Barbara Hannay

September School Holidays Start Now

Margareta-Admin — Fri, 16 Sep 2016 04:03:08 +0000

September School Holidays Start Now

Margareta-Admin Fri, 16/09/2016 - 2:03 pm

Today hails the start of the September school holidays. For those of you past having kids of school age, this won’t necessarily cause a bump on your road. Except, perhaps, if you’re a grey nomad travelling around and all of the sudden everywhere you want to go is booked out, jam packed with screaming kids or even – woe forbid – the local Dan Murphy’s or IGA has sold of out of your favourite wine (#mumsinneedofliquidtheraphy).

In my house it means I have to come up with ‘The Project’. Yes, living three hours from Melbourne means those dinky little lists in daily newspapers entitled ‘20 things to do with the kids on school holidays’, will not work out here. We don’t have a zoo (well, maybe an ‘onfarm’ native fauna one …), nor a fun park to turn to when things get tough. And I might add, that awful word BORING is not allowed to be mentioned or even breathed up here on the hill. (admin - when I was a kid say BORING and you'd be cleaning venetian blinds quicker than you could think "whoops I shouldn't have said that!")

Despite the fact, in most cases, the kids find heaps to do around the farm, it usually involves that torrid thing called, ‘Work’. Hence, The Project’. I figure if I call it ‘The Project’ maybe they won’t twig what it really is!

For example, these holidays, H has time off from his ‘other job’ and we will be building those ongoing cattle yards that I keep banging on about. (Maybe we might get them finished?) The Farm Boy is excited because he gets to drive the tractor, use the post hole borer, learn how to weld, and so long as we don’t mention the word ‘work’, he’s as happy as a boy let loose in his Dad’s machinery shed.

The reverse of this colour scheme .. sort of ... because I love pink.

The Princess on the other hand is a little trickier and this is why I have another ‘Project’, just for her. And that is … (Ta Dahhhhhh …) painting the mailbox. Yes, I know. Sounds boring already, BUT we have decided to turn our very mundane ‘cream with a brown roof’ roadside mailbox into a bathing box. Are you excited? I’m excited. (Can you hear my joy resonating through these words?) We have chosen the colours; bright pink walls (LOVE pink), turquoise roof, yellow trim and have even been on the hunt for one of those little round vent things that usually sit above the door. (I have no idea what they’re called.) Unfortunately we can’t find one, so I think H has been co-opted by the Princess to make one instead.

Love a good campfire we do!

After they have exhausted themselves from all this work activity, we might take a day or two to find other things to do like a trip to town to the movies, or the pool. They’re always good standbys. And then there’s the bonfire or camp-out night where they have mates over, cook and then eat half-raw sausages and try to toast a decent marshmallow. (The dog usually gets quite overloaded with charcoal and sugar at this point.)

"We will get through" is my mantra.

Whilst I DO love having the cherubs home, I will have to admit, my dear readers, that I am the mother who, on the first day back at school, will wander around the house and garden in a dazed state just picking at weeds and playing with my dogs, wondering at the peace and quiet that has FINALLY returned to my world. For at least five days of the week, anyway, and until mid October when the world starts to go mad with the ‘End of the Year’. (I sighted Christmas decorations last week in Spotlight! In September!! True Fact!!!)

A couple of great links I came across this week.

Over at Dolly Henry, Megan is having a wonderful chat about ‘Why being “too busy” to reply is damaging your small business”. This was a wonderful, thought provoking post particularly relevant to this day and age of constant availability. Emails, texts, messenger. Everyone is available in the here and now. A lot of people manage it well; they LOVE having all this technology at their fingertips and prefer an email to a phone call. Me? Well, I’m of the old school. And sometimes, I get overwhelmed. This post was a little reminder, that despite how I’m programmed, I need to move with the times and this is an excellent post on etiquette in dealing with modern communication.

Across at Best Recipes, they had these ‘Muffins that taste like donuts’ and O.M.G. are they going to shoot my no sugar diet to hell. Take a look and if you make them let us know how it goes. (Repeat after me: I AM NOT MAKING THEM. I AM NOT MAKING THEM.)

