Hi Caroline,
I have read all your books! How has your work as a journalist contributed to your novels?
Hello! I'm in! I'm just checking the system and will see you all at 1pm.
Best,
Caroline Overington.
Hello!
I'm early.
But only three minutes early which is good. What I don't want is people turning up an hour early when I'm making scones for afternoon tea and they're not in the oven, and I haven't even started making them, actually.
Welcome Caroline!
We are delighted that you are our guest today on CS Live. We are big fans of your books and featured No Place Like Home as our Book of the Week.
Please join us in welcoming Caroline and start posting your questions now!
Hello Culture Street, thank you for having me.
No Place LIke Home is certainly setting a cat amongst the pigeons. It was supposed to be a new, thriller kind of book but people have found a lot to argue about.
C
Dear Alex,
Thank you for your question. I pick up most of the ideas for my novels from my journalism. It happens when I come across a story, or I'm asked to cover a story, and I have only a few pages - or even a few paragraphs - to try to explain what's going on. I think, no, there is more to this. People would be amazed if they knew how much more there is to this!
In particular, I'm interested in children, and it's very difficult to write about children in the media, because of privacy constraints. So I often turn the stories into novels, telling them from all different sides.
C
Dear Marwheels,
You mustn't give away the ending! That's called a SPOILER and this is now a SPOILER ALERT
C
Dear Jonny,
I live in Bondi. I've been here since 1997 - I remember when we moved to Sydney from Melbourne we couldn't believe how expensive everything was, and the real estate agent said something like, 'Oh, well, have you considered Bondi? I mean, I realise it's not great but ....'
It was exactly what we wanted.
We rented a three bedroom house for $440 a week in Nancy Street - twice what we were getting for our cottage in St Kilda.
Later, we bought our first house in Bondi for $300,000, if you can believe that.
PS: Culture Street, this is a lovely font. Do you happen to know what font it is?
Hi Caroline! Loved the book! Your characters are quite diverse. What was the inspiration behind Ali Khan’s character?
Hi Caroline,
I love your books, but noticed you are baking scones - are you a good cook?
Dear Rebecca,
I remembered covering a number of cases for the newspaper where people had been 'lost' in detention - people who had never even meant to be there.
I could hardly believe it, in Australia, that there could be people in detention for years, who weren't supposed to be there.
I also remembered covering stories of Africans from the Kenyan refugee camps, being resettled in the United States (I worked there for a few years) and I knew from the BBC's excellent reports that some of them are albino, and they are treated with suspicion.
So I put all of that together and came up with Ali Khan.
Of course, he's also the symbolic stranger in the novel ... in many novels, the stranger turns up, and tells us something we need to know about characters who seem more familiar.
Dear Patrice,
I'm not at all shy about saying that I'm an excellent cook.
A book cook!
I take to cooking as a science. I love the way you have to apply heat, or reduce it, and how you have to measure everything precisely, and if you do everything right, it works out. How salt will do something to food. How softening an onion brings out the flavour. How searing the meat is important. All those little things I've picked up over the years, I love.
But my specialty is scones - and like all serious cooks, I use the Country Women's Association recipe, which calls for cream in the mix.
What about you? Are you a good cook?
Hi Caroline,
We found this book a bit of a break away from your previous novels. Was this deliberate?
by the way our font is Bembo Regular. Glad you like it!
Bembo regular.
I'll try to find it.
This book is a break away from my previous novels. And yes, it was deliberate.
I wanted to write a book that had a siege at its heart, that would get hearts racing. I hadn't done a mystery style of book before, although all the books had twists.
I enjoyed it!
I'm a lousy cook. Can you let me know your next book signing event and promise to bring a cupcake!
Yes. Definitely. But if you're a lousy cook maybe I should bring the cupcake ???
I'm also a lousy writer. I did mean can you please bring the cupcake?
You make me LOL. Yes, I can bring the cupcake.
And now, because the dog needs to be walked and the washing needs to be hung on the line, and the cupcakes need to go in the oven, I'm over and out.
Thank you guys!
See you soon.
C
Caroline is the Associate Editor of the iconic magazine, The Australian Women's Weekly.
Caroline has won the Walkley Award for Excellence in Journalism twice, and she's a former winner of the Sir Keith Murdoch prize for journalism, and of the Blake Dawson prize.
She is the author of five bestselling novels: Ghost Child, I Came to Say Goodbye, Matilda is Missing, Sisters of Mercy and most recently No Place Like Home.
Are you an aspiring writer? Do you want tips on how to get your novel published? Whatever your question, join Caroline here on Friday November 1 at 1pm. All you need to do is register to post a question.