Siermans and visitor from Lockhart, Annette Jenkins, on Monday night at the Services Club. Annette is a big fan of Karly’s and has read most of her books. When she heard Karly would be speaking, she decided to stay in town another night.
Locals (and a couple of visitors passing through town) were able to spend an evening with popular Australian author Karly Lane this week.
Karly is on a western area book tour of libraries and sat down in conversation with The Cobar Weekly’s editor, Sharon Harland, on Monday night at the Services Club.
Karly has been a published author since 2011 with more than 30 novels to her credit.
She writes rural and women’s fictions, set in small country towns (which are mostly fictional but are sometimes based on real towns and Karly changes the name) and blends contemporary stories with historical heritage.
The mother of four (who describes herself now as an empty nester) talked about how she is able to find time to write two novels a year, even when her children were young.
“It’s just something I can do and stick at it, not like exercising,” Karly joked.
She spoke about how she crafts her stories, likening it to “going pretty much wherever the Navman takes her” and explained how she develops her characters, or rather the characters develop themselves.
Karly said for her, her writing process is like watching a movie (that she hasn’t seen before) play out in front of her.
“I even wrote a love triangle in one book.
“I didn’t plan to, I just had two male characters and I didn’t know which one the main character would end up with.
“It developed with the story.”
She also gave some tips to aspiring writers in the audience.
Karly said she’s pleased to have a wide variety of fans who read her books—from teens, to housewives, truckies (who like her e-books), as well as nursing home residents.
Karly outlined the plot of her latest released novel, Needle in a Haystack, but without giving too much away.
She also brought along some advance copies of her next novel, Rumour Has It, which hasn’t been released yet and which were snapped up quickly by local readers.
