Author Spotlight: Welcome Debut Author Jacinta Peachey!

What’s more fun than introducing y’all to a new romance author? Not much. Today, I had a chance to chat with fellow Tule author Jacinta Peachey, a sparkling new voice on the Australian rural romance scene. Her debut novel, A Little Bit Country released March 23 and is available wherever ebooks are sold.

Jacinta Peachey is an international award-winning contemporary romance author. Her writing is the creative outpouring of a fertile imagination stifled by her first career as a dentist. With a ‘do as I say not as I do’ attitude, coffee, red wine, and chocolate fuel her writing passion. Her stories focus on strong, independent, yet mixed-up women as they navigate life’s unexpected turns.

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N: Welcome to the blog, Jacinta. I’m so pleased to have you with me today. So, what inspired you to start writing?

A: Thanks, Nan, for the opportunity to talk about my writing journey.

Ignoring an attempt to write a book when I was about eight, my first experiment in writing was a slow day at work after listening to a friend talk about the troubles she was having refurbishing an old hotel. The idea flittered into my mind and stayed there. It was 2016, and I spent the day between patients writing what I would later learn was a synopsis. It included three different couples working in a country hotel.

My friend encouraged me to write the book, and snippets of that story feature in A Little Bit Country. But it took a lot of writing courses and too many drafts to mention before I had the final story polished to an extent that someone was happy to offer me a deal.

N: Although you’ve written several stories for anthologies, A Little Bit Country is your debut novel. How exciting! What is the most surprising thing you discovered about yourself while writing A Little Bit Country?

A: That I can actually finish a complete novel that people like. My English teachers at school were always very harsh on my stories. In hindsight, not being able to spell and having messy handwriting shouldn’t be the yardstick to judge someone’s creative talents. This led me to believe I wasn’t very talented, and I concentrated on science subjects.

I wrote the short stories to prove to myself I could get something published, and despite having my work included in five anthologies, it still didn’t hit home that I was an author. My imposter syndrome was strong.

But when A Little Bit Country won two writing contests and finaled in more, it finally occurred to me that maybe I could actually be an author. Even after I signed a book deal, I still doubted my abilities.

N: You’ve recently retired from a career as a dentist. Very different from being a romance novelist. What do you bring to your stories from your life as a dentist?

A: As a dentist, I heard all the stories. It’s like being a barman or a hairdresser where the customer shares their secrets. Over a thirty odd year career, I have amassed so many titbits that help me create characters. Watching people, over twenty years in one practice, overcome unbelievable odds and flourish taught me that people can survive almost any challenge.

The strength of certain personalities comes out in my writing. It would never be obvious to any reader who I was drawing my inspiration from, but traits of the people I treated are scattered through my books. This goes also for anyone I have ever met.

As a dentist, I honed my storytelling skills by subjecting my patients to a one-sided conversation as I held them captive in my chair and filled their mouths with sharp, pointy things. I was never the one to ask questions when the patient couldn’t answer opting to talk at them. Now I have to find new listeners or readers.

I have also written two books that feature dentists, which I will self-publish in the next twelve months.

N: Your anthologies have included stories both sweet and spicy. Which do you prefer to write? To read?

A: I prefer to write sweet stories. I find it difficult to write spicy and think I get focused too much on the movements and not enough on the emotions. One of my short stories is spicy, and I did it as a writing exercise—I know a very nerdy thing to do. In the end, it was a lot of fun, but I still haven’t incorporated a lot of spice into my stories.

Over the years I have read more sweet stories, but currently all the audiobooks I am listening to are spicy to teach my author brain. Audiobooks are so easy, and I listen to them a lot in my car, which is fabulous unless I have my dog with me, because he likes the window open. When you are at traffic lights, it’s always a panic for the volume control, because some things in audiobooks shouldn’t be shared.

N: A Little Bit Country brings a touch of diversity to the story in that your hero, Ben, has a prosthetic leg. What made you decide to add that interesting element to a romance novel?

A: I wanted my hero to conquer a setback. After a few attempts at giving Ben an issue, I finally decided I needed something that would slow down a strong man and make him shift careers. As an amputee, he has to overcome not just a physical disability but the mental pressures that go with it.

He was a roofing carpenter, a job he couldn’t return to. On top of that, his girlfriend left him when he was still in recovery. This gave me lots of scope for growth.

Of course, becoming an egg salesman and stealing all Jasmine’s clients just led into a fun enemies-to-lovers trope from her angle, while he was smitten and did not know that Jasmine was an egg farmer.

N: Your heroine, Jasmine, is fighting demons from her past. Talk to us about writing romance with a little bit a darkness in the heroine’s story.

