Nina Kenwood was one of the featured authors at this year’s Rachael Johns Book Club Readers Retreat in Geelong, Victoria, a few months ago, so we met her there. At the time we had not organised to talk to Nina about her new novel, People Skills, which will be released by Text Publishing on 6 October. And we hadn’t yet read the book, but ahead of recording this episode we did (and have both read the novel before it, The Wedding Forecast). As fans of Nina's writing and her storytelling, of her sense of humour and her compassion for human foibles, we had much to discuss when she joined us on the pod for this episode.

Nina has worked in bookselling and publishing, and she has also published two young adult novels . We talk about that, and why she entered the Text Prize (which she won), her writing process and why most stories can be enhanced by having a romantic plot.

The blurb for People Skills appears below.

Before Nina entered the chat we talked about social media and authors, and the videos Sophie was making at the time on this subject (which you can find on her Reels tab in Instagram and Facebook, as well as on her YouTube channel in the Shorts). Nina has recently increased her social media activity, but that wasn’t why it was the subject of our intro chat! That was, as they say in the classics, a coincidence.

ABOUT PEOPLE SKILLS

People Skills is a slow-burn, forced-proximity romance about a PA falling for her boss’s son.

Thirty-year-old Charlotte is working hard to reinvent herself after her career as a book editor went up in flames. She’s moved to a coastal town and landed a new job as a personal assistant to well-known media personality Hillary Hobbs. Hillary is launching a writers festival, and Charlotte is determined to prove herself capable of meeting her boss’s every need.

When Hillary’s son Xavier arrives in town, Charlotte has a new problem to solve. A one-time-bestselling author, Xavier hasn’t written a word for years and now he’s broken up with his girlfriend and has nowhere to live.

Charlotte finds herself not only offering Xavier her spare room, but also promising Hillary she’ll get his life back on track.

But the more time Charlotte and Xavier spend together, the more an undeniable attraction develops, complicating everything…

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

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

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A year ago, on the podcast, we talked to Chloe Berry, who was in the process of launching a digital marketing agency for authors and also planning to become a literary agent. Chloe is in her twenties and has worked in publishing as a marketer for romance and other genre fiction. Starting her own agency was, obviously, risky - starting any business is a risk.

Since then Chloe has been working as a bookseller and has not only successfully launched the digital marketing agency but very successfully launched her literary agency. Her client Penny Sunday has recently released her first novel, the dark rom com Kill to Love, which has been charting on Amazon all over the world. Chloe has done several more deals in her less than a year of agenting life, including backlist audio deals. She is also launching her own imprint, Millie Lane.

Sophie knows all of this because she's the publisher of KILL TO LOVE and she's in regular contact with Chloe. Rachael also saw Chloe recently, at the RWA Conference in Darwin. So we thought it was time to have Chloe return as a guest, partly to celebrate all she’s achieved and also to talk about romance publishing in Australia and what she has planned.

You can find Chloe on Instagram at @tbaliterary + @theberryagency + @chloeraeberry

Millie Lane Press is at @millielanepress

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

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

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.