In this episode of The Jane Healey Happy Hour, Jane Healey talks with award-winning author Laura Jensen Walker about The Pilgrimage of Primrose Honeychurch, the story of a solitary 70-year-old book lover who sets out for the legendary Welsh book town of Hay-on-Wye. Walker shares how discovering she was neurodivergent at 67 inspired Primrose and her journey, and why the character’s unexpected bond with her young neurodivergent great-niece became such an important part of the story. She also talks about writing later-in-life reinvention, her love of English bookshops, and a career that has taken her across more than 25 books and several genres.

In this episode of The Jane Healey Happy Hour, Jane Healey talks with bestselling author Rachel Beanland about The Half Life, set on the Mediterranean island of La Maddalena in the 1970s, when an American naval presence brought Navy families into a close and sometimes contentious relationship with the local community. Beanland shares her personal connection to the island, where she lived as a child, and how interviews with former residents helped her recreate everything from Navy-wife culture to the isolation of island life. She also discusses writing about young marriage, deciding when historical fiction can bend the timeline, and why finishing a first draft is so important.

In this episode of The Jane Healey Happy Hour, Jane Healey talks with USA Today bestselling author Meg Shaffer about The Book Witch, a love letter to reading built around witches who can step inside books, repair damaged stories, and track down fictional characters who escape their pages. Shaffer shares how Alice in Wonderland, Nancy Drew, Pride and Prejudice, and other classics found their way into the novel, as well as the fascinating history she uncovered behind the original Nancy Drew books. She also talks about creating the rules of book magic, writing a complicated twist-filled story, and why learning to delete and rewrite remains some of the best advice she has received.