Travelling south...

We are now in Rockhampton, halfway down the coast of Queensland, on our way to a southern family Christmas. Yesterday we were on the road for ten hours. It's a big state!!!!!!!!! Be warned, if you're an overseas traveller.
We're driving, rather than flying, because we want to use our car while were in the SE and we'll be away for too long to make car hire an option. We've made this journey many, many times, so we know the ropes. Yesterday, our morning tea stop was Bowen (where much of the movie Australia was filmed). That's Cape Gloucester in the background. They now have big posters boasting about how much Hugh Jackman loved Bowen.For some reason (which I think is peculiar to Aussie country towns) we have big plastic statues of the local product. There are big bananas and big pineapples. In Bowen there's a big mango. Bowen mangoes are truly sensational, possibly the most divine fruit in the world, and we bought a whole bucketful -- that's fifteen mangoes for eight dollars -- and we got to keep the bucket!! (Green ones down the bottom)One of my writers friends from Victoria was recently thrilled that she'd bought mangoes for $1.78 each to make a mango trifle -- (pretty much traditional trifle, but with lemon jelly and slices of mango -- sounds yummy, except it's never become a staple in our household because I have a husband who doesn't like custard and a son who doesn't like jelly, sigh).
Here in Rockhampton, we're in the heart of beautiful cattle country, so there are cow statues everywhere. I'll try to get a shot for you.

to market, to market...

Interesting marketing strategies... have resulted in totally different packaging for the same story. My next book will be released in the UK and North America in March. It's set in Australia's Cape York, in wild, rugged and very distinctive tropical coastline that's described in a fair amount of detail in the book.

In the UK it's called The Cattleman's Adopted Family and it's in a 2 in 1 with Margaret Way's Outback Bachelor (lucky me) and looks like this.

In North America, it's called The Rancher's Adopted Family and looks like this.

My editor loved the setting I described, but obviously marketing has its own way of thinking... I hope American readers won't feel conned.

guinea gossip...

The saga of the guinea fowl continues…
Can’t show photos at the moment as I cleverly left my laptop and its attachments behind in T’ville!! It had to happen one time, but why did it happen when I’m on deadline? Arrgh!
Anyway, to start with – good news. Young Lazarus/Gloria is thriving. After being hand fed the whole time we were in Townsville last week, it’s nearly twice its size and last night spent a night back in the main coop, sleeping inside one of E’s flannelette shirts.
Also, we’ve discovered that Icarus, the young male who kept flying up and hitting his head on the roof, was actually being pecked by the other more dominant male. On further observation, we felt so sorry for him that we decided to let him out and he now lives quite happily outside the pen, although he often calls to the females to follow him.
One female seems keen, I must say.
Today, for the first time, we’ve let all the adults out to explore our block and they’re having a wonderful time, constantly pecking, presumably at insects. Sometimes they’re in pairs, but often the dominant male lures both females to wander with him and chases poor Icarus away, so we’re giving serious thought to the best way to manage Icarus’s romantic interests, and we’re very much hoping that the young keet is Gloria. Alpha males are more trouble than they’re worth.
On the writing front, I’m in the final part of my book, (bless E for letting me use his laptop) and tomorrow I’m having another gathering of NQ romance writers, which should be fun.

twin update...

Last week I minded the twins for two days while their mum had a well earned break. We had fabulous fun. They’re eleven months now, crawling, into everything, vocalising… so we made lots of animal sounds and sang songs and played with balls endlessly. I discovered how hard it is to get down on the floor and then up again quickly. The girls have totally opposite personalities and don’t really look all that alike now, even though they’re supposedly identical. So it’s fascinating to watch them develop into unique little people. But yes, I was a tad weary at the end of two days… not nice to realise I’m not so young any more. Then again, grandmothers aren’t meant to be young, are they? J This is Milla. And here's Sophie. And yes, it's very hot in Townsville now. Hence the lack of clothing.

A new talent...

Would you like to know more about a brand new North Queensland author? Helene Young is a guest today at the Romance Writers of Australia blog. Her debut book sounds fabulous! It'll be released in March and I'm so looking forward to reading it. Go Helene!

Last call... for a great opportunity...

