Rebecca Rosenberg’s fascination with women who challenge convention has led her to write historical novels celebrating glorious women of past days – Charmian London, the unsung collaborator of writer Jack London’s work, and Baby Doe Tabor, once the richest woman in America.

Hi there I’m your host Jenny Wheeler and today Rebecca talks about losing everything in last year’s California’s fires, how writing helped her pull through, and her latest project, the story of the five remarkable widows who created Champagne. That's right . . Bubbles, the drink.

Six

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

Recovering from the disastrous California firesHow 'writing preserves her equilibriumThe remarkable women she writes aboutFun places to visit from her booksThe secret of her successWhat she'd do differently second time around

Where to find Rebecca Rosenberg:

Website: http://rebeccarosenberg.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rebeccarosenbergnovels/

Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7652050.Rebecca_Rosenberg

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/rebecca-rosenberg

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 Rebecca. .  Hello there Rebecca and welcome to the show, it’s great to have you with us.

Rebecca: [00:01:48]

Hi Jenny. I'm so excited to be here. I can't believe you're all the way

in Auckland and I'm in California. That's amazing.

Rebecca Rosenberg - Historical author

Jenny: [00:01:56] I know, and not just in California but on a lavender farm in California. That conjures up all sorts of wonderful images for me. And I'm just wondering what stage are you at with the farm at the moment? Are the bushes in bloom at the moment?

Rebecca: [00:02:10]

Ok so this is a crazy story, but our house and the entire farm burnt down

in those big California fires.

Jenny: [00:02:21] Oh

gosh Wow…. No . . ..

Rebecca: [00:02:24]

So that was pretty devastating. We have five acres of lavender and we

have a beautiful big lavender painted barn - or we used to have.

But every single thing burnt to the ground. Everything. Our house was actually made out of brick and tile and stone, but even it is down to the ground.

Rising from the ashes . . .

Rebecca and husband Gary in their lavender fields - before the fire....

But the good news is that we are replanting this month. So I

am so excited and I am going to share pictures of that because it's just

thrilling to be planting the lavender again.

Jenny: [00:03:03] My goodness I didn't pick up on that on your blog! I've can't have been looking closely enough! That's a big thing to go through isn't it?

Rebecca: [00:03:12] It has been a crazy year I've looked in five rental houses. It's been a lot but we're at this point where the house will be finished in September and our lavender field is going to take a whole new shape. I'm so excited. Instead of regular rows, we're doing concentric circles. Can you believe that? So it's gonna be fun to try something new.

Jenny: [00:03:41] You probably haven't had much time to devote to your books, but turning to the writing, was there once upon a time moment when you decided that you wanted to write fiction?

Nicole Alexander is an acclaimed voice in Australian rural fiction, with her new book Stone Country, her ninth historical novel, hitting the Top Ten best seller lists within days of release.

Hi there I’m your host Jenny Wheeler and today Nicole talks

about giving up a career in fashion to become a fourth generation grazier, the

vivid and visceral landscapes that give her work such a strong sense of place,

and the passionate emotion that drives her characters.

Six

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

What it's like being a fourth generation grazierThe power of settingLearning to live well in a man's worldWhy city slickers love country storiesThe writers she admires mostWhat she'd do differently second time around

Where to find Nicole Alexander:

Website: https://www.nicolealexander.com.au/

Facebook: @AuthorNicoleAlexander

 Twitter: @authorNicole

Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicole-alexander-45415524

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 Nicole. .  Hello there Nicole and welcome to the show, it’s great to have you with us.

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

Nicole Alexander: telling Australia's "Bush" stories

Nicole: [00:00:28] There was a catalyst I guess. I grew up

on a rural property surrounded with a lot of readers and storytellers. And my

father used to sit around the dining room table with us and regale us with all

these wonderful stories from the past. Tales that  had come down through the generations.

 [00:00:49] And one of those stories was about the actual settlement of our property.My great grandfather selected our land in 1893 and he chose a site for the homestead near the banks of a creek in that area.

