Meredith Appleyard

The Doctor Calling

Penguin Book Australia

RRP A$32.99

Please welcome Meredith to my blog. Meredith  lives in the Clare Valley wine-growing region of South Australia (which coincidentally is one the memorable places we visited on out caravaning holiday a couple of years ago, a region we will visit again). Maybe we can make the next visit line up with the next Clare Writer’s Festival. 🙂

Meredith Appleyard – credit Nan Berrett Word Solutions

As a registered nurse and midwife, Meredith has worked in a wide range of country health practice settings, including the Royal Flying Doctor Service. When she isn’t writing, Meredith is reading, helping organise the annual Clare Writers’ Festival, or at home with her husband and her border collie, Lily. She is the author of The Country Practice.  Her second novel, The Doctor Calling has just been published.

10 Things You Didn’t Know About Meredith Appleyard

1. My first novella was written when I was 15, and it was ‘self-published’ – I typed it up nicely, bound it, and did the cover art myself!

2. Green is my favourite colour. All shades of green with Pine Green and Bottle Green on top of the list. I even like the word, green.

3. In 2005 I went to Vietnam with a group of nurses. We did volunteer work in several hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City. I worked alongside Vietnamese doctors and nurses in a busy gastroenterology hospital in the 5th Precinct. It was an experience that hasn’t faded with time…the heat; the humidity; the traffic; the food; the pollution; doctors and nurses working on a daily basis in conditions and with equipment we deem unacceptable; and, the kindness, friendliness and generosity of the Vietnamese people.

4. My sister is my best friend.
5. Lily, our border collie pup is asleep beside me. She’s only 8 months old and it’s very rare for her to be asleep during the day.

6. When I was growing up I wanted to be a school teacher. Circumstances intervened and I became a nurse instead. I’ve never been unemployed, I’ve travelled and worked in Australia and overseas, and I’ve had many wonderful experiences and met so many characters in the course of my work. Great fodder for my books!

7. Once, when I was fed up with shift work, I decided I could sell life insurance. It sounded like the perfect lifestyle, and no more night duty. It was a disaster. I am no salesperson.

8. I do not like ice-cream. I do like dark chocolate. A lot.

9. Australian crime writer Michael Robotham is one of my favourites. I was on a panel with him at a writers’ festival and I DIDN’T GET A PHOTO!

10. Reading and writing are the joys of my life. Making a second career as a writer is a dream come true.

Keep in touch with Meredith on here:

https://www.facebook.com/meredith.appleyard

meredithappleyard.com.au