As an Australian writer, there is nothing more frustrating than being picked up on my use of slang in my manuscripts.  My American editor is forever telling me that I can’t use a term, or I need to explain a term I’ve used in my stories.  The frustrating bit?  

I don’t even realise that I'm using slang!

When I told some Aussie friends and authors that I had written a rural Aussie romance, they were happily encouraging.  We are proud of our Aussie roots, and we like to show it.  But in writing a rural romance, there is the inevitability that slang is going to be used.

I floated the idea past my editor of using a glossary at the beginning of my story, and I believe she almost melted in thankfulness.  So I began to browse my story for words that would stump the non-Australians.  Sure there were some obvious ones: thongs, esky, smoko.  But there were some surprising ones that I had to enter too.

There was an outcry from my fellow Aussie authors.  They wanted a peek at my glossary.  So without further ado I present it to you.  Here are the terms you are going to need to know in order to read The Shearing Gun.

AFL – Australian Football League.  The country-wide league for teams playing Aussie Rules.
Anzac biscuit – a sweet biscuit made from oats and golden syrup, named for the Australian soldiers who fought in WWI in the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (Anzacs).
Blow or strike – when referring to shearing, a blow is a rounded, smooth movement of the shearer’s arm across the animal while removing the fleece.  A strike is a downward or upward movement.
Border Leicester – a breed of large sheep, grown especially for their meat.
Bottle-of-beer! – in the shearing shed, should the person sweeping the floor drop the broom, they are said to “owe” the shearers a bottle of beer.
Bull-bar – a large type of nudge bar, especially designed to protect the vehicle in the case of a frontal collision with large stock such as cows (and bulls).  See also: Roo-bar.
Bushie – a person who lives in the bush.  One who lives in the rural areas.  See also:  The Bush.
Caravan – a trailer home.
Chook – the Australian term for a chicken/hen.
Chook pen – chicken coop.
Classer – see: Wool classer.
Copper – a policeman.
Corriedale – a breed of sheep, good for both meat and wool.
Countryman – a weekly newspaper publication for people in the farming communities.

Cuppa – a cup of tea or coffee.
Daks – pants.
Esky – a cooler box.
Footy – football, especially Aussie Rules.
Gas-bagging – slang for chatting, talking, gossiping.
Granny flat – a small apartment (usually single occupancy) built near to the main residence, but with independent access.  Mostly used for widowed, elderly parents.
Grub – slang for food.
Lubricate the arm – to have a few drinks at the beginning of the night, i.e. to loosen your drinking arm before getting seriously drunk.
Merino – a breed of sheep with extremely fine wool.
Missus – slang for wife.
Mongrel – usually refers to a dog of mixed breeding, can refer to a person as a derogatory term.
Mozzie – slang for mosquito.
Panadol – brand name of a common painkiller.

Red turkey – slang for the ball used in a game of Aussie Rules.
Roo-bar – abbrev. from Kangaroo-Bar.  A large type of nudge bar, especially designed to protect the vehicle in the case of a high speed frontal collision with a kangaroo.  See also: Bull-bar.
Rousie – shortened term for roustabout, a farmer’s worker who helps with the livestock.
Pavlova – a dessert similar to meringue made with egg whites.  Historically fought over as to whether it is of Australian or New Zealand origin.
Potbelly – an indoor, wood-burning stove used for cooking.
SAO biscuit – a savory cracker.
Shearing gun – a super-fast shearer, capable of shearing a large quantity of sheep in a single day.
Singlet – tank top, undershirt.
Smoko – a short break, usually for morning tea or afternoon tea.  Slang for a smoking break.
Sunnies – sunglasses.
Taking the mickey – to mock or scoff.
The big smoke – the city, usually referring to the capital city of the state.
The Bush – slang for the rural areas.
Thongs – footwear, flip-flops.
Triple-zero – Emergency call number.  911 in US.  999 in UK.
Wether – a castrated, male sheep.
Wool classer – a person responsible for rating the quality of the fleece as it comes off the animal.
Woop-woop – a fictional town that is supposedly in the middle of nowhere.

Are you confused yet?  The Shearing Gun is now available for pre-order: (link to Dreamspinner here.)

I'm so so so excited to reveal my new cover for my 19th of September release. 


              The Shearing Gun

Blurb:  At twenty-five, Hank owns a small parcel of land in Australia’s rural southwest where he supplements his income from the property with seasonal shearing.  Hank is a “shearing gun”—an ace shearer able to shear large numbers of sheep in a single day. His own father kicked him out when his sexuality was revealed, and since no one would ever hire a gay shearer, Hank has remained firmly closeted ever since.

Elliot is the newbie doctor in town—city-born and somewhat shell-shocked from his transplant to the country. When a football injury brings Hank to Elliot’s attention, an inappropriate sexual glance and the stuttered apology afterward kickstarts their friendship. Romance and love soon blossom, but it’s hard for either of them to hope for anything permanent. As if the constant threat of being caught isn’t enough, Elliot’s contract runs out after only a year.

