Loretta Hill

Welcome to 2015

Margareta-Admin — Thu, 15 Jan 2015 12:09:16 +0000

Welcome to 2015

Margareta-Admin Thu, 15/01/2015 - 11:09 pm

WELCOME TO 2015

Hi and welcome to 2015! I hope you all had a very happy Christmas with lots of fun and good-cheer (plus the odd present or two ... or three ... ). For those with kids, I trust you haven't gone completely bonkers and are surviving the Christmas holidays? From my angle, it's about 80% 'Yippee no more lunches, washing uniforms and running kids around" and 20% - "Seriously, how many more days to go?!"

On the writing front there's lot's of exciting things kicking this year off! Let me tell you a few ...

AUSTRALIA'S FAVOURITE AUTHOR POLL - Vote in Booktopia's final poll

I'm really excited and very honoured to have made it into the final poll of Booktopia's search for Australia's Favourite Author. I'm in the final 75 which is currently being honed to the top 50. If you feel like voting for me or any of the other amazing authors on the list (you can vote for more than one!) head over here. If you have already voted and happened to put a tick beside my name, THANK YOU SO MUCH!

THE COWBOY - the release of my new novella!

The release of my new novella, THE COWBOY is nearly here. On Janaury 24th, this fun and sexy book will go live on Amazon. This novella was written as part of the "Hot Aussie Hero's" series for Tule, a vibrant publishing company who are kicking HUGE goals in the USA. I was so privileged to be given the opportunity to write for Tule and heading up the series with me are three other very talented Aussie authors, Victoria Purman, Amy Andrews and Madeline Ash!

THE COWBOY - the release of my new novella!

You can find the links to purchase on my Facebook page and website on and after January 24th. I'll also post the links in our next letter to you!

ROSE RIVER - the countdown begins

It's only another six weeks and my new Australian novel with Random House, ROSE RIVER will hit the shelves! The book went to print yesterday ... Yes, YESTERDAY! I was like a Jumping Jack Ant, bouncing around the farm all day, one minute trying to stay cool and calm and perfectly collected like any seasoned author should be ... but then the next, doing a little skip, a bop and then a flat out gallop and punch into the air. I mean, this is book number 5 and damn it, I'm EXCITED!!!

Over the next few weeks, I'll be sharing with you some background snippets of how ROSE RIVER came to be - the inspirations and real life situations that gave me such excellent fodder for this hilarious and 'feel-good' story. Can you tell I just adored writing this novel?!

LARDNER PARK and ROSE RIVER BOOK TOUR

We are coming to Lardner Park again! Same place, same gingham tablecloths (if I can find them after "the farm shift"), same signing table (no, despite many pleas, I haven't been convinced to sell it) - and we will have my NEW BOOK (& I'll be there to sign it for you), a wonderful 'Field Day Pack' (just wait until you see this year's gift!), along with a lovely bunch of happy people to say gidday. Make sure you put March 26 - 29, 2015 on your calendar! I'd just LOVE to see you all again.

My publicist is also planning an extensive tour of NSW and Victoria to launch ROSE RIVER, so if you have any relatives or friends who'd like to learn more about my books, we might be heading their way. I'll let you know more when the details are finalised.

The Maxwell Sisters by Loretta Hill

Now some of you will have read my co-Random House author, Loretta Hill's very funny and excellently written book, THE GIRL IN STEEL CAPPED BOOTS. She followed this best selling novel with two more 'Fly in, Fly out' stories, THE GIRL IN THE HARD HAT and THE GIRL IN THE YELLOW VEST.

Loretta's latest release - her fifth book - is a departure from her previous mining theme, and is based at a vineyard in the beautiful Margaret River region of Western Australia. THE MAXWELL SISTERS is a story about relationships, love and family and is garnering excellent reviews such as these from Book'd Out and Write Note Reviews.

If you would like to comment below, you will go in the draw to win a copy of this fabulous book!

