There was a reception of book lovers at the Broken Hill City Library on Wednesday evening to welcome yet another author on a book promotion tour.
Thirteen years ago, farmer Fleur McDonald was in a blur of dirty nappies, projectile vomiting and sleepless nights with two young children when an idea popped in her head, about a stock stealing ring in mid-north South Australia, and she just had to write it.
That was 20 books ago, and this week she launched her latest, Broad River Station.
Having now sold over 700,000 books, Ms McDonald is considered one of Australia’s greatest story tellers.
“I do come from a long line of storytellers,” Ms McDonald confirms.
“My dad’s a really great story teller and my cousin has written three books published through the same publisher as me, plus my three other cousins are song writers.
“My son has autism, so I started trying to write children’s stories for him to try and expand his attention span and then I started writing fiction,” Ms McDonald said.
After her first manuscript was rejected by a publisher, she rejigged the first three chapters and resubmitted it.
“When I received the phone call, I had been working in the sheep yard for 12 days straight and there was washing and gardening everywhere, a real mess.
“It was all pretty exciting, but I just didn’t know what to do so I tried to be really professional and later in an email the lady that had called told me I was the most unexcited author she had made an offer to.
“So, I sent a quick email saying I had just finished jumping on the bed, so I am very excited and just didn’t know what to say,” she laughs.
Her first two books sold into Germany straight away, and since then she has never looked back.
Fleur’s method for writing is an unplanned approach where she allows the story to develop organically and lets it just develop, so much so that she does not know the ending until she gets to the end of the book.
She hopes this adds to the experience for the reader and makes the story more real.
There is still more to come, as Fleur has just signed another four-book contract which will keep her busy until at least 2026.
