Pray to the Dead: Book Two in Angels Have Tread Trilogy is a unique and interesting concept for a storyline. Where did the idea for this trilogy come from, and how did it develop over time?

As part of a writing course, we were asked to write an action scene so I had this idea for a researcher looking for a cure to save her son. That formed the basis of the character for Dr Harris. As I developed that idea, I realised that most action books and movies are set in a male dominated world. In the first draft of the first book in the trilogy, When All Hope Is Lost, I didn’t explain to readers that all men over 20 had died from a disease. Instead I dropped the reader directly into a world where all the characters were female; politicians, doctors, guards, reporters. I gave those opening chapters to a number of readers and the response from male readers was interesting. They were visibly upset by the lack of men. That’s when I realised that I didn’t want to write about the disaster or the struggle to get through it. I wanted my readers to discover a world that was already a comfortably established matriarchy. It’s a world that accepts women in all walks of life.

What was your approach to writing the interactions between characters?

I wanted to create a three dimensional world so I felt it was important to have multiple points of view. I wanted characters that had known the world before the pandemic and those who’d grown up in this changed world. I wanted to show that intergenerational conflict. I also wanted characters that came from different locales which is why there is the urban versus rural points of view. In my first book, When All Hope Is Lost, the relationships are laid out in parallel lines. Patricia the reporter lives with her mother. Dr Bonnie Harris with her son Josh. Evelyn as the political leader in Melbourne has her inner circle in the same way Sofia has hers in the Warragul Colony. The idea was to bring these separate lines together in a web of conflict that reaches its conclusion in the final book of the trilogy.

What experience in your life has had the biggest impact on your writing?

I took the creative writing course as a way to reconnect with life. I’d spent time caring for my partner whose dementia was slowly eating away at both our lives. Covid struck, he went into full time care and I was bereft. I’ve always made up short stories but I found myself with a lot of time and the need to deal with my loss. That loss added a new dimension to my writing.

What will the next book in that series be about and when will it be published?

The next book, For Where There Are Harps, is still in first draft but it brings all the characters together in the civil war called the Great Upheaval. As one of my early readers pointed out, this world is out of whack and you need to put it back in balance. Book three is about destroying what isn’t working and laying the groundwork for something that will be better.

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