The Great Plains, will be released November 3rd and as always it’s with mixed feelings that I introduce another baby, my fifth novel in as many years, into the world. Excited, anxious and hopeful spring to mind when it comes to describing my general state of anxiousness this afternoon, as tomorrow I start a three week tour. I’ve never sure about my novels. I’m always grateful when people write to me and say they enjoyed a particular work and I’m tremendously thankful to be published in an environment which has become increasingly challenging, particularly since the Global Financial Crisis. As always I hope my words allow people to escape the everyday. I hope they are entertained. That they laugh and cry and fight for those characters that deserve support! Most of all I hope they finish one of my works with a smile of satisfaction. I hope they do more than enjoy the read, I hope they live it. As always I was mindful of my rural background when I began thinking about The Great Plains, particularly my family’s 121 year history on the same piece of dirt and, as with my previous works I wanted to be able to draw on rural Australia and our fascinating history. My aim was to write an epic narrative that told the story of two lands, two frontier worlds, Australia and America and the people both settlers and indigenous who inhabited those countries. With that background in mind in plotting the novel I asked myself this initial question, what would it feel like to be displaced in the world? What would it be like to be lost to the world you were born into only to find that on being reunited with loved-ones that you truly didn’t belong? You were in fact an outsider. At the heart of The Great Plains is a tragedy. During the American Civil War, a confederate soldier, Joseph Wade gets caught in a skirmish and is killed, his young daughter, Philomena, abducted by the legendary Geronimo of the Apache Indians. This is Philomena’s story, and also that of her descendants, strong-willed women, whose destinies are altered by fate and whose lives are hampered by the prejudices of society and the mixed-blood that runs in their veins. It’s also the story of the powerful Wade family across two continents, and the men who became obsessed with these women as well as the families, both in Australia and America struggling against adversity during periods of enormous change. Thankyou for everyone’s support over the last twelve months. For your comments on my website and the interaction on facebook, via email and twitter. I live and work in the bush and communication in all it’s forms is a vital part of everyone’s day, but particularly appreciated by those of us who live in regional, rural and remote Australia. I hope to catch up with friends and readers alike as I travel around visiting capital cities, as well as regional and rural libraries and bookstores. As always, happy trails.

 The Great Plains – Oklahoma.