Tag Archives: Bella’s Run

The New Romantics

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The New Romantics

L-R Kate Belle, Me, Jan Bull, Kathryn Ledson and Margareta Osborn

I’ve joined forces with authors Kate Belle, Kathryn Ledson and Margareta Osborn to form a panel called The New Romantics. Together we present a fresh and modern take on Aussie love stories. Though none of us write traditional ‘romance’, we all have strong romantic elements in our books.

 

 

CC 1 003Yesterday was our very first gig. It was in celebration of National Bookshop Day, and we were warmly welcomed and entertained by the gorgeous people of Foster and South Gippsland. Many thanks to Jan and Bob of Foster’s Little Bookshop, for organising and hosting the event!

 

Rough Diamond Front Cover FinalI talked about how a modern romance may be all about passion, but it’s not just about the passion between two people falling in love. The medieval concept of romance always involved some sort of a quest, and so does a modern love story – it is a character’s search for herself. I also talked about how my passion for the environment is channelled into my stories.

 

 

Hope's RoadMargareta (author of Bella’s Run and Hope’s Road) talked about her own, marvellous brand of rural fiction. As a fifth-generation farmer, her ties to the land are very strong and her books convey a sense of place, community and belonging. Kathryn (author of Rough Diamond) gave us her hilarious take on romantic comedy. Kate (author of The Yearning) discussed whether or not that happy-ever-after ending is an essential element of a modern romance novel, and much, much more.

Yearning lo resAll in all it was a fabulous day, and an encouraging beginning to our life together as an author panel. We are available for events and festivals! Contact the lovely Kate Belle (ecstasyfiles at gmail dot com), who has become our de facto organiser. I look forward to many more stimulating authorly discussions and would love for you all to join us sometime in the future!

BB2013_Nominee

A Bush Christmas

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MargaretaToday I have friend and fellow rural author Margareta Osborn as a guest here at Pilyara. She has just released A Bush Christmas, a festive novella and fantastic holiday read. I’m thrilled to announce that, following in the footsteps of her debut, Bella’s Run, A Bush Christmas has just hit number 1 on the ITunes charts!!! Congratulations Margareta! I’m hugely excited for you, and proud to be able to host you on this very special Sunday. And now, it’s over to Margareta …

‘And a lovely Sunday to you too, Jen. Thanks for inviting me to visit Pilyara. I’m delighted to be here to chat about Christmas. Specifically ‘A Bush Christmas’. When my publisher Beverly Cousins at Random House, Australia, rang to ask me could I write a novella about Christmas, I was absolutely chuffed because I LOVE Christmas. Well, I love anything to do with celebrations that involve presents. Christmas, Easter, birthdays … I adore them all. I’m a presentaholic. Seriously! And I don’t mind if I’m giving the gift or receiving it, I still get that same fission of pleasure.

A Bush Christmas Front CoverChristmas in the bush for the Osborn family always involves mountains of food, many presents (of course), everyone (who can be convinced) doing the Chicken Dance, the Hokey Pokey and Here Comes The Bluebird followed by someone (nowadays my brother) having to dash off to milk the cows in a half inebriated state from the ‘cocktail of the day’. My sister, who lives in the Northern Territory, instigated this tradition. She arrives every second year having spent the entire previous two years deciding which cocktail will do the honours. We’ve had Fruit Tingles (lethal no. 1), Midouri Splice (it was a hot day), Blue Lagoon (shouldn’t have worn white), Jelly shots (lethal no. 2) and, my favourite, cowboy shots (refer to my novel, BELLA’S RUN!)

And that’s just the adults.

The children on the other hand, wake up to Santa’s white ‘snowy’ footsteps tromped through the house, upturned furniture, sleigh marks out on the gravel driveway and presents in all sorts of places including – one year – the oven. (I mean where else does Santa hide motorbike boots?!) The day continues with visits from a bicycle riding, lolly distributing Ms Santa Claus (wearing black gumboots and a red fluffy dressing gown). Great uncles and Grandfathers duly checking out the billy-lids bounty, followed by the scramble to get everyone (and their favourite haul for the morning) jammed in the Land Cruiser while mum (me) stresses over potato bakes, pavlovas and salads surviving the trip across the river to my father’s farm so we can continue the party. (My husband is usually to be found still in the paddock playing with the remote controlled car No. 2 son got as part of his loot.)