In the meantime let's hear from Loretta:

Hi Margareta,

I’m so happy to make my first stop on this year’s blog tour at your place. It’s been too long since I was last here. It’s such a beautiful day and Gippsland is gorgeous as always.

I can see by your expression that you’re happy I’ve come on my own this time and left my four angels (or should I say, starved monkeys on ecstasy) at home. Given what happened last time, I thought I’d leave the kids with mum and go this road trip alone. It’s going to be a busy one. I’ve got a lot of stops planned with all my favourite rural romance authors, Jennifer Scoullar, Helene Young, Fiona Palmer, Jenn J McLeod and Rachael Johns. I want to see what all my friends are up to. So how’ve you been?

I’m good. In fact, I’ve been looking forward to this month for a while now. My new novel, THE MAXWELL SISTERS just hit the shelves this month. It’s a little different to my other novels so I’m both nervous and excited about the release. I really hope readers will embrace the change. This book, unlike my others is not set in the Australian outback on a construction site but in the beautiful Margaret River Wine Region in the south west of WA. The story centres around a family, the mad Maxwells of Tawny Brooks Estate and has all my favourite themes: strong women, family, sisters, and of course, romance.

It was actually the hardest book I’ve ever had to write because it has six main characters. Three sisters and their three respective mates. There was so much going on in this novel, sometimes writing it was like being in a really noisy room where everyone is trying to talk to you at once. All the characters had their own agendas. Juggling them was tricky particularly if they were all in the one scene. Have you ever had that experience with your characters?

My favourite character of the six, however, was Adam Carter and I thought I’d spend a little bit of time telling you about him today. He’s a loner, cast out by his own family and living in the south west to escape his past and find a new life path. When he accepts a position at Tawny Brooks estate as their new winemaker, he doesn’t expect it to be anything more than a job and a sanctuary for his broken heart. But the Maxwells are a difficult breed of people to hold at arms length and he soon finds himself embroiled in all their family problems. But most particularly, the secrets of the middle sister, Eve Maxwell. Adam finds Eve utterly fascinating because she’s clearly beautiful, talented and strong but doesn’t think she can hold a candle to her sisters. When they first meet in a room, crowded with her family he says to her, “I can see you, you know. You’re not invisible.”

This forthright comment is basically Adam to the core. He doesn’t hold any punches. He just says it like it is. He doesn’t care what people think of him because he’s got nothing left to lose. He’s cheeky, mischievous and unrepentant. He literally teases Eve out of her shell. Saying such outrageous things to her, in order to make her wake up. I love a good compromising position and it was easy to dream up one for Adam and Eve and then show Adam how to exploit it unapologetically. And yes, I do realize their names together sound rather fated, like the biblical couple. They’re supposed to be.

Adam was a great spanner to throw into the Maxwell family and he really helped me to draw out all their secrets. I think all families have their hangups, topics they avoid, traditions that they always do no matter what to save face or not to offend. So when there’s someone who comes in, happy to call a spade a spade, it stirs up all sorts of problems for everyone else. Adam was great vehicle to let me do this.

Anyway, I wish I had time to tell you about all my characters in this novel because after spending so much time with them, they feel like real people to me. Luckily however, next week I’m at Jennifer Scoullar’s blog, talking about Natasha Maxwell, the eldest of John Maxwell’s daughters. So if you or any of your readers would like to hear more about the Maxwell Sisters. Please do follow me there. :)

Loretta Hill

Loretta Hill

Dear Margareta ... Loretta xo

Margareta — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 23:20:13 +0000

Dear Margareta ... Loretta xo

Margareta Fri, 17/01/2014 - 10:20 am

Recently, after I returned from the Nunniong High Plains, I was delighted to find a letter sitting in my mailbox. It was from one of my favourite authors, a delightful girl who I met for the first time last year (it still sounds odd calling 2013 'last year'!) when I was in Fremantle, W.A.

