Creating "Stolen"

I’ve been revisiting the mountains of resources I used to write Stolen, for inclusion in my upcoming SA History Festival 2025 talk, “Merging Fact with Fiction: Writing Historical Fiction’. It’s been a good reminder to myself of the time and emotional investment I put into this, my third novel and the one one closest to my heart.
Stolen is loosely based it on my own ancestors, the Latters, who arrived in Echunga South Australia in 1838, just two years after Britain claimed it as a colony. The novel tells the story of one family, who came as penniless agricultural labourers, striving to establish themselves in a new world. Through the voice of their daughter, Annese, the reader learns how each of the family reacted as they began to understand that the land they lived on, claimed and cleared of fragile vegetation, was not unoccupied as they had been told but was tended  and loved by the local Peramangk people.
I hope that many of you can get to my talks (see flier with details in the photos). I will upload the presentation for subscribers to my webpage following the presentation. Meanwhile, enjoy the photo gallery attached to this blog post.
Stolen will be available from bookstores and online in late April. For more information about my writing make sure you've subscribed to my site and/or follow me on facebook and instagram.