Perth Words… exploring possibilities.

Interview by Nicole Melanson ~

Valerie Khoo is a multiple award-winning entrepreneur and mentor to businesses and start-ups. She is the founder and national director of the Australian Writers’ Centre, the country’s leading centre for writing courses. It has trained more than 23,000 students from all over the world.

Valerie is also the author of Power Stories: The 8 stories you MUST tell to build an epic business.

Twitter: @valeriekhoo

Valerie Khoo on LinkedIn

HOW DID YOU GET STARTED?

I had always loved writing at school but never thought of it as a “real” career for some reason. So I became an accountant, can you believe it? However, I always had a creative itch that I wanted to scratch, so I did some writing courses for fun, outside of work. Finally, after a few years in the corporate world, I woke up one day and realised that I had to…

Fiona McArthur has always loved reading and it’s fed her passion for writing. Her first medical romance novel was published by Harlequin in 2001 and now she’s on her 34th novel. She’s been nominated for the Romantic Book of The Year with Romance Writers of Australia and the US-based Cataromance Readers Choice Award and has sold over 2 million books, in twelve languages. What she loves most is women writing to her and saying, ‘Thank you. Now I understand about my premature baby’s birth and the how’s and why’s of her stay in hospital.’ Or ‘I had no idea I had those choices with my birth.’ As she says, “women are powerful, and I love to write about their amazing journeys”. Read more about Fiona here, or follow her on Facebook or Twitter.

Monique: Your novel, The Homestead Girls, has just been released. Can you tell…

Interview by Nicole Melanson ~

Jacquelyn Mitchard is the author of 21 books, including 15 novels for adults and teens. Her first book, The Deep End of the Ocean, was the first selection of the Oprah Winfrey Book Club, with more than 4 million copies in print in 27 languages worldwide. Her second novel was nominated for the Orange Prize, and two of her books have been made into films. A member of the 2003 Fiction Jury for the National Book Award, Mitchard is the editor of Merit Press Books, a Young Adult imprint under the aegis of F & W Media, and was the 2013 recipient of the Bram Stoker Award for a ghost story in a collection honoring her mentor, Ray Bradbury, a story also a finalist for the Shirley Jackson Award. Her novels have enjoyed wide popular appeal as well as critical acclaim…