Guest Post - Sue Featherstone talking about Australia - Bookish World Cup - Australia

Blame Skippy the Bush Kangaroo: Australia has been a bucket list destination ever since the series aired on television in the late 60s.

Maybe it was the cute kangaroo? (Did you know the programme makers used between nine and 15 kangaroos in each episode?)

Or the lush scenery? (The series was shot in northern Sydney at the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park.)

Or handsome helicopter pilot Jerry King, played by actor Tony Bonner?

But it wasn’t until daughter number two decided to spend a whole year saying G’Day Oz that I actually got round to making the trip.

And, guess what? Kangaroos aren’t cute and chirpy when you meet them face-to-face on a woodland pathway. They’re very big with mean little eyes and a thin mouth that brooks no argument.

So, we took a detour.

In fact, as this warning notice

 posted near the entrance to the Darlington Beach campsite at Arrawarra in New South Wales clearly spells out – where kangaroos are concerned discretion is ALWAYS the better part of valour. And if they want to poke around your pitch, you let them.

To be fair, I also wasn’t keen on the bush turkeys that came pecking around the door of our Center Parcs style villa at the Breakfree Aanuka Beach Resort at Coffs Harbour, ten miles south of Arrawarra. But, at least, if it came to a fight I had the advantage of size.

And size matters in Australia – it’s so vast it’s impossible to see it all in one trip so the focus on my visit last year was to see some of the places my daughter loved and wanted to share.

Standout memories include:

The breathtaking scenery of the many coastal trails we followed

One of the best was from Coffs to Muttonbird Island nature reserve, which is part of the Solitary Islands Marine Park, a diverse and important breeding site for the wedge-tailed shearwater. We didn't manage to catch sight of them (wrong time of year) but we did see a distant whale swimming offshore. Magic!

Another favourite was a trek along the Cape Byron walking track at Byron Bay, which took us through 3.7km of rainforest, beach, grassland and clifftops to Cape Byron lighthouse  and the most eastern point in mainland Australia.

I also enjoyed the six kilometre Bondi to Coogee coastal walk. We set off from Bondi, home to Australia’s most famous and most visited beach, which was added to the Australian National Heritage List in 2008. However, at just one kilometre in length, it’s NOT the long golden stretch of sand I’d imagined.

Unforgettable views

SkyPoint, the observation deck of the Q1 tower in City of Gold Coast, recent hosts of the 2018 Commonwealth Games, is the tallest building in Australia – indeed the whole southern hemisphere – and towers above Surfers Paradise Beach and the Pacific Ocean which lie to the east. The Gold Coast hinterland stretches west while it’s possible to see Brisbane to the north and Byron Bay in New South Wales. 

Sydney Harbour Bridge is the largest steel arch bridge in the world. It opened in 1932 and was built by Dorman Long and Co of Middlesbrough, who also built the Tyne Bridge in Newcastle. Construction took eight years and used 53,000 tonnes of steel and six million hand-driven rivets. At its highest point the bridge is 134 metres above water. It’s possible to climb to the top – but we settled for a stroll along the pedestrian walkway instead. The views are stunning.

Gardens

We ambled through the green gardens of the Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney, on my first full day in Australia. It was established in 1816 in the grounds of the home of Governor Lachlan Macquarie and, with the appointment of colonial botanist Charles Fraser the following year, became the first scientific institution in Australia, and today is world-renowned for its collection and study of indigenous plants. However, its location, sandwiched between Sydney Harbour and the city’s central business district, means that for locals the 74 acre site is simply beautiful parkland.

Vivid Sydney

We were lucky enough to catch the last night of the spectacular Vivid Sydney festival of light, music and ideas. First staged in 2009, primarily to lure visitors to the harbour’s edge, it is now one of the most popular events in Sydney’s winter calendar. We were too late to experience any of the cultural attractions, which included a range of music, arts and foodie events, but were wowed by the brilliant Light Walk, stretching for two kilometres along the harbour foreshore from The Rocks to the Sydney Opera House and Royal Botanic Garden. Vivid Sydney 2018 runs from May 25-June 16.