A: For me, romance works better when there are conflicts and reasons for protagonists to be reluctant to take the step toward commitment. Jasmine’s issues stem from her father going to jail for embezzlement when she was young. Then she married a cheating, lying gambler. Trusting a man, even one as kind as Ben, was going to be an enormous obstacle to face. And just when she thinks she can rely on people, things happen to make her second guess everything.

N: And now for a few sort of personal questions because readers love to know more about us beyond our writing life: What do you like to do when you are not writing?

A: I volunteer for writing organizations. I am a contest coordinator for both Romance Writers Australia and Romance Writers of New Zealand.

I start each day by drinking coffee with my husband and my dog in our local cafe. I love to hang out with friends and am a big advocate for dogs in bars and cafes. Australia is behind the times in encouraging man’s best friends in social settings.

I love to travel. This year my husband will retire again (who knows if this will be for the last time) so we have a few holidays planned. We will do three trips to different Australian capital cities, plus a road trip from Darwin to Perth (give or take petrol restrictions.) This will be about two weeks through some amazing places in the Australian Outback. Follow me on Instagram to catch a glimpse of what we see.

I also have a trip to Europe with my sister planned. Exploring different countries or cities will fill my story writing cup.

N: If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?

A: The nuns who teach you English are wrong. Just because you can’t spell doesn’t mean you aren’t creative. I would share with my young self the fabulous invention that one day computers will make it easier because spell check will help you with all the tough words.

I may also encourage myself to keep a diary of what I got up to in London in the 90s. Fun times before the internet, when I lived in a house with five other dentists. (I can hear you say that fun times and dentists must be an oxymoron, but we got up to lots.)

N: What did you want to be when you grew up?

A: When I was young, I wanted to be a schoolteacher. But as I got older, I realized I didn’t have the skills to teach. It takes a special person to nurture developing minds. It also requires a lot of patience, and I don’t have that. After I gave up the idea of teaching, I pivoted to a science-based career. Over five years of high school, I investigated lots of different options: dietician, podiatrist, medicine, pharmacology, pathology. When I had braces as a teenager, I wanted to become an orthodontist. I never did specialize because after five years of university I didn’t want to do another four years. Call me lazy, but that was enough studying for me.

But I never say never because fifteen years after I graduated from Dental School, I did an MBA.

N: Favorite book when you were a kid?

A: As soon as I could read, I was always getting books from the library. I don’t have a favorite and rarely reread books, But I devoured my mother’s copies of the What Katy Did series (first published in 1872) and Little Women. I got all the Little House on the Prairie books, which probably started my love of small-town romance.

N: Are you working on anything at the present you would like to tell our readers about?

A: In the six years since I retired, I have written six books. Three for the Tule Outback to the Sea series. A Little Taste of Home is out in September.

I also plan to self-publish three contemporary romances that are currently in the editing stage.

But I am always working on something new.

N: Finally, my favorite question to ask my guests: If you could choose three people, living or dead, real or fictional to invite to a dinner party, who would they be and why?

A: Who is cooking? If it is supposed to be me, then I might invite my husband so he can cook while I chat.

This was the hardest question to answer. I don’t think I could ever limit myself to just three. There are so many wonderful authors, interesting politicians (some I might invite just to give them food poisoning) and great women who paved the way for me to go to university and build a career in what was once a male-dominated profession—though thankfully not now—that I would just love to sit and listen to. I would even be on my best behavior and not talk too much.

N: Thanks so much for being with me today, Jacinta. Please come back soon, okay?

A: I have loved all the questions. Hopefully, when I return, I can share what it is like to go from a humble debut author to a pro.

A Little Bit Country

Scarred by a cheating, controlling ex and her con man father’s prison years, Jasmine Kennedy flees the outback for the sun-kissed haven of Dolphin Cove, Western Australia. She’ll guard her secrets from welcoming locals. She’ll forget her flirty evening with a fun-loving stranger and mind her own business. No problem.

Ben Stewart is rebuilding after an accident left him with a prosthetic leg. Between soul-sucking hen egg sales and part-time handyman work at the local retirement home, he’s honing his wood-crafting skills. He’s not looking for love, but after connecting with spirited mystery woman Jazzie, he’ll give it a shot. As soon as he’s steady on his feet. Foot. And finds her again.

When Jasmine discovers her one-night charmer is responsible for tanking her local egg sales and he’s booked to fix her fence, she vows to keep her distance. But their paths keep crossing, fences keep falling, and her past is closing in.

Will Jasmine trust Ben and the quirky Dolphin Cove community to stand with her—or will she shield her heart and run?

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