After last week’s blog I have been thinking a lot about forgiveness in novels. I must confess I can’t think of too many examples that come to mind in works of fiction. In non-fiction it is more common. Jeanette pointed out last week about the wonderful book The Hiding Place which tells the true story of the Ten Boom family who lived in Holland during World War II and hid Jews in their house to save them from being taken by the Nazis. Eventually Corrie Ten Boom and her sister, Betsie, were captured by the Nazis and sent to a […]

I am currently writing a novel which is a reworking of a story I originally wrote in the nineties. Tentatively called How Far Forgive? it chronicles the story of a young woman who is the victim of a violent crime and has to find a way to forgive the perpetrators in order to move on with her life. This novel awakens a lot of feelings in me, as I am a victim of violent crime myself. In 1991 I was working in a bookstore when a man came in with a knife and threatened me with it. I gave him […]

Since everybody else has been writing about their debut novels, I thought I’d better write about mine. This is the story of how I got the idea that became The Heir. Authors sometimes get their inspirations in the strangest of places. When it came to the idea for The Heir, my husband was responsible. My husband thinks cheesy pick-up lines are funny, not that he ever uses them on anybody. (Lucky for him!) One day when we were driving to the Sunshine Coast in Queensland for a holiday, he was trying to make me laugh by telling me his favourites. […]

My guest blogger today is Delia Strange. Delia was born in Auckland, New Zealand but now lives in Brisbane. She’d always been a reader, but when she was around ten she made a friend who loved to write stories. Once she started writing she didn’t stop. In February 2014 she began an indie-publishing project for her science fantasy, Femme, which she wrote during National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). It was published in May this year. She is giving away a digital copy of Femme. Leave a comment to go into the draw to win! My debut novel Femme came out of […]

My guest blogger today is Jo Wanmer. Jo loves being a Queenslander. She lives with her husband, Steve, on the northern outskirts of Brisbane. Together they run a small business and are associate pastors of a community of people known as Access Church. She loves exploring the wonder of God’s creation on her early morning walks, going on adventures with her eight grandchildren, and preaching the powerful Word of God Jo’s first book, Though the Bud be Bruised, won the Caleb award in 2011 for Best Unpublished Fiction Manuscript. Published on 1st June 2012, it has bought hope and healing […]