Bridie's Choice

Bridie's Choice

It's true that great success often comes from writing what you know. Australian Farm-Lit authors, like Karly Lane, have proven this time and time again, inspired by their life and love for the Australian landscape.

This time around, Karly's writing about something closer to the heart. Bridie's Choice is not your run-of-the-mill love story. But then again, Karly's own love story isn't either...

Karly Lane has travelled Australia for work, for family and for love. She's lived in Far North Queensland, inland Queensland, NSW's central west and the Mid North Coast of NSW. She's seen the rich and varied landscapes Australia has to offer, living in small towns that quite often inspire her stories. By now a well-established author in the farm-lit genre, Karly decided to take Bridie's Choice beyond the troubles faced by regional Australia and, instead, look at the troubles of love.

No love story's perfect. In many ways the same rings true for Karly Lane who calls her own love story a "rocky" one. Karly found herself in love at 17, swept off her feet by a boy from Parkes. They married at 19 and together had three gorgeous children. But, after 13 years of marriage, the relationship faulted and Karly found herself single again. Unsure of where to go and what to do, Karly returned, with her children, to a place she knew she could start a new life - her home town of Macksville. There, as if something from one of her unpublished novels, Karly would find true love. Karly met her now-husband, and mechanic, Will. Together they live with their four children, incredibly happy, in love and enjoying the fact that romance is well and truly alive in regional Australia.

In Bridie's Choice, Bridie Farrell and Shaun Broderick come from opposite sides of the tracks. Unlike Bridie's family, who are perennial strugglers, the Broderick's are the wealthy owners of one of the most prestigious properties in the district. Still, all is not well in either family. The Broderick's are dismayed when Shaun falls in love with "that Farrell girl" and breaks up with "a very suitable young woman". This is just one of many troubles Bridie faces, and she finds herself having to choose what's most important in life.

Karly Lane lives on the Mid North Coast of NSW. Proud mum to four beautiful children and wife of one very patient mechanic, she is lucky enough to get to spend her day doing the two things she loves most-being a mum and writing stories set in beautiful rural Australia. Karly is the bestselling author of North Star and Morgan's Law.

Bridie's Choice
Allen and Unwin
Author: Karly Lane
Price: $29.95

Interview with Karly Lane

Question: What originally inspired the story of Bridie's Choice?

Karly Lane: I'd been writing stories about people returning to small country towns, so I wanted to write one about someone who couldn't wait to leave, just for a change.


Question: How did you draw on your own life (romance and otherwise) to create true Australian stories, such as Bridie's Choice?

Karly Lane: I think it comes back to having grown up in small towns my whole life. I've been able to draw on my own experience of different things, different stages of my life and use them as the characters backgrounds. In North Star I shared a very similar past to Kate in that she was divorced and returning to her home town with her children. I can't say Bridie and I are as similar, I only know that growing up in small rural towns I knew a lot of people like Bridie who couldn't wait to leave town fast enough. I was the opposite, I never had a burning desire to move to the city, but then that also fascinated me, the fact that there were kids so brave and adventurous that they couldn't wait to leave.

Question: Why is it important for you to address the difficulties of leaving a small town?

Karly Lane: I think in this book it was the difficulty of leaving her responsibilities that made it so hard for Bridie to actually leave town. Realistically at any point she could have left, but in order to do that she would have had to leave her younger brother in the care of her remaining family and knowing how her brother would have turned out if that happened, was the thing that continued to hold her back.

But the difference between people who run as fast and far from rural towns as soon as they are able/ old enough and the ones who are happy to remain living there has always fascinated me. I think it depends on your personality. If you have an adventurous streak in you, then you're more inclined to run from a small town as soon as you can in order to make up for the lost time you've had isolated from the things in a big city.


Question: What was the best thing about creating the character of Bridie Farrell?

Karly Lane: I think the best thing about Bridie was her ability to stand up to anyone and speak her mind. I'd love to be able to do that but I always think of something clever to say after the moments gone! I loved that Bridie could adapt to a variety of situations even when she felt uncomfortable and still carry herself with dignity. I also loved how she was a worker. I think now days a lot of the younger generation (and some of the older too) have lost the value of hard work. They want things now and are willing to go into debt for stuff that really doesn't even matter in the grand scheme of things. It was so refreshing to write a character like Bridie, because good old fashioned hard work made her the person she is. I think it's important sometimes to be reminded of that


Question: How much of your own personal traits did you include in Bridie's character?

Karly Lane: I guess Bridie and I share the fact we're the eldest sibling. I have two younger brothers and I think in the same situation I would probably do exactly what Bridie did. Little brothers can be a pain in the butt, but they can also bring out the 'mother' side as well. I also share Bridies love of cows!


Question: Are you currently writing your fourth novel? What can you tell us about it?

Karly Lane: I've finished the next novel and I can't wait for it to be released next year. It's very special to me as it's loosely based on a real life tragedy that happened in my town during WW1 and this becomes the back story to my novel. While writing this book I discovered a passion for my home town's history and fell in love with the characters.