Tag: Christine Stinson

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School Daze – your favourite authors

Playgrounds, pencils and Perkins Paste remain a hazy, crazy, daze for many of us. In Calingarry Crossing this storm season, a school reunion brings home more than memories for publican, Maggie Lindeman, so I’ve decided to ask a few authors to reflect on their own    school daze.

What do you think about school reunions! Love them? Hate them? Do you agree with Maggie (Simmering Season) that such events push you to question everything — your worth, your achievements … your life.

To celebrate the release of Simmering Season, I’m holding a school reunion and you’re invited to catch up with your favourite authors, or find a new favourite author. If you have an Aussie author you’d like me to feature, leave a comment and I’ll see what I can do.

The school bell is ringing, and first in class we have…

Jennie Jones – THEN

“When I left school I also left my best friend, Jane. We each trod different paths after that but had spent our high school years together; dreaming, dodging, wishing, loving boys and getting giggly over just about anything. Our formative years were filled with sighing, laughing, crying, arguing, wondering and planning.  We’re still in touch, after thirty-something years. This special school friendship we share is what I call a seasoned memory.”

NOW: www.jenniejonesromance.com

Sara Foster at school
Sara Foster – THEN

‘Throughout my primary school days we used to play elastics at every opportunity, coming up with more and more imaginative ways of jumping on and over two strips of elastic, which were either wound around people’s legs or tied to drainpipes and chairs. At some stage I’m planning to drag my daughters away from technology to show them how it’s done. (Although let’s just hope I can still do it!)’

 

Rachael Johns at School Rachael Johns – THEN

I’m one of the lucky ones. In my first weeks of high school I found my ‘group.’ You know the people who stick by you through thick and thin, who laugh and cry with you, put up with your crazy and embarrassing sometimes outlandish personality, and whom you feel confident sharing your deepest and darkest secrets? These are my girls – there are six of us. Four of us met in year eight, another came in year ten and the final (but just as important) member of our group found us in year eleven. We spent our high school years hanging out at school and whenever we could outside of school. We shopped for our all important formal dresses together, we were there to laugh over crushes of boys and support each other when hearts were broken. We had the BEST ever sleepovers – where sleep wasn’t on the agenda at all. We scared each other silly with thriller movies, while we ate junk food and drank Fanta. One sleepover we even rung the local radio station and dedicated songs to our then crushes – whether they have heard them or not, we’ll never know. The song was ‘I Swear’ if you were wondering.
Although we now are all married with kids, we are still as close as ever. Maybe closer. We’ve been through joyous times together – weddings and babies – and we’ve been through some tough times too. In many ways we are as different as a bunch of women can get, but we still get together as much as we can. We laugh over old memories and share what’s currently going on in our crazy, hectic lives. Now we even get together on occasions with our kids and there is nothing more amazing than watching my children enjoy spending time with my best friends’ children. I know we’ll be BFFs until the end. Yep, these women are the best thing I got out of high school!

Alison Stuart – THEN

“Unpick it and do it again”… Mrs. Plummer, sewing teacher. But seriously I think I owe my biggest debt of thanks to Miss Robinson who had the misfortune to try and teach a bunch of Year 9 girls English grammar. She was the first teacher who encouraged my creative writing.”

NOW:  www.alisonstuart.com

 

Cathryn Hein – THEN

“I suspect that without Mr Costello as my English teacher I wouldn’t be a writer. He was amazing. He also gave me a B+ for my cringe-worthy short story A Day In The Life Of A Feminist Cockroach. Not quite sure what he was thinking that day…”

 Nicola Moriaty – THEN

I thought it might be fun to quote directly from my diary that I kept all through my schools years, the following extract is from when I was eight years old, I’ve kept the spelling mistakes in!!
“i dont beleav it today mr. Connolly let us talk for a bit! We have this new sports teacher who is mean. But we playd lots of running games. We started school two days ago. We’v done lots of work but Mr. Connolly thinks we’v hardly done any he sais where gonna work our buts off. He already toute us two songs and a poulm. At lunch i got tipped when I was b.a. then everybody said to me that i was in so i said i was b.a. They said there was no b.a. I said i did not know. They said I had to take it. i got mad and cryed. But we made up.”
I think I still remember the injustice of that game of tip! But I also remember Mr Connolly as one of my favourite teachers because he gave me a hug when I cried after getting in trouble for throwing grapes on the school bus.

