Meet Me in Venice

I'm really excited to be sharing the beautiful front cover and the back cover blurb, plus an excerpt from my new book Meet Me in Venice (to be released on August 6th and currently available for pre-order)

How could you live such an ordinary, respectable life 

and then leave me with such a mystery?

A year after her husband Leo’s death, widow Daisy invites her three adult children to join her for a holiday in beautiful Venice. It will be wonderful, her chicks under one roof again in their father’s birthplace. But is it possible to recapture the past?

Marc’s marriage is in jeopardy, but for his mother’s sake, he convinces his wife to keep up appearances. Anna’s trying to hide the truth about the dismal state of her London acting career; and Ellie, enjoying a gap year and uncertain about her future choices, wants to avoid family pressure to conform.

Despite the magic of Venice, family ties are tested to the limit, especially when a shocking secret from Leo’s past is revealed. Now everything they value about love, family, commitment and trust must be re-examined.

How can one family holiday require so much courage? Will Daisy’s sentimental journey make or break them?

From multi-award-winning author Barbara Hannay comes a moving and heartfelt family drama about difficult choices and finding happiness in the most unexpected places. 

Check out the excerpt...

Daisy Benetto blurted out her big idea before it was quite ready.
For days, the plan had circled harmlessly in the privacy of her
own thoughts, safe yet cheering, a useful distraction as she’d bravely,
finally, begun to sort through Leo’s things. Such a difficult process
that had been, deciding what should go to Vinnies, or into a box in
the garage, and what needed to be binned.
Each sweater, shirt or jacket had been laden with memories.
Daisy could picture Leo at a party, sending her a covert smile, his
eyes bright with secret amusement over some crass remark a slightly
sozzled friend had made. She saw him dressing for a night at the
theatre, lifting his jaw, just so, as he adjusted the knot on his tie. Leo,
coming through the front door, sunburnt but satisfied after coaching
their son’s soccer team.
The images of her husband, so alive and well, had been too
painful, and Daisy had been forced to drag her thoughts elsewhere.
Anywhere. Cautiously, she’d toyed with her bright, shiny idea,
allowing herself to imagine how each of her children would react.
The proposal was still in its infancy, of course. Daisy hadn’t made
any proper plans.
She was confident, though, that Marc in America, in Silicon
Valley, would welcome the chance to visit his father’s birthplace.
Marc’s only problem might be taking time off from his very important
IT work. His wife, Bronte, wasn’t too enamoured of life in
Palo Alto, though, so she would no doubt embrace a European
getaway.
Daisy’s middle child, Anna, was bound to love the idea too,
but she would also have to juggle time off between her acting gigs
in London.
At least, taking time off shouldn’t be a problem for Ellie. Daisy’s
youngest was pretty much at a loose end, enjoying a gap year
before starting uni, working in cafés at night and surfing or sleeping
most days.
As for Daisy herself, after long months of feeling as if she’d
fallen through the cracks in life with no one to catch her, this lovely
new scheme helped her to feel ever so slightly more normal. In time
she hoped to be one of those very capable widows she admired in
books. Perhaps planning this holiday could be the first step. And it
would bring her family together again.
For a few precious weeks, the Benetto kids would be under one
roof, laughing, joking, teasing . . . like the old days.
Just the same, Daisy had no intention of mentioning this plan
when she went to lunch with her two best friends. She had tried to
argue that turning fifty-seven wasn’t a milestone worthy of fuss, but
they wouldn’t listen to her protests.
Just a small lunch, Daisy. Just the three of us. You know we
never miss each other’s birthdays.
This was true. Daisy, Freya and Jo had been celebrating each
other’s birthdays now for more than twenty years, ever since they’d
first met in a beachside yoga class and, of course, Daisy appreciated
that her friends truly cared about her happiness. In the end, the day
turned out to be spectacularly beautiful.
The trio dined on a sunny terrace overlooking the Noosa River
where, after a long, hot and gruelling summer, the first hint of
autumn had arrived overnight, creeping into Queensland from the
south. Despite the pleasantly warm sunshine, Daisy could sense
the nip of a cool change in the crisp, dry air. And when she looked
out at the blue and cloudless sky, at the familiar, sleepy river, dotted
with small boats and lined with stately, white-trunked gumtrees, she
felt her shoulders relax.
She took a sip of sparkling wine and, without warning, the
words she hadn’t planned to utter just tumbled out. ‘I’m thinking
about shouting my kids a trip to Italy.’
Freya and Jo stared at her, clearly too surprised, or possibly even
too stunned, to speak.
Panic flared in Daisy’s chest. Why on earth had she spluttered
her crazy scheme out loud? She looked at her friends. Both, like her,
