I’m ‘visiting’ Western Australia today, as a guest blogger on fellow author Fleur McDonald’s blog. I recently read Fleur’s first novel, Red Dust, and enjoyed it – set on a property in the north of South Australia, it has all the ingredients of a good story – a great setting, likeable characters, a crime to solve, and a touch of romance. So, please hop over, say hi to Fleur, and read my response to Fleur’s questions about why I write, how I write, and my what inspires me. Fleur will also be guest blogging here very soon.

I’m not quite sure where October went – whoosh! – but I did promise a giveaway draw for subscribers to my newsletter, as something of an apology for the newsletter software snafu in September. So, on Sunday, I’m going to draw one name from the list of subscribers, and that person will win their choice of a signed copy of BOTH my books, OR, if they already have both books, a gift certificate from a bookseller of their choice ($30US/$40Aus), OR a combination of a book plus a gift certificate ($15US/$20Aus). If you’d like to sign up for my newsletter, you can do so here (or click the link at the top of the page). I send out a maximum of one newsletter per month, and I respect your privacy and abhor spam, so I’ll never giveaway or sell your email address.

In general news, things have been quietly busy here. Most of my time is focused on writing book 3, which is moving along, although a little slower than I’d like. The hero, Mark, has been proving a little elusive; there’s a lot underneath his controlled public face, but he’s reluctant to let anyone see it. However, I’m now getting to know him much better, and finding out many interesting things about him – and so will the heroine, Kate

So, I’d better get back to it, and settle in for, I hope, a productive day of writing! I’ll leave you with a few images from my recent morning walks. Our driveway is almost a kilometre long, so down to the gate and back is a reasonable amount of exercise. This morning, though, I hitched a ride with Gordon when he left for work, and hopped out another kilometre down our road, to walk back home. The combination of recent rain and warm spring weather has given a burst of green growth – but I’m sure it will brown off very quickly.

Down the driveway

Old farm cottage

The neighbours cattle - who see few pedestrians!

As mentioned in my previous post, we did a day trip yesterday into Oxley Wild Rivers National Park, with our friends Bob & Kerry, and Don, a National Park ranger. Bob is researching for a history of land use in the area since European settlement, so the purpose for the trip was to find the site of old stockyards and a hut, shown on a map from the 1890s. We accessed the area along a NP management track that is closed to unauthorised vehicles (we were authorised, and accompanied by a NP ranger.)

Here’s the satellite image from Google Maps of the area:

View Larger Map

The ridge that starts slightly right of the centre top of the photo is the ridge we drove down, to Top Creek (runs from centre left of the photo roughly through the midle), not far from where it joins the Macleay River. Later in the afternoon, we drove back up Top Creek, to the junction with Rafferty’s Creek – a lovely spot!

I tested out the video function of the new iPod a few times. The following short videos are a little shaky (hand-held iPod!) but might give some sense of the landscape:

A 360 degree view from a spot beside Top Creek – the site of the old stockyards and hut, now long gone:

A 360 degree where Top Creek flows (or doesn’t flow, in drier weather) into the Macleay River:

The junction of Top Creek and Rafferty’s Creek:

For those who aren’t able to view videos, here’s a few photos:

Clearing a fallen tree from the track

Track along the top of the ridge

Probable site of hut on Top Creek

Carrai Plateau across the Macleay River

Macleay River

Junction of Top Creek and Rafferty's Creek

And finally, a photo from the vehicle as we were driving back along the ridge, looking across to other ridges:

Ridges through the trees

It’s wild, isolated country – but very beautiful! And to connect this image-heavy post to writing, this kind of area is likely to be the inspiration for the fictional setting of the series of books I’ll write after the third Dungirri book. Still very much in the embryonic stage yet, but the ideas are developing, and we’ll see how it grows

I’m rushing around getting ready to leave for Brisbane in an hour or two, for the IASPR and RWAustralia conferences. I’m driving up today, and tomorrow, the wonderful Sarah Frantz (IASPR President) and I are going to do a day trip from Brisbane to Lamington National Park. I’ve always wanted to explore some of the hinterland behind the Gold Coast, and Sarah is interested in birds and wants to see what she can of Australia in the short time she’s here, so it should be a lovely day out. And I’m sure there will be much lively discussion about the romance genre, as well!

The IASPR (International Association for the Study of Popular Romance) conference is on Thursday and Friday, and I am very much looking forward to it. It will be the first gathering in Australia of scholars and others interested in popular romance, and the program is packed full or what, I am sure, will be fascinating and thought-provoking papers and discussions.

