• Welcome
  • Books
  • About
  • Blog
  • Contact me

And so to bed:  unconventional sleeping arrangements

6/4/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
















When I changed the bed this morning, it struck me that my doona was well and truly past its use-by-date. Later while food shopping, I detoured to the bedding store. As I drooled over a "Daydream queen-size sheet set", I had a flashback. When I returned home I leafed through a photo album and found this pic of the sleeping accommodation at Minilya It took me back to 1989. The newspaper where I worked had closed down.  On a whim I applied for the position of governess on a sheep and cattle station in the Australian outback.  The station homestead pictured below was the inspiration for my debut novel, The Biocide Conspiracy.

Picture
Maybe it was a direct consequence of all the Georgette Heyer Regency Romances I’d read. You know the ones, where the governess falls in love with her brooding complex master. Well, to put you in the picture I didn’t find Mr Right, but I did find the setting for my introductory novel, “The Biocide Conspiracy”. But I digress.

Up in the North West the climate is HOT, all year round.
 Fortunately the homestead was air-conditioned. However, as a humble governess I slept outside in the workers’ quarters; a hotbox that wouldn’t have been out of place in a North Korean torture camp. Or so it seemed to me. But then I do have tendency toward exaggeration.  

The following day, I dragged my bed onto the veranda. For the rest of my stay I slept outside, under a mosquito net, something I'd never done before.  You see like the hero of The Biocide Conspiracy, I was the quintessential city-soft.  And like Mo I was in for a rude awakening. But more of that in my next post.
In the meantime if you'd like to know if Mo toughs out life as a jackeroo click here.


0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    ANN MASSEY, was born in 1945 and grew up in the harsh environment of a council estate in the industrial north of England. Brought up on stories of the bleak living  conditions in Lancashire before World War 11, her new book SALVATION JANE grapples with the emergence of the working poor in  Australia.  Ann lives in Perth , Western Australia.

    Categories

    All
    Ann Massey
    Asian Fiction
    Book Marketing
    Cross Genre Books
    Genres
    Homelessness
    Human Rights
    Miri
    Pauline Hanson
    Political Thriller
    Poverty
    Romance/suspense
    Romantic Suspense
    Salvation Jane
    Thriller

    Archives

    September 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    September 2019
    November 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    June 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    December 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    October 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.