I’m as happy as a cow with a mouthful of cud!
WHY? Because I have the pleasure of hosting multi-award winning author (and friend), Helene Young, when she visits sunny Coffs Harbour for library chats next month. (More on Helene below).
And for you, I have a copy of Helene’s latest release, Burning Lies, to give away on this blog.
HOW TO WIN**
Leave a comment. Tell me something that means ‘small town life’ to you – quaint, quintessential, quirky country characters, etc. Or, if you are better with pictures than words, you can ‘like‘ me and post a picture on my Facebook Author Page. (In fact, feel free to ‘like’ my author page anyway. The more the merrier!)
Give it some thought. Take your time. Deadline is Monday 27 July 2012. Winner announced here and on my Author Page.**
ABOUT HELENE YOUNG
Helene, Senior Check and Training Captain with Australia’s largest regional airline, lives near Cairns (that slice of paradise on the edge of the Great Barrier Reef in North Queensland) with her husband and their dog, a slightly obsessive Staffordshire Bull Terrier named Zeus; yet she finds the view from the cockpit as she flies over rural communities is what inspires her to use regional settings rather than cities for her novels.
Burning Lies is the third fabulous book in her Border Watch series.
LIBRARY CHAT
Hear Helene talk about her life and work at the Coffs Harbour City Library on Tuesday, 7th August – 5:30 for a 6:00pm start. For more info and to book.
**Open to Australian residents only. Entry deadline Friday 27 July 2012. Winner announced here. Deadline to be extended to 6 August 2012.
Thanks to everyone who commented here and on Facebook. I put all your names in a hat (yes, an Akubra of course) and drew out the name Raelene Hall. Congratulations Raelene. I will let Helene know. Please email me your postal address: jennifersmcleod (at) hotmail (dot) com
Friends and neighbours helping out on the big jobs – for us it’s been planting 1200 baby native trees.
(And Jenn, adore the mailbox/car header pic on your blog – which box is yours?) Rae
1200 native trees is a wonderful accomplishment, Rae! And there will be immense satisfaction in watching them grow.
Knowing when you go into town there will always be someone you know to chat to.
Raelene, that’s a very good point. Even walking Zeus in the mornings guarantees me a conversation or three and that would be even more important in a more remote area.
I come from a small town originally and they offer a closeness that cities don’t, the fact everyone knows you and is there for you come what may, life long friendships are formed early and endure, its a very special kind of way to grow up 🙂
Too true, Anne. From my experience, those like-long friendships are rare in busy cities.
Anne, your comment reminds me of the title of Christine Stinson’s book, ‘It Takes a Village’. I loved that story because every character had some influence over the maturing central character. It is a great way to grow up!
Just in the country, to be able to walk down a country town street,
“hello neighbour”, “good morning my friend”, “geddha budy”.
These sayings, and along with the slow pace of the traffic, and even the storekeepers know you by name and greeted with a smile.
Ahh..that’s my country.
Rob Robhap
Too true, Rob. I recently found myself smiling to peopl in the street on a trip to the city. They broke eye contact and shied away like I was about to mug them. That’s too sad for an LOL!!!!!
Sounds lovely, Rob. I used to walk around Mascot, in Sydney, when I was spending so much time teaching in the simulators on the jet base. All the older locals would nod and say hello but the younger one’s seemed to think I was a madwoman (which I may have appeared to be rugged up to be eyebrows always cold!). I used to get the giggles. Jenn, I don’t know whether they thought I was going to mug them or try and pick them up !
I just watched Helene’s google hangout video on the ARRA site. Fantastic listening to her talk with such passion about her books, characters and writing. Am very jealous you’re getting to see her talk in person!
Here’s the link if anyone wants to watch:
http://australianromancereaders.wordpress.com/2012/07/21/author-chat-with-helene-young-2/
As for small town life, not being able to cough without half the place knowing you have a cold!
It will be great; she’s staying at my place. At least it was going to be great until I heard her say in that Hangout that she gets up at 5AM!!!! Hooley dooley!!!! LOL
Thanks, Cathryn, for spreading the hang out around. There will be many more with ARRA so readers will be able to connect with so many Aussie readers! Can we catch up in Melbourne at the end of the month??
Jenn, I promise to stay in bed and read if I wake up too early 🙂
A small town means that when you gossip you will be caught out, everyone helps out in a crisis, when you walk into a shop, they ask “the usual”
Lol, Cheryl, I always say Cairns is too small to gossip but an outback town would be even more fraught! I love the way people do pitch in when there’s a need. You only have to look at the footage when there are natural disasters. I know our airline staff at Emerald slept at the airport during the big floods last year so they could keep the flights moving as most of them would have been cut off if they’d gone home. It was a great example of rural spirit.
Living in a small town, your kids go through from playgroup to high school with the same friends. thats amazing to me.
Hi Jenn and Helene (and the Incomparable Zeus! And the gorgeous white fluffies, of course!)
To me living near a “smallish” country town means wonderful neighbours, no road noise, lotsa dust (not so good! LOL), no traffic jams! We adore the “tree” change we made 15 years ago because of employment changes.
Golly, I wish we were going to be near Coffs Harbour for that library talk! I know it’ll be awesome!
🙂
Sharon (in Normanton today!)
Janine, I bet your kids really treasure those friendships for the rest of the lives as well!
Thanks for dropping by Sharon! You must be loving your road trip through so many rural towns. Maybe you can swing passed Bellingen and catch up with Karly Lane, Bronwyn Parry and me at their library! We’re all getting out and about this year!!
Knowing everyone as part of the family
Having been brought up in the bush I learned to love small town cohesiveness and caring mixing perfectly with privacy and “own” time
Small town life for me means the general store and the pub where everyone knows whether your a local or not (and if you’ve been there less than 10 years, you’re probably not a local!). I helped run a small country motel for a little while when I was 18 and I so remember going to “Beckers” general store!
hankts AT internode DOT on DOT net
Small town is when you shop at the slightly larger town (5 kilometres down the road) and say you’re ‘going to town’. It’s having a general store where they go out of their way to get what you want and sell produce from local back yards. It’s where kids still ride their bikes in the street and when someone asks for help offers flood in for days (sometimes even when they haven’t asked). The only drawback is everyone knowing everyone’s business, but the positives outweigh that. When a dog goes missing all you have to do is post it on the local Face Book page and someone will know where it comes from. Ah, the joy of the country…
[…] Details: Helene Young book giveaway closes August 6, 2012 Winner announced here and contacted via email by August 8. […]
Oh wow, some wonderful comments there, ladies.
The central theme of the local shop or pub and knowing people while still having privacy are sooo strong in all the posts.
Congrats to Raelene and thanks to Jenn, for allowing me to chat some more on her blog!