 Excited?

Why did I write this story?  Well, back in the dark days (ie before Loving Jay was published) I was thinking about what to write about.  Country boys are always so sexy – but we don’t get a lot of cowboys in my section of Western Australia.  To the south of Perth is prime farming land.  We have huge industries in grapes, oranges, forestry and dairy.  To the south east it is sheep and wheat land.  To get your cowboys you need to go way way north.

But then I thought – why not shearers?  Do you get gay shearers?  You must do.  Not that very many of them would be out… <<plot bunnies hatched all over the place>>

Shearing and sheep are in my blood.  My father was a shearer at one stage of his life (way before I was born).  He raised sheep my entire life.  I have brothers, nephews and even a sister-in-law who are all shearers. 

So please, sit back and enjoy Hank’s coming out story.


Available for pre-order from Dreamspinner within the next couple of days.  I'll post the link as soon as it's live.

My apologies for not blogging for a while.  I was hit with a dreaded flu – thankfully short, but more severe than I usually get.  I have asthma and these sort of colds always leave me with breathing problems for the week following. 

So I was crawling out of my sickness hole, only to stumble into a deeper than usual editing hole. Then the following day I received a second lot of edits – proofing this time.  I was in way over my head and it has taken me 12 days to work through it.  Bad news for me, but good news to readers as that is TWO new manuscripts that have progressed closer to publication.

So today’s blog is dedicated to the thing I haven’t done for 12 days – reading for pleasure.  I wish to tell you what I am looking forward to reading.

A Taste Of Honey, A Dreamspinner Anthology
Release date: 18 August 2014

Blurb:  In the mood to try something sweet? How about a collection of stories about bears and the special men in their lives? Guys don’t have to be in their twenties, perfectly sculpted, and hairless to be hot. Bears are real men with real bodies—and that doesn’t always mean a perfect six-pack or an immaculately smooth chest. With bears, it can mean more man to love. The men in this anthology are chubs, cubs, grizzlies, pandas, polar bears, and more—all looking for a connection. And beneath their burly physiques are hearts of gold. Explore the bear scene and beyond with these big, hairy guys and the men who find them irresistibly sexy.

For those who are anticipating this, I wish to brag that I have an advance release… For those who are upset by this, don’t be. I’ve been so bloomin’ busy I haven’t had the time to read it!

One of my stories is in here, but I haven’t read the others.  I’m really excited about this.  I was chatting to another author today and I said that the hardest part is going to be not skipping ahead to read my favourite authors.  I have been waiting for this one since February.  I saw the submission call from Dreamspinner and got all excited.  Yay!  Bear stories!  Yes, okay, so I ended up writing my own submission and sending it in, but I'm more excited about the other stories.

Pre-order from Dreamspinner here.

Time for Destiny, by Michelle Rae
Release date:  22 August 2014

Blurb:  When Daniel Wilson, oldest of five children in a troubled family, joined the military, he expected to see combat in Iraq. But it comes as quite a shock when a Rupee minted a century and a half ago transports him to that dangerous time in war-torn colonial India. After he meets and falls in love with Vir during his visit to 1857, he faces the greatest challenge of his life. He knows he may ultimately lose Vir because he belongs in a different time. Still, he wants desperately to keep his love alive despite threats of violence from both wars.

I’m so excited about this one.  There are a lot of things drawing me to this book.  First the cover is beautiful!  But then we’re talking about being transported back to the past.  This gets my heart racing with anticipation.  For me, I would love to be able to go back and experience certain times in the past, so reading about it is always fun.  And if it’s done well, it’s brilliant.  I managed to ask Michelle about her inspiration for the book:

Michelle says: Time for Destiny came about when a good friend requested a time travel story. Her first suggestion was the early Victorian era but I felt that had been done to death. While at work and talking to a fellow worker, he suggested somewhere exotic. After a brief search of Indian history the story was born. Originally written for the 2012 National Novel Writers month, Time for Destiny underwent 15 edits before being picked up. The most challenging part came at this stage. Although I felt I’d covered the past well, my wonderful editor found conflicting differences with the references she had used from the past. It was at this point I had to decide if I made the story more fantasy or use actual facts. I chose to use actual facts from the past and this meant some big rewrites, and a lot more research. The end product was a wonderful story about love between two wars and the two men who lived in different worlds. The opportunity to be published professionally was an amazing experience and I learned a lot about how I wrote and how to be better.

OMG!  From this amount of effort, I’m sure this book is going to be FANTASTIC!

Pre-order from Dreamspinner here.
Michelle's website here.
Michelle's FB here.

Back in January 2013, I was at a major crossroad in my life. 

In my early 20s, I’d given up my degree in order to work, so hubby could finish his degree.  The two of us spent the next six years paying off our mortgage, renovating our house and saving for the day we’d have kids.  We both agreed that we wanted me to stay at home and not work while the children were little, and in this economic climate, that takes some sacrifice.

