Mountain Ash Book Tour

Farm World 2014 Wrap Up

Margareta-Admin — Fri, 04 Apr 2014 02:06:35 +0000

Farm World 2014 Wrap Up

Margareta-Admin Fri, 04/04/2014 - 1:06 pm

Farm World at Lardner Park Warragul, one of the biggest farm field days in the country, is over for another year and this little black duck has taken a week to get over it!

You would have read my earlier post about getting the stall set up, and what with all those reversing van problems I didn't get a chance to take a photo of the stall itself until day 1 …

Everything nicely filled up our fabulous corner site of 3m X 3m. Which I guess kind of meant you couldn't really miss us, and it was fabulous to catch up with so many wonderful readers of books (whoever said reading is dead!).

Maybe it was the proximity of all those wonderful tractors (I'm easily distracted by tractors), but to be honest I felt really lucky to be signing what felt like tractor loads of books.

By the end of the event it kind of felt like I might need a bigger tractor (or at least that was my excuse for the fond gazing and sighing that was going on beside this beauty!).

Sigh. Sorry... where was I - oh that's right Farm World - stall. Books.

The very best part of the entire field days was the number of lovely people that dropped in to say hello and agreed to be photographed with me and their copy of Mountain Ash.

But I love signing novels and talking about books, and farming, and country life in general, and I signed and signed, until all my special signing pens were out of ink ...

And I nearly (okay, well only nearly) ran out of puff with talking ... stop laughing. I do stop talking sometimes.

Anyway ... thank heavens my father (who, after trying every pen he could in Officeworks, found me the most awesome, free flowing scribing apparatus an author could wish for) stocked me up with refills (he’s such a good Dad).

It was so humbling to listen to all the enthusiasm from readers for Australian rural books.

Hearing people enthuse over the fact these are stories they can relate to, and then, when they add they also love a book with an infusion of ‘delicious romance’. (I think one fellow - a repeat buyer - described them as delightfully saucy!), well I had to go and have an ice-cream after that conversation.

Which of course led to tractors, although these were tiny model ones for my son (who takes after his father in the ‘I love tractors’ department) Isn’t this old truck totally cool?!

Oops … distractions again …

Which speaking of distractions, each year I have an Alpaca come to visit me. Eli started out coming to my stall as a baby (bottle fed by his owner, Jenny, from the age of 3 days, so he thinks Jenny is his mother). He came back last year just after I’d been drenched by a downpour of rain (note the ‘hat hair’) …

And he was back again this year to buy his book and trying very unsuccessfully to hide his grown-up body behind Jenny, but I was so excited about patting him and saying hello I forgot to take a photo! (massive head slap!)

We were also extremely fortunate, again, to have the Gippsland Country Life Magazine supporting a fabulous competition for those who bought MOUNTAIN ASH at the field days.

So without further ado and if you'd just sound a bit of a drumroll in your heads the winners of the five 12 month subscriptions to the absolutely gorgeous Gippsland Country Life magazine were:

Rosie Harris, Ballangeich
Kim Berklemans, Toongabbie
Brenda Nicholls, Bairnsdale
Kate Reedy, Cranbourne South
Evelyn Hogg, Leongatha

The winners have been contacted and can expect to receive their first Gippsland Country Life magazine in time for winter.

