Evergreen Falls (47 page)
Authors: Kimberley Freeman
Then when I mentioned the story to my mother, she told me firmly that I needed to read Grandma’s memoir, and determinedly unpacked an old box and found a thick wad of typewritten pages. Grandma had worked as a waitress at the Wentworth—Sydney’s finest hotel—in the 1920s. The memoir was full of the kind of information I simply wouldn’t have gotten anywhere else: the dresses, the dance parties, the attitudes. All of it in such rich language and detail. Every dress Grandma describes in the memoir—hers and the guests’—made it into the manuscript. I had a research assistant to help me with other bits and pieces, but Grandma’s memoir was a gift, and I wrote the book very quickly.
I always plot the novels out in advance, which saves a lot of time and allows me to plan for the key turning points. When I wrote the prologue, I already knew it would appear in the novel about two-thirds of the way through, so in a way I was writing toward that terrible scene from the start. It gives the plot such momentum if you know exactly where you’re going. But as I do in all my books, I try to give the characters lots of problems to solve. It makes them grow and become more interesting.
Do you agree that a theme of the novel is the burden—and freedom—of love? If not, what would you name as a major theme of the novel?
Yes, it is definitely about the burden and freedom of love. How love makes us responsible for each other in a way, which is perfect, because we do all need each other. But that love with the right person means they take responsibility for you in some ways, too, letting you be free to become all that you can be.
Is
Evergreen Falls
a commentary on social class and position?
Everything I write is! I grew up very poor. My dad was on welfare: he was a drinker, and we never had anything. Even in these days where we aren’t supposed to have a class system, I see social inequality everywhere. I suppose I’ll never grow out of it.
Who is your favorite character in
Evergreen Falls
and why?
I love Flora because she tries so hard to do the right thing. She’s the person who is often overlooked because she’s not beautiful nor charming, but she is the person whose heart is true and whose mind is strong. I would like to be more like Flora. I have a horrible feeling I’m more like Violet: a bit flighty and vain.
Do you think any of the characters live happily ever after? Specifically, do Flora and Violet overcome their grief over Sam’s death? Is that even possible?
I do think it’s possible. I mentioned my father’s alcoholism earlier, and he died from it while he was still only in his forties. I adored him, and he was gone by the time I was twenty. But I overcame it and have gone on to live a wonderful life despite his negative influences. Substance abuse really is an awful thing, and there’s a sense that when you love somebody who is addicted to something, you always know you will lose them eventually, so you keep a little bit of steel in your heart. It’s like Neil Young said, “Every junkie is like a setting sun.”
In my mind, Violet and Clive had a good life, and Flora and her doctor were blissfully happy.
There is much overlap in the fear about Adam and his illness and the fear that Sam will never stop smoking opium. Does this type of craft decision imply something bigger about human nature, about our fears of letting people be who they need to be?
I think it’s more about how that responsibility to those we love, which I cited earlier, doesn’t guarantee us anything. We can’t keep people safe just by loving them. In a way, to love somebody is to always fear losing them. This story dramatizes that a little more keenly than most of us have to feel.
Can you tell us anything about your next project?
I am writing a novel (nearly finished) set in the 1950s. It starts in a girls boarding school when a new girl arrives who is wild and fierce and brilliant, and she turns lives upside down. She and her two friends do something terrible, which they have to spend the rest of their lives atoning for. I LOVE it.
What advice do you have for aspiring young writers?
Read a lot, then write a lot, then read and write some more. Writing is like mining: nobody breaks the surface and finds gold. There’s a lot of dross that has to be gotten out of the way first.
Also by Bestselling Author Kimberley Freeman
In 1891, Tilly Kirkland is reeling with shock and guilt after her tempestuous marriage ends in horrific circumstances. Fleeing to the farthest place she knows, Tilly takes a job on Ember Island in Moreton Bay, Australia, where she becomes the governess to the prison superintendent’s precocious young daughter, Nell. More than one hundred years later, bestselling novelist Nina Jones is struggling to complete her next book. A reporter asking questions about her great-grandmother sends Nina retreating to her family’s home on Ember Island, where she hopes to find her lost inspiration somewhere in the crumbling walls.
Ember Island
THIS BREATHTAKING NOVEL TRAVELS MORE THAN A CENTURY BETWEEN TWO LOVE STORIES SET IN THE AUSTRALIAN SEASIDE TOWN OF LIGHTHOUSE BAY. In 1901, a ship sinks off the coast of Lighthouse Bay in Australia. The only survivor is Isabella Winterbourne—escaping her loveless marriage and the devastating loss of her son—who clutches a priceless gift meant for the Australian Parliament. Suddenly, this gift could be her ticket to a new life, free from the bonds of her husband and his overbearing family.
Lighthouse Bay
Hailed by bestselling author Kate Morton as “a gorgeous story of family and secrets and the redemptive power of love,” Wildflower Hill spans three generations and half the world.
Wildflower Hill
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
© JUSTINE WALPOLE
K
imberley was born in London and her family moved back to Australia when she was three years old. She grew up in Queensland, where she currently lives.
Kimberley has written for as long as she can remember and she is proud to write in many genres. She is an award-winning writer in children’s, historical, and speculative fiction under her birth name, Kim Wilkins. She adopted the pen name Kimberley Freeman for her commercial women’s fiction novels,
Duet
,
Gold Dust
,
Wildflower Hill, Lighthouse Bay,
and
Ember Island
, to honor her maternal grandmother and to try to capture the spirit of the page-turning novels she has always loved to read. Kim has an honors degree, a master’s degree, and a PhD from the University of Queensland, where she is also a senior lecturer.
Find out more about Kimberley and her writing by visiting her Web site and Facebook page or by following her on Twitter:
facebook.com/KimberleyFreemanAuthor
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