 [00:01:04] And in those early days he had some men with him. They spent their time cutting timber and building fences and shepherding the sheep which they'd over-landed from another property to the east.

Now we're talking 1893 so as you can imagine the days and nights would have been equally long. And I always imagined that the monotony would have been quite extraordinary. That monotony was apparently only broken by the monthly arrival of the post.

The magic of reading

A supply rider would arrive on horseback delivering mail and other essential goods to those remoter settlers. And one thing that was delivered to my great grandfather in that first year of settlement was a book, a copy of Alexander Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo.

[00:01:54] It arrived wrapped up in brown paper and twine inside a saddle bag on the back of the pack horse. And you know when I think about that year. 1893, and the arrival of that novel, I can just imagine his excitement. I see him radiant, by the light of a flickering candle. Or sitting beneath fat lazy moons and the Bush stretching out around him in this really engulfing silence. That was the story I heard at a very early age.

 [00:02:30] And

that's one of the reasons why when I got a little bit older I started

considering the possibility of eventually writing about our past or history.

Jenny: It sparks the question in my mind. What made your great grandfather go there?  What did he do before he decided to go way out there?

Nicole: [00:02:53] Well. my father's side of the family

came from Ireland, and they went across to New Zealand first.

Jenny: [00:03:00] But they obviously didn’t stay there.

The Australian adventure begins

Nicole: [00:03:04] Well, I'm not quite sure why, but they'd heard that there'd been problems with the Maori Wars and the unrest. And I think that there was a little bit of a concern there. A lot of Irish, obviously as you would know,came across to New Zealand.

Nicole Alexander is an acclaimed voice in Australian rural fiction, with her new book Stone Country, her ninth historical novel, hitting the Top Ten best seller lists within days of release.

Hi there I’m your host Jenny Wheeler and today Nicole talks

about giving up a career in fashion to become a fourth generation grazier, the

vivid and visceral landscapes that give her work such a strong sense of place,

and the passionate emotion that drives her characters.

Six

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

What it's like being a fourth generation grazierThe power of settingLearning to live well in a man's worldWhy city slickers love country storiesThe writers she admires mostWhat she'd do differently second time around

Where to find Nicole Alexander:

Website: https://www.nicolealexander.com.au/

Facebook: @AuthorNicoleAlexander

 Twitter: @authorNicole

Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicole-alexander-45415524

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 Nicole. .  Hello there Nicole and welcome to the show, it’s great to have you with us.

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

Nicole Alexander: telling Australia's "Bush" stories

Nicole: [00:00:28] There was a catalyst I guess. I grew up

on a rural property surrounded with a lot of readers and storytellers. And my

father used to sit around the dining room table with us and regale us with all

these wonderful stories from the past. Tales that  had come down through the generations.

 [00:00:49] And one of those stories was about the actual settlement of our property.My great grandfather selected our land in 1893 and he chose a site for the homestead near the banks of a creek in that area.

 [00:01:04] And in those early days he had some men with him. They spent their time cutting timber and building fences and shepherding the sheep which they'd over-landed from another property to the east.

Now we're talking 1893 so as you can imagine the days and nights would have been equally long. And I always imagined that the monotony would have been quite extraordinary. That monotony was apparently only broken by the monthly arrival of the post.

The magic of reading

A supply rider would arrive on horseback delivering mail and other essential goods to those remoter settlers. And one thing that was delivered to my great grandfather in that first year of settlement was a book, a copy of Alexander Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo.

[00:01:54] It arrived wrapped up in brown paper and twine inside a saddle bag on the back of the pack horse. And you know when I think about that year. 1893, and the arrival of that novel, I can just imagine his excitement. I see him radiant, by the light of a flickering candle. Or sitting beneath fat lazy moons and the Bush stretching out around him in this really engulfing silence. That was the story I heard at a very early age.

 [00:02:30] And

that's one of the reasons why when I got a little bit older I started

considering the possibility of eventually writing about our past or history.

Jenny: It sparks the question in my mind. What made your great grandfather go there?

Mystery author Becky Clark’s cozy mysteries tease and

entertain with subtly dropped clues, masterly red herrings and lashings of

humor, much of it poked at the publishing world she loves.