in their late fifties, middle-class, stylishly dressed – Freya in dark
green with a multi-coloured scarf thrown just so, and Jo in smart,
smoky grey, with a touch of gold at her ears and throat.
These well-meaning, sensible women would almost certainly try
to talk her out of her plan, telling her it was too expensive, or too
soon, or even too dangerous to try to hang on to her adult children
after they’d flown the nest.
The problem was that even Daisy’s closest friends could not
really understand how lonely and scared she’d been these past
months. They couldn’t imagine the terror of having the future
she and Leo had so carefully planned – or rather, the future that
Leo had planned and Daisy had happily agreed to – suddenly
disappear.
Neither Freya nor Jo could be expected to know what it was like
to wake in the middle of the night and to reach out, expecting to
touch a warm shoulder, or to rub your foot against your husband’s
ankle, and to find a cold, empty space beside you. They couldn't
imagine the sickening slam of anguish that came every time you
remembered that space would always be empty.
Daisy had lost her husband and her dreams. She couldn’t bear to
lose her children as well.
Marc and Anna had come home for the funeral, of course,
but they’d been as dazed and shocked as Daisy was. And in no time
they’d left again, flying back to their important jobs, to their new
and exciting lives on the other side of the world. Meanwhile Ellie, to
Daisy’s huge surprise, had hunkered down to study especially hard
for her final Year 12 exams.
The intense loneliness that followed had nearly consumed Daisy.
On a scale of one to ten, she would have put her happiness quotient
at sub-zero. But just lately, this new holiday plan had given her such
a lift, a glimmer of hope.
That was hardly an excuse for giving voice to her half-baked
idea now, though, on her birthday, before it was anywhere near
properly planned. If she’d learned anything from her dear Leo, it
was the importance of looking at a decision from every angle and
carefully calculating the pros and cons before taking any kind of
first step. Leo had always been so clever and steady and reliable.
Possibly, the only careless, unplanned act the poor man had ever
committed was to drop dead of a heart attack six weeks before
he was due to retire.
Daisy stamped down on that gut-wrenching reminder before it
set her crying again. The last thing she needed today was another
bout of tears. She’d wept so much in the past twelve months she’d
probably caused permanent damage to her tear ducts.
Now, here she was instead, all smiles and drinking champagne.
And spilling the beans on this crazy scheme, when she hadn’t even
spoken to her accountant to make sure she could cash in those spare
shares of Leo’s.
‘It’s just a crazy, silly thought,’ she hastily amended, absorbing
her friends’ surprised expressions and charging straight into damage
control. ‘I seem to be having all sorts of weird ideas lately.’
Freya, however, was shaking her head, making her hairdresser enhanced
auburn curls bounce. ‘No, Daisy, I think it’s a fabulous
idea.’ After a beat, Freya added, ‘If you can afford to be so generous.’
But then, almost immediately, she gave a cheeky grin. ‘Actually,
no, I take that back. It’s still a fabulous idea even if you can’t
afford it.’
‘And it’s probably just what you need,’ added Jo, although she
spoke more carefully. Then again, Jo was always careful, just as Leo
had been.
Daisy looked from one friend to the other. ‘I was sure you’d both
tell me I was being ridiculous.’
‘Oh, darling,’ laughed Freya. ‘Even if your scheme was totally
harebrained, it’s put a sparkle back in your lovely blue eyes and that
has to be a good thing.’
‘Oh.’ Daisy couldn’t help smiling at Freya’s warmth and
enthusiasm, even though harebrained wasn’t exactly reassuring.

Meet Me in Venice © Barbara Hannay Penguin Random House August 2019

Pre Order here:
Amazon
Booktopia
Book Depository
Angus & Robertson
QBD
Kobo
Apple Books

So much news...

Greetings from the Misty Mountains...

I have quite a bit of news to share, but first let me show you the lovely new cover from Penguin for Meet Me in Venice. Isn't it fab? I had a wonderful time telling the story of the Benetto family and taking them into the magical setting of Venice.

                                               

Their tale is already available for pre order from all the usual outlets and I'm confident this is one story of mine you won't want to miss. I'll be adding the blurb and an excerpt to my website very soon.I also have exciting giveaways lined up for the lead in to this book's release in August, including a beautiful handmade bracelet of Murano glass, so don't forget to read my future emails to find out how you can win!

But before Meet Me in Venice hits the book stores, I have a new rural romance about to be released. This is Jenna's story, part of the Outback Brides of Wirralong.

                              
This was another cover that made me smile as soon as I saw it. That sassy grin is perfect for Jenna, my  smart city lawyer who gets more than she bargained for when she meets sheep farmer, Sam Twist.

