Be sure to share this FREE event around! I’m so excited about this, a real life ‘Pot-pour-tea’ bar, just like in The Tea Chest!! And, you could win this gorgeous six-piece tea set!
Win this tea set!
I’ll be bringing a smorgasbord of ingredients (fruits, herbs, spices, teas) for you to come and try making your very own blend of tea. AND, I’m giving away cupcakes! AND, anyone who buys a book (or BYO for a signing) will go into the raffle two win this six-piece pink heart set of teacups and saucers!! (The box is a little worn but the goods are good!)!
You’ll find me at Angus & Robertson, Brookside shopping centre, Osborne Road, Mitchelton, Saturday 2nd August, from 11-2pm. I hope to see you there!
Be sure to share this FREE event around! I’m so excited about this, a real life ‘Pot-pour-tea’ bar, just like in The Tea Chest!!
I’ll be bringing a smorgasbord of ingredients (fruits, herbs, spices, teas) for you to come and try making your very own blend of tea. AND, I’m giving away cupcakes! AND, anyone who buys a book (or BYO for a signing) will go into the raffle for the day!
You’ll find me at Angus & Robertson, Brookside shopping centre, Osborne Road, Mitchelton, Saturday 2nd August, from 11-2pm. I hope to see you there!
Hint #1: I’m a suburb in Brisbane, named in the book.
This coming Saturday at 1pm, I will be ‘releasing into the wild’ another FREE copy of The Tea Chest to BRISBANE.
AND, every day from Monday to Saturday, I’ll drop HINTS as to where the book is going to be. The book is to read and re-release BUT if you manage to work it all out and be there at 1pm (and you catch me in the act) there will be another tea-related surprise for you to KEEP just for you!!!
Prize pack to be won (plus chocolate!)
Now would be a great time to share this page with your friends so they can join in the hunt and put your minds together So get ready; the first clue will be given out tomorrow!!
This morning I released a FREE copy of my novel The Tea Chest into the wild!
If it hasn’t been claimed yet, you will find it at Cafe Doonan (Eumundi-Noosa Rd, Doonan), where it is waiting for you to
TAKE
READ
RELEASE
If you come across one of my book’s in the wild, it would be wonderful if you could drop me a line/photo from wherever you found it, and keep a record on the back page of its journey through the country (or world). But if you’d just like to read it and pay it forward, that’s great too.
It’s my gift to you for an unexpected moment of joy in your day.
On my (rather excessively long) journey to publication, I’ve had some fairy god-people types appear every now and then. The most obvious of which was Monica McInerney. But there have been others, and one of them was Young Adult fiction writer, Michael Gerard Bauer, an author of fantastically entertaining, witty, funny and sensitive stories for young people. And one year, I met Michael. It was at the CYA Conference in Brisbane. It was afternoon tea time and (with no disrespect intended) I had been wondering all day long why I was there. I’d been to CYA before, and thought it was great. But I think, this particular year I simply had a deep knowing that I was on the wrong path. (And as it turns out, I was. I wasn’t a YA author after all but a women’s fiction author.)
At any rate, I found myself standing with a cup of tea next to MGB and decided to say hi and tell him how much I loved his books. Our conversation lasted a handful of minutes but Michael was so very lovely and asked me a lot of questions about myself and my writing. Along the way, I confessed that I was feeling very disheartened and frustrated, like I was always getting oh-so-heartbreakingly-close to publication but falling at the last minute. The conversation moved on, with Michael telling me how amazing it is to have a publisher say they want to publish your book, and how much he still felt that thrill, even after many books on the shelf.
My poster that was taped to the bathroom window
And then he looked at me, straight in the eye, and from no where said, “And you are going to feel that too, very soon.”
Chills went down my spine. THIS was why I was at that conference. So MGB could touch me with his fairy wand.
(I’ll give you a moment to process that image.)
I don’t know why Michael said it; we’ve not spoken since so I don’t know if he knows (or even remembers that conversation). But I drove home not long after that, feeling elated–like I’d been blessed by a very hairy fairy-god-man. It felt (and there’s no other way to say this) transformative. Like, because he’d said it then it must be true.