LAST CALL FOR APPLICANTS TO ATTEND PLAYWRIGHTING INTENSIVE PROGRAM
Successful RADF applicant Mark Reed recieved funds to invite NIDA teacherFrancesca Smith to conduct a 5 day playwrighting Intensive at the MagneticIsland Recreation Centre. Thanks to Townsville RADF participants will onlyhave to cover the cost of meals and ferry fares. Date:Tuesday 1st December Sign In at the Recreation Centre after 5pm or early Wednesday morning Workshops run all day from Wednesday 2nd to Sunday 6th. All accommodation and joining fees covered by RADF
Meals: $135 and Ferry $29 return to be coverd by participants
Contact: Mark Reed for registration and payment detailsPho: 4721 5433Mobile:0401 435333 Email:potentvision@yahoo.com.au

the continuing guinea fowl tragedy...

My deadline is fast approaching, so I'm trying to keep away from the Internet, but I knew I should keep you posted.

Sadly, three of our guinea fowl keets succumbed after the horrors of that first cold night. We've since learned that because they're equatorial birds the babies need to be kept very warm. The one surviving chick has been in our house each night and on a warm spot on the veranda each day and he/she (Gloria or Lazarus??) seems to be thriving. We will take him with us when we go back to Townsville. Adult guineas are fine.

We were supposed to be heading off today, but in a burst of getting as much done as possible before we leave, I spent the morning in the garden and ended up being stung by something nasty.

The blessings of country life, huh?

Right now I'm thinking longingly of my nice comfy city apartment. But I'm getting drowsy from antihistamine, so we'll delay out trip south till tomorrow.

Meanwhile I thought you might enjoy a few snaps of Spring on the Tablelands, and sometime soon I will tell you about Tarzali's centenary celebrations.

Our orchids are doing better than ever this year.

The flame trees are glorious.
A lovely splash of bougainvillea.

And the buddleia is out.

naming our babies...

I'm so glad people asked about names for our guinea fowl. I was going to mention straight up that blog visitors may like to help us with names, but I wasn't sure if you'd be shy...
Anyway, before we talk names, I have some sad news.
Last night we had a very cold night and
a) we didn't realise how cold it was. I was shocked to get up and read the thermometer and see it was 11 degrees
b) we didn't realise that guinea fowl really don't like the cold
c) we didn't realise that our mother guinea fowl wasn't interested in sitting on her babies and keeping them warm.
You know where this is going, don't you?
Yes, dear reader, I'm sad to report that when Elliot checked the pen this morning, the babies were in a terrible state -- at death's door. In fact, one of them has since died, which is just awful. Two are quite fit but another isn't well. As you can imagine, they are all inside with us tonight, tucked up in a woolly sweater. Fingers crossed all will be well from now on.
And so to naming...
We have to call one of the adult females Matera... because when we were at the Women's fiction festival in Matera a few years ago, there was a guinea fowl in one of the ancient stone houses near us. It used to sit in the window and call out and we've never forgotten.
Elliot wants to call the baby that almost died but seems to have revived Lazarus.
And he's chosen Icarus for an adult male that keeps flying high and hitting the roof.
But there are four other birds as yet un-named and we're very open to suggestions. There's a female and a male and two babies of as yet uncertain gender. Anyone like to toss a name in the ring?

new additions to the family...

We are now officially country folk with a little flock of guinea fowl. Four adults and four babies (the babies are called keets.)

Elliot has built them a house, with lovely leaf litter on the floor full of worms and insects and they have an automatic grain feeder and an automatic water dispenser, a mirror for them to admire themselves (they adore it!) and perches on which they can roost -- oh, and shade as well as protection from the rain.
We’ll keep them in the pen for three to four weeks, and after that they’ll be able to free range on the block, the plan being that they’ll return to the pen to roost each night. There’s a special high opening and shelf for them to fly back in that keeps them safe from cats etc.
Here they are checking themselves out in the mirror. E read about this trick on the internet. Honestly, they stay there for hours admiring themselves, or trying to work out what the heck these other birds are -- and at least it stops them from fretting about being in the pen while they get used to our place. We already have one egg, but we’re not planning to eat it. I’ve begged that we don’t eat any of the birds either, in case you were wondering. One reason we wanted guinea fowl, apart from the fact that they’re quiet and look cute running around the place in their flocks, is that they’re reputed to be very good at catching and eating ticks and chasing snakes. In other words, they deal with two drawbacks of country life in one blow.
If you’re worried about what will happen to them while we’re doing our city stints, our lovely neighbours will be keeping an eye on them. A big plus of country living. Will keep you posted.