I've posted my letter below, so you can have a read too. It contains some VERY interesting information, particularly if you loved Loretta's previous novels, 'The Girl in Steel Capped Boots' & 'The Girl in the Hard Hat'.

Dear Margareta,

Just read the blurb for Mountain Ash on your website. Wow! What a great premise. You’re a genius. Can’t wait to wade through the debris of that train wreck. Sounds like a hoot. It’s a pity it’s not out now, cause I’d take it with me down south. I’m about to head there for a holiday for a couple weeks.

It’s one of my favourite places in Western Australia - the Margaret River Wine Region. I do it every year as we have family who live there and the kids just love it. As you know, I have four of them and anything to get ‘em outside, occupied and out of my hair is win, win for me. Plus I just love the ambience of the place. Everything is just more relaxed. You can smell the love on a breeze. You would know, you live in the county full time. Actually this year, the trip is not all play no work. I’ve decided to set my next book down there. That means I’ll have to get stuck into some serious research and by that I mean, wine tasting. Oh no! The things we do for art! If only they knew. LOL.

The Girl in the Yellow Vest

So while I’m doing that, the last book in my FIFO girls series is due to hit shelves. Yay! Did you get that copy of “The Girl in the Yellow Vest” I sent you? Please ignore the bite marks on the spine. My toddler son, Michael has sore gums and got stuck into it when my back was turned. Which, I guess brings new meaning to the phrase, “a book you’ll want to sink your teeth into.” Ha ha! I hope you enjoy it at any rate.

I had a ball writing it. There’s heaps of comedy in this one, lots of romance and a whole lot of Queensland. Inspiration for this book dates book to my engineering days out at Dalrymple bay. I was working on the expansion of a coal terminal there in true FIFO style. Like my other two books, this one deals with many FIFO lifestyle issues but at it’s heart is both the fragility and strength of human relationships.

There are four main characters and I wrote this story from all their perspectives. So one chapter I’d be in Charlotte’s point of view and the next chapter I’d switch into Will’s etc. It was really fun doing it this way because I got to explore all their journeys in a lot of depth. Much of the comedy came out of this too. I absolutely adored writing one of my characters, Mark Crawford, who is the project manager on this job. I used to hang out for his chapters. He’s a kind of cross between Miranda Priestly (Devil Wears Prada) Gru (Despicable Me) and Mr Darcy (Pride and Prejudice) so he’s out there! He has a secret list of goals that he’s being pretty methodical with. But in the point of view of the other characters, he looks like he’s acting really weirdly. So it was great fun playing with that.

Operation Valentine

I also have a novella coming out in February, called, “Operation Valentine,” to get everyone in the mood for Valentine’s day - particularly anyone who has a history of being unlucky in love. (I’ve just raised my hand here.) Not to say, that I’m unlucky now. I adore my husband. He’s the best thing that ever to me. But before that, argh! Dating was definitely not my forte. I used to look at other girls who had it all figured out with so much envy. So I wanted to write a short story, for all those hopefuls out there trying to burn a path for themselves in the modern dating world by giving love what I’d always wished it had…. A frickin’ plan!

Anyway, here’s hoping you had a wonderful Christmas with your family and wishing you great things in 2014!

Loretta

The Billy's Boiling with Loretta Hill

Margareta — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 11:48:46 +0000

The Billy's Boiling with Loretta Hill

Margareta Mon, 04/02/2013 - 10:48 pm

Welcome to the 'Billy's Boiling'.

On my blog we’re having are having a metaphorical cuppa and cake on our farm at Tinamba in Gippsland, Victoria. Imagine, if you will, we're in my kitchen, which is pretty comfortable and welcoming (even if I say so myself {smiley} ). The fire is blazing today (it's cold and woolly outside) making the room nice and cosy. There's a bunch of roses in a vase (especially put there for my visitor) on my old and battered Baltic pine table (previously the floor of an old woolshed in NSW). Comfy ladderback chairs invite you to take a seat and there are some gorgeous, old fashioned china mugs just waiting for our cuppa .

