About Irish Farmerette

Hi, I’m Lorna, married to Brian, and we are dairy farming in the South-East of Ireland. I’m now a farmer and writer but I have tended to change careers about every five years. I’ve been a dental nurse, then did 5 years of college ending with a MA and PGCE, I spent five years as a secondary school teacher, then an interior designer with an online store, and turned to social media training and organising the Blog Awards Ireland in 2011. I’ve been writing books since 2013. Who knows what I’ll be doing in five years time!

Lorna Sixsmith family photos

In 2013 I had an idea to write a book so off I went and ran a crowdfunding campaign and self-published ‘Would You Marry A Farmer?‘. It’s on its third print run (1000 each print run) so I’m pretty happy. If you haven’t read it yet – you must! I promise it is a very realistic but humourous look at farming life and it’s particularly perfect for anyone married to or thinking of marrying a farmer.

My second book How To Be A Perfect Farm Wife was published in September 2015 and yes, although it might sound like a 1950s instruction manual, it has plenty of tips, historical detail, quizzes, humour and yes, it tells you how to cheat too. Here’s a review published in the Farming Independent. I was over the moon when it won the Carousel Aware Prize for independent authors in 2016 (in the non fiction category).

CAP for indie authors

My third book, An Ideal Farm Husband, published in September 2017, completes the trilogy. All the books are available from this website, all Irish bookshops, some Irish gift shops, some farm shops in the UK and of course, Amazon. Here’s the list of stockists.  I’ve been very lucky in terms of getting press coverage. I’ve been on TV3, RTE One and TG4 – programmes include Ireland AM, Midday, Roisin, Vincent Browne, RTE Today and Prime Time.

Lorna Sixsmith PR

I’ve been interviewed on most Irish radio stations including interviews by Sean O’Rourke, Matt Cooper and Ryan Tubridy. My books have been featured or reviewed in most of the Irish newspapers and I’ve also been featured in Farmers Weekly, Farmers Guardian, Horse and Countryside, The Scottish Farmer, NFU Countryside magazine and Writers Forum magazine. If you’d like to see me showing Amanda Brunker how to be a perfect farm wife, do watch the 5 minute youtube clip. Watch out for the bit on top of the silo when my sprong breaks!

And here’s a video of when I was on TG4 with Roisin O’Hara

I’ve starting working on a novel now and I’m also doing a research project on a girls’ boarding school. I’m booked to speak at a couple of writing festivals later this year (on the topics of crowdfunding, self-publishing and marketing your books) and I’m really looking forward to that.

We have two fabulous kids (Will and Kate), two cattle dogs, numerous farm cats and we milk 120 cows in the SE of Ireland. I write about farming, personal stuff, writing, self-publishing and books here on this blog.

I also co-organise the @IrelandsFarmers twitter account whereby a different Irish farmer curates each week. I’m a co-organiser too of the South East Women in Farming group where it’s all about encouraging women to share knowledge, increase their confidence and support each other.

Anything else about me? I love life and hate paperwork – I think that sums me up! I’m allergic to cow’s milk (great for a dairy farmer!) but cope okay with dairy chocolate! My favourite tipple is tea as long as it comes steaming hot served with chocolate or homemade cake. I hope you enjoy the blog and do sign up for the newsletter too (it’s sent out about once every two months).