Many have asked how Carry Me Home came to be written. And why I set this love story on Phillip Island.

The better question would be… How could I not?

Phillip Island has been our family holiday destination for more than 40 years. Many of my childhood memories are of summers on the island and as soon as my own babies were able to sit up, they dipped straight into the Ventnor rock pools.

This majestic volcanic outcrop, surrounded by picture perfect coastline, has charmed many over the centuries. Some years ago, a newspaper tribute captured some of the stories of the early island settlers. It included old photographs which only hinted at how life might have looked for those who chose to make Phillip Island their new home.

I already had the love. And so began the wonder.

I wondered what it would have been like to live on this remote island in its first decade of white settlement. How would people have arrived (without the bridge which now connects it to the mainland at San Remo)? What difficulties would they have faced in creating a new life? What comforts would they have enjoyed… or longed for?

I  wondered… who would choose to come here?

And so I created one character, Shadrach Jones, who chose for himself. And then I added Finella Mayfield, for whom the choice had already been made by her father. I threw these two already troubled souls into each other’s midst, and watched how the wild weather, isolated location, and general mischief of life overturned their plans and dreams.

And when I was done, I discovered it was not enough to stop with Shad and Finella. So much more of the island’s delicous history beckoned.

So I find myself gladly marooned there, still … working on the next two books in the Blue Wren Shallows series.

I am a happy castaway. Not just on this island, but trapped in a time I can only dream into existence.

That’s where you’ll find me. Sifting through the remnants of lives once lived. Taking inspiration from those who pioneered a hard yet satisfying life, and fleshing out those who my imagination suggests might have walked among them.

Dotti