The Healing Season & Agronomists

In The Healing Season, Alicia the main female character, is an agronomist in the Dulili Ag Store. I wanted her to be working in agriculture but running a farm was a little unlikely because she was young. I could have had her managing a property after her parents' death, but I used that in another story, so shied away from it. I decided that she worked in the business of agriculture instead, as an Agronomist.

I haven't been an Agronomist, except for a short fill-in stint I did, but I've worked with them and have friends who are Agronomists. I knew the job, I knew what they did, and so I used it to create Alicia.

I didn't think of the impact that has on people reading the story.

I caught up with a friend who had read the book. She's an Agronomist and she was so thrilled that Alicia was one too. She told me parts of the story (like when Alicia is surveying the paddocks mentally doing a nutrition assessment of the pastures/crops) where she became excited because Alicia thought like she did.

The story took an extra dimension because it related to her on such a personal level. It reaffirmed her job/life/thoughts.

I hadn't considered that before. Or not as a writer. As a reader, I have had that thought but maybe I haven't verbalised it or thought it through.

It was amazing to be shown how powerful a seemingly innocuous choice can be to a reader.

I know there aren't going to be scores of people in the rural careers I choose for my characters, and some may find the choices odd, but if I can validate one person's career choice by including their job in a work of fiction, then I think that is wonderful.

I want to write to bring an awareness and understanding of agriculture to readers. I was a city girl who loved the country, and went to work in agriculture. I grew to love agriculture even with a very green background...and a huge array of stupidity and mistakes! I love being able to share that love.

So, to all the agronomists out there helping with the science of farming - my thanks!

I'm in the spotlight!

Over on the Australian Rural Romance website, I'm in the spotlight this week. You can find it here:
http://australianruralromance.com/spotlight-catherine-evans-healing-season

It's a great spot to find all your favourite rural romance authors and check to make sure you haven't missed any books :) You know, a book addicts website!

Reviews & THANKS!

One of the 'guidelines' you get as an author is that reviews are for readers. There's some discussion about whether or not authors should comment/like/read reviews, or whether they should just remain untouched by authors.

I thought it was a bit rude not to like/thank someone for a review, so I thought I'd do that. But then sometimes people don't leave a written review, just a number of stars out of 5. What do you do with stars? Do you thank/like them too?

I'd heard that you shouldn't read negative reviews because they could be harmful to your writing...but I found reading positive reviews stopped me writing. No one told me that!

I wish I knew why they affect me, but I suspect it creates that 'am I good enough?' question. In my case, it's 'am I good enough to do this again?' If I write another book will people like that too?

There's something about creativity and insecurity going hand-in-hand. I put so much of myself and my deepest thoughts into a story, and that leaves you vulnerable to criticism. Don't get me wrong - I don't write true events, the characters aren't me, nothing in the stories actually happened - but I tap deep into myself to create each story, each character.

While I love receiving an email/note from a reader (which for some reason makes me happy and not scared), I don't go looking for reviews. I know they can help people pick a book to read. I know they're great for on-selling. I know I should be doing so many things...

So today I went to have a look and see how The Healing Season, Honey Hill House and A Heart Stuck on Hope were faring in the review (written review) and rating (no words, just stars) stakes. On Amazon AU, there are:
4 x 5 stars reviews for The Healing Season
2 x 5 stars reviews for Honey Hill House
8 reviews for A Heart Stuck on Hope; 6 of them are 5 stars.

On Goodreads, there are:
37 ratings, most being 4 and 5 stars for The Healing Season
49 ratings, most being 4 and 5 stars for Honey Hill House
73 ratings, most being 4 and 5 for A Heart Stuck on Hope
5 ratings, 3 being 5 stars for Last Chance Country. 

So, today, I'll be unable to write but I'd love to give a huge THANK YOU to all the readers who have read and enjoyed our books. 5 stars are incredible and to have so many blows my mind.

That people take the time to leave a written review is also incredible and many thanks if you have!

I'm quite blown away that my story could resonate with others. It makes me a very happy writer.

Many thanks for your encouragement and support. I'll have to get a thicker skin so I can check these out more often! :)

Interviews and posts

I have a couple of things up today on other webpages.