The trip continued...

OK. Carrying on from yesterday's post about travelling north between Townsville and the Tablelands...

Just north of Cardwell, this iconic structure has given me endless fascination. Isn’t it gorgeous? Or am I plain weird? Anyway, it’s an old smokehouse – where pork became bacon and beef became corned… beef, and behind it now is a nice modern white farm house and a banana plantation.
Ahead of us now, the mountains loom even larger as we approach Tully, and we know that our Tablelands are up there, too… somewhere in the clouds. If I remember correctly from long ago geography lessons, it’s thanks to the height of these mountains that Tully has the highest annual rainfall in Australia. The south east trades blow up the coast, warming over tropical waters, then they have to rise to go over the mountains and they cool and condense. It’s called orographic rainfall. There, that’s a little bit of information you may want to forget…
Anyway, we drive on through Tully and towns like El Arish, where soldiers settled after WW1, and named after the battle in the Middle East, and then we come to the turn off where we leave the coast and head for the hills.

For us, the turn off is marked by this Italian house that stands head and shoulders above the surrounding cane fields. We always get a bit excited when we reach this point.
We pass banana plantations that were flattened a few years ago by Cyclone Larry, and for six months the whole of Australia went without bananas, or paid astronomical prices for imports.

And then we keep driving west, moving first into the uplands, which are already greener and cooler, and we pass tea plantations. Doesn’t tea grow neatly? If you double click on this photo, you will see how it grows in neat hedgerows. Mechanical harvesters clip the new growth, helping to keep it neat. Did did you know tea is a relative of the camellia? (Another trivia fact) Australia’s famous pesticide free Nerada tea is grown near here.
Now we watch the car’s external thermometer start to drop as we climb the Palmerston Highway through thick rainforest and past crystal creeks… until we emerge on the Tablelands where it’s invariably misty and green. Here sugar cane and bananas have given way to dairy cows and milk factories… and we truly do feel as if we’ve arrived in another country.

The trip...

I talk a lot about travelling between the city and the country and back again, but I've never described the trip for you, so I thought it was about time I did. I want to show you that in the space of a few hours between Townsville and the Tablelands, we almost feel like we're going to a different country. If we were in the UK, I guess we easily could be.

Townsville is in the dry tropics, so when we head north, we first go through rather a long stretch of rather uninteresting bush. But maybe I find it uninteresting because I grew up in the south where the bush is softer and greener. My son, who was born here, loves the straggly bush around Townvsille.

Depending on the time of day, we sometimes stop at a place about forty-five minutes to the north called Frosty Mango. Here they sell fabulous ice cream made from tropical fruits -- mango (growing on trees to the left), pineapple, banana, soursop, black sapote -- as well as popular favourites like tiramasu and strawberry vanilla. These mango trees and coconut palms grow in the surrounding gardens, as well as a variety of tropical fruit, so it's quite a tourist draw card.

From there we drive on to Ingham, a small sugar-growing town with a large Italian population. Actually, all the North Queensland sugar towns were settled by Italian migrants and the delis are fabulous -- full of divine salamis and homemade pasta and pannetone etc. The cemetery in Ingham is worth a visit because of the rather splendid Italian gravestones -- and, as with all cemeteries, the headstones tell so many stories.

This year's sugar crop has been harvested, and the new cane is only a a few inches high (just looks like grass). By next June it will be well over six feet and topped by pale mauve feathery plumes.

Have I mentioned that crocodiles are a distinct possibility in all waterways in Far North Queensland ? So unfortunately no swimming outside the safe enclosures.

All the way, as we travel north, we have the Great Dividing Range (called Seaview Range here) to our left. These mountains get taller around Ingham and they often remind me of a dragon's spine. Just north of Ingham they tumble down to the coast and offshore they become Hinchinbrook Island. We have to climb over the range and on the crest, we have a fab view of the winding waterways in the Hinchinbrook passage (above). Then we drive down a windy road with rainforest on either side, and on to Cardwell.

