The Good Girl Confessional Sandy Lowres

TW: This episode features conversations about drug use, addiction and suicide.

In an intimate and revealing conversation, Sandy Lowres sits down with Holly Deane-Johns, author of "Holly's Hell: Seven Years in a Thai Prison," to delve into Holly's harrowing journey from addiction to redemption. Holly shares her firsthand account of the challenges she faced growing up in a dysfunctional family in Western Australia, her descent into heroin addiction, and the life-altering consequences that led to her incarceration in a Thai prison.

This episode explores Holly's transformation within the prison walls, her battle with mental health, and her eventual path to becoming a qualified social worker and counsellor, dedicated to helping others navigate the complexities of addiction and recovery.Finding Light in the Darkest Places: Holly Deane-Johns' Story of Survival and HopeHolly Deane-Johns discusses the profound impact of her experiences on her life and the lives of those around her.

From the loss of loved ones to the depths of despair in a foreign jail, Holly's story is a powerful reminder of the human capacity for resilience. She reflects on the significance of her relationship with Stephen Wallace, their mutual journey towards sobriety, and the poignant moments leading up to Stephen's passing. Holly's narrative is a raw, unvarnished look at the realities of addiction, the importance of support and understanding, and the ever-present possibility of redemption and change.

When Kate Toon, as a single parent, wondered how she was going to juggle parenthood with work, she backed herself and started her business. Now, 15 years later, Kate has built a successful business and is on a mission to help others. Kate is an award-winning business mentor and digital marketing coach. She’s a down to earth human on a mission to demystify the realities of running a successful online business. Her Stay Tooned group of companies include the Digital Marketing Collective, The Clever Copywriting School, and The Recipe for SEO Success.

Kate’s helped more than 20,000 other businesses demystify digital marketing, grapple the Google Beast, and find their own version of success.

Kate is a renowned speaker, podcaster and author, and was named Australia’s Most Influential Small Business Woman (2022), one of Australia’s Top 50 Small Business Leaders (2022), and Businesswoman of the Year and Training & Education Provider of the Year at the national My Business Awards (2020).

She’s the author of Six Figures in School Hours: How to run a successful business and still be a good parent (2023), and a resident expert on Kochie’s Business Builders. She’s also the founder of The Digital Marketing Collective Conference, The Digital Marketing Collective Retreat and The Digital Marketing Collective Mastermind. On top of this Kate hosts three podcasts, speaks at events around the world and is learning to rollerskate. All this from the Toon Cave in her backyard, accompanied by her very own CFO (Chief Furry OfficeDog) Pomplemousse and assisted remotely by a small team of talented humans.

Most parents don’t want to build a global empire or make a gazillion dollars a year. They just want to earn a decent income and have time to read their kids a bedtime story without having a meltdown in the process.Yes, we know running a business can be rewarding. However, it can also seep into every life crack, eat up your energy and leave you exhausted, stressed and snapping at your small humans.In Six Figures in School Hours, award-winning digital marketing coach and business mentor Kate Toon shares practical and doable tips for parents to run a successful business, make serious money and not burn themselves to a frazzle in the process.

You can follow Kate here:

https://www.katetoon.com/
https://www.instagram.com/katetoon

TW: This conversation touches on themes of abuse, proverty and violence.

Today in the Confessional, host Sandy Lowres chats with the remarkable and down to earth Australian author, Kirsty Jagger.

Kirsty is a journalist by trade. In 2019, she won the inaugural Heyman Mentorship Award, established by acclaimed Australian author Kathryn Heyman for a writer from a background of social or economic disadvantage. Roseghetto takes some inspiration from growing up in the housing commission estates of Sydney’s western suburbs. This is her first novel.

Roseghetto is a stunning debut novel which follows Shayla, a young woman on a newspaper assignment who returns to the public housing estate where she grew up and finds it demolished. The locals have been evicted, their homes erased, their stories too. Standing among the rubble of Rosemeadow, Shayla is assailed by her memories of living there. The bad secret Daddy asked her to keep. Mummy rekindling a dangerous romance. Making friends with ‘the gutter kids’. Surrounded by poverty, confronted by domestic violence, Shayla found her escape in reading. Now it’s time to tell the stories of Rosemeadow, including her own.

