Living Their Best Lives: An Interview With My Favorite Writer-Nomads

George Penney and Tony "The Kraken" Johnson write books and travel the globe.

The voodoo that Krakens do: kicking back and starin’ at the blue—Mauritius-style.

I met George and Tony mid-pandemic when we all converged at a beauty salon in Rome called Element, frantic to get our respective hair done in the two weeks of freedom allotted to us. It will no doubt shock you to learn that I am not a natural blonde, and after months of waiting for the world to end lockdown, I had a virtual landing strip of outgrowth atop my head.

My hair isn’t gray yet, but one day, if I’m very lucky, it will be.

I strongly feel that these things are earned.

We hit it off right away, me and John and George and Tony. A marvelous intimacy can spring up among immigrants and expats—a common language, common interests, a love of travel. There is enjoyment to be had comparing impressions of sights mutually seen, and I knew right away that this was no ordinary couple. For starters, both have about sixty IQ points on everybody else. Moreover, they were shamelessly living the life I would be living if I didn’t have cats, a growing abhorrence of airports, and could afford it, which is to say they go everywhere, see everything, and have endless adventures, many of them on exotic islands.

They are also a husband-wife writing team, which just seems so cool and egalitarian to me. If I wrote with anybody—from Jesus to Hemingway—I promise you, there’d be blood on all four walls. And their books are very well-written and entertaining, way different than your standard-issue romance, and at times, not even a romance at all. That is because George and Tony are my favorite kind of folks: rule breakers, both, ready to give a stiff middle finger to other people’s expectations for them and do things their way.

Here then is my interview with George Penney herself, aka Evie Snow, and I invite you to imagine her sitting in a beachfront bungalow with the music of the waves in the background. Maybe a hammock. Or a frosty beverage.

Me: You and Tony (aka “The Kraken”) are two of the most intrepid globetrotters I know. I love your life! First, what places have you lived in—and could you characterize each place using three adjectives? Also, which were your favorites—or were they all your favorites, but for different reasons?

George: Thank you! This is such a great question. Wow, this is a hard one. I’ve lived in over forty (more like fifty-two) places. How about I list the three pivotal places?

Of my favourites—again, that’s super hard—but let’s try:

Florence, Italy: It’s beautiful, always interesting, and small.

Bahrain: It’s full of contradictions, hot, and the local people are lovely.

Chiang Mai, Thailand: The food is delicious, the locals are wonderful, and the old city is stunning.

Me: What are three (it’s always three, isn’t it? I annoy myself) personality traits that people need to have in order to be happy living the nomadic lifestyle?

George: Flexibility: In understanding that everyone does things differently, things will go wrong, and don’t sweat the small stuff—unless they trigger your Spidey senses, which probably means there’s a bigger problem hiding somewhere.

Curiosity: In general, saying yes to new experiences gives you new experiences!

Caution: Often tourists assume that any country they’re holidaying in is their own personal playground, and they forget there are rules/laws and unsafe parts of town/people who don’t have your best interests at heart.

Me: Where are you now, and what is a “typical” day for you? In other words, how do you structure your time?

George: It changes from place to place. But in general, I wake up, have a cup of tea, and get to work for at least a couple of hours. Then it’s off to explore wherever we’re staying/having a coffee out and about and then back to work in the afternoon. I usually nap for a bit, because napping is awesome. Then it’s back to exploring, dinner, and back to work for a couple of hours.

But all this is when I’m behaving. Some days revolve around reading a good book!

George n’ Tony, making even a pandemic mask look fun.

Me: You have over twelve wonderful books so far. Do you have a favorite, and if so, why?

George: I love them all. I guess my favourite out of the Evie Snow books would be The Beard because it’s based on real events during my time in Saudi Arabia. I’m currently finishing a travel book I think I’ll be really fond of once I stop stressing and swearing over it!

Verified purchase review on Amazon: “Love Snow's work. This was another keeper.”

Me: If you weren’t born a writer (and you were), what would have liked to do for a living?

George: I’d be the person riding the street sweeper in the old city in Florence Italy. I seriously envy those guys. Especially the ones who get to do it late at night when everyone’s gone to bed, just puttering about with earbuds in, seeing all that beautiful architecture all day every day. I’m sure the reality isn’t as great, but it looks like a pretty chill job!

Me: What was the defining moment of your childhood? How did it inform who you are today?

George: All of it! Let’s just say some people are defined by whether they’re running to or from something, and I’m running from.

Me: Can you name some of the biggest differences between Americans and Aussies? We share a language, but do we share anything else?

George: Differences and similarities ... So, so many but it’s a really hard to answer because Americans are so diverse in culture—So are Aussies for that matter. For example, people from Queensland are Australia’s Texans. Melbourne people are New Yorkers. Sydney people are like people from LA. Perth people are similar to the Midwest …People from the Northern Territory are kind of similar to people I’ve met in West Virginia or southern Pennsylvania … these are super broad brushstrokes but they kind of ring true, in my experience.

Me: What do you love and appreciate most about Tony?

George: His ability to think through a problem from 500 angles at any given time.

Me: What do you think he loves and appreciates most about you?

George: My bluntness! And my ability to think through a problem from 500 angles at any given time in a way that completely contradicts his perspective.

Me: How did you meet and how did you decide to pull up stakes and start globetrotting?

George: We met when we were nineteen and twenty-one. I was already travelling—I’d lived in over twenty-one places by then. (Nomadic much?). Tony’s engineering work was overseas, so we headed off the minute he got a good job.

The Kraken meets his furry Waterloo

Me: What do you miss the most about home (if anything)?

George: Australia has always been so many different places for me, so that’s a hard one to answer. For example, I love the jarrah forests in Western Australia and the wildlife, but not enough to move home. I do miss the food—we’ve got really great food, and wine … and I love the writing community there.

Me: How do you define success in the writing business (e.g., number of copies sold, number of awards won, publishing traditionally, etc.)?

George: Do you enjoy writing? If so, you’re successful. Everything else is so subjective/up to chance that’s it’s impossible to measure.

Me: What is it about romance as a genre that makes it so popular?

George: Its ability to take problematic elements of society (i.e. the conflicts inherent in relationships and sexuality), to defamiliarize them through fiction and then put a utopia on them. In general, if you read any new-release romance novel, you’ll see where anxieties are in everyday people’s lives. For example billionaire romances are a great indicator that people need an escape from their money problems for just a little bit.

Me: What do you wish romance writers, on the aggregate, did better?

George: Wow, hmm. There’s such a diverse community I’m not sure if I can answer this one, because anything I might say, may already be happening and I just haven’t read it/encountered it. I think the romance community in general are some of the workhorses of the publishing industry.

The main thing that I wished we did, was universally be more transparent about our publishing contracts so new authors didn’t sign anything that exploited them. BUT that said, many individual writers have done this, the info is out there, and newcomers just have to do the research.

Me: What is the best way to buy Evie Snow books?

George: At the moment Amazon is your best bet! Here’s a link that will take you right to our page.

Think you could live the life of a digital nomad? I want to hear about it! Be sure to leave your comments below.