ROMANCE writer Maya Linnell loves the bush and little country towns.
She loves it all so much it has made her life an open book.
Because the bush and those quirky little towns, often in the middle of nowhere, are pretty well all she has known.
Which is why she was delighted to last week include Swan Hill in her latest book tour – and said she was so grateful places such as Collins Booksellers at 208 Campbell Street are “such amazing supporters of someone writing about country towns and country people”.
“My books have been in the Top 10 there, and when I dropped in, my latest was number one. That’s so exciting and I am so grateful for that kind of backing from country people,” Linnell added.
“And to get the local MP, Peter Walsh, to drive almost two hours to support my visit, well for me that says everything that is fantastic about our country communities.”
Although for a kid who grew up in Tantanoola (population maybe 500, but probably not) in South Australia’s south-east, Swan Hill is barely a country town – it’s verging on being the big smoke.
When Linnell started high school she travelled just 15km up the road to the heady heights of Millicent, home to around 3000 people, which is where she eventually started work as a cadet journalist at the South Eastern Times and a writing career was born.
Life and marriage took her to Victoria’s southwest coast and a hobby farm at Narrawong for 20 years, where the population is measured by the square kilometre not the hundreds, never mind the thousands.
But now there have been big changes in the author’s life – she and her husband and their three children have relocated to Goondiwindi in Queensland’s Darling Downs and may have concerns about overcrowding as there are almost 6000 people packed in there.
“My first four books are set around southwest Victoria, and I always try and write about places I have been – even if some names are changed – and thing I have done and seen,” she explained.
Linnell doesn’t mind admitting she got hooked on Mills & Boon as a youngster in Tantanoola, where she had “unlimited access” to the neighbourhood free book exchange at the local post office.
But she does not shy away from the essence of the romance novelist.
“The reason I think Mills & Boon have been so successful, and the reason there is demand for books such as mine, is they are basically joyous stories; they deliver a happily ever after, and romance is the only genre which promises that,” she said.
“Some of the most moving reviews I have received have come from people who tell me they read my books while dealing with a lot in hospital, or in a family situation, and the escapism I offer helped them through it.
“You can’t ask for a better recommendation than that, it really resonates with me, and I am so grateful to hear those stories.”
Linnell’s current book tour sees her zigzagging across the country, through South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and Tasmania.
Once that is over, she reckons she will have another pile of notes and photos to set the scene for books still to come.
“I use a combination of my life, newspapers, listening to ABC, people’s suggestions, things I am told at book events, taking notes and then wrapping it all up in a fictional interpretation,” she said.
“I have two more books left on my current contract.
“Publishing is a tough game, and I got into it out of a genuine desire to do something different with my life and am blessed to be with such a good publisher as Allen & Unwin.”
Producing, on average, a book a year, Linnell will already be looking beyond the current contract – but whether a future book will incorporate Swan Hill remains to be seen.
It might not be small enough to be considered a bush town in her hugely popular bush romances.