 

Dawn Barker – THEN

“I had two favourite subjects at school: English and Latin. My reasons for liking English are probably obvious, as even in primary school I was entering competitions reciting Scottish poetry and winning certificates like this! In high school I studied Latin for five years and loved it. Latin opened up the world of literature when I learned the structure and cadence of the language, the mythology, and the poems of Ovid, Cattalus and Virgil. Essential for anyone who wants to understand stories and language, I think!”

 

Fiona Palmer – THEN

“I hated maths and I had some real doozy maths teachers over the years but then Mr Gow came along in Year 11. He was awesome and my favourite. My friend took this class photo, maybe that’s why I was game enough to ‘bunny ears’ Mr Gow.”

NOW:https://www.facebook.com/FionaPalmerRuralAuthor?ref=hl

Christine Stinson at SchoolChristine Stinson – THEN

“I met my favourite teacher in primary school. Sister Justinian looked a lot like a bull dog, with a particularly pugnacious bottom lip and a habit of throwing exercise books out the window (and onto the road) if she wasn’t happy with the standard of homework. Bless her, she gave me pictures to write stories about and didn’t mind how long those stories were, and my exercise book never ended up on the roadway.”

NOW: www.christinestinson.com

Heather Garside – THEN

“Before- and after-school jobs included feeding the occasional poddy calf. My primary schooling was done by correspondence school as we lived too far from town to attend normal school. My mother taught all four of us and often battled with getting us into the school room. One morning we had gone off playing some distance from the house and poor Mum was calling and calling us to come home. How naughty were we! One of our cats came up to join us and began meowing at us. Then he turned around and starting walking back to the house, looking back at us and meowing every so often. We were so intrigued, we obediently followed him home!”

NOW: http://www.heathergarside.com

Jenn J McLeod – THEN

“The strongest memory for me at High school relates to that plot in the playground, our group’s patch of ground that no other group dared occupy. A recess oasis where battles were fought and friendships were forged.”

 

 

School’s out for the day. If you have any questions or 

suggestions, please raise your hand, leave a comment, share!

A word about that OTHER school reunion in Calingarry Crossing. 

Poor Maggie. She has no idea the perfect storm is

Find out more, right here. Simmering Seasonheaded her way.

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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Author Harvest ‘bales’ up Christine Stinson

You know when you meet someone and something just clicks? Well, that’s how it was when I first met this lovely author at the RWA conference in 2011. As it was my first conference, Christine, Lou Reynolds, Jaye Ford (and their band of merry-makers) took me under their protective wing. (ie: they taught me how to parrrr-tay way after my beddy-bye time! (Although not before demonstrating how I should help the wait staff ‘tidy up’ the banquet tables after dinner. Nice one, girls! 😉

Now let’s see Christine Stinson at home…

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?

I’m loud and proud: every pot on my deck has a garden gnome. Love my cute little fellows.

(See what I mean? Click!)

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

Avocados, love them. But someone told me the trees don’t bear fruit for the first seven years.

(Correct! And they need a mate. I LOVE avos but have watched four out of six on my property die as a result of the floods. Sad. 🙁  )

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

Plenty of eggs, milk, cheeses, always a container of olives, lots of vegies in the crisper and a half an avocado. Plus leftovers.

(Click!)

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

The bone of contention in my household is that I never sort my wardrobe at all. My other half swears blind there are clothes in there I haven’t worn since high school.