Many thanks to all who entered the competition and massive congratulations to the winners, you will adore this stunning ‘home-grown’ coffee table magazine.

~~~~

It's been a busy year so far, what with manuscript timeframes, buying and moving properties and releasing MOUNTAIN ASH, but events like Farm World remind me of your eagerness to read ‘my kind’ of books which just refuels my zest for writing.

And so it was with an exhausted but very light heart that I called into the very cute Cowwarr store on the way home for a ‘lolly stop’…

My little bag of jubes were a celebration of sorts to say ‘here’s cheers’ to the next book and another Farm World to look forward to next year.

A massive thank you goes to the wonderful people of Gippsland for their incredible support of a locally born and bred author. Your generous and enthusiastic support for me and my books never fails to move me.

I sincerely want to thank you all.

Farm World 2014

Margareta-Admin — Thu, 27 Mar 2014 02:18:52 +0000

Farm World 2014

Margareta-Admin Thu, 27/03/2014 - 1:18 pm

It’s Farm World at Lardner Park time, one of the biggest farm field days in the country, which, for me, means four days of fabulous fun talking to readers of my books.

But to do this we have to set up our site first.

First on the list of things to do was to borrow ‘The Van’.

‘The Van’ is a Mercedes Vito and it belongs to our eldest son. It’s the modern day version of the old ‘sin-bin’ and usually holds a motorbike, surfboard, water ski, snow board and his lovely girlfriend – sometimes all at the same time {smiley}

So, after he emptied out his gear, we loaded ours into the back of the van. This means all the ‘props’ for the stall including two of my horse’s bales of hay plus bridle, my driza-bone, my stock-whip, my Akubra (and my Dad then quipped, ‘and you.’ He’s such a smarty-pants.) Add to the props boxes and boxes of books …

… giveaways, the beautiful table and chairs that H made for the last Farm World site, and all sorts of stuff to make the next four days enjoyable (tea, bickies, chocolate...) and that van was FULL.

So we set off, H and I, on our trip down to Warragul with H bemoaning the fact he couldn’t find reverse on the van. ‘I’ve tried to throw the gearstick hard left, hard right and I just can’t find it!’ (And this is coming from a man who’s a wizard with anything mechanical.)

I say, in response, ‘Well, I’m sure if you come across to the left, push down hard and jiggle it a bit, you'll find reverse. Or maybe it’s to the right? I’m not exactly positive which way it goes but that’s how you do it.’ (And this is coming from a woman whose brain goes straight to white noise the minute anyone says the word ‘mechanical’ or ‘pump’.)

So we arrive at the field days site, which I might add is MASSIVE. Acres and acres of tractors, motorbikes, machinery, cattle-yards, cattle, sheep, alpacas – you name it in farming, and I reckon you’ll find an example at Farm World.

We drive into the big shed where our site is, to unload. H says to me, ‘We’ll have to find a way out forwards. You know, the backing thing …’ I say, ‘Why don’t you just try my suggestion?’ He says, ‘I tried it all at home.’ So we unload and set up the stand, battling with winds coming through the shed doors and threatening to blow our gear all the way to heaven. (I can just see Saint Peter sitting up there at the Pearly Gates reading MOUNTAIN ASH. Not.)

It comes time to leave. We can’t go forwards because there is another van in the way. The only way out of the joint is backwards.

‘Okay you get in and try backing it,’ says H with a grin obviously fully expecting me to fail with a capital F.

So I got in, closed my eyes a second and just trusted my instincts. Let my hands do the talking without me instructing my brain to do anything. Pushed that gear stick hard to the left, down and jiggled it a bit …

Lo and behold, we went straight into reverse.

The look on H’s face was priceless! The grin on my face was the result of utter delight. Soooo … he then made me back all the way out of the shed, (with a crowd of people watching – meany!) and manoeuvre around numerous other vans and cars all within spitting distance (just a little spit too!), just to see how smart I really was.

I’m proud to say I did it. And H had to buy me a quick lunch at the pub on the way home as a result. It’s not too often I get one up on my beloved husband and I was going to work it for all it was worth! {wink}

So now, at Site No. 17 in the General Interest Pavilion, we are selling books, signing books, chatting about books … along with farming and kids and dogs and horses and lack of rain and everything else we all talk about on these four days. (We need some new cattle yards and as you can almost do a degree in cattle yard design, if you’re into yards please come talk to me about that too {cool})

Hope I see you here!

Mountain Ash Book Tour in Queensland 2014

Margareta-Admin — Tue, 18 Mar 2014 04:48:33 +0000

Mountain Ash Book Tour in Queensland 2014

Margareta-Admin Tue, 18/03/2014 - 3:48 pm

Dusk over Lake Glenmaggie last Sunday night, and I was busily packing for my Mountain Ash book tour to southern Queensland.

