Author Talks with Rhianna King 🦜

18th May 2024 ~ melreviewsherbooks ~ Leave a comment

📸 Australian Debut Author, **Rhianna King**

Birds of a Feather is Rhianna King’s debut novel and by gosh, will it blow your socks off!

Rhianna is a professional communicator in State Government environmental agencies and has worked within an Aboriginal-led not-for-profit organisation as well. She’s also a graphic designer, having launched her own freelance business in 2015. How dynamic and talented is this woman who now adds ‘author’ to her resume as well!

I cannot thank Rhianna’s wonderful Affirm Press team for reaching out to me, gifting me Birds of a Feather to honestly read and review + have this opportunity to chat with Rhianna herself 🎙

Welcome to the blog Rhianna! 💖

Rhianna, how does it feel to be a debut Aussie author? Can you speak to the experience of being signed with Affirm Press and how the journey has been so far?

Being a debut Aussie author has been more wonderful than I could have possibly imagined (and I spent a lot of time imaging it!). I was lucky enough that Kelly Doust saw a place for Birds of a Feather in Affirm Press’s incredible collection of commercial women’s fiction and I have loved every second of working with the Affirm Press team. They have guided and advised me at every step, with respect for my vision, and the wisdom of experience.

Stepping behind the curtain of the publishing industry has made me fully appreciate how many people it takes to get a book published and in readers’ hands – the editors, cover designers, type setters, printers, marketing and publicity gurus, voice-over artists, those who get the books on the shelves and those who sell them. The experience has also shown me how much support there is out there for authors. Australia has such a wonderful community of people who love books, write them, enjoy talking about them, and are happy to spread the word about books they’ve enjoyed through their social and online platforms. Connecting with other authors and book lovers has been one of the best parts of this journey.

Birds of a Feather is being absolutely DEVOURED in my household! I’m reading on my lunch break, as soon as I get home and right before bed. When did you know that Beth and Elsie’s story was a keeper? – Thank you! 😊

I started writing the book during 2020, after Zoom trivia and puzzles had lost their novelty, because I wanted somewhere to escape to. I grew to love Beth and all her quirks, and I adored Elise’s character, so, once I started, I kept writing because I genuinely wanted to spend time with them. Being in lock-down gave me a whole new appreciation for being able to spend time with friends and family and in the natural environment so, I guess, it was a love letter to all the things I was missing from my life at the time. I also wanted to write a story that was different to anything I’d read before and I was keen to make a contribution, however small, to increasing representation of diversity in commercial fiction.

Beth’s winnings certainly throw her stickler budget and tightened nature out the window. I really enjoy watching her unfold and let in the world around her. Did you always know where Beth’s story started and where it ended? Or were you just along for the ride with her?!

I did have a pretty structured plan for the book before I started writing it, which I guess is ironic since the story centred around encouraging Beth’s character to be more open to going with the flow!

Much of Beth’s rigidity was in response to her family’s complete lack of structure – she enjoyed order while they preferred spontaneity, she liked well-made plans, where they took a laissez-faire approach to life. But I wanted her to see that it doesn’t have to be one or the other; if you open your heart (even a little) and are prepared to step out of your comfort zone, you can still be in the driver’s seat of your life but also find unexpected joy along the way.

I adore the passages where we watch, feel and listen to Elsie and Beth spend precious time together. Is there anyone in your life or from life experiences that influenced the loving, kind and special familial relationship these two have?

I was so blessed with two incredible grandmothers. Both were remarkable women and, incidentally, both were writers. Spending time with them was such a gift and, even though they’ve both been gone for many years, I still miss them.

I think the relationship between grandparents and their grandkids is so special because in many cases it’s all love, no responsibility. For Beth, Elise was the one person who she felt ‘got’ her when she didn’t feel like she belonged in her immediate family, and the two were bonded by their love of the natural environment. I think that having someone in your life who you trust, and with whom you share a common interest, means you always have someone to feel at home with.

