Wednesday Wanderings with ARR authors.
Put three writers in a car for a four-hour
road trip and what do you get?
Right bang in the middle of the Tamworth Music Festival, Sarah Barrie, Ann B Harrison and I (Tea Cooper) headed off to meet up with Mandy Magro for a romance panel at Tamworth Regional Library and an interview with the ABC Mid North West.
Needless to say the conversation en route turned to the interviews and writing. What questions would we be asked?
Without a doubt one of them had to be …. Where do you get your ideas?
Here’s a slightly longer explanation than we gave the ABC and Tamworth Library, with the help of a few photographs we took along the way.
An Australian Rural Romance —
Our heroine is on the road in her Kombi van with her only companion her much loved dog, Beetle.
Our heroine - on the road!
She arrives at a country town and sees she needs petrol and decides it’s a good time to get something to eat as well. Besides, a stretch of legs and giving the dog a quick run around would give her a chance to check out the area.
Ann B Harrison and Sarah Barrie
It seems like a pretty little place, lots of antique shops and a mixture of old Victorian homes and quirky characters.
So she decides to stop at the pub. Poor Beetle has to stay outside and she ties him to a bench seat with a bowl of water and promises not to be too long.
While she’s inside Beetle slips the lead and runs away. She’s frantic.
She finally finds him caught in a dingo trap beneath an abandoned windmill. He has injured his leg trying to escape. This is going to cost a bomb. With no spare cash, her dreams of a trip up North to find work get pushed aside with visions of Beetle having a long and expensive recovery. Dingo traps should be banned!
While she’s trying to free Beetle a man appears. He accuses her of setting free a dingo and wrecking the trap in the process. She’s into him about such a stupid accusation. “Get a grip. It’s my dog you’re hurting here. I think you should come to the party and help with the vet bill since it’s your fault having a trap in town where domestic dogs can get caught.”
“This is my land and you’re trespassing. You can pay your own damned bill. Now take that mutt and get off my land.”
She takes Beetle to the vet and it’s as bad as she thought, an operation and then a stay for a few days to make sure his leg is not going to need further surgery. The bill will be huge.
With little money in the kitty, she doesn’t have much choice – swallowing her pride she goes to the pub begging for casual work. When she gets there she discovers the guy she yelled at is a well-known Country and Western singer, a local and he’s performing at the pub.
The bill for Beetle continues to mount and the vet wants some money towards his treatment. The owner of the pub agrees to advance the full amount of money to pay the vet bill on the condition she works it off and leaves him the keys to her beloved Kombi as security.
Despite her earlier feelings for the country singer, the way he treats the locals is in complete contrast to the man she thought had trapped her dog. He’s kind and friendly and she finds herself gravitating toward him. It’s only after she has been there a week that she discovers the owner of the dingo traps is the singer’s older brother.
The pub owner likes our heroine, she’s doing a good job and since Beetle is still in recovery, she doesn’t have a problem staying in town. Besides, she’s enjoying the music and the company.
That is until the dingo trapper returns to town with a load of ‘roo carcasses and a chip on his shoulder the size of his ego…
And that’s about as far as we got.
Can anyone come up with an ending?
And we need a title and names for our hero and heroine …
Tea Cooper’s current rural release
Two people, one dream…with the past riding hard on their heels.
Sarah Barrie’s current rural release
An isolated farm, a long buried secret, a life in danger?
Mandy Magro’s current rural release
The past Renee Wildwood once ran from still haunts her…
Read more about author Ann B Harrison on her website.
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Great post and great pics Tea, Ann, Mandy & Sarah
Thanks, Lily
Heroine is Destiny and Hero is Drew and the title is “Dingo Trap”
Oh yes … love Dingo Trap!
Great road trip and lovely story!
Thanks Adite we had great fun.
Nice story. The title can be The Dingo Trapper. The heroine is Sasha and hero is Jake.