Cocktails at Sydney Opera House

Australia’s number one tourist attraction opened in 1973 and was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2007. It sits on Bennelong Point, named after Woollarawarre Bennelong, a member of the Eora people, who lived in the area at the time of the first British settlement. He was captured on the orders the governor Arthur Phillip, who wanted to establish a relationship with local Aboriginal clans. Bennelong eventually escaped but later renewed contact with Phillip who built him a hut on the site that now bears his name. I’m not, if truth be told, a huge fan of the Opera House’s iconic architecture but the open air bar serves a mean Mojito.

And, finally…

When I win the lottery (but need to be in it to win it!) I shall buy a holiday home in Noosa on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. Located within the Noosa Biosphere Reserve, a UNESCO recognised area famous for its diverse ecosystem, it’s regarded as one of Australia’s most fashionable resort towns, but the beautiful beaches mean it’s also popular with swimmers and surfers. And us.. 

Thank you so much Sue Featherstone for this great look at Australia. 

Guest Post - Taking Chances by Sue Featherstone - Chances Fortnight

Take a good look at the picture that accompanies this post.

Is this the face of a chancer?

Hands up if you said yes because, although friends and family probably see me as very risk averse, I’ve been taking chances of one kind or another all my working life.

The pattern was set, aged 18, when I became a trainee reporter on a small independent newspaper.

It wasn’t just small, it was very small: the editor-cum-proprietor, his wife, who did the type-setting, and her brother, who sold the adverts that paid the wages.

And me.

There was no formal training scheme – which was a risk, because without the requisite professional certificate from the National Council for the Training of Journalists there wasn’t much chance of moving on up the career ladder.

But my boss – bless him! – was prepared to invest in me and signed up to the NCTJ.

Three-and-a-half years later, and having passed law, public affairs, shorthand and reporting exams, I got the certificate which became my passport to a new job with a bigger newspaper group.

From there, I progressed through the ranks, eventually becoming deputy editor of one of the larger weeklies within the group.

Along the way, I became the first journalist to take maternity leave and to return to work to juggle nappies and news.

But I hit a bit of a brick wall afterwards because, unless someone died, there didn’t seem much prospect of editing a newspaper of my own.

By then, of course, with a husband, a child and a mortgage, there was no flexibility to move to another part of the country – which is what most journalists in a similar position might have done.

So, I took a chance and moved into Public Relations to become internal communications manager for a public utility company

.

It was a chance because it was a new high profile role in a company where employee morale was pretty low.

My job was to help create a sense of belonging through re-vamping the corporate newspaper, launching an in-house news video programme and working with the chief executive group to launch a monthly team briefing initiative.

Two years later, after the birth of a second daughter, I took another chance and became the first senior woman in the company to job share – only without a job share other half.

Once again chance intervened: I was introduced to Susan Pape, now my co-author, by Susan’s future husband, who’d done some freelance work for my company.

I don’t remember much about our first meeting but I was so desperate I would have teamed up with anyone with the right number of typing fingers.

Fast forward five years and a chance remark from my sister led to a change of direction – as a mature student studying English Literature at Bretton Hall College.

Afterwards I freelanced for a bit and then a chance telephone call from a friend of a friend led to some casual teaching at Sheffield Hallam University.

I was there for around 20 years, becoming inaugural course leader of the BA Journalism programme and co-authoring two journalism books with Susan, whose career had followed a similar trajectory, albeit at Leeds Trinity.

The books were the result of a chance conversation: we were both bemoaning the lack of a decent, simple, how-to write like a journalist text book when one of us said: ‘Why don’t we…?’

We fired off emails to four academic publishers. Three replied positively within the hour and we eventually signed with Sage where we published Newspaper Journalism: A Practical Introduction in 2005 and the follow-up, Feature Writing: A Practical Introduction, a year later.

And then another chance conversation with Susan: ‘Why don’t we write a bonk buster?’

I’m not sure the result of our efforts, A Falling Friend, is a bona-fide bonk buster: I prefer the term women’s commercial fiction.

Or, in the words of one reviewer: ‘Chick lit with attitude.’

Finally, the last couple of life-changing chances: unable to find a publisher we decided to self-publish and started looking for a professional editor to polish our raw copy into burnished gold.

