Posted on by — 4 Comments

Author Harvest ‘bales’ up ~ Kerri Sackville

Now for a change of pace.

I promised different genres during harvest.  This week we are going home with the author of The Little Book of Anxiety, Kerri Sackville.

(Gearing up for a debut novel release next year I am relating to this title just a little!)

I found Kerri on Twitter talking about PMTea and anxiety. That’s right — PMTea! Declared an influential female blogger, Kerri was invited to morning tea with the Prime Minister She took her Little Book of Anxiety as a gift. How cool is that! Her account is hilarious.  Check it out.

Okay Kerri, I will shut up now. Yes, I know it is YOUR blog post. Let’s get the essentials out of the way. Clearly you now know how to throw a morning tea. I assume I am in for a treat. So let’s start by you telling me if it’s scones and tea or some other homemade delight you have whipped up for me today.

I bought you some nice biscuits from the supermarket. And I have a Nespresso machine!

(Mmmm, milk arrowroot. You shouldn’t have. You really, REALLY shouldn’t have.)


 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?

I think gnomes are cute. But my husband The Architect would as soon allow a gnome in our house as a herd of baby elephants.

(Yes, an elephant in the room is never good!)

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

Oranges. I eat an orange every single morning. I love them.

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

Cottage cheese. We love cottage cheese around here. Also cheddar cheese, haloumi cheese and feta cheese. Also cheesestiks, string cheeses and Baby Bells. And did I mention cottage cheese?

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

Is ‘jeans’ a colour?

What are you wearing now? (Be honest!)

Oh lord. I’ve been for a walk so I’m wearing very, very old black yoga pants, sneakers, a cream t-shirt with a picture of four bunny rabbits on it, and a super ancient, bright orange hoodie. It’s not good.

Whose home would you like to housesit and why?

Simon Baker’s. I’d roll around in his bed and go through his private things.

Country curiosities…

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

I love hats but I feel ridiculous in them. My left ear always pops out.

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

Only the chicken knows.

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?

I’m still waiting for it. Maybe after the next (third) book?

What is the hardest part of writing for you?

Finding time. I have three kids and they seem to generate a lot of a) conversation, b) hunger, c) laundry, d) mess and e) schlepping. And it’s hard to a) chat, b) cook, c) wash, d) clean and e) drive whilst typing.

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

Life And Other Crises. Like my blog.

What question have you always wanted to be asked in an interview? How would you answer that question?

“Has anyone ever told you that you look like Natalie Portman?” I would answer “Yes, all the time”. It would be a lie.

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 write memoirs so I am my protagonist. I think I’m pretty awesome, though I think if I met myself I would find me a little too highly strung.

(I can recommend a good book for that!)

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?

Simon Baker’s wife. But for about a year.

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

Put on the TV for you and have a little nap. Naps are the BEST.

What was the best thing before sliced bread?

Unsliced bread? I love bread and wouldn’t at all mind eating the whole loaf.

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

I would just pretend to people that I am stapling my own finger. Five times.

(*snigger*)

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

7.5283

(Sounds fair!)

Nice job, Kerri and thanks for the Arrowroot!

Follow: You can connect with Kerri on Twitter and read her PM rated blog at www.kerrisackville.com

Buy: Kerri’s books are available at all good book stores, or order online at booktopia.com.au (direct link to books is http://www.booktopia.com.au/search.ep?productType=917504&keywords=kerri+sackville)
Oh and the ‘other’ PMS post – also hilarious!

Author Harvest is just getting started. If you’ve enjoyed this post (and earlier posts) there’s plenty more in store throughout spring, summer, autumn and winter harvests.

Why not subscribe to my blog and have the posts delivered to you inbox.

Posted on by — 8 Comments

Schlepping to Sydney for a Simon & Schuster Session

I’m taking time out of my Author Harvest to post a publishing journey update.

I have just returned from a meeting with my publisher in Sydney (Simon & Schuster). J and I flew down for the day to meet the team tasked with publishing and promoting my debut novel House For All Seasons early next year. The welcome we received was so wonderfully warm (although walking into the boardroom and being seated at the head of the table with a few dozen pair of eyes trained on me was a tad daunting.)

I need not have worried. Even though I was a long way from my country comfort, I was ‘at home’ from the first hello hug. And when Larissa Edwards (Head of Publishing) introduced my book, telling her team the tiniest detail of each character I knew I was in the right place and in the very best hands.

She got it! — me, my story, my characters. (Isn’t that what every author wants? For a reader to ‘get it’?)