Rural and women’s fiction author, Rachael Johns, has also been twittering and facebooking that there are now MINT MALTEASERS available in the supermarket. If my diet didn’t go down the gurgler with the muffins, it sure will now. I will have to be physically restrained from picking up a box next time I’m in IGA. Only thing for that will be avoiding the lolly isle completely and that’s going to be difficult seeing it’s school holidays (#mumsinneedofsugartheraphy)

On the book front, I have just finished reading a FABULOUS book by Jane Harper called ‘THE DRY’. Set in northern Victoria it’s a crime/thriller novel that started a publisher bidding war, the likes of which is unusual in Australia to say the least. It’s a brilliantly executed novel where the joy in reading lay in the minute details of country life. Harper pegged this small country community under the stress of drought and other more sinister things (cue spooky music) perfectly.

On the rural romance front, Nicole Alexander’s latest novel RIVER RUN, has hit the shelves. I bought this for H for Father’s Day as he loves Nic’s books and am now waiting VERY impatiently for him to finish. It sounds like another fabulous read from an author who is at the Heart of Australian Storytelling.

I also have the spectacular Liane Moriaty’s TRULY, MADLY, GUILTY on the go, along with HOW TO FIND LOVE IN A BOOK SHOP by Veronica Henry which I was drawn to by its gorgeous cover. I haven’t been able to get into it yet, so no comments until I find a nice slice of time to devote entirely to the book.

Barbara Hannay’s latest, THE GRAZIER’S WIFE, has also made it to my TBR pile. Barbara’s sweeping historical and contemporary dual narrative saga’s rarely disappoint, so I’m looking forward to dipping into that one. At the moment though it is with my Great Aunt, who LOVES reading these kind of books. It also serves the purpose of H not seeing just how many books are sitting on that TBR shelf :)

Podcasts have also become a recent addiction. After putting the kids on the bus, the dogs and I tramp up and down hills (my ‘lets check fences/weeds/cattle and get fit at the same time’ routine) and I have taken to listening to all kinds of brilliant interviews. Unfortunately yesterday while getting particularly immersed in one such podcast, I lost one dog - the Kelpie, Ange. After retracing my steps, in the pouring rain (down the hill which meant I had to go back UP the hill AGAIN) I found her. Off home we went, where I found I had now lost the OTHER dog - Lucy, the pint sized Jack Russell X. Back I go again (still raining) cursing. I found her sitting under a large tree obviously taking refuge from the deluge. Not happy Jan (or Lucy, as the case may be). Off I trudged again with BOTH dogs and I made it home albeit soaked but having finished the podcast AND with TWO dogs (or the real working dog and the one who just thinks she is). So be warned. Podcasts can be addictive and all-consuming. And cause you to lose your canine mates. Let’s hope that doesn’t translate to misplacing my kids over the next two weeks!

Until next time.

Margareta

2015 Christmas Book Suggestions & Ice Cream Cake Recipe!

Margareta-Admin — Tue, 22 Dec 2015 00:39:29 +0000

2015 Christmas Book Suggestions & Ice Cream Cake Recipe!

Margareta-Admin Tue, 22/12/2015 - 11:39 am

Amid 40 degree heat (with NO air conditioning I might add) we partied our way through the first family Christmas celebration yesterday. It was so much fun, with lots of laughter and jokes being shared around the Christmas tree and dinner tables.

That was AFTER they’d all managed to slog their way down the drive and negotiate the electrified bungy cord gateway keeping the cattle from entering the house yard. My brother-in-law from Brisbane (all 6’2” of him) was the only one who rang me from 100 metres away. ‘Ummm … this gateway? How do I open it?’

‘There’s a plastic handle. Grab hold of it and then drop the cord.’

‘Handle? Ummm … I don’t want it to bite me.’

‘You need me to come and save you?’

‘Yep.’

City slickers, I don’t know …

Christmas Book List

Last week I mentioned I’d give you a few book ideas to consider for your Christmas present list. I’ve let the side down this year a bit. Being away doing the mustering season in north western Australia from June to October, cut into my reading time in a large way.

BUT, I can give you a few recommendations based on the reading diet of both myself and a few others close to me whose reading tastes I admire.

Wild Lands, Nicole Alexander

My husband loves Nicole’s books and Wild Lands, her 2015 release, was no exception. For the lover of sweeping Australian saga novels with historical overtones.

