Freda Marnie Nicholls

It's cold out there, so time for a BOOK Giveaway!

Margareta-Admin — Wed, 15 Jun 2016 08:16:14 +0000

It's cold out there, so time for a BOOK Giveaway!

Margareta-Admin Wed, 15/06/2016 - 6:16 pm

Oh my Gosh. I think winter has finally hit our hills with a vengeance. The thickness of the frost on the ground yesterday morning had us thinking it had snowed! I could only cringe on behalf of my poor Jacaranda Tree snug under it’s super-bag (top) and layers of mulch (bottom) and send a prayer up to the heavens it wasn’t going to take affront at the cold and curl up and die. Due to us living beside a huge lake, we don’t generally get severe frosts here, but as the lake is currently very low, it was Jack Frost’s turn to get even. Brrrrr … was the only thing to say, and pulling on the down jacket, followed by earmuffs, was the only thing to do.

The Farm Boy drove the ute to the bus-stop with his head hanging out the side-window to see the track, (the front windscreen simply refroze), and the school bags had to be wrestled from the ice trying to glue them to the old tray-back. Even Ange wasn’t happy to be dragged from her nice warm kennel to brave my early morning trudge up and down the hills to check the stock and troughs.

Saturday was also icy with, I swear, tiny flakes of snow in the rain. The wind knifed straight through you and of course, the Princess needed to ride her pony. Lightning wasn’t overly happy to have his cosy rug taken off and be made do something, so he was a cranky-pants. Subsequently mum ended up riding the pony to get his ‘cantankerous beans’ out of the way, so the Princess could have a nice ride. I had five layers on, resembled a Michelin woman, and could barely move, so H had to heave me onto the horse, even though the steed is only 13 hands high. It was quite the sight. At least if I had’ve come off, I would’ve simply rolled to the bottom of the hill. There was that.

Oh dear it's chilly in the hills at the moment!

The rest of that freezing cold day was taken up with important stuff, like reading and baking, much more civilised things to do when the weather is so disgusting. I was able to dispense with at least three layers and curl up in front of the fire with some chocolate, cups of tea and a good book. Bliss, I tell you.

Which leads me to three very interesting books, I’d like to mention to you today.

The Amazing Mrs Livesey, Freda Marnie Nicholls

One is from our friends at Allen and Unwin, and is written by my mate, Freda Marnie Nichols. It’s the remarkable story of Australia’s greatest imposter and is called THE AMAZING MRS LIVESEY.

Now, if you’re a Richard Fidler fan like me, you may have caught up with Freda’s interview a number of weeks ago detailing how she came to write this story and titbits from the book itself. If you didn’t catch it here’s a link to the podcast.

It turns out that the notorious Ethel Livesey was a serial fraudster and confidence trickster. She had over 40 aliases, eight official marriages, four children and five divorces in a time when divorce was completely scandalous. Her remarkable life stretched across the world with claims she was a cotton heiress, wartime nurse, opera singer, artist and close friend of the King, just to name a few.

Freda, in association with Luita Frances Aichiner, Ethel Livesey’s granddaughter, has written an impressive tale, which had my eyes riveted to the page, right to the very end. I can’t believe this woman got away with all that she did! Thank goodness, for her sake, the internet wasn’t around. She wouldn’t have lasted a day, which, would have been a very good thing for those she duped! Her cheek was gobsmacking.

I asked Freda how she came to write this incredible story.

“While catching up with a girlfriend for lunch, she started telling me about finding out some fascinating things about her paternal grandmother, and that she appeared to be an international con woman. She was having difficulty finding her father’s birth certificate and I offered to help. From there we found out so many incredible facts and stories. I decided to talk with my publisher about it, and THE AMAZING MRS LIVESEY was born.”

And what a story it is!

With thanks to the lovely folks at Allen and Unwin, I have one copy of THE AMAZING MRS LIVESEY to give away! All newsletter subscribers will be entered into the draw. Result, next week so stay tuned …

Central Station, True Stories from Australian Cattle Stations

Over at Central Station - where men and women of the Australian Outback come together to share an insight into their lives - the good, the bad and the dusty; they have released a book. And I'm in it! Just a little bit excited about that ... My story, 'Our Extreme Sea Change' is the first in this colation of true stories from Australian cattle stations edited by Jane Sale and Stephanie Coombes and brought to you by ABC Books. It's the type of book you can pick up and put down at the conclusion of each story, but you long to return to it. For those who have worked on stations, the book will bring back a ton of memories and for those who wonder what it would be like, it will inspire you to get out there and give it a go.

You can buy the book at any good bookstore and also online. Here's what it looks like.

