Writing Aussie-style.

I'm a proud Aussie. I love my country and I'm proud to be one. I wasn't so sure about writing Australian books however. Originally Breaking the Cycle didn't have a specific location although if I had been pressed I would've said America. It was at the suggestion of my publisher that I set it here. I'll admit, I really didn't want to write an Aussie book. I've grown up with Aussie books and they're all so cliché. Set in the bush, with tough as guts kids doing country stuff, stuff I know nothing about coming from the city. I've read a few contemporary romance novels set here and while I don't hate them, I don't love them either. I don't know why.

I was talking about with my publisher while I was doing the developmental edits for BTC and it came to me that Australian books are very much like Australia itself, stuck between the past and the future and I realised I was very much buying into the stereotype of the Australian novel. And being an Australian writer I had a chance to help correct that.

I'm glad I set BTC here, that I have a chance to show people around the world what Australia and Australians are like. I'm even more glad with my current WIP, a piece intended for an Australian themed anthology. It's made me realise what is so great about Australia, what makes us so unique, it's making me fall in love with country in a way I never thought possible.

I'm so proud to be an Aussie author. I'm proud to write Australian novels. I'm proud to help break the stereotypes surrounding Australians and our work, even if it is from ourselves. We're unlike any other country in this planet, and we should be proud of that, embrace it. We are so small and so far away but everyone knows who and where we are because we refuse to be bound by our limitations. We're incredible and I love showing the world that.