I should mention we do attend church the night before, sing carols and actually remember why we are celebrating Christmas. (ie. It’s actually not all about presents?!) After Mass we drive around the district taking in the spectacular Christmas lights adorning houses, gum trees, gateways, windmills, massive TV and radio antenna’s, dairies, and even the odd stack of hay bales. The occasional nativity scene appears in the headlights as well which all helps to remind us of the wonder and beauty Christmas (and indeed God) brings to our lives and reminds us of the true meaning of it all.

The week before we also have partaken in our local Christmas Tree, a custom that has been running here in our part of the bush for a century or so. My grandmother, mother and now my sister-in-law and I, have all taken our turn at welcoming Santa to the local hall to sing carols, hand out lollies and icy-poles to the districts kids. It’s a great yearly get-together for our community.

No 1 ITunesBut back to my novella, A BUSH CHRISTMAS …

I had so much fun writing this little book, available to download from your e-book distributor for a couple of dollars. And you just might recognise the odd Christmas tradition from your own community, bush or otherwise. Give it a try and I hope you feel the spirit of the coming festive season brighten your life.’

From the author of Bella’s Run, a gloriously rural and hopelessly romantic Christmas novella.


Jaime Hanrahan does not want anything to do with Christmas this year.

 She’s just been retrenched, and if that wasn’t bad enough, this is her first Christmas without her beloved father Jack, who died last Boxing Day. 

Determined not to spend it with her mother, who has already remarried, and her friends, who still have six-figure jobs, she jumps at the chance to house-sit a mansion in rural Burdekin’s Gap.

 Two problems. 

Number one, the property comes with a handsome station manager, Stirling McEvoy, who doesn’t take kindly to a city chick destroying his peace. Especially when she needs rescuing from stampeding cattle, falling Christmas trees and town ladies wielding catering lists and tablecloths.

 And two, in Burdekin’s Gap there’s no chance of escaping the festive season. For the town has its own unique way of celebrating Christmas – big time, BUSH style!

Includes an extract from Margareta’s upcoming novel, Hope’s Road.

Link to download A BUSH CHRISTMAS (in a variety of formats) http://www.randomhouse.com.au/books/margareta-osborn/a-bush-christmas-9781742758237.aspx

Many thanks for sharing your family Christmas traditions with us, Margareta. Thanks also for telling us about A Bush Christmas. Wishing a very merry Christmas to you and yours. xx

Sunday with Margareta Osborn

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Today I have my friend Margareta Osborn visiting. I’ll let you in on a secret. If it wasn’t for Margareta dragging me along to the RWA Conference last year, I wouldn’t have pitched Brumby’s Run to Penguin. That pitch led directly to a book deal, so I have a lot to thank her for. Margareta is a passionate rural story-teller, and her debut novel, Bella’s Run has become a best-seller. Now, over to Margareta …

Thanks Jen, for inviting me to be a guest on your blog.  For those that don’t know, Jennifer and I are members of the same writing group, the fabulously talented and totally awesome Little Lonsdale Group (the LLG’s). The group is aptly named for the street situated outside where we met at the Wheeler Centre, Melbourne (a six hour round trip for me) a couple of years ago. We were all in Andrea Goldsmith’s Advanced Year of the Novel class. What a wonderful time we had and the group continues to meet (and excel) with four published authors and the rest hard on their heels.

Tell us about your call story – or how you received your first offer of publication. (That’s what I always love hearing!)

Oh dear, I’m way off the track. What was I supposed to be talking about, Jen? My call story? Right. Well, it went like this. After being knocked back by one mainstream publisher with a ‘very positive’ rejection (yes, I kid you not, they can be positive) I managed to obtain a literary agent using that self same positive rejection (see, I told you). My agent then submitted the manuscript of my debut novel BELLA’S RUN to three major publishing houses. The day she rang me to tell me she had done this I was driving a truck laden with cattle down the hill from a dry paddock to the family homestead property. I was going over the cattle underpass when she rang to tell me BELLA’S RUN was sitting on the commissioning editors desks of three of the ‘Big Six’, which made me nearly put that poor rattly truck into the underpass.