Rhianna – thank you so much for your time and generosity in sharing your answers with us on Mel Reviews Her Books 💖

You can find Rhianna and I on Instagram Live this morning at 10am 🎥

Author Interviews of 2023 🎤

24th Dec 2023 ~ melreviewsherbooks ~ Leave a comment

On my drive back to my family home for Christmas, I had the time to reflect on the year that was 2023 🎄

2023 has been HUGE in terms of Author interviews and they have taken place in many forms. I have conducted over 10 in person, online, written and panel interviews.

I am so incredibly grateful, feel incredibly privileged and in all honesty, speechless when I look at this collection of talented Australian Authors who have given their time, knowledge and enthusiasm on Mel Reviews Her Books (excuse me while I start getting teary writing this).

Thank you; Sulari Gentill; Zoë Coyle; Anita Heiss; Brooke Hill; Karina May; Emma Grey; Clare Fletcher; Michael Thompson; Kate Mildenhall; & Jack Heath.

Additionally, a big thank you to Sandie Docker; for your time spent in Wagga visiting me, sharing your festival knowledge and attending Collins Booksellers after years of connecting online but Covid stepping in our way!

Thank you to the stunning Maya Linnell, for featuring me on her latest novel Kookaburra Cottage! 💫 *honestly a dream come true*

Extra thankfulness to Sulari Gentill – your encouragement, support, strength and belief in me pulling together a book festival for our region. I cannot express my gratitude enough x

And lastly, thank you to all of YOU! Thank you for reading, viewing, liking, commenting, sharing and watching the book content I create and work on each and every week 💖

Now, it’s time to celebrate yourself!! ⭐️ COMMENT BELOW something you’re proud of this year 💬

Author Talks with Emma Grey

7th Oct 20236th Oct 2023 ~ melreviewsherbooks ~ Leave a comment

📸 Australian Author, Emma Grey, holding her most recent novel The Last Love Note

Emma is a novelist, feature writer, photographer, professional speaker and accountability coach. She is also 100% fabulous, of which I can confirm because we’ve now met twice in person 💖 Emma has such a kind soul and her clever, compassionate and open ability to connect with readers really does makes her one of a kind.

Welcome Emma, to Mel Reviews Her Books 💫

Emma, you have created a uniquely beautiful romantic novel. Grief is a topic and emotion that you bravely speak openly about in person and on your social media streams. Was it daunting for you to send The Last Love Note into the world?

It was very daunting. I think I spent the two weeks leading up to the January release in a ball of anxiety, wanting to hide from the world. It was all the usual doubts authors have – what if people don’t like the story or the writing? But it was also, ‘What if people criticise the portrayal of grief?’ Because that part was very real. I even worried my character, Kate, would be criticised for falling in love again after losing her husband. While the new love story was fictional, real life judgement in grief is unfortunately very real.

In addition to all of that, I also felt an element of ’survivor guilt’. This book exists because my husband died. And here I am, being published here and overseas, going on book tours, meeting amazing Wagga booksellers and bloggers … none of that would have happened if my real-life story had been different. I’ve had to remind myself that Jeff would have thoroughly embraced all of this for me, and that it was my own hard work that led to these things – not just the circumstances that inspired the novel.

Gosh, what a complicated answer! I was also really excited about launching the book, once I ploughed through those other emotions 😊

You’ve just been to the USA on an author journey ahead of the November launch! What are you most excited about, seeing The Last Love Note on American bookshelves and in the hands of American readers?

The story has a strong connection to New York. I’m from Australia, but my husband was president of the Society of Military History, based in the US. Six years ago, I was flown there for a memorial conference, just a few months after he died.

It was while I was away that I had my ‘Byron Bay moment’ – the space to really let my grief unravel without my little boy around. I plunged to the depths of grief in an American hotel room … but then I visited New York.

That’s a city that has experienced grief en masse. Yet the show goes on. The city is so endlessly vibrant and lit up. While I was there, I caught a glimpse of that vibrance for my own future. I believed for the first time that perhaps I, too, still had a life ahead of me.

That’s when I decided to start writing this book. I took myself to the New York Public Library and wrote some paragraphs, just to make a symbolic start. They appear in the novel as the excerpt from my character Kate’s book.