And you can find out more at the Central Station Blog, and perhaps even win yourself $250! http://www.centralstation.net.au/win-250-with-our-new-book/

The other book that hit my roadside mailbox is completely different.

BOOTS OFF, APRON ON, is a cookbook from the kitchens of stations in outback NSW. And don’t you just love the name?! It is so descriptive and true. It happens every day at my house.

I was alerted to this particular book’s existence by my friend, Sarah McConnell, from ABC Broken Hill. You all know how much I love cooking, especially when the recipes are delicious and involve ‘everything is right there in the pantry’ fare. I have quite a collection of these station/homestead/farm cooking books, and swear by them all. You can’t go past old-fashioned, down-to-earth country cooking. But then, I guess, coming from a line of good, old-fashioned country cooks, I’m biased!

This particular cookbook is created by the Broken Hill School of the Air. It’s beautifully presented in hard cover, with some wonderful photo’s just to break up the prose. I so wish I had this book last year when I was cooking on the station in Western Australia’s Pilbara. The section on savoury smoko’s would’ve been particularly fabulous as I was running out of ideas by the end of mustering.

Boots Off, Apron On

In it, I've also found THE most AWESOME banana cake recipe aptly called the 'Best Banana Cake' and shared in the book by Glendara Station. I thought I had a good Banana Cake happening, but I tell you, this one is so much better. The recipe makes a large cake, is moist, and postively scrumptious. Here is one of the two loaf pan cakes made using the recipe this morning.

I asked co-editors, Pixie Moses (Mt Westward Station) and Bree Wakefield (Banoon Station) what inspired the book and where they planned to invest the funds raised.

“We decided to create the updated version of the School of the Air cookbook to mark the 60th anniversary of the school. It has been a labour of love. A huge project with big results. Our first print sold out in 1 month! The recipes are tried and tested recipes submitted by our school families, teachers & governess'. Ranging from traditional homestyle meals to modern side dishes & desserts as well as a chapter featuring thermomix recipies. The gorgeous station photographs through out the book have been as well received as the recipes themselves. It really showcases our unique outback lives. Funds raised from the books will be used towards something major for the school that will benefit the students for years to come.”

I for one, can see this beautifully presented, hardcover cookbook becoming one of my everyday ‘go to’ references.

You can read more about the book and purchase your own copy here: http://www.bootsoffapronon.com

And finally (because I seem to have gabbled on forever), last weekend, I made a new dish, a winter warmer, Chicken and Potatoes with Garlic Parmesan Cream Sauce. (I want to lick the screen just saying it.) It was a hit at the homestead with even the kids digging in without any complaints. WINNER! So, I thought I'd share it as you might be looking for a winter warmer recipe this weekend for your family. I can highly recommend it. It's 'Damn Delicious'! You'll find the recipe at http://damndelicious.net/2016/05/08/chicken-potatoes-garlic-parmesan-cr…

Until next week, and amongst other things like editing LAKE HILL, I'm going to keep vacuuming with my Stihl (STIHL LOVE IT! :)) to stay warm!

Margareta xo

Around the state in (nearly) seven days - ROSE RIVER TOUR & Lardner Park Dates

Margareta-Admin — Fri, 13 Mar 2015 04:28:28 +0000

Around the state in (nearly) seven days - ROSE RIVER TOUR & Lardner Park Dates

Margareta-Admin Fri, 13/03/2015 - 3:28 pm

* NEWS FLASH *

ROSE RIVER - is in the top 5 on the Australian Best Sellers list!!!

And it's sitting at No 8 on Random House's in-house best-sellers list.

Our Gippsland based book is rubbing shoulders with heavyweights like the Fifty Shades Trilogy, James Patterson's latest and Danielle Steele. There's even a Man Booker Prize winner (Richard Flannagan's Narrow Road to the Deep North)...

I'm trying to stay calm here ... but you know, that's such a wonderful thing for a rural based, laugh-out-loud, heart warming story about the thrills and spills of life on the land to be hanging out in that kind of company. {smiley} ... So please forgive me, but, dash it, I can't do the calm thing any longer. I'll just have to jump around and yell a bit here on my hill - WOO HOO!!! YA HOO!!!

You readers are the best!

Oh and it's even made it to your TV screens! Yep. ROSE RIVER Is currently screening across Foxtel, (which I don't have, but hope a lot of Australians do have and take a little notice of ... {smiley})

Oh dear, I'm feeling a bit dizzy. All this dancing around is too much and now the cows are looking at me all weird ...

Ahem.

