Hanging out for the fourth and final story with the McIntyre sisters? Pre-order your copy of Paperbark Hill today.

Drumroll for the ARRA shortlist

Yippee! I was blown away to make the shortlist for three categories in the Australian Romance Readers Awards. Many thanks to ARRA members for voting Magpie's Bend as their favourite Australian-set romance and contemporary romance for the year, and me as their favourite Australian romance author. I'm chuffed to make finals in such a strong field. The award winners will be announced late April, you can browse the shortlist HERE.

On that note, huge thanks again to everyone who cast their votes in the Dymocks Top 101 and the Better Reading Top 100. Your time and effort helping with these contests is greatly appreciated and I’ll let you know if Magpie’s Bend makes the list in either of these contests. 

Library Lovers is a hit!

What fun it was to launch Library Lovers last month. Thanks to those who tuned in on Zoom, I loved bringing this new venture to the big screen. If you missed the interview with author Sophie Hansen, Jenny Baldwin from Gardening Australia and Janine from Casey Cardinia Libraries, it’s now available to watch on YouTube HERE.

We have three fantastic guests lined up for the April event. I’ll be interviewing bestselling rural fiction author, Fleur McDonald about her new novel Rising Dust, getting the low down on audiobooks from Wavesound Australia publisher Chiara Priorelli and finding out what's shaking at the Blue Mountains Library with librarian Vicki Edmunds. Register HERE and join us at 7pm AEST on Zoom on April 20.

Mother's Day giveaway & Paperbark Hill pre-orders

Want to win a gift pack of my hand-collected seeds, so you can have beautiful blooms like mine? After the success of last year’s Mother’s Day contest, I’m thrilled to offer FIVE gift packs of seeds.

Here’s the range of hand-collected seeds you could win:

-Dahlias

-Zinnias

-Cosmos

-Coriander

-Sweet peas

-Sunflowers

-Lilac poppies

-Double ruffle red peony poppies

-Jelly bean poppies

Sound great? Then simply pre-order Paperbark Hill from an online retailer or in an actual book store, fill out the form below to be entered into the draw and cross your fingers! Five winners will be chosen at random and contacted by email. I’ll post the prizes Monday April 11 so they should arrive in plenty of time for Mother’s Day, if you'd like to give them as a gift. Aussie addresses only please.

Why should I pre-order?

Pre-orders are hugely important to authors because they count towards opening week sales, which make retailers sit up and take notice! Your pre-orders rocketed Wildflower Ridge, Bottlebrush Creek and Magpie’s Bend into the bestseller charts, which meant book stores increased their orders, my publisher printed more copies and all the extra excitement set them up for an excellent start.

April 2022 author spotlight

I love bringing you new fiction from a range of fabulous authors, and our April books are definite winners! Dinner with the Schnabels is a super funny and heart-warming read showcasing Toni Jordan’s distinctly Aussie flavour.

I also had a great time reading the new thriller from Kelli Hawkins too, an up and coming Aussie author who also writes middle grade novels. I read Kelli’s latest novel, All She Wants, in 24 hours and was transfixed by Kelli’s easy reading, highly engrossing story. Head to the blog to read the interviews and then jump across to the WIN page to enter the contest.

Real life events coming right up!

Get your pencils and calendars out, friends. I’ve started locking in dates for Paperbark Hill events and would love you to join me.

Friday June 3

Millicent Library and Art Gallery, SA

Tuesday June 21

Mount Gambier Library, SA

Monday June 27

Bunjil Place Library, Narre Warren, Vic

Wednesday August 10

Koorliny Arts Centre, WA

And if you’re near Casterton, Victoria, on May 4, come to the library to hear Victoria Purman tell us all about her newest novel The Nurses’ War.

I’ve heard such great things about this story and look forward to reading the book this month. It’s described as an extraordinary story of grit, love and loss, based on the true history and real experiences of Australian nurses in World War 1. RSVP to Glenelg Libraries.

Around the property...

The dahlias are almost at the end of their season, so I’m labelling my favourites before they die back. If you’ve got dahlias too, now’s the time to work out if you’re going to leave them in the ground over winter or store in sawdust or similar. I’m continuing to collect masses of seeds from my dwindling zinnia, cosmos and sunflower plants ready for next season, and sowing sweet pea and poppy seeds.

How were your tomatoes? Summer 2021-22 was our worst year for tomatoes to date. We barely got a bucketful across the whole season, very different to the tomato-geddon of previous years. On the plus side, the pumpkin patches are going great guns, the herbs are happily growing and we have baby brassicas popping up everywhere. I also had the pleasure of giving a boot-load of flowers to a local bride for her wedding. Watching the bridal party collect blooms for their table arrangements (photo above), then seeing their photos the next day, was a real treat.

With writing deadlines and gorgeous weather, I haven’t done as much baking this month. However, I can confirm that the snacking cake (above) from Sophie Hansen is a real winner. Sophie kindly shared the recipe for this cake, with almonds on top and custardy-apples in the middle, on the Libby ANZ Facebook page. It’s from her new book Around The Kitchen Table, which she co-authored with her mum, Annie Herron.

From my writing desk

I finished the final read-through of Paperbark Hill in late March, and it’s now at the printers being transformed into the snazzy book you’ll be able to buy from May 31. Yay!

March was also a busy month for media and events, and I was thrilled to speak on ABC Radio in Queensland and NSW, Alpine Radio in Victoria and Living Arts Canberra about the new Library Lovers initiative. You can watch the Living Arts chat HERE. I was also delighted to be a virtual guest at an International Women’s Day fundraiser in Kumbia, rural Queensland, speaking about the women who inspire me, the strong female leads in my novels and books I’ve been loving.

Remember how pleased I was last month to hit 40,000 words on my 2023 manuscript? Well, I hit a series of roadblocks directly afterwards and felt like hurling my keyboard across the room as my characters tied themselves in knots and ran amuck, leaving me with a heck of a tangled storyline.

After stubbornly ploughing deeper down those rabbit holes for much of the month, I finally sat down with my notepad last weekend, documenting what I liked about the story and planning a better second half. It was something I’d been reluctant to do, as admitting to those failed plotlines and knowing how many days I’d wasted writing them is HARD! But, after I’d finished scowling at the cold, hard evidence, I returned to the keyboard. The words have flowed much better this week now that I have a plan of attack. I’ll still need to go back through those first 40,000 words and edit out the dead ends, but that will happen after I finish this draft.

I’m sharing this to reassure the other writers that each novel presents fresh challenges and there’s always a point when I’m drafting a manuscript, or doing the final read through before my novel goes to print, when I’m convinced the story is horrid. I also hope it’s useful for readers to understand there is no magic formula for writing a book, just determination to see the process through to the end and then a commitment to revising that first draft until the story is the best it can be.

Also, did you see the latest Australia Post catalogue? Magpie's Bend is in AusPost shops across Australia this month if you're still hunting for a copy.

The winner's list

Big thanks to Janelle from Victoria, Carolyn from Queensland and Annamaree from Queensland for sending through these photos with their prizes from previous newsletter. It’s so great to see happy winners with their prizes, I hope you enjoy the novels as much as I did, ladies.

Happy April folks, I hope you have a lovely month ahead and your Easter is filled with family and chocolates.. Love, Maya

Until next month...