I have a new book project… as always seems to happen, it feels like it has taken forever to write, but all of a sudden I have the most amazing cover, and I’m signing off on printing plans, and I have a launch date and publishing deadline, and everything is happening at warp speed!
It’s called Butterfly House and its a real change of pace for me. First – it’s a series – which I’ve never done before and second it’s kind of chick-lit, not romance. It’s a seriously local story, set in an imaginary location in my home town of Cowaramup. If you’ve ever visited Cowaramup it’s that little dot on the map snuggled in the middle of far more famous cousins such as Margaret River, Busselton and Dunsborough… and for years and years if you blinked driving through on the Bussell Highway, you missed it.
Not anymore. Now you blink because you think some farmer just let his prize herd of dairy cows escape out the farm gate…
These days, Cowaramup is famous for its herd of life-size fibreglass cows that munch imaginary daisies on our main street, chew their cud, a-low and a-moo and lie or stand around doing their thang day in, day out. (Here are some photos of WA romance authors Jennie Jones and Juanita Kees checking out the cows during a visit with me in 2014).
Jennie Jones & Juanita Kees with the cows during a visit to Cowaramup in 2014.
Juanita gets cosy with a calf.
Ride ’em cowboy.
Not everyone loves the Cowaramup cows, but most people do, and I’m one of the latter. The cows have been wonderful for retail businesses who might otherwise have had to close their shop doors as our town got bypassed for the bigger, more touristy places. Now people have a reason to stop, take photos, and enjoy so much of the community spirit that makes Cowtown, such a cool town.
In the first of the Butterfly House books, Who Killed The Bride, we meet Cally Minter and her best friend, Sienna Devereux, just as they are about to launch their new business: Murder Mystery at Butterfly House.
Do you remember those old fashioned murder mysteries that were a ‘thing’ about 20 years ago? I wrote one once (incidentally). It featured Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston, Sylvester Stallone, Russell Crowe, Tom Cruise, Penelope Cruz, Angelina Jolie and Jack Nicholson. (Hubby played Jack).
I wrote scripts for everyone and the game ran on the clock. People had to be some place at a certain time and say something to another character. Or some other character might see them leaving the garden, or the shed, or the house (with a dripping bloody dagger in their hand) kind of thing.
In the game I wrote years ago, ‘Tom Cruise’ was found dead in the front yard of our garden in Hahndorf… and it turned out Angelina and Russell were the dastardly pair who combined to knock him off. (Russell was jealous because he’d missed out on the lead in The Last Samurai, which Tom went on to get…). We played the game and ate, drank and made very merry… we had a blast.
Butterfly House kind of takes off, where that fledgling idea began.
I can’t wait to show you the AMAZING full cover for Who Killed The Bride? Butterfly House: Book 1. It was designed by local artist (incidentally – he doubles as ‘vet’ to the Cowtown cows) Kerry Sibly who runs the gift shop Mukau in Cowaramup main street. This man is a genius!
I also can’t wait to tell you about my plans for the launch and sale of the book and how, where and when you can get your hands on a signed PRINT copy. Lots of exciting news to come including a cover reveal tomorrow! I’ll post it here first 🙂
As usual when there is a Fair going on in the local hall, I take out a stand to support the Cowaramup Retailers Association and sell my books and have a chat about books to anyone interested in reading. I always have an awesome time and meet some great people, and this year I had a new book to launch!
I feel so chuffed to have written a book set in Cowaramup, involving the increasingly famous Cowaramup Cows. One of the speakers in the video is Kerry Sibly (you see him wearing the cow horns in his cow onesie chatting during the vid); Kerry designed the awesome book cover for 
And guess what? I will be there… just perhaps not with my pink beanie (it will be almost Summer in Perth by then and my ears would melt!)
Lily Malone - Author 