Perth Words… exploring possibilities.

For almost seven years, Hubby and I produced soft and crumbly fudge in our little (Council approved) kitchen at home, supplying small shops and attending festivals and events in and around Perth, Western Australia.

One of those was Dowerin Field Day a mighty showcase for Wheat Belt farmers and their machinery.  The ‘field’ includes a grassed runway, specifically for visiting farmers to land their private planes. Everything is huge!

Traffic was banked up for literally miles on narrow country roads, as enormous machinery was brought in to exhibit.   Those machines are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, so one sale can make the three day stay, well worth the effort.

However, we chose to travel home each night to refresh our supplies – there was only so much fudge one can fit into a little Hyundai Accent.  It was a challenge but hubby being an ex musician, enjoyed fitting the stall and supplies into our small car.

Dowerin is just over two hours from our humble home in the Northern Suburbs of Perth. A couple of times, the trip took 3-4 hours instead.  We battled those enormous trailers and their long lines of cars waiting to pass on narrow roads, on the set-up drive there on day one and the take-down drive home, on day three.

On day 2, the first sales day, I took a break from selling and bumped into Rachael Johns and her 2nd book, ‘Man Drought’.   As fellow writers, we had lots to chat about; not least of which, my brother had just moved to Goomalling where Rachael and her husband ran the local supermarket.

I also wanted to know how her year had been since we were both guest presenters at the inaugural Avon Valley Writers Festival in 2012 and I bought her first book ‘Jilted’.

She talked about writing romance novels and specifically rural romance.  Rachael was so warm and engaging, I knew I’d love her book which I read, as soon as I could after I’d got my hands on it.

Later, speaking with my screenwriter hat on,  I told Rachael I thought ‘Man Drought’ would make a phenomenal TV Series.  I still think so and am very surprised no-one has picked it up yet.  If I was producing, I certainly would.

Six years later, international best-selling author, Rachael has produced 22 books, won numerous awards and moved out of the IGA Supermarket in Goomalling near Dowerin to the Big City Lights of small-town Perth.

However, I am still a HUGE fan and need to catch up on her books I haven’t read yet – from such an impressive list!

#DowerinFieldDay  #Fudge  #RachaelJohns  #RuralRomance  #WritingNovels  #Writing