It’s why it feels so ‘full circle’ for me to be returning to the US now with a New York publisher, Zibby Owens. I feel like I’m on the way to creating the exciting future that city promised me all those years ago…

What’s next for you Emma? In your author life, in your writing life, in your journey?

I’m excited about touring America at the end of the year, including speaking at the Miami Book Fair, and celebrating my first Thanksgiving ever in the Hamptons.

My new book, PICTURES OF YOU, will be published by Penguin Random House and Zibby Books in April 2024. It’s a romance, with a dash of psychological thriller.

I’ve got some exciting plans to stage the musical I co-wrote with composer Sally Whitwell, based on my teen novel UNREQUITED. Our show, DEADPAN ANTI-FAN, is a story written for my then 14-year-old non-reader, who loved Harry Styles, to show her reading could be fun!

A widowed friend who is a comedian has floated the idea of working together on WIDOWED: THE MUSICAL, which would be an amazing project. I’m also keen to work with a producer and composer on a TV documentary about the dementia choir my parents belonged to before my mum’s death.

In less glamorous, but important news, I’m working with a colleague to put together some awareness-raising programs to help companies and services deal more kindly and sensibly with grieving customers.

Then there are the new book ideas … I’m hoping to keep up with the release a book each year.

Of course, I squeeze all of this around my copywriting work for government departments and other clients, and I’m also an accountability coach, so there’s always a lot happening.

Emma, thank you so much for your time and answers! It has been an absolute pleasure to have you on the blog and a chat over on Mel Reviews Her Books Instagram 🎤

Author Talks with ‘Katrina Nannestad’

15th Nov 202115th Nov 2021 ~ melreviewsherbooks ~ 1 Comment

Katrina Nannestad is an Australian Children’s Author who spent a number of years of her childhood in Wagga. She is a multi-award winning writer and is pictured here with her beautiful pup.
📸 by Rebecca Rock

Hello Katrina and a warm welcome to melreviewsherbooks! It is an absolute pleasure to have such a talented and articulate children’s writer such as yourself featuring on my ‘Author Talks’. Katrina is the author of over 10 published children’s novels and we will be talking about two of her recent historical releases in this interview, those being ‘We Are Wolves’ and ‘Rabbit, Soldier, Angel, Thief’.

Katrina, congratulations to begin with on having your novel, We Are Wolves, awarded the winner of ARA’s Historical Children and Young Adult Novel of 2021, winner of the Book Links Award for Children’s Historical Fiction 2021, and winner of the ABDA’s Best Designed Children’s Fiction Book of 2021. Wow – when writing We Are Wolves, did you know you were onto something big?
I really enjoyed writing We Are Wolves. I found the research fascinating and fell in love with my characters as I wrote their story. But I wasn’t quite sure whether or not I’d created something worthwhile until my agent and publisher had read it. Their response and that of the early readers was encouraging. But still, I was most anxious to learn what young readers thought of the story. Once I got the thumbs up from my target audience, I was able to relax and get excited about writing further historical fiction.

Did you follow the same planning, research and writing process for Rabbit, Soldier, Angel, Thief as you did with We Are Wolves? If not, how was it different?
Yes, it was a similar process. I began by doing some reading around the topic before deciding what form my story might take. I spent some time developing my main characters, then took them with me – holding their imaginary hands – as I continued my research. Their presence helped bring the facts, the details and the big historic events alive, and helped me to decide what was relevant to their journey. Finally, I refined my plan and got writing.
But of course, the process is not quite so linear as that. There’s a lot of scrambling back and forth between all the steps, and extra research takes place right through to the very end.

