Wide Awake

The Diary of an Australian Milkmaid

1882 to 1889 


Spoiler Alert:
this post contains details which reveal plot elements of Wide Awake
 

Wide Awake was written with several narrative themes in mind: two serious, one frivolous.

Woolstone House, home to a wealthy squatter, c. 1908

First, the frivolous: the romantic narrative. I relied on the glorious voice and spirit of the inimitable Stella Miles Franklin whose example of independence and freethinking might be emulated today by more young women. There is an element of her My Brilliant Career, an echo of Austen and a touch of Hardy in the basic love-interest storyline.

Stella Miles Franklin

view from the Horn, Mount Buffalo

Why write? Why e-publish? Why blog?

                                        Why indeed?

Disclaimer: I do not credit myself with any great talent, particular inspiration or brilliance. I simply feel the need to write. Writing adds another dimension to life. Exploring and developing ideas for a story is stimulating. Creating new worlds, or one's own version of familiar worlds, is extremely satisfying.  And I love telling a story. I write stories that I would have liked to read as a child and young person. And that is almost enough.

An 'ulterior motive', in the more serious narrations, is an intellectual one: to examine how knowledge has been transmitted over the centuries, particularly through language and writing, how skills we now take for granted, in the past were unknown to most and secret to a few. Whether this exploration is imagined or factual is not really the point; the former can stand for the latter in a novel.