KB It’s a dual protagonist novel about friendship and how two very different lives can unexpectedly change each other. There’s middle-aged Jennifer, who’s always been this strong, career-driven woman who is suddenly knocked off her feet by a serious illness that forces her to surrender control and let others into her world. At the same time there’s Mona, a devoted family woman of Iranian heritage, who’s just discovered her husband’s been gambling and hiding things from her, which leaves her reeling about trust and betrayal.
So when Mona ends up becoming Jennifer’s carer, the story becomes less about caregiving in the practical sense and more about how these two women — from such different backgrounds and with such different struggles — slowly build a friendship that teaches them about strength, vulnerability and what it really means to see yourself through someone else’s eyes. It’s an emotional journey about finding resilience, wrestling with identity and, ultimately, discovering healing in connection rather than control.
AW Sounds fascinating. What first got you into writing and why?
KB I’ve written since I was a child and my primary school teacher told me I would make a good writer. However, after doing a couple of literature degrees and working in publishing for a few years, it was not until I was in my late twenties that I first got seriously into writing. I was living in Cambodia at the time teaching English and the premise for my first novel – Lydia’s Song – dropped into my head all in one go when I was lying on a hammock. The idea was so strong that it wouldn’t let me go and stayed with me through the 8 long years it took me to complete (alongside teaching, working overseas, marrying cross-culturally and having two children!). I write fiction, but I love to write stories that touch people’s hearts and inspire them to live or think differently, without being preachy.
AW You write women’s contemporary and YA dystopian fiction. Is it all imagination or do you do research?
KB My material is largely imaginative, but for both Lydia’s Song (child-sex trafficking in Cambodia) and Home Truths with Lady Grey (gambling and Motor Neuron Disease) I had to do a lot of research to understand the world and experiences of my characters. A good amount of my research for Lydia’s Song, however, was experiential – based on my own experience of living as an English teacher in Cambodia. I was really encouraged when at least two medically trained readers of Home Truths told me that my depiction of Jennifer’s suffering with MND was authentic.
AW Have you ever dabbled with other genres or writing for other forms of media?
KB Yes, I’ve written blogs, e-newsletters, magazine articles as well as website and marketing copy.
AW Famous authors such as Roald Dahl and Dylan Thomas had a special space for writing. Do you have a writing shed of your own?
KB No, unfortunately I don’t. I do have a desk in our study facing the park that is a lovely space to write, but it’s in my home and there are many distractions in my own home. Also, it’s sometimes used by my husband so is not my ‘own’ space. Personally, I love to get away to write and find that dedicated time away on retreat helps me focus.
AW And finally, if you had a whole afternoon to yourself and could choose to spend it with any one individual, living or dead, or a character from a book, who would it be and what would you discuss?
KB I would love to sit down with the Bronte women (particularly Anne and Charlotte) and discuss the challenges of writing about faith and social issues in a hostile world. Anne Bronte’s novel The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is one of my greatest inspirations in writing my own contemporary women’s fiction. We think of the Bronte’s novels as being historical, but of course it wasn’t historical for them at the time of writing!
‘My world is narrowing, constricting down to the thin end of a funnel.’ When normally capable, career-minded Jennifer crumbles under a debilitating disease, she struggles with no longer being in control of her life. In the meantime, Mona, a family-oriented mother of Iranian heritage, finds out that her husband is gambling and hiding the truth from her. Can she move beyond betrayal to action?
When Mona goes to work for Jennifer as a carer, Jennifer is initially defensive, but the two soon discover that despite their differences, they have so much to learn from one another. Will Mona discover how to balance the conflicting loyalties of family and self? Will Jennifer learn to let others in? And most importantly, will they both survive?
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