PRE- ORDER Fleur's newest novel 'Into the Night'
For regular readers of my blog, you may know why I’ve named my third book Purple Roads. First of all, the bitumen in parts of South Australia (where the story is set), looks really purple and secondly, the dirt roads have that look about them too. In Purple Roads, Matt is a farmer who has…
I’ve written before about the depth of my South Australian roots. They are especially entrenched on the station that has been in my family since the 1800s. It’s hard to describe how much the landscape is burned into my soul: the old ruins, the creeks that criss-cross the land, the ‘casha’ or Acacia trees that…
Journalism fascinates me. That’s why Louise is here! She’s answered a few of my questions. I guess being a journo you love words? What’s your favourite word and have you used it in your stories? When people ask me what my favourite word is I always think of the discussion in indie classic Donnie Darko…
40mm of rain since Saturday has made me dance with joy. There is nothing like a decent steady rain to make people smile, and lying in bed listening to the pitter-patter on a tin roof, there is no better music in the world. So, in honour of the rain, I thought I’d give you a…
Today I’m feeling wonderful, free and light! I finally put the last full stop on Purple Roads, which may not be big news to you guys, but I can tell you that writing this book hasn’t been easy. Writing any book isn’t easy. It requires ‘bum glue’, dedication, passion and most importantly time. It’s the…
So I love words. I guess that isn’t surprising since I use them to craft my stories. The English language is incredible. How awesome it is to be able to tell someone in three words that they’re beautiful, or express how proud you are of your children’s achievements. I love the way some words sound…
Being a farmer can be trying, especially since our livelihood is so much at the whim of the weather. This season started off beautifully with 30 millimetres of soaking rain over a few days. After such a long dry summer, it was a relief to see some green poking through the ground. It’s often been…
I first heard about Mummy’s Wish via Twitter and thought it was a wonderful initiative. Read more about them here, follow them on Twitter @mummysWishInc or on Facebook. I am in awe of these two women who had turned a terrible time in their life into something so positive. That’s why today, they are my…
This week I’m trying to encourage my readers to think about their bodies. The last post discussed my dear friend Ned, who died from breast cancer. Well this post is much happier. Kim is my second cousin. Our families had quite a lot to do with each other as we grew up. To me, Kim…
Today I’ll be heading to the beach as I’ve done on this day for the past two years. You see, today it’s two years since my friend Ned died and Ned loved the beach. Her death was expected. She’d been suffering from breast cancer for a while and was told just before Christmas there was…
Once upon a time there was a vibrant homestead set deep in a gully. The backdrop to this beautiful setting was rolling hills, green pastures, grazing sheep and kangaroos, and a bubbling little stream. In days past, these buildings would have echoed with the shouts of shearers as their blades snipped across the sheep’s back,…
Reading has always been my escape. It’s not often I walk out the front door without a book, just in case I get caught behind a mob of slow moving sheep or I’ve got a spare five minutes waiting for a truck. I can read most places – in a busy cafe, noisy sheep yards…
We’ve had our opening rains – 30mm over about five or six days. Awesome. You just can’t be unhappy with that. Now I’m going to be a farmer and complain! We need some more. The canola crop is in, we’ve got over 2,000 lambs marked (with another 6,000 to go that I’m not thinking about…
My last blog about Bookshelves was a huge hit. Obviously it resonated with a lot of you guys out there and so it should – it’s a really important subject! Here’s some more authors and friends that take their bookshelves as seriously as I do! Helene Young: Order my book shelves? That would take time…
To me, bookshelves are a massive talking point when you go to someone’s home. It’s where I gravitate to, after I’ve kissed the hostess hello and collected my glass of wine. The rest of them can go and do what they want, but I head to the bookshelves! The way they are arranged are intensely…
Today, at 5:45pm on ABC Statewide radio, Barry Nicholls and I will haivng our first on-air bookclub discussion. We’re talking about Jennifer Mills and her book Gone. I asked Jen to answer some questions for me, leading up to this afternoons chat and here she is: 1) Where did the idea for Gone come from?…
Thanks to Fleur for inviting me to write a guest blog for her site. For the benefit of anyone who doesn’t know me, I started The Australian Literature Review website (www.auslit.net), which went online in June last year, and have been it’s Editor since then. (The official 1st birthday is coming up on June 14th.)…
I’m on the countdown to having to have Purple Roads finished. I think there is seven weeks until Allen and Unwin are expecting it. While I was in Perth I managed to edit most of the manuscript, but there is still a bit of tidying up to do, plus a few thousand more words to…
Kerri has taken the world of Twitter and publishing, by storm. Her hugely successful book ‘When my husband does the dishes‘ has made women and men alike, laugh and cry, from the moment they open they cover. A guest appearance on Sunrise (that you can see here) and Kerri is one of the best known…
Poor Jo! She’s been waiting for me to put this blog up for nearly two weeks and I’ve been rather slack! Jo has her short story in Australian Literature: A Snapshot in 10 Short Stories and that was how we hooked up, as mine is in there too. Here she talks about her story, daily…