Tea with Mrs B: Sasha Wasley

Tea with Mrs B: Sasha Wasley

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Welcome to Tea with Mrs B, an author interview series. Here to share a pot of tea and to chat about her brand new book, Love Song, is Sasha Wasley.

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Sasha Wasley was born and raised in Perth, Western Australia. She lives in the Swan Valley wine region with her two daughters. She writes commercial fiction, crossover new adult/YA mysteries and paranormal. Sasha Wasley’s debut novel, The Seventh, was published in January 2015. Her first new adult paranormal romance series, The Incorruptibles, debuted in 2016.


Hello Sasha. It is my pleasure to warmly welcome you to my blog, Mrs B’s Book Reviews. Thank you for joining me for Tea with Mrs B, an author interview series.  To set the mood for our tea infused interview, what is your preferred beverage, tea, coffee or other? And side accompaniment, scone, cake or other?

Hi, Mrs B! I’d love a flat white coffee and a raspberry coconut slice, please.

Can you tell us what genres you write for and how many books you have had published?

I write character-driven fiction novels and I have published books in the genres of rural, mystery, paranormal and young adult. Love Song is my 11th full length novel.

Can you describe Love Song in just a sentence?

Beth Paterson is driven and organised, but the love of her life has just come back to town and things are going to get messy.

How long did it take you to write Love Song?

It took me about three months to write the book and then about a month of editing. It was actually a dream to write this book. I wasn’t sure if it would prove difficult, but when I wrote down a dream Beth had, remembering the first time Charlie kissed her, I suddenly had a way to map out the story. It contains a series of flashbacks to when Beth and Charlie were seventeen interspersed through the present-day story and I love the way it came together. I would gladly take this experience of writing a book again!

What issues are at the heart of this new instalment of the Paterson sisters series?

This is a love story and the big issue for both Beth and Charlie is trust. Neither of them knows the truth about what happened to bust them up when they were teens and they can’t trust each other. This affects not just the way they feel about each other but also how they work together to solve the problem facing a remote community they both care about. For Beth, her struggle with trust makes her try to control everything about her life. But there are a whole lot of big issues that form the fabric of this story: sister relationships, health and education issues faced by Aboriginal people, racism in Australia, corporate power and politics, and dealing with sickness and loss.

Let’s chat about your lead characters. Beth is a respected doctor and Charlie is a music star. Did you need to research these professions to bring the characters to life?

I let the story come first but I did back it up with research and fact-checks, especially when it came to the medical stuff! I am lucky to have friends in medicine, remote health, podiatry and pharmacy who helped me get the details right in Beth’s work, remote community health care and hospital procedures. I don’t have any rock star friends but I trawled the web for details of Dan Sultan’s tours and personal life as inspiration! I also did a research trip to the east Kimberley and visited some schools in remote communities which was a fantastic way to get a handle on the story’s setting.

Is there a particular scene in the novel that you are proud of?

There’s a scene I love where Beth is rostered on at the remote community where Charlie grew up and they both go to a campfire where Charlie is asked to sing. They’ve been trying really hard to ignore each other but hearing Charlie sing makes Beth feel a lot more than she wants to and when she catches his eye across the campfire, it becomes clear that he’s feeling a lot, too.

What do you hope readers will take away from reading Love Song?

I hope they will take away the warmth and satisfaction of a good love story where they can relate to or even fall in love with the characters. I am glad I’ve included indigenous characters in a book set in the Kimberley and hope I have represented those characters with respect and authenticity. I also hope my book adds to the Australian conversation about Aboriginal intergenerational trauma and healing; and most importantly, I hope it doesn’t take space away from Aboriginal people to tell their own stories, but interests more readers in hearing these stories.

How will you celebrate the official release day of Love Song?

Champagne for breakfast and a cruise on my yacht!

Ha-ha no, not quite. Usually, my cat wakes me up by vomiting on book release day. It’s our little tradition. I will get my kids off to school/TAFE, have a coffee and clock a couple of hours of work. Then I’ll probably hit the local shopping centre to stalk my book in any book shops or department stores I can find. My partner is on leave that week, so he can help (he promotes my books harder than anyone!). Then we might nip out for a celebratory lunch and later crack a bubbly over dinner. Miraculously, I don’t have to go in to work or take my kids anywhere on that day, so I might actually get to have a relaxing evening.

Is there a genre you haven’t tried writing yet, but want to in the future?

I have been trying my hand at psychological suspense! The story isn’t quite there yet but I feel like it’s a good start.

Do you have any advice for the aspiring writers out there?

Get through the 10K word dysphoria. That’s the tough spot for anyone writing a novel. Force yourself to make it to 20K and you’ve got a solid start, a connection with your characters, and you’re far enough into the plot to feel engaged in the story. It’s hard but worth it.

What is next on the horizon for Sasha Wasley? Do you have any writing projects you would like to share with us?

I’ve got stories brewing about shipwrecks and earthquakes! My next release will hopefully be the long-awaited sequel to my young adult paranormal series, The Seventh, released under my pen name S.D. Wasley. I hope to get it to the publisher in the next few weeks.

What 2019 book releases are you most excited to read?

Tess Woods’ Love and Other Battles and I love anything by Sarah Rayne.

Finally, wrapping up our tea themed interview, who would you most like to share a pot of tea with?

I would love to share a pot of tea with the leaders of the major political parties and tell them where they’ve gone wrong. We’re going to need a big pot! 😉

Thank you for taking the time to visit Mrs B’s Book Reviews for Tea with Mrs B Sasha.  Congratulations on the publication of Love Song!

Thank you so much for having me!


The heart-warming new rural romance novel from the acclaimed author of Dear Banjo and True Blue.love song small

There was something about Charlie. Something about the way he questioned and teased her, brought her outside of herself … the way he’d made her crash headlong into love just by singing to her.

At age seventeen, Beth Paterson was determined to study medicine at university, despite the heartache of losing her mother. Tutoring Charlie Campbell worked well with her plan – but falling in love with him sure didn’t, and neither did getting her heart broken when he abruptly left town.

Now Charlie is a big star on the alternative rock scene, while Beth is a respected doctor in her hometown. When Charlie comes back to fight for the tiny community where he was raised, neither one of them can ignore the resurgence of wild attraction they once shared.

Beth swore no man would ever hurt her again – least of all this man. But some love songs can never be forgotten, especially when they were written for you …

From the author of Dear Banjo comes a book to make your heart sing and your spirits soar.

Love Song by Sasha Wasley was published on 4th June 2019 by Penguin Books Australia. Details on how to purchase the book can be found here.


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