A Taste of Things To Come

Over the last few months I have been busy working on a new series of books for Penguin as a part of their Our Australian Girl series. I'm really excited to be involved in this series written by some great Australian authors and full of such wonderful characters and stories.
I was lucky enough to be given the choice of era so have chosen to write about 1956 Carlton, Melbourne, and my character is from an Italian migrant family. This was an easy choice for me. My partner's family came to Australia from Italy in the 50s, and since I have known him I have loved listening to stories of their first years in Melbourne. There were some really tough times, but some beautiful moments, too, and I am always moved by his family's fierce loyalty created through having been through so much together. As far as they are concerned, even if you came from the same village you are family. Sadly, in the twelve years since I have known my partner, many of the older generation are no longer here and these stories shared over the table have become fewer and far between. I hope by writing this series I can preserve some of these stories and hand them down to the next generation who may find it hard to imagine their grandmothers/nonnas/yayas/nai-nais as young girls in skirts with hearts full of hopes and heads full of dreams.
I will be posting much more on this over the next few months so stay tuned.