This story is published by Tule, a digital first company, and it  will be released as an ebook on May 8th and available from all the usual outlets. Of course, you can order it now. (In fact,all these covers will take you to amazon if you click on them.)  I'll also be selling signed print copies of Jenna, so if you'd like to order one, would you let me know? I'll be getting in a supply to post to you, my most important readers.

Here's the blurb for Jenna's story.

Can she keep a safe distance?Jenna Matthews is a city girl, no question. Despite a childhood spent in the Outback, she's committed to her fast-paced life and the competitive world of corporate law. When her best friend asks her to be bridesmaid, Jenna finds herself in Wirralong and wildly attracted to the best man. A fling? Why not?

Dangerously sexy Sam Twist runs his vast family sheep property and is as keen as Jenna to keep their relationship at fling status. Then the authorities turn up on his door step and Jenna jumps in to help despite Sam’s protests.

She soon learns that after years of drought, there are others in the district who need her skills. Her dilemma? Spending too much time around Sam is perilous. He could rob a girl of her heart.

Jenna's story is Book 3 in this wonderful series.  You'll probably want to collect them all.

                  

But as they say in those dreadful TV ads, wait, there's more...
Tomorrow, April 16th, The Country Wedding  will be back in book stores with a lovely new cover and in a slightly smaller format. So, if you missed this story in 2017, this is your chance to catch up. It's a standalone novel, but it follows The Grazier's Wife and revisits some of those characters, like Seth Drummond and Alice.

                            

Also, in May, The Cattleman's Journey will be selling in Post offices for a special low price. This is a collection of three of my old favourites - The Cattleman's Special Delivery, Princess in the Outback and The Parisian Proposition.


                             

So, I've bombarded you somewhat, but I had to share the news of so many book events. I'll be heading off on holidays soon (ish) and plan to come back re-charged and ready to dive into my next writing adventure.

So until you hear from me again...
Happy reading,
Barb xx

A deleted scene from The Summer of Secrets...

Sometimes, when I'm finding my way into a new novel, I take a turn down a path that I later abandon. In The Summer of Secrets, I knew I had a heroine (Chloe Brown) with a loudly ticking biological clock and when her boyfriend tells her emphatically that he never wants children, she's left very much on her own.
Originally, I thought Chloe would then embark on an IVF program as a single mother and arrive in Burralea pregnant but determined. If you read the book, you will know this isn't quite the way things work out. But I thought you might still be interested in this scene telling how things might have been. I Loved this scene when I first wrote it...

So here's what I deleted...

When Chloe woke, she was in a smooth white bed with a sheet tucked tightly over her. She'd been moved to a different room in the clinic and the handsome Indian Dr Singh had vanished. Now, a lone nurse sat at a stainless steel bench in the corner of the room, conscientiously reading some kind of manual.

Chloe drew a deep breath. She'd been on an emotional roller-coaster over the past six months since she and Jason had gone their separate ways, and her highs and lows had escalated since she'd embarked on a mission to achieve single motherhood.

She'd worried about having enough money for IVF, of course, but she'd squirreled away a tidy little sum while she was living with Jason, in the hope of one day buying their own home. And she had a good steady job at as a journalist at Girl Talk magazine, with proviso for maternity leave. So she'd decided that if she lived modestly, she and her baby should be fine.

The IVF process had begun with a series of interviews and assessments and then Chloe had been sent home with a cooler bag of medication and instructions to inject herself daily – to stimulate her egg production. Which had posed a major challenge as Chloe was dead scared of needles and no longer had a partner to help her.

This had also been her reality check, an important test of her motivation. In the months since she and Jason had split – a very tidy process on the surface with a great deal of stormy pain underneath – Chloe's need for a baby of her own had become her entire focus. And if she wanted a baby, she had no choice but to get used to doing all manner of things without help.

So she'd practised by sticking needles into oranges and then, well, she'd just got on with it.

Today – egg retrieval day – was the vital next step.

Ever so slightly phobic about medical procedures, especially those that involved an entire theatre of medical staff staring at her lady parts, Chloe had been inordinately grateful for general anaesthetic while her ovaries were probed. As she'd gone under, her last thought had been one of hope.

Now it was over. Her precious eggs had been harvested and she was supposed to check the back of her hand.

The lovely Dr Singh, a surprisingly young man with kindly, liquid dark Indian eyes, had understood the huge importance of this moment and he'd promised to write down the number of eggs on the back of Chloe's hand.

Oh, God.

