It was a brilliant, humbling experience and helped pave the way for some much, much better work! I sat down and wrote my first manuscript (Otherwise known as “The Abomination”) and made every layman’s mistake you could imagine. When did you first begin writing with a view of embarking on a career as a published author?Ībout four years ago.

I’m a Jill of all trades but I was lucky enough to study Literature and Communication and Cultural Studies at university and then headed in a completely different direction towards a contemporary history PhD for a couple of years before re-discovering my love of romance while living in Saudi Arabia in 2008.

We have a different take on the world and an ability to laugh at ourselves.What is your background with regard to writing? “The more I travel, the more I realise just how unique we Aussies are with our irreverent sense of humour. Having lived all over the world, Penney realises that wherever she is, she cannot help but see life laced with Oz humour. To make sure I didn’t miss my chance, I drove for an hour and a half on flooded roads to find an internet cafe to send that all-important-email containing the drafts for my other novels, Fly In Fly Out and Summer Harvest, along with an acceptance of her offer for publication.” “We were living on the edge of the jungle and had just experienced torrential rain that had knocked out the internet. “I was living in the middle of nowhere in Brunei Darussalam when an editor from Penguin called me, saying she loved The Barbershop Girl and wanted to see everything else I’d written,” she says. Penney explains how The Barbershop Girl came to be a print release of her earlier e-book, Irrepressible You. “On a personal level, I grew up in less-than-ideal circumstances and discovering romance kept me sane and instilled in me a solid sense of self-belief.” “In my experience, the romance genre confronts issues women face every day, from domestic violence, money problems, fertility, family, and relationships to body image, dealing with them in a way that gives hope,” Penney says. In allowing Ben into her life, Amy learns to stand up for herself and to put an abusive past behind her. “Ī delightful love story with a wonderful balance of witty banter, gratifyingly indulgent romance and tasteful erotica, The Barbershop Girl has enough depth and darkness to make an entertaining and satisfying read.Īddicted to retro 50s glamour, hairdresser Amy Blaine encounters British celebrity writer Ben Martindale, an enigma from a different world to her own. If I could package up the smell and feel of walking through a jarrah forest just after a summer rain and take it with me wherever I go, I’d do it in a heartbeat. “The longer I’m away from WA, the more I miss it.

Irrepressible You by Georgina Penney