On the Australian Rural Romance website, I'm taking you on a trip to Tibooburra through time. You can see it here: http://australianruralromance.com/changing-scenery-tibooburra-catherine-evans

And on With Love For Books, Suze Lavender does an interview with me about writing and life. You can read that here - http://www.withloveforbooks.com/2016/05/a-dollar-for-dream-interview-with.html

Things have started to return to normal for me, so I hope I can begin to regularly post.

Library Talk

I'm off to do my first Author Talk tomorrow.

Nowra Library at 1 pm.

It's exciting as it's been on my 'wish list' for a while now and I can finally cross it off!

My talk is done. I have some photos to jazz it up if needed/technology allows. I've got bookmarks, pens, magnets, mugs.

Dymocks Nowra will be there to sell books, and Miranda will be doing that. I love the staff at Nowra Dymocks, they're always so friendly and helpful (as a reader) so I'm stoked they can come and support me as a writer.

My Dad's arrived to come cheer for me. So I'm almost set. Just have to get biscuits/cake tomorrow.

I'll let you know how it goes!

(And I've been saving all my energy beans for this. I've been knocked about by a gastric flu a fortnight ago and every day I'm getting a bit more energy, but man, most days I'm still struggling! Hope I survive tomorrow - then I can sleep all the rest of the weekend)

Thursday Thoughts - THANK YOU!

THANK YOU!

It seems so inadequate. I should have words at my fingertips to explain any situation - but I don't.

What words can I say to let you know how much I appreciate your support - every single one of you. People I know, have known, and those I don't know yet or may never meet.

Each person who bought a book (electronic or print). Shared my happiness. Read a word, or the whole thing. Wrote a review. Told me how they enjoyed it. Shared something on social media. Smiled at my silliness.

Every time you thought of me and helped me achieve and celebrate my dreams.

I don't know how to say how special that's been. Humbling and exciting all at once. Thrilling and terrifying.

It's been the most amazing rollercoaster - thank you for joining in and giving me the ride of my life!

Print Release Day

Happy Release Day!!!!

 

Thursday Thoughts - Literacy

I've always been a huge reader with a great thirst for knowledge. I didn't know anyone with literacy issues until I was a working adult. That's not entirely true. I knew people, who struggled because English was their second language, but I didn't know any English-speaking people who struggled with literacy and numeracy. When Argentinian neighbours tried to teach me Spanish as a child, I realised how difficult life was when you had to think in another language.

I worked in agricultural research. When I first moved to Wagga Wagga for work, I felt like I'd moved to a foreign country. I often had no idea what people were talking about - there was this jargon, a language of agriculture and farming, that I didn't know. I spent an afternoon with a guy who was bringing me up to speed on a project I was to work on, and after the pleasantries, I could barely understand what he said. I was so embarrassed. I had a degree, and I was useless. What do you say? How do you tell someone that you haven't understood their first sentence, let alone the last 3 hours? I was almost in tears. I had a new job and I didn't understand any of it.

This horrifying experience made me more aware of others and I've been forever grateful for it (but not at the time!). I took a chance of telling someone how I felt - I couldn't have picked a better person to confide in. He helped me with the jargon, I helped him with things he didn't get (there weren't too many and maybe he asked just to be nice, but I felt like we helped each other...which says a lot for him and his manner of teaching me). We kept up this relationship for all the years we worked together. Looking back, he must have told others because I often had people come and ask me to explain science concepts or words, or they'd ask me to help with writing something - and in return, these people helped me with the practical, farming things I didn't know.

When I work with people, I try to notice if they've understood things. I'm attune to that glazed-eyed stare when you've lost the meaning of what's being said. Later, when I taught classes and gave talks, I tried to explain the jargon and get to the basics. I didn't want anyone to feel how I'd felt those first days in the new job - useless and stupid.

I've done quite a lot of writing for people who've helped me with physical work. I've written job applications, grade progressions, reports, letters and personal bits in exchange for learning to drive a truck and a tractor, learning to tie a truckie's hitch, having trucks and utes unloaded, soil corers cleaned, sharpened or made, nifty time-saving gadgets invented for my work. I think I got the best end of those deals!

I began to be aware that some people had phenomenal memories and knowledge. They'd tell you all manner of things, so long as they weren't trapped in an office/schoolroom environment. I learned that if a course was practical and theory, teaming up with someone who was good at practical was best for me. I'd help with theory, they'd help with prac. Of course, I learned this the hard and embarrassing way. :) A friend and I did a tractor safety course together and when they needed us to pair up, we did. It didn't take long for the poor instructor to pair us up with two of the older farm hands who actually knew so much more than we did, but who had trouble writing. It was a lesson I will always remember - know your weaknesses, and find someone to help you offset that!