Who would have thought that checking her hand could be as nerve-wracking as looking up final exam results? Chloe closed her eyes and made a quick wish for plenty of eggs. So much was riding on this.

A chill flashed over her skin as she slid her hand from beneath the firmly tucked bed sheet. Just as Dr Singh had promised, the number was written in blue biro.

Four.

Chloe blinked. Only four?

Disappointment exploded hotly in her chest. In her face. The girls on the internet IVF chat forum had talked of much higher numbers. Fourteen or even twenty eggs. Certainly more than ten. Chloe couldn't remember anyone who'd had a number as low as four.

Her throat tightened and burned. Tears threatened. Last night she'd joked about this moment with her friend Josie. 'Just my luck they'll harvest thirteen eggs from me.'

Not that Chloe was actually superstitious about the number thirteen, but last night that trivial possibility had seemed the worst that might happen. It had never occurred to her to worry about a number as low as four. She was fit and healthy and the women in her family all seemed to fall pregnant with ridiculous ease.

But they'd been much younger than thirty-seven when they'd started their families, she reminded herself now.

Four. She gave a shudder of deep despair and felt terribly alone. Even the nurse had disappeared.

She wished she'd accepted Josie's offer to come with her to the clinic, but she'd been naively optimistic and confident. This was only the start of her IVF adventure and everything would be fine.

Now, though, the journey ahead felt so much more precarious. Her four little eggs had yet to be assessed for quality and then placed under a high powered microscope for fertilisation with donor sperm. Chloe had chosen to use de-identified sperm. She'd wasted seven plus years with a man she'd deemed perfect, and now her baby's father would be happily anonymous. No pressure. No disappointments.

Once the embryos were fertilised, however, they would have to be tested yet again – fingers crossed that at least one or two would be viable – and finally, if she was lucky, perhaps very lucky, a little miracle would be transferred back into her womb.

Not for the first time, Chloe wondered if she shouldn't have been a little more adventurous with unprotected sex.

As she stared at the blue number on her hand, she considered texting Josie, the only person she'd been prepared to confide in about this venture. She felt a bit guilty about her secrecy. She would have liked to have told her family, but her mum was still mad at her for breaking up with Jason.

'For heaven's sake, Chloe, how can you break up with him after all this time? You've left it too late to be choosy about men. Any half decent fellow will be taken by now.'

As for Chloe's older sisters, she could never seem to find the right moment to talk. Rachel and Lisa were always so incredibly busy running their clever little children to an endless round of activities.

No one at Girl Talk magazine knew about this either. Chloe hadn't wanted to risk breathing a word about it in the office and she'd had to fudge the truth just to wangle today's leave.

If her editor caught a whiff of a single mum IVF pregnancy, she would have hassled Chloe to record the whole experience in a serialised diary format for the magazine. Last year she'd bullied another journalist, poor Jane Starling, into reporting her stomach stapling ordeal, for heaven's sake.

No, thank you.

Chloe might have given in to tears of self pity, but the nurse reappeared, bustling through the doorway with a cup of tea in one hand and a plate of sandwiches in the other. She had a round, freckled face and short, flame coloured hair and her name badge said Hazel Bird.

'Hello there. I'm Hazel,' she announced with a mega-bright smile. 'How are you feeling?'

'A bit disappointed actually.' Chloe supposed Hazel already knew about her dismal egg count, but she held up her hand anyway, twisting it to show the number. 'That's not enough, is it?'

Hazel frowned. 'How old are you?'

Perhaps Chloe was super-sensitive, but the question felt brutally matter-of-fact. 'Thirty-seven.'

This brought a non-committal shrug. 'In our program, women under thirty-eight can have acceptable live birth rates with only three to six eggs.'

'Oh.' So there was still a statistical chance.

'Over six is better of course, but it's important to stay positive.'

Hazel's words were meant to be hopeful, but Chloe was sure she heard doubt in her voice. 'Right,' she said. 'Thanks.'

'Now, enjoy this cuppa and the sandwiches.' Hazel was brisk again, like a nanny jollying a sulky child. 'And then you should be right to go home.'

Home.

These days Chloe's home was a one bedroom flat in Glebe with a small study nook that she planned to turn into a miniature nursery. Not that she would dream of buying any nursery furniture until she knew there was an actual baby on the way. She didn't want to tempt fate.

She was happy enough in this new place. It was only a five minute bus ride from the Girl Talk office and on Saturday mornings she could go to the flea markets and stroll past the vintage clothing stalls, while fantasising about the interesting maternity outfits she might buy in the months ahead. Some weekends she had coffee at the café in Blackwattle Bay Park with its views to Anzac Bridge and she allowed herself to dream fanciful thoughts about bringing her baby here to this park in a pram, or later, when her little one was older, going for walks down to the water's edge. Perhaps there'd be ducks to feed.

