Jennifer Scoullar's Blog

I’m delighted to share some news — Wild Horses is now available internationally through Pilyara Press! It has a different cover from the Penguin Random House edition available in Australia and New Zealand, but it’s the same great story.

This book has always been close to my heart. When I first sat down to write it, I wanted to explore the way broken things — whether people or horses — can find healing through patience, care, and trust. At its core, Wild Horses concerns second chances. It’s about Christy, a drama teacher blindsided by scandal who seeks refuge at Currawong Creek, a horse therapy camp tucked away in the foothills of Queensland’s beautiful Bunya Mountains. It’s about Tyler, a celebrity chef desperate to reconnect with his teenage son. And it’s about Lofty, a wild ex-racehorse who learns, alongside the humans around him, that sometimes trust is worth the risk.

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This novel is also a tribute. The equine character of Lofty was inspired by a real horse of the same name — rescued from the knackery by my son Matt. The bond those two shared was extraordinary, and losing Lofty last year was heartbreaking. Writing him back into life on the page became my way of honouring his spirit. Knowing that readers around the world will meet Lofty in these pages feels wonderful. I’m sharing his memory more widely than I ever imagined possible.

One of the themes running through Wild Horses is mental health — how connection to animals, nature, and community can help us weather life’s storms. Horses, in particular, have a remarkable gift for honesty. They sense our emotions instantly, and they demand authenticity in return. You can’t fake calm with a horse; you have to find it. Spending time with them teaches patience, grounding, and trust — qualities that many of us crave in today’s fast-paced world.

When I look back at my own journey — from my years in law, to raising children on my own, to finally following my heart into writing and the bush — I see echoes of Christy’s resilience. Like her, I discovered that stepping into a new chapter can be daunting, but it can also be the very thing that saves you. So it feels especially fitting to celebrate this new beginning for Wild Horses. With the international edition, readers everywhere can now travel to Currawong Creek, breathe in the Darling Downs air, and ride alongside Christy, Tyler, Leo, and Lofty.

If you pick up this book, I hope you find in its pages a reminder that fresh starts are always possible, and that the most unexpected connections — whether with an animal or another person — can sometimes change everything.

Thank you, as always, for your support, for reading, and for sharing these stories with me.

With gratitude,
Jennifer Scoullar

I’m thrilled to share that my new novel, Wild Horses, is out in the world today!

This story is especially close to my heart — a tale of second chances, the quiet strength of country communities, and the healing power of horses. Set in the foothills of Queensland’s stunning Bunya Mountains, Wild Horses follows Christy Peacock, a city drama teacher whose life is upended by scandal. She escapes to Currawong Creek, a horse therapy camp nestled in the countryside, where wounded hearts — human and horse alike — are given the space to heal.

There, Christy meets celebrity chef Tyler Ward, a man struggling to reconnect with his withdrawn teenage son. As Christy helps the boy bond with an ex-racehorse, a powerful connection grows between her and Tyler — but past secrets threaten to upend everything.

Wild Horses is a feel-good rural romance, brimming with warmth, wilderness, and hope. It’s also a tribute to a real-life horse named Lofty, rescued by my son Matt from the kill pens of a knackery. Matt and that big bay spent many years ridiing through the mountains together. Unfortunately Lofty passed away last year, but the bond those two shared inspired the emotional heart of this story — and writing this novel was a way of bringing him back to life.

This book is a celebration of second chances — of finding light in the dark, love in unlikely places, and healing through nature and connection. It’s the perfect read for Mother’s Day, or for anyone in need of a story that reminds us we’re never too lost for a fresh start.

Thank you to everyone who’s supported me on this journey. I hope Wild Horses gallops straight into your heart You can find it wherever books are sold, as print, eBook or audio. In a week or two you’ll also be able to purchase signed copies directly from this website.

Celebrating the release of The Rivertown Vet – a story of courage, conservation, and coming to terms with the past.

Today marks a momentous occasion as my new novel The Rivertown Vet hits the shelves. This tale is not just one of romance and animal conservation. It’s a moving narrative about overcoming the shadows of our pasts.

Set against the picturesque backdrop of the Murray River in South Australia, we meet Rivertown vet, Jana, and her sister Sash, who have dedicated their lives to running Odessa, a wombat sanctuary that stands as a testament to their love for native wildlife. Their days are filled with the kind of hard work that feeds the soul, committed to the sanctuary’s mission while barely scraping up enough money each month to make ends meet. However all this changes when Jana is offered the chance to manage Wildfell Park, a neglected local zoo that is desperately in need of her passion and expertise.

