Category: MY BOOKS

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Autumn in Calingarry Crossing

I’ve heard it said that autumn is like a second spring, with every leaf a flower.

A fitting description for Calingarry Crossing’s celebration of colour this autumn past, spectacular foliage blurred against a canvas washed green – hills and plains alike.

It is also said that one person’s loss is another person’s gain, and Calingarry Crossing was on the receiving end of unprecedented rainfall, the run-off from flood waters further north. The devastating 2010/11 summer storm season that flooded Australia’s eastern states brought new life to so many inland areas.

As we take a short drive, we can see Calingarry Crossing’s creeks and dams are now full, and while flood victims further north/east are still putting their lives back together, the folk in Calingarry are breathing again…”and don’t it smell sweet!”

Autumn Leaves is the title of Part 3 in House For All Seasons, in which Amber leaves her A-lister lifestyle and her husband. Amber no longer knows what’s real in her life and hopes returning to Calingarry Crossing will help her find redemption and a fresh start.

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Bye, bye baby…baby goodbye…

Okay…so I’m NOT a mother (unless you count my two fur-kids) so how can I possibly understand what it’s like to say goodbye to your baby when you hand your baby over to the local school/pre-school/day care/whatever. How do you stop thinking about them every second of the day, yet continue to function despite having the one thing that has been with you…not just with you but a huge part of you for months…years?

Can I imagine the emotional trauma of handing over control of the precious baby you’ve nurtured for years to a stranger?
Will these strangers care for your baby like you do?
Will they love your baby like you do?
Can they ever know or understand your baby like you do–all the cute, funny, clever, adorable bits that make your baby so special, so different, so…sellable!

That’s right…sellable.

I’m talking about your book, your manuscript, the precious baby you’ve laboured over for…forget nine months…I’m talking years!

Since handing my baby over to my agent and publishers I’ve suffered terrible separation anxiety and learned something (no…not really learned…I actually already knew it). I’m a control freak!

Yep, a control freak–seriously!  I have to know where my baby is every second of every day and it’s killing me. I desperately want to know where my baby is, who’s looking at my baby, who thinks my baby is wonderful, funny, clever, etc.

Instead I have to keep reminding myself that the people I have handed my baby over to, the people who now have control over every aspect of my baby, can’t possibly ring or email every hour of every day and tell me what my baby is doing at that very moment. I have to keep telling myself my baby is in the very best hands.

Now I must go back to writing 100 times: I must stop being a control freak.