Hazel asked abruptly, 'Is someone coming to drive you home?'

Chloe shook her head. 'It's OK. I'll get a taxi.'

Book tours and special events...

It's not long now till July 30th when The Summer of Secrets will be officially released. This will also mark something of a whirlwind time for moi with a book tour in South East Queensland along with fab fellow Penguin authors, Helene Young and Christine Wells, as well as events at the Cairns Tropical Writers Festival and at Mary Who? Bookshop in Townsville.

So, here are all the details below and if there's a chance you can make it to any of these, I'd LOVE to say g'day, sign and book, have a chat over a cuppa or a glass...

So first, here are the details of the Love Between the Pages book tour...

• Chermside Library with Dymocks Chermside, Monday 30 July, 6pm
• Indooroopilly Library with Dymocks Indooroopilly, Tuesday 31 July, 10.30am
• Carindale Library with Dymocks Carindale, Tuesday 31 July, 6pm
• Victoria Point Library with Dymocks Carindale, Wednesday 1 August, 2pm
• North Lakes Library with Dymocks North Lakes, Wednesday 1 August, 6.30pm
• Toowoomba City Library with Dymocks Toowoomba, Thursday 2 August, 12pm

Then on August 7th, Helene and I will be holding a special event at the fabulous independent bookstore, Mary Who? in Townsville. And, of course, you are invited. Just don't forget to RSVP.

And on August 10th, Helene and I will also be the Cairns Tropical Writers Festival with a special event at the Book Fair at 2 pm. I hope to bring you more details about that soon.

Grab a bargain...

Over the next few weeks, before the release of my new novel The Summer of Secrets, you'll find some great reductions on books from my backlist.  It often bothers me that our ebooks are quite expensive, so I'm rather thrilled about this. Why not take advantage?

To make things easier for you, here are the ebooks currently reduced to $3.99 and the links.

amazon
iBooks
Kobo
Google Play

amazon
iBooks
Kobo
Google Play

amazon
iBooks
Kobo
Google Play

A giveaway

Winter has arrived all over Australia and that seems the perfect reason to give away an advanced reading copy of The Summer of Secrets.

I'm excited to be sharing this story with you. This is what my publishers had to say about it:

 'Penguin Random House is thrilled to publish the latest gripping tale by bestselling author Barbara Hannay. The Summer of Secrets is Barbara's most enchanting saga to date. Dealing with themes of love, loss, buried secrets and courage, Hannay captures the essence of what it means to be human in this riveting story.'

To be in the draw, you can leave a comment here on the blog, or on my Facebook author page.  Good luck!!

Ready for pre-order

I'm pleased to report that the ebook versions of The Summer of Secrets are now $12.99.

I've been waiting for the price to drop (from its previous point of $16.99) before providing all the links.
But now, here they are:

amazon
iBooks
Kobo
Google Play books

I'm excited to be sharing this new story from Burralea with you. As always, I thoroughly enjoyed writing this book and there's one character in there who kinda stole my heart. :) Watch out for more news in the coming weeks...

Starting a new book...

Last week, I had a week away from my computer. Mr H and I travelled south to Noosa where we were joined by family members, including little people, which was just lovely and so important to us.

Noosa has always been an important holiday spot in my family, as my parents had their honeymoon there, many moons ago.

The honeymoon was just nine months before I was born, actually, and just getting to Noosa was quite an adventure for them, catching a train from Sydney to Brisbane and then continuing north to the very top of the Sunshine Coast. 

Noosa was, of course, a very different place in those days. They stayed at the Laguna Hotel and Mum has told me there were no doors on the hotel rooms, which opened onto a verandah.

Despite this daunting prospect, the natural beauties of Noosa must have been even more stunning then than they are now and after my parents settled in Brisbane, we returned, as a family, to Noosa, or other parts of the Sunshine Coast for many happy holidays. 

When Dad retired, he and Mum bought 3 weeks timeshare there and now I am the lucky owner of one of those weeks, which is why we go back regularly.

By coincidence, two of my writer mates were also on the Sunny Coast last week and we met up at the Spirit House for amazing, amazing Thai food in the most gorgeous semi-tropical garden setting. (I think Thai might be my favourite exotic cuisine) My friend Marion Lennox has taken some of my favourite photos of my husband and me and she provided us with another nice one this time, bless her.

To cap the week off, my daughter Emma, who lives in Brisbane, put on a lovely Mother's Day brunch for her mother-in-law and me. So yummy and elegant, with eggs benedict and croissants and blini with cream cheese and smoked salmon. And cake and champagne! Very special.

