Inspiration for Mystic Ridge
I ’ve wanted to write a novel for years. After doing a course at Writing NSW with famed romance author Anne Gracie, I decided to turn my hand to romance. The wonderful Romance Writers of Australia organise courses and conferences where novices like me can learn the craft of romance writing and find mentoring and support. And my own mini-powerhouse of a writer’s group has encouraged me every step of the way. Thanks Jo Riccioni, Sam Milton & Suzanne Brown.
Photo: Lily Hatten
My first chapter initially featured a Tiger’s Eye, as required by one of RWA’s Sweet Treats short story competitions. Later I changed the Tiger’s Eye to a moonstone, because it seemed to have more romantic potential.
I don’t write fan fiction, but the name Claire is borrowed from Claire Randall of the Outlander books, as well as Claire Abshire from The Time Traveller’s Wife. I imagined her looking and holding herself a little like Catriona Balfe from the Outlander television series. Otherwise my Claire is very much her own person as is my hero; the sweet but tortured Leo.
I wanted to take Claire and Leo beyond that first scene and see what happened. While I wrote the book, I was making frequent visits to the NSW north coast to see family; spending much of my time in and around Mullumbimby and watching the town change. It was changing fast, partly due to the rising cost of housing, forcing many long term residents into tents and vans, or out of the area altogether.
The Lillipilly of the book isn’t Mullumbimby, or, if it is, it’s a Mullumbimby that’s already gone. There are fragments of the old still present in the new. There’s a lot of nostalgia in this book; nostalgia for a lost time in a lost world. Australian philosopher Glenn Albrecht coined the term Solastagia to describe ‘a form of homesickness one gets when one is still at home, but the environment is changed.’
Another place where I found inspiration was the Woodford Folk Festival, which I’ve attended all or part of for most years since its last iteration in Maleny, in 1993. I remember we had a fifteen month old in cloth nappies, which we carried in a stinky bucket to the local laundromat to wash. Such dedication! I’ve based the Luminescence Festival in the book on Woodford but set it at a cooler time of year, partly because I find the Queensland summer so challenging. I hope I’ve captured just a little of the magic of Woodford. Long may it flourish!
The scenario in the book is tongue in cheek, because I wanted it to be a fun and entertaining read. But I’m distressed by the rate of land clearing going on in NSW. More about that in another blog post. My friend Sam claims I’ve invented the new genre of ‘enviromance.’
Claire and her friends are loosely based on people I’ve met in and around Mullumbimby and many other places. I grew more and more attached to my characters as the story evolved, and I hope my future readers do too.