World War II is known as such a dark, emotive and traumatic time in our world history. What has inspired you to write two novels set in this time period?
I stumbled across the story of the Wolfskinder (We Are Wolves) by accident. I hadn’t planned to write a war story, but what I read about these children amazed me – that they survived on their own in a hostile environment, sometimes for years after the war. I was also surprised that I’d never heard of these children before. I thought perhaps others were unaware of the Wolfskinder, too, in which case it would be meaningful story to tell.
I really enjoyed the challenge of writing We Are Wolves, and the response of readers was positive, so I was keen to attempt a second war novel. Again, with Rabbit, Soldier, Angel, Thief, I have tried to share a lesser-known aspect of the Second World War.
I think it’s really important that young people are aware of the events that have shaped our world, and many are keen to explore big issues. Historical fiction allows them to discover these stories in a format that is accessible – interesting and age-appropriate.

In Rabbit, Soldier, Angel, Thief, Sasha is a 6-year-old boy thrown into a war-torn and violent journey that will shape him forever. How do you ‘get into character’ per-say and write from the perspective of a young male child?
I always try to live in the story with my main character, whether I’m writing comedy, mystery, adventure or history. It’s the way I work, and I don’t really know any other way to do it. I can’t dip in and out. I need to be emotionally involved, to feel like the characters and setting and events are real.
I had to do a lot of research for Rabbit, Soldier, Angel, Thief, because I knew so little of the war from the Soviet point of view. My head became filled with details about Russian village life, the sufferings of the Soviet people, the Red Army, the Battle of Stalingrad, and the westward advance all the way to Berlin. But the thing that was most helpful in gaining an understanding of how a child might experience these events, was Svetlana Alexievich’s book, Last Witnesses: Unchildlike Stories. This book records Soviet people’s personal accounts of what they experienced as children during the Great Patriotic War (the Second World War). I have never been so affected by a book in my life.

My goodness Katrina, I have to admit, the last line of this novel broke me! Did you always know how Sasha’s story would end at the beginning of your writing process?
I had a fair idea of how it would end but played a lot with those last lines so they’d have maximum impact.
As I got towards the end of the story, I did consider a different conclusion. I actually wrote two endings, but my original idea won out!

From the bottom of my heart, thank you Katrina for joining me on ‘Author Talks’! It has been an absolute pleasure 💐 What’s next for you?

I am currently writing my third historical novel. It’s also set during the Second World War and tells the story of a little Polish girl. More will be revealed later!
At the same time, I am writing a lighter adventure series for younger readers (7-10-year-olds) called The Travelling Bookshop. Book 1 is out now and I’ve written the next two. You can take a peek at books 1 and 2 at www.harpercollins.com.au/cr-110017/katrina-nannestad/ 📚
This year has been very quiet, of course, but I have some lovely bookish adventures penned into my 2022 diary already – writers’ festivals and school visits. I can’t wait to be out and about once again, sharing the delights of reading and writing and daydreaming with fellow enthusiasts.

You can find a number of Katrina’s books at Collins Booksellers Wagga Wagga online or in person.

For more information on Katrina and her books, you can visit her website, Facebook and Instagram 📚

Author Talks with ‘Sandie Docker’

4th Sep 20216th Sep 2021 ~ melreviewsherbooks ~ 1 Comment

Sandie Docker is Australian Contemporary Women’s Author. She is the author of four novels with Penguin Books Australia and has two more on the way. Her latest novel ‘The Wattle Island Book Club’ was released on the 31st of August 2021.

Sandie Docker is Australian Contemporary Women’s Author signed and published with Penguin Books Australia. She grew up in Coffs Harbour and now resides in Sydney with her family. Her debut novel, ‘The Kookaburra Creek Cafe’ was published in 2018 with great success. Her second and third novels closely followed, those being ‘The Cottage at Rosella Cove’ in 2019 and ‘The Banksia Bay Beach Shack’ in 2020. We now celebrate ‘The Wattle Island Book Club’ as it was published and released on the 31st of August 2021.

Hi Sandie! Thank you so much for joining me and taking the time to answer my questions during your busy virtual book touring for ‘The Wattle Island Book Club’. Congratulations and welcome!

Sandie – look at you! A successful Australian Author published four times with Penguin Australia! Tell me, where did your initial love and development for reading, storytelling and writing come from?

