Dear Rach & Soph

Two guests join me and Rachael Johns in this episode, and they are both fabulous (you can read their bios below). Emma Pei Yin has just released her first novel, When Sleeping Women Wake, and is working on her second. Saman Shad released her second novel, The Sex Lives of Married Women, earlier this year. Something Emma said to me when we first met - about what it was like working on her second novel - sparked the idea for this episode, then Rachael saw something Saman had written on the same subject, so we decided to bring these writers together to talk about it. A note: we recorded this episode on July the 6th, which is a day that has special significance for me - and you’re going to have to watch or listen to our intro to find out why.ABOUT OUR GUESTSEmma Pei Yin is an Australian-Hong Kong Chinese writer and editor. Her work has been featured in several publications. In 2023, she was nominated as Bookseller of the Year. That same year, her manuscript, Chasing Echoes in the Rain, was shortlisted for the Allen & Unwin Voices from the Intersection Mentorship Programme. She lives and works on Ngunnawal Country with her partner and their extremely barky dachshund, Lady. When Sleeping Women Wake is her first novel.Saman Shad is a writer, journalist, and playwright whose storytelling spans stage, screen, and page. In the UK, she was a scriptwriter for BBC Radio, and after relocating to Australia she created programs for the ABC and became a sought-after voice in journalism. Her plays have been commissioned by theatres in both London and Sydney. Her debut novel, The Matchmaker, was published by Penguin Australia in 2023. The Sex Lives of Married Women is her latest novel.

Patrick Lenton is the author of the book of short stories A Man Made Entirely of Bats (2015), the book of comedic essays Uncle Hercules and Other Lies (2019), and the full length short story collection Sexy Tales of Paleontology (2021). His debut novel, a rom-com called In Spite of You is out now from Pantera Press. And his actual bio is a lot longer than this because he’s a very accomplished individual!Sophie first met Patrick when he was working in marketing at Momentum, which was the digital-only arm of Pan Macmillan books, publishing a lot of romance novels about a decade too early for BookTok. He has always been smart and funny, and his novel is that AND SO MUCH MORE. It is warm and sweet and, yes, spiteful in parts but in a very charming way. We wanted to talk to Patrick about how he used to promote romance novels to the world and now he’s writing them, and we did talk about that, plus a lot more. We recorded this episode a while ago, so there’s mention of launch events that have now past, but we have left them in because everything future becomes the past, so someone watching/listening to this episode next year would have had them in the past anyway.In the intro we discuss the fact that we both read multiple books at the same time - do you? And we also talk about the Rachael Johns Online Book Club, which I encourage you to join if you’re not already a member.

Each time one of us releases a book (separately) we devote an episode of Dear Rach & Soph to discussing the book - Sophie will interview Rachael about hers, and vice versa.This latest episode, which we’re releasing as a bonus episode, is about Sophie's new novel, Lessons in Love at the Seaside Salon. There’s a short description below and you can hear Rach read the longer blurb in the episode.We recorded this ep after we’d already recorded another episode so we were possibly a little tired and emotional - certainly Soph goes off on tangents - but, hey, that’s the way things go! You’re not getting our polished selves, you’re getting our real selves, and if you’re a regular ‘liewer’ (listen/viewer) you’ll be used to that. Lessons in Love at the Seaside Salon is out now through Hachette Australia.ABOUT LESSONS IN LOVE AT THE SEASIDE SALONFour women. Four loves. Four life-changing stories. At a little salon by the sea - on the windblown coast of 1980s Australia - four different women with intertwined lives will find themselves through love, heartbreak and learning to love again.