What are you wearing now? (Be honest!)

Currently wearing a lovely, cuddly tracksuit with ugg boots. It’s a cold morning!

(Cuddly trakky. Cute!)

Whose home would you like to housesit and why?

The Governor-General’s residence, Kirribilli House. As they say in all the real estate magazines, Location, location, location. And imagine if those walls could talk.

(Mmm, Quentin Bryce. I want to be just as elegant at her age – and be able to kneel at a cenotaph to lay a wreath and actually get up myself. Ahhh, that’s get up all by myself – just to clarify!)

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?

I’m a slow learner – I had to be offered a two-book contract.

(Click!)

What is the hardest part of writing for you?

Turning off the critical part of my brain while I get the story down.

(Click! Click!)

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

About a girl.

Fun stuff …

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

My current protagonist, Marina Manning, would love hanging out with me! She’s a muso, loves a glass of red wine and has just had a baby. I’m a recent grandmother and loving it so I’d happily babysit for her, too. Anytime!

(Wine drinking music lover. Click! Click! Click! Click!)

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

I’d play the piano for you, Jenn.

(Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click! Click!)

What food would you be?

Good, comfort food – slow roasted lamb shanks.

(Oh yes!)

What was the best thing before sliced bread?

Wine…

(Yes, yes, yes… I think I’m having a Meg Ryan moment!)

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

I’m about a 7

Well, folks, Christine Stinson is definitely a BIG 10 when it comes to producing great reads. Take – It Takes A Village – for example. A must for any Aussie, any age (but better if you’re older I reckon.)

Growing up in conservative, postwar Australia isn’t easy. For eight-year-old Sophie, who has just been told that she’s a ‘bastard’, it seems that she lives in a world of secrets, unanswered questions and whispers.
Who is her father and why did her mother never tell anyone who he was?
With only her reclusive grandfather to raise her, and more than one neighbour expecting her to go off the rails like her mother – after all, apples rarely fall far from the tree – Sophie struggles to find her place in the world.
In a time when experiences are shared around the kitchen table, over the back fence or up at the corner shop, Sophie learns that life is rarely simple, love is always complicated and sometimes it takes more than blood ties to make a family.

Highly recommended reading for a chilly autumn day.

For more about Christine: www.christinestinson.com

 

 

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Author Harvest ‘bales up’ Jenn J McLeod

Author HarvestJenn J McLeod - Rural AuthorWell Jenn, here you are. It’s all happening now. Who knew! So let’s start as we always do here on Harvest … with food.

Can I offer you scones and tea or some other homemade delight?

Definitely not! I think I’ve had a little too much harvest love from my guests. Did no one see that butt-to-camera angle when NBN News filmed me launching the Bellingen Readers & Writers Festival a few months back. No food! No butts!

At home…

Mum says garden gnomes make a house a home! Am I loud and proud in my loveIMG_0540 of garden gnomes at home, a closet gnomer or with a strict ‘no gnomes’ policy at my place?

I’m afraid I did inherit a love of the cheeky gnome. This one at my dad’s place is by far my favourite. (And clearly I have a butt obsession at the moment!)

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

I have a nice collection of both fruit and vegie: avocado, orange, ruby grapefruit, mandarins, oranges, custard apple, lychee, mango, lime, lemon, pecans. The vegie garden will have seasonal vegies: I love strawberries and cooking with fresh herbs.

If someone looked in the refrigerator, what would they find?

Grotesque, alien-like vegetables that I somehow managed to grow/create. (eg. my carrots are orange in colour, but that’s where the similarities end.)

If someone was to sort my wardrobe by colour, what colour would stand out? (Is anyone volunteering?)

You will mostly find the colour of ‘Opp Shop’. I do love finding a hidden pre-loved treasure. Opp shops are a kind of story starter. I find myself wondering about the person/history behind the treasure.

What am I wearing now?

