![\"\"](\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2025\/05\/PicturesofYoubookcov_15268.jpg\")
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While it never saw the light of day, Grey went on to write six books.<\/p>\n
Her first adult novel, The Last Love Note, is set in the Byron Shire and was written in the wake of her husband’s unexpected death from heart disease.<\/p>\n
After being published by Penguin Books Australia, the novel \u2014 which includes a scene at the Byron Writers Festival \u2014 was picked up by a New York publisher and reached the USA Today bestseller list.<\/p>\n
Pictures of You, the novel now headed for the screen, was inspired by her daughter Hannah’s doctoral research into gendered violence and explores a storyline centered on coercive control.<\/p>\n
The project caught the attention of Magpie Pictures after Grey’s Newcastle-based literary agent began discussions with founder Lois Randall.<\/p>\n
“It feels deliciously full circle to have signed a screen option with a Ballina production company, who are now looking to co-produce it with American producers and create a series that will resonate with viewers in both countries,” she said.<\/p>\n
“I think my fourteen-year-old self would be delirious with excitement.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
AFTER beginning her writing career in the Northern Rivers as a teenager, author Emma Grey is thrilled that Ballina-based TV production company Magpie Pictures has optioned the screen rights to her novel Pictures of You. Grey’s mum Claire Burnham was born in Bangalow and raised in Nashua, while her father Barrie Virtue was born in […]<\/p>\n