Interview with Kaye Dobbie - Author of 'The Keepers of the Lighthouse'

The Keepers of the Lighthouse by Kaye Dobbie is due out August 3rd, 2022

Publisher: HarperCollins Australia

My review of ‘The Keepers of the Lighthouse’

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INTERVIEW

Welcome Kaye!

What inspired the writing of The Keepers of the Lighthouse? Please provide an overview of the story.

I’ve always been fascinated by lighthouses, the wilder and more remote the better. Tasmania has some of the best, and I remember some years ago seeing a story on television about Maatsuyker Island and its lighthouse and the people who volunteer to stay and look after this isolated place. When I was six years old my father built a boat and we spent two years sailing up the east coast of Australia, and that was a memorable time in my life. So those two seeds eventually grew into The Keepers of the Lighthouse. My research led me to the islands in Bass Strait, and I was able to fashion a story about a lighthouse keeper and his family in 1882 and a shipwreck. Because the book has a dual timeline, I wanted a modern day story too. The idea of volunteers living on the island and taking care of the environment seemed too good not to use. Weaving the two stories together wasn’t such a problem once I had the characters and the setting, although thinking back I did hit some hurdles with the plot and the timelines.

Please tell us about the book’s setting of Benevolence Island. Is it a fictional place and, if so, was it based on a real island in Australia?

Benevolence Island is a made up place, but I based it on Deal Island, which is part of the Kent group of islands in Bass Strait. It was helpful to have a history and a picture of the island in my head, and Deal seemed almost perfect. I did change things around to suit the story however, so it is not a perfect fit. I was lucky enough to have some help from Jo of Human Shelters, one of the volunteers who stays on Deal, and she gave me invaluable information as well as a written history of the place. There was a lot to research into the inner workings of a lighthouse and the intensive labour needed to keep them alight, as well as many books on the brave souls who lived in lighthouses all around the world. Quite a number of them were women, and I do mention Grace Darling in the book, who famously saved passengers from a sinking ship, but there were so many others.

This is a dual timeline novel. What advantages did this give you in presenting the story?

I find the dual timeline keeps the story moving along at a nice pace. Also you can tease the reader by foreshadowing events in the other story, or hinting at some future event that keeps them turning pages. I wrote my first dual timeline for Random House (Footsteps in an Empty Room) in the 1990s and enjoyed it so much I kept writing them.   

Which scene was the hardest to write in The Keepers of the Lighthouse?

Probably the opening scene in the 1882 story where the shipwreck occurs. I wanted it to be thrilling and draw the reader in, and yet there was a lot of information that had to go in there. The way the lighthouse machinery worked, and details about the layout of the island. Also there were the characters to introduce, not just Laura and her father the lighthouse keeper who lived on the island, but the survivors from the shipwreck, particularly Edmund. So it was a delicate balance and took a number of rewrites to get it right.

Who was your favourite villain to write in The Keepers of the Lighthouse and why?

The Rawlins family were quite tricky to write about. This was Jude’s family, one of the main characters in the modern story, and the man Nina was in love with ten years ago. There were a few facts that needed to be kept hidden even though I made it obvious there was something dark and disturbing in Nina’s past. I added an extra timeline to the modern story to show how Nina interacted with Jude’s family ten years before they meet up again on Benevolence Island. This timeline runs alongside the present day one, so that I could drip feed information to the reader as the truth about Nina was revealed.

What are the main themes in The Keepers of the Lighthouse?

My books always seem to be about family or home. Either the characters have lost family or found family, so family is particularly important. And then searching for a place to belong, a home, is another recurring theme.

Please give us an overview of your journey to publication? What has been the highlight of your career?

I had to think about his question. My journey has been long. Maybe my first book, way back, my second try with Mills and Boon in London. The first one was rejected, and rightly so, but the second one was accepted. That was very exciting. From M&B I went on to write Historical Fiction for Pan Macmillan and Random House, Australia, then moved on to Historical Romance for Avon in the USA, before my current career with Harlequin Mira Australia. Over the years there were a number of highlights, and lowlights, too, but I don’t think I would change much.

Are you a plotter or pantser writer or a combination of both? What does a writing day look like in the life of Kaye the author?

I am a pantser when I start writing, although I do have a place and characters in mind. I usually end up writing the beginning of the book at least twice before I’m happy. I seem to have to write a bad draft before I feel confident I’m on the right track. I do a lot of rewriting, and some plotting as I go along. I make lots of notes about the characters because I tend to forget details like eye colour or even names! When I have the book written more or less I need to go back and rewrite, tweak the plot or add information. It’s a long, slow process. I have tried to change my writing style to make it faster but I’ve had to give up on that idea. I also find it very difficult to write more than one book at a time. I have tried but ended up with two really poor books that needed a great deal of editing writing was so bad. I’ve come to terms with my quirks and I think my process helps me to understand my characters and learn about their stories, and that’s the only way I can write.

As for my writing day… it changes. If I’m on a deadline I put in long hours, and when the book is ‘talking’ to me, I barely sleep. Not a healthy place to be in. These days I try to be more health conscious, and I work in the mornings when I am fresh, and then do other things in the afternoon. I start off with emails and anything that requires urgent attention, check my social media pages, before I begin writing. I try to finish a chapter a day, and if the story is going well I write more in the afternoon. If the story is not going well, or I’ve hit a roadblock, then I stop and let my brain mull on it overnight. Usually that works and when I sit down to write again I can see my way forward.  

Are you working on a new writing project and if so, can you share a little about it?

I’m currently at a cross roads. Not sure what I want to write next, although a cosy mystery appeals. Something with a bit of humour. I also self publish under a couple of other names and recently they have been languishing while I finished The Keepers of the Lighthouse. I’ve just completed the last book in a paranormal romance trilogy for my Sara Mackenzie fans, and I am currently working on a Regency romance under my Sara Bennett name. Meanwhile I’m letting my next Kaye Dobbie book percolate until I’m ready to begin.

 Thanks to Kaye for being my guest and HarperCollins for the review copy of the novel. We wish you well and much success on the release of your new novel today!