Tag Archives: Australian Rural Fiction

Under Kakadu Skies Is Available for Preorder!

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My new romantic suspense novel, Under Kakadu Skies, is now available for preorder ahead of its release on 15 September.

This book has been a labour of love from the very first page, and I can’t wait for you to meet Jo and Kai — and to lose yourself in the wild, beautiful country they call home.

Under Kakadu Skies book cover

 

The Blurb

Compelling new romantic suspense from the rugged heart of Kakadu, by one of Australia’s favourite authors.

After a painful betrayal, Sydney wildlife biologist Jo Reid takes a job in Kakadu National Park, hoping to escape from the rawness of her shattered life. Soon Jo is exploring vast floodplains, sandstone escarpments and crocodile-haunted waterways – a landscape as beautiful as it is unforgiving.

She finds herself drawn to Kai Walker; an enigmatic ranger whose quiet strength unsettles her in ways she didn’t expect. But the deeper Jo ventures into Kai’s world, the more she senses that something is terribly wrong in the remote country they patrol. When events take a dangerous turn, Jo is forced to confront both the shadows closing in and the truths she’s been running from. In the end she must decide how much she’s willing to risk – for the wild country she’s come to love, and the man at the heart of it.

Set beneath the vast skies and ancient landscapes of the Top End, Under Kakadu Skies is a thrilling story about trust, courage and the healing power of wild places.

Why Kakadu?

Kakadu floodplains and escarpment under a vast sky

When I began writing Under Kakadu Skies, I wanted a setting that felt larger than the story itself — a place of beauty, mystery and danger, where the landscape could become another character. Kakadu has that rare kind of magic.

There are moments when it feels as though you’re looking back through time, seeing Australia as it might have appeared thousands of years ago. Vast wetlands shimmer beneath enormous skies. Ancient escarpments rise from the floodplains, and waterways wind through country that seems untouched by the modern world.

Jabiru wading through Kakadu wetlands

And everywhere, there is life. Jabirus stalk the wetlands. Brolgas dance across the plains. Dingos slip through the grass, crocodiles wait beneath the surface, and flocks of magpie geese rise into skies glowing gold and crimson at dawn.

But Kakadu’s beauty isn’t gentle or predictable. The seasons transform it. Water floods the plains, storms roll across the horizon, and the heat can feel almost alive. It is magnificent country, but it demands respect. That combination of beauty, wildness and hidden danger made it the perfect setting for Jo and Kai’s story. Kakadu gave me the sweeping romance, suspense and sense of wonder I wanted for Under Kakadu Skies. Some places stay with you long after you leave them. Kakadu is one of those places. 💛

Preorder Now

Under Kakadu Skies releases 15 September — and preordering makes such a difference for authors. Every early order helps this story find more readers, and I’m so grateful for each and every one. Thanks for being part of this journey with me.

Preorder the eBook — available at all major retailers. Closer to release date I will have signed copies available directly from me. Preorder print copies from any good bookshop and you can also preorder from online retailers such as Booktopia.

Wild Horses Now Available Worldwide!

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An e-reader displaying the cover of the book 'Wild Horses' by Jennifer Scoullar, with a horseshoe and a small green plant on a wooden surface.

I’m delighted to share some news — Wild Horses is now available internationally through Pilyara Press! It has a different cover from the Penguin Random House edition available in Australia and New Zealand, but it’s the same great story.

Book cover of 'Wild Horses' by Jennifer Scoullar, featuring two horses in a green field against a blue sky, with a person in a hat observing them from a distance.

This book has always been close to my heart. When I first sat down to write it, I wanted to explore the way broken things — whether people or horses — can find healing through patience, care, and trust. At its core, Wild Horses concerns second chances. It’s about Christy, a drama teacher blindsided by scandal who seeks refuge at Currawong Creek, a horse therapy camp tucked away in the foothills of Queensland’s beautiful Bunya Mountains. It’s about Tyler, a celebrity chef desperate to reconnect with his teenage son. And it’s about Lofty, a wild ex-racehorse who learns, alongside the humans around him, that sometimes trust is worth the risk.

