I am very excited to announce that my historical fiction trilogy, The Sisters’ Saga, is now officially released from the confines of my desk drawer to make its own way in the world.
Back in 2015, a box of my husband’s family history records sat staring at me from the kitchen table. The first folder I opened was the lively memoir of Harriet Dowling and it sent me on a journey of research into colonial Sydney and British India. While I stopped on the way to corral what I’d learned into a short biography of Harriet, I knew from the start that she was a heroine to inspire historical fiction, and so that was my destination.
Like all journeys, I’ve lost my way several times, been sidetracked to other places, and struggled to find a way forward at times. My biggest dilemma involved handling the historical ‘truth’ of people’s lives while letting the narrative develop. This is an old chestnut in the world of writing historical fiction, with some writers landing on the truth is paramount side, and others favouring the story. The turning point was when I came to understand that, in fact, I did not know the internal thoughts and motivations of the people who inspired my characters, and that it was a more ‘truthful’ representation to render them as fictional characters with a life of their own.
The practical consequence of this understanding was that I gave all the central characters and some places new names, and this small step was immensely freeing. I did, however, keep the names of well-known historical figures about whom we have a considerable range of of primary and secondary sources of information. Also, in line with common practice in the world of historical fiction, at the end of each volume, I have provided details of the fictional departures from the sources which provided my initial inspiration.
Here’s a short 4 minute audio ‘taster’ of the result, from Volume 1 Maiden Manoeuvres!