After Venice we caught trains to Florence and then Arezzo. Here we picked up our hire car and drove south to Montone. Mum had found this place advertised in a magazine so we decided to spend 11 nights here and make it our base.  Casa Valdeste is a beautiful late 14th-century, terrace-style two-bedroom cottage on three floors, 60 metres from Montone’s centrepiece, Piazza Fortebraccio, the main square in the medieval village of Montone. The walls are of stone, about one metre thick and buttressed on the south-western side.  The house features huge oak and chestnut beams on all ceilings, double-glazed chestnut windows, world-renowned Cotto d’Este floor tiles and exquisite ceramic wall-hangings. Casa Valdeste is owned by some Aussies and this is their website. Check it out. It’s a one way road around the large wall of our little medieval village. From the top on a foggy day it feels like we are floating through

Well I’m back home to the flat ground, huge paddocks filled with turning crops and the buzzing of flies! I missed home but I had a ball in Italy. We had a stop over in Doha so we stayed a night and explored. Amazing place with so much money! It was great to have to day to see the sights and the people were so lovely and helpful. Favourite spots were the Souq Wagif (local market) with its spices, and smells. Where men wear their thobe (long white shirt) with a red and white gahfeya on their heads and women in their black abaya. The buildings here were amazing, every one different and we went to the huge shopping centre Villaggio that has its own canals with gondolas, ice rink and games centre with roller coaster etc. And the ceiling was great, made everything feel big and spacious. Then we flew to Venice and onto a water taxi.

On Sunday my friend had my kids out on her farm (which they loved) and it gave me the chance to play some golf at our local club. I’m not a great golfer or a mad keen one but I do enjoy the walk. Especially when the wildflowers and orchids are out. This top shot is in our GUR (ground under repair) area. Yes, my ball had gone off course and no, I didn’t find it!!! (Probably didn’t help that I was too busy taking photo’s of all the flowers around me.) This bottom photo dosn’t look that great, but in real life those tiny white flowers growing at the bottom of the rock are just beautiful.     We have donkey orchids galore but I can’t say i’ve seen this many in one clump. They are so small and delicate. We also have Spider orchids. The most common one is the green one down the

I just had to go for a walk this morning. Such a gorgeous day. Could hear the bee’s and flies buzzing and the ants were all out and busy.  It was a perfect way to start the day and Sally my dog was really happy for the walk.   (come on mum, hurry up!) The crops are looking great around our area which is wonderful to finally see. We all have our fingers crossed for the season to end well. You don’t count your chickens until the grain is in the bin! Nearly 14 rows on this head, but no grain yet. Hopefully when the grains begin to grow the frosts stay away. I just had to stand in this crop and see how tall it was. I was being careful to stand in the rows so I didn’t crush any. 🙂 Call me a crop Gnome! Being away at Dowerin for nearly four days was

I’ve just got great news for those of you who have just found my books and maybe looking for more! To celebrate my new release The Outback Heart on the 25th September – for the month of September (29/8–2/10), all of my backlist titles will be selling for $4.99 in ebook editions.  So that means The Family Farm, Heart of Gold, The Road Home and The Sunburnt Country. If you haven’t tried some Aussie Rural Fiction, now’s a great time to give it a go. 🙂    

As part of Australian Romance Month, Romance Specialist Haylee Nash from Booktopia will be interviewing one Australian Romance author per day. Here is the link to my interview with Haylee. Keep an eye out for your favourite romance authors. 🙂 For the month of July, the author with the most sales wins the Booktopia Romance Bestseller crown. You as a reader also have chances at winning book packs just by sharing the links through social media and by buying our books. Also go to Romance at Booktopia’s facebook page, and share the post about me on facebook by midnight Monday 8th July (today) for your chance to win one of three copies of ‘The Sunburnt Country’, thanks to Penguin Books Australia. If you buy a copy of my books through Booktopia, email me at fiona_palmer@bigpond.com with your order number, name and address and I will post you off a little gift pack to go with it. If you have brought more

This month Booktopia are celebrating Romance for Australian Authors.  Each day they will feature an Aussie Romance Author on their blog. Today its Anne Gracie anwsering the ten questions.  There is a fantastic line-up of Australian romance authors, including plenty of other rural-set fiction authors like me across the month so stay tuned. You can read my answers to those questions on the 7th July (Sunday). Now there are prizes for the Author and the Reader this month too. The author with the most sales in July will win a review on Booktopia’s blog and a pair of diamond earrings from ICE! So if you were thinking of buying one of my books, or getting a few for your bookclub in the next few months, nows the time to do it. Here are the links: The Family Farm 17% off Heart of Gold 17% 0ff The Road Home 17% 0ff The Sunburnt Country 33% off   Your chance to WIN! Any order for an Aussie Romance

Today Mandy Magro is here to tell us about her journey writing Flame Tree Hill. Cancer is something we are all well aware of and it has also, no doubt, touched each of us through family and friends at some point. So tackling this subject in her next book wouldn’t have been an easy task. Especially when based on your close friend. (Shares in Kleenex, I’m thinking 🙂 ) Writing Through the Tears G’day Fee, Thanks for inviting me onto your blog today. I’m thrilled to be sharing the inspiration behind my third novel, Flame Tree Hill. Flame Tree Hill is of course, fictional, but it is also heavily based on my best mate’s, Joanne Jackson’s, breast cancer journey. Jo has battled breast cancer not once, but twice!!, and has survived. She is an amazing woman with an inspiration story that needed telling. So, with her approval, I delved into her world through her diaries

My next guest on Writers Whereabouts is the lovely Helene Young. I have her latest book Half Moon Bay in my hands finally and today is a perfect day to start reading it. (it’s raining outside and the fire is going) I’m a big fan of Helene’s writing and can’t wait to open the pages. We are both published by Penguin and share the same amazing publisher but we live on opposite sides of Australia. (and Helene’s new home would make me rather green.) But I’d still give it a go just to see all those wonderful sunsets over the water. 🙂 Thanks for stopping by Helene. x Whereabouts is Helene Now? Fiona, thanks for having me on your blog to chat about my current whereabouts. Life’s been pretty exciting recently for us as we’ve moved from a house to a catamaran called Roo Bin Esque. My husband’s taken to calling us Grotty Yachties… Nothing grotty

Next in my Writers Whereabouts is Cathryn Hein. She writes about Mt Gambier, which I can say I have visited and seen the gorgeous Blue Lake. I hope you enjoy this snippet into Cathryn’s life and  my favourite photo is the one of Cathryn jumping on Dinks. Look at you go, Cathryn! Thanks so much for inviting me on Writer Whereabouts, Fiona. It’s a lovely idea for a series, albeit a little tricky for me given our penchant for moving around. Five and a bit months ago we were Melbournians, catching trams, grinning each time we passed the MCG, and loving its football tribalism. Five years ago Newcastle was home, and what a fabulous one it was too. This time ten years ago we were four months into what turned out to be a three year stint living in the south of France. In a few years time we could be somewhere else. I hope