Archive for February, 2008

Sounds great!

What a joyful surprise to find my very first audiobook in the mail box down the road today.

Because the old ute only has a tape deck and I still had nappies and groceries to get, I couldn’t listen to the CD’s until I got home.

When I did I was pleasantly surprised and I did a very rare thing for Rachael Treasure… I lay on the couch… captivated!

Bolinda have done a fantastic job of producing The Rouseabout audio book and Miranda Nation is a perfect narrator for Kate’s story.

She’s got such a gorgeous, youthful Aussie voice. It was such a spin-out to listen to words that I had written being read out by Miranda.

Now that I’m four chapters into writing my new novel, it was intriguing to listen to The Rouseabout as if it were someone else’s work.

I’m still going to be a book-aholic, but now with my very own iPod I can see that audiobooks will certainly have their place in our lives in the future.

I can visualise myself in the future listening to the latest Mark Haddon book whilst out in the paddocks helping John and dad fix a fence!

Welcome eBook review

It’s always lovely to hear praise of your work, but the praise is even sweeter when it’s delivered from another writer.

Author, Sharyn Munro, [The Woman on the Mountain] had this to say after she read my very first eBook.

eBook Treasure

As a lover of the physical fact of books — their weight and feel, their look and smell, and their cumulative presence as they cover my walls — I have not been in favour of eBooks. 

But I have just downloaded my first eBook, a collection of short stories by Rachael Treasure, and appropriately called Treasure’s Tales.

It seems I had forgotten that what’s inside the book is after all the greatest pleasure.

As a keen short story writer and reader, I think this is a lovely collection of a writer’s progression, with finely observed details so that characters and settings are vividly real.

The stories themselves are surprising, quirky, perceptive, funny or moving, and whether set in rural or urban Australia, their human truths are universal.

I thought the personal intro to each one was a great idea too.

The good plain prose makes them very accessible, as does this instant and inexpensive e-method of delivery from writer to reader.

Terrific for isolated bushies like me. I can now see there’s a place for both types of publishing.

The A4 format means I’ll store Treasure’s Tales vertically, as I do magazines, and I won’t be re-reading them in bed — but I’ll certainly be re-reading them!

Hi from the sheep yards!

Here I am … or at least here’s my afternoon shadow.

Diamond and I have just yarded the last of the sheep for footbathing in the evening sunshine.

John is now over at the sheep yards in the dark putting the last of the mob through.

It’s little wonder we look blank when people mention their favourite TV programs. With our farming life, there’s no time for telly.

There’s no knocking off at five and putting feet up. And I wouldn’t have it any other way!

Back to the desk

We’ve had a footparing contractor in to trim up all our sheep to help control footrot. (What a legend you are John McC!)

It’s been a busy few days moving mobs round, footbathing and drafting sheep.

We have cut our numbers back by half due to the drought so all the remaining stock are looking fit and well.

The lower numbers of stock is a positive in some ways as I’m back at the desk on Monday to start, in earnest, the writing of my fourth novel, The Cattlemen.

Don’t hold your breath … it takes me two years or more to write a novel!

Barbeque lamb!

I picked this barbecue up for five bucks at a clearing sale thinking it would be handy for something! It turns out it’s a great place to put our stock licks for our sheep.

Here are our weaner ewe lambs enjoying the mineral mixes of Olsson’s lick blocks. A strange sight to see lambs enjoying a barbie for a change!

We’re experiencing very tough drought conditions at the moment.

To help our stock through on the dry feed, we need to keep their gut flora really healthy to help them digest the summer grasses.
Read more…

Weaving fact and fiction

After being at the Victorian Cattlemen’s just last month and witnessing the destruction of bush fires that burnt too hot, it’s timely that one of my short stories has been published in this month’s Women’s Weekly about managing mountain landscapes. 

I love writing short stories, especially for major women’s magazines as it’s a chance to weave real-life farming and environmental issues into what looks like a romance story.

(And it’s an excuse for me to buy a magazine and read all about Fergie and her life in New York!!??)

So grab a copy of ‘The Weekly’ for a read, or you can buy my eBook on the top right of the screen to read more of my short stories.

New look books

A parcel has just arrived from Penguin with new look books.

Penguin have redesigned the covers of both Jillaroo and The Stockman and released a smaller format of The Rouseabout.

It feels very strange seeing the books in their new jackets, but collectively they would make a nice gift set. 

Sunday riders

On the second day of the Tassie Cattlemen’s get-together John and I enjoyed a trail ride with hundreds of other riders and horses.

It was very entertaining watching all the different horses and riders getting about.

At some places it looked liked the cavalry coming over the rise. I’ve heard they’ve had as many as 400 horses on the ride. I’m not sure how many tagged along this year, but it truly was a sight to behold! 

Camped out

We took a couple of our nags for the weekend to Windfalls for the Tassie Get-together and camped out on the dry plains. The creekbeds were dry, but the bar was not. 

Horsing about

We had a blast at the Tassie Cattlemen’s this year.

There was campdrafting, billy can races and the hilarious team rely which involves dinking two people on one horse over a course bareback.

There were thrills and spills. I entered my beanbag of a horse, Jess in the walking race. She is not the most attractive, well bred horse, but she’s a handy walking horse and we came 5th out of a field of 17 riders.