Hi there I’m your host Jenny Wheeler and today Becky talks about the value of networking, her fascination with synaesthesia, and how being number seven in a family of eight influences her writing;

Six

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

Why she jokes she's a 'teenager in a middle aged body'How a son's request got her startedHer No 1 tip for beginning writersWhy she loves an empty calendar The writers she admires mostTalking 'forbidden topics' with other writers

Where to find Becky Clark:

Website: https://beckyclarkbooks.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BeckysBookBuddies

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4730815.Becky_Clark

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/becky-clark

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 Becky.  Hello there Becky and welcome to the show, it’s great to have you with us.

Becky: Hi Jenny. It's so great to be here it's exciting. It's is my very first podcast.

Jenny: Oh that's wonderful. Look I always start with this question that's very predictable but I love the answers that I get from it. Was there a Once Upon a Time moment when you decided that you must write fiction or your life had to keep its purpose. And if so was there a catalyst for it.

Becky Clark mystery author

Becky: [00:00:32] Nothing that I would have felt like I let myself down. But I definitely would have let my son down, because he was the one who challenged me to start writing novels.

Jenny: Was this when he was a child or an adult?

Becky: [00:00:49] He was a kid. He's grown now but he was about like 10ish and we were at the library. He was a voracious reader and we couldn't find any more historical fiction, which is what he was involved in at the time. He'd read everything they had at the library. And so we're walking out of the library and he says 'Well Mom, why don't you just write one?' And because of course I don't deny my children anything. I said 'Well of course, dear, let me just do that.' And you know long story short took a long time. But I did it. That was my first book. It was historical fiction for boys. You'll never find it, so don't try looking for it. But it was a great little book and it was a really good proving ground to see that I could do it and that it was a fun process. And you know I'm glad he challenged me, but it had never really occurred to me to be a writer until then.

Children's books the start

Jenny: 00:01:49] So that raises a couple of very interesting questions, one of them is why did he think you could do it? And secondly I'm so interested that it was historical because you aren't going the historical way at the moment?

Becky: [00:02:09] Yeah. Historical fiction. I don't know, it just seemed interesting to me and that's what he liked to read That's how it all started. This first one was a historical fiction for kids set in the Civil War and . . . . what was the first question?

Jenny: [00:02:27] Why did he think you could write a book?

Becky: [00:02:31] I don't know. I'm not sure he still thinks that! I don't know. I mean we are big readers and I had written some stuff, just not novels. I had written personal essays you know, Erma Bombeck type essays. Yeah. You know funny slice of life type of things. Maybe he was just trying to get me off his back, thinking if I was busy writing a novel 'she won't make me clean my room.'

Jenny: You’ve written four cozy mysteries, the first two co-authored with Ted Hardwick and the last two under you own byline.  Is there a story behind that?

Becky: [00:03:33] Ted and I have been friends since college.

Mystery author Becky Clark’s cozy mysteries tease and

entertain with subtly dropped clues, masterly red herrings and lashings of

humor, much of it poked at the publishing world she loves.

Hi there I’m your host Jenny Wheeler and today Becky talks about the value of networking, her fascination with synaesthesia, and how being number seven in a family of eight influences her writing;

Six

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

Why she jokes she's a 'teenager in a middle aged body'How a son's request got her startedHer No 1 tip for beginning writersWhy she loves an empty calendar The writers she admires mostTalking 'forbidden topics' with other writers

Where to find Becky Clark:

Website: https://beckyclarkbooks.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BeckysBookBuddies

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4730815.Becky_Clark

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/becky-clark

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 Becky.  Hello there Becky and welcome to the show, it’s great to have you with us.

Becky: Hi Jenny. It's so great to be here it's exciting. It's is my very first podcast.

Jenny: Oh that's wonderful. Look I always start with this question that's very predictable but I love the answers that I get from it. Was there a Once Upon a Time moment when you decided that you must write fiction or your life had to keep its purpose. And if so was there a catalyst for it.