Opp Shop favourites – shorts and a tank top. I love supporting the volunteers who run the shop.

Whose home would I like to housesit and why?

I was going to pick a few places. Then I thought previous Harvestees might get all precious and say: “Ooohh… Jenn J never said we could do that ….” To which my response would be: Hey folks, it’s my party and I’ll give answers in triplicate if I want to …

So, (with that out o the way) I’d do a progressive thing with some of my author pals so I can soak up some inspiration during my stay: Fiona Palmer’s (I’ve heard about that Pingaring pub!), Fleur McDonald (her photographs of home are gorgeous. Must go there.), my publisher’s house Larissa Edwards (so I can nose around in her book collection), Helene Young’s (in tropical north Queensland – say no more!), Christine Stinson’s (because she said I could stay there anytime I wanted to “come home to the city“!), Rachael Johns’ (she owns a supermarket for goodness sake. Imagine that!), Bronwyn Parry (she has kangaroos watching her work through the window), and speaking of rooms with a view – Annie Seaton’s place (have you seen that writing chair of hers?) 😉 I could go on…. In fact I could go to New Zealand and visit Rae Roadley (becasue she has found ‘Love At The End Of The Road’.)

Country curiosities…

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

Love my leather hat. Hate hat hair. Love my comfy Redbacks. Hate spiders!

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

A meerkat: stands tall, inquisitive, cautious, highly excitable, aggressive only when provoked! (Best of all, cute as all get out and no butt to speak of.)

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

It went to the shops to by House for all Seasons by this lovely new author called Jenn J McLeod. They heard there was a rather elaborate chook house described in the book as well as a competition with a great prize when you buy the book.

About you…

My turning point: when was that point in my life that I realised being an author was no longer going to be just a dream but a reality and a career?

A year before my 50th birthday I said: “It’s now or never.”  I’d written two novels already (contemporary fiction set in glamorous locations) but coud not interest a publisher or an agent. With a growing interest in Australian rural fiction I decided if I couldn’t sell an Australian small town story then I couldn’t sell anything and I would give up.

Two days before my 50th birthday I signed with Clare Forster (Curtis Brown Literary Agency). The rest, as they say, is history!

What is the hardest part of writing for me?

Picking up where I left off the previous day. I have to get into the flow (it’s a voice thing) which means reading a few previous chapters. I’m afraid I can’t read without editing so I get bogged down with the detail, which then ends up limiting my word count at the end of each day.

If someone was to write my biography, what do I think the title should be?

She did a good job, butt …!

Fun stuff…

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

My contemporary fiction tends to have a cast of characters rather than the protagonist/antagonist structure. Not sure any of them would want to hang out with me but, boy, would I LOVE hanging out with them. Especially a couple of my secondary boys. Will, the local cafe owner who makes great soy lattes, and Alex, the country vet and all-round nice guy. Both have the wonderful, witty (verging on wicked) sense of humour. I reckon we’d get on, don’t you?

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

I’d show you the NBN News clip and ask you: “Does my butt look big in that?”

What food would I be?

Ummm … something nutty perhaps!

What was the best thing before sliced bread?

I have no idea. I only included this question to see what others would say. But check this. Will we all be asking in a few decades, “What’s the best things since the super-duper toasting bread knife thingy?”

Name 5 uses for a stapler that has no staple pins.

With an obsessive partner there is NEVER a stapler without staple pins (nor a toilet roll holder without paper, a fridge without a cold beer, or a car without petrol).

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

I’ve just interviewed myself. What do you think?

Don’t forget to lock March 1 into your diary (or subscribe to receive a reminder). On online launch will be … colourful and loud 😉

Now … follow that chook and go buy my book. No butts about it! Check out the links in my book room.

(My thanks to Lily Malone for suggesting I interview myself. BTW – check out her Author Harvest and the other fabulous writing folk who have come home to the country so far – Author harvest line-up.