Roseghetto is an unforgettable and moving coming-of-age story, an account of breaking the cycle of violence and poverty.

Kirsty shares her hard won wisdom of growing up in similar circumstances to the characters she has created, and finding her own way out to find a better life.

You can follow Kirsty Jagger here:

https://www.uqp.com.au/authors/kirsty-jagger
https://www.instagram.com/kirtsyjagger_author
https://www.facebook.com/kirstyjagger-author

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The Good Girl Confessional is the award-winning Podcast of WB40 - Women Beyond Forty, a platform for women 40, 50, 60 and beyond.

Join the revolution: www.wb40.com https://www.instagram.com/womenbeyondforty https://www.instagram.com/thegoodgirlconfessional https://www.facebook.com/thegoodgirlconfessional

Wb40 and The Good Girl Confessional Acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land we record this podcast on, the Wurrundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nations and pay out respect to their elders, past, present, and emerging.

"May you all have enough."

This is the catch cry of Kez Wickham St George, a #1 bestselling award winning Author who has a passion to champion people from many diverse backgrounds to reveal the best in their creative side. Now in her 70's, Kez published her first book in her fifties and now has an increible career.

Kez has published 14 books including Metal Mermaid - a Number #1 best seller in 5 categories and 6 countries and she has the ability to draw out the very best in story telling from her clients. This has made her a popular Mentor/ Consultant prompting many clients to publish books, and also push their skills to writing for magazines and newspapers.

As a leader in her profession, Kez has been asked to speak in Japan, Ireland, Bali, New Zealand and Australia regarding the insights of the effects to mental health in writing, whether it be a simple journaling or any other form of written communication.She is an accomplished author in many diverse international magazines, her positive attitude and enthusiasm makes a difference to her professional and impressive background.Kez leverages her extensive travels, art therapist and expansive authorship to encourage readers to think outside the box, it is not surprising that Kez is known Globally as The Writers Consultant.

Kez has her written work with two royal families in the UK and Sweden, has co compiled two anthologies on the lives of various women living internationally. A book of quotes and poetry plus recently publishing a trilogy, her dream of the big screen was realised when a movie was made from the prologue of her last novel Scribe in the trilogy Campfires. Kez is passionate about promoting high quality growth opportunities for all.

Today in The Confessional, Sandy chats with Kez about starting having her first book published in her fifties, and her incredible career since.If you have ever wanted to write a book but you are not share where to start, Kez can help to guide you.

You can follow Kez Wickham St.George here:
https://kezwickhamstgeorge.com/ https://www.instagram.com/kez_author https://www.facebook.com/KezWickhamStGeorge
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The Good Girl Confessional is the award-winning Podcast of WB40 - Women Beyond Forty, a platform for women 40, 50, 60 and beyond.

Join the revolution: www.wb40.com https://www.instagram.com/womenbeyondforty https://www.instagram.com/thegoodgirlconfessional https://www.facebook.com/thegoodgirlconfessional

Wb40 and The Good Girl Confessional Acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land we record this podcast on, the Wurrundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nations and pay out respect to their elders, past, present, and emerging.

Today in the Confessional, host Sandy Lowres chat with Megan Rogers, the Australian author of The Heart is a Star - an absorbing and gripping novel, told beautifully.

This is a powerful novel that explores the messiness and complexity of midlife, about the ways in which we navigate an intricate, complicated world; and about how we can uncover our true selves when we are forced to face the myths that make us.

"Layla Byrnes is exhausted. She's juggling a demanding job as an anaesthetist, a disintegrating marriage, her young kids, and a needy lover. And most particularly she's managing her histrionically unstable mother, who repeatedly threatens to kill herself. But this year, it's different. When her mother rings just before Christmas, she doesn't follow the usual script. Instead, she tells Layla that there's something she needs to tell her about her much-loved father. In response, Layla drops everything to rush to her childhood home on the wild west coast of Tasmania. She's determined to finally confront her mother - and find out what really happened to her father - and lay some demons to rest."