When a fellow I worked with went back to TAFE to improve his reading and maths so he could help his kids with schoolwork...it had a huge impact. This guy's burning drive was to improve, no matter how difficult this 'school stuff' was. I admired him and his commitment greatly. He wasn't improving for his benefit - he managed quite well as it was - he wanted this for his kids. A better life for his kids.

I was in a book group with a bunch of literacy teachers. I've seen both sides of this issue and my admiration for the adult literacy teachers is also high.

These are some of the reasons why I included literacy as a theme in The Healing Season. I only skim the issue but it was important to me that I acknowledge this very real rural issue, because it is so often overlooked.

Trasure Hunt

To celebrate the release of Last Chance Country we are giving readers the chance to participate in an exciting Treasure Hunt! Go on the hunt for the answers to the questions below to be placed in the draw to win a number of great prizes!

The prizes
We’re giving away a rare print copy of Last Chance Country signed by all three authors to one lucky reader!
Another reader will win a full set of the A Dollar For A Dream mugs. That’s four mugs – one for each of the individual stories in the series and a beautiful mug featuring the cover of Last Chance Country.
In addition to this we have more bookmarks to give away!

The Questions
1. Jennie Jones writes feel-good fiction with romance and a touch of ... (what?) at heart.
2. Lisa Ireland writes romantic fiction where city meets ... (what?)
3. Catherine Evans writes about Farming, Fiction and ... (what?)

How to enter.
Find the answers to the questions above (HINT: you’ll find the answers on our websites – addresses listed below!)
Send your answers to Lisa at lisa.ireland66@gmail.com
Please put TREASURE HUNT in the subject line!!!

One correct answer will give you one entry in the draw, two correct answers gets you two entries and three correct answers gives you three entries.

The winners will be drawn randomly from those with correct answers!

The websites
http://www.jenniejonesromance.com
http://lisaireleandbooks.com
http://www.catherineevansauthor.com/
 
Competition closes midnight (AEDST time) Sunday March 27 (Easter Sunday)

*****PLEASE NOTE COMPETITION ONLY OPEN TO READERS WITH AN AUSTRALIAN POSTAL ADDRESS****

Thursday Thoughts - Grief

I keep finding myself writing about grief. It's something I struggle to understand in myself, so that's probably why it keeps popping up in my writing.

I'm a crier. A big messy horrid crier. I can't help myself. I sob in books, movies, TV commercials, etc., so you can imagine what I'm like around death. I flood.

Strangely, for all the tears I shed, I feel like my emotions are all bottled up inside. I can't talk for the tears. Tears make everyone uncomfortable, which makes speaking even more difficult. Everything is caught inside - except the moisture.

Writing seems to be a way I can talk about the pain of loss.

In The Healing Season, it's a young person (Alicia) grieving the loss of another young person (Paul). I don't think I knew anyone who died while I was growing up, or at least not close to me. A girl in my school died, but she was a few years below me and I didn't know her.

As soon as I moved out of Sydney it was something I came across almost immediately, even if indirectly. Car accidents, farm accidents, and suicide seem to take a lot of rural youth, suddenly and shockingly. One moment they're there; the next gone. How on earth do you cope with that? As an adult it's difficult. As a teen or young adult, when life's finally ready for living your way, how do you find a way to go on living when death strikes close to you?

As a new driver, if your mate is killed in a car accident, how do you have the courage to drive again? When you're in a budding relationship, how do you have the courage to love again after your partner dies? If you're at school and a bunch of your classmates are killed at once, how do you keep going back to the classroom?

It takes courage to cope with loss, huge amounts of courage. But there's also the way your body and mind kind of shuts down after loss, at the same time the world keep going. Societal norms force you to keep putting one foot in front of the other, so you keep moving mindlessly forward, almost unaware that you're still living.

Grief is a strange time, when odd things may happen. You may find friends where you didn't expect to find them. While at the same time, you may lose friends you thought were lifelong. People around you can act strangely - some more remote, some smothering. It's a time when you aren't really you; and yet you see depths of yourself you didn't know you had.