Settle down sunshine. {smiley}

Thank you, thank you, thank you all of you wonderful, supportive readers. It's such a thrill to know that you still love to read our stories.

Now a bit of a catchup as life's been at break-neck speed since ROSE RIVER came out.

ROSE RIVER LAUNCH

It was such a buzz to catch up with around 180 wonderful readers and mates at the Blue Gables Winery, Upper Maffra West, for a fabulous afternoon event to to launch ROSE RIVER into the big wide world. What a day!

I started to chat with people as soon as I arrived, moving my way from table to table, thanking people for coming to support us on the day. By the time I'd gone around once, more people had arrived and I was just about to head off round again, but found out it was time to be interviewed by well-known former radio identity Penny Monger! I'm really sorry that I didn't get to chat with everyone who came on the day, but I do hope you all enjoyed yourselves. I have heard tell that everyone had a great time and Penny did a fabulous job of the interview, drawing out the inspirations and stories behind the writing of ROSE RIVER. What fun we had!

I was also thrilled to have in attendance fellow Gippsland author Barry Heard (WELL DONE THOSE MEN amongst other titles) and his lovely wife. And yes, we just had to get lots of photos!

ROSE RIVER TOUR PART 1

Monday morning dawned bright and clear (until the muttering started), and it was time to head off on the first leg of the ROSE RIVER book tour. With a Toyota Corolla as our hire car, it took a LOT of pushing and shoving to get two women, two suitcases, boxes and boxes of books and all the associated paraphernalia into the car ... but we did it ... eventually (sucked in tummies due to seats being pushed so far forward), we took off at around 9am. With my good friend Jen as co-pilot, Albury was our first stop after a beautiful drive over Mount Hotham (the wildflowers were spectacular). I just HAVE to mention the homemade ice-cream at Morrie's place in Harrietville. It is superb. It could give the ice cream I found outside Bundberg in QLD on last year's book tour a run for it's money! Morrie's is a MUST stop if you're in the vicinity. It's even worth driving from Glenmaggie for!

After a lovely night with the Dymocks Albury book club, we travelled onto Grenfell where we were met by librarian Ann, who had arranged the most delightful event. Ann gave me the very best introduction I have ever had in my entire career (books or otherwise) and the luncheon looked just delicious. Unfortunately we had to move on, but we were greeted in Bathurst by Kathryn at BooksPlus and her lovely staff, with a cuppa plus a divine homemade carrot cake! YUMMY! Oberon, Mudgee (where we managed to lock ourselves out of our room whilst wearing P.J.'s!) and then to Wellington we travelled.

It was here I met the most talented group of ladies who had formed the local Wellington craft group nicknamed SABLE - Stuff Accummulated Beyond Life Expectancy {wink} Their craft work was out of this world.

Onwards to Dubbo (after losing the non-descript white Corolla for a good 10 minutes :)), and a lady who had travelled 5 hours from out the back of Bourke to hear my talk, buy all my books and say g'day. My oh my, was I chuffed (and amazed). Turns out she also breeds some of my most favourite cattle (Santa Gertrudis) and her husband loves old machinery (just like H) and was setting up a museum. I can feel a trip to Bourke coming on sometime in our future. {smiley}

A four hour drive out to Griffith library for a talk (with a little stop at a delighful homewares shop called Kristy's Cottage in West Wyalong where I did some bank balance damage ...ho hum ...) and then it was time to head east again. Peter and staff at the incredible Collins Bookstore in Wagga made us very welcome (Swoon, this is the bookstore to end all bookstores) and I signed piles and piles of books.

Jugiong Writer's Festival was next on the itinerary where I met up with Freda Marnie Nicholls (LOVE SWEAT AND TEARS etc.), Peter Rees (THE ANZAC GIRLS etc.), Tim Fischer and Sulari Gentill (ROWLAND SINCLAIR series). It was a beautiful day for an inspriring and well-run festival.

Canberra and the Romance Readers Convention was the last stop on the list. A panel with fellow rural authors Barbara Hannay, Cheryl Adnams along with US author supremo Victoria Dahl was a highlight.

Finally at 4pm Sunday we set the bonnet of the Corolla for home, landing over the farm's cattle grid at 11.10pm on Sunday night. We dodged a few roo's but we were finally home. Whew!

ROSE RIVER TOUR PART 2

This week (March 18 - March 21, 2015) we are off again. Western and South Western Victoria is our destination with events at Waurn Ponds, Ballarat, Horsham, Hamilton, Warrnambool, Colac, Gisborne and Fountain Gate. Please see the appearances page for details. As you know by now, I love to meet the readers of my books. I really hope to meet you somewhere and we can chat about the inspirations behind ROSE RIVER, writing, publishing, and anything else we'd care to waffle on about!