Becky Clark mystery author

Becky: [00:00:32] Nothing that I would have felt like I let myself down. But I definitely would have let my son down, because he was the one who challenged me to start writing novels.

Jenny: Was this when he was a child or an adult?

Becky: [00:00:49] He was a kid. He's grown now but he was about like 10ish and we were at the library. He was a voracious reader and we couldn't find any more historical fiction, which is what he was involved in at the time. He'd read everything they had at the library. And so we're walking out of the library and he says 'Well Mom, why don't you just write one?' And because of course I don't deny my children anything. I said 'Well of course, dear, let me just do that.' And you know long story short took a long time. But I did it. That was my first book. It was historical fiction for boys. You'll never find it, so don't try looking for it. But it was a great little book and it was a really good proving ground to see that I could do it and that it was a fun process. And you know I'm glad he challenged me, but it had never really occurred to me to be a writer until then.

Children's books the start

Jenny: 00:01:49] So that raises a couple of very interesting questions, one of them is why did he think you could do it? And secondly I'm so interested that it was historical because you aren't going the historical way at the moment?

Becky: [00:02:09] Yeah. Historical fiction. I don't know, it just seemed interesting to me and that's what he liked to read That's how it all started. This first one was a historical fiction for kids set in the Civil War and . . . . what was the first question?

Jenny: [00:02:27] Why did he think you could write a book?

Becky: [00:02:31] I don't know. I'm not sure he still thinks that! I don't know.

Bart Casey discovered the Monica

Lewinsky of the Elizabethan age and turned her already incredible true story

into an enthralling dual time line tale of historic intrigue and contemporary

greed.

Hi there, I’m your host Jenny Wheeler, and today Bart talks about his passion for forgotten stories, explains why Will Shakespeare continues to fascinate movie makers, and reveals how a mystery involving three famous Romantic poets is his work in progress.

Six

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

How adman Bart researched his fiction in his lunch breaksWhy Shakespeare's life fascinates himHow sexual predation hasn't changed over the centuriesWhy he values historical accuracy in his workWhen facts are stranger than fictionThe appeal of dual timeline tales

Where to find Bart Casey:

Website: http://www.bartcasey.com/index.htm

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bart.casey

 Twitter: @bibliomad

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/bart_casey

What

follows is a "near as" transcript of our conversation, not word for

word but pretty close to it, with links to important mentions.

And now, here’s Bart.  Hello there Bart and welcome to the show, it’s great to have you with us.

Bart: Very happy to be here. Very exciting.

Jenny: Was there a “Once Upon A Time’ moment when you decided you must write fiction or you would have somehow let yourself down, or not completed something you were meant to do?  And if so, what was the catalyst for it

Bart Casey - historical mysteries

Bart: Well it was actually more than just fiction, because it was about stories- coming across stories - especially in college and graduate school. They just seemingly needed to be told, things that I didn't think people would know about or that had been forgotten. Those stories then became the motivation I had to start writing. Sometimes, the non fiction ones are just as good. Once you find somebody like a Laurence Oliphant, the character I wrote a book about, who seemed to be like Forrest Gump - he sort of did everything.

The fiction I write has a lot of non fiction in it. Anything I put in my upcoming book about Shakespeare or the Elizabethan characters is pretty much real. So it's fiction, but it's also pretty much non fiction. But to get to your real question; it's the story. You come across a story, you think 'I don't know that, I don't think anybody else knows that-' and you really have to tell them. That's the motivation.

Jenny: You seem to have real talent for finding these stories that have been forgotten or ignored - your non fiction books perfectly demonstrate that.

Bart:You just have an "aha" moment when you come across some of thee wacky combinations, and you just think that's so out of the ordinary and so compelling that it writes itself. The advantage of non fiction is of course it's real, so you can tell it chronologically from the people's birth to their death and not make anything up. When you get into fiction, you have to improvise a little. But I try to always be plausible, I don't try to make up anything crazy.

Shedding light on forgotten history

Jenny: You’ve made a specialty of blending dual time lines – contemporary and Elizabethan – to shed new light on forgotten history.  How did this passion first get sparked off?

