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Looking for Stillwater: Miles Franklin’s Goulburn

Posted in Uncategorized, Writing and research, writing fiction, writing inspiration, writing life, tagged Australian literature, Goulburn, Miles Franklin, writing historical fiction on December 31, 2015| Leave a Comment »

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Book Tour Week 5 – Cracker

Posted in author pics, book tours, Books, indie publishing, marketing fiction, middle grade fiction, writing life, tagged Australian fiction, australian writers, marketing middle grade fiction, Mystery series on December 22, 2015| Leave a Comment »

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10 Reasons to Attend a Writers’ Retreat

Posted in book tours, Choosing the writing life, indie publishing, location free living, Simple living, simply writing, Time to write, writing fiction, writing life, Writing retreats, tagged Australian literature, australian writers, Christmas in Australia, fiction writing, retreats on December 20, 2015| 1 Comment »

It’s officially the end of Week 3 of our Book Tour and our time on the farm, and our retreat, is at an end.

Here’s what we learnt:

Horses can eat water lilies out of their dam and survive
36 degrees is unpleasant no matter where you are
taking time out is important, so important that I think this should be number 1
Cleaning is a great way to get out of writing and our caravan is now spotless
Christmas Book Tours are fun as long as you have a farm to come home to
You can write wherever you are but sitting under a shady tree watching donkeys and goats increases productivity
Being still increases productivity
Taking time to look back is important…it shows you how far you’ve come
taking time to look forward is important, too, and what better time is there to plan out the new year than when you’re feeling good about point number 8
Taking time now to do nothing much except write (and clean and sell books and go for long walks in the bush and swim in the sea and watch horses eat grass and count the stars in the night sky) is the best time of all.

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The Good, Bad and Damned Good Fun of Book Tours

Posted in book tours, Choosing the writing life, indie publishing, marketing fiction, middle grade fiction, Stories, writing life, tagged Australian fiction, book marketing, book tours, Coffee Club, Newcastle on December 18, 2015| 1 Comment »

Today, I had someone special to share a selfie with, the owner of Coffee Club, Kotara, who also happens to be my favourite niece
I chatted with Coffee Club patrons about all sorts of things that reminded this writer there’s a world of stories out there to source
I people watched and, being only a week till Christmas, there sure was plenty to watch…since when did store shopping bags get so fancy?
The very old and very young still share a cuppa together
People still give books as gifts
it’s easier to say what my books are about with practice
I need to get my next novel finished
Kids still read
Kids write
The new Star Wars movie rocks (so my daughters tell me)
My graphic artist is a whizz because people stopped because of his cover design
i don’t look like my author pic…big mistake
Never play the matching game with a six year old and expect to win…if she doesn’t beat you honestly, she’ll beguile you with her smile
Make sure you have a paddock and horses to escape to when the day is done…our horse was chest high in the dam munching on water-lilies when we got home and there’s no better reminder as to why I’m a country girl at heart (and in this heat, it was tempting to join the horse in his play)
Book tours remind us of our humanity…we may sell more books online but we don’t get near as much tactile pleasure out of the experience.

Thank you to Naomi, Shane and the Coffee Club gang for hosting our book signing. Your hospitality, generosity and love are much appreciated by me and my entourage (and the burger was great:))

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Coffee, cake and a good book, anyone?

Posted in book tours, indie publishing, marketing fiction, social media, writing life, tagged Australian fiction, book tours, Coffee Club, indie publishing, Newcastle on December 17, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Book Tour: Week 3

We’re off again, this time to the Coffee Club, Kotara, in Newcastle to sign and sell a swag of books…or at least drink copious amounts of Nomi’s coffee trying.

And, as we did in Coffs Harbour, we will try to tweet our day (maybe this time it might even work).