Australia Day Book Giveaway Blog Hop 2015

G'day and welcome to my blog.

First up, I wish to thank Shelleyrae @ Book'd Out for organising and hosting this great event which is now in its third year. This time around, there are 41 blogs giving away wonderful Australian novels and other prizes. You can hop on over to Book'd Out here to check out all the other fabulous bloggers and authors taking part in this great annual initiative. Please do show them your support - you never know how many prizes you'll win.

Before I get on to the nitty-gritty details though, I just wanted to share with you one of my favourite poems, My Country, by Dorothy Mackellar - after all, Australia Day is all about celebrating this wonderful country of ours. Being an immigrant, this poem resonates very deeply with me as I do believe that "all you who have not loved her, you will not understand". I am proud to have been embraced by the Lucky Country:

The love of field and coppice,

Of green and shaded lanes.

Of ordered woods and gardens

Is running in your veins,

Strong love of grey-blue distance

Brown streams and soft dim skies

I know but cannot share it,

My love is otherwise.

I love a sunburnt country,

A land of sweeping plains,

Of ragged mountain ranges,

Of droughts and flooding rains.

I love her far horizons,

I love her jewel-sea,

Her beauty and her terror -

The wide brown land for me!

A stark white ring-barked forest

All tragic to the moon,

The sapphire-misted mountains,

The hot gold hush of noon.

Green tangle of the brushes,

Where lithe lianas coil,

And orchids deck the tree-tops

And ferns the warm dark soil.

Core of my heart, my country!

Her pitiless blue sky,

When sick at heart, around us,

We see the cattle die -

But then the grey clouds gather,

And we can bless again

The drumming of an army,

The steady, soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country!

Land of the Rainbow Gold,

For flood and fire and famine,

She pays us back threefold -

Over the thirsty paddocks,

Watch, after many days,

The filmy veil of greenness

That thickens as we gaze.

An opal-hearted country,

A wilful, lavish land -

All you who have not loved her,

You will not understand -

Though earth holds many splendours,

Wherever I may die,

I know to what brown country

My homing thoughts will fly.

Now, onto the reason why you are here.

I'm giving away an AU$20 Amazon gift voucher to one lucky reader of my blog. All you have to do is answer this easy question:

What is the name of the above poem and who wrote it?

(Please leave a comment in the comments section below with your answer!)

Seeing as I have opened this competition up Internationally, if the winner happens to be an international visitor, it would be remiss of me if I didn't ask you to consider purchasing a book written by an Australian author and show your support of our astounding talent.

So, you've never read an Aussie novel before? Believe me, you will be spoiled for choice, no matter what your favourite genre is. Here's a sample of just some of your options:

Entries close at midnight on Tuesday, 27th January 2015 and the winners will be drawn via Random.org, announced here on the blog (which feeds through to both my Facebook Page and Twitter handle) and then contacted via email within 7 days of the competition being closed.

Disclaimer: I reserve the right to re-draw if the winner does not contact me within 72 hours of them being notified.

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!!! Oi, Oi, Oi!!!