After meeting my publicist, interstate sales reps and chatting with staff, three star-struck Simon & Schuster authors spent two excited hours chatting over coffee — the delightful Anna Romer (L) and Karen Davis (R) – both with debut novels out August 2013. The three of us clicked immediately (and discovered so many connections – too many to be coincidences – we decided our writing journeys had led each of us to that meeting and it was the start of a very special friendship.)

I will be featuring these talented ladies in my Author Harvest, so stay tuned.

Oh, and in case the special star treatment went to my head… This was my reality the next day. What this author REALLY does some days!

 

Posted on by — 11 Comments

Author Harvest ‘bales’ up NZ’s Rae Roadley

How does a life-long city dweller in her middle years find ‘love at the end of the road’, particularly when that road threads through the backblocks of New Zealand and winds up at a sheep and beef farm on the Kaipara Harbour?

Rae’s memoir tells that story — a story that begins with a blind date. And while the road to love has its challenges and heartaches, the setting…

Well, just look at the stately old Batley House. Magnificent. A boarding house in the late 1800s and in then 1970s a home for solo-parent children. But then along came Rae, finding Love at the End of the Road.

At home…Batley House

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

Often a massive bowl – more than a litre – of Pacific Oysters the farmer has just plucked out of the harbour.

(Yum!)

What are you wearing now? (Be honest!)

Trackies – yay! I went for a run today… more of a run/walk, but only my dog was looking.

Tell us what you buy when you walk into a fish and chip shop.

(Nah, only teasing you. Sorry Rae, you now I had to :)))

Country curiosities…

We love a sunburnt country (slip, slop, slap and all that). How about over there in the north of New Zealand. What’s your ideal hat? Or are you a boots person?

I love my Aussie Akubra – bought when everyone I rode horses with in LA wore wild west cowboy hats.

About you…

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

When my job didn’t involve writing as promised, but fending off creditors while the company went noisily down the gurgler, I immediately trained as a journalist.

Oh – and that wasn’t the question: After signing my contract with Penguin and I daydreamed through three motorway off-ramps. I was a danger on the road.

What question have you always wanted to be asked in an interview?

Were you nervous when your memoir was published?

How would you answer that question?

I lived on Rescue Remedy and my ‘scary’ list included: Things I haven’t worried about.

At a recent conference I attended two community leaders – a bloke and a dame (a real one, dubbed by the queen) – spoke movingly about leadership, saying a key attribute was strong emotional health. If I’d always been a steady six or seven, which is probably where I sit now, there’d likely be no memoir. Truth is, in my troubled 20s I sank lower, then I devoted much of my 30s to the hugely rewarding upward climb.

Fun stuff…

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’m still fascinated by Madeline Albright – can I spend time with her rather than swap?

(Sure you can.)

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

Feed you and tell a joke. There was a tourist and a prostitute…

(At last, someone wants to feed me. See, that’s why we clicked as critique partners. She gets me! Now start shucking those oysters, Rae.)

Jenn’s trivia: Rae, from across the Tasman (journo, fiction author, non-fiction author)was the first person to read my work, back when I was tense about my tense. (Still am!)

We were introduced by a critique partnering program. But as much as we hit it off, sending that first manuscript to someone other than family terrified me.

I still think sending your not quite there yet manuscript, knowing it needs work, is a bit like walking into a fitting room with that size 12 bikini while only one month into the diet!

 More about Rae…

Both Rae and I are sea changers, dog lovers and we’re also not afraid to grab hold of a second chance at life and love when one comes our way. Her memior will show you that (and a whole lot more).

Love at the End of the Road: Finding my heart in the country

Soon after returning to her hometown in Northland, New Zealand to work as a journalist, Rae meets farmer Rex Roadley through a rural dating service.  

Rex’s beef and sheep farm at Batley, on theKaipara Harbour, has been in his family for almost a century. These days the only evidence of the spot’s fascinating historic past is a magnificent two-storeyed villa standing alone on the point.

Neither Rae nor Rex are youngsters and their love affair, developing relationship and life together go through many twists and turns before they eventually marry.

Meanwhile Rae, a lifelong city dweller, learns to cope with mud, managing a large house and garden, the intricacies of farming, and the frustrations of life in New Zealand’s backblocks, all the while getting to know the locals and an assortment of animals – from wild kittens to wild bulls.

Rae’s charming story is beautifully written from the heart. Not only does she find love with Rex, but she finds out more about herself than she ever knew. Woven through her account is the story of the great house itself at Batley and the history of the surrounding countryside.

Love At The End Of The Road is published through Penguin Books.

For more about Rae and her writing: www.raeroadley.co.nz

Thanks Rae. Have a great holiday.