I don't believe that anyone goes through grief in the same way, and I don't think every loss is the same for a person, because of individuality and the different relationships between different people.

I don't understand loss or grief any better for having explored it through writing, but I am glad that I have a way to explore a complex emotion.

Alicia's grief isn't my own grief, although there are parts that are similar. Alicia's grief is her own. I know she's a character I made up but she was quite insistent about the way she grieved. When I was writing about her relationship with Lachlan, she was happy to be friends with him. But I felt I needed more intensity in the relationship and I kept writing about them kissing, and then the words stopped. I had to delete the kiss I wrote, and tone down the relationship, before I could continue writing. And I know that sounds nuts...but if Alicia kissed Lachlan too soon, her story didn't work. Nothing I could do to change the way I write.

Alicia's grief doesn't belong to me or anyone I know. It's hers. So it probably doesn't belong to any readers either. Grief is personal. Very personal. But I hope reading someone's struggle might help make a reader's struggle less. I know I've often turned to sad books when I've grieved, just to reassure myself that I was 'normal'.

If you're grieving, I hope the pain of your loss can be comforted with precious memories, and I hope you will one day find peace.

Thursday Thoughts - my character development

When I started writing The Healing Season I didn't have a lot of ideas about the story or the characters - that's usually how I start, so I wasn't worried.

Jennie, Lisa and I had come up with our town and we'd decided to have a newcomer for each story. I immediately decided my local would be the woman, and she'd be a farmer. Jennie and Lisa both had their female characters as the newcomers - which suited me, I like being different.

And that's where the story started. I have to write to find my story and my characters, so I began here.

My mind churns over questions and ideas. It's sort of planning without actually planning! And this must happen before I start a story, although I'm often not conscious of it, but it continues as I write.

The questions I asked were things like - as a farmer, how does my female character work? If she's young, how could she own/manage a farm? That seemed a little too difficult to explain, plus I have another story with a young male farmer, so it was a bit too similar. Scrap that plan. What else could Alicia do that kept her with agricultural knowledge and a local?

An agronomist. In the local produce store.

But the town was small, how does it have a produce store? Maybe she could have a franchise and work as part of a larger network. Maybe she's always dreamed to do this...yet something's making it difficult for her. Maybe her folks don't want this life for her...but that seemed kind of odd...but not if she was emotionally battered in some way and they were trying to 'do what was best for her'.

Alicia and her grief was born.

For my newcomer, he had to somehow understand Alicia's grief. He had to be a deep enough character to see her, feel her pain and loss, yet never try to take that away from her. He had to be a friend, not a romantic interest. Why? I don't really know. That's just how my mind worked, and how I saw her accepting another man in her life.

I wanted him to come to town looking for roots but scared about the decision he was making. He had to want to stay...but also be reluctant to give the town his all. He had to hold something back, so that Alicia could draw something from him as she began to open up.

The lead male and female in a romance have to have personality traits that complement and/or antagonise each other. As a reader, to keep your interest in the romance, there has to be a push-pull effect between the couple. You can't read and just 'know' that they're going to be together - you have to question 'how' they're ever going to get together.

I'm hopeless at doing opposites who antagonise each other - I just don't understand that attraction and so I struggle to write it. I like sameness, but that can be quite boring because they do gel together so well. So my question became - what same values could these two have, which would also keep them apart?

Grief and the aloofness that grief can bring seemed to be the way to keep Alicia and Lachlan apart, yet trying to be together. Their friendship could be a slow burn towards love, catching them almost unawares.

As I wrote, Lachlan had all this depth and a scary past that kept coming out ever so slowly. He'd been badly hurt and poorly treated...but how on earth had he changed? He changed because he wanted to. He knew he had to break the cycle. He had to get away from his past. He had to make a decision to be the best person he could be and start fresh.

And Alicia and Lachlan developed.

I don't sit down and plan this first. It happens as I write. As I find the story and discover the characters, the words appear. It's an amazing thing, my mind. And just a bit scary :)

If you're a writer - how do you develop characters?

If you're a reader - what sort of character(s) do you enjoy reading about most?

My Day!

Happy Release Day!!!

Last Chance Country - in the 'flesh'

I got author copies of Last Chance Country today - and I am totally useless at selfies - but here it is, with me!!

Lisa's Day

Happy Release Day Lisa Ireland!

 

Jennie's Day

Happy Release Day Jennie Jones!