Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
When Summer Land sat down to write her second book, I now pronounce you husband and expat, she focused on her life, having children, moving to Australia and everything in between while taking everything life threw at her head on.
"I feel more anxiety this time because I have children and now I'm like 'how much can I say?'," Summer said.
"They play a big role in this book and I don't know how big of a role they'll play in future which is why I want to shift to fiction, I really feel like I don't have the right to say too much more about them,"
"With social media, with them able to access everything so much I just feel like I might leave them out from now on."
"Be present where you are and give it everything you have."
- Summer Land
Summer also reflected on her unique writing style that has won her so many fans.
"I love writing about things that particularly that women can relate to because I feel like we tend to beat ourselves up and we're way harder on ourselves than men,"
"The main thing with this [book] too is, take risks, get married. Doesn't work out, get divorced. Move to Australia. If it doesn't work out, move back."
"I've had to learn a lot in my life that it's okay to go back if something doesn't work out. But I've also learned that - and I don't want to spoil too much - you have to bloom where you're planted,"
"Plants get moved around the garden all the time and with a little bit of water they come back to life. They don't always have to stay in one place to thrive,"
"As someone who loves to travel, I'm just very much like 'be present where you are and give it everything you have.'"
Summer talked about how writing has helped her adjust to living so far from home and making a life in Mudgee.
"I think a lot of the things I write about in this book would be parenting, motherhood things and Mudgee is such, such a family town. I'd say that's the biggest thing that helped me find my groove in Mudgee was becoming a mother."
It was 2011, [when I moved here] and there wasn't a whole lot going on for a 25-year-old so we made a baby. There's no movie theatre in the town and Netflix wasn't around and here we are, it was totally worth it. (laughs)
Mudgee Guardian digital subscribers have a chance to win one of two signed copies, be one of the first two to email ben.palmer@fairfaxmedia.com.au using the same email you log in with.