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A horse leaning over a wooden fence in a natural outdoor setting.
The Real-Life Lofty

This novel is also a tribute. The equine character of Lofty was inspired by a real horse of the same name — rescued from the knackery by my son Matt. The bond those two shared was extraordinary, and losing Lofty last year was heartbreaking. Writing him back into life on the page became my way of honouring his spirit. Knowing that readers around the world will meet Lofty in these pages feels wonderful. I’m sharing his memory more widely than I ever imagined possible.

One of the themes running through Wild Horses is mental health — how connection to animals, nature, and community can help us weather life’s storms. Horses, in particular, have a remarkable gift for honesty. They sense our emotions instantly, and they demand authenticity in return. You can’t fake calm with a horse; you have to find it. Spending time with them teaches patience, grounding, and trust — qualities that many of us crave in today’s fast-paced world.

When I look back at my own journey — from my years in law, to raising children on my own, to finally following my heart into writing and the bush — I see echoes of Christy’s resilience. Like her, I discovered that stepping into a new chapter can be daunting, but it can also be the very thing that saves you. So it feels especially fitting to celebrate this new beginning for Wild Horses. With the international edition, readers everywhere can now travel to Currawong Creek, breathe in the Darling Downs air, and ride alongside Christy, Tyler, Leo, and Lofty.

If you pick up this book, I hope you find in its pages a reminder that fresh starts are always possible, and that the most unexpected connections — whether with an animal or another person — can sometimes change everything.

Thank you, as always, for your support, for reading, and for sharing these stories with me.

With gratitude,
Jennifer Scoullar

‘Wild Horses’ Release Day

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I’m thrilled to share that my new novel, Wild Horses, is out in the world today!

Cover of the novel 'Wild Horses' by Jennifer Scoullar, featuring a woman with a horse, set against a green background.

This story is especially close to my heart — a tale of second chances, the quiet strength of country communities, and the healing power of horses. Set in the foothills of Queensland’s stunning Bunya Mountains, Wild Horses follows Christy Peacock, a city drama teacher whose life is upended by scandal. She escapes to Currawong Creek, a horse therapy camp nestled in the countryside, where wounded hearts — human and horse alike — are given the space to heal.

There, Christy meets celebrity chef Tyler Ward, a man struggling to reconnect with his withdrawn teenage son. As Christy helps the boy bond with an ex-racehorse, a powerful connection grows between her and Tyler — but past secrets threaten to upend everything.

Wild Horses is a feel-good rural romance, brimming with warmth, wilderness, and hope. It’s also a tribute to a real-life horse named Lofty, rescued by my son Matt from the kill pens of a knackery. Matt and that big bay spent many years ridiing through the mountains together. Unfortunately Lofty passed away last year, but the bond those two shared inspired the emotional heart of this story — and writing this novel was a way of bringing him back to life.

A brown horse leaning over a wooden fence in a rural setting.
The Real-Life Lofty

This book is a celebration of second chances — of finding light in the dark, love in unlikely places, and healing through nature and connection. It’s the perfect read for Mother’s Day, or for anyone in need of a story that reminds us we’re never too lost for a fresh start.

Thank you to everyone who’s supported me on this journey. I hope Wild Horses gallops straight into your heart 💛 You can find it wherever books are sold, as print, eBook or audio. In a week or two you’ll also be able to purchase signed copies directly from this website.

 

The Rivertown Vet Release Day!

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Celebrating the release of The Rivertown Vet – a story of courage, conservation, and coming to terms with the past.

Today marks a momentous occasion as my new novel The Rivertown Vet hits the shelves. This tale is not just one of romance and animal conservation. It’s a moving narrative about overcoming the shadows of our pasts.

Set against the picturesque backdrop of the Murray River in South Australia, we meet Rivertown vet, Jana, and her sister Sash, who have dedicated their lives to running Odessa, a wombat sanctuary that stands as a testament to their love for native wildlife. Their days are filled with the kind of hard work that feeds the soul, committed to the sanctuary’s mission while barely scraping up enough money each month to make ends meet. However all this changes when Jana is offered the chance to manage Wildfell Park, a neglected local zoo that is desperately in need of her passion and expertise.

Taking over Wildfell Park is not just a job for Jana; it’s a calling. Here lies the opportunity to expand Odessa’s mission, transforming Wildfell into a haven for endangered species like the Tasmanian Devil and forging an alliance with Aussie Ark, a beacon of hope for Australia’s native animals.

