Chit-chat Wednesday and When you can't take no more!

The humidity in Sydney is dire at the moment. It's hard to sleep of a night and we are always shattered in the morning. We are all exhausted from the constant, blasting, merciless heat. I posted a few photos on my writing Blog from my Tasmanian trip here.http://josephinetalepeddler.wordpress.com/


Here's a few more to remind me of a cooler land.

And how wonderful is this ad from the 70's advertising 4711 ice cologne?

Only the 70's would be so surreal they would pitch the add at truckies. Have a wonderful week.

I am flying. Poets Cottage has sold.

I am flying. I am finding it difficult to take in at the moment, even though I've known for a couple of weeks. Today - Spring Equinox - I spent the morning at my agent's signing a two-book deal with Pan Macmillan.

I am swooping over the chimney tops and breaking apart clouds as I say those words again. I've been writing now for six years out of contract. Poets Cottage took me three years to write as I struggled with juggling motherhood and writing.
It has been three years since I stood outside the 'real Poets Cottage' in the Tasmanian evening light watching the full moon rise over her roof and the shadows move in the garden.

She gave her story to me then and I passed it on.

I am soaring with my dreams amongst the stars now. Swoosh! Swoosh! Watch me swoop!

The Spring Equinox is a time of balance, contemplation, celebration and giving thanks. I have a lot to celebrate tonight.

Other things in my life are not so good. The shadows are there with the ongoing health problems of a close family member.

But tonight I will wave to you from the sky wherever you are. If you look out of your window to the night. I am smiling back. xx

chagall image source

Magnificent, Marvellous, Mighty Monday and 'Poets Cottage' inspiration

This week I thought you might be interested to see a few images that inspired my current book in progress, 'Poets Cottage'.
On our last trip to my home state of Tasmania, we treated ourselves to a week in the sea-fishing village of Stanley, renting the historic Captain's Cottage. I'm a big lover of sea-fishing villages and Stanley in many ways is like entering an Enid Blyton book. The town is filled with historic cottages, dramatic seascapes and a large gothic cemetery by the sea. The magnificent Regency-style mansion Highfield has thousands of tales brewing inside it, including a very tragic story of the daughter of the original owners, who was killed when her pet dog dragged her into a fence while leading her around in her toy buggy. And I fell in love with a beautiful Georgian-style house that looks a little like the Bronte parsonage.
My book 'Poets Cottage' was born as I chatted to locals and walked the beach. All the visual elements surrounding me, sheep grazing in cemeteries, cottage-style gardens, the ocean, large houses filled with screams of grief, ghosts that wouldn't rest. Family secrets. Tasmanian devils. Bohemia. Sea-changes. The 1930s. A town where crime never happens... until it does.
My characters were so vivid it was as if they materialized and introduced themselves. And the theme of the book – family secrets and lies, memory and truth – was always there.
The book came quickly. The first draft flowed easily and my agent was happy with the chapters. I’m now working through another draft. I hope you enjoy these few early holiday inspiration shots that inspired Poets Cottage. I shall post some more inspiration photos next week.