Bart: Sometimes I think if the historical characters like Shakespeare, or Elizabethan people you read about them in school and you see anthologies of their poetry, and they don't seem real. You don't see them as people who have a cup of coffee, they didn't have a stomach ache - they weren't real. By putting them in the same type of treatment as the modern characters we can identify personally, they come alive more because they were real people.

What do we really know of Shakespeare?

So in this in this story I do have sections that talk about the Elizabethans but they're always talking about their actual lives.

Bart Casey discovered the Monica

Lewinsky of the Elizabethan age and turned her already incredible true story

into an enthralling dual time line tale of historic intrigue and contemporary

greed.

Hi there, I’m your host Jenny Wheeler, and today Bart talks about his passion for forgotten stories, explains why Will Shakespeare continues to fascinate movie makers, and reveals how a mystery involving three famous Romantic poets is his work in progress.

Six

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

How adman Bart researched his fiction in his lunch breaksWhy Shakespeare's life fascinates himHow sexual predation hasn't changed over the centuriesWhy he values historical accuracy in his workWhen facts are stranger than fictionThe appeal of dual timeline tales

Where to find Bart Casey:

Website: http://www.bartcasey.com/index.htm

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bart.casey

 Twitter: @bibliomad

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/bart_casey

What

follows is a "near as" transcript of our conversation, not word for

word but pretty close to it, with links to important mentions.

And now, here’s Bart.  Hello there Bart and welcome to the show, it’s great to have you with us.

Bart: Very happy to be here. Very exciting.

Jenny: Was there a “Once Upon A Time’ moment when you decided you must write fiction or you would have somehow let yourself down, or not completed something you were meant to do?  And if so, what was the catalyst for it

Bart Casey - historical mysteries

Bart: Well it was actually more than just fiction, because it was about stories- coming across stories - especially in college and graduate school. They just seemingly needed to be told, things that I didn't think people would know about or that had been forgotten. Those stories then became the motivation I had to start writing. Sometimes, the non fiction ones are just as good. Once you find somebody like a Laurence Oliphant, the character I wrote a book about, who seemed to be like Forrest Gump - he sort of did everything.

The fiction I write has a lot of non fiction in it. Anything I put in my upcoming book about Shakespeare or the Elizabethan characters is pretty much real. So it's fiction, but it's also pretty much non fiction. But to get to your real question; it's the story. You come across a story, you think 'I don't know that, I don't think anybody else knows that-' and you really have to tell them. That's the motivation.

Jenny: You seem to have real talent for finding these stories that have been forgotten or ignored - your non fiction books perfectly demonstrate that.

Bart:You just have an "aha" moment when you come across some of thee wacky combinations, and you just think that's so out of the ordinary and so compelling that it writes itself. The advantage of non fiction is of course it's real, so you can tell it chronologically from the people's birth to their death and not make anything up. When you get into fiction, you have to improvise a little. But I try to always be plausible, I don't try to make up anything crazy.

Shedding light on forgotten history

Jenny: You’ve made a specialty of blending dual time lines – contemporary and Elizabethan – to shed new light on forgotten history.  How did this passion first get sparked off?

Bart: Sometimes I think if the historical characters like Shakespeare, or Elizabethan people you read about them in school and you see anth...

Michelle Cox’s genre bending series Henrietta and Inspector Howard blends mystery, romance and family saga into a Chicago Cinderella tale of Downton Abbey meets Upstairs Downstairs that her readers adore.

Hi there, I’m your host Jenny Wheeler, and today Michelle talks about  her passion for period drama and 1930s Chicago, how working in a nursing home got her started writing, and what she’d do differently if she were starting over again.

Six

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

How a nursing home job led her to writingHer passion for the 30s and 40sTelling Chicago stories that resonateThe period drama website she adoresThe writers she admires mostThe shock of discovering writing as business

Where to find Michelle Cox:

Website: www.michellecoxauthor.com

Facebook: @michellecoxauthor

 Twitter: @michellecox33

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 Michelle. .  Hello there Michelle and welcome to the show, it’s great to have you with us.

