AUSSIE MONTH: Jane Carter

 

AUSSIE MONTH with Jane Carter

Describe yourself in one word:
Glass-half-full    (is that cheating?)

What is your background with regard to writing?
Not very many years ago,  I joined the Miles Franklin Writing group in Goulburn with absolutely no idea what I was doing. Write five hundred words with one word as the inspiration, they said.  First month it was five hundred.  But then I got a little carried away.  The second month it became one thousand,  the third month, two thousand.  They wouldn’t let me read it all out. Ric said for heaven’s sake write a book – and I did, the first page I wrote ended up roundabout thirty two in ‘A Dream of Something More’, my first book published in 2009.

Tell us about your latest novel  High Country Secrets:
It is set in the Monaro,  our mountain country here in NSW, where the animals and the people living there have had to be tough and strong.  Michael and Jessie fall in love, despite the fact they are involved with other people. How can they trust that their feelings will be right this time? But, really, they are wondering why everyone is being so difficult?  Jessie’s parents are behaving very oddly whenever Michael’s name is mentioned.

What inspired this novel?
In High Country Secrets I became fascinated with the story of the Snowy Hydro Scheme, and all those wonderful migrants who came to Australia in the fifties,  to start a new life and what had happened to their descendants,  sixty four years on.  Looking at what they have achieved  in this time, is nothing short of inspiring.  Michael and Jessie grapple with the differences, when he and Jessie fall for each other.   Mind you,  Jessie is also from migrant stock, albeit from over two hundred years ago.

What are you reading right now?
 The Margaret Thatcher School of Beauty, by Marsha Mehran,  it has hooked me straight away, I have no idea what it is about but I want to find out.

Number one thing to do on your bucket list?
Sailing, on a boat, anywhere.  Pull up the anchor and go.

Best thing about being an Aussie?
The freedom, as a woman,  to do whatever I have ever wanted to do. It may not always have been  easy, but I found, generally, it was there for the taking. I have just been to see the Water Diviner and,  once again, I was totally struck with the constrictions of being a woman in another culture, another society.

What you want readers to know about the romance genre?
Romance is the hero’s journey and our hero is a girl.  That’s carved in stone.  That has always appealed to me and I think to all of you.  Simple fact is that I love reading it, simply can’t get enough.

What have you got in store for your readers in 2015?
Another book?  Nearly finished and I can’t wait to get it out.

What were your big achievements of 2014?
High Country Secrets was published as an  e book.  And then Momentum put A Dream of something More out as an ebook as well  and I was catapaulted into the digital world.  And what an amazing world it is.  Nine months later I have a  web page,  a face book page and a blog – hey I write – blogging was no hardship.  And I can now download pictures on my website. I wish you could see my face as I wrote that.  To cap it off,  High Country Secrets is now also available as a print copy from amazon.com.

 

 

 

High Country Secrets
Jane Carter

How can you be in love with one man and violently attracted to another? 

When Jessie Cranfield and Michael D’Larghi take the stage to sing together at a local fundraiser in their hometown, the last thing Jessie expects is the electricity between them. Not only has she not seen Michael for years—but her fiancé is sitting in the audience.

Michael is used to overcoming any obstacle in his path to achieve his goals. Now his goal is Jessie, the former girl-next-door from rural Cooma. But not even Michael can foresee that their attraction might uncover family secrets that could tear both their lives apart forever.

A Montague–Capulet war has nothing on the Cranfields and D’Larghis. Can Jessie and Michael risk falling in love, or is it too much for their families to bear?

Momentum

 

 

Find Jane online:
Website