About the authors: Ali Berg and Michelle Kalus

The Melbourne-based best friends founded a movement called Books On The Rails, which involves leaving books on public transport for strangers to take and read. That led to them getting a publishing deal and writing their best-selling debut

The Book Ninja. Ali is a copywriter and Michelle is a teacher.

This novel was inspired by… Turning 30. We asked ourselves what we would do differently if we had to relive our 20s. Would we still rock low-rise skinny jeans and super-thin eyebrows? Would we try to warn people about the madness that was to come and would anyone believe us? Or would we change anything about our relationships? So it was that paired with the fact that everyone was in desperate need of an uplifting read.

The most fun/challenging thing about writing it was… We write as a duo, which is incredibly fun, but at times challenging. We have to be very organised. It’s not unusual for one of us to be writing a chapter that comes after one that doesn’t yet exist, so staying accountable is key. Plus, much of this book was written while contending with pandemic stress and lockdown claustrophobia. And Ali had just had a baby. But it gave us a safe place to escape to.

We love working together on fiction because…

We get to create stories together with our best friend! While the writing process can be daunting at times, getting to lean on, laugh with and lament to somebody you trust, adore and feel entirely lighter with is truly enriching. We have such a blast reminiscing on our life experiences and turning them into fiction.