‘Fleur dusts up a storm’ – according to RRR Network News!
A while ago I was asked to write a piece, for the RRR Network News, about how Red Dust came into being.
RRR stands for Rural, Remote and Regional Women. It’s a wonderful magazine that connects rural women together, finds women who are doing amazing things and tells the rest of WA about them
If you follow this link, you’ll be able to read the piece and find out a little more about Red Dust!
Click here for the RRR web site.
I’m feeling wonderfully relieved! The Blue Skies manuscript is winging its way to Sydney, via the internet! And earlier than my deadline – which I’m really happy about!
I finished the final touches and now its a waiting game to see if Louise, my publisher, likes it (that’s always really nerve wracking!), then its onto the first edit done by freelance editor, Ali Lavau, and Siobhan, my A&U editor!
Over the next three months, I’ll be listening to what Ali and Siobhan have to say, looking at all the changes they’ve made and adding my own thoughts and changes.
The publication date for Blue Skies is set for April 2010, not May like I thought and its going to print in January 2010! It all seems so fast after Red Dust taking ages to get onto the shelves!
Well, after trawling through all the entries for the Farm name comp, we finally have a winner!
But before I tell you who it is, I’ve got to thank everyone who entered. The response was enormous, with entries coming from as far away as New Zealand.
The decision was actually really hard – now I know that’s always said, but I’m genuine in saying so. There were some beautiful Aboriginal names, some fantastic Australian names and some names that would make great titles for a book (I’ve kept all of them in case I need inspiration!).
But what was hard, was finding a name that suited the overall tone of the book – there were many suggestions I would’ve used, had the story line been slightly dissimilar to what it is or had Adrian been different character.
John Doyle, from Brisbane, was the winner, with the farm name Paringa which is aboriginal for ‘place at the river’. John, thank you for the thought you put into it and entering! Your prize pack will be winging it’s way to you shortly, thanks to Allen and Unwin.
Blue Skies is nearly complete. I have the editing to go and I’m positive that I’ll make the September 1 deadline – which is fantastic for me and Allen and Unwin, as they’ve already got the freelance editor, Ali Lavau, booked to start work on the manuscript, basically as soon as it arrives.
I’ve really enjoyed writing Blue Skies – it’s taken a fair amount of research, which, as resident of the Esperance Shire and farmer, has been a wonderful learning time for me.
I now know so much more about the history of Esperance, it’s land and pioneers. That knowledge I can pass on to my children, which hopefully will ensure that the history isn’t lost as generations pass.
Together with That’s Life magazine, we’ve thought of a way that you can be included in helping write Blue Skies!
If you head to this link you can enter the competition that we’ve got going for a farm name.
You’ll have your name mentioned in the acknowledgements if I chose the name you’ve entered, plus win a book pack worth $142 from Allen and Unwin.
Can’t wait to see your suggestions!
I’ve had lots of questions about whether there’s a new book in the making. Well, there is! Its been on the go for a while, but got shoved onto the back burner when Red Dust was released.
However, today’s the day! With a cold northerly blowing and tomorrow being taken up with lamb marking, I’m sitting at my office desk, pondering Blue Skies.
I’ve found it hard to even think about this second book over the past few weeks with Red Dust coming onto the book shelves. That in itself has been a baptism by fire, with interviews and more phone calls than I’ve ever had!
Its hard to suddenly be out in the spotlight, when I usually talk to cows, sheep and chooks, more than I talk to humans! But it’s been a great learning experience and I’ll understand it more when Blue Skies comes out.
So, today, the bum is welded to the chair and Blue Skies will be getting closer to the finish line!
All the books that you can see around the key board are my research tools. There is a history element in Blue Skies and I was lucky enough to be given a government ‘Royal Commission on the Mallee Belt and Esperance Lands‘ report and an old Ag journal from 1837, which has been brilliant in helping my research along. Here we go …
Red Dust is available at all good bookshops today! Hope you all enjoy it and please make sure you let me know in the comments!
I’ve just spent a wonderful, cool weekend wallowing between the pages of Mountain Tails by Sharyn Munro.
Sharyn is an extraordinary woman, who lives alone on the side of a mountain. She has turned the land she owns into a recognised Wildlife Refuge and her concern for the Australian environment and all its native creatures is mind-blowing. She is a brilliant person to teach us about the problems that humans have created and the problems we are going to cause our wonderful native animals, after living among them for so long.
These ‘neighbours’ of Sharyn’s are a myriad of natives. From The Red-bellied Snake (gasp!), to the aggressive, noisy Quolls to beautiful birds and marsupials, they all have come to accept and now ignore her, so Sharyn is able to observe them at close quarters. Because of this, her stories of each animal are full of vivid descriptions, so much so, I could hear the cracking of seed pods by the Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos and grunting of the Red-necked Wallabies as they try to attract a mate. I could feel Sharyn’s frustration at the possums who can mow her vegie patch to the ground in one night and her irritation at the stubborn little horse Shari.
Each chapter begins with a beautiful black and white sketch of the featured animal, drawn with exquisite detail by Sharyn.
Mountain Tails is a journey through the Australian bush as you’ve never seen it before. The tales are humorous, the information imparted is invaluable. Sharyn and her publishers Exisle have excelled themselves.
Mountain Tales is available through the Exisle’s web site with a 20% discount if you quote coupon number MT2009, or at any good book store
Occasionally I draw a blank when it comes to ‘the plot’ thickening. That’s where friends come into it! We get together, have a couple of glasses of wine and let those crazy idea’s flow! Sometimes it’s the most crazy ones that actually take off.
We were missing an important person last time we had a plot-fest. Carolyn is my idea’s woman! She’s also my organiser and keeps me on the track when I get uptight or in a state! But she couldn’t be here, so she sent me a big long email instead that Gill and I deciphered and put into play!
Butchers paper and lots of different coloured textas link the characters to the plot. By the time Gill left, I was pretty much back on track… so it’s back to the keyboard and nose to the grindstone! The deadline is looming very quickly!
Some days I have great days with my writing. Everything flows easily, the story unfolds perfectly… and then there are the days when nothing works and my sentences look like they’ve been constructed by a six-year-old, not someone who loves to write.
Today is one of those days. See the red scrawls? They indicates that the latest efforts have been crap and I have to have another go! Back to the drawing board!
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