Behind the Scenes
Chinese Funeral Paper Money: The Feast of the Hungry Ghosts
Picture a Gold Rush mining town on a warm summer night. Red lanterns sway in the trees. Priests in white robes and pale blue satin caps move through the crowd carrying lighted tapers, chanting, while musicians fill the air with a strange, beautiful clamour — reed pipes, cornstalk fiddles, muffled drums and crashing cymbals. The…
The Secret Language of Victorian Jewellery
While researching my next historical novel, The Runaway Heiress, I’ve been spending a lot of time with Marianne, the heroine of the story. Marianne is the daughter of a London goldsmith, and as I’ve been building her world I’ve discovered something fascinating: jewellery played a far larger role in Victorian social life than it does…
The Scott Sisters, Ash Island — And Why Some Places Survive Through Story
“Some places don’t just inspire stories. They survive because someone cared enough to record them.” Recently, I discovered a beautiful short film about the Scott Sisters and Ash Island — and it felt too perfect not to share. If you’ve read The Runaway Lady, you’ll know the fictional Hunt sisters were inspired in part by…
When Life and Story Collide: Behind the Scenes of Runaway Lady
A runaway heart, a dangerous past, and the convict’s son who captured her destiny. The thing I love most about writing is storytelling — that moment when imagination meets curiosity and suddenly the past feels alive again. My books always seem to circle back to people, their contradictions, and the adventure of simply being human….