By Bruce Buchanan

Eva Leppard comes to Wild Ink from the Australian state of Tasmania—“About as close to Antarctica as you can get without having to build an igloo,” she likes to say.

She brings with her a creativity honed by Douglas Adams and BBC television, a willingness to look at age-old questions in new ways, and a wicked sense of humor. Her third novel, THE BANE OF THE TROUBLESOME WOMAN, will be published April 28.

The novel takes a pointed and innovative look at the Biblical story of the Garden of Eden. THE BANE OF THE TROUBLESOME WOMAN focuses on Lilith, Adam’s first wife who was shunned for refusing to be quiet and play her role. But Eve hasn’t forgotten about her, and launches a mission to reassemble Lilith’s scattered selves.

Leppard recently took some time to discuss her writing journey, her work as a primary school teacher, and her new book with Wild Ink!

1. What made you want to become a writer?  When did you first know you wanted to write? 

I remember when I was about nine or so writing a story at school (about a lion called Jep) and I was SO PROUD that it was 20 pages long. (That said, I had illegible, scrawling, ADHD child handwriting, so it might have been only 200 words long, to be fair).

Anyway, the point is I was so proud of how long it was, but now, as a teacher of young children who get excited when they hand me 20 pages of illegible writing about lions or dragons or, more commonly these days, stories lifted from horror movie plots, I just feel really, really sorry for my teacher back in the ‘80s.

I stopped writing when I was young—probably the first time someone told me they didn’t like what I had created because me and resilience were not besties for the first four decades of my life.

Then, about 20 years ago, I met up with a friend from my younger years who said, “I always thought you would have been a writer.” And I went “Hahahahaha! Yeah, well, dreams die horribly eventually don’t they?” But that stayed bobbing around in my mind until at about 45 I went, “Shit! I was supposed to be a writer!!” And I started writing.

Order The Bane of the Troublesome Woman here.

2. Who are your favorite writers/literary influences?

My main influences would be mainly Douglas Adams, and all the BBC shows that I watched in the 70s (although I am considerably less sexist/ misogynist/ racist and homophobic than the majority of them, I should add). They forged my sense of humour and the way that I refuse to take anything too seriously. My favourite writers depend on the book I’m reading at the time. I get caught up in someone and develop an obsessive parasocial relationship and want to read everything they have ever created. I do love Hemingway, and Stephen King, and Virginia Wolf and Shirley Jackson and Ruth Park.

3. What is your writing background?  

Well apart from the infamous 20-page story from nine-year-old Eva, I started by writing short stories. I’d never even thought about trying them before, but I knew that some of the most memorable things I’ve read have been short stories, like “Lamb to the Slaughter”, “The Lottery”, “There Will Come Soft Rains”, and “A Sound of Thunder”.

And once I had some stories published, I thought, “Right. Apparently I can do this,” and my first novel, THE PITFALLS OF BEING A GODESS was published in 2023 and my next one, MOTHER TROUBLE, came in 2025.

4. THE BANE OF THE TROUBLESOME WOMAN sounds amazing! How do you describe your book to people you meet?  

 I love mythology and I’ve always been fascinated by religion, and I take great delight in making fun of things that people tend to get frightfully serious about. So BANE is about how Eve, wife of Adam, finds out who she really is, and it absolutely isn’t the helpmeet to a psychopathic power hungry man like Adam. Along the way, she helps restore Lilith (of baby-eating devil fame although this was mostly untrue. Mostly) and falls in love with Zeus at a book group and saves him from a life of being a very toxic and irritating little man.

Obviously, there’s lots more to it and none of that is really the arc of the story, but my skill lies in writing 90,000 words and being totally unable to sum it up adequately.

5. You are a proponent of using social media to promote your work. What are your tips for other writers looking to connect with readers on the socials?

I’m not an expert, but I do love social media and think it’s the perfect antidote to the gatekeeping that the publishing industry sometimes can be accused of.

Basically, you have to see social media as a community. You can’t just jump in and expect to sell books. You need to build connections, be the kind of person that you want to see there. My main forum is X, and I make sure that I’m chatting to people, sharing information about myself, supporting others, and reading their books and talking about them.

So be authentic and genuinely enjoy spending time in the writing or reading space. You will gradually build up a community of people who support you, and who you can support in turn.

6. Tell us about being a teacher—how does that impact your writing? Do any of your students know you are a published author and, if so, what do they think about that? 

The main thing about being a teacher is I absolutely can’t write on workdays. At the end of the day when I have had 80 million conversations, I can barely talk to my own kids, let along write words that are strung together and make sense. So it’s mainly holidays and sometimes on weekends when I have the inspiration. But I’m an incredibly haphazard writer and can write nothing for months at a time. My students know that I’m an author, but they also know that my books wouldn’t appeal to them. I say that there’s swearing and it might not be appropriate. And then they remind me that I said shit the other day when I jammed my finger and I say, “Fair point….”

I have promised to write a YA one day that they can enjoy, so I should get on that.

7. What’s next from Eva Leppard? What are you currently working on? 

I have another book coming out with Wild Ink next year, and at the moment, I am writing a contemporary women’s fiction story about reinventing yourself in middle age. It doesn’t have any fantasy elements though, and I’m finding it very hard not adding in any dimensional jumps or old ladies with suspiciously precise knowledge of what the trees are talking about.

I’m also creating some writing courses; not about the specifics of writing, but more about the things I believe I have a special understanding of. The first is about finding your own voice and having the confidence to embrace your authenticity and the one I’m working on at the moment it around the idea of using whimsy and humour to destabilise authoritative power structures.

8. Anything else you would like to add? 

If you’re a reader, then the very, very best thing you can do to help authors (apart from buying books) is leave reviews. People tell us they enjoy things, but they rarely take the time to hop online and leave a quick review. It honestly makes so much difference. And if you’re a writer then please remember age is never an issue. You can start writing for the first time at 70 and it won’t be too late. 

Order The Bane of the Troublesome Woman here.