On Sunday I went to Nyabing to meet some lovely ladies for afternon tea.
Thanks to Michelle for organising it. On my way there, enjoying the peace and quite (my kids I had left in Lake Grace with the in-laws…YES!) I got to take some pictures. I love the contrast of the bright yellow canola against the green of the crops. Its very Australian, the green and gold.
You couldn’t imagine a brighter yellow and to see it in such a mass is beautiful…except for the smell. LOL.
And salt lakes are something we have plenty of, but can also look amazing even though salt is a problem. Hope you enjoy the pictures…summer is on it way.
Well I spent two days in Newdegate for the field days…and boy was it cold. I was lucky to be invited to attend as this year they had set up a Women in Agriculture tent. It was a brilliant idea and I got to meet so many wonerful people. Victoria Brown was one of them. www.victoriabrownpoet.com.au A wonderful lady and a born entertainer. I had the pleasure of listening to her perform a few poems and my favourite was The Local Elders Man. She hails from Esperance way, a friend of Fleur’s. Even though Fleur couldn’t make it, Esperance was represented well.
We also got to hear from the Rural Woman of the Year, Sue Middleton. Some great topics were discussed! Also the tent had poems, short stories and photo’s of women in agriculture. A large map sat on a table for everyone to pin a flag on where they had come from…very interesting.
In our special tent was a chef who was cooking some marvoulous things, the aroma certainly set my tummy off. Wednesday arvo we had a local Hyden farmer cook some steaks to go with the beer tasting. My husband brought the kids over and they got their faces painted, show bags, special balloons and their fair share of fun. Your wallet is sooo much lighter when you leave. I finally managed to dodge the rain to get my bacon spud from the van and a bag full of donughts. Yep, I was in heaven lol.
Well I’m at that stage where the manuscript is going through the final edits and the book cover is being designed. Oh how I wish I could be there to watch them do it. This picture is the first concept for The Family Farm, which we all didn’t think the model suited. So they went back and found Danielle, who is now on the cover of The Family Farm, and is so much more suited to be Izzy. Her hair wasn’t the perfect colour to the character in the book, but she had the spunk we were after.
I have just had an email with some pictures of a model for the next book…Heart of Gold (I think is the name we are going with). I was so excited to be included and gave my opinions! I’m not too fussed, as long as the overall end product is appealing. For example, I was over the moon with the cover of The Family Farm. After all it had my name all over it…what’s not to like!! I loved the wheat on the front too. So hopefully for the second book we will have a great shearing picture of some sort with the model in the shearing clothes I sent over.
If anyone has any questions or want to know more about this, please feel free to email me.
Sept 1-2
I have been invited to the Newdegate Field Days on the Wed 1st and Thurs 2nd, and so has Fleur McDonald. I was talking to Fleur this morning and she said she can make it for the Wednesday, which will be great. We will have all day to catch up! So if anyone is coming along, drop by and say hi to us. I will have books available too and hopefully so will Fleur.
Looking forward to catching up with lots of people, field days are great for that. I was told that all the sites have been booked out so that is a great sign. They have done a lot of work with Women in Agriculture as the theme. Heaps of great things happening and available, I’m sure I read pampering…I love that word!! Next week all the details come out with The Countryman….and I believe an article on moi. It’s an interview which I did a few weeks back and the photo was taken a few months before that. She took a heap of photos so I’m interested to see which one they picked. It will feature my second book in paper form with yellow sticky notes hanging out of it.
Sept 5
And on Sun 5th I will be in Nyabing at the Golf club at 2pm to have a few drinks and nibbles for a good ol’ chit chat. If you’re in that area, details should be circulating.
Before we went to Sydney for the RWA conference we stopped off in Melbourne to stay with my hubby’s nan in Yarraville, not far from the west gate bridge. Williamstown is also nearby, which we stopped at for fish and chips and treats while we looked over the water at the city.
While there, we went to Camberwell, where Penguin has its office and we got the tour and meet many of the people I email. I now have faces for all these names. The kids managed to behave until the last fifteen minutes so then we caught some trams to the Melbourne Museum.
I loved seeing the Titanic Artefact exhibition. Seeing the room re-creations of the first and third class and the grand staircase were amazing. The kids loved touching the wall of ice and my hubby liked the construction parts and the huge spanners. (the kids rushed through at a million miles an hour…so if you’re thinking of going, don’t take your kids if you can!! And Blake set off one of the sensors, no doubt breathing heavily over the glass box – ‘That’d be our boy’ said hubby. lol) But when we got out to the rest of the Museum we found Blake his dinosaur bones and he was happy! He didn’t like the room with all the stuffed animals…I didn’t like having to answer all his interesting questions either!
