Well, here it is everyone, my interview
with Fiona Palmer. Fiona is published by Penguin and currently has three
fabulous novels out (one of them in german :) ). Please welcome her. It's been
a pleasure to have her on this blog and I hope you all enjoy the interview as
much as I did organising it.
So firstly, Fiona, tell us a little
about yourself?
I’m
a mother of two, live in the tiny rural town of Pingaring
350km south east of Perth
. I work one day a week at the local shop, just to get out of the house and I
try to concentrate on writing when I’m not busy chasing my kids around, doing
housework or community jobs.
I think it's great that you work at the
local shop and can understand your need to get out of the house. :) I think any
job dealing with the general community is great. You get so many interesting
character and terrified some may be, some end up in novels.
So who are you biggest writer
influences? I think ever author has writer influences even the best of the best
must. :)
I was never a big reader, but one of the
first big books I read in primary school was Danielle Steel’s Summers End. I
think this is where my love of romance really grew. Since then I’ve become a
big YA fan also and have written my own YA book, which I hope to find a
publisher for.
When did you start did you start
writing Rural Romance? And was there a reason why?
I started writing at the worst time of my
life, when my kids were just babies and I was working full time running the
local shop. But I started to write mainly because I had this story in my head
about a girl on a farm. I love the country and my lifestyle, so this is what
made me write in the first place. I don’t write because I love words, I write
because I love the story. After 2.5years of sitting on my book a friend gave me
Rachael Treasure’s book, Jillaroo and I knew then that there was a market/genre
for this type of book and it kicked me into gear. It just took off after that.
That's excellent. Funny enough, Rachael
Treasure is a favourite if mine and one of the first romances I ever read.
Does your life in a small town influence what you
write?
Yes, I’m living in the rural community so I
am writing it as truthfully as I can. Our area went through a drought a few
years back and it guttered the community, it also influenced my fourth book,
which is set around a town in a drought.
I think it's great that you can bring
such devasting issue to light. Personal, I don't think city people truly understand
drought. But through fiction, I think perhaps we might be able to get something
across to them. Fiction writing is great for portraying emotions and I couldn't
think of a better way to humanize such a need for help.
Anyway, would you mind telling us in ten
words or less what your current release is about?
The Road Home is about a country girl who
ends up being citified, but finds out the country is where she really belongs.
That sounds great, Fiona. I wish you
all the best with it. :)
Now I
had a earlier post a month or so back, where I spoke about where writers write.
Do you have any special conditions a writing space that you write most
comfortably in? Do you have a picture to share.
I write in
our office. Its not fancy and is crammed full of stuff but it does the trick.
I think that
just it. It just seems to work for you. And Fiona has been nice enough to
provide us with a picture of her study :)
Once again, thank you for joining me today, Fiona. It was a pleasure meeting you. Best of luck with your career and I hope to see you at the conference in August. :) Perhaps get you to sign a copy of THE ROAD HOME haha.
And on her website where you can find out more about her releases here: http://www.fionapalmer.com/
