Postage is to Australian addresses only. You can use the coupon code XMAS10 for 10% off until this Friday, 18th December. Please note that as I’m in rural NSW, add an extra couple of days for postage times – so if you’d like to order a book to arrive in time for Christmas, please order by Wednesday 16th for the best chance. I’ll also be away from 21st December until around the 6th January.
Apologies to my international readers – unfortunately overseas postage is way too expensive to offer. However, you can purchase my books through Book Depository, Amazon, and other online booksellers. And the good news is there will be US editions of the Dungirri and Goodabri books available early next year.
The Romance Writers of Australia Romantic Book of the Year awards were announced last night, and I’m over the moon that The Clothier’s Daughter won the Historical Romance category.
The awards are usually announced at a gala dinner at the Romance Writers of Australia national conference, but like so many other events in this year of Covid it had to move online, and so the awards were announced on YouTube. No sparkly party dress for me as it was so cold, but I did find a sparkly tiara to wear with my woolly jumper and jeans while watching the awards!
A couple of weeks ago, the finalists were all asked to video a short acceptance speech in case we won, with each of the category winner’s speeches included in the awards presentations. It was rather weird to record as if I’d won when the winners weren’t announced until last night but here is my little speech:
The full list of winners is:
Novella – Georgia Tingley, Whistler Wonderland
Speculative Fiction – Anna Hackett, Heart of Eon
Romantic Suspense – Leah Ashton, Outrun the Night
RomanticElements – Rachael Johns, Just One Wish
Historical – Bronwyn Parry, The Clothier’s Daughter
Contemporary Romance – Fiona Macarthur, The Desert Midwife
Over on Facebook, my friends Jenn J McLeod and J’aimee Brooker started a new group, Boredom Busting Books, inviting authors (mostly Australian) to post videos reading from their books, since none of us can go to book events in libraries, bookstores and festivals at present. I wasn’t courageous enough to do a live video as some authors have, but I finally recorded one, reading an excerpt from The Clothier’s Daughter. So if you’d like to watch me and listen to some of the story, here it is. It’s about 9 minutes long. I even put on a dress, instead of my old jeans and t-shirt that I usually wear at home.
The spread of the Covid-19 virus will be a challenge for all of us. I’m fortunate that I live out of town, that I work from home anyway, and that G is retired now. Although I’ll miss my volunteer work at Saumarez and the Folk Museum, staying at home for the winter won’t hit us as hard as it will many others.
My thoughts are with those in hospitality, tourism, the performing arts, and many other professions that will be hit hard, as well as all those in the health sector who are working with such dedication to help those who fall ill.
For those of us able to stay home, it will be a quiet time – unless you have a household of children! (In which case, may your sanity last while you adapt and may it become a time of closeness for your family.) Although I still have writing, research, and some online tutoring to do, I’m planning to also catch up on some reading and DVDs, and to sew up a portion of my fabric stash. I hope you all have plenty of uplifting activities to occupy yourselves with if you’re staying home.
I know that not being able to go out to work is going to affect many people’s income (including mine). So I’m dropping the e-book price of The Clothier’s Daughter for a while, to $2.99 USD, $4.99AUD. It’s a good long read, so it will distract you from virus news for a fair few hours!
Unfortunately I can’t drop the price of the paperback in bookstores as it’s Print on Demand and I make less than $1 on paperbacks sold through Amazon, Book Depository, Booktopia etc. However, I do have some copies left in stock and have reduced their price, so you can order a signed copy from me if you wish.
In good news for overseas readers, I’m in the process of getting unsold foreign rights reverted from my publisher for the Dungirri and Goodabri books, and I’ll be independently publishing US editions in the next couple of months, once I have new covers, new formatting, and have edited for a US audience. They’ll be available in e-book and paperback. And yes, it’s my intention that the covers for each series will have a similar style so that they look good together!
I have intentions of being more active on social media, and updating this blog more often, with reading recommendations, maybe a video or three, and whatever else I can think of that might interest readers. But of course I’ll also be writing, because I know the next book is the most important activity I can do!
To celebrate Valentine’s Day, I’m offering a giveway on my Facebook author page of 5 ebook copies of The Clothier’s Daughter. But I know not everyone is on Facebook, so if you’d like to enter to be in the draw, you can comment on this post. The contest is open until midnight, California time, on Valentine’s Day – which is Saturday evening, Australian time.