Within days we had a two book publishing contract on the table. The day she rang to tell me that, it was my birthday and I was in the supermarket shopping. I screamed into the nearest grocery stack, which just happened to be the toilet rolls. Needless to say, the shopping consisted of all things celebratory (and a few mushed up toilet rolls)

What inspired you to write Bella’s Run?

Inspiration for people to do things beyond what they would normally do comes from a variety of different sources. For me, the inspiration to write – to weave stories about the bush – comes from my surroundings. From the environment in which I live – the mountains and farming in particular – because that is what I truly love and am passionate about. As a child I rode my horse through the hills surrounding our farm every weekend. And now we, as a family, spend a lot of time in the high country above our home. A very rugged and beautiful place where we track and watch brumbies, ride motorbikes and horses in the bush. Nearly four years and what seems like a lifetime ago, this landscape proved to be my inspiration for BELLA’S RUN.

What things in life are most important to you?

The themes of BELLA’S RUN are friendship, the search for love and the place you can call home. These are all portrayed within the evocative setting of the Australian bush giving you (I hope), a vivid sense of place with authentic characters that you the reader ‘know’. I tell you this because personally, these themes are very important to me.

My family – an amazing husband, three beautiful children plus my wonderful father, brother, sister and their families, aunts, uncles and cousins – along with my fantastic and supportive friends, are my world. I would not survive without them all. They give me the love, strength and energy to live, love and write.

The Osborn family has also been on the same property here for 150 years, giving me a very strong sense of place.  Our roots sink deeply into the soil. This grounds a person, gives the feeling of belonging and community.

Country life is me. I see it, I hear it, I work it and breathe it everyday. I have lived and worked on properties all my life. Throw me into suburbia and I am like a floundering fish. All I long for is my work-boots, the scent of cow-shit, sunshine on the breeze, musky soil and tangy eucalyptus. Ridiculous I know, but to take me from the land – from the bush – would starve my soul.

Thank you Margareta, for sharing your story with us. Margareta’s new novel, Hope’s Road will be released in March 2013.

Bella – A Southern Beauty

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I’m dedicating my new novel, Brumby’s Run, to the wonderful Brumby welfare organisations around Australia. These groups rescue Brumbies, train them and rehome them. They campaign to improve the management of Brumbies in the wild. They work hard to raise the profile of Brumbies as part of our heritage, and also as wonderful riding and companion horses.

I’d like to tell the story of one such Brumby, Southern Belle, affectionately known as Bella. Check out the marking on her belly that resembles the Southern Cross. It doesn’t get more Aussie than that for a Brumby!  Bella was amongst a group of Brumbies trapped on the 18th of August 2011 in Kosciuszko National Park. They were transported to Gundagai and within 24 hours of capture, were collected  by the Hunter Valley Brumby Association. Many Brumbies are not so lucky, and end up at the slaughter-house instead.

Bella and KathBella found the capture and transport very stressful – at 13 months of age, she had lost everything – her home, her mother and all she knew. Bella’s world had crashed around her. Even after days of handling, Bella still stood in the corner of the yard, head down and trembling from head to toe, completely terrified. It was heart breaking for HVBA President, Kath Massey, to see. People often chase, harass and even shoot Brumbies. There is no way of knowing until horses are handled, which ones have had a very negative experience with people before being trapped.

In time Bella began to develop more confidence in herself and in her surroundings – but only with Kath, who she looked to as the “lead mare” in teaching her about her new domestic world. Bella began to trust Kath – to play and explore and run around with her tail up. It was lovely to see her genuinely happy. Everyone on the HVBA Committee agreed that Bella would be devastated if she was to lose her new home, and she has now been adopted by Kath.

It is hoped that one day Bella will be out in public, showcasing how beautiful Kosciuszko Brumbies are and campaigning to better their future – and with the bond that is now firmly cemented between Southern Belle and her new owner, anything is possible. I’ll keep you updated on their progress!

Coincidentally, my friend Margareta Osborn has just published her debut novel, titled Bella’s Run. A fifth generation farmer, Margareta grew up on her family’s historic dairy farm in East Gippsland. Bella’s Run is set partly in Victoria’s rugged high country and is a great read. The story even mentions the odd Brumby or two!