The Brothers of Bridgader Station Audio Book Blog Tour

Author: Sarah Williams

Narrator: Myles Pollard

Length: 5 hours

Series: Brigadier Station, Book 1

Publisher: Serenade Publishing Audio

Released: May 17, 2019

Genre: Romance

She came to the outback to marry the love of her life. She just didn't expect him to be her fiancé's younger brother.

When Meghan Flanagan, a vet-nurse from Townsville, moves to Brigadier Station in outback Queensland to marry the man of her dreams, she is shocked to discover that perhaps her fiancé isn't the man she wants waiting for her at the altar. The man she's destined to marry, just might be his younger brother.

Cautious of women after a disastrous past relationship, Darcy is happy living on his beloved cattle station, spending his spare time riding horses, going to rodeos and campdrafting. He didn't expect the perfect woman show up on his doorstep. Engaged to his brother.

With the wedding only hours away, Meghan must make the decision of a lifetime. But, her betrayal could tear the family apart. She knows all too well the pain of losing loved ones and being alone.

Now that she has the family she so desperately wants; will she risk losing it all?

Set in the drought stricken plains of Julia Creek, North Queensland and the coastal city of Townsville this is a rural romance that will leave you asking: Will she marry the right man, for the right reasons?

The Brothers of Brigadier Station is the first in the Brigadier Station series and can easily be read as a standalone. Each of Sarah's stories are linked so you can find out what happens to the other brothers and your favourite characters in future books.

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https://youtu.be/8EVPftEjDJ8

Sarah Williams is the bestselling author of Australian romantic fiction including the successful Brigadier Station series.

Sarah Williams spent her childhood chasing sheep, riding horses and picking Kiwi fruit on the family orchard in rural New Zealand. After a decade travelling, Sarah moved to Queensland to raise a family and follow her passion for writing. She currently resides in Maleny on the Sunshine Coast Hinterland, Australia.

When she's not absorbed in her fictional writing world, Sarah is running after her family of four kids, one husband, two dogs, a horse and a cat. She is CEO of Serenade Publishing, hosts the weekly podcast/vlog Write with Love, runs writers workshops and retreats, mentors and supports her peers to achieve their publishing dreams.

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Since Graduating from Edith Cowan University in 1994 with Bachelor of Arts degree in Education, Myles was selected to attend the prestigious drama school, NIDA (National Institute of Dramatic Arts) and graduated in 1998.

He has appeared in many Australian television series including Water Rats, Home and Away, All Saints, Wildside, Double Trouble, Packed to the Rafters, Underbelly 2, East West 101, Rescue Special Ops and Sea Patrol. It was playing Nick Ryan in the internationally acclaimed television series McLeod’s Daughters that secured him a place in the hearts and minds of millions of people worldwide.

Myles has also worked as an actor with respected Australian theatre companies such as Bell Shakespeare, Ensemble and Black Swan.

He appeared in the box office hit, Wolverine, had a lead role in the critically acclaimed feature film, Thirst, a lead role alongside Sam Worthington in DRIFT (shot in WA), appeared in Tim Winton’s “The Turning” alongside Rose Byrne and Miranda Otto, featured in “Foreshadow” (also shot in WA) and has just completed filming alongside Richard Roxborough in Western Australia.

Myles has produced two short films for Trop Fest over the years and a short film called Jubulj, directed by Wayne Blair of (The Sapphires) and recently made his feature film Producing debut with Drift.

Myles continues to work in the corporate arena as a coach/facilitator and runs numerous acting classes in Perth, Margaret River and Bunbury for developing actors and children. He also runs classes on auditioning, private lessons and general workshops for acting to camera.

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Narrator Interview

Q1. Tell us about yourself and your acting career so far.

Myles Pollard: My acting career stretches back about 20 years. I went through NIDA, so the National Institute of Dramatic Art. I graduated in 1998, and following that, I went on and got involved in a whole bunch of different TV shows, like Water Rats, like Wildside and All Saints and East West 101, and then finally two years out, I got offered the role of McLeod's Daughters. The infamous McLeod's Daughters. That was five years' full-time work in South Australia. That was my first real big opportunity. I had no idea that the show would go on and become the most popular TV show in Australian history, the most successful TV show in Australian history in terms of how many countries it sold worldwide. I think when it was released in the first 12 months, it went out to 110 countries in the world.

I had no idea that 10 years later, I'd be still getting fan mail from all over the world, from America, from South America, from Europe, and this show just still has a massive fan base, and people have this insatiable ... yeah, demand for all content McLeod's. From McLeod's, I went on and started doing a few films. I produced and acted in a film called Drift with Sam Worthington a few years ago, films like Jasper Jones a couple of years ago, Looking For Grace, a science fiction thriller called The Gateway, and I suppose in more recent times, I'm starting to try my hand at directing, writing ... Got a couple of projects that I'm developing myself. Factual documentary TV series, which I'm hoping to sell, and a couple of feature films as well.

