Don’t be silent when you see violence.

The headline of the State Government’s 16 Days in WA campaign to prevent domestic and family violence is a reminder that we all have a role to play in calling out violence in our community, including our regional communities.

As you can see, my whiteboards are beginning to fill up with ideas, character descriptions and a few other things.

You know that horrible sinking feeling when you go to a place in a car park, thinking your car is going to be there, and it's not? It’s a damn horrible feeling, huh?

Last week, I wrote about needing to write two books at a time to make my deadlines. I was getting involved with NaNoWriMo to help do this.

I've never been one to conform. I always push the boundaries of whatever I do, whether it was rebelling against the constraints of society as I grew up, or rallying against being told what to do (yes, I was a HORRIBLE teenager!) or writing.

Who remembers these books? The Reader's Digest Selections, with four books in one. A bookworm's dream. Well, that's how I saw them when they turned up in Mum and Dad's mailbox.

I wonder if you've ever heard of a little town called Orroroo? It's at the base of the Flinders Ranges, a tiny blip of a gorgeous town, the main street an eclectic mix of old and new and on the main drag between Perth and Sydney.

Well, it's November, and November can be an important month in writer-world. November means NaNoWriMo. What does that mean, you might ask?

Tuesday is the D-Day. Deception Creek Publication day.

Ugh. I'm nervous. I always get nervous when a book comes out - you'd think it would get easier, but it doesn't. I have a need for you readers to like my characters, like my story and basically like everything about the book!

Never be afraid to be the only woman in the room. A hard take in Australian Agriculture, but today, on the International Day of Rural Women, I’m reminded of how far women in agriculture have come, and how much things have changed for women who want to work on the land.

I’m often asked what it takes to write a book. Having finished my 19th novel about twelve hours ago, I reflected on the question, whilst sitting on the patio with a wine, screaming: ‘thank god that’s done!’.

So, I compiled a list.

I left home at age 12 to go to boarding school in Adelaide. Orroroo, where I lived at the time, and Adelaide are only three hours’ drive apart, which really isn't that far when you think about it. But the world I changed to from Orroroo was as far wide and different as if I'd moved to Antarctica!