For two years, Stephanie MacFie co-hosted Orange's popular breakfast show, The Chris and Stef Show, on Star/Hit FM alongside Chris Baskerville. Now, after 15 years in Australian commercial radio, Stef is releasing her debut novel.

Once Upon a Breakfast Show, follows 30-something single mum Emily Blake, a Melbourne breakfast radio star known to listeners as the fearless, filter-less Blake from Mack and Blake in the Morning. She's built a career out of turning her messy life into radio gold. But one failed date after another gets her thinking about the week she had 13 years earlier with a mystery hot muso. The result of that week: her now 12-year-old daughter. Can her radio audience help her find the one that got away?

"The Central West was my very first breakfast gig in radio, but it's also where I met my now husband and fell in love, purchased our first home. It's where we returned during COVID to have our first child, and it will always be a part of my story," Stef says.

"For anyone who remembers listening to the show, I was always happy to share every aspect of my life with our listeners, and my novel follows a story of a breakfast radio host oversharing just as much."

After leaving the Central West, Stef went on to continue her career in radio, working right around the country with some of Australia's biggest breakfast shows. The last few years she's worked in podcasting, and has settled down on the Central Coast to raise her young family with her husband.

During her time in Orange, Stef was always happy to be the local master of ceremonies: the Pink Gatsby Ball, Relay for Life, the White Tie Ball for Housing Plus, the Live Life Live Festival, and most memorably, her disastrous dancing with Stars of Orange Dance for Cancer attempt.

When she wasn't handing out goodies from the back of the Black Thunder in the Harvey Norman carpark, Stef was a big supporter of the local vineyards and fine dining Orange has to offer.

She's regularly back in town and says if you spot her, make sure to say hello.

Once Upon a Breakfast Show is available in all good bookstores from August 4, 2026.