Yet, beneath the surface of this inspiring endeavour lies a personal tale of heartbreak. Jana harbours a secret, a remnant of her past that has left deep emotional scars, affecting her relationships and trust in others. The arrival of a figure from her school days, now crucial to Wildfell Park’s future, forces Jana to confront these demons. The unfolding drama is compounded by the emergence of protestors and a series of dangerous incidents that threaten to derail everything Jana has worked for.

The Rivertown Vet navigates the complexities of human emotion and the intricate relationships we share with each other and the animal kingdom. It’s a story that champions the spirit of reconciliation and the courage it takes to face our fears for the greater good. I invite you to dive into the pages of this heartwarming story, cheering for Jana as she navigates the complexities of life, love, and the wild.

Here’s the blurb:

Local vet Jana Malinski runs a wombat sanctuary with her sister on their family’s serene property by the Murray River. But Jana’s routine is up-ended after a chance encounter with handsome accountant and single dad Mark – the man who broke her heart in high school.

Offered the opportunity to run Wildfell Park, the town zoo that has fallen into disrepair, Jana must push past her hostility to save the local landmark and home to countless native and exotic animals. But working alongside Mark every day isn’t easy, especially given the undeniable attraction between them. While she fights her feelings, a new danger emerges – one that could threaten the very existence of Wildfell Park and Jana’s dreams of an ideal future.

Set in the gorgeous river country of South Australia The Rivertown Vet is a heartfelt and charming tale about community, conservation and kindness.

Meet S M (Sandy) Spencer

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S M (Sandy) Spencer writes romance, with just a touch of spice, set mainly in the Australian state of Victoria. She grew up reading the romantic suspense works of incredible authors such as Daphne du Maurier and Mary Stewart. Their books stirred in her a passion that would last a lifetime — a passion to write stories that would stay with readers long after they’d finished the books.

I grew up in a small Californian coastal town, dreaming about riding horses and becoming a writer. After a long career in the corporate world, one that landed me in Australia in the 1980s, I found myself in a position to realise that dream!

Now retired, I write from the semi-rural home I share with my husband, horses, cats and dogs, as well as the kangaroos that pass through the paddocks on nearly a daily basis. But it isn’t just kangaroos that visit our semi-rural property. We see echidnas,  blue-tongue lizards, rabbits, ducks, and every sort of parrot you can imagine. Recently we had a pair of Gang-Gang Cockatoos that I had to go onto the internet to identify. But the biggest surprise was the day a koala arrived in the front paddock and stayed the night! He was no doubt lost, perhaps pushed down to escape the bushfires in the nearby State Park, and by morning he was gone.

 

Just like my lovely hostess, Jennifer, I’m not only an animal lover, but also a keen horse-rider. I bought my first horse shortly after getting my first job at the age of sixteen, and haven’t looked back. I’ve traded California’s beaches and rolling coastal hills for country lanes and backroads, and I’ve become pretty much a fair weather rider, but my beautiful Arabian mare continues to allow me to ride her even though I’m sure she wonders why it’s always her that gets ridden (and not her two paddock partners, a retired buckskin and a rescue horse with permanent leg damage).

So, does all this make its way into my books? Short answer; sometimes. My Copperhead Creek Australian Romance series is set in a made up town called Willows, situated in Victoria’s Golden Triangle area.  Most of the books in the series feature heroines who do what I always wanted to do—move to the country to have horses, and end up finding true love.

Each book in the series can be read as a stand-alone with respect to the romance, as each has its own couple who find their happy for now ending. However, if you read them in order you’ll see characters from earlier books making appearances throughout, as the lives of the characters in the small town overlap and tangle.

 

A Chance To Come True

Caity Jones wasted a lot of years waiting for the “two kids, a dog and a white picket fence” dream to come true, but she’s ready to move on now. Letting go of society’s idea of the perfect life, she’s purchased a five-acre property in the small rural town of Willows. She’s determined to live a solitary life and become a writer. And that means staying away from men altogether.

