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.

I have been invited to the Newdegate Field Days on the Wed 1^st and Thurs 2^nd, 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 5^th 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.

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.

For your chance to win a signed copy of my book, along with some bookmarks, fridge magnets and a Gum Tree Tavern stubby holder just answer the following question to me by email fiona_palmer@bigpond.com

(Those who have read The Family Farm will be familiar with the ‘Tree’ as I wrote about it in the book – now is your chance to have your slice of the Tree, be it in the very important form of a stubby holder and magnet)

The question is – Who was your favourite character in The Family Farm and why?  And for those who haven’t read it yet…just answer why you would like to read it instead.

I will be drawing a winner at random from the emailed entries on Wed 28th July.

Goodluck!

Being a big fan of rural/outback books, I, like many others, have Tony Parsons’ books in my bookshelves.  The Call of the High Country, Return to the High Country, Valley of the White Gold and Silver in the Sun.  I was talking with friends on facebook about what Tony was up to as we hadn’t heard from him in a while….surely a book must be close?  So I contacted Tony and we had a chat!  Firstly, I let him know I was also an author with Penguin and we had the same publisher and secondly – and most importantly- that I had all his books!!

He was happy to chat with me and I was amazed to find out he would be turning 80 in a few months!!  So of course, being a fan, I asked him what he was working on.  Tony has just finished a 700 page book called “The Kelpie” his biggest dog book yet.  It is his forth Kelpie book and is published with Penguin, due for release in September this year.  For those who didn’t know Tony is a bit of a legend in regards to the Kelpie dog. He established “Karrawarra” one of the top breeding kelpie studs in Australia.  He was also awarded the Order of Australia Medal in 1992 for his contribution to the propagation of the Australian kelpie sheepdog.  I have a kelpie also and love her to bits, she’s so clever.

He has since passed on his stud of Kelpie dogs so they will continue on.  (I also found out from Tony that a bloke not far from me in Wagin has his Kelpies, so I will be checking them out next time I’m at the Woolorama!)

Tony is very proud of his book “The Kelpie”.  He said it is full of great colour photos, has a vet section as well as little stories about the working Kelpie.  All his other kelpie books are out of print and can fetch a penny or two on ebay.

As for another novel, Tony has written one which is currently with Penguin and he’s hoping to hear from them soon. Not bad for a bloke who’s nearing 80!  I asked him what he likes to read and he said Hemingway, and a few others but he doesn’t read while he writes in case it alters his writing.

Well that was about it for my chat with the great Tony Parsons (although we may have strayed on dogs for a while and chatting about our publishing house!).

We will have to keep an eye out for his fifth book!

Big thanks to Tony who gave me his time, all the way from QLD to WA.  Cheers mate.