PRE- ORDER Fleur's newest novel 'Into the Night'
Today there is a catastrophic fire danger for the South coast of WA. It’s gonna be a stinker of a day and we’re just about to have another meeting to see if the Bushfire Brigade are going to issue a Movement of Vehicles in paddocks ban. There’s a smoke haze from a fire to the…
When you have a roadside mail box, it’s fair game for the young blokes heading home from the pub after a few drinks. The mailman has often had to put mail in funny spots because of the disappearance or change of shape of a box from the time he was out before! This didn’t happen to…
One of the things I love about Australian’s is we love dressing up! Whether it’s for the cricket, the tennis, Australia Day, we throw throw ourselves into the celebrations! I think the sky dressed up for Australia Day too!
When Red Dust was on its way to being published, my nerves ran riot, I was unsure of the editing process and some days, things just got too much for me. I also had the deadline of Blue Skies hanging over my head and I was fairly sure that I wasn’t going to make it.…
As part of our farming operation we run a prime lamb feedlot. It’s a management tool that gets the lambs off the paddocks during summer, which in turn helps keeps our soil structure strong and (hopefully) stops paddocks from blowing, when the strong sea breezes come in every afternoon. We become quite friendly with the lambs over…
Here is the final packaging for Blue Skies! I just love it – and I love the blurb on the back. So, meet Amanda and journey with her two best friends, Hannah and Jonno and her distant father, Brian. Feel the passion she holds for Kyleena, the sun on her skin, the dirt between her…
Being a farmer and a mum, often my writing time is snatched in between feeding kids, husband or animals and every other job you can imagine. Because of this, I’ve been known to write in a variety of places. Today I’m being very naughty and using the shade of a tree for my workspace. I’m scratching out some plans…
Treasure hunts are such fun things, whether it is at a kids party, out in the bush or at the beach! As kids we were always poking around, looking under bushes for lizards, or climbing trees to look for bird nests. I don’t know how we never came across snakes in some of the places…
Every year huge amounts of people make the pilgrimage from Kalgoorlie, Esperance, the surrounding farms and other places, to be near these beautiful beaches. And every year at Wharton Beach, they hold swimming lessons. This year, in amongst the hum-drum of farming (of which so much is still happening), our two are doing the lessons…
Now if I had seen this sign first, I may not have gone exploring through the ruins! Well, perhaps not! Anyone would realise that this is the sort of place that snake would love to hang out, but I did think it was nice of the National Heritage Trust to warn us and perhaps take any…
Blogging opportunity for authors! This is a great opportunity for some publicity for authors – Jaime from ‘Life in the first draft’ is looking for writers to blog on her site. Check it out and get those fingers a-tappin’! Calling All Authors I have a fun promotional opportunity for the new year. I’m working on…
One of the last frontiers in the fishing world, on the South coast of WA, is Israelite Bay and ‘The Cliffs’. These are at the beginning of the Great Australian Bite. It’s where the keen fisherman go and brave the wind with the sand blasting and pull in Pink snapper, sharks and Mulloway off the…
One of the greatest things about writing, is the people you meet. Lisa Heikde is a funny, warm, gorgeous person and a great writer, with really gifted insights into life and people. I met Lisa through Allen and Unwin – she’s published by the same imprint and an ‘pick up’ from A&U’s ‘Friday Pitch Day’,…
I am having trouble in understanding where this year has gone! But here we are at Christmas time again. And here is Rocket, acting as an unwilling Christmas model! I wish you a wonderful Christmas – full of love and laughter, safe and peaceful. I hope whatever you are doing brings you happiness. Please, stay safe…
I’ve started looking at the world differently, since I’m trying to take photos with artistic flair! Not sure if it’s working, but I’ll keep trying… I tend to be a bit tenacious, once I put my mind to something! These two photos are of our cattle yards. One is of the loading ramp, and the…
Yesterday was probably the worst day we’ve had this summer. We hit 44 degrees – the same as Marble Bar. Now there is something strange about that! Marble Bar is renown for being the hottest place in WA and it’s in the far north. Esperance is on the south coast and right near the sea!…
As the sun sinks at the end of a warm day he kisses the clouds good night. His rays are much softer than the heat he throws in the middle of the day. In the stillness of the evening, the cows are out for their nightly graze, the magpies singing their evening tune and the…
I love getting the first clean, fresh, pages, back from Allen and Unwin – it looks like a book and is ready to read. It’s like starting again and seeing the book through fresh eyes. This edit was particularly difficult for me. We were going flat chat with harvest and I had a deadline to…
I must say, after a fairly intense three weeks, harvest has finally finished and I, for one, am glad! I love seeing the grain come in and finding out what we’ve produced! But three weeks of 4am starts and after dark finishes, as well as trying to edit Blue Skies, has taken its toll! I was…
I hope that the five copies that I’ve given away will make lovely Christmas presents for all who get them! As you can see from the photo we resorted to the old fashioned method of ‘draw the name out of a hat’! Hayden stood on the chair and held the hat up and Rochelle drew five…