Tom Murray owns and runs the local feed store in Willows. His marriage was a failure but his family is strong, and he can’t imagine a world that didn’t include his three young children. He’s an uncomplicated man, living an uncomplicated life—and he has every intention of keeping it that way.
Both are mature … both have baggage … and both have agendas that don’t include romance.
And then they meet.

 

Discover more about Australasian rural authors at our Australian & NZ Rural Fiction website!

Meet Penelope Janu

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Penelope Janu writes about clever and adventurous women who don’t mean to fall in love, but do. After a long career in law, Penelope now enjoys more creative forms of writing. In the past few years, she has completed four novels. All are set on the coast or in the country, and celebrate Australian communities. Her 2018 novel, On the Right Track, won the Romantic Book of the Year award (contemporary). You can find out more about Penelope at her website.

 

I grew up in the northern beaches peninsular district of Sydney. It was well after horse and cart days—but was a time when, if there was a vacant block of land down the road, it was perfectly acceptable to keep your horse there. I sometimes rode my pony to school, tethered him next to the oval and rode him home again. When I was fourteen, my family moved to Victoria and we lived in a semi-rural district with a goat, a cat, two dogs and a number of horses. My teenage friend Rina (and our horses), were inseparable for many years and we showed and competed together. Rina still competes in dressage, and has had a great deal of success with thoroughbred ex-racehorses. I always look forward to visiting her property and spending time in her stables!

The natural environment has played an important part in all of my novels. It was when I was working as a legal academic and teaching in a course, ‘The International Legal Regulation of Climate Change,’ that an idea formed for In at the Deep End. Antarctica had always been of interest, and I wanted to portray how important this unique and pristine environment is, and how rising water temperatures threaten not only Antarctica, but the rest of the world. My challenge as a writer was tackling these concepts in an accessible way. What would happen if a climate scientist and an environmentalist, with a similar agenda but very different ways of seeing things, fell in love? In at the Deep End not only explored climate change and relationships, but also charted the challenges faced by the 1900s explorers Robert Falcon Scott and Roald Amundsen’s ‘race to the South Pole.’ Amundsen was successful, but Scott and his team died in their attempt. Scott’s diaries provide a fascinating account of his journey.

In On the Right Track, the lead character is named Golden by her grandfather—an amateur botanist—after acacia pycnantha (golden wattle). I researched and learned a great deal about native flora while writing this novel, and exchanged many emails with a CSIRO scientist who was a specialist in eucalypt propagation. I’d written a ghost gum into my story, set in a rural district in the South West of NSW, and while I knew ghost gums were uncommon in my home state, I didn’t realise exactly how uncommon! The planting of a ghost gum, and its early care, has to be carefully considered for it to have any real chance of survival, but, once my scientist worked out that I had my heart set on this species of gum, he did all that he could to tell me what I had to do to                                                          ensure the fictional version survived!

Mistletoe

A plant I learnt a lot about while researching my Christmas novella, The Six Rules of Christmas (part of the HarperCollins Our Country Christmas anthology), is mistletoe. Unlike England, which has only one variety of this mistletoe, Australia has many varieties, many of which mimic the look of the host tree through leaf size and shape (spot the mistletoe in the eucalypt in the photo!). As a parasitic plant, mistletoe is often thought to be harmful to the host plant, but it rarely harms a healthy tree, attracts bird life and can be an important source of nutrients.

 

My November release, Up on Horseshoe Hill, is set in the Central West of NSW, and tells the story of a farrier, and a geneticist vet who specialises in wild animal conservation. I learnt a great deal about the hoof treatment of wild animals while researching this novel. Many animals kept in zoos as part of conservation programs have to be anaesthetised when they require treatment, but keepers and handlers increasingly use cooperative reinforcement (not involving force or compulsion, but incentives in the form of reward) in order to avoid anaesthetic. In this way, for example, a giraffe or elephant will place their feet into positions that allow farriers and vets to work on them safely. I can’t wait for the release of this book, which is available for pre-order now at a discounted price on Amazon, ITunes, Kobo, Booktopia and all good bookstores.

My next title will focus on the Macquarie Marshes, a wetlands region in the north of NSW. I’m doing a lot of reading on the environmental importance of wetlands, and planning a road trip (my favourite part of research), in the next couple of months!

Discover more about Australasian rural authors at our Australian & NZ Rural Fiction website!