As the Romance Writers of Australia conference is taking place this weekend, we thought it was a good time to publish the episode we recorded with Amy Barry. Rachael is an expert romance writer; Amy is a romance writer and also an academic expert in romance fiction (her bio appears below).Note from Sophie: I was passenger for most of this episode - to the point that my internet cut out, I dropped out of the Zoom and the conversation continued seamlessly! - but that wasn’t because I was being left out of the chat: it was because I was so fascinated listening to Rachael and Amy discuss romance writing that I felt lucky to be there. Being able to watch experts at work is a privilege, and whether you’re a romance writer or a romance reader - or both - you will, I’m sure, be as interested as I was in what they have to say.NB: We recorded quite a few episodes in a short space of time a little while ago, so our intros are out of order and now out of date, but we are disinclined to not be genuine when we’re recording them, so all we can do is hope you don’t mind! ***ABOUT AMY BARRYAmy Barry is the author of the romance series The McBrides of Montana. She is also Amy Matthews, an award-winning author and Associate Professor in Creative Writing at Flinders University. Amy’s novels have been published internationally and in translation and are available in print, audio and ebook. She has also written under the name Tess LeSue. As an academic, Amy publishes on genre fictions, specifically popular romance, historical fiction, and fictions of climate change. And she has a podcast, Amy &. Her latest novel is Seven Brides for Beau McBride.ABOUT SEVEN BRIDES FOR BEAU MCBRIDEFrom the beloved author of Kit McBride Gets a Wife and Marrying Off Morgan McBride comes a ‘sweet, hilarious and totally delicious’ love story (Hannah Grace). Beau McBride wants a wife, and his meddling little sister Junebug is itching to find him a mail-order bride. But why stop at just one? Beau McBride reckons he’s ready for marriage. But his ego is bigger than his brain, and his little sister Junebug can’t trust him to find the right woman. So they make a bet, both placing ads in the Matrimonial News to find the perfect bride. Junebug is set on winning, but there’s a hitch: Beau has made his pick, and she’s beyond beautiful. Junebug knows looks ain’t everything, so to even the odds she invites six more women to meet her brother. Ellie Neale doesn’t expect much from life. Which is good, since life hasn’t given her much, except a head full of daydreams and her beautiful best friend Diana. But after answering an ad to be a mail-order bride, Diana is leaving for Montana. Ellie is happy for her, really she is ... after all, she was the one who wrote Diana’s letters for her.Ellie can’t bear the thought of losing Diana, so she answers an ad from a man in the same town her friend is headed for. But when they arrive, Ellie and Diana discover they’ve answered an ad for the same husband. Along with five other women. With seven brides vying for Beau’s attention, he needs to make a decision – fast. The only problem is, his heart is pulled to the one woman who wants nothing to do with him.

Kayte Nunn’s previous books were mostly historical fiction, and there was often an element of intrigue, so the signs were there that she was heading for crime, and it’s a genre that she has taken to like the proverbial duck to water in her latest novel, THE PALAZZO.We loved speaking to Kayte about her decision to switch to crime, and how she came to create the intricate web of story in THE PALAZZO, as well as choose the location. This is a novel that gives you a very satisfying crime story while also completely making you want to go to Italy - so you have been warned. And there’s more about Kayte and the novel below.This episode was filmed a few weeks ago - we banked some episodes due to upcoming commitments - and you’ll hear us talking about Rachael’s serial MEANWHILE IN MOUNT MERRY-GLEN. She has that on pause for a little while but the existing episodes are there for paid subscribers to her Substack. And it’s something of a joint project in that Sophie was her copy editor from the second episode. ***ABOUT KAYTE NUNNKayte Nunn is the internationally bestselling author of seven novels, most recently 2022's The Only Child. They are available worldwide in English, and have been translated into eleven languages.She was brought up in England, lived in the US for a number of years as a child and now calls the Northern Rivers of NSW, Australia home.ABOUT THE PALAZZOThey're all killers, but only one will resort to murder. The stunning new novel from international bestseller Kayte Nunn, for all fans of Lucy Foley and White Lotus.Newly widowed beauty entrepreneur Vivi Savidge's fortieth birthday is fast approaching, and she plans to celebrate it at the Palazzo Stellina, a historic former convent in the foothills of the Italian Alps run by disgraced chef Marco Bianchi and his elderly grandmother.Vivi's little sister, Alice, is flying from Brisbane with her sixteen-year-old twins in tow. Ex-colleague Pete and his new husband, Nick, are coming from Boston, and old friend Caroline is driving from Turin. Every one of them is hiding a shameful secret.Vivi's hopes for a relaxing holiday surrounded by those closest to her are soon overshadowed by an anonymous blackmail threat, and she begins to wonder if someone she thought she could trust might just as easily betray her.Amid a suffocating heatwave, the holiday ignites an explosive cocktail of obsession, jealousy and greed. Before the week is over, secrets will be exposed and the gathering will turn deadly, leaving one victim, a handful of suspects, and a murderer in their midst.