Taking over Wildfell Park is not just a job for Jana; it’s a calling. Here lies the opportunity to expand Odessa’s mission, transforming Wildfell into a haven for endangered species like the Tasmanian Devil and forging an alliance with Aussie Ark, a beacon of hope for Australia’s native animals.

Yet, beneath the surface of this inspiring endeavour lies a personal tale of heartbreak. Jana harbours a secret, a remnant of her past that has left deep emotional scars, affecting her relationships and trust in others. The arrival of a figure from her school days, now crucial to Wildfell Park’s future, forces Jana to confront these demons. The unfolding drama is compounded by the emergence of protestors and a series of dangerous incidents that threaten to derail everything Jana has worked for.

The Rivertown Vet navigates the complexities of human emotion and the intricate relationships we share with each other and the animal kingdom. It’s a story that champions the spirit of reconciliation and the courage it takes to face our fears for the greater good. I invite you to dive into the pages of this heartwarming story, cheering for Jana as she navigates the complexities of life, love, and the wild.

Here’s the blurb:

Local vet Jana Malinski runs a wombat sanctuary with her sister on their family’s serene property by the Murray River. But Jana’s routine is up-ended after a chance encounter with handsome accountant and single dad Mark – the man who broke her heart in high school.

Offered the opportunity to run Wildfell Park, the town zoo that has fallen into disrepair, Jana must push past her hostility to save the local landmark and home to countless native and exotic animals. But working alongside Mark every day isn’t easy, especially given the undeniable attraction between them. While she fights her feelings, a new danger emerges – one that could threaten the very existence of Wildfell Park and Jana’s dreams of an ideal future.

Set in the gorgeous river country of South Australia The Rivertown Vet is a heartfelt and charming tale about community, conservation and kindness.

I’m set to release my latest novel, Paradise Valley, on April 12th. The book is a gripping and emotional read, set in the stunning landscapes of the Upper Hunter in New South Wales. The novel tells the story of Del Fisher, a reporter from a regional newspaper who grew up on a farm in beautiful Kingfisher Valley. Here’s the blurb:

Ambitious country reporter Del Fisher seems to have it all. She’s just landed her dream job, along with an engagement to Nick, Winga’s most eligible bachelor and son of local mayor and mining tycoon, Carson Shaw. But Del is blindsided when a feature article and its shocking allegations about the Shaw family is published under her name.

Del and Nick’s relationship is torn apart. Devastated by the unintentional havoc she has caused, Del flees to the family farm at Berrimilla in the heart of beautiful Kingfisher Valley. Swearing that she will never write again, Del plans for a quiet life, restoring her late father’s vineyard and making peace with her estranged mother.

But when the little town is threatened by a proposed coal mine, Del steps up and leads the battle to save it. To win this fight she must enlist the support of a man who believes she betrayed him. Can Del convince Nick that she was loyal all along? And will trusting the wrong person destroy both the town and Del’s second chance at love?

The novel explores the challenges that Del faces as a young woman finding love, and navigating her place in the world. In addition to the central romance, the book also tackles themes of family, environmentalism and the complex relationship between rural communities and industries that can threaten to disrupt their way of life. With its stunning setting, complex characters, and timely themes, I’m proud to present Paradise Valley to the world. I hope that you’ll find it a compelling and emotionally resonant read.

Well, the day has finally come. The Mallee Girl will be released on April 12 for Australian & New Zealand readers. The audiobook will be published simultaneously with the print and eBook. An international edition will be available in a few months’ time.

The Mallee Girl is the story of Pippa Black. She’s a young woman who’s grown up on an isolated wheat and sheep farm, with a domineering, fundamentalist father. She imagines that marriage to Cade might be an escape, but he turns out to be a violent and controlling man. She’s exchanged one life of confinement for another – a far more terrifying one. When she finally finds the courage to leave, she ends up at Brumby’s Run, a wild horse sanctuary in the Victorian High Country. And there, far from the dust and drought of the Mallee, she has a chance to heal. But Cade is a vengeful man, and as they say – you can run, but you can’t hide …

This novel has been a long time coming. It’s set in the same world as my first ever published novel, Brumby’s Run. Although The Mallee Girl is not a sequel, it shares some of the same characters. I would call it a linked novel. 