I felt very spoiled and came home refreshed and ready to dive into writing a new book. Unlike my last few books, which have all been set up here on the Atherton Tablelands, the characters in my new book are friends in their late fifties who live on the Sunshine Coast, so it all feels a bit strange and different at the moment, even though it's an area that I'm very familiar with. But it's good to push my boundaries and the stories involving these characters will certainly spread farther afield (quite a long way, actually). :)

Perhaps I'll tell you more as the story warms up. In the meantime, I'm getting ready for quite a busy time launching The Summer of Secrets. I'll be back here soon with extracts and deleted scenes, with the schedule of libraries I'll be visiting with Helene Young and Christine Wells, and a chance to win an early copy!

So keep an eye out for future blogs.

Love weddings? Here are two specially reduced stories for you...

Wedding fever anyone? I've just been notified about two special reductions just in time to make the most of the current Royal Wedding excitement. (I must admit I can't wait to watch the wonderful spectacle.)

So to help you feel in a wedding-y mood...

Bridesmaid Says: 'I Do' is on sale at the reduced price of $1.99 till May 31st...

Here's the back cover blurb:

How to be the Perfect Bridesmaid:

a) Smile and pretend to love your horrible dress.
b) Be patient as your best friend turns into Bridezilla.
c) Do not fall for the groom!

Thrilled to be Bella's bridesmaid, Zoe throws herself into her duties. But meeting the groom himself, stop–and–stare–sexy Kent Rigby, ruins everything...

What happens when you find the man of your dreams and he belongs to someone else?

You can find Zoe and Kent's story via these links:

amazon; Kobo; Google play; iBooks

Also on sale till May 31st is The Prince's Convenient Proposal...

To secure his country's future, reformed playboy Prince Rafael of Montaigne needs a wife. A convenient marriage seems the ideal solution…until his fiancée disappears and Rafe must ask her identical twin sister, Charlie Morisset, to become his stand–in bride–to–be.

Down–to–earth Charlie accepts Rafe's convenient proposal – in exchange for the funds to save her baby's sister's life. Being swept in to a crazy Royal whirlwind seems a small price to pay…until she's finds herself falling for Rafe. A prince she knows she will have to walk away from…

Find Charlie and Rafe's story at these links...

amazon; Kobo; iBooks, Google Play

The more exotic research...

Last week I wrote about researching in the outback for my books, but I've been lucky enough travel further afield and to incorporate some of those settings into the single title books I've written for Penguin Australia.

This became especially helpful when I began writing dual timeline novels that incorporated a historical thread from WW2 alongside a contemporary story in an Australian rural setting.

I have been fascinated by Cornwall ever since we visited there in 1998, but also through reading Rosamunde Pilcher's novels, especially The Shell Seekers, and Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca (both of which I read long before Poldark hit the screens and wowed us all). So I was very happy to revisit this gorgeous part of the UK.

In my book The Secret Years, my heroine Lucy travels to Cornwall to find out more about her family and discovers a surprisingly aristocratic link. As we stayed in the grounds of a grand old house, I had plenty of inspiration.

Apart from the obvious beauty of the UK and Europe, I think I'm also fascinated by the huge differences between North Queensland, where I live, and these northern hemisphere "old worlds". It's not just the stately old homes and leafless trees (the whole seasonal shift that we almost skip completely here in the tropics) that enchant me, but also the very visible evidence of history.

In The Secret Years, a very romantic scene occurs in a boatshed very like this one here, and of course that magical Cornwall coastline gets a mention.

Also on that same trip, I spent  two wonderful weeks in Spain, primarily in San Sebastian, a city we'd also fallen in love with on a much earlier trip. This time we returned with friends, which always makes a holiday even more fun. The men on the trip were foodies, wanting to know all about making Iberian hams and about all kinds of smoking - that's smoking in cooking.( And, of course, they had to experiment with their own ham making when we got home, complete with Spanish caps.)

I was happy enough to share their eating adventures, of course, and to visit Spanish farms in the Basque country that specialised in making sheep's cheese or in raising pigs that graze in orchards filled with fallen chestnuts. But while these visits were very interesting, I also loved just strolling on the promenade - you can walk from one end of this beautiful La Concha Bay to the other, and, of course, the residents make the most of this beautiful walkway.

I decided that the Spanish must have terrible TV, because everyone seems to be out in the evenings, strolling in the moonlight, chatting on street corners, gathering in pintxos bars for delicious snacks (Basque version of tapas),  enjoying music (Spanish guitars, naturally)... It was especially great to see the elderly being included in these outings, either walking arm in arm with a younger family member, or being pushed in a wheelchair.

