Connections to the past

Let me tell you  story...

Once upon a time a family cleaned out their relatives house and sold off household items to a second hand dealer. Among those things were a box of old letters. Figuring they might be worth something to someone- the dealer put them in his shop for sale.

One day a man came along and saw this box of old letters and being interested in history, purchased them. When this man read over the letters , he discovered he had a connection to certain areas mentioned in the letters, namely Macksville on the mid north coast in NSW and decided to transcribe the letters and post them on the internet with the hopes the information might someday come in handy for family tree searching family members of the letter's authors. Well, years went by and there was very little contact made regarding the letters until one day...

An Author, living in Macksville was given an old newspaper article which reported a terrible tragedy which happened just after WW1 on the outskirts of town. Something about the story niggled away at her until she decided she had to write the story into a novel. Becoming obsessed by both her real life characters she'd based her story on as well as the fictional ones, she scoured the internet for more information. During her research on the internet, she was directed to a web page that happened to have photocopies of letters written by the very man she was writing a story about, written from the trenches in France during WW1.

 
As you may have guessed-- I'm the lucky author who stumbled upon this website and letters--letters that gave me a connection to a man I was rapidly becoming obsessed about! I couldn't even begin to imagine how significant this was--there were letters, pieces of paper that were held by this man--written by him in trenches while bombs and gunfire and men died all about him. The scope of this still boggles my mind and gives me goosebumps!

After sending a letter that I am still to this day rather embarrassed about as I rambled and stammered and sounded all together far too insane to be  taken seriously- My hero Graeme, generously allowed me to purchase his box of letters, fulfilling a dream that had suddenly become so very important to me.

It's very hard to explain this connection I have to my WW1 veteran. It's not something I can easily put in words, but to now hold those letters written by him to his family during such a tumultuous time in our history, it humbles me to now be the guardian of a small piece of amazing history.

Hopefully this book will be out next year and I'll be able to share with you the characters and the background in more detail and hope that you'll understand just how special this story has become to me.

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What do Wa Wa Nee, The Paddle Pop Lion and First love all have in common?

                 
                   Part of coming back home, is the strange phenomenon of revisiting places you remember as a teenager but are now visiting as a mother with children of your own!

This can be a rather grounding experience when your children look at you and ask things like...but I didn't think they'd invented cars when you were a little girl...or as my son said rather mater-of-factly the other week while we were looking through a local museum, "Mum since you know all about old things--I thought you might know what this thing was used for..." Now, at first I thought he was referring to my research on local history of the district and felt rather pleased by his comment... until I realised he meant he thought i'd remember using some of the old equipment...like rubbing boards for washing clothes and various black smith tools! Gee thanks a lot kid!

So anyway, today we went for a drive out to Scotts Head and had lunch in the park. Many a Christmas holidays were spent camping out at Scotts when I was growing up, (my loathing of camping in a tent stems from many of these experiences I might add!).

The place where we sat to eat our fish and chips, I can remember the paddle pop lion turning up and handing out free cholate paddle pops! in the early 80's.

I also recall my first summer love experience with a boyfriend...umm no, not THAT kind of summer lovin! I was chaperoned by my annoying younger brothers and half a dozen cousins, but if you look really closely at the photo you can see the old phone box next to a table we sat at is still there to this day!
...sighhhh (insert a chorus of Barbra Streisand's, memoriesssssssss....... here).

Then of course there was the famous hissy spit I had at about age 14 or 15 when my parents refused to let me go to the Wa Wa Nee concert while we were out there over Christmas one year...ok, so admittedly it was being held at the bowling club and I was under age...but it was Wa Wa Nee!!! I'd had this bands poster all over my bedroom wall and written their name all over my school bag...I had their cassette tape for goodness sake!!!! sighhhhh, I could be married to Paul or Mark Grey by now if my parents had let me go see them that night!

Well, as much as Scotts Head reminds me of my youth, I'm pleased to say it's also been the place where a lot of present day memories have been made too.

 I was married there in 2006, at the house my Grandparents had once owned up on a headland that overlooks the pacific ocean. Priceless!

 I've attended one of my brothers weddings down on the beach...my kids had been involved in the surf life saving club when we first moved back, there's been new years eve firework nights...all good things that make me feel very lucky to have grown up in such a beautiful part of Australia. Maybe one day my kids will come back to Scotts Head when they've grown up with memories of their own...and I hope their children will remind them just how old they've gotten!!!!

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Which town is that?

I’m very excited- it’s getting closer to the release of Morgan’s Law and I can’t wait to see this beautiful cover out in the shops!

I’ve been asked about the locations in North Star and Morgan’s Law so I thought I’d tell you a little bit more about them.

I grow attached to my little towns, Widgerry in North Star and Negallan in Morgan’s Law.

 You won’t find these two places on the map, but both are very much made up of bits and pieces of real places. As a reader, I know I picture places in my head based on the descriptions I read of people and places—but I thought I’d give you an idea of the places I was thinking of while I wrote and created my little towns. Please feel free to keep your own visions; after all, reading is all about the way we imagine!  

Widgerry is set somewhere around Goondiwindi, in QLD. The real North Star (yes, it is a town!) was the inspiration for the property used in the book and holds a very special place in my heart. It’s too small for Widgerry, but some of its characteristics are mixed up in there for sure.

The race day in Widgerry is reminiscent of so many country towns big race days—just about every town has one at least once a year and having been to a few, the Sedan Dip in Julia Creek is one example, I really wanted to include this exciting event in a book. They’re such a huge social event and a chance to let your hair down.

In Morgan’s Law, the majority of the story takes place in the local pub, The Royal. Pretty much every town in Australia has a Royal, but this one is a combination of two pubs that are in my area. The Star hotel in Macksville and the Bowra Hotel in Bowraville. These pubs are both gorgeous old buildings with so much history that every time I go inside I almost feel like I’ve stepped back in time—perfect for the backdrop of my book!

The streets are also important and always feature in my books. The main street of any country town is always where the character of a place comes out. In my neck of the woods, we’re still lucky enough to have a lot of the original architecture still standing and its very easy to imagine what life was like a hundred or more years ago. The main street of Widgerry was a bit of a mix of a few places—some it was based on Bowraville, the small place just outside of where I live now, where my grand parents had their farm and where I spent the majority of my childhood.

The main street for Negallan, on the other hand was based on a small place we stopped in to have morning tea on a trip back from Emerald one day. I’m fairly sure this little town was called Springsure in central QLD, but I didn’t realise that was the place that would come to mind once I wrote the story so I didn’t pay much attention to it! I must go back though and double check one day! Many of the features of this little town are in various scenes throughout Morgan’s Law.

Well I hope that gives you a little bit of insight into the places behind the towns and I hope you fall in love with Negallan in Morgan’s Law, as much as I did!

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North Star makes finals

I've just heard that North Star has made the finals of the ARRA readers award in favourite contemporary romance for 2011!!!

Check out who we're up against! 

It's so cool to be included in this list and am very proud of my book baby, North Star! Good luck to all the finalists- what an amazing pool of talent we have in this industry!

Favourite contemporary romance for 2011 (proudly sponsored by Romantic Reflections)

A Lot Like Love / Julie James

Any Man of Mine / Rachel Gibson

Boomerang Bride / Fiona Lowe

Claudia’s Big Break / Lisa Heidke

Cop’s Passion / Angela Verdenius

North Star / Karly Lane

One Perfect Night / Rachael Johns

Promises / Cathyrn Hein

The Castaway Bride / Kandy Shepherd

The Next Always / Nora Roberts

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