Recently I was invited to chat briefly about my work at Gleebooks in Sydney. The idea behind this video series is to showcase the Sydney Mechanics School of the Arts (SMSA). It's Australia's oldest lending library having started way back in 1833 when reading was high on the list when it came to entertainment, for [...]
Where does a story come from? Each of us has own own personal story. A series of moments made up of triumph and tragedy. If we look back at our lives we can link each step together and sometimes we can understand how we got to where we are today. Sure some of it is [...]
It's been a busy few months with the release of my eighth novel, An Uncommon Woman. A tour of the western Downs region of Queensland was a great week allowing me to see more of our wonderful countryside, catch up with relatives - there are a lot of Alexander's over the border from NSW, and [...]
There is something about having the sky for a ceiling, of watching the bush come alive in the morning as the sun pulls itself over the rim of the earth. A light breeze caressing the land, rustling the grasses and carrying the cloying scents of animals and herbage. To stand in the middle of a [...]
The writing process is one that initially comes in fits and starts for me. I’m not a big plotter. I don’t have an A to Z guide and I rarely know what the middle and ending is going to be when I first begin a new novel. This keeps the work fresh and exciting for [...]
Australian rural literature is steeped in tradition. Although historically only a small portion of our population have lived outside the major cities, many of Australia’s most distinctive stories and indeed legends, originate in the outback. Beyond the urban fringe are the characters that populate our vast nation, they include; drovers and squatters, farmers and graziers, [...]
Schooling the bush way. The pushbike, car, motorbike or quadbike ride to the school bus pickup point along a dirt road. Or perhaps a short walk. The car-pooling to a local school. The switching on of the School of the Air or the studying of lessons under the scrutiny of a governess or parent via [...]
How different are regional rural and remote Australian’s compared to those of us that live in major cities? And how willing are we when it comes to trying to learn about or at the very least trying to understand the diverse nature of Australian society. It’s a question we probably rarely consider. We all have [...]
‘Frankly my dear I don’t give a damn.’ And so Rhett Butler fed up with the chase, said good-bye to Scarlett in Gone With The Wind. Millions of readers of this classic tale of the south were shocked at Scarlett’s foolishness at losing the dashing Rhett, after all this was a love story to end [...]
There's always a story behind a story. When I began thinking about my seventh novel, River Run, I sat down with my parents to chat about the 1950s. I wanted to to write about this era as it's such a rich period in Australian history - Communism, the cold war, the aftermath of two world [...]
