Second book signed with University of Queensland Press

Sally Piper

I have signed a publishing agreement for my second novel 'The Geography of Friendship', with University of Queensland Press. Publication is set for July 2018.

These two photos are taken at the same place - Kersops Peak on Wilson’s Promontory - but 50 years apart. I’m on the right and my mother is on the left. I grew up in Victoria and my family holidayed on Wilson’s Prom most years. It was here that my love for bushwalking first began, back when my legs were almost too short to keep up. I returned to the Prom in 2015 to do a 5-day solo hike as research for my book The Geography of Friendship, due out with @uqpbooks on the 2nd July. Nostalgia for my early bushwalking days made me want to loosely set the story there, but when it came to recreating a sense of place for the novel I could only picture the region as idyllic and safe and not the isolating and challenging place it needed to be. So I set off on my own, hoping to experience something of the fear and hardship my characters needed to feel. Fortunately, I didn’t encounter the creepy man that they did on their hike, but I did experience their sense of isolation and the hardship of negotiating a tough terrain with a heavy pack. If you’d like to find out more about my experience of doing this hike you can read an article I wrote about it for WQ Magazine and which is now on my website under Other Writing (link in my bio). #thegeographyoffriendship #bushwalking #wilsonspromontory @dmcprmedia

Book cupcakes. #uqp70 @uqpbooks

‘I have just learned to see praying mantis egg cases.’ Says Annie Dillard in her Pulitzer Prize-winning non-fiction book Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Dillard is a uniquely perceptive nature writer who reminds me to pause, to be attentive, to notice. On today’s walk I learned to see a perfect wren’s nest. #lovewalking #lovenature #booksiloved #pilgrimattinkercreek @the_real_anniedillard

@graceamelia94 There’s that tongue! Thankfully his dress sense has improved and he’s stopped having to haul his mate around on his back! Happy 21st @josslong. Keep yourself tidy, just as @liam_piper would expect you to🍻

I was late on the trails today, with the sun almost set by the time I came off them, but I was glad just to get there...not even the big old rumbly cloud that followed me around could spoil it🌥

Just not getting amongst these lovelies nearly enough at the moment🍃#lovenature #lovetrees

A beach weed, but still pretty.

Two memoirs I can’t wait to read - ‘Staying’ by @jessiexcole, out now with @text_publishing, and ‘What Will Be Worn’ by @melissa.j.fagan to be published by Transit Lounge in September. @avidreader

Hayfever...pretty but I suspect is the culprit🤧 #wattle

If you fancy coming along to the official launch of The Geography of Friendship, then these are the details. It’s a free event but you will have to register your attendance through the Avid Reader Bookshop events page on their website. @avidreader www.avidreader.com.au @uqpbooks #thegeographyoffriendship

Feeling grateful for this positive review of The Geography of Friendship in The Weekend Australian. #thegeographyoffriendship @uqpbooks @review_australian

Six days away hiking and kayaking with these hardy, sometimes wicked and always outrageously hilarious gals in the Whitsundays...windblown, sea and rain drenched but always smiling. Can’t ask for more than that! #whitsundays #whitsundaypeakwalk

Whitsunday Island colours and critters. #lovenature #whitsundays

Day 1 held deceptively tranquil possibilities for this (first ever) kayaking holiday...then the 30knot winds came in😬

I read these two gems recently. Both are (mostly) tender renderings of male friendships played out in landscapes that are beautiful and damaging in turns. @robertlukins @uqpbooks #theeverlastingsunday #paolocognetti #theeightmountains @harvillsecker #booksiloved 📚

A daisy for your thoughts? Mine: when Son 1 turns 25 and still thinks your jokes are funny. That’s cool. @aaron9305

It’s probably time to reveal this beautiful cover by @christabelladesigns. The Geography of Friendship will be published by @uqpbooks on 2 July. It’s a story about bushwalking, female friendships and predatory men. Not all the things that happen on its pages are as pretty as its cover. #thegeographyoffriendship #uqpbooks #bushwalking #femalefriendships @dmcprmedia

OK, because everyone else is. Circa (dare I say) 1966😳 #oldheadshotday

Root or fossil?

Scars 4