Writing Podcast Episode 732: Leearna Shaw takes us to ‘A Farm in Golden Clouds’

With a mountain of rejections, AWC grad Leearna Shaw was ready to throw in the proverbial towel with her dream of novel writing. But just a few years later, her rural romance A Farm in Golden Clouds wins the Romance Writers of Australia’s Emerald Award and she lands a 2-book publishing deal! So what happened in the middle to set this success story in motion? In this episode, Leearna shares it all.

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00:00 Welcome
09:10 Writing tip: Help other writers
11:48 Writers in the wild
13:08 WIN: Realms of Gold by A.J. MacKinnon
14:48 Word of the week: ‘Heirophant’
15:40 Interview with: Leearna Shaw
17:00 Description of A Farm in Golden Clouds
18:15 Inspirations for the book
20:22 Her early writing dreams
22:20 Getting rejections
24:00 Discovering AWC courses
28:40 Winning the Emerald Award
32:00 Scoring a 2-book deal
38:00 The importance of the writing community
41:10 Advice for writers
42:46 Book recommendations
45:28 Promotion experiences
47:50 Final thoughts

Links mentioned in this episode

Writer in residence: Leearna Shaw

Leearna Shaw is a contemporary rural romance author inspired by the chaos of living on a small farm in north-east Victoria with her husband and two boys. She has a Diploma in Professional Writing & Editing and a Certificate in Professional Proofreading.
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Away from her writing desk, Leearna is as competitive with her reading habits as she is on the basketball court. When she's not tending to her unhealthy obsession with indoor plants, Leearna can be found either on the yoga mat or chasing runaway lambs and her wayward boys on their property.

You can also meet Leearna on our blog.

Follow Leearna on Instagram.

Follow Allen & Unwin on Twitter and Instagram.

This podcast is brought to you by the Australian Writers' Centre and our course Romance Writing.

 

Find out more about your host, Valerie Khoo (@valeriekhoo on Twitter and @valeriekhoo on Instagram).

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