Cardwell is right by the sea and a must stop spot! I love it here, sitting on the beach where the Coral Sea (protected by the Great Barrier Reef) laps gently at tangled mangrove roots. You can look out at Hinchinbrook and Gould Islands, watch sailing boats and wonder about the adventures they're having...

This the half way point in our journey. More tomorrow...

books into movies...

This week (in the city) I've watched two movies based on books I've loved -- Mao's Last Dancer written by Li Cunxin, and The Time Traveller's Wife written by Audrey Niffennegger.

As we all know, sometimes movies don't work as well as books, but in both these cases, I think the directors have captured the spirit of the books and then added something more. I loved both movies -- loved the visual details of Li Cunxin's peasant village in Communist China, was blown away by the extraordinary dancing, and cried buckets at the end. This story had a beautiful arc.

I also loved visual details in The Time Traveller's Wife. I mean... Eric Bana gets to run around naked quite a bit, which is a bonus. But a big plus for me in this movie, apart from the story and the acting were the fascinating and atmospheric interiors of the various places where Claire and Henry lived, especially the final house.

I thought the romantic edge to this story was very involving. (Mind you, I was familiar with all the time jumps from reading the book, so I knew to expect this. The movie handled them much better than I thought it might.) And although the ending was different from the book and a tad Hollywoodised, I adored it. Wept oceans. Loved it, loved it, and thought it was an improvement on the book's ending.

But then I would, wouldn't I? If you see it for yourself, you'll know why.

I said it was a day for hats...

Take your pick...

Melbourne Cup sweeps

Tomorrow in Australia we have a horse race which is reputed to stop the nation. It's pretty much true. While the Melbourne Cup is running, people all over the country are glued to their televisions or radios. Many businesses stop work for those few minutes of the race.
And there are parties galore -- and hats!!! Lots of hats. I still have to find mine.
When I was a child, my grandparents always used to visit us in November, and I remember my grandfather running sweeps. We children would put in sixpence from our pocket money and the thrill of having a winning horse was huge.
This year I'm in a cyber sweep with writer mates organized by the fab Bronwyn Jameson, and I've drawn Newport and Alcopop. I had no idea until last night that there's been a lot of excitement about Alcopop. His trainer, Jake Stephens (32, and pictured here) is a South Australian cattleman and restaurateur (how appropriate), and he trains his horses on the beach apparently. I've only been quickly gathering info, but it seems he missed out on entering Alcopop in the Caufield Cup (the precursor to Melbourne), because he forgot to pay one of the registration fees, but the horse powered home in another race that earned him a place in the big race, and now he's one of the favourites. In another unconventional touch, Bron tells me he's using an unknown jockey rather than one of the big city names.

I haven't found out anything about Newport yet, but I mustn't neglect him. If you have a horse in a sweep, or if you're placing bets, good luck!!! And don't forget to find a hat!

life balance...

One of the things I miss most when I'm away from the city (apart from family) is our cinema group. But tonight we're going to try a country style cinema club, with the illustrious title -- The Stratvell Film Society. It involves an hour's drive down the mountain to South Johnstone, dinner first at one of our favourite little cafes, Off The Rails, and then a viewing of the film Elegy with Ben Kingsley and Penelope Cruz in a hall two doors down from the pub.

It's sure to be a different experience from the Warrina cinema in Townsville with its audience drawn predominantly from James Cook University lecturers.

I'm looking forward to it. Will report back.

Oh, and I had a good writing day today. Got my word count done before breakfast. Love it when that happens. Have had a lovely morning doing housework while listening to the radio. I feel almost normal. Heaven forbid.

This week I'm reading...

Loves Me, Loves Me Not...

It's a fabulous selection of short stories written by members of the UK's Romantic Novelists' Association.

I'm about half way through (reading religiously from front to back), having a lovely time rewarding myself with another story here and there during the day. Even though these stories all have a romantic theme, they are wonderfully varied. I've read romantic comedies, fantasy, a ghost story, an emotionally challenging tale, a regency romp. Lots of interest and inspiration and fun!

