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I’m #5 – Top 10 Best Selling Debut Novels 2013

Well, well, well…

Blow me down! I am #5 best selling author on the official Nielsen Bookscan list 2013. (The folk at Nielsen collect all bookshop sales info – printed books – to rank and report on sales across Australia.)

And a pretty impressive list it is too …

 

 

Not hard to guess numbers 1 and 2, but to see so many friends and acquaintances sharing the top 10 with me is mind blowing. (Let me bold and highlight that, in case you miss it!)

1. Burial Rites – Hannah Kent
2. The Rosie Project – Graeme Simsion
3. Thornwood House – Anna Romer
4. Redstone Station – Therese Creed
5. House for all Seasons – Jenn J McLeod
6. Ryders Ridge – Charlotte Nash
7. Be Careful What You Wish For – Gemma Crisp
8. Walking on Trampolines – Frances Whiting
9. Fractured – Dawn Barker
10. The Russian Tapestry – Banafsheh Serov

I will try and feature all these authors on my blog sometime during the year. Maybe I can get them over for a bar yarn and beer nuts in the Calingarry Crossing hotel!

Right now I am going to get a sharp object and burst the bubble (and the big head – before it gets bigger) and get back to my writing. Book four in my Seasons Collection is on the plotting board and I am very happy about that.

To my lovely readers – thank you for embracing House for all Seasons. I hope you enjoy Simmering Season just as much – maybe more. I am, as yet, undecided which book I love the most. I think… maybe… it’s the one I’m writing right now! 🙂

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Bar Yarns w/ Author – Margaret Sutherland

I am welcoming author of Seven Little Words – Margaret Sutherland – into the bar for a yarn and a beer. Come on in and, yes, bring the dog. Calingarry Crossing pub welcomes all dogs and their well-behaved humans. In fact, I love a book with dogs. They are the first characters I create with each novel. 🙂

Now, Margaret, before we start. Here is a beer coaster! Take a minute to jot down the blurb for your book.

Two writers, two lovable dogs, two ailing parents in need of care.  Is it a heartbreaking choice between love and duty?

Okay, grab a pew. What can I get you to go with your beer nuts? (Shandy? Wine Spritzer? Pink Lemonade?)
Beer and peanuts will do me.
(and a treat for the dog, of course!) 
Ahh, that beer hit the spot. Let me slip a drink coaster under your glass while you tell us—on a scale of 1 to 10—as a writer are you a messy desker or tidy desker
Tidy desk is a bad sign. I’m not working!
Have you heard the one about…? Come on, Margaret, tell us a joke.
How about this riddle for seniors?  Here’s the situation:
You are on a horse, galloping at a constant speed.
On your right side is a sharp drop-off.
On your left side is an elephant traveling at the same speed as you.
Directly in front of you is a galloping kangaroo and your horse is unable to overtake it.
Behind you is a lion running at the same speed as you and the kangaroo.
Q: What must you do to get out of this highly dangerous situation?
A: Get your drunken arse off the merry-go-round and go home!
(Readers, if you didn’t spit your favourite beverage at the computer screen after that joke … well, you are obviously not a senior, nor a drinker!!)

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

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

Which do you choose?

I’d put the dishes in the dishwasher and accept the drink.

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.
I’m a music teacher. The songs I don’t want to hear are Ode to Joy, Bingo, and C Major scale.
(I have a character in Simmering Season – plays the church organ – who has the same thoughts when it comes to I Honestly Love You and Morning has Broken!!)
There’s a stapler on the bar. Tell me what it’s doing there.
I collect pencils and pens, maybe I would put the stapler in my pocket too.

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?

I’d be lost without my husband Bill, my dogs and my kindle.

Now… more about SEVEN LITTLE WORDS, by Margaret Sutherland

After a painful break-up, budding romance writer Cathy Carruthers is avoiding men. So what happens when she meets successful Australian literary novelist, David Hillier, at his country writing workshop? Good-looking David’s a bachelor with problems. His writing’s blocked, his blind father’s in respite care and David has to care for his retired guide dog, Banquo. He has absolutely no time for a relationship. Meanwhile Cathy’s past partner hunts her down, her grandmother’s ill and Cathy is landed with Pixel, a tiny dog with the heart of a lion.

David and Cathy can’t resist the powerful desire that at first overrides their problems.

