Q&A with Australian author, Karly Lane

I've had the pleasure of chatting with Australian rural fiction author, Karly Lane. She's taken the time to answer a few questions about her latest release with Allen & Unwin, Bridie's Choice. My 4.5/5 star review for Bridie's Choice was up on the blog yesterday.Karly, thank you for taking the time to stop by The Australian Bookshelf to talk about your newest book.Please describe Bridie’s Choice in five words. Girl stuck in small town.What inspired you to write Bridie’s Choice? I'd always written characters who had returned home to their small country towns, so this time I wanted to explore a character who was desperate to leave a small town behind her. I wondered what it would be like to feel that urge to go out into the world and explore, and what, more importantly, would be the reasons behind this urge to flee.What do you love about life in a small town? I love that small town life is so laid back. I love that there's still community spirit and that people haven't lost the ability to smile at you when you pass them in the street- even if you don't know them. I also love that family connection to the history of a town. To know your grandparents and great great grandparents had walked the same main street and raised a family in the same town.What do you enjoy especially about writing Australian rural romance/ fiction? I really enjoy putting places I've lived in into my fiction towns. There's always a little bit of me or my past in every book. It's also really nice to write about places that feel like home.What’s your alter ego Karlene Blakemore-Mowle up to? Don't tell her I said so, cause she'll get a big head, but she's been working really hard, getting three books out this year and is busy writing a brand new series of romantic suspense, called Sentinel Securities. She's now got eight titles out! So I have a bit of catching up to do!What are you currently working on? I've just submitted my next book with Allen & Unwin and I can't wait to see it out and about next year. This one is very special to me as part of the story is loosely based on a real life event / tragedy that happened in my home town during WW1. I can't begin to tell you how much this story has come to mean to me. I have actual letters that I've based part of my book on, from a local WW1 soldier, written from the trenches of France and Egypt from 1915. Very excited!What do you do when you’re not writing? I'm a mum to four kids and a wife-- taxi driver, cook, cleaner (ok even I'm laughing at that...but I try!) home work supervisor, counsellor, drill sergeant...or more commonly known as house wife!And just for fun, when writing do you prefer…Coffee, tea or hot chocolate? CoffeePlotting, pantsing or both? PantsingQuiet solitude or background noise? A bit of both- sometimes I'll be working away and suddenly realise I don't have any TV or music on at all. But then I've spent up until this year writing in and around kids with Play School blaring in the background, so quiet is good!A warm, sunny day or a rainy day? Sunny dayTyping or pen and notepad? Bit of both...I need a list of characters so I don't forget their names and so I'm always jotting down character info beside me on a pad, but definitely typing for the actual book...have had to transcribe a book once from handwriting--NEVER again!!!!Thank you so much for stopping by Karly and I’m really looking forward to your next novel.

 Find out more about the author @ Twitter, her blog and Goodreads.

Bridie's Choice can be purchased from Fishpond, Allen and Unwin and other leading book retailers.

Synopsis- Bridie Farrell and Shaun Broderick come from opposite sides of the tracks. Unlike Bridie's family, who are perennial strugglers, the Brodericks are the wealthy owners of one of the most prestigious properties in the district. Still, all is not well in either family. Bridie's father is doing time in prison and her younger brother has fallen in with the wrong crowd. Shaun has problems of a different kind, with his dictatorial father not allowing him to take his own direction in life. Shaun's parents are dismayed when he eschews the charms of the district's most eligible young women and falls in love with Bridie instead, and they make their feelings clear not just to their son but to Bridie as well. However, parental opposition is just the first of many troubles that Bridie will face.