Book People Are The Best People 🪩

Oh what a weekend! A recap of the Rachael Johns' Book Club retreat.

Over the weekend of the 16th to 18th of May,

Anthea Hodgson Author

and I ran our annual in-person retreat for the members of the Rachael Johns’ Book Club and I have LOTS of joy and magic to share with you.

The question is where to start?

Perhaps you’re wondering what a weekend reading retreat involves? Well, I can’t speak for any others (although I think we are the only of this kind currently in Australia), but I heard an attendee say it’s like a cross between a festival, a party and a weekend away with your fave authors and reading besties. Because even if you’ve not met before, by the time the retreat ends at 3-ish on Sunday afternoon, you’ll have made new friends for life.

You can check out this year’s program here, and I’ll try to summarise it all below.

Friday night Cocktail Party is always a dress up. This year’s theme was Bad Bridesmaids - wonder where we got THAT idea? And the attendees absolutely understood the assignment. Shout out to Emma who would have been my winner, if I was the judge, sadly I was not! We also played some get to know you games , so that hopefully by the end of the night, anyone who came by themselves had made new life-long friends!

Saturday and Sunday are JAM-PACKED and this year was no exception. We kicked off with a reading of

Anthea Hodgson Author

’s next book, which will be out next year and sounds absolutely fantastic. Next I interviewed

Stella Quinn Author

about her warm and wonderful book A SNOWY RIVER SUMMER. The book is almost amazing as Stella is and after my interview, the readers had a chance to discuss the novel at their tables and then we had half an hour Q&A with Stella herself.

Our second book club novel was THE MADEMOISELLE ALLIANCE by

Natasha Lester

on the Sunday, same format as the day before, only this time

Anthea Hodgson Author

moderated. We were all VERY impressed with the lengths Natasha went to researching this book!

There were two panels on Saturday and one on Sunday where authors were interviewed but whereas most writers’ festivals focus on how the authors write, research etc - the focus of our panels is more about what READERS want to know. Shout out to our panel moderators

Annie Bucknall

and

Bree Testa

! Both superstar interviewers!

We feed our readers plenty over the weekend, so just assume they have yummy morning teas, lunches and afternoon teas during all this fun activity. Saturday night we had a very special dinner and the theme was ALL THAT GLITTERS. Everyone looked even more sparkly and fabulous than usual. There was fun bookish trivia and the authors all stood at the front while we played ‘Have you ever…?’

Sunday closed with a fun and fraught debate, the topic: This house believes contemporary fiction is harder to write than historical fiction. I’m devastated to tell you that the negative team won! But shout out to all debaters for giving it a red-hot go:

Alexandra Almond

, Barbara Hannay,

Nadia Mahjouri

, Deb Jordan,

Stella Quinn Author

and Nicole Flockton. Special mention to Stella who stepped in at the very last minute, yet still managed to steal the show with her brilliant and funny debating skills.

But the absolute fave part of the weekend for the readers is always the Author Speed-dating! We had two sessions of this - one each day - during which the readers stay at the same table and the authors move from one table to the next. The authors have 8 minutes with each table and do everything from play games, show-and-tell, ask me anythings to getting the readers to help them.

This year, I asked readers what they'd love to see in my new serialised rural romance — and their ideas did not disappoint. I'm thrilled to announce it's called MEANWHILE IN MOUNT MERRY-GLEN, and it’s coming here very soon. Think small-town charm, big feelings and a few secrets the locals would rather keep buried. You can read more about it (if you haven’t already) here.

Thanks to any readers and authors reading this who came along and helped make our THIRD book club retreat absolutely magic. I loved hearing from attendees saying how much joy this weekend brings to their lives and the friendships and community they’ve found belonging to the book club.

Book people TRULY are the BEST people!

And a huge thank you to Allyce from Boundless Books in Leederville, who came on Saturday to sell the authors’ books and also lots of fun bookish merch.

I’m so excited about next year, which is happening Friday 19 June 2026 6:00 PM - Sunday 21 June 2026 4:00 PM in Geelong, Victoria. If you’re keen to come, you can book your place by paying for a deposit here, but spots are limited and selling FAST!