PRE- ORDER Fleur's newest novel 'Into the Night'
Tasmania is a place I have always wanted to visit. The history of the state is one of the reasons (I love history, especially Australian history) and I love mountains and green grass. Get plenty of that in Tassie! I can’t tell you how much the landscape captivated me – the colours of the trees…
So from Sydney, we caught a flight to Wagga Wagga where we had a book signing at Book City. We weren’t there for long before we started the drive to Goulburn. I spent a lovely hour or so, in the car with Deb, Allen and Unwin’s book seller before I jumped back in the car…
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…
Today we’ve been preg-scanning our later lambing ewes and this is what a lamb looks inside the ewe! Our vet Dave uses and ultrasound machine, pretty much the same as one for humans, although it’s smaller and more mobile. Preg-scanning ewes is a great management tool for us. We can get the ‘dry ewes’ out…
What a journey Blue Skies is leading me on! I’m going to NSW to meet my whole Allen and Unwin team, who are instrumental in making my books as good as they can be. These women have become friends, through the writing process and I can tell you that A&U are the best team to have behind…
There are some days that it’s a pleasure to get out of bed at 5am. Today was one of those days! We were carting lambs in between the farms, so we were up early with a very busy day in front of us. Once we’d loaded the lambs and Anthony had trundled off in the…
I’m really privileged to be asked to speak at the Dalgety Women’s Day in NSW on the 28th of April. I’m really excited about this, as I know these days for women are so important in building the friendships and camaraderie, that is needed to deal with life of the land. As farmers we need…
Well, there has been so much going on in my book world, it’s been a relief to get back out into the paddocks again! We’re still waiting on the break of the season and have got a few sheep on the next door neighbours property, on agistment, as our water supplies are low. The past few…
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…
Over the past few months, I and three other writers of novels set in the Australian outback have got together (in a cyber-sense) to do some promotion; while we each have different writing styles, our books probably appeal to a similar audience, as they’re set in various parts of regional Australia that we each know…
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…
Our cows are pretty clued in and knows what happens on our farm, almost before we do! They are an indication of what’s happening with the weather. If they are camped up, sitting as far away from the south as they can with their backs in that direction, you can guess there is going to…
Summer has taken its toll of a lot of the people and animals this year. I’m sure ours hasn’t been has hot as the top half of Australia, but it’s been a stinker compared to what we are used to. Our hottest day was 48 degrees. We had about six catastrophic fire dangers issued and 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.…
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…
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…
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!…
Thunderstorms are not only impressive but their power is truly breathtaking. They are a reminder to humans: how we can’t control everything, (even though we try) and how much we are at the mercy of Mother Nature. As farmers during summer, we tend to be a bit wary of storms – especially if they don’t bring any rain.…