And a little less than two years later, I’d been signed by my agent and The Tea Chest sold shortly after.
And because I’m one of those odd people that put things on posters and tape them to the walls, I had printed out those words as soon as I got home from the conference. I didn’t ever want to forget them.
(And I’m sure that Michael is right now checking his doors are locked as there is a crazy stalker person out there who keeps photos of him on their board in their office. It’s okay, Michael, truly. No photos, I promise.)
They sat taped to the bathroom window for a long time, then came off one day when I was cleaning the glass and I stashed the paper under the sink. I forgot about it until we moved house in September 2013, found it, packed it, then found it again in our new place, just last week. (Let’s just overlook what this says about my housekeeping skills.)
I have now let that tatty, slightly mildewed piece of paper go, but I first wanted to photograph it and post it here to let all aspiring writers know to look for signs (okay, tea drinking, bearded men with glasses) that randomly come your way to let you know you’re on the right path. They’re out there. Oh yes they are.
(So too are the crazy people who will write down your words and tape them to the door….)
My first radio interview for The Tea Chest, talking with the lovely Evana Ho from ArtSound FM 92.7. You can listen online now to find out more about The Tea Chest and the writing of the book. Thanks, Evana!
“Take one brilliant tea designer. Add a gutsy woman newly separated from her husband. Sprinkle in another woman recently fired. Brew for 359 pages and you have a delightful first novel from author Josephine Moon.
The Tea Chest interweaves the stories of Kate, Leila and Elizabeth, who come together to realise Kate’s dream of opening a boutique tea shop in London. It’s a book about love, friendship, discovering strengths you didn’t realise you had, and of course – tea.
I spoke to Josephine Moon ahead of the release of her book on 26 March.” (Evana Ho)
The Tea Chest is just days away from hitting the bookshelves. So today, I’d like to stop and look at what’s brought me to this moment. I’d like to talk about joy.
You see, joy is the reason I write. At a fundamental level, I am happiest when I write and I am a cranky banshee bear when I don’t. (Just ask my husband–I’m tremendous fun to be around when I’ve got writers block.) Writing makes me happy. But here’s the thing. My writing can make the person who reads it happy too. Isn’t that neat? What a great job!
I feel incredibly blessed to have had my book published after spending twelve years writing ten books (five fiction and five non-fiction), with The Tea Chest being the lucky latest. There were some pretty rough patches in that time, with so many heartbreaking near misses. There was at least one time that I came a bunny’s whisker to giving up writing. Like, for good. But as soon as I read a new great story, I felt joy, I felt inspired, I felt renewed, and back to the keyboard I went.
The world’s a tough place out there. Have you noticed? I feel like every day, with more and more technology brining the outside world into our inner world at a rapid-fire rate (often, and unfortunately, without our deliberate intention), we have to work harder and harder to say, hang on a minute, there’s joy out there too. On a bigger level, I want to shout out to the world that I choose something different. I choose kindness, I choose joy, I choose nurturing.
Stories bring us hope, new beginnings and new endings, alternative ways of working through problems, creative answers and a chance to imagine a new life. They let us take risks in our heart and mind, to test them out, before we have to take them in real life. This is why I write. And what an honour it is to be given at the vehicle of a publishing contract, to be able to do that.
So as I work my way through the publication and publicity of my first book, each new step a huge learning adventure, I will ground that intention into everything I do and every book I write from here on. And, yeah, when I see The Tea Chest on the shelves for the first time, I’ll definitely be breaking out a little Snoopy dance.
If you’re just super keen to get your hands on a copy of The Tea Chest, you’ll be thrilled to know that you can pre-order it right now! Try Booktopia for your orders in Australia.
Here’s the blurb that might just entice you to hit that buy now button!
Kate Fullerton, talented tea designer and now co-owner of The Tea Chest, could never have imagined that she’d be flying from Brisbane to London, risking her young family’s future, to save the business she loves from the woman who wants to shut it down.
Meanwhile, Leila Morton has just lost her job; and if Elizabeth Clancy had known today was the day she would appear on the nightly news, she might at least have put on some clothes. Both need to start again.