And I loved exploring the narrow streets, the old churches and markets where I could indulge in loads of people watching.

These experiences found their way into early chapters in The Grazier's Wife, but I didn't make it to Singapore to research the historical strand in that book. I had to rely on books and the internet to write about Kitty's time as a nurse in Singapore during WW2, but it's amazing how helpful these wonderful resources can be.

When it came time to write The Country Wedding, I wasn't planning to visit Shanghai where Lily and Rose are caught up in the turmoil of the late 1930s. I thought I'd manage once again with conventional research. I read Kazuo Ishiguro's When We Were Orphans which is set in Shanghai and I scoured the internet looking for just the right history books. I even had a secondhand dealer from a local bookshop trying to help me to track down Peking Sun, Shanghai Moon, a memoir by .Diana Hutchins Angulo

And then my husband developed a notion that I really should visit Shanghai. Just a quick trip. While I kept my head down on my book, he did all the negotiating with a travel agent and before I knew it, we were heading for China and what a wonderful experience it was.

 Shanghai is probably China's most westernised city. but it's also a city of huge contrasts . This was the view from our hotel across the Huangpu River to the incredibly impressive modern skyscrapers, and yet, we only had to walk around the corner and we were plunged into old Shanghai. (You can still see those skyscrapers in the background.)

Here, streets are still swept with straw brooms and the footpaths are crowded with stalls, and cooking paraphernalia and washing hangs from windows on poles. Busy, busy, busy, but clean and colourful and endlessly fascinating. Needless to say, the museum in Shanghai is incredible and too amazing to do justice to here.

We  also lined up a tour of The French Concession, as I knew this was the area where most of the Europeans lived in the 1920s and 30s and most definitely where my character Lily's parents would have lived. In those pre war years, Shanghai was incredibly exciting. (By the way, the Chinese refer to the 1939-45 war as The War with Japan. My guide hadn't heard of WW2 and had no idea that Australia or PNG had ever been involved.) 

Anyway, back then, Shanghai attracted artists writers and musicians from all over the world and was often referred to as the Paris of the East. Jews and White Russians were also flooding into Shanghai to escape the Fascists and Bolsheviks in Europe. Here are pics from the French Concession and you can see that it is very different yet again.

 

Our guide was excellent - knowledgeable, energetic and enthusiastic and very happy (make that excited) to be helping an author.  Under her guidance, we had some excellent street food (dumplings) and she also took us to a coffee shop (unusual in China) that also housed a fabulous collection of secondhand books. And it was there that I found - !! 

Yep, I was ecstatic. The perfect discovery to round off an incredible trip.

I'm afraid I didn't travel far afield to research my new book The Summer of Secrets, but there was still plenty I needed to discover to round out the historical background for my character, Izzie. I'll come back later to tell you all about her.

In the meantime, happy reading!

Researching my settings...

Wherever possible, I try to set my books in places I've visited. I'm not a country girl born and bred, so, although for a long time, my stories have been mostly set on Queensland cattle properties, the inspiration has come from visiting these places, rather than living there. However, I suspect a love of the bush and the countryside is in my DNA. Most of my ancestors in the UK worked in farms, one way or another, as crofters or servants or ploughmen or general labourers. Yes, I come from good peasant stock. And my parents moved from an inner Brisbane suburb to rural acreage for their retirement years.
As well, a memorable experience occurred when I was sixteen and I visited my cousin's sheep station at Tooraweenah in NSW.

What an adventure that was, riding horses up into the hills with my sister, feeding baby lambs with formula in bottles... I guess it was my first true adventure away from our parents, which no doubt added to the impact.

Then later, with my husband and our kids, I had many happy holidays camping at Burdekin Downs (a cattle property near Charters Towers) and canoeing on the mighty Burdekin River. The homestead there was huge and sprawling with beautiful gardens rolling down to the river, and has inspired most of the homesteads in my books. My husband and I also attended a ball there, held in the grounds. The guests camped in tents and emerged in their finery at dusk. I remember I made a special red silk dress for the occasion.  A wooden platform was set up for dancing and the band rolled their car when they were driving the rough track in, so that one of the singers sang that night with his arm in a sling.

I recalled that ball for scenes in Outback Baby, one of my earliest M&Bs, and then later in Moonlight Plains. More recently, when I was writing Home Before Sundown, I visited the beautiful and fascinating Cobbold Gorge and the station owner was very happy to answer all my research questions.