Whodda thunk, right? Four books in and more coming. I feel so lucky. I was a bit slow to reading/writing game, unlike most authors who seem to either have written their first book when they were 7, or emerged from the womb reading Tolstoy’s War and Peace. As a child, I hated reading. Yep. It’s true. I couldn’t think of anything more boring to do with my time. But my dad was an avid reader across many genres and when I was in my late teens, he put a fantasy novel in my hands, Pawn of Prophecy, by David Eddings, and said, ‘just give it a go.’ Wanting to please my dad, I did give it a go and I was hooked. Why hadn’t anyone told me before that, that book could transport you to another world and the characters within the pages could feel like friends? From then on I read every fantasy novel I could get my hands on, and then when I was doing the HSC I was introduced to Jane Austen and my love of women’s fiction was born. But it wasn’t until I was at uni that I even thought about becoming a writer. My Mandarin lecturer suggested I had a knack for writing, and I sat with that advice for a long time before I tried to write my first manuscript. That first manuscript, which was an abject disaster, was when I fell in love with writing. And it was twelve years later before my first novel was published

What inspired you to write about all things book clubs, reading lists, art and islands in your latest book, The Wattle Island Book Club?

I was on tour with my first novel, The Kookaburra Creek Café, when I was chatting after an event with the librarian at Port Macquarie library, Leanne, and she mentioned sending over book club sets to Lord Howe Island on the supply boat, and I was like, an island book club – there’s something in that. So that was the spark of the idea. And as I wrote the story – because I don’t plan anything – the story and characters told me where to take them and the bucket lists and art themes came out then.

Your novels always feel like a warm and familiar hug to me. What are your favourite character qualities, experiences or perspectives to write?

Awww, thank you. That means a lot to me. Hmmm, I’m not sure if there are specifics here, more just anything or anyone with heart. I hope my characters aren’t too perfect, because none of us are, so a flawed character is relatable, and you don’t have to look very far to find heart-wrenching experiences to draw on for your characters’ lives. Again, experiences that are relatable – something you or someone you know could have been through. And as for perspective, whether I write female or male POV (point of view), young or old, or even through letters (Ivy in The Cottage At Rosella Cove), it’s the story telling me how it wants to be written that dictates this. Though I’ll always have predominantly female POV, as I write women’s fiction.

I have loved all four of your novels (and dream of more and more to come!). I have happily followed online and instore as each has been released and absorbed by the world of Aussie readers. Have your writing, drafting, publishing and touring experiences been different for all four of your books?

Thank you. You’ll be pleased to know that I have another 2 book contracted! The short answer is yes, vastly different each time! The Kookaburra Creek Café and The Cottage At Rosella Cove were both finished manuscripts before I signed a publishing contract, so they took forever to write (5 and 3 years respectively). Then I was contracted and with that comes deadlines. So The Banksia Bay Beach Shack and The Wattle Island Book Club were written (first draft before the editing process) in about 5 months.

Publishing with Penguin has been a dream, but I have worked with different editors and that brings a different dynamic each time. And as for touring – my first tour was definitely nerve-wracking, my second was bigger, my third got scuttled by COVID and everything moved online, and I’m waiting to see what happens this year with my tour and COVID. Through it all though, the joy of readers finding your work and connecting with you is just the most wonderful experience.

I’ve got a tricky and fun question for you! We are set to see The Wattle Island Book Club hit shelves on the 31st of August this year. If you were a bookseller, how would you recommend, suggest and sell your book to readers?

Is it bad for me to admit that I actually did this once? I was in a store, saw someone pick up my book and read the blurb, and leaned over and said ‘Oh, I can highly recommend that one.’ I did end up telling her I was the author, so it was full disclosure in the end. And she did buy it!

If I was legitimately recommending it in a book store, I would say something like, if you want a read that’s going to rip your heart out and then put it back together, with a wonderful cast of fun , warm characters, all set on an island with a book club theme, then this is the book for you.

Thank you so much for your time Sandie! It’s been an absolute pleasure and such a fangirl moment conversing with you 😍 All four of Sandie’s novels are available and linked to purchase at your convenience from my local bookshop 📚