We’ve done everything we said we would, and I am enormously proud of the both of us.  But there was something looming I had not considered: re-entering the workforce.

I had been stewing over it for months.  In February 2015, my youngest child will start full-time school, and we had agreed that I would attempt to secure part-time work at that time.  Just a few days a week.  Nothing huge.  But my problem was, what did I wish to do?

Back in January 2013, I had spent months of soul searching.  At that stage I had two years to plan, and I was weighing up the options of returning to university.  I could perhaps complete a couple of units over the two years to get a head start.  Is that what I wanted to do?  I could finish my Physics/Chemistry double degree and then do a year of Education, and become a high school science teacher.  Or I could try something completely different.  Psychology interested me, as did Nursing.  But it would mean I would spend at least four more years not working, and end up with a debt of at least $60K for fees.  I needed to go back to work for money, not put us deeper in debt.

My other option was I could just re-enter the workforce doing what I had been doing previously.  I had experience in retail, and had also worked in administration and finance roles.  The pay wouldn’t be fantastic, but I didn’t care about that.  But did I want to do that until retirement age?

Then a crazy idea occurred to me.  Maybe I could write a book?

Not that I’d ever written anything in my life, apart from a couple of plays for the kids to perform at church.  But the idea wouldn’t go away.  I had a look at how much authors earned and was not cheered.  But the damn idea would not go away!

I was at home, so I had occasional free time, I could do it.  It would take me some practice (if I had any sort of talent), but I’d never know until I tried.  I didn’t have to earn big bucks, just some.  I didn’t have to be famous.  I didn’t need anything more than a computer to start me off.  So I decided to try.  I gave myself 24 months to learn how to write a story, and get something that was decent enough for a publisher.  I gave myself until January 2015.

I wanted to dive directly into m/m romance, but I was nervous – what did I really know about it?  I am female, and straight at that.  So instead I wrote a cute little story I called Windmills Of My Mind.  It's m/f, and it's a sweet and humorous little tale of a girl who falls in love with the boy next door, the one she’d always considered a brother.

My BFF loved it, and demanded another, this time starring the next brother.  I hesitated, but could see the value of a series.  I would write #2 and then submit both to a publisher, along with outlines for #’s 3-5.  So I stowed it and left it until I had written #2.

Unfortunately, the next book to come gushing forth was Loving Jay.  Then The Blinding Light.  I was on an m/m roll, and was completely shocked when they were both contracted by Dreamspinner.  I was ecstatic and concentrated on more m/m, deliberately ignoring Windmills and its sequel.

But it was around, and my BFF kept asking about it.  Finally, in June 2014, I tidied up the manuscript and sent it off to a publisher for consideration.  This morning I received a very nice email back, saying that they like my writing style, but the book doesn’t have enough sex in it for them.  If I put more sex in, they will take it.

I was expecting that, so it didn’t come as a big shock.  I’d felt it too.  It was my first book, and I wasn’t writing about sex, more about story.  There is sex in the story, it just doesn’t happen immediately.  It’s my first reject letter, but I’m not upset.  I’m more perplexed as to what to do with this manuscript now.

It seems that sex sells.

Yes – that is a huge newsflash for everyone, I’m sure.  But it does beg the question, is there an audience for books without sex?

I admit that I like sex in the books I read – not sex for sex’s sake, but it’s just that, in this day and age, a relationship without sex is odd.  I like a couple of full-on sex-in-your-face novels, the same as the rest of us, but there doesn’t have to be sixty-page descriptions of every single position the MCs tried in order to keep my attention.

When you have a look at many of the websites (publishers and eBook sellers), it becomes apparent immediately that the sex in the books drives the sales.  Many of the websites not only give the books a star rating, but also a heat rating to show the spice.  eBooks are great for readers who like spice, but don’t want to purchase them from the local Target store while everyone watches.  So if you have a non-spicy novel, what are your options?  The answer?  Very few.  The bigger publishers do these books, but competition is fierce and cut-throat.  Only the best of the best get a look in.  In Australia, the pond is smaller again.

So I have a choice – I can cut the sex that is there and try for more mainstream publishers who prefer their manuscripts pretty and clean, or I can throw in more sex and re-submit to this publisher.

Choices, choices, choices.

It does seem to me that it’s a little like prostitution in a laughable way – give them sex and I get the job.  But at the end of the day, it’s the readers who provide payment, so we have to give them what they want.  So yes, you need to put out to get paid.

So what will I do?  I’ll pack up Windmills into a box (or a folder in my computer) and leave it for another year.  Perhaps one day I will try again.  It’s a cute little story.  I like it.  I’ll re-read it.  And I’ll always remember it was my first.  My first novel written, my first novel rejected, my first novel I had no idea what to do with.

Everyone has a first they can’t forget.