G’day, and welcome to the very first post for Aussie Owned & Read, a blog dedicated to Young and New Adult novels and written by eight Australian ladies involved in the writing and publishing community.

This is a blog for people who read books, people who write books and people who have a passion for all things words. We’d love you to comment on our posts, enter our competitions and basically be our friends; after all, that’s how this whole thing came about!

As anyone who writes or reads knows, the friends you make while writing and reading are some of the best kinds of people. Stacey and Lauren, the blog founders, met through a pitch competition (thanks, Brenda Drake!) and have since exchanged numerous emails, texts and even met in Real Life to share their love of YA and NA books.

Both longed to create a blog where…