Raised initially in a tiny coastal town on the Fleurieu Peninsula, then on a wheat and sheep farm in the Murraylands, Lonie is a South Australian country girl through and through. Growing up riding horses and motorbikes (and, possibly, her parents' nerves!) she developed a love of reading before she reached primary school, thanks to her parents' TV ban. Lonie entertained a brief fantasy of moving to the big city (well, Adelaide!), but within months the lure of the open spaces and big sky country summoned her home. Now she splits her time between the stark, arid beauty of the family farm at Pallamana, and her home and counselling practice in the lush Adelaide Hills. Leonie is the bestselling author of The Farm at Peppertree Crossing, The Wattle Seed Inn, The River Gum Cottage and The Willow Tree Wharf.