It’s set in Victoria’s spectacular High Country. As a tribute to Elyne Mitchell (still one of my favourite authors) I’ve named the main horse character after Thowra, the Silver Brumby — one of the most iconic animal characters in Australian literature. It was lovely to revisit the Upper Murray region in my writing — a region very close to my heart. It was also lovely to indulge my love of horses, and in particular our beautiful alpine brumbies. 

Although there are some dark themes in The Mallee Girl, it is ultimately an uplifting story about finding courage and facing fears. I hope you enjoy reading it In a few days time I should have signed copies available for purchase from this website. The official blurb is below.

Armed with nothing but some loose change and her beloved dog Duke, Mallee girl Pippa Black has finally found the courage she needs to escape a dangerous relationship. Two cryptic words written on a paper napkin send her in search of the one person who might help her – a long-lost brother she has always dreamed of finding.

Pippa’s quest leads her to the remote town of Currajong, high in the beautiful Victorian alps. As a runaway seeking refuge among strangers, Pippa learns that she’s been mistakenly implicated in a shocking crime. She finds her way to Brumby’s Run, a wild-horse sanctuary, where she begins work assisting the enigmatic farm manager Levi, and becomes entranced by Thowra, a magnificent golden stallion who leads a herd of brumbies in the region. Both man and horse will teach Pippa more about herself than she ever thought possible – including when to run, when to hide, and when to stand up and fight.

Set among the majesty of the High Country snowgums, The Mallee Girl is a moving and heartfelt story about the power of love and the land to heal old wounds, and the freedom that comes in confronting your greatest fears.

‘Transports you into the heart of the high country with this heartfelt story of love and courage. THE MALLEE GIRL cements Jennifer Scoullar as one of my favourite rural romance authors.’ – Rachael Johns

[image error]Happy launch day to me! Today my quirky little eco-thriller Wasp Season enters the big wide world! It’s available everywhere as an eBook and at Amazon in print.

Wasp Season has been available as a preorder on all local Australian & New Zealand retailers. Thank you to all you lovely readers who have already ordered it.

I’ve been on a mission to showcase the marvellous home-grown Australian and New Zealand fiction available to readers worldwide. My series on local authors will continue next month, however today I’m taking time out to announce my own new release – THE MEMORY TREE, out now!

[image error]THE MEMORY TREE  is the third book in my Tasmanian Tales series. To celebrate its release, the eBook of the first in the series, FORTUNE’S SON, is FREE for a limited time! Due to copyright reasons, the free edition of Fortune’s Son is unavailable in the local marketplace. But don’t worry, Australian and New Zealand readers may still get it for FREE by clicking on this link – Fortune’s Son for free!  

When I publish titles with Penguin Random House, book launches are grand affairs, followed by celebratory dinners. I do love meeting readers, but as an introvert I find talking in public stressful. I’m happiest at home in the mountains. Pilyara Press understands this, so my launch of THE MEMORY TREE today is wholly online.

Here is a short Q&A with Jennie Jones, a terrific Aussie author who I hope to feature in the future. I have also included an excerpt from THE MEMORY TREE. Thanks for visiting and I hope you buy my book

[image error]Elisabeth has been an avid reader all her life. She dabbled in writing as a teenager, but gave it away to study music which has also been a lifelong passion. It is why musicians are often, but not always, her main characters. She plays clarinet in a community orchestra and loves getting back into regular practice and music making. Tai Chi is a part of Elisabeth’s life and has been since 1987. She and her husband travel a lot and she also plays tennis on a regular basis.

Thanks for the invitation, Jennifer. I enjoyed going down memory lane for this post.

I grew up in the 1950’s on a small farm near Canberra. Dad started out with poultry, but switched to apples when I was about ten or eleven. It was an idyllic childhood, looking back. My brother and I, when not at the small primary school down the road, did pretty much what we pleased. We played tennis, rode our ponies or bikes, played in the creek and generally mucked about with the other kids in the small community of five and ten acre rural blocks. Nobody’s parents seemed worried where we were or what we got up to.

[image error]We lived next door to Monty, a race horse trainer, and I spent many happy hours hanging around the stables and probably annoying him.  He taught me to ride and loaned me a pony called Midge, short for Midget, who I rode bareback everywhere. Later, as a teenager, I had a chestnut mare called Del, the result of a swap Dad did with Monty for a jersey cow. I’d ride her after school, and on weekends head off with a friend to explore the area or attend a pony club meet which involved our horses being floated across town. All those quiet dirt country roads we travelled on horseback, singing Beatle’s songs, laughing and gossiping about boys, are now long gone — tarred and filled with fast moving traffic.

