Need an escape to the country? Magpie's Bend, Bottlebrush Creek and Wildflower Ridge are available in all good book stores now, or you can pre-order Paperbark Hill now!

Blooming beautiful cover for Paperbark Hill

My oh my, you wouldn’t believe the giddy gasp of surprise when I first glimpsed the draft cover for Paperbark Hill! Not only has my publisher chosen a beautiful ‘Diana’ but that's my garden and our old dairy in our background; the view I look at every day while I’m writing and the dahlias I fuss over every summer. What an incredible treat.

Cover designer extraordinaire, Nada Backovic, merged several of my photos to create the final background image. As you might have guessed, I’m absolutely delighted. Are you excited as me? The link to pre-order is below if you’re the organised type!

Last chance to win 100 books!

There’s only a few days left to vote for Magpie’s Bend in the Better Reading Top 100. Huge thanks to everyone who has already voted, and a big ‘pretty please with cherries on top’ if you haven’t yet. As I mentioned last email, you can win 100 books and these contests are an awfully big help for authors like me, as it means Magpie’s Bend will stay on Big W shelves, Australia-wide, all year. Voting closes March 13 at www.betterreading.com.au

Library Lovers with Maya Linnell and Libby

Have you popped March 16 into your calendar yet? I’d love your company for the very first free Library Lovers online event, with a star-studded line-up including Gardening Australia magazine editor Jenny Baldwin, cookbook guru Sophie Hansen and a librarian from Casey Cardinia Libraries.

If your library uses the Libby app for audiobooks, magazines and ebooks, you’ll hear about it through their promotions. If you're an organised person, register HERE to get a reminder beforehand, otherwise just sign into the Zoom session at 7pm AEDT on Wednesday March 16 and you can ask questions or just sit back and watch.

From my writing desk

This week I hit 40,000 on the first draft of my 2023 novel, which is a loose halfway mark for this manuscript. I usually end up with 100,000 words, but if I tell myself I only need 80k, then it feels much more achievable. As I’ve mentioned previously, it takes me about a year to write a novel, and in moments of self-doubt, or serious bouts of procastin-itis, I have to trust my brain knows what it’s doing and keep showing up at my keyboard every day until I’ve got that first draft down.

I’ve also finished the copy edits for Paperbark Hill and will shortly receive the final pages ahead of the novel going to print later this month. It’s my last chance to pick up typos and inconsistencies (every writer’s worst nightmare and every reader’s bug bear), so wish me luck!

In other writing-related fun, I was asked to help with a presentation for senior editors at the APA residential editorial presentation, giving an author’s perspective on structural edits. My assistance was only minor, but I love being involved in so many aspects of the publishing world and not knowing which different opportunities will pop into my inbox from one week to the next.

I was also thrilled to interview British debut author, Lizzie Pook, about her six-figure publishing deals (yep, you read that right!!) for Moonlight and the Pearler’s Daughter. You can catch the interview on the Writes4Women podcast. I also spoke with feminist icon, columnist and now thriller author, Jane Caro AM on the Words & Nerds Podcast, about her gripping domestic thriller, The Mother.

March author spotlight

If you like suspense and strong writing, you’re in the right spot! This month I’m shining a spotlight on Charity Norman’s heart-felt, New Zealand-set novel Remember Me and taking a sticky beak into the swingers scene with Ali Lowe’s debut The Trivia Night. So much to love about both these stories, head across to the blog for the full details and your chance to win a copy!

Out and about again

Isn’t it such a treat to be out and about again? This month I had the pleasure of speaking at the Cream of the Crop dairy farming conference in Port Campbell, and meeting so many fab farming ladies who also love reading. I also caught up with debut author, Lyn Yeowart, in Port Fairy. Lyn’s book The Silent Listener came out last year to great success, and we could have talked for hours about writing, reading and the addictive word games Wordle, Quordle, Worldle and Nerdle. I was a late convert, but the masses are right: it’s as fun as it is satisfying. Are you on the Wordle bandwagon too?

Around the property

As I write this part of the newsletter, the sun is shining, butterflies are flitting around the lavender hedge directly in my line of sight and the zinnias, dahlias and cosmos are in glorious technicolour. Roses have gone off the boil a little, but I’ve pruned with the hope I’ll get a final flush before they go dormant.

As per last newsletter, I’m still eagerly collecting seeds from sweet peas, cosmos and zinnias, scattering out saved seeds from last winter’s purple broccolini, coriander and beetroot, propagating house plants (monstera and devil's ivy is super simple, watch this reel) and frowning at our reluctant tomato plants (which are nowhere near as prolific as the last two seasons).

Did you see the recent Gardening Australia episode about seed saving? Some excellent tips there. If you’re a seed-saver, perhaps you might also like to donate to this initiative for flood-affected Queenslanders and NSW green thumbs.

I’ll be giving away hand-collected seeds in my next newsletter to five of the fabulous folks who pre-order Paperbark Hill. Stay tuned for further details. Or if you'd like to buy gorgeous zinnias ready for next year, have a squiz at Royston Petrie Seeds here (not sponsored, just a fan!).

Speaking of seeds, it’s so great to see last year’s dahlia seeds going great in the ACT and Victoria. Thanks Bron and Kellie for sharing these pictures of their dahlias, grown from my seeds. Also made me smile to see Penny in Millicent, SA, excited about the seeds I sent her recently. Happy growing, ladies!

Winners are grinners!

Big thanks to WA reader, Kym for sending through a photo of her with her winning copy of Happy Hour by Jacquie Byron. This novel was one of my favourite debuts of 2021, hope you enjoy it too Kym.

Show wins and a recipe

We had such a great time at the local show mid-February. The girls and I only entered a few categories, as I was immersed in edits, but the ANZACs were a good choice (using a recipe from Sally Wise’s new cookbook The Comfort Bake and my grandmother's trusty recipe below).

Small country shows are in serious decline, so if you’ve ever shied away from competition baking because you’re worried it’s too cut-throat, then don’t! Entries were down at our show this year, and the rewards might surprise you. My blue-ribbon David Austin rose below earned me a Treloar Roses voucher, and my friend Meagan won a whole swag of ribbons at the Millicent Show last November, including a whopping $200 garden voucher.

I shared these ANZAC bikkies on my Instagram the other week, and here’s Grandee's recipe as promised. These can sometimes feel greasy when you’re rolling them into balls (or shovelling the dough into your mouth while the kids are looking the other way), but they turn out gorgeously chewy, I promise!

That’s it for me this March. Lovely to have your company in the newsletter, join me next month for more good things to read, bake and grow. Love, Maya

Until next month...