But pressures build and lead to conflict and friction. It felt like love. Was it just a passionate affair? Cathy’s a stronger woman now. Eventually she faces a choice. Must she send the man of her dreams away? Fortunately there’s a solution from a most unexpected quarter…

CONNECT WITH MARGARET:
Links and blurb. www.margaretsutherland.com
SEVEN LITTLE WORDS. SCP Publishers. http://tinyurl.com/keabbbr
$4.99 (Publication Date: August 19, 2013)

And in case you haven’t heard…

Watch out … It’s on the way …

This storm season, in Calingarry Crossing, a perfect storm is heading Maggie Lindeman’s way.  

Find out more, right here. Simmering Season: April 1, 2014

For emergency alerts and warnings for Simmering Season, subscribe to Jenn J McLeod’s blog before you go, or LIKE her Facebook Page.

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Bar Yarns w/ Author Kylie Kaden

The things you find on Goodreads! Like Kylie Kaden, whose debut novel, Losing Kate, is coming out at the same time as my Simmering Season (April 1).

So I thought… why not share the love of good books and a beer or two?

First, here is a beer coaster, Kylie! Take a minute to jot down the blurb for your book. I must say, this blurb intrigued me on Goodreads and reads even better the second time around. (Readers – Kate’s book is on Goodreads as a giveaway, too. ONLY UNTIL 10 MARCH. Simmering Season giveaway goes until March 23 – see the link on my home page.)

Losing Kate

I’m the most authentic version of myself when I’m around Jack. We’ve known each other since we were kids, and our relationship was always one of mudpies and mocking. Then everything changed. Beautiful Kate, my best friend, disappeared on a moonlit beach after Jack dumped her for me. Jack was a suspect and, sure of his innocence, I lied to protect him. I know Jack didn’t kill her. Our betrayal did. Thirteen years later, I am thirty, childless and single, attempting to renovate my life rescuing a rundown worker’s cottage. All is as it should be in my safe little world – until Jack buys the vacant lot behind my house… and the feelings that we buried all those years ago – the guilt, the love and the pain – resurface. We can’t keep running away from the past – and to move forward we have to know what really happened to Kate.

 

This mesmerising debut is part love story, part mystery, telling the captivating story of two lovers torn apart by tragedy and the secrets they kept of one devastating night. 

Okay, grab a pew. I invited your super CP, Lily Malone, for a drink too. She should be here soon. In the meantime, what can I get you to go with your beer nuts? (Shandy? Wine Spritzer? Pink Lemonade?)

Sav Blanc thanks!

Hey, did you hear the one about … 

I preface this joke with a warning that the source was my 6yo.

What’s brown and sticky?

A stick. (It was either that or How do you get Pikachu on a bus – Pokemon, so you can see what my dilemma was?!)

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

Can’t go past cheese!

Ahh, that beer hit the spot. Let me slip a drink coaster under your glass while you tell us—on a scale of 1 to 10—as a writer are you a messy desker or tidy desker? 

10. My desk is my lap. It walks around with me, so I can’t really keep mess on it, but is a little more padded than it used to be.


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

•   Dance to Gangnam Style

•   Sing John Denver’s ‘Take me Home Country Roads’ on the Karaoke machine

•   Spend an hour washing dishes

Which do you choose?

Considering I do an hour of dishes a day for squat, number three sounds like a deal! (If I’m doing the first two, I’ve already drunk too much and someone should put me in a cab.)

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. Throw your arms around me – Hunters and Collectors.
  2. These Days – Powderfinger
  3. Stayin Alive – Bee Gees

(Huh! Huh! Huh! Huh! – yeah!)

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

The chicken; the author would be at home Googling themselves, and the agent would be lost under a pile of manuscripts!?

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

It’s doing what staplers do; trying to keep it all together, just like the rest of us 🙂

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?

  1. Laptop
  2. Chocolate
  3. Wine.

(Okay, I am kind seeing why you and Lily are CP partners!)

 

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

83

(83? Weird, but okay!)

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.

The official blurb of Losing Kate can be found at Random House Australia.

You can find me at: www.kyliekaden.com.au

Or check out Facebook at:
https://www.facebook.com/KylieKadenAuthor

Or buy Losing Kate from:

itunes , Amazon or  Angus & Robertson

 All the best with Losing Kate, Kylie.

In the meantime, watch out … It’s on the way …

This storm season, in Calingarry Crossing, a perfect storm is heading Maggie Lindeman’s way.  

Find out more, right here. Simmering Season: April 1, 2014

For emergency alerts and warnings for Simmering Season, subscribe to Jenn J McLeod’s blog before you go, or LIKE her Facebook Page.