The RWAustralia conference starts (for me) on the Friday evening, with the cocktail party, and then runs all weekend. My publisher, Bernadette Foley, and I are presenting a workshop on Saturday morning about negotiating the author-publisher relationship. Then there’s a great lineup of workshops and keynotes, as well as the chance to meet and catch up with many friends and fellow writers. Plus the Awards dinner on Saturday night, where the winners of the Romantic Book of the Year Awards will be announced – always a special night, but especially so this year, as As Darkness Falls is a finalist in the Romantic Elements category.

I’ll be driving home on Monday, and maybe catching up with my sister for coffee along the way. Then I’m home for two days, before I head off to Melbourne!

Needless to say, with all this travelling and conferencing, the blog may be a little quiet – although since I’ll have the iPhone, I may be able to send some short blogs and iPhone photos – we’ll see!

So, to keep my regular readers entertained while I’m away, here’s a few photos from recent afternoon walks:

Our road, heading into the neighbour's paddocks

Our creek paddock - and possibly the site of the original hut

Late light on the trees - a natural Monet effect!

My walking companions (or gratuitous dog photo!)

Gordon’s away for a couple of days, so I’m on morning dog-feeding and walking duty. This morning we recorded a temperature of -4 degrees Celsius on the front porch – and there was definitely a frost coating the paddocks! Here’s a few photos, taken while the dogs sniffed around at interesting smells while we walked:

Frost in the west paddock

Morning frost on native blackthorn leaves

Frost on eucalyptus leaves

As we were walking back to the house, down by our little dam, I saw something unusual hanging from a clump of native mistletoe on a eucalypt. Closer inspection revealed this:

Caterpillars

I’ve never seen anything quite like it before – I’m not sure what type of caterpillars they are.

The forecast for tomorrow morning is only for -1,  but as I was well-rugged up this morning, and didn’t feel the cold too badly, I should be fine tomorrow.

In between travelling, work, and illness, I’ve neglected the blog this past couple of weeks! My apologies to my regular readers. So, here’s a summary catch-up!

The rest of our outback trip went well. We had planned to spend two nights in Oodnadatta, but as the rain clouds threatened – and the town is at least 280km of dirt road from anywhere – we ended up leaving a day early to avoid the rain, which reached us just before we got to the sealed road at Marla. So, we stayed for two nights at the opal-mining town of Coober Pedy instead, which gave us a relaxing day wandering around the town and seeing some of the area. (But I didn’t buy any opals!)

Our next overnight stop was Quorn, an old, pretty town at the southern end of the Flinders Ranges, with many nineteenth century buildings, including the old railway station on the old Ghan line.

Railway Station, Quorn, South Australia

The next day we travelled on across South Australia and back into New South Wales, to the outback town of Broken Hill. Sustained by mining for well over 100 years, Broken Hill is an interesting town – a place I’d love to have more time to explore. However, sadly I had to leave Gordon and our friends in Broken Hill, and fly to Sydney on the Thursday and then the Gold Coast on the Friday for my next adventure…

The Gold Coast Literati events were great fun. There were about 30 authors in attendance, and the program kicked off with the Literati Feast on Friday night, at the Gold Coast Arts Centre. With two authors per table, moving to a different table each course, it was a great way to meet people and talk about books, writing, and other subjects. Good food, good company, and lively conversation – I enjoyed the evening, and hope the many guests did, too.

On the Saturday morning, I was on a panel with the delightful Toni Jordan and Karen Foxlee at Broadbeach Library, where we talked about the pleasures and pain of writing a second book after a successful debut novel. About thirty people attended, including Eric, a long time reader of this blog, and it was great to meet him at last!

The only shadow over these few days of the time away was that my father was ill in Canberra. We’d previously arranged that my older sister, who lives an hour or so from the Gold Coast, would come and stay with me on the Saturday night, and as it turned out rather than me going home on Sunday, both of us travelled to Canberra to see Dad. Fortunately, by the time we got there he was a lot better, and he continues to improve, so after spending most of Monday with him in the hospital, I was comfortable enough to fly home that evening. Just to top off the ‘adventure’ though, the plane circled my town trying to land three times, but because of low cloud we couldn’t, and we were eventually diverted to Tamworth, and then bussed up to Armidale – getting in 2.5 hours later than planned. Then I had to pick up my car from my friend’s place, and drive home… I finally got home, to a cold empty house, about midnight – not the most fun part of the trip!

The week since then has been busy with work, and with battling the cold/flu that I picked up somewhere along the way. I have managed to download the photos from the outback trip, although we did so much driving that there aren’t a lot of them. I’ll go through them in the next week or so and put any good ones in a a gallery.

Tomorrow is a public holiday here, and I have proof pages of book 2 to work on, and to get the house a little tidier for my honorary brother and niece who are visiting overnight – I’m looking forward to seeing them. But now it’s late, and I need to get to bed.