Dear Rach & Soph

From Sophie:

At the time of recording this episode I had a cold and Rachael was in the middle of preparing her house to go on the market. When I pressed ‘record’ I forgot to pull my microphone close enough and my usual camera wasn’t connecting so it’s the substandard version, which the internet would likely say is far too low quality to be permissible on a podcast that has video options … but! We persisted. Why? We had a guest booked and we were not going to cancel on her. Indeed, we were determined to show up as best we can, and the act of showing up usually has its own momentum.

Our guest in this episode is Sarah Clutton, an author from the Southern Highlands of New South Wales who won many fans with her last novel, The Remarkable Truths of Alfie Bains - which is not her first novel, so do ignore me saying that in the episode, and if I’d been feeling better at the time I would have done my research properly. But sometimes, liewers, the most a person can expect out of a day is to get out of bed and be presentable, and so it was on this day.

Sarah is delightful, and I do hope you will read her new novel, The Bookshop of Buried Pasts, which features a quote by me on the back cover (an incentive, non?). Mainly read it, though, if you love engrossing stories about families and secrets - and books.

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

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

Subscribe on Spotify
Subscribe on Apple
Subscribe on YouTube
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Have you heard the term ‘regurgitated volume’ before? No? Good. That’s because Sophie made it up in this episode of Dear Rach & Soph, to describe large volumes of content being produced by generate A.I. In other words: books being written by A.I. But she's not going to call them that, and we discuss why.

A.I. is a topic that is everywhere all at once, and also being raised specifically in relation to books and publishing. Rachael suggested we talk about it, because we haven’t addressed it much before but, given its pervasiveness, we thought it pertinent to do so, and also made the decision to do so about two minutes before we started recording. Which means we did something a large language model can’t: leap into the creative river and see what emerges, and work with what emerges and keep flowing.

Is the sky falling when it comes to books and what effect A.I. may have on them? You’ll have to watch or listen to the episode to find out what we think … It’s available wherever you find your podcasts.
For more information about Rachael Johns: https://www.rachaeljohns.com

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

Subscribe on Spotify
Subscribe on Apple
Subscribe on YouTube
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From Sophie:

On this podcast Rachael Johns and I let these conversations go where they will, and in this episode we start talking about how important it is for grown-ups to engage in play. That means in our writing as well, even if - perhaps especially if - we are constrained by expectations and deadlines. So that’s the light stuff.

The heavy - or heavier - stuff turns up when we answer a listener question about social media and why male writers don’t seem to be on it as much as female writers. Here’s an abridged version of the question:
‘Just wondering why (to me) male authors don’t seem to feel as compelled to spend a lot of time networking, social media-ing and touring as female authors … Why do women authors seem to feel they have to be ‘out there’ to be recognised for their work? Or is this above and beyond and makes more money for them? If so all good, but to feel it’s the only way to be known and recognised seems unfair.’

The short answer is that it is, indeed, unfair but Rachael and I have a much longer discussion about it. As someone who has worked in book publishing for most of my adult life, I’ve had occasion to make observations and form opinions about certain things that go on, and you’ll hear some of those in this episode. Rachael has over 20 books published and she too has experience and opinions. We hope that bringing you the combination of all of that makes for an interesting episode!
For more information about Rachael Johns: https://www.rachaeljohns.com

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

Subscribe on Spotify
Subscribe on Apple
Subscribe on YouTube
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode we talk about a subject that has been on our list for a while: the reflexive nature of saying ‘sorry’. Admittedly it’s something Sophie put on the list, as it’s something she's had an interest in - you’ll have to watch/listen to this episode for the back story - and which she talks about regularly in her life, because so many of us say ‘sorry’ so regularly that she believes it’s detrimental to our wellbeing. We also talk about not apologising for being ourselves … and how this influences our writing.

In addition there's chitchat about writing and rejection (rejection is a popular topic with our audience, we’ve discovered), and we end the episode discussing what we’re reading now.
For more information about Rachael Johns: https://www.rachaeljohns.com

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

Subscribe on Spotify
Subscribe on Apple
Subscribe on YouTube
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello longtime Dear Rach & Soph liewers (that's listeners + viewers to the uninitiated)!

Thank you for your patience while Rachael Johns and I took a break to focus on writing our next books (two of them, in Rach's case) and other things.

Over the hiatus we've both had feedback that you mostly like us talking to each other, so there will be more of that this season, interspersed with some guests. We're really open to suggestions for topics to cover, as well, so please feel free to leave a comment to that effect or contact us on social media. There are various ways to find us.

We hope you enjoy this episode. We had fun talking to each other, and we hope that translates.

And in this age of AI, where I'm probably meant to run this through a programme that will tell me what to change so it's more SEO friendly, you can probably tell from the absence of buzzwords that I'm not doing that. This is me writing to you, one human to another, just as the podcast is me and Rachael talking to each other, one human to another. At least, I was human the last time I checked. Maybe I'm a holograph? Time will tell.

Thanks for watching/listening! We appreciate your time and hope you enjoy spending some of it with us.

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

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

Subscribe on Spotify
Subscribe on Apple
Subscribe on YouTube
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.