There are big names like Joanna Trollope and Katie Fforde, and familiar favourites like Liz Fielding, Sophie Weston and Nicola Cornick , but I'm also enjoying discovering authors who are new to me. I'm looking forward to checking out their websites and learning more about their books. I certainly recommend this book.

a quiet week in the country....

I've had my head down writing, so really there hasn't been a lot to tell you. It's rained, however, and it's amazing how this place greens up after a couple of inches.

We poked our heads in at the Yungaburra Folk festival yesterday. Saw (as in glimpsed on the way past) a very scary looking tarot reader. No one at her table. I wasn't surprised. Bought more plants (of course) and came home and made a new garden beside the shed.

Our gardens are being attacked by bandicoots, however. In the mornings, we find new plants buried under upturned soil and deep cone shaped holes where they've pushed their snout in to hunt for beetles.

And we've been visited by a yellow footed scrub fowl. He/she usually stays deep in the rainforest, but we think the lack of rain forced her out to forage further afield for food. E tried to take a photo (this blurry shot), but was chased away by a very bolshie bush turkey, another of our regular visitors. In the mornings a lovely blue crane arrives to work over the dew drenched grass, but he's timid and flies away at the slightest movement from us.

We had a friend to dinner last night and I taught myself how to make caramelised onions -- yum! I used this recipe.

Suffering for our art...

Sometimes, we writers back away from writing difficult scenes. We don’t mean to. We know that good dramatic storytelling involves high stakes conflict, and yet, when we come to write certain scenes, we still back away. I’ve seen it in other writers' work, and thought oh, if only she’d taken us into that moment. I wanted to be there…
Sometimes it just seems too hard. We flinch from the task, because it feels like it’s happening to us, and we don’t want to put ourselves through the pain. But we should.
Yesterday, I made the same mistake. It’s so easy… and I wrote myself into a corner. At the end of the day I was totally stuck. I went outside and cut off dead tree fern fronds (It hasn’t rained here for four months and the whole district is brown and sad, although we’ve now had good rain overnight – yay!). I decided that I needed to ask E how he would behave in the same situation I’d put my hero in.
While he cooked divine salt and pepper prawns (shrimp) using freshly ground Szechwan pepper, (the aroma of it being ground with a mortar and pestle is sensational) I chopped vegies for stir-fry and pitched my problem.
As part of my lead in, I explained that my heroine has just told my hero something shocking, something that makes him very angry and hurts him deeply.
And what had I done next? I'd sent the hero off on a little walk to get his head around it and to calm down.
‘Why did you do that?’ Elliot asked.
‘He needed space,’ I said. ‘Head space. Emotional space. A chance to let all his feelings out and calm down.’
‘Why? Why would he do that on his own?’
Because he’s a gentleman? ‘I don’t know. I just wrote it that way.’
‘But wouldn’t it have been better if he’d let out his feelings in front of the heroine?’
Duh.

Cue bells ringing in my head.
Of course, he was right.
I couldn’t believe I’d made that mistake. No wonder I’d written myself into a corner, and didn’t know where to go next. Of course they have to have bitter and angry words and tension, and of course they don't go off and have dinner together and have nice chats afterwards. They suffer!!!!!
Just thought I’d pass it on, in case you’ve done something similar recently, or are about to…

Eleni-fest...

I'm a bit late telling you about this, because I had a dentist appointment this morning, followed by a flight up to Cairns, then a drive up the mountains to Tarzali, phew! But there's an interview with me and a chance to win free books (my books) at Eleni-fest today.

Do check out Eleni-fest, as there are all sorts of fab interviews and lots of interesting discussions about romance. On top of that, Eleni is running the festival in response to winning a scholarship for the disabled to our recent romance writers conference.

all in the family...

I'm really looking forward to ABC TV tonight at half past eight, because they're showing a new version of The Thirty-Nine Steps with hero, Richard Hannay.

Family legend has it that John Buchan, who wrote the original story, (and what a cracking good story it was) was a good friend of Elliot's ancestors and named his character as a tribute. We're sticking to that. We rather like the idea. So here's to cousin Dick!

I've seen many movie length versions of this tale. Let's hope tonight's is a good one.