Meet Pamela Cook

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Pamela Cook writes page-turning women’s fiction set in escape-worthy places. Her novels feature tangled family relationships, the ups and downs of friendship and explore life issues like grief, belonging and love. Her novels include Blackwattle Lake (2012) Essie’s Way (2013), Close To Home (2015) and The Crossroads (2016). Her September 2019 release is Cross My Heart. Pamela is the co-host of the exciting new podcasts Writes4Women and Writes4Festivals, and Assistant Program Director for the Storyfest Literary Festival which takes place in Milton, on the south coast of NSW, Australia in June each year. Pamela is proud to be a Writer Ambassador for Room To Read, a not-for-profit organisation that promotes literacy and gender equality in developing countries. When she’s not writing, podcasting or festival planning she wastes as much time as possible riding her handsome quarter horses, Morocco and Rio.

More Than Research: Re-connecting Through Equine Assisted Learning.

Like my lovely host Jennifer Scoullar, I’m an animal-lover and horse rider. I only came to riding as an adult – apart from a few trail rides when I was in my teens – but have always had a sense of the power and sensitivity of horses.

Back when I was researching the Black Saturday bush fires for my first novel, Blackwattle Lake, I came across an article about horses being used as a unique form of therapy. Overcoming trauma by spending time with horses in a supervised, supportive environment was helping some of the victims of the fires come to terms with their experiences.

Intrigued, I kept that article from The Good Weekend and always knew I’d write about it someday. So when it came to finding a form of therapy to help a traumatised child in my latest story, the idea appeared instantly. I read quite a few pieces on the various forms of therapy, watched some you-tube videos and checked out websites but it was spending a day actually working with horses at Horsanity that really helped me to understand how life-changing working with horses can be.

I’d gone to the centre purely to research the process for my book but in a very short time found myself immersed in the sessions in a much more personal way.  The small group session included a combination of talking to the practitioners, spending time purely in the presence of the horses – in this case, a small herd of magnificent Friesians – and then grooming and doing groundwork with a particular horse. This was followed by deep reflection on the process and the emotions it triggered. A huge part of the process – this form being equine-assisted learning rather than actual therapy – was to slow down, listen to both the horse and your own reaction and to take the time to truly connect in the moment. Dealing with my own grief after losing my closest friend wasn’t something I anticipated but those feelings decided they wanted out and while this sort of loss isn’t something you ever really recover from, working with the horses was a hugely cathartic, helpful experience

I came away with invaluable information for my book but also feeling refreshed, grounded and more at peace. I’m hoping that the information I’ve included in my plot for Cross My Heart will intrigue readers, even those who are (weirdly!) not horse lovers.

While Equine Therapy and Equine Assisted Learning remain quite left field, they are being used more and more to help both children and adults overcome trauma, including returned soldiers and victims of domestic violence. Tapping into the primal wisdom of these beautiful creatures for my novel was such a joy and it’s an experience I hope to repeat some time in the future.

                     CROSS MY HEART
When a promise kept means a life is broken …
Tessa De Santis’s child-free marriage in inner-city Sydney is ordered and comfortable, and she likes it that way.
Leaving her husband and successful career behind, Tess travels to an isolated property where the realities of her friend’s life – and death – hit hard. The idyllic landscape and an unexpected form of therapy ease her fears, and her relationship with Grace begins to blossom.
          Cross My Heart is a haunting story of guilt, redemption and friendship set in the beautiful central west of New South Wales.
            * Universal Buy Link – click here

Discover more about Australasian rural authors at our Australian & NZ Rural Fiction website!

Meet Susanne Bellamy

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Today we welcome Susanne Bellamy to the blog. Born and raised in Toowoomba, Susanne is an Aussie author of rural romance set in Australia. She also writes contemporary and suspense romances set in exciting and often exotic locations. She adores travel with her husband, both at home and overseas, and weaves stories around the settings and people she encounters. Mentoring aspiring writers, and working as a freelance editor keeps Susanne off the street!

Our country has stunning landscapes, which often become characters in their own right. Sometimes, so too do animals, especially in rural-set fiction.