And, of course, ‘the billy’s boiling’…

At the table with me is Loretta Hill whose latest book is THE GIRL IN THE HARD HAT. I've just explained to Loretta to ignore that huge cloud of smoke billowing up from over yonder in the mountains behind us. It's the local chaps doing a backburn to keep the northern flank of the Alberfeldy-Donnelly's Creek bushfire in the hills. Her eyes are bugging a bit but seeing she's from a bushfire prone W.A., I think she's a okay with it. (I didn't tell her the damn thing has burnt out 72,000ha and affected countless lives. I'm kinda not sure she needs to know that right now.)

Ahem ... Loretta, tell us a little about the book ... and yourself?!

The Girl in the Hard Hat, Loretta Hill

Well, first up I’d just like to thank you for letting me bring my four kids with me. So hard to find a babysitter these days, especially when they discover how many kids are involved. Oh and terribly sorry about your china cups. Hope they weren’t heirlooms. I’ll definitely replace those. Will write cheque before I leave. Promise!

(My poor cups! And they were Royal Doulton …)

Beth stop jumping on the couch!

You know, it’s actually really hard for me sometimes to chat rural romance because I often feel like a bit of a fraud. I’m one of the few rural writers out there that lives in the city and has no intention of moving away from the big smoke. No offence to outback living. I love the lifestyle but I also love my lattes, shopping, cinemas and -

For the love of God, Beth sit down! Thank you!

“Ummm … Loretta? I don’t think she’s on the couch anymore. The crystal lamp-shade is in dire trouble though…” CRASH!!!

As I was saying, my books are about life as a FIFO worker. I was a Fly in, Fly out girl in my early career as an engineer. The experience really inspired me. You basically get the best of both worlds, city and outback, if you know what I mean.

“The Girl in the Hard Hat” is about a woman called Wendy who basically finds out she’s adopted and traces her biological father to the Pilbara. While she’s looking for him she takes a job at the larrikin invested Cape Lambert Wharf which many of my readers first visited in “The Girl in Steel-Capped Boots.” Unfortunately, to follow the trail her father has left behind she will need the help of notorious womanizer Gavin Jones. If you’ll just excuse me for a minute-

Luke can you please not lick the cream out of the biscuits and then put them back on the plate. No one wants to eat those after you’ve done that! Sorry Margareta!

“No worries.” (I think? errrrr, which one didn’t he lick?)

Where was I? Oh yes. Gavin. I loved writing him. He was really difficult to start with but in the end, his character really came together. I wanted to write a sequel to Boots because I felt that I hadn’t explored the Pilbara enough as a setting. Particularly because Boots was set before cyclone season. Hint. Hint.

“Boots? I love that name. It’s a favourite of mine for horses, dogs …”

Hang on… er... Where’s James? Did a little a boy about three years old come in with me. I mean, he must have, I took him out of the car. On the walk up your drive he was so taken with all the farm animals… Oh shit! Can you hold Michael, I think my son might be in your chook pen.

“I seriously hope he’s not. The chook pen floated downstream in the last flood …”

10 minutes later.

Found him! He was actually in the machinery shed but- Oh dear! Did Michael spew on you. Very naughty boy. Yes… well, I can see I’ve outstayed my welcome so I might just quickly answer your questions and then leave.

“Really? Already? Such a shame. No, it’s fine. I really don’t mind if James wants to keep all that grease. It does suit his complexion.”

Thanks for having me and I hope it wasn’t too much of an ordeal!

“Not at all.” (… as she stuffs broken cups followed by lamp shade pieces into the bin, wipes grease off the walls and goes in the hunt for some Napisan.)

Now, the really fun stuff {cheeky}

Latte or Billy Tea?

Latte!

(She did say she was a city chick)

Country or City?

City!

(I rest my case)

Sea or Trees?

Sea

(Must be something to do with Cape Lambert, I’m guessing?)

Morning or Evenings?

Mornings!