Megan shares her wisdom also. She grew up moving around, which instilled in her a respect for small-town characters and a dislike of linoleum in rental properties. She spent most of her primary school years scribbling in her mother’s 1970s herb books and then telling people they were novels she’d written and published. The Heart is a Star is an engrossing, lyrical and powerfully absorbing novel. You won't see the twists and turns coming.

You can see Megan's own heart throughout the characters.

You won't want to miss this episode.

You can follow Megan Rogers here:
https://www.meganrogerswriter.com/about
https://www.instagram.com/megan_rogers_writer

You can buy The Heart is a Star here (or in good bookstores):
https://cardioid-cobalt-rbj9.squarespace.com/home/books

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The Good Girl Confessional is the award-winning Podcast of WB40 - Women Beyond Forty, a platform for women 40, 50, 60 and beyond.

Join the revolution: www.wb40.com https://www.instagram.com/womenbeyondforty https://www.instagram.com/thegoodgirlconfessional https://www.facebook.com/thegoodgirlconfessional

Wb40 and The Good Girl Confessional Acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land we record this podcast on, the Wurrundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nations and pay out respect to their elders, past, present, and emerging.

What if I told you that in 1929, a woman in NYC wrote a best seller, made a fortune during the great depression and then went on to write over 20 books, and screenplays - many of which became Hollywood films - only to tell you that no one knows her name?

Today in the Confessional, I'm thrilled to chat with Marsha Gordon, a Professor in Film Studies at North Carolina State University in the USA who stumbled across a forgotten historical figure just by chance and made it her mission to bring this story into the light.

Ursula Parrott was, by any standards, quite an extraordinary woman and thanks to Marsha's incredible research, she may finally receive the respect she so deserves. Marsha's latest book Becoming the Ex-Wife: The Unconventional Life and Forgotten Writings of Ursula Parrott (2023) is an incredible expose of a woman who in the 1920s lived her life on her own terms, writing best-selling novels, and being a sought after columnist for high-end magazine publications.

Parrott's first novel, Ex-Wife, was published anonymously in 1929. A popular sensation, it sold more than 100,000 copies in nine editions. MGM paid $20,000 for the film rights as well. Ex-Wife was subsequently adapted for film as The Divorcee (1930) starring Norma Shearer, who won an Oscar for her role. Shearer also starred in an adaptation of Strangers May Kiss, published in 1930. Her novel Next Time We Live was adapted for film as Next Time We Love in 1936.

As a writer, Parrott was most successful between 1929 and 1940. Her son estimated that she earned around $700,000 ($14.6 million in 2022 dollars) during that period of time. In December 1942, Parrott became the subject of national coverage when she was brought up on federal charges of attempting to help the jazz guitarist Michael Neely Bryan escape from the Miami Beach Army stockade, but was found innocent by the jury at her trial.

Ursula Parrott wrote about many things, including being a single mother and woman in a man's world. Yet, she was often thought of a romance novelist. She married and divorced several times. She was a genuine player in the world of both literature and Hollywood, and yet somewhere along the way, Ursula became another forgotten woman in these industries. There is no Hollywood star on the Walk of Fame, no plaque to suggest she created so many thought provoking works in her life.

I am thrilled to chat with Marsha, who's curiosity and passion for Ursula's story culminated in her incredible book. I for one am so blown away that, until Marsha's book, I had never heard of Ursula. I really hope Ursula Parrott will now be spoken about often as she paved the way for so many women to follow in her footsteps.

You can follow Marsha Gordon here:

marshagordon.org
www.instagram.com/marshagordon99

Becoming the Ex-Wife: The Unconventional Life and Forgotten Writings of Ursula Parrott (2023) is available at good book stores:

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The Good Girl Confessional is the award-winning Podcast of WB40 - Women Beyond Forty, a platform for women 40, 50, 60 and beyond. Join the revolution:
www.wb40.com
https://www.instagram.com/womenbeyondforty
https://www.instagram.com/thegoodgirlconfessional https://www.facebook.com/thegoodgirlconfessional

Wb40 and The Good Girl Confessional Acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land we record this podcast on, the Wurrundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nations and pay out respect to their elders, past, present, and emerging.