Laura Loyola moved to Australia from Chile, where she had studied architecture. In Australia, Laura gave birth to her daughter Emma, who has an extremely rare genetic disorder (KAT6B variation). Laura looked forward to sharing her favourite fairytales with her daughter, but soon found – given Emma's developmental challenges – that these fairytales didn't resonate with Emma or Laura's experiences. When Laura and Emma received a book about a child who wore an eyepatch, Emma was suddenly interested. So Laura decided to write her own stories, with heroes inspired by her daughter, because she saw the joy that it gave Emma to hear stories about people she could relate to.

To learn more about Laura and Emma's story, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeN69Lt10Yw

'A Very Special Gift' can be purchased from major book sellers as both a print book and audiobook.

https://www.booktopia.com.au/search.ep?author=Laura+Loyola

In this episode, Sarah and Layne talk about Layne's work as a young adult disability advocate with lived experience of cerebral palsy. And – Layne talks about her new found love of audiobooks!

Find out more about Layne and sign up for her blog @ laynedixon.com.au

In this episode, we talk with 14 year old Anni Ratten whose recent novella, 'The Shadow Master's Eye', has hit the shelves as an audiobook.

Anni talks about why she wrote 'The Shadow Master's Eye', how she found the writing experience, and what she hopes to achieve with this gritty work of dystopian fiction.

We also talk with Anni about her current favourite reads, and she offers insights into the sorts of books she and her peers enjoy.

You can find 'The Shadow Master's Eye' on all good audiobook retailer platforms, including Google Play, Kobo, Audible and Booktopia. It's also available as an eBook and paperback, in which you'll also find illustrations drawn by Anni.