(I can understand that with four kids under four! (Loretta, not me)).

Winter, Spring, Summer, Autumn?

Spring (Hello Romance!)

(Awww ... beautiful)

Swags or Room Service?

Room Service

(It's that city thing again)

Horse or Motor Bike?

Hmmm…. Horse, no, motor bike. I’m sorry. I can’t make up my mind here.

(Well, we are females ...)
.

Books or Shoes?

Urgh! What did I ever do to you to make me choose sides. I can’t do it. I won’t!

(Sassy little thing, isn't she?!)

Jim Craig, Hugh Jackman or Simon Baker (?All of them)?

Jim Craig

Hugh Jackman

Simon Baker

Finally an easy one! Hugh Jackman Hands Down!

(Mr McDreamy himself ...)

Rodeo or Dinner Party?

Dinner Party.

(Golly, she’s a bit predictable! C’mon Loretta, I’m sure there’s a cowgirl in you somewhere? How could you write such fan-tabulous books and there not be?)

Dairy / Cropping / Beef / Sheep?

Beef - on the barbie

(Finally! A girl after my own heart)

Which Tractor - Green, Blue or Red?

Red

(Ditto again. We love red around here. Have just bought a Massey Ferguson )

Holden or Ford?

Holden

(She’s getting better all round)

Cats or Dogs?

Dogs!

(... and better)

Why Writing?

Well, it’s that or an asylum. Which would you pick?

(Seriously??? Some days an asylum would possibly have it’s advantages …)

Writer's Cave or Kitchen Table?

My writers cave is the kitchen! My writing desk is the dining table. It’s noisy but it has coffee and biscuits on tap.

(Sounds perfect, especially the biscuits – although did Luke lick them all too?!)

Book(s) That Changed Your Life?

Devil’s Cub by Georgette Heyer. After I read it, all I could think was I wish I could write like her.

(I must go back and read a few of Georgette’s books. It’s been a long time.)

Event That Changed Your Life?

All the big ones, graduation, getting married, having babies, getting published. It’s all a great big evolving adventure.

( And a wonderful adventure you’re having too, Loretta, especially with such huge successes on the publishing front.)

Now that THE GIRL IN THE HARD HAT is out, are you working on anything now? (What's next?)

Just started the next book. Looks like I’ve got a bit of triology happening here. Though the third story will be set in Queensland, there are definitely some characters from books 1 and 2 continuing on. That’s the great thing about FIFO. You can put people anywhere and change their lives.

(Sounds exciting. I can’t wait. I am a huge fan of your books. )

Words to Live By?

Never let go of your dreams… or your kids. They might disappear.

(… down the creek in a renegade floating chook pen?)

Loretta Hill

Thanks for having smoko with me. Until we meet again, I wish you all the very best of luck with your endeavors.

See you next time as she waves goodbye. {smiley}

Loretta Hill

Welcome to 2015

WELCOME TO 2015

AUSTRALIA'S FAVOURITE AUTHOR POLL - Vote in Booktopia's final poll

THE COWBOY - the release of my new novella!

LARDNER PARK and ROSE RIVER BOOK TOUR

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Dear Margareta ... Loretta xo

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The Billy's Boiling with Loretta Hill

Now, the really fun stuff {cheeky}

Latte or Billy Tea?

Country or City?

Sea or Trees?

Morning or Evenings?

Winter, Spring, Summer, Autumn?

Swags or Room Service?

Horse or Motor Bike?

Books or Shoes?

Jim Craig, Hugh Jackman or Simon Baker (?All of them)?

Rodeo or Dinner Party?

Dairy / Cropping / Beef / Sheep?

Which Tractor - Green, Blue or Red?

Holden or Ford?

Cats or Dogs?

Why Writing?

Writer's Cave or Kitchen Table?

Book(s) That Changed Your Life?

Event That Changed Your Life?

Now that THE GIRL IN THE HARD HAT is out, are you working on anything now? (What's next?)

Words to Live By?

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