RURAL minded or not, curling up with one of top Australian fictional novelist Nicole Alexander’s books could be just what the doctor ordered.
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Alexander has begun a four-state tour, taking in some northern centres this week to launch her sixth rural fictional novel, Wild Lands.
Her regional stopovers included libraries at Moree last Thursday, Inverell and Glen Innes today, winding up with Quirindi (10am) and Walcha (2.40pm) tomorrow.
Ms Alexander was born and raised north of Moree. Her great-grandfather selected the holding and is buried on the property, and it was the sense of emotional attachment to that property that compelled her to return there and work it in the early 1990s.
That’s when she put pen to paper and started writing, and she’s been passionate about writing of her love of the land ever since.
“I work on my family’s property a few days a week. It has given me inspiration for my novels,” she said.
“I like sweeping outback stories of love, tragedy and redemption, and draw on 120-plus years of my family’s bush history for most of my inspiration.
“All my novels are based around an anecdote or actual historical incident from the past. I write what I live and know, so the works are meaty, sweeping and authentic.”
Ms Alexander is the bestselling author of six Australian fiction novels. They include The Bark Cutters, A Changing Land, Absolution Creek, Sunset Ridge, The Great Plains and her latest, Wild Lands. Bar Cutters remains the highest-selling debut novel in the rural literature genre and was shortlisted for an Australian Book Industry Award in 2011.
Absolution Creek and Sunset Ridge were both selected for the “50 Books You Can’t Put Down” list. Wild Lands is an Australian frontier epic set in the bush of the 1830s.
“It’s a story of pioneering farmers, adventures and outlaws who carved a place for themselves and their families in the Australian bush. I hope people enjoy my novels, and when they open them, breathe in the heart and soul of the land I love,” she said.
Her works have been published in many countries across the globe.
She’s an in-demand speaker at various functions, and also conducts writing workshops. She spent several years working in Australia and abroad in the finance and fashion before returning to agriculture.
