What inspired the idea behind this book?
A place inspired this book. The beautiful Capertee Valley over the Blue Mountains, specifically. I think I start my books with a sense of nature first, as this informs the story so much. I discovered in my research that the valley has a ghost town. It was a mining township in the 1940s and now all that remains is the town’s ruins sinking into the bush. But there’s also a beautiful, renovated Art Deco hotel. I somehow convinced my mum and daughter to go on a road trip out there. It’s very remote (about three hours from Sydney) and I think they thought I was a bit crazy thinking I was going to write a book about this random place, but it was the perfect setting for a mystery. It has such an amazing atmosphere – bounded by magnificent cliffs, carpeted in green grass and wildflowers, then this gorgeous old hotel in the middle of nowhere. The book is essentially about female friendships and motherhood, as four women and their children go into the valley on a holiday, and devastating secrets and truths rise to the surface. I think perhaps this book was me processing the past ten years of motherhood -the joys, the hardships, the darkness, the light.
What was the research process like for the book?
When the mothers go to the valley they discover a lingering mystery from the past – in 1948 Clara Black walked into the night, never to be seen again. I wanted to research what it had been like living at the Glen Davis oil mines at this time, but there was so little written about it. I loved that it was an almost forgotten slice of Australian history. It felt like exhuming secrets. Eventually I tracked down a hardcover book about the township in an antique book shop. It was written by Leonie Knapman, a woman who grew up in the valley as a child, and I discovered that the township had once been thriving, with nearly 3000 people living there at its height. I’ve never written historical fiction before, so I loved this process of feeding historical fact into my story. There’s also significant, and devastating Indigenous history in the area, the original inhabitants being the Wirdajuri people, and I touch upon the importance of remembering this.
What is something that has influenced you as a writer?
Reading. I sometimes get disillusioned along the way – writing a book is such a long process with so many moments of doubt, and I wonder why I’m writing, and feel like giving up when things get hard. And then I read a magical book and it inspires me so much to keep writing. I’m not sure how it works exactly, but I think it feeds my love of language. When you read a sentence and it’s so beautiful, and it conveys so perfectly a sentiment you have never heard articulated before, and you read it seven times. That’s what keeps me writing.
How does it feel to hold your book in your hands?
This is a very mixed feeling. Of course, it’s awe- inspiring, that you’ve been given the chance to put your words into the world. But the process is not without its challenges. It’s a very vulnerable thing
to put your creativity out there. A book has been created from such an intimate place, that it can be challenging to let it go. Sending my child to school for her first day of Kindy felt very similar.
If you could give one piece of advice to aspiring writers, what would it be?
Don’t give up. The only real way to learn to write a book is to write a book. You can do courses and read endlessly, but until you start and persist with, and then finish a manuscript, you will never know if you can do it or not. And that manuscript may not get published, because you were feeling out how to do it, but the next one, or the one after that, might. So, you do need to love it. I think the process must bring you joy in and of itself, not just the lure of the end product (see answer about conflicting emotions of holding your book in your hands).
What’s your daily writing routine like and what are you working on at the moment?
I am not someone who writes every day. That just doesn’t work for me. It took a long time for me to be okay with this, as it’s often the first advice that writers receive. But I’m here to tell you that’s not always what works. I need to know I have at least an hour, preferably two or three, to go into the dreaming space where my story exists. It’s not a place where chores or to-do lists, or small people’s endless requests for snacks, reside. Perhaps that’s why I love it so much! It’s a very similar mental space to where I go when reading. It’s a serene and comforting place (until I hit a plot snag!).
I’m working on my next book at the moment. It’s about a woman who is a logophile – a lover of words, and books. Like my other novels, it has a dark mystery at its heart, nature as its backdrop (wild Tasmanian beaches), and is partly a coming of age story about the intensity of your first best friend.
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