When a Novel's Setting Becomes Another Character

by Fiona Lowe

When I set out to write my Australian-set family sagas, my focus was initially on the relationships between siblings, their partners and their parents. I'd planned for those relationships to drive the story forward. However, it quickly became apparent that the districts and the towns where I'd set the novels had become characters in their own right and integral to the books.

https://www.harpercollins.com.au/9781489251190/daughter-of-mine/

Daughter of Mine is set in the Western District of Victoria, the home of the squattocracy. (Not Victorian? Think Bowral in NSW). The ancestors of many families still living in the district made a fortune in wool, built massive mansions and public buildings, entered politics and became the closest thing Australia had to an aristocracy. Today, their descendants still wield some social power in the district so that's exactly what my fictitious family does. Birrawarra's social hierarchy became an integral part of the plot and I had fun creating two glorious 1880s blue stone mansions for my families to live in.

https://www.harpercollins.com.au/9781489246745/birthright/

Birthright is set in the heart of the north-east of Victoria because gourmet food, tourism, snow-skiing and a history of logging was a vital part of the book. Once again, the setting quickly became a character, adding an extra dimension to the book. I spent a lot of time craving gourmet goat's cheese, sourdough bread and red wine while I wrote Birthright!

When I was a child, I read Anne of Green Gables as well as the other five books in the series. Lucy Maud Montgomery used words to paint such vivid pictures of Prince Edward Island that I visited it as an adult. I know some readers have visited some of the mansions in the Western District as a result of reading Daughter of Mine.

When you read a novel, do you notice the setting? Have you ever visited a place because you have read about it in a novel?

Fiona Lowe has been a midwife, a sexual health counsellor and a family support worker--an ideal careeer for an author who writes novels about family and relationships. A recipient of the prestigious USA RITA award and the Australian RuBY award, Fiona's books are set in small country towns and feature real people facing tough choices and explore how family ties impact on their decisions.


You can find her at https://www.facebook.com/FionaLoweRomanceAuthor/,
https://twitter.com/fionalowe, https://www.instagram.com/fionaloweauthorrom/
and Goodreads. Daughter of Mine and Birthright (HQ Fiction) are her current releases.

Love to Love: the peace of the Victorian high country.






Love to Laugh: The Good Place on Netflix is making me smile a lot.

Love to Learn: I always thought latex was a man-made product but in the Age quiz I learned that latex is the white sap from plants like spurge and rubber trees.

Why Do Writers Write?

by Enisa Haines

Why do writers write? I write because I can't help it. The characters that fill my imagination deserve for their stories to be told. What of other writers? Are they compelled like me or are there other reasons? Is it an outlet for their imagination? Do they want to leave something of themselves behind, or perhaps to educate? I posed the question to five bestselling authors and here they reveal just what it is that urges them to write.

Barbara Hannay, Award-winning Romance Author:

I write because I can't help it. I'm just wired that way. Even before I learned handwriting, I was making up stories for my little sisters - drawings on sheets of paper that I passed through the slats of orange boxes, my version of 'movies'. When I joined the Brownies, the first badge I earned was the writer's badge.Throughout my school days, I wrote anything - poetry, stories, magazine articles, all for my own enjoyment. Later, when my children came along, I made little story books for them, which they illustrated. So, you see, I couldn't help myself and once I discovered the romance genre, it seemed my destiny was sealed.

Available now at: https://www.amazon.com/Country-Wedding-Barbara-Hannay-ebook/dp/B06Y1HVNV5/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

Fiona Lowe, Award-winning Romance Author:

I ask myself this question A LOT. Especially when I am starting a book as I don't start well. Many authors are addicted to the start as they get high octane excitement that carries them forward as ideas pop. I, on the other hand, find the start like wading through mud. It isn't until later that story strands come together. I am addicted to the ending and the buzz that comes from a sense of achievement. As the last two books I've written have been 500 pages, I'm a bit in awe that I've managed to write that many words. That's what tricks me into starting again.

OUT NOW: Daughter of Mine: a novel about secrets, lies & family. 

Available Everywhere! Big W, Kmart Target and online

Amazon, iBooks, iBooks AUS, Nook, Kobo, Booktopia AUS

Annie Seaton, Award-winning Romance Author:

Ever since I was a small child, I loved reading. I always carried a book with me and had many confiscated from beneath the desk in my school days. The desire to write blossomed within me as I read, and I knew that I had stories to tell. I promised myself that I would be an author one day. Fast forward many years. The desire to write was overtaken by higher education, marriage, children and career. Six years ago an incident in the workplace led to some deep reflection on what I wanted out of life. I wanted to be in a place where there was truth, integrity and justice. Resigning to take up full-time writing was a very ambitious move for someone who hadn't written a creative word for many years. Six years after that life change I am in the place I want to be, writing my twenty-seventh book and contracted with a traditional publisher. My latest release is Come Back to Me.

Available at: books2read.com/u/3yZ1Zl

Alison Stuart, Historical Romance Author:

I write because I can't imagine myself NOT writing.The compulsion for storytelling has been with me since I was a child and nurtured through school by some wonderful teachers and a like-minded friend. However, it was only later in life, following a ski accident, that I sat down in a deserted ski chalet with snow falling outside and started to write a story that had been tugging at my sleeve for many years. It became my compulsion and my joy as I lost myself in the characters I knew so well. I discovered the delight of building long lost worlds and manipulating the lives of my imaginary friends. This joy and this compulsion is something I haven't lost, even several books later. In short, I write because I love to weave tales...(and I would never have believed that first story I wrote would become part of the Guardians of the Crown trilogy).

Available at: books2read.com/GOTC)

Tess Woods, Women's Fiction Author:

I write because I love story telling. I come from a long line of story tellers, the large extended family I grew up in loved nothing more than to sit around and listen to funny stories and anecdotes told with lots of flair and embellishments. I began creative writing almost as soon as I could hold a pencil but lost the desire late in high school. Then came university, love, marriage, career, babies - lots of distractions. I satisfied my love of literature by reading through those years but something deep inside me pulled me back into writing after twenty years away from it and I'm glad I listened to that inner voice. Because for me story telling is what I was born to do and writing gets those stories out of my head so I can connect with others through them.

Available in bookstores and online: Amazon, iBooks, Kobo, Booktopia AUS, Mobile Audible

There you have it. From feeling a sense of achievement to having stories to tell the reasons writers write are many and varied, but they have one common thread. Writers can't not write. Writing is their passion, their joy. It's a need to express themselves that they can't help but fulfill.

Are you compelled to write? Why?

Love to Love: that I'm soon heading off to a writers' retreat!

Love to Laugh: at funny photos

Love to Learn: about the many different ways that writers head down the 'author' path.