Books & projects

My current project is a novel: historical fiction set in convict and colonial era New South Wales.
I have a first draft completed and now embarking on the editing and rewriting phase.
One of the joys of getting the first draft done has been the research: in books, libraries and online, of course; but also wandering around places and buildings to absorb  sights, sounds,and flavours.

I’ve been onto and inside the replica of The Endeavour at the Sydney Maritime Museum, climbed the staircase of the Parramatta Orphan School, walked around the sad remains of the convict ‘Female Factory’ at Parramatta, stepped through the halls of Elizabeth Farm House and Experiment Farm, and searched for an ancestor’s grave site at St Mary’s.

I love seeing places with new eyes, trying to imagine my characters in these settings.

Where are your favourite places for ideas, inspiration and information?

My draft of my first novel is now with its first ‘beta reader’ for feedback. While I’m waiting for this, I’m beginning to send out tendrils to begin background research and thinking for my second project. That is shaping up to be another novel set in colonial Australia, this time moving back in time a little, to the days of the Second and Third Fleets, and likely involving the Hawkesbury, the river and its townships.

My novel manuscript has been on hold for a little while now. In the meantime I’ve been writing some short stories. Two were published in 2019: in ZineWest 2019 and in FourW Thirty: Pearl, the anthology of the Booranga Writers’ Centre.