Karly Lane, touted as Rural Fiction's Favourite Daughter, happily lives in the same small town where her parents, grandparents and great grandparents all lived. She has a strong love of rural towns and the communities created in them. Best selling author of four rural novels, North Star, Bridie's Choice, Morgan's Law and now Poppy's Dilemma, Karly also writes action/adventure romance under the name of Karly Blakemore-Mowle.

(Karly has just released a Christmas eBook novella 'December's Wish', which can be bought here: http://www.karlylane.com/indie-books.html)

Remember to share, tweet, retweet, mention any of these posts on Facebook and Twitter using the tag #bushchristmas and you'll go into the draw for a $75.00 Booktopia voucher.

Leave a comment here for your chance to get a Christmas Card direct from Karly, or maybe a free book from the giveaway pile.

Tell us a little about your new release, Karly.

Poppy Abbott seems to have it all. Bright, successful and attractive, she lives in a beautiful apartment with sweeping views of Sydney. However, since the recent death of her beloved grandmother, she's been struggling to come to terms with her grief.

Feeling nostalgic one evening, Poppy decides to sort through her grandmother's belongings, which she hasn't been able to face before. She's hardly started when she comes across an old leather diary with the name 'Maggie Abbott' written in the front. It's not long before she's drawn into Maggie's life and her fears for her soldier boyfriend during the First World War.

As her interest in Maggie's diary intensifies, Poppy decides to spend some time at her grandmother's house in the country. Away from the city, Poppy begins to wonder if all the things she's always valued so much are what she really wants out of life. And then love intervenes...

What was the idea/the revelation/the ‘kicking off point’/the impetus for writing this particular novel?

I was given a newspaper clipping of a story found in our local newspaper from 1920. It was titled A tragedy at Warrell Creek. It was horrific and gruesome and completely heart wrenching. It involved a return war hero from WW1, named Alick McLean and a young girl from the district.Once I read the article, I knew I needed to write the back ground of this story and give Alick, a voice. 

What is your funniest ‘real life’ Christmas story?

A few years a go my parents decided to start a new family tradition. Christmas morning, we were all staggering from bed, wiping sleep from our eyes and trying to calm excited children who were all squealing and eager to rip open presents, when Mr and Mrs Clause came bounding out of their bedroom!

Each year since, it's become tradition although the costumes are wearing a little thin now and we're all taking bets on how much longer it'll be before they need to upgrade to new suits.

Best Christmas present you’ve ever received?

It's lucky that i'm easily pleased. I love vouchers- any excuse to go shopping! But now days I consider any Christmas I get all my kids under the one roof a great present. 

(Margareta: It's very special to have all the kids at home, Karly.)

Worst Christmas present you’ve ever received?

Although it was good in theory, my kids decided to make an IOU of massages...the bad news...they'd both left home and no one was there to actually collect it from!

Best Christmas present you’ve ever bought for someone else?

I found these really cute ice cream dishes--really, they were decorated like real ice-cream cones! They were so cool and I gave them away to my two sister in laws, planning on going back to the store to buy some for myself...only to find the store had closed down :( 

(Margareta: Damn!)

This Christmas, who would be the best person to buy your novel for?

It's always interesting for me to discover who reads my books. I have emails from men, women, young girls, grandmothers and mothers! I think anyone who loves a little bit of Australian history, or has memories of grandparents telling them what it was like living in Australia during WW1 will enjoy this book, and of course anyone who loves a contemporary romance and a good family saga...I think there's enough in there to interest a wide variety of readers.

Whilst Karly and I haven't technically met, we have, on occasions burnt up the phone lines between East Gippsland and the NSW Central coast. Thanks to Mr Bell, Karly and I have discovered we are quite similar in many ways. We both juggle writing with a very active family life, have children whose ages range from single digit to young adults, write to country music (is there any other?), both adore Jim Craig (aka Tom Burlinson - THE Man from Snowy River), love moscarto, (must be chilled), and think Christmas is the bee's knees with the Christmas High 5 CD turned up really loud in the car, and everyone singing carols at the tops of their voices. 

I can't wait to actually meet Karly, swig on some chilled sweet wine while we battle it out for dibs on Jim Craig . In the meantime I'm heading to town tomorrow to buy Poppy's Dilemma, because a Karly Lane book always makes it to the top of my TBR pile ASAP.

There's a review of Poppy's Dilemma by Shelleyrae over at Book'd Out

Thanks to the beautiful people at Allen & Unwin Publishers, we have one copy of Poppy's Dilemma (unsigned) to giveaway. Yay! Drop us a line below to go in the draw to win the book and/or a personal Christmas card from Karly.