PRE- ORDER Fleur's newest novel 'Voices in the Dark'
It’s a long, muddy, foggy road… the writing of a novel! While I’ve been writing Purple Road, I’ve been trying to ‘better’ myself at the writing game. I’m not sure if you know my history, but I wrote Red Dust on a whim. I had an idea and I wrote it down. I didn’t and…
Happy New Year! I’m completely amazed at how quickly this year has been and gone. As a child, my Mum would always tell me, not to wish my life away, which was pretty hard, when I was ten, and thinking I was much older and knew better than she did, or sixteen and badly wanting…
Thanks to John Mannion, I have the MP3 of the interview I had with Petria Ladgrove. Click here to have a listen.
Well last week I wrote in the kitchen, as I was cooking. Today I’ve shifted to the spare room, because it’s really the only place I can spread out all my notes, without interfering with the family’s living area! (You wouldn’t believe the moans that come from the kids, when I take up the floor…
During harvest we tend to work long hours. I always like to have lots of food in the freezer, so all I need to do is pull out a bag of biscuits or slice of cake and there is smoko/lunch/tea. Just makes working a bit easier. Today and knew I had to cook, but I…
This is my road map for Purple Roads. I’ve begun to link the book together by scenes and characters. Anna is in the orange texta and Matt in the green. Every time they pop into another characters scene, I write their name in their colour so I can see straight away that they are involved…
On a beautiful Sunday morning the kids had the job of shifting a mob of sheep (I always go with them but hang right back or right at the front to slow the ewes down, so I’m there if they need help.) Today they took their bikes and two dogs – Rocket, the Jack Russell, a well…
Fiona and I met about two years ago. Rachael Treasure actually put us in contact! I think Fee and I were slightly over-awed that one of our favourite authors knew enough about both of us to think that we could be a good support network to each other. And I think we have been. Being…
It’s been such a busy time for us recently, with seeding, sheep work and all sorts of other things on the go! It will be like this until after Christmas now with hay making, shearing and later, harvest. We’ve been lucky enough to have good rains and everything seems to be on track for a good…
Marketing your book is such a difficult thing. We’re told that our publishing house will do it for us, but after an in-depth discussion with my publicist, a few other authors and watching ‘The Tuesday Book Club’s’ episode with Lee Child, Matthew Reilly, Bryce Courtney and Di Morrissey, I think we’ve all decided that authors have to…
I was out about early this morning, helping Anthony fill the combine and getting ready for a day of replenishing the stocks in the pantry! It was very nippy and heavy dew left my fingers wet and cold, not willing to bend. I had to shift some ewes and lambs as soon as it was light…
Well as some of you would know, I’ve just finished a whistle-stop tour in NSW. Friday was my first day home and I’ve had a sharp jolt, back to reality! Back out feeding the cows as soon as the kids were on the bus, as we still haven’t had enough rain, to grow any grass. But I…
When I met Jeff through my writing cours, straight after I left school, I never realised what an impact he was going to have on my life. I know the first few assignments for The Writing School I hadn’t put my best into and Jeff’s comments reflected that. Suddenly I became too busy to do something…
What a day! It was awesome! The Condy Fair really was brilliant this year – not that it hasn’t been other years, but there were so many people, so many things to do and just a fantastic atmosphere to the day. A sharp thunderstorm the night before had our hearts in our mouths, but even…
Meet Cal. She’s the brains behind Blue Skies. When we first started talking about what the next book would hold, we came up with a few ideas. 1. Cal’s house is very old (it was actually the first double-brick home built on farming land in Esperance) and is steeped in history. I can’t remember the year, but…
I have an opportunity to offer you guys a pre-release copy of Blue Skies! Our local bookshop, Le Grand bookshop, has secured 200 copies before Blue Skies is due out. Now these are for a couple of events. First one is that the Blue Skies Launch will be held at the Condingup Community Fair on…
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 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.…
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…
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…
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…