Archive for the ‘Writing and research’ Category
Looking for Stillwater: Miles Franklin’s Goulburn
Posted in Uncategorized, Writing and research, writing fiction, writing inspiration, writing life, tagged Australian literature, Goulburn, Miles Franklin, writing historical fiction on December 31, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Research tools for writing historical fiction in the 21st century
Posted in Fiction, North Queensland History, romance novels, Uncategorized, Writing and research, writing historical fiction, writing life, tagged Atherton Tablelands, Atherton Tablelands history, Carrington, Researching Historical Fiction on March 28, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Times sure have changed. A research trip to hunt down archival material used to take me weeks of self-indulgent white-gloved hiding out in the dungeons of one or other of the State Libraries dotted around our vast coastline, turning page after fragile page of old journals, records and obscure newspaper accounts of little remembered historical happenings of interest only to the social history researcher intent on tracking down tidbits to add colour and vibrancy to their latest exotic fiction set in times long past. Stories packed in dusty boxes in the dungeons of libraries, bestowed to crusty keepers of the long forgotten tomes waiting to be repackaged to new audiences only if the writer did the legwork required to find, record and transform such tomes under the bespectacled gaze of the tome keeper – take off white cotton glove to wipe an eye teared over in joy or sorrow at life’s cruel ironies recorded in what is now considered an illegible scrawl but was once the fountain-tipped cursive of educated scribes of our yesteryears? Only if you’re really brave…
Enter Trove – no need to leave the comfort of my study for all but the most intricate detailed research (like obscure newspapers that funding has forgotten and remain only on micro-film in the aforementioned State Library dungeons, caretakered by modern day bespectacled keepers of historical records who also, luckily in my case, have the forethought to view the modern digital record keeping methods with a touch of skepticism).
I was chasing 1890s copies of The Wild River Times, tracking down social tidbits on Carrington, an old timber town of the Atherton Tablelands. The new digitalised system at the Library was unhelpful but my crusty bespectacled librarian came to my rescue. She had a PDF of all the old newspapers available on microfilm ‘just in case’. Lucky me!! I now get to spend the next few weeks in the dungeons of the State Library trawling through micro-filmed copies of 1890s Wild River Times in search of tidbits to bring the world of my Timber Cutter’s Daughter in Carrington, Atherton Tablelands, to life.
The Red Velvet Waistcoat
Posted in dressing your characters, North Queensland History, The Kuranda Railway, Writing and research, writing historical fiction, writing inspiration, Writing romantic fiction, tagged North Queensland History, The Historic Malanda Hotel, writing historical fiction on March 8, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Every Saturday evening I put on my best 20-year-old Doc Martens, my red velvet waistcoat, fine double hunter Victoria hallmarkeked silver pocket watch and off I go to the Royal Hotel…(John, 76, The Sunday Mail, 8 March, 2015)
The letter from John in the Sunday paper had my long suffering daughter scratching through her wardrobe for ‘that velvet and lace stuff you bought at the op-shop’ – she drew a line at the Doc Martens – ‘Mum, I’ve got homework to do, you know.’ But I was determined. I wanted a picture for my blog and a balm for our Sunday drive picnic to the local waterfall gone wrong (sorry, Brisbane, but that ain’t no real waterfall). I wanted romance, dammit, and what could be more romantic than the image of an old gentleman dapperly adorned in a red velvet waistcoat and fob watch? Did I mention my current WIP is an historical romance set in the Far North Queensland tropics where real waterfalls reign?
Picture the historic Malanda Hotel, a picnic and a grand ball to celebrate the arrival of the first train to ever grace the Atherton Tablelands from Cairns, the building thereof a masterly feat. The year is 1909. I have a setting, an era, a heroine in a lace ball gown and my hero? Yep, he dons a red velvet waistcoat and a silver fob watch. Shame about the Doc Martens but they’ll just have to wait for another story.
References:
Dressed In Fiction, Clair Hughes, 2005
the Australian Novel 1830-1980, John Scheckter, 1998
The Woman’s Historical Novel, Women British Writers, 1900-2000, Diane Wallace, 2005
Goodbye house, hello freedom…
Posted in books and creativity, Choosing the writing life, location free living, Simple living, writing and money, Writing and research, writing budget, writing life, tagged indie authors, simple living, The writing life on November 5, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Simple living has a lot to recommend it…freedom for a start!!!
Being an Indie author comes with a price. In order to take back one’s soul one must define what really matters. My freedom is what matters to me…but I’ll miss my pool, dishwasher and tropical palm fringed beach. Well, I can still camp on the beach:))
And my vege patch…
Writing and research trips
Posted in books and creativity, Fiction, Inspiration, Writing, Writing and research, writing life, tagged books and writing, writing, writing and research, writing fiction on September 30, 2014| 4 Comments »
A lot of what I read online about writing stories focuses on churning out novels every few months and that the best form of marketing is writing more books.
It’s an interesting thought and one that I ponder as I pack for my latest research trip. In this age of frenetic writing should I just stay at home and google the information I need? Worse, youtube it?
Is the idea of the research trip, of hitting the road and walking in the steps of my characters, a quaint overhang of a bygone era?
I’m at the historic Malanda Hotel on the Atherton Tablelands in Far North Queensland where my heroine meets her betrothed (he is but a short term hero as I kill him off eventually).
The occasion is the arrival of the railway in 1911.
As I stand in the echoing emptiness of what was once the ballroom of the hotel I know that the decision to throw the kids and a tent in the car and head north to the Tablelands was the right one.
i can already see my heroine dancing in the arms of her handsome beau, hear the swish of her crinoline frock as she sways in time to some inner waltz tune and feel the breeze drifting in from the balcony and hinting of the descent of another crisp Tablelands night – a night my heroine will always remember as the night she lost the only man she had ever truly loved.
growing up writing 