Jenny:  Was there a “Once Upon A Time’ moment when you decided you must write fiction or you would have somehow let yourself down, or not completed something you were meant to do?  And if so, what was the catalyst for it?

Michelle: Well no, not really. I didn't actually see myself writing fiction. I never had the courage to be a writer. I loved reading as a kid - I was always reading, and I think one of the greatest Christmas presents I ever got was a set of the Louisa May Alcott series.

Introducing Michelle Cox

I was always trying to do little copy cat or fan fiction stories based on her novels, but they never really went anywhere so I usually did illustrations on them instead. I was a pretty good essayist in high school, so I did still contemplate being a writer versus becoming a doctor.

Michelle Cox - historical fiction author

I actually chose to be a pre-med in college, because I thought it was the easier path than being a writer and it seemed less scarier to me. It turns out that was sort of true! At the time I thought, I would go into pre-med.

Then I took this Victorian Lit class and I told myself, you can't keep hiding. This is really your passion. So I quickly switched, but still only majored in English Literature and not creative writing. Then I got married after college and had all these weird jobs, and started a family.

Writing was on the way out until my oldest son, 16, was diagnosed with ADHD. I had been volunteering in all these committees and groups, and I just went cold turkey and quit everything. I just devoted all this time to this kid. It didn't take too long for him to get on a path, and then suddenly I had all this time. I could either get a job, go back to volunteering, or maybe I could write that novel that I really always wanted to write.

Suddenly, I gave myself the permission and the courage after 20 years to really do this. But it wasn't really to be published; it was just to see if I could sit down and write a novel. It was a strange way that it all happened, but here we are!

A serious-minded little girl

Jenny: I noticed you said that you did Victorian Lit - were you always attracted to historical fiction?

Michelle: Yes. You know, when I was a kid I was probably the weirdest kid because I had this thing in my head where I always wanted to read the Newbery award winners or the Caldecotts. I was always attracted to the classics and I always had this motivation that I should read only really good books. I remember one summer being 10 or 11, and my mum taking me to the library and I felt so conflicted. I said, "Mum, I don't know whether to pick out the junk or to read the classics". She said, "oh honey, just read junk!"

But I couldn't do it. I had to read the Newbery's. I basically read only classic literature until my third kid was born,

Michelle Cox’s genre bending series Henrietta and Inspector Howard blends mystery, romance and family saga into a Chicago Cinderella tale of Downton Abbey meets Upstairs Downstairs that her readers adore.

Hi there, I’m your host Jenny Wheeler, and today Michelle talks about  her passion for period drama and 1930s Chicago, how working in a nursing home got her started writing, and what she’d do differently if she were starting over again.

Six

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

How a nursing home job led her to writingHer passion for the 30s and 40sTelling Chicago stories that resonateThe period drama website she adoresThe writers she admires mostThe shock of discovering writing as business

Where to find Michelle Cox:

Website: www.michellecoxauthor.com

Facebook: @michellecoxauthor

 Twitter: @michellecox33

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 Michelle. .  Hello there Michelle and welcome to the show, it’s great to have you with us.

Jenny:  Was there a “Once Upon A Time’ moment when you decided you must write fiction or you would have somehow let yourself down, or not completed something you were meant to do?  And if so, what was the catalyst for it?

Michelle: Well no, not really. I didn't actually see myself writing fiction. I never had the courage to be a writer. I loved reading as a kid - I was always reading, and I think one of the greatest Christmas presents I ever got was a set of the Louisa May Alcott series.

Introducing Michelle Cox

I was always trying to do little copy cat or fan fiction stories based on her novels, but they never really went anywhere so I usually did illustrations on them instead. I was a pretty good essayist in high school, so I did still contemplate being a writer versus becoming a doctor.

Michelle Cox - historical fiction author

I actually chose to be a pre-med in college, because I thought it was the easier path than being a writer and it seemed less scarier to me. It turns out that was sort of true! At the time I thought, I would go into pre-med.

