I have always loved novels with multiple timelines, ones which weave a complex web that only resolves as I turn the final page. So I write what I want to read ... books that transport you to several times and places, where secrets lie just beneath the surface if only the characters know where to look.
My second novel, The Moon Gate, is set across three locations: Tasmania (the place I grew up), London (where I lived for years in a houseboat on Paddington Canal) and County Kerry, Ireland (my home). Each of these places is special to me and I hope you’ll feel you’re entering the temperate rainforest with Grace, opening the door to Towerhurst with Willow, walking through London’s layered history with Libby and stepping out to the heather-clad hills of County Kerry with … well, with several characters, the names of who I won’t reveal here!
The inspiration for my first novel, The Midnight House, appeared in the rafters of our Irish home, a two-hundred-year-old stone building perched on the edge of the Atlantic. Hidden there was a message, scratched into wood: 'When this comes down, pray for me. Tim O’Shea 1911'. As I held that piece of timber in my hands, dust clinging to my paint-stained clothes, I was humbled that a person’s fingerprint could, in a thousand ways, transcend time, and I wanted nothing more than to capture that feeling of discovery on the page.
I’m also a geologist who explores and maps the world’s remote places. Luckily for me, writing novels provides a similar sense of wonder and discovery; but the warm office, fresh food and a shower in the evening make the conditions rather more comfortable.