Another valuable research experience was visiting my husband's cousin and her family at their property, Clissold, near Roma. While here, I also visited the Roma sales yards and watched, with fascination, as the cattle were sold at auction (yes, with all that noise and men in akubras leaning over pens of cattle). Later, at dusk, the new steers were shipped to the property and the next day, I "helped" in the stockyards (as in worked the gates) while the cattle were ear-tagged and vaccinated and branded. Variations of this experience have found their way into several of my books, including A Parisian Proposition, which, despite its title, is mostly set in the outback and has reappeared recently in The Cattleman's Journey.

When it comes to writing about Christmas, however, I find myself deserting Australia and turning to England every time. I confess that for me, who has still never seen snow, a romantic Christmas fantasy must always involve cold weather and snow and firesides and everything that's different from a hot Australian Christmas.

A few years ago, I was lucky enough to be in Londona few weeks before Christmas. No snow, but lots of pretty lights and shop windows.

These found their way into A Very Special Holiday Gift, which will be republished later this year, I believe, as One Winter Sunrise.

OK, that's probably enough for now. Another time, I'll write about some of the exotic settings I've researched for more recent books.

My reading for this past month...

I started this month by reading The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel by Deborah Moggach, a book that was previously published as These Foolish Things and was later transformed into the wildly successful movie. I was interested to see how similar the book was to the film and to note the differences.

First up, I should say that I enjoyed the book just as much as I did the film, although I note that, on Goodreads, not everyone agrees with my reaction. The basic premise is the same for both book and movie – a conglomerate group of ageing British folk settling into a 'retirement hotel' in India. The setting is similar, although it moves from Bangalore in the book to Jaipur for the movie. And for the most part, the mix of characters remains much the same. There's a character who dies, a couple who split up, and another character with a secret – but these story lines are moved to different characters for the film, no doubt to suit particular star actors.

I won't burden you with too many details, but I'm glad I made this little case study and I thoroughly enjoyed the read and then watching the film again. It's all part of my self-motivated, ongoing education as an author.

Next I read another book for my book club. Mateships with Birds by Carrie Tiffany is an award winning novel (including the Stella Prize). It has a rural setting and is about relationships between men and women (as well as being about birds) and, for these reasons, I should have enjoyed it, but I'm afraid I didn't. 

I believe the author deliberately explored everything that is ugly and unattractive about relationships and sex. No doubt this was a direct, post-modern reaction to romance novels (I know we are criticised for making life too beautiful and happy) but it wasn't done cleverly enough to impress me. Most members of our book club agreed.

Over Easter I wondered into a secondhand book shop in Yungaburra and found MyDear, dear Betsy; A Treasury of Australian Letters .This gem, compiled by Warwick Hirst, is quite, quite fascinating, with letters from Captain Cook and Convicts right through to Lloyd Rees (talking about the insecurity of an artistic life) and other 20th century notables.

But the letter that really spoke to me was from Banjo Paterson to the author Ethel Turner. As a child I adored Ethel Turner, who wrote Seven Little Australians etc. I read most of her books, including Family at Misrule, Little Mother Meg and my second favourite was The Little Larrikin.

I remember Ethel died when I was in Gr 4. Our teacher was Charles French, a WW1 veteran who’d been brought out of retirement because of a shortage of teachers. (He also owned the land that my high school at The Gap was later built on and was memorable because he was SO old.) When he asked us if anyone knew of a famous Australian who had died that day he was quite surprised that I knew (I’d heard it on the news) and had read her books. It was one of those moments from childhood you somehow never forget, when you realise you’ve made an impression. Mind you, he later sent me back to Gr 3 because I talked too much in class and I had to beg his forgiveness (sobbing) but that’s another story.

The above is just context for my appreciation of the letter that Banjo Paterson wrote to Ethel T about her book, which I think expresses sympathies we all understand  and just proves that feel good stories and happy endings will never go out of fashion.

Here's just a snippet of what Banjo had to say. 'For myself I candidly say I like the good old style of story – more beautiful women and finer men and more extraordinary things than one meets in real life – Stories where people don't have luck at the end annoy me.'

This month I've also reread the famous Australian classic, My Brother Jack by George Johnston. I'm mainly reading this as research to help my husband who, like Johnston, was a journalist and has written his memoirs, but is now exploring the possibility of turning them into a work of fiction. Johnston's classic is wonderful inspiration.

Right now I'm reading So Good They Can't Ignore You by Cal Newport, which is basically a study into achieving job satisfaction by working hard at your craft, loving what you do, and gaining control over your work.

And next up, I'll finally be rewarding myself with a book that I know will be luscious, moving and

beautiful. A regency romance – Marry in Scandal by Anne Gracie.

I hope you've had a great reading month. I'd love to hear your recommendations.