I have found another love. Nope, I’m not running away from hubby or kids. Nor am I leaving the farm or the beautiful scenery. I’ve found INSTAGRAM! Yep, I realise I’m probably behind the eight-ball. In fact I’m sure I am, because I have a feeling I signed up to Instragram when it first came…
A while ago I wrote a post about our new pet calf, Lightning. He’s a beautiful natured little thing and so fit and healthy. Hayden has done a great job of looking after him! Lightning drinks 3L of milk, which Hayden makes up, every morning and every night. He has the days sleeping in the…
It’s that time of year… The little baby lambs are about to drop is great numbers! And thankfully, this year, the ewes will be lambing onto green grass, not sand, like we have for about the last eight years. But before they lamb, the girls really need to be crutched. After all, imagine (Oh, if…
It’s a question I’m not sure I know the answer to. If you found a letter that said ‘To be opened in the event of my death…’ would you open it? Would you be prepared at the confessions which lay sealed inside? Would you be prepared for the changes to your life, this secret could…
I often taken our Jack Russell with me when I’m out doing jobs on the farm. Especially if I’m feeding out hay. He’s loves watching the cows and calves and occasionally he is brave enough to sit up on the back seat and bark at them. (A bigger sooky la-la, you’ve never seen. This dog…
If you have read or are reading, Silver Clouds, you may have got up to page 257 (also the start of chapter 23). In this chapter, Tessa is rummaging around in a set of shearers quarters, which are over 100 years old. The building has thick walls and they are whitewashed with a lime solution.…
Fiona McIntosh is a master story teller. I’m in awe of the tales she tells and how she writes – often with three book on the go at one time. I could only dream of doing something like that! I loved The French Promise so very much and I’m sure you will too. Fiona is…
HAPPY EASTER, from the McDonald’s Farm! In my family, Easter is not only about chocolate easter eggs, hot cross buns and commercialism. It’s about Eternal Life and what happened so that we could have that gift. But the other thing which signals Easter is family. To have the whole family home, together, is now an…
Once in a while, sad things happen on farms. And once in a while weird things happen. This is a ‘both’ situation. Late last week we had a massive thunder storm which dropped about 40mm of rain over the farm. (It makes for over a 100mm since the start of March, so things…
Inside this heavy fog, there should be a large granite hill. It seems to have gone missing this morning! Waking to a mist so heavy, you can’t see the front fence is always beautiful. As I settled in front of my computer for the first time today, I peered from the desk into…
Sometime ago, I was asked if I would give an endorsement for a debut novel called Ryders Ridge. I was sceptical because I wasn’t sure what I would do if I didn’t enjoy it. As an author I always feel sick if someone doesn’t like what I’ve written, because so much love and effort goes…
The day after a book launch is one the same feeling I have after we’ve had a ram or bull sale. I wake up, sort of feeling like I have a hang over. (No I’m not doing a Tessa, it’s an emotional hangover.) So much work and energy goes in to getting to the point…
Silver Clouds by Fleur McDonald Well, launch day is finally here. I’ve got no idea where the year has gone already! It only seems like yesterday I was struggling to finish the last round of edits, waving good bye to my daughter, who was leaving home and twiddling my thumbs (only for a moment or…
So on Wednesday, Silver Clouds went out into what some authors seem to call the ‘The Wild. I guess it is in a way. It’s certainly not on my computer any more and I’m not stressing over editorial deadlines. It’s sitting on shelves from Cairns to Albany (from photos people have been kind enough to…
As you might know, if you visit my Facebook page, we’ve been running a Photograph competition. There were so many photos and some I really loved. But I wasn’t allowed to vote, dammit! I don’t have anyone’s name, only their email addy, so I’ll use the first bit of it, to announce who the three…
I love naming my characters – especially because, although I had a say in naming our kids, it was The Boss who actually came up with both names! It’s not like I love these characters as much as my children (obviously!), but in a sense it is like naming the offspring all over again, because…
Tonight, when I looked out of the window, the light was ‘just perfect’. The green was spectacular, the boganvillas which are on the fence light glowed with extra colour. ‘Look at this,’ I screeched to Number One son – we were home by ourselves and I’m allowed to screech then. Usually because I’m in…
In January, I was lucky enough to go on a three day holiday with my family. Just us, no one else. Now it’s the first time we’ve ever managed to that. Most times when we go away we’re heading to family and as much as we all like hanging out together with my family or…
Well, I’m finally back on this poor neglected blog! There has been a few reasons I haven’t been around lately – settling kids into high school and year 7, calving, helping out around the place where needed. And of course there’s been the last of the edits on Silver Clouds. So tell me, what…
I’m really pleased to have Maggie here today. I read her book, Good News Bad News a few weeks ago and I have to say, it’s an absolute cracker! It’s witty, addictive – I was hooked from the first page – and fast-paced. If any of you are fans of Sue Grafton (which I am)…
Hi Fleur and thanks so much for inviting me to your website. I’m becoming such a fan of rural fiction. I’ve usually got my nose stuck in some crime novel or other but last year had a couple of rural writing friends get published, and now I find I’m drawn to that genre more and…
