On White Ribbon Day, Breaking the Silence (now DV Assist) launched in Albany. If you haven't heard about Breaking the Silence, then let me tell you.

Are you feeling a little tired? Don't feel like reading a bedtime story to the kids? Well, I've got your problem solved! Pop them into bed and let Jack and I read them my latest children's book, What Should a Horse Say?

There is a Facebook photo with a picture of a strawberry saying: ‘Cut ‘em up, don’t throw ‘em out. Please continue to support Aussie Farmers through berry tough times.’ What a great campaign created through horrible circumstances.

I love music, and I think this image is such a good reflection of how I feel when I listen to it - all emotions and thoughts and love and hate and fear all mixed up into one loud bar of stirring sound.

A few months ago, we had another L-plater enter the house. The older daughter is already a P-plater, so I’d had my fair share of hanging out of the passenger’s seat; knew what it was like, what directions to give, how to be calm and soothing when really all I wanted to do was scream.

Being a woman, 'you'll need to lose weight' is NOT a phrase you really want to hear. Still, I heard that last Monday when I went to see my specialist about my back.

I've always said I can write anywhere. With a deadline looming (as they always seem to!) and having to take our exchange student back to Perth to fly home to Italy, I've proved again that I can do just that.

Today, Where the River Runs goes to print. This book feels like it's been a mammoth effort - I was supposed to have it finished a long time before I actually handed the manuscript in...There was a reason! 

Thinking ahead is critical in life. Planning is important. You'd think at nearly 44, I would understand this. So, today (Saturday morning) I fail to understand why I have woken up with a slight hangover and found there to be no cold pizza in the house for breakfast.

Meet Jack. He's the new addition to the McDonald household. He's a gorgeous, energetic, five-year-old Kelpie from Woonwooring Kelpies at Cunderdin. Why, might you ask, does someone who lives in town and writes books for a living need a Kelpie?

Esperance received a fair bit of rain on Thursday. Rain is one of my all-time favourite parts of Mother Nature. I grew up in the mid-north of SA, where it wasn’t a common occurrence, and as a farmer, I know there are good times for rain and others not so great.

Not all abuse is physical. Domestic Violence is another form of terrorism. Why? Terrorism creates fear, and fear is what these people live with daily. Fear of what will happen next.

That crazy time of the year in between Christmas and New Year, when no one seems to know what day it is, has passed us by once again!

Hand-me-down recipes from previous generations are a wonderful heirloom. I love it when we get to Christmas time, and I can open my old, tattered, food-stained, handwritten recipe book and start cooking food from my Nana or Aunty.

Have you ever read the book The Secret Garden? I fell in love with that book: the mystery and wildness of the garden, the secrets within such a grand old house and of course the unexplained cries in the middle of the night.

Don't these clouds look like fireworks gone wrong? Actually, I can't say that, because in all the fireworks I've seen, I wouldn't have a clue if they'd gone wrong or not! Anyhow, when I looked up at these, that was the first thing I thought of.

We had some great times in 2015, and I thought it would be fun to look back over the good times. It makes me realise that 2015 wasn't quite as bad as I thought it was! And it reminds me of the things I've learned over this year.

Happy New Year!
Has it been a good start for you? We spent the evening at the foreshore in Esperance having tea with friends and watching the fireworks. It was a really pleasant way to see in 2016.

Indigo Storm, my next book, has been taking my time away from here - I had a deadline which I didn't make... THREE times! Finally, right on the death knock of November, I managed to get the finished product into Allen and Unwin for editing.

You know that feeling when you head back to your childhood home, where you know every corner and bump in the road and every sight is familiar? Well, that's what I've been feeling while we've been away on holidays.