Hi Readers!

Can you believe another year has zipped on by? I sure can't.

Someone asked me the other day how many words I wrote during 2023 and the answer is: quite a lot! Here's what they looked like:

• In January 2023 I wrote a Christmas story, A Cattle Dog for Christmas, which is somewhere between 25 - 30,000 words. It's deadline was January 31, and it was published in the anthology A Country Vet Christmas with my writing buddies Alissa Callen, Pamela Cook, Lily Malone and Penelope Janu. It came out in at the start of October, sold like hotcakes in department stores all over Australia, so another print run was done which has also sold well. We were so delighted, and the publishing team at Harper Collins were so delighted, we're doing another anthology for Christmas 2024.

The link to check out the anthology is here

Or here is the url if you prefer to: https://www.amazon.com.au/Country-Vet-Christmas-Stories-Australian-ebook/dp/B0C1DC8T9F

I just noticed it's sitting on a 4.5 star rating so yay!

• Once the anthology story was done I started the first draft of Down the Track, which was due to be at the publishers in mid April 2023. It's been edited and tweaked during the year (and my publisher was very kind and gave me an extra three weeks until May 15) and it's now sitting at 102,000 words. The tough editing is done, the cover has been drafted and is ready to go to the marketing team for their feedback, and there's just proof reading and typesetting to happen now. Down the Track will be released in June 2024 ... more about the story further down in this email.

The link to check out the book is here

Or here is the url if you prefer: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/down-the-track-stella-quinn?variant=41281403617314

• In July or so I started writing a short story to enter into the Sisters in Crime competition. I won the Domestic Malice category in that comp a few years ago, and I've been keen to have a crack at the Body in the Library category ever since, but I didn't have it finished by the due date, so that was perhaps 2,000 words sitting in an unfinished file on my laptop.

• In November I started writing my 2024 Christmas story (working title is Christmas in Yindi Creek) about a paramedic, a sheep farmer, and an opal mining lease, because I need to get it finished by the end of December so I can start writing my 2025 book (100,000 words due in April again GULP), and as of this morning my manuscript is about 13,000 words. It needs to be 30-33,000 words for the anthology.

So if my maths is correct, that makes 30k + 103k + 2k + 13k = 148,000 words in 2023!

No wonder I'm ready for a summer laze-about in a pool with a bucket of prawns and a beer.

Ticketpalooza competition

Thanks to the readers who signed up to this bookmail newsletter in response to my social media posts the other day. In March 2024, me and a host of other authors are attending book signing events in Brisbane, Sydney, Perth and Melbourne, run by Australian Romance Readers Association. One of those subscribers (drawn randomly) will receive a free ticket to the event from the ARR2024 organisers, and the winner is ... *drumroll* ... Brenda!! I'll be sending your email to the ARR2024 team who will get you sorted :)

For anyone interested in finding out more about ARR2024, here is the link:

And the url of the link is: https://australianromancereaders.com.au/events/arr2024/

Rural romance road trip: Stella Quinn & Penelope Janu March 2024

Tying in with ARR2024's Brisbane event in early March 2024, me and Penelope Janu are planning a mini road trip in South East Queensland. Events planned include a morning library event in Cleveland down south in Redlands Bay, followed by a lunch at an awesome little book store I know down there, then a drive west out to Ipswich for an evening library event. We're staying in an historic country home that evening then in the morning we drive further west to Laidley for a library event there, followed by lunch at the pub and a wander down main street to gather inspiration (it is a fabulous country town). More details to come in the New Year. We'd have loved to keep going and visit Allora, Stanthorpe, Toowoomba, Killarney ... but time wasn't on our side. Maybe the year after!

Booknews - DOWN THE TRACK - out June 2024 - so what's it all about?

Here's the blurb ... and I'm not gonna lie, when I just read those lovely comments at the bottom from Mrs B and Better Reading, I may have teared up just a little.

Digging up the past isn't easy ... Sweet, funny and feel-good, the unmissable rural romance from the bestselling author of A Home Among the Snow Gums and The Vet From Snowy River.

Dr Joanne Tan is an expert in a lot of things. Love isn't one of them.

Being thirty-something, broke, divorced, and in a cold war with her twelve-year-old son is a lot, but Jo's handling it. Just. At least, she is until her job at the Natural History Museum is in jeopardy. An invitation to dig up dinosaur bones on a remote Queensland sheep station arrives at just the right time.

It's not her first trip to Yindi Creek, but it's not as though anyone will remember her from fifteen years ago ... And by anyone, of course, she means the pilot she had that fling with. The fling that taught her she's far safer sticking to science ...

Gavin "Hux" Huxtable, helicopter pilot and reluctant sheep-shearer, has turned his broken heart into a secret (and successful) writing career. But running into Jo again, all these years down the track, stirs up a lot more than outback country dust.

A missing person, a fossilised legbone, and a nosy country cop force Jo and Hux together and the sparks that start flying don't go unnoticed by the locals ...

Digging up the past isn't easy. Digging up the truth can be even harder.

PRAISE FOR STELLA QUINN:

'Quinn's warm tone, gentle humour and all-pervasive kindness shines throughout A Home Among the Snow Gums; it's a lively gallop with endearing characters and a satisfying ending that leaves a spring in your step.' - Better Reading

'A Town Like Clarence captivated me completely with its easy charm, true-blue Aussie setting and delightful cast ... a book that filled my heart with immense happiness.' - Mrs B's Book Reviews

I made a map of the part of Western Qld that the story is set in. I couldn't persuade my publisher to include it in the physical book, so here it is ... you guys are the first ones to see it. I'm toying with the idea of turning it into a tea towel, what do you think? (I might have to pretty up my dinosaur pictures first. I drew them with all the finesse of a toddler with a crayon lol.)

So what's next?

Yes, this newsletter is turning into a novel. That's what happens when you send them out as irregularly as I do ... the news starts to build up! On January 1 I start writing my 2025 book, which is currently untitled (not even a working title other than KYLIE'S STORY). We head back to my fave Snowy Mountains town, Hanrahan, and deep dive into the life of Kylie, who we've met before in the roles of Hannah Cody's best friend and local mechanic. There's a vineyard, there's an arrogant barrister who SO needs to get his comeuppance, there's an ancient labrador with a butter addiction (another dog ... yes ... I'm addicted to them). Everything else is a little loose at the moment. I'm hoping some of that laze-about in the pool with a beer time will involved some plotting.

CURRENT EBOOK PROMO IF YOU'RE INTERESTED

The Vet from Snowy River is on ebook sale as part of Amazon's Countdown to Christmas. Sale ends December 23 sorry for the short notice! Here is the link and the URL: https://www.amazon.com.au/Vet-Snowy-River-Stella-Quinn-ebook/dp/B08PDQZFKC/

Wishing you and yours a restful and calm and happy festive season,

Stella Quinn

For more info on my books visit book stores or the Harper Collins website > > links below (Or find me on your favourite retailer in print, audio book and ebook, or on my website www.stellaquinnauthor.com)

The Vet from Snowy River

A Town Like Clarence

A Home Among the Snow Gums

A Country Vet Christmas (anthology - it's a whopper!)

Down the Track (coming June 2024)

Kylie's story (untitled - coming 2025)

Felicity's story (untitled - coming 2026)