Author Harvest ‘bales up’ Margareta Osborn

I’m delighted to ‘bale up’ Margareta Osborn, now in her third reprint on Hope’s Road (even before she’s turned the first bend!!) And I don’t even have to ask what treat she has for me today. There’s always a billy boiling at her place.

But I will ask …

At home, Margareta …

My mum says garden gnomes make a house a home! Are you loud and proud in your love of garden gnomes at home – or a closet gnomer?

Quite frankly, gnomes and I have never gotten on. It’s a hangover from my Enid Blyton days. I have fairies in my garden instead. They’ve relocated from a fairy tree, which is at my cousin’s paddock called ‘The River’ (for obvious reasons). This magnificent tree is a big old River Red Gum with windows and doors observable in the bark. Truly.

(Maybe we need to see this tree, or have you been burning the wrong kind of twigs under that boiling billy?)

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

None. I was once a vegetable farmer. Never again.

(Fair enough.)

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

Salad, salad, salad. I’m on a healthy diet kick. Otherwise, meat, meat, meat, cheese, cheese, cheese and milk, milk, milk. What more can I say? My family are dairy farmers and we run beef.

(Yum! Yum! Yum! Only don’t give me milk straight from the cow, like my uncle did when I was young, unless you want a projectile vomit hitting your computer screen!)

(Oh and BTW – I love your meat, meat, meat, cheese, cheese, cheese and milk, milk, milk. I have a character in House for all Seasons who likes to repeat himself in much the same way. Much, much the same way!)

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

Pink … and denim. I buy one dress a year for my book launch. This year’s is black with a gold sequined bodice. I love it!

(I saw the pics – and the shoes. Noice!)

What are you wearing now? (Be honest!)

I wish I could say something decadent like a silk night-gown, lace teddy or one of those long flowing kaftan thingys that Barbara Cartland wore. But, being honest, I’m wearing what I usually wear. Jeans, cotton shirt and boots. They’re very nice boots though 🙂

(You’re part way to channelling Babs with your penchant for pink!)

Country curiosities…

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

Peaked cap or my battered old Akubra. I have boots too – endless boots. There’s my Ariat high tops, my good R.M.’s, my middle R.M.’s and my stuffed but still hanging in there R.M.’s. Then I have my Redbacks, gumboots … But what I’m really renown for around here is my coats. I cannot … and I repeat cannot walk past a nice coat without buying it. My only excuse? I hate being cold. (My father’s fetish is torches :))

(And you would be the shining light. Aww!)

If you were a tree (or animal) what kind of tree (animal) would you be?

A Gum Tree. I love my trees. Stringybarks, Mountain Ash, Scribbly Gums, Black Box, Grey Box, and I adore the more decadent WA varieties – Salmon Gums, Spotted Gums. It all comes from spending countless hours riding horses and four wheel driving through the bush and mountains of my home. And don’t get me started on wildflowers …

(WA, I’ll give you top marks for your wildflowers, but you don’t have the biggest gum trees – okay?!)

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

Because he was a bloody idiot? Oh, but that would make him a rooster rather than a chook… but then you did say chicken, didn’t you? And it’s a bit hard to tell whether a chicken is a chook or a rooster for a while, so I say, because he’s a he.  A chook would’ve walked up to the pedestrian crossing. 🙂

(So true. So true.)

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?

A Reality? The day my agent rang and told me I had a publishing contract. I screamed into the toilet rolls at our local IGA supermarket.

(LOL, I would’ve like seeing that!)

A Career? The day Bella’s Run arrived in the mail at our general store. I raced in to collect it in my gumboots, didn’t open it until I got home where my husband had to do the honours as I was shaking so much.

(I couldn’t even drive to the PO Box for House for all Seasons. I waited (read: paced) at home waiting for them the come to me!)

What is the hardest part of writing for you?

Time. My life is always about trying to fit everything in. Writing, farming, children, husband, family and all the associated commitments.

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

Hell on Wheels (and in boots!)

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

Q. Are your sex scenes based on experience?

A. That’s for me and my husband to know and you to wonder about 😉

(Not touching that one!)

Fun stuff … 

What does your protagonist think about you? Would he or she want to hang out with you, the author, his/her creator.

Well I don’t know about the protagonist, but I’d sure as hell would like to hang out with the hero. My Dog Trapper, Travis Hunter, is to die for. I’d gladly swap places with my protagonist, Tammy McCauley.

(And what does hubby think about 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?

Jessica from A Man from Snowy River. I want to be on that horse in those mountains with Jim Craig kissing ME!

(Ahh, again – the word ‘husband’ comes to mind!)

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

Give you HOPE’S ROAD to read. We wouldn’t hear from you for hours 🙂

(Bring it on!)

What was the best thing before sliced bread?

Unsliced bread, warm from the combustion oven, torn apart in hunks and slathered with fresh butter and yummy homemade raspberry jam.

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

1. Whacking spiders.
2. Ruling lines when you can’t find a ruler because someone has them all out in the shed — namely my husband. (Oh, so, Miss ‘I wanna kiss Jim Craig’ is complaining that hubby has the rulers in the shed!)
3. Banging in tacks when you can’t find the hammer because all hammers are in the ute or on the tray of the motorbike.
4. Slamming the door shut because the kids are yelling, you’re trying to write and you can’t quite reach the door …
5. Slamming onto the bench in frustration because the kids are yelling, you’re trying to write and even with the darn stapler in your hand you can’t quite reach the door… GRRRRRR.

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

You seriously want me to answer that question? In my eyes, 4. In my families eyes probably 7, in my friends eyes probably 10. But hey, they still love me (I think).

(We’re writers. We talk to ourselves and fall in love with fictional friends. We’re all a 10!)

Thanks for joining Author Harvest.

Everything you need to know about Margareta, and her fabulous novels, is right here. http://www.margaretaosborn.com

About Hope’s Road

In the rugged and beautiful high country of East Gippsland, HOPE’S ROAD connects three very different properties and three very different lives.

Sixty years ago, heartbroken and betrayed, old Joe McCauley turned his back on his family and their fifth-generation farm, Montmorency Downs. He now spends his days as a recluse, spying upon the land – and the granddaughter – that should by rights have been his.

For Tammy McCauley, Montmorency Downs is the last remaining ties to her family. But land can make or break you – and, with her husband’s latest treachery, how long can she on to it?

Wild-dog trapper, Travis Hunter, is struggling as a single dad, unable to give his son, Billy, the thing he craves most. A complete family.

The, out of the blue, a terrible event forces the three neighbours to confront each other – and the mistakes of their past …