We found Kate Foster via a women’s writing group on Twitter: she was offering a discount to group members so we snapped her up.

And, when she launched new indie publisher Lakewater Press soon afterwards, and offered us a publishing contract, we snapped that up too.

Another chance: Kate is based in Queensland, Australia. We’re in the UK and all her other authors are in the United States.

It’s a small world.

And now, I’ve taken another chance and given up my lovely job at Sheffield Hallam to concentrate on writing full-time.

Let’s hope it brings me as much joy as the first time I chanced my professional luck.

What a great series of chances Sue, thank you so much for being a part of my Chances Fortnight. 

About Sue Featherstone

Sue Featherstone is a former journalist and public relations practitioner turned academic.

Her career started in local newspapers before switching to PR to become internal communications manager with a large utility company.

She completed a degree in English Literature as a mature student and subsequently moved into higher education, teaching journalism to undergraduate students at Sheffield Hallam University.

At the beginning of 2017, Sue left Sheffield Hallam to focus on her writing.

Together with her friend and writing partner Susan Pape, she has written two successful journalism text books - Newspaper Journalism: A Practical Introduction; and Feature Writing: A Practical Introduction.

Their first novel, A Falling Friend, was published by Lakewater Press in 2016 and a sequel will follow summer 2017.

They now write about books at https://bookloversbooklist.com/

Sue is on twitter @SueF_Writer

A Falling Friend is available to buy on Amazon here. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Falling-Friend-Sue-Featherstone-ebook/dp/B01CADXSTO/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1469955165&sr=1-1&keywords=a+falling+friend+featherstone

Funday Friday - Truth or Lie? - Sue Featherstone - Month 6 Week 1

Welcome to the latest edition of Truth of Lie. My name is Rachel and I will be your host, for this exciting new game show. Each Friday, I will have one contestant, and they will be answering at least 14 questions. There is of course one small twist...

For three of the answers, they have to lie. It is your task as the viewer to guess which three answers are lies. You are allowed 3 guesses and I want them posted into the comments field. 

Every 4 weeks, I will close the guessing, count up how many correct answers each of you has, and create a leaderboard. Anyone who is top of the leaderboard, will go into a draw for a paperback of the winners choice (open internationally). 

Please do include a way for me to contact you (email or twitter or similar), so that I can let you know if you have won. 

The weekend after a 4 week period closes, not only will I produce a leaderboard, and announce a winner, I will also let you know into the true answers, and which were the lies.  

Closing date for the sixth month is 11pm on 27th October 2016. 

So without further ado, let's meet today's contestant. 

Good morning contestant, please can you tell me your name and a little bit about yourself?

I’m Sue Featherstone, a former journalist and PR professional, now teaching journalism at Sheffield Hallam University. I’ve co-written two journalism text books with my writing partner Susan Pape –  Newspaper Journalism: A Practical Introduction and Feature Writing: A Practical Introduction, both published by Sage. Our first novel A Falling Friend was published by Lakewater Press in April, 2016. One reviewer described it as chick lit with attitude, which I rather like. I currently blog at pinkbicylebooks but am in the process of transferring everything to The Booklist, a joint blog with Susan.

Please to meet you Sue, I hope everyone enjoys your interview

Now onto the show, and remember everyone, Sue hasn't been entirely truthful with three of these answers, so it is up to you to guess which ones they are (only 3 guesses per person though). 

1) Who is your favourite author?  

Has to be a toss up between Georgette Heyer and Agatha Christie. I discovered both in my teens and I’m loyal to authors I like.  Christie is probably the better writer but I like the humour of Heyer’s romances. 

2) What book do you wish you had written?  

Dear Daddy by Phillipe Dupasquier. It’s a picture book about a little girl Sophie, who is writing letters to her dad, who is away at sea. ‘Dear Daddy, The piano has been mended. Mummy is very pleased.’ Absolutely magic and my daughters both loved it when they were little. 

3) What was your most memorable holiday ever?  

Our first holiday together as a married couple (honeymoon in Paris excepted): a caravan in Skegness. Doesn’t sound very exciting but just the two of us. What could have been better?

4) If you could be an animal what would you be and why? 