Back in the dark ages when I was a child, we had budgies and a small bitsa dog my mother named Tiger. My husband is a dog lover with a particular fondness for German Shepherds. Cats send my husband into a sneezing frenzy and are to be avoided at all costs so we have always been a ‘dog family’.

We’ve had several Shepherds, starting with Ricky (Houdini hound extraordinaire) through to our current queen of the house, Freya. Then there was Clyde, the Welsh Springer spaniel with a talent for escaping so he could go scrub-bashing through the bush at the bottom of our property. He had such flexible paws that he actually climbed the fence!

Our string of dogs is a large part of why I often grant my characters the joy of a canine companion.

After the passing of our lovely Anna (Freya’s great-aunt), I wrote a short story in which she was the star who brought the protagonists together. Anna had such a beautiful nature and giving her a story of her own was a way of dealing with the grief of losing her. Second Chance Café.

Anna also inspired scenes between Paul, the hero of Starting Over, and his elderly collie, Jack. I still cry when I read those scenes, drawn from my grief in losing Anna.

In my newly released In the Heat of the Night (Bindarra Creek A Town Reborn), my heroine’s brother, Nico, is the dog lover. Thalia’s Greek migrant family owns the Cyprus Café in the heart of town, and Zeus is lost and lonely when his master ends up in hospital.

Zeus, Nico’s German Shepherd, trotted behind her, dropped and rested his head on Thalia’s feet. He whimpered, the sound echoing Thalia’s sense of Nico’s absence.

She bent down and stroked his head. “You’re missing him too, aren’t you, boy? I’ll take you for a walk later.”

Most of my stories are set in small town Australia, rural settings where animals are part of the life of the community. From the poddy calf in Hard Road Home, and the horses of Sarah, the endurance rider in Long Way Home to pets like Zeus and Anna, animals are special characters that enrich the lives of their owners and entertain readers.

Here’s a snippet of Hughie, the poddy calf:

Geilis shooed the poddy calf back through the broken fence and looked for a simple means to keep the fallen picket upright while she walked all the way to the work shed, retrieved tools and came back—on the quad bike next time. “I really don’t have time for this, little fella, so please, just stay there while I—” She grabbed a branch and rammed it into the hard dirt before angling it towards the picket. It held . . . for all of three seconds before the inquisitive calf nosed at her work. She jumped backwards as both branch and picket fell with dull thuds. “Drat and double drat.”

“Is that worse than a single damn?” Rick’s amused voice sounded nearby.
          Slapping her hands on her hips she faced him, embarrassment warring with mild relief. If she left the calf while she walked back to the shed, he’d be goodness knew where by the time she got back to the fence. In amongst the vines most likely. “See if you can do better—or, better still, why don’t you go back and get tools to fix this while I spend some time explaining to Hughie here why he isn’t allowed this side of the fence.”
          The calf nudged her in the backside and she turned and shooed him back into his paddock. Picking up the fallen picket she tried to hold it in place as the calf mooed in complaint.
          “Hughie?” Rick tipped his head and eyed off the calf determinedly pushing against her hand.
          “Yeah, like Hugh Hefner. The grass is always greener and all that.”
          Rick turned his attention to the fallen fence, picked up the branch and threaded it through the wires. He thrust the end of the branch into the picket hole with a thud. Eyeing off the calf, he fixed it with a stern look. “No touching that, Hughie-boy, unless you want to find out what prairie oysters mean. Got it?”
          The calf mooed as though it understood and trotted away.
Hard Road Home

If you like what you’ve read, please check out my books HERE.

Discover more about Australasian rural authors at our Australian & NZ Rural Fiction website!

 

Meet Fiona McArthur

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This week, international best-selling Aussie author Fiona McArthur joins me on the blog. In her non-writing life she has worked as a midwife – hence the medical themes that recur in her books. The power and strength in women of all ages is a constant theme in Fiona’s books. To find out more, read on!

Hello Jennifer and readers.

Thanks for this fab series of blogs. There’s so much joy to be had with all the different books from Australian authors. One of the standouts for me is imagining the vast variety of vibrant landscapes described in our rural and outback books and the way each author portrays their connection to the land they write about. I think the scenery is so important that I like to think of that landscape as another character in my books.

