Bar Yarns w/ Josephine Moon (& her tea-riffic giveaway!)

The Calingarry Crossing pub welcomes Josephine Moon, author of the 2014 release The Tea Chest — out around the same time as Simmering Season, so there will be some serious ‘shelf-elfing’ in book stores required to get pics of us together. Looking forward to that!

Come on in, Josephine. Grab a pew. What can I get you to go with your beer nuts? (Shandy? Wine Spritzer? Pink Lemonade?)

Cocktails all the way — the fluffier, fruitier, chocolatier, more umbrella-ed the better.

Her’s a beer coaster. Would you mind jotting your blurb on the back for us?

‘The Tea Chest’

Rows of teapots and Turkish tea glasses lay out for taste tests. Roasted marshmallow, chocolates, gingerbread men, Turkish delight, chocolate-coated raspberries, crystalised ginger and truffles all sat in tall glass jars, just begging for someone to pluck them for themselves.

Kate Fullerton is the lead tea designer for The Tea Chest, a boutique tea store in Brisbane, but inherits half the company after her mentor, Simone, dies. Now, she’s faced with the enormous task of going to London to set up a new store from scratch in just six weeks and prove to her family, her hostile business partner and herself that she’s worth the risk.

Leila Morton has just been fired from her job. Elizabeth Clancy has just found out her husband has betrayed her in the most awful way. Both need to start again.

Can the three women succeed against the odds?

They have to. The Tea Chest is just too precious to lose.

I’m in a bar and I have a sudden hankering for a cuppa! Hey, did you hear the one about … Got any good pub jokes?

Oh, I’m so bad at jokes I wouldn’t even try. I refer you to my Dad, however, who is always ready with a joke to share over a beer or glass of wine. 🙂

I’m a beer nut nut! What bar snack would you be and why?

There are snacks at the bar? I thought the bar was for cocktails.

Ahh, that beer hit the spot. Let me slip a drink coaster under your glass while you tell us if you are a messy desker or tidy desker? (NB: 1 = “I am a neat nut case” and 10 = “What desk? Where? Is there a desk here somewhere?”)

Shamefully, I’m going to say an 8. Right now, I share my writing room with the baby’s change table (so lots of little man shorts and shoes and smelly nappies) and my 18-year-old cat (so lots of drool and smelly kitty litter), and occasionally my husband (lots of coffee cups and lunch plates). But I’m creating a new writing room in another location so stay tuned for much improved surroundings.

The publican offers you free drinks all night if you will:

• Dance to Gangnam Style
• Sing John Denver’s ‘Take me Home Country Roads’ – Karaoke style
• Spend an hour washing dishes

Which do you choose?

John Denver, without question. I actually HAVE sung ‘Take Me Home Country Roads’ at karaoke (sober, big mistake) and it was truly awful. (Funnily enough, I didn’t get any free drinks either…hmm.) That song is a lot harder to sing than you think it is!

Time to liven the place up. Got a buck? We can crank up the old jukebox in the corner. You get to pick three songs.

1. Michael Jackson — Blame it on the Boogie
2. Michael Jackson — Don’t stop til you get enough
3. Michael Jackson — The way you make me feel

(Did I mention I love Michael Jackson?)

An author, an agent and a chicken walk into the bar… how do you know which one crossed the road?

Oh my gosh… can I answer this with a story? (If you throw in ‘an actor’, you would be right on track.)

A funny thing happened on the way down Oxford Street in Sydney, after I flew down there to meet my literary agent for the first time.

I was walking along, soaking up the bliss of chocolate shops, wine bars, T2 and more, when I noticed a black chook trying to make its way across the four lanes of traffic of Oxford Street. I knew immediately that the chicken was ‘for me’ (because, as a rescuer, this type of thing happens to me all the time), so I began to herd it gently to the footpath. Lots of people gathered around, taking photos, and a couple of ‘city folk’ tried to catch her by running at her. Now, if you’re a farm girl, like me, you know that is the worst thing to do to try and catch a chook because all they do is run in zig zags, so I took command and guided her gently to a stairwell and then picked her up. By this time, another rescuer type woman was there and saying we should take her to the vet (the chook had a damaged wing) and asked if I wanted to get into her car and she’d drive me and the chook (now nestle peacefully in my arms). I trusted her immediately (no fear of ‘stranger danger’). She was so lovely and warm. So we got in and off we went.

We were getting on fabulously and chatting away when I said, ‘I’m Jo, by the way,’ and she said, ‘I’m Penny.’

I looked at her and she suddenly looked really familiar. I told her as much and she said she was Penny Cook, who played the vet, Vicky, on A Country Practice. I totally adored that show as a kid so felt quite thrilled that I was on a secret chook mission with a famous actor! We dropped off the chook at the vet, went to a local preschool to see if the chook came from there, and she drove me back to Oxford Street.

So, there was an agent, an author, an actor and a chicken, and the chicken definitely was the one that crossed the road.

There’s a stapler on the bar. Tell me what it’s doing there.

Emergency repairs to fallen hems due to all the robust dancing to Michael Jackson post cocktail drinking. (That’s what I use staplers for… is there another use?)

The pub is the heart of a small town and most locals would be lost without one. What are three things you’d be lost without?

(Well obviously, my husband, son and family (furry and human)… but let me think a bit wider…)

1. Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way and Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat.
2. Earplugs. Every night. Also an eye mask. And my own pillow. These are the three things I pack first whenever I go away. (I’m a high-maintenance sleeper.)
3. A good book to read and fluffy socks.

(This was more than three, sorry.)

Shhh! The last race of the day is on the TAB screen and I reckon I’ve picked a winner. I browse the race guide with the jockey colours influencing my bet. When browsing a bookshop, what influences you?

1. Author (especially if they’re Australian)
2. Cover design
3. Title
4. Tagline/blurb
5. First chapter (I actually rarely even read part of a book before I buy it.)
6. Last page (Never! It’s a sacrilege to read the last page!!!)

There are a few good prizes up for grabs in the bar jackpot. Do you have a lucky number?

Your lucky number is: 8

Last drinks, my friend! It’s been great. But before we go, tell us how we can find out more about you and your writing/books.

My first novel, The Tea Chest, is published by Allen & Unwin and will be on shelves in April 2014 in time for mother’s day!

You can keep in touch with me at:

www.josephinemoon.com
Twitter @josephine_moon
or on Facebook

GIVEAWAY:  Jenn, I have no books yet, but since my book is centred on tea, I’d be really happy to post someone some of my favourite tea. 🙂 Can we ask for chicken stories? I love chooks!

Take it away readers… Give us your best chicken story.

And if you enjoyed this Bar Yarn, there are lots more to come. So you never miss a post, why not whack your email in the TELL ME! box above.