These are the new fiction releases in Australia for August 2025 – that we know about! We’re relying on information from authors and publishers, but not all of them send it to us, so if you’re an author with an upcoming release, please let us know! HISTORICAL FICTIONUntil the Red Leaves Fall by Alli ParkerDaughters of Batavia by Stefanie KoensThe Midnight Estate by Kelly RimmerGENERAL FICTIONThe Life Experiment by Jess KitchingLessons in Love at the Seaside Salon by Sophie GreenThe Visitor by Rebecca StarfordCRIMEStillwater by Tanya ScottROMANCEIn Spite of You by Patrick LentonLights Camera Love by Natalie MurrayIn the Long Run by Emma MugglestoneYOUNG ADULTOnce a Villain by Vanessa LenThe Set-up Girl by Sasha VeyDrift by Pip Harry 

Maya Linnell is a beloved author of seven novels, the latest of which is COCKATOO COVE (blurb below). Her writing life began with journalism, and she worked at a rural newspaper before moving into public relations then into writing fiction as well as blogging for Romance Writers Australia. Maya currently lives in rural Queensland with her husband and three children. We wanted to talk to Maya about her writing life and her fiction, of course, but she also participates in a number of other creative activities - indeed, she lives a rich, full creative life. If you need some creative inspiration, this is the episode for you! ***ABOUT COCKATOO COVEMaggie West has worked tirelessly to prove herself, establishing a successful cattle stud instead of following her father into the crayfishing industry, though it's never enough to stop local speculation about her family's holdings. And with her teenage daughter veering off the rails, she knows all too well that money doesn't provide immunity against heartache or hardship. Since landing in South Australia's picturesque Limestone Coast, Scottish winemaker Fergus Abernathy has gone from strength to strength. But it isn't just the awards that are keeping him in the district; if he can put down roots, perhaps he can persuade his family to join him Down Under. Missing his family back in Scotland, Fergus looks a little enviously at the close-knit West family, until a shocking phone call changes everything. Misunderstandings and long-withheld secrets create roadblocks for Maggie and Fergus, and with a community fundraiser hanging in the balance, it seems they're never destined to be in the right place at the right time. Set in stunning wine country with border collies, rugged coastlines and generous community spirit, Cockatoo Cove is an exceptional tale showcasing the richness of life on the land.

We never know where a conversation will go on this podcast, whether it’s us talking to each other or talking to a guest. While questions are prepared, a script is never followed to the letter - we both tend to let conversations go where they go. This conversation with Jess Kitching, author of new novel THE LIFE EXPERIMENT (published by Simon & Schuster - blurb below), went to several extraordinary places as Jess told us her story. At one point Sophie has to ask Rachael to take over because she's crying, so that will give you a sense of it. Jess started writing thrillers; THE LIFE EXPERIMENT is something quite different, a love story that is completely unconventional and thought-provoking. It was inspired by the death of a friend of Jess’s, and that same circumstance also inspired Jess to move to Australia from the United Kingdom, where she was born and lived. There is so much more to Jess’s story, though, and the story behind this novel. Suffice to say that in changing genres, Jess also changed her life, and as is the way of things she may very well change readers’ lives too. You’ll have to read her book to find out, and we hope this conversation will inspire you to do just that. Did you know? Dear Rach & Soph is on Substack! If you’d like to peruse the archive - on video and audio - go to dearrachandsoph.substack.comFor more about Rachael Johns: https://www.rachaeljohns.comRachael's latest book is Outback Reunion (2025) Preorder The Lucky SistersFor more about Sophie Green: https://sophiegreenauthor.comSophie's latest book is Lessons in Love at the Seaside Salon (2025)

Here’s the latest instalment of our ‘writer therapy’ and this time our guest is Ky Garvey (bio below), who volunteered herself for some of the tough love we seem to dish out. Please note we are not therapists! But we are writers (who may need therapy) and as Sophie is also a publisher (who often gives advice to writers) we feel somewhat qualified to talk other writers through any issues they may be having.This episode was recorded quite a while ago - on Mother’s Day, in fact. It’s taken this long to publish because we banked a lot of episodes knowing that we were both heading into writing new manuscripts and would need to concentrate on that. So you’ll hear Mother’s Day mentioned and there’s bonus mention of us talking about whether or not the moon influences tiredness levels, and we also talk about how we can schedule worrying as an activity. ***Ky Garvey is a writer and podcaster based in Brisbane. She is the host of Totally Lit, an award-winning interview style podcast celebrating reading, writing and creating literature. Ky writes shorts stories, is a children’s author and an advocate within the disability and carers space. Her debut picture book, Easy Peasy, was published in 2023 and other writing has been included in several anthologies and recognised in several writing competitions. In 2024, Ky launched the Inaugural Totally Lit Micro Fiction Prize.