Kids school uniforms laid out for the week, cakes for five days to satisfy the men at smoko, enough dog & cat food to satisfy those with four legs, the list was endless.

At the airport the following afternoon, I managed to find my book. You cannot imagine how exciting it is to see it up on the shelf. Gets me everytime.

I landed in Brisbane just in time to see what Melbourne really wished they had … and I know they’re trying but I think Brissie has it covered 150%.

My publicist then introduced me to the new Margareta phenomena, ‘Grills’. Oh. My. God. Have you tasted their chips? Seriously to die for. You must cuddle them to you and emphatically say 'Mine, mine, mine!'

After a lovely sleep in the hugest bed I have ever seen, it was off to Redlands Library at Victoria Point. The library staff put a huge amount of effort into promoting my visit.

A whole bunch of delightful people came to hear me talk.

Then it was time to visit beautiful Wynnum where they count their steps all over town. What a great idea!

Hervey Bay was our next stop and as we arrived in the dark, imagine my cry of surprise when the next morning I opened my curtains to see …

Spectacular, hey?!

If I ever take the family back we are getting one of these rooms. The kids would be in seventh heaven!

The delightful ladies from Mary Ryan’s bookstore along with the accommodating and lovely people from the Hervey Library hosted my talk …

And again I was privileged to speak with some devout fans of Australian fiction.

Time to hit the road again and point the bonnet towards Bundaberg. BUT … my publicist (who was driving) revealed a secret. Just out of Childers there is this intriguing sign.

‘No, Jess! No way am I voluntarily going anywhere near snakes!’ says the tough bushie to the more refined city slicker.

Jess (aka the city slicker) ignored me and turned anyway.

‘ARGH! Don’t do it to me!’

Drove right past …

And turned into …

And. OH. MY. GOD. There is something better than Grills chips. It’s Mammino Gourmet Ice-Cream! It is so divine it’s sinful. And look at all the flavours. So hard to choose …

ade on site with the owners own sugar cane and yummy macadamias. (The 'Red Dirt' - Jaffa Macadamia was mine.)

Ahem. But moving right along (lest you think all I think about is my taste buds …)

And we hit Bundaberg. And yes, the brewery was the first stop. C’mon. My husband LOVES his rum and he deserved a present. What could I do? What could I say? Really?

Bundaberg was where I met some lovely Facebook friends and more avid readers of rural fiction. Sue Stirrat and Vanessa Hair, it was wonderful to meet you.

And I was also lucky enough to chat with a delightful young lady whose dream it is to become a published author. Sent me back a year or two or three.

The next morning we headed back towards Childers where the redness of their volcanic soil once again blew my breath away. Blue sky, green sugar cane and rich rust-claret coloured soil. Simply stunning. And of course, as we passed through this quaint old town we saw another Mammino Ice-cream store.

And just had to stop. The sorbet, I can assure you, is amazing.

As were the gorgeous ladies of Childers. Despite juggling media interviews, I got to sign lots of books.

And chat about the conditions these stoic farmers are going through. It’s one thing to read about the heart breaking drought which has left 79% of Queensland drought declared, but it is another to see the conditions they are experiencing with your own eyes. I have never felt undergrowth so crunchy underfoot, nor seen such bared out paddocks and dry dams in a long, long time.

Onto the last stop of our whirlwind Qld tour – Kingaroy – where the crowd were warm, welcoming and so responsive. Voiced by a delightful lady at the Kingaroy library, was the question which was apparently on everyone’s minds, ‘Where did you get your jeans?’

I think I’m going to live in Kingaroy in my next life. They appreciate a nice pair of Ariats as much as we East Gippslanders. (Turquoise Rosario – lurex embroidery on front and back pockets with rhinestone embellishes – they’re fabulously blingy {cool})

Despite the dreadful conditions they are experiencing in this part of Australia, I found the people who came to my talks warm, friendly and utterly absorbed in the half hour talks I gave. The tone and emphasis of our discussions shifted from place to place but the topics which remained constant over the days of the tour were, ‘Where did you get your inspiration for MOUNTAIN ASH? How do you write? Why do you write? And most of all, we love reading Australian fiction. Please keep on writing.’

After once again experiencing such enthusiasm for my kind of books, I certainly intend to. Thank you Queensland for having me. I had the best time.

And being rather good...

You also gave me the bet piece of advice I could pass onto my 20-year-old son.

Love it.

M x

Mountain Ash Book Tour

Farm World 2014 Wrap Up

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Farm World 2014

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Mountain Ash Book Tour in Queensland 2014

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