November release: Up On Horseshoe Hill

Up On Horseshoe Hill, which will be on the shelves - and available as an ebook and audiobook (more on this in another post!) - will be out on 18 November. It’s so exciting when a book has a cover! If you would like to pre-order the book to ensure it jumps into your kindle on 18 November, or arrives on your doorstep around this date, please CLICK HERE for links. You can also order at your local bookstore, or ask your library to order the book. As many readers know by now, I get just as much pleasure from seeing my book on a library shelf, as I do on seeing it on the shelves in a bookstore.

I find the thought of launching a new book a strange combination of relief, joy and trepidation.

Relief in that I don’t have to read the manuscript yet again (100,000 words takes a few days out of my week …), and I can look forward to working on my next book.

Joy because a book release coming up means readers have the chance to get up close and personal with my characters (like I have been for a year or two …).

Trepidation because … it’s judgment time! Much as Up on Horseshoe Hill has been praised by the readers that have taken a peek between the covers so far, and my editor and my publisher are really excited about it, I find book reviews a little confronting. Much as I love writing, I don’t particularly like telling people what a fabulous book I have written (it’s just not me!) so I hope that others will do that for me.

And finally on the release … I love this cover! Firstly because Victoria Purman, whose novels I have read and enjoyed for years, was kind enough to give the book a wonderful endorsement. I first knew Victoria as a writer of novels set in a coastal town in South Australia. These contemporary novels feature a wonderful bunch of characters (look up the Boys of Summer series!). More recently, Victoria has written page turning stories of Australian historical fiction, including the novels, The Last of the Bonegilla Girls, and The Land Girls, both published by HQ (HarperCollins). And the other reason I love the cover? Because there is a horse on the cover, and (even though it is up to readers to imagine what the characters actually look like) I think the model has a really nice natural look, which reflects the main character, Jemima (Jet) Kincaid really well.