Aussie author,Jane Smith shines a light on the writing process of her exciting, new historical fiction, time-travelling adventure series, with a focus on the first title; Carly Mills: A New World. In each adventure, Carly and her friends learn about the past and discover how to apply their examples of dignity, kindness and courage to modern life.
and the dedicated Carly Mills website: www.carlymillspioneergirl.weebly.com
First, I research
them all (the female trailblazers) by reading a few biographies of the subject.
Then I write a timeline and choose some episodes in their lives to focus on in
the book. That’s the hardest part.
These women had such productive lives that
it’s hard to pick out episodes to focus on. But the Carly Mills books are
intended to be entertaining – and if they’re not entertaining, there’s no
point. So, I’m really looking for episodes that are dramatic, or were turning
points, or will lend themselves to action. I don’t want to include too many
episodes, as these books are not intended to be biographies – they’re snapshots
to show the subjects’ achievements and personalities. And they’re intended for
primary school kids – even kids who might not normally be big readers – so I
want to keep them short and to the point.
With the first book,
A New World, I chose some events for which Caroline Chisholm was most
famous. They centred around her establishment of the Female Immigrants’ Home in
Sydney. It was during the wave of emigration from the UK to Australia in the
1840s, and Caroline saw that young, unskilled women were arriving in Sydney in
droves and, unable to find jobs, were being preyed upon by unscrupulous men.
She knew also that in rural areas, settlers were desperate for workers. The
problem was the difficulty in connecting employers with potential employees.
Caroline
established a safe home in Sydney where she would house and train new female
immigrants and then match them up with employers who she’d personally vetted
out in the country. The site that Caroline wanted for the home was a derelict
rat-infested government building, and Caroline spent a night in it to prove to
the governor that it would suit her purpose. I thought that would make a
perfect adventure for Carly Mills: to spend a scary night in a rat-infested old
building with Caroline Chisholm!
The next thing I
needed to work out was how Carly would go back to the past. She needed a magic
prop that would send her there. I tossed up a few ideas before settling on a
shawl. Each time she travels to and from the past, I need to come up with
different ways or reasons for her to do so; surprisingly, that’s one of the
tricky parts of planning the story!
Once I had settled
on the episodes in the past, I needed to weave the contemporary story in around
it – to figure out how Carly comes to be in Sydney, how she finds the shawl,
and how her contemporary life is affected by her travels to the past.
I added a historical
note at the end so that readers could learn more about the story and help them
to distinguish the fact from the fiction. Then I added a mock interview with
Caroline Chisholm, just to illustrate her character some more – and, of course,
for a bit of fun.
Jane Smith is an award-winning author, who has children’s books
shortlisted by the ABIA and longlisted by CBCA. Her Australian Bushranger
non-fiction series, and the contemporary and original Tommy Bell Bushranger Boy
fiction series, have delighted young readers, parents and educators. Jane is a
talented author, librarian, editor and historical researcher with a passion for
bringing history to young readers in an easily accessible way.
More information about Jane and her books can be found at her:
website: www.janesmithauthor.com
facebook: www.facebook.com/janesmithwriter
twitter: www.twitter.com/authorjanesmithand the dedicated Carly Mills website: www.carlymillspioneergirl.weebly.com
