Magic In The Garden

Maya Linnell grew up in a small country town, climbing towering gum trees and reading her

way through her family's bookshelves before discovering a never-ending supply of novels at
the local library. She found her feet in journalism, working at a rural newspaper before
segueing into public relations and now fiction writing and blogging for Romance Writers
Australia. Wildflower Ridge is her debut novel and gathers inspiration from her rural
upbringing and the small communities she has always lived in and loved. Maya currently
lives in rural Victoria with her husband and three children.

Welcome, Maya!

Gardening is one of my favourite hobbies, and although my love of all things floral has waxed and waned with the many moons of my life, I’ve always found solace in digging and
planting, nurturing and harvesting.

As a child, I remember begging my green-thumbed mother to buy a rose of my own, and when I wasn’t climbing trees, I was eating fruit straight from their heavily-laden limbs. If I
close my eyes, it’s easy to picture myself in the garden as a teenager, tending to a plot directly underneath an old windmill that creaked and whirred in the breeze. Training snow peas to grow up a trellis became a welcome respite from the stress and study pressures of high school, but it wasn’t until I moved out of home and started putting my stamp on gardens of my own that I ever considered myself a green thumb.

I’ll never claim to be an expert gardener - I’ve had bare, ugly patches, weeds and failures in every garden I’ve ever tended – but boy, do I love planting things and watching them grow.

My yard is full of cuttings from friends and family who happily supplied bulbs, seeds and cuttings to help develop the rural property we purchased in 2014. Their donations formed the framework of our home before the concrete house slab was even poured. I often think of these friends as I tend to my irises from Fiona, Marilyn and Lesa, geraniums from Emma and Mum, my very first dahlia bulbs from Mr Ellis and strawberries from my mother’s best friend, Diane. Oh, those sweet strawberries. Each year the plants die off to nothing, their leaves turning crunchy and brown, like poisoned weeds. They return without fail each summer, their juicy, plump blessings reminding me of a very special lady; the most enthusiastic garden I’ve ever known. Diane always sent visitors home with ice-cream
containers full of strawberries, bags of fresh fruit and veggies, as many cuttings as they wanted for their own garden, with a carton or two of eggs for good measure. She passed away two years ago, but I remember her in every strawberry that comes from our patch.


After a busy day, my garden’s tranquillity beckons me, reminding me it’s okay to slow down and take stock. There’s inspiration in every plant that survives our salty coastal winds and thrives in our poor sandy soil, a lesson in resilience in every stubborn weed that spreads like wildfire if given a chance (rocket – I’m looking at you), and a sprinkle of magic in every wrinkly brown tuber that transforms into a magnificent dahlia flower, year in, year out.

Without even realising it, I manage to thread flowers and gardens into my writing. Wildflower Ridge (released June 3 this year with Allen and Unwin) takes its name from a location that’s very special to my main character, Penny, and the McIntyre family. I love the way gardens not only shape memories and moments but bring us busy, highly-technical and fast-paced 21st century people closer to nature.

Just like my own upbringing, my children have grown up watching my husband and I grow all manner of things, helping plant out seedlings, collecting posies of flowers for the kitchen table, picking handfuls of herbs for pizza nights and eating sun-kissed apricots straight from the tree. And I’d like to think that in years to come, they’ll also discover the magic of working outside amongst the birds, the bugs, the plants and the sunshine, and find a hefty dose of happiness and healing with every handful of soil that runs through their fingers.

I love to love… food. Baking is one of my other main hobbies, with my all-time favourites
including chocolate self-saucing pudding, ANZAC biscuits, pavlova and pineapple sponge
cake.

I love to laugh… at Friends. The kids have recently discovered my old fav TV show, which
had me in stitches all throughout high school, and still makes me laugh today.

I love to learn… about new authors and other women who go after their dreams without
fear. Being surrounded by inspirational people is uplifting and good for the soul.

How about you? Do you love gardening? What are some of your favourite hobbies?

Wildflower Ridge is available on Booktopia or Angus and Robertson

Follow Maya online
Website www.mayalinnell.com
Instagram @maya.linnell.writes 
Facebook  maya.linnell.writes
Twitter @maya_linnell

3 Writers: 3 Creative hobbies

By Cassandra Samuels


Today I have 3 amazing writers who do beautiful creative hobbies. So, I asked them a few questions and they were happy to share some of their work with us.

Alison Stuart is the author of English Civil War novels and she likes to make quilts when she is not sitting down writing words.

Buy this book here

1. When did you start quilting and why?
When I was in Form 2, my school introduced a new idea – extra curricular lunchtime activities (how the teachers must have hated it!). It just so happened that Mrs. Howard the science teacher offered up patchwork – and perched on the benches in the science lab I learned English Paper Piecing patchwork (which is a considerable improvement on anything else I learned in the science lab!).

Alison finishing her first quilt

2.How important to you is refilling the creative well?
I know I am writing better when I am sewing (I also do cross stitch). I I do love hand quilting in particular but it is an awkward piece of sewing and the discovery of a local machine quilter has made me rather lazy!

3. And have you ever suffered as a consequence of not doing so?
At the moment I am definitely suffering because to embark on a major quilting project I need the same amount of creative (and physical!) space as my writing demands. I have to plan my project and it takes me a couple of days to get all my ducks in a row and cut out the material for assembly and piece the quilt top.


Cate Ellink  likes to write spicy hot romances for Escape Publishing as Cate Ellink and small town romance under Catherine Evans, but when she is not making her readers hot under the collar she likes to take amazing photographs.


1. When did you start taking photos and why?

Ever since I can remember I’ve written and taken photos. My extended family are good photo-takers. I hate having my photo taken so I rarely take others.

Buy this book here

Buy this book here

2. How important to you is re-filling the creative well?

I tend to think of this as balancing myself and my life, rather than re-filling the creative well. If I’m indoors too much, I begin to feel confined. If I’m doing too much for others, I become drained.

3. Have you ever suffered as a consequence of not doing so?

My balance is never perfect! Some years back, I had a really bad run with lots of stressful life events in a short period and everything got totally out of balance. I ended up really sick. As part of my change of focus, I looked more at creative pursuits. 

courtesy of Catherine Evans

It’s so hard to pick a favourite photo but since I have to, I’ll choose this one I took at Uluru in 2007.   I’d never seen one like it, so I was happy (even if you can’t really tell it’s Uluru!)

Melanie Scott likes variety in her books and so she writes fantasy under MJ Scott, hometown romance under Emma Douglas and sports romance under Melanie Scott. When she is not creating new worlds, new towns or new sports' heroes she loves to create lovely watercolours.

Copyright Mel Scott

1. When did you start painting watercolours and why?

I took a class on a whim in 2014. It was a few years after my first book came out and I had started to realise that I needed another creative hobby that wasn’t my job as well. I’d always liked watercolour but never been particularly arty so was just trying something out. Happily, I loved it!

Buy this book here

buy this book here

2. How important to you is re-filling the creative well? 

For me it’s really important. I know writers who don’t read while they’re writing or don’t watch TV/movies etc but I can’t do that. My brain needs lots of stories being fed into it as well as looking at pretty things and nice colours. There’s so much pressure on writers to just write, write, write these days and I don’t think most of us can do that long term without burning out.

3. And have you ever suffered as a consequence of not doing so? 

I definitely notice when I’m stressed and I start doing mindless internet surfing etc instead of reading or watching something on TV or doing some art that it flows over into the writing not going well.

What is your creative outlet?

I love to love…sitting at a cafe with a view and enjoying a sweet treat.

I love to laugh….at the positions my cat Angus gets himself into.

I love to learn…about other people's creative outlets.