{"id":498451,"date":"2025-10-14T09:30:22","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T09:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/498451\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T09:30:22","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T09:30:22","slug":"rachael-johns-new-book-have-a-go-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/498451\/","title":{"rendered":"Rachael Johns\u2019 new book – Have a Go News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Perth author Rachael Johns\u2019 initial inspiration for her new book, The Lucky Sisters, began when she and fellow WA author Anthea Hodgson were at a writers\u2019 festival and the subject came up about Elvis Presley and the passing of his daughter Lisa Marie.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of Elvis\u2019 family died young and his early death was written off as him being on drugs and different stuff. But then they found out there was a faulty gene in Elvis\u2019 family, possibly linked to the fact his maternal grandparents were cousins,\u201d Rachael tells Have a Go News.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, the thought developed\u2026 how would you feel if you knew that you had inherited something that meant you might not live as long as most people hope to live?<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then, as writers do, you always like asking yourself: what if? Imagine if you didn\u2019t know you were going to die in your early 50s but then you found out that you would. How would that affect you? How do you live your life from that point on?\u201d<\/p>\n

The groundwork was laid for Rachael Johns\u2019 most ambitious novel yet, The Lucky Sisters, which delves into the complexities of mortality, identity, motherhood and the ties that bind us.<\/p>\n

Twins Nora and Stevie Lucky, adopted at birth and raised in a loving home in Perth, have always been close despite their very different personalities. When their mother dies, Nora convinces Stevie to search for their biological parents, only to be confronted with the life-changing revelation that they both may not have long to live.<\/p>\n

It sends the sisters spiralling in different directions and much happens as they confront their own mortality and the effect it will have on their families. The book is a wonderful read, filled with warmth and good humour, even in the face of adversity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe initial inspiration was reading about the gene from Elvis Presley\u2019s family and thinking about how you would react if you found out you had a similar gene,\u201d Rachael says. The twins came on board and I actually read a quote about sisters, one is always the dancer and the other is always the watcher.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought that was really beautiful and, from the people I know, this is very true, one sibling is a little bit more out there daring and sociable and the other takes a backseat and is sometimes quieter.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen you have two people having to deal with the same news and the emotions they might feel differently, But I thought it would be kind of fun to swap personalities when they found out, so it\u2019s about thinking and asking yourself questions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI often start with the character when I write books and, in this case, I started more with the premise. I had two very different sisters who were very close and really it helped make the\u00a0 families and the people they had in their lives come alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rachael says she researched adoption laws for her book. Different laws apply in each state.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think for me what\u2019s so much more fascinating is the emotional side.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile I wasn\u2019t adopted myself, I didn\u2019t know my father, I knew of him, but I didn\u2019t meet him until I was 18 and I found had four half-sisters and a half brother who I didn\u2019t know existed until then.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I kind of know what it\u2019s like not to know about your family. While I knew about my mother, I didn\u2019t know about my father\u2019s side and there is still a lot I don\u2019t know. My husband still doesn\u2019t know his dad and whereas I desperately wanted to know, my husband has no desire at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s different feelings about these things and so I gave one to Stevie and another to Nora. A good writing friend of mine, Sophie Green, was also adopted and she generously did an online podcast about adoption and the different aspects involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rachael says she did extensive research into genetics and the various aspects of the disease the twins may have inherited.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I realised there was something I had to explain or I had to ensure would work, I would stop writing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Born in London, Rachael moved to Sydney with her mother as a baby and then to WA aged seven; her father remaining in the UK. She was once, briefly, an English teacher before turning her attention to writing and never looked back.<\/p>\n

Her novel, The Patterson Girls, won the 2016 Australian Book Industry Award for General Fiction and she\u2019s a two-time winner of the Romance Writers of Australia Ruby award.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like setting my books in WA but sometimes the plots call for somewhere else,\u201d Rachael says. She writes from her home office in the Swan Valley, basically during school hours with one son still at school (two other sons are grownup).<\/p>\n

\u201cIt probably took me longer than usual to write The Lucky Sisters because I also released two other books Outback Reunion last November and The Bad Bridesmaid in February.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cApart from that, I\u2019m currently in the throes of writing a new book, Someone Else\u2019s Fortune, which has a bit of a sliding doors element which I\u2019m really excited about. I\u2019m also co-writing a cosy crime series with another author.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rachael Johns will launch The Lucky Sisters at Chapel Farm Estate in the Swan Valley at 6.30pm on Tuesday, October 21. She then heads to the eastern states for a series of book launches.<\/p>\n

The Lucky Sisters by Rachael Johns (rrp $34.99, Penguin) is out this month.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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