The other really exciting part is sharing the strengths, the challenges and the joys of the characters who live in the more remote areas of Australia. I love writing about small rural townspeople, adventures in great outback landscapes, inhabitants of remote islands, and the station owners on far reaches of our great country.

I’ve had the most wonderful time with my outback books and of course there is always a birth, a baby or a medical emergency to be had. Think Call The Midwife meets Country Practice. As a retired midwife I can’t help myself.

So babies or medical emergencies in outback Queensland, Western Queensland, remote New South Wales like Broken Hill, and all that land that stretches away down to Victoria across to Northern Territory and up towards Queensland.

At the moment, I’m writing about the far north, and loving it, but my first book for Penguin was set in a town very similar to Windora in Western Queensland. I called the town and the book Red Sand Sunrise and I can still see in my mind’s eye that huge red sand hill outside the town. I just love that feeling of solitude sitting on top of that rolling sea of beautiful big crystals of bright orange sand at sunrise. I really wanted to share that and other beautiful aspects of Australia in each new setting with my readers.

When I wrote The Homestead Girls and Heart Of The Sky they were set around Broken Hill, in New South Wales. We stayed at a station twenty miles out of town called Mount Gipps Station, which used to be a million acres, and was the original station where the ‘line of load’ that body or ore that was discovered at Broken Hill. Mount Gipps Station holds the most incredible variety of rocks, crystals and stones in rows like skeletal ridges and the paddocks roll away with small scrubby bushes and hidden hollows. There are sandy curves of the creek beds with huge white-trunked gums in the middle and gully’s that close in as you drive down them. It’s an arid but magical place.

The station couple I met there were the epitome of down-to-earth, brave, hard-working, laid-back heroes and were just all-out inspirational with their ability to take the tough times with the good times and turn their hands to anything that needed to be done.

I have this memory of Kym driving off with her dogs on this quad bike up to the sheep yards. She makes me smile just thinking about her. You might have seen her mailbox that I posted to my Homestead Girls Facebook page. I love it so much I actually added it to two books.

Which brings me to my new release, The Desert Midwife. The Mount Gipps mailbox is in there too. Such fun.

The Desert Midwife is set in central Australia. Uluru has a starring role and there’s a hospital in Alice Springs and a medical centre near Uluru to have emergencies in. My heroine, Ava, is part of a long-standing station family whittled down to three generations of women. Ava’s younger brother, Jock, is being destroyed by the drought and his feelings of failure to secure the futures of all the women he loves.

Our hero, fly in fly out Dr Zach, is a widower, who has come to Alice Springs to briefly escape the memories of the prolonged and tragic death of his wife in Sydney and his own guilt as the driver of the car she was so badly injured in.

Zac meets Ava, with instant attraction on both sides. But how can there be any future when he’s definitely a city guy and she is the Desert Midwife? Pop in another nasty car accident, and Zac’s amnesia really puts a hold on their relationship.

The Desert Midwife is about families pulling together in tough times, about the beauty and magic of Uluru which I hope inspires readers who haven’t seen its majesty to venture the distance out there, and about having faith and trust that things will work out if we have the belief. I hope you will pick up the book, lose yourself in the desert, and smile at the end when you put it down. With warmest wishes for happy reading
Xx Fi

Discover more about Australasian rural authors at our Australian & NZ Rural Fiction website!

Meet Leisl Leighton

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Today I’d like to introduce you to Aussie author Leisl Leighton, a fellow horse lover! Leisl is a tall red head with an overly large imagination.

A voracious reader and born performer, she has had a career as an actor, singer and dancer, as well as script writer, stage manager and musical director for cabaret and theatre restaurants. She writes rural romatic suspense and paranormal romance. President of Romance Writers of Australia from 2014-2017.

ROMANTIC SUSPENSE, VICTORIAN ALPS & HORSE RIDING

All my published novels so far have rural settings, mostly in mountainous or farmland regions, and the only explanation I can give is that I feel so at home where there are hills and mountains and, if I’m very lucky, snow.

When I was younger, my family holidays were mostly to the snow or going down to Merricks, near Red Hill, or up to Marysville, but some of my most memorable holidays have been ones where there have been trips into mountainous regions, and even better, if there is horse riding involved.