Well I had so much fun at the Romance Writers Association Conference in Sydney. Look at where we were right on the waterfront at Coogee! On Thursday I attended a workshop and we had Wendy Harmer – http://www.wendyharmer.com/ – who is an author of chick lit, hen lit and YA books and a well known comedian. Yes she had us in fits of laughter as she showed us some of her nags from her book Nagging for Beginners. Hilarious stuff.
We had one of the writers from the Underbelly series talk and many others. We were fed well also…one of my favourite parts…the choc éclairs were scrummie.
On Friday afternoon it was the big book signing event and I was positioned next to Bronwyn Parry. It was great to finally meet Bron along with Helene Young who you can all find on http://www.outbackromances.com/
I also got to meet Bec Sampson who was in an online critique group who helped crit the first few chapters of my book that’s due out in March next year. Yes MARCH next year….i can’t wait.
I spent some time with my publisher and met another Penguin author Katherine Scholes. I got her to sign my copies of her book too. Already finished one and loved it.
I will have some more photos and updates of my trip but when my husband returns home on the weekend with my camera.
I went out to Burnside today (the Garard’s farm) as they were shearing. I needed a few pictures for the book trailer and for the website so people can see what I’m talking about when they read my next book. I found out today that there are three Burnside’s in WA (hence the PIN (for Pingaring) under the farm name on the bale). If your farm name is one of them, tell us where about in WA you are?
I was hoping to take photo’s of the hero of my book, a blond muscly 28 year old shearer…but alas…he was nowhere to be seen. (Maybe he was off sick!?!) Actually I think he’s left and gone to work on the mines!! Anywhoo I got plenty of other shots and was even in time for Di’s morning smoko! What a treat! Sitting on a bale with a cuppa made by my mate Dennis with a range of food fit for a king. It was nice to get out of the house (and away from the computer) and go visiting. I didn’t hang around as they had a spare drench gun and were looking for volunteers lol. This afternoon is set aside for book writing and setting up a few things for the website. Time to get cracking.
Well it’s time to draw the competition and I’m glad to announce that Jane Barber was our randomly selected winner! Well done to Jane, whose signed copy and goodies will be on their way to you soon.
Big thanks to all those who entered, and keep an eye out as I will run another competition at a later date. In a few months (or 6) I should be able to giveaway a copy of the new book. I look forward to holding that book in my hands!!
Cheers for now,
Fee
We have a couple of kids for a sleepover and so we all went up to the rock. My kids had to show their friends their cubby house in the bush (when we play golf, the babysitter lets them play in the bush. Good, healthy outside fun!). Our local golf course weaves through the many rock formations, and it’s a beautiful spot.
We climbed a few rocks to search for tadpoles in the pools of water. We were out of luck (a bit early for them yet)…thank god as I’ve had my fair share of tadpoles/half frogs in my house! As we were walking, climbing over fallen trees and crawling through bushes we found some big rabbit holes. I warned the kids not to get too close in case they did an Alice and fell into Wonderland (I think my humour was wasted on the younger two). Then we had a picnic and counted caterpillars as we sat on the green fairway.
All in all, it was a beautiful day with the sun shinning and no wind. I even had a ball. It really is worth it to take time out to do something special with you kids, as they will remember it forever. I know I still do when my folks took us to the rock. Even if it only was for an hour, kids will remember it like it was a whole day. They need these good memories to take with them into adulthood. It says I was loved. Ditch the DS on the couch along with whatever other computerised gizmo they have and get outside, ride your bikes, walk along the beach…it’s all good. Time rushes by fast enough, cherish the time we have with them while they are still young. Yep, I’ve said my bit now lol!
Winter – oh the joys of frosty mornings. On this particular morning I was on my way to my friends house to pick up my kids and the fog was really thick AND it was 10.30am!! Yes, the farmers would have been twiddling their fingers waiting for it to lift so they could go spraying. I know my dad was at home waiting…probably enjoying the warmth before he went out into the cold to play with water.
This picture is of my friends house from their driveway and you can just make out it out. The camera never seems to pick up just how thick it is.
I nearly ran over the shire crew on my way there. They had two graders parked up on the road. They appeared out of nowhere in the fog. I bet they thought twice about standing on the road to talk in a fog, especially with me behind the wheel!! As i left near lunch time i could still see areas of fog. Well at least it wasn’t a frost. I’m hoping they stay away. Its been a bad enough start to the year, no one needs their crops wiped out from the frost as well.