Then I took this Victorian Lit class and I told myself, you can't keep hiding. This is really your passion. So I quickly switched, but still only majored in English Literature and not creative writing. Then I got married after college and had all these weird jobs, and started a family.

Writing was on the way out until my oldest son, 16, was diagnosed with ADHD. I had been volunteering in all these committees and groups, and I just went cold turkey and quit everything. I just devoted all this time to this kid. It didn't take too long for him to get on a path, and then suddenly I had all this time. I could either get a job, go back to volunteering, or maybe I could write that novel that I really always wanted to write.

Suddenly, I gave myself the permission and the courage after 20 years to really do this. But it wasn't really to be published; it was just to see if I could sit down and write a novel. It was a strange way that it all happened, but here we are!

A serious-minded little girl

Jenny: I noticed you said that you did Victorian Lit - were you always attracted to historical fiction?

Michelle: Yes. You know, when I was a kid I was probably the weirdest kid because I had this thing in my head where I always wanted to read the...

Catherine Bennetto’s laugh

out loud romantic comedies deal with the “Bridget Jones” dilemmas of

contemporary life – unexpected pregnancies, failed love affairs – have been praised

by critics for their wit, charm and freshness.

Hello there, I’m your host

Jenny Wheeler and today Catherine talks about the darker side of rom com, working

on top TV shows, and  marrying your best

friend.

Six

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

Why Catherine writes what she likes to readGetting started in TVIn favour of marrying your best friendNo pink fluff ! The darker side of romanceThe last book series she binge readOn going to work in a bikini

Where to find Catherine Bennetto:

Website: https://www.catherinebennetto.com/

 Twitter: @cathbennetto 

Facebook: @catherine.bennetto.3

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: Was there a “Once Upon A Time’ moment when you decided you must write fiction or you would have somehow let yourself down, or not completed something you were meant to do?  And if so what was the catalyst for it?

Catherine Bennetto - fresh rom com

Catherine: No, I actually can't remember a time when I didn't write because I remember my first book, if you could call it a book that I wrote. I think I was about nine or ten and even though I'd always written, I'd written poems.

I've got scraps of paper that my grandma has kept, when I wrote things for her when I was six and seven and I just always knew I wanted to write a book. But I didn't actually sit down to go 'Now I'm going to write a novel' until I wanted to be a bit older. So I went into television and did all of that, knowing that I would always write a book because I had always written.

I just wanted to be a bit more worldly and write with a bit more authority rather than completely make it up. So I started - I can't remember how old I was, in my thirties - and that's when I felt mature enough that I could actually write with authority on what I wanted to write on. But no, I was always, always going to write a book.

Rom Coms a natural choice

Jenny: You’ve published two well received rom coms aimed – dare I say it – fairly squarely at Gen Y and Gen X readers.  Was it a case of writing what you like to read -  more strategic? What made you decide on rom coms as your genre?

How Not to Fall In Love Actually

Catherine: No, it definitely wasn't just strategic. If there are people out there who can do that, then they must be brilliant. But no, I write what I actually can write I think and also what I like to read.

I like to read everything but I lean towards things definitely with comedy. I think even when I write things with a dark subject matter they come out a bit flippant and I can't seem to help myself. So now I write what I like and I never worried whether anybody was going to like it or read it. I wrote it squarely for myself and it's just amazing that it got published.

Jenny: Your debut novel was How Not to Fall in Love Actually. A play on the much-loved movie Love Actually – and your heroine worked in TV.   That was easy for you – because that’s what you did too, isn’t it?

Getting started in TV

Catherine: Yes, I've worked in TV since I was 22, I think, so in that book she's got my exact job. Behind the scenes TV is so funny and so nuts and full of so many odd characters. You've got so many different people from different walks of life trying to make the same thing. I just had to write something that was sort of semi-based 'behind the scenes' because I had such a wonderful time working in television and everybody was quite nuts. So that was pretty fun.

NZ's popular soap - Shortland Street

Jenny: And the little mentions about getting the different extras that have to fill different roles, there's a real comedy with all of that as well.

Catherine: Yes,