Jenn J McLeod - Australian Fiction

Hi Heather, welcome to Harvest, and congratulations on your release – Breakaway Creek. (You know I love that cover, Heather.) 

Now some lucky reader of this blog will have the change to win an ebook version. Just leave a comment.

Heather, start by telling me if it’s scones and tea or some other homemade delight you have whipped up for me today! 🙂

Hello Jenn and thanks for having me. I’ve just knocked up some pumpkin sultana muffins and made us coffee. Hope you like coffee. (That was the easiest and best baking I’ve ever done!)

(Hmm, let’s see… I used to own a cafe and now I am a full-time writer. OF COURSE I LOVE COFFEE! 🙂  )

NOw, Heather, at home…

My mum says garden gnomes make a house a home! Are you loud and proud in your love of garden gnomes at home, a closet gnomer or with a strict ‘no gnomes’ policy at your place?

No gnomes at my place, I’m afraid. I do have a bird bath – does that count?

(Ahh, no. But nice try!)

What vegetable (or fruit) have you always wanted to grow at home?

I love oranges and used to grow them, before a combination of drought and hard bore water killed the trees. We’ve had some wet years recently so perhaps I should have tried again. But hello! I’m a writer, not a gardener!

(Oh, I hear ya, sista! Our fingers are insured now, aren’t they? Mine are. And speaking of birds before and fingers, I also refrain from all finger flips and other gestures now. My fingers are for typing only these days!)

If I came to your home and looked in the refrigerator, what would I find?

Plenty of healthy food but also lots of jars of homemade pickles etc which we’ve been given and don’t seem to eat. Probably quite a few things past their use-by date.

(Please refrain from using terms such as ‘past use-by date on my blog. Thanks!)

If you sorted your wardrobe by colour, what colour would stand out? (Ahh, do you sort your wardrobe by colour?!)

No, I don’t sort by colour. It would be hard as my wardrobe looks like the proverbial Coat of Many Colours.

(Oh gosh! You’ve taken me back to my primary school days when I had a role in the musical based on ‘Godspell’. I’d so wanted the lead role so I got to sing Coat of Many Colours. But no, bloody Michelle Jarvis (are you reading this post Michelle Jarvis where ever you are?) Yes, you were pretty and talented, while I resembled … Well, I cannot find the words to describe myself in 1972. (But clearly, by the look of in this class photo -below-I managed to find the refrigerator!) So anyway, losing out on that role devastated me. Obviously! Here I am still raving on about it, for goodness sake! Instead, I got some other poxy song to sing that was way too high for me and … well … Sorry. Where were we? Next question? And I’ll have another scone, please Heather.)

What are you wearing now? Be honest! (and best not say a coat of many colours!)

As I had to slip into town this morning I’m better dressed than usual. A pair of decent-looking jeans and a long-sleeved shirt. But I’ll confess to tatty slippers on my feet.

Whose home would you like to housesit and why?

I don’t mind whose – as long as it’s somewhere in the beautiful Adelaide Hills so I can visit my daughter frequently.

(I LOVE the Adelaide Hills.)

Country curiosities…

We love a sunburnt country (slip, slop, slap and all that). What’s your ideal hat? Or are you a boots person?

Once I would have said an Akubra, which I still wear when we’re doing cattle work. But I have a cloth hat to wear around our yard, which is lighter, cooler and doesn’t put dust all over the washing.

If you were a tree (or animal) what kind of tree (animal) would you be?

I’d like to be a cat and laze around all day.

Now for the big question… Why did the chicken cross the road?

Because it had flown the coop.

🙂

About you…

Your turning point: when was that point in your life that you realized that being an author was no longer going to be just a dream but a reality and a career?

Getting The Call – not that I would describe writing as my career, exactly. It’s one of my part-time jobs and I’m happy with that as I also enjoy my other jobs.

What is the hardest part of writing for you?

Plotting used to be the easiest part but seems to have become much harder for me lately. I’m weird in that I enjoy editing.

(Not weird. Or we are weird together. I enjoy editing too.)

If someone was to write your biography, what do you think the title should be?

I’m sure no-one will ever want to write my biography. 🙂

Fun stuff…

What does your protagonist think about you? Would he or she want to hang out with you, the author, his/her creator.

I think Shelley, from Breakaway Creek, would enjoy spending time with me. I could take her for a ride and show her around the farm.

If you could trade places with any other person for a week, famous or not famous, living or dead, real or fictional, with whom would it be?

I would swap with my other heroine, Emma, from Breakaway Creek to experience life in the late nineteenth century.

If I said to you, “Just entertain me for five minutes, I’m not going to talk,” what would you do?

Read an extract from my book. (I can’t sing, dance or play a musical instrument, so the options are limited!)

(I can’t sing either according to my 1972 teacher! So how about you leave an extract below! Oh look! You have already.)

What food would you be?

Plum pudding – old-fashioned and homely.

(Lovely!)

What was the best thing before sliced bread?

Damper! I love hot damper with butter and syrup.

(Okay, scones, plum pudding, damper and syrup! I have put on about 5kg doing this post! I’m going to have to stop asking this question.)

Name 5 uses for a stapler that has not staple pins.

I can only think of one and that’s cluttering up my desk.

How weird are you? Rate yourself on a scale of 1 (not) to 10 (very).

Perhaps a 6. I do talk to myself, so that must count as weird.

Now about Breakaway Creek. I love the sound of it already.

(And don’t forget to leave a comment, readers. I will announce the winner here in about a week.)

Breakaway Creek