Fiona Palmer is a natural born storyteller who chanced into writing because she wanted to create something that she’d like to read – never thinking it might be published. Nearly twenty books later, she’s one of Australia’s most popular - and beloved - rural fiction authors.br /

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Hi there, I’m your host Jenny Wheeler, and in today’s Binge Reading episode Fiona talks about her typical year – combining writing with farming – and a family heritage that taught her there’s no such thing as failure, just more practice.br /

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Six things you’ll learn from this Joys of Binge Reading episode:br /

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Fiona's remarkable story of publicationThe most 'rural' of Australia's rural authorsRelatable stories about real life issuesCombining writing with a farming lifeBeing a third generation Speedway driverAustralia's remarkable beautybr /

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Where to find Fiona Palmer: br /

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Website: www.fionapalmer.combr /

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Facebook: @FionaPalmerAuthorbr /

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Twitter: @fiona_palmerbr /

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Instagram: @fipalmerbr /

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Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3179597.br /

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What follows is a near as transcript of our conversation, not word for word but pretty close to it, with links to important mentions.br /

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Jenny Wheeler: But now, here's Fiona. Hello there, Fiona, and welcome to the show. It's great to have you with us. Tell us, how did you get into writing and was there some moment when you thought, I’ve just got to do this?br /

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Introducing author Fiona Palmer br /

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Fiona Palmer: I can honestly say that being an author that never, ever entered my mind. I was terrible at school. English was probably one of my worst subjects. I remember being in Year 11. br /

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I loved the creativity side of English, I can remember for a test, we had to write a story of a picture and I loved that and I remember writing this story and my friends said, it's amazing, but when it came time for marking I nearly failed because of my spelling and grammar and everything like that. I was never marked on the storytelling ability side of English. br /

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Fiona Palmer - Australian storiesbr /

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For that reason alone, storytelling, writing books, was never on my radar. I happened into writing by chance.br /

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Jenny Wheeler: How did that happen? We mentioned before you came on air that the little town you live in is tiny. Tell us a bit about where you're speaking from so people can get a picture of what your childhood might have been like.br /

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Fiona Palmer: I was born and raised in Pingaring. It's a tiny, tiny little town about three and a half hours southeast from Perth. There are four houses in the town, and one belongs to my parents and the other is ours, so you can almost say we own half the town. I have a big history here. My nana used to run the shop once, my granddad had the mechanic shop once. Born and raised here.br /

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Authentic Aussie farming lifebr /

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I did primary school here and then went away to boarding school for Year 8. Our primary school shut down in 1998 so our town shrank from then on. We might be lucky to say there are 30 in the district. Our little one street has our four houses and a shop. br /

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We do have a hall, it gets used once a year, and there’s a tiny CWA (Country Womens Association) that doesn't get used anymore, but the surrounding area is all farmland. If I step out my back door, there's a paddock and we have these great big wheat bins across the road so at harvest, all the grain goes there.br /

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Pingaring scene - Western Australiabr /

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