A week in the life…

It has been a wild week! Not weather wise, because normally if I say a week has been wild, it’s been windy and raining and freezing. Lovely winter weather. Yes, the weather has been a bit like that this last week, but I’m meaning work wise!

I left Esperance at 3am on Thursday morning to make it to Perth by lunchtime so I could catch a flight to Sydney. Yes, for those of you following along at home, I was only in Sydney a couple of weeks ago to attend Michelle Obama’s event. (Wow, what a night that was, I’m still on a high!). This time, it was for a strategy meeting with HarperCollins. That also has me on a high.

The plane was late in leaving and my best laid plans of getting to Sydney at a reasonable hour on Thursday night didn’t happen. I think it was about 11pm by the time I got to the hotel!

Flying is a great place to do edits, because there isn’t any distractions. I just plug my earbuds into my ears and ignore everything that is going on around me. You’d think that would be easy to do at home, but it’s not.

Busy trying to edit

The strategy meeting was great fun and it’s really wonderful to see so much thought and effort go into what is happening for the next three books. I guess it’s easier to strategise when it’s known there is more than one book coming, and in fact there are three coming over the next eighteen months.

I made a decision when I turned 50 to work my arse off over the next decade, and that’s what I’m doing… Only another eight years to go!

Probably self explanatory!

Team Fleur is a brilliant all-women team (which makes me very excited) filled with many years of expertise inside the publishing industry and I’m thrilled to be working with all of them.

L -R Nicola, Kimberley, Kate, Anna, me, Gaby, Bridg. (It’s hard to get everyone smiling at the same time!)

All of Friday was spent at the HarperCollins offices, planning, plotting and then an editorial meeting with my publisher, Anna. Friday night was dinner with my agent, Gaby and Saturday was an early morning flight back to Perth.

I arrived late morning, grabbed my car and headed off on a four hour drive to see Hayden.

After a pretty shitty, but life-educational year last year, Hayden seems to be settled in a new job on a farm. I don’t like saying too much because every time I do, it seems that Murphy, from Murphy’s Law hears and upends Hayden’s world again. But, so far, this job seems to be working for Hayden and his employers, which I’m thrilled about.

He’s working in a very pretty part of WA. I got my fill of sunsets, cattle, farm life and peace. And my son. It was a perfect twenty four hours with him.

The Stirling Ranges

Dirt road sunsets - my favourites

On Sunday I headed off on a whirlwind tour of a small part of the wheatbelt; Nyabing, Broomehill, Wongan Hills, Dalwallinu and Moora. What a brilliant time I had! The events were really well attended and I sold a lot of books! I also covered a lot of kilometres and it was SO GREAT to have a look around the state. Until recently it’s been very dry and some of the crops that have been dry seeded weren’t going to germinate unless there was a rain. There was rain last week and now, the germination is clear.

I love seeing these gorgeous and sometimes surprising shops and buildings that our country towns have. The below photo was in Moora and is a shop dedicated to creatives. I loved it and although I didn’t get a photo of the ceiling, imagine pressed tin and intricate design.

I visited my farm in the Goodlands region and while I was there, it POURED! The area is marginal country and to get 60mm over two weeks is a rare, but not unheard of and oh my lord, it made me so happy! I won’t have been the only one!

After about 3,500 kilometres, I ended up home eight days later after I left! Like I said, it was a whirlwind. But I loved every second. Although, I do get a bit tired towards the end, as you can see from this pic!

Second to last night on the road

Now I’m back at my desk, editing and writing the next two books; The Buried is now the title for the November book, and The Runner is coming in April of next year.

I’ve got my BAS to do and I feel like I have work coming gout of my ears. I desperately want to get to Kalgoorlie over the next few weeks, but I just don’t know when I’m going to make that happen. I love being busy, but I also love being home.