A Country Practice Christmas

Penelope Janu lives on a farm in the Southern Highlands of NSW with a distracting husband, a very large dog and, now they’re fully grown, six delightful children who come and go. Penelope has a passion for creating stories that explore social and environmental issues, but her novels are fundamentally a celebration of Australian characters and communities. Her first novel, In at the Deep End, came out in 2017, followed by On the Right Track, On the Same Page, Up on Horseshoe Hill, Starting from Scratch, Clouds on the Horizon, Shelter from the Storm and Sunshine through the Rain, as well as three novellas, The Six Rules of Christmas, The Countdown to Christmas and A Fairytale for Christmas. Penelope enjoys riding horses, exploring the Australian countryside and dreaming up challenging hiking adventures. Nothing makes her happier as a writer than readers falling in love with her clever, complex and adventurous heroines and heroes. She loves to hear from readers.

Stella Quinn has had a love affair with books since she first discovered the alphabet. She lives in sunny Queensland now, but has lived in England, Hong Kong and Papua New Guinea. Boarding school in a Queensland country town left Stella with a love of small towns and heritage buildings (and a fear of chenille bedspreads and meatloaf!) and that is why she loves writing rural romance. Stella is a keen scrabble player, she’s very partial to her four kids and anything with four furry feet, and she is a mediocre grower of orchids. An active member of Romance Writers of Australia, Stella has won their Emerald, Sapphire and Valerie Parv Awards, and finaled in their R*BY Romantic Book of the Year award.

Renae Black lives in Queensland with her husband and two young bookworms. By day she works as a social worker within the child protection industry. By night, she escapes to the romantic fictional realms of rural Australia that transport her back to her childhood home, a large property that bred cattle and hosted the odd ostrich sale.

Pamela Cook is an author, podcaster, writing teacher and mentor. Her debut novel Blackwattle Lake was published by Hachette Australia in 2012 followed by three rural fiction titles. Her latest releases Cross My Heart (2019) and All We Dream (2020) have taken her writing in an exciting new direction.

Pamela writes page-turning contemporary women’s fiction, delving deep into the psychology of her characters and the complexity of relationships in all their forms. She explores the impact of trauma, grief and generational conflict, drawing on the resilience and courage she finds in inspirational women. Her writing is imbued with a deep love of the natural world and its power to heal.

Producing and hosting Writes4Women, a weekly podcast that supports women writers and celebrates women’s writing, is one of Pamela’s not-so-guilty pleasures. She is also a Writer Ambassador for Room to Read, a not-for-profit organisation promoting literacy and gender equality in developing countries.

An experienced teacher, Pamela loves to mentor emerging authors. When she’s not writing or reading, she wastes as much time as possible riding her handsome quarter horse Baloo, hanging out with her family and menagerie of animals on her dream-come-true rural property in the beautiful Illawarra region of NSW, and dreaming of a road trip in Virginia, her vintage caravan.