The Secret Years, Barbara Hannay

My Great-Aunt adored The Secret Years. This contemporary and historical dual narrative moves from outback Australia to Cornwall, London to war torn Papua New Guinea in a story based on family, heroism and love.

The Saddler Boys, Fiona Palmer

My go-to girl of rural fiction, Fiona Palmer, has once again delivered the goods with this well-rounded lovely rural love story which packs a punch.

Close Your Eyes, Michael Robotham

It’s no secret that thanks to my amazing webmistress/assistant, Karen, I am a HUGE Michael Robotham fan. A man who beat Stephen King to the prestigious CWA Gold Dagger Award in 2015 for his standalone novel Life or Death. Close Your Eyes is another masterpiece. If you love, or have someone in your family who loves crime fiction, this incredibly talented Australian author is your man and this is your book.

(Karen - If you've not read Shatter (from earlier in this series) you might want to start there - which will be no trial!)

The Cuckoo's Calling, Robert Gailbraith

Aka J K Rowling, Robert Galbraith is my new literary love. I couldn’t put these books down. Cormoran Strike is my new Jack Reacher. Sigh. (Lee Child novels) These two books are from previous years but I suggest you start with The Cuckoo’s Calling so you can enjoy the series to the max.

The Silkworm, Robert Galbraith

What I want to read over Christmas …

I really want to read this book. The reviews have been fabulous and I have enjoyed Tricia’s other rural novels.

Between the Vines, Tricia Stringer

Set in and around the world famous Ghan train, deep in the Australian outback, Judy Nunn always delivers well researched, captivating Australian sagas.

Spirits of the Ghan, Judy Nunn

A master at work – the blurb of Kate Morton’s new release has me intrigued and I ADORE the cover.

The Lake House, Kate Morton

As you can probably tell from my comments as well, my webmistress is quite a fan of Crime Fiction. She's added a couple of recommendations that might work for fans of my books as well.

Historical Crime fiction set in England around the Suffragette Movement, Dody McCleland is a qualified doctor working as an autopsy specialist in a time of massive change for women. Beautifully researched and elegantly written, this is a great series from WA based Felicity Young.

A Dissection of Murder, Felicity Young

A Few Right Thinking Men, Sulari Gentill

Another Australian historical crime series, written by ex-lawyer and Truffle Farmer Sulari Gentill who lives in the stunning Snowy Mountains, these books are written with great historical authenticity and a beautifully pitched touch given that they sometimes cover very tricky subject matter.

And it wouldn't be a newsletter from me without a recipe!

Margareta's Ice Cream Cake

Ingredients:

4 litres of vanilla ice-cream

400 g of chocolate honey-comb pieces, chopped into chunks

or 200gms chocolate honey-comb pieces (chopped) and a bag of maltesers

220g bottle of chocolate Ice-Magic

Fresh berries & icing sugar

Put 4 litres of ice-cream into 2 big bowls (Half ice-cream between the two). Leave to soften for 10 minutes (don’t let it melt).

Gently fold in the chopped honeycomb (&/or maltesers). Grease a 26cm spring-form tin. Line base and sides with 2 layers of baking paper. I suggest you go 2-3cm above the edge of the pan with the paper, creating ‘hungry-boards’, so you can get all that yummy ice-cream into the tin.

Spoon ice-cream mixture into the tin and level with a knife or spatula. Freeze overnight.

Just before serving tip ice-cream cake from tin (I removed sides of tin along with the paper, laid a plate on the ‘top’ and tipped the cake upside down so the bottom became the top.) Drizzle immediately with Ice Magic, allow a minute or so to harden then top with fresh fruit. Sift icing sugar over the fruit to finish.

This cake goes ultra well with plum pudding but it would be terrific with any other desert or just by itself.

Note: You can replace the honey-comb/maltesers with other lollies or chocolate bar treats. Let your imagination run wild!

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

Barbara Hannay

September School Holidays Start Now

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2015 Christmas Book Suggestions & Ice Cream Cake Recipe!

Christmas Book List

What I want to read over Christmas …

Margareta's Ice Cream Cake

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

Barbara Hannay

September School Holidays Start Now

Leave a Reply

2015 Christmas Book Suggestions & Ice Cream Cake Recipe!

Christmas Book List

What I want to read over Christmas …

Margareta's Ice Cream Cake

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

* NEWS FLASH *