Huge thanks to Tamara McWillams for a conversation one day that started with ‘You should do a book with a naturopath in it…’ and all her follow-up help with the technical details (that’ll teach you to come up with a really good idea, Tamara!).
Thank you so much to the various people who helped with research, questions and early reading: Lyn Mattick, Netti Lane, Kirstin Knight, Kristy Watson, Glenda Grey, Sonya Popowycz Comiskey and Natalie Young. And thanks as always to supernurse Leanne Jarvis for giving me all the big words I need to make me sound so much smarter than I actually am. Big shout-out to my agent, Jo Butler; I’m still so impressed with your city driving skills—give me a corrugated dirt road any day!
To my fantastic publisher and all the crew at Allen & Unwin, thank you for continuing to allow me to write these stories and all your help to make them shine.
Earlier this year I was honoured to be an Australia Day ambassador. While writing my Australia Day speech I realised that writing rural fiction is so much more than simply a genre I like to write in. Rural Australia is my passion. The communities I write about and the issues that they face could apply to any rural community anywhere in Australia. I feel privileged to be able to share these stories with you, and I hope in some small way we can help raise awareness for rural Australia and the obstacles that distance, population and lack of funding pose to so many of our smaller communities.