Q2. Tell us about landing the role on McLeod's Daughters. Were you a country boy growing up, or had you ridden horses before that experience?

Myles Pollard: The whole McLeod's experience in terms of living in the country, horses, motorbikes, that whole sensibility, wasn't new to me. I grew up in small country towns in the north west of Western Australia, so I understood the culture of living in small towns. I lived in a one-street town for a few years in the wheat belt. I lived in Onslow in the late Seventies, and Karratha and Port Hedland before they were I would say industrialized by the mining boom.

Getting the role on McLeod's was just one of those formative moments in your life. I was working in a veterinary wholesale factory warehouse, packing steroids for animals, pretty much working ... I'd just graduated from NIDA a year or so earlier, and then I got the call from my agent, and then off we went. And it was three weeks in Bowral doing horse camp, which was being paid good money to learn dressage, which was completely incredible. And then meeting all the cast on the train out to the Blue Mountains, out to Bowral. And then suddenly found myself in South Australia, and every day working sometimes 15, 17 hour days out in the country in Country Gawler and Strathalbyn and Mount Pleasant and all the hinterland around South Australia, which is beautiful wine country. It's Barossa, it's McLaren Vale.

For five years, getting paid to ride horses, ride motorbikes, kiss beautiful women, and just really get immersed in this whole paradigm, which was country living, which was a real honor actually, and a real privilege.

Q3. What do you miss most about the show, now that it's finished?

Myles Pollard: I think at the time, as a young actor, you don't realize just how much of an impression the show would have on so many people for so long. We knew it was a good show. I had nothing to compare it to, so there was no precedent for me. For me, it just felt like it was how the industry was. You come out of NIDA and you get involved in a really successful show that does really well internationally for a decade. Okay, this is pretty easy. That's not the case. I think I miss being around the people. I miss ... The relationships and the friendships are really strong.

Even to this day actually, I'm still talking quite regularly with Bridie. Bridie Carter and myself are actually putting a potential business together with some of the other cast. And Aaron Jeffery is a really good mate of mine, so I talk to him regularly. So we often cross paths; we've done a couple of functions in Country Australia, where we've come together and talked about our careers. I love that. I love sharing stories with the cast, with fans. I miss just living in the bush. I lived in Gawler for about two years, and every spare moment was spent riding horses, going to rodeos, having the luxury of being ... having the Barossa Valley next door, all those sorts of things.

And also the obvious point is that working every day for five years, that luxury doesn't exist any more. They don't make TV like McLeod's any more. We were making between 25 and 35 episodes a year. The only other show that really does that is Home and Away, that generate so much content. TV shows aren't made to that model any more in Australia. They do five episodes, so it was such a luxury as an actor to work consistently like that. If I had known that back then, I probably would have appreciated it a lot more, because it's certainly not the norm.

Q4. McLeod's Daughters is available to stream on Amazon Prime and other streaming services now, which is pretty cool. Are you surprised by how popular it still is?

Myles Pollard: Not really. McLeod's was released in 2001, just after September 11. I remember it clearly. It came to air at that time. And I reckon there was definitely a huge paradigm shift in viewing habits. People moved away from the violent, the more I suppose controversial formats, and they moved towards community, family and that whole sensibility: the unashamedly romantic and sentimental. People were looking for something I suppose a little more enriching. It's a big, bad, ugly world out there that can be quite scary.

I think that's why it's had a resurgence too. I think people are becoming more tribal, moving back to community. They want to be enriched. They want to see the simpler sort of things in life. They want to celebrate the simple things in life, and McLeod's certainly catches that and celebrates that. I'm not surprised; I think we need more of that type of content, especially now.

Q5. This is your first audio book narration. What did you think?

Myles Pollard: I'm so excited by it. It's something I've been thinking about for a long time. I really enjoy reading, and I really enjoy reading aloud with my son, ever since he was a kid, it's something that I've had a passion for as a parent. And using all the skills that you've got over 20 years playing different characters, but trying to play the characters in a really simple and honest way, allowing the story to speak first ... I love the content, I love the themes.

I wouldn't say that I'm a huge romantic fiction reader. I don't read romantic fiction voraciously. Not publicly. But I can see its appeal. And it's fun; it's fun to perform, I think. The writing is really concise. It's well-crafted. It's so entertaining, and I suppose I can connect well with it too. The characters and the world just aren't foreign to me.

I hope to do more of it. I really enjoy it. If the opportunity arises, I'll grab it with two hands.

Q6. So you’d be interested in doing more audiobook?

Myles Pollard: Absolutely. People close to me have always said, "You should do animation. You should really get involved in doing more audio books and voiceovers and things like that." It's a different realm; it's something that I haven't really explored, but I'm so open to it. I really enjoy it, and the variety too. I can imagine doing something like a Brothers of Brigadier, which is a very clear genre. But there are other genres out there too: thrillers, horrors. Also there's non-fiction too; I'd be fascinated to do something in that realm. All of the above, please, more. I love it.