Can you please share the inspiration behind ‘The Distant Series’?
My inspiration behind the Distant Series was my wish to write a book set in Ireland during The Great Famine, which my owns ancestors lived through in County Mayo. I felt the characters needed to be similar to some of the millions who left their homelands to try and survive elsewhere. A lot of Irish went to America, but some also went to Australia, and being Australian, I wanted my characters to do that.
Provide a quick overview of The Distant Horizon and Beyond the Distant Hills?
The story’s main character is Ellen Kittrick, a strong woman. When tragic events change her life, she takes her family away from all they’ve known and embarks on a journey to the other side of the world. She vows that this new life will provide for them. She wants security for her family and works hard to achieve that. She sacrifices her own happiness to build a good life for her children despite the many obstacles in her way and the love for a man she can never have.
Heroine Ellen Kittrick has certainly endured many challenges. Provide at least three obstacles/traumas (from book 1 & 2) she endured?
The first obstacle is the famine that sweeps Ireland when the potato crops fail year after year and her marriage breaks down. Her second obstacle is being poor, destitute and persuading her family to sail to a new land. The third obstacle is striving to gain a better life in a world where class and money are everything.
What is Ellen’s greatest ambition in book 2? And how does she plan to achieve it?
Ellen’s greatest ambition is security. She never wants her children to go hungry again. In her mind, land is security. If she can buy land, she has security and then her children will never go hungry again. Her drive is to be wealthy enough that no one she loves will ever suffer from poverty again.
Who is your favourite male character in the series and what makes him special?
Rafe Hamilton is my favourite character. He loves Ellen but can’t have her, yet he shows his love in many other ways. He is smart and generous and good looking. How could he not be my favourite!
The Distant Horizon focuses in part on the Irish Famine. What were your greatest resources for this topic? What challenges did you face in writing book 1?
The Irish Famine has been an interest of mine for years. Researching my family tree, I found on my father’s side that our ancestors came from County Mayo and were poor tenant farmers. My great great grandfather was born in the middle of the famine years. I had done previous reading about those times and for the book I did even more reading. There is a lot of information online on various Irish and Australian websites which are excellent for details and too many to list here. There is a wealth of information about the famine and immigration online. I also read two books, John Kelly’s The Graves are Walking: The history of the Great Irish Famine, and for the information for the time on the ship, I read, Michael Veitch, Hell Ship.
Provide three character flaws of at least one villain who appears in both novels?
Colm Kittrick. He is aggressive, controlling and devious.
Describe Rafe Hamilton in three words and his importance in the series.
Rafe Hamilton is devoted, generous and a little damaged by his father’s actions. He sees Ellen as the strong women she is, ignoring the poverty and circumstances surrounding her. Rafe knows Ellen as the woman who goes after what she wants, despite the odds stacked against her, and he is the same.
Beyond the Distant Hills is set in Berrima, NSW. Why did you choose this location?
Berrima is an old colonial town, by Australian standards. Over the decades, the village has been left with little change since the Victorian times. So, walking around Berrima today you can instantly see how it would have been in the 1850s. It has the same old stone cottages, the green in the middle, etc. I really love the history of the village and it is local to me and so I wanted to write a story set there.
You have quite an impressive catalogue of novels. How many have you written and over how many years?
I started writing my first novel in 1997. I was first published in 2006. Currently I am writing my 31st novel. It’s been a long time of building my career, but there is nothing else I want to do but be an author. I love it.
Can you share a bit about your road to publishing?
It’s a long story but basically when I first started writing I spent a lot of years posting chapter samples to overseas agents and waiting months and months for replies (before internet changed the world). I finally achieved in getting a small USA publisher to publish three of my books, but I wanted to be published in the UK. I managed to sign with a UK agent in 2007 and had another three books published in the UK, but my agent died and I was back at square one again. I signed with a few small publishers until in 2014 I began learning about Amazon’s publishing company. I taught myself a lot about self-publishing while still being contracted to publishers. Eventually I started to get the rights back from publishers for my early books and decided to try publishing them myself through Amazon. It took a few years to get properly established, but it was so worth it. Becoming a self-published author, I was able to give up working full time and can now write full time. Recently, I have signed with another publisher in a three book deal, but my main focus is my own writing business where I have full control over my books and larger percentages of royalties.
Your books cover Historical Saga, Historical Romance, Dual Contemporary & Military Historical, Contemporary Romance. Is there another genre you’d like to try writing?
No, not at all. My main love is historical saga in the eras of Victorian through to WWI. Those time periods are my main focus now. The other genres were written when I was starting out and wanting to explore other genres, but historical saga is my sole focus now.
Do you have any favourite foods or activities that keep you fuelled and inspired during writing sessions?
Chocolate and coffee keep me fuelled while writing. For me, they go hand in hand! LOL I like to write in relative quiet, so when I’m writing I don’t want to do or hear anything else.
If you could time travel to do research for a novel, when and where would you go? And what person would you want to meet?
I would really like to return to Victorian England, to walk the streets of my ancestors in West Yorkshire, and to visit York. I’d like to be with the nurses in WWI in France. I’d also like to visit Sydney and Berrima in Victorian times.
The people I’d like to meet would be my own ancestors both in Ireland and Yorkshire and the nurses in France in the Great War.
Are there any authors or books that inspired you to become a writer?
I read every book Catherine Cookson wrote as a teenager and young adult and then I read every book Audrey Howard wrote. I loved their historical sagas. I wanted to write like them. Those two women were my inspiration, but I read a lot of saga authors in my twenties, and they all taught me so much. My reading habits are more varied now, but I still enjoy a good historical saga.
If able, please share any information of what you are working on for your next release. And do you plan to add another book to the Distant Series?
My current novel I’m writing is a historical saga set in Yorkshire in 1860 and will be released in September 2022. There isn’t a title for it yet.
I do plan to write a third book in the Distant Series. The third book will feature more on Ellen’s older children, especially Bridget, but Ellen and the whole family are still in the story. I hope to release it in 2023.
Thank you, Cindy, for having me on your website.
Thank you, AnneMarie for being my guest! ❤️
