Special Guest: John Holland

Cowboy Poet:

Interview with John Holland, Author of Dry Bone

Today my guest is John Holland, Author of Dry Bones, #1 bestseller, Amazon Kindle Poetry Australia and Oceania.

Welcome, John, and thank you for visiting my blog.

John, your book has drawn a lot of attention and great reviews. The first thing that drew me to your book was the title and cover. Can you tell us how the cover art came to be?

I can't take credit for that.  It was chosen by my publisher Lazarus Media.  I was happy for it to be used however. 

I think it suits the title and the book.

John, in addition to being a poet, your interesting bio says you were a stockman, which I now know is an Australian cowboy. We’ll get more into those nuances in a minute and at the end I’ll provide links to Dry Bones and to a review on the blog of fellow romance author Nia Simone.

Today, I’d like to focus on your cowboy experience. Let’s start with something simple. Did you wear cowboy boots when you rode? What are they made of?

Yes.  R.M. Williams riding boots with a Cuban heel.  They are leather.

http://www.bootsonline.com.au/boots.htm

Western saddle?

No.  Australian stock saddles.  The Cox poley was my favorite.

http://www.horsedeals.com.au/index.php?p=view-horse&horse=279025-Syd-Hill-Cox-Poley-Saddle

Rope?

No.

Did you lasso the cattle ever?

Rarely.  The only time a rope was used much was to rope unbranded cattle and drag them to a wooden panel called a "bronco panel" for branding etc.

http://www.broncobrandingaustralia.com/wordpress/?page_id=5

Ever do a rodeo?

A couple of times when I was very young.

What do you think of rodeos?

They can be a great spectacle.  But rodeo is now a spectator sport and no longer mirrors actual station (ranch) work.

What’s the difference between being a cowboy in Australia versus, say, Montana, you think?

I think the main difference is that cattle stations here are huge by comparison.  The climate is a big factor too. 

How many other cowboys did you work with?

This varies immensely.  A stock camp in the Northern Territory might consist of a Head Stockman, a cook, a horse tailer (wrangler) and a dozen ringers.

The term "ringer" is used more commonly in the North for a stockman (cowboy).

How long is a drive? How long are you out there for?

A cattle drive is known here as a "droving trip".  But this is to describe long trips to market.  Station work with cattle that takes place on the station itself is called "mustering".

Did you camp?

Yes.  In the north you could be camped out for weeks.  Even months sometimes.

Campfire?

Yes.

Is it all guys around the campfire?

Not always.  But that was the case in my experience.

What do you talk about?

Just about anything and everything.  There were some very well read people there.

How hot does it get during the day?

You try not to work cattle in the hottest times of the year, but summer temperatures are commonly over 100 degrees.

Did you carry your sleeping bag in a roll on the back?

No.  Your swag (bed roll) is usually carried on what American's would call a chuck wagon.  Motorized these days of course.  In the past pack horses were often used to do the same job.

Did you love your horse?

Of course.

Is there a ranch house?

Yes.  It is called a homestead here.  On big stations it is almost a small village.  Big stations (ranches) might also have several "out stations" each with it's own homestead and out buildings.

Who was your employer?

Often an absentee owner who employed a Station Manager to run the place for him/her.

How did you feel about him/her?

Not always kindly.

Do dogs go on the rides? (Term for rides…?)

Dogs are used for mustering and for working cattle in stockyards.

Dogs around the ranch house?

Always.

Cats? Indoor cats or all farm cats with a job to do?

Rarely.

Other pets Americans have never heard of?

You would have heard of baby kangaroos and parrots.  Sometimes there might be a pet Emu or Plains Turkey raised from a chick.

How big was the ranch? (Acres)

The biggest station I lived on was Coolibah Station in the Northern Territory.  It was several million acres in area.

It is still about 1,800,000 acres.  But only about half the size it was when I lived there.  I was a child and my Father, Jack Holland, was manager.  It was owned at the time by the meat canning company Tom Piper.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/21443041?versionId=25676236

Did you ever let a woman ride behind you in the saddle?

No, but I would have been happy to.

How many months a year did you work?

Most stockmen were employed full time.  But cattle work was confined mostly to the cooler months from April to September.

At other times you would be mending or building fences and any one of a multitude of other jobs that need doing on stations.

How many days in a row?

If you were out mustering you worked every day for several weeks at a time.  Around the homestead it was usually 6 days a week.

Thank you for visiting with us today, John, and congratulations on your release of Dry Bones.

Here are the links and please feel free to ask John some questions.

Nia Simone’s review: Can a dash, a space, a word convey worlds? Book review, Dry Bones, John Holland.

Link to book at Amazon Kindle:
http://www.amazon.com/Dry-Bones-ebook/dp/B00AAX3N7E/ref=sr_1_36?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1353704619&sr=1-36&keywords=dry+bones#_

Author website:

http://poetrysansfrontieres.weebly.com/

I want to thank John for agreeing to be on my blog today and to my friend Nia who introduced me to John and his beautiful work.

