Today I have a great friend of mine stopping by for a chat – actually I have thrown a heap of questions at her – about her new book Rocking Horse Hill. As always, Cathryn is a hoot, which is why her books are so entertaining. (I’m hoping to score a copy of Rocking Horse Hill for Mother’s Day. I’ve been dropping LOTS of hints to the kids!!) Here is the book and blurb. Ever since she was a little girl, Emily Wallace-Jones has loved Rocking Horse Hill. The beautiful family property is steeped in history. Everything important in Em’s life has happened there. And even though Em’s brother Digby has inherited the property, he has promised Em it will be her home for as long as she wishes. When Digby falls in love with sweet Felicity Townsend, a girl from the wrong side of the tracks, Em worries about the future. But she is determined

I am a big fan of YA books / New Adult books so it seems fitting that I’ll finally have my own YA story published in May called The Recruit. I’ve had this book written for a while, just sitting on my computer in the background while I focused on my rural stories. But now, thanks to Escape Publishing (& Kate), I get to share this story with you.  🙂 This is the first book in a series. How long the series goes for…I’m still undecided. I have finished the second book and about to start the third. So we will see how far Jaz, Ryan, Anna and Taylor take me. I got the very cool cover from Kate today, what do you think? BLURB: From one of Australia’s Queens of Romance comes the debut in a brand new YA series about secrets, strengths, and what lies beneath the surface. Jasmine Thomas may not be completely normal, but

I wrote a short story recently and it’s now being published as an ebook through Penguin. Which is all a bit new and exciting. I love the cover. It portrays the story so well. Here is the blurb: Mothers’ Day has always been a special day for Sandi, because her beloved kids spoil her rotten. But this year won’t be the same. Her daughter, Gracie, has joined her brother Jack at boarding school and Sandi dreads waking up to a quiet house. Even her husband, Paul, seems distant and preoccupied with farm work. So she never could have guessed what the day has in store . . . The Empty Nest includes an exclusive preview from Fiona Palmer’s forthcoming new novel, The Sunnyvale Girls! This story is something that mothers face in rural area’s often. My own kids will be going to boarding school so this story touched on my very own emotions. So I guess you

Clearing sales may sound like a time to hit the shops but in the country it means a huge day, usually standing around in the boiling sun while you scan through rows and rows of stuff from a farmer selling up. They are like massive garage sales, including tractors, silo’s, utes, motorbikes, scrap metal, poly pipe and household stuff. Anything is usually up for sale. Yesterday was the first one of the season and we were called in to help sell lunch, which money would go to progress. So after putting the kids on the bus, we headed out to Isla’s to make up forty odd loaves of bread. There was six volunteers so we were ready by ten which gave us time to get out to the farm and set up. It’s a great time to catch up and natter about what’s been going on. We were set up in one of the sheds, right

I’m coming out of my edit haze today to share a letter that I have from Loretta Hill. I’m a big fan of her FIFO series, they are full of laughter and characters I love, so I can’t wait to grab a copy of her new book ‘The Girl in the Yellow Vest’.  Read on to find out more….. Hi Fiona, How’s your corner of WA. It’s been a while since we caught up at conference last year.  Are you working on your next book now? When is it due out? (Hi Loretta! Yes, I’m busy on edits for The Sunnyvale Girls, which is a September release and also I’m working on something else which I can’t wait to share with everyone.) I’ve just started writing my next novel which has been a long time coming. This story has been sitting in me for at least four years and has had a lot of false starts. This

Finally my Internet is back and I can post the winner of this compeition!!! Yay. With over 200 entries down to one lucky person. Drum roll please…….   Our winner of the five signed books is  Rebecca Edmonds !! Rebecca is from Wandoan in QLD. Congratulations Rebecca and I hope you enjoy your prize! For those of you hoping to win but missed out, you can always take advantage of my Christmas book SALE!  You can buy them straight from my website. The Family Farm $10 Heart of Gold $10 The Road Home $10 The Sunburnt Country $22 The Outback Heart $25 Each order comes signed and includes bookmarks and a free stubby holder until Christmas!   Perfect idea for that special gift. Thank you all for entering. Stay tuned as I will often do more competitions. 🙂

    Getting ideas for books is not a planned thing, sometimes I get on with life and just hope inspiration strikes or that something I hear or see brings on a story idea. Sometimes things move me and I want to write about them. Like with The Sunburnt Country, the issues of depression, rural suicide and the affects of drought on the whole community. With The Outback Heart, it all started when I picked up the Lakes Link News (Lake Grace’s local newspaper) and came across Josh’s eulogy. I knew of Josh and had heard of his story from friends. I didn’t know him personally but I had friends who had attended his funeral and said how huge it was. As many as 1000, some said. So I began to read the eulogy and it struck a cord. By the time I had finished it I knew I wanted to write about this. A

It’s finally here! My special Christmas pack. (Yes, it’s time to start thinking about Christmas!) I’m running it early, so I have time to post out the books to the winner. (Some may want to split the pack up and use as presents for others. The winner can let me know who you want the books signed to.) The pack is every one of my books, signed.  You get everything you see in this picture, except my black sheet! 🙂 (Bundle worth over $100) All you have to do to enter is send an email to fiona_palmer@bigpond.com and tell me who you would want this pack for. The competition starts on the 4th November and ends on the 18th November. A random winner will be drawn in the morning at 7am, West Aussie time. Good luck. 🙂      

Going to Rome we were a little worried. We had heard stories about having your wallets stolen. And we were a little sad to leave our car (freedom) behind in Arezzo. No one was game to drive in Rome and I’m quite glad as I don’t think I could have returned it scratch free. But we didn’t have to worry as we had no problems walking around Rome. (We did stay above ground mind you. No crazy subways for us) We arrived by train and walked to our hotel, which wasn’t far at all. We are used to the cobbled roads and uneven footpaths. Rome feels like one giant maze. Tall buildings hug the tiny roads so you have no idea what could be around the corner and in Rome there was always something amazing.  Like the Trevi fountain, just sitting squished in around these buildings. We could walk to most of these sights from

I was going to go straight to blogging about Rome but then I had all these photo’s from our visit to Naples and Pompeii so I’ve had to split it into another blog. :/ I try to keep the photo’s to a minimum, honest!! So when we got to Rome we did a day trip to Naples and first stop was a castle made from lava rock with a massive marble entry. (It once sat surrounded by sea.) Then a walk through the city and a big mall type building set out like a cross with amazing marble and mossaic floors. Yes, I took lots of photo’s of the mosaics too. I was going to share them but I have heaps from the Vatican. :/ Okay, maybe just one. And people were just walking all over it!! If I had busted my butt making this I would have it roped off lol. This (Piazza Plebiscito) was just around the corner and