When I was nine, I started having horse riding lessons. I was by no means a natural, but I loved horses and I desperately wanted to be able to ride proficiently, with the hope I might have a horse one day. That particular dream never eventuated, but the horse-riding lessons led into some of my most memorable holidays.

It started when a family friend who also loved horses, the bush and horse riding, took me on a 5-day horse riding trek from Omeo through the Victorian Alpine region when I was thirteen. We rode along the high plains and down into the valleys, across rivers and back up again, staying in stockman’s huts and old woolsheds. I skinned rabbits, avoided snakes, survived sleeping in a shed with spiders as big as my face, and it was amazing and exhilarating and tiring and so much fun I still remember it vividly to this day. My sister was always a little jealous she didn’t get to come with me and our family friend, so mum and dad decided to enrol us in a horse riding camp down near Anglesea where we got to ride through the state forest and learn to look after the horses. We rode through heat and torrential rain, cold so profound that it snowed and we loved every moment. We did this every year through high school, and it had such a profound effect on me, that my husband thought it the perfect place to propose to me. He sneakily organised a special ride with just us and a stop in a lovely scenic place so he could pop the question. So romantic!

But I digress. Years after we finished high school and stopped going to the camps, my sister and I wanted to experience horse riding through the bush again. She particularly wanted to do a ride through the Victorian Alps and the family friend who had taken me all those years ago was keen to come with us too.

We found a place near Merrijig up near Mt Buller that took people on different length horse treks. Riding up Mt Stirling to Craig’s Hut and then down into the Howqua Valley and around Mt Buller. Staying in some of the famous old sheep yard flats and camping every night. It was a four day trek and we had the time of our lives. Out of touch with civilization – no phone signal for most of the time, which was really very relaxing. Riding hard all day through gorgeous mountain country. Setting up a tent every night with every muscle aching. Falling asleep in the cold autumn nights to wake to the kind of fresh you don’t get anywhere else. We are keen to go again.

Walhalla

It was on this trek that I started having an idea about a suspense novel set in an alpine region on a horse-riding stud. The idea bloomed and grew and before I knew it, I was writing a coming home novel with growing suspense and a hot and feisty romance. That book turned into Climbing Fear. It’s set near the small ex-goldmining town of Walhalla at the southern end of the Victorian Alps – a charming place I visited years ago when tour managing a theatre restaurant show around the La Trobe Valley.  I poured all my love of the alpine region and the knowledge gained from my horse riding treks into the story. I hope the reader gets an amazing sense of the beauty of the Victorian Alps and the joy I feel when I leave civilisation behind on the back of a horse, seeing our gorgeous bush in a way that our early settlers did (although obviously not as hard as they had it!) I also hope they find Nat and Reid’s journeys home to discover themselves and each other, as fascinating and visceral as the setting.

Climbing Fear

A Coalcliff Stud novel—His beloved home is under threat, and with it the beautiful, haunted woman he’s never been able to forget …

X-Treme TV sports star Reid Stratton has everything—until his best friend falls to his death on a climb while shooting their show. In the fierce media fallout, Reid begins to question everything about himself. Crippled by a new fear of climbing, Reid returns to CoalCliff Stud, his family’s horse farm, to recover.

Single mother Natalia Robinson is determined to start afresh, away from the shadow of her past. A job at CoalCliff Stud where she lived as a child is the perfect opportunity to live the quiet life she always wanted. But she is unprepared to see Reid, and is even more unprepared for the passion that still burns between them.

But after a series of menacing events threaten the new home she is trying to build, Nat realises that Reid is the only person she can rely on to keep her and her daughter safe. Together, Reid and Nat must face the pasts that haunt them if they are to survive the present and forge a future of hope.

Climbing Fear is available at iTunes, Amazon,  Kobo and Google Play

Dangerous Echoes: Book 1 of the Echo Springs Series
iBooks, Google Play, Kobo, Amazon

Or you can buy the four book series, Echo Springs in paperback at Big W, Kmart and online at Angus&Robertson, Booktopia, The Nile, Boomerang Books, Dymocks

If you’d like to know more about Leisl, her books, or connect with her online, you can visit her webpage, follow her on twitter @LeislLeighton or like her Facebook page.

 

Discover more about Australasian rural authors at our Australian & NZ Rural Fiction website!