ROSE RIVER TOUR PART 3 - LARDNER PARK FARM FIELD DAYS 26TH - 29TH MARCH, 2015

I will be at Farmworld, Lardner Park, Warragul for the full four days, that's when I haven't ducked away for 10 minutes to check out boots, shirts, hats, plants, wood stoves and interesting cattle .

We will be at our usual spot in the General Interest Pavillion (GIP17). Look for the red and white gingham table cloths and me sitting up my rustic, handmade signing table. We have a gorgeous NEW Farmworld pack to giveaway this year with every copy of ROSE RIVER sold (as long as stocks last). So get in early for some nice treats! Love to see you there!!!

AND REVIEWS ...

If you've read ROSE RIVER and liked it, I'd love you to place a review on Goodreads, the Random House Website or iBooks/Amazon (if you read it as an ebook). The links are all on the book page here. Just a few words would be great ... It really helps we authors and makes the job of choosing books easier for other readers to know someone has read and enjoyed a book before them. Thank you so much.

Onwards the book tour rolls ...

Until next week, if I don't see you before!

Margareta x

Great books for Father's Day ...

Margareta-Admin — Wed, 03 Sep 2014 04:28:55 +0000

Great books for Father's Day ...

Margareta-Admin Wed, 03/09/2014 - 2:28 pm

Every now and then I get sent books to review for publishers. Today's two great reads have come courtesy of Allen & Unwin and just in time for Father's Day. Read to the bottom and you could win a copy of each great book!

BACK OF BEYOND - FREDA MARNIE NICHOLLS

The Back of Beyond, Freda Marnie Nicholls

BACK OF BEYOND is a pearler of a novel from the delightful Freda Marnie Nicholls. I first came across Freda's work when she collaborated with sister, Zelie Bullen, a renown animal trainer (think War Horse, Charlotte's Web & Racing Stripes) on Zelie's autobiography, LOVE, SWEAT & TEARS (2013). Autobiography's usually aren't my favourite reading matter due to their often dry tone. They just don't hold my interest for very long. This is not the case with Freda's books. The prose is down-to-earth, honest and almost lyrical in parts. The subjects of her attention have led intriguing and fascinating lives. They are the people you would meet down the street, or at a BBQ and have no idea of their backstory unless someone else told you.

In BACK OF BEYOND Freda authentically captures the voice of former sheep shearer, dingo trapper and horse breaker, Hugh Tindall, as he reminisces on his extraordinary life in outback Queensland. I was hooked from page one as I felt Hugh was in my head, telling me about his life on the land in an era where times were tough and living was hard. Respect and admiration for his wife, fellow workers and the outback itself, shines through this novel as Hugh recounts his life in a dry and laconic manner.

From a poor man's selection on the Diamantina in 1928, to owning six large stations with his family. From shearing his first 100 sheep a day at the age of sixteen, to organising sheds in the long running 1956 shearer's strike, Hugh gives a an honest account of life in isolated outback Queensland where the tough survived or died.

I tip my hat to Freda Marnie Nicholls for the manner in which she has crafted this story, allowing the distinctive voice of Hugh to become the "voice of the novel", something some autobiographical novels fail to do. It is also a novel which is very easy to read and not a hard slog. Full credit also goes to Hugh, for having the courage to share his story with us. So often we don't write this kind of literary gold down and thus, rich tales of a bygone era are lost in the dust motes of the past.

Out of all the books hitting the shelves in time for Father's Day, BACK OF BEYOND is the one I will be buying MY father, as I know he will love this easy-reading recount of Hugh Tindall and his extraordinary life.

MARBLE BAR - ROBERT SCHOFIELD

Marble Bar, Robert Schofield

We were behind the eight ball when it came to MARBLE BAR by Robert Schofield. Neither my husband nor I had read his earlier book HEIST which introduced the larger-than-life character of Gareth Ford. HEIST, from all accounts, was a ripper of a yarn and as I gave this particular book to my man to read purely with Father's Day in mind, I think that did affect, in parts, his overall enjoyment of the story. Backstory often adds another layer to the pleasure of a subsequent book.

Nevertheless he came back to me with a positive response to this more traditional crime-y action type novel. Said the storyline was realistic and made even more so by the setting, the extremely hot, dry and dusty Marble Bar, in W.A.'s Pilbara. Population 200. 'It's a wild west meets Lee Child kind of book ...' he said. 'And it's very Australian.' I think that Aussie tone of novel is depicted beautifully by the opening line.

'Let me ask you something, alright? You ever see a snake eat a kangaroo?'

