Rachael Johns is an English teacher by trade, a mum 24/7, a Diet Coke addict, a cat lover and chronic arachnophobe. She rarely sleeps and never irons. She is also the bestselling author of a number of other romance and women’s fiction books. Jilted (Rachael’s first rural romance) won Favourite Australian Contemporary Romance in 2012, and The Patterson Girls won the 2016 Romance Writers of Australia RUBY Award and also the 2015 Australian Book Industry Award for General Fiction.

Rachael’s latest book is The Work Wives and her next book, Talk to the Heart, will be released in November. She is also the host of the Rachael Johns Online Book Club and a fabulous interviewee. Rachael was so generous with her time and information that this interview is long but all of it so interesting and worthwhile. I had to cut us off at a certain point in time but could have kept talking for hours!

More about Rachael Johns: https://www.rachaeljohns.com/

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Sydney-based singer-songwriter @amberlawrencemusic has won six Golden Guitar Awards, including one this year for Best Female Artist of the Year. She has released seven albums, her latest being Living for the Highlights, as well as three albums for children, The Kid's Gone Country 1 and 2 and Aussie Aussie Christmas. 

Lawrence is a prolific songwriter who can turn her hand equally to a catchy kids' tune ('My Big Mack Truck') and a high-stakes diplomatic-mission tune ('100 Year Handshake'). On Living for the Highlights she writes and sings movingly of a devastating personal loss and also, separately, finds the joy in everyday life, with a range of experiences in between. She's also a renowned songwriting collaborator within the country music community.

Given that range of writing experiences, and her ability to set up a world, and a life, and break your heart all in the space of a few verses and a chorus, Lawrence was an obvious choice to be the first songwriter interviewed for this podcast, and it was a pleasure to talk to her.

Listen to Amber Lawrence on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3RyYW4bMFeTeQ2jjLZu4xg?si=DavCWEhYRzCTaLouEII7lA

More about Amber Lawrence: https://www.amberlawrence.com.au/

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Dianne Yarwood worked in accounting and corporate advisory in London and Sydney. She also nurtured a love for cooking and catering. At the age of forty, with three young children, she became very ill and her life was saved by an emergency doctor. This brush with mortality gave her the courage to do what she's always wanted to do - write. Dianne lives in Sydney with her husband. The Wakes is her first novel, published in Australia and New Zealand and, just recently, the United Kingdom.

'A truly delightful debut novel. Funny, moving, tender and wise, I ate up every delicious word' LIANE MORIARTY

'Warm and profound. I can't wait for everyone to read it' SALLY HEPWORTH

'A delectable fusion of comedy, hope, loss, and great food' Weekend Australian

More about Dianne Yarwood: https://www.dianneyarwood.com/

Buy The Wakes on Apple Books: https://apple.co/3pdDAke

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