This episode is long and all of it worth your attention, mostly because Allison Tait - who writes as A.L. Tait - is one of the most dynamic people working in Australian writing and publishing, and you can find her bio below. Also because it’s an unusual conversation we have for some of it - and that’s because Allison talks about her contemporary women’s fiction book being rejected by its publisher after it was accepted for publication and she did more work on it. The extra angle is that Sophie was her literary agent at that time.

So Sophie know Allison well. And Allison and Rachael have known each other for a while through Romance Writers of Australia. Therefore this is a free-flowing conversation in which Allison is also really honest about what it was like to have what was her big dream at the time - to be a published novelist - be crushed. 

So it’s about a massive disappointment, and also what she made of that and what her career became afterwards.

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Allison Tait (A.L. Tait) is the internationally published bestselling author of 12 middle-grade novels, including fantasy adventure series The Mapmaker Chronicles the Ateban Cipher novels, and the Maven & Reeve Mysteries.

Her first contemporary middle-grade novel THE FIRST SUMMER OF CALLIE McGEE was published in 2023 and was longlisted for the 2024 Margaret and Colin Roderick Literary Award.

Allison’s latest middle-grade novel WILLOW BRIGHT’S SECRET PLOT is out now (Scholastic 2025), with DANGER ROAD (Scholastic 2025) to follow on 1 July.

A multi-genre writer, creative writing teacher and speaker with many years’ experience in magazines, newspapers and online publishing, Allison is co-host of the top-rating Your Kid’s Next Read podcast and former co-host of the So You Want To Be A Writer podcast.

For more information about Rachael Johns: https://www.rachaeljohns.com

For more informationabout Sophie Green: https://sophiegreenauthor.com

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