When Kate’s, Leila’s and Elizabeth’s paths unexpectedly cross, they throw themselves into realising Kate’s magical vision of London’s branch of the newest and most delectable tea shop, The Tea Chest. But every time success is within their grasp, increasing tensions damage their trust in each other.
With the very real possibility that The Tea Chest will fail, Kate, Leila and Elizabeth must decide what’s important to each of them. Are they willing to walk away or can they learn to believe in themselves?
An enchanting, witty novel about the unexpected situations life throws at us, and how love and friendship helps us through. Written with heart and infused with the seductive scents of bergamot, Indian spices, lemon, rose and caramel, it?s a world you won’t want to leave.
Happy new year! Have you made any resolutions yet? I’ve set my three writer’s resolutions. But before I get onto that, let’s check out how I went with 2013’s writing resolutions.
I’m not going to read anything I’m not loving. Okay, I give myself points for thinking about this a lot. Alas, I did read quite a few things that I didn’t absolutely love. This is still a work in progress for me.
I’m going to put my writing first. I think I did a pretty good job at this. It didn’t work every day but on the whole I set boundaries and was pretty strong about keeping them. Well done me!
I’m going to decorate my writing room. Sigh. We moved house in September so (a) I didn’t see any point in putting lots of effort into my last writing room, and (b) I’ve been so flat out since we moved that not a lot of prettying has gone into my new room. I’m calling this a ‘let’s try again’ for 2014.
So, okay, not perfect, but not too bad. Now, to 2014.
Stay calm, and have a cup of tea. I’m a bit of a Nervous Nelly at the best of times, but with my first book coming out in April, there’s a lot going on to push my buttons. Last weekend, The Courier-Mail published a very lovely article, ‘Pick of Books with Success Written All Over Them’, about upcoming books and included little-old-me in their picks for 2014. Whoa, Nelly! Some people would get a lot of confidence from an article like that. Me? I think, Holy Cats, What if I Fail?!?!? So, that brings me back to the staying calm and drinking tea–breathe, Joey, breathe. I need to remember that it’s not just me out there. I have an exceptional, proven publishing team behind me that have made countless good choices in their careers so I need to trust, trust, trust.
Turn guilt to gratitude. Like most mums out there, I want to believe that I can do it all. Of course, I can’t. I need to ask for help and be grateful when it arrives. When the nanny turns up to look after Flynn for four hours so I can do some work, I’m going to practise being excited about that and not guilty. When the invoice comes to pay that nanny, I’m going to practise feeling blessed, not guilty. And when the cleaner turns up to organise the house back to a level of workable sanity, I’m going to practise feeling thankful that I get to prioritise quality time with my toddler rather than the vacuuming.
Protect the creative process. There’s a lot of advice out there to tell aspiring writers to treat your job like any other day job. And there’s something to be said for that. Hours at the keyboard count. It is the only way a book will be written. But, at the same time, writing isn’t a normal job. And as Julia Cameron constantly tells us, we need to stock the well before we can take from it to create something new. I am a workhorse. I am built to work. What I find hard to do is play. But it is only by playing that I can stock the well in order to produce fresh, inspiring content. I might be naturally a Clydesdale in nature, but I need to let my unicorn out to play much more than I do if I want to find the magical moments.
So there are my three resolutions for this year. (Plus, I’ll throw in some room decorating too.) Help keep me honest, please! What are your resolutions for the year? I’d love to hear them 🙂
Last week I had the fabulous fortune of going to Melbourne and sharing high tea with a gaggle of fabulous women, booksellers in the independent book world. And to my complete surprise, a tier of reading copies of The Tea Chest greeted me upon arrival. I lost the power of speech for a good five minutes! Luckily, there was champagne and delectable goodies to revive me.
Reading copies are given out to booksellers and reviewers prior to the book being finalised and going on sale. So the cover is still not the final cover and the words do not include the final edits. But, gosh, how exciting it was.
I also had the pleasure of staying in the charming Windsor hotel, which was delightful.
Thank you to everyone who came to meet me, hear about my book and share tea. I always knew booksellers were special people but I like you all that much more again.
