Sophie Green – Second Chances

Sophie Green’s stories of fresh beginnings, unexpected friendships and the power of love in small country communities are Top 10 Best sellers, and they’re all built around Sophie’s personal passions for, among other things, music, yoga and swimming. Hi there, I’m your host Jenny Wheeler, and today on Binge Reading Sophie talks about her varied career as a country music podcaster and aficionado, how she came to write two Home and Away spin offs, and why she thinks writers can learn a lot from musicians. The giveaway this week is Sadie's Vow, Book #1 in my new Home At Last series... Book #2 Susannah's Secret will be published late October, or early November. An unconventional woman. A handsome European. Together, they plunge into dirty mob dealings and certain danger. free download sadie's vow Martin Walker's Encore episode on his latest book To Kill A Troubadour goes live to general audience today. listen to martin walker on encore If you'd like to support the show, why not Buy Me A Cup of Coffee at buymeacoffee/jennywheelX buy me a coffee and show you enjoyed the show Links to the episode: Bellbird Country Choir playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPpYyaC9JNGvmSsJeT3nwXHi5MQm1TGii Home and Away: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_and_Away Michael Connolly: https://www.michaelconnelly.com/ Richard Osman: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Osman Kayte Nunn: https://kaytenunn.com/ Kayte Nunn on JOBR: https://thejoysofbingereading.com/kayte-nunn-desire-revenge-courage/ Kazuo Ishiguro: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazuo_Ishiguro The Cowra Breakout: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0135848/ Tamworth Country Music Festival: https://www.tcmf.com.au/ Singer Jenny Mitchell and Sophie Green interview on Sunburnt Country podcast: https://sunburntcountrymusic.com/2022/08/14/jenny-mitchell-on-her-sublime-new-album-tug-of-war/ The Inaugural Meeting of the Fairvale Ladies Book Club. https://www.amazon.com/Inaugural-Meeting-Fairvale-Ladies-Book/dp/073363656X Cover designs by Christa Moffit: https://abda.com.au/tag/christa-moffitt/ Links: Where to find Sophie Green: Website: https://www.hachette.com.au/sophie-green/ Instagram: @sophiegreenbooks Facebook: @SophieGreenAuthor Twitter: @sophiegreenauth Tik Tok: @Sophie Green Books What follows is a "near as" transcript of our conversation, not word for word but pretty close to it, with links to the show notes in The Joys of Binge Reading.com for important mentions.But now, here’s Sophie. Introducing author Sophie Green Jenny Wheeler: Hello there, Sophie, and welcome to the show. It's so good to have you with us. Sophie Green - Small town, second chance women's fiction Sophie Green: Hello, Jenny. Thank you very much for having me. Jenny Wheeler: You have made this area of small communities a real winner for yourself. The books you've written about small communities have been Top 10 bestsellers, practically all of them, and the most recent one is The Bellbird River Country Choir. It’s about a group of people drawn from disparate backgrounds and places who all meet in this small country town and join a choir. What is it that attracts you to small towns? Sophie Green: I think partly it's because we all form our own small communities within larger communities. I'm Sydney born and bred, but I live not far from where I grew up and I have friends that I've met in the same area and met in other small communities, like working in a book shop. I think we do tend to find our little communities within the larger, and also from a storytelling point of view, small communities are good to work with because I don't have to think about a whole massive cast of characters. I can focus on one particular place and the people who live there. Jenny Wheeler: That's interesting because the book does give a real sense of you understanding small communities. I did know that you lived in Sydney, but of course, as you say, metropolitan centers all form their own smaller communities. Do you still have any contacts with people you were at primary school with, occasionally? Small communities form everywhere Sophie Green: Actually, no, because I didn't have a lot of friends in primary school or high school. School was not the best time for me, but I did make a very close friend when I worked in a bookshop who is one of the people this book is dedicated to. The bookshop forms a small community in and of itself, because everyone who's there wants to read and loves reading, and so you more naturally make connections that way. I have tended to make connections through activities, which is one of the reasons why I'm interested in pursuing that in the novels – swimming in The Shelly Bay Ladies Swimming Circle, yoga in Thursdays at Orange Blossom House, and now music in this one. Jenny Wheeler: Do you swim? Sophie Green: I do, yes. I live near a harbor