[image error]My latest release, Where There Is Smoke, draws on my experience with horses but I did have to hone my knowledge through chats with a horse owning friend and a very obliging breeder of Arabians. The story revolves around a thoroughbred mare called Calypso Sun and a look-alike called Arch Rival. Which one is the beautiful animal in the above picture, I wonder?

is the second in my Taylor’s Bend romantic suspense series. I chose the beautiful area around Batlow and Tumbarumba as the setting for the town because a cousin owned an orchard there. My fictitious stud farm, The Grange, is a twenty minute drive away—far enough to be isolated but close enough to be the subject of gossip about the wealthy owners. And far enough for my heroine Krista’s hair raising drive to safety when a bushfire threatens.

[image error]I’m fortunate in that I’ve never been in the path of a raging fire although Canberra lost 503 homes, and four people died in the terrifying fires of January 2003. I’ll never forget the weird light, the smell, the smoke and the wind bringing charred leaves and twigs from kilometres away before the fire hit the suburbs on the far side of town from us. My suburb backs on to natural bushland and every summer we know the possibility is there.

[image error]My heroine Krista, although frightened and knowing she has to drive four horses to safety can’t leave without her little dog Lola, who has disappeared. Lola, a Cavalier King Charles spaniel, has quite a role to play in the book.

I haven’t owned a horse for many years, but riding is a great way to enjoy the Australian countryside and the ways less travelled. Now, when we’re travelling [image error]overseas, my husband and I sometimes go horse riding and explore different landscapes.  Here I am riding Carlos  on Maui, which, on the south western coast inland behind Kaanapali is surprisingly scrubby, rocky and dry and very like parts of Australia. Carlos resembles Calypso Sun. He liked going backwards, however, and needed stern words to make him behave, whereas she would never do that.

Where There Is Smoke is available HERE

Come visit me on my website. www.elisabethrose.com.au

[image error]Discover more about Australasian rural authors at our Australian & NZ Rural Fiction website!

[image error]S M (Sandy) Spencer writes romance, with just a touch of spice, set mainly in the Australian state of Victoria. She grew up reading the romantic suspense works of incredible authors such as Daphne du Maurier and Mary Stewart. Their books stirred in her a passion that would last a lifetime — a passion to write stories that would stay with readers long after they’d finished the books.

I grew up in a small Californian coastal town, dreaming about riding horses and becoming a writer. After a long career in the corporate world, one that landed me in Australia in the 1980s, I found myself in a position to realise that dream!

[image error]Now retired, I write from the semi-rural home I share with my husband, horses, cats and dogs, as well as the kangaroos that pass through the paddocks on nearly a daily basis. But it isn’t just kangaroos that visit our semi-rural property. We see echidnas,  blue-tongue lizards, rabbits, ducks, and every sort of parrot you can imagine. Recently we had a pair of Gang-Gang Cockatoos that I had to go onto the internet to identify. But the biggest surprise was the day a koala arrived in the front paddock and stayed the night! He was no doubt lost, perhaps pushed down to escape the bushfires in the nearby State Park, and by morning he was gone.

[image error]Just like my lovely hostess, Jennifer, I’m not only an animal lover, but also a keen horse-rider. I bought my first horse shortly after getting my first job at the age of sixteen, and haven’t looked back. I’ve traded California’s beaches and rolling coastal hills for country lanes and backroads, and I’ve become pretty much a fair weather rider, but my beautiful Arabian mare continues to allow me to ride her even though I’m sure she wonders why it’s always her that gets ridden (and not her two paddock partners, a retired buckskin and a rescue horse with permanent leg damage).

So, does all this make its way into my books? Short answer; sometimes. My Copperhead Creek Australian Romance series is set in a made up town called Willows, situated in Victoria’s Golden Triangle area.  Most of the books in the series feature heroines who do what I always wanted to do—move to the country to have horses, and end up finding true love.

[image error]Each book in the series can be read as a stand-alone with respect to the romance, as each has its own couple who find their happy for now ending. However, if you read them in order you’ll see characters from earlier books making appearances throughout, as the lives of the characters in the small town overlap and tangle.

[image error] A Chance To Come True

Caity Jones wasted a lot of years waiting for the “two kids, a dog and a white picket fence” dream to come true, but she’s ready to move on now. Letting go of society’s idea of the perfect life, she’s purchased a five-acre property in the small rural town of Willows. She’s determined to live a solitary life and become a writer. And that means staying away from men altogether.

