and thriller form.
Speaker 5 (22:46):
And I am always thinking like that, how could you
turn them? Yeah, so I think that's take things that
are real to me and I and I switched them.
Speaker 4 (22:57):
I switched them a bit, make them worse or funnier.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Well, we thoroughly enjoyed the book.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
Yeah, it was a it was a it was a
fast read read for us because we were just flipping through,
flipping through, and all of us we just you didn't
know what was going to happen. And obviously like yeah,
like you said that makes for a good thriller when
you can just hold on to the edge of your
seat till the end. And yeah, I never knew that
line in the ocean was called the offing, so it
was interesting to learn that as well.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
Pleasure. I didn't know that either until I was writing
the book.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
I thought at first it was like the offing because
one by one they were going to get off in
this book, and I was like, this is what's going
to happen.
Speaker 5 (23:36):
But it's perfect. And also something in the offing. I
think that that phrase to have something be in the offing,
it probably comes from it is a nautical term. I think,
like something's in the exwards you from the far distance. Yeah,
so it worked as a as a kind of bit
of menace in the Totle.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Yeah, m hmm, fantastic, fantastic.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
Well, thank you so much for joining us and spending
your lunch break with us. We really enjoyed it and
we look forward to your next project.
Speaker 5 (24:11):
Oh, thank you. It's really really fun chatting with you.
And I will go on a boat with you anytime.
Speaker 8 (24:16):
Oh yeah, sounds good, as long as when we anchor
we can see land. Yes, I don't know about like
being on a boat and seeing nothing but water.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
Epic.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
Oh boy I did that.
Speaker 5 (24:31):
But yeah, yeah, thanks, good story.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Yeah did it ever?
Speaker 1 (24:39):
Thanks so much?
Speaker 6 (24:40):
All right, thank you, bye bye bye.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
Thank you for kicking back and relaxing with us. We
hope you'll join us again on relaxing reads.
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