Have a great week.

Marie

Read an E-Book Week

Until I saw a reminder this morning, I totally forgot about this.

It's "Read an E-Book Week".

My publisher The Wild Rose Press has lots of great deals include a lot of Free books this week, just click here to be taken to their main catalog. If you want the more erotic stuff click here for the Wilder catalog (this is where my books are.)

Also my first book In Plain Sight is on sale for $2.99 (click here)

Enjoy the week.

Marie

Where does time go?

The days are passing faster than I can count.

This last week has been a world wind of getting things done, just not writing things.  With the holiday last Monday (President's day) it threw my week totally off.  Then on Sunday, my sister reminded me that the first of March is this Friday and here I thought I had another whole week in February yet.

The life of a writer isn't always about writing.  I'd like it to be, but life does get in the way.  This last week is an example.

There are things like: grocery shopping, cleaning the house, laundry, bills, balancing check books, runs to the bank, run to UPS to overnight paperwork, phone calls, cleaning out e-mail boxes, taking the dog to the groomer, training the dog (although I think she's training me), errands, lunch out with family and then there is preparing dinner every night and the clean up.

Oh and I forgot to add exercise.

In the next week, my life should calm down considerably.  A lot of last week was dealing with the sale of property, having the check finally arrive, and needing to get it invested where it would keep making some money and trying to minimize tax implications.

But it was also doing some necessary other things that I'd put off.

I honestly work at putting my writing first, but it doesn't always work for me.  I'm a work in progress, just like my books.

Have a great week.

Marie  

Snippet from Work in Progress

I thought I'd try something different and give you a snippet from my current work in progress.

            His kiss would be the death of her.

            "Oh, darling," his breath, hot and moist against her ear.

            "Yes, honey." She rubbed her body against his. She was giving the performance of her life. Her hands tightened on his broad shoulders, his soft hair just brushing her skin.  She nibbled at his ear.

            "Bedroom?" His voice was tight.

            Reaching down, she slipped her fingers between his hard stomach and jeans, then pulled him by his belt buckle.  She kept the barest of distance between their bodies while walking backwards.  The bedroom lay at the end of the hallway.

            Once inside, their legs tangled and they fell upon the blue satin quilt.  His hard erection pressing into her softness.  The bed quivered.

            "Oh, baby."  His fingers began unbuttoning her blouse.

            A crack and a snap filled the air, then there was air between her and the mattress.  She didn't even have time to let out a scream as the bed collapsed beneath them.

How is that for the beginning?  Can you guess what happens next?

Have a great week.

Football Season is Over

Now that the Superbowl has been played, the football season is over.

I wished the San Francisco Forty-Niners could have won, but the Ravens played a great game.  Watch out in 2014 the Forty-Niners will be back.  It was a win-win for the Harbaugh family, both coaches have something to be proud of.

Since its all done, I can now reclaim my Saturdays, Sundays, Monday and Thursday nights.  Yes, I watched football whenever it was one.

Now I'll watch some golf, but only the major ones, such as the Masters, FedEx cup and the US Open.  I enjoy watching the younger players moving up and the older players showing they still have the right stuff.

Do you watch sports on TV?  Or maybe play a sport or two?

Marie

Too Many Ideas Not Enough Time

It's one of those rare times, for me as a writer, where I have too many ideas.

I know it sounds strange.  How can a writer have too many ideas?

Usually most writers love it when they have too many ideas, me I like it, but right now its driving me crazy.  I have ideas for 4 different books and they're all trying to get my attention.

Its hard for me when I get ideas of characters and new story lines, I want to sit down and write those books now.  But I can't.  I'm under contract for two books right now.  One is in the middle of edits and the second one hasn't been written yet.  Plus I'm working on another book for an editor that will be under contract shortly.

What is a writer to do?

I don't have all the answers.  I've barely written a word in the last week because of all these ideas floating around.  So this week, I'm going to try something different.  I'm going to write myself notes in a brand new notebook that captures these characters, their stories, and what ever else they want to tell me and see if that frees my mind up to work on the book I need to work on.

So how do you handle this when it happens to you?  Or do you have an advice?

Have a great week.

Marie

It's Monday

It's Monday and I'm running late today.

I want to say it's because of the NFL playoff games yesterday.  I love football and the games were good yesterday.  The Forty-Niners/Falcon's game was a nail biter.  The New England/Raven's game was fun to watch, but not so much a nail biter.

My family and I were rooting for the Forty-Niner's and the Raven's.  We decided to call the Super Bowl the Harbaugh Bowl.  Because of Jim and John Harbaugh.  Jim coaches the Forty-Niners and John the Ravens.

I'm looking forward to the Super Bowl even though it means the end of football season for me.

Is there a sport you love?

Have a fantastic week.

Marie