FAQs
Here are some frequently asked questions about my books and how I write them.
It depends. When I write historical fiction I wish to portray a certain time and place, so I draw on relevant historical events and aim to explore them with accuracy. Some of my characters and what happens to them are based on real life, while others are imaginary.
Yes, I do. Sometimes writers choose to use a pen name. It usually has some special personal meaning. You can choose whatever name you like. If I were Lewis Carroll, maybe I would choose Alison Wonderland. If I wrote a story about a haunted house I might choose Hugo First. Hmm!
My Australian Story FAQs
Here are some frequently asked questions about my books and how I write them.
One day as I was sailing on a tall ship off the coast of Mauritius I decided I would write a novel set on the high seas. Obviously I needed characters who were on board a ship. Lapérouse and Baudin are steeped in Australia’s history. So for Stowaway I picked Lapérouse because he actually arrived in early Australia at the same time as the First Fleet. Nicolas Baudin features in Convict Girl. Details about his sea voyage to Australia were hidden for a long time. Most of all I wanted to tell Mary’s story. She was a convict who travelled with Baudin when he left Australia.
During these times, First Nation peoples had already been in Australia for thousands upon thousands of years. I wished to explore these first contacts and what happened during the early years of the penal colony.
While I was writing my three My Australian Story novels I didn’t think I had. Actually, I do! A DNA test has since revealed that I am related to descendants of a convict who was transported to the colony in 1797. He brought his family over with him on the same ship. They were free, not convicts. He didn’t take part in the actual Castle Hill Rebellion that I wrote about because he wasn’t there! By the end of 1801 he had been sentenced to 1000 lashes and retransported to Norfolk Island. They named him as a ringleader central to an Irish rebel plot at the time and accused him of gathering weapons. I had drawn on this information when writing Convict Girl, but had no idea then that one of my distant relatives was actually involved. So I guess he did sort of figure in my Convict Girl novel. Perhaps my DNA was calling me to write the story!
If you have any other questions you would like answered about Chrissie’s books in the My Australian Story series please contact her through Scholastic Australia.
In Lonnie’s Shadow FAQs
Here are some frequently asked questions about my books and how I write them.
Yes, Young Adult or YA novels are for readers over 15. The teenagers in this story are surrounded by violence and they live on the edge. So the adjectives fit what happens in many ways. In those days Marvellous Melbourne wasn’t marvellous for everyone. Times were hard. Life was hard.
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However, Lonnie and Pearl, Daisy and Carlo somehow manage to weave their way through their difficulties and offer each other a helping hand. In my mind they are survivors, not victims. They keep searching for answers. They show kindness. They don’t give up.
Yes. It is the name for an area of laneways and alleys bound by Exhibition, La Trobe, Spring and Lonsdale Streets in Melbourne, the capital city of Victoria in Australia. The State Library of Victoria has a good historic map of the area on its website. These days many of the alleys have been built over, but you can still find the remnants of Casselden Place. No. 17 still exists.
Little Lon and surrounds FAQs
Here are some frequently asked questions about my books and how I write them.
Frozen Charlotte dolls, bone hat pins, clay pipes, bottles, coins and tokens, jars of ointment, a spur–to name a few of those I used in the novel–are all objects that have been uncovered during the archaeological digs around Little Lon. Around 500 000 artefacts were discovered.
As real as any fictional character ever is! My types of character were certainly found amongst the people who lived in Melbourne at the time. If you go back a little earlier than the period my novel is set in, say, during the 1840s and 50s, there were mainly immigrants from Ireland living in Little Lon. By the end of the 19th century, during the time when my story takes place, it was home to people from a range of cultural backgrounds, including Chinese, Italian, Syrian and Jewish. They formed a resourceful community and ran shops and businesses. They were cabinet makers, clothing manufacturers and printers. There was even a family like Carlo’s, who made and sold ice cream.
They lived alongside the more notorious brothels. Mother Fraser and Madame Brussels were two of the district’s most notorious madams. They inspired Annie and Mrs B. Little Lon’s residents no doubt came across the area’s rescue brigades.
If you have any other questions you would like answered about In Lonnie’s Shadow please contact Chrissie through Ford Street Publishing.