Sarah Barrie’s rural mysteries feature strong women who don’t need rescuing – women very much after Sarah’s own heart.

Hi there!  I’m your host Jenny Wheeler and today Sarah talks about why city women love reading romantic suspense set in rural Australia, and running a farm while also writing best sellers.

Six things you’ll learn from this Joys of Binge Reading episode:

Why 'finding your man' isn't the whole answer

How 'writing what you know' worked for her

The place that most closely resembles "Hunter's Ridge" of her stories

Knowledge is power - what she'd do differently

The writers she admires most

Fitting writing into her schedule as farmer and mother

Where to find Sarah Barrie: 

Website: http://www.sarahbarrieauthor.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sarah.barrie.969

What follows is a "near as" transcript of our conversation, not word for word but pretty close to it, with links to important mentions.

Jenny: But now, here’s Sarah. .  Hello there Sarah and welcome to the show, it’s great to have you with us.

Sarah Barrie - popular romantic suspense

 Sarah: Thanks Jenny, it's great to be here.

Jenny:   Beginning at the beginning - was there a “Once Upon A Time” moment when you decided you wanted to write fiction?  And if there was a catalyst, what was it?

Sarah: Well I used to devour my grandmother's Mills & Boon  books as a kid, I really enjoyed them a lot. I loved the romance, and the exotic places, and all the wonderful stories. But I guess what was considered romantic  at the time was the women; they all needed rescuing. That was something I wasn't really a huge fan of. So I just didn't come to that. It didn't meet my ideals of strong women, and I 'd get frustrated, and come up with alternatives in my mind and start rewriting the story. So right back when I was a teenager, I started playing around with writing. Later as a journalist, I decided I wanted to give it a proper go, and wrote my first novel when I was in my early thirties.

Jenny: Great! What happened to that particular manuscript?

Sarah: The first one I wrote is never to be seen again. The second one, I actually wrote it as an entry for one of the Romance Writers of Australia competitions. I didn't expect it really to do much. It did pretty well points wise, and so I subbed it to Escape Publishing, and Kate Cuthbert who is absolutely lovely was very supportive, and managed to get it published for me.

Jenny: Was that The Secrets of Whitewater Creek?

Sarah: No, that was just a short, romantic, contemporary romance called Getting Wild. It's short, it's a little bit of a comedy, and it was published through Escape. Secrets of Whitewater Creek I actually played with writing before that.

Jenny: And you chose romantic suspense as your genre?  Have you always been drawn to include suspense?

Sarah: Absolutely. Like I said, I really like to write about strong heroines. There's a danger element in it, getting a chance to build on that ideal. Also, it's a more complex story arc for me. I find it very hard to write full length romance, and to see the hero and heroine'complement each other in times of danger, and working things out together rather than one being rescued. I just found that the suspense genre gave me the scope to do that.

Jenny: Yes, I think one of the things I like about romantic suspense is that you do get a story in addition to a relationship, and the feeling that a relationship is the be all and end all of everything in life is something that I find a bit hard to swallow. It's the idea that if you find the right man, and everything going to be hunky dory from there on in.