On Better Words this week: Jessica Dettmann

The inspirational power of Kenneth Branagh's 1993 adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing

This week we’re chatting romance and the publishing industry with Jessica Dettmann.

Jessica is the author of How To be Second Best and This Has Been Absolutely Lovely. But today, we’re talking all about her new novel, Without Further Ado.

🎧 Listen to the episode at the link below or search ‘Better Words’ in your podcast player 🎧

Things we talked about

• Why Jessica is obsessed with the 1993 adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing and how it sparked the idea for this novel

• How Willa's love for that movie has shaped her romantic journey and why Jessica wanted to explore that in the novel

• Exploring large families and their intricacies in fiction

• Jessica's experience working in the publishing industry and how it felt to transition into being an author

• How Jessica once sat on the balcony of Sydney Town Hall dressed as a Christmas angel (wild)

Other recommendations

Before we chat with our featured author, we always share some other recommendations. This week was a book club – where we read a book together and talk about it (without spoilers!)

Am I Normal Yet? by Holly Bourne

We’ve both loved Holly’s adult books and have read a handful of her later YA novels. It was interesting to go back to Am I Normal Yet? with that in mind.

Evie is 16 and determined to be 'normal', continuing her recovery from OCD and anxiety. But as she starts college and tries to live a 'normal' teenage life, things start to spiral out of control.

An enjoyable, although at times emotional, exploration of how mental health is never linear. Plus, it's a rousing feminist manifesto - although we think some of the topics would be discussed slightly differently today than in 2015.

- Caitlin & Michelle

🎧 Search ‘Better Words’ in your favourite podcast player to get new episodes as soon as they’re live. We’ll be back with another episode next Wednesday! 🎧