beach in Sydney, and so I swim at the harbor beach. I don't actually swim in the ocean. I did used to live at a surf beach and I do look at the people who swim laps off surf beaches and think, well, they're a lot braver than I am. When I swim at my harbor beach, I tend to always make sure I can put my foot down on the sand if I need to in a hurry, and that someone is always further out than I am because they can be the shark bait. Music features throughout the book Jenny Wheeler: We will get onto talking about each of these books in a bit more detail, and you are very interested in music. We'll get onto that. Music features very strongly in Bellbird River, and then with Orange Blossom it's set around a yoga community, so in each of these books you've chosen a setting that you understand very well and feel emotionally connected to. Sophie Green: Yes. It's not necessarily me mining my own life, but I think it's normal as a storyteller to write things you can connect with and feel, and also write from experience in life if I can. I just happened to have a few very well-defined interests that I've pursued for years on end, so when it came to writing stories, I've gone to them first. Jenny Wheeler: In Bellbird River Choir one of the key characters is this international opera singer, Gabrielle, who almost retreats to this small town to heal herself. She's had an operation on her throat which is affecting the quality of her voice. She wasn't fully warned that this was a possibility and she certainly didn't consider that it was likely to happen to her. Now that she's finding her international career truncated, she's feeling a real loss of identity and purpose, so she's hiding out for that reason. Some of the others are also in painful retreat from pasts or from difficult circumstances – being a solo mum in Sydney and finding it very hard to cope, those kinds of things. They have all got something that they're dealing with and they're drawn together in this choir. You really get to enjoy these characters as their past unfolds. Character who developed a life of her own Sophie Green: Thank you and thank you for reading so closely. Gabrielle was actually a character who was not going to have a point of view originally. Well, I had put her in originally and then I thought, no, I can't have five, I need to have four. In the last few books I've had three and four. She just insisted on being a main character in the story, and I was going to have her as Victoria's cousin. I originally wrote her as this little side player, as Victoria's cousin. Then she became an irresistible force. That thing that happens when you're writing, where characters come to you and tell you what they want and tell you who they are and how they have to be in a story, I don't really understand it. I think they just come from somewhere else and she wanted her story told. She's a complex character. She had a difficult childhood herself in Bellbird River and that's one of the reasons why she hasn't been back for a long time. For me, Victoria and Gabrielle are the love story of this book. That bond they've had, even though they haven't seen each other regularly for years, is so strong that Gabrielle instinctively knows that's what she needs when she's healing. Jenny Wheeler: It's a bit like asking Dame Kiri te Kanawa to take a back seat, isn’t it? I can see why she broke through. Look for the playlist with Dame Kiri on it Sophie Green: Dame Kiri is actually in the playlist I put together, the songs from this. I’ve put a playlist on YouTube at the request of my publishers, all the songs as they appear in order. I remember Dame Kiri singing at the royal wedding in 1981, and so I thought, she's someone that people may remember well. Of course, she's had an incredible career, so she features in the playlist. Jenny Wheeler: You'll have to make sure we get the link for that playlist because I'm sure people would be interested in hearing it. Sophie Green: It is now on my social media, and I've got a link tree which has it on as well, so people, google Sophie Green Author link tree, and that'll probably pop up. Jenny Wheeler: That's great. One of the things I enjoyed about this book, I read quite a lot of mysteries because we handle quite a lot of mysteries on the show, but the pace of this is more elegiac than some of the mysteries I read. It’s lovely. It's like you're stepping into a flow and you get carried along in the most lovely restful, but irresistible kind of way as the personal secrets come to life. They very gradually get revealed as we go through the book. You get to know the characters’ innermost thoughts, and each chapter is a point of view chapter from one character, isn't it? Never Miss out!Never miss out on the hottest new authors, regular FREE BOOK OFFERS and Most Popular podcasts.Yes please to FREE BOOKS and updates on popular booksWe won't send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time.....