Tom Murray owns and runs the local feed store in Willows. His marriage was a failure but his family is strong, and he can’t imagine a world that didn’t include his three young children. He’s an uncomplicated man, living an uncomplicated life—and he has every intention of keeping it that way.

Both are mature … both have baggage … and both have agendas that don’t include romance.

And then they meet.

[image error]Discover more about Australasian rural authors at our Australian & NZ Rural Fiction website!

Penelope Janu[image error] writes about clever and adventurous women who don’t mean to fall in love, but do. After a long career in law, Penelope now enjoys more creative forms of writing. In the past few years, she has completed four novels. All are set on the coast or in the country, and celebrate Australian communities. Her 2018 novel, On the Right Track, won the Romantic Book of the Year award (contemporary). You can find out more about Penelope at her website.

[image error]I grew up in the northern beaches peninsular district of Sydney. It was well after horse and cart days—but was a time when, if there was a vacant block of land down the road, it was perfectly acceptable to keep your horse there. I sometimes rode my pony to school, tethered him next to the oval and rode him home again. When I was fourteen, my family moved to Victoria and we lived in a semi-rural district with a goat, a cat, two dogs and a number of horses. My teenage friend Rina (and our horses), were inseparable for many years and we showed and competed together. Rina still competes in dressage, and has had a great deal of success with thoroughbred ex-racehorses. I always look forward to visiting her property and spending time in her stables!

[image error]The natural environment has played an important part in all of my novels. It was when I was working as a legal academic and teaching in a course, ‘The International Legal Regulation of Climate Change,’ that an idea formed for In at the Deep End. Antarctica had always been of interest, and I wanted to portray how important this unique and pristine environment is, and how rising water temperatures threaten not only Antarctica, but the rest of the world. My challenge as a writer was tackling these concepts in an accessible way. What would happen if a climate scientist and an environmentalist, with a similar agenda but very different ways of seeing things, fell in love? In at the Deep End not only explored climate change and relationships, but also charted the challenges faced by the 1900s explorers Robert Falcon Scott and Roald Amundsen’s ‘race to the South Pole.’ Amundsen was successful, but Scott and his team died in their attempt. Scott’s diaries provide a fascinating account of his journey.

[image error]In On the Right Track, the lead character is named Golden by her grandfather—an amateur botanist—after acacia pycnantha (golden wattle). I researched and learned a great deal about native flora while writing this novel, and exchanged many emails with a CSIRO scientist who was a specialist in eucalypt propagation. I’d written a ghost gum into my story, set in a rural district in the South West of NSW, and while I knew ghost gums were uncommon in my home state, I didn’t realise exactly how uncommon! The planting of a ghost gum, and its early care, has to be carefully considered for it to have any real chance of survival, but, once my scientist worked out that I had my heart set on this species of gum, he did all that he could to tell me what I had to do to                                                          ensure the fictional version survived!

Mistletoe

A plant I learnt a lot about while researching my Christmas novella, The Six Rules of Christmas (part of the HarperCollins Our Country Christmas anthology), is mistletoe. Unlike England, which has only one variety of this mistletoe, Australia has many varieties, many of which mimic the look of the host tree through leaf size and shape (spot the mistletoe in the eucalypt in the photo!). As a parasitic plant, mistletoe is often thought to be harmful to the host plant, but it rarely harms a healthy tree, attracts bird life and can be an important source of nutrients.

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My November release, Up on Horseshoe Hill, is set in the Central West of NSW, and tells the story of a farrier, and a geneticist vet who specialises in wild animal conservation. I learnt a great deal about the hoof treatment of wild animals while researching this novel. Many animals kept in zoos as part of conservation programs have to be anaesthetised when they require treatment, but keepers and handlers increasingly use cooperative reinforcement (not involving force or compulsion, but incentives in the form of reward) in order to avoid anaesthetic. In this way, for example, a giraffe or elephant will place their feet into positions that allow farriers and vets to work on them safely. I can’t wait for the release of this book, which is available for pre-order now at a discounted price on Amazon, ITunes, Kobo, Booktopia and all good bookstores.

My next title will focus on the Macquarie Marshes, a wetlands region in the north of NSW. I’m doing a lot of reading on the environmental importance of wetlands, and planning a road trip (my favourite part of research), in the next couple of months!

[image error]Discover more about Australasian rural authors at our Australian & NZ Rural Fiction website!