A horse: sensitive, beautiful, intelligent and high spirited. And a good runner too. Just like me. 

5) What superpower would you love to have? 

I’d like to be able to fly. Preferably like Superman, because a pair of wings would spoil the cut of my clothes.

6) What is the most annoying interview question you have ever been asked? 

If you could be an animal what would it be? Because I wouldn’t ever want to be any kind of animal. Ever. I don’t like animals. I just don’t get their appeal. 

7) What is your dream job, and have you tried to achieve it? 

Like every good Catholic girl I fantasised about becoming a nun and saving the world through prayer and good deeds. Then I grew up and discovered I wasn’t cut out for praying or saving the world.

8) Can you describe for me what your perfect day would involve? 

One that allowed time to do some writing without feeling as if I’ve got to squeeze it in as an afterthought around all the other things I have to do. That’s why I love Fridays – I now work just four days a week and Fridays are my writing day. 

9) If you could choose anybody famous to star in the story of your life, who would it be? 

Sean Bean, from the Sharpe era. He doesn’t look remotely like my husband, but I could happily pretend to be married to him. 

10) Who is your ideal Disney character? 

Belle from Beauty and the Beast. She’s clever, independent, feisty, pretty, brave, loving...all the things I’d like to be. And with gorgeous, long, thick hair. 

11) Who is the most important person in the world to you? 

My husband and daughters, of course. They might read this: wouldn’t dare say anything else!

12) Can you let us in on an embarrassing secret? 

Good lord! No!  My embarrassing secrets are staying secret.

13) If you won the lottery, how would you spend the money? 

 I’d have as much fun as possible spending it on high living, exotic holidays and expensive cocktails. I’d also treat my husband to a fast car.

14) What are you most scared of?

Same thing as every mother: something awful happening to my daughters. Lie: My husband finding out how much the new pair of shoes in my wardrobe really cost.

Thank you so much for agreeing to take part Sue, I agree you need to say your family just incase, and Superman's powers would be brilliant. 

I hope you have enjoyed this edition of Truth or Lie? I will be back next week with another episode, and in the mean time...

Don't forget to guess the lies, to be in with a chance of a prize! 

And check out previous week's Truth or Lie's that you may have missed here

Amazon link: http://amzn.to/29xWaXO

Whatever Teri says, whatever she does, it's all leading her toward disaster. But she's not one to heed a warning. What more can best mate Lee do? Besides, Lee's got her own life to sort out. 

A Falling Friend is the tale of two friends - one who always seems to make the wrong choices, and the other who's always there to catch her.

After spending her twenties sailing the globe, making love on fine white sand, and thinking only of today, Teri Meyer returns to Yorkshire—and to studying. That's when she discovers John Wilmot, the second Earl of Rochester, and poet of all things depraved. What she doesn't realise is even beyond his grave, his influence over her is extraordinary. To hell with the consequences.

Having gone out on a limb to get old friend Teri a job at the university at which she teaches, it doesn't take long for Lee Harper to recognise a pattern. Wherever Teri goes, whatever she does, every selfish choice she makes, it's all setting her up for a nasty fall. But Teri's not the sort to heed a warning, so Lee has no choice but to stand by and watch. And besides, she has her own life to straighten out.

A clever, raw and hilarious character-driven masterpiece that follows the lives of two friends with the same ambitions, but who have vastly different ways of achieving them.

About the Authors

Sue Featherstone and Susan Pape are both former newspaper journalists who between them have extensive experience of working in national and regional papers and magazines, and public relations.

More recently they have worked in higher education, teaching journalism to undergraduate and postgraduate students – Sue at Sheffield Hallam and Susan at Leeds Trinity.

The pair, who have been friends for 25 years, have already written two successful journalism text books together - Newspaper Journalism: A Practical Introduction; and Feature Writing: A Practical Introduction.

Sue, who is married with two grown-up daughters, loves reading, writing and exploring the cycle paths near her Yorkshire home. She blogs about books at Book Lovers, Book List Susan is married and spends her spare time walking and cycling in the Yorkshire Dales and on the east coast, and playing the ukulele.

https://twitter.com/SHUjournalism - Sue’s Twitter

https://twitter.com/wordfocus - Susan's Twitter