(My webmistress is a "bit of a crime fiction fan" and she's read and reviewed both books on her site.)

Robert Schofield (photo credit Ross Swanborough)

I asked Robert Schofield a few questions. Why did he decided to write Heist? What made him want to write a crime novel and what sort of research did writing both Heist and Marble Bar involve? I was also intrigued as to why he chose Marble Bar as the setting for his second book. This was what he told me ...

I am a structural engineer by training: born, raised and educated in England. I started my career working in an architectural practice, but back in 1990 I followed a girl to Australia, and not finding much call for architectural engineering in Perth I switched to the gold mining industry.

Over the last twenty years I have been travelling back and to the Goldfields, and I’ve been collecting stories. Everyone has a story to tell, and most people only need a drink inside them before they’ll tell it. Gold breeds tall tales of lost reefs, fake nuggets, robberies and swindles; a continuous history of wheeling and dealing that is as rich today as it was during the gold rush. Tales of fortunes lost and dreams crushed, filled with modern-day characters who are just as colourful as those from history.

I found it hard to believe that a town bursting with so much history, with a catalogue of such great characters and stories, had so few books written about it. There was a rich seam of stories to be mined, but it never occurred to me that I might be the one to dig into it.

The idea for HEIST came on a site visit to an abandoned gold mine in the desert, and was inspired by conversations with mine workers in the wet mess. Nobody who works in the gold industry will admit it, but they all harbour secret fantasies about robbing the place. That’s the power that gold has over men. They lie awake at night trying to conjure elaborate hypothetical schemes for stealing gold. It’s only ever just that, wishful thinking, but if they get drunk enough they might share their ideas. A gold robbery seemed the ideal vehicle to tie together all the stories I had gathered in Kalgoorlie.

MARBLE BAR is the sequel, following my characters north into the Pilbara. I’d been on a trip to the town several years ago to work on a mine nearby, and had spent an afternoon drinking in the Ironclad Hotel. Marble Bar’s claim to fame is that it is the hottest town in Australia. They have a sign there that tells you this, with a digital read-out that displays the current temperature. It takes a special kind of person to live there. You need to be mad as a cut snake. I suggested to my agent that it seemed like the perfect setting for a book.

My agent replied that he had another writer on his books, a gold prospector who had lived many years in and around Marble Bar. As a writer I am very attuned to synchronicity, and I wasn’t going to ignore such kismet. That introduction lead to several others, and I spent some time up in Marble bar, staying at the Ironclad, travelling the country and listening to its stories.

Marble Bar was founded during the gold rush at the end of the nineteenth century, but at the beginning of the twenty-first century it finds itself surrounded by the iron ore boom; but it has barely touched the town. It made me think about who should benefit from the mineral wealth lying under Australia: should it be the multinational mining companies, the Chinese steel mills, the super-rich entrepreneurs, the men and women sweating in the mines, the taxpayer, the general public, or the traditional owners?

Both BACK OF BEYOND and MARBLE BAR are published by Allen & Unwin and are currently available at all good bookstores and online.

I have a review copy of each of these novels to give away. Comment below or on my Facebook page and go in the draw to win!

Freda Marnie Nicholls

It's cold out there, so time for a BOOK Giveaway!

Leave a Reply

Around the state in (nearly) seven days - ROSE RIVER TOUR & Lardner Park Dates

* NEWS FLASH *

ROSE RIVER LAUNCH

ROSE RIVER TOUR PART 1

ROSE RIVER TOUR PART 2

ROSE RIVER TOUR PART 3 - LARDNER PARK FARM FIELD DAYS 26TH - 29TH MARCH, 2015

AND REVIEWS ...

Leave a Reply

Great books for Father's Day ...

BACK OF BEYOND - FREDA MARNIE NICHOLLS

MARBLE BAR - ROBERT SCHOFIELD

Leave a Reply

Freda Marnie Nicholls

It's cold out there, so time for a BOOK Giveaway!

Leave a Reply

Around the state in (nearly) seven days - ROSE RIVER TOUR & Lardner Park Dates

*** NEWS FLASH ***

ROSE RIVER LAUNCH

ROSE RIVER TOUR PART 1

ROSE RIVER TOUR PART 2

ROSE RIVER TOUR PART 3 - LARDNER PARK FARM FIELD DAYS 26TH - 29TH MARCH, 2015

AND REVIEWS ...

Leave a Reply

Great books for Father's Day ...

BACK OF BEYOND - FREDA MARNIE NICHOLLS